Mourning Commute

by Sam Cheever

  “Okay. What else?”

  “Tomlinson was covered in blood…her blood…and his bloody fingerprints were everywhere.”

  “Was he there when she was attacked?”

  “Of course he says he wasn’t.”

  “But he had her blood on him?” Eddie asked.

  That seemed pretty straightforward to me. Tomlinson no doubt showed up for their date and tried to revive her. But I knew what Eddie was doing. He wanted all the facts, in as straightforward a way as possible. Before we started pulling the pieces apart and trying to create a picture with them.

  It’s what any good cop would do.

  “He claims he came to the house to pick Allie up for dinner and found the front door ajar. He came inside, calling her name, and saw the blood trail by the door…”

  “Wait, where was your sister’s body?”

  “In the living room.”

  “Had she been dragged or moved?”

  “Tomlinson claims not, but nobody can explain how that blood trail got on the tile of the entryway.”

  “Could it be the killer’s blood?” I asked.

  “No. They tested it for that. It was Allie’s.”

  I frowned. “Could it have dripped off Tomlinson? Maybe he went to the door to direct the police?”

  “That’s one of the options being considered, but from what Josh told me, the pattern isn’t consistent with that.”

  “Maybe she fought with her attacker near the door. The blood could be from the defensive wounds.”

  Landon nodded. “That seems like the most likely scenario.”

  “Okay, so Tomlinson comes inside the apartment. He finds her body, bends over her, and checks her pulse…”

  “He’s not a doctor so it seems unlikely he’d even know how to do that. TV and movie portrayals aside, it isn’t the easiest thing to find a pulse,” Landon said.

  “CPR training?” I asked.

  “Not that I know of. Tomlinson’s a self-involved rich guy. He’s not the type to take classes to learn how to save somebody else.”

  “You shouldn’t assume that,” Eddie said. “I’ll check into it.”

  Landon frowned. “He’s just so cool and arrogant. He barely even frowned when he was interviewed about her murder.”

  “You saw the interview?” I asked, surprised.

  “Josh gave me that too.”

  I looked at Eddie. “There has to be a dirty cop.”

  He nodded.

  “What do you mean?”

  I sat forward, lowering my voice as the amorous couple from the nearest table stumbled past, wrapped around each other and heading for the stairs. “Let’s assume Crime Clean is involved in hiding evidence for Tomlinson, a.k.a. the scalpel. The only reasonable way they could have gotten it was if the police didn’t find it when processing the crime scene. It seems unlikely that would happen. But if you had a dirty cop…

  Landon’s eyes widened. “He could have held the evidence back until the scene was processed and then left it in some obscure place for the cleaning crew to find.”

  “Exactly.”

  I turned to find Eddie staring at me. “That’s pretty smart, May.”

  I shrugged. “I’m surrounded by cops. They’ve spent lots of nights discussing murder and crime scenes over pizza and beer. I’m naturally nosy, so I pay attention.”

  Landon said with a smile. “Dinner and death. Yum.”

  I shared his smile. “Right? I can’t get them to understand how disturbing that is.”

  “Well, it’s led us to a pretty plausible reason for both the missing weapon and Alex Mitner’s possible involvement in a cover-up. That would definitely explain why Josh might have been upset.”

  “And why he was helping me,” Landon said.

  “But there’s one thing I don’t understand,” I told the two men. “Why wouldn’t Tomlinson just hide the knife himself before calling the police?”

  “He wouldn’t have had a chance,” Landon told her. “You aren’t the only nosy one. Allie had a neighbor who paid attention to the comings and goings in the neighborhood. She saw Tomlinson stumble outside and throw up in the bushes about twenty minutes after he arrived. She noted the blood covering his fine suit and called the police. They arrived less than ten minutes later. He was gone when they got there.”

  “Twenty minutes?” Eddie said. “That’s a really long time to be inside the house if he wasn’t killing her himself.”

