Avery hated the idea. While she had no problem helping to bring up the next generation of detectives for the A1, she knew that there were a lot of responsibilities in training a rookie. Still, she nodded and said: “I’m sensing there’s a third thing?”
“There is,” he said. “Sophie Lentz’s parents are in town. They arrived about half an hour ago, staying with a family friend until after Sophie’s funeral. I’d really like for you to get over there and talk to them. We’ll grill Deckler here. I’d rather you speak with the family.”
“I can do that,” she said, not particularly caring for the idea. “Anything else?”
He grinned at her as he swiveled in his chair. “My God, isn’t that enough?”
She left the office, sensing a full day ahead of her. She was tired from having next to no sleep last night but with several tasks lined up neatly before her, she was able to find the energy. She’d start with the Lentz parents, as she always found speaking to grieving parents one of the most emotionally draining parts of her job.
On her way out, she nearly went to the back of the building where the interrogation rooms were so she could fill Ramirez in on where she would be for the next couple of hours. But they had talked several times about drawing lines between their professional and personal lives. She didn’t want it to seem like she was checking in with him, especially not around Finley or any of the other officers.
She exited out of the back of the building and got back behind the wheel of her car. She checked her email and saw that Connelly had sent the address of the Lentzes’ friends’ house. A little shudder passed through her when she realized that it was on the far side of town, in the direction of Cambridge—where their daughter’s body had been found.
As she read the address, she got a text message. She saw Rose’s name and all of the anxiousness of visiting the Lentz family diminished. She swiped the text up and read it.
Hey. Bad morning. Ugh. Could use some non-judgmental advice and coffee. You busy?
Avery’s fingers acted as if controlled by ghosts of the past. She was ready to type: Sorry, but I’m busy. Maybe this evening?
But she was done with that. She was learning to prioritize her life, putting Rose first. Yes, she had a job to do, but forty-five minutes over coffee with her daughter was not going to change anything with this case. More than that, it would give the Lentz parents more time to grieve, perhaps putting them in a better state of mind for when Avery finally showed up.
Feeling just a tiny stab of guilt, Avery responded back. Caffe Nero. 10:00.
She rolled out of the back lot and out into the streets. She passed a few news vans, wondering what sorts of stories they were trying to drum up about Sophie Lentz. And at the thought of Sophie, a beautiful nineteen-year-old college student, Avery’s thoughts then turned to Rose.
What happened to Sophie Lentz…that could have been Rose.
And that was enough to demolish the vestiges of guilt that poked at her for temporarily abandoning her orders. She drove out toward their coffee shop of choice, happy to actually feel like a mother again for the first time in a while.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rose was already sitting at a table with a cup of coffee when Avery arrived at Caffe Nero. When Rose looked up at her, Avery saw that there was a mixture of pain and embarrassment in her face. But there was also a flicker of relief.
Avery sat down, once again realizing that she still felt a little out of place in places like this. Or maybe it wasn’t the place or the environment; maybe it was the feeling of knowing that her daughter was actually seeking her guidance.
“How’s it going?” Avery asked.
“Been better,” Rose said. She was nervously turning her phone over and over again in her hands. It was a nervous tick that Avery had, too. The realization made her smile.
“Want to tell me about it?”
“Sure,” Rose said. “That’s why I texted you. But…look, Mom. This is huge. The fact that you showed up. You actually showed up when I needed you. I got here five minutes ago—a little early, I know—and was sure that you were going to stand me up.”
“I won’t lie,” Avery said. “I’ve got a pretty terrible case on my mind and I’m all over the place with it right now. But things are going to change, Rose. I know I keep saying things like that, but this time it’s going to stick. You’re the top priority now.”
Rose nodded and Avery could tell that she was trying to fight back tears. She let out a shaky sigh and drummed her fingers on the table as if to distract herself from crying. “Anyway,” she said. “So Marcus and I are done. And even though I’ve been telling myself that he doesn’t really mean that much to me, it turns out that he apparently does. Mom…I’m not proud of it but I begged him to stay.”
“Stay?” Avery asked, finding the use of that word a little peculiar.
Rose winced, sensing that she had been caught. “He’s been staying over a lot,” she admitted.
Avery didn’t say anything. She had assumed as much. She also knew that Rose was on the pill and was, for the most part, very responsible. “Why did he leave?” she asked.
“I think he sensed things were starting to get serious. He got scared. Or something like that. He was just in it to have fun and—”
She stopped again, sensing one more time that her choice of words had revealed too much. Avery did her best to stay composed, looking beyond the fact that her daughter had basically just told her that the boy she had been seeing was only with her in order to have a sexual relationship with no strings.
“But he was civil about it?” Avery asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Rose said. “He called me some names. Nothing too bad, though. He was mad…scared. I get it.”
