Before the Dawn

by Gail Chianese

  “I’ve got a safety assembly to get to, but I might drive back down here tonight. Just take another drive around.” Shawn brushed a stray cobweb off her cheek, but his gaze was still searching for signs of Sara.

  She’d put Vinnie on the case of the missing teen. She and Shawn might not solve the arson case before she started teaching or he left, but if she could ease Shawn’s mind about the girl, it’d be a win and she’d take it.

  “I’ve got a lead on a potential witness and person of interest. I’ll let you know if it pans out,” Kat said.

  “Randall, Captain wants to see you in his office,” Rodriguez told Shawn when he returned to the firehouse.

  He didn’t want to talk to the captain. He wanted to grab some chow and down about half a bottle of Motrin for the mother of all headaches. He loved kids, really did, but today had almost done him in. One of the local schools had hosted a safety class, bringing in all four kindergarten classes, four first grade classes and five rooms of second-graders all at once. Man, were those kids loud. After two and a half hours of listening to them yell their answers his head felt like Rodriguez had finally planted a fire ax in his skull.

  He also had to return Daines’s call.

  Hopefully Sara Wallis had shown up or been found.

  Stepping into the captain’s office, he knocked on the doorframe. “Captain, you wanted to see me?”

  “How’d it go this afternoon?”

  Shawn put a hand to his head. “Trust me, those kids know all about stop, drop, and roll.”

  “Good, that’s what we want. Look, I need you to hand the arson case off to Clark or Calabrese. You’ve only got two weeks until you leave and I’ve got a full list of school visits and inspections I need you to get done.”

  His gut clenched as confusion and frustration twisted through him. “I’ve got time to finish this up before I go, sir. I’d like to see it closed.”

  “You’ve done a great job, Shawn, and it’s going in your record that you’re a valuable member to this firehouse and district both as a fighter and marshal, but you and I both know the chance of this case never being closed is high. I need one of the other two, who aren’t leaving me, to familiarize themselves with the details. Besides, the kids love you.” He turned and picked up his phone. Discussion over.

  Shit. He understood the captain’s logic. If he were the one in charge, he’d make the same call, but it still felt like crap to be on the receiving end. Handing the case off to one of the others felt like giving up. It also meant less time spent with Kat. Right now, he couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

  The empty office gave him a chance to stew over the captain’s orders while he put a call into Daines. Listening to his friend’s news about the gang members didn’t make the day any better. Not only did the little pukes have alibis, but no one could find Sara. He prayed the girl was alive and unharmed, somewhere. One way or the other he’d find her and make sure. He’d never been some overachieving people pleaser, but he’d always considered himself as the type who, once given a job, did it and did it well. Call it personal satisfaction. It didn’t look like this time he’d win. For every two steps forward, they were taking four steps back on this case and it was killing him.

  The jackhammer threatened to burst through his skull at any moment. Foraging through his desk drawer, he pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen and downed a couple with water that had been sitting on his desk for a least a week. Right now, he didn’t care about germs. If the germs killed him, then his head wouldn’t hurt any longer.

  Rodriguez stuck his head in the doorway. He didn’t say anything, but Shawn could feel the weight of his stare like ten thousand ants crawling on him.

  “What?” he grumbled.

  “You look like shit.”

  “You know, for like two point two minutes yesterday I thought I was going to miss you.”

  “When was the last time you ate?” The guy doesn’t give up. Shit, when was the last time he ate? Breakfast at Kat’s? No, they hadn’t had time. Guess that meant last night.

  “This morning,” he lied.

  “Made my seven-time winning chili for lunch. Come eat.”

  “What are you, my grandmother? Go away, Rodriguez. I’ll eat when I get back. I’ve got a call to make.”

  “Suit yourself, but ain’t nobody wants to talk you in that mood.”

  The guy sauntered off and Shawn promised himself he’d grab a bowl in a minute. Punching in Kat’s number, he pulled out the schedule the captain had given him, glanced at his watch, and swore. He had fifteen minutes to make it to a school in Ledyard and he needed at least twenty. As soon as the safety class ended, he had two new restaurants to inspect plus an apartment building. He’d be lucky if he found time to breathe.

