Page 20 of Whispers Left Behind (Kinsley Aspen #1)

Chapter Twenty

Kinsley Aspen October Wednesday — 10:57 am

The elevator dinged its arrival, and as the doors retreated, Kinsley hovered her thumb over her phone's screen. A reminder text had been sent from her mother about dessert tomorrow night. There had to be an easy recipe that didn’t involve much prep in the kitchen. Kinsley had a hard time thinking about food when she had just visited the burial ground of her past sins.

“Careful.”

An unexpected surge of emotion flooded Kinsley’s body, the way ink bleeds into water. The deep, familiar voice caught her attention instantly, but it was the heat from the man’s hands that brought her to an abrupt stop. He had wrapped his strong fingers around her upper arms, and she regretted taking her jacket off before walking through the metal detector downstairs. She brought the thick material hanging over her arm a little closer to her torso to give herself time to work her voice.

“My fault,” Kinsley murmured, wishing she had regained some of her emotional equilibrium. The drive to Terrapin Lake had taken its toll on her. The last thing she needed was to run into a former lover—one who she thought could be the one. She had ruined any semblance of a chance at having a long-term relationship when she had killed a man. “I should watch where I’m going.”

Shane Levick hadn’t changed much since she had last spoken to him a year ago. His broad chest made it evident that he still prioritized his workout routine. His black hair was expertly trimmed, and his sharp jawline was free of any stubble. Neither was a surprise given that he had served five years in the United States Marine Corps. He was set in his ways, yet he had gone to great lengths to accommodate her somewhat chaotic life.

Memories of his resentment at her decision to break things off flashed through her mind, followed by a sharp pang of regret. She had hurt him, only he had no idea how much pain she had suffered in the process.

“It’s been a while, Kin.”

“I didn’t realize the two of you knew one another,” Captain Thompson replied before clapping Shane on the shoulder. “Levick here is transferring to homicide. He set the record in Vice two years running with the number of successful raids that led to solid convictions. With his contacts, he’ll be able to…”

Kinsley was grateful that Captain Thompson continued to run down Shane’s outstanding arrest record. She used the time to try and reconcile that her daily work life was about to become a living nightmare. She didn’t need to pose the question about what she had done to deserve her own personal level in hell.

“…do Sam some good to have a partner with such ethics.”

“Congratulations.” Kinsley forced a smile, grateful that the rumors of her and Shane’s relationship hadn’t made it to the top brass. She and Shane hadn’t gone out of their way to hide the fact that they were dating last year, but they also hadn’t flaunted it around the station. “I—”

“Kin!” Alex called out loudly, her name all but slicing through the strained pleasantries. “We got something.”

“Looks like I’m being summoned,” Kinsley said with a tight smile. “Excuse me.”

Kinsley veered around Shane, mindful not to brush up against him. She sought the sanctuary of her desk, and truthfully, she would have called it a day and gone home if she and Alex weren’t in the middle of an active investigation.

“Sorry about the ambush,” Alex said as Kinsley tossed her jacket on top of the small filing cabinet. She didn’t care for the way he was monitoring her every move. “I was about to give you a heads-up on Levick when the captain brought him over for an introduction. You okay with this?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Kinsley sat at her desk before yanking open the side drawer. It took her a moment to locate the ibuprofen bottle among the other junk. She had come up with some lie, explaining to Alex that she and Shane weren’t suited for one another.

Lie upon lie upon lie.

It was a never-ending cycle.

“It’s fine. Really,” Kinsley assured him after she had downed the two orange tablets with a soft drink she had left on her desk yesterday. Alex gave an expression of distaste, and she rolled with his reaction to ease the conversation in another direction. “It’s been over a year, and I’m just in a bad mood. Sam got a call about a body up at—”

“…made my day!” Sam had exited the elevator where the captain and Shane still stood deep in conversation. “Cap, I take back every bad thing I ever said about you. I thought for sure…”

“I need caffeine,” Kinsley muttered as she capped the ibuprofen bottle. She tossed it back into the drawer before slamming it shut. “The potential homicide up at Terrapin Lake turned out to be a snakebite.”

“Prairie rattler? How is that possible? They’re in brumation this time of year.”

Leave it to Alex to use the correct terminology.

“Yeah, well, the guy was a birdwatcher. He must have gotten too close to a den or something.” Kinsley tossed the can of stale soda into her trashcan without glancing toward the trio on the other side of the glass partition. She stood and searched for her caramel coffee. “I thought you were stopping at the cafe?”

“That was hours ago.” Alex leaned back in his chair. “Earl told me you went with Sam on a call, so I gave him your coffee. Can you believe the guy actually liked that shit?”

“Yes, I can,” Kinsley stated as she sat back down in irritation. “God, I wish I could start this day over again.”

