Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) Page 3

  Once they were alone, Cameron turned to Joshua. Her auburn hair curled and waved in every direction to where it fell at the bottom of her neck. The green specks in her hazel eyes seemed to flash at him. “Go ahead.” She flashed him a wink. “Let me have it.”

  Sighing, Joshua stood up. Imprisoning her between his arms, he towered over her in the bed. She gazed up at him while he leaned over to kiss her tenderly on the lips. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  “So am I.” She ran her fingers through his silver hair that fell in a wave down to the top of his shirt collar. His face was so close to hers that his breath feathered across her cheek. It tingled the open wound.

  “I’d order you to be more careful if I thought it would do any good,” he said.

  “I’m as careful as I can be,” she said.

  “What if you had missed when you jumped off that fire escape?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “What if you did?”

  “But I didn’t.”

  He sighed again. “Cam, I buried one wife. I don’t think I could go through burying another.”

  “Same here,” she replied. “Losing my first husband almost killed me—and I’m not only talking about emotionally. I’m not going to let you go through that, and I don’t intend to go through it again myself.”

  He kissed her aching forehead. The touch of his lips on her wound both excited and hurt her. “I guess this means we’ll have to make a pact to go together.”

  “Works for me.” She pulled him down to kiss him fully on the lips. With her arms wrapped around him, she felt the vibration of his phone, which was clipped to his belt. “Let it go to voicemail,” she whispered when he pulled away to answer it.

  “It might be Donny,” he said. “I was in such a hurry to get here that I didn’t bother calling him at the picnic.” He read the caller ID. “It’s Tad.” He pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Tad, what’s up?”

  “Are you home?” Tad asked him.

  “I’m with Cameron,” Joshua said.

  “Are you coming to the picnic?”

  Joshua checked the clock on the wall overhead. It was midafternoon. By the time they got to the picnic, people would be leaving. “I doubt it. Why? Is there chicken left over? You can send it home with Donny.” He flashed a grin at Cameron who fell back onto the gurney with her fingers laced behind her head. “Cameron and I will eat it.”

  “I think you better get over here to the park.”

  The serious tone in Tad’s voice jolted Joshua. “Why?”

  “The kids found a car at the bottom of the lake,” Tad said, “and there’s a body in it. Josh, it’s a police cruiser—the police have already determined that the license plate matches the cruiser Mike Gardner was driving when he’d disappeared.”

  Joshua felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut.

  Seeing the expression on his face, Cameron rose up onto her elbows when he promised Tad that he would be right there before hanging up. “Josh, what’s wrong? Is Donny hurt?”

  “Donny’s fine,” was all Joshua got out before Lieutenant Dugan and the doctor stepped into the doorway.

  Lieutenant Miles Dugan introduced the doctor to Joshua and Cameron before turning over the reporting to him. “Detective Gates, we did a thorough MRI of your head and couldn’t find anything.”

  Joshua choked back a laugh.

  Cameron jerked her aching head toward him. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

  The doctor continued, “We found no intracranial bleeding. That doesn’t mean that you have none. You could have some slight bleeding that didn’t show up. You were unconscious and you did have memory loss. You do have a concussion, and we recommend that you take it easy for a few days, maybe up to two weeks.”

  The doctor directed his attention to Joshua, “You’ll need to watch her. She’ll want to sleep while her brain heals. Keep checking on her, and if you see any trouble waking up or memory loss get her to the ER.”

  “That’s easier said than done,” Joshua replied.

  The lieutenant added, “The doctor has recommended that with this type of injury you take two weeks sick leave.”

  “Weeks?” Cameron squawked.

  The police lieutenant was firm. “You have the time. We can’t have you out there in the field if you’ve got a potential brain injury.” He gestured at Joshua. “You only took a couple of days off when you got married. Go home. Take a honeymoon. Enjoy being a newlywed.”

  “And don’t go jumping off any tall buildings,” the doctor added.

