Authors: Andrew Hess
Scorned (24 page)
Claire showed up to the hospital with one thing on her mind, vengeance. She spent her day avoiding Ron, Sheila and any of the hospital staff. The fewer people that knew where she was, the longer it would take for Ron DeMarco to find her. She needed time to process what happened during the last twenty-four hours, and she needed more time to devise a plan.
The office’s dim lighting made the perfect cover for Claire while she contemplated her next move.
If I do this, there’s no coming back from it
, Claire thought.
I’ll need to leave town for a while, maybe forever.
She started writing a letter to her bosses requesting time off for a family emergency. She turned on her computer and started looking up flights that left the country in the next few days.
The office door opened without Claire batting an eye. “There you are,” Sheila said. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“I stopped in just a little while ago. I’m-I’m just handling a few more things before I heading out. What’s up?”
Sheila marched over to the desk and sat on the corner. “Nothing really; Dr. DeMarco and a couple of the nurses were asking for you.” Claire rolled her eyes knowing why DeMarco was looking for her. He wanted to make sure she didn’t piece together what happened last night and didn’t talk to the police. “Is everything all right? You don’t seem like yourself.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a long night last night.”
Sheila perked up. “Oh that’s right; you had plans last night. You owe me a story. Tell me what happened; what did he look like?”
“I’m not in the mood to discuss my personal life with you at work.”
“Fine, than I’m coming over tonight with Becky and you can dish to us there. We’ll get some pizza, some wine, popcorn and movies.”
The idea sounded perfect to Claire. It would’ve been just like old times, and it wasn’t them pressuring her to go out and party. “I don’t know.”
“Come on Claire; you need a girl’s night.” Sheila glanced at the computer to see what Claire was working on and noticed the list of flights leaving from Newark to London. “You going somewhere?”
“Uh, yeah,” Claire replied with hesitation. “I thought some time away would be perfect for me.”
“Yeah, you seem a little more stressed out and high strung than you usually do.” Claire scowled at her but held her composure. “I just mean that it’ll do you some good.”
Claire cracked a smile. “Yeah, that’s why I decided to take some time to plan out everything.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll let you get back to it. And don’t worry, I’ll let everyone know you’re out for the day.”
“Thanks Sheila.”
Sheila got up from the desk and made her exit. As she opened the door, Ron DeMarco entered the office. “Hello, is Dr. Cain in?” He craned his neck and saw her inside the office. “Never mind, I see her.”
Sheila tried to stop him. “She’s busy at the...” It was too late. Dr. DeMarco had pushed past her and opened the door to Claire’s office. “Sorry Claire, I tried to stop him but...”
“It’s okay Sheila. Could you give us a few minutes?”
“Sure thing.”
Sheila departed from the office and closed the door behind her. Dr. DeMarco took a seat across from Claire and stared at her as he decided how to approach her.
“What happened to you last night?”
Claire barely acknowledged him. “What do you mean?”
“You said you were going to freshen up, but you never came back to the table. What happened to you? Where’d you go?”
“I uh didn’t feel well. I went to powder my nose and broke out in a heavy sweat.” Claire hated being this close to Ron and not be able to do something about it. She wanted to kick him, hit him, and kill him for what he did to her. Instead, she pretended to be uncomfortable as she continued with her story. She looked away from him. “I spent a few minutes in the stall.” She sighed heavily emphasizing her desire not to discuss the matter, but continued anyway. “I guess the wine got to me.”
“I had someone check the bathroom, but they said no one was in there.” He was looking to pluck holes in Claire’s story trying to find out how much he needed to cover his tracks.
“I couldn’t face you after that, so I called a cab to take me home.”
“Oh,” Ron’s face appeared disappointed. But Claire could see the smile lurking behind his façade. In his mind, he was close to getting her in his bed again. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Much better thank you.”
Dr. DeMarco decided to press his luck a little further. He wanted Claire and had to have her. “How about we try again? Let me cook you dinner.”
“I-I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Come on; we were having such a good time last night.”
“But what if I get sick again?”
He took Claire’s hand. “I’m a doctor. I can take care of you.”
She took the offer into consideration and responded with an affectionate smile. “I’m free tomorrow night.”
“Great,” Ron took a piece of paper from the desk and wrote down his address. “I’ll prepare something special for you.”
“I’m sure you will.” Claire placed her other hand on top of Ron’s. Touching him made Claire sick to her stomach, but she needed to sell it. “I have a feeling it’s a night neither of us will ever forget.”
Being early has never been one of my strong suits, but today was an exception. The Lieutenant placed me in charge of the Ambrose case and the Lee case. It was believed both died at the hands of the same suspect. I was eager to find out what Rodney turned up. While Detective Thornton and I watched the videos, Rodney spent all day getting warrants to gain access to Highland Fitness’s customer records, to view the customer log and the security footage from the night of Tyson Lee’s murder.
