Page 9 of Whispers Left Behind (Kinsley Aspen #1)
Chapter Nine
Alex Lanen October Friday — 4:06 pm
The autopsy of Rachel Hanson revealed enough evidence to support that someone other than Calvin Gantz was responsible for her death. No locks of hair had been removed from the victim. Alex had immediately notified Kinsley. While they weren’t any closer to apprehending the guilty party, such confirmation by the medical examiner meant they could now focus on someone other than Gantz.
Alex fixed his gaze on the stainless steel slab. Its cold and unforgiving surface usually reflected the harsh fluorescent lights above, but Rachel Hanson currently lay claim to the table. A sterile white sheet covered her body from the neck down. The peaceful stillness of her pale features contradicted the brutality of her death, and it was as if she would lift her lashes at any moment.
“Kinsley's gonna crush me in Fantasy Football this weekend,” Wally muttered from his place in front of the sink. Water splashed over his large, calloused hands. His thick frame, once accustomed to the grind of college football practices, now leaned heavily against the basin. “And I can't figure out how. She doesn't have any decent running backs and her tight end's stats are laughable. I should have joined Public Relations’ Fantasy Football League. Did you know they pick players based on their color jersey?”
Alex dragged his gaze away from their victim.
“I'm up against Izzy,” Alex replied as he pulled out his phone. Kinsley had texted to say that she was pulling into the station’s parking lot around back. “You’ll get no sympathy from me. Izzy is leading in total points, and it’s not even close. I think she’ll take the pot at the end of the season.”
“All it takes is one injury,” Wally claimed optimistically as he reached for the roll of paper towels hanging from a silver bar. Once he had dried his hands and tossed the used paper towels into the trash, he strolled over to the laptop secured to a rolling tray. He entered a few notes before exiting the software. “The season is far from over. Anyway, I’ll send over my final report later today.”
“And there is no doubt about your findings?”
“I resent that question.” Wally closed the distance to the slab and gently lifted the white sheet until the material covered Rachel Hanson’s face. “Forgoing the lock of hair…unless Gantz was using stilts, he isn’t your killer.”
Wally had been privy to the details of Gantz’s case and had even been cross-examined by Kinsley’s father. Though there hadn’t been any DNA evidence on the bodies themselves, the murder weapon and locks of hair discovered in Gantz’s house had all but made the case open and shut.
At least, that was what they had all believed at the time.
“The angle of the cut suggests that your perp is at least four to five inches taller than Gantz’s five-nine frame.” Wally rubbed his chin in thought. “Do you believe Gantz skipped town?”
Kinsley wasn’t the only one experiencing déjà vu today. That specific question had been on Alex’s mind a lot lately. So often, in fact, that he had posed it to her this morning.
“Think about it,” Wally suggested as the ding of the elevator bank could be heard from down the hall. “Gantz had a ticket to the big leagues with those interviews lined up after the trial. All the national news agencies wanted to sit down with him one-on-one. From what I heard, they were offering quite the figure, too. Why run off?”
“I think Gantz is probably six feet under by now. If it were my daughter…sister…mother…whose killer had walked free, I’d be tempted to take matters into my own hands, too.” Alex shrugged in indifference. “After Gantz’s employer called into the station requesting a welfare check, patrol entered the residence. His clothes were missing from both the dresser and closet. No wallet. No passport. No vehicle. All evidence pointed to him leaving town.”
“And now that a year has gone by without any word from him?”
“No one has officially reported Gantz missing, and it’s not a crime to walk away from a job,” Alex reminded Wally as the sound of heavy footsteps drew closer to the doorway. “Looks like you have another case. I’m heading back to the station to meet up with Kinsley. I won’t say a word about her lack of running backs.”
“Hello, gentlemen," Haugen called out in a booming voice as he walked through the open door. He slapped Alex on the back with a hearty thump that reverberated around the room. “Got anything for me on the stiff from yesterday, Wally?”
The momentary distraction allowed Alex to slip out, deliberately seeking out Sam’s partner. Sure enough, Laura Mitchell was standing in the hallway on her phone.
“Half past five.” Laura’s voice was soft, but it still carried down the long corridor. She lifted her head instantly, as if sensing she wasn’t alone. “Make sure you’re ready, kiddo.”
There was no mistaking who was on the other end of the line. Alex remained silent, respecting Laura’s decision to keep her daughter in the dark about dating a fellow detective. No one was aware of their relationship. Not even Kinsley.
In theory, it needed to stay that way.
Only Alex was getting tired of all the sneaking around and not being able to live like normal adults. Something needed to change, and he had given a lot of thought to transferring out of the department. He hadn’t reached a conclusion yet, but it was definitely getting to that point.
