A Neighbor's Lie

by Blake Pierce

  Maybe that would be all the time she needed, though.

  Moulton answered on the second ring. “Find anything worth mentioning?” he asked.

  “Yes. Did you go out for drinks?”

  “Yes indeed.”

  “How many have you had?”

  “I’m on my second.”

  “I need you to stop and meet me at the coroner’s office.”

  “You get a break?” he asked.

  “I don’t know for sure.” She filled him in on finding the receipt and making the somewhat educated leap that connected it to the conversation Kim Wielding had shared with Collin and Andrew Dorsett.

  “Sounds like a safe bet to me,” Moulton said. “I can be there in twenty minutes.”

  Chloe felt a stirring of excitement as those twenty minutes passed. She finally felt as if the case was getting somewhere, that she was finally getting a break. It also baffled her that something as basic as an old Walgreens receipt was all it had taken to get her feeling hopeful about the case again.

  But even with this revelation, the fact remained that there was a very good chance that she had hindered the case herself by assuming things about Kim Wielding’s personality. Now, realizing that Kim might very well have had more than one skeleton in her closet, Chloe felt they were almost starting over from scratch. She felt that if Kim had in fact been pregnant when she had been killed, they could not assume it was just from some well-to-do (yet cheating) man living in the Carvers’ neighborhood. They had to assume she was just as likely to sleep with someone like Mike Dillinger as she was someone like Bill Carver.

  She was thinking of Mike Dillinger and how a seemingly respectable woman like Kim Wielding might end up involved with him when she pulled into a parking spot in front of the coroner’s office. She saw that Moulton had already arrived, locking up his car three spaces over. Chloe joined him and was taken aback at how happy she was to see him. She tried to convince herself he was just someone who could be present while she used this lead to crack the case, but she knew the truth. Try as she might, she just could not ignore how she really felt about him.

  “You think this might be it?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she said. But it felt like movement. It felt like a catapult, actually. But she did not want to admit it.

  “If it is, I’m making you come out for a drink.”

  “Sounds good. It’s a date.”

  The smile he gave her pinged at her heart in a way that made her uneasy. It was almost enough to take away from the ball of excitement for the case that continued to roll downhill, gathering into a huge snowball that, she feared, might eventually engulf her.

  ***

  Being that it was getting on past seven in the afternoon, it took a while for Chloe and Moulton to get a moment with the pathologist who had performed the autopsy on Kim Wielding. She was a tired-looking woman, rather mousy and irritated. After Chloe filled her in on the reason for their visit, the pathologist—Dr. Nancy Moreno, according to the receptionist who had gone back to find her—sighed deeply and looked at both Chloe and Moulton as if they were stupid. She stood several feet from them as they sat in chairs in the lobby. From her posture alone, Chloe was quite sure that Moreno would not be inviting them back to where she worked.

  “The autopsy was quite brief and to the point,” Moreno said. “They usually are when they cause of death is so obvious. If a man gets brought in with a gunshot wound to the face, we don’t spend too much time, for instance, looking into his bowel health at the time of his death.”

  “Yes, but we’re not looking for something else that might have led to her death,” Chloe said. “We need to see if she was pregnant at the time of her death. Is that possible at this stage?”

  “It is.”

  “Is that not something that is regularly checked in the autopsies of women who are at optimal child-bearing age?” Moulton asked.

  “No,” Moreno said. “Not unless there is a reason to do so—perhaps if bloodwork showed signs of symptoms related to pregnancies.”

  “How soon can you check into this for us?” Chloe asked.

  Again, Moreno looked irritated. “You say it could help crack a homicide case?”

  “It could lead towards that, yes,” Chloe said.

  “Give me two hours. And please know that if she was pregnant but conception was less than three weeks ago, it may not be instantly traceable.”

  “Given that she was suspicious enough to go out and buy a pregnancy test, I’d say it was well beyond three weeks,” Chloe said.

  Moreno only nodded, still not inviting them beyond the lobby. “I’ll let you know as soon as I have the results.”

  With that, Moreno turned and headed back the way she had come, through a set of double doors at the back of the lobby. Chloe and Moulton exchanged a sour look as the doors closed shut behind her.

  “You ever dealt with a pathologist before?” Moulton asked.

  “No. I hope they don’t all have this disposition.”

  “So…I really wish I hadn’t started drinking. Having to wait for two hours, it makes me want to go ahead and finish it off—to at least get a good buzz going.”

  “Maybe instead we come up with a list of potential fathers,” she said with a teasing smile. “My bet is on Bill Carver.”

  “Not Mike Dillinger?”

  “Probably not. Remember, I found that cocaine in her car. I don’t think she’d mix business with pleasure. Of course…who knows? I made the mistake of assuming she was too high-scale to get mixed up with people like Dillinger.”

  “Well, the good news is that if it is Dillinger, he’s in prison now and we have easy access.”

  “And if she is pregnant, it may not necessarily mean much of anything,” Chloe said, though she hoped it wasn’t true. “If she lived the promiscuous lifestyle that it’s starting to seem she did, there are far too many X factors…”

  This seemed to be the comment that set them both to delving into their own thoughts. Chloe hated to just sit there waiting for Moreno to come back with results but she also knew there was nothing else to do. Not until they had a definitive answer from Moreno.

