What Lies Behind Read online

  “I bet. Thanks, Hernandez.”

  Fletcher signed in, went down the stairs. He could smell the blood before he saw it. When he stepped through the hall into the main room, with all the crime scene lights burning brightly, the blood seemed chaotic in its motion, streams and spatters of red going everywhere.

  He sighed. A long night ahead for his team.

  They all knew Fletcher liked to look at things by himself. Two crime scene techs saw him come in and melted away, allowing their boss a clean scene to walk through.

  One said in passing, “Watch the blood in the hall. It’s pretty thick as you go into the bedroom.”

  Fletcher nodded his thanks and walked through by himself once, placing things. The tech was right. The blood was thick and smeary, almost as if the body had been dragged into the bedroom from the living room.

  As he entered the master, he saw a woman’s body leaning against the bed, arms by her sides, a crumpled marionette. Her skin was blue; milky, slitted eyes stared at nothing. Skids of blood stained the carpet, the bed, the walls. Life’s blood, clearly. A six-inch blade lay quietly on the comforter, next to a small, dirty-white plastic tent with a green light inside to designate a significant piece of evidence, and the number seven written on it.

  Crime scene markers.

  There was another green-lit one on the dresser, perched next to a piece of paper.

  He’d been told this was a murder-suicide. Here was the murder.

  The suicide was not present for his own party. He’d been transported to George Washington University Hospital, in extreme distress.

  The crime scene was messy, unwieldy, complicated. Not the worst he’d ever seen, but bad enough. It would take a week to sort through all the blood. And with two victims, it would cost him a mint. He couldn’t help but see the dollar signs—he had a budget now, new responsibilities. He needed to keep control of things. And DNA testing was expensive. A necessary evil, of course, but pricey all the same.

  The note was on the dresser, a page ripped from a notebook, written in a slanting hand, the letters blocked, like an architect’s script, but leaning heavily to the right, as if the building plans attached to it were sliding down a hill.

  You made me do this.

  He left it there, made his way out of the apartment, up the stairs, breathing deeply of the city air, happy to let its gassy stink clear his sinuses of the reek of death. Spared a quick glance at the tall back windows of the house one street over. Samantha Owens lived there, and he was surprised she wasn’t over here already, marching around, giving orders. Of course, she wasn’t a part of his world, not really, just an interesting bystander who brought him the strangest cases.

  He liked the idea of her working for the FBI. She needed the challenge.

  The lights in her bedroom were dark. He shook off thoughts of his friend. He needed to attend to his witnesses before they were useless.

  Emma and Cameron were their names. Both undergrad students at Georgetown. Both highly intoxicated still, though scared into some semblance of sobriety. Underage, too, of course, which meant trouble for whoever was serving them tonight, but he didn’t spare more than a moment’s thought to that issue. Not his problem.

  The taller of the two was standing by the squad car, her arms wrapped around her body as if she could hold herself together. He imagined she’d never seen anything like this. It would scar her for life. And the other one—prettier, softer, but...less, somehow, than her friend—was well on her way to being medicated by the EMTs. The horror of violent death took people differently. Some freaked out, some got quiet. Some enjoyed the ruckus, found ways to make it all about them. Others shook, and were never right again.

  Hart nodded to him as he approached. He looked as tired as Fletcher felt.

  “Hey, boss. This is Emma Johnson. She found the victims. Cameron Saint, her friend. They came to visit Mr. Cattafi this evening and found them.” He gestured back toward the house.

  The girl Hart had identified as Emma kept glancing at the house. Her voice was soft, hurting. “Is Tommy going to make it?”

  Fletcher could smell the liquor on her breath. She’d been crying; her eyes were red and puffy. “I don’t know, ma’am. Can you run me through your night? Tell me what happened?”

  “I just wanted to stop by and see him,” she said.

  “They’d broken up,” Cameron added. Emma came to life, anger on her face as she gave her friend a nasty look.

  Her friend shrugged. “What? You did. He was there with another woman, anyway. And he tried to kill her. You dodged a bullet, you ask me.”

