Fractured (30 page)

“Sir?”

“The governor is going to stop by and see you. He'd like a firsthand account of what happened from both you and Santiago. He's read the reports, but this is very personal for him, so he's naturally going to want to hear it directly and I told him no problem.”

As if she didn't already have a residual headache from slamming her head on the floor. “Of course,” she said reluctantly. There was no sin involved in dreading
that
conversation.

“I've already told Santiago to let you do the talking unless he's asked a direct question and it is possible he will follow my orders for once, but I never know.” Metzger's tone was cynical, but then again he had a point. “For someone with a good deal of passion for what he does, he seems willing to put his job on the line a little too often.”

“I don't disagree.”

Speak of the devil, she saw Santiago was headed their way, a sheaf of papers in his hand. As usual, he flaunted the dress code just enough to get by. His attire was probably not governor-worthy, but then again, it was easy enough to assume Santiago didn't care about it either.

He walked up and tossed the documents on the desk. “Notes, transcripts, and reports. I spent all morning on them.”

Metzger picked them up. “Thanks. You seem resentful of that. Have a seat so we can chat. How's your arm by the way?”

“Itches like hell as the stitches tighten up. I have two more reports I know you want.” Instantly Santiago was wary, and Ellie was a little uneasy herself. Metzger didn't chat. He lectured, gave orders, and his demeanor was usually brusque, but at the moment he seemed a little different.

“Santiago, sit down, dammit. I want to talk to you.”

Her partner took a chair. There were requests you argued and the tone of this one was not indicative of any compromise. Metzger was not a subtle man.

“What?” Ellie asked it flat-out. “Please tell me that we are not going to be vilified for catching a killer, even if it proves to be the niece of the governor. I wish it were someone else—I wish it were
anyone
else—and to make it worse, I understand to a certain extent how this all happened. She's a victim in so many ways.”

Metzger nodded. “Agreed. I think the governor also agrees. Sometimes circumstances collide and there is just very little a person can do to predict the outcome.”

Santiago, of course, couldn't keep his mouth shut. “Uh-oh. So, we're fine, right?”

“I don't want to talk to you about the governor, or even his niece. I just wanted to discuss the surveillance tape from the gas station.”

Ellie had fought with taking that shot through the back window of a car, and she'd missed too, which was embarrassing, but knee-jerk had described the situation and that was, in short, part of their job. Stoutly she said, “I know I didn't hit her, but it was a tight call. I was also trying to not injure anyone else, and while in theory we are trained and ready for the worst, let's face it, there's no training for every situation. I reacted the way I thought I should.”

Metzger didn't disagree. “You did fine. I am on board with how you handled it, though I have upon occasion wanted to shoot Santiago myself so your concern for him might not have come into play if I was the one in your shoes.”

Ellie had to admit to a certain amount of confusion along with a stifled laugh. “So what are we talking about, sir?'

Metzger took out his phone. “This. Give me a moment … ah, here we go.”

He turned it their way. The screen didn't display the footage of the actual altercation, but panned to a shot of Santiago carrying her through the doorway.

Okay, she was starting to get it.
Shit
. He slid to the floor, she was still in his arms, then he kissed her, not once but twice as they sat and waited for the ambulance. Her head was on his shoulder …

The chief cut off the video right before the medics came in, his thumb pressing a button. He said calmly, “Now, let's just review this situation, the three of us. If you were me, what would you think after seeing that?”

It was a reasonable question and she didn't want Santiago to answer it with one of his defensive smartass comments. So she said quickly, “Probably what you are thinking right now, sir, but—”

He just steamrolled right over her. “Are you sleeping together?”

“What? No!”

“Unfortunately, she's telling the truth,” her partner said with a shrug.

