Should Have Looked Away (20 page)

FORTY-FIVE

Will ran up
the steps to his front door, key already in hand. In his eagerness to get indoors, he had two attempts before getting the key in the lock. Once inside, he leaned back on the door to close it, and listened out if he could hear Chrissy.

‘I’m home!’ he called out.

No reply.

No Chrissy.

He checked the kitchen, looked up the stairs. ‘Chrissy?’ he called out. Hearing no reply, he climbed the stairs and checked the bedroom. ‘Swell,’ he said aloud, sitting on the bed, still clutching the bottle of champagne.

So where was she? If the kids were going to be home late, then she might have gone out somewhere, but what about his text message? He checked his phone again: his message had definitely gone, but she had not replied. Maybe she hadn’t seen it. He dialled her number.

*****

Chrissy lay back next to Dan. ‘I need to go soon,’ she said. ‘Get home in time for the kids.’

‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘’Jia’ll be on her way soon, too.’

As they both sat up, Chrissy’s phone rang. She got off the bed, leaned over to the chair where her bag was hanging, and felt inside for it.

‘Shit, it’s Will.’

Dan sat up, staring at her. ‘Let it ring,’ he said.

It stopped after a few rings. She took a deep breath. ‘He sent me a text earlier. I didn’t hear it coming through.’

‘Busy coming yourself,’ Dan joked.

She glared at him; read the message, frowning.

‘What was his message?’ asked Dan.

Slowly shaking her head in puzzlement, she slowly read the message aloud. ‘What the hell does he mean?’

Dan pulled a face and laughed. ‘If he wanted to celebrate in the bedroom, today’s your lucky day.’

She walked back to the bed. ‘Daniel Kelly Gleave,’ she said, leaning over to kiss him, ‘you are incorrigible.’

He nodded and began to check his own phone, then began to watch Chrissy as she got dressed.

‘See you soon,’ she said, kissing him one more time.

As she was on her way out of the bedroom, Dan got up and began to dress. ‘Chrissy,’ he called after her, ‘if Will’s got something to celebrate, then let me know what it is. Yes?’ Now he had a serious look on his face.

Chrissy turned round and nodded. ‘I will.’

*****

It was four thirty when she finally got home. Will was sitting in the kitchen working on his laptop. He looked up as she got in. ‘Where have you been? Didn’t you get my message?’

‘I’m so sorry, honey,’ she said breathlessly as she put her bag down on the kitchen worktop. ‘I just noticed it.’

‘Where’d you go, then?’

‘Only to do some shopping.’

‘What shopping?’ She had no bags.

‘I figured that as you were at work and the kids would be late home, I could make a start on Christmas shopping.’

‘Christmas shopping?’

‘U-huh. Will, do you know what the date is? It won’t be long before Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. I thought I’d make a start. What’s this in the refrigerator?’

‘That’s what my message was about. It was for us to celebrate.’

‘Celebrate what?’

Will got up and stepped over to her. He put his arms around her waist. ‘Let’s go upstairs and I’ll tell you.’

She put her hands on his, and took them away. ‘Sorry, no time for that. You can go pick up Louise from her school club. I’ll start preparing dinner. Jake’ll be back soon, too.’

‘Oh,’ he said, disappointedly.

‘Tell me later.’

*****

Later that evening, Chrissy came downstairs and joined Will in the kitchen. He was finishing off clearing up the dinner things.

‘She wants you to kiss her good night now.’

Will switched on the dishwasher. ‘Fine, I’ll go up.’

He quietly stepped into Louise’s bedroom. She was still awake, although not far from sleep.

‘Have you come to say goodnight to me, Daddy?’ she asked.

Will sat down on the edge of her bed. ‘Sure have, Loulou.’

‘Can you read me a story first?’

‘I thought Mommy did that tonight?’

She grinned from beneath the covers. ‘She did. Can you read me one as well? Please, please.’

Will knew when he was beaten. ‘Just a short one, then.’

After he had read
Puss in Boots
twice, Will kissed Louise goodnight one more time, turned down the night light, and slowly closed the door till it was ajar. Before going downstairs, he looked in on Jake. His son was sitting at his desk, at his own computer. It looked as if he was typing a Word document.

Jake looked round. ‘Hey Dad.’

From the door Will asked, ‘What are you doing?’

‘Oh, just an assignment for school.’

‘All right. Don’t stay up too late, though.’

‘Dad, it’s only eight thirty.’

‘I know, but keep an eye on the time.’

