Kill and Run (A Thorny Rose Mystery Book 1) Page 24

  Hands on her hips, Hillary wagged her head. “We. Is this the royal we?”

  “No, my team and I,” Murphy said. “Don’t worry. That won’t include you … or Latimore.”

  “Nor anyone else on my staff.”

  Behind her, Joshua Thornton came through the door. Spotting Murphy and the coffeemaker, he made his way toward him while Hillary shook her finger in Murphy’s face. “You have to be on drugs, Thornton. You had and have no authority to come into my office and hijack my staff to conduct your own crazy murder investigation, which you didn’t even have the authority to take the lead on in the first place!”

  With a crooked grin, Murphy shook his head. “With all due respect, I disagree. You sent me there—”

  “To get into a phony pissing contest that you were ordered to lose! The last thing this office needs is a multiple homicide case.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Murphy said, “I thought the name of this office was Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I thought its purpose was to conduct criminal investigations of crimes perpetrated against or by navy or marine personnel. A petty officer was murdered. She was targeted. That makes it our case—or rather yours but you didn’t want it, so I took it because someone needs to investigate it.”

  “That someone isn’t going to be you,” Koch said. “I called your CO and she said you aren’t leading this investigation. They’re sending someone else to lead it.” She sneered. “I guess they forgot to tell you that upstairs. If I were you, I’d go clean out your office and move into the break room down the hall.”

  “Actually,” Joshua said from behind her, “You can move into the break room, Koch, because I will be taking over your office while leading this team.”

  While Murphy watched the color drain from Hillary Koch’s face, Joshua stepped around her to pour the freshly brewed coffee into a disposable cup.

  “Doesn’t sound to me like it should be much of a problem,” Joshua leaned in to whisper to her, “since you don’t bog yourself down by taking on any criminal investigations.”

  Casually, he strolled past her, across the reception area. At her office door, he stopped and turned around. “Lieutenant Thornton, while I’m reviewing the case file, prepare the conference room and brief our team. I want you in my office in twenty minutes for a total debriefing.” Before Murphy had time to respond, he stepped into the office and closed the door.

  Her mouth hanging open, Hillary Koch’s face turned from a sickly white to a furious red. Her eyes bulged.

  “Who’s that?” Susan asked.

  “Captain Joshua Thornton,” Murphy said. “Our new team leader.”

  “Thornton?” Boris asked. “Is he the one Dr. Reed called ‘brilliant?’”

  “Yep, that’s my dad.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “I learned something about myself last night,” Jessica told Cameron. “I don’t like getting shot at.”

  “Who would?” Izzy said from the back seat of Cameron’s SUV.

  Since Jessica was taking responsibility for Izzy that day, they had to take Cameron’s Pennsylvania police cruiser, which had a back seat. While Jessica’s Ferrari was long on looks, it was rather short on passenger space.

  They were following the GPS to the home of Maureen Clark, the army colonel’s wife who had been poisoned in Francine Baxter’s home two nights before. In her role as a military officer’s wife, Jessica was dressed up in a demure black dress and was armed with a baked ham that they had purchased from a caterer to get in the door.

  Ever since learning of Colonel Clark and General Graham’s desire to keep Tommy’s DNA away from NCIS, Murphy had been determined to get hold of it. It took only a couple of phone calls for Jessica to learn through the navy wives—many with siblings or family belonging to other branches of the military—that the Clark family was accepting visitors at their home the afternoon before the official wake at the funeral home.

  They hoped to be able to slip into the Clark home under the guise of offering condolences to collect some of Tommy’s DNA. Of course, unless the DNA was in the trash out on the curb, it would not be admissible in court, but possibly it would provide a necessary piece to the puzzle to lead them in the right direction.

  “Good,” Cameron said when they noticed that the driveway and street in front of the large French Country home was packed with cars and people going in and out of the house. “This should be easy enough. We may be able to get in without anyone noticing that we’ve been there.”

  “We don’t know what this kid looks like,” Jessica said.

  “He’s a five year old boy,” Cameron said. “They’ll have family pictures inside. We take a look at the pictures and find our target among the crowd. Hopefully, he’ll be eating or drinking something, we swipe it, and then we get out.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Izzy asked from where she was sitting in the back.

  “You be the lookout,” Cameron said.

  “I can feel us getting into trouble,” Izzy said.

  The door was open for them to freely walk into the luxurious home filled with family and friends. In spite of the dozens of visitors, the house was quiet. Everyone spoke in low tones out of respect for the young army wife and mother.

  Carrying the heavy platter of baked ham, Jessica was searching for which direction to go. As soon as she crossed the foyer a woman in a black dress hurried in from the rear of the house. “Oh, you didn’t have to do that.” She took a sniff. “Ham! We were just about to run out. You are a life saver! Do you know where the kitchen is?”

  Jessica could only shake her head before the woman acting as host led the way across the living room and through the formal dining room into the country kitchen. Izzy and Cameron were already studying the faces in the family portraits that had been put out on display for the mourners.