  “Exactly,” Landon responded. “He claims he was trying to revive her but, trust me; I saw those photos. There’s no way if you walked in on someone who looked like that, you’d think she could be revived.”

  Eddie shook his head. “Grief does strange things to people.”

  Landon didn’t respond.

  I sat there thinking about the information Collen Landon had given us. Something about it was bothering me, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

  Eddie stood up, offering the other man his hand. “Would you mind sending me that interview tape? I’d like to get a feel for our Mr. Tomlinson.”

  Landon stood too, forcing me to my feet. He nodded, taking the business card Eddie handed him. “Thanks for doing this,” Landon said to both of us. “I’ve tried to dig into it but haven’t gotten very far.”

  “Be careful,” Eddie told the other man. “If Josh was killed for poking around in this, you could be in danger too.”

  “Yeah, that’s occurred to me. You be careful too,” he addressed the last to me. I nodded.

  “I’m really sorry for your loss,” I told him. I seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

  “Thanks.”

  Landon stayed behind as we descended the stairs to the club floor below. Behind the mask of the glass partition, I’d been lulled into thinking the noise and activity below had died down a bit. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, it had gotten worse. The floor was so packed there was barely room to move.

  Which was one of the reasons I was surprised when we bumped up against a familiar face in the crowd.

  12

  “Hi, May.”

  I gave James a tentative smile. “What are you doing here?”

  He laughed, shaking Eddie’s hand. “I could ask you guys the same thing. I’m a regular. I’ve never seen you here before, Deitz.”

  Eddie shrugged. He leaned close to shout in James’ face in an attempt to be heard over the noise. “May and I needed a little down time.” He grinned. “Did you just get here?”

  James skimmed me a look, his expression assessing. “About an hour ago. I’ve been holding court over there.” He pointed toward a large round booth that was filled mostly with women. “You’re looking particularly delectable tonight, Miss May.”

  Heat filled my cheeks. I wasn’t at all comfortable with the answering heat in his eyes. He was a very good-looking man, but something about him put me off my game. Maybe it was the fact that he’d had to save me from drowning not all that long ago. I was uncomfortable as a general rule owing people favors. And that was a pretty big one. “Thanks.”

  Eddie moved down to the step I was standing on, dropping a hand to the small of my back. It seemed a totally natural thing. Just a touch to remind me he was there, but I didn’t miss the sharp exchange of looks between the two old friends.

  “Would you like to join us?”

  I opened my mouth to refuse, but Eddie beat me to it. “No thanks. We were just heading out.”

  “Are you sure?” James shouted. “May looks like she wants to dance.”

  I realized I’d been swaying a bit to the music and forced my hips to stop moving. Before I knew what was happening, James had grabbed my hand and pulled me down the last two steps. He glanced at Eddie, laughing at my squeal of surprise. “I’ll take good care of her, Deitz. No need to worry.”

  Somehow, I didn’t think Eddie was worried about that. But judging by the way his jaw was clenched, he was definitely ticked about something.

  At the edge of the dance floor, Jame
s swung me around and I landed in his arms, laughing breathlessly as we began to sway to music that was much too fast for the slow dance he’d engaged between us.

  As if reading my mind, the music morphed into a nice, slow tune that lowered the volume in the club by several decibel levels.

  I sighed with pleasure at not having my senses pummeled with sound.

  It’s possible James took my sigh as something else. He tucked me closer against his big body, his long form swaying under the sensual beat.

  My feet had trouble finding the rhythm. Probably because my body was trying to put some distance between us.

  After the third time I stumbled over his feet, he looked down at me, arching a brow.

  I chuckled with embarrassment. “I’ll just let you lead now,” I told him.

  His grin was wide. “I won’t be threatened if you lead. But you’ll need good biceps to hold me up in the dips.”

  Some of my stress fled as I laughed, shaking my head. “You can’t take me anywhere.”

  His hand slipped warmly up my back, and he shook his head. “My bad; I kind of took you by surprise.”

  “You did. Why?”

