Justification for Murder (26 page)

S
affron woke up from a deep sleep. She felt a smile grow as soon as she remembered the kiss. It had been soft, yet full of hunger. She’d felt his pull, his energy and his desire. She closed her eyes and rolled to her side, wanting to relive the moment. Just when she was about to feel his lips on hers, her memory screeched to a halt.

“Wakey-wakey. I made coffee,” Ranjan said.

“What the hell?” she murmured to herself. She had totally forgotten he’d spent the night.

“Your sofa is really comfortable,” he said, sitting beside her on the bed. “But of course I would’ve preferred to have slept here with you.”

He patted the sheets. She didn’t move, her back to him.

“Are you still mad at me?”

“You’re a rocket scientist,” she said just loud enough for him to hear.

“Sweetie, I love you. I made you coffee. I slept on the sofa. I’m doing everything you want me to do, and I’ll continue doing so until you forgive me.”

She got out of bed, self-conscious for wearing shorts that showed her long legs. She pulled her hair into a knot and walked by him toward the bathroom. She felt him watching her as she walked away, and it almost crept her out. Saffron started the shower and locked the door. She didn’t want him sneaking in thinking he had an invitation.

She thought about Ranjan, how he had talked nonstop about how good they were together and how his family would understand. The conversation lasted hours, and she had been exhausted by the time she managed to make him shut up. It had been past three in the morning. Too late to call Darcy, so she had let Ranjan sleep on the sofa, mostly because she was too afraid to be alone. Now, she regretted the whole thing and just wished she had left him there, with the popcorn and a bad movie, and gone back to Darcy’s place.

When Saffron got out of the shower she heard the TV. Ranjan was watching the news.

“Your coffee’s getting cold,” he yelled from the other room.

She put on some jeans, a T-shirt and was zipping a hoodie when she entered the living room.

“Ranjan, it’s over. I’m sorry, but it is.”

He placed his mug on the coffee table and turned the TV off. He stood up and walked toward her, then grabbed her hands. She met his eyes. They were sad. His lips were turned downward. She looked away. He led her back to the sofa and she sat down. He did the same, facing her.

“Saffron, I know you’re hurt.” He shook his head and rephrased: “No, I know I hurt you. This arranged marriage thing is something really important to my family. But, when I saw your face in the hospital room after you’d seen those photos…You looked so wounded.”

She listened, even though she’d heard everything last night.

“I just needed time to make things right with my uncle. Convince him that I love you so he can help me with my family back home.”

“It’s too late, Ranjan. I’m sorry.”

“But why? It’s only been a couple days. I can’t believe we can’t work this out.”

“We’ve had this fight one too many times.” She met his eyes, but he looked away. “Ranjan, too many things have happened in the last couple days. I can’t be with you anymore.”

“But all of those incredible times we’ve had together, they have to count for something. We can go back to that, I promise.”

She shook her head, but before she could say anything, he pleaded again. She crossed her arms.

“I’m sorry,” Saffron said before she stood and walked to the door.

He pleaded one more time, probably knowing it was futile. He then went through the door and left without another word. She closed it and then saw his jacket.

“Ranjan,” she yelled after him.

He turned, an expression of hope on his face, a little shine in his eyes that darkened the minute he saw the jacket hanging from her hand.

He murmured “Thank you” when he grabbed it and turned back toward the elevator.

Saffron wondered if she would regret her decision. She shook her head and decided she wouldn’t.

After she dried her hair, she left to get some real coffee from Starbucks at the corner of San Pedro and Santa Clara. She always enjoyed the walk. It was only a few blocks away, but just long enough to get the blood flowing. The air was crisp but not quite cold. Saffron pulled out her phone and started dialing Darcy’s number. She figured he would be up by now. Before she managed to enter the last couple digits, the screen turned black, the shutdown spinner rotated a few times and the phone went dead.

“Crap, forgot to charge it,” she said out loud, shoving her cellphone into her back pocket.

The line was rather long at Starbucks. A shiver ran through her back and she forced herself to shake the memories of the last time she had been in a queue waiting to get a decent latte. She looked down at her shoes and then decided the mugs and trinkets they had on the shelves next to her were the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. She grabbed a few, inspected them, checked the price of each, put it back, grabbed the next one. The line moved forward, and she took a step closer to the cashier.