“But he wasn’t rough with you?” Avery asked.
“No. He never has been. It was just so sudden. And at the risk of sounding conceited, I’ve always been the one to end relationships. I’ve never been the one to inflict the pain, you know?”
Avery gave her daughter a thin smile and said, “I feel like I may not have known about most of these relationships.”
“Yeah, not so much.”
Avery ordered a coffee and sat with Rose, taking her time and enjoying her daughter’s company. Avery sipped on her coffee thoughtfully. There was something on her mind, something she had been wanting to tell Rose for a very long time. As the words started to form, she found she was a little nervous about telling it.
“You know, I was usually the one to end relationships, too,” she said. “I never really thought about it until just now because really, your father was the first real relationship I ever had. And even in that one, I was selfish.”
“Really?” Rose said. “I always assumed Dad was the one that was bossy.”
“Oh, he could be. But when my career started to take off, I made it very clear that he was not going to get in my way. We never talked about divorce, not once. Not until the one time…and even then it was a short conversation. We both agreed and that was that. I think that’s why we’re still mostly civil these days.”
“So you’d say you were the driving force behind the marriage not working?” Rose asked.
It was a tough question, but the answer was easy.
“For the most part,” she said.
“Have you ever admitted it to Dad?”
“Yes. Pretty much right away. At the time, though…I just didn’t feel like fighting for our marriage. I don’t think he did, either. I’d worn him down over the years.”
Rose chuckled nervously and shook her head.
“Damn, Mom. When you open up, you don’t hold back, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“So that’s where I get it from.”
As was the case with most of their recent get-togethers, they were eventually laughing through most of the conversation. Two cups of coffee later, after the conversation had finally managed to settle down into less controversial territory, Avery realized that the morning
was slipping away and it was almost noon. Rose caught her checking her watch and downed the last bit of her coffee.
“Time to head back to work?” Rose asked.
“Yes, I’d better,” she said. “There’s quite a bit going on with me…part of which includes a promotion to sergeant. So I need to be on my toes.”
“Mom, if you didn’t have time to come out here to meet me, you could have just told me.”
“No, it was no problem. I need to learn to make time. If this case were blown wide open and we were hot on the trail of a suspect, it would be different. But it’s not. When I leave here, I get to go talk to some very sad parents.”
“Oh,” Rose said as they went to the register. Avery paid for their coffees and they headed back outside. Just as they reached out to hug one another, Avery’s phone rang. She checked the display and saw that it was Connelly.
“I have to take this,” Avery said.
“That’s fine,” Rose said. “Thanks for coming out, Mom. I really appreciate it.”
“Sure thing,” she said.
She then answered the phone and didn’t even have time to say Hello before Connelly’s voice was in her ear. “Black, I need you to wrap up with the Lentzes and come back to the station right now. Things are getting worse with this case.”
“I’m not with the Lentzes,” she said. “I had a personal matter come up and—”
“You’d damn well better be joking with me,” he said.
“No sir. I was with my daughter.”
“What the actual fuck, Black?” She could hear him breathing very heavily on the other end of the phone. She did not fear him or any repercussions he might throw her way so she simply let him sort things out without interrupting. “Listen to me and listen closely,” he finally said. “I want you back here at the A1 in fifteen minutes. And after you’ve been debriefed on new events in this case, you and I are having some words in my office.”
“New events?” she asked.
“Another letter,” Connelly said. “So get back here right now before I change my mind and kick your ass off this case.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Avery noticed the media presence even before she reached the station. News vans were swerving through traffic as if the rules of the road did not apply to them. If there had been any cops worth a damn out and about, every one of those vans would easily get at least two tickets each. But Avery drove just as aggressively, though. When she finally pulled into the station lot, some of the vans and crews were already there, setting up in front of the building.
Vultures, Avery thought. The killer apparently emailed this one out to the media just like the last one.
She did her best to ignore them as she walked into the station. She heard raised voices from the back of the building, one of which could easily be identified as O’Malley’s. Connelly’s was buried in there, too. Avery noticed at once that people were speaking in hushed tones and casting her sympathetic glances. Apparently, her name had been dragged through the mud over the last hour or so.
She didn’t let it bother her, though. When she approached Connelly’s office, she did so without guilt or fear. She also didn’t bother knocking, as his door was already open. O’Malley, Finley, and Amy from Forensics were crammed into his office. Poor Amy was standing with her back pressed against the wall, as if she was legitimately afraid of Connelly’s temper.
“Black, close the door behind you,” Connelly said. He was obviously pissed but had apparently cooled down a bit from when he had called her on the phone.
He picked up a piece of paper from his desk, got to his feet, and stretched across his desk to hand it to her. It was covered in a protective plastic sheet, a feature that keyed her in to what it was before she even saw the paper.
