by K M Morgan
Of course, Chloe texted back.
Good luck, Thicke replied.
Thanks. I need all the help I can get, Chloe texted back.
***
At that point, Chloe put her phone away and exited the restroom. As she walked toward Danielle, Chloe spotted the detective again. Thicke continued to browse in one of the aisles.
Chloe ignored him and joined Danielle.
Chloe and Danielle then exited the warehouse and walked behind the building. That’s when they spotted Larry McDavid leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette.
Larry was in his forties. Although, he looked a good ten years older than his actual age. His cigarette addiction wasn’t doing him any favors. By the looks of it, smoking wasn’t his only problem. He was carrying around a number of extra pounds around his midsection.
“That’s a nasty habit,” Danielle said.
Larry looked over at Danielle and Chloe. “Danielle. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Life is just full of surprises, isn’t it?”
“What does it matter to you if I smoke?”
“If you’re not careful, those things will kill you,” Danielle said.
Larry’s nose scrunched. “Why do you care? And why are you even back here?”
“Chloe and I are investigating Richard Gilbertson’s murder.”
As Danielle finished speaking, Chloe got a little nervous. Danielle had decided to go bold with this interview. She didn’t even bother with a slow build up. She got straight to the point.
Chloe was worried that Larry was going to ask to see some identification from Chloe. Obviously, Chloe didn’t have a badge. If Larry did ask for one, this interview could be derailed in a hurry. That was why Chloe preferred to ease into things over time. That said, it was too late to go back now. She just had to pray for the best.
“Did you just say that Richard was murdered?” Larry asked.
Danielle nodded.
Larry’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe it.”
“You didn’t know?” Danielle asked.
Larry shook his head. “No. This is the first I’m hearing about it.”
It was hard to tell if Larry’s reaction was genuine. Chloe had seen a lot of good actors in the past. At the same time, if Larry was putting on an act right then, he was doing a great job of looking convincing.
“I’m surprised. Richard’s death has been all over the news this morning,” Danielle said.
“I’m a busy man. And even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t waste my time watching the news. It’s nothing but awful stories,” Larry said.
“Unfortunately, Richard’s killer is still on the loose.”
“That is terrible.”
“We were hoping that you could help us find them.”
Larry’s eyebrows rose. “Me?”
“Absolutely. I mean, you two were business partners.”
“Yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“Speaking of this business, were you here last night?”
“As a matter of fact, I was.”
Danielle scratched her chin. “That’s very interesting.”
“Not really,” Larry said.
“I disagree.”
“Why?”
“Because according to the business hours that are posted on the front door of this warehouse, this place was closed at seven last night. So, what were you still doing here?”
“Have you ever run a business?”
“No.”
“Clearly. If you had, you’d know that there’s always paperwork to do. Most of the time, I’m too busy to do it during regular business hours. So, I stay late and do it once we’re closed.”
“When you were doing this paperwork last night, were you the only one here? Or was one of your employees around?”
“It was just me.”
“That’s a shame.”
Larry squinted. “Why? And how come you’re asking me all of these questions?”
“Isn’t it true that you wanted to sell this business? And that you even found a buyer? But Richard didn’t want to sell this place,” Danielle said.
“Stop right there. I don’t like where this conversation is going.”
“Why? Is it making you uncomfortable?”
“I think you have the wrong idea about me.”
“Is anything that I said untrue?”
Larry narrowed his eyes. “I know what you’re trying to do.”
“We want to discover the truth about what really happened to Richard,” Danielle said.
“All right. Then go talk to someone else.”
“Not until we’re done with you.”
“If you really care about finding Richard’s killer then you should stop wasting your time with me.”
“Maybe we don’t think this is a waste of time.”
“Trust me. It is.”
“You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t take your word for that.”
“I have to get back to work.”
“Not so fast. Now that Richard is gone, are you going to sell this business?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to give it some thought. You just hit me with this news.”
“If you do sell, you’d stand to make a lot of money.”
“So what? That would be a business transaction. It would have nothing to do with your investigation."
“I disagree. If Richard was still alive, he would never allow this business to be sold. You knew that.”
“Are you really accusing me of killing Richard just so I could sell this business?”
“Like I told you, we’re just trying to discover the truth.”
“I already told you, I had nothing to do with Richard’s murder. I didn’t even know that he was dead until you told me. Now, I’m going back to work. I have nothing else to say to you,” Larry replied.
Chapter Eleven
Talk about an abrupt end to a conversation. What a sour note to end on. As discouraging as that was, it encapsulated how this case was going.
In Chloe’s experience, no investigation was easy. This one certainly wasn’t a cake walk. Over the years, Chloe had come to expect a particular level of frustration when working on a case. It still got the best of her sometimes, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. And she found ways to deal with it.
