“If we find a killer, then getting up early would have been worth it,” Dee Dee said as she dusted it.
“So?” Sean pressed, and Sara nudged his elbow.
“So”—Dee Dee dragged out the word—“there are some good prints here.” She lifted them, sealed them on a print card, and headed over to her computer where a fingerprint was visible on the screen. “I hope that Jimmy explained this to you, but all this is going to be old-school. If I put any of this through the system, it will be my butt on the line.”
“We completely understand,” Sara replied. “We appreciate you helping us.”
Dee Dee smiled and nodded, then turned her attention to the prints on the card. She studied them briefly and said, “There are two distinct sets of prints here, and it looks like they’re from two different people.”
“Two?” Sean felt the strain in his voice.
Dee Dee raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I said.”
Sean looked at Sara. If there were two sets of prints on Kurt’s glass, one would obviously be his, and the other would belong to…Natalie? She’s the one who had poured his glass of orange juice the day they’d met with him.
“Does either match any of the unidentified prints from the crime scene?” Sean asked.
“Give me a minute.” Dee Dee held up the card to the monitor.
Sean watched the second hand circle the clock a few times.
“Okay,” Dee Dee said, lowering the card. “One of these is a match to the crime scene.”
“But how do we confirm they’re Kurt’s and not Natalie’s?” Sean blurted out.
Sara angled her head. “Natalie’s?”
“She’d likely be the other person with prints on the glass. She served him his drink yesterday when we were there.” There was a stress headache setting in behind his eyes now. “But how are we supposed to distinguish whose are whose?” He repeated the problem.
Sara’s eyes widened, and then a grin spread across her face.
“Sara?” Sean’s attention was fixed on her.
“You know when I was sick last night and I left the room with Natalie for the watercooler?”
He nodded.
“She was so irritated by me, she snatched one of those paper cone cups and handed it to me.”
“I’m not sure how that helps us now,” he said.
Dee Dee was following the conversation with a pivoting head looking from one McKinley to the other.
Sara reached into a side pouch of her purse and pulled out a cone cup.
He looked at her, confused. “Why did you put it in your purse?”
She rolled her eyes. “Does that really matter right now?”
He laughed. God, he loved her.
Dee Dee was smiling as she took the cup from Sara and got to work. Another fingerprint came on the screen beside the first.
“Natalie was rushing us out so fast last night,” Sara explained, “I just didn’t think to throw it out. And then when we got in the car this morning, I noticed I’d left it in the console last night so I put it in my purse to get it to a garbage can.”
Sean went over to her, grabbed her arms, and kissed her lips. “You’re a genius.”
She started laughing. “An accidental one, anyhow.”
Dee Dee cleared her throat. “All right, so since Sara’s prints are in the system, I was able to visually rule hers out. That just leaves…your murderer.”
“Who is it?” Sara asked.
Sean held his breath.
“Whoever had their prints all over this.” Dee Dee held up the cone cup.
Sean exhaled. “Natalie.”
“Chloe would have let her into her apartment, no questions asked,” Sara reasoned. “She would have trusted her.”
“But what motive did she have?” Sean asked. “Was she jealous of Chloe’s success, her job offer at Albany One?”
“Well, she was working late last night. I don’t believe those would be her standard hours,” Sara said.
“So she was putting in the time to impress Kurt,” Sean concluded. “She could have been jealous of how much Kurt liked Chloe and her work.”
Sara nodded. “I think you might be right, and she’s probably working hard to take over Chloe’s position at Your Source.”
“But did she even know about the job offer at Albany One before she killed Chloe? Or was she going to kill her anyway?”
“Kurt didn’t seem to know, but if Austin had called for references, he would have gotten Natalie before Kurt,” Sara theorized. “My guess is she knew.”
“Maybe she didn’t even put Austin’s call through to Kurt,” Sean said. “But why kill her if she knew Chloe was moving on?”
“‘Chloe made my life miserable so I had to do what I had to do. Everyone dies, and Chloe’s time had run out,’” Sara recited the e-mail, and Sean was certain she’d done so perfectly. “Kurt wouldn’t let Chloe advance, and that meant Natalie would be stuck where she was, too. Even with the new job, Chloe was getting a gift handed to her and Natalie couldn’t stand it.”
“What about the missing data card? Why would Natalie take that?” So many questions were filtering through his mind, he was having a hard time pinning down answers to go with them.
“Jackson said it wasn’t standard procedure for the cameraman to let the reporter have the data card to look at.” Sara’s amazing memory came through again.
