Jan was pulling out of the parking lot when she checked her rearview mirror. The entire car was engulfed in fire. Another job done well. She was humming to herself as she drove home.
Once she was inside, she fixed herself a rum and Coke and reclined in her favorite chair. She lit another cigarette and called her boss. She tried to sound nonchalant when she told her about the fire, but on the inside she was jumping up and down. God, I love my job.
The sound of sirens immediately brought Toni out of her contented sleep. They were getting closer. She slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Boggs, and looked out the bedroom window. A fire truck was pulling into the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” Boggs was sitting up, rubbing her eyes.
“Fire truck just pulled into the lot.”
Boggs was fully awake now, looking on the floor, apparently for her clothes.
“They’re downstairs,” Toni said, grinning as she pulled on her own. By the time she got downstairs, Boggs was tying her shoes. Toni grabbed her cell phone and keys and Boggs picked up her fanny pack, which held her gun. They both went out the door.
The firemen were dousing the flames when they got to the lot. It took Toni about a minute to realize it was her car.
“Holy, shit! That’s my car.” She began to run, but Boggs grabbed her arm.
“I don’t think there’s much you can do now,” Boggs said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
Toni stood there, silently staring at her beloved car. When the fire was completely out, she approached one of the firemen. “Thank you,” she said, saddened.
He smiled at her. “Your car?”
She nodded.
“I’m really sorry. You got an enemy or something?”
“What?” Toni didn’t understand.
“Your car,” he explained. “It was torched.”
Toni was stunned for a moment. Of course it was torched, she told herself. Cars don’t just burst into flames on their own accord. But why would someone want to hurt her? Set her car on fire? What would cause someone to do that? She racked her brain, trying to think of anyone she’d prosecuted who would be able to do that. Most of the serious criminals were still in prison, but maybe family members? It didn’t make sense.
“Are you okay?” Boggs put her arm around her. “You said something didn’t feel right earlier tonight. I guess you were right.”
“But who’d do this?” Toni felt hurt. Not by just the loss of her car, but that someone would act out against her. “I guess I’m just too naïve.” She was shaking her head.
“There’s a cop,” Boggs said, pointing across the parking lot.
They went over and gave the officer Toni’s information. After finding out that she was an assistant prosecuting attorney, he called for the crime scene unit. Toni couldn’t think of anyone in particular who would have done this, but she told the officer she’d look at her old cases. They sat on the curb and waited.
“I’m so sorry, babe.” Boggs put her arm around Toni. “Did you have anything inside?”
Toni shook her head. “Not really. Maybe a couple CDs and a map.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “And eighty cents.”
Boggs kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll be okay. I guess you’re getting a new car. Any idea of what kind you want?”
“Oh, gosh, sweetie. I have no idea. I just want to know who did this.”
“Maybe it was random and had nothing to do with you.”
“No. I don’t think so. Just a feeling, but I think it was definitely for me.” Toni scooted closer to Boggs, wondering how long it would take her insurance company to pay.
“I believe you.” She held her closer. “We’ll figure it out, promise.”
As they sat on the curb, Toni felt the dread return. This wasn’t the end, she just knew it wasn’t. Even though Boggs had her arm around her, she didn’t feel safe. And that scared her. She shivered, but not from the cool June breeze.
Chapter 15
Toni and Boggs arrived at work early on Monday morning. Even though they were together most nights, they usually drove separately. This morning Boggs drove them both. Once inside Metro, they went to their own offices. Toni had been at her desk for only fifteen minutes when Anne Mulhoney appeared.
“Are you okay?” she asked from the doorway.
Toni smiled and nodded. She respected her boss greatly and knew how busy she was. Toni was touched that she’d taken the time to stop by. “I’m fine, Anne. Thank you.”
“I asked Vicky to look into your cases. She’ll see if any are out of jail and check things out.”
“Do you think that’s necessary?”
“Absolutely,” Anne said quickly. “I don’t like the idea that some dirtbag thinks he can mess with one of my people. Don’t worry about this. We’ll find the guy.” She smiled and left.
