Page 20 of Jar of Hearts
“I know you,” he said softly. “Holy shitballs. You were their little high school friend, the skinny dude who was always following them around like a puppy, always so grateful whenever they paid any attention to you. You were persistent, I’ll give you that.” His grin widened, revealing even, white teeth. “I see your man meat finally came in. You’re looking well, buddy. All grown up, all macho. Now you’re a guy with a gun and a badge. Just look at you.”
Kaiser returned the smile.
“So tell me, how is our lovely Georgina?” Calvin asked. “How long did she keep you in the friend zone? Did you two ever get drunk and just make out one night? How far up her skirt did you get before she slapped your hand away? She never slapped mine.”
“This is all very fascinating, but who’s Georgina?” Calvin’s lawyer interrupted, looking pained.
The criminal and the cop both ignored him.
“How involved was she?” Kaiser spoke directly to Calvin. “Did she help you?”
“You haven’t talked to her?” Calvin sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin. The handcuffs clanged together. He looked as relaxed as could be. “You should talk to her. I can’t speak for her. She wouldn’t like that.”
“At the very most, she was your accomplice.” Kaiser glanced at Aaron Rooney. The public defender seemed completely out of his depth. “At the very least, she’ll turn state’s evidence against you. We’re going to pick her up later today.”
Calvin snorted. “So I guess that means you two aren’t friends anymore.”
“We have you cold, Calvin,” Kaiser said with an icy smile. “You don’t have to talk to me. I’m sure Georgina will. And even if she doesn’t, I’ll find out what happened that night. Like you said, I’ve always been persistent. I’m like a dog with a bone with this kind of thing. I’ll dig and dig until I figure it out. See you at the trial.” He stood, pushing his chair out.
“She still beautiful?” Calvin asked. “Not that she was quite as beautiful as Angela, but Georgina had something back then, didn’t she? Something… special. I think you and I were the only ones who ever saw it. We have that in common, at least.”
“Fuck you,” Kaiser said, bristling at the thought that he and this murderer were anything alike.
Calvin James laughed.
Kaiser’s phone vibrates on the nightstand beside him, bringing him back to the present. It’s five minutes before sixA.M., and nobody calls him this early unless somebody’s dead. He checks the number and answers it, because he’s a cop and that’s his damn job.
“Morning, Lieutenant,” he says softly, so he doesn’t wake Kim.
“Good morning.” The voice on the other end is gravelly and female, the voice of a lifelong chain-smoker who’s only recently quit. It’s his boss, Luca Miller. “You sound awake.”
“Been up for a bit. Got something for me?”
“Two bodies near Green Lake.” She coughed into his ear. “Supposed to be Canning’s case but thought you might want it.”
“Why’s that?”
“One of them is a dismembered woman. Buried in a series of shallow graves.”
Kaiser sits up straighter. “What did you say the address was?”
“I didn’t,” she says, and recites it for him.
“You’re shitting me,” he says, stunned, when the GPS in his head pinpoints the location. “I’ll take a shower, be there in thirty minutes.”
“No rush, they’re already dead.” Luca Miller says this without a trace of sarcasm. She’s been on the job a long time, and she’s just stating facts. “CSI’s just starting. An hour’s fine. When you get there, do what you can at the scene, and I’ll have Peebles ready for you.”
She’s referring to Greg Peebles, the head medical examiner for King County. He’s the best of the best, but he’s usually unavailable at short notice because he’s always in high demand.
“Peebles? Really?” Kaiser says. “How are you going to make that happen? Rub a genie and make a wish?”
“I said there were two bodies,” Luca says. “One’s a child.”
That’ll do it. They always prioritize children. And if the child was found with a dismembered woman, chances are the kid didn’t die by accident.
He disconnects the call. Kim sits up beside him, rubbing her eyes, her tangled hair spilling over her bare shoulders. She’s not a classically beautiful woman, but she’s undeniably attractive, and there’s a warmth in her smile that people are drawn to. She’s often compared to Jennifer Aniston. “What’s going on?”
He tells her, and when he finishes speaking, she looks more awake.
