by Liz Turner
Mrs. Wilheart turned back to Lily, her eyes wide with new understanding. Her lips trembled slightly, unable to form coherent words through her emotions.
“It’s okay,” Lily said softly, shaking her head. “But we need your help to understand more about what was going on in your daughter’s life.”
Mrs. Wilheart closed her eyes tightly and nodded. She breathed deeply in attempts to calm herself. When she reopened her eyes, she turned toward the detectives. “Okay, I’ll try my best, but this is all just such a shock…”
“Mrs. Wilheart, we apologize for any insensitivity on our parts, but it’s necessary to ask certain questions. The longer we delay, the further away our killer gets. So, can you think of anyone who would want to harm your daughter?”
Mrs. Wilheart shook her head slowly. “My daughter had a dark past… I don’t really know what she was involved in. She ran away from home at sixteen and disappeared from my life. It wasn’t her fault, really. I’d made a poor marriage choice and unfortunately, Candy suffered as a result…” Mrs. Wilheart's breath caught in her throat. “Anyway,” she continued, “I don’t know the details, but I heard my daughter was involved in a gang. There must have been some drugs involved because when she finally made her way back home three years later, she was a mess. Candy had been arrested for drugs, and after her time in prison as a delinquent, she finally came home to me. She did her best to clean herself up after that, and I was… well, very proud of her.” Tears glistened in her eyes again, and she wiped them away with her sleeve.
“Do you know what this tattoo meant to your daughter?” Ryan asked, showing Mrs. Wilheart the photo of Candy’s lightning bolt.
Mrs. Wilheart nodded. “Yes. She said that was the stamp of the gang she’d been involved with, but claimed she had a plan to get out. You see detectives,” Mrs. Wilheart leaned closer and lowered her voice, as if afraid the very walls were listening, “my Candy was on the straight and narrow. She even had a police officer friend that no one knew about.”
Ryan shot a look at Garcia, whose dark eyebrows twitched in response. “Can you describe the nature of this friendship, Mrs. Wilheart?” Ryan asked.
She laughed sadly. “Candy said she couldn’t tell me anything because I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut, which was probably true. But anyway—the cop was helping her change her life around. She succeeded in cleaning herself up and got a job at the bank. Things were looking good…”
“What about romantic interests?” Lily asked.
Mrs. Wilheart rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes. She had a boyfriend. Milo Jacobs.”
“You don’t sound impressed,” Lily pointed out.
“Well, he isn’t a bad guy. He said all the right charming words and seemed to take care of my Candy. But I don’t know—I just didn’t feel he was right for Candy.” She shook her head. “Candy was moving up, and I always felt like Milo was trying to pull her back down to his level.”
“Did Milo have any dealings with the gang too?” Garcia asked.
Mrs. Wilheart sighed. “I think Milo would love to be in a gang, but I doubt he could handle anything like that. He’s just a kid still trying to figure out where he is in life.”
“Do you know where we’ll be able to find Milo?”
“He’s probably at home. I’ll give you the address. I guess he’ll be able to give you more information about what Candy was up to. I just can’t believe…” Her voice trailed off.
Lily rested a hand on Mrs. Wilheart’s. “We’ll do everything we can to try to find out who did this to your daughter,” she said reassuringly. “But I’m afraid we have some bad news.” Lily looked up at Garcia for approval, and he gave her a nod in return.
“What do you mean?” Mrs. Wilheart asked, panicked. “How could you possibly have more bad news?”
Lily proceeded tentatively. “It seems your daughter, for reasons still unknown, was involved with the robbery herself. We don’t have all the facts,” she added hastily, seeing Mrs. Wilheart’s expression abruptly change, “but it appears Candy was the inside-woman for this job.”
“No!” Mrs. Wilheart shook her head aggressively. “Candy changed. She wouldn’t go back to that life!”
“Mrs. Wilheart, the fact that the robber turned on Candy and shot her, despite her supposedly being in on the heist, shows that there’s far more to this case than what meets the eye,” Garcia explained, his steady voice resetting order back to the conversation.
