FIRST ONE DOWN: A Paul Sutton Novel

by R. J. Belle

  The bathroom door opened and out came a gorgeous, fresh faced, and smiling Kali. She walked up to him, stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek, then spun around and grabbed the coffee mug he had left for her near the generic coffee maker. Pouring herself a cup, she looked back at him, "Want one, Colonel?"

  "No thanks, I've already had two."

  "Okay, how about dinner tonight?" she asked.

  "Um, okay. Where? When?" he asked, a bit baffled by the dramatic change in her attitude.

  "My house, seven, and bring us a bottle of red wine. Can I have a ride to my car? I need to get to my office."

  "Of course, I'm ready when you are, beautiful," he said as he walked towards her. He stopped directly in front of her and pulled her to him, tilting her chin up. He kissed her lips and lingered there for a brief moment. Then, he pulled away and nodded towards the front door.

  CHAPTER 24

  Ryan blinked repeatedly staring at his desktop computer screen. He couldn't believe that the phone records he had requested that morning had come back so quickly. When Sutton was involved, things had a tendency to turn around fast, but this was unbelievable. Eager to see what the records contained, he opted not to wait for Sutton to return from the deli. He queued the report to print and walked over to the printer station located at the far side of the unit. He was still standing next to the printer when Sutton got off the elevator with their turkey sandwiches from the deli.

  "What's going on Ry?" Sutton asked.

  "You won't believe it when I tell you," Ryan said, as he picked up and thick stack of copy paper off the printer, and carried the stack back to his desk.

  "Let me guess, you single-handedly solved the Carmichael case while I was picking up our lunch?"

  "Close," Ryan said, with a smirk, "the records we subpoenaed this morning came back, and we have another three hundred pages to go through. This guy must live on his phone."

  "All the text transcripts are there?" Sutton asked.

  "Ya, all of them for the three month date range we requested. And, Ms. Foster's records came as well. She must actually work for a living, because hers only account for about twenty pages in this thick stack."

  "Great, sounds like overtime for us today," Sutton said, rubbing his thumb back and forth on his fingers in the international hand sign for money.

  "For you, old man. I got the records, you can analyze 'em."

  Ryan walked the thick stack over to Sutton's desk and dropped it on the metal desk top, causing a loud thud when the stack landed. "Let me know what your gut has to say about these," he said, as he walked back to his own desk, sat down, unwrapped his turkey on rye and took a big bite.

  Sutton pushed his wrapped sandwich aside and began sifting through the records. The first thing he wanted to read was the text correspondence between Nate and Olivia.

  All the text messages were initiated by Nate Warner, Sutton began reading the transcripts from December 25, 2009.

  12/25/09 12:22 p.m.

  Why were you spying on me last night, Olivia? I expect an answer...

  12/26/09 9:02 a.m.

  Hmmm...are you playing hard to get, Olivia?

  12/26/09 1:47 p.m.

  Olivia...you owe me an explanation.

  12/26/09 7:18 p.m.

  Perhaps I should make my inquiry in person...

  12/28/09 6:42 a.m.

  Good morning, Olivia. Do you need help packing?

  12/28/09 8:03 a.m.

  I don't think all of those boxes will fit in your small sports car, Olivia.

  12/28/09 11:28 a.m.

  You are a very hard worker. Are you sure you don't need help, Olivia?

  12/31/09 6:33 a.m.

  I heard that you resigned from your position at the facility. I came by to congratulate you on your big move but your apartment was empty. It saddens me that you left without saying goodbye.

  12/31/09 12:54 p.m.

  Happy New Year, Olivia. Starting over was exactly what you needed to do.

  Sutton read, and re-read the text correspondence. Running his hand through his already tangled mess of gray hair, he pondered the content before him. Sutton stood up and began pacing the area between his and Ryan's desks, looking over at the case board occasionally. Was Nate Warner trying to intimidate Ms. Foster? Was he trying to set a meeting with her? Was he trying to salvage a relationship with her? Did Olivia see something that night? It didn't make sense. And, there was never a return text from Olivia in response to any of Nate's texts. Perhaps Olivia was a new lover or girlfriend and happened upon Nate courting a different woman that night, and upon that discovery, Olivia cut off all contact? Sutton would have expected to find earlier contact between Olivia and Nate if that was the case though. And, aside from the calls a few days leading up to the 24th, there was no other contact between the two in the records on Sutton's desk. The two things Sutton knew for sure were that he needed to find Olivia Foster, and that he had Nate pinned in a lie - he did know, or at the very least, know of, Olivia Foster.