“So Natalie figured it would cast a shadow on Chloe’s good reputation, and it would get Jackson in trouble,” Sean concluded. “But Kurt didn’t seem upset by it. Not in my opinion anyhow.”
“Me neither,” Sara concurred.
“And that must have greatly upset Natalie…”
“‘Chloe’s time had run out,’” she quoted part of the e-mail again.
“Wow,” Dee Dee interjected. “It sounds like you two have everything figured out, but may I suggest it’s time to pass things over to Roland at PD?”
Sean pulled his gaze from Sara to Dee Dee. “I agree.”
Dee Dee handed the paper cup and wineglass to Sean. He and Sara would pass along what they had found out to Detective Roland. From there, he could go ahead and find another way to collect evidence so that an arrest could be made.
Sean put his arm around his wife’s waist, called out thanks to Dee Dee on their way out, and headed back to the car.
“Are you all right?” Sara asked him.
He turned to face her. “You bet I am.” He swept her into his arms and held her close.
She looked around as if he were making a scene, but there was no one there. She was grinning when she faced him again. “Sean, what are you doing?”
“Are you happy?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up. “Absolutely.”
“Then this is for you being you.” He planted a kiss on her lips.
She laughed. And oh, how he loved the sound. They’d taken on the case because she wanted answers, and now they had them. He was going to stop shooting down her gut instincts because she was usually right on the mark. And, besides, whatever made Sara happy made him happy.
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Chapter 26
WITH ONE SHAKE OF A MAGIC WAND
IT WAS THE DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN. The sun was out, but the air was crisp. A breeze blew colored leaves all over the neighborhood. By then, carved pumpkins had appeared on front porches, and more residences had gotten into the spirit by decorating their front lawns with large plastic spiders filled with leaves, life-size skeletons, and foam gravestones, to name a few. And Sara couldn’t help but think of a life that had been cut short because of jealousy. If Chloe hadn’t been killed, she would have been starting her new job at Albany One in less than twenty-four hours.
When the police had questioned Natalie in length, everything Sara and Sean had speculated had been confirmed. Natalie had been envious of Chloe’s success and the admiration she’d garnered from their boss. She’d admitted to knowing about the anchor position at Albany One and curtailing Austin’s attempt to get a ref
erence from Kurt. It hadn’t made any difference, though, and Natalie was determined to take down the woman who’d had her life handed to her. As it turned out, Natalie had just as much education in journalism and reporting as Chloe had when Kurt had hired her, but Kurt had pigeonholed Natalie into the position of his assistant. To add to Natalie’s motive, Adam had found out that she’d also applied for the anchor job at Albany One. That had probably been the catalyst for murdering Chloe.
Natalie had laughed about how easy it had been to get into Chloe’s apartment and lace her wine with a vial of liquid caffeine. All she’d had to do was act excited for Chloe’s job offer, and they’d bonded over that. According to Detective Roland, she attributed air quotes to the word bonded. And not once during interrogation had Natalie shown any remorse for killing Chloe.
As for the missing data card from the camera, police had recovered it when they searched Natalie’s apartment. Not too bright to use her home as her hiding spot. And why had she risked sending the e-mail and calling attention to herself? Whether she was prompted by her own narcissism or became nervous when Sean and Sara had come around asking questions, they couldn’t be certain. Natalie had picked Tom simply because he would have been Chloe’s cohost and an easy patsy. But they could be certain that their segment on the data card wouldn’t see daylight until long after Halloween had passed, as the police had confiscated it as evidence.
Murder cases never had happy endings. No matter what, someone had their life stolen from them. Sara had to think of that as being the beginning and justice as the ending. In this case, they had caught the killer, which made for a happy ending of sorts.
Sara was thinking over all this as she stood in front of the haunted house with Sean, watching the kids coming to visit. They were smiling and laughing, the sound of it warming her heart and her soul.
Today, she was dressed up as a pixie, complete with magic wand and making good use of the short blond wig she’d worn while posing as a janitor. Sean was a caped superhero.
The Albany One news van pulled up in front of the house, and the door behind her opened. Mia stepped outside.
“I’m all ready, Sara.” Little Mia spun around. Today she was wearing a ballerina costume, and her makeup had been applied with a heavy brush.
Sara bent over and kissed Mia’s cheek. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Thanks.” Mia twirled repeatedly and lost her footing, but Sean caught her. She was giggling when the reporter walked up to them with a cameraman.
“So I understand that you have a haunted house you’d like the Albany community to know about?” The reporter held out a microphone to Sara.
“That we do,” she said with a smile.
Sean slipped his arm around her, and she turned, pretending to cast a spell on him.
“And when kids—young and old alike—come here, we want everyone to have fun,” Sara said.