Toni felt a little better. She put in a call to her insurance agent and began working on her cases. By eleven o’clock she was so absorbed in work that she’d almost forgotten the ordeal from last night. The sound of the intercom startled her.
“Good morning, Ms. Barston. Ms. Boggsworth on line two for you,” Chloe said. She was the receptionist at Metro and insisted on calling everyone either Mr. or Ms.
“Thank you, Chloe.” Toni punched line two. “Hey, Boggs.”
“Hi, babe. I was thinking, do you want to stop by a car dealer on the way home tonight?”
“I don’t know. I won’t get my check from the insurance agency for at least a couple weeks.”
“But we can at least look and see what’s out there,” Boggs offered. “Do you have an idea of what you’d like to get?”
“I loved my Neon, but they don’t make those anymore.” Toni thought for a moment. “I kinda like the new VW Bugs. I for sure want something that has good gas mileage and is dependable.”
“There’s a dealer near my place,” Boggs said. “Why don’t we stop by there and at least take a look. Then we can stop at my place for some clothes and then go to your place?”
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look.” Toni was already pulling up the site on her computer. “Okay.”
“I’ll meet you at your office at five,” Boggs said. “I’ve got to be out of the office for a while this afternoon. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Toni was smiling as she hung up. Even though she still had that odd feeling, she considered herself the luckiest woman in the world. After looking at the new Bugs for a few minutes, she went back to work.
“You can’t just buy a car. I mean, you can, but are you nuts?” Toni was standing outside the Volkswagen dealership talking to Boggs.
“But you need a car, babe. And I checked around on the Internet and this is a good deal. I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t. I’m pretty tight with money.”
“Well, you could have fooled me.” Toni was shaking her head. “Why don’t we wait until I get the check.”
“Because you need a car now,” Boggs said matter-of-factly. “And you can replace the money in a couple weeks. Anyway, it’s a great car and it’s your favorite color, blue. And it’s a five-speed.” Boggs grinned. “You like it, don’t you?”
“Of course. I love it.” Toni was shaking her head. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
“I know I’m crazy. What’s your point? Come on, let’s do it.”
Toni hugged her so tight that Boggs let out a yelp. “Okay, but I’m paying you back as soon as I get my money.”
Boggs shrugged. “Sure. You can pay us back.” She grabbed Toni’s hand and led her back into the showroom.
Thirty minutes later Boggs handed the salesman a check and he handed her the keys. They were standing next to Toni’s new car in the dealer’s lot when Toni’s cell phone rang. She looked at the display. “It’s Vicky.”
After a few minutes of conversation, Toni hung up. She felt apprehensive.
“What’s going on?” Boggs studied her.
“Vicky wants to have a powwow tonight. She said she’s got some informa
tion, but she didn’t want to get into it on the phone. They’ll be over at my place in a half-hour.”
“Why don’t we meet at my house with all that’s been going on?”
“I don’t want to leave Mr. Rupert alone.” Thinking of him right then, alone without protection, made her stomach lurch.
Boggs nodded, a serious look on her face. “You’re right.” She hugged Toni. “Okay. Well, if Vicky thinks it’s important, it probably is.” She looked at her watch. “You go ahead and go home. I’ll swing by my place and feed the fish and get some clothes. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
“Okay.” She kissed Boggs and got in her car. As she drove home, she wasn’t thinking about her brand-new car. The only feeling she had was one of dread. The last time Vicky called a powwow, it was because there was a crazy woman stalking her and she was in danger. And now someone had torched her car. This didn’t look good and it certainly didn’t feel good.
When she got to her parking lot she saw the scorched spot that had been assigned to her. Instead of pulling in, she parked in the visitor’s section.
Toni entered her townhouse and quickly shut the door, putting on the chain. She reached down to pet Mr. Rupert and noticed her hands were shaking. This was ridiculous, she told herself. There was nothing to worry about. I’m safe.
She fed Mr. Rupert and started up the stairs to change. Fear gripped her. There’s no one here. She held the railing tightly. She couldn’t hear anything, but still she didn’t move. Mr. Rupert appeared at her feet and she felt a little better.