  Cameron waited until they were in Joshua’s SUV before asking the question that had been on her mind ever since he had taken the phone call in the examination room. “What’s going on? Why do you have to go running over to the park? Is someone in trouble?”

  “Something like that,” Joshua answered while staring at the SUV’s dashboard without seeing it. “A guy I grew up with … we were friends. Mike had a son the same age as Tracy.” His face contorted as he recalled it. “She went to senior prom with him. Hunter.” He turned to her. “His dad was a deputy. Hancock County.”

  She reached out to grasp his hand resting in his lap. “What happened?”

  “He disappeared eighteen years ago,” Joshua said. “We were shipping out to Naples and had come home to see Grandmomma. The day before we left, I ran into Mike. He said he was investigating the murder of a hooker and asked me to go with him to meet a CI. I blew him off. When I saw him driving off, I got such a bad feeling about it—but it was too late. He was gone …” He looked up to gaze out the window. “No one ever saw him again. I didn’t even know he had gone missing until nine months later when Tad mentioned it in a letter. When I found out that the last time he’d been seen was that day, I contacted the county sheriff—from Naples. I called all the way from overseas to ask about the disappearance and they had no idea what dead hooker I was talking about. According to the sheriff, there had never been any prostitutes in Hancock County, dead or otherwise.”

  “Did they find his body? Is that why Tad called? They found his body in the park?”

  Staring straight ahead, Joshua nodded his head without saying a word.

  She reached up to cup her hand under his chin and forced him to look at her. “You do know your friend’s murder is not your fault, don’t you?”

  “I blew him off, Cam.”

  “You were moving overseas,” she said. “You were preoccupied. You had kids and a wife and a lot of responsibility.”

  “Not so much that it gets me off the hook from being a friend,” Joshua said. “Mike asked me to go with him. He must have sensed he was in over his head and was asking for my help.”

  “If he was in over his head, he should have backed off.” Cameron sighed. “That’s in the past. There’s nothing you can do to change what happened. The question is what you’re going to do now.”

  She stared at him until she drew his eyes to her. When he turned to peer into her brownish-green eyes, his expression softened. She leaned across the seat to him. “I’m off for the next two weeks,” she said. “You know what happens when I get bored.”

  He answered with a soft kiss on her lips that grew in intensity until they were startled by a sharp knock on the windshield.

  “Hey, Thornton, can’t you at least wait until you get her home?” Lieutenant Dugan ordered with a laugh.

  Chapter Two

  In Tomlinson Run Park, Hancock County Sheriff Curt Sawyer met Joshua when he pulled off the road to park in the grass along the lake. It wasn’t hard for Joshua to find where the cruiser had been dumped. The road blocked off by police cruisers and crime scene vehicles, as well as the medical examiner’s SUV, was a clear giveaway. Picnickers who had been celebrating the beginning of summer only hours before refused to leave so that they could watch the police and tow truck work down by the lakeshore.

  �
��We’re just about to pull him up,” the sheriff told Joshua, who moved in closer to see for himself. “The diver says he’s strapped in the driver’s seat. As bad as the decomp is, we’ll need dental records to determine if it’s him.”

  When he saw Cameron get out of the passenger side of the SUV and come around to grasp Joshua’s arm, the sheriff greeted her with a nod of his head. Then he noticed the bruise across her forehead and cheek. “You look like you’ve had a good day, Detective.”

  “I got one more killer off the street,” she replied.

  “That always makes it a good day,” he agreed.

  Joshua was so focused on the police cruiser slowly being pulled up out of the water that he barely noticed the red Mustang that swerved around the road block to tear up the grass before screeching to a halt not far from them.

  Stopping him with a hand to his chest, the sheriff intercepted the young driver when he jumped out of the car and tried to run down to the lake’s shore. “Hunter, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “Is it him?” the young man demanded to know while trying to dodge the sheriff who, while notably shorter, was much stronger and experienced. “Someone sent me a text that it was a police cruiser. Is it Dad’s? Is he in there?”

