Cruel Grace: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 5) Read online

  Both Charlie and Dana laughed at his bewilderment.

  “Work, mostly,” Charlie said still chuckling at his question. “And other people. I’m not proud of it but we gossiped about the business quite a bit.”

  “And we did talk about men and romance and family,” Dana replied. “Just in a different way. Kendra told us how much she loved Cagney and how they were going to get married someday. She’d talk about what kind of wedding she wanted and all of that. We did talk about those things, but we purposefully didn’t talk about her and Cagney’s open relationship. We didn’t talk about the other people, and for good reason. None of us thought those other men were going to be around more than a day or two. Maybe a week. Why give them any attention if they were just drifting in and out? So if she was into anything wild, she wasn’t going to bring it up over cocktails. That wasn’t going to happen.”

  “And we did talk money, but only in the context of our profession,” Dana went on. “If a modeling job was paying enough, or if the travel was worth it. That sort of thing. We never discussed how we spent that money. Somehow, we sort of decided that was our own business. I never judged anyone who bought a Louis Vuitton, and they didn’t judge me for buying Manolo Blahnik.”

  “We’re going to Cagney and Leesa,” Charlie told Dana. “After Eli talks to the detective that worked the case back then.”

  Dana pulled a face. “I only met him once and that was enough for me.”

  “Eli’s going to meet him without me,” Charlie replied with a mock shudder. “I’ve spent more than enough time with him. I’m out.”

  “Good luck,” Dana said. “Call me tomorrow and let me know how it all went.”

  Charlie and Eli promised that they would before signing off the call.

  “Are you ready to go?” Eli asked, levering to his feet. “The detective lives about an hour from here, but it’s on the way to Chicago.”

  Hopping to her feet, Charlie folded up her laptop and tucked it in her handbag on the couch. “I’m ready. I have to admit that I can’t wait to hear what Leesa and Cagney have to say.”

  “And the detective?”

  She made the same face that Dana had. “I’ll leave him to you.”

  Eli couldn’t wait to talk to Detective Stands. The first question?

  Did you tell the Taylors that I was reopening the case?

  Eli wasn’t sure that Stands could be trusted at all.

  “What will you do while I’m in there?”

  Charlie held up her phone. “Work on my email. If I finish and you’re still not done, I’ll go for a walk. Maybe I’ll find a coffee shop or something. Either way, don’t worry about me. He’s expecting you, right?”

  “He is. Jared set it up so I haven’t talked to him at all yet.”

  “You’re in for a treat then.”

  Charlie’s tone was dripping with sarcasm. From she’d said about this guy, Eli didn’t blame her. Even the cop in town had warned Eli that Arnold Stands was a true asshole.

  “I’ll text you when I’m done,” Eli said, exiting the vehicle. “Lock the doors behind me.”

  It was a reflex to tell her that, although the town looked perfectly serene and safe. It was simply his protective instincts kicking in.

  For her. This woman.

  Eli had become rather attached despite the short time of their acquaintance. If you didn’t count all of those months nodding at one another. He liked Charlie. Period. No equivocation. He liked her and he liked being around her. A hell of a lot. The timing sucked, he’d admit that, but that didn’t mean…

  Shit, he needed to concentrate. The first woman who had caught his eye in years, and they were elbow-deep in a cold murder case.

  Keep your mind on business.

  The station was typical, like so many that Eli had seen before. A large bullpen with several desks crammed into the space and a more private area for the commanding officer. A younger man with short hair and freckles approached Eli as he walked in.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I have an appointment to speak to Arnold Stands.”

  The younger cop nodded toward the corner. “Arnie, there’s someone here to see you.”

  “Arnie” appeared to be around sixty, although Eli wasn’t great with ages. Gray hair, a lined face, and rumpled clothes as if he’d slept in them the night before. He waved from the far end of the room and then grabbed an empty chair from an unoccupied desk for Eli.

  “Have a seat,” Arnold said. “Do you want some coffee?”