  The host chatted away. “We weren’t expecting so many of Maureen’s friends to come this afternoon. We thought they would go to the wake tonight. The coroner won’t release the body until tomorrow. But Lincoln wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.”

  Upon entering the kitchen, Jessica saw two distinguished men part like fighting dogs shot with a water hose. Both were in full army dress uniforms. The older man was in the uniform of a colonel. The other’s rank was captain. She recognized the colonel’s face from the family picture.

  The host’s introductions confirmed Jessica’s conclusion. “This is Lincoln, Maureen’s husband,” she rattled on while taking the cover off the ham. “And this is my husband, Duke. He’s Maureen’s brother.” With a gasp, she realized she had not introduced herself. “I’m Denise, by the way.”

  Jessica was shaking both men’s hands when the colonel said, “I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Jessica,” she replied. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I didn’t know Maureen well—I knew her through the officers’ wives, but what I did know, she was a wonderful, lovely person and a devoted wife and mother.”

  “Yes, she was,” Denise said while Duke glared at Lincoln.

  Saying that he needed air, Duke stomped his feet while crossing the kitchen and went out the back door.

  “This has been very hard on all of us,” Denise apologized. “It was so sudden.”

  “I understand.” Excusing herself, Jessica went in search of the Clark’s son, Tommy.

  In the dining room, Jessica found Cameron watching the guests from one side of the alcove leading into the living room. From her focal point, she was able to see everyone. After ladling a drink for herself from the punch bowl, Jessica made her way through the guests to her. “Did you find him?”

  With a nod of her head and a jerk of her chin, Cameron gestured to a corner on the far side of the living room where a group of children were huddled around a computer tablet. “Izzy brought her iPad and has some hot new game on it. Between that and being a teenager, she instantly becam
e a star. You should have seen the total adoration on Tommy’s face when she blew his nose for him. I think he’s in love.”

  Comparing the little boy in the family picture to the faces of the half dozen small children gathered around her, Jessica found that Tommy was kneeling next to Izzy. He had his head pressed against her arm. With a sly grin in their direction, Izzy handed her iPad to the little boy while taking the paper cup that contained his drink from him. Then, excusing herself while the children continued playing, she rose from the group and made her way across the room.

  “Time for the switch.” Cameron rushed to the punch bowl to fill an identical paper cup.

  “Jessica, I’m surprised to see you here.”

  Jessica felt her heart jump into her mouth. Forcing a smile on her face, she turned around to see that Paige Graham, General Sebastian Graham’s wife, was standing before her.

  “I didn’t know you knew Maureen,” Paige said in a voice that was a bit louder than necessary.

  “Not personally, no. But I couldn’t get the family out of my mind after hearing of the murders. It was so senseless and tragic,” Jessica said. “As a new officer’s wife, I felt it was proper for me to offer my condolences.”

  Behind Paige, Jessica watched Cameron pour what was left in Tommy’s paper cup into a new one while turning her back to the guests to slip the cup into her oversized handbag. Izzy rushed back to the children to rejoin them.

  “Is something wrong, Paige?” Lincoln Clark demanded to know.

  “Maybe,” Paige said. “This is Lieutenant Murphy Thornton’s wife. The same navy lieutenant investigating Maureen’s murder.”

  “Don’t you people have any respect?” Lincoln asked loudly.

  Jessica felt her cheeks turn red with embarrassment as every mourner in the house turned around to look directly at her.

  “First, your husband accuses me of killing not only my wife, but these total strangers who I had no reason to harm, and now he has the gall to send his wife here to invade our privacy,” the colonel raged.

  “First,” Jessica shot back, “asking questions is not an invasion of privacy. The only way to get to the bottom of things is to ask questions and when it comes to murder, sometimes those questions are damn personal because diving into the nitty gritty stuff is the only way to uncover the truth. Second, your wife was murdered. My husband did not do that. Someone else did. But for some bizarre reason, you’re making him out to be the bad guy, which in and of itself looks extremely suspicious to me. My dad was and is a homicide detective and you know what he says? ‘When someone starts putting up roadblocks in a murder investigation, then you know you’re doing something right.’ So, we can do this the easy way. You cooperate and we find out who murdered your wife. Or we can do it the hard way, by opening up all of the closets in your life and shaking out the skeletons until they tell us who killed your wife. It’s your choice.”

  Stepping up to the colonel, she said in a low voice, “Lastly, my husband did not send me here. I volunteered because in spite of your lack of desire to find out who killed the wife you claim to be mourning, I care about finding out who killed your son’s mother.”

  “I think you should leave,” Paige said, “and take your friends with you.”

  Jessica took one last glance around the home. She saw Denise scurry back into the kitchen. Squaring her shoulders, she made her way through the guests regarding her and Cameron with disdain to the front door. Izzy grabbed up her iPad and gave Tommy a hug and kiss on top of his head before trotting over to join them.

  “Wait a minute!” Colonel Clark called out before they were able to make their exit. “I want that cup that your friend put in her purse.”

