Lumin seemed to ignore his overt eye action. “Please pass onto the senator our deepest condolences for the loss of his son. Good day, Detective.”
Apparently, Dixie wasn’t the only person in the room who suspected his presence had been arranged as a favor, and he wasn’t an officer with the Coronado department.
Dixie watched Lumin briskly walk down the hallway in the opposite direction.
The cold, hollow sound of metal bars closing behind Dix when she stepped into the small cell made her cringe. When she turned, Blanchard gripped the bars, staring at her.
He clicked his tongue. “I gotta say, you seem like a pretty decent chick. Unfortunately, you’re gonna have to get used to these bars. You’re taking the fall for this and there’s no way out.”
She tightened the blanket around her body. The fact Blanchard was here, probably at the behest of Chandler’s father, spoke to the breadth of the senator’s power. A man like Kallis had connections to threaten a prosecutor and buy off a judge. He’d spent a lifetime gathering checkmates on the political chessboard. Although she tried to hold back, a tear etched its way down her cheek.
“Why don’t you make it easy and admit to murdering Chandler? He’d hunted you for years. Get yourself a good lawyer, instead of the blonde who wants to play litigator in high heels, and you might just get out with a few years served.”
Dix wasn’t a scholar but she didn’t need a genius IQ to figure this out. She stepped up to the bars, knowing his handsome façade, like Chandler’s, was a deception. Unlike Josh, whose Trident meant sacrifice and honor, Blanchard’s badge meant nothing to him. Behind the strong cheekbones and symmetrical features, he was a soiled image of lies and deceit.
“Nothing has come easy to me, Detective, but I’ve never once thought about laying down in the middle of a busy highway. I didn’t kill Chandler, but I hope he burns in hell. So you can tell his father to pack a bag, because that’s where he’s headed, too.”
The detective shook his head. “Lady, you better hope your SEAL boyfriend actually gives a shit about you, otherwise the only color you’ll be wearing is orange.
Blanchard left Dix standing in her sparse accommodations.
Hope was all she had at the moment.
Chapter Twenty-two
With little to distract Josh, he watched a teenage girl with a swollen right eye and mascara-streaked cheeks tug nervously at a gold hoop pierced through her nose. An elderly man sat on the bench beside her. Without movement, he looked like a street statue, gripping the handle of a cane propped between his thin legs.
They’d been here when Josh arrived at the Coronado PD.
After he’d paced the lobby’s well-worn tiles for twenty minutes, Admiral Austen and some of the team guys filtered in. He had no answers because no one gave him any.
Josh looked up when he heard the click of high heels. Lumin strode toward them from a hallway that led into the bowels of the precinct, wearing a mask of concern. He didn’t have to decipher her expression for his bubble of hope to pop. Dixie wasn’t walking beside the attorney.
Last night when he’d returned to Dix’s place, Josh knew she’d been out because the BMW’s hood was warm to the touch. When she’d finally opened up about the rape, then fell asleep in his arms, he’d forgotten all about the car. Protecting her—holding her—eclipsed every thought.
A while ago, he’d told Dix when things got rough out in the theater, a memory had always given him strength and brought him home. She had assumed it was Gesem or some other woman. He’d never corrected her. He should have. A clear image of Dixie smiling at him, wearing her favorite cowboy hat, gave him a reason to smile. She’d always been his sweetest memory.
“Outside,” Lumin said quietly as she passed him and kept walking.
Josh, Ghost and the rest of the Frogs quickly followed Tinman’s wife out the glass doors and fifty feet away from the entrance where she stopped. Instead of peppering the woman with questions, he waited.
Lumin pasted her palms together and centered her attention on Josh. “Dixie has not been charged yet. PD is holding her for ninety-six hours. If we don’t find solid proof that points to Chandler’s murderer, it is highly likely she’ll be charged.”
The sonofabitch was actually dead. Someone had done Josh a favor. The rest of Lumin’s summary wasn’t good. “Based on what evidence?”