  Her thoughts wandered slowly from the Kim Wielding case to the file she had taken from Records earlier in the day. She tried to envision the naive little girl she had been when those reports had been filed away—when her father had been sentenced a lengthy prison stint that, it turns out, he was not solely responsible for. Her father’s arrest had been what had set her dreams of one day working with law enforcement in motion but now it seemed like such a strange and jilted dream that she had nearly distanced herself from it.

  “I doubt she told it all. If she chose to do so, she could tell her complete side of things and free me completely.”

  That comment about Ruthanne Carwile swam through her head, one of the things her father had said to her when she had visited him a few days ago. It made her wonder—much like Kim Wielding’s case—what other branches of her father’s story had not yet been revealed. What other skeletons did he have shoved deep into his closet?

  “Fine?”

  She snapped out of it when she heard her name. It was Moulton, still sitting beside her. “Yeah?” she asked.

  “You looked zoned out there for a minute. You okay?”

  “Yeah. My mind was just wandering. This case has me thinking of something else. Another case…”

  “Was it the one about your father?” he asked.

  Her look of shock was apparently not hidden very well. Moulton cringed a bit and shook his head. “Sorry. But…well, I heard about how you helped to bust a woman a few months back—a woman that ended up being part of your father’s case.”

  “You know about my father’s case?”

  “Just the basics,” he said sheepishly. “Just the few things I’ve heard. Mostly about how you kept digging and managed to uncover the fact that the crimes your father was convicted of were not committed alone. It’s pretty impressive, if you ask me.”


  The words but I didn’t ask were on her lips but she swallowed them down. He was trying to pay her a compliment. The last thing he deserved was a shitty attitude from her just because she could not let go of her father’s past.

  “It was necessary for me to move on, I think,” she said, surprised at her own truthfulness. “But I still can’t completely move on.”

  “Yeah…family drama can be like that. I don’t have it to those extremes, but I’ve had my fair share.”

  Before she could say anything else, the double doors swung open at the end of the lobby. Sure that there was no way two hours had passed, Chloe checked her watch. It had only been an hour and fifteen minutes since they had arrived and spoken to Moreno. She was either in a hurry to get rid of them or the results had been more apparent than she had suspected.

  “You were right,” Moreno said. “She was pregnant. About eight to ten weeks from the looks of it.”

  “Can you get a blood sample from the embryo for DNA testing?” Chloe asked.

  “I already took a sample. We should have the result in about twelve hours. But…I assume you know that a DNA test won’t do much good unless you have a DNA sample from the father to compare it to.”

  “Yes, I know,” Chloe said. Still, she was sure that any refusal to take such a test—particularly on Bill Carver’s part—would basically indicate his guilt. Or Mike Dillinger, for that matter.

  “Thanks for your understanding and promptness in getting this done,” Moulton said.

  She nodded and replied, “I hope it helps.”

  Chloe and Moulton made their way to the exit, the parking lot having gone dark outside since they’d entered.

  “Do you think it will make any difference?” Moulton asked her.

  “I do. If the father knew she was pregnant, and he was very much afraid of this fact…that might give us motive. Especially in a neighborhood where people will do just about anything to keep a secret from being brought to light.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Director Johnson had gone home for the day, so it was Assistant Director Garcia who fielded Chloe’s call. He sounded friendly enough when he answered the phone, a trait about the assistant director that Chloe was quickly getting used to. However, when she filled him in on their discoveries over the past few hours, he did not seem quite as pleased.

  “Fine…you can’t just go around ordering DNA tests without someone’s approval. Namely mine or Director Johnson’s. More than that…Jesus…Agent Fine, can you just come in first thing in the morning? We’ll meet in Director Johnson’s office. Bring Agent Moulton with you as well.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” she said. She was on the phone, still sitting in the coroner’s parking lot with Moulton in her passenger seat. “If I crossed some sort of a line…”

  “Just show up tomorrow morning. Director Johnson’s office. Eight o’clock.”

  Garcia ended the call there, leaving Chloe to stare at her phone. She looked away from it and then to Moulton, a look of worry and disbelief on her face.

  “What line did you cross?” Moulton asked.

  “That’s just it. I don’t even know. The DNA test, I think. Or maybe coming to the coroner without getting permission first?”

  “That doesn’t seem right.”

  “Well, whatever it is, Garcia is asking that you also show up to an eight ‘o clock meeting with me in Director Johnson’s office tomorrow morning.”

  “Dragging me down with you, I see. Damn, Fine. You’ll be the end of me.”

  He was doing his best to soften the situation but she could see his nerves showing in the thing smile he flashed her. And even in the shadow of that joke, Chloe wondered just how close to the truth he was.

  Had she somehow managed to put not only her own career in jeopardy, but Agent Moulton’s as well?

  ***

  When she woke up at six the following morning, Chloe checked her email right away. Through half-blurry eyes, she saw that she had an email from the coroner’s office, straight from Nancy Moreno. The mail was brief and to the point: DNA sample taken from Wielding embryo. Results ready when there are parental samples available for comparison.