“Saffron?” a woman’s voice asked from behind.

She looked but didn’t recognize her.

“It’s Julia, Dr. Leavenworth’s assistant.”

She had beautiful large black eyes and short, unruly hair. Large silver hoops dangled from her ears.

“Yes, of course. Sorry about that.” Saffron let the man standing between them go before her.

“I totally understand. It’s hard to recognize people out of context.”

“You live around here?”

“Yes, a few blocks north, actually.”

“Me too. How funny that we’re neighbors and we never knew,” Saffron said.

They chatted about the neighborhood while they inched toward the beginning of the line. Once they got their drinks, they started walking in the same direction.

“I’m just amazed at how well they’ve fixed up San Pedro Square,” Saffron said.

“And I’m still bitter that they do the farmers’ market on Fridays. Who has time to go on a weekday?”

Saffron agreed.

“By the way, I would love to ask your opinion on something,” Julia said. “Girl to girl.”

“Sure.”

“Do you mind walking with me to my car? It’s parked in the garage, on the second floor.”

Saffron nodded, and they headed up the stairs like two new friends catching up on life.

“I bought this necklace for a fund-raiser I’m going to next weekend, and I’m not really sure I like it. I could use a second opinion.”

“Absolutely. Glad to help.”

The second level of the parking was almost empty. There was a red Mini Cooper close to the elevator and a couple other cars spread out throughout the floor. Julia led the way toward a bluish SUV parked closer to the stairs. They walked around the car to the passenger door. Julia reached into the console between the two seats, found the jewelry box, and handed it to Saffron.

She took it and started opening it, but from the corner of her eye she saw something shine in Julia’s other hand. Saffron opened the box but instead of looking inside, she raised her eyes. Before she could react, her new friend pushed her against the car with her forearm and pricked her neck with a needle.

“What are you…?” Saffron asked before she lost consciousness.

L
ynch got a call back from Detective Danielson. The doctor had lied again. Sonia McCarthy did have cancer and had been scheduled to have it removed a month after she died. Sorensen scratched his head and looked over to the doctor and her lawyer on the other side of the one-way mirror. They seemed composed, almost bored, though the doctor’s right leg twitched under the table.

“I wonder if she lied because she’s hiding something or because she’s a bad doctor who can’t get the right diagnosis,” Sorensen said, still looking at them.

Darcy remained silent.

“False negatives do happen,” Jon offered without looking up from his computer screen. “It wouldn’t be her fault. It would be the lab’s.”

Sorensen exchanged a look with Darcy. Then they both got sidetracked by movement in the other room. The doctor said something and then she and her lawyer got up.

“You’re about to lose them,” Darcy said.

Sorensen jumped from his chair and went to meet them.

“We’re not done here,” he said, opening the door.

“Yes we are. We’ve been here for over an hour. If you need to reach Dr. Leavenworth, please make sure you give me a call and we’ll be happy to oblige. In the meantime we’re leaving.”

He pointed to the door for Dr. Leavenworth to go first. Sorensen blocked the exit.

“Detective,” Wilmore said.

Sorensen tried to hide his disappointment with a silent sigh and moved out of the way. He looked into the mirror, trying to find Darcy’s eyes, even though he couldn’t see anything but his own reflection in a now-empty room.

Sorensen and Darcy met in the hallway and walked together to the bullpen.

“I damn well hope the kid finds something,” Sorensen said.

“Me too. Because I don’t want to be the only one stuck doing paperwork all weekend.”

“Stop rubbing in that you’ve closed your cases.”

Sorensen shook his head and left to get some snacks. A minute later he came back beaming.

“Can you believe we got Twinkies back in the vending machine? It’s been ages since we’ve had them.”

He waved the package around as if expecting the smell to seep through the plastic wrapper.

“You’re going to have a heart attack one of these days,” Darcy murmured loud enough for him to hear.

“Whatever.” He gulfed a half Twinkie in one bite.

