Blood And Steel

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Back at the 11th Precinct, a distraught Detective Tony Marinelli sat in the quiet of one of the briefing rooms. The room was long—around twelve feet by ten—with a large window at the back, the walls were painted a putrid yellow, possibly to cover the day-to-day stains. In the centre was a large wooden table, which could comfortably accommodate twelve people sitting around it whilst being briefed on a case. Surrounding the heavy looking table sat twelve blue plastic chairs, six on each side. A large corkboard stretched the breadth of the short right-hand wall. This was placed to allow a perfect view for the twelve seated around the table so that visual exhibits could accompany the verbal briefings.

Tooms walked in, holding two coffee mugs. Using his heel, he closes the door behind him before handing over the mug of fresh coffee to Tony. The two men had been through a lot in the seven years they had worked homicide together. But nothing like this had happened before. Tooms looked at his partner as he struggled to make a list of anything which may help the investigation. He was listing everything he knew about his girlfriend – their murder victim. Where she worked, where she used to live. Family, her other friends. Her life was suddenly under a microscope, and he didn’t like it, because now, so was his.

“You sure you want to do this now, man?” Tooms asked. “It’s OK if you want a bit of time first?”

Tony gave Tooms a scowl, but Tooms knew it wasn’t for him. Tony was hurting, and nothing mattered to him more than catching the bastard who did this.

Tony’s expression changed suddenly as he realised his partner’s meaning.

“Sorry, man, I know you didn’t mean it like that. It’s just—”

“—Hey, I get it, man. Don’t worry. We are gonna get whoever did this,” Tooms interrupted.

At that moment, Tony’s words were as broken as his soul was. As far as he was concerned, no one knew what he was feeling.

No one could.

“So, where did she work?” Tooms asked, sitting in the chair across from Tony.

Tony tapped his pen onto the A4 legal pad. He had written as much as he could before realising; he didn’t know that much about her. They had been together for a long time, but the fact was that he was privy to very few of the details of her life. The sound of Tooms clearing his throat made Tony look up from what he was doing. Tony tossed the pen down and sat back in the chair. He smiled at his partner, who waited patiently for an answer.

“Sorry, man, I was miles away.” Tony laughed.

Tooms smiled and placed down his coffee mug onto the scratched surface of the table.

“I was just wondering where she worked. It might be an idea to go there tomorrow …” Tooms looked at his watch to check which side of midnight it was. “Better make that later today,” Tooms corrected himself. Tony blew onto the hot coffee before taking a small sip. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted up to his sinuses. It was good coffee.

“She worked at some large shipping firm.” Tony smiled and shook his head. “Which I found funny because it turns out they’re just a delivery company. Sure, they use ships, but they haul the goods mainly by truck.”

Tooms was glad to see his partner smile. He had gone through something no cop should have to go through losing a loved one. Joshua noticed the name of the firm on the yellow legal pad in front of Tony: ‘Trent Shipping’ stood out on the paper. It was written in big, bold letters and circled. The list also contained several names. Tooms wondered if they were the names of her family and friends.

“Did she talk about her family?” Tooms asked, almost hoping there was a family member so that Tony didn’t have to grieve alone. “her parents, brothers or sisters?”

Tony nodded and pointed to a name that Tooms couldn’t quite decipher properly.

“Her name is Brooke, Brooke Taylor. She lives in Washington.” Tony’s gaze drifted into nowhere. Tooms figured he was remembering some happy day shared with his girlfriend, and he wasn’t contemplating the crime scene. A quick smile from the corner of Tony’s mouth confirmed it, and Tooms was glad.

“Did you meet her mom and dad? Maybe some of her friends?” Tooms asked.

But there was no reply. Tony was still somewhere else in his head.

“Hey, Tony. Are you with us, man?” Tooms’s voice raised its volume slightly. He wasn’t shouting but had sharpened his tone just enough to bring his partner back to the present.

“Sorry, man. Just remembering … never mind.” The smile had fallen away from Tony’s mouth.

“Did you meet any other family or friends? Perhaps, someone she worked with?” Tooms asked. Tony began to shake his head, but a quick recollection stopped him.

“Her parents are dead. They were killed in a car accident years ago. But I did meet one friend of hers. Tara, I think her name was.” Tony looked worn out as he answered. Tooms wished he could let him go home, but he was afraid he would get some bad ideas if he was left by himself.

