Disclaimer: Any Janet Evanovich materials recognized are used for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: This is a newly updated chapter one. Thanks for the reviews and encouragement. Let's see where this goes!
I took my key and slid it into the lock, turning it slowly until it clicked. Reaching inside my jacket pocket, I grabbed a custom tool I always kept with me for the purpose of unhooking a door chain. It was a wire encased in an L-shaped metal sheath that telescoped on one end when I slid a hidden lever on the handle. On the other end was a hook that was the perfect size to grip the slider on the door chain. Slipping the hook through the door, I felt the loop catch the slider and pushed the lever. The chain dropped off and fell dangling against the door. I was in. I retracted the lever and folded up my tool, sliding it back into my jacket pocket.
Silently, I opened the door and stepped into the apartment, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. The smell of her apartment tantalized my senses. Get a grip, Carlos. I steeled my nerves and walked to her bedroom. She and I had some things to discuss. When I reached the door, I pushed it open, bracing myself against the eminent assault to my senses; her smell, her form, the way her eyes travel down my body, the way her tongue darts out to caress her lips … I gave a firm shake of my head to clear it. You're not making it easy on yourself.
I stepped inside her room and saw immediately that she wasn't here. The realization hit me in the gut. Her chain was in place. I walked over to her bedroom window and found the window closed and locked from the inside. I checked behind the door, in the closet, and in the bathroom, and then I checked the lock on the kitchen window and found that it, too, was locked. Tamping down my emotions, I grabbed my cell phone.
"Boss." Tank's voice came across the line.
"She's not here. Is her car in the lot?"
"Her purse says she's there. Her car is in the lot. Do you need a team?" Tank asked. I heard him clicking away at the computer and made my decision.
I felt a twinge in my chest. I didn't like this twinge and I got it far too often where she was concerned. "Yeah. Code Red. We're going to find her. Tonight." I thought I heard Tank sigh. "Did you have a comment?"
"No, sir."
"Mobilize Alpha Team."
"Right away, sir." Tank disconnected. I hit the speed dial key for her cell phone and heard it chirp in the bedroom. Following the noise, I walked in and switched on the light. The scene nearly sent me into a frenzy. I took a few moments to calm down my emotions with slow, deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
Her bag was on her bed and there was blood all over the floor. Not enough that I thought she could be dead, but enough that I felt she could be soon if we didn't find her. I speed dialed Tank again as I left her bedroom.
"Boss?"
"Mobilize Beta Team, as well."
"Sir?"
"Are you questioning my decision, soldier?" I asked harshly.
"No, sir. Team Beta is mobilized." He was angry with me. Tough. I had bigger problems than a moody Tank. He was on desk duty following an accident that left him with a sprained ankle. He does me no good out in the field when he can't run.
I took another deep breath through my nose and released it out my mouth and dialed Morelli. He answered on the third ring. "What?"
"Stephanie is missing."
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"No, I'm telling you this for fun. Stop wasting time. I'm at her apartment and she's not." I hesitated for a fraction of a second. "There's something else."
"What?" I decided he needed to get a handle on his emotions. Maybe he had more at stake than I did. I doubted it, but I wasn't one to speculate on just where their relationship was headed.
"There's blood all over her floor. Her apartment was locked up tight, chain in place, windows locked on the inside. This looks bad. Professional." A quick thought entered my mind about some bad enemies of mine that had this capability, but I stored it away for later. There was no purpose in harming her for those particular enemies.
"Shit," Morelli said. He sounded as if he was on the verge of a heart attack.
"I have two teams out looking for her, but I think we need the police here. This is a crime scene now. I've left minimal contamination by opening up her apartment…"
"You mean breaking and entering," He interrupted.
"I have a key," I explained. I'd let him figure that one out on his own. "Like I said, my guys are out looking for her, but this place needs to be processed."
"How'd you get her chain off?" He asked.
"How do you get her chain off, Morelli?"
"I wait for her to unlock it or I break it," He said.
"You're not me." That was all he was getting. "Move on."
"Any ideas about what happened?" Joe asked. I heard the sound of a door closing and figured he had just left his house.
"Do we have all night? Her most recent case was Jack Nightshade, but I don't see him as someone who could pull this off," I said, exiting the apartment and locking it. I looked down at the floor in the hallway. Droplets of blood dotted their way to the stairs. My heart thunked in my chest. "Hey, I have blood in the hall and in the stairs."
"Christ," Morelli said weakly. "I have to call this in. See you in ten."
I followed the blood droplets down the stairs. They became larger as I descended and my emotional control flew out the window. This was a lot of blood. Too much blood. I set my jaw and continued around the corner and gasped when I took in the scene at the base of the stairs.
