Trust no one devlin and.., p.9
Trust No One (Devlin & Falco), page 9
The door closed in Kerri’s face.
She walked to her Wagoneer and climbed in. Apparently Sela Abbott wasn’t so popular with the wives of her husband’s family and friends.
All Kerri had to do was find the real reason.
11
5:35 p.m.
Devlin Residence
Twenty-First Avenue South
Falco was waiting for Kerri when she pulled into her driveway. She glanced up to the second floor. Tori stood at her window. When she saw Kerri, she moved away. A very concise text at four thirty had declared that her friend had gone home and nothing more. Kerri supposed she should be grateful for that small gesture. It was more than some parents got, but it was so unlike her daughter.
At least she’d made it home before six as promised. She exhaled a weary sigh. Wondered if her mother had suffered through times like this with Kerri and Diana.
Her new partner sat on the front steps. Kerri climbed out and walked toward him.
“Your daughter offered to have me wait inside, but I figured it was best if I waited out here.”
“Good call.” Kerri sat down beside him. “I don’t know you well enough to have you hanging out in my house alone with my daughter.”
He turned his head to look at her. His bloodshot eyes and rusty chuckle classic Falco. “Wait. I didn’t go in, because I was worried I would be the one in danger. The kid came to the door with a can of mace in one hand and the phone in the other with 911 already on the screen. One tap of her thumb, and I was headed for trouble.”
In spite of how unproductive and frustrating this day had been, Kerri laughed. “Smart girl.”
“Definitely,” he agreed.
The sound of a car coming down the block drew their collective attention to the street, and they watched the minivan roll past.
“So I staked out Bellemont’s office, and he never came out.” He exhaled a big breath that ballooned his cheeks. “I guess his secretary or assistant, whatever, was telling the truth about him being out of town. After she left, I had a look in the window, and the place was dark.”
Kerri wasn’t sure what to make of the attorney just yet. He’d visited the Abbotts last night. She supposed he could have had an out-of-town appointment today. Why wasn’t he here doing whatever he could to help the family in the search for Sela? She was the wife of his lifelong friend, after all. The Abbotts had offered a sizable reward for her safe return. Had he advised them to make that move? She wouldn’t know, because he was too busy to meet with her.
“This Ben Abbott is just too clean, Devlin.” Falco rested his forearms on his knees and leaned forward. “No enemies, few personal involvements. Nothing but his laptop stolen from the house, as far as we can tell.”
Except the wife. No need to point that out.
“What’s your point?” she asked.
“My point is, I think we’re going at this all wrong. Maybe the vic—Ben Abbott—is dead because of something related to his past, not his present.”
“You’re suggesting we should shift our focus to some event that his family didn’t feel the need to share?” She shook her head. “I’m not really on board with that. The man is one of the wealthiest people on the planet; that alone makes him a target. If there was something in his past that might have put him in danger, his parents would have told us.” This was not necessarily true, but it was more likely than not. Still, she had to play devil’s advocate.
“Unless they didn’t know,” Falco countered.
Okay, maybe he had a point. She couldn’t argue the possibility. Ben Abbott had lived away for well over a decade. “You want a beer or something?”
He waved her off. “No thanks. I should probably get going. I just wanted to update you on Bellemont. Did you talk to Thompson’s wife or anyone else on that fundraiser list?”
“I did.” In fact, Kerri’s head was still spinning from listening to endless and meaningless gossip. “I spoke to everyone on that list, some by phone, some in person. Every last one had something to say about each other.” She made a face. “I had no idea socialites could be so heartless. But when it came to Sela Abbott, all but one recited the same old, same old. Sela Abbott is a saint, blah blah blah.”
“You want me to guess who the one was?” He smirked.
Kerri rolled her eyes. “Suzanne Thompson claims she hardly knows Sela, but she really pushed the idea that she’s a gold digger and an overall bad person. She insists that opinion is based on rumors she heard from the other women in her circle—except she’s the only one who dished the negativity. It was clear she does not like Sela Abbott. I’m thinking she dislikes her far too much not to know her.”