‘I will. Night.’ Jake swung back round to his screen.

Will closed Jake’s door and went back downstairs.

‘She asleep yet?’ Chrissy asked.

‘Probably by now. I had to read the same story twice. Jake’s working on some school assignment.’

‘Sure he is.’

‘It looked like he was. From his screen, I mean.’

‘That was probably for your benefit. He’s playing some game now.’

‘Mm.’ Will filled the kettle with water.

Chrissy said, ‘You need to get that software loaded. You know the stuff Jia was talking about the other night.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. I’ll speak to Dan in the morning. Double check what they did with Clyde.’

Will made tea. As he took Chrissy her cup, he could see she was working on something on her laptop. He knew she was involved in some fund-raising project for Louise’s school.

‘About what I had to celebrate,’ he said, putting both hands on her shoulders and beginning to massage them.

Chrissy patted one of his hands. ‘Later, Will. I just need to finish this report. Later, I promise.’

‘Okay.’ Will straightened up and wandered into the den to watch television.

*****

It was just after eleven o’clock when they both went upstairs to bed. Will followed Chrissy with two champagne flutes he had found at the back of a cupboard, and the bottle. Chrissy had told him to open it downstairs in case the pop woke the children.

‘Mm, nice,’ Chrissy murmured as she lay on the bed, sipping her glass. Will had to agree.

Will pulled off his shirt and moved across the bed to her. He manoeuvred her so she was on her back and lay down on top of her, pulling up the outsized tee shirt she wore for bed. She slowly wriggled her hips underneath him and reached down to the front of his shorts.

‘So what are we celebrating?’ she purred.

As they made love, Will told her what he had done that day, and what he had found at the hotel. He could feel her flinch a couple of times as he talked, probably at the ninety dollars he had spent.

They continued to talk as Will moved inside her and she moved her legs up and down the back of Will’s.

‘What are… you going to do?’ she asked.

‘I’m… going to go… to the police… in the morning.’

‘Is there any… point?’

‘It’s what you… wanted me to do… all along.’

Chrissy nodded, putting her arm across his neck. His face now was buried in her neck, and he could not see the expression on her face.

*****

Afterwards, Will took a shower. Wrapped in a towel, he returned to the bedroom. Chrissy was still lying on the bed.

‘I think I’ll take one too,’ she said, getting off the bed.

‘You could have come in with me,’ grinned Will, rubbing his back with the towel.

‘Could have done,’ she replied. She put on her bathrobe and went to take her shower.

Will sat down on the bed, towelling his hair. He stopped as Chrissy’s phone bleeped.

Chrissy took longer in the shower than Will had. For one thing, her hair was longer than his, and took longer to wash; but also she wanted to wash the odour of sex off her body. Ideally, she would have taken a shower either at Dan’s or when she got back home, but there was no time today.

After her shower, and dressed in her bathrobe, she checked on Jake and Louise, then went back to their bedroom. She was half expecting Will to be asleep, but he was sitting on the bed, dressed in the tee shirt and shorts he wore at night. He was holding up her phone.

‘Why have you just texted Dan?’

FORTY-SIX

For once, Chrissy
was wrong footed.

‘A text? What do you mean?’ she rambled, knowing perfectly well there was no way she could deny it.

Will read from the phone. ‘While I was in the shower, you texted Dan and said “Will has been to the hotel and found the safe place. Says he is going to the police in the morning.” And then, while you were in the shower, he replies.’  Will read out Dan’s reply.  ‘“Okay, thanks for telling me. X.”’ He threw the phone down on the bed.

Chrissy stomped over to her side of the bed. ‘What are you doing, snooping around my cell?’

‘Oh, come on. Is that the best you can do?’

She began furiously brushing her wet hair. ‘Because Dan asked me to. When you were so late home the other night, when you were doing whatever you were doing up in the Bronx, I was worried. I phoned Jia. Dan was there as well: they were both as worried about you as I was. So Dan asked me to keep him up to date on where you were going, what you were doing?’

Will was not convinced. ‘He asked you to spy on me?’

‘Don’t be so stupid. He was just concerned about you, that was all.’

‘And what about “thanks for telling me.
X
”? Since when have you two been putting kisses at the end of messages?’

‘Jesus Christ, Will - that’s just Dan. You know him as well as I do. He was just being Dan.’

‘That’s what I’m afraid of. Chrissy, we’re not…?’

‘No, of course we’re not.’ Her tone softened slightly. ‘Will, that was all a long time ago. A long, long time ago.’