The worst part was that Chloe and Danielle had hit a wall. There were no other suspects to question. There also weren’t any leads to chase.
Traditionally, Chloe hated this stage in a case. Staring down a bunch of question marks was never fun. She tried to put on a good face, though.
Meanwhile, Danielle was in a much different place. She appeared to be completely bent out of shape. As if she hadn’t seen any of this coming.
Perhaps she hadn’t.
Did she really believe that an answer would be easy to come by? That the killer would just give themselves up?
Chloe didn’t have to wait very long to get an answer. As they walked back to Chloe’s car, Danielle was quick to express her displeasure.
“Is it just me, or could that have gone better?” Danielle asked.
“It’s not just you,” Chloe said.
“That’s what I figured.” Danielle groaned. “Honestly, the entire day has felt like one big disaster.”
Chloe didn’t completely disagree with Danielle. The day was far from a rousing success. Even so, Chloe knew that negativity could take the conversation down a dark path. She wanted to try and avoid that.
“I think disaster is a strong word,” Chloe said.
“Really? Because I’m not sure if today could have gone worse.”
“Trust me. Things can always get worse. Especially with a case like this.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“Unfortunately, I am.”
“Any stories you want to tell?”
Chloe shook her head. “Not really. I’ll just say this. Just be glad that no one pulled a gun on us.”
“Like I told you, things can always get worse.”
“I guess you’re right,” Danielle said. “Guns aside, though, those interviews still didn’t go very well.”
“No, they didn’t. But that happens sometimes.”
“Some of the time or all of the time?”
“More often than you’d like.”
“You’re not very big on specifics, are you?”
“It’s more that I don’t want to relive bad memories.”
“Fair enough.”
“Please don’t say the word fair. Nothing about this situation is fair.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Let’s just move on.”
Danielle threw out her arms. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to do that.”
“We have no other choice,” Chloe said.
“You say that, but I can’t help but think about missed opportunities. It felt like we were really getting somewhere with Larry. And Michael too. Then, we got shutdown.”
“That happens a lot.”
“Does it ever get easier to deal with?”
“Not really.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“Look. You did a really good job today.”
“I did?”
“Your investigative ability was impressive. Which makes me curious. Are you just naturally good at interviewing people?”
“It’s going to sound strange, but I watch a lot of detective shows on TV. Maybe even an unhealthy amount. I learned a lot from them.”
“You can learn a surprising amount from police procedurals. Both good and bad.”
“What bad things are you talking about?”
“Shows like that can throw off your expectations. Not just because you become accustomed to the case wrapping up by the end of the hour. But also some of the stuff that the programs don’t show.”
Danielle squinted. “I’m not following you.”
“TV shows skip over the boring parts of case work. I understand why. No one would want to watch that stuff. That said, just because it isn’t shown doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen.”
“By boring stuff, what do you mean?”
“Take this moment, for example. If this was a TV show, this conversation wouldn’t be shown. The program would just skip to the next action scene. Guess what? In real life, for more action to happen, we need to figure out where to take the case next.”
“It’s interesting that you bring that up. What are we supposed to do now?”
“I’m going to head home.”
Danielle’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Chloe nodded. “Unless you happen to be sitting on a good lead that you haven’t told me about.”
“I have no leads whatsoever.”
“That’s what I figured. We’ve also questioned all of the suspects.”
“Still, there has to be something we can do, isn’t there?”
“Not at the moment.”
“That’s discouraging.”
“I don’t mean to bring you down.”
“Hey, you’re being honest. Brutally honest.”
“In my experience, we just need some time to regroup.”
Danielle bit the corner of her lip. “All right. If you say so.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I understand why you are anxious to solve this case. I am too. But just because we want something to happen doesn’t mean that we can force things.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I know that isn’t what you wanted to hear. It’s just life.”
“Okay. In that case, can you drive me back to where my car is parked?”
“Of course,” Chloe said.
Chapter Twelve
Chloe drove Danielle back to Richard’s street. It ended up being a quiet ride. Danielle spent most of the time looking out the passenger-side window. Chloe noticed a faraway look in her eyes. Chloe did plenty of thinking herself. Not just about the case. But also about Danielle.
Their pairing could have been an epic failure. It could have turned into a nightmare for Chloe. So, even though they failed to discover the identity of the killer, Chloe could take some satisfaction in the fact that things didn’t completely blow up in her face.
During moments like that, it was important for Chloe to count her blessings. At the same time, it was difficult not to look ahead to the future. Chloe let a number of ideas bounce around her head.
A few minutes later, she arrived at Richard’s street. Danielle then got out of Chloe’s vehicle and walked back to her own car.