  Slumping her shoulders, Cameron took the cup out of her hand bag and handed it to the colonel who made a show of balling it up and tossing it to the floor. “Tell your husband that I’ll be reporting this to General Graham, who will be having a word with his CO.”

  Without another word, Jessica, Izzy, and Cameron walked out the door. In silence, they climbed into the cruiser. After a collective sigh, Jessica said, “I should have known Paige Graham would have been there.”

  “If you ask me, I think Clark already knows who killed his wife,” Cameron said while glaring out the window at the large home. “Question is, was he in on it?”

  “Can you get DNA from snot?”

  Jumping in their seats, Jessica and Cameron turned to where Izzy was holding out her hand over the center console. Resting in her open palm was a balled up tissue.

  “I could kiss you.” Jessica bumped fists with Izzy while Cameron yanked an evidence bag from her purse.

  “I prefer a banana split.”

  “You got it!” While slipping the used tissue into the bag, Cameron looked over Jessica’s shoulder and out the passenger window. “We have company.”

  Maureen’s brother Duke had his hand raised to knock on the window when Jessica opened the door. “You ladies look like you could use a drink,” he said.

  “Actually,” Izzy said from the back seat, “we could use a round of banana splits.”

  Duke laughed. “I could handle that. There’s a Friendly’s one exit down.” He pointed at a big black pick-up truck that had pulled up next to them in the street. Denise was in the driver’s seat. “Follow us and I’ll make it worth your while.”

  Cameron tapped Jessica on the shoulder. “Who—”

  “He’s Maureen’s brother,” Jessica said in a low voice.

  With a nod of her head, Cameron stuffed the evidence bag into her purse and turned on the engine. “You lead the way.”

  Before he could step away, Jessica reached out for his hand. “Thank you.”

  There were tears in his eyes when he met her gaze. “No, thank you.”

  “Lieutenant Thornton!”

  The boom of Joshua’s voice throughout the staff office sent shockwaves that made every agent and clerk jump in their seat.

  In his office next door, Murphy leapt to his feet and ran to the doorway where he almost collided with Joshua. Upon seeing the fury in his father’s blue eyes, Murphy stood at attention. “Yes, sir.”

  Joshua pointed to the office he had commandeered from Hillary Koch. “My office. Now!”

  Murphy scurried into the office with Joshua directly behind him. Once inside, Joshua slammed the door shut.

  “Sit down, Lieutenant.”

  While lowering himself into the chair across from the desk, Murphy saw that Joshua had been reading the incident report he had sent to his commanding officer. Feeling his heartbeat kick up a notch, he swallowed.

  Behind the desk, Joshua picked up the report. He had the same expression on his face that he did the night Murphy had snuck his classic Corvette out for a date, landed in a ditch, and broke the rear axel. It took Murphy nine months of mowing lawns, trimming trees, cleaning gutters, and every other type of dirty work for practically every home in their neighborhood to pay for the damage.

  Through clenched teeth, Joshua bit out each word in his question. “What was Jessica doing at Starbucks?”

  “Buying lattes,” Murphy said with a weak grin.

  Joshua’s eyes narrowed to blue slits. Placing both hands on the desktop, he leaned toward Murphy. “You knew there was a possibility that the perpetrator of this mass murder would be after Emily Dolan. He or she took out five women—that you knew of. Then, it comes to your attention that he or she may be behind Nick’s murder and this Jane Doe. That’s seven people—”

  “I know.”

  “And you let your wife walk into that!”

  “There’s no letting with Jessie, Dad!” Murphy replied.

  Joshua rose to his height.

  “Captain!” Murphy corrected himself. “Both of our wives knew the score. I told them the score. I begged them not to go—but they insisted. The only option I had was to go along, surv
ey the situation, make my team aware of it, and do the best I could to keep everyone safe. If I had the power to keep them both home, I would have done that. But they’re their own individuals. Short of duct taping them to the kitchen chair, there was no way I could keep them from going to Starbucks to question Dolan about Cecilia Crenshaw’s and Nick’s murders.”

  Joshua placed his hands on his hips.

  A long silence stretched between them.

  “Then, when bullets started flying, your first priority was Jessica … not Dolan,” Joshua said.

  “That was a mistake, sir,” Murphy said. “I wish I could tell you that it won’t happen again, but that would be a lie. There’s no way I could not put Jessie first.”

  “I would have done the same thing if I was there and it was Cameron in danger,” Joshua said. “That’s why it is best to keep your family out of these type of situations—so your loyalties are not divided.” His voice softened. “Can you even imagine if anything had happened to Jessie?”

  “I’ve been imagining,” Murphy said, “ever since last night it’s all I can think about.”

  Deep in thought, they wordlessly stared at each other.

  “What are you going to do, sir?” Murphy asked.

  “I’d like to send you to your room without supper,” Joshua replied, “but that stopped being effective when you turned ten.” With a heavy sigh, he pointed to the door. “Go to your office and think about what you did.”

  Slowly, Murphy got up from the chair and moved to the office door. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “What was I supposed to do?” He turned back to where Joshua had sat down behind the desk. “If it was you, how would you have stopped the two of them?”