Mrs. Wilheart nodded slowly, breathing heavily through her nose as she tried to hold back the grief that left her tiny frame trembling.
“Oh, there’s one more thing.” Ryan leaned forward and placed a photo on the coffee table. It was blurred and obviously taken with someone’s camera phone, but it showed the back of a blue truck. “This was apparently the getaway vehicle the robber used. Is there any chance you recognize—”
“But this is Candy’s truck…” Mrs. Wilheart cut Ryan off, moving to the edge of the seat for a closer view. She looked up blankly at the detectives, her eyebrows tinged with confusion.
“Are you sure?” Ryan asked, matching her confusion. “You’re telling me the robber and killer used her truck as a getaway?” He exchanged glances with Garcia.
“Well, it was pretty badly beat up, and didn’t even lock.” Mrs. Wilheart shrugged helplessly, desperate to excuse her daughter from the crime.
“And, of course, it would have been parked outside the bank every day, so the killer could’ve scouted it out as a potential getaway vehicle ahead of time,” Lily added.
“Thank you, Mrs. Wilheart. You’ve been a great help. Please,” Garcia handed her his card, “if you think of anything else or if you need anything, get in touch.”
As Lily passed by to leave, Mrs. Wilheart extended her bangled wrist and grabbed her by the arm. “I just want to thank you for what you tried to do for my Candy,” she said, smiling faintly.
Lily smiled back. “I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but I promise you, someday you’ll be able to think of your daughter without pain ripping through your heart. We’ll uncover the truth for Candy, and for you.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Wilheart whispered before closing the door.
Chapter 3
A Lover’s Broken Heart
“Burgers are definitely in order,” Garcia said, climbing into the driver’s seat.
“We just informed a woman that her daughter was shot dead a few hours ago, and you’re thinking about your stomach?” Ryan slammed the passenger door shut and rammed on his safety belt. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to lose a few pounds, Filippo…”
“I was thinking more along the lines of pizza,” Lily suggested innocently. “And I think you look just great, Garcia.”
“You’re always thinking about pizza.” Ryan rolled his eyes. “I’m putting my foot down on this case. No food until we’ve gotten through what we need to get through!”
Garcia winked at Lily in the rearview mirror.
She winked back at him. “Well, I feel like it’s been a super productive morning. I mean, I nearly took down a bank robber, did a medical examination on a dead body, and comforted a grieving mother. It’s definitely lunch time in my books. I’m running on empty!”
“Chinese?” Garcia suggested.
“Ooh, Chinese!” Lily squealed.
Ryan shook his head. “You two are seriously unhealthy. And maybe if you actually succeeded in taking down the bank robber, you’d deserve a reward, Lily. I’ll tell you guys what,” He turned slightly in his seat to face the two of them.
“Oh, this should be good,” Lily teased, scooting forward in between the front seats so that she could see Ryan’s proposition more clearly.
“You two get through the whole day without ordering any fast food, and I’ll cook you a healthy dinner tonight. How’s that sound?”
“That sounds pretty good, Detective Scott. We’ll have to take you up on that offer.” Garcia extended his hand and shook Ryan’s.
Lily grinned at Garcia in t
he rearview mirror. “Free meal ticket—and we get to check out where Detective Scott lives!”
“Now, Lily—why would you be interested in seeing where a young, single bachelor lives?” Garcia asked, one eyebrow shooting up.
Lily sank back into her seat and folded her arms, her cheeks reddening. She opened her mouth a few times to give a witty response, but found she had none. Seeing the corner of Ryan’s face smirking, she felt like kicking the back of his seat.
“Oh, and I wouldn’t sit there feeling so smug if I were you, Detective Scott,” Garcia said, continuing with his embarrassing rampage. “Don’t forget half the Douglasdale police force witnessed your rather touching hug with Lily this morning…”
“Seriously?” Ryan shoved his door open as soon as the vehicle came to a halt. “You’re the worst partner in the world,” he muttered, storming towards the front door of Milo Jacobs’s house.
Lily glared at Garcia as she climbed out and followed Ryan.
