Relative Malice (12 page)

19

Kendall and Gray ate in a booth at the back of a famous steak and rib house on State Street, not far from where Conlin lived with TJ. The food had been fantastic.

Kendall noticed Gray assessing her. “What?”

“It’s been a long time since I had a meal with a woman who really enjoyed it.”

“It was wonderful. I suppose your fiancé has to live on carrot sticks and lettuce.” She hoped it didn’t sound like she was fishing for personal information. Or being catty.

He grinned. “Yes, just like a rabbit. When she does order a steak or prime rib, she eats two bites and pushes it away. Men hate that, you know.”

“I love to eat. Although I can’t eat like I used to.”

“Why’s that?”

Kendall wished she hadn’t brought it up. “I took a bullet in the abdomen about a year ago. It takes a long time for your system to get back to normal.”

She was relieved he didn’t ask for more detail.

“Does your boss know I flew you here?” he asked.

“No, he’s off this weekend. Accepting the ride wouldn’t be that bad except you’re still officially a person of interest.”

“I am? You know where I was that night.” He accepted the bill from the waitress, and waved away Kendall’s offer of money. “Do you think I might have paid someone to do the deed?”

“You wouldn’t be the first one.”

“I suppose not. And it’s no secret how I felt about my brother. I’ll clear it up for you, Detective. Before Mark and Chelsea moved to Eau Claire, she tried to get us together, played mediator for at least a year before she gave up. In all honesty, my grudge had been more with my parents than Mark. I was ready to let it go after they both passed. Chelsea had me convinced it was the right thing for both of us.”

“Then your brother was the one who didn’t want to patch things up?”

“I’m not sure he didn’t want to, but he didn’t have time to make it happen. My brother’s always been too busy trying to save the world, to ‘make a difference,’ as he put it. Chelsea agreed to his tour in the Mideast, although I’ve never understood why.”

Kendal wondered if Gray wasn’t aware of the quid pro quo that had taken place between his brother and Chelsea because of it, that her agreeing to his tour was the reason Mark had been willing to relocate his family to Eau Claire.

“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

He frowned. “Not as long as it won’t require the presence of an attorney.”

“No, nothing like that. I was just wondering what you’ll do when we find your niece.”

He placed a credit card on top of the bill without scrutinizing it. “I’m glad you said when and not if, Detective, but I’m not sure what you’re asking.”

He probably had no idea how much a small child would change his lifestyle. “I meant how would you take care of her? You have a demanding career. Is your fiancé willing to be a stay-at-home mom?”

“England wants children, just not in the near future. I’d have to hire a nanny, I suppose, and spend less time on the job. I could do more from home if I had to.”

“I’m glad you’re giving it some thought.” She wanted to tell him how hard it is on a kid without a mom who is interested in her. But she’d done enough delving into the man’s personal life and didn’t want to reveal any details of her own.

The trip back to Eau Claire felt like it took days rather than hours. Kendall white-knuckled it all the way as they followed the tail end of the storm. When the small plane lurched and tossed about, Glausson acted like it was business as usual while Kendall fought to retain the lunch she’d eaten in Milwaukee.

They arrived back in the hangar just after nightfall although it was barely five in the afternoon. Gray swung his tall frame out of the plane, making the long drop to the floor as if he practiced it daily. Kendall wasn’t even sure she’d be able to navigate the portable stairs, which, unfortunately, didn’t seem to be anywhere nearby. She opened the door, expecting to see that he’d pulled them over to aid her descent. Instead he stood below the plane and beckoned to her to jump.

“Reach over to the left and grab that handle. Swing down and I’ll help you.” He raised his arms.

Too proud to beg for the stairs, she did as ordered. She swung out and felt his body against hers as she slid down the length of him until her feet touched the cement floor. She didn’t think he’d planned it, but as their eyes met, he leaned in and kissed her. The jolt that ran through her at the touch of his lips wiped out all thoughts of how inappropriate the kiss was on so many different levels.

“We made it!” He broke away, grinning, and walked over to check on the plane. Dazed, Kendall stood in place, willing her legs to support her. When she returned from a unisex restroom she’d spotted in the back of the hangar, he offered her a disposable cup and a bottle of Jim Beam. “You look like you could use this.”

She poured an ounce of the liquor and downed it. “Just enough to get me home.”

Kendall drove home feeling like she’d accomplished something by just getting back in one piece. The virgin email case was wrapped up on her end; Conlin would take over where Eau Claire left off. It would be up to Milwaukee’s computer crime experts to put a stop to the website that had been procuring teenage virgins to sell their wares. Her cell phone buzzed as she pulled onto the street in front of the apartment. It was Nash.

“You made it back; what did you find out?”

