Just This Once

by Diana X Dunn

  She pulled up the video from the mini-camera that the first officer on the scene had recorded. It started at the house’s front door. She watched as the man opened the door and then took a cautious step into the building. He should have announced his presence immediately, she thought as the man walked through a partial opened door into the house’s living room. Alex was standing behind the couch, leaning forward.

  “Freeze!” the man shouted. Julia could see the gun in his hand. It shook as he waved it at Alex. “Don’t move, just put your hands up and back away from the couch,” he said.

  Alex almost smirked at the contradictory nature of the order and then slowly began to move backwards.

  “In here, Jake,” the policeman shouted over his shoulder to someone, his voice cracking from stress or excitement. The man took a step forward now, heading for the couch. As the camera recorded the horrible scene there, the man gulped loudly and then took a deep breath. “Jake, call the homicide guys. I’ll keep the killer covered until they get here.”

  Julia paused the video and studied the scene. Cassie was dressed casually in jeans and t-shirt, but her shoes were sexy little high-heeled ones that looked all wrong with the outfit. The knife looked wrong as well, of course, as did the blood that seemed to be still pouring out from the wound. The knife had been planted squarely between her breasts.

  After a moment, Julia let the video continue.

  “Can I sit down, please?” Alex asked in a quiet voice.

  “Over there.” The policeman used his gun to gesture to a chair in the far corner and Alex sank into it. A moment later, another man, presumably the aforementioned Jake, came in and took a look. A few minutes later Julia could hear the sounds of several cars approaching.

  Julia watched for several minutes as someone formally declared Cassie dead and teams of men and women arrived with all of the necessary equipment. She stopped the video as Blake walked into the room. It only took a moment for her to find the recording from Blake’s mini-camera, starting the video as he walked toward Alex.

  “You shouldn’t have been allowed to stay in here,” he said. “I’d like you to wait in a transport outside, please.” Blake turned and gestured to another uniformed officer who was standing on the fringes of the action. Julia watched as Alex was escorted out of the room. She thought about checking the next recording, but decided it didn’t matter. Within a minute or two of Alex’s exchange with Blake, Alex had called her. She still wasn’t sure why, but that was a question for another time.

  The day was drawing to a close as Julia left the police station. While she was tempted to head to the crime scene and doing some investigating of her own that was best left for morning. She really needed to talk to Blake first, to confirm her position on the investigative team, and to make sure she wouldn’t be stepping on too many toes with her involvement. After some thought, she headed back to her apartment, sure that Blake would be calling as soon as he could find the time to do so.

  Eight

  As Alex’s arms tightened around her, their kiss deepened. Julia felt herself falling under his spell as she sank backwards onto the enormous bed that filled the darkened room. Alex’s weight pressed down on top of her and his hands moved slowly, gently sliding under the oversized T-shirt she had thrown on to sleep in. His hands burned fire as they swept a lazy arc across her stomach, sliding higher as the kiss seared out of control.

  A loud buzzing noise suddenly distracted Julia from Alex’s touch. She reached out to pull him back into the kiss, but he dissolved away, leaving Julia shaking her head to clear it. Her M-ped buzzed loudly on the bedside table, pushing the last cobwebs of the dream from her memory. Julia frowned as her mind struggled to focus. She forced herself to forget the dream as she reached for the device and looked at the clock. Midnight.

  “Hello.” Her voice was neutral and gave nothing away.

  “I woke you, didn’t I?” Blake’s deep-voiced chuckle sounded incredibly sexy to Julia’s half-awake brain.

  Julia ignored the question. “What do you have for me?” she demanded.

  Blake chuckled again. “In case you didn’t notice, I don’t actually work for you.” Julia heard the words, but also the casual tone behind them. This was a token protest before he was going to tell her what she wanted to know.

  “You’ll never admit that I woke you, will you?” Blake continued, taking the conversation at his pace rather than hers.

  “I was watching video.” Julia lied automatically, unwilling to show any sign of weakness to her former lover.

  “What was on?”

  “Some old movie.”

  “You never watch video and you always go to bed early.”

  “When we were together I didn’t watch a lot of video and we went to bed early.” Julia put extra emphasis on the plural pronoun. “For some reason that I can no longer remember, when we were together I preferred going to bed with you to watching video. Now that I’m single, I can watch video if I want.” Julia was frustrated. This was not the conversation she wanted to be having.

  “So I was better than video, was I?” Blake chuckled yet again, his voice rolling over her seductively.

  “How is Jenny?” Julia dropped the loaded question into the conversation, instantly silencing Blake’s laughter.

  “Touché,” he answered. “I’ve just sent Alexander Knight on his merry way. I thought you might like to know in case someone comes knocking on your door in a little while.”

  “Is he still a suspect?”

  “At the moment, everyone is a suspect. Whoever killed Cassie Knight managed to avoid leaving any forensic traces that could be definitely attributed to the killer. The house is teaming with fingerprints, fiber samples and all sorts of bits and pieces that tell us that the dead woman liked to entertain a lot. Our best guess at the moment is that the killer is someone she knew, but from the samples we’ve gotten so far, that could include as many as twenty people that were in the house recently. Matching her friends and neighbors to fingerprints and DNA samples won’t be easy and relies on them being willing to cooperate. And of course, the killer will probably be happy to cooperate, if he or she knows that we can’t use the sample to link him or her to the murder.”