“Come on, boy. Let’s go upstairs,” she said loudly, as though that would make her safe. She peeked into the bathroom. No one there. She tiptoed into her bedroom. Empty. Finally she pushed open the door to her walk-in closet. She let out a loud sigh.
“We’re okay,” she told him.
He nosed around the closet a few moments and, seemingly satisfied, hopped up on the bed and began to bathe.
Toni took that as a sign that everything was okay. She quickly hung up her blazer and dropped her slacks and blouse into the dry-cleaning pile. She pulled on a pair of olive cargo shorts and a white T-shirt. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered with shoes, but she slipped on her favorite red tennis shoes and went back downstairs. She called Mr. Rupert to follow her, almost afraid to be alone in her own place.
She opened a beer and looked at her watch. It would be at least fifteen minutes before anyone arrived. She paced around the living room. She noticed her briefcase by the door and retrieved her wallet, keys and cell phone, putting them in her pockets. She never carried a purse. Now she was ready. For what? To run away? She didn’t know, but she didn’t want to be caught off-guard. She didn’t know what to do, so she went back upstairs to check her e-mail.
Fifteen minutes later the sound of the doorbell made her jump. She ran downstairs and looked out the peephole. It was Boggs. She fumbled with the chain and yanked the door open, grabbing Boggs by the arm and pulling her inside. Boggs looked alarmed.
“Are you okay?” She scanned the room, looking for anything out of place.
Toni hugged her. “I just scared myself, I guess.” She felt embarrassed.
Boggs put her bag on the floor and held Toni for a minute. “It’ll be okay, babe. Honest.”
Boggs had changed into jean shorts, a T-shirt and Tevas. She was wearing a white lightweight sweatshirt jacket. When she took off her jacket, Toni saw she was wearing her shoulder holster and breathed a sigh of relief.
Boggs gauged her reaction and grinned. “Armed and ready, babe.” She went into the kitchen and got a beer, petting Mr. Rupert on the way.
Within ten minutes, everyone else arrived. Vicky, Patty and Johnnie were sitting on one side of the couch. Each had a beer, and Vicky and Patty had notebooks in hand. Toni and Boggs were on the other side of the sectional couch along with Mr. Rupert.
Toni pulled her legs up on the couch and wrapped her arms around them. She was still scared, but she wasn’t sure why. Her closest friends were right here. Vicky was wearing shorts with a polo shirt untucked. Toni could see the bulge on her side and knew it was her service weapon in a pancake holster. Patty was also wearing shorts, but she had a fanny pack around her waist. Toni assumed her gun was inside. And Johnnie, of course, was wearing jeans with a pressed white Oxford shirt. The sleeves were rolled up partway. When she crossed her legs, Toni noticed her ankle holster. Seeing everyone armed made her feel a little safer.
“I guess you’re all wondering why I called this meeting,” Vicky said seriously.
Everyone laughed and Boggs threw a pillow at her.
“Seriously, though,” Vicky continued, “we need to talk this out. First, we know that someone torched Toni’s car. I’ve got the case, by the way.” She looked at Toni, who smiled. “The crime scene guys didn’t find anything useful. All we know is that it was soaked with gasoline. There wasn’t a bomb or anything, so the guy probably lit a match or something. That tells us he was here at the time, then we assume he drove away. The guys canvassed the units around the parking lot and came up with nothing.”
“So we’re still at square one,” Johnnie said.
“On this, yes.” Vicky opened her notebook. “As you know, I’ve been looking into Kevin Tucker’s past—”
“Hang on,” Johnnie interrupted. “Fill me in here.”
“Sorry. Tucker is the victim in Toni’s murder case.”
Toni gave Johnnie all the pertinent information and Vicky continued.
“We know now that Tucker was a dealer, mostly in the gay bars and strip clubs. We got some e-mails from Jim’s computer. He’s the son of the guy who killed Tucker. Apparently Jim and Tucker got involved romantically and Tucker convinced him to try ecstasy. Then there was talk of a new designer drug. That’s what killed Jim.”