“You think it’s worth following up?”
“Maybe. Let me process the meeting overnight, and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.”
He stood, and Kerri held up a hand for him to hold on a second. “Almost forgot, I got a call from Gibbons too. We met at Ben Abbott’s house and did a walk-through. She didn’t notice anything missing other than the laptop she mentioned.”
“Damn, Devlin, you’ve been a busy little bee.”
Kerri pushed to her feet. “And I’m exhausted.”
“Get some rest. Tomorrow’s another day.” When he would have walked away, he hesitated. “Listen, I have a friend who keeps her thumb on the pulse of this city. She’s a cop, too, but you wouldn’t know her. She’s spent most of her career as one of those deep-cover types.” He shrugged. “Like I used to be. Anyway, she has all these killer connections. I gave her a call, and she had an interesting scrap of info about our case.”
Kerri hoped this was not some friend with whom he’d doled out details he shouldn’t have shared. “What sort of scrap?”
“She says that as recently as a few weeks ago, Abbott was digging around in something that happened a long time ago. Something that happened here—in Birmingham.”
“Did she define this something in any way?” To say the man was digging around in the past wasn’t exactly a lot of help, but it did explain how her new partner had come up with this “let’s look in the past” suggestion.
Give it a rest, Kerri. At this point she couldn’t afford to dismiss any sort of lead.
“She’s working on it. She promised to get back to me as soon as she had something concrete. She’s not the kind to play loose with theories. She wouldn’t have mentioned it if there wasn’t something there.”
Kerri took a moment, chose her words carefully. “You’re aware that we have a certain protocol when it comes to distributing information. This is particularly important in a homicide case. MID is scrutinized by all the other divisions, by the media. We can’t afford to play loose. If your friend talks about your call to anyone, there could be a backlash.”
His eyebrows reared up. “First, I didn’t distribute information, Devlin. I asked questions of a source I know from personal experience casts a wide net when trolling for information. She picks up all sorts of bits and pieces about the folks in this town.”
“Okay. As long as we’re clear.”
He held up his hands. “We’re clear. You don’t trust me. I get it.”
Well, hell. “We’ve worked together for two days, Falco. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just need a little time to get a feel for your methods.”
“Yeah. Okay. See you tomorrow.”
Feeling like a real shit, Kerri watched him drive away. She turned and trudged up the steps to where another of the humans who wasn’t happy with her could be found. She unlocked the door and opened it. “I’m home,” she called out. “If anyone cares,” she muttered.
She walked into the kitchen and checked the fridge. She wasn’t really hungry, but she knew she should eat. She grabbed a snack pack that included nuts and cheese and dried cranberries. Close enough, she decided. On second thought, she snagged a beer too. She went to her office and dropped into the chair at her desk.
With her feet propped on her desk and her beer handy, she surveyed the board she’d created last night. Two victims—probably four, counting the missing wife and the child she carried. Nothing stolen beyond the laptop, which could contain proprietary information. Kerri frowned. Didn’t seem like the sort of mistake a software guru would make, so maybe not. No ransom demand. No indication of trouble personally or professionally—outside the disagreement over the Whisper Lake Circle property.
But there had to be something. People rarely ended up dead for no reason.
Setting her beer aside, she got up and walked over to the board. Despite her misgivings, she made a note of what Falco had told her. If something in Abbott’s past had come back to haunt him, it had to be personal, and it had to be big. She added gold digger beneath Sela’s photo and put a question mark.
They needed to look into the family’s history here and then the victim’s history in the other places he had lived the past ten or so years. The wife’s and mother-in-law’s as well.
She stared at the photo of Sela Abbott. “Where the hell are you?”
Kerri’s gut told her the woman was probably dead, but deep in her chest she wanted to believe she was still out there, breathing, maybe running for her life.