  Forget the chili, he’d grab a Snickers.

  The elementary school visit cranked the intensity of the jackhammer up, so that by the time he’d arrived at the first restaurant he was tired, grumpy, and ready to rip someone a new one.

  Forget the Snickers. He needed a beer.

  Thankfully, both of the inspections went smoothly and quickly. He wished he could say the same for the apartment building. Freaking builders trying to skimp on costs. Then it was back to the station house to file paperwork and turn over the arson case to Clark and Calabrese, who decided to share it. Of course, it couldn’t be a simple here’s the file, let me know if you have any questions and good luck kind of turnover. Nope, they had to go over every minute, flipping detail. Twice.

  At eleven o’clock that night, he’d forgotten about the chili, the Snickers, and the beer. As he dropped face first onto his bed, one last thought ran through his fried brain.

  I never completed my call to Kat.

  Chapter 12

  Ring, already, will you?

  Staring at the silent phone on her desk, Kat willed it to respond to her request. Over the past three days she’d caught herself checking her phone constantly to make sure she hadn’t missed a call or that the darn thing wasn’t dead. It was like being a lovestruck thirteen-year-old again. Puhleese, I never wanted to relive those days. Yet here I am, doing the same stupid, brainless waiting-on-the-guy-to-call-me thing. If Lexie were here to witness this, she’d revoke my big-girl-panties license and send me back to the sandbox until I could act like a real woman again.

  A real woman would call him.

  Maybe this was his way of saying it was over? They had gone into the weekend knowing it didn’t mean anything. A fun fling. Calling him would make her some clingy woman who couldn’t keep her word. Paul may have taken a lot of things from her, but her independence was definitely not one of them. If Shawn wanted to see her, he’d have to call. In the meantime, she still had a case to solve.

  Babs, after much coaxing from Vinnie’s ghostly girlfriend, had provided several variations of the sketch showing the man with and without facial hair, and with long and short hair, as promised. Armed with the pictures of their person of interest, Kat and Vinnie had pounded the pavement for two solid days in Colchester without any luck of finding anyone who even thought he looked familiar. The sketches had also been delivered to the detective in charge.

  The police would do their best, but they had other pressing cases, including a missing teen girl who might be the witness to a murder. Today, Vinnie and Kat had split up. He was doing some undercover work while Kat headed to the area around the first burned-out clinic.

  Norwich was larger than both of the other two locations, with more people used to ignoring the actions of others as long as they didn’t directly involve them or theirs. One thing she had learned on this case, people who knew the docs loved them. And those people were mad as Hades someone would do such a horrible act against the three Good Samaritans. It wasn’t about the money for Kat. The contract with the insurance agency would pay them for the hours they’d put into the investigation, whether they solved the case or not. But this maniac needed to be caught before he killed again.

  Snagging a parking spo
t a block down from the clinic ruins in a neighborhood mixed with small businesses and homes, Kat gathered the sketches, looking around as she got out. They were only a couple of blocks off a main road and about a mile from the community college. Small Cape Cod style homes, circa 1950, lined the street, interspersed with older colonials which had been broken into smaller apartments. There wasn’t a quick way to go about this, she’d have to go door-to-door. Ah, the glamorous life of a private eye. She headed to the first house, desperately missing Lexie at this moment. Stakeouts and door-to-door investigations sucked, unless you happen to be with your best friend.

  Two hours later she had covered a half mile in both directions of the clinic on one side of the street with nothing to show except sore feet, a pounding headache, and a proposition. Glancing down at her boots, jeans, button-down blouse, and blazer, she wondered how the ensemble screamed slut. Maybe the old perv had a thing for professional women. Probably used to chase his secretary around his desk.

  Thinking some food would ease the headache and the urge to rip into the next person who slammed the door in her face, she stepped into a pizzeria, ordered a ham and cheese grinder, and took a seat by the window. As she waited, she pulled out the pictures from Babs and studied the images, scrutinizing every feature until she could recall the suspect’s face without the sketch.

