Nail on the Head (Detective Kate Rosetti Mystery Book 5)

by Gina LaManna

  “Rosetti?” Jones said. “You with us?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Drifted off there for a second,” Jones said. “What would your parents have done if they caught you smoking?”

  “You mean, what would my dad—who was in prison—have said?” I rolled my eyes. “He probably would’ve threatened to handcuff me, actually. My mom would’ve thought I was covering for Jane.”

  By the end of my answer, I noticed that neither Jimmy nor Jack was actually paying attention to me. They were both glancing over my shoulder at a vehicle that had pulled up to the scene. I recognized the vehicle. It was hard not to, seeing as I’d spent hours in the car earlier in the day.

  But as I squinted into the darkness and saw a young woman climbing out of the passenger’s seat, I was confused. “Why is Officer Marks here?”

  “I don’t know,” Jack said. “I texted Brody on the way over letting him know he could join us. He didn’t say anything about bringing Officer Marks with him.”

  A moment later, Jones gave another snort of laughter. “I can take a guess.”

  I gave Jimmy a confused glance.

  “You’re a detective,” he said, smiling. “You figure it out.”

  Agent Brody climbed out of the driver’s seat. Chloe hung back, and as one of the crime-scene lights flashed over her, I caught sight of a sweatshirt that read FBI. In an instant, I understood. I’d even been in her position once or twice before.

  Next to me, I could feel Jack shaking with laughter. He turned away from Officer Marks and Agent Brody to face Melinda. But the gleam in his eye lingered.

  “Yikes,” I said. “First week on the job. That’s one way to make an impression.”

  “Detective Rosetti?” a small voice called. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

  I raised my eyebrows at Jack and Jimmy. Then I straightened out my expression and turned to face the newest member of my team. I brushed past Agent Brody who gave me a quick nod but deliberately didn’t make eye contact with me.

  “Officer Marks,” I said when I reached her side. “What’s up?”

  “I know you didn’t expect me to be here.” Chloe shifted under my gaze. The sweatshirt was obviously oversized, and she toyed with the ends of it that trailed over her fingers. “I’m sorry to have surprised you.”

  “Did you get a call to be here?”

  She winced. “I think you know the answer to that. I was with Maxwell, I mean, Agent Brody when Agent Russo texted him about a body that was potentially related to your case.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I swear we meant it to just be a business thing,” Chloe said. “I was working late with Asha at the office. I was just getting ready to head out when I saw Agent Brody’s car in the parking lot.”

  “After he dropped off me and Russo.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” she said. “He hopped out and asked if we’d made any breakthroughs on the case. We got to chatting, and he asked if I’d eaten anything. I hadn’t eaten since lunch, and I really was hungry, so when he mentioned getting dinner, I was all for it.”

  “I bet you were.”

  Chloe looked chastised. “We grabbed a bite to eat down the street from his hotel, went for a walk afterward—still talking about work, mind you. Well, mostly about work. Okay, a little bit about work. It was a nice night, though, and his hotel serves drinks on the patio. We both thought a glass of wine might help us wind down after a long day. One thing led to another, and—”

  I cut her off by holding up my hand. “I get the picture.”

  “I’m just trying to be honest with you.”

  “No need for too much honesty.”

  “I’m really sorry.” Chloe cringed. “I realize how unprofessional this looks.”

  “I don’t really care what you do in your off time, Officer Marks.”

  “No, of course not. It’s just that he’s a federal agent connected to the case...”

  “Right.” I nodded, taking a moment to decide how best to handle the situation. Finally, I gave her a slight smile. “Believe it or not, I might have a little personal experience in a matter very similar to yours.”

  Chloe practically gasped a breath of relief. “Yeah, I thought if anyone might understand, it would be you.”

  “Not that I joined Russo at his hotel the first day I met him—”

  “I know, I know.” Chloe grimaced again. “But Agent Brody is just so cute. And he was such a gentleman at dinner. I can’t tell you the last time I went out with someone who is just so nice. Plus, he’s freaking hot.”