“Was it something I said?” Garcia asked with mock surprise.
Ryan pounded on the door, and a young shirtless guy in sweat pants with a buzz cut answered. “Yeah,” he said tiredly, leaning against the door frame with one eye open. “What’s up?”
“Milo Jacobs?”
“Who is it, ba—” a young woman’s sleepy voice cut dead upon seeing the detectives at the door. She was wearing boxer shorts and an oversized t-shirt that clearly didn’t belong to her.
Lily raised one eyebrow at Garcia, who shook his head in response.
“Yeah, man. I’m Milo. Why you beating on my door like that?” He scratched his head and yawned.
“I’m Detective Scott. This is Detective Garcia and Lily. We need to ask you a few questions,” Ryan said, annoyed with Milo’s attitude.
“About what?” the girl demanded, eyeing Ryan up and down.
“His girlfriend, Candy Wilheart,” Ryan answered, pushing his way into the house and taking a look around.
“Hey, you can’t just walk in here like you own the place,” the girl shouted.
Ryan ignored her and turned on Milo. “Your girlfriend was shot down in a bank robbery this morning, and you’re here with another girl as if nothing happened.”
“Wait, what?” Milo said, stunned.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Ryan took a seat on the sofa and gestured for the others to sit as well.
“Wait,” the girl said, sitting opposite Ryan, “Candy is dead?”
“Who are you?” Ryan asked the girl.
“Sandra Rodriguez. C-Candy’s best friend… What happened to her?”
“There was a bank robbery in town. A robber got Candy to load up the cash and then shot her,” Garcia said, taking the only other available seat and leaving Lily to squeeze into the space next to Ryan.
Milo sank his head between his hands and breathed heavily.
“Which gang was Candy associated with?” Ryan asked, holding up the tattoo photo.
Sandra hesitated, pretending she’d never seen the tattoo before. Meanwhile, Milo kept his head lowered, refusing to even look at it.
“We don’t have time for this, so if you want to help your friend, then you better talk. Now,” Ryan said.
“Okay, jeez!” Sandra complained. “This is all just such a shock! You could’ve given it to us a little more gently! Anyway, Candy was a part of the Flash Gang run by Mickie Romano. She did some work for him a few years ago, but then she did some jail time and didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. She was still stuck running errands for Mickie, though. That’s when we came into her life.”
“So why did she end up dead on a bank floor?” Ryan asked.
Flinching, Milo got up and left the room.
Seeing Ryan about to react, Garcia gave him a warning look to remain calm.
“I don’t know!” Sandra shrugged. “Look, Mickie’s not the kind of guy you mess with. If he heard the rumor of Candy wanting out of his gang, bad things would definitely happen.”
“What rumors?” Lily asked. She watched Sandra closely, noting how alert and focused her eyes were, looking nothing like those of a grief-stricken best friend.
Sandra leaned forward, twirling a curl on her finger. “Look, I don’t know much, but this one night I saw Candy talking to this guy. I was staying over at her place, and it was the middle of the night. They were acting all secret-like. I assumed she was cheating on Milo, but when I asked Candy about it, she said he was connected to the police and was her ticket to a better life.”
“Did she mention this guy’s name?” Garcia asked.
“No, so I waited for her to fall asleep and snooped through her phone. I found out that she’d been working as an informant for the police. Some guy with the code name ‘G’…” Sandra practically whispered the last part.
“You did what?” Milo demanded, pulling on a shirt and reentering the room.
Sandra jumped in her seat, springing round in surprise at his voice. “Sorry, Milo—I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to upset you! You and Candy were still kind of in love at the time and—”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Milo said, giving a pointed look at the detectives opposite her.
“No,” Ryan cleared his throat, “we need to discuss this now. So, Milo—you had no idea that Candy was involved with a cop?”
“No.” He scowled at Sandra. “As far as I knew, Candy was still friends with Mickie. I don’t understand why she would betray him.”
“You do realize you’re talking about a known drug dealer and felon, right?” Garcia said.
“Nah… I mean, not like that. Mickie can be a good guy,” Milo defended, his eyes darting between detectives.