  “So do you think the killer was very clever or just very lucky?”

  “I just don’t know with this one. The frame up was an amateur job, if it was an attempt at a frame up. Maybe the killer was lucky. A quick shove of a knife into someone doesn’t always leave traces of the person who was holding the knife. Everyone knows these days to avoid leaving fingerprints, anyway, so it is hard to say.”

  “Why let Alex go?”

  “I’ve no special reason to keep him. We could, by law, have kept him for forty-eight hours for questioning as he was found standing over the body, but it didn’t seem necessary. He is being tracked of course.”

  “Voluntarily?”

  “Yes, voluntarily.” Blake suddenly sounded incredibly tired.

  “Internal or external tracking?”

  “External,” Blake sighed deeply. “Honestly Julia, we aren’t trying to pin this on him and get it over with. I told Knight he could go, but I would prefer to be able to keep track of him and he volunteered to have a tracking unit. We fitted him with a bracelet and sent him back out into the big bad world. Any time he decides he doesn’t want to cooperate anymore, he can request the bracelet be taken off.”

  “And thereby increase your suspicion that he did it.” Julia countered

  “And thereby cause me to take a closer look at him,” Blake retorted. “My gut says he didn’t do it, but he might well know who did or have some suspicions. That’s why I called you. If he talks to you, try to find out who he suspects.”

  “I already did that, remember? He said he has no idea.”

  “He said that when he was in a police interview room being observed. I’m interested in what he will say to you when you are snuggled up in bed together.”

  Julia had to force herself not to hang up on h
im. “Sorry, but Alex and I don’t have that sort of relationship.” She ground the words out, struggling to remain calm.

  Blake chuckled again, and Julia felt a shiver go through her at the sexy sound. “Don’t have that sort of relationship yet,” Blake qualified her remark.

  “Won’t have that sort of relationship while he’s suspected of murder.” Julia qualified further. “Come on Blake, don’t be horrible. If I see him, I’ll talk to him and see what I can find out, but it won’t be pillow talk.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “How about the partner, Peter something or other, what did he have to say?” Julia asked.

  “He has something approaching an alibi for the murder. It isn’t perfect, but it isn’t bad and doesn’t feel set up. He is upset, but maybe not as upset as a loving partner should be.”

  “Maybe I should have a chat with him.”

  “Maybe you should stay out of the investigation.”

  “Like that’s going to happen,” Julia laughed. “I’ll try not to step on any toes, but I’m an official consultant to your department and I’m going to consult whether you like it or not. I thought I would start with the neighbors.”

  Blake sighed. “I knew you would have to get involved,” he told her. “Why does this always happen to me?”

  Julia knew a rhetorical question when she heard it.

  “You keep me informed of everything that you find out,” he ordered Julia. “If my officers are talking to someone, you don’t interrupt.”

  Julia stopped him before he could rattle off an entire list of rules. “Blake, we’ve worked together before and it all turned out okay in the end. Let’s just trust each other.”

  “Last time you weren’t personally involved.” Blake argued.

  “I hope you know that I’m professional enough not to let my feelings intrude on the case.” Julia countered.

  “Professional enough or cold enough.” Blake muttered under his breath.

  Julia pretended that she hadn’t heard him.

  “Anyway,” Blake continued, “the neighbors are a good place to start. Someone called in the murder and it almost had to be someone watching Knight when he arrived. We’ve had preliminary statements from everyone who was at home when the murder took place. Tomorrow I’m going back to have longer talks with some of the most likely candidates.”

  “I’ll try not to get in your way.” Julia promised.

  “Yeah. Maybe you should just come with me.” Indecision was clear in his voice.

  “If you’re sure you can stand it, it would save us tripping over each other. I’ll keep quiet unless something really important occurs to me.” Julia offered.

  “You’d better keep quiet,” Blake ordered.

  Julia laughed. “Shall I meet you at South Side in the morning, then?”

  “Right, great, yeah, just meet me there about nine,” he said after a long pause.

  They both hung up. As Julia slid down in the bed, she wondered what Blake had been thinking before his final words. She’d filled the time by remembering the previous time they’d worked together, when they would spend their nights in each other’s arms and their days investigating.

  Blake couldn’t have been thinking about the same thing, though, he was happily married now, she reminded herself. She burrowed down under the feather spread and punched her pillows into shape. She thought about taking a sleep aid, but decided against it, forcing herself to relax instead. When she finally fell asleep, her dreams were a tangled mess of Blake, Alex, and a man with a knife.

  Nine

  Sunday morning was again sunny and bright. It appeared that spring was taking a firm hold on the city. Julia slipped on a sophisticated black suit that looked profession. Low-heeled and comfortable shoes were essential. She knew that Blake preferred walking to using transports, especially over short distances. Those short walks could add up to many miles by the end of a day of investigating. That would also add up to tired feet if her heels were too high.

