by PJ Fernor
“Exactly,” Trevor said.
The innocence was gone now. He was back to being the same old Trevor.
Angie and I looked at each for a few seconds.
She shook her head in disgust.
“I’m supposed to tell everyone that?” Ben asked.
“It’s the truth.”
“I don’t believe a thing you say.”
“Good for you,” Trevor said.
“So if someone set you up… what kind of people are hanging around that would do that?”
Trevor shrugged his shoulders.
“Want to see pictures?” Ben asked. “I’ll show you what happened to Nikki.” Ben snapped his fingers. “Wait. You were already there. You saw it.”
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Trevor yelled. “I swear on my life!”
“Then give me something,” Ben yelled back. He put his hands to the table and leaned forward. He took a breath. “Trevor…” His voice was calmer. “I need to know where you were that night. What you were doing. Someone needs to back up your story. Right now, we don’t know much about Nikki. Or what happened up there. The only thing we have…”
Ben slowly pointed at Trevor.
I heard Angie make a whimpering sound.
Maybe this was finally sinking in on her.
I tried to touch her arm and she walked away.
Trevor turned his head and looked right at me.
The look in his eyes…
He reminded of a boy pleading for help. A kid sitting on the curb waiting for his dad to show up only to sit there all night alone.
My heart twisted again and I ran to the door and left the room.
I couldn’t hear any more of it.
It was starting to make me feel angry towards Ben, and all he was doing was his job.
In my heart I felt Trevor was innocent.
That was my heart.
In my gut…
I wasn’t sure.
But I knew one thing.
If I didn’t find another angle to pursue, Trevor was going to be doing more than just community service.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I sat in my office, running through all the details.
This case was like nothing I’d ever worked on before. I was too close to it and barely knew a thing. That wasn’t my style. I prided myself on being as subjective as possible, no matter how hard things appeared to be.
But this was…
“Lo,” I whispered.
I loved my niece in a way I never knew I could love someone. I wished Alex was here so I could tell her that I now understood why she was so worried when Lo was a baby.
Alex used to worry herself to the point of physical exhaustion.
I’d come back home and help her.
I’d force her to take a bath and go to sleep.
I’d stare at Lo’s tiny body on the monitor screen and wonder how it could be so hard for Alex to just be happy and relax.
I remember standing at the sink, washing bottles, and then Alex would wake up and rewash them, just in case I left any soap residue.
We had more than one argument over Lo and now I would give anything to have Alex here to help me.
Then again, if Alex were alive I wouldn’t have been sitting in a chair in an office in the police station for Sandemor.
I put my head back and sighed.
My phone started to ring and I jumped up to take the call.
I would have talked to a telemarketer if it distracted me from my own mind.
It was worse than a telemarketer.
It was Johnny Barby.
“Thanks for the callback,” I said.
“This is a callback. Hello to you, Allie.”
“I really needed to talk to you.”
“And you are. Now.”
“Johnny…” I shook my head. “Do you know what’s going on here?”
“Heard a little here and there,” he said. “Seems like a normal day in the office for you, huh?”
I laughed. “Yeah. Sure. Just before Halloween. If the town whispers rumors of a murderer, that’ll make everyone feel safe.”
“Ah, come on, it’ll just add to the feeling of it all. Nothing like being scared, right?”
“You know there’s a difference between a movie and real life, Johnny?”
“Of course I do. Now what do you want?”
“Well, I came across some crappy police work and I thought of you first.”
“How touching,” he said. “So this isn’t you confessing your love for me? Begging me to take you back?”
“Take me back?” I asked. “I was never… never mind.”
Johnny chuckled. “You’re still too easy, Allie.”
“Keep that to yourself,” I muttered. “Now listen, I need to know who arrested Nikki Pearson. It was for theft. A stupid thing. It’s a long shot to figure this out.”
“What did she steal?”
“Food,” I said.
“She’s the dead one?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s the victim, Johnny. Can’t you ever show respect?”
“I’m showing it to you,” Johnny said. “You broke my heart and I still called you back.”
“Broke… no. I’m trying to solve a murder.”
“Then solve it.”
“Johnny.”
“Okay, okay. I already did all the work for you.”
“What?”
“I dug around,” he said. “It wasn’t hard to find. You want Officer Jeff Preens. He’s the guy who arrested your victim and her friend. Okay? It was his area to look after. Took me five minutes.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you want his number?”
“That would be helpful.”
“Come up here and give me another kiss.”
I cringed. “Please don’t ever say that to me again, okay?”
“Whew, you’re a tough one. Here I thought we were on to something. I guess not.”
Johnny rattled off the phone number and I thanked him again.
As he tried to get one last smart mouth comment in, I hung up.
That felt like a victory to me.
I called the number Johnny gave me.
“Officer Preens speaking,” a rough voice said.