  “So you said this morning.”

  “Sorry. I swear I will work on my professionalism.”

  “Before you revert to your professionalism, can I give you one piece of advice?”

  Chloe looked shocked. “Um, yeah. Yes. Please.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Like, because you don’t trust him?”

  “No, not at all. Quite the opposite actually,” I admitted. “If Jack trusts Agent Brody, that’s good enough for me.”

  “Okay, then what do you mean?”

  “I just mean that it might not hurt to be a little more guarded with your affections. Especially with someone like Agent Brody,” I said. “He lives across the country from you. He’s only in town for the weekend to work on the case. People who are good looking like him have a lot of options.”

  “I know. I’m not stupid,” Chloe said. “I’m not expecting him to fall in love with me. We were just having a nice time.”

  “That’s perfectly fine. You’re both adults. It’s just I can tell that you care, Chloe. A lot. I’m guessing that you fall in love fast.”

  “I don’t know about love, but infatuation maybe.”

  “Whatever you want to call it. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt because a handsome fed swooped in here and charmed you. Like I said, I trust Agent Brody as a law enforcement officer and a decent human being. Beyond that, I don’t know him from Joe down the street.”

  “I understand.”

  “But you’re on my team, and I look out for my team,” I said. “I’m not trying to dampen the mood. I’m not mad at you. I’m just trying to be realistic. At the end of this case, Agent Brody will go back to DC, and you’ll remain here.”

  “You and Agent Russo seem to manage just fine.”

  I gave a soft laugh. “I’m glad it looks that way. It’s still hard. Not to mention, I knew him a little longer than a couple of hours before... Well, you get the idea.”

  “Noted.”

  There was a pause. I hadn’t expected to offer Chloe advice, let alone have an almost friendly conversation with her. Maybe it was a cocktail of the events of the night—my difficult conversations with Russo, the swirling uncertainty around Gem’s wedding, and the rest of it—but I felt an obligation to try and give Chloe whatever two cents I’d learned from my own experience.

  Unlike me, she was naïve and optimistic about life and love. For some reason, that made me feel defensive over her, even though I’d known her for all of two days. There weren’t many cops like her, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. It’d be a shame for her to lose those rose-colored glasses due to a one-night stand and heartbreak from a handsome federal agent.

  “Is it...” Chloe swallowed. “Is it okay that I’m here tonight? I didn’t want to intrude on the case, but I’ve also been working on it day and night for the past few days, and I feel invested in it. I was hoping I could maybe observe. Or if you need help—coffee, anything—I could lend a hand.”

  I considered a moment. “Come on,” I finally said, giving a nod toward the body. “Wipe the lipstick smudge off your face and let’s find out our victim’s name.”

  “OH CRAP.” CHLOE LEANED over the body. “I know her.”

  Melinda looked up, barely managing to hide a glare as she glanced at Chloe. “A little space, please?”

  I pulled Chloe back by her oversized sweatshirt. In low tones, I muttered, “Don’t speak before Dr. Brooks gives us the ru
ndown. It’s sort of her process.”

  “Sorry,” Chloe muttered. “I didn’t realize.”

  “Learn quickly,” I instructed, “or you’ll be relegated to coffee duty.”

  Chloe took an additional step back. Melinda continued her examination of the body as the rest of us waited patiently for a sign that she was ready to give us some details. Having been friends with Melinda for a long time, I was pretty sure she was dragging this part out just to prove a point to Chloe. Melinda probably liked Chloe just fine, but no one—myself included—messed with her routine at a crime scene.

  “The reason you were all called, or most of you were called,” Melinda started, pausing to stand up and face the group while Chloe flinched at the jab, “is because of who the victim is. Most of you will know this woman to be Tammy Banks.”

  “Travis Newton’s fiancée,” I said to Agents Russo and Brody, in case they hadn’t recognized her from her photos. “We were actually looking into her as a suspect in Travis’s murder.”