Darcy sat and started working on his final report on Harper Johnson’s case. He put his phone on the table and noticed that he had a voice mail. He didn’t recognize the number. He pressed the Play button and listened. “Detective Lynch, Alton Lane here,” the message started. “I was on one of my walks yesterday and I saw a car go into Harper Johnson’s property. I wouldn’t have thought too much about it, but then I saw it come back this morning again. I’m sure…anything, but… know…the car…H4.”

Darcy listened to the message again to see if he could pick up more pieces, but the coverage by Lane’s property had been too poor. He made a note to call him later. Harper Johnson didn’t have family or friends, let alone visitors.

“Jon?” Darcy heard Sorensen say.

Jon ignored him and ran to the printer to pick up several pieces of paper. Then he waved them in the air to get their attention. A couple other detectives looked up, semi-curious, but went back to what they were doing before Jon started to talk. Lynch and Sorensen pulled their chairs closer to Jon.

“Well, I should do more research, because you never know, but this could be a start,” Jon said, facing the two detectives. “I was able to find seventeen start-ups in Silicon Valley that are doing some type of work with cancer. Out of those, four are related to breast cancer specifically. Two of them are still in stealth mode. That leaves us two.”

“Why wouldn’t we look into the stealth ones?” Darcy asked.

“Too early,” Jon explained. “They are too young to be doing human trials. They probably haven’t even started working on animals yet. Besides, they’re in complete secrecy, so they won’t share anything with us unless we have a legal order.”

“Tell us about the other two,” Sorensen said.

Jon looked through his printed notes until he found what he was looking for. Reading from the page, he said, “One is Nodal Labs. They are investigating the spread of cancer into the lymph nodes.” He looked up and saw the two detectives exchange glances. “About a month ago, they announced a huge cash injection due to receiving the FDA approval to proceed to human trials.”

“Doesn’t sound too promising.” Darcy said.

Sorensen leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his large torso. “I shouldn’t have let the doctor leave.” He cursed.

“The other one, Curarent Tech, is a bit more tricky. They came out of stealth mode barely a year ago. They’ve completed the first set of animal trials with very successful results, but I can’t find any else about them. Not sure if that’s good or bad.”

“What do you mean?” Darcy asked.

“Well, if the trials were so successful, why haven’t they got more funding, like Nodal Labs did? Why aren’t they on the news or in medical journals bragging about how they’re doing?”

“Maybe they want to keep it quiet?” Darcy asked.

“No. That’s someting they would want to adverise.”

He looked through the papers as if he had missed something that would answer his questions.

“Feel like a field trip?” Sorensen asked Lynch.

“You expect to find anybody in the office? It’s Saturday,” Lynch said, shutting down his computer.

“In Silicon Valley everybody works 24-7, don’t you know that?”

“I thought that was only true for law enforcement,” Darcy said, looking around at the full office.

“Now you know better.”

“Jon,” Darcy said, “send us as much dirt as you can on these two companies. Investors, board of directors, employees, where they went to school, whether they are married, have debt, where they vacation, whatever you can find.”

“Which one should I start on? This will take a while.”

“The second one,” Lynch and Sorensen said in unison.

S
affron opened her eyes. She was disoriented, and it took her a few seconds to focus. Julia was standing to her right.

She felt a hand slap her cheek. “C’mon, wake up. I don’t have time for this,” Julia said, hitting Saffron’s face again.

Then she remembered the needle prick and screamed. But nothing more than a low grunt came out. Her mouth was taped. Saffron tried to move, but she was tightly secured by the seat belt. Her hands were tied behind her back. Both arms were almost asleep all the way to her shoulders. Her feet were restrained with silver duct tape, but they were at least half a foot apart. She tried kicking, but all she managed to do was bruise her shins against the dashboard.

“Saffron, I need you to listen to me,” Julia said once Saffron had stopped kicking.

Saffron started squirming inside the car, trying to free herself.

“I don’t have a lot of time and you’re pissing me off, so quit that shit and listen to me.”

Julia took a few steps back and pointed a gun at her. Saffron stopped, her eyes fixed on the muzzle, were wild with fear. Her nostrils flared with every exhalation.

“You’re going to twist toward me and use your hands to click the seat belt open.”