A body was lying in a pool of blood. A woman with brown curly hair, face down in her own blood. She was naked except for a watch on her wrist, Stephanie's watch. I didn't have any reason to believe that it wasn't her when I saw the small mole on her lower back. How many women could possibly have that same mole?
My chest began to burn. I heard the sirens in the distance, but they were too late. I knew that I couldn't touch her, but I didn't want her to be lying there on the floor like that when they arrived. In an effort to keep myself detached, I headed back up the stairs and around the corner so I didn't have to look at her.
The first cop to arrive was Eddie Gazzara. He had been following the blood trail toward the stairs. Normally, the cops took the stairs instead of the elevator, but Morelli must have alerted them not to use the stairwell. I put a hand to Gazzara's chest and looked him in the eye. "Oh shit," he whispered. He passed me and headed down the stairs.
A few moments later, Morelli came barreling down the stairs and stopped to look at me. I gave him a small shake of my head and he paled. He took a moment to compose himself and then started trudging down the stairs slowly. I watched as Gazarra came back around the corner up the stairs, his face red, his eyes wet, and a hand pressed to his stomach.
Morelli took one look at Gazarra and faced the wall, placing a hand against it for support and taking several deep breaths. As more blue and whites came down, he turned around with his cop face in place. "No one is going down there until the ME gets here."
A suit I recognized as Kyle Hamer moved to bypass Morelli. "Hamer, I'm asking you out of respect for me to wait. I don't want anyone touching the scene until the ME gets here." His voice hitched and for a brief moment, I felt connected to Morelli. We both felt the same way about the same woman. We both just lost a part of our lives that we will never get back. And both of us would struggle to put them back together after tonight.
Hamer nodded. "I'll wait."
The whole scene bothered me. Her apartment was locked up tight and the blood almost seemed staged. I turned to Morelli and he was looking at me. Our eyes locked and, wordlessly, we went down the stairs together.
"Do you think it's her?" He asked just before we rounded the corner.
"It could be. I didn't want to touch the scene and contaminate it. If it is her, I want to know who to kill," I said quietly. I didn't think mentioning the mole was a good idea.
"I didn't hear that," Morelli said, putting his hand up to silence any other incriminating words I might spew.
We rounded the last corner and he stared at the body wordlessly. "Oh my God," he said. His jaw was set and he was looking down at his feet struggling for control. After a few moments, he said, "I'm with you. I don't want touch the scene."
Dr. Bragden, the chief medical examiner, rounded the corner five minutes later with a man carrying evidence collection equipment. They both stopped and looked at the carnage. He placed a hand on Joe's shoulder. "Okay, Joe. Maybe we should get Hamer down here."
"No one is going to do this but me," he said, a warning in his voice.
Bragden nodded. "Okay, let's do it, then."
Morelli turned to dismiss me. "Don't even think about it," I said. He turned back to the scene.
My phone chirped. "Report."
"Her car is in the lot. No tampering." Ram's voice came through. I rubbed my hand over my face. "Tell everyone to stand by for further instructions."
"Got it, boss."
The ME looked at the scene, measured the blood pool, and instructed his assistant to take pictures here and there. He checked through her hair and inspected her body from head to foot. Occasionally, another picture was snapped. Soon he was finished with the examination and needed to see the front.
Morelli snapped on some gloves and helped him turn her body over. I was praying not to recognize the body. I was praying that I would see a face I didn't know. I got an answer to one of my questions as soon as the front was revealed. I didn't recognize the body. The word "WHORE" was carved out onto her stomach with a knife and she had an old healed scar that ran from her left shoulder to her navel.
What I didn't see was a face, but I didn't need to see one to know that this wasn't Stephanie. This body was staged to look like Stephanie. Whoever put this girl in the stairwell wasn't banking on two men who knew her body watching the examination. I had relief zinging through my veins, but a new worry popped up.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Tank. "Mobilize Alpha and Beta. No stone unturned."
Morelli turned to look at me, his eyes hard as steel. "You know this isn't her."
I nodded.
"Why?"
I smiled. "She doesn't have a scar like that."
His eyes narrowed. He decided to drop it for now. It was a good thing. I was on edge over Stephanie and not in the mood for a fight.
"Given the size of that scar, I'd say that is Michelle Carney. She used to run with Joey Delucci," I offered. "But that's just my opinion. You'll have to use your own methods of confirming who she is, I'm sure."
I turned to leave, but called back to Morelli. "Will you update me on her apartment?"
"Yeah," he said. He didn't trust me, but I could see he was damn glad I was looking for her, too. As if he had a choice.