  “It was suspected that Travis might be having an affair and she found out about it,” Chloe added. “That would contribute to the motive for her killing him.”

  “What do you think this means?” Agent Brody asked. “Do you think it means that she killed him, somebody found out, and then they retaliated? Or do you think her death means that she didn’t kill Travis but was somehow in the way?”

  “It really is too early to tell,” I said. “I have no clue. Especially not until after we get some more information from Dr. Brooks.”

  “The body hasn’t been here for long. I’d say an hour tops,” Melinda said. “According to the cops who interviewed the kids who found the body, they’d only been here half an hour. Their story checks out. One of them had a receipt for a can of pop from a nearby gas station time-stamped about half an hour before we were called.”

  “Is it safe to assume the cause of death is the gunshot wound to the chest?” I asked.

  “It’s likely, but I won’t know for sure until—”

  “Right, right,” I said. “But it’s probably a good guess.”

  Melinda sighed. “Based on a quick scan of the body, I would say yes. It’s a fair guess.”

  “Have you noticed anything else about the body?” I asked. “Anything that might connect it to Travis’s killing? Aside from the obvious relationship between them?”

  Melinda glanced at us, then gave a quick shake of her head. “I checked both arms. No sign of the marking.”

  “The broken heart, you mean?” Chloe asked. “The one that was carved into Travis’s arm?”

  “Correct,” Melinda said. “It also appears that the victim was killed here, in this location, which is another difference from Travis’s murder. Travis was killed one place and dumped elsewhere.”

  “Any signs of a struggle?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Melinda admitted. “No obvious scratches on the arms, but we’ll need to scrape underneath the fingernails and finish the autopsy before we can say for certain. No bindings or restraint marks found on her hands and feet.”

  “Which would mean she was either here for some reason of her own accord, or she was with someone she trusted to bring her here.” I glanced around the area. “No offense, but what would anyone, except for some high school kids looking to smoke, be doing in this area?”

  “This section of town is known to have issues with drug dealers,” Melinda said. “We’ll run a tox screen on the victim to see if she had anything in her system.”

  “I guess it’s possible,” I said. “I wouldn’t have pegged Tammy as someone caught up in illegal drugs, but I could be wrong.”

  “I’ll get a better time of death for you,” Melinda said, “but I’m going to estimate between one and two hours ago at the maximum. As for tonight, I think that’s all, folks. I’m going to need some time with the body here, and I don’t expect to find out more until the autopsy tomorrow.”

  The group of us backed away from Melinda to give her some space with the body. Jimmy, Russo, Agent Brody, Chloe, and I huddled in a half circle some ways away from the body.

  “What do you think?” Jack asked, turning to face me. “Strange timing.”

  “Are you talking about our visit to Flystone today?” I glanced at Agent Brody. “Do you think it’s possible Clint Flystone could be sending us a message from behind bars with this murder?”

  “What sort of message?” Chloe asked. “That he’s going to keep killing people if we don’t let up on the case?”

  “I don’t think that would be the message,” I said. “He’s too confident for that. He’s already locked up. This, to him, is all a game now. He’d be trying to tell us that he’s untouchable, and the harder we look, the faster he kills.”

  Agent Brody was nodding along by the time I finished speaking. “Do I think it’s possible that’s what happened here? Yes.”

  “Does this fit?” I asked. “Is it something Flystone would do?”

  “It’s hard to say,” Agent Brody said. “A part of me says this is exactly what he would do. He’d send us a message via a dead body. But I’m struggling to see the message here. When Clint wants us to know something, he makes it crystal clear. When he doesn’t want us to know something, it’s damn near impossible to figure it out.”

  “What about the other options?” I asked. “Flystone is still somewhat of a stretch. We have no direct evidence he’s involved at all. We need to keep our focus on the facts of this case.”

  Chloe nodded. “We know Travis was having an affair.”

