Black Cat Weekly #89

Chapter 5-2

“Have you found anyone else she was dating?”

“We’re still looking.”

“Yeah, you’re just taking a break now, is that it?”

McInerney holds up a Dunkin’ cup.

“Have any of Regina Brinkley’s friends mentioned her seeing someone else?”

McInerney tilts his cup and drinks slowly.

“Jésu,” Jody snaps. “How you do the coffee and donuts number so well and still keep your boyish figure?”

Jésu“I work out a lot. Chasing down felons, just like on TV.”

“Well, why don’t we try something easier,” Teague says. “You can open the file on your computer and let us read through it. Get a few ideas, the flavor of this whole thing.”

“Did I say something about a case under investigation a minute ago?” McInerney puts his cup back on the desk.

“We’re just trying to make sure you explore all the avenues.” Teague feels tired. “Maybe you’ll build an even stronger case.”

McInerney looks across the room.

“Yo, Jake.”

A detective with a brown buzzcut and a red streak on his left cheek turns toward them, then sticks two fingers between his lips and gives a whistle that pierces Teague’s ears like rusty wire. Another detective in a worn gray suit sees McInerney wave at him and lumbers over to join them. He’s bigger than McInerney, with a square jaw and ruddy cheeks, his eyes and hair the color of fresh sod.

“’Sup, Lew?”

“These two citizens.” Donahue makes the word sound like something he stepped in. “They’re harassing me and making allegations about how I do my job.”

“Not even.” Jody’s accent becomes a little more pronounced, a sure sign that she’s pissed, too. “We’re asking about an investigation and getting mierda back.”

mierda “And you expect to get information because…?”

“We’re working with your main suspect’s attorney,” Teague says again. “She’s concerned because your department isn’t cooperating and may be violating her client’s rights.”

“That’s a serious accusation.” The guy seems to grow even bigger.

“I know you’re a detective, but you’re not on the case we’re discussing, so why did Detective McInerney call you over?”

“I’m the Union Steward of Police Local 576. If you’re interfering with our work and harassing us, it could be grounds for a labor action.”

Jody snorts. Teague locks his eyes with the guy. “What we’re doing is called due process.”

“Maybe. If my colleague is working on a case, the details are closed to the public.”

“You’ve already made an arrest,” Teague points out. “The person has been arraigned and released on bail. He has an attorney of record, and the case is in discovery. That means you’re supposed to release all relevant details. List of items found as evidence, witness contact information, forensic evidence. According to what you’ve given the lawyer, you have no witnesses, no items, no motive, and fingerprints that could have been left any time in the last month.”

The union man raises his eyebrows.

“A wannabe lawyer.”

“I was in the Military Police,” Teague says. “You think this is hard, try meeting military standards.”

The big man hands Teague a business card. Jacek Pacyna, Detective, Stonebury Police Department. His cell phone and municipal email rest in the lower corners.

Jacek Pacyna, Detective, Stonebury Police Department. “Look, Jody.” Teague shows her the card. “He’s even got it embossed.”

“Sweet.” Jody digs into her purse. “Let’s give him ours, too. Then we can trade with all our friends.”

Teague hands both their cards to Pacyna, who drops them on his desk.

“Can I have one of yours, too, Detective McInerney?” Jody says. “Then I’ll have the whole set?”

McInerney’s card isn’t embossed like Pacyna’s.

Back in the parking lot, Teague beeps his windows open to release the heat, then holds the door for Jody because he knows it sets her teeth on edge.

“Well, that went well, didn’t it?” She shrugs out of her blazer. “Got another idea?”

Half an hour later, Regina Brinkley’s former landlord—three chins, a combover and a beer belly—unlocks the door of her apartment and ushers them in. They’ve told him they’re looking to rent while they save money for a starter home. Jody peers through the slider.

“Oh, look, Sweetums. There’s a courtyard. And a deck. How many units do you have?”

“Uh, fifty.” The guy watches Jody lean forward and look to both sides of the slider, his eyes admiring what he sees.

She points at a smooth lawn dotted with shrubs and two picnic tables.

“Do people do things out there?” she asks. “You know, like picnics or parties?”

“Sometimes, yeah. I mean, it’s summer, you know?”

“I guess people get to know each other fairly well, right?”

“Some, I guess. Most of the people here are young, they work.”

“Lots of children?”

“A few, not many.”

Teague sees no board or plank in the channel for the sliding door. The lock looks fragile enough for him to break with a good punch, but it seems intact.

“Most people would put a stick or something in here, wouldn’t they? For more security?”

“Uh, probably. But we’ve got decent people here. Nobody’d try anything.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Teague steps into the kitchen.

“Honeybuns, check out the stove here. It looks new. And the fridge.”

“Oooh,” Jody coos. “And I love the knobs on the cupboards.”

Teague opens a drawer and sees a flashlight, masking tape, assorted batteries and the manual for the microwave. The drawer next to the dishwasher holds serving and eating utensils.

