FIRST ONE DOWN: A Paul Sutton Novel (15 page)

"What time is it?" she asked.

"You're not late for the ball, Cinderella," he answered, a big smile widening across his face.

"Coffee?" she asked, as she stretched her arms up over her head, and let out a yawn.

"Yes, I have coffee for you, it's almost ready," he answered as he got to his feet and walked over to the side of the pull out that she was on. "Tough night, huh?"

"Tough night, Colonel," she said, giving him a small, superficial smile.

"Please don't do that, don't pretend with me. I owe you an apology. I should have asked first. I should have talked to you instead of heaving you over my shoulder like a caveman, claiming you as my own and ordering you to leave your familiar surroundings and come home with me. It was inappropriate and mean, and I'm sorry if I frightened you in any way. I had to know you were safe."

"It's okay, Colonel. I know you were doing what you thought was right. I know you were trying to protect me. Next time though, protect my feelings first," she said, as a sadness came across her face.

It wasn't a look he had seen on her before. But, it was a sadness he had felt in her energy that first day they met. "Kali, I promised I wouldn't do that to you. I promised I would never be the cause of your pain, and here we are less than twenty-four hours after I made that promise, with you feeling hurt because of something that I did."

"It's not you. It's him. I wish I could erase him, everything about him from my memory, forever," she said, looking up in his eyes. "Can I please shower? I need to get to the office."

"Of course. I laid a towel out for you and if you need anything else, let me know."

She got out of the bed and went into the small bathroom, pulling the door closed behind her. Andrew shook his head, wishing he had kept his cool the night before. He never lost it, never lost control but when he saw that bastard's name and what he wrote on Kali's cell phone, he saw red. He intended to find out everything he could about Nate Warner, and he planned to visit him personally later that day. Being face to face with the man who may have taken Laura from him would take all the restraint he had. But, to play and win at this game, he would have to fight back the urge to take justice into his own hands. Taking his black leather briefcase out of the small closet next to the bed, he checked his weapon to make sure it was loaded, placed his laptop inside the briefcase and secured it with its coded latch locks.

The bathroom door opened and out came a gorgeous, fresh faced, and smiling Kali. She walked up to him, stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek, then spun around and grabbed the coffee mug he had left for her near the generic coffee maker. Pouring herself a cup, she looked back at him, "Want one, Colonel?"

"No thanks, I've already had two."

"Okay, how about dinner tonight?" she asked.

"Um, okay. Where? When?" he asked, a bit baffled by the dramatic change in her attitude.

"My house, seven, and bring us a bottle of red wine. Can I have a ride to my car? I need to get to my office."

"Of course, I'm ready when you are, beautiful," he said as he walked towards her. He stopped directly in front of her and pulled her to him, tilting her chin up. He kissed her lips and lingered there for a brief moment. Then, he pulled away and nodded towards the front door.

Ryan blinked repeatedly staring at his desktop computer screen. He couldn't believe that the phone records he had requested that morning had come back so quickly. When Sutton was involved, things had a tendency to turn around fast, but this was unbelievable. Eager to see what the records contained, he opted not to wait for Sutton to return from the deli. He queued the report to print and walked over to the printer station located at the far side of the unit. He was still standing next to the printer when Sutton got off the elevator with their turkey sandwiches from the deli.

"What's going on Ry?" Sutton asked.

"You won't believe it when I tell you," Ryan said, as he picked up and thick stack of copy paper off the printer, and carried the stack back to his desk.

"Let me guess, you single-handedly solved the Carmichael case while I was picking up our lunch?"

"Close," Ryan said, with a smirk, "the records we subpoenaed this morning came back, and we have another three hundred pages to go through. This guy must live on his phone."

"All the text transcripts are there?" Sutton asked.

"Ya, all of them for the three month date range we requested. And, Ms. Foster's records came as well. She must actually work for a living, because hers only account for about twenty pages in this thick stack."

"Great, sounds like overtime for us today," Sutton said, rubbing his thumb back and forth on his fingers in the international hand sign for money.

