FIRST ONE DOWN: A Paul Sutton Novel Read online

  "And you called this in to whom, ma'am?"

  "You guys!" she practically screamed at him while pointing to the Crown Vic he had parked across the street.

  "Ma'am, can you tell me the number that you called us at?"

  She stomped off towards her house and went inside briefly. When she returned, she was carrying a small book of the White Pages. She flipped it open to the San Diego Sheriffs Encinitas station non-emergency line and tapped her finger at the number, "This number! I called you at this number and you never came!"

  Sutton thought he was going to fall over. What the hell, how had they missed this in the initial investigation, he thought to himself.

  "Thank you ma'am, and I apologize for the call delay. Christmas Eve is a very busy night, and we are always understaffed. Thank you again," he said and hurried back to his car.

  Sutton fished his cell phone from the mess of paperwork he had on the passenger seat and rapidly dialed Ryan's number. He didn't wait for Ryan to say hello, "Ryan, you are not going to believe this. I just found us a witness. Get me the address to the Sheriff's station in Encinitas."

  "What the hell are you up to Sutton?"

  "Man, just give me the damn address," Sutton barked.

  "That gut is going to give you another heart attack old man, hold on," the line went silent while Ryan hunted down the address.

  Sutton plugged the address into the navigation unit and headed towards the station in complete disbelief that he had finally gotten a new lead.

  CHAPTER 15

  Andrew awoke, the unfamiliar surroundings of his temporary housing startling him as he opened his eyes. Groggy from another restless night he strolled towards the coffee maker, brewed a pot and sat down at the small table in what was supposed to be a dining area. His hand strayed absently to Laura's cell phone records, his fingers shuffling the corners as his mind sorted information. He had come across her assistant's phone number as well as a few other numbers that had appeared multiple times in the weeks leading up to Laura's murder. He wanted to track down the owners of all of those numbers, but hadn't put much effort into it until now. Early on in the investigation, he had studied those call records repeatedly. He had been in contact with Laura's assistant, Inez Hernandez, the day after Laura's memorial service. She had insisted that she’d had no idea where Laura was the night of her murder and because that night was Christmas Eve, Andrew believed Inez and didn't press the issue with her.

  Andrew had yet to meet Inez in person. Today was a personal day off, and he would start on a game plan for his own investigation. The first item on his list was to contact Inez and try to arrange a meeting with her. Dialing her phone number, Andrew was unsure how to begin the conversation and when he heard her voice after just one ring, he found himself frozen briefly, "Hell...Hello Inez?"

  "Yes, this is Inez, how can I help you?" she said, sounding very professional.

  "Um...hi Inez, this is Andrew Carmichael, I don't know if you remember my wi..."

  She cut him off mid sentence, "Yes, of course I remember Laura. I am so sorry that I have not contacted you, it was just a...it was a horrible situation," she said.

  "Yes, it was, it still is. Inez, I would like to meet with you to go over Laura's last few weeks here in San Diego, or, um... her last few weeks. Can I meet you today or sometime this week? I won't take much of your time..."

  Cutting him off mid-sentence again, she said, "I don't know that I can offer you any other information. I have already told the detectives everything I know, Mr. Carmichael. I would like to put all of this behind me; it was hard for me too."

  "Yes, I am sure it was hard for you Inez, but as you may know, there has not been an arrest in Laura's case, and you were the person here in San Diego that she was closest to. I would really like to meet with you, please?" He said, his voice beginning to sound desperate.

  "Mr. Carmichael, I was not close to Laura. She was a private person, and all I did was handle her business schedule and complete business reports for her. I don't know where she went that night, and I did not keep tabs on her after office hours. I hope they catch the person that did this to her, but I can't help you."

  Andrew began to speak and realized that Inez had hung up the phone. He pulled the phone away from his ear, looked at the display and discovered that she had indeed hung up on him. Shaking his head, he set the phone down and began to look through the other numbers on the phone bill. He started with the last outgoing and incoming calls. The very last phone call was an incoming call from a number that had come up at least ten times in the weeks leading up to Laura's murder. None of the calls were longer than two minutes each, and all of the calls associated with that number were outgoing calls Laura made to that number. There was only one call made from that number to Laura's cell phone and it was the last call Laura received. There were hundreds of texts involving that number also, back and forth between Laura's number and the number in question. Andrew took a notebook out and wrote himself a note to ask Sutton about this number and find out if he had already looked into it. The last thing Andrew wanted to do was get in Sutton's way, especially now that he was back on the case, but he was determined to get some answers. He didn't know where to start and figured that he should tell Sutton about his transfer to San Diego.

  The forty minute drive to downtown San Diego from Camp Peterson gave Andrew time to think about how he would break it to Sutton that he had no intentions of letting this go, and that he planned on working the case himself. He was sure that Sutton would ask him to stay out of it. If almost two years hadn't elapsed with zero forward movement on the case, he might have complied with a request of that sort. Since there were no developments in the case, Andrew had no choice but to try to do something, anything, there was no way for him to move forward without a resolution.