“OK, nice,” Tooms went on. “So, have you got any ideas where this Tara chick lives?” His face had lit up at the prospect of a lead.

“We think she was the girl Amber moved in with,” said McCall, who was standing in the doorway. Steel stood behind her like a looming shadow. They walked in and sat down, hoping to share in the findings.

“We found some bills in the kitchen addressed to Tara Burke. The question is, where is Tara now?” McCall said.

“Maybe she came home and found the body, then she bolted just in case the killer was still there,” Tooms added. His voice almost sounded hopeful that might be the case, and that they weren’t looking at two homicides.

“It’s possible,” Steel said, leaning back in the chair. “She may have come back and seen the body. The neighbours did say they heard a scream at around ten o’clock.”

Samantha McCall saw the expression on Steel’s face turn to stone. She knew that hardened look meant that he felt something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. Steel turned to face her. Her eyes sparkled with the reflection of the overhead lights. He smiled and shook his head.

“Nothing. Just a passing thought about something else, that’s all,” Steel replied. She could see through his white lie but said nothing.

“OK, you guys. Find out where Tara works, and we will go to where Amber worked,” McCall suggested as she stood up. She had noticed the name on the yellow legal pad and figured that was first the place they had to go. Steel stood up as McCall approached the door.

“Road trip?” he asked with a smile.

“Road trip,” she replied, rattling her car keys.

Tooms and Tony went back to the crime scene to see if there was anything that would help with finding the roommate. Before, they had only concentrated on the victim—Amber. But now, they might have a missing person or worse, another body.

Tooms didn’t really want Tony in the apartment. He would have preferred to have gone alone and left him at the precinct, but his friend made out he was OK. Tooms didn’t believe a word of it, but that was Tony Marinelli all over—putting his job first and his personal life second.

As they reached the front door to the apartment, a uniformed officer stood watch. The two detectives showed their shields. The young uniformed cop nodded, then watched as they went to enter. Tony froze as Tooms reached for the handle. Joshua sensed something was wrong and turned.

“Damn it!” Tooms cursed, patting down his jacket. “Hey, Tony, you couldn’t go back to the car, could you? I forgot my friggin’ camera.” Joshua saw the relieved look on Tony’s face.

“Yeah, no problem. Besides, it gives me time to check on that other thing,” Tony bluffed. Tooms watched his partner walk away towards the staircase. Then his gaze fell to the young cop, who was trying to look as if he hadn’t been taking it all in. Tooms turned the door handle and walked in. CSU had removed the yellow evidence markers, but back smudges remained from the fingerprint powder. The clean-up crew hadn’t been in yet: it was still a crime scene. Tooms stood for a moment and looked down on the large red stain on the carpet. He was glad Tony was downstairs, for he didn’t need to see this. Joshua pulled on a pair of blue sterile gloves as he moved towards the second bedroom. He stood back as he entered the missing girl’s room. The walls were painted bright pink. The light from the small window reflected on the right-hand wall and seemed to turn it neon. A double bed rested against the left-hand wall next to which was a large cheap-looking closet. The room was small—ten feet by eight if that. Purple shelves were attached to the walls fixed with metallic right-angled supports. Books and stuffed toy animals sat neatly as if they were on display. A nightstand separated the bed from the wall. Its glossy white paint was broken up by pink swirls that Tooms figured she had done herself. A tall bedside lamp with a pink plastic shade sat next to a ‘pink cat’ alarm clock: the digital display was held in the smiling mouth of a pink-and-purple striped cat.

The detective looked around the room. Initially, it had reminded him of his girls’ rooms, and they were considerably younger than Amber—thirteen and fifteen. Tooms made his way to the bedside cabinet, hoping to find something in its four drawers. He quickly closed the third one. He had no intention of prying in a woman’s ‘naughty’ drawer. The top one was full of odd bits of junk and bracelets. The others contained mostly magazines and holiday brochures. He stood up and made for the closet. Joshua found it odd there were no photographs anywhere. No pictorial evidence of family, friends, snapshots from holidays, nothing personal like that. To look at the apartment, you would think it was a show house.

The curious officer then opened the closet door and there before him was a rail of neatly pressed clothes, on hangers: blouses, jeans and so on. He stopped and smiled as he reached in and pulled out a red-and-white uniform. The name ‘Bob’s Diner’ was stitched into the white top in red lettering.

“Time to get some breakfast,” Tooms said with a grin. He placed the uniform back in the closet and left the apartment.