  "Sutton..."

  "Sutton!" Ryan shouted, louder than the first time, trying to get Sutton's attention.

  "What?" Sutton snapped back, then realized his desk phone was ringing and rushed over to answer it.

  "Ya, Sutton here," Sutton squawked into the receiver, sitting down into his chair, slamming the pages from the report that were clutched in his hand.

  "You have a visitor downstairs, Detective Sutton," the woman at reception said.

  "Be down in a minute." Sutton slammed the phone down, muttering under his breath.

  "Damn, that man is never going to get off my back," he said, looking over at a confused Ryan.

  "You need to chill old man, this case is doing a number on you. And, you gave the guy an open invitation when you disclosed Nate Warner's identity to him," Ryan said turning back and finishing the last bite of his sandwich, "Want me to go down with you?"

  "No, I got this. You're right, I opened the gate wide enough to drive a truck through."

  "Ya, that guy is the size of a truck," Ryan said, snickering aloud.

  Sutton stepped off the first floor elevator and walked towards Andrew Carmichael.

  "What's up, Colonel? What was so important that you felt the need to pay me a personal visit?"

  "This," Andrew said, pushing a print out in Sutton's face.

  Andrew had forwarded Kali's text messages from Nate Warner, to his personal email account and printed them out for Sutton.

  "I want to know why the guy who's name keeps popping up in the investigation of my wife's murder is the same guy who is now sending messages like this to the new woman in my life. Does that make any sense to you, Sutton? Is that information important enough for me to pay you a personal visit?" Andrew asked, his voice gruff, and his posture erect, making him appear larger than he was, if that was even possible.

  "New woman in your life? Did you seek out Nate Warner's current love interest as a way to get to him?"

  "Are you hearing me, Sutton? I didn't even know this guy's name until you gave it to me. What do you know about him? What is his involvement with Laura? Is this the guy you are looking at as the suspect?"

  "I can't give you that information, Mr. Carmichael, you know that. How do you know this woman? Who is this woman, and how is she connected to Nate Warner?" Sutton asked.

  "She was his girlfriend for several years. From what I can deduce from my conversations with her, she was hurt pretty badly by him. He cheated on her with a co-worker and friend of hers. And I suspect that he has tormented her ever since the breakup," Andrew paused for a moment, still trying to fit the pieces together in his own mind and not quite sure where or how they fit together. "Sutton, there's another interesting piece that I learned last night. The woman I'm seeing, Kali Hanson, she caught Nate Warner cheating with that co-worker of hers on the same night that Laura was murdered. December 24, 2009."

  "What did you just say? Was she with Nate Warner on that night? Can she provide an alibi for him?" Sutton a
sked, looking up at the enormous man, his mind racing with more questions than answers. "Do you know the name of this co-worker that she claims Nate was carrying on with?"

  "She didn't say. All I know is that she was a co-worker."

  "Where does this Kali Hanson work?"

  "San Diego Orthopaedic Specialists, that's why I transferred out here, to oversee..."

  "Where?" Sutton interrupted.

  "San Diego Ortho..."

  "Holy crap are you kidding me right now Andrew?"

  Andrew stared down at the aging detective, confused, "No, why would I make that up?"

  "It's okay, I didn't mean it that way. Hey, thanks for the heads up. I need to get back upstairs. I will call you tomorrow Mr. Carmichael, I promise. I have to run this down." Sutton turned walking briskly back toward the elevator.

  "Quit calling me Mr. Carmichael, damn it, it's Andrew."

  Sutton nodded as he stepped into the elevator and made his way back up to the third floor.

  "Ryan, at my desk, now," Sutton barked.