The station was a buzz by the time I walked through the doors. The Lieutenant was in the middle of screaming at someone, probably one of the rookies. As long as it wasn’t me, I didn’t care. I’ve been the recipient of his wrath numerous times and didn’t plan on being caught in another one. I averted my eyes and kept my head low. It was the best way for me to avoid that whole situation until I reached my desk.
Rodney was already there hovering over a file. I clapped him on the back. “What’s the good word partner,” I asked.
He held up the folder for me to view. “We got the list of members from Highland Fitness, the log from the day Tyson Lee was murdered, and the list of clients he met with that day.” The paper Rodney handed me highlighted the last eight hours leading up to the discovery of Lee’s body. “This is everyone that checked in from seven to nine. There were no reported check-ins after nine.”
I skimmed through the information and turned the page. This section detailed Tyson Lee’s personal training clients. It was a long list, but more than three quarters of it were women. Rodney already highlighted the ones that matched the check-in records for that day. “I guess he made a lot of money from these women.”
“From what we learned from management, Lee brought in a lot of money for the gym. Girls, especially older women, loved his body and paid for multiple sessions just to see him or get personal instructions from.”
“Personal instruction; what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means he liked to give the hands on approach. You know; get a little more intimate with the clients.”
“And the management team allowed that shit?”
“They didn’t care. Most of the women enjoyed it. He got up close and personal with the women, made them feel special and wanted. They tipped him well and paid for more sessions. It brought the gym more people wanting personal training sessions, more clients and more money.”
“What else did the gym employees have to say about Mr. Lee?”
“He was well liked and respected. No one had a bad thing to say about him.” No one ever did, not when they knew the man was dead. The moment they say anything negative about the victim it put a spotlight on them and they became a suspect. No one likes answering our questions, not unless it means talking their way out of something we have on them.
I closed the folder, but held onto it to a more in depth look after Rodney brought me up to speed. “Where are we on the video?”
“We should be getting it later today.”
“Okay, I want to be notified the moment it comes in. In the meantime, let’s get to work on background checks on the names those lists.”
“Already on it.” Rodney fired off a salute to punctuate his remark. “I starred the ones I already started on.”
“Great, maybe we can bang this out before lunch.” I took the list to my computer and typed in the first name into the system. A stupid circle appeared on the screen and spun around for a minute telling me I had to wait for it to spit out the info I wanted. I wasn’t in the mood to wait and was about to kick the hard drive. I opted to slap the monitor instead.
“What the hell’s gotten into you,” Rodney asked.
“Nothing, just a couple of bad nights that’s all.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really.” The tone in my voice gave away the seriousness of the situations. Rodney raised an eyebrow at me and I knew he would drag it out of me. “I mean I do, but there’s stuff I can’t talk about especially, here at the station.”
“You wanna run these last few names and go for coffee somewhere? We can talk in the car or wherever before tracking these people down.”
Before I could answer him, my phone rang. I was hoping Matthew was calling me back about the flowers, but saw Thornton’s name appear instead. I held up a finger, telling Rodney I needed a moment.
“Ryan here,” I answered.
“Hey Ali,” James said in a sweet relieved tone. “I just wanted to make sure you got to the station okay.”
“I’m a big girl. I can handle myself. You don’t need to check up on me.” I hated when men thought they needed to show their masculinity by showing how protective they were of the women in their lives. I never needed someone to watch over me. Twelve years on the force, I think I took care of myself pretty well.
“I know you can. I just figured after everything that happened last night and this morning that...I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure we were good.”
“Yeah we’re good. As for everything else, we’ll keep that between us for now.” Rodney’s head leaned closer to my desk to get a better vantage position. “I’m going out for coffee with Rodney in a bit. When are you coming out to the station?”
“I have a few things to check on here, but I should be out there in about an hour or so.”
“Okay good; we have a few names to look into. They were the last ones to check into the gym. The more of us working this case the better.”
“Okay, I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”
I hung up and found Rodney gawking at me. “You mind telling me what that was about?”
“No, not really.”
Rodney typed another name into his computer and waited for it to print out the info for him. “Once this is done printing, we’re going for that coffee break and you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll ask Amanda and get her give me all the juicy details.”
Damn blabbermouth would give up the goods. “Fine, be ready to go in ten minutes.”
Rodney and I sat in one of the squad cars in the parking lot. There was too much work to be done and we couldn’t afford to go on an actual coffee break somewhere. I decided to tell him everything including what happened between James and me last night.
Rodney tried to hold back his laughter, but the toothily smile told me he was about to crack. “He’s a good guy,” he finally said with a chuckle.
“Nice? How can you say he’s a nice guy? He handcuffed me to the bed and left me there all night.”
“He’s a nice guy because I would’ve left you there all night, the next day, maybe take some blackmail pictures.”
“You would, but I doubt your pregnant wife would be happy about that. How is the little mama?”