  The general quality of coffee in police stations left something to be desired. Besides, Eli had already had two cups.

  “I’m good but thank you. I’m Eli Hammond, and I’m here to talk about the Kendra Taylor case.”

  They shook hands and Arnold sunk back into his chair, leaning back. “What do you want to talk about? There’s not much there, to be honest. What I have is in the file which your boss told me you have a copy of.”

  Not everything was in that file.

  Eli pulled the folder from his briefcase. “I’m glad you brought that up because I see Thom Laramie’s statement here, but it doesn’t match what he told me when I met with him.”

  Stands simply shrugged, unconcerned about the discrepancy. “I wouldn’t believe a word out of that man’s mouth. He’s a known liar and probably a drug dealer, too.”

  “A drug dealer? I didn’t see anything in the file about that.”

  “He was a bartender. I bet he was dealing out of the bar.” Stands leaned forward. “Personally, I liked him for Taylor’s murder. His alibi was shaky as hell. His girlfriend. Of course, she’d lie for him. She was probably dealing as well.”

  It appeared Stands was one of those people who saw goblins around every corner.

  “Do you have any evidence of Laramie or his girlfriend dealing drugs?”

  The older man’s cheeks turned red, and he appeared agitated by the question. “I don’t need any evidence, son. I know what I know. He was dirty. I’ve been a cop a long time and I know these things.”

  Eli had been a cop a damn long time too, but he’d never thought he was clairvoyant.

  “Let’s talk about Laramie’s alibi then. You said it was flimsy.”

  “Like tissue paper. His girlfriend was covering for him.”

  “He was also at work, too.”

  Another shrug. “So? A man gets a break during his shift. We didn’t have a definite time of death.”

  This line of questioning was going nowhere fast. Time to change it up.

  “I also spoke with Julian Walker. He told me the same thing that Thom Laramie did. That when Kendra Taylor came to town, she liked to party. She was involved with swinging. I didn’t see any of that in the file.”

  “Because I never heard that. But I’m not surprised. Kendra Taylor was clearly a whore.”

  His fingers tightening on the file folder, it was all Eli could do to keep from smacking the older man.

  “A whore?”

  “She was a model, you know.”

  “I do know that. I wasn’t aware that it was synonymous with a whore.”

  “She was a whore. Running around with a bunch of men. Some of them married. I know that type.”

  “How did you know she was running around with men if Thom and Julian didn’t tell you?”

  Eli knew that Stands hadn’t heard it from Charlie or Dana.

  The detective rubbed the back of his neck, his expression sour. “Maybe they did tell me. It was a long time ago.”

  “It wasn’t in the file.”

  “Then they didn’t tell me.” Stands pointed toward the folder. “It’s all in there. Everything.”

  What the hell? He wasn’t here to make friends. He was trying to solve a murder.

  “Did the Taylors ask you to take that part out of the file?”

  Stands hopped up from the chair, his face even more red. “You can’t come in here and throw accusations like that around. I have rights. Rights, do you hear me?”


  Eli imagined everyone in the station house heard him. Stands wasn’t trying to keep his voice down. But surprisingly, except for a few turned heads, no one intervened or even showed much interest. Perhaps this wasn’t the first tantrum Stands had thrown?

  “I’m sure you do have rights, although I’m not sure what they have to do with this conversation. How about this question? I had a couple of visitors this morning. Bernard and Evelyn Taylor, yelling at me to not reopen the investigation. They threatened to shut me down if I didn’t do as they said. I wonder how they even found out about it. Did you tell them?”

  Stands held out a shaky hand, his finger waving in the air in front of Eli’s nose. “You can’t prove anything.”

  Game. Set. Match.

  “I don’t have to,” Eli said, rising from the chair. “I’d like to say thank you but this entire meeting was a waste of my time.”