  Given Garcia’s reaction on the phone last night, Chloe wasn’t sure if this would even be worth getting excited about—much less worth mentioning.

  She went through her typical morning rush, surprised with how calm she felt. She figured the meeting would go one of two ways: she was going to get heavily scolded, or she was going to be released. She honestly didn’t think she would be released. In the back of her mind, she knew that she was only working in ViCAP because Director Johnson had seen something in her that made him want to move her from her original goal of the Evidence Response Team. She figured the worst he might do was to admit his mistake and move her back to the ERT.

  Of course, it did no good to speculate. That was something she was starting to learn with each new twist and turn of her career. So she remained as calm as possible as she drove to headquarters, wondering how different her life might be—and Moulton’s as well—within the next hour or so.

  When she arrived at Johnson’s office, his door was open. She wasn’t sure why, but Chloe thought this might be a good sign. Apparently, he had not spent the morning with it closed, brooding and angry behind it. When she entered, she found Garcia and Johnson sitting on opposite sides of the small conference table in the back of the office. There were a few sheets of paper in a thin stack sitting in front of Johnson.

  “Thanks for coming, Agent Fine,” Johnson said. She could not tell from his tone or expression what kind of mood he was in.

  As she took a seat at the table, Moulton came in behind her. He looked a little tense as he took the seat next to her.

  “I’ll make this as brief as possible,” Johnson said. “Agent Fine, I understand that you moved on the Kim Wielding case last night, paying a visit to the coroner’s office. Can you please explain the logic and thought behind this?”

  “Yes, sir. One of the very few leads we were able to establish was that one witness had been in conversation with Ms. Wielding recently and she had divulged that she was having to use the restroom very frequently. This led us to think that she may have had a urinary tract infection. And since those are often spread through sex, we thought it might be worth looking into any sexual partners other than the ones we already knew about—Bill Carver and Mike Dillinger. So I placed an information request yesterday for any doctor’s appointments Kim Wielding might have made in the weeks before her death, thinking maybe she would have mentioned the sex partner to the doctor.

  “When I found Kim Wielding’s car, I searched it and discovered a receipt from a drugstore, showing that Kim had purchased a pregnancy test before her death. That led me to the obvious conclusion that she could have very well been pregnant when she died. And if she was, that could potentially be used as motive if the father knew and did not want the secret out.”

  Johnson and Garcia shared a look that Chloe could not quite decipher. After a few seconds, Garcia spoke. “The pathologist reached out last night…not to turn you in, but just to give us a heads-up. Fine…for anything related to additional exams on a body that has already been turned over to the coroner, you need Director Johnson or myself to sign off on that. You can’t just go in to whatever lead you think might be worth pursuing with guns blazing. Dr. Moreno should have known not to go through with the exam. We told her that much when she called.”

  “I’m confused,” Moulton said. “If she didn’t know that we needed your sign-off on it, why did she call at all?”

  “She realized her mistake. And by the time she realized that Wielding had indeed been pregnant, she admitted that her anger got the best of her and she went ahead and ran all of the necessary tests.”

  “There’s also the fact that even though we know she was pregnant,” Johnson said, “there is no way to discern who the father is. Not unless any suspects submit to a blood test.”

  “Yes
, sir. But I was thinking any man’s adamant refusal at such a test might indicate guilt.”

  “That’s a pretty sweeping assumption,” Johnson said. “Tell me…now that you know she was pregnant, what is your next course of action?”

  “I’d like to speak with Sandra Carver,” she said, the idea coming to her out of the blue. “I can’t help but wonder if she might have some thoughts on her former nanny now that she knows that her husband was occasionally sleeping with her. It only makes sense that a woman working as a nanny that would sleep with the father of the kids she was caring for, as well as a man with the habits of Mike Dillinger, was likely involved in some other secrets.”

  “That’s a suitable place to start,” Garcia said.

  Johnson nodded in agreement and then looked at Moulton. “Agent Moulton, are you in agreement with this approach?”

  “Yes, sir. There really haven’t been many leads. We can’t exactly be picky.”

  Johnson again nodded. “Agent Moulton, you’re excused. Please wait outside for a moment.”

  Looking confused, Agent Moulton got to his feet and left Johnson’s office. He closed the door behind him; it was the first time Chloe had felt at all uneasy or scared about the meeting.

  “Agent Fine,” Johnson said, “it appears that there are quite a few areas of protocol that you are apparently forgetting about.”

  “I’m sorry about the coroner,” she said. “I will not let—”

  “I’m beyond that. It was a necessary step that needed to be taken and I am willing to look past that so long as you follow protocol from now on. No, now I am talking about you taking files out of the archives and treating them as your own.”

  A shot of heat spiked through Chloe’s body. I forgot to put the file back, she thought, mortified. That was what the itching feeling of forgetfulness was all about yesterday.

  “Oh my God,” she said, meaning every bit of the dramatic flair that went into her voice. “I forgot. I have it with me right now, in my computer bag. I didn’t mean—”