Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Carol Ericson

  He stuck his head in the car. “What makes you think I’m gonna believe anything you tell me?”

  He slammed the door, shutting out her serene face with the slight curve to her full lips. He’d known women like her before. They sallied through life on their good looks, charming men into doing their bidding. Hell, she must’ve charmed Clive, of all people, into running a fingerprint test on that card.

  He dropped onto the driver’s seat and punched the ignition with his knuckle. He peeled out of the strip mall, the spicy food now burning a hole in his belly.

  Kyra cleared her throat. “I found the card.”

  Jake tightened his jaw and clenched the steering wheel with both hands.

  “I found it on the street, in the gutter, outside my apartment building.” She shifted in her seat and smoothed her slacks against her thighs. “I didn’t think it was a big deal or anything. Just one of those weird coincidences. If you look, it’s not a brand-new card, not like the ones with the bodies.”

  The car jostled as he pulled into the parking lot of the station and Kyra bounced in her seat. He eased off the accelerator.

  Turning to her, he threw the car into Park. “If it was no big deal, why hide it from me? I’m leading this task force. If I can’t trust actual task force members, I’m in trouble.”

  She twisted her fingers in her lap, the first sign of agitation. “Look, I felt kind of silly. Why would the killer drop a playing card on my street in Santa Monica, of all places? I saw it and just reacted.”

  He flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. “And got Clive to run a test on it, on the sly.”

  She placed her hand on his arm. “Please don’t blame Clive or get on his case for this. He’s never done it before, and he made it clear he wouldn’t do it again.”

  “What did he find?”

  “Nothing.” She lifted her shoulders. “There were no prints at all. Just my fevered imagination making connections in my overactive brain.”

  He brushed his hand against the outside of his pocket, where the plastic crinkled. “Kind of a strange coincidence.”

  “Just what I thought.”

  He pulled out the baggie. “Do you want it back?”

  “That’s okay.” She lifted one shoulder. “Keep it, throw it away, whatever.”

  “All right, then. Um, I’m sorry I may have overreacted back there.” He exited the vehicle and waited for Kyra to come around to his side.

  “No problem. I get it.” She pressed her hand against his back, giving him a little shove. “You have some footage to review.”

  “If you’re not busy, do you want to join us?” He dug his teeth into his bottom lip. He was just trying to make amends for his previous outburst. Maybe she’d see that and decline.

  “I would like to join you, thanks.”

  Did he really think she wouldn’t jump at the chance to insert herself further into this investigation? Did he mind? After all, surveying video could be mind-numbing work and the more people on deck, the better.

  As they returned to the station, their appearance raised a few eyebrows. Jake put a scowl on his face to ward off any ribbing from his coworkers later. He called out a few names as he marched through the station and held up his finger. “Follow me to the war room.”

  Brandon and his team had already set up several computers and loaded the footage on them. Before he’d left for lunch, Jake had instructed Brandon to divvy up the video between the different computers so that individual teams would all be reviewing a variety of times and locations.

  Standing in the middle of the room, he directed traffic, assigning teams of two to each computer. As they huddled over the monitors, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

  He didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. The sweet, dusky smell of roses hung around Kyra as if she crushed them against her skin every day.

  Twisting his head over his shoulder, he said, “You can hang out with me until Billy gets here.”

  He took a seat in front of his computer, security footage from Melrose Avenue queued up to start. He taped a picture of Rachel on the monitor next to his. “This is Rachel—black, shoulder-length hair, sleeve of tattoos on her right arm, piercings, about your height, medium frame.”

  Kyra pulled a chair next to his and settled into it, propping her elbow on the table and balancing her chin on her palm. Her ponytail slipped over her shoulder, the ends of it tickling the keyboard. “What are we looking at now?”

  “This is Rachel’s afternoon coffee run. By this time, she’s already had morning coffee at the same shop, been to work, gone out to lunch and visited her friend in another store. This is her last stop before going back to work.” His hand hovered over the mouse. “Ready?”

  “Ready.” Her nostrils flared slightly and she parted her lips.

  Jake clicked the start arrow on the footage, which Brandon’s team had queued up about ten minutes before the time Rachel had given them. They watched the busy shop as people ordered their coffee and food at the counter and drifted away to wait for their orders.

  The cameras pointed at the registers only, so any other customer interaction they hoped to see would have to be in the background, beyond the people ordering. Another team was studying the footage from outside the store.

  They sat still, side by side, Kyra barely breathing. Her proximity overwhelmed his senses, and then her knee touched his pant leg.

  Jake rubbed his eyes and brought his face closer to the monitor. About seven minutes in, Kyra jabbed him with her elbow. “Is that Rachel? I see black hair.”

  “That’s Rachel.” Jake stalled the video and took screen shots of Rachel’s progress through the store. “Too bad she didn’t use her phone to buy the coffee.”

  “She told you that already?”

  “Yeah, like I said—” he tapped the side of his head “—she’s a sharp girl.”

  Kyra squinted at the screen. “I’m trying to figure out if I can see her phone in her purse but no luck. I have a pocket on the outside of my bag where I keep my cell. You can see the outline of the phone when you look at my purse.”

