Fang and Claw

by Markie Madden

  Lacey had worked with Joe on several cases before, and he was a straightforward young attorney who paid close attention to details and had a strong sense of justice. Joe was also a by-the-book ADA who would require concrete evidence of probable cause before going to a judge for a search warrant.

  “Would you see if he’s available?”

  Kyle reached for the phone. He only spoke for a few moments before gesturing to Lacey and Colton. “He can see you now. Know where his office is?”

  Lacey nodded, beckoning Colton as she made her way through the maze of boxy cubicles to the back of the large room. In an office off to one side, she found Joe sitting behind a neatly-organized dark wood desk and just placing the phone back on its cradle. He was a short, stocky man with a cap of fire-red hair and a boyish face. He was also a Shifter who could turn into an owl when it suited him. His large green eyes sparkled as he grinned a greeting, and stuck his hand out to Lacey.

  “Hey there, Lieutenant Anderson, great to see you again!” His voice was cultured and animated.

  She shook his hand briefly, then indicated her partner. “Detective Scarber.” She waited while the men clasped hands. “How’s school going?”

  “Oh, it’s hard work, you know. But I just can’t get enough! Did you bring me something new?”

  Lacey and Colton seated themselves in plush, red faux leather chairs in front of the desk. She gave him a hopeful smile as she passed her tablet across to him, turned on and revealing a synopsis report that she had put together with all of their case information and insights. Without a search warrant, they would be unable to continue their investigation much farther.

  “You’re after a warrant?” Joe asked after he finished reading the report, handing the tablet back to her.

  “We need to get something to compare to the sample in the lab, and I don’t want to give him the chance to hurt someone else. Or worse.”

  “I’m not sure you have enough to cover a search of his premises,” Joe mused, taking a gold pen from a holder on the desk and running his long, talon-like fingers up and down its shaft as he thought. “There was no theft in any of these cases?”

  “Not that any of the victims have told us.”

  “Guy’s dirty as sin.” Colton spoke up for the first time. “I don’t know what he’s hiding, but he’s involved in this.”

  “I wish I could trust your gut on this. But the judge will need more than this. We’ve got enough to compel a DNA sample from him. I’ll get your signed warrant for that. But rather than call him to the department, serve it on him at home. It’ll give you a glimpse into his world.”

  “Better than nothing,” Lacey muttered to Colton after Joe had left to confer with a judge. “We’ll get a sample and have a look around his place. Anything in plain sight is open for the taking.”

  Colton shifted in his chair as if impatient to get on with it. “As if he’ll be leaving anything incriminating lying around when we’ve already tipped him that he’s a suspect! Damn it!”

  “Down, boy.”

  Before Colton could do more than snarl a response, Joe walked back into the office. “Your warrant will be in the system in 15 minutes,” he stated. “Get a DNA sample first. If you can get a match, or find anything else you can add to this case, I’ll get you an arrest warrant.”

  Lacey stood. “Great! Thanks for your help, Joe.” With a sideways glance at Colton, she indicated that they were through.

  He grumbled under his breath during the long walk back to the Major Crimes Unit. Before Lacey went into her office, she grabbed Colton by the arm. “You’ve got to relax just a little. We can’t go in there with you ready to lock the guy up. We have to bide our time.”

  He took a deep breath and seemed to pull his anger back into himself. “So, what’s the plan here?”

  “While we’re waiting for the warrant, I want you to call Blyge’s girlfriend at work. See if you can get anything useful out of her.”

  “Okay, I can do that.” He moved off to his cubicle as Lacey stepped into her tiny office. He’s such a hothead! She sat down at her desk and pulled her tablet out of her pocket. I don’t know if I can keep him settled for much longer. Lacey considered speaking to the commander, but she knew that in doing so, she would be admitting defeat. Not only that, but she didn’t want others under her command to think she couldn’t get along with Colton. Keeping an eye on his hair-trigger temper was exhausting, though. She was hoping that soon they would be able to develop a rhythm that would enable them to work more smoothly together.

  She set her tablet to send her an alert when the warrant came through, and set it aside on her desk, pulling her laptop closer to her. She pulled up Blyge’s file, finding his listed home address and doing a search on the building. She was able to pull up a schematic of his apartment from Public Works and study the layout using the floor plan. It was a modest one-bedroom, one-bathroom home, with an open kitchen, living room, and small dining area. This was, of course, assuming he hadn’t made any changes to it during his tenancy.

  Colton stepped into her office. “Jenna was at lunch, but she’ll be back in less than half an hour. Maybe we can catch her in person while we’re waiting for the warrant.”

  Lacey steepled her first fingers under her chin thoughtfully. “But would she call and tip him off as soon as we leave?”

  “I think it’s a chance we can take.” He rested a hip against the corner of the desk. “I checked her before I called, she’s never been in trouble except for a speeding ticket when she was younger, paid up way before the due date. I don’t think she likes to break the law.”

  “Maybe if we impress upon her the importance of not speaking to him about this case, and what might happen to her if she does.”

  “I think I can frighten her enough not to warn him.”