  Emma sighed in disgust, turned to Fletcher with old eyes. “We’re on a break. I still have my key. He’s been really busy lately. School’s been really hard on him.”

  “Where does Mr. Cattafi go to school?”

  “He’s an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at Georgetown. He’s going to cure cancer. Already has.”

  “Mmm-hmm. And you broke up when?”

  “Two weeks ago.”

  “Did you know he was seeing someone new?”

  The words were small. “No. No, I didn’t.”

  “Where were you tonight?”

  “Just...all over the place. Barhopping.”

  “And people can confirm this?”

  “Oh. My. Gawd. You think I had something to do with this? Are you mental?”

  “Careful, Miss Johnson,” Hart said.

  “My father will be very interested to hear your accusations. Do you have any idea who I am?”

  Fletcher stopped himself from laughing. “No, Miss Johnson. I have no idea who you are, nor do I care. Now you can settle down, or we can have this chat in my office. Do you want that?”

  “Calm down, Emma. He’s not kidding,” Cameron said.

  Emma huffed a bit, then raised her chin. “No. I don’t care to continue this line of questioning without a lawyer present.”

  Hart glanced at Fletcher, who nodded. Hart whipped out his cuffs, turned Emma Johnson around and calmly placed them on her wrists, all the while ignoring her squeaks of shock at his rough treatment. “When my father hears this, he’s going to get you fired!”

  Cameron groaned and leaned back against the police cruiser. She met Fletcher’s eyes as if to say, Hey, I can’t do anything with her when she’s fired up like this.

  “Miss Saint? Would you like to continue this conversation, or would you, too, like a lawyer present?”

  “Yes, sir, I would. I mean, no, sir, I’m all good.” Flustered, she continued. “Emma didn’t do this, sir. She’s been with me all night.”

  “Shut up, Cameron. We need to get my dad’s lawyers here.”

  Cameron drew herself up and gave her friend a baleful glare. “You shut up, Emma. You’re making a fool out of yourself.” And to Fletcher, “We have fake IDs—we were in Mr. Smith’s most of the night. You can check. They booted us and we walked up here. She wanted a booty call. She’s just drunk. She gets stupid when she drinks. Let her go, please. We stumbled into this, and we don’t know anything.”

  Her words rang true, and Fletcher nodded. “Did you see anyone in the neighborhood as you were walking here? Anything that stood out? Cars that seemed suspicious, people who were out of place?”

  Cameron looked at the ground, then back to him. “Sir, I apologize, but I had a lot to drink tonight. I wasn’t noticing much of anything besides where to put my foot next to make it up the hill, and then tossing my cookies when I saw all that blood. Besides, it’s Georgetown. There’s always a bunch of people around. I didn’t notice anyone who looked wrong, but I wasn’t paying a lot of attention, either.”

  Emma had had a change of heart. “There was a jogger. That’s the only person I saw. But it was a woman. She was coming down the hill.”

  “Young, old? Hair color?”


  “She had a baseball cap on, and those reflective sneakers. That’s all I remember.”

  Fletcher believed her. “All right. Unhook her, Hart.”

  Emma looked like she was about to say something, but Cameron shook her head and she stopped. Hart released the cuffs, and Emma rubbed her wrists and muttered, “Thanks.”

  Cameron grabbed her friend’s hand. “Can we go now?”

  Fletcher did his best disappointed-dad routine. “You two behaved incredibly irresponsibly tonight. You could have been killed. I hope you realize that. Now, give me the fake IDs.”

  “Yes, sir,” they chimed in unison.

  They dug in their bags and came up with the bits of plastic. He pocketed them. “Detective Hart will make sure you get home all right. I’ll most likely want to talk to you again, when you’ve had a chance to sober up, and clean up. Give him all your information. And, girls? I hear about you doing anything out of step again, I won’t be Mr. Nice Guy. You hear me?”

  They nodded, and Fletcher jerked his head toward the car. “Get them home,” he said to Hart, then walked back to his own car.