"For you, old man. I got the records, you can analyze 'em."

Ryan walked the thick stack over to Sutton's desk and dropped it on the metal desk top, causing a loud thud when the stack landed. "Let me know what your gut has to say about these," he said, as he walked back to his own desk, sat down, unwrapped his turkey on rye and took a big bite.

Sutton pushed his wrapped sandwich aside and began sifting through the records. The first thing he wanted to read was the text correspondence between Nate and Olivia.

All the text messages were initiated by Nate Warner, Sutton began reading the transcripts from December 25, 2009.

12/25/09 12:22 p.m.

Why were you spying on me last night, Olivia? I expect an answer...

12/26/09 9:02 a.m.

Hmmm...are you playing hard to get, Olivia?

12/26/09 1:47 p.m.

Olivia...you owe me an explanation.

12/26/09 7:18 p.m.

Perhaps I should make my inquiry in person...

12/28/09 6:42 a.m.

Good morning, Olivia. Do you need help packing?

12/28/09 8:03 a.m.

I don't think all of those boxes will fit in your small sports car, Olivia.

12/28/09 11:28 a.m.

You are a very hard worker. Are you sure you don't need help, Olivia?

12/31/09 6:33 a.m.

I heard that you resigned from your position at the facility. I came by to congratulate you on your big move but your apartment was empty. It saddens me that you left without saying goodbye.

12/31/09 12:54 p.m.

Happy New Year, Olivia. Starting over was exactly what you needed to do.

Sutton read, and re-read the text correspondence. Running his hand through his already tangled mess of gray hair, he pondered the content before him. Sutton stood up and began pacing the area between his and Ryan's desks, looking over at the case board occasionally. Was Nate Warner trying to intimidate Ms. Foster? Was he trying to set a meeting with her? Was he trying to salvage a relationship with her? Did Olivia see something that night? It didn't make sense. And, there was never a return text from Olivia in response to any of Nate's texts. Perhaps Olivia was a new lover or girlfriend and happened upon Nate courting a different woman that night, and upon that discovery, Olivia cut off all contact? Sutton would have expected to find earlier contact between Olivia and Nate if that was the case though. And, aside from the calls a few days leading up to the 24th, there was no other contact between the two in the records on Sutton's desk. The two things Sutton knew for sure were that he needed to find Olivia Foster, and that he had Nate pinned in a lie - he did know, or at the very least, know of, Olivia Foster.

"Sutton..."

"Sutton!" Ryan shouted, louder than the first time, trying to get Sutton's attention.

"What?" Sutton snapped back, then realized his desk phone was ringing and rushed over to answer it.

"Ya, Sutton here," Sutton squawked into the receiver, sitting down into his chair, slamming the pages from the report that were clutched in his hand.

"You have a visitor downstairs, Detective Sutton," the woman at reception said.

"Be down in a minute." Sutton slammed the phone down, muttering under his breath.

"Damn, that man is never going to get off my back," he said, looking over at a confused Ryan.

"You need to chill old man, this case is doing a number on you. And, you gave the guy an open invitation when you disclosed Nate Warner's identity to him," Ryan said turning back and finishing the last bite of his sandwich, "Want me to go down with you?"

"No, I got this. You're right, I opened the gate wide enough to drive a truck through."

"Ya, that guy is the size of a truck," Ryan said, snickering aloud.

Sutton stepped off the first floor elevator and walked towards Andrew Carmichael.

"What's up, Colonel? What was so important that you felt the need to pay me a personal visit?"

"This," Andrew said, pushing a print out in Sutton's face.

Andrew had forwarded Kali's text messages from Nate Warner, to his personal email account and printed them out for Sutton.

"I want to know why the guy who's name keeps popping up in the investigation of my wife's murder is the same guy who is now sending messages like this to the new woman in my life. Does that make any sense to you, Sutton? Is that information important enough for me to pay you a personal visit?" Andrew asked, his voice gruff, and his posture erect, making him appear larger than he was, if that was even possible.