“Like I said, we’ll grab something to eat on the way.” Laura paused to listen to her daughter. “Yes. That’s fine. See you then.”
Laura took her time lowering the phone.
She took just as long to disconnect the call.
“Does Thompson know about us?” Alex asked cautiously, positioning himself in front of her while giving them views of both ends of the hallway. “If Cap is going to make a—”
“Hess is retiring.” Laura didn’t soften the blow. It wasn’t in her nature to hold someone’s hand, and that was only one of the many things that had attracted him to her. “I passed my exam, Alex. There’s a good chance I’ll get his spot.”
There was no denying such a promotion was well deserved. Laura had been eyeing a sergeant’s position, and Alex had been behind her all the way. He had expected Ritchie from Robbery to turn in his badge first. Hess just happened to be in homicide.
“Congratulations.” Alex was genuine in his praise, but he didn’t need to be a detective to figure out the direction of this conversation. He wasn’t one who usually made snap decisions, but his hand was forced. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I could put a transfer into Vice. I didn’t want to say anything until—”
“Alex, it’s over.” Laura brushed her bangs to the side. Sam’s voice drifted out from the open door. Once she had assured herself that her partner was still otherwise occupied, she continued while Alex was still grappling with the ease in which she could end things between them. “We had some fun, but we both knew it wasn’t going anywhere.”
That wasn’t the case, but Alex wasn’t going to debate his feelings on the matter. He had been honest with her from the start, and never once had he ever indicated he believed their relationship was casual in any sense of the word.
“Mitchell! You’ve got to see this!”
“Coming,” Laura called out while making no effort to join her partner. “Alex, it never would have worked out between us, and you know it. I’m ten years older than you with a daughter in college. We’re at different stages in our lives. You want diapers, and I want to focus on my career.”
“And I told you that I was willing to forgo—”
“Please, Alex.” Laura reached out and touched his arm. “I need for this to be a clean break.”
Alex didn’t take his gaze off the scuff marks on the wall behind her, and he remained silent as she walked away. He was running on little sleep, hunger had basically burned a hole through his stomach, and now his emotions were as raw as the hamburger meat sitting on the top shelf in his fridge. It was best not to say a word.
He slowly made his way to the elevator before jabbing the top button. He had been willing to make concessions. There hadn’t been any need to compromise on her part. Removing himself from the department wouldn’t have been ideal, but he would have done it for her.
He had only ever been willing to make such a concession once before. Unfortunately, that relationship had pretty much turned out the same. He was batting a thousand, and he didn’t even like baseball.
It didn’t take him long to ride the elevator to the lobby and make his way out of the building. The overcast sky pretty much matched his mood, and the chill seeped through his jacket as if it were trying to leech what warmth remained in his bones.
He hated this time of year.
He entered the police station and found Kinsley waiting for him on the other side of the metal detector. With a nod to Earl, whose back injury had relegated the officer to a desk position, Alex emptied his pockets and placed his firearm in the grey bucket. It didn’t take him long to walk through the opening and collect his belongings.
“Anything come out of your interview with Tobias Zayn?” Alex asked, clipping his side holster to his belt. If he kept their conversation to the case, there was a chance she wouldn’t notice he was off his game. “By the way, in addition to the lack of missing hair, Wally is certain our perp is taller than Gantz.”
Kinsley was wearing one of her long sweater coats that she preferred over a jacket. The temperature would have to drop close to freezing before she would cave in and switch to heavier apparel. They were complete opposites when it came to the seasons. He would rather be anywhere else in the winter. If he were being honest with himself, he would give half his pension to be anywhere else but Fallbrook today.
“I know I said this earlier this morning, but you look like shit.”
Alex stepped back when the elevator doors slid open. The three officers inside apparently weren’t in a hurry, and their casual departure gave him time to curb his temper. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that the tension had eased from Kinsley’s shoulders, and that was no doubt due to confirmation regarding Gantz’s noninvolvement in their investigation.
The fallout from last year’s trial had created a lot of tension between Kinsley and her family. She believed that her reputation within the department had been tarnished after the ruling, and Alex had witnessed her slow recovery from that dark time. Having Gantz’s name uttered around the watercooler again wasn’t conducive to regaining popularity among the masses.
Alex could only imagine her anxiety over the possibility of Gantz’s return. It was the only reason that he checked his response. His bad mood didn’t give him the right to drag her down along with him.
They both entered the elevator at the same time.
“Have you given a statement to the press yet?” Kinsley asked as she pressed the button for the fourth floor. “The sooner that’s done, the faster we’ll have some breathing room.”