Lumin tucked a stray strand of platinum hair behind her ear. “All circumstantial. Last night, Dixie drove downtown to meet Chandler.”
Mace stood on Josh’s left. “Why in the fuck would she do that?”
Lumin raised a brow at her husband’s best friend, probably due to his use of colorful prose. “Dixie agreed to a face to face meeting if he’d release Gesem.”
Josh shook his head. So Kayla had been right.
“What happened?” he asked, not considering for even a second that Dixie could kill Chandler.
Lumin waited until two officers strode past, headed toward a patrol car parked in front of the building. “Dixie says he never showed.”
Admiral Austen crossed his arms over his bulky chest. “Because he was already dead.”
Tinman’s wife nodded. “I spoke to Detective Dean on my way out. He told me the coroner put Chandler’s death at between seven and eight p.m. Dixie said she arrived at Ardon Corporation’s office building around eight-thirty.”
“I left Dixie to head over to Marg’s around seven. I got back around ten p.m. because of traffic. It would only take Dix twenty minutes to get downtown from her place. When did she get the message to meet Kallis? Or did he call her?”
Lumin sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Ahem.”
All heads turned to see Det. Dean. The tight circle opened, and he stepped forward.
“Listen, I shouldn’t be talking to you, but…” The detective surveyed all of them. “I agree with Mrs. Bale. Things don’t add up. Circumstantial or not, the evidence points at Dixie. Her phone records show Chandler’s text arrived at eight p.m. If the coroner isn’t wrong, he was already dead.”
Well, then this shit show should be over. “Isn’t that enough?” Josh asked.
“Unfortunately not. At this point in the investigation, every rock gets turned over.”
This was bullshit. The only rock they turned over was assuming Dixie’s guilt. “She’s being set up to take the fall for this. If Chandler was dead, someone else sent the text.”
The detective glanced over his shoulder and back at his audience. “While you were here, police searched Dixie’s place. Her pistol’s missing. She told me she carried it in her purse. They found a weapons safe in her house, but it’s empty.”
“You think someone stole Dixie’s 9mm and shot Chandler?” Lumin asked.
He shrugged. “Either that, or they took it so a comparison can’t be made to exclude her from the investigation. A missing weapon is almost as bad as having a match. It’s another strike against her.”
Josh thread his fingers through his hair. “We have ninety-six hours to prove Dixie didn’t murder Kallis or she’ll be charged?”
Dean nodded. “Once indicted, the judicial machine takes over. She’ll have to go through the entire process to prove her innocence. If it gets to the courts, I guarantee Senator Kallis will be pulling strings. Without going into detail, he already is.”
“Jesus Christ.” Josh slammed his eyes closed. He’d been in this position before. At some point in their careers, every SEAL faced stacked odds. Only he could prove Dixie’s innocence.
“One other thing,” Dean said. “You told me there were two mounds on the Kallis estate that looked like graves.”
Josh nodded.
“There’s a third. The cadaver dogs were brought in a short while ago. They all signalled a positive hit. CSI is exhuming the remains.”
Fox scrubbed his beard. “There were only two when we were there, Detective. I’m sure of it.”
Josh’s stomach churned. “That’s because there wasn’t a third when w
e were there, Fox.”
Lumin’s brow creased. “You think it’s Gesem?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“But why bury her body on the property?” she asked.
A theory started to fall into place. “Because Senator Kallis knew the prick had buried two other victims. He needed to get rid of Gesem, so the senator buried her with the other women. When the entire story of Chandler is revealed, she’ll be added to his list when in fact, it was the senator who murdered her.”
Dean straightened his red tie and cleared his throat. “I want you to look at the video from the Ardon building. If you identify Gesem, then we know she was alive after Chandler’s demise. That is proof someone else is responsible for her murder, providing your theory is correct and it’s Captain Reynolds in one of the graves.”
He’d rather know now than later if Gesem had paid the ultimate price. “Do you have the video?”
Dean glanced at his watch. “It’s inside. I’m sure you want to speak with your team, but before you leave, come find me.”
