The Brass Ring (33 page)

CC didn't miss the pensive look on the doctor's face. She began to rub reassuring circles down her lover's back as she waited for some sign from Jamie that it was all right to continue with her story. "What does this have to do with me?" Jamie inquired in a disturbingly flat voice.

"All of these women had two things in common," CC continued slowly. "They were all blondes with green eyes, similar builds and features, and they all had some kind of contact with Simon Fisher. His car was parked near Ellen Murdock's and he left the garage immediately after she did."

"Wait, that still doesn't mean that I'm in some kind of danger," Jamie reasoned.

"Sandra Bernstein's blood was found on the glass shards from your front window," CC concluded as her hands stilled their soothing motion. A sharp gasp was the only response the blonde offered and CC understood that the discussion was over. She wrapped her arms tightly around Jamie's body and held her close to her. Their hearts beat in unison as sleep evaded them.

The following day was a flurry of activity. They returned home to find workmen awaiting Jamie's arrival so they could replace her front window. Jamie handled the situation while CC showered although Jamie didn't want to let her lover out of her sight. Once the workmen had finished and Stevie returned home, CC rushed to the bank to pick up the cashier's check she needed to deliver to the car dealership. When she returned home nothing looked amiss. Jamie and Stevie were playing with Emma, but a shadow hovered over them.

As they drove to the dealership CC found that she and Jamie were snapping at one another. She knew it was her fault but she couldn't stop herself from harping on what Jamie should do each time she entered her own home. She kept reminding her to check the alarm system and exit through the back door and enter CC's home in the same way. "I get it," Jamie finally screamed at her.

Jamie pulled her car off to the side of the highway; they sat there in silence as Jamie's knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel far too tightly. "I'm sorry, James," CC grumbled as she rubbed her aching brow.

"I can't live like this," Jamie uttered in a soft determined tone. "I love you, Caitlin, but you need to stop treating me like I'm a child."

"I know," CC groaned. "I know," she repeated in the same heavy tone, knowing that she was incapable of promising Jamie that she wouldn't fall into the same trap again. The stakes were far too high. "Jamie . . ."

"Caitlin, promise me that you'll at least try," Jamie cut her off in a softer tone as she finally released her grip on the steering wheel.

"Sometimes I feel like you can read my mind," CC commented wryly as she took Jamie's small delicate hands in her own.

"That's because I can and you should be ashamed of yourself," Jamie teased her.

For the first time that day CC actually smiled. The off color remark crept through the tension and got to her. "Let's go and pick up my new car," CC said. Jamie winked at her playfully while she put her car in drive and carefully reentered the insane flow of traffic along Rte. 128.

After they finished all the paperwork at the dealership CC found herself driving her new SUV while muttering to herself. She had asked Jamie to stick around and follow her to the station. The blonde doctor had adamantly refused, claiming that spending her time off hanging around the police station just wasn't her idea of a good time. CC insisted and Jamie told her to bite her. That's when CC realized that there was no way she was going to get her lover to comply with her wishes. She understood that Jamie was feeling like she was suddenly imprisoned and removed from living her life. It was a common reaction. And Jamie was right; CC couldn't be with her twenty-four hours a day. Of course that didn't stop her from calling in a favor to have a couple of plainclothes men follow the blonde around in her absence.

"Okay, Max; make me a happy woman," CC demanded as she planted herself on the corner of her partner's desk.

"Marry me?" her partner quipped. "No? In that case I'll just need to fill you in on the lab results."

"That was quick," CC said in relief. "Do I want to know how you managed to pull off this small miracle?"

"You can kiss your season tickets to the Sox's goodbye," Max responded flatly.

CC was about to explode when the thought of Jamie's safety overrode her anger. "Not a problem," CC confirmed confidently.

"You must be in love," Max pried.

"I am," CC answered the older man honestly. "How badly is that going to screw up this investigation?"

"So far it hasn't," Max reassured her. "Okay, first we have Sandra Bernstein's blood in Ellen Murdock's apartment, mostly in the bedroom but small traces in the living room and down the back stairwell. Nothing from her car. But the lock on the building's back door was jimmied as was the back door to her apartment."

