I was rewarded with a brilliant smile that banished the clouds of doubt from his pretty hazel eyes.How had I thought for a second that I could live without his smile every single day?I promised to kick my own ass if I allowed myself to think it ever again.
Morning sex was usually pretty fast and hungry, and that morning was no different in that aspect, but we held each other tighter and kissed longer because I had almost done something stupid that would’ve compounded a bad situation. I had a feeling that Josh would get even with me for my flawed thoughts at a time and choosing at his convenience, but I had too much on my mind to worry about it. I’d pay the price and be glad for the opportunity.
I stayed in the shower after Josh got out and dried off, hoping to wake up. Josh surprised me by opening the door and handing me a cup of coffee. He was wearing a wide grin on his face and looked pretty pleased with himself to a level that said it had nothing to do with bringing me coffee.
“Check out the coffee mug. I ordered it while we were on vacation and it arrived already,” he said.
I looked down at the mug and it said:I enjoy movie nights, long walks on the beach, and cuddling.“Oh my god. Our vacation was a movie night away from a cliché,” I told him.
“I know!” He leaned his head in for a quick kiss. “It was absolutely perfect.”
It was too. I had never enjoyed myself more than I did with him that week. We laughed and had some great times, which made what happened yesterday so much harder to swallow. I got a glimpse of my future with Josh and I couldn’t let it get ripped away.
I stood beneath the hot spray enjoying my coffee until the water ran cold. Josh was already on the phone with an alarm company by the time I got out, dried, and dressed. “It must be my lucky day,” he said when I came to him for my goodbye kiss. “They had a cancellation and will be here to install the system today.”
Having someone threatening to kill him didn’t make him lucky, but it was fortunate that the appointment was open. “Keep the doors locked and text me your grocery demands,” I said then thought about it. “Better yet, I’ll be home at a decent time and we can go together.”
“You’ll protect me at all costs, even if someone tries to take the produce I want.” Josh held his hands in front of him to form a pistol and playfully hit a pose that made him look like a modern day Charlie’s Angels. It was exactly the lighthearted thing I needed to put a smile on my face and remind me just what I was fighting for.
Adrian arrived the same time as me and he pulled me to the side before we went into the station. “Damn, Gabe. I heard about the threat left at Josh’s house.”
Even though I hadn’t called him, it was possible someone else on the force did, but I was betting he heard about it at the diner. So help me God, nothing was a secret in Blissville. “What did you hear at the diner this morning?” I asked.
“That someone killed his cat and left it for dead for him to find on his bed,” Adrian said, confirming my suspicions were correct. “How come you didn’t say anything when you picked Buddy up last night?”
“First, it wasn’t a dead cat, it was a bouquet of decaying flowers, a note, and a picture of a dead Nate Turner,” I told Adrian. “Second, I didn’t know about it until after I got home. I made one call to dispatch, and next thing I knew, everybody and their brother–minus you–was in our home dusting for fingerprints and stuff.”
“Home,” Adrian said then smiled. “You said ‘home’ and not Josh’s house.”
It was the second time I said it that morning, but Adrian was the first to point it out. Either Josh didn’t hear it or he ignored me when I told him I’d return home from work early. I wasn’t sure how to respond to Adrian so I just shrugged my shoulders.
Another random thought occurred to me while I stood in the frigid temperature with Adrian. Josh was meticulous about his home and salon, particularly with cleanliness. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have gone to bed until the last black smudge from the fingerprint dusting had been eliminated. It just showed how much I had upset him the night before that he ignored the mess. It was a mistake I wouldn’t make again and I wished I was home helping him clean.
“Adrian, something really bad is going on and I honestly can’t wrap my head around it.” I told my partner about the photo of Nate, the note in the envelope, and the gut feeling that whoever killed Nate thought I knew a hell of a lot more than I did. But why?
“That’s a damn good question,” Adrian said. “Maybe Captain Reardon will get some answers for us. It would sure help to know what the hell Nate was caught up in.”
The captain wasn’t in yet, which was unusual, but not unheard of. We had some open cases to work, the largest being the cache of drugs found at the high school, so I tried to focus on them until Captain Reardon showed up. As the minutes ticked by, however, I found it harder to concentrate because the captain was never late to the station.
It was almost noon before he walked through the front doors of the station. A gust of wind caught the bottom of his long trench coat and parted the fabric to reveal the captain had worn his dress blues. He looked at Adrian and me and jerked his head toward his office. We rose to our feet and followed immediately.
“Have a seat,” he said firmly, hanging up his coat. I exchanged a look with Adrian while we waited for the captain to take his seat behind his large, mahogany desk. “I drove to Cincinnati this morning since I wasn’t having any success on the phone.” His choice of wardrobe finally made sense. Someone who looked as powerful and commanding as he did would be hard to ignore.
“What did you learn?” I asked, hopeful it was something that would bust our case wide open.
“I learned a lot of little things, but I’m not sure yet how they all tie together, if they even do,” the captain said. I could tell he didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I needed something to put my mind at ease. “Let’s start with the biggest piece of the puzzle, which is whatever Nate might’ve been tied up in that instigated this mess. Nate and his nightclub were being investigated for prostitution. I learned that CPD had undercover officers working inside the nightclub to try and bust him.” Reardon pointed his finger at both of us and said, “None of this leaves my office.”
“Yes, sir,” we both said.
“According to my contact, CPD’s sting had only been underway for a few days, maybe a week, when Nate received his first threatening email. Whatever illegal operations he might’ve been running in there stopped immediately. The cops were removed after a week or so of no activity. In fact, they were gone by the time he called you.”
“Okay, so why did Nate think that calling the cops made things worse, as if they were involved?” I asked.
“I’m only speculating here, because Nate’s not here to confirm or deny,” Captain Reardon said. “My contact said that the detectives assigned to the case tried to squeeze information out of Nate. They made it known that he had been under an investigation and said they would protect him if he gave some names. CPD got the impression that Nate was taking money from someone to allow the illegal sex acts to take place in one of his back rooms. They believed that Nate was a small player in the prostitution ring syndicate. They hoped he would turn on the guy next higher up than him and that guy would do the same until they got to the top. Nate denied the allegations of prostitution and said he didn’t know anything about a syndicate. A few days later, he called the detectives and requested to close his case.”
“There was approximately two months between the time I met with Nate in his office and the time he was killed. Do we know if the threats were stepped up during that time? Was his home searched?” I asked.
“There’s a bit of a battle between the Cincinnati Police Department and the Carter County Sheriff’s Department over who should be investigating this homicide. CPD said it’s their case because they said Nate was killed because of the threats that they were still investigating. CCSD said the incident happened in their jurisdiction so it was their case. CPD did search his home and business, but nothing was found. His business partner…”