"New woman in your life? Did you seek out Nate Warner's current love interest as a way to get to him?"

"Are you hearing me, Sutton? I didn't even know this guy's name until you gave it to me. What do you know about him? What is his involvement with Laura? Is this the guy you are looking at as the suspect?"

"I can't give you that information, Mr. Carmichael, you know that. How do you know this woman? Who is this woman, and how is she connected to Nate Warner?" Sutton asked.

"She was his girlfriend for several years. From what I can deduce from my conversations with her, she was hurt pretty badly by him. He cheated on her with a co-worker and friend of hers. And I suspect that he has tormented her ever since the breakup," Andrew paused for a moment, still trying to fit the pieces together in his own mind and not quite sure where or how they fit together. "Sutton, there's another interesting piece that I learned last night. The woman I'm seeing, Kali Hanson, she caught Nate Warner cheating with that co-worker of hers on the same night that Laura was murdered. December 24, 2009."

"What did you just say? Was she with Nate Warner on that night? Can she provide an alibi for him?" Sutton asked, looking up at the enormous man, his mind racing with more questions than answers. "Do you know the name of this co-worker that she claims Nate was carrying on with?"

"She didn't say. All I know is that she was a co-worker."

"Where does this Kali Hanson work?"

"San Diego Orthopaedic Specialists, that's why I transferred out here, to oversee..."

"Where?" Sutton interrupted.

"San Diego Ortho..."

"Holy crap are you kidding me right now Andrew?"

Andrew stared down at the aging detective, confused, "No, why would I make that up?"

"It's okay, I didn't mean it that way. Hey, thanks for the heads up. I need to get back upstairs. I will call you tomorrow Mr. Carmichael, I promise. I have to run this down." Sutton turned walking briskly back toward the elevator.

"Quit calling me Mr. Carmichael, damn it, it's Andrew."

Sutton nodded as he stepped into the elevator and made his way back up to the third floor.

"Ryan, at my desk, now," Sutton barked.

Ryan looked up from a report he was writing and rolled his eyes, this was going to be a long afternoon, he thought to himself. "What is it old man, did you single-handedly crack the Carmichael case while down on the first floor for ten minutes?" Ryan asked laughing as he walked over to Sutton's desk until he saw the look on his partners face. Sutton's face was drawn in, grim and serious. He knew that look, Sutton was close. He always got dead serious when he was close to solving a case.

"Quit being a smart ass, I need you to help me go through these phone records. And, I need a number check for a woman named Kali Hanson, she works at the same ortho facility that Olivia Foster used to work at." He split the stack and handed the bottom portion to Ryan. "And Ryan, Kali Hanson was dating Nate Warner. She broke up with him on a very odd date, any guesses what date that would be?"

"Just tell me," Ryan said.

"December 24, 2009. And there's more. The Hanson girl broke up with him because she found out he was dating her co-worker, her co-worker from the ortho facility. I wasn't given a name but I think you and I already know exactly who that was."

"Olivia Foster?" Ryan asked.

"I would lay money on it, partner."

"How on earth did you get this information?" Ryan asked.

"Carmichael."

"What? How did he..."

Cutting him off mid-sentence, Sutton answered, "He is dating Kali Hanson."

Ryan's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide before the words had left Sutton's mouth.

"How in the hell did this web get so intricately tangled? This can't be a coincidence," Ryan said.

"I don't know. I believe Carmichael is being straight about how he met Ms. Hanson; I don't think he had any idea that she had ever crossed paths with Nate Warner. This might be the first coincidence that actually pans out to be just that - a coincidence."

The two detectives spent the remainder of that afternoon and into the night pouring over every detail of the phone records, specifically the text transcripts. They started a spreadsheet, tying text conversations to specific people and the corresponding phone numbers, and building separate logs to detail each individual string of text messages, by person and number. They agreed not to get stuck on any one piece of information, intending to get it all divided up so they could view it from a different perspective.

Four hours into the convoluted mess of text and phone records, Sutton got up from his desk, stretched and let out a loud, long yawn. "I'm going down to get coffee..."