  “Is that on the other side of where you keep your gun?” He raised one eyebrow.

  “You’re not supposed to be able to see the outline of that.”

  “I’m a cop. I can spot a purse with a gun pouch a mile away.”

  She poked him in the leg. “Our girl is up.”

  Rachel stepped to the counter and ordered from the female barista, exchanging a few words. She swiped her debit card to pay for the purchase, then wandered out of the camera’s view, stepping back and to the left to wait for her coffee.

  The camera didn’t have a clear view of the pickup area. Baristas shoved drinks and little bags of food onto the counter, where impatient, caffeine-deprived hands grabbed them. Jake jabbed a finger at the monitor. “That’s Rachel. Notice the tat on her wrist? The nails?”

  “We can’t see her purse, can’t see anyone around her.” Kyra slumped in her chair. “I guess I expected to discover someone clearly reaching a hand in her bag and snatching her phone. We can’t even tell if she had her cell phone going into Uncommon Grounds.”

  “We can’t—” he swept one arm to the side “—but maybe someone else will pick up something.”

  As Jake clicked on the timer to run the tape back to see if they’d overlooked something, Billy swept into the war room. He raised one eyebrow when he homed in on Jake’s partner and then shrugged.

  Clapping his hands, Billy shouted, “How close are you to being done, and has anyone found anything?”

  His words were met with a few grumbles and groans and not one eureka.

  One cop in the corner raised his hand. “We had Rachel’s morning coffee run, and we saw her on the phone. So, she had it then.”

  “All right. All right.” Billy stepped up to a clean whiteboard
and made a notation. “Time stamp?”

  The officer gave him a time, and Billy ran down the whiteboard with a red marker as others called out their times and findings. With Rachel still in possession of her phone at lunch, Billy circled around to Jake and Kyra. “Which brings us to you two for the coffee break after lunch.”

  Jake leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. “We didn’t see anything—no evidence of her phone, no unusual encounters.”

  “Anyone have footage from the sidewalk of Rachel’s return to work? I think that’s our last piece since she said she didn’t have the phone when she was getting ready to leave for work for the day.” Billy swiveled his head from side to side, and the room remained silent.

  Jake pushed out of his chair. “Brandon, who had that last part of Rachel’s timeline?”

  Brandon popped up, red faced, from where he’d been crawling on the floor connecting cables. “We don’t have it. It’s the same camera from the street where we watched her go in for lunch and then into the coffeehouse, but for some reason there’s no footage from later that day.”

  Jake ran a hand through his hair, the ends of his fingers tingling with frustration. Unlike Kyra, he hadn’t expected to see the culprit lifting Rachel’s phone, but accurate footage showing a clear timeline would be good.

  “I have a question.” Kyra wiggled her fingers in the air. “For those of you who saw Rachel with her phone, was she on it or did you see it in her bag or pocket?”

  Billy asked around the room, and the teams that had seen her with the phone reported that she had the phone in her hand.

  Picking up on Kyra’s train of thought, Jake asked, “When Rachel got off the phone, did she put it in her purse? Zip it up so nobody could get to it?”

  One of the female officers spoke up. “We saw her texting for several minutes while she was eating lunch outside with her friend. When she was done, she put the phone next to her on the bench. I’d never do that. When I saw her, I thought to myself that was a good way to lose your phone. When she left, she did drop it into her purse, no side pocket or anything like that.”

  “So, you think she might have left it out at a later time and somebody picked it up.” Jake rubbed his chin. “Nobody had to pick her pocket or lift it from her purse if she just left it sitting somewhere.”

  Billy put a big red arrow pointing at Rachel’s lunch and another aimed at her store at three o’clock. “She lost the phone between here and here.”

  Kyra nudged Jake. “That’s us. Can we play it back again?”

  “Sure.” Jake raised his voice. “Thanks for your hard work, everyone. We’ll coordinate with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, and do some more canvassing in that area. It has another connection to one of our victims, so it’s a hot spot for us. Leave any stills you took with Cool Breeze, and you can take off.”

  Chairs scraped and empty soda cans hit the recycling bins, and the officers shuffled out of the room.

  Billy scribbled a few more words on his whiteboard timeline and pointed the marker at Jake. “Mind if I lean over your shoulders?”

  “C’mon over.” Jake scooted his chair closer to Kyra’s. “I’m glad Kyra was here to help out. I didn’t realize you were going to be so late.”

  “Had some leads on the identity of our Malibu fire victim.” Billy clicked his tongue as he pulled up a chair and squeezed next to Jake. “Nothing panned out. That poor woman still doesn’t have a name.”

  “You checked out the missing persons report that looked promising?”

  “Chased it down. Showed the sister a picture of our victim, and she failed to make the ID.”

  “He doesn’t seem to be targeting runaways, does he?” Kyra drummed her fingers close to Jake’s hand. “Marissa and Kelsey weren’t runaways.”

  Billy lifted one shoulder. “Maybe he’s not targeting anyone. He sees an opportunity and takes it. That’s why the West Hollywood area is so important. Kelsey got a piercing at Rachel’s shop, and Rachel’s phone was stolen by the killer, or at least someone connected to the killer.”

