by Kristen Lane
Just like his father before him, Michael had wanted to be a police officer ever since he was a young boy. It wasn’t long after he graduated from the police academy that Michael’s father died tragically and suddenly from a heart attack. Michael’s mother and Linda alike both blamed the stress of being a cop for his father’s untimely demise. They worried that Michael was doomed to the same fate, but following in his father’s footsteps in the force was all that Michael cared about. He wanted to honor his dad’s memory in a way that he knew would have made him proud.
It was during his days as a naive and hopeful new recruit to the LAPD, that Michael had married his college sweetheart Linda. At the time they were a power couple, both equally as passionate in their careers and their futures together. Linda was a well respected fashion photographer with an astonishing natural gift for her art form. She had landed her dream job working for one of LA’s top fashion magazines and her career only skyrocketed from there. Michael had his sights set on becoming a homicide detective and was already receiving recognition for being an outstanding police officer.
He could remember a simpler time when Linda and him would use up every one of their vacation days at work just to take random road trips together. They would lay sprawled out on the floor of their apartment afterwards, looking through all of the photos that Linda had taken on their trip. She took every last one of their photo albums with her when she left. At some point during the first six years of their marriage, Michael had blurred the lines between passion and obsession in his pursuit of becoming a homicide detective. There were no more road trips, Michael didn’t even take his vacation hours anymore and their marriage had far surpassed the honeymoon phase.
Then one glorious day it happened, Michael finally made detective. He promised Linda that everything was going to get better from then on; they had both achieved their every hope and dream. All there was left to do was repair their marriage, which Michael foolishly thought could be achieved by having a baby. He thought that by getting Linda pregnant it would bring them closer together and solidify their bond as a couple.
The truth of the matter was old habits die hard. Michael couldn’t give up his obsession with his career, which had only become even more demanding with his promotion and now totally consumed him. Becoming detective only made it even more difficult to separate his work life from his home life. The horrors that Michael witnessed on the job tormented him even in his dreams. He over compensated and tried to put yet another band aid on his broken marriage by purchasing a house for the soon to be family of three.
The couple did not grow any closer after the birth of their son as Michael had hoped, and even though they both loved Liam dearly, becoming parents wasn’t enough for them to try and work out their many problems. They fought often, with Michael usually being the main instigator of their brawls. It didn’t take Linda very long to become fed up with her husband’s short temper and broken promises. During one particularly large blow out fight, Linda accused Michael of being jealous of her. She blamed him for sabotaging her career and told Michael that he had always resented her for making more money than he did. Sadly, Michael couldn’t fully deny that it wasn’t true. Especially after he had to ask his wife to borrow several thousand dollars just to put a down payment on the house that was supposed to be his gift to her. Michael had sworn to Linda that the money was only a loan, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like any less of a man for it.
What Linda didn’t understand was that was the exact reason Michael was so determined to be a great detective, so that he could get promotions and raises to help support his family properly. He hadn’t gotten Linda pregnant just to punish her, he had done so because deep down Michael loved her and he had thought Linda wanted a family with him too. What Linda didn’t understand was the immense pressure he was under not to let his family, his bosses, or his father’s memory down, or how hard he was truly trying to make Linda happy. Linda would never be happy however, at least not with him. She took off one day while Michael was working overtime at the precinct yet again, with no note, no message and no explanation of where she had gone. Linda had left Liam with their elderly neighbor, climbed into a cab and never looked back again.
With his skills as a detective it didn’t take Michael long to track his wife’s whereabouts. It turned out that his lack of presence in their marriage hadn’t been the only reason for Linda leaving. Michael discovered that for the past year Linda had been cheating on him with some shmuck she had worked with at the magazine. Linda had left Michael and their two year old son to shack up with a hair stylist; he scoffed that Linda thought he was the one who was just using her for her money. He didn’t expect Linda’s new romance to be long lasting, but she had abandoned her family nonetheless. Five months later and Michael still hadn’t bothered to open the divorce papers that Linda had him served with just after she took off. Michael wasn’t ready to deal with what those papers symbolized, from the death of his marriage, becoming a single parent, to his wife’s deep cutting betrayal.
Chapter 2
Michael had no other choice but to rely on his next door neighbor to watch Liam when he was in a cinch, it was the same elderly woman his ex-wife had relied on to aid her in leaving him and running off with her hairdresser. That wasn’t the real reason he didn’t like leaving Liam there, although it certainly invoked some bitter memories, but the woman was also ancient and senile. Michael knew that his son probably ran circles around the poor woman, but today especially he had no other choice.
He had received an urgent phone call from his supervisor, who insisted that Michael get down to a recent crime scene right away. The Captain needed to brief all of the officers and detectives before the media frenzy began. Michael wondered what about this case could be so damn special that the media would take note. After all, there were hundreds of murders each week in the gang laden streets of LA. What Michael did know was this meant he would be under the Captain’s direct scrutiny on this case, and whatever it pertained, it would prove to be a huge headache in the days to come.