“The Markowicz girl is alive and well. She’s living in an apartment in Milwaukee and going to law school, all on the dime of the guy who paid to be her ‘first.’”

“Interesting. What are you going to tell her parents?”

“Nothing, she’s eighteen. I’ll tell them how to contact her. Obviously, she isn’t going to press charges or give up the guy who’s supporting her.”

“Great, you have one of your cases wrapped up.”

“Yeah, and one to go. The other one shouldn’t take me more than a few days.”

“We need to talk.”

“Sure. Give me an hour to get my land legs back. I’ll meet you in the bar downstairs at six-thirty.”

In her apartment, Kendall stood under a hot shower, warming her strained muscles and remembering how exciting Glausson’s body had felt against hers. His kiss had been a momentary thing, an isn’t-it-good-to-be-alive gesture. She’d be fooling herself if she imagined it meant anything more.

Nash entered the Rat Pak looking for Kendall and saw Brynn walking out the back carrying a bag of takeout food. The air was thick with the smell of hot oil. As he walked the length of the bar, he heard a comment by a heavy-set man to an even more portly crony on his right. “Hey, did you see that—the white-witch. I think I’ll have her sit on my face and tell my fortune.”

His pals guffawed at the lewd comment.

Nash hesitated, then stopped and tapped the guy on the shoulder. “Watch your mouth, asshole.”

From under a greasy baseball cap, his pig-like eyes turned to Nash. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m the new bouncer. You’re outta here.” Nash motioned toward the door.

The guy started to take a swing at Nash, who dodged the blow just as an arm reached between them displaying a detective’s badge.

“Detective Halsrud.” Kendall slipped the badge back in her pocket. “Is there a problem here?”

Pig-eyes whined, “I didn’t do nothin’.”

Kendall grabbed the guy’s arm. “The owner of this establishment would like you to leave.”

The guy looked toward Morrie, who stood at the back of the bar, ignoring the scene unfolding six stools down. When he realized Morrie wasn’t going to come to his aid, the big man sucked down the rest of his beer and slid off the barstool. He missed the nod of approval Morrie made in Kendall’s direction.

“Okay, but I’m taking my buddies with me.” He raised his voice. “And we won’t be back.”

After he’d moved ten feet toward the door, he turned around. None of his friends followed him; instead they stared into their beers while two couples further down clapped in approval at the eviction.

With a last sneer toward Kendall, he muttered, “Fuckin’ lezzie,” and continued toward the door.

Nash rushed out after the departing jerk with Kendall at his heels. By the time she stepped out the door, he had the man pushed up against the building.

“Enough,” she yelled. “Let him go, Nash, he’s not worth the effort.”

Nash wanted to do the guy some serious damage, but eased up. “Don’t show your ugly face around here again.”

Pig-eyes waddled away.

Kendall faced Nash. “Looks like you have a few anger-management issues.”

“What’s with you? I try to nail the guy for you and you tell me I have
issues
?”

“I don’t need you to run interference for me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Well,” she offered, “I think Brynn will be grateful. I’m sure it’ll get back that you defended her.”

Nash never had understood women, and Kendall was no exception. He let it go. “How was the trip? Heard the weather got pretty hairy between here and Milwaukee.”

Kendall rolled her eyes. “Hairy doesn’t begin to describe it.”

“At least you made it home, safely. Back to the matter at hand, I looked in on one of the baby-pervs while you were gone.”

“I want to hear all about it. Let’s go back in and get some food. I think my stomach’s finally returned to earth.”

They took a booth in the back, where they filled up on fried fish and coleslaw before discussing the case. Kendall told him what happened with Brittany Markowicz.

“Nice to pawn one off.”

“I didn’t. Milwaukee’s on it because Markowicz and the guy who bought and paid for her live there. MPD’s computer-crimes division has a lot more resources than ours, anyway. I’m hoping they can find the source of the original emails. Conlin will let me know if they trace it back to our area.”

“Hey, I was just yanking your chain. I’m glad you got one of those cases off your plate so we can focus on finding the kid.” He relayed the details of his trip to Cameron to check out Iseroth.

“You think that one’s a dead end?”

“Maybe. It seems like it would be impossible for Iseroth to have pulled a covert baby-napping without the old lady seeing anything. He had no idea I would show up at his doorstep. His place is awfully small to hide a baby. And the guy doesn’t seem to have any money. We could have your source run his financials and take a look at the woman just to cover all the bases. By the way, who is this super geek that got the names for you?”

“Do you have a nickname or a slur for everyone?”

“Not you.”

She sighed. “Not yet, anyway. And you did go after that jerk for me.”

He grinned.

“I’m not a lesbian, you know. But I’ve never denied it to my fellow officers since they’re convinced of it, anyway.”