“Didn’t Sam at least drive you through a coffee joint on the way back?”

“You would think he would have had the decency to do so, but we stopped at a gas station instead.” Kinsley could still hear Shane’s voice, and she wondered if Alex would be open to taking the midnight shift. She removed her hair clip, but it didn’t do anything to relieve the pain in her temples. The ibuprofen needed time to lessen the pressure in her head before she could grab some coffee from the kitchen. “Where are we with the case?”

“I’ve been going through cell phone records. The call logs match with everyone’s statements so far.” Alex gestured toward his monitor. “I’ll sift through the rest of the calls and texts this afternoon. I’ve spent some time combing through Halliday’s traffic cam footage, too. There is footage of Rachel and Louise driving through town. Louise returns twenty-three minutes later. Rachel must have taken a secondary road out of Halliday.”

Alex nodded toward the whiteboard. He had filled in some of Rachel Hanson’s timeline, still leaving several hours unaccounted for on the night in question.

“Where was Hanson for four and a half hours?” Kinsley murmured while fiddling with her hair clip. “Hey, do you feel like having a beer at the Plow after work?”

“No,” Alex said with a laugh. The Plow wasn’t his scene, and he hated driving the backroads at night. “I was thinking that I’ll head on over to the hospital this afternoon. I haven’t spoken to Tobias Zayn or Louise Baird. There’s a chance that Zayn is old school. Maybe I can get him to provide us with more information.”

“Maybe,” Kinsley relented as she gathered her hair and secured it loosely at the base of her neck. “You could be right. Maybe take a crack at Douglas Glynn, too. I still need to track down the male subject who rear-ended Rachel’s vehicle near the dealership. I’ll run the name through the system and see if we get any hits.”

It was very unlikely that an individual went so far as to murder a woman because she stopped to save a turtle. Still, Kinsley would ensure that every I was dotted and every T was crossed so nothing fell through the cracks.

“What are your thoughts on Glynn?”

“I don’t like the man much, but that doesn’t mean he murdered Rachel Hanson.” Kinsley wasn’t particularly fond of Louise Baird, either. “They both agreed to lie about that night. It makes no sense. Why not just say that Louise met up with her daughter?”

“People don’t surprise me anymore,” Alex muttered in disgust as he leaned forward and pulled his keyboard close to the edge of his desk. Kinsley took his distraction and glanced toward the glass partition. The captain and Sam were still talking with one another, but Shane was nowhere to be found. “I couldn’t shake something that Joe Cider said to me the other day about there being more salespeople taking kickbacks.”

“We should also canvass Hanson’s neighborhood again.” Kinsley wasn’t going to have the energy to do anything unless she got some caffeine. “Are you staying for lunch?”

“No,” Alex replied, still reading something on his monitor. “I’ll pick something up on my way to the hospital. You said that Louise hinted Gage might have had some information about Rachel’s murder, but I don’t see any unusual calls or texts in his phone records from last week.”

The murmur of voices from across the room pulled Kinsley's attention away from her partner. Sam's laughter was distinct as he approached his desk. He was still boasting to a fellow detective about teaming up with Shane Levick. Kinsley rubbed her eyes, wishing she could do the same to her ears and make everything she had heard today disappear.

“You know what helps me?”

Kinsley opened her eyes, hoping that she hadn’t smeared her mascara. She hated waterproof makeup, but it sure would have come in handy today. Lydia had gifted her some a while back, and the tube was somewhere in the bottom drawer of her bathroom vanity.

“Bengay Ultra Strength?”

“I’m in my early forties, not eighties,” Alex said wryly as he stood and reached for his jacket. Once he had taken it from the hook, he took time to push in his chair. She could sense from his sudden change of demeanor that she was going to hear his advice whether she wanted it or not. “Hear me out, Kin. My mother used to say to me all the time that we’ve got to let Fate do her thing. Shane being in this department? It’s just Fate being temperamental. She’ll move on to someone else next week.”

“Leaving me stuck in hell for years,” Kinsley muttered in misery as she leaned her head back against her chair. It wasn’t like she belonged anywhere else. “I’m just going to sit here a minute until my headache subsides, Alex. I’ll let you know what I find out regarding the turtle guy.”

“Is that what we’re calling him now?”

“Until I’ve had my coffee? Yeah.” Kinsley forced a smile. “Go. I’ll hold down the fort.”

Alex shrugged into his jacket. No one would have ever known that he had been dealing with his own issues. She had observed his anguish when things had gone south with Laura, yet it was as if nothing earth-shattering had taken place in his life.

Kinsley was guilty of having done the same thing. She had lied, ignored, and diverted anything and everything away from her to get through day-to-day life.

Fate?

She wasn’t so sure she believed in such a thing.

Such notions had long since been eroded by the brutality of reality.