Plenty of calls were coming in to the hotlines, particularly considering the sizable reward involved. None had proven useful. The two officers following up on those leads were keeping Kerri apprised.
There was always tomorrow, she reminded herself. Each case unfolded in its own time. They’d barely begun on this one.
Kerri climbed the stairs and paused at her daughter’s door and listened. Tori’s favorite pop song played softly on the other side. Until a few months ago, Kerri would have opened the door and gone inside to discuss Tori’s day.
Now she wasn’t wanted.
Rather than slide into that pity party, she headed to her room, hung up her jacket, and put her service weapon in the lockbox on her bedside table. Then she went back downstairs to make dinner and let the details of the case percolate.
Maybe her brain would spit out some brilliant scenario that would make all the difference.
The doorbell rang, and Kerri set the frozen lasagna entrée aside. Whenever she was deep in a case, frozen entrées and takeout were the mainstay of their meals. Tori had never complained before, but now Kerri couldn’t help feeling like a bad mother.
She sighed and checked the security peephole. Jen and Diana waved madly. Smiling despite the exhaustion, Kerri opened the door. “What’re you guys up to?”
Jen brandished the six-pack in her hand. “Since you’re too busy to manage a girls’ night, we decided to bring girls’ night to you—sort of.”
Kerri should have expected this. Both Diana and Jen had been after her for days to go out to dinner with them. But there never seemed to be time, and with her working so many hours, she needed to spend every free moment with her daughter.
Diana grabbed Kerri for a hug. “Tori told me how hard you’re working on this awful, awful case.”
“Really?” Kerri drew back. “My daughter is worried about me?”
Diana’s expression warned that worry wasn’t exactly the motive for the comment. “Of course. Didn’t we always worry about our folks?”
Kerri laughed. “Sure. Come in, guys. I was just about to throw frozen lasagna in the oven. I’d love for you two to join us.”
Jen plopped the six-pack onto the dining table. “Forget the frozen stuff. We have pizza coming.”
Kerri had no sooner closed the door when the bell rang again. She opened it to find a delivery guy with his big red bag on her porch. “Kerri Devlin?”
“That’s me,” she said. She was glad the girls had shown up. She needed a break.
Delivery guy opened the bag and pulled out two pizza boxes. He passed them to her. “Compliments of Robby Swanner. He also said he’d give me a serious tip if I did a little dancing for you guys.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.” Shaking her head, she closed the door and locked it. Behind her Jen and Diana booed and hissed.
“He was kind of cute.” Jen hopped on one foot and then the other to remove her impossibly high heels.
Kerri carried the pizza to the table. “And way too young for any of us,” she pointed out.
“Who’s too young?” Tori asked as she descended the stairs.
Diana and Jen laughed. Kerri said, “The pizza-delivery guy. Your aunts were saying he was cute.”
“Eww. You guys are gross. I saw him out my window. He’s like Amelia’s age or something.”
Kerri was the one laughing then.
Tori grabbed a soda and joined them at the table. “Didn’t you marry a younger guy once, Aunt Jen?”
Diana and Kerri choked back laughter between bites of pizza.
“That was number one. He was as handsome as sin,” Jen told Tori. “But he decided he didn’t want commitment after only six months.”
“At least you didn’t give up,” Tori said with all the innocence of a pubescent teen.
Kerri and Diana exchanged a wide-eyed look. If either of them had made the statement, Jen would have bitten off their heads.
“Number two was rather plain looking but reliable. He was older and an accountant who’d never had so much as a parking ticket.” Jen shivered and not in a good way. “He wanted too much commitment. I’d had enough after only three months.”
“You and number three were married a whole year, weren’t you?” Diana dared to mention as she reached for a beer.
“We were,” Jen confirmed with a pointed look. “But then he decided to go back home to his mother. Evidently I didn’t take proper care of him. Mama did his laundry, cooked his meals, and kept the house neat and clean for his friends who were always coming over. I would probably have dumped him sooner, but turning thirty and facing yet another failed marriage was too much to deal with in the same year.”