  She gave a tight smile. “I’m sure you could.” She glanced at the tablet, willing it to beep. It remained stubbornly silent. After a moment, she made a decision. “Okay, let’s go.”

  8

  “Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half.” ~~ Unknown

  Once again, Lacey braced herself as she crossed the threshold into Medical City’s bustling E.R. This time, however, she had a shadow in the form of Colton, her partner. He had remained stoic and said nothing on the ride over from the station, but he had shifted his weight and opened his mouth as if wanting to say something several times, then just gazed out the window in silence once more. Sliding her eyes to him, she wondered what was on his mind. For it was evident that something was.

  Striding through the lobby, she approached the desk and was relieved to see that the young blonde was back from her lunch and manning her usual position. It would save them the time and effort of hunting her down. Jenna looked up, apparently hearing the sound of their footsteps on the tile floor. She seemed startled to see Lacey looking down at her.

  “Jenna, I’m Lieutenant Anderson.” She palmed her badge and showed it to the woman. “This is my partner, Detective Scarber. Is there someplace a little more...private where we can talk?” Lacey had seen how full the waiting area was when they walked in; it certainly would not do to have an interrogation about multiple crime scenes right here in the lobby.

  “I’m not supposed to leave the desk,” Jenna stammered.

  “Call your supervisor,” Colton snarled.

  Visibly terrified, the woman turned to the phone on the desk, dropping it three times before she managed to bring it up to her ear. While her attention was diverted, Lacey gave Colton a sideways glance and whispered under her breath, “Ease up a little, will you? We don’t need her to have a heart attack.”

  “She’s harboring a criminal.” Colton seethed.

  “We don’t know that yet.” The coldness in her eyes was enough to get make him step back a pace.

  “Message received, boss.”

  An older woman stepped through a door behind the lobby desk and approached them. “Is there something the matter, officers?” She
asked in a polite tone.

  Lacey showed the woman her badge. “We just need to ask Jenna here some questions. She was concerned about leaving the desk unattended.” This earned her a grateful glance from Jenna.

  “Oh, of course!” The older woman replied. “Take my office, Jenna will show you where it is.” She laid a soothing hand on the younger woman’s shoulder, easing her out of the desk chair. She took a seat and the phone rang almost at once.

  Jenna gestured to them, then swiped her ID badge across a small security pad cleverly hidden in the trim of the door. An almost imperceptible mechanical sound reached Lacey’s ears, and the door popped open, revealing a long hallway with evenly-spaced doors along both sides. The second door on the left was the only door not closed, and Jenna led the pair inside.

  “This is Martha’s office,” she said, her voice quiet. “We can talk in here.” She waited for them to take seats in front of the desk, then closed the door behind her.

  “I’m going to ask you some questions about someone that you know, and I’d like permission to record this,” Lacey stated.

  “Um, okay, yes, I guess.” The young woman seemed discomfited.

  Lacey took out her tablet and set it for record. “You know this man, Jason Blyge?” She turned the tablet so Jenna could see the ID image on the screen.

  “Yes, of course,” she replied instantly. “He’s my boyfriend.”

  “How long have you known him?”

  “Um, about six or seven months, I guess.” She scrunched up her face as if trying desperately to remember something. “Yeah, closer to seven, I think. I’d just started the spring semester, and one of my friends dragged me out to this party one night. I wanted to stay home and study, but she insisted. I met Jason then.”

  Consulting her tablet, Lacey asked her if she’d been with the suspect on the morning of Angelica’s attack. When the girl answered that she hadn’t, Lacey asked, “Did you talk to him at all that night?”

  “Yeah, I think I called him a little bit after 10, right before I went to bed. And the next morning, I texted him when I left my apartment, and again when I got here.”

  “Is that something he makes you do?” Colton’s tone was demanding.

  “No, not really.” She spared him a tight smile. “He just worries about me driving in rush-hour traffic. He does the same thing, to let me know he’s made it on site okay.”

  “And what time was that?” Lacey was making notations in her tablet.

  “Um, my shift here starts at 7, but I usually try to be in half an hour early. Sometimes, when the night shift’s been really busy, I help them get the paperwork scanned in before they leave.”

  “So, what time do you leave your apartment?”

  “About 6:15 on weekdays. I live on the other side of town, so sometimes it takes me that long. It depends on traffic.”

  “And you always text him?” Lacey stressed. “You never forget?”

  “Well, sure, I do sometimes, but it’s kind of a habit now, just something I do before I get out of the car. We’re not supposed to use our phones inside.” She said this with just enough guilt to let Lacey know that she did, indeed, sometimes use her phone while in the building. Lacey gave her a small smile, encouraging her. “Usually he answers right back, too, because he knows I’ll be going inside. He doesn’t want me to get in trouble.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Colton sat in silence, his arms crossed over his chest. He watched as his partner skillfully maneuvered the young woman into being more and more forthcoming with each answer she gave. He noticed how, when Lacey was silent, the other woman often began volunteering information on her own. His thoughts drifted back to his days of training, when he was a fresh young officer just out of the Academy. He realized that his trainer hadn’t been quite as skilled as Lacey was during an interview. I could learn a thing or two from her, he grudgingly thought.

