Lightning Chasers

by Cass Sellars

  Taylor jerked up and walked a few steps away from Darcy, seeming to try making sense of the scenario. Taylor wheeled on her as the realizations flowered. “So you picked me up in a bar to pump me for information?” Taylor’s tone was suddenly angry and hurt as she turned to confront Darcy now standing helplessly on the step.

  “No, I mean, I didn’t intend to pick you up. I just planned to talk to you and then I didn’t want to leave and I forgot about all the other stuff.” Darcy knew the disclosure made Taylor feel deceived and used.

  “You realize I could lose my job for telling you what I shouldn’t have.” Taylor laced her fingers behind her head and stared out at the parking lot. Darcy hoped she wouldn’t choose to just drive away from this craziness.

  “Í know. But you won’t. I wouldn’t burn you. We’re all risking too much in this…whatever it is. That’s why I wanted you to meet them.”

  “You can’t be serious. I don’t know them. How do you expect me to trust them or even you?” Taylor studied her. “Be honest. If the roles were reversed, you wouldn’t be any more willing to do this.”

  “Probably not. But I swear the information won’t get out. This hits too close to home for us.” Darcy took a step and forced herself to reach out to Taylor, risking the certain rejection she expected to find there. Darcy circled her arms around Taylor’s long waist and watched her expression.

  She sighed as Taylor’s body softened and she dropped her arms around Darcy. “It’s a pretty long leap from missing inventory to murder, Darcy. I can’t imagine anyone I work with being involved in the murder of a police officer.”

  “I know this all seems crazy.” She tried to ignore how much she felt when Taylor was touching her…despite the struggle not to.

  Taylor looked at Darcy warily. “What would you have done if I didn’t agree to go out with you? What if you hadn’t even liked me?”

  “I saw your picture and I volunteered,” Darcy said as she looked hopefully into Taylor’s eyes. “I thought you were hot.”

  Taylor shook her head and let Darcy kiss her. Darcy had every intention of resisting the urge but failed miserably when her mouth betrayed her mind.

  “Syd and Mack can explain everything. Please don’t leave without going with me to hear them out.” Darcy hated that she sounded as if she was begging, but she was.

  Taylor regarded her carefully. “You better be worth it.” Taylor kissed her again and warily allowed Darcy to pull her to her car.

  “I am. I promise.” She silently vowed to be everything she was promising Taylor she was.

  * * *

  Darcy led her through the large oak door of Syd’s loft. Taylor was visibly unprepared for the crowd that greeted her. Darcy knew that Taylor had likely planned to spend a quiet evening with a new woman, not listening to a bizarre conspiracy theory from a gaggle of strangers instead.

  At the awkward look on Taylor’s face, Mack stepped from the kitchen to offer her hand. “I’m Sergeant Foster, Silver Lake PD, but please call me Mack.” She was doing her best to legitimize the odd meeting by trying to let her know they weren’t all lunatics. “This is my wife, Jenny.”

  Taylor looked over the badge hooked on Mack’s thick black belt and shook her hand, moving over to Jenny before she spoke. “Taylor Westin…but I guess you all already know that, huh?”

  Parker walked around to take Taylor’s outstretched hand as the newcomer’s eyes swept over the group. Instead of a handshake, Parker offered her a casual hug and smiled. “I’m Parker. It’s nice to finally meet you, Taylor. It seems Darcy here is quite a fan.”

  Syd watched as Parker adeptly warmed the room and reassured Taylor that she hadn’t been manipulated quite to the degree she thought. Parker had succeeded in finessing the situation in less than thirty seconds.

  Sydney clasped Taylor’s hand firmly and smiled as she placed her other hand on Taylor’s shoulder, “Syd Hyatt. Beer, right?” Taylor smiled for the first time and nodded thanks to her host.

  “Why don’t you join us in the office so we can try to convince you we aren’t all certifiable?” Syd saw Taylor relax by inches. “I think this is called trial by fire.”

  Darcy gently slid her hand into Taylor’s, noticeably grateful when Taylor’s fingers curled around her own.