  A mirror image of his father, the young man stepped around the sheriff where he encountered Joshua, who grasped his arm to hold him back. “Hunter, you don’t want to be here.”

  Tad had come up from the lakeshore to block the young man’s access to the scene. “Hunter, if that’s your dad, you don’t want to see him, believe me.”

  “Then it’s not a rumor,” Hunter said. “It’s a cruiser and there’s a body in it. It must be him.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Joshua said.

  “I’m not an idiot! How many cruisers disappeared in the area in the last twenty years?” Hunter held up his index finger. “One. And my dad disappeared with it. There’s no one else it can be.”

  Hunter attempted to wade through the three men blocking his way to the lake to get a closer look, only to be held back by Joshua and the sheriff while Tad attempted to reason with him. “Listen to me. If it’s your dad, I can tell you with certainty that he wouldn’t want you to see him like this.”

  The missing deputy’s son paused.

  Tad continued, “Remember him the way he was. If you see him in the condition his body is in now …” The doctor shook his head. “Keep your memories of him the way he was.”

  The young man swallowed while blinking back tears in his eyes. “That’s the problem. I was five years old when he went missing. Most of my memories of him are now gone.”

  Her eyes also filled with tears, Jan touched his arm. “I remember him, Hunter.” She clasped her hand on his shoulder. “The place you need to be now is with your mother. I’m sure word has gotten to her already. She needs you. I’ll go with you. As soon as they know something, Tad and Josh will let you know.”

  Hunter hesitated before allowing Jan to guide him back to his car. He slid into the driver’s seat and drove off. After loading Tad Junior into their car, Jan followed.

  Cameron stepped up to where Sheriff Curt Sawyer was watching to make sure the dead deputy’s son had indeed left. A former police officer with the marines, Curt Sawyer had hung onto his military bearing.

  “Did you know this missing deputy?” Cameron asked him.

  “I’m afraid not,” Curt said. “I know a lot of people in this town who did. Mike Gardner was a good man. Not an enemy in the world. Hunter takes after him. He’s going into the police academy this fall. Did you know that? Just got out of the army. Did a tour in Iraq. Will be a fine deputy when he graduates.”

  “Josh said he grew up with this … ” She knew Curt had just said his name. She wondered if Joshua had told her. Cameron searched her memory. Why can’t I remember? Curt just said it.

  “Gardner,” the sheriff told her. “Mike Gardner was his name.”

  “Josh said he was investigating the murder of a hooker.”

  “I looked into it when Josh first moved back here,” Curt said. “I wasn’t sheriff back when Gardner disappeared, so what I know is not first hand. There were no murder cases involving a prostitute, dead or otherwise, back when he disappeared.” He shrugged. “I wish I could help.” Seeing that the cruiser was out of the water, the sheriff excused himself to go down to the lakeshore to join Joshua and Tad in examining the vehicle and the dead body inside.

  “Hey, Mrs. Thornton!”

  It took a full moment for Cameron to realize Woody was talking to her when he broke through the crowd to join her.

  His round cheeks were red with pride when he smiled at her. “I found the car!”

  “Good for you, Woody,” she said.

  “Donny said it was just an abandoned junker, but I saw the lights and knew that it was a cruiser,” Woody said. “I thought, why would the police dump one of their cruisers in the bottom of the lake? Then I knew that it was something suspicious. Maybe I have what it takes to be a great detective like you, Mrs. Thornton.”

  “Actually, it’s Gates,” Cameron said.

  “’Huh?” Woody asked.

  “I kept my maiden name,” she explained. “It’s Gates, not Thornton. You can call me Cameron though.”

  Woody blushed even deeper.

  “What happened to you?” Donny came over to ask when he saw the cut on her cheek and the bruises.

  “I jumped off a second-floor fire escape,” Cameron said.