Aside from numerous rabbit holes he needed to investigate, Josh had one priority at the moment. “Detective, can I see Dixie?”
The middle-aged cop scrubbed his jaw. “For a minute.”
Ghost stepped away from the group, calling someone on his cell.
“Sir, we need to find Melodie Kallis,” Tinman said. “She might know something. Cracker spent a couple hours with her yesterday. Maybe she’ll talk to him if we can find her.”
Tinman was on the right track. Melodie might provide them with evidence they needed.
Josh knew Alpha Squad had an exercise scheduled for this afternoon. “Lt. Bach, head back to the base with your squad. You’re scheduled for a live-fire work-up at Container City in four hours.”
Eli’s stern appearance meant he wasn’t in agreement. “Commander, you need manpower. You can’t prove Dixie’s innocence on your own. There are too many moving parts.”
Mace and Tinman shared a look, then Mace said, “He’s not alone. We’ve already earned ourselves a dressing down, but T-man and I called in sick for the touchy feely course today. Seems our ailment is going to last a little longer.”
A bullshit course, but also mandatory. “Admiral Timmons will ask questions. Red is covering for me but if Timmons receives reports that you’re missing as well, that’s when shit will fly.”
“Timmons knows,” Ghost said, returning to the group.
“Is that who you were on the phone with?” Josh asked.
He nodded. “I’ve been in your position, Commander. There is no such thing as prioritizing your responsibility to SpecOps and Dixie at the same time. I gave Timmons the abbreviated version. He’s agreed to give you a week to find the answers. Red will cover your operational duties. Anything Red can’t endorse, I’ll handle.” He swung his attention to Lt. Bach. “Contact Ed Saxton. I want to see him at Base Command in thirty minutes.”
Ghost’s request came out of left field and Josh wasn’t following. “Why do you want to speak with Cracker?”
“Because he’s our weakest link. Go view the video with Det. Dean. I’ll talk to you later.” He turned on his heel and strode toward the parking lot.
Cracker had spoken with Melodie yesterday afternoon. She hadn’t revealed much except a rift existed between Chandler and his father and confirmed her brother’s abuse.
He’d noticed Mace, Fox, and Tinman share a coveted glance with Ghost’s surprising comment about Cracker.
“Is there something I need to know?” he asked, directing his question at the three of them.
All three shook their heads at the same time.
An understandable yet transparent response from brothers-in-arms. Josh rubbed his jaw and contemplated whether it was necessary to dig deeper at this point in time. He trusted his men. If they knew something about Cracker that could potentially hurt Dixie, they wouldn’t hold back. Mace, Fox, and Tinman had jointly, but independently, decided it wasn’t important.
“We have ninety-six hours to prove Dixie’s innocence. I’ll look at the video and confirm whether it’s Gesem or not. If she is buried on the Kallis estate, we can almost certainly rule out Chandler as her murderer because he wanted to trade her freedom for Dixie. We need to find the missing pistol and Melodie Kallis. Both have the ability to set Dix free.
“Or put her away for life,” Lt. Bach added. “If someone took Dixie’s weapon and used it on Chandler, she’s done.”
Lumin, who remained silent while the men had spoken, piped up. “Not at all, Lieutenant. There’s no proof Dixie entered the building. The video shows her arrival and waiting outside at eight-thirty. The coroner already determined his time of death at least a half hour to that. Even if her weapon was used to kill Chandler, I can argue that all the other circumstantial evidence points to someone else. The danger is not whether or not Dixie’s pistol is the murder weapon.”
“It’s the clock we’re running against,” Josh said.
She nodded, a sympathetic crease to her brow. “I hate to agree with Det. Dean. Once Dixie is charged, it could be years before her trial. By that time, she will have lost everything.”
“Not everything,” he said harshly.
Even if every card in the deck was stacked against Dix, he would stand by her side until this nightmare ended.
****
As usual, Ed had fallen asleep on his couch. Around ten p.m., a soft but persistent knock landed on his apartment door.
He ran his hands through his hair and shook off the hot dreams of him and Avis getting a little closer than sitting on the beach together, like they had that afternoon.