  What a mess. What a huge mess.

  His phone was sitting on the console. There was a text from Sam—sure enough, she had noticed the hubbub. He was tempted to go knock on her door, let her make him a decent cup of coffee. Her boyfriend, Xander, was addicted. They always had some sort of delicious brew on hand. But the text was over an hour old. She may have gone to bed when she didn’t hear back from him.

  He sent her a quick note back, then got started with the paperwork.

  There’d be no sleep for him tonight.

  Chapter 5

  BIRDS. ALL SHE could hear was birds.

  Chirping, singing, flitting against the glass feeder. Sweet little songbirds going mad outside the window.

  Sam cracked open her right eye, then the left, pulled herself upright with a little groan. Touched her forehead, saw the remnants of the Scotch in the glass on the coffee table. Papers fell to the floor in a cascade, a gentle susurration off her chest.

  She’d fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for something... She couldn’t remember.

  Thor saw her stirring. His head shot up, and she could swear the dog smiled.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll get your breakfast in a minute.”

  He woofed softly, set his muzzle on his paws.

  She picked up the papers, stacked them carefully. Remembered to put Sausalito on top. She wanted to revisit that scene. A houseboat in the northern part of the city, abandoned and neglected. It stood out among the brighter, shinier, newly constructed and renovated, not only because of its dilapidation, but because its owner visited only once a year, in the summer, and when a body had been found in the salon, the owner hadn’t come to see to things.

  Something there.

  The sirens. O Street. She remembered now. Flipped on the television, knowing well enough that if it were as bad as she suspected, the local news would be all over it.

  They were talking about the weather. Sunny and chilly all week, some rain here and there, then a series of perfect D.C. fall days ahead.

  She grabbed her phone. Fletcher had texted her back, sometime around three in the morning. She hadn’t heard the ding.

  Bad one. Double stabbing. One deceased, one in ICU. Sirens wake you up?

  Then a second text, ten minutes later.

  Apparently not.

  She smiled, his sarcasm evident, started to write him back, then jumped as the phone began chirping in her hand. Xander. She answered with a smile. She really did miss him.

  “Hi, babe.”

  “You were up late.” His voice was deep, still rough with sleep, and she felt like he’d wrapped her in his arms from afar.

  “Something happened on O Street, late. Double stabbing. Cops everywhere. I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  “Are you okay? Was it someone we know?”

  “I don’t think so. I’m fine, just tired.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. I was on all night.” He yawned. “Vigilance never sleeps.”

  “You haven’t gotten any sleep? You need rest, Xander.”

  “I know. I’ll grab a few winks in a minute. I wanted to talk to you first.”

  A shimmer of absurd pleasure shot through her. Even exhausted, he wanted her.

  “Is the job going well? Nothing dangerous happening?”

  “It is. All’s well. We’ll be wrapped shortly, and I can come home as soon as we put these guys on a plane back to London. I have good news, though. We already have a gig for next week.”

  She couldn’t help the frown, pushed it away. This was a good thing. She didn’t have the right to hold him back just because she enjoyed having him around at all hours.

  “Good. I’m glad.” She couldn’t help herself. “Hopefully the job is local?”

  He started to laugh. “Why, Dr. Owens. Do you miss me?”

  “Oh, hush. Thor is going nuts without you here.”

  “Uh-huh. I hear you. Give him a scratch for me. Clients’ flight leaves at 0930, then I’m headed your way. I’ll be in by let me see, 1300 hours. Maybe we can walk down to Clyde’s. I’m dying for a decent burger. These guys ate sushi all week.”

  “That sounds great. Can’t wait. Fly safe.”

  “Have a nice day off. Love you.” And he was gone before she had a chance to say it back.

  “I love you, too,” she whispered, and set the phone on the table. She fingered the simple diamond band he’d given her a few weeks earlier, opening the door to a more permanent future together.

  She wasn’t in a rush. They were together in all the ways that mattered. There was no real reason to make it legal. She wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he.