“Officer Preens,” I said. “This is Detective Allie Down calling from Sandemor. Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Not really. Why?”
“I’m investigating a murder and your name came up.”
“Excuse me?”
“The victim… you arrested her.”
“Okay?” he asked.
“She was arrested for theft from a store,” I said. “With a friend. A while ago. The police report didn’t have your name on it but Detective Johnny Barby said it was your arrest. I want to talk to you about her.”
“An arrest over theft?” Preens asked. “I don’t know…”
“Nikki Pearson,” I said.
Preens went silent.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Preens said. “Nikki Pearson. She’s dead?”
“Yes,” I said. “Found stabbed to death near the fire road in my town. There was no identification on her, so we ran her prints and they came back to-”
“Yeah, she’s in the system,” Preens said. “One of my regulars, as I call them.”
“What?”
“You know, Detective. The ones you keep bumping into. She was always in trouble. For the dumbest stuff too, okay? That night she caught me in a bad mood so I arrested her. Thought it would do her some good. I knew nothing was going to come of the charges. Honestly, I just wanted to scare her. Show her that she was up against the line. Not that she cared at all. She’s really dead? Murdered?”
“That’s right,” I said. “You remember her.”
“Poor Nikki.”
“Poor?”
“That’s what we called her. Poor Nikki. She and the rest of the broken girls down on Depot Avenue. You know?”
“No, I don
’t know,” I said. “How well did you know her? Do you have any idea who would have done this to her? And why leave her here?”
“Detective, I’m on my way to something right now,” Preens said. “I made the arrest that night. I already told you I took her in to scare her. After that, I don’t remember the last time I saw her. We’re always chasing the broken girls around. Does it break my heart? Yes. But we have a job to do.”
“Who are these girls?”
“They’re homeless. Okay? There’s a lot of bad stuff that goes on around them. We’ve dealt with drugs, theft, B and E’s, even… you know… selling their bodies for money.”
“Oh, jeez,” I said.
“I wish I could help more, but I can’t,” Preens said. “I’m going into court now, okay? There’s nothing else I can tell you about poor Nikki. In my heart I wish they would all get off the street and save themselves. But it’s like the street owns them. And, again, we’re just doing our job. Just like you are.”
“I need all the information you have,” I said. “About Nikki. The others. Names. Dates. Locations. Everything. This is important.”
“Everything always is,” Preens said. “I have to go.”
The call went dead.
I put my phone down on my desk.
I looked out across the station.
A question rolled through my mind like a gentle wave…
Just how deep was this case going to go?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Halfway down the hallway to the side entrance of the station, I heard a whistle from behind me.
When I turned, I saw Ben standing a good distance away.
A somber look on his face.
He was no longer the normal cheery Ben, always charging toward me to say something nice or reassuring or touch my arm or hand or give me those eyes that suggested our friendship and partnership as detectives could become something more.
My heart did a little skip and started to sink like an anchor thrown off a boat.
I stood my ground and let him walk to me.
As he walked, he lowered his head and rubbed his forehead.
That can’t be a good sign at all.
“Allie, can we go somewhere and talk?”
“That’s not good,” I said. “We can’t talk right here?”
“I’d rather sit down. Figure this thing out.”
“What’s there to figure out, Ben?”
“Allie, come on,” he said. “I don’t like this any more than you do. What I just had to do back there to that kid… I don’t take pride in it.”
“You were handling yourself quite well,” I said. “You went after him hard. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
“I know what this all means to you,” he said. “To Lo. I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“Well, she’s my niece,” I said. “I’m all she has right now. I’m her mother in a way. So, yeah, this isn’t going to end up pretty at all.”
Ben tried to touch my shoulder and I moved away.
Allie, what are you doing?
“Allie…”
“Ben, just get to the point,” I said. “I don’t want to tip toe around this thing. There’s someone out there who killed Nikki. I’m wondering if she’s not the first. And she might not be the last.”
“Trevor is lying,” Ben said. “It’s simple as that.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You can see it all over his face,” Ben said. “Hear it in his voice. He’s hiding something. Big. I pushed as hard as I could. The kid is tough. That’s for sure. He gets that from his home life.”
“Did you see his home life, Ben?” I asked. “Did you hear the way his mother talked to him? About him? While he was standing right there?”
“I was right there with you,” Ben said. “Allie, I know you’re attached to-”
I waved a hand at him. “I’m not attached to anything. I’m looking beyond this. Do you really think a sixteen year old killed Nikki?”
“If it was a different sixteen year old, how would you feel?”
“Did you really just ask me that?”
“I did,” Ben said. “I know what you’re thinking. You think it’s impossible. You worked in the city for how long? You’ve seen everything.”
“What’s your point?”
“Don’t get mad at me, Allie.”