The new letter, she thought as her eyes started to scan it. The entire office fell into silence as she stood there and read it. It was shorter than the last letter but no less sinister. She read it slowly, savoring each word:
Frozen beauty. It melts away longtime scars.
I will keep doing this until I can make the hearts beat again.
I hope you find me. I have so much to show, so much to share.
Oh, this distorted smile.
Oh, this ice in my blood that wants to be thawed.
This winter sprawl is endless even when the warm weather reigns.
The scars won’t go away and neither does their beauty—one of God’s cruel tricks.
Slowly, Avery handed the letter back to Connelly. He didn’t jerk it from her fingers but he did snatch it roughly away. “Any idea just what in the hell that means?”
“Not straightaway, no,” she said. “The I hope you find me line scares me, though.”
“And why is that?” Connelly asked.
“Because he wants us to find him. And that means he has no real concept of danger or consequences. It’s sort of the same with the line I have so much to show, so much to share. I hate to say it, but that indicates that these two bodies might not be the only ones. It makes you wonder…what is it that he wants to show us?”
Connelly was breathing heavily, staring at the letter and making fists out of his hands, clenching and unclenching. He looked around the room slowly and something in his expression made Avery realize that he was having to put forth a lot of effort to remain cool and calm.
“Could you all please give Avery and I a moment alone?” he asked the others in attendance.
Finley, Amy, and O’Malley stepped out of the room quickly. She noticed that Finley looked back at her almost apologetically.
When the door was closed, Avery sat down in the chair in front of his desk. She expected him to scream at any moment but when he spoke, his voice was surprisingly calm. Still, she could sense an undercurrent of rage in it.
“Have you spoken with Ramirez?” he asked. “Do you have any idea where he is?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, because you decided to shirk your duties and apparently do whatever the hell you wanted, he’s out speaking with the Lentz parents. He picked up your slack. Now…you want to tell me what you were thinking this morning?”
“Quite frankly, I was thinking my daughter needed me. And since this case is at a standstill, I didn’t think spending an hour and a half with my daughter would slow things down.”“And you didn’t consider that the Lentzes might have been a source of valuable information?”
“Of course I did,” Avery said, starting to get a little angry. “But I also know that Sophie Lentz was nineteen when she was killed. The same age as my daughter. So you know what…in the moment, I felt spending time with my daughter took priority. She needed me…and that doesn’t happen very often. Besides…you know as well as I do that the Lentzes wouldn’t have provided any information. They’ve been in New York while their daughter was in college. It’s not like they were close.”
Connelly reclined back in his seat and sighed. “Look…in this situation there’s been no real harm done. I have three kids. Did you know that? Two in college and one about to graduate high school. I get it. I do. But these rash spur of the moment decisions have to stop if you’re serious about being sergeant. Hell, you could have at least called and told us what was going on.”
She wasn’t going to apologize; she was sure that wasn’t what Connelly was looking for anyway. He just wanted to know that she had heard what he was saying. “Understood,” she said. “Now…this letter…I assume it was also sent to the media like the last one?”
“Oh yeah. It’s getting bad. Two letters…two bodies. He’s making us look like idiots.”
“Still nothing from Forensics on the old letter?”
“Nothing,” he answered. “I have them looking over the envelope this one came in right now. I’ll send the letter down when we’re done here.”
Avery reached down for the letter again just as someone knocked at the door. When it opened, Ramirez poked his head in. “Is it safe?” he joked.
“Just get in here,”
Connelly said. “Were the Lentzes any help?”
“Very little,” Ramirez said. “The mother was an absolute wreck. There was a strained relationship, but that was back in Arizona. I hate to say it, but the parents are a dead end. They seemed a little ashamed that they didn’t know anything about their daughter after she moved off to college, even though they moved to the East Coast right along with her.”
“So back to square one,” Connelly said. “Can I trust the two of you to get out there and try to pull something together?”
Ramirez and Avery shared a look and then a determined nod. “I’ll start by just clearing my head,” Avery said. “Go back over the case files, maybe revisit the reservoir.”
“Why not the dam at Watertown?”
“Because Patty Dearborne floated down the Charles from somewhere else. That was just the site her body was found, not a legit crime scene.”
Connelly nodded his understanding. “Fine. Get to work then. And please keep me posted on the hour, every hour. I’d really like to have something to tell these media assholes by the end of the day just to shut them up.”
Without another word, Avery and Ramirez walked out of Connelly’s office. When the door was closed and they started down the hallway, Avery reached out and gave his hand a little squeeze.
“Thanks for covering for me with the Lentz family.”
“No problem. I just wish you would have called. I thought his head was going to explode when he found out you weren’t with the Lentzes. Where were you anyway?”
“With Rose.”
“She okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. But for now, let’s focus on the case, okay?”
“Sure,” he said, clearly a little hurt.
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