  He shrugged. “When I see something I like, I take it. I’m a take charge kind of guy.”

  “You see, that’s kind of a problem from my perspective. I’m not a girl who likes someone taking charge of her.”

  “Noted. I’ll be less take-chargy in the future.” His handsome face turned serious. “You don’t mind if there’s a future, do you? I mean, maybe it’s the whole saving you from drowning thing, or it could be seeing you in those very sexy fish flops the other night, but I find myself strangely drawn to you.”

  I laughed, thinking it was probably more from seeing me hanging half out of that undersized running suit. “I know when to break out the big guns to impress.”

  His wide grin was infectious. “How long have you known Deitz?”

  I shrugged. “Not long. We met at Josh’s viewing.”

  He looked surprised. “Really?” He glanced toward Eddie, who was leaning against the staircase with a fresh drink in his hand. He didn’t look happy. “I have to give old Deitz some credit. I never pegged him as a ‘pick up the pretty girl at the funeral’ kind of guy.”

  I didn’t let myself to react to the pretty girl thing. We’d veered onto dangerous ground. “He didn’t pick me up. He saved me.”

  “Saved you? From what? Terminable boredom? Oh wait, don’t tell me you’re allergic to lilies?”

  I thought his joking about his old friend’s funeral was inappropriate but wrote it off to him trying to be flirtatious. “He gave me a ride to the Mitner’s after the viewing. My car was in the shop.”

  “Ah.”

  No way I was going to tell him about Mrs. Mitner’s harsh words or my reluctance to climb into the limousine with the grieving couple. My clients’ business was their own.

  “Strange, huh?” When he gave me a confused look, I elaborated. “Josh dying that way. Getting hit in the wee hours of the morning by a trash truck.” I watched him carefully. I wanted to know if he thought Josh’s death was suspicious, or if he hadn’t given it any thought at all. Judging by his shrug, and the way his gaze slipped up to the second level and stuck, I figured he was in group number two. Camp Clueless.

  “We all have to die from something, right?” he finally said, dragging his gaze back down to mine.

  I glanced up to where he’d been looking and spotted a gorgeous woman talking to Collen Landon at the top of the stairs.

  You dog, I thought. He was scoping out other women while dancing with me. I did an internal head shake. Deitz had been right. It was unlikely James would kill his old friend over a woman. I doubted he’d ever invested more than hormones and a bit of charm to conquer on any woman ever.

  But it wouldn’t hurt to ask. “You and Josh have been regulars here?”

  “We have. Among other clubs.”

  “Did you usually come together?”

  His eyes narrowed a little. “Occasionally. Why?”

  “I just wondered if you shared the women.”

  When he blinked in surprise, I pointed to the oversized round booth. “That seems like too many dates for one man.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “They’re just friends. I fill in as temporary boyfriend whenever one of them gets too much attention from someone they want to avoid.”

  “Ah. That’s nice of you.”

  He shrugged again. “Nah. They do the same for me.”

  “Was Josh part of the fake date brigade too?”

  “Yeah. Actually, he instigated it. Though he had a tendency to take it to the next level if you know what I mean. Sometimes the pretending turned to something that wasn’t so much pretend anymore. It got him in trouble once in a while.”

  “Trouble? How?”

  James jerked his head toward the second floor. “You see that man up there?”

  I glanced up as Collen Landon looked down, a frown furrowing his brow. “Yes.”

  “He owns this place. Sometimes his sister comes into the club. She’s one fine looking woman,” James said. When I lifted my brows, he grew immediately defensive. “Not that I was looking to hook up or anything. She’s definitely not my type.”

  “Oh? And what exactly is your type?” I wanted to kick myself as soon as the words came out of my mouth. They sounded way too much like a come on.

  He seemed to take them that way too. Leaning closer, he placed his lips next to my ear and whispered huskily, “I prefer my women to wear googly-eyed fish shoes and form-fitting velour loungewear.”

  I flushed with embarrassment, shaking my head. “You were telling me about Mr. Landon’s sister.”