  She pulled her rarely used personal transport out of its assigned space in the underground garage and pointed it toward South Side. As the computer negotiated the quiet streets she used her M-ped to read through the police reports from the previous day. Nothing leaped out at her from the official documentation. Blake had flagged the interview with Peter Henderson, but it seemed straightforward enough during her quick read through.

  There wasn’t much room to park near Alex’s house, but she finally squeezed her transport between two far more expensive vehicles. Obviously people shopping in the exclusive mall nearby were using this street at their parking lot.

  Someone lacking in imagination had designed the street, she thought as she strolled down it. It was probably meant to look like the perfect suburban idyll to overworked city dwellers, but the relentless lack of interesting details made it seem like a nightmare setting to Julia. Who bought houses like these? And what had made Alex want to live in this sort of environment?

  The police officer on guard duty outside of the house where Cassie had died looked about twelve. He was clearly sweating in his heavy uniform, and he tried to wave her off when she approached the house.

  “I’m meeting Blake Bowman here at nine,” she told him, smiling to herself as he flushed at his boss’s name.

  She was a few minutes early, so she walked slowly up the short driveway of the house. A transport was parked on the drive and a quick check on her wrist-con showed that was registered to Alex. She skirted the transport and wandered slowly toward the front door, which was covered with an electronic police seal. All of the windows were covered with privacy screens. While Julia tried, she could see nothing inside the house. The sound of an approaching transport sent her back down the drive to the street.

  Blake frowned as he stepped out of a battered, city-issued police transport vehicle. “You didn’t touch anything, did you?” he demanded in lieu of a hello.

  “Just peeking,” Julia grinned at him, watching the storm clouds in his eyes, remembering the many moods she had seen within them.

  “Really.” He shot her a look that said “stay,” and then turned and walked up to the young officer who was a few feet away. They talked for several minutes. Julia assumed that the younger man was giving a report on his guard duty through the night. Finally, Blake turned back to Julia.

  “Right, there’s no need to go inside, so let’s start on the neighbors.”

  Julia nodded. She’d seen enough of the house’s interior on the videos to not mind, even though she was curious about Alex’s former home.

  “What have you heard from your boyfriend, then?” Blake challenged.

  “If you mean Alex, I haven’t heard from him at all.” Julia kept her reply deadpan.

  “No late night calls on an untraceable device? No secret messages in your breakfast cereal?” Blake was probably trying to tease but his tone sounded harsh.

  Julia laughed, determined not to let Blake annoy her. “Not a single sound from him at all. Maybe he is avoiding me because he thinks I’m a cop.”

  Blake tipped his head. “No way,” he announced. To Julia’s frustration he didn’t elaborate further on that particular pronouncement.

  “If you don’t hear from him by the time we finish today, I’d like you to initiate contact,” Blake told her. Julia nodded. She’d been thinking the same thing.

  Blake pulled out his police-issued M-ped, which was several years old and at least as battered as his transport, and consulted it.

  “The neighbors on the right are John and Jane Lincoln. They seem a nice young couple. They bought the house a few years ago, just after they got married, with help from his parents. She is six months pregnant with their first child, carrying it herself. Harris, who did the interview, caught me before I left this morning. She thinks they’re hiding something. It is just a feeling she got from them, nothing specific. That makes them top of my list for today. Harris is very good, very intuitive.”

  Julia nodded, well-trained officers could
pick up very subtle clues in a well-conducted interview. Harris hadn’t included her feelings in the written report, but she had done the right thing by alerting her boss to them. Blake strode across the small front lawn between the houses and rang the bell. Julia followed more slowly, taking time to study the house as she went.

  The Knight house was showing its age and possibly a bit of neglect. The Lincoln’s home, on the other hand, looked as if it had been painted and polished quite recently. There was no transport on the drive. Instead, the drive had been filled with rows of plants in pots and tubs. While there was nothing in them yet but tiny green sprouting leaves, the pots were all carefully labeled. Julia smiled as she saw that they were trying to grow tomatoes, potatoes and a variety of herbs. The tiny front lawn was clipped short and carefully maintained. The front door looked to be fairly new as well, with a state of the art security and entry system. A small plaque hung on the door that read “The Lincoln Family”. Clearly they felt the need to mark their territory.

  The door was opened slowly after several minutes, and Blake frowned at the man on the other side of the door who was still in his nightclothes.

  “Sorry,” Blake told him, “but I have a couple more questions for you about the murder next door.”

  The man nodded slowly and then sighed and opened the door to admit Blake and Julia. Julia studied him as he shut the door and reset the security system.

  “We don’t usually bother with the system when we’re in the house, but what happened next door has made us a bit nervous,” he explained as he punched in the necessary codes.

  He was shorter than Julia, with thinning hair and dull gray eyes. Blake had called them a “nice young couple” but Julia put the man close to forty, assuming he hadn’t had any enhancements. He seemed to stoop a bit when he walked, making him even shorter than nature had intended.

  “Come on through to the living room and I’ll go and see if Jane is up.”