Infatuations Read online

  Infatuations

  (Carpenter/Harding #7)

  Barbara Winkes

  Copyright © 2018 by Barbara Winkes

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For D.

  Chapter One

  If she spent much more time on doing her hair, she’d be late. The last thing Ellie wanted on the first day of her new job was to be late. She already knew the people she’d work with, which was both a blessing and a challenge. There’d be expectations, though it was unclear whether they’d be more demanding than the ones she had for herself.

  With a sigh, she took out all the pins and combed out her hair, deciding that a ponytail would work. She’d been wearing her hair in a bun at work on most days, since day one—it was time for something different.

  After a knock on the door, Jordan leaned against the doorframe. Ellie could see her smile in the mirror.

  “What?”

  “You’re going to wear that?”

  “Why not? If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I don’t have time to change again.”

  “I like it all right, but you want to be in those shoes all day?”

  Ellie looked down to her feet and shrugged. The heels were a moderate height.

  “They’re not that high. I’ll be fine. Don’t get me wrong. I was proud wearing the uniform, but this is me too. This is what I always wanted.”

  “I know. And you got it. Congratulations.” Jordan walked over to her and kissed her, then she turned to the mirror as well. “Hm. I feel a bit underdressed. Maybe I should change.”

  “No,” they said at the same time, laughing.

  “Come on, let’s go. You don’t want to be late on the first day.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ellie mumbled, finally acknowledging the butterflies in her stomach. She had worked towards this day her whole career. She was ready.

  She was nervous.

  “You’ll be fine,” Jordan said, her hand on Ellie’s shoulder a gentle reminder that they needed to go.

  “Yes, I will be.”

  Eventually.

  * * * *

  “Do we have another D.A.? Oh, it’s Harding. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

  Ellie just smiled. She wasn’t too surprised at the occasional stare, or Waters’ lame joke referring to her clothes. She knew she was well within the departments’ regulations. Jordan’s partner Derek Henderson wore a suit almost every day while Jordan and Maria Doss favored more casual wear.

  “Well, it’s a good thing you look the same. Since we’re going to work together.”

  “Yeah, I guess the lieutenant thought I could show you the ropes before I leave. Listen carefully—you might learn something.”

  Waters wasn’t the most liked colleague in the unit, but Ellie didn’t mind. She would listen and learn indeed, and ignore the rest. He was going to retire in a few months. Her career as a detective was just beginning. She wasn’t going to let him deter her in any way. She had worked with the detectives on multiple occasions, and was far from the complete newbie he made her out to be. So far, so good.

  “Ellie, good morning. Have a good first day. Cliff.”

  Maria Doss, Waters’ old partner, was whistling to herself as she walked past them, obviously content to be working solo for the foreseeable future.

  Listen and learn, Ellie reminded herself when Lieutenant Carroll opened the door of his office.

  “Waters, Harding, come in here for a minute.”

  Ellie hurried to keep up with the senior detective, self-consciously aware of the sound her heels made on the floor. Perhaps Jordan did have a point earlier, but she’d have to work hard to make Ellie admit it. She barely suppressed a smile. She had the job she always wanted, and a beautiful home she shared with the woman she loved and she was going to marry.

  Could life be any better?

  The lieutenant’s brief, matter-of-fact delivery brought Ellie’s enthusiasm down a few notches.

  “A homeless person was found dead in Patton Lake Park. A jogger called it in. There are unis on the scene.”

  “Another one?” Ellie frowned. “There was a man said to have died from exposure last month, in the same area.” A few weeks ago, the temperature had been in the tens, unusually low for the season. It was possible.

  “If the ME said he died from exposure, you are probably safe to assume that,” Waters said.

  “If this is not a homicide, then it seems like the city has another problem altogether.” Lieutenant Carroll looked decidedly unhappy. “All right, get me some answers. And Harding, welcome.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  It was a beautiful day, the sun high and bright as they drove out to Patton Lake Park in Waters’ Crown Vic. Yet, a person’s life had ended, possibly, in the course of a criminal act. That person might have been a mother, a sister, or a friend to someone. Ellie had assisted in investigations, taped off crime scenes, canvassed neighborhoods for witnesses—this time, finding justice for the victim was her responsibility. She would do everything she could to achieve that goal, and make the people who mattered in her life, proud.

  Truth be told, Ellie had considered even higher heels, as everyone had teased her about how she’d likely spend her first week—at least—doing her senior partner’s paperwork. When they exited the car and walked along the winding path near the lake, she was glad she’d opted for a more sensible choice. It wasn’t hard to find the right place—a crowd of curious onlookers had already gathered. Closer to the scene, a young uniformed cop was doing her best to keep them at bay.

  “Please, step back.” She was drawing a sharp breath before tying the end of the yellow tape to a tree.

  Ellie thought she looked painfully young. That would have been her, only a few years ago. Waters ducked under the tape, and she hurried over to him.

  “Sir, you can’t…” She blushed when she realized who he was.

