04 Taking the Fifth by J A Jance

Author:J A Jance [Jance, J A]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

SERGEANT WATSON WAS GUNNING FOR ME when I stepped through the doorway on the fifth floor. “Beau, Captain Powell wants to see you, pronto.”

That kind of summons to Captain Powell’s fishbowl is much the same as being twelve and getting sent to the principal’s office. One look at the captain’s face told me he was kicking ass and taking names.

When I walked into his office, Captain Larry Powell was sitting at his desk, thumbing through a thick stack of papers in front of him.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Shut the door,” he replied without looking up. I knew right then I was in deep shit. I shut the door and waited.

“What the hell have you been doing with your time that you haven’t bothered to notify Richard Dathan Morris’s next of kin?” he demanded.

The best defense was to go on the attack. “Look,” I said. “There are only so many hours in a day. We’ve been tracking her. The neighbors said she was out of town. They weren’t able to say where she’d gone. I finally left a message for her last night, but I still haven’t been able to make a connection.”

Powell finally looked up at me. “Doug and Larry did,” he said. Detectives Doug Manning and Larry Hicks worked Homicide on the day shift; obviously, they were the team Sergeant Watkins had assigned to the Jonathan Thomas case.

“How come?”

“Because she showed up this morning at the house up on Bellevue, that’s how come. When she found out what had happened, they had to call an aid car for her.”

“So where is she now—in a hospital? I tried calling her hotel a little while ago, and she wasn’t there.”

“Don’t waste your time looking for her now. In other words, what you’re telling me is that you knew where she was staying last night, but you didn’t bother to get word to her.”

“Look, Captain,” I said. “There wouldn’t be a murder for Doug and Larry to investigate if Big Al and I hadn’t spent half the day battling the system and tracking down Thomas’s parents to get this agreement on the autopsy. If it weren’t for us, someone would have gotten away with murder in this town.”

I was hot now. I hadn’t exactly been lying down on the job. I felt as if I’d been living and breathing Richard Dathan Morris for days.

“Not only that,” I continued, “most of the people involved in this case will be leaving Seattle tonight as soon as Jasmine Day’s concert is over at the Fifth Avenue Theater. They’re on their way to Vancouver, B.C. When I finish up with the people who are leaving the country, I’ll get around to the people who aren’t.” With that, I turned on my heel and started out of the room.

“And Al is off tonight?”

“Yes, he’s off tonight. His grandson had emergency surgery last night. The kid almost died. Big Al spent the night at the hospital with his wife. Of course he’s not coming in.”

“Great—” Powell began, but I slammed the door behind me, cutting off whatever else he might have said.

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