Protector - Laurel Dewey [76]
“We made an arrest last night in LoDo,” Weyler quickly interjected.
“What arrest?”
“There might be a connection to the Lawrence murders. The perp was arrested for public drunkenness and pissing on the sidewalk. When PD searched him during booking, they found an item on his person that sent up a red flag.”
“What item?”
“A silver cigarette case with the inscription ‘Wedding Blessings. David & Patricia Lawrence.’ I paged Chris and told him to come back from Dillon. He’s been talking to the guy for the past half hour. I want you to come down and check out this guy. Chris thinks this could go somewhere. I’ll call Martha and tell her to watch Emily while you’re gone. Have one of the cars bring you over.”
Weyler hung up. The whole thing felt wrong to Jane. But she couldn’t back up her gut feeling with practical analysis and so she was stuck. Jane felt two eyes staring at her and looked up the staircase. There Emily sat on the top step in her denim jumper with the straps undone. “How long have you been sitting there?”
“What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing.” Jane started up the stairs toward Emily. “I have to go see my boss for a little bit. But your good buddy Martha is going to hang with you.”
“When are you coming back?” Emily sounded anxious.
“Couple hours probably. Your straps are all twisted around.”
“I know. I can’t button them.”
“Stand up.” Emily complied as Jane tried to untwist the child’s straps. The tiny flashlight that Martha had fastened on the jumper was the root of the problem. “You want to keep this thing on here?” Jane said, poking at the flashlight.
“I probably should. She’ll wonder what happened to it if I don’t.”
Jane continued to unwrap the cotton strap from the flashlight. “Stupid flashlight,” Jane mumbled under her breath. “I’m surprised Martha didn’t ask you to talk in code to her so I couldn’t understand your conversations!”
“Code?”
“Yeah. Cops do it all the time between each other when they don’t want perps knowing what they’re saying.” Emily placed her hand on the railing and gently rubbed her hand up and down the wood. Slowly, she became transfixed with the movement until she zoned out. Jane caught a glimpse of Emily. “Hey!” Emily did not respond.
“Emily!”
Emily looked up, still in a half-daze. “Mommy and Daddy were fighting. Then somebody else showed up . . .”
“Somebody else?”
“I listened through the door.” Emily was silent for a second. “There was an accident!” she recalled, with a tinge of fear.
“Accident?”
“That’s what the man said. He walked over there,” Emily pointed toward the kitchen, “and into the kitchen.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard the kitchen door close up in my room,” Emily replied in a slight trance. The child fell deeper into the memory. “It was quiet. But when he came out of the kitchen, the yelling started. And then . . . I don’t know . . . everything’s dark.” There was a loud thump-thump on the front door. Emily jumped and grabbed hold of Jane.
“Emily?”
The voice outside belonged to Martha Durrett. She had obviously received the call from Weyler and was wasting no time coming to the child’s aid.
“Can I go with you?” Emily said, still hanging on to Jane’s shirtsleeve. “I promise I won’t say a word!”
“Emily, you can’t come with me. Why don’t you pull out that ‘Think’ game. That psycho-babble shit is right up Martha’s alley!”
Thump-thump-thump! This time the knocking on the front door was louder. “Emily!” Martha’s voice was deeply concerned. “Please come to the door!”
Jane turned to Emily. “I’ll be back in a couple hours.” “Okay,” Emily said, discouraged.
Jane started down the stairs then turned back to Emily. “Hey! What’s rule number three?”
“Don’t go outside unless you say so,” Emily replied softly.
“Don’t you ever forget that.”
Chapter 13
Saturday traffic around DH was usually insignificant. However, since this was Memorial Day Weekend, the parks were full of families and various roads were closed off to accommodate the street festivals. The patrol officer and Jane pulled into the DH underground parking structure