  He pulled into an ACE parking area near the police building on Pacific Avenue and headed up the street towards Sutton's station, on foot. He looked up at the tall buildings and wondered what Laura had seen in this city. She had loved it here, and the last three months of her life she had spent far more time in San Diego than at home. Because of the nature of her business, Andrew didn't know the specific details of what she had been researching here in San Diego, but he knew that she thought the city was stunning and as he looked around he couldn't understand why.

  When he arrived at the building Sutton worked out of, he checked in at the main lobby reception area and was asked to have a seat and wait while Sutton was called for. Andrew smiled, knowing that Sutton would be pissed he had shown up unannounced, again. Sutton was an odd man and definitely had his quirks, but Andrew had no doubt that he was giving Laura's case a hundred and ten percent of his time and energy. It was obvious to Andrew that Laura's case growing cold was the main force that had driven Sutton out of retirement and back to the job. The guy wouldn't rest until he nailed the bastard who did this to Laura, and Andrew felt exactly the same.

  CHAPTER 16

  A ding sound alerted Nate that Kali's avatar had come up on the desktop version of a running app they both used. Technology is amazing Nate thought as he watched Kali's location and route load on the small box within the computer screen. Kali wasn't active on the online site but she had left her privacy settings wide open, and she always mapped out and tracked her run's. This gave Nate a front row seat to see where and when she ran. It also created an extremely easy opening to initiate the next step in his plan to put her back into his life.

  It was a glorious morning, the air was crisp and the skies were already bright blue at 6am. Nate decided to take the black Audi TT out. He left the house and made the short commute to the stretch of beach in Carlsbad that Kali was running on. When he arrived at the parking area, he pulled up the running app on his phone and saw that she was about two miles away from passing back by the lot. Knowing how consistent she was with sticking to routine and her run map he got out, stretched and began running in her direction knowing that they would be running right towards each other. How f
itting, he thought to himself.

  When Nate made it down to the sand, the beach was almost completely empty except for two other runners. He could see Kali running up the beach in his direction, hugging along the water line moving swiftly to the side, away from the water, as the waves rolled in and threatened to get her Nike's wet. He had watched her do this on other occasions, but in this moment, it felt as if he were witnessing this for the first time. The mere sight of her made his heart feel warm, his cold exterior began to melt away and all he wanted was to run towards her, scoop her up in his arms and take her away with him.

  As she approached his location, Nate watched her face for a sign of recognition. He was standing there along the sandy shore, looking towards her, and she came to a complete stop about ten yards away from him. The expression on her face was one Nate could not read entirely. It appeared to be a mixture of shock, happiness and sorrow all at the same time. He was sure, if he could look into her eyes, there would be a deep hurt that would be painful for him to absorb knowing it was brought on by his own actions. Knowing he had caused her emotional pain.

  Walking towards her slowly, he reached out one hand as if to offer some sort of relief from her pain. He wanted to soothe her, to comfort her and to bring her into his embrace. Although she didn't recoil, she didn't reach out for it either. She stood there, staring blankly up at him and he could see tears begin to roll down her face from behind her dark sunglasses.

  "Don't cry baby, please don't cry," Nate said, looking down at her.

  "What are you doing here?" She asked flatly.

  He thought about his answer for a minute, knowing that she would not approve of him tracking her movements through the running app. He opted to answer her with a half-truth, "I wanted to see you, I couldn't stay away another day longer. I need you Kali."

  Nate watched anger overcome her. She clenched her fists at her sides, bit her bottom lip hard and said, "You have no right to see me, you have no right to follow me or try to talk to me. You have no right to text me and you have no right to make me cry. You lost those privileges, Nate, when you screwed one of my friends." She looked down at the sand, and her tears turned to full blown sobs.

  She didn't pull away when he placed his hands upon her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. Holding her tight as she continued to sob, he felt her clenched fists relax and her arms make their way to his lower back. Being able to breathe in her scent again, after all this time, took Nate right back to that last time they were together. Nate questioned how he could have been such a fool. How he could have put their relationship in jeopardy the way he had. And all for another woman who didn't make him feel anything beyond lust. Kali made him feel with his heart, the heart he hadn’t known he possessed. He had opened her eyes to a whole new world, he thought, but she had opened his to a new world also.

  Breaking their embrace and gently pushing her back away from him a half step, he pulled her chin up and stared down at her beautiful tear stained face. He pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head and stared deep into her dark brown eyes. With the back of his hand, he brushed the wetness of her tears off of her flushed cheeks, and smiled warmly down at her.

  "I did not have sex with Olivia. I would never do anything to hurt you, Kali. I wish you would believe me."