"So he followed them and broke in and . . . How did he know which apartment?" CC threw out as an officer handed her a large FedEx package and a manila folder. She nodded her thanks as Max contemplated her question.

"The mailbox," Max concluded. "All he had to do was go in the back way."

"Thanks to the law in the Commonwealth that you must have front and rear exits to all dwellings, all he had to do was count," CC filled in as she tore open the package from San Diego.

"Her apartment number was marked on the trash barrels and recycling bin; she left them just outside her back door," Max supplied. "All he had to do was check the mailboxes and go in the back way. The locks on the front are really good but the ones in back look like someone was trying to save a couple of bucks."

CC set the case files aside for a moment and began to peruse the folder that the hospital had sent over. "No semen at the scene," Max continued.

"Our boy suffers from equipment failure," CC supplied.

"But vaginal secretions," Max continued.

"Ellen's?" CC inquired.

"And someone else," Max added. "The lab is working on that. Two wine glasses were found in the bedroom - one with Ellen's prints and one with Sandra's."

CC's head jerked up in surprise. "Damn, I'm an idiot," she snapped. "Remember how the landlady went on and on about Sandra not having a boyfriend or dating at all?"

"She just hung around with a few girlfriends from the hospital," Max finished as CC reached for the telephone on his desk. She quickly dialed her home number. "Stevie, let me talk to Jamie," she demanded before her sister could say anything.

'Yes?' Jamie greeted her gruffly.

"I'm not checking up on you," CC blurted out guiltily.

"It's okay if you are," Jamie responded softly.

"I'm not," CC reasserted adamantly. "I need to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"Was Sandra Bernstein gay?" the policewoman inquired carefully.

"Why?" Jamie inquired curiously. "Sorry," the doctor quickly apologized as CC groaned. "I never asked but I did get the baby dyke vibe from her."

"Thank you," CC said.

"What are you wearing?" Jamie taunted her in a sultry tone.

"Don't," CC blurted out as she felt her face flush. She said her goodbyes as Jamie cackled into the receiver.

"That's an interesting shade you're sporting, partner," Max teased her as she buried her face in the file she'd been studying. "So was Sandra playing for your team?"

"Jamie thinks so," CC confirmed as something on the page she'd been scanning caught her attention.

"How does that work - that whole gaydar thing?" Max threw out quizzically.

"Just a gut instinct," CC responded with a shrug. "Guess where Simon Fisher did his last rotation before the ER?"

"Pediatrics?" Max said hopefully. "We're getting so close."

"But we still don't have anything," CC grumbled. "Okay, we need to get the interviews set up for today and talk to the Captain."

"You have a theory; I can hear those wheels spinning," Max gloated.

"I need to talk to Carter," CC responded thoughtfully as she mentioned the department psychologist. "I'm just wondering about the two victims from California. All blondes with green eyes - what if they were gay too? I can't help but wonder if somewhere in Simon's life he lost a blonde girlfriend to another girl."

"Could be," Max agreed. "Then if the next woman he falls for or takes an interest in also turns out to be gay, it could be what set him off."

"Makes you wonder," CC said thoughtfully.

"What's that?" Max asked.

"Just how many bodies are we looking for?" CC concluded with dread.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

C
C AND MAX WERE sitting in the Captain's office; their supervisor's bushy white eyebrows were raised to his almost nonexistent hairline. "Could you repeat that?" the gruff older man sternly requested.

"We believe that Dr. Jameson is the killer's primary focus," CC repeated the information in a slow concise manner.

"Not that part," the Captain barked.

"She's my lover," CC reiterated boldly as she watched the vein in her supervisor's forehead begin to throb in an unnatural manner.
'Oh, that can't be good,'
she thought.

"And?" he urged her on as beads of sweat began to form on his brow.

"I had a physical altercation with the prime suspect," CC admitted.