  “I think that was definitely our guy on the phone last night.” Jake clicked the mouse. “You ready to put eyeballs on this?”

  He’d queued up the video to start seconds before Rachel entered Uncommon Grounds. When the action rolled, Jake poked his finger at the screen. “You can see her arm behind this guy in line.”

  Three sets of eyes studied Rachel’s progress through the line and her turn at the counter.

  “Wait,” Kyra shouted, and both Jake and Billy jumped. “She has her purse open to get her wallet. That looks like the edge of a phone right there.”

  As Jake leaned in, he felt Kyra’s warm breath on his cheek. “You’re right. That’s her phone. Good job.”

  Rachel shoved her card in the chip reader and pulled it out. She tucked the card back into her purse without touching her phone. She stepped out of the camera’s view to wait for her drink.

  Kyra sighed. “Anything could be happening off camera.”

  Rachel reached in to grab her drink, and they couldn’t even see her purse or her other hand.

  Kyra circled an area on the screen that showed Rachel’s other arm behind her body. “She could be holding a phone there.”

  “We can ask her.” Jake backed up and snapped a picture of Rachel’s open purse with a gleaming corner of her phone visible. “I told you, she’s a bright girl. She might remember what happened in the coffee place the moment before or after she picked up her drink—someone bumping into her, some distraction. I’ll give her a call when I can.”

  Billy stood up and stretched. “You canceled the task force meeting today?”

  “I figured everyone got a good update in here. I’m going to get on the phone with the Sheriff’s Department and let them know we’ll be nosing around Melrose.”

  “And I have a few clients to see later.” Kyra shoved back from the desk, linked her fingers and stretched her arms in front of her. “Thanks for allowing me to view the footage.”

  “You provided some good insight. I don’t think I could’ve made out anything in a woman’s purse.” Jake felt Billy jab two fingers between his shoulders, and he shrugged him off.

  Kyra pushed to her feet and patted her purse. “I left the case for my sunglasses in your car.”

  “I’ll take you down to get them.” Jake flicked a finger at the printouts in Billy’s hand. “You have everything you need?”

  “I sure do.”

  Jake walked Kyra from the room, and they went down to the parking lot. He unlocked the car, and she ducked inside to retrieve her case.

  She held it up over the roof of the car. “Got it.”

  “Where’s your car?”

  “I parked it on the street. The lot was crowded, and I didn’t want to take up a space.”

  “I’ll walk you out there.” He ignored the look she shot him. He knew it was still daylight and they were in front of a police station, but old habits died hard.

  “Not necessary, but okay.” She retrieved her car keys and jingled them. “No keyless ignition for me yet. My car’s ancient.”

  When they got to the curb where she’d parked her car, Kyra slid forward and slammed her hands against the passenger window.

  “Are you all right?” Jake grabbed her arm. Her skin felt clammy beneath his touch.

  “I—I’m fine.” She twisted away from him and pushed off the car, where her hands had left moist prints on the glass. “I’m so clumsy, I slipped on the curb.”

  The last thing he’d call Kyra Chase was clumsy. Jake glanced down at the perfectly dry curb without a crack in place. Behind his own sunglasses, he watched her smiling lips tremble.

  “You don’t seem fine. Did you almost faint or something? Do you want me to get you water?”

  “For a little slip?” She clicked the remote on
her key fob. “I’m good. Thanks again for including me today.”

  She stood with her back against the passenger door, her shoulders squared, a bright, fake smile plastered to her face.

  “I’ll make sure you get to the other side okay.” He cupped her elbow and walked her around to the driver’s side.

  She slid into her car and slammed the door on him. When she started her engine, she buzzed down the window. “Thanks, again.”

  Jake nodded and hesitated, but Kyra pulled out her phone and bent her head over it, her fingers tapping furiously.

  He forced himself to walk away from her car. He couldn’t stand there all day looking at her through the window. Raising his hand, he stalked back to the station parking lot. Before he walked into the building, he twisted his head to the side to find Kyra’s car still idling at the curb. The white oval through the window looked like her face.

  She was still watching him?

  When he walked into the station, Jake bolted up three flights of stairs and charged into the lunchroom, which had a view of the street.

  As he squinted through the tinted glass, Kyra got out of her car, went around to the passenger side, crouched down and reached beneath the car’s chassis.

  Jake gritted his teeth. What the hell was she lying about this time?

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kyra clutched the queen of diamonds in her hand and smeared her thumb across the glossy surface to sweep off the particles of dirt clinging to it. Fingerprints didn’t concern her this time. He’d left none on the other card, and she couldn’t run to Clive with another playing card, anyway.

  Could she run to Jake?

  She glanced at the white expanse of the station. Would CCTV help to identify who’d dropped the playing card next to her car? If she’d parked in the station’s lot, there would’ve been footage for sure. That would be less likely out here in the street.

  She dropped the card onto her console and gripped the steering wheel, resting her forehead on her bunched knuckles. How did the killer know who she was, where she lived, what car she drove? It didn’t make sense.