  "You did have sex with Olivia, I know you did, Nate, and for you to stand here, look me in the eyes and lie, only adds insult to injury. I know she was at your house that night, and I know that's why you wouldn't let me come in. Stupid me - I was coming over to comfort you. I didn't want you to be alone, I didn't want you to wake up on Christmas morning and be all alone with your memories of that day from your childhood and the sadness it brings. I wanted to be there to soften the blow somehow. I was thinking about you, Nate. About your feelings. And you...you were thinking about you, too. Only you. Isn't that how it usually is, Nate? You get what you want, when you want it, and screw what anyone else wants or needs." She said, her tone cold, full of anger and pain.

  Kali moved back away from him, put her sunglasses back over her eyes and began to run up towards the lot. Nate stood there for a few seconds contemplating how to try to unravel the web of lies he had spun to cover up what he was hiding about that night. He ran after her, and as he caught up to her, he grabbed the back of her arm and stopped her abruptly, catching her off guard. She spun around and the flash of fury he saw in her immediately had him aroused.

  "Damn it Nate, why are you doing this? Why can't you just let me go - allow me to walk away and put the pieces of my life back together?"

  "Can you do that, Kali? Can you go on, move on without me? I know I can't. I can't let you go. I have tried, every single day, for two years. You are a part of me, you make me feel. I feel nothing worth feeling without you-just coldness, loneliness and emptiness. Tell me what you want - what can I do to bring you back where you belong?"

  "Belong? Belong, Nate? I don't belong to you anymore. I was willing to do anything you wanted. I gave up who I was to be with you. I gave in to all of your needs, I did as you asked, when you asked, and I never questioned you. I did things with you Nate that I still have nightmares about, and I gave up a part of me that I will never get back. I will never be whole again because of what I gave you, what I allowed myself to be when I was with you," she said turning away again.

  "You gave it all willingly, Kali, or don't you remember it that way? I told you what was going to happen, each time, before it happened. You're right, you never questioned me, or the things that we did together. You craved it. You wanted it. And, you might have nightmares Kali, but my guess is that you fantasize about the nights we spent together far more often that you have nightmares about them." Nate turned her gently but insistently to take her hands in his and squeezed them tightly, trying to somehow force an alternate reaction from her. Trying to lower his voice some he pleaded, "Tell me I'm wrong, tell me you don't love me and that you didn't love what we had together, Kali. Tell me! And I will walk away and never bother you again," his voice was still loud enough that people in the lot started looking in their direction.

  She hung her head down and her body shifted back and forth as if she were rocking herself, trying to soothe herself. Trying to figure out her next move. He knew what that move would be, and she knew that there was no way she was going to walk. She knew there was no way that she could walk away from him, not again.

  Walking towards her SUV, Kali looked back over her shoulder at Nate and asked, "You coming?" The smile on his face was worth a million dollars, at least to her it was.

  "I will follow," was all he said as he walked towards the Audi, parked in the space right next to hers.

  She picked up her phone and called the office to clear her day. For a brief second as it began to ring she prayed it would go to voicemail, Kali didn't want to talk to Tessa. She was afraid that her voice might give away the fact that she was about to tell a lie. Something she never did. Except for Nate, because of Nate. Damn, what was she getting herself into she wondered as the message tone chimed, "Tessa, it's me. Something has come up, and I am going to have one of my girls take my clients today. I just wanted to let you know. I love you and I am okay. See you tomorrow morning," she hung up quick, looked in her rear view mirror at the Audi on her tail, and flashed a wicked smile.

  Once back at Kali's condo, Nate followed behind her, watching the sway of her hips as she walked to her unit, lost in thoughts of having her nude body next to his again, feeling her hands upon his flesh, and being consumed by his desire for her. They walked through her front door, and Nate closed it behind them. Without a word he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, her bedroom. The condo unit wasn't that large, and it crossed Kali's mind as being a bit off that he knew exactly where he was going. She shrugged it off as a lucky guess and got lost in the moment. He set her down on the edge of the bed and kissed her closed mouth, pressing hard against her lips. He pulled away and it occurred to her that he wasn't wearing the usual mask, the one few people
could see. He seemed open and at peace. It was a welcome change, and she secretly hoped that this time would be different. That this time he would love her through the duration of the time they were about to spend together. That had never happened before. There was always a point during their sexual encounters where he disappeared into some dark place within himself and what emerged was harsh, cold and sometimes evil. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of that evil; she had experienced it. She had taken part in it. There were occasions when she desperately craved it.

  "I want you to stand up and undress for me, Kali. Will you do that?"

  Looking up at him, without thinking, she did as he asked. Knowing the exact order that he preferred, she began with her shoes and socks, then her hair-tie came out. Looking at him, seeking approval, and receiving it by the slight nod of his head, she removed her running pants. He stood up and moved towards her. Stopping within inches of her quivering, taut body, he kneeled, his hands reaching out to run lightly over her bare skin from her ankles, up her legs and stopping on her hips. He hooked his thumbs on the sides of her panties and pulled them straight down to