Michael stepped out of his car and into the barrage of shuttering cameras and reporters shouting questions at him. His day had barely began and already it was off to a terrible start. It only got worse when he entered the crime scene and was greeting by his very anxious and annoyed looking Captain. “What’s the story boss?” Michael asked as he was ushered into the living room of a very luxurious looking apartment. The victim’s high tax bracket might have explained the media attention, but unfortunately the case was even messier than that. The media was not here to report the untimely death of a young woman; they were circling outside like vultures for one reason only, to gossip on the presence of the famed and popular politician and billionaire Timothy Preco.
Police were first called to the scene by the victim’s neighbor and the call had originally come in as a noise complaint. The neighbor’s explained that the young woman’s infant child could be heard wailing loudly all night and well into the morning. This was not typical for the doting mother and normally quiet next door neighbor, so he became concerned as well as fed up with the noise and phoned the police. When the officers arrived no one answered the door and they could hear the child’s screams from inside. Following police protocol they broke down the front door of the apartment to rescue the child and see if everything was alright. What they stumbled upon was a gruesome and bloody scene, which is when Michael was called in.
According to the officers that responded to the emergency call, Timothy Preco just happened by in the midst of things and it didn’t take very long for the media to catch wind. None of the details of the crime scene or story had been leaked as of yet, but the heavy police presence accompanied by that of a somewhat celebrity had piqued their interests. Michael surveyed the scene around him as chaotic as it was, soaking up all the small details in his mind. No matter how many murder scenes he had stepped foot on, it never got easier and he could feel his stomach lurch when he saw how close in proximity t
he poor child had been laying in it’s crib, crying for her diseased mother to come comfort her.
It was a brutal and gory murder; Michael could tell the victim had tried to fight back by the defensive wounds on her body, but to no avail. Her name was Maria Constantine and according to her neighbors she lived in the apartment alone with her young daughter who was but a few months old. They said she had moved into the swanky building only a short while ago, but she seemed nice and they had never heard so much as a peep from her apartment since she had become a tenant. They described her as a bubbly and friendly young woman, who seemed to devote almost all of her time caring for her daughter. None of which explained to Michael why Timothy Preco had just happened by her apartment that day, but he had a pretty good idea. She was twenty three years old and stunningly beautiful, even in her current state. Typically girls that pretty living in LA were either in the modeling industry, or had an older and usually married man to pay their way. Michael’s gut instincts also told him that the latter was more likely true.
Michael surveyed the body from afar, seeing the young woman sprawled out on the bed wearing only her silk nightgown struck a nerve deep inside of him. The entire scene reminded him of Linda and Liam far too much for his own comfort. He could read about the woman’s injuries and already obvious cause of death in the Medical Examiner’s report later, right now he had much more important tasks at hand. One of which was to speak to Mr. Preco and get the facts of his involvement with Maria, and the other was damage and media control.
It disgusted Michael that his Captain had been so insistent on the LAPD wasting it’s time to protect Mr. Preco’s privacy and the reasoning had nothing to do with containing the details of the case. Timothy Preco lived an active life in both the spotlight and in politics, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the LAPD and to his precinct. His Captain had been so insistent on discretion, not for the sake of the young victim or her now orphaned child, but to protect his own precinct’s yearly budget instead. Unfortunately for both Timothy Preco and his Captain alike, Michael cared more about justice and being a good cop than he did politics and budget cuts.
Michael marched across the room to where Timothy Preco was seated, with a traumatized look on his face and cradling the infant child in his arms. This confirmed Michael’s suspicions that Maria was indeed Mr. Preco’s lover, and the infant their love child. He would have preferred to question Mr. Preco back at the precinct, something about the intimidating interrogation room always seemed to coax a confession out of his perp, but Michael knew that the Captain would not approve. In Michael’s experience as a detective he had seen things like this hundreds of times before. It was not uncommon for the murderer to return to the scene of a crime under the guise that they wanted to help with the investigation. In truth, the sick bastards just wanted to revel in their crimes and keep tabs on the investigation’s progress first hand. Still, he knew that this was not an open and shut case, especially because of Mr. Preco’s wealth and notoriety. He needed to base his investigation off of solid evidence and facts; otherwise the defense attorneys could find holes in the case and set this murderer free.
“Good afternoon Mr. Preco, I’m Detective Lavine and I’d like to ask you a few questions if that’s alright with you.” Michael motioned for one of the female officers to take the child from Mr. Preco, who resisted at first but as Michael assured him that his questioning would only take a few moments, he complied, gingerly handing over the child as if she were made of glass. “Good show” Michael thought to himself as he led Mr. Preco into the kitchen so that they could talk in privacy. It took only a matter of minutes for Mr. Preco to spill his guts out to Michael, who was slightly taken aback by his openness about his affair. He told the detective everything, careful not to leave out a single detail. From how he had met Maria, to how long their affair had taken place and the birth of their child Anthony. He even told Michael about how he was paying off Maria to keep quiet about their relationship and who the father of her child was. He explained that it was of no financial burden to him, he was after all a billionaire. It all seemed too perfect to Michael, like the man had planned his speech ahead of time and seemingly had an answer or excuse for everything. It was also likely that he was being so cooperative as a means to hide his own guilt, which Michael had also seen occur before.