  “No, we don’t,” I corrected. “We know he was lying to Tammy. We’re not sure exactly what he was doing. An affair is one option. He also could’ve been playing video games in his buddy’s basement and drinking beers. We just don’t know. Did you and Asha find anything on Holden Newton, the brother?”

  “He seems to be completely off the grid,” Chloe said. “We’ve been looking all day. We checked out all his closest friends and acquaintances. His phone hasn’t been active all day. No money spent on any credit cards. It’s like he vanished.”

  “Doesn’t look good for this brother,” Agent Brody said. “Do you think he’s good for the murders, Detective Rosetti?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “I don’t have a good read on him. The Newton parents did say something odd that turned us on to him, though. Something implying that Holden might have an idea of why Tammy wasn’t a good match for their son. I’m paraphrasing.”

  “It was a slip,” Jimmy added. “The mother didn’t mean to say it. I got the vibe she was implying there was something—possibly flirtation, possibly more—between Tammy and Holden.”

  “That would add up to a lot more motive,” Russo said. “Let’s say Travis wasn’t having an affair. Maybe he was smoking with some buddies on the nights he told Tammy he was at the casino. But Tammy, on the other hand, has been taking advantage of his nights away with none other than her fiancé’s brother. If Travis found out, that could’ve caused a big blowup between them, not to mention a riff within their family structure.”

  “Add that to the testimony we got from Kitty, the landlord at Holden’s apartment,” I said. “She believes she heard the two brothers arguing, possibly over a girl, just last week. If that was the case, then tensions would’ve been running high. Especially if that girl was Tammy.”

  “It would’ve been a tinderbox of drama,” Russo said. “Maybe Tammy killed Travis when he confronted her.”

  “Or maybe Holden killed his brother,” I theorized, “so that he and Tammy could be together for good.”

  “Then what about Tammy?” Chloe asked.

  “Let’s say Tammy found out that Holden killed his brother to be with her,” I said. “It’s possible that Tammy never intended to hurt Travis. Maybe this supposed fling with Holden was just that—a fling. She could’ve been heartbroken to lose Travis. She could’ve threatened to go to the cops with evidence against Holden. Then he killed her to keep her quiet.”

 
“It’s possible,” Russo said. “It’s also possible that Tammy killed her fiancé, and then Holden killed Tammy out of revenge. Maybe Holden was the one looking at this like a fling, and Tammy took things too far. After losing a brother, Holden could’ve been mad enough to kill Tammy.”

  “All of that would explain the lack of the mark on the body,” I said. “Two different killers. They’d obviously have different styles.”

  “It doesn’t explain the marking on the first victim,” Russo said. “Why was it on Travis in the first place?”

  “Maybe it was literal?” I wondered. “Maybe it was a coincidence that it somewhat resembled Flystone’s killing pattern. We can all agree there were plenty of differences. Maybe the broken heart was a symbol of just that—a broken heart. Tammy murdering her fiancé because he broke her heart.”

  “Are we really overthinking everything?” Agent Brody shook his head. “The more evidence we get, the more it seems to stack up in the category of an unrelated-to-Flystone murder.”

  “It is definitely possible,” I agreed. “I wouldn’t count it out just yet, but I don’t think we should weigh the Flystone theory any heavier than we would if this were a regular homicide and not connected to a years-old serial-killer case.”

  “Rosetti.” Dr. Brooks called me over from her place beside the body. “There’s something you need to see here. Actually, all of you should see this.”

  I glanced at Agent Brody. He met my gaze. I could feel a pit in my stomach, and judging by the look on Brody’s face, his intuition was telling him the same thing. Melinda’s tone wasn’t bright and cheery. I had an inkling we might just be about to receive our message from Clint Flystone.

  When I reached the body, it didn’t take me long to see what Melinda was talking about. Melinda had exposed part of Tammy’s chest. The victim’s bra remained in place, but her shirt had been cut away to reveal flesh. Flesh that had been cut into the shape of a broken heart.

  Next to me, I felt Agent Brody stiffen.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “There’s our message.”