by Sara York
“Those bruises on her shoulder, could they be from forced oral sex?” Tony asked.
“Could be, that would explain the need for him to floss her teeth. As for the bleach, it doesn’t get rid of DNA trace evidence, but when you’re as good as this guy you don’t leave much behind.”
“Bleach? That’s strange.” Rex turned away from Tony as he paced around the room.
“Rex, what’s up?” Tony asked.
“It’s nothing.”
Rex was lying. Tony wanted to drag the truth out of him and find out what he was holding back.
“Sekorski, how did someone get in here? We went through security, why not our thief?”
“Smoking.”
“Excuse me?” Tony asked, unsure he had heard Sekorski correctly.
“Some of the employees go out the back door for a smoke. They prop it open. Who’s going to be messing around at the back of the city morgue? So after lunch, when I found that a packet was missing, I went to check. Sure enough the door had been propped open.”
“Any cameras?” Rex questioned.
“No, not back there. Look guys, I’m not sure about this, but who would know I had evidence out today? Why today?”
“Who’d you tell?” Tony asked.
“No one. But someone knew. They have to be familiar with crime documentation and proceedings. Someone who knows our timeline... Damn it, I can’t think that. I can’t go down that path.”
“Sekorski, are you trying to say it was a cop?” Tony asked, his mind clicking through the evidence and information gathered so far. Jackson said it was probably a person in authority. If it were a cop, then even Tony would be suspect. He glanced over to Rex, surprised to find him studying the ground beneath his shoes. A chill tunneled up Tony’s spine, rolling through his stomach. Queasiness settled over him and threatened to spill out at any moment.
“Rex, you have something to say?”
“What?” Rex looked up, seeming momentarily caught off guard.
“You’re hiding something.”
“I don’t--I can’t--It’s nothing to do with this case.”
“Then prove it. Tell me what you’re hiding.” Tony slammed his fist down on the countertop, Sekorski’s instruments jumped, clattering across the stainless steel surface. “Talk, Hague. Now!”
“It’s not anything to do with this case. I didn’t take the evidence,” Rex shot back. His face was red, and worry lines wrinkled his forehead. “Damn it, Tony, you weren’t supposed to press me on this. I thought I could hide it from you. I told her you wouldn’t find out.”
Tony gulped down air as fear raced through him. Had Rex hooked up with Marissa? Sweat beads formed on Tony’s brow. “You had better start talking now,” Tony spat the words out, anger tingeing every syllable with a harshness that surprised him.
“Janice and I are having a thing.”
“Janice?”
“Yeah, Janice.” Rex ducked his head, breaking eye contact.
“Why would I care if you and Janice were together?”
“Rules and regs. You’re all about following the regs. Janice is in my department. We slept together. That means one of us is out.”
“Dang, Rex, you had me worried.”
“I had you worried? That’s all I’ve been doing since we hooked up.”
Tony bit his tongue, he wouldn’t tell Rex what he suspected about Marissa being involved. He didn’t want his lack of trust to ever get back to her. Tony breathed a sigh of relief. A thing with Janice could be fixed. Murder and stealing evidence couldn’t. An affair between Marissa and Rex...that would be more than he could handle.
“Sekorski, could you sit on the information you just heard about Janice and Rex?”
“For a while, but I don’t want it to get out that I knew. Do you think that Rex sleeping with Officer Owens would harm this case?”
“No,” Tony answered.
“Neither do I, but don’t expect me to keep quiet if I’m put in a position where I’m asked point blank.”
“Thanks, Sekorski. Do I need to send someone down to dust for prints?”
“No, I’ve already taken care it. Called in a tech, she found nothing. Everything came out clean. No prints at all. Someone wiped the surfaces. They didn’t leave anything behind.”
“Great, that’s not what I wanted to hear. The brown liquid, what was it?”
“The lab worked up a chemical composition for it and found that it was Coke. Nothing more,” Sekorski said.
“Interesting, any prints on the glass, any DNA residue?”
“No.”
“Rex, lets go, we’ve got a stop to make before our meeting at four.” Tony pushed through the doors to the hallway. His mind churned over Sekorski’s information. Why had someone taken an evidence bag? His gut churned with the knowledge that the killer could be inside the department. Rex’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“There’s something else,” Rex said as they left the building.
The bright sun temporarily blinded Tony. He paused to let his eyes adjust. The heat of the day swirled around them. He didn’t want to hear this. He didn’t like surprises.
“Let’s talk in the car,” Rex said.
“Fine.” Tony followed Rex to the parking lot across the sweltering grass lawn. Sweat poured down Tony’s face and dampened his armpits. The car was close to oven temperatures, not even the air conditioner on full blast cut the heat.
“When I was at Janice’s last night I saw ten gallons of bleach.”
“Ten?”
“Yeah, ten.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Tony replied. He didn’t want to think that Janice, tough broad that she was, could kill those women in cold blood. “She doesn’t fit the profile.”
“I know, but a lead not followed up on is an opportunity lost.”
“Janice, hmmm. The night of the second murder, where was she?”
“We were in a bar, talking.”
