Chasing The Dead

Chapter Twenty-Four

But Rossi knew there was no such thing as an easy murder case. Some cases, like Jared Bell’s, came together faster than others, but calling them easy didn’t do justice to the victims or their families, whose pain and loss lasted forever. He called those cases quick closers, but he’d never call them easy.

And there was nothing easy about Alex Stone. He could convince her that Robin Norris had been murdered, but she wouldn’t believe that the murderer might be after her as well, not if she heard it from him. And she definitely wouldn’t believe that he was trying to protect her. She wouldn’t trust him to tell her the right time without checking her watch. He couldn’t blame her, because he felt the same way about her. Protecting someone he wanted more than anything else to bring down was just the latest contradiction in a job filled with them.

The day was starting to turn when Wheeler drove away, leaving the photographs with Rossi. A thin layer of gray cloud cover moving in from the north was chasing away the sun, the distant sky darkening behind it. The breeze kicked up, an advance party for the coming storm.

Rossi studied the incoming front, betting he had time before it arrived to do what he had in mind. He called Alex. She answered on the third ring.

“It’s Rossi,” he said.

“I know. Ever hear of caller ID?”

“Just making sure. Where are you?”

“In my car on my way home. What do you want?”

“I want you to meet me at the scene of Robin Norris’s accident.”

Alex didn’t respond immediately, Rossi letting the silence take care of itself.

“Why?” Alex said after a few moments.

“I need you to see how it happened.”

“Why?”

Rossi hated answering, hated her having something on him, but there was no alternative. “Because I need your help.”

“My help? You need my help.”

He sighed. “Yes, Counselor. It pains me to say so, but yes, I need your help.”

“Why don’t I believe you?”

“We both know the answer to that question. Give me ten minutes with you at the scene and then you can decide whether I’m just bullshitting you.”

Another pause.

“Okay. I can do that. When?”

“Now. I’m out here on Barry Road where it happened,” he said, giving her directions.

“Can we do it next week? It’s Friday and I’ve had a long week and a longer day that isn’t over yet. I’m on my way home to clean up and go visit Robin’s family.”

“You’ve got all weekend to make your condolence call. I need you out here now.”

More silence.

“You do, don’t you. I like that,” she said, picking up on the urgency in his voice. “Okay. I’m on my way.”

Half an hour later, Alex pulled up behind Rossi’s car, joining him on the shoulder, not saying anything. He watched her study the scene, arms crossed against her chest, looking first at the road, following the tire marks, and then focusing on the damaged tree trunk. He watched Alex’s eyes well up, saw her clench her jaw as her face reddened and she wiped the tears away, taking a deep breath.

“Is that the tree?”

“Yeah. You can take a closer look if you want.”

Alex sidestepped down the embankment, standing in front of the tree, first pressing her palms against the scarred bark, then leaning in, her forehead resting on the trunk, arms wrapped around it. After a moment, she stepped back, brushing her clothing and wiping her eyes again. She walked up the slope toward the road, ignoring Rossi’s offered hand as she reached the shoulder.

“So how did it happen?”

Rossi walked her through it just as Wheeler had done for him, answering her questions, letting her sift through the photographs, waiting until she stacked them together and returned them to the envelope.

“The tire mark, the damage to the rear bumper, and Robin’s speed all make a strong case that someone intentionally forced her off the road,” he said.

“Maybe, but what you’ve got won’t hold up under a decent cross-examination, not without more. All you’ve got is evidence of an accident, not a crime. You’ve got nothing on the other car or the other driver or any motive.”

“We’ll find the car and the driver and we’ll figure out the motive.”

“Try to get it right this time,” Alex said.

Rossi beat back his temptation to take the bait. “I’ll do that.”

“So why did you drag me out here? I can’t help you fill in any of those blanks.”

Passing cars flew by, trailing small plumes of road grit, drivers in a hurry to beat the storm and start their weekend. Rossi leaned against his car as a big-wheeled pickup thundered past, waiting until it had rounded the curve.

“Let me ask you a question. Let’s suppose my theory is right but it’s you in the car. You’re driving like a bat out of hell because someone is chasing you out in the middle of nowhere. You’re scared shitless that you’re going to die. What would you do?”

She cocked her head, furrowing her brow. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Put yourself in Robin Norris’s shoes. What would you have done?”

Alex sighed, thinking. “I’d lead the asshole to the nearest police station.”

“Okay, but you’ve never been on this stretch of road in your life. You’ve got no idea where you are, let alone where you can find a police station. What then?”

“I’d call 911, tell them what was happening, and ask them to send help in a hurry.”

“That’s what I’d do too. That’s what anyone would do.”

Alex’s eyes widened, her mouth dropping half-open. “But Robin didn’t do that.”

“No,” Rossi said. “She didn’t.”

Alex covered her mouth with her hand. “She called me. Why would she do that?”

“Think about it. What possible reason could she have had?”

Alex turned her back to him, hands on her hips, making a slow circle as she thought, stopping when she was facing Rossi again.

“She knew or thought she knew who was chasing her and wanted to tell me.”

“If it had been you and you knew who it was, who would you have called?”

She nodded her head. “I’d have called 911. It doesn’t make sense. If she knew who was after her, why call me?”

Rossi didn’t answer, wanting her to work it out on her own so she would believe it.

And then it hit her. She slumped against the side of Rossi’s car, bracing herself with her hands, staring down the embankment at the tree.

“She was trying to warn me.” She slapped the car with one hand, bolting upright, facing Rossi. “If she had just wanted someone to know who was after her, she would have called 911. She knew she wasn’t going to outrun this guy. She knew no one could get to her in time to save her. She was trying to warn me. That had to be the reason.”

Rossi kept his voice even and quiet. “Warn you about what?”

She wrapped her arms around her middle, squeezing hard, looking back and forth from the road to the tree. “That this guy was after me too. Holy shit! How is that possible?”

“And that’s why I need your help. What was going on between you and Robin that would make both of you targets?”

Alex dropped her arms to her sides, shaking her head and arching her eyebrows.

“Nothing. I mean nothing except work, but she didn’t work on my cases. She was the perfect boss. All she did was assign them to me and tell me not to fuck them up.”

“Did you socialize with her outside of work?”

“No.”

“Was she having any personal problems that she talked with you about, maybe something about someone threatening her?”

Alex waved off his question. “No, nothing at all. She was my boss. We were colleagues. I didn’t know much about her personal life. And if she was having some kind of problem, she didn’t tell me about it.”

“Then it has to be something connected to work. What’s the most recent case Robin assigned to you?”