‘It still hurts.’

She slid over the bed and sat beside him. Put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his knee. She spoke softly. ‘I know. I know.’

She leaned her head against his shoulder; he tilted his head to rest on hers. They sat in this position for a full two minutes until she started to nuzzle the front of his shirt, gradually moving downwards.

Will looked down at her, ruffling her hair, his face expressionless.

FORTY-SEVEN

Detective Roberts got
home at 11:30
pm
.

Earlier, after she had sent Eric Alvarez home, she returned to her desk.  As always, there seemed to be a mountain of paperwork to deal with.

She was aware she needed a quick result on this case. After all, it was originally supposed to be a secondary investigation. It would not be long before Nkomo would be jumping up and down.

It seemed to her, and she was sure Eric agreed with her, that Mitchell Breed and Walter Ackerman had killed Carmine DiMucci; probably second degree. Breed was kind of in custody; at least he wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.  And it was only a matter of time before Ackerman was picked up. They would get hold of Social Security the next morning, and trace him that way.

This was a frustrating case – but at least she had gotten to meet up with Dobson again.

Thinking about Dobson, she got to reflecting about an old partner of hers. She allowed herself a wry smile: it was a pity that had ended so badly. She hoped he was happy and settled now, with the LAPD.

Soon it would be Thanksgiving and Christmas, two holidays she had not looked forward to for a couple of years. This year, as normal, she had already put her name down for extra shifts.

Once the paperwork had been done, she had the choice of going straight home, or going to the gym, or spending an hour or so at the practice range. She chose the gym: five miles on the treadmill, another five on the cross trainer, and then some weights.

After a couple of hours at the gym, she went home feeling fitter, but sweatier. Once inside, she sniffed an armpit. She badly needed a shower, but needed to eat first. She had only had a cup of coffee for breakfast and a hot dog with Alvarez. She groaned: it was not good to go to the gym on an empty stomach.

She pulled open the refrigerator door, leaning on it as she looked over what she had in stock. There was not much here: a couple of eggs, some questionable cheese, three bottles of water, two cans of diet coke and a small stack of meals for one. She leafed through the stack and chose Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni. Once that was nuked, she opened a diet coke and sat down to eat.

She was half way through the meal when her phone rang. It was Alvarez.

‘Hey, what’s up, Eric. You know what the time is?’

‘I do. It’s twelve thirty. Did I wake you up?’

‘I’m eating. I just got in from the gym. Don’t you sleep?’

‘I did earlier, but I just woke up. Got to thinking.’

Roberts rubbed her brow. She was getting tired now, and this call was not what she needed. ‘Thinking what?’

‘I couldn’t sleep; you know, lots of thoughts spinning round in my head. So I went online, did some searching around Bronx Estates Corporation.’

‘What kind of searching? LAPD searching?’

‘LAPD? Jules, what are you talking about?’

‘Sorry, Eric; I’m half asleep. NYPD, I mean.’

‘Just normal, civilian searching. Google, Bing, you know.’

‘Okay.’

‘I found a couple of websites - you know, giving details of companies, and I found the pages for Bronx Estates. It says… the company was first registered seven years ago, deals mainly with -’

‘Eric, just cut to the chase. Please.’

‘Okay. It said on one site - and two others confirmed this - that Bronx Estates Corporation is a subsidiary of a firm called C & G Real Estates, who have offices on West 45
th
. Remember the zip code on that girl’s letter?’

Roberts sat back in her chair, rubbing her tired neck. ‘C & G? Should that mean anything?’

‘It’s where that Will Carter works. He owns half of the company, in fact.’

She was beginning to wake up. ‘Interesting. So there’s a connection between Ackerman and Carter. Between perpetrator and apparent witness.’

‘A tenuous connection, but yes. Apart from both of them being in the same john at the same time as DiMucci.’

‘Well done, Eric. I think we’ll go speak to Carter again in the morning. At his place of work. Who owns the other half?’

‘Guy called Daniel Gleave.’

‘That name means nothing to me.’

‘Same here.’

‘We’ll head there first thing. Good work, Detective Alvarez. Now get back into bed with that wife of yours. See you in the morning.’

‘Will we need to get warrants first?’

‘Not sure if we have grounds for that. We’ll just see what they have to say first.’

The conversation over, Roberts took one last mouthful of Cannelloni, and leaned back, chewing.

So, Ackerman used to live in an apartment where he paid rent to a firm owned by Carter.

This was one mother of a coincidence.