  Stands’ face turned ugly, spittle flying from his thin lips. “That girl got what she had coming. She was a whore just like her friends, prancing around in front of the cameras in skimpy clothes and bikinis. Whores, all of them. Kendra Taylor deserved what she got. Who cares who murdered her? She was just another slut.”

  “I care. Other people care.”

  With that, Eli turned on his heel and strode out, the sounds of Stands howling about rights and injustice ringing in his ears. The young man with freckles that had greeted Eli earlier was outside having a cigarette, and the yelling could clearly be heard out there. The cop grinned and tossed his cigarette butt on the ground, grinding it with the heel of his boot.

  “Sounds like Arnie’s at it again. You must have pissed him off good today.”

  “I guess I did. Sorry about that.”

  The man didn’t say anything, instead going back into the station. Eli swung into the driver’s seat of the rental where Charlie was still tapping away at her phone.

  “You weren’t gone very long.”

  “It didn’t take long to figure out he’s an asshole.”

  She looked surprised. “I thought he’d be nicer to you. You being another cop and all. And well…a man. It was clear all those years ago that he didn’t like women much. Did he say anything misogynistic?”

  “In every way but interpretive dance.”

  Charlie laughed, tucking her phone in her purse. “Did you learn anything at all?”

  “It was a complete and total fucking waste of time.”

  Eli could only hope that their trip to Chicago was far more fruitful.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The drive to Chicago took a little over three hours. Eli and Charlie had chatted about what they wanted to ask Leesa Bailey and Cagney, and what the next steps in the investigation were. Eli wanted to recreate Kendra’s last known movements, but the problem was that no one really knew what she’d done that day. She’d told Charlie what she planned to do, but they didn’t really know if that’s what she’d actually done. Except for going to the mall. They assumed as much because that’s where Charlie’s vehicle was found. Other than that, they didn’t know much.

  “We also need to go over all the alibis, especially Thom’s. He only had his girlfriend vouching for him,” Eli said as they pulled up in front of Leesa Bailey’s home.

  She lived in a northern suburb of Chicago in what appeared to be an expensive neighborhood. Charlie was happy to see that she’d done well for herself. She’d always been a hard worker, and Kendra had just adored her.

  “Thom would never hurt Kendra,” Charlie replied. “Not in a million years.”

  “Then we need to get him a better alibi. I want to start eliminating people from the suspect list so we can concentrate where we need to.”

  “I didn’t even realize he was on the suspect list. May I ask who else is on it? Am I on it?”

  It wouldn’t shock her if she was.

  “No, your alibi was airtight. You were seen in your classes by multiple people. Done deal. Did Stands make you feel like you were?”

  “No, but he always made me feel like I was covering for someone else like Thom or Julian.”

  “As for suspects, we have the people Kendra already knew, of course. Thom and Julian. Thom’s girlfriend. Or your neighbor Barbara. But it could have been a stranger. Maybe she met someone at the mall. Or perhaps she was meeting someone you didn’t even know about. I think we’ve established that she had a few secrets.”

  “How would we ever find out if a stranger killed her?”

  “According to the file, she was seen at the mall by a few witnesses. We need to talk to them.”

  “Stands said that the witnesses were wrong and that they couldn’t be trusted. That they were looking for attention.”

  “I’d like to decide that for myself. I just wish he’d obtained some security footage from the mall or the individual stores. Even a traffic camera. He didn’t do any of that.”

  “Would the mall even have cameras back then?”

  “It wasn’t that long ago and the technology definitely existed. It just wasn’t as widespread as today. Now a person has to assume that they’re being recorded all the time when they’re out in public. Most malls then would have at least had cameras on the entrances and exits. We might have seen her leave with someone. A traffic camera along one of the routes out of the mall might have given us a clue as well by revealing a vehicle type or even a partial plate.”

  Charlie was losing optimism by the second. “Since he didn’t do that we might never find out who killed her.”

  “That is a possibility, although I have to say that the majority of murders are not stranger murders. They’re committed by people that the victim knows.”

  “Television makes it sound the other way around.”

  “It probably makes for better ratings.”