At that point, Chloe drove away. As she made her way down Mentone Road, however, her instincts began to act up on her. Her gut was trying to tell her something. And it refused to be ignored.
Not that Chloe would push her feelings aside anyway. Her instincts had proven invaluable throughout the years. They had been the determining factor in a number of cases. If anything, Chloe welcomed any and all input from her gut. She was actually surprised that it had taken this long to get a useful read on the situation.
Chloe’s instincts were telling her to drive around the corner, just out of Danielle’s view. That’s where things got interesting. From there, Chloe didn’t head home. Instead, she remained parked around the corner from Richard’s house.
She wanted to observe what Danielle would do next. Would she cross the yellow police tape that was cordoning off Richard’s property?
Nope.
Danielle just got into her car and drove away from the scene in the opposite direction that Chloe had.
Briefly, Chloe wondered if maybe her gut had been wrong. Was Danielle just going to head home?
As Danielle reached the stop sign at the end of Mentone Road, Chloe fully expected Danielle to turn right.
She didn’t.
For some unknown reason, she turned left.
That got Chloe’s attention. Where was Danielle going? There was a chance that Danielle was going to pick up some food. Or to run an errand. There was also a possibility that she had completely different plans.
Either way, Chloe was determined to find out what Danielle’s destination was.
Chloe turned off the headlights of her car and drove back down Richard’s street. When she reached the stop sign at the end of the road, she turned left.
Thankfully, Danielle’s car was not too far down the road. The other good news was that it was really dark out. Since it was winter, the sun set particularly early. That made it so much easier to follow Danielle.
Still, even though a number of things were on Chloe’s side, she didn’t want to take any chances. She kept a comfortable distance between her car and Danielle’s.
It didn’t take very long for Chloe’s efforts to pay off. Her instincts had been spot-on. Danielle didn’t go to a restaurant. Or a grocery store. Or a pharmacy.
Instead, she drove over to Michael Gilbertson’s house.
“Very interesting,” Chloe said to herself. “What’s Danielle doing back here? Is she looking to stir up trouble?”
As Danielle got out of her car and approached Michael’s front door, Chloe parked on the side of the road a number of houses down from Michael’s place.
Chloe wanted to be close enough to see the action unfold, but not too close to draw attention to herself. She could have gotten out of her car and gone up to Michael’s house to get in the middle of their conversation, but she felt like that would do more harm than good.
After all, what if they both turned on Chloe and began yelling at her at the same time? Not only would Chloe get no information out of either of them, but she would potentially put herself in danger. Going into surveillance mode seemed like a much better option.
She would observe the action from afar and try to pick up cues from the body language that she saw.
Michael answered his door after just a few knocks. He didn’t seem very happy to see Danielle. There were a n
umber of ways that Danielle could have responded to Michael’s anger. The smartest call was to keep a cool head.
That wasn’t what happened.
Danielle lost her temper. A shouting match ensued between Danielle and Michael.
Suddenly, Chloe felt very relieved that she had stayed back. Otherwise, she would have been in the crossfire. Things could have gotten really ugly.
There was just one problem with Chloe’s plan. By hanging back, she had no idea what Danielle and Michael were saying to each other. All she knew was that they were incredibly upset.
“There’s some seriously bad blood,” Chloe said to herself. “But what made it boil over so much?”
Whatever their argument was about, it was certainly heated.
Chloe thought about trying to sneak up on them. She saw a bush that she could hide behind at the neighbor’s house. Unfortunately, getting out of her car posed a significant risk. There was a very high probability that Chloe would blow her cover. If she was spotted, the situation would become even more explosive. Besides, even if she was able to make it all the way over to that bush, there was no telling if she would be close enough to hear what was being said.
Ultimately, Chloe elected to stay in her car.
That proved to be a good decision.
The argument between Danielle and Michael didn’t last very long. Michael ended up slamming his door in Danielle’s face.
“I guess she really struck a nerve,” Chloe said to herself. “Better her than me.”
Chloe had no idea what Danielle was going to do next, but she was curious to find out. Would she pay Larry McDavid a visit as well? Or head home?
When Danielle turned around to head back down Michael’s driveway, her attention drifted elsewhere. She must have spotted something out of the corner of her eye because she ended up looking in Chloe’s direction.
Chloe’s heart sank. Uh-oh. Was Chloe’s cover blown?
It sure seemed like it. Instead of heading toward her car, Danielle began walking directly toward Chloe.
So much for the precautions that Chloe had taken. She hadn’t parked far enough away. Nor had she managed to stay out of sight.
With Danielle making her way over to Chloe’s car, Chloe tried to mentally prepare herself for anything and everything that could potentially happen. Even though she couldn’t predict the future, she was pretty sure that nothing good would come of this. If anything, it had disaster written all over it.