His eyes dragged the worrisome look across the dashboard. The smile quickly faded. “The doctors told her she needed to stay off her feet until the baby comes. They said she’s a high risk pregnancy. Any additional stress could cause her to lose the baby and put her life in jeopardy too.”
“Damn, I didn’t know.” I reached for his arm and placed a hand on his shoulder instead. “I talked to the Lieutenant. He put me in charge of both investigations. He’s giving me leeway to put whoever I want on the team and put in as much time as we need to solve the case.”
Rodney gave a half smile. “Thanks partner.” He looked up as a silver Audi barreled into the parking lot. “Looks like your boyfriend’s here. Should I leave you two alone for a while?”
I shoved him hard. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Yeah, but you’re not opposed to it either.” I wanted nothing more than to knock that smug look off of Rodney’s face. “I know you too well Ali. You should give him a chance.”
“I can’t,” I replied. “I need to figure this whole thing out with Matthew first. Even then I don’t know if I’d be ready to start something with him.”
“You worry about what you want and who you want. But if Matthew breaks your heart again, I’m gonna pay him a visit and break his legs.” Nothing could make me wish something like that on him no matter how much I was hurting inside. I loved him. I still did, nothing was going to change that.
James stepped out of his car and started walking up towards the station doors. His pants were wrinkled, his shirt was untucked and looked like he had missed a few buttons. He appeared so out of it, like he was the one who was out partying all night instead of me. But damn he still looked fine as hell.
“Hey Thornton,” Rodney shouted from the rolled down driver’s side window. “We’re over here.” He waved his massive arm grabbing the attention of the debonair detective.
James stopped abruptly. His jogging pace slowed to the suave strut over to the squad car. “What are you guys doing out here?”
“We needed a breather,” I lied. “I guess the break’s over. Let’s get back inside before we catch the Lieutenant’s wrath.”
The station seemed to have quieted down in our absence. Everyone seemed to be on edge or heading back to the streets. No one dared glance up or look us in the eyes. I didn’t know what happened in the half hour to hour we were gone for, but the station definitely had an unsettling feeling to it.
“What’s with the…” James asked.
“I held a finger to my lips and hushed him. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I suggest we get the background checks and get the hell out of here.”
Rodney nodded and made the mad dash to our desks, retrieved the paperwork and made it back to us unscathed. I turned and checked behind us one more time, expecting the Lieutenant to slam the door open ready to blast us with insults and anger. Thankfully we made it back outside before he reared his ugly head.
“There’s a lot of people here,” James said.
“What’s the matter Thornton, too much for you to handle?” My mocking was reminiscent of grade school bullying and not a very good attempt at it either.
“No, but I just think it’ll take us a long time to get through the list.”
“Suuuurrrrrreeeee it will.”
“He’s right Ali,” Rodney said while trying to restore the maturity level back to at least high school standards. “If we go together it’ll take us all night to interview them. If we split this up, maybe we can be done by dinner.”
We agreed and divvied up the list of possible suspects between the three of us. I was fortunate enough to get the old lady, a lifeguard and the doctor.
**************************************************************
The first on my list was the old lady, Gretchen Stevens. She may have been elderly, but damn, she looked like she could kick my ass. Gretchen was a seventy year old woman with short gray hair. She answered the door with her body glistening with sweat and pounding down a protein shake like a man. My eyes traveled down to her shoulders and could see the bulging muscles in her arms. She could’ve easily dragged Ambrose’s body and hoisted him onto the rails of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. In my mind, she could easily be a suspect. Then I showed her the picture of Tyson Lee.
“Oh I’ve known him for years. Such a nice young man.” There was a genuine sweetness to her voice. “I used to workout with him all the time when I first started back at the gym. He showed me how to use those machines without hurting myself. He still checked on me from time to time and would even let me give me a free session just for the heck of it.”
The chance of Gretchen Stevens being Tyson Lee’s killer went from likely to nearly a snowball’s chance in hell. When I approached her about possibly knowing Ambrose, she told me she only knew the name because of the news coverage. I decided to ask more questions placing the emphasis on her relationship with Tyson and what she saw at the gym.
“Did Mr. Lee have any enemies or did any of the guests have an issue with him?” I was fishing for anything other than the saint-like image Gretchen Stevens made our victim out to be.
“Oh no, everyone I knew liked him. He was well liked at the gym; never even heard him raise his voice to anyone or saw anyone yell at him.’
Gretchen was nice and answered all of my questions. Unfortunately, she gave me nothing to work with. I was thankful for her time and handed her my card hoping she would remember something later that could be of some use to us.
My second person of interest was a lifeguard by the name of Glenn Michaels. He worked at a public pool in Poughkeepsie and also at the water park. I opted to take the public pool listing first. The thought of being surrounded by hundreds of kids and their parents who just let them run rampant was not my idea of fun. After badging my way in and asking a few people where I could find Mr. Michaels, I found him strutting around the pool in his red shorts and white tank top trying to pick up the younger mom’s that were working on their tans.