Metzger believed Santiago but she had the impression maybe he wouldn't have taken her word for it. The chief leaned forward. “I am only going to say this one time. Normally I do not care what anyone does with their personal life, but in your case, I do. As partners you were kind of an experiment, and no one is more pleasantly surprised than I am that it worked out so well. Your job is to catch people who commit murder in our jurisdiction, and you know what? You are pretty good at it as a team. I'd really like for you to not screw this up with some romantic bullshit. Now nod if you get it, and I'll be on my way, because the governor is walking toward us and I know he wants a private conversation. I'm leaving. You two behave.”

*   *   *

Jason could really
live without this scenario. It just seemed like he was destined to teeter on the brink of disaster and it was one hell of a place to be, hovering there all the time. That little scene the chief had just played had been pretty much his fault, but then again, he hadn't even considered the security cameras because a lunatic had just tried to kill him and he'd fallen out of a moving vehicle.

So sue him for not being on his A game. He'd been worried as hell about Ellie.

“Detectives.” The governor took the chief's abandoned chair. He gazed at Ellie's bandaged wrist. “I offer my apologies for what has happened. I understand you also suffered a broken leg.”

He was tall and distinguished but had the hands of a workingman. Jason always noticed small details like that, and as much as he didn't want to give him credit for it, his father was responsible for that observation on the human condition. He'd read once that the governor enjoyed hunting and fishing, and he believed it. A man's hands said it all.

Ellie said neutrally, “It will heal. There is a certain amount of risk that just comes with the job.”

The governor smiled ruefully. “A sound attitude.” He turned to Jason. “You were stabbed multiple times.”

“No big deal.” He'd preferred that part to the stun gun actually. That damn thing had hurt. “Like Ellie just said, kind of comes with the territory every once in a while.”

“My niece is a very disturbed young woman.” The governor said it heavily. “It seems impossible none of us knew how much, but I have talked to my sister and she had no idea either, though I have to say that we weren't as surprised as maybe we should have been given what happened all those years ago. I am not a mental health expert, but obviously those unresolved feelings were just below the surface, building up until something triggered them.”

“I know the story and to a certain extent, I can't say I completely understand the way she tried to cope with it, but her rage is something I think anyone could empathize with.”

Ellie, as usual, sounded reasonable and unruffled. Jason might have said something undiplomatic, but he'd been the one in the car. Though actually he wasn't unsympathetic either. He went for, “Sir, we all deal with anger and loss in different ways.”

The governor didn't disagree. “This seems like a ludicrous request, given the circumstances, but I would like to ask the two of you for a favor.”

Oh hell, he couldn't wait to hear this. Jason waited, following orders and not saying a word.

“Would you consider opening the cold case involving my missing nephew? I fully realize there are jurisdictional issues, but I think those can be negotiated with a phone call or two.”

Of course they could. He was the damn governor, but on the other hand, they weren't miracle workers. “Sir—”

“It might help Lauren if she knew the man had been apprehended. Her trial is going to be a zoo and she is unstable enough as it is.”

To Jason's dismay, Ellie agreed. “No promises made, but we'll be more than happy to try.”

When the man left, Jason said with what he thought was incredible calm, “Are you fucking nuts? Twenty years is a long time.”

“If I am nuts, it's because of working with you.” She gazed at him with open cynicism. “Look, we are both on the edge of a reprimand as far as I can tell, both on desk duty, and I pretty much blame you for it. A chance to redeem ourselves is like a gold ticket, and besides, I like the idea of the challenge of a cold case. I say we do our best and see what happens.”

He spread his hands. “Cold case? This one is buried under an iceberg, Ellie. The only witness is a kid that turned into a murderous lunatic.”

“I'd like to think we can do it. Please don't tell me you don't.”

After that interview with Metzger, he'd better cut his losses. Jason said, “Okay, I'll roll with that.”

 

Chapter 29

The house was simple, with small gothic touches on the front porch and a single tan sedan parked in the driveway.

The crutches really did not work well on the snow-covered drive, but Ellie was mastering the art of it little by little, like learning to walk again. Besides, the sun was shining, which was a nice change and the arc of blue above did not hold a single cloud.