Saffron tried and succeeded on the fourth attempt.

“Now you’re going to get out of the car.” She stopped. Saffron didn’t move. “Let me say this again: you’re going to get out of the car.
Now
,” she yelled, inciting the first move.

Saffron pushed herself to the edge of the seat and then swung her feet out of the car. The SUV was a little too high, and she almost fell from the car when she was trying to reach the ground. She managed to recover some balance and finally stood, shaking, in front of Julia.

“Good girl. Now you’re going to head toward the house.”

She took her first step. The tape only allowed her to advance half a foot at a time. Julia turned, following her movement with the barrel of her gun. Once Julia was behind her, Saffron couldn’t stop herself from looking back, challenging her balance one more time. She finally reached the stairs of the house. She tried to climb the first stair, but the duct tape was too short. She planted her foot back on the ground and waited for further instructions.

Julia came closer.

“Turn around and sit on the landing. Swing your legs around and then get up.”

Saffron looked at her as if she were crazy. She shook her head and shrieked, trying to make a noise that would translate to something like “Just cut the dumb tape and let me walk up like a normal person.” But Julia didn’t budge. After a few seconds of deadlock, Saffron knew she wasn’t going to win. She turned around and did as she was told.

Saffron had a hard time getting up again without the help of her hands. Julia just watched and puffed as if annoyed that she wasn’t doing it faster. Once she was standing, Julia passed by her and opened the door.

“Come on, go in.” She said waiving the gun.

The place was sparse and tidy. Saffron stood by the door, wondering if she had a sliver of a chance to escape, but with her feet tied she knew she didn’t. Julia walked to the dining table and moved it, not bothering to pull the chairs out of the way first. Then she hauled an old dusty rug to the side, and Saffron saw a trapdoor.

Julia opened it and said, “What are you waiting for?”

Saffron stood where she was. Only darkness came from inside the hole.

“I have ten bullets in this gun. I would only shoot your leg, though, and let you bleed out. So don’t piss me off and go down.”

Julia had moved into the open kitchen. She leaned on the stove. Saffron walked forward and saw a set of wooden stairs leading to a black abyss. Before she descended, she looked back at Julia, begging her to cut the tape on her ankles.

“Hop down. You’ll be fine.”

Saffron stared back at the woman who’d been so kind and gentle in every one of her visits to Dr. Leavenworth’s office. She’d held her hand and told her she would be okay, that the lump she had in her breast was not cancer and that she would be okay.

“Go on!” Julia yelled.

Saffron faced the stairs straight on and got closer to the edge, then she tried reaching the first step, but Julia was right, her foot didn’t quite make it. She brought it back and jumped. The wood creaked. She feared it would break under her weight, but it didn’t. After she managed to regain some composure and her heartbeat slowed down a little, she took another hop. Then another. She jumped a little too far forward, so when she landed on the third step. She lost her balance. She moved forward and almost fell, but then forced herself to lean backwards, pushing all of her weight on her heels. After a few more swings, she managed to stand still. She was breathing so fast she thought she might hyperventilate.

Saffron looked back at Julia, but the woman’s eyes only returned a heartless glare. She stared down, trying to make out how many more stairs were waiting for her, but she couldn’t see the end. There was too much light coming through the windows, and her eyes couldn’t adjust to the dimness of the basement.

She hopped the next step few steps without incident. Gaining confidence, she jumped a little faster. But then, she hit a step that was a little narrower than the rest, and slid when her heels didn’t manage to ground themselves on it. She flew over it. Her feet banging into the steps as she slid down crushing her arms and hands, tied to her back, until she reached the ground.

Saffron didn’t get up. She felt sore and everything hurt, including her head. She was sure she’d broken at least a couple fingers. She started to cry.
Why not kill me right away? Why make me go through this misery?
she asked herself.

“Oh, for God’s sakes.” Julia said and started going down the stairs. Each step was heavy, as if she were making a point to land with all of her weight on each one.

There was a click, and her eyes went blind. Julia had turned the basement light on. Saffron blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the new brightness. When she finally managed to keep her eyes open for a few seconds, what she saw made her heart stop.