"That's the part I needed to hear again." The robust man blew out a breath angrily. "So tell me something - was he the prime suspect before or after he hit on your girlfriend?"

"After," CC answered him, somehow managing to keep her cool façade intact.

"Captain, it's not like that," Max jumped in quickly to defend her.

"I know that," the Captain grunted. "I know that," he repeated confidently, diverting his gaze towards CC. "But I doubt that a jury will see it that way."

"You're right," CC agreed.

"Thank you," he responded with a heavy sigh.

"I don't agree," Max argued. "Calloway has never been alone with any evidence or at any of the crime scenes. We have documentation to support that," Max supplied eagerly.

"Yeah?" The Captain grunted with more enthusiasm.

"I went out of my way to ensure it and everyone and their brother has signed statements to that effect," CC explained. "We can show a clear line from the bodies to Dr. Fisher. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's a creepy slime ball who's been sniffing after my girlfriend."

"No, you don't," the Captain corrected her. "From what I've heard, you haven't connected him to the bodies. Now when you bring me something that will make a judge sign a search warrant, then you'll have a clear line to the victims. In the meantime you don't have squat. But since you're no longer working this investigation, it doesn't matter."

"Captain?" CC began to protest. She'd known it might happen but she had to do anything she could to ensure that she was kept in the loop.

"No arguments," he cut her off.

"Captain, this is Calloway's case," Max defended his partner.

"No, it isn't," the Captain stated bluntly.

"Captain, hear me out," CC calmly interjected. "Fisher hasn't been charged. Max is following that angle and I'm simply pursuing the investigation to wherever it leads me. That includes any and all other possible suspects, including a list of known sex offenders who might fit the profile," CC explained in a cool confident tone.

"Bullshit," the Captain grumbled.

CC simply stared back at him with her stoic façade rooted firmly in place. She could tell by the way his bloodshot eyes were avoiding her gaze that he was beginning to waver. "No contact with Fisher," he warned her as he conceded to her wishes. Remaining on the investigation was more than she'd hoped for.

"There's more," CC continued, pleased by the turn of events.

"You're giving me a headache," the Captain groused bitterly.

"I know," CC responded with a cocky smirk. "I just wanted to give you a complete rundown on what we have."

"Tell me everything," he insisted in a warning tone. "Starting with the queer . . ." He halted his words as CC glared at him and then cleared his throat before continuing. ". . . I meant to say the gay angle."

"Of course you did," CC responded coldly. She understood it was more a generational thing with the captain yet it still didn't excuse the comment. She knew by the way his eyes avoided her own that her point had been made. "After speaking to Ellen Murdock's friends and family and doing a thorough search of her residence, we confirmed that Ms. Murdock was bisexual," CC explained, turning her focus towards the hard work she and Max had put in that day. "And she had on occasion socialized with Sandra Bernstein."

"They dated," the Captain added thoughtfully.

"Yes," Max confirmed. "DNA found at the scene confirms that the vaginal secretions belong to both victims."

"Blood and tissue samples collected at the scene lead to the obvious conclusion that both women were murdered in Ellen Murdock's apartment," CC picked up for him. "Ellen Murdock's blood is also present on the shards of glass from Dr. Jameson's front window."

"Do I want to know how the two of you managed to get all these lab results so quickly?" the Captain inquired with a curiously edgy tone of voice.

"No," the two detectives responded in unison.

The older man simply began to rub his throbbing temples once again. "Why dump one body and not the other?" he pondered aloud. CC and Max had been asking the same question since they discovered that both women were murdered at the same location.

"Not a clue," Max admitted. "We're hoping that Doc Carter might have some ideas."

"What else?" the Captain prodded them.

"Terrell, the attendant who's normally on duty in the back parking garage, has been eliminated as a suspect," CC continued. "He was logged on but further investigation showed that he was at St. Elizabeth's Hospital at the time Sandra and Ellen departed the garage. His daughter and grandchildren had been involved in a minor car accident. He found out just after clocking in. His supervisor left him on the clock thinking he was helping the guy out by letting him collect a day's pay."