  Mousy brown hair, cut in a typical, all-American guy style that wouldn’t have drawn any special attention. Round face. Short forehead, small nose, unremarkable cheeks, mouth and chin that all faded into his face. Nothing about him would stand out and cause a person to take a second glance. Except for those eyes.

  Creepy.

  Cold.

  Lifeless.

  As she imagined life as a person whom no one noticed, who didn’t matter to anyone, she could easily see this suspect taking another’s life without a second thought or care. Babs had drawn him with a trim mustache, but Kat’s instinct said he didn’t normally wear one. She tried to imagine him without the extra facial hair, then with more: a goatee, and then a full beard. He could have been in every one of those businesses she’d interviewed, but with a slightly altered image.

  It was like chasing a chameleon.

  A heaviness weighed down her conscious as stark reality struck. This case might very well go unsolved. Not only did she feel like she was letting her clients down, but also those who’d lost their jobs, not to mention the innocent man caught in the wrong place with fatal consequences. Failure was a foreign concept and emotion, one that left a nasty taste in Kat’s mouth.

  To make matters worse, a sensation of emptiness washed over her. Her body ached from the void. Pulling out her phone, she let her heart and mind battle it out. No missed calls. Face it, he’s over you. Move on.

  Before she could put her phone away it rang. With disappointment, she saw the caller ID. “Detective Daines, please tell me you’re calling with good news.”

  “As of matter of fact, yeah.” Daines’s voice boomed through the speaker. Kat pulled the phone away from her ear. “Spoke to the day manager at the convenience store across from the clinic. Nice guy. Likes to make connections with the people who come in on a regular basis. Anyway, he remembers seeing our friend, around the same time as our artist did. Picked him out from the original sketch. Any luck on your end?”

  A little tension slipped from her shoulders as she shared the results with Daines. “Got a proposition from some guy old enough to be my grandfather. Something about investigating his family jewels and staff.”

  His chuckling on the other end brought a smile to her face. “I’m hoping you nailed him in his family jewels. Just don’t tell me about it. I’d hate to have to arrest you.”

  “While it was tempting, I remained professional.” Sitting up, she dug around in her purse for her note pad. “Could the manager give you any more information on the guy?”

  “Nope, sorry. Remembers seeing him come into the store. Said he remembers him because it seemed almost as if the guy were casing the joint, but then he bought some snacks, paid cash, and walked up the road toward the residential area. Hasn’t seen him since.”

  “At least we have someone to back up Babs and a second witness to say this man seemed suspicious. Now, if I could place him near one of the other sites and get a name. I’m going to grab some lunch and then try the other side of the street. Any news on Sara Wallis?”

  Kat heard the deep sigh before he answered, but she’d hoped. “That’s a negative,” he said.

  She hung up, moving the sketches to an empty seat as the waitress approached with her lunch.

  Re-motivated from her call with Daines, Kat ate quickly, keeping her focus mainly on the case. Admittedly, a small portion of her brain told her this was great news as it gave her an excuse to call Shawn. Her heart rejoiced at the thought, then her resolve kicked in. Tough luck, I’m holding my ground. He can call when he wants to see me. Sometimes, being a grown-up really sucked.

  She handed the waitress her bill and the money to pay for lunch. While the young girl rang up the ticket, Kat pulled out the sketches and asked her if she’d ever seen the man depicted before.

  “Are you with the police?”

  “No, I’m a private investigator.”

  “Did he commit some kind of crime?”

  “I’m just trying to find him. I think he might have some information I need.”

  “Oh.” The girl flipped through them, stopping on the third sketch. “I’ve seen him before.” She handed the picture to Kat.

  Bingo! Same guy near two of the sites. The police were going to become a lot more interested in finding him. Being spotted near both locations didn’t make him the arsonist, however, it did move him to the number-one spot as a person of interest.

  “I’ve seen him too.” The waitress handed her another sketch, this one showing a days’ growth—beard and mustache—and short hair, sort of an Adam Levine look, but not as attractive.