“Not yet.” Alex leaned his head back against the paneling and closed his eyes. When Laura’s face materialized in the darkness, he forced himself to straighten and pay attention to the conversation. “I’ll draft a press release and email it to Bridget in Public Relations.”
The elevator hummed as it ascended, the red numbers above the doors changing slowly. Kinsley shifted her stance so they were facing one another. He raised a hand to let her know that he understood the urgency of clearing any misconception the media had concerning Gantz, but Kinsley surprised him by changing the subject altogether.
“There is an office pool going around on whether you and Laura are hot and heavy. It’s only a matter of time before Thompson hears about it, so you might want to—”
Alex's hollow laugh bounced around the small enclosure. This day kept getting better and better. He pressed his fingers against his eyes, but the effort for relief only made the burning sensation worse.
"They're wasting their money," Alex muttered, thankful when the elevator chimed their destination. “Trust me. You’ll want to take the other side of that bet.”
The elevator doors parted, and Alex pushed away from the back panel. He didn’t bother waiting for Kinsley as he exited before sidestepping the glass partition. The bullpen wasn’t busy, which meant a lot of the detectives were either on calls or coming in for the late shift. He would take advantage of the lull, type out the press release, and then call it a day.
Not bothering to remove his jacket, he pulled out his chair and took a seat while simultaneously moving the mouse to his computer. By the time Kinsley had taken her seat across from him, he was already typing in his password.
While waiting for his email to update, Alex leaned forward so that he could access his wallet. He pulled out a crisp twenty. With a quick scribble, so both of their names were included, he shoved the money and card back into the blue envelope.
“Want me to spill coffee on her keyboard?” Kinsley was staring at him intently from across their desks. “Slash her tires?”
Leave it to Kinsley to lighten the moment. This was the old Kinsley who he hadn’t seen a lot of in the past year.
“I’ll take a drink at the Bucket, but it’s going to have to be tomorrow night.” Alex appreciated that Kinsley hadn’t asked him for any details. They had always respected each other’s boundaries. “I’m going to faceplant in my bed and not move until tomorrow morning.”
Kinsley shed her sweater and then began to log into her computer. Once she had hit enter and sat back in her chair, she removed the clip from her hair. There was a slight wave to the blonde strands from being contained, and they fell just below her shoulders. He was often asked if the two of them had ever blurred the lines between their professional and personal lives, but she was more like a sister to him than anything. Being an only child, it was nice to have that type of relationship in his life.
“Guess what just landed in our laps,” Kinsley said with a bright smile. She even rubbed her hands together as she stared at her screen. Her eyes skimmed the contents of her email. Once she had finished, she finally shared the contents. “The background checks came in for Sebastian and Jack Hanson.”
Alex held his hands up, and she didn’t hesitate to toss him the eyedrop bottle. The liquid coolness did nothing for his discomfort. His only relief would come with sleep, which prompted him to cap the bottle and toss it back. She caught the small plastic container with one hand.
“Jack Hanson was a suspect in a domestic violence eight years ago.” Kinsley opened her desk drawer and stored the bottle of eyedrops in the side. “He was never officially charged, but I have the name of the woman who placed the initial call. I meant to bring this up earlier, but did you notice the brother’s insistence that the Fallbrook Killer was responsible for Rachel’s death? Or his reaction when I mentioned Rachel and her husband trying to conceive a child?”
“I noticed,” Alex said as he rolled his chair closer to the wall. Both of their monitors were to the side so that they could converse freely without something blocking their sight. He opened the template for the standard press release. “Do you want to ask Jack Hanson to come back into the station? If so, let’s make it for nine o’clock first thing Monday morning. We still need to interview the victim’s friends and coworkers. Blake and another officer took statements from the Hanson’s neighbors today. We’ll need to comb through those, as well.”
“I’m thinking we should pay Jack Hanson an unexpected visit,” Kinsley proposed as she leaned forward in her chair to concentrate on her screen. “Oh, and I want to re-question Louise Baird now that she’s had a chance to process her daughter’s death. I have questions for her about her father.”
“Care to share?”
Alex pecked at the keyboard, entering the appropriate information into the press release form while Kinsley caught him up on the interviews she had conducted up in Halliday. He stared at the information box, debating on how much information to divulge to the public. One concise sentence should be enough to convince the press to back off and allow the police to conduct the case with little to no interference. He reread the statement before completing the rest of the form.
Evidence obtained thus far during the investigation into Rachel Hanson’s homicide has led our department to officially rule out any involvement by Calvin Gantz.