A Clean Kill

Fifteen

April called Mike late in the afternoon. "What's up, chico?”

This time he was the one to say, "You first." She could hear his desk chair creak as he sat back to listen.

"Well, Maddy was sleeping with her trainer, Derek Meke. He didn't tell me. Woody got it out of him."

"Good old Woody. What kind of guy is Derek?"

"About what you'd expect. Big guy, bulked up. Looks like he's on steroids. He has no cuts or bruises on his hands, face, or body. Woody checked him out."

"He get permission for that search?"

"Everything on the up-and-up. Derek volunteered to show everything, his body, his clothes, his locker at Workout. No wet clothing. We took some wet towels from the bathroom. He was there at nine twenty. A trainer he works with says he was there when she came in. He said he left the house at nine. Anybody in the neighborhood see him?" April asked.

"So far we do have one hit on that. He stopped for a Snapple at the comer store at about five past nine. He's in the neighborhood often so the woman there knows him. She says he seemed fine, looked the way he always does—very good."

April made a noise.

"The detective who interviewed her said his hair was dry. She has a crush on him, so she'd notice. What about you, querida? Do you have a crush on him?" Mike asked teasingly.

"Not my type," she said with a little smile. "But dry hair doesn't mean anything. If he killed her, he could have been wearing a shower cap. And there was a hair dryer in Maddy's gym."

"And he could have been wearing a whole plastic suit, like the Tyvek we wear. We're searching garbage cans."

"What do you think?" April asked. "Think he did it?"

"If he killed her at the end of the session, the time frame wouldn't fit. If he killed her at eight a.m. when he first came in, the whole family would have been gone. He would have had an hour and five minutes to make a bloody mess of her, clean up, and get that Snapple."

"That would work. He had opportunity and time to do it, but what about motive?" April said slowly.

"Maybe they had a lovers' quarrel. What's your take? Is he an angry person?"

"Mmmm, I'm not sure. He's a good actor, has that soft and touchy demeanor that works with women. He's a con type. Really sincere. Looks you straight in the eye. You'll see. He's definitely a player of some kind. He also slept with Maddy's best friend, Alison Perkins. She didn't know he and Maddy had a thing. She was pretty freaked-out to hear that. And there's a cocaine element here. Alison's a user. Maddy may have been, too. It's not clear how it fits. Alison's pretty paranoid. She doesn't want to get anybody in trouble."

"Derek has no record of violence, not even a speeding ticket." Mike put his hand over the receiver and spoke to someone, then came back on the line. "You were saying there's a coke connection."

"Woody searched the gym pretty well. He came up with a lot of vitamins and stuff but no illegal substances. But he didn't take the place apart, of course. Alison said Wayne had blow around and she admitted she had some in her gym bag. I could see her killing Maddy out of jealousy—she certainly has the rage. But she's very small, less than a hundred pounds. Anything on Maddy's finances yet?"

"Minnow has someone working on the bank statements. Looks like Maddy used her ATM with unusual frequency. The lady dispensed a lot of cash."

"I can see a justification for that. It would prevent her husband from knowing how she spent her money. I guess you're following the case pretty closely," April remarked.

Mike was quiet for a moment. He didn't need to say that homicide was his area of expertise, and never mind the protocol of the situation. He was going to work the case his own way, and she was going to work it with him because that was how he wanted it. Since he'd chewed her out pretty fiercely in the past for similar independent action of her own, she almost had to laugh. As they say, "What goes around, comes around."

"What about the incoming and outgoing calls this morning?" Mike asked.

"We have the outgoing numbers. One was to Alison Perkins. One was to Jo Ellen Anderson. That's the employment agency," April told him.

"I know. There were messages from both of them as well. Jo Ellen Anderson, at five to nine, confirmed an interview at her office at two p.m., a new girl to replace Remy. Message from Alison, at nine thirty-two, wondering where she was. Maddy was probably dead by then."

That meant Remy lied about making up with Maddy. Maddy had already fired her. Or else Wayne had underestimated his wife's resolve in the matter; April thought it through.

"So, where did you talk to Derek and Alison?" Mike asked, breaking into her review.

"I took them to my place," she said after a beat.

"You better share, querida," he warned.

"Oh yeah," she promised.

"What's going on with the senator's kid?" He changed the subject.

"I guess you've seen it on TV. His mother got him out of the hospital. No one's saying anything about it. The senator is flying in tonight."

"How's your sergeant doing?"

"She and Hagedorn are working on it," April murmured.

"How do you feel about it?" he asked.

Oh, he knew her so well. April sipped from her latest mug of cold tea and took a second to think about it. When she was coming up, her boss was one Sergeant Margaret Mary Joyce. At the time, Sergeant Joyce was fat as a sausage, wore her suits too tight, and had coffee stains down the front of her blouse almost every day. The woman was as mean as a whip and took the credit for every case April and Mike solved. "Get out of the way" was her motto. April had been a detective second grade and Mike a sergeant. Both had chafed under her rule and conspired to work around her.

Now they were the ones who had to delegate. Captains didn't investigate homicides. Unit COs weren't the legs on even their most important cases. They were supposed to bully other people into doing the work, then take the credit. But assigning Gelo the Peret case was like Mike's allowing Fish to do his job on the Wilson homicide without interference. It wasn't so easy to let go.

"I feel fine. What's the latest on Remy and Wayne?"

"They're standing behind each other. Wayne says there's no way Remy could have hurt his wife. He's keeping her on to take care of the children. He's moved the family to a hotel."

"What's on your plate tonight? Do you feel like having a good dinner in town before heading home?"

"Oh, God, I don't know, querida, I've got a lot to do."

"How about a really good dinner at Soleil? I happen to know it's open," April wheedled. "We can ask a few questions."

"Ab, querida, now you're cooking with gas."

They set a time and hung up.