  As much as he wanted to chime in and ask a few pointed questions of his own, this time, he held his tongue. He absorbed what was going on in the small office, noticing Lacey’s use of body language as she began to build a rapport with the interviewee, and he witnessed the exact moment when Lacey and Jenna connected. It was something he’d been taught while in school, but never before had he seen anyone do it in quite as effective manner as his new partner.

  He was startled from his thoughts by Lacey standing up. She held her hand out to Jenna, who shook it briefly, and said, “Thank you, Miss Stiles. I have to ask you not to speak to Mr. Blyge until you get home this evening. It’s very important.”

  “He might know something about a crime? Of course, I won’t say anything,” she replied quickly.

  Lacey gestured to him, then glided out of the office. She moved with an almost effortless grace, which always made him feel clunky and clumsy next to her. He opened his mouth, but she held up a hand and without a word, he followed her back to the parking lot.

  Once they were strapped in to her kick-ass car, she glanced over at him. “Impressions?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. I mean, at first, that whole text me as soon as you get to work bit would have fit right in, but it didn’t seem like it was all his idea. More of a mutual thing, it sounded like.”

  “I agree at first,” she replied. “But then again, I know quite a few people, especially those who have long commutes, who do the same thing.”

  “And it sure didn’t sound like she was trying to hide anything.” With a quick indrawn breath as she expertly steered the car around a vehicle driving too slowly to suit her, he once again grasped the handle above his window in a death grip. Will I ever be able to get used to her driving? She may be Immortal, but I’m not. Not quite. He stole a quick glance at her, wondering if she would take off his arm if he tried to turn on the radio. Something, anything, to distract him from this wild ride. He leaned in an imperceptible way toward the controls on the dash between them, and her hand flashed out, faster than he could see, to cover up the controls.

  “You want music?”

  “Yeah, or news, or something. Just a little noise.”

  She turned the knob, and a local 24-hour news station could be heard. It helped to calm his nerves, but only marginally. Without realizing what he was doing, he tapped his fingers in rhythm on his knee, still clutching the “chicken stick” but being unable to admit to her that her driving frightened him. To distract himself, more than any desire to get to know her better, he asked, “Where did you learn to interview like that?”

  “What?” She seemed startled by his question.

  “Well, I was just watching you back there. I could see exactly when you won her trust. Not to mention that whole thing of getting her to offer up information without being questioned directly about it.”

  She shrugged her shoulders as if to make light of it. “Well, as for that, it’s just human psychology. Most people can’t stand silence, so if you want to get more information from them, the key is to remain quiet. Often, they will talk just to fill the silence, and volunteer something that you might find useful, even something you might not have thought to ask them. Didn’t you take human psychology at the Academy?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t have a very good teacher.” Or maybe I wasn’t a very good student. “Even my trainer wasn’t as skilled at interviewing as you are. Like I said, I could literally see the moment when you connected with her.”

  “That just comes from a very long time of interacting with humans,” she said almost ruefully. “I’ve had a lot of practice.

  “Yeah, about that--” He quit talking abruptly.

  She took her eyes off the road to glance at him. “What?”

  “Never mind,” he mumbled, mentally kicking himself. Had he just been about to bring up Greece? While alone in a car with her, and no one else knowing where they were? Can you be any more stupid, Scarber? Geez, really? He saw her eyes narrow as if she didn’t believe him, and he was happy when they arrived at the suspect’s apartment just a few minutes later.
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br />   “You want lead on this?” She offered as she parked the car in front of the apartment building.

  He shook his head. “I’ll let you take it. Who knows, maybe I’ll learn something else.”

  She stepped from the car, making it look effortless, while it took Colton a bit more time to get his feet under him on the pavement and heave his bulk out of the low-riding sports car. He never understood why people would want a car so low to the ground that one had to fall into it, and then struggle to get out again. That’s why he liked his pickup, a big burly vehicle for a big burly man.

  The vehicle’s alarm system chirped behind them as they moved up the walk toward the lobby door. This building, though still an older one, was in much better condition than Mrs. Smith’s place; the automatic lock on the lobby door was still intact, and the only way to get inside was to call one of the tenants to buzz them in, or find the superintendent’s unit. Lacey paused, as if in thought, looking over the surnames above each button. Finally making a choice, she hit the buzzer under the name ‘The Temples’, and waited in silence by the speaker.

  A young woman’s voice answered. “Yes, can I help you?” Her voice sounded mechanical through the intercom.

  “Mrs. Temple, this is Lieutenant Anderson of the Dallas Police. I need access to your building to speak with someone. Will you buzz me in?”

  “No problem.” In an instant, the mechanical sound of the lock could be heard. Lacey tugged on the door, opening it. She held it open for him after she stepped through. Fortunately, the elevator in the building was working as well, and he waited until the doors closed before asking her the question.

  “How did you know someone would be there?”

  She glanced at him as she answered. “The other names were just a first initial with the last name. This one looked almost new, and it said ‘The Temples’, as you would do if you had a family. But in this part of town, the only family would likely be a newlywed couple, maybe one with a small child or two, and often the mother stays at home while the father works.”