“Did you get that from the tox reports?” Toni was curious.
“Yes, those came back today,” Vicky explained. “So, I’m thinking we can maybe find the bigwig in this organization if we dig deeper into Tucker. I called Mike Johnson because he’s got the case and I told him what I was thinking. He pretty much shut me down.”
“That’s where I come in,” Patty said. “I’ve been assigned to Mike and we did the search of Tucker’s apartment today. It was gross, by the way.”
Vicky laughed. “That’s why you make the big bucks now.”
Patty rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Mike just stood there in the living room for a couple minutes. Then he said this was a waste of time. I figured it was some kind of test for me, so I put on some gloves and started nosing around. He just stood and watched me. When I found Tucker’s computer I started to unplug it. He kinda freaked a little. Again I thought this was some kind of test, so I explained that we had to unplug it and take in the hard drive so the forensic people could look and see if there was anything there. He just nodded. That was the end of the search.”
Vicky was anxious to continue. “Patty told me this early this afternoon and at first I thought maybe Mike was just getting lazy. You know, close to retirement or something. So I told Patty to ask Mike to look at whatever they found on Tucker’s body.”
“This was so cool,” Patty interjected. “I acted like an excited ‘new’ detective, wanting to cover all the bases. He seemed pissed that I asked but showed me the stuff. The only things in the box were a wallet, car keys and a necklace. So I asked him about a cell phone, saying that almost everyone had one. He shrugged, so I looked at the inventory sheet and it had a cell phone listed. When I pointed this out he said it must have gotten lost. Then I asked if we should search his car since there were car keys there. Again he shrugged. Then his cell rang and he left. I put the box back and called Vicky.”
“I knew there was a cell phone and I’d already gotten the phone records.” Vicky took a sip of her beer.
The doorbell rang and Toni jumped. “Who is that?” After she said it she realized how stupid it was and felt her face burn with embarrassment.
“Oh,” Vic
ky said. “I ordered pizza for us.” She went to the door, paid the delivery guy and put the pizzas on the coffee table.
Toni got paper plates and napkins from the kitchen and Boggs brought out fresh beer for everyone.
While they ate, Vicky continued. “There were a lot of numbers, but one came up pretty regularly.” She popped a piece of pepperoni in her mouth. Vicky always ate all the pepperoni first, then the rest of the pizza. “It’s registered to an old lady in Arkansas who, by the way, is dead.”
“Maybe it’s his grandmother,” Boggs suggested as she grabbed another slice of mushroom pizza.
“Then he’s been calling really long distance for the last few years. She’s been dead that long.” Vicky laughed and took a drink of her beer. “Anyway, he doesn’t have—or didn’t have, I should say—any grandparents. They died before he was born. So, I’m thinking this person could be the boss, or at least someone higher up in the organization. I went to get a search warrant for Dead Granny’s phone, and get this, Judge Crayton turned me down.”
“On what basis?” Toni was confused. This certainly seemed enough to get a warrant.
“She said not enough probable cause and that was that.”
“That makes no sense,” Toni said, frowning. “The woman is dead and obviously she hasn’t been making or receiving calls. Why wouldn’t the judge issue a warrant?” She thought for a moment. “Unless she has a reason not to.”
“Exactly what I thought,” Vicky said. “So I went to Anne Mulhoney.”
“Oh, my God,” Toni exclaimed. “Do you think this is connected to Judge Smith and Butch?”
“Wait a sec,” Johnnie said. “Let me see if I’ve got this right. You guys thought that the judge and that defense lawyer were being bribed a while back, right?”
Toni nodded.
“And Anne Mulhoney had you looking into that, off the record?”
Vicky nodded. “But I haven’t gotten anywhere. I didn’t have enough to get their phone records or anything. But Anne sensed for a long time that they were up to no good, so I’ve been digging for something solid. After I told Anne about Judge Crayton, she rewrote my affidavit for the warrant and went with me to Judge Baker. She signed immediately.”
Compulsion Page 8