  “So how are we ever going to catch this person?” Charlie wondered out loud. “We’ve got nothing to go on. We’ve found out that Kendra had a few secrets from me, but I don’t see how that’s going to help us.”

  “We have a few things going for us. The forensic team did find DNA on Kendra’s body. If we ever get a legitimate suspect, we can try for a match.”

  Charlie leaned her head against the car window. “I never knew that. Why didn’t they just get a DNA sample from Thom? That would have cleared the alibi thing up for good.”

  “Probably because they didn’t have cause to get a warrant for it.”

  “They could have asked. Thom doesn’t have anything to hide. We can ask him now.”

  Eli’s expression was dubious. “How would we make that sound? Hey, Thom. We love you and all and we think you’re totally innocent but can you let us swab your cheek so that we can be absolutely sure?”

  “I think we’d need to make it sound better than that.”

  “Not to mention that once he gave us a DNA sample, it would be in the system forever. There are many people that don’t like that idea simply for privacy reasons.”

  She held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, I get it. It’s dicey to ask. But I still think we might want to suggest it to him.”

  “I’ll let you do that.” Eli pushed open the car door. “Are you ready to go in?”

  “Yes, let’s do this.”

  Charlie didn’t fool herself into thinking this meeting wasn’t going to be emotional. Kendra and Leesa had been extremely close those last few years, as close as sisters. If anyone knew what had been happening in Kendra’s life at the end it would be Leesa.

  They didn’t even have to ring the doorbell. The door flew open and Leesa pulled Charlie in for a huge hug.

  “Oh my goodness, it’s so wonderful to see you,” she gushed, ushering them into her home. “You look amazing.”

  “So do you. And you have a beautiful home. But then you always had an eye for color.”

  It really was lovely, light and airy, done in a mixture of pale blues and cream. After Charlie introduced Eli, they followed Leesa into a living room with large floor to ceiling windows on one wall and a fireplace opposite. Th
e space above the mantle was filled with photos of Leesa’s family.

  Leesa had a tray on the coffee table with iced tea and some oatmeal cookies. She poured each of them a glass, offering up the baked goods as well. Eli accepted but Charlie demurred. She wasn’t fond of raisins.

  “You’ve reopened the case,” Leesa said, settling next to Charlie on the couch. Eli sat in the chair kitty-corner. “Have you learned anything new?”

  Charlie exchanged a glance with Eli. They’d discussed this on the way here. Who was going to say what and all of those details. Right now, Charlie was up to bat.

  “We have. We talked to Thom and Julian already. It seems that Kendra was partying quite a bit. She was… for want of a better term swinging with other couples. She slept with Thom and his girlfriend slept with Kendra’s partners. They say it was getting worse toward the time she was killed. Apparently, Kendra didn’t want me to find out. I guess she thought I wouldn’t understand. Did you already know?”

  Leesa’s mouth had fallen open and she appeared to be having trouble finding words.

  Okay, she didn’t know.

  “Kendra was…what? Switching partners?” Leesa blew out a breath and slumped slightly, her shoulders drooping. “Shit, Charlie I had no idea. I mean…I knew that she sort of played the field, if you know what I’m saying. She had casual sex outside of her relationship with Cagney. We all knew that and it wasn’t a secret or anything. I always thought that she was just sowing some wild oats and she and Cagney would eventually settle down.”

  “There’s another thing…apparently Kendra and Cagney had broken up months before. She didn’t tell anyone.”

  Leesa shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I know for a fact that Kendra and Cagney were still talking right up to when she went to visit you. They were talking about taking a vacation together.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” Leesa replied firmly. “I took calls from Cagney himself when he couldn’t get ahold of Kendra.”

  “He mentioned the vacation?”

  “Well, no. Kendra told me. But he definitely called. If they were broken up, why would he call? Plus Kendra would have been upset. She loved Cagney. She never showed any signs that things weren’t good with them. She never mentioned any issues at all.”