“This is really nice.” Jody widens her eyes. “How come a place like this is vacant? It looks like someone still lives here, all the stuff in the drawers…”

The landlord clears his throat.

“Uh, the tenant died suddenly. She…her family’s gonna take stuff in a day or two. If you like the place, you can take it as is, or we can repaint. That’d take a few more days.”

“Died?” Teague looks shocked. “You mean like an accident or a heart attack?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“That’s awful.” Jody makes her voice small. “Did she have lots of friends here?”

“I suppose, but I don’t know who they were.”

Jody seems to gather herself again and steps into the bathroom. “Oh, this is awesome. Much bigger than I expected. And the skylight. Sugar Pie, come take a look.”

The tub has claw feet and is long enough so Jody could stretch out in it. Teague remembers that Regina Brinkley was tiny and could easily have done the same. The window has wooden blinds, and the skylight, ten feet above, focuses the afternoon sun directly on the tub.

“I love this tub.” Jody leans forward to give the landlord another look at her rear. “And the fixtures.”

“Yeah, Sweetcheeks,” Teague says. “Those are awesome.”

Jody opens the medicine cabinet above the sink and Teague slides into the bedroom to look at the twin bed and Ikea nightstand and dresser. “Uh, the family’s probably going to take this furniture, right? We’ve got a queen-sized bed.”

“Yeah.” The landlord slowly turns away from Jody. “Couple of days, like I said.”

Jody joins Teague and opens the louvered closet door. “Not much closet space.”

“Uh, we’ve got storage bins down in the basement. Most people switch stuff in and out with the seasons, you know?”

Teague checks the nightstand. Tissues, a cell phone charger, and an iPod.

Jody opens the top dresser drawer.

“Nice clothes. You said the woman had a boyfriend. Was she young?”

“Uh, yeah. Probably about your age.”

“She was quiet. No parties or anything.”

“Yeah,” Teague says. “No TV, no stereo. She had an iPod, though, I saw it in the nightstand.”

“Honey, look at this.” Jody leans out the window. “Look at these rosebushes.”

Teague moves next to her, so he doesn’t spoil the landlord’s view.

“Nice,” he said. “But you’re right about the closet.”

He faces the landlord again. “Let us think about it, OK? We’ve got another place to look at, and we’ll get back to you.”

Back at the car, he holds Jody’s door again.

“Sweetie?”

“Honeybuns?” Jody lowers the sun visor.

“Hey, you started it.”

She adjusts her seat belt. “Got you all churned up, didn’t I?”

“You wish.” He pulls out of the lot before Jody speaks again.

“They probably cleaned the tub, so there’s no sign of blood. And the place lights up like a photographer’s studio. The cops could’ve taken pictures anywhere in there without even using a flash.”

“No crime scene tape on the door,” Teague adds, “and they’ve let the landlord clean up the fingerprint powder that was probably all over the bathroom.”

“Candylips?” Jody doesn’t quite giggle.

Teague looks in his rearview mirror. “I never said that. Honey Bun, yes. But not that. Someone letting her naughty fantasies run free?”

“You wish.”

“Anything interesting in the bathroom cabinet?”

“Tylenol, vitamins, birth control pills, toothpaste and brush, make-up. She wore sexy underwear, though. The kind I’d wear on a third date.”

Teague lets that one go by.

“Phone charger on the nightstand.”

“Uh-huh.” Teague sees movement in his mirror. “But no phone. Well, Chudzik told us that.”

When he turns left, a car follows them through the yellow, leaving a blast of horns behind them.

“I think we’ve got a tail.”

They turn into their parking lot and the car that beat the light slows down to pass their driveway before speeding up and turning the next corner.

They enter their office, and Jody snaps her fingers.

“Your nephews. Do they have a pet?”

“Both a dog and a cat,” Teague says.

“OK, so much for that idea.”

“Nice try.” Teague boots up his computer again.

“The good news is that if someone’s following us, we’re doing something right.”

The youngest of four sisters, Jody Hidalgo was still walking a beat when she met her future husband, start-up wizard Daniel Silver. They’d been married two years when he died in a helicopter crash along with three other young techno-geeks. She miscarried two weeks later. She still lived in the twelve-room house they’d shared, but she left the police force soon after losing her baby.

At some point during her time with the police, she crossed paths with homicide detective Abigail Teague, who pointed her to her cousin Eric. That was eighteen months before, and Teague still remembered standing with his mouth open when the beautiful woman with the damaged eyes walked into his office and told him she wanted a job. With the law enforcement experience, she received her investigator’s license in the time it took to fill out the application.

She’d studied martial arts as a young girl and went back with a vengeance after her husband’s death. Teague suspected beating people up was all that kept her sane. She wore her wedding band when they met, and it took him six months to convince her to take it off. As far as he knew, she still didn’t date.