“And it’s for a good cause!” Mia chimed in.
Sara’s heart swelled.
From the mouth of babes…
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Preview of Ties that Bind
The hunt for a serial killer begins…
Detective Madison Knight concluded the case of a strangled woman an isolated incident. But when another woman’s body is found in a park killed with the same brand of neckties, she realizes they’re dealing with something more serious.
Despite mounting pressure from the sergeant and the chief to close the case even if it means putting an innocent man behind bars, and a partner who is more interested in saving his marriage than stopping a potential serial killer, Madison may have to go it alone if the murderer is going to be stopped.
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Chapter 1
SOMEONE DIED EVERY DAY. Detective Madison Knight was left to make sense of it.
She ducked under the yellow tape and surveyed the scene. The white, two-story house would be deemed average any other day, but today the dead body inside made it a place of interest to the Stiles PD and the curious onlookers who gathered in small clusters on the sidewalk.
She’d never before seen the officer who was securing the perimeter, but she knew his type. The way he stood there—his back straight, one hand resting on his holster, the other gripping a clipboard—he was an eager recruit.
He held up a hand as she approached. “This is a closed crime scene.”
She unclipped her badge from the waist of her pants and held it up in front of him. He studied it as if it were counterfeit. She usually respected those who took their jobs seriously but not when she was functioning on little sleep and the humidity level topped ninety-five percent at ten thirty in the morning.
“Detective K-N-I—”
Her name died on her lips as Sergeant Winston stepped out of the house. She would have groaned audibly if he weren’t closing the distance between them so quickly. She preferred her boss behind his desk.
Winston gestured toward the young officer to let him know she was permitted to be on the scene. The officer glared at her before leaving his post. She envied the fact that he could walk away while she was left to speak with the sarge.
“It’s about time you got here.” Winston fished a handkerchief out of a pocket and wiped at his receding hairline. The extra few inches of exposed forehead could have served as a solar panel. “I was just about to assign the lead to Grant.”
Terry Grant was her on-the-job partner of five years and three years younger than her thirty-four. She’d be damned if Terry was put in charge of this case.
“Where have you been?” Winston asked.
She jacked a thumb in the rookie’s direction. “Who’s the new guy?”
“Don’t change the subject, Knight.”
She needed to offer some sort of explanation for being late. “Well, boss, you know me. Up all night slinging back shooters.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
She flashed him a cocky smile and pulled out a Hershey’s bar from one of her front pants pocket. The chocolate had already softened from the heat. Not that it mattered. She took a bite.
Heaven.
She spoke with her mouth partially full. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“The call came in, I was nearby, and thought someone should respond.” His leg caught the tape as he tried to step over it to the sidewalk and he hopped on the other leg to adjust his balance. He continued speaking as if he hadn’t noticed. “The body’s upstairs, main bedroom. She was strangled.” He pointed the tip of a key toward her. “Keep me updated.” He
pressed a button on his key fob and the department-issued SUV’s lights flashed. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
As if he needed to say that. Sometimes she wondered if he valued talking more than taking action.
She took a deep breath. She could feel the young officer watching her, and she flicked a glance at him, now that the sergeant was gone. What was his problem? She took another bite of her candy bar.
“Too bad you showed. I think I was about to get the lead.”
Madison turned toward her partner’s voice. Terry was padding across the lawn toward her.
“I’d have to be the one dead for that to happen.” She smiled as she brushed past him.
“You look like crap.”
Her smile faded. She stopped walking and turned around. Every one of his blond hairs were in place, making her self-conscious of her short, wake-up-and-wear-it cut. His cheeks held a healthy glow, too, no doubt from his two-mile morning run. She hated people who could do mornings.
“What did you get? Two hours of sleep?” Terry asked.
“Three, but who’s counting?” She took another large bite of the chocolate. It was almost a slurp with how fast the bar was melting.
“You were up reviewing evidence from the last case again, weren’t you?”
She wasn’t inclined to answer.
“You can’t change the past.”
She wasn’t hungry anymore and wrapped up what was left of the chocolate. “Let’s focus on this case.”
“Fine, if that’s how it’s going be. Victim’s name is Laura Saunders. She’s thirty-two. Single. Officer Higgins was the first on scene.”
Higgins? She hadn’t seen him since she arrived, but he had been her training officer. He still worked in that capacity for new recruits. Advancing in the ranks wasn’t important to him. He was happy making a difference where he was stationed.
Terry continued. “Call came in from the vic’s employer, Southwest Welding Products, where she worked as the receptionist.”
Halloween Is Murder Page 13