  She hopped up from the couch, washed her hands thoroughly, ignoring the little voice counting one Mississippi, two Mississippi in the back of her head, then called Fletcher.

  He answered on the first ring, quite jovial considering the time. “Heya, sleeping beauty. What happened, the battery die on your phone again?”

  “Again? It was just the one time. I fell asleep, waiting for you to get back to me. What in the world happened last night?”

  “Stabbing. Probably domestic. One dead, one gravely injured. Couple of students found them. I’m waiting for a briefing on it in ten minutes. Want to meet me after for breakfast?”

  “Yeah, I can do that. I don’t have classes today.” But he’d know that. Fletcher always seemed to have radar for her schedule. “Besides, I’m banging my head against the wall on a case. I could use the fresh air, maybe a fresh perspective.”

  “Meet me at Le Pain, then, in thirty minutes.”

  * * *

  The short walk to Le Pain Quotidien was refreshing, just as she’d hoped. She was glad Fletcher had invited her to join him—with all the new work she was doing, the craziness of the past few months, she hadn’t made many friends in D.C. yet. It was nice to get asked out on a breakfast date.

  She got a table by the windows, and true to his word, twenty minutes later, Fletcher walked through the doors. Dressed in his usual gray suit and white shirt, unshaven and dark hair mussed, he looked more like he’d rolled out of bed instead of walking out of his office. He was frowning, scanning the restaurant in true cop form, before he joined her. She’d given him the chair that faced the door.

  He gave her a quick hug and sat down, signaling to the waiter for a cup of coffee.

  “To what do I owe the honor of your presence this morning?” she asked.

  “I have a meeting down the street at ten. I’m telling you, being the LT isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I spend more time in meetings than at crime scenes. It’s becoming oppressive.”

  “I know exactly what you mean. I�
�m amazed anything gets done in the world, considering how many meetings we have. I had a faculty meeting last week that’s sole purpose was to schedule another faculty meeting.”

  The waiter came, and they ordered—croissants for her, a ham and Gruyère tartine for him—and when he moved away, Fletcher leaned forward and spoke quietly. “You wanna go to a crime scene with me?”

  Sam had just picked up her coffee cup. It stopped midair. She clapped her right hand to her heart. “Oh, Fletcher. You say the sweetest things.”

  “Stow it, Owens. Is that a yes?”

  “Of course it is. Right now?”

  “We’ll eat first. Then we’ll go. Unless you’ve gotten squeamish in your old age and can’t handle a nasty scene on a full stomach.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I can handle anything.”

  “Good.”

  “Out of curiosity, what is it exactly you’d like me to see?”

  “All sorts of things. Tell me, have you ever heard of a kid at Georgetown Med named Thomas Cattafi?”

  “Is that who was attacked? No, I haven’t heard the name. He’s not in any of my classes.”

  “He’s a fourth year.”

  “That explains it.”

  “It’s his apartment where the attack took place. It’s probably in my head, but something about it all doesn’t feel right. I spoke at length to his ex-girlfriend in the wee hours of the morning, and again just a bit ago. She and her BFF got hammered and dropped by for a booty call—she still had a key. Walked in, saw blood everywhere, called 9-1-1. BFF confirms every inch of the story.”

  “You think she did it, and the BFF is lying to cover for her?”

  “I rousted the bartender at Mr. Smith’s. He corroborates their story. He’d been serving them since seven or so. The two were cut off around midnight, sent drunk as skunks out into the dark. They’re lucky they didn’t get hurt. No, I think she’s telling the truth. Though she was a pain in my ass last night.” He mimicked the girl’s high-pitched voice, and stamped his foot under the table. “‘Don’t you know who I am?’”

  “Who was she?”

  “Ah, hell, her dad’s some big-shot here in town. Works for the attorney general. He was mighty pissed when he heard his precious underage princess was not only caught drunk at her ex’s house but had just been let out of cuffs after mouthing off to me. Can you still ground a kid when they’re nineteen?”