  Ryan looked up from a report he was writing and rolled his eyes, this was going to be a long afternoon, he thought to himself. "What is it old man, did you single-handedly crack the Carmichael case while down on the first floor for ten minutes?" Ryan asked laughing as he walked over to Sutton's desk until he saw the look on his partners face. Sutton's face was drawn in, grim and serious. He knew that look, Sutton was close. He always got dead serious when he was close to solving a case.

  "Quit being a smart ass, I need you to help me go through these phone records. And, I need a number check for a woman named Kali Hanson, she works at the same ortho facility that Olivia Foster used to work at." He split the stack and handed the bottom portion to Ryan. "And Ryan, Kali Hanson was dating Nate Warner. She broke up with him on a very odd date, any guesses what date that would be?"

  "Just tell me," Ryan said.

  "December 24, 2009. And there's more. The Hanson girl broke up with him because she found out he was dating her co-worker, her co-worker from the ortho facility. I wasn't given a name but I think you and I already know exactly who that was."

  "Olivia Foster?" Ryan asked.

  "I would lay money on it, partner."

  "How on earth did you get this information?" Ryan asked.

  "Carmichael."

  "What? How did he..."

  Cutting him off mid-sentence, Sutton answered, "He is dating Kali Hanson."

  Ryan's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide before the words had left Sutton's mouth.

  "How in the hell did this web get so intricately tangled? This can't be a coincidence," Ryan said.

  "I don't know. I believe Carmichael is being straight about how he met Ms. Hanson; I don't think he had any idea that she had ever crossed paths with Nate Warner. This might be the first coincidence that actually pans out to be just that - a coincidence."

  The two detectives spent the remainder of that afternoon and into the night pouring over every detail of the phone records, specifically the text transcripts. They started a spreadsheet, tying text conversations to specific people and the corresponding phone numbers, and building separate logs to detail each individual string of text messages, by person and number. They agreed not to get stuck on any one piece of information, intending to get it all divided up so they could view it from a different perspective.

  Four hours into the convoluted mess of text and phone records, Sutton got up from his desk, stretched and let out a loud, long yawn. "I'm going down to get coffee..."

  "Strong," Ryan said, cutting Sutton off.

  Sutton chuckled and ran a hand through the mess of tangled gray hair on his head. As he was passing Ryan's desk on the way to the elevator, he gave him a quick pat on the shoulder, "Thanks, partner."

  CHAPTER 25

  Andrew pulled his rental car into the small visitor parking area of Kali's condo complex promptly at seven. Hefting his large frame out of the compact rental, he snatched the bottle of Barolo he had picked up earlier that day and walked to her front door. Standing outside for a moment, he collected his thoughts and told himself to take things slow with this woman; he didn't want to scare her off and after the night before he knew he had some ground to make up with her.

  "Hello, Colonel," Kali said, as she opened the door, taking him by surprise. "You brought the wine I see, and a nice one," she said as she removed the bottle from his hand and opened the door all the way, inviting him to enter.

  "Hello beautiful," he said, taking her in his arms and squeezing her tight in an extended embrace.

  Smiling up at him, she pulled out of the embrace, grabbed his hand in hers and led him towards the kitchen area stopping at a barstool at the gray, tiled bar that separated the kitchen and dining room area. She pointed towards it and said, "Sit."

  Laughing, he sat down. "Are you going to give me a treat if I obey?"

  "I might," she said, coyly.

  "Fair enough, I will sit." He sat down and watched her fluttering back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room table, "Smells delicious," he said, as he closed his eyes and inhaled loudly.

  "The food?" she asked.

  "Yes, the food and the lady."

  "Awww Colonel, did you borrow that from Hallmark, or is that an original line?" she asked, teasingly.

  "Only originals for you," he said, as he gave her a wink, his voice low and seductive.

  "You always know the right answers, don't you Colonel?"

  "Always? That's a big expectation to try to live up to," he said, "but I will do my best."

  "I doubt you will have any problems living up to my expectations," she said and quickly changed the subject to prevent herself from going down that road. The one that always led back to Nate. That was the always she hoped to change, "Wine?"