Tony raised his eyebrow to that. After hearing that Rex was having an affair with Janice, he doubted that Rex would waste his time in a bar talking.
“Really, after we left the station we went to a bar. We talked until about midnight.”
“You know I have to follow up on this.”
“I know.”
“And if you’re so worried about rules and regs, what were you doing in a bar talking to the woman you’re balling? Not just any woman, but someone in your department, anyone could have seen you.”
“We weren’t together then. And Tony, I’m not just balling her. There’s more to it.”
“What?” Tony didn’t hide his surprise. In all the years he’d known Rex, he had never said that any of his relationships actually meant something.
“I know, Janice, of all people. But there’s this strange connection.”
“So why tell me about the bleach?”
“I’m falling in love with her, and I don’t think I could be objective.”
“Love? Did the great woman conqueror say he was falling in love?”
“Sure, tease me about it now. Seriously, Tony, what are you going to do about the bleach?”
“I’m gonna ask her about it.”
“Oh God, she’ll know I told you.” Rex laid his head against the window and closed his eyes. Tony studied him for a moment. Could he trust Rex to do the right thing? Maybe he should force him and Janice to cool it during this investigation. Once this case was over, one of them could move to a different position. Who was he kidding? Their entire police department wasn’t big enough for them to work in separate areas if they both wanted to stay on the force.
“No, Rex, she won’t find out you told me. Trust me on this.”
Tony watched Rex through the side window as he maneuvered his way back to his own car. Rex and Janice together. The thought pleased Tony but disturbed him too. Rex deserved a great relationship, but sleeping with a co-worker was strictly against the department’s policy. If the chief found out, one of them would get fired,
and Tony didn’t want to lose either.
Their afternoon meeting was short. Both Tony and Rex had decided to delay telling the rest of the team about Sekorski’s missing evidence. If a member of the force was behind the killings, or even being blackmailed by the killer, letting them know would be bad.
Everyone was hot and smelly after working the streets, spending the day doing interviews and following up on leads. Janice said she was going home to shower. Tony followed in his car, staying far enough behind to not arouse her suspicion.
She pulled up to a small yellow house with flowers decorating the front beds. The house had charm. Tony wondered when Janice had time to tend to her yard. She was a hard-core police sergeant working her way up the ladder to detective with police work taking up most days.
He pulled past Janice’s house and parked a block over. The run through her neighbor’s back yard didn’t produce any cries of outrage or howling dogs. After tapping on her back door, the sound of Janice’s shoes laying out a clipped staccato beat on a hard floor echoed in the house. Through the thin door, Tony heard her unsheathe her gun before her fingers push back the curtain. He waved his index finger at her and smiled.
Janice pulled open the door and stared at him for a few beats before letting him into her house and slipping the gun back in its holster. Tony saw the bleach on the floor in her open pantry.
He took a chance that she wasn’t the killer and had nothing to do with the death of either woman. “Why so much bleach?”
“What?”
“The bleach?”
“My brother owns a fence and wood cleaning business. Bleach kills the mold.”
“Why is it at your house?”
“His apartment is small, just an efficiency,” Janice answered. Confusion worked its way onto her face, distorting her features. “Now it’s my turn to ask questions.”
“One more. Where was your brother the night of the first and second murder?”
“We had dinner at a bar on the night of the first one, and during the second one, he was with his wife. Why?”
“Had to ask.”
“Fair enough. Now it’s my turn. Why do you care how much bleach I have?”
“Sekorski said our suspect cleaned the women with bleach,” Tony explained. He hadn’t broken Rex’s confidence yet, but Janice was smart. He should have come up with a better story.
“Sick.”
“There’s a meeting at eight in the morning,” Tony said as he reached for the door. He hesitated, not wanting to return to the heat so soon. The strain of this investigation was getting to him. A swim at the pool was long overdue.
“So that’s all you wanted?”
“Yep.”
“Are you going to search Michael’s house for bleach next?”
“Yeah.”
“You think our guy is a cop?” Janice asked.
“I’m just looking, covering all the bases.” Tony shrugged. Janice had always been cool as ice, but he didn’t think she was cold enough to kill. He shouldn’t have come, but the changes he’d seen in Rex warranted a look.
“Anything else you need?”
“Nope.”
“Tony, I think we need to discuss something.”
“If it has something to do with your personal life, I think it best if we leave it. If it’s about the case then shoot.”
“It’s personal.”
“Can it wait until this case is over?”
“Yeah.”
“Then don’t ruffle any feathers while work is so stressful.”
Tony opened the door and walked out without another word. He wanted to tell her he approved of her relationship with Rex, but his silence on the issue would have to do for now. As the lead detective, it was his job to break up fraternization in the department. Regulations called for him to report their conduct to personnel, thus getting one of them fired. But Rex deserved a great relationship, and Janice was a great woman.
****
The blue and red lane markers did little to buffer the wake from the swimmer next to Ally’s lane. Annoyance made her stroke choppy, sending splashes of water flying from her hands and feet. She had been alone, enjoying a good swim when the peace was broken by the newcomer’s dive.
Ally’s arms whipped through the air, pin wheeling into the water as she plunged forward, eating up the distance from wall to wall.