They’d ended up at his place but only talked and watched a movie. It took a little restraint on his part to keep his hands off her. When she got up to leave around eight p.m. because she started baking at three-thirty Monday mornings, he’d sent her on her way with a kiss that lasted a lot longer than he’d expected. Hot and sweeter than any of her desserts.
If Avis had changed her mind and was on the other side of that door ready to make the first move, he wouldn’t refuse. After spending a little time with her, he’d stashed the negative thoughts that he wasn’t the type of guy she needed in her life. She wasn’t like the Frog Hogs looking for a quick fuck with a team guy. Ed usually obliged the groupies with a no-strings-attached policy.
Avis honestly wanted to know who he was, and he honestly wasn’t sure she’d like what she saw if he allowed that to happen.
Ed sighed and walked across the carpeted space of his bachelor suite. When he opened the door, Melodie Kallis stared up at him with glazed eyes. How the hell had she found out where he lived?
A faint smile flickered across her lips. “I need to talk. Do you have a minute?”
He stepped back and held the door open. She rushed in as if someone were on her tail.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I need a place to crash for one night.”
Didn’t a woman with her family name have numerous residences? “You look worried.” He headed to the one-step kitchen and opened the fridge. “I got beer and cola.”
“No thanks.” She seated herself on his couch. “I just need a night to figure things out. I know you don’t want me here, but I—”
Her gaze strayed around his cramped apartment. With his lifestyle, he didn’t need much. He slept on a Murphy bed, currently hidden behind a single panel on the wall that separated his living space from the bathroom.
Ed twisted the cap off his beer and tossed it in the trash under the sink. “As you can see, it’s not the Ritz.”
He could always grab a go-bag and head to Tex’s place. His buddy had a two-bedroom apartment a few minutes away.
Melodie kicked off her spiked heels and tucked her feet under her ass. Unlike the street clothes she’d been wearing when he’d met her in El Cajon, tonight she wore a blue mini skirt and low-cut, see-through silk blouse.
Her pretty gaze returned to him. “Ed, can I stay here?
”
He shrugged. “You gonna share? Tell me what’s going on.” If she didn’t want to stay in a hotel, it meant she didn’t want anyone tracking her credit card.
Twirling a strand of dark hair around her finger, she said, “I thought about what you said to me earlier. I don’t want to be a victim anymore.”
Ed cleared his throat. He could relate to that, but she wasn’t only a victim, she was an addict. Crack wasn’t something you could just smoke on occasion. That first high kept you chasing the next.
“Have any family that isn’t corrupt or psycho?” he asked.
Melodie tapped her fingernails on the back of his leather couch. “I do, but they’re all scared of my father. His sister—my aunt—lives in Boston. It wouldn’t do any good to run there. They wouldn’t want to piss off my dad.”
Ed downed another swallow of cold beer. “Swell guy, huh?”
Melodie gnawed on her lip and shook her head. “No,” she said in a hushed tone, totally missing his sarcasm. “My father is a murderer. A rapist. He assaulted me as a child but once I hit my twenties, he stopped.” She blinked a few times. “Then my brother did the same thing to me. I want it to stop.”
Jesus. Kallis senior was all sorts of fucked up. Not only an incestuous prick, but a pedophile. “You must know things that could put him in prison for the rest of his life, but you’re scared to speak up, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t last very long if I went to the cops. My father makes people disappear.”
“Wouldn’t be the cops, sweetheart. Your father’s been involved in international trafficking. The Feds would swoop in. You’d be placed in protective custody. Probably given a new identity.” He paused. “A second chance. Your only chance from my perspective.”
Ed finally sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. Melodie’s gaze kept swerving toward her leather bag on the coffee table. Had she brought a party favor? Under emotional duress, the woman was no doubt jonesing for a hit. A crackling warning slithered up his spine with that shit in his apartment. Before he allowed her to bury the pain, he needed info.
Dixie Under Siege (A Warrior's Passion Book 2) Page 25