Michael thanked the man, informing Mr. Preco that he would be in touch shortly, which didn’t seem to worry the billionaire. Maybe Michael had misjudged him; maybe he really didn’t have anything to hide, but only time could tell the truth. The detective finished surveying the scene, grateful that his Captain had seemingly left the premises. Michael knew that didn’t mean that he was off the hook, and wouldn’t be anytime soon until he solved what was now a high profile case thanks to Timothy Preco’s involvement and relation to the victim. He doubted that any amount of money or bribes to the police department would help to keep the case under wraps for very long. The media was hungry for information and Michael knew he would have to solve this case quickly.
Chapter 3
He picked up Liam from the neighbors, thanking her for the favor and paying her one hundred bucks for her troubles. Michael had no idea what the going rate for a sitter even was and the old bag was probably getting over on him big time, but honestly he didn’t care. What Michael really wanted was for his wife to come home and care for their son, not some stranger that he only nodded hello to when he went to fetch his mail. He fed Liam a meal of chicken nuggets and French fries, the only meal he could seemingly get his son to eat. Michael was nowhere near the cook that Linda had been and even if he was, he regretfully realized that he didn’t know what Liam liked and didn’t like. They ate in silence, Michael occasionally sneaking glances at his son wishing in his mind that there was some way to reach out or to bond with the young boy, but he was at a loss. His mind drifted back to the small baby whose mother was suddenly gone, in a sense just as Liam’s own mother was. If that piece of garbage Timothy Preco could embrace his daughter in those circumstances, then Michael would be damned if he couldn’t embrace his own son too.
Once Liam was safely tucked into bed, Michael began the daunting task of reviewing all of the evidence he had collected thus far. The murder had been an extremely violent one, the victim suffering over fifteen stab wounds. There was nothing missing or stolen from the apartment and the woman’s child had also been left unharmed. This was definitely more likely a crime of passion than a robbery or anything else. Most of the evidence so far led Michael to believe that Timothy Preco would be his prime suspect, but he could just be jumping to conclusions. He had to admit he had bitter feelings towards anyone who cheated on their spouses, especially after Linda had cheated on him.
Michael knew that he had to rely on cold hard facts and that his case had to be rock solid when it came time to go to court. He laid out what he had before him on the living room floor, but it wasn’t very much to go through. The forensics team had gone over Ms. Constantine’s apartment with a fine tooth comb but came up empty handed. There was no trace DNA under her nails, fingerprints or even a singular hair left behind by her killer. The apartment and lobby door showed no signs of forced entry and whoever had come into the apartment either knew Ms. Constantine or they had the key. This made Michael’s job a lot harder but he would tackle this case just as he did any other, and choose to ignore the fact that if he messed this up in any way it surely meant the death of his career as a detective.
Michael felt confident even with how little evidence he had to go on. Just like any other investigation, he would go over every detail of the victim’s life until a connection was made. Michael decided that despite his Captain’s warning to lay off of Timothy Preco, that was the exact detail of Ms. Constantine’s life that he needed to explore first. He didn’t become a detective to get dragged into the politics of bureaucracy, he did it because he wanted to be a damn good cop. He was determined to put away Maria Constantine’s murderer no matter the cost. It would be far worse pu
blicity and more detrimental to his career if he accidentally arrested the wrong man due to a poor investigation. If Mr. Preco turned out to be the right man, then that was just a pill that his Captain and the rest of the higher- ups would have to swallow.
Michael was startled by a small and gentle tap on his shoulder. It was nearly three in the morning and he was on his second pot of coffee when Liam crept into the living room. He had been woken up from his sleep by a nightmare, just as he had every night since Linda had left. Liam would sneak into what once was both of his parent’s bedroom, becoming distraught when he couldn’t find his mother sleeping in her bed. It was possible that Liam had always had nightmares; Michael regretted not knowing such an important and unsettling fact about his own son.
As Michael tucked the boy back into bed, sitting along side him and stroking his forehead until he fell asleep, his mind still couldn’t stop from drifting back to his case. Who ever had committed this heinous act was somewhat of a professional and had covered their tracks incredibly well, Michael just had to search and wait for the one slip up that criminals always wind up making sooner or later. While the circumstances of that slip up varied each time, the result was always the same and Michael always sent his perp to jail. Michael needed to focus all of his attention to this case and Liam needed someone who could care for him. He would strike up a deal with the elderly woman next door later that day to begin watching Liam on a full time basis. She wasn’t either his parents, or even Michael’s best option but she was reliable and he knew that at the very least Liam would be safe and well cared for.