  “I think you’re right. Sounds like I have some catching up to do.”

  Darcy led her up the stairs behind the others. The group, now of six, filled up the space as they listened to Mack run down the past weeks of investigation. Darcy sat cautiously on the counter near Taylor’s chair and then moved onto her lap when she looked more interested in the unfolding story than angry at her. Taylor slid her hand around Darcy’s hips and placed the other over her thigh as Syd began the video.

  The final scene froze on the wall juxtaposing the aerial video still and the CacheTech logo. Taylor Westin stared at the wall screen and stayed quiet, her mind obviously sifting through the last two hours of her formerly simple life.

  Still staring at the screen, Taylor said quietly, “I’ve spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out where three million dollars in inventory went. No one seemed to know or care, and now you’re telling me that someone I work with is probably stealing it and could have murdered a cop?” Taylor rubbed her fingers across her forehead as if she was trying to stem an ensuing headache.

  “Is this some of the product that’s missing?” Mack handed her the plastic bag containing the red tag that they had taken from the warehouse.

  Taylor looked momentarily stunned as she nodded and handed it back to Mack.

  Darcy pushed against her and asked quietly, “Can you tell them about the schedule? You know, about Sundays and Mondays?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She seemed curious to see why Darcy thought the information was useful. “So the warehouse is completely shut down Sunday morning about three a.m. and no one is scheduled to come back until Tuesday morning at four a.m. The inventory team works Sundays because we can get our static counts when the stock is frozen.”

  “Is anyone else ever there on Sundays?” Mack was tapping a pen on her knee and watched the new draftee adjust to the implications of the situation.

  “Sometimes sales will come in to work on presentations or check delivery schedules if they have a big install. National sales handles those and the big retailers. Consumer sales does the one-offs for small businesses.”

  “Anyone else?” Syd rested her forearms on her knees and then leaned across the desk for the mouse.

  “I mean, anyone who works there can come in after hours, if you’re salaried, that is. The warehouse manager generally does paperwork on Mondays and sets up the route schedule for the rest of the week. We rarely see him otherwise. They keep our departments separate from a managerial standpoint so there’s less chance for collusion on the inventory. At least that was the plan,” she said sarcastically. “Sundays are the most deserted because even the office staff isn’t there.”

  “Makes sense that the truck wasn’t missed on Sundays then.” Syd tapped her fingers on the counter in thought.

  “July 4th was a holiday so pretty much everyone was gone that day.” Taylor seemed overwhelmed at the thought that this had gone on so long.

  Everyone turned as a tap on the glass in the door startled them. Mia was there, staring through the glass at the screen, a puzzled expression plaguing her weary features. Jenny opened the door and hugged the redhead who looked into the room and then back over to the screen.

  “Hi, Mia!” Parker said brightly and hugged her as well. “I thought you weren’t moving the rest in until tomorrow. We would have helped.”

  “I just dropped off some clothes. I wanted to let you know I was here.” She again looked at the wall screen, her eyes fixed on the truck and logo frozen there. “I knocked downstairs but no one answered. I hope it’s okay that I came in. I saw you all up here.”

  “It’s perfectly fine, Mia.” Syd wondered how she could have left the door unlocked—she was normally so careful.
Mia was more than welcome but her security oversight wouldn’t happen again.

  “So I guess they finally found San’s phone, huh?” Her voice sounded sad as she looked over to Mack.

  “No, Mia. We haven’t found it. Why?” Mack stood up and walked closer to their friend, taking her hand.

  “Those look like her pictures from the warehouse investigation.” The statement drew the air from the room as Mack stepped directly in front of her and took her other hand as well.

  “Mia, what warehouse investigation? What pictures?” Her voice was edgy and serious as she stared at the gaunt woman’s face.

  Mia was quiet for a moment, seemingly sifting through her mind about revealing Sandy’s last secrets in a room full of people, some strangers.

  “Was Sandy killed because of that?” The weight of the question was heavy on her and she suddenly looked unsteady. Mack took her by the shoulders and placed her gently in the chair she had just vacated. She knelt in front of the chair looking desperate for the words to come out.