Diana laughed, her hand over her mouth to hold back the beer that no doubt would have spewed otherwise. “None of them were good enough for you, Jen. Mr. Right will come. You wait and see.”
Jen grunted. “If he waits much longer, he’ll have to hunt me up in the nursing home.”
When the new round of amusement subsided, Tori announced, “I’m never getting married.”
Kerri’s heart sank at the determination on her daughter’s face. “You might change your mind when you meet the right guy.”
“Amelia’s not getting married either,” Tori said rather than respond to her mother’s comment. “When I go to college, I’m moving in with her. She said I could.”
Diana smiled. “That will be great fun for both of you.”
Kerri forced her lips into a smile. “Did you decide what you’d like to do? Maybe you want to be an attorney like Amelia.”
Tori shrugged. “Don’t know yet. Thanks for the pizza.” She grabbed another slice and her drink and rushed back up the stairs.
“At least she spoke to me.” Kerri dropped her half-eaten slice back onto her napkin. Her appetite had abruptly gone missing.
“Is she still determined to spend the summer with her dad—in Manhattan?” Jen asked.
“Oh yes.” Kerri downed another slug of beer. She had to find a way to convince Nick to be reasonable.
Diana reached out and squeezed Kerri’s hand. “We should have a family dinner and find a way to talk about all the things we need to do together this summer. Maybe that would inspire her to want to stay home.”
Kerri braced her hands on the table. “Nick threatened to pursue primary custody if I don’t agree to the whole summer.”
“What an asshole!” Jen gritted her teeth, as if she needed to keep the rest of what she wanted to say from streaming out.
Kerri got it. There was plenty she would like to say, but if Tori overheard, it would not help their relationship. Whatever else he was, Nick was her father.
“We won’t let that happen,” Diana insisted. “You’re the mother, and this has always been her home.”
“I hope you’re right.”
No one spoke for a minute or two. The silence weighed heavy on Kerri’s chest.
“On a lighter note,” Diana said, “as much as I hate to see Amelia go, I’m slowly but surely getting right with it. In fact, I’m actually working up some serious excitement for her. She’s going to make an amazing attorney.”
Kerri gave her a high five. “It’s about time you came around.”
“No kidding,” Jen teased as she slapped her palm against Diana’s. “Hey.” Jen turned back to Kerri. “How’s it going with the new partner?”
Kerri shrugged. “Better than I expected. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he has good instincts.”
Diana put her hand to her throat. “I should have asked already. How’s your investigation going?”
“Slow,” Kerri admitted. “We have lists of people to interview. A few rumors to check out, but basically we have nothing concrete yet. We’re waiting on lab results, autopsies.” She shrugged. “And a little good luck.”
“It’s just terrible—the whole thing,” Diana said, her expression pinched. “Do you think the wife is alive?”
“Every hour that passes with her still missing, the likelihood of finding her alive grows dimmer,” Kerri admitted. “Assuming someone took her.”
“You think maybe she had something to do with the murders?” Jen asked as she picked at her barely touched slice of pizza.
“At this stage, anything is possible, and we have to look at all the potential scenarios.”
“I was thinking about her—Sela Abbott—this afternoon,” Diana said as she looked from Kerri to Jen and back. “I think Amelia helped with one of her fundraisers. The one back in March.” She frowned, gave her head a little shake. “Spring Blitz or something like that. It was to help abused young women.”
“Did Amelia see much of her or meet her at all?” Kerri would welcome any reliable insight into Sela Abbott.
“I sent her a text and asked if she remembered her. I’m sure she’s heard the news by now,” Diana said. “I swear, that girl is never home anymore. I’m lucky if I ever see her. She comes home after I’ve gone to bed, and she’s gone before I get up. If not for text, I might never hear from her.”