“I knew that.”

“You
knew
? You think you have some kind of gay-dar for women?”

“Nah. I just know people. I noticed how you eyeball Gray.”

Kendall opened her mouth to protest.

Nash interjected, “Hey, he’s a good-looking guy. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

She quickly diverted the Gray Glausson discussion. “I’ll tell you who’s doing the computer work for us, but you have to agree to keep it under wraps.”

His raised his heavy eyebrows. “You’re doing something off the books? I’m all ears and locked lips. Spill.”

She explained about Brynn’s history with computers. “It isn’t really off the books. Schoenfuss just doesn’t know about it yet.”

“She getting paid?”

Kendall looked down, stabbing at the last piece of fish on her plate.

“You’re paying her out of your own pocket, aren’t you?” he asked.

“No,” Kendall said, “she’s working on it as a favor. I’m going to try to get her paid as a civilian consultant, although if I have to I will
pay her myself.”

“I’ll mention it to Gray. He’ll pick up the tab.”

“You know I can’t accept money from Gray. But I’m wondering if we’re going at this the wrong way by spending time on the pedophiles. What if the baby was sold to a baby broker for adoption? They command ridiculously high fees. “

“If that’s the case,” he argued, “she isn’t in any immediate danger. And why the blood on the floor of the nursery?”

Kendall sighed. “It’s a mystery, all right. Maybe we should be concentrating on a possible accomplice. If we find him, it could save us a lot of time.”

Nash called the waitress over for another beer. “Run it by me; what do you have that makes you think Jordan had a sidekick?”

“For one thing, Sienna Glausson was violently raped. In the Stillwater case, there was a teenage daughter and she wasn’t touched.”

“What did the Stillwater girl look like?”

“What did she look like? Are you saying they would have raped her if she’d been a cute little cheerleader like Sienna? That’s sick.”

“You know it works that way. Maybe he only went for brunettes.”

“The girl in Stillwater
was
a brunette,” Kendall added.

“And once more, what did she look like?”

The girl hadn’t been particularly attractive. Kendall ignored the question. “They found a partial on Sienna’s wrist. It didn’t match Jordan.”

“How about the boyfriend?” he asked.

“No match with him either.”

“Finding an accomplice would be the way to go if we had something concrete. Since we don’t, I say we keep looking at the pervs.”

Kendall agreed. “It’s just not happening fast enough. Tomorrow we can visit the others on our list. I’d better go now; I still have to drop in on my partner tonight at the hospital and then go over some of this with Brynn. ”

“I’ll come with you to visit Hank.”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

In the hallway to Hank Whitehouse’s room, they passed dozens of visitors straggling out. Visiting hours were over, but Kendall’s badge bought them extended time.

Hank’s back was to them, an IV stand on wheels clutched in his hand as he navigated himself back into the hospital bed. Kendall turned her head to avoid a display of his butt, visible between the flaps of a blue hospital gown as he backed into the covers.

He eased into the pillows, modestly covering himself as he saw them enter the room. He snorted. “The streets should be safe now that you two are pairing up. You working the Glausson case?”

Kendall grinned. “Why else would I be hanging around with this loser?”

Nash chuckled. “She loves me, just won’t admit it.”

Whitehouse seemed to weigh their banter. “Enough with the quibbling. I’ve been watching the news—they got the perp but not the baby. Said the Fibbies are taking over, that true?”

Kendall thought the grapevine must be slowing down if he only knew what he’d seen on the news. “Yeah. Schoenfuss gave me the okay to keep working the case, but only when my regular caseload allows time for it. He dumped two sex crimes on me. It doesn’t leave me much time; that’s why I hooked up with Nash.

“Travis Jordan confessed to killing Philly Glausson, but I’m not sure I’m buying it. I suspect Jordan had an accomplice; at least I think he did with the Glausson family.”

“An accomplice? What’ve you got to go on?” Hank asked.

“Not much.” She told him what little she had.

He grunted. “Hard to run with that. You’re still looking for the kid, right?”

“Yeah. A few drops of blood were found on the floor of the baby’s room. Just enough to identify it as Philly’s. We’re checking out baby-pervs.”

Hank’s face twisted with disgust. “Son of a bitch.”

“Jordan himself doesn’t fit the profile of a pedophile. He has no history with kids. They interviewed a long list of women he’s been with and none of them said a thing about him having unusual sexual proclivities.”

“If you’re right about an accomplice, maybe it’s
his
thing.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. We’ve got a list of four offenders that prefer babies and live in the area. Nash already talked to one of them. So far, it doesn’t appear he’s involved. I have the weekend off, so we’ll be interviewing the others tomorrow and Sunday.”