Next to her as they went up the walk, Georgia Lukens said, “At the risk of sounding like a coward on an emotional level, I'm not sure I can deal with this.”

“You wanted to come along.”

“I failed their daughter.”

Ellie sent her an exasperated look. “If I operated like you, I'd feel like a failure all the time. I don't catch every single criminal. I don't save every victim, and just so that we're clear, I don't expect that of myself. I do the best I can.”

“Are you giving me advice on coping with this?” Her hands in the pockets of her long coat, Dr. Lukens's mouth twitched into a smile. “Is this a ‘physician, heal thyself' kind of moment? And just so that we're clear, you come along after the damage is done. My role is to prevent the damage in the first place.”

Mrs. Levine was waiting for them. The door opened before they came up the steps. She was slender, middle-aged, and the resemblance to her daughter was striking. She looked tired and drawn, which stood to reason since her daughter was currently the most infamous woman in the state of Wisconsin. She said, “Please come in. Having the sun shining is deceptive, isn't it? It's cold out there.”

The living room was tidy, the furniture a little worn but comfortable, and there was a woodstove with a fire in one corner, the flames licking the glass. Lauren's mother had been doing a crossword puzzle, the paper and a pencil left carelessly on the coffee table. The woman eyed Ellie's cast. “Perhaps you'd like to sit down.”

She would. The problem with crutches, she'd discovered, was that if she had to use them very much, her arm started to hurt worse than her leg. She chose a plaid armchair and sank down. “Thank you. We won't stay long, I promise. I just have a few questions.”

Georgia didn't have much choice but to sit beside Mrs. Levine on the couch, a sympathetic expression on her face. “We've spoken on the phone. I'm Dr. Lukens. When Detective MacIntosh told me she was coming to see you, I asked to come along. Lauren was one of my favorite patients.”

And she'd had to shoot her. No wonder Georgia was uncomfortable. Ellie would be too.

“They didn't even offer her bail,” Mrs. Levine said with very little inflection, but her eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

“I am sure your lawyer explained to you that a search of her residence turned up the identification of all three victims, and the gun used to kill the drug dealer who sold her the rufilin used in the murders was in her possession and she used it to threaten Dr. Lukens.” Ellie sounded reasonable and non-judgmental. “We also have the murder weapon for the knife killings and she assaulted two police officers in front of witnesses. More than that, she confessed.”

The discovery of the IDs had given them the identity of the second victim. He'd been a part-time janitor at the same hospital where Lauren worked who had stopped coming for his shifts and administration assumed he had simply quit without notice. He'd been studying for his real estate license, which indicated that was how he'd found out about the empty house in foreclosure. Grasso and Rays were still trying to locate any family but not having much luck.

There was a box of tissues on the floor and Mrs. Levine took one out and clutched it in her hand. “It feels like a nightmare that won't end. I can't say I don't know why it happened, I just can't believe it did. My daughter never dealt with her grief after her brother was gone. I suppose it didn't help I was trying to understand why God had forsaken us myself and maybe didn't give her what she needed.”

Ellie thought of the sharpened crucifix and the postmortem wounds on the victims. “Did the two of you discuss it in those terms? That God had forsaken your family?”

“Detective, my son was hit and killed in front of a church.”

That matter-of-fact statement explained quite a lot.

Mrs. Levine went on, her voice hushed and broken. “After it happened, Lauren would go there and lie in the grass, looking up at the steeple. When she would disappear, or not come home right away from school, I always knew where to find her. Eventually, she seemed to get past it, or at least she didn't talk about the ‘lion man' any longer. I was relieved.”

Evidently she hadn't gotten over it, but that explained the wounds in the shape of a cross anyway. Ellie asked, puzzled but intrigued, “I've read the police reports on the accident. No lion reference is mentioned in their notes. What did she mean? She gave a very clear description of the accident and the man driving for a child her age. Obviously she remembered what he looked like to a certain extent.”