  He looked at me kind of funny and then seemed to shake it off. “Well, Josh saw some guy manhandling her in here. A really aggressive guy who didn’t seem to want to take no for an answer. She was trying not to make a scene, but the guy kept grabbing her arm and trying to drag her out of the club. Josh swept in and pretended to be her boyfriend, freshly returned from a bathroom run.”

  My eyes went wide as possibilities presented themselves in my mind. “What happened?”

  “The guy punched Josh, laid him right out on the floor.”

  “Did Josh punch him back?”

  “Nah. The bouncer showed up and threw him out.”

  “That’s terrifying.”

  James shrugged. “Price of doing business, I guess.” He grinned. “Sometimes you have to lose a battle or two before you win the war.”

  “Did Josh win the war that night?”

  “He did.” James grinned. “The woman was very appreciative of his efforts. She and Josh spent the rest of the night dancing and drinking together.”

  I was dying to ask if they left together. If Josh had had a romantic relationship with Allie Landon, that might explain so much. I finally settled for a more generic question that I hoped would get me where I needed to be. “Did they date? Josh and Miss Landon?”

  “Who knows?” James said, seeming to lose interest in our conversation. I caught him winking at a woman standing alone by the bar.

  “What did the guy who was hassling her look like?”

  His attention returned to me. “Why?”

  I shrugged in what I hoped was a nonchalant way. “I’m just curious. Have you seen him around here again?”

  “No. He didn’t look like he belonged here. He was wearing a suit, and he was an older guy. Dark hair with gray on the sides. He looked rich. Funny way for a rich guy to act if you ask me.”

  The music stopped and James dropped my hand, giving me a smile. “Thanks for the dance. I guess I’d better let you go back to Deitz now before he decides to punch me in the nose.”

  “Thanks. It was fun.” And I realized I wasn’t completely lying. I had enjoyed the dance. But I’d enjoyed getting new information on the Landon case even more.

  As Deitz moved toward me, his handsome face folded into a scowl, I wondered what that said about me. Tha
t I’d enjoyed the chance to solve a mystery more than I’d enjoyed dancing with a handsome, eligible man.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I told Deitz. He didn’t argue. In fact, I got the impression he was more than happy to comply.

  We moved through the writhing mass of bodies as quickly as we could, Eddie’s hand wrapped around mine to keep us from getting separated.

  As we emerged into the relative silence of the night, I sucked in a deep breath of air that didn’t smell like a thousand clashing perfumes and enjoyed the quiet of the midnight streets.

  The line had dissipated while we’d been inside and only a few cars moved along the streets, their headlights dancing off the buildings and skimming over us as they passed on by.

  “I got new information from James,” I told Eddie as we reached his truck.

  “Really? Does he know something about Josh’s death?”

  “No.” I slid inside and waited while Eddie walked around to the driver’s side and climbed in. “But he knew something we didn’t know about Josh and Allie Landon.”

  Eddie didn’t make a move to start the truck. He turned in his seat to look at me. “What about them?”

  “They might have been an item.” I told him the story James had shared with me.

  “Do you think James was telling the truth?” he asked when I’d finished.

  I frowned. “That’s a strange question. I don’t know why he’d lie. It certainly wasn’t going to get him lucky.”

  Eddie barked out a laugh. “Well, you have him figured out.”

  “This could change things, right? What if the guy bothering Allie was Tomlinson? What if he found out Josh and Allie had gone out? He could have killed them both in a fit of jealousy.”

  Eddie sat back and stared out the windshield of his truck, fingertips tapping the steering wheel as he thought. “That actually makes a lot more sense than what we were thinking.” He finally nodded. “I’ll call Landon in the morning and ask him if it was Tomlinson. I’m surprised he didn’t mention it to us before.”

  “Yeah. Me too. But maybe he just forgot.” It didn’t seem likely that he’d forget an encounter like the one James described since he believed Tomlinson killed his sister. But maybe he had some other reason for not telling us.