  “Mack, I never even asked. They told me some drug dealer did it.” Her lips trembled as she spoke. “I didn’t want to know where it happened so I didn’t have to picture it.” Tears escaped to Mia’s cheeks before she roughly scrubbed them away.

  “Mia, you were right to remember her the way you last saw her,” Mack said, obviously trying not to push her too hard, too fast. “What did she say about the investigation? Do you know where it was?”

  The room vibrated as Syd took notes as Mack continued to kneel in front of Mia.

  “She never said where it was, I don’t think. She would just send me the pictures so she could delete them off her phone. That’s what she was talking to Major Williams about at the ball.” Mia looked far away as a sad smile stretched across her mouth. “She used to joke about sending me unsexy text messages and still getting lucky.” Another round of tears cascaded from her green eyes and she struggled to regain her tenuous composure.

  “Mia,” Syd almost whispered as she measured her words, “do you still have the pictures? Can we see them?”

  In answer, Mia dug her cell phone out of her back pocket and unlocked it. “I couldn’t delete any of her messages, even those.” She stroked the screen when Sandy’s contact picture came up and offered it to Mack. She buried her head in her hands and sobbed quietly into Mack’s shoulder. Mack handed the phone behind her to Syd while Parker and Jen found a place on either side of their heartbroken friend.

  Syd quickly connected a USB cable to the phone and projected the images onto the screen. Mack watched over Mia’s head as the photos scanned by. Parker whispered to Mia before she and Jen led her downstairs with the offer of tea and more benign conversation. Syd knew Mia had enough bad memories for a lifetime and whatever this was would likely make things worse.

  “These are from that night, Mack. Just three.” Syd tried to keep the excitement from her voice. Sandy’s dark picture came into focus on the screen.

  “Mack, that’s CTI’s logo.” Taylor said what everyone already knew.

  Taylor watched the screen without a word when the box truck with a dark fuzzy logo came onto the screen. Syd zoomed in on the front plate which read CTI0071, and Taylor interjected, “That’s the spare. The company pays for customized plates on the trucks and we number the fleet accordingly to keep things simple. We have two spare trucks, seventy-one which has a logo and sixty-two which is blank. Sixty-two was down until two days ago, bad starter.”

  Taylor looked stunned.

  “Taylor, who drives those trucks?” Mack demanded.

  “Anyone. Usually someone who’s running a hot shot—an unscheduled delivery, when something’s been left off an order, or for an emergency like a failure on a critical unit in a hospital or something like that. No one is assigned to them.”

  Syd jotted down the plate number and clicked the last photo of the truck with a man walking around to the back. Taylor tensed against Darcy as she slowly stood, pulling Darcy up with her, still holding Darcy at the waist. She stood stiffly watching the image as Syd played with focus and zoom.

  “That’s the warehouse manager. That’s Bryce Downing.”

  Syd bristled at the name of the man who’d attempted to strong-arm Parker at the ball. Now realizing he was also a possible murderer caused Sydney’s fears to multiply. She bristled when she pictured the man pawing at her lover.

  She quickly copied the remaining photos to her file and disconnected Mia’s phone. The images went back months and it would take a while to catalog the evidence that Sydney believed was getting them closer to Sandy Curran’s killer. The leap was still long but she felt the answers knocking at her gut. What was certain was that Sandy has passed the information to Williams, making his sudden assertion about some botched drug deal obviously bogus. He very possibly knew what had happened and why Sandy was there. The question now concerned why Williams was involved, and worse, potentially covering for Bryce Downing.

  Mack looked deep in thought when she bent to thumb away a scuff mark from her shoe. She suddenly straightened and stared at Syd. “Pull up the official scene photos again.”

  Syd connected an external drive and began clicking through the deck of pictures Darcy had provided and that, as civilians, they should not be seeing.

  “Stop,” Mack commanded and approached the screen. “Darcy, what does that look like to you?”

  “Um, the view from inside Sandy’s car looking toward the warehouse.” She looked, puzzled, at Mack.

  “And the person outside the car. Who is that?” She pointed to a large pair of feet meeting the hem of black BDUs.