  “What were you doing jumping off a second-floor fire escape?” Donny smiled in anticipation of her response.

  “I was chasing a killer,” she said.

  “Did you catch him?” Woody asked.

  “Yes,” she said, “he broke my fall.”

  “Good for you.” Woody bumped fists with her.

  Joshua was walking slowly when he came up from the lake. Cameron broke from the group to join him. “Is it him?” she asked.

  “They found a badge pinned to what is left of his clothes,” Joshua said. “We wiped off the gunk and found his badge number on it. We’ll need dental records to confirm it, but it’s Mike.”

  “Cause of death?”

  “Body is badly decomposed, but Tad might be able to determine it,” Joshua said. “His gun isn’t in his holster. It might be in the car under all the mud, but since it’s not in his holster I think he was disarmed.” He looked down at the lake. “This was no accident, Cam. No way he could have lost control of his car and ended up this far off the road and all the way over in that lake. Someone dumped it—most likely in the middle of the night after the park was closed.” He turned around to take in the thick woods surrounding them. “Lots of places around here to hide the cruiser until dark when no one was around.” He turned to her. “Someone killed him, and I’m going to find out who.”

  She took his hand and gazed up into his blue eyes. “And I’m here to help.”

  Chapter Three

  “Sawyer doesn’t know of any murdered hookers in the area,” Cameron said more to break the silence in Joshua’s SUV than anything else. After all, the sheriff had already told her that Joshua had looked into the case after his wife had passed away and he had returned to Chester.

  “I know,” Joshua responded.

  Cameron rubbed her forehead while resting her head in her hand on the side window in the front seat.

  They were on their way to Belle Fontaine’s home. Mike Gardner’s widow had remarried shortly after Mike had been legally declared dead. Royce Fontaine, Belle’s second husband and an executive with a pharmaceutical company in Pittsburgh, had moved his wife and stepson to a luxurious house on Woodland Avenue that looked over the town and Chester Bridge crossing the Ohio River.

  Cameron pointed out, “You know, most hookers I’ve encountered don’t exactly list their occupation as ‘prostitute’ on their resume. M
aybe he was looking into the murder of a woman who was a hooker but posing as a masseuse.”

  “We don’t have any masseuses in this area,” Joshua said. “I did think of that. Didn’t get any leads.” He pulled the SUV around the end of the cul-de-sac and parked in the street in front of a French country, white brick home.

  Cameron recognized the red Mustang parked at the end of the driveway as the one from the park. “Nice car.” She hesitated in front of the sports car. “Expensive.”

  “Would you believe he paid cash for that car?”

  “If you told me he was a drug dealer.”

  “Not Hunter Gardner.” Joshua slowly shook his head. “He has always been a very responsible young man. He started mowing lawns as soon as he was big enough to push a lawn mower. He bought a junker when he got his license, but he always wanted a shiny, fire engine red Mustang and that’s what he put his money away for.” He nodded his head toward the beautiful sports car. “That was a present he got for himself after coming back from his second tour in Iraq.”

  “You don’t see young men like that every day,” Cameron said, as she noticed a silver BMW sedan parked in front of the garage.

  “Personally, I believe there are a lot of young people like that,” he said. “It’s just no one talks about them.”

  Royce Fontaine opened the door for Joshua and Cameron before they had the opportunity to ring the doorbell. Without pausing to offer any greeting, he pelted Joshua with a rapid barrage of questions. “Is it true? They found Mike? Jan Martin just left because that baby was getting fussy. We were hoping Tad would have called her to let her know before she took off. Is it really him?”

  “We don’t have a positive ID yet.” Joshua looked around Royce to where Belle was sobbing while her son comforted her in the living room. “But the body in the cruiser was wearing Mike’s badge and it was his cruiser.” He introduced Cameron.

  She tried not to judge people by their handshake. Possibly, Royce was more focused on his wife’s distress than greeting his visitors. Shaking his hand was like shaking a dead fish.