“I’m mad at everything. It’s not your job to fix it, Ben. Okay?”
He took a step back. “Wow.”
I sighed. “Ben…”
“I’m just doing my job. I know you don’t like the answers right now, but Trevor is guilty. Is it of murder? I didn’t say that. But he’s hiding something. Whether we like it or not his bracelet was found at the murder scene. And that’s the only piece of evidence we have to go with right now.”
“Then stick with that,” I said. “I have another angle. I talked to Johnny and he gave me the information on the arresting officer the night Nikki got caught stealing. I talked to that officer - Jeff Preens - and he said there’s a lot of them… he called them broken girls. Nothing about this seemed to surprise him. I personally think Nikki was involved in something bad. And it caught up to her.”
“No offense, Allie, but isn’t Trevor always involved in something bad?” Ben asked.
“There’s a difference between being a young punk jerk and a murderer.”
“I won’t argue that. But you also know these things escalate with time. Small crimes turn into bigger ones…”
“So now you’re a psychologist here, Ben? Wonderful. Tell you what? You can tell Lo what’s going on. Since you seem to know everything. Go ahead. Tell her. Watch her break and crumble. Then you can…”
My voice caught in my throat.
Without hesitation, Ben put his arms around me.
I accepted the hug for a few seconds and then broke away.
I turned away from Ben and touched the corners of my eyes.
It was no shock to anyone that I was too close to the case.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do my job either.
“What’s happening now?” I asked Ben.
“I went as far as I could,” Ben said. “We know what we know. We let him go. For now. We made it very clear to both him and his mother that he has to stay home. We’re going to have cruisers watching the place, just to be safe. Can’t risk him taking off or something stupid. It’s a tough position, Allie. Okay? I can’t imagine handcuffing a sixteen year old for murder. Trust me. I can’t. But if the evidence shows it…”
“You do your job,” I said. I nodded. “That’s what we do here. We do our job. And sometimes the job really sucks.”
“It does. I’m pulling for the kid. You can see it in his eyes he wants to be good. He’s had a bad hand dealt to him. But that can’t justify murder.”
I looked back at Ben. “I know that. I came back here with Lo to make it easier for her. It’s been a rough ride. And now she’s finally turning the corner and things are getting too close to her. I don’t mind the job. I can get shot at. I can make the decision to pull the trigger if I have to save someone’s life. I can deal with that internally, Ben. But the flames are getting too close to my niece for comfort. And I have nobody to turn to.”
“You’re wrong, Allie. You have me. You can always turn to me.”
“It’s not the same…”
I held back.
My words were going to end up crushing Ben.
I was angry at the world.
Lashing out.
He was an easy target.
He made himself a target on purpose too.
For me.
“We do what we have to do,” I said.
“Yeah,” Ben said. “And I’m not saying Trevor is guilty of murder. He’s hiding something though. Not sure if it’ll help or hurt the case against him. As far as your angle goes, I’m there. We can go after every angle, Allie. I just need you to realize that this… this could happen…”
I walked to the door an
d pushed it open. I looked back at Ben. “I know.”
I exited the building and Ben didn’t come after me.
That hurt.
But I had done everything to push him away.
Was Trevor capable of murder?
The truth was an easy answer.
Anyone was capable of murder given the right circumstances.
Chapter Twenty-Six
My emotions were in overdrive for two hundred reasons. I attempted to pick through each reason and emotion on the drive to Dr. Jerry’s office to get Lo after her appointment.
I barely made it through thinking about Trevor as a murderer before I arrived at the building that was becoming familiar to me.
I expected to see Lo and Steph outside, but nobody was there.
After parking, I stepped out of my car and took a second to breathe in the view and stretch my back.
I was tense.
Every muscle in my body ached.
I played the worst case scenario game in my head.
The worst case scenario was that Trevor did kill Nikki. Whatever the reason was would be found when the case was solved and the charges came forward. From there, it was up to the prosecution to get what they wanted. And it was up to whatever defense attorney Trevor got stuck with to handle his case.
That wasn’t the part I worried about.
It was Lo.
It all came down to Lo.
She would get through it.
It would just be another scar on her innocence. A notch in her heart. It would make her tougher, smarter… how? I wasn’t sure.
My eyes looked to the brown building and I nodded.
I would be there for her.
Dr. Jerry would be there for her.
It was the best I could do.
That was the worst case scenario it seemed with parenting.
To do the best you could do and wait.
All of that was new to me.
I took another deep breath and I approached the building.
When I opened the door, I saw Dr. Jerry behind the desk with Lo across from him. When she looked back at me, the smile on her face was priceless.
She was happy.
That made me happy.
“Ah, there’s the detective,” Dr. Jerry said. “I was just telling Lo about an old family tradition where we would make a homemade slingshot and launch pumpkins into the field behind our grandparents house.”