  “Looks like our favorite major to me.” Darcy caught Syd’s eye as if seeking a clue where they were headed. Syd shrugged in reply.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t he tell you and then me, in no uncertain terms, that he did not enter the car and that the warehouse was inaccessible?” Mack spoke with excitement as if waiting to tell the punch line to a joke.

  “That I remember clearly, yes.” Darcy stepped closer to the screen.

  “Look at the knee of his pants and the toes of his shoes,” Mack directed and aimed her pen at the disembodied legs in the photograph.

  “It looks like white gravel dust.”

  “Except it wasn’t gravel dust…” Mack began.

  “It was sheetrock dust,” Darcy completed Mack’s thought. “The kind you get on your black pants from inside a warehouse.”

  “And transfer to the seat of a police car when maybe you move a body over.” Mack’s jaw clenched.

  “And steal a phone to be sure there isn’t evidence on it.” Syd was indignant at the mention of the major who was more than likely in this up to his flabby neck.

  “There’s your connection. We know who probably moved that body.” Mack shook her head in disgust.

  “And who took her cell phone,” Darcy agreed. “All he had to do was tell the truth. If he had, we would all think this was routine.”

  “The last question is why.” Syd noticed Taylor watching them carefully.

  “We both know Williams isn’t that smart. Someone’s leading him around.” Mack rolled her shoulders. “The only question left is who.”

  Parker walked back in as Sydney began closing programs. “Are you finished with Mia’s phone? She wants to go home.” Parker’s voice was small and sad and she crossed to Syd and took the proffered device. She bent to kiss Sydney’s cheek before she walked back to see Mia out.

  * * *

  Syd found a somber contingent in the living room a few minutes later. Everyone was silently staring at the television. A press conference featuring Chief Jayne Provost blared from the speakers, a special cutaway feature on the community channel. Syd perched on the arm of the sofa next to Parker and watched as SLPD Chief Resigns was repeated on a crawl along the bottom of the screen.

  “I just wanted to take a minute to thank the City of Silver Lake for this wonderful opportunity to lead and help grow this department as well as
help to accomplish the goals it has achieved over the past five years.” A smattering of applause from the department plants in the audience drowned out her words so she paused briefly and mouthed thank you several times.

  “Arrogant much?” Mack commented snidely. Syd sighed at the television and watched the political posturing unfold. Jen moved closer and slid her hand into Mack’s.

  “The city gave her a dress uniform when she was sworn in,” Mack said. “I’d bet you my paycheck that she has never even put it on. She wears designer suits and it makes me wonder if she’s ever done street work in her life. Chief O’Brien worked at least two shifts a month in the worst part of town to make sure he kept in touch with real police work and with his officers. The rank and file won’t be at all sad to see her go.”

  The chief adjusted the microphone creating what Syd believed was an intentional pause for dramatic effect.

  “It is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation. Per my contract, I’ve already notified the council chairman and have completed the five years of my contract in service to the people of Silver Lake. Because this is now my adopted home, I’m staying very close by, in this great city. I’ve long wanted to hone my skills in business and marry that to my law enforcement expertise. I hope to continue to work closely with my dear friends at the PD in my new role as vice president and chief security officer for CacheTech, Incorporated.”

  Everyone froze as the chief scanned the televised assembly room and smiled directly into the cameras.

  “Son of a bitch.” Darcy was the first to speak as she reached for Taylor’s hand. Taylor looked suddenly uneasy about the company she worked for.

  “I am also privileged to announce the appointment of Major Damon Williams as interim chief while the council finalizes the appointment of the permanent replacement.”

  “This is about to get really ugly from all aspects.” Mack stood up and looked back at Taylor who nodded in agreement. “Let’s talk in the morning, Syd. I’m thankful for all of you for helping me on this, but you might wish you hadn’t.” Mack clearly needed to process and plan. “Needless to say, no one breathes a word of this since we may have just figured out where the connection is.” She delivered the order seeming to forget that she was speaking to her friends, not her squad. She strode angrily out the door and to the car with Jenny close behind.