  "Yes, you keep doing what you're doing, and I will pour." Getting up from the barstool, he entered the kitchen area and pulled a few drawers open until he found a wine opener.

  Andrew walked over to the beautifully set table that already had two wine glasses set out. He opened the bottle of Barolo and filled both glasses to the top.

  "Sit," she said, motioning for him to sit in the seat he was standing next to. Kali leaned over and lit two candles in the center of the black, square dining table. Then she walked to the wall switch and dimmed the overhead light. Perfect, she thought to herself just as her favorite Banks song began streaming from her Bose system.

  Kali sat down across from Andrew and opened the top to the serving dish containing the entrée, "I hope you like Entrecôte Bordelaise," she said in her best French accent.

  "Well, I couldn't have chosen a more appropriate wine," he said, a smile stretching wide in anticipation.

  She lifted the Fusion Triumph wine glass next to her plate and held it up in a toast, "To fairytales and great wines."

  Lifting his glass to hers, he toasted in agreement.

  They talked and laughed all through dinner, sharing stories from the past and telling of their dreams for the future. Kali felt light, peaceful and a closeness she had forgotten was possible to have with a man. By the time they were done eating and the kitchen was put back in order, it was approaching midnight.

  Andrew pulled his leather jacket off the back of the barstool and got one arm in when Kali tugged at the other side, forcing his muscular arm to come back out of the sleeve he had just put it into.

  "I would like it if you stayed here tonight, Colonel," she said, moving towards him slowly, until she was pressed against his body.

  "I would feel better if I was with you tonight, uh...better if I was here, just in case."

  Kali looked up at him, the back of her head tilted as far back as she could take it, "You don't need to worry about my safety. I want you to stay because you want to stay. With me. Not to protect me."

  "I want both," he said, leaning down, taking her face in one hand and pulling at the back of her waist with the other, he kissed her mouth. Parting her lips, his tongue found hers and began e
xploring her mouth, teasing her, tasting her, feeling her passion swell and enjoying the feel of her body relaxing in his strong embrace.

  With her right hand, she reached up and gripped his bicep, as her left hand slid down the side of his body until it rested on his belt, she hooked a thumb at the hip area, and tugged lightly at it, trying to keep herself in check, at least a little. Breaking the kiss, she looked into his light green eyes and asked, "Shall we move to my room, Colonel?"

  "I want to take this slow. I want you, God, I want you Kali. But I want to take my time with you. Can you understand that?" he asked.

  Kali looked down and blinked back the hot tears welling in her eyes. She could understand that, but she also felt slightly rejected by it. She had grown so accustomed to sex being something that was taken from her after she was seduced into it, usually by force and restraint. It conditioned her to respond to things that had little to do with softness, sensitivity or her opinion. She wasn't sure what she was feeling in that moment or why. Wanting to break down and cry but not wanting him to see that, she looked up, demurely and said, "Yes, I understand. Can we just lie together? Can you just hold me, Colonel?"

  "Of course beautiful," he said and lifting her up, he carried her back to her bedroom. He set her gently onto the bed. Then he pulled her white t-shirt up, over her head and off, her long, dark hair spilling over her shoulders. He laid her back onto the bed, un-did the button of her jeans, unzipped the copper zipper, grasped the sides at her waist and pulled them down to her ankles as she lifted her hips making it easier for him to pull them down.

  Andrew pulled his polo shirt up exposing a flawless, very well defined chest and sculpted abs. Pulling his khaki pants down, he stopped and looked at Kali's eyes which were fixed on the bulge growing in his boxer briefs. After he stepped out of his pants, he walked over to the wall and turned the light switch off, then made his way to her bed. He pulled the covers back and slid in slowly along side her. Reaching out, he found her soft, delicate skin. With one hand he pulled her in next to him until her back was against his chest and her buttocks pressed firmly against his manhood. He pulled the covers up over both of their bodies and pulled her long strands of hair up towards the pillow. He ran his fingers through it like a rake, over and over, smoothing out the small tangles that had formed. He let her sweet scent envelope him and any doubt that he belonged laying next to her vanished. The comfort of being in her space was a comfort he had never known and he vowed never to allow anything in the way of something so precious to him. Not ever again.