  “Do you remember when you saw each of these guys? If you can’t, it’s okay, but I need you to try to remember.” Excitement flooded her body. They were one step closer to nailing this jerk.

  “The first picture I handed to you? He was a regular. Started coming in here a couple of months ago. He’d stop in two to three times a week for lunch. Figured he worked at the college or something.”

  “When did you last see him?”

  “It’s been a while. Maybe three or four weeks. Seemed like a nice guy, but a little strange too.”

  “Notice anything else about him?”

  “Yeah, he had a funny accent. Sort of French, but not. Maybe Canadian with New England mixed in, too? I remember commenting on it one time, and he suddenly sounded like he was from Boston. It was weird. Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen him since then. Guess, I made him mad.”

  Kat jotted all of this information down. It appeared their man was a bit of a chameleon, both with his appearance and his speech. “This is great info, Kaylee. What about the second picture?”

  “Oh, I saw him today. He was standing outside the window right before I brought over your lunch. He seemed like he was going to come in, but then he walked away. I thought maybe he was either looking for a friend or thought we were too busy.” Her happy expression slipped away, replaced by a worried frown. “I’m sorry, he wasn’t doing anything weird or I would have said something earlier.”

  Reaching over, Kat patted the girl’s arm in reassurance. “Don’t worry, you’ve done nothing wrong. You’ve been a great help. Actually, you’ve made my day. One last question, when the guy in the first picture was in here before, did he happen to pay by credit card?”

  She shook her head. “No, he always paid with cash. I know you’re trying to find his name, right? He did take a call once and I caught part of his name, Saint something with a P—Peter or Paul. Something like that. It was really loud. I remember thinking it fit the French accent.”

  Thanking the girl, Kat told her to keep the ten as a tip and walked out the door. Scanning u
p and down the street for any sign of her man, she knew he was long gone by now. Her gut told her he was the one. Hopefully, he hadn’t somehow seen the sketches and didn’t know they were on to him.

  When she entered the office an hour later, Vinnie sat at her desk staring at Ashley, a deep frown on his face. If this was his idea of going undercover, Kat was going to be ticked. He was supposed to be helping her solve a case, not stalking their new intern.

  “Ashley, did you get anything on the PA’s financials yet?”

  The intern was bundled up in a fleece jacket, with a scarf wrapped around her neck and fingerless gloves on her hands. Damn, Vinnie. He’d been at it again.

  “Negative. My friend had to put it on the back burner for the moment. He should be able to work on it soon. Any luck in Norwich?” Ashley focused on Kat, but her gaze kept shifting toward Kat’s desk.

  Kat brought both interns up to speed on the day’s events while pretending to only talk to one. “Tomorrow, can you take copies of the sketches and hit some doors in Pawcatuck? According to the day manager at the store, the guy seemed like he lived nearby. Maybe one of the neighbors will recognize him.”

  “You’re the boss. It’ll be warmer out there than it has been in here all day.”

  “Sorry, I forgot to phone the heating guy. I’ll do it now. You call it a night and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Kat waited for Ashley to make copies of the sketch and go home before turning to Vinnie and shooting him a deadly glare.

  “What?” the spirit asked.

  “Leave her alone,” Kat whispered. “I need your focus on this case, not on some imagined secret that Ashley’s keeping. And news flash, Vinnie. Everyone has secrets.” Then again, did she really want to ignore Vinnie’s intuition?

  While he was a major pain in the rear, he’d always had her and Lexie’s back.

  Over the years, he’d proven to be a trusty confidant when either she or Lex had needed a voice of mature reason. Plus, she couldn’t forget what happened last time she’d ignored him. If she’d really listened to what he’d tried to tell her all those months ago, her fiancé wouldn’t have been able to play her for such a fool. And she wouldn’t have gone off half-cocked and put Lexie in danger. No matter what anyone said, the car accident was her fault. She’d insisted they go after Bolds, a well-known criminal who took no prisoners. If it hadn’t been for Kat, they wouldn’t have been on I-95 heading north and been prime targets for the unknown bad guy in their case at the time to ram their car into the cement divider.