  “Detectives Waters and Harding, if this one can make it all the way without ruining her shoes,” he said dryly.

  Ellie kept quiet, unwilling to argue over something so mundane. She hadn’t complained, and her shoes would be fine. The grass was still slightly wet from last night’s rain, which didn’t bode well for finding clues as to how the woman had died.

  “Hey. Meet Officer Potts from the new batch of rookies.” Ellie was glad to see a familiar face in Casey Lyons.

  “She’s twelve,” she whispered. “Did I ever look this young?”

  Casey laughed. “’We all did at some point. Of course you are all grown up now.”

  “So what do you have?” Ellie asked before she’d invite any more comments on her wardrobe.

  “Over here.”

  She and Waters followed Casey a little further down the slight slope where the body had been dumped near a cluster of bushes. The medical examiner, Dr. Adams, was crouching next to the dead woman.

  “Dana Jacobs jogs here every morning. She said she wouldn’t have noticed anything, but she stopped to catch her breath, and she realized what she mistook for a bag of clothes, was in fact a dead person.”

  Ellie got her first look at the body and winced. The woman’s age was hard to gauge, but she seemed to be in her fifties or sixties. Long stringy hair was sticking to her face. The rain had washed away most of the blood, but some had soaked into her clothes, still visible. She leaned closer, her stomach lurching at the sight of the head wound.

  “Harding!” Waters said sharply.

 
; “It’s okay. I’m fine.” “Fine” might have been the understatement of the year, but Ellie was certain she wasn’t going to throw up. “I guess it’s fair to say exposure didn’t do that to her,” she said.

  “No kidding.” Dr. Adams looked up at her. “See this?” She pointed to a hole in the dead woman’s sweater. “That’s where the blade went in. Of course there’s this…”

  It wasn’t until now that Ellie realized she was seeing small fragments of skull. She hoped her promise wasn’t premature. No. Not on the first day. She had faced some gruesome sights in her time as a uniformed officer. She had to keep it together.

  “Can you say which came first?”

  Melissa Adams shrugged. “I’ll know after the autopsy, but I’m pretty sure either one would be enough. Looks like overkill to me.”

  “Yeah…Maybe he was toying with her.”

  “Wild guesses aren’t really helpful,” Waters reminded her of his presence. “I’ll go talk to Ms. Jacobs.”

  “Okay.” Ellie straightened and took a look around. Patton Lake was a popular destination for locals and tourists. In the distance, she could see a playground with swings and a sandbox. Again, the rain proved to be a disadvantage—if Jane Doe had been killed last night, it was unlikely that many people had been out. She shielded her eyes from the sun to look at the bystanders. A group of teenagers with phones, various people of all ages who seemed to have just walked by and found nothing better to do than gawk at a place where a person had died—or at least, found dead.

  Her eyes met those of a young man who lacked the sensationalist enthusiasm of the others. He wore a shabby coat tied tightly, a plastic bag in his hand, his expression solemn.

  “Excuse me,” Ellie said to Dr. Adams, then walked briskly towards the man. When he saw her coming in his direction, he turned on his heels and started to run.

  “Police! Stop! I just want to talk to you!” Just her luck that the first day was everything but boring paperwork. He didn’t listen. She followed him all the way up to a fence, where he climbed right over.

  Ellie cursed, but a moment later, Officer Potts arrived from the other side. The man realized he had nowhere to go, and let himself be cuffed.

  “Thanks, Potts. Great job.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I didn’t do anything!” he claimed. His coat fell open, revealing the front of his shirt covered in blood.

  “Well, in any case, you have some explaining to do,” she told him. “Let’s do that at the station.”

  Casey and Potts drove him, while Ellie went back to find Waters. She couldn’t see him anywhere. Dana Jacobs was gone as well.

  “Okay, Detective, are we done here?”

  It took Ellie a moment to realize the medical examiner was talking to her. She sounded impatient too.

  “Can we move the body?”

  “Didn’t Detective Waters say anything?”

  “Not to me, no. So?”

  Ellie felt uncomfortably hot, struggling to remember everything that she’d learned for the test, and in the field while observing the detectives. That had seemed so much easier in comparison.

  “I guess so…Yes. Thank you.”

  “Ellie, do you have a moment?” Officer Atwood asked.

  “We’re clear,” Adams told her assistant.

  Understanding that she wasn’t needed here any longer, Ellie stepped aside with Officer Chris Atwood. He was one of the officers who had been assigned to look for witnesses. He was also probably the only friend Waters had in the department, as they shared political views and the occasional beer.

  “You found anything?”

  “There was a guy, driving his truck around the park in circles,” he said. “The witness was having a picnic with her family, and they saw him a few times, said it looked like he was watching someone. They gave a pretty good description of the vehicle. Might be something.”

  “It could be. Thanks.” They were standing close to the street that led around the park. Something came to mind. “You got the approximate time? There are no cameras in the park, but there’s a traffic camera over there on the street corner. Let’s get that footage.”

