“Then let’s get to it.” Daniel led the small brigade to the front door. He rang the doorbell and heard the musical chimes sound from inside the house.
A moment later the door opened. Charles Landry wasn’t a bad-looking guy. His dark brown hair matched the color of his eyes…eyes that widened slightly at the sight of them. He was clad in a pair of brown dress slacks and a brown plaid short-sleeved button-up shirt.
“Gentlemen, what’s going on?” he asked with open curiosity.
“We’re here to execute a search warrant.” Daniel handed him the official piece of paper.
Charles looked it over and then gazed back at Daniel. “You’re kidding me, right? This has got to be some kind of a joke.”
“It’s no joke, Mr. Landry,” Daniel replied.
“If you think I killed Mystique Santori because of some stupid love charm, then your investigation is definitely majorly flawed.”
“Majorly flawed or not, this is where we are at the moment,” Daniel replied curtly. He could feel the man’s disdain for them emanating from him. “So, are you going to let us in to do our job?”
“And what if I don’t?” Charles asked.
“Then I guess I’ll have to arrest you and we’ll search your home anyway,” Daniel replied.
Charles’s nostrils thinned as he opened his door a bit wider. “I certainly don’t want to be arrested but I’m warning you now, I have a lot of expensive things in here. If you break anything, I will sue the department.”
“Understood,” Daniel replied. “We will try to be very careful with your belongings.”
“You’d better do better than try.” With that, Charles opened the door wide enough for all of them to enter. They walked into a large entry with white marble floors and a small white table with a bronze statue of a woman draped on a chaise lounge.
The living room was large and spotlessly clean. There was a long white sofa and a white chair with glass-topped coffee and end tables. Another bronze statue was on the coffee table, this one of a woman in a rocking chair.
A wet bar was in one corner of the room and a big-screen television hung above a fireplace. “We’ll start in here,” Daniel said. “Sam and Roger, why don’t you start in the wet bar and we’ll search the furniture.”
“Be careful in the wet bar,” Charles said in warning. “I have drink glasses in there that are probably worth half your salaries.”
In each room they searched, Charles was there to tell them what everything was worth, and in each of the rooms there were bronze statues of women in various poses and other items that Charles made sure to tell them were expensive.
They thoroughly searched each and every room, and what they didn’t find was anything to tie Charles to the murder. No book, no bloody clothes…nothing. It had basically been a whole waste of time.
It was just after eleven when they left the Landry house. A bitter disappointment filled Daniel as they rode back to the station.
“What about all those women figurines? Creepy, right?” Luke said.
“Totally creepy,” Clay agreed.
Was Charles still a suspect? Definitely. He could have Mystique’s book in a safe-deposit box or in another city where he had offices.
But once again the case was stuck with no new leads and nowhere to go. When they returned to the station, he went back to his office alone and called Angelique. If nothing else, he wanted to thank her for the delicious dinner she’d made for him the night before.
She answered on the second ring. “Good morning, Daniel.”
“Good morning, Angelique,” he replied, warmed by the mere sound of her voice.
“I was just calling to thank you for the meal and everything last night,” he said. “And to apologize for sneaking out while you were still asleep.”
“No problem, I enjoyed the evening very much.” Her voice held a bit of heat that stirred him as thoughts of what they had shared flowed through his brain. “And you certainly don’t owe me an apology. You had told me you’d be leaving early.”
“I was wondering if I could return the favor tonight by taking you to dinner at the café.” He hadn’t realized he was going to ask her out until the words fell from his lips. Still, it felt right. He’d slept with her, surely a dinner date was in order.
There was a moment of silence, making him wonder if he was completely out of line. “I would love to have dinner with you this evening at the café,” she said, causing a pleasurable anticipation to fill him.
“Great, then how about I meet you at your shanty around six o’clock,” he replied.