Lily eyed Sandra’s raised eyebrows and folded arms. “You don’t look so sure of that, Sandra.”
Sandra ignored Milo’s glare and focused her brown eyes on Ryan. “I’m just saying, ‘good guy’ or not, Mickie Romano is not the kind of guy you mess with. And if Candy was spitting to the cops about Mickie’s activities and Mickie found out—well, I’m not surprised Candy was shot dead in the middle of a bank robbery…”
“It appears that Candy had something to do with the bank robbery herself,” Garcia said. He fixed a stern gaze towards Milo and then back to Sandra. “So as her supposed boyfriend and best friend, you can’t tell me that you two didn’t know anything about it.”
Sandra and Milo stared at each other blankly.
“You’re joking, right?” Sandra scoffed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Candy was a goodie-two-shoes since she got out of prison. We were the bad influence.” She giggled and nudged Milo in the ribs. “There’s no way Candy was in on a bank robbery!”
“Unless it was one last job Mickie was getting out of her before she left his gang,” Milo said, turning a grave face to Sandra. His hands shook, and his face reddened.
“Calm down, Milo. We don’t know if it was Mickie!” Sandra rubbed her hands across his shoulders and back.
“I’ll kill him if Mickie did this to our Candy,” he said, his eyes bulging as he clenched his jaw.
Ryan cleared his throat. “No one is going to be killing anyone, or we’ll be throwing you into jail with whoever was involved in this.” He leaned forward to stare Milo in the eyes. “Got it?”
“Yeah, fine,” Milo said after a prolonged pause. “I won’t do anything stupid.”
“Where were the two of you between ten and ten thirty this morning?” Lily asked.
Sandra blushed and hid her face behind her hair.
Milo chuckled. “Uh… Well, Candy and I kind of broke up last night, so Sandra was here… uh… comforting me through the break up, I guess you could say…”
Garcia stood, annoyed. “Just spit it out.”
“Okay, fine.” Milo sighed. “We were together from last night and only woke up when you guys started banging on the door.”
“Is there anybody who can verify that?” Garcia pressed.
“Yeah, my mom,” Milo answered, agitated by the persi
stent questions. “She left for work around eleven, but she’ll vouch for us being home this morning.”
Sandra swished her hair over her shoulder again, her attitude and confidence recovered. “What’s with these questions?”
“It’s just procedure.” Ryan collected his things and stood with a sigh. “But for the record, don’t leave town.”
“Can you believe those two?” Lily asked, pouring red wine into elegant glasses. She handed one each to Garcia and Ryan, then kept one for herself.
Ryan, now wearing jeans and a casual shirt, stood at the stove, completely absorbed by the aromas inside the pot in front of him.
Lily had watched in awe as he’d efficiently chopped through onions, garlic, and chorizo, plucked fresh herbs from potted plants outside, and tossed in chopped tomatoes—whipping up a dish that had her mouthwatering. She had never seen him so relaxed.
Studying his spotless kitchen over the brim of her wine glass, she had to admit she was deeply impressed—not that she would ever admit this to him.
“The pasta sauce should be another ten minutes,” Ryan said. “And yeah, those two made me sick. How does a guy break up with his girl and move on that same night? Disgusting,” he muttered, stirring his boiling pasta.
Lily caught Garcia’s eye and smiled. It always surprised them when Ryan voiced his disapproval of guys who behaved like players or chauvinists. One glance at Ryan’s perfect blond hair, crisp blue gaze, and charming smile, paired with his tall and strong frame, and it was easy to assume he fell into the player category. But apparently, looks could be deceiving.
Sipping her wine, Lily scanned the rest of Ryan’s modern, yet comfortable apartment, admiring the various paintings on the walls and the interesting collection of books on the shelves. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought Ryan had hijacked someone else’s apartment to prank them. “So do you live alone, or do you have a flat mate?” she asked.
Garcia snorted into his glass. “Nope, this is all his. Surprised by how clean it is?”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “So this is what happens when you let your friends inside the sanctuary of your home—they judge you.”