  He didn’t argue, but a moment later, he asked,

  “So, Homicide. How did that happen?”

  She and Chris had graduated from the academy the same year. Ellie knew he was rather fond of gossip. Her friend Kate had been the subject when she’d dated Derek Henderson, and there had been some talk about her and Jordan as well. Ellie thought that the best way to deal with those antics was to let it go. They’d find something new eventually.

  “What do you mean? I worked. I took the test. I waited. Here I am.” She made sure to keep her words light.

  “That’s not what everybody says, but whatever.”

  “What does everybody say?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Cliff told me I should offer you a ride. He had to go back.”

  “Oh, really.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  “No, of course not. Let’s go.”

  For someone who had been so eager to show her the ropes, he had left her on her own quickly, but Ellie wasn’t going to take the bait. If that’s how Waters wanted to play it, she’d play along. She’d been thrown far worse curveballs than that—and after all, she had a suspect to interview.

  “I want you to get me that footage, find the guy in the truck, and then come to me ASAP,” she said, taking some comfort when Atwood bristled at the command. He’d have to get used to it. Ellie wasn’t going anywhere.

  Chapter Two

  “Come on. Here’s coffee and something for you to do so you can stop stalking the sexy lady over there.”

  Unfortunately, Jordan didn’t have as much room to argue as she would have liked, so she settled for glaring at her partner as he handed her the coffee. Ellie and Cliff Waters had left earlier. She returned soon after him, and after a quick exchange of words, they headed for the interrogation area. Ellie had always been up to the task when a lucky break presented itself, but this was her day job now. Someone should help her ease into that new routine. Jordan didn’t put that much confidence in Waters, but unfortunately, the decision was Lieutenant Carroll’s, not hers.

  “That’s my fiancée you’re talking about,” she said and got up, picking up her keys and coat. “I’m only here because I had to do some paperwork this morning.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “So what’s the situation?”

  “Possible suicide,” Derek said, now serious. “Wife found husband in the garage. It looks like he hanged himself.”

  Jordan winced, uncomfortably aware of the chill his words sent down her spine.

  “I know. We have about twenty minutes to get there, so tell me something better. I heard the word ‘fiancée.’ Does that mean you finally had the guts to ask her?”

  “Well, technically she asked me first, but don’t tell anyone. That could mess with my reputation.”

  “I have no doubts. That’s great news though. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. Yes, it is.” The thought was wonderfully calming, and besides, it helped distract her from whatever challenges might come Ellie’s way on her first day.

  “You set a date yet?”

  “Yes. May 31st.”

  “You’ll wait a whole year?”

  “No, this year.”

  He whistled. “Wow, you really made up your mind, didn’t you? Not a lot of time to put a registry together.”

  “Right…at first we thought we might do more renovations at the house, but at the time, we needed to get into it quickly when we thought Ariel was going to live with us. Now that she can’t—won’t—this has taken priority. It won’t be big, just friends and family.”

  “You put your guest list together already?”

  Jordan sighed. “You’re right. There isn’t a lot of time.”

  “It’s your wedding,” he reminded her. “You two are happy, it’s all that counts. Ellie’s parents are coming?”


  “There’s no one on Ellie’s side. Parents died years ago in a car accident.”

  “Wow.”

  Jordan had nothing left to add. The past few weeks had been highly emotional, with the two of them hoping they could adopt the teenager rescued from the dismantled Prophets of Better Days cult. Then Ariel’s aunt had shown up and proven to be more than capable of taking care of her niece. Jordan and Ellie had promised to keep in touch, and they would—but for a short time, they had hoped for something different.

  They would figure out the number of invitations. For now, she had to steel herself for the sight of a man who had likely taken his own life.

  The house, in front of which Derek parked a few minutes later, was in an upper middle class neighborhood, with well-kept front lawns and porches. The Kennings’ was the second-to-last in a cul-de-sac, and a squad car was parked next to the gate. The coroner was on the scene as well.

  Officer Libby Marshall greeted them at the door.

  “You might want to talk to Mrs. Kenning first,” she said. “She’s in the kitchen.”

  The distraught woman was in her late forties. Jordan introduced Derek and herself.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said.

  Mrs. Kenning acknowledged her words with a barely perceptible nod.

  “I knew this day would come,” she said. “I knew, damn it, and he wouldn’t listen to me. Look at what happened.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jordan sat down at the table with her while Libby directed Derek to the garage.

  “That’s why I called the police…I mean, you have to, anyway, right? But Dan wouldn’t kill himself. I know who’s responsible.”

  Grief could certainly cloud a person’s perception, but they wouldn’t leave anything to chance.

  “You think your husband was murdered?”

  “They made him do this. The people he worked for…he had too much of a conscience for them, and once they figured that out, they wanted him gone. I warned him!” She started sobbing, and Jordan looked around, finally locating a box of tissues on the counter. She set it on the table in front of Mrs. Kenning.