Kick, kick, kick, flip, and glide to the surface.
Pausing, Ally took a look at the swimmer who had interrupted her. He was large, in a muscular way, no love handles on his trim waist. Ally ducked her head underwater and continued stroking up the lane.
She had come for a swim so she could forget men. She knew better than to think any man would be interested in her. Heck, even she knew she was too weird for men. Her one pair of women’s underwear was in her changing bag. She would throw it away today. Ally preferred men’s briefs. Few knew she wore them, but those who did called her a freak to her face. She was too strange to play girly-girl now. Hell, sometimes in the dark of night or when she was evil, she still thought of herself as a man. Her path had been slated long ago. She wasn’t meant to be a woman.
Then Michael had blown her away when he spoke to her, giving her a reason to hope for a normal relationship. But normal wasn’t a term that had ever been used to describe her.
The water muted Ally’s harsh laugh, keeping her self-derision a secret. As she pushed her body through the water her mind flashed back. Her memories before the fire were dim, clouded with a desire to forget, but the days leading up to her six months stay in the Philadelphia Boys’ Home for Displaced Children had left an undeniable imprint.
Ally should have been a boy. She knew she was different from the other boys in town and that’s why her parents kept her home. Her father had beaten her harshly for defying his edict. She would dress like a boy or else.
The rules were the rules and she knew the reason. Before birth the nurse giving the ultrasound proclaimed that ‘this one’s a boy’. Her father was enthralled. He had always wanted a boy. Everything was decorated in blue. No sissy colors for the boy.
The day Ally was born there had been a snowstorm. No traffic to or from the hospital. The birth certificate was never filed. Ally’s dad couldn’t bear the truth. She was all girl. Her father wouldn’t hear of it. Ally was raised as a son.
After suffering the humiliation of the beating she wanted to sleep in the barn with the new colt born the day after Ally turned eight. Her mother disagreed but her father’s voice came back to her, still crystal clear in her memory, “It’ll toughen the boy up. Let him sleep in the barn, Mavis.” Ally’s mother relented, but she kept a lamp lit, just in case.
The sharp crackle of the fire had woken Ally from a deep sleep. She watched as the snow melted around the house. The screams from inside halted when an explosion rocked the farm.
Neighbors raced to help, but nothing could be done to save Ally’s mother or father. Nothing remained. Everything that was the house and all of its contents were burned beyond recognition.
She had heard the neighbors debating about who should take the boy, but Ally didn’t want to live with the neighbors. What if they found out about her secret?
Finally, it was decided the boys’ home would take Ally. She had a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and snotty little brats to bait her, making her life even more miserable than it had been at home.
She never revealed her ‘problem’. Keeping it hidden from everyone wasn’t too hard. She bathed in private, and she timed her bathroom visits to be alone. A girl, hidden in plain sight. No one would figure it out.
Then the doctor came. He made each boy strip naked. Ally had refused. She ran from the building, crossing the grounds and hopping a fence before the headmaster caught up with her. She screamed and cried all the way back, kicking him with her bare feet, trying anything to get away. That was her last day at the boys’ home.
With renewed anger, Ally plunged her hands into the water. Her body ached, but that wouldn�
��t stop her. She always pushed to the limit, searching for the end of her female strength. The weakness that had made her so detestable to her own father wouldn’t slow her down.
Damn it, why hadn’t Michael come by? Fear gripped her chest. Maybe she was totally unlovable. That weakness, the female type, always got in her way.
Life as a boy had been painful, but life as a woman was unbearable. Her hormones drove her to the edge of reason, making her do stupid things. Like giggling when Michael had smiled down at her. Just the memory of his muscular body sent Ally’s hormones into overdrive. She should have ignored him. Her silly female need had won out. She’d made an ass out of herself, succumbing to his charms. Hell, she liked herself better when she was a man.
“Damn it,” Ally swore, slapping her hands against the wall at the end of the lane. She ripped the goggles off her head, and plunged under. She shot out of the water, her hair plastered against her head.
“Hey there, beautiful, I didn’t know you swam.”
Ally opened her eyes, blinking away the chlorinated water. Michael Rains was leaning over the starting block at the end of her lane. Heaviness settled over her, making her feel tired and used.
“You know, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” Michael said, his mouth curving into a sexy smile. Ally noticed the way his shirt pulled over his chest muscles. His biceps bulged under the cloth, making her want to reach out and rub his flesh.
“Really?” Ally said, unconvinced. Could this man really want her?
“I got your number from the club but it didn’t work.”
Ally slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. That’s what she had forgotten to take care of. Work needed her new number. She pulled herself out of the water, not bothering with a towel.
“I had to change my phone number,” She said as she squeezed water from her hair.
“You know, it should be illegal for you to walk around like that.”
Her face heated at his words. Unsure what to say, Ally stood silent. A deep desire burned through her, leaving her wanting Michael’s touch.
“Ally, can I drop by your place tonight?”
She paused, wondering if she should have him over before they went out on a real date. He smiled, showing a cute dimple and clean, straight teeth. Michael wasn’t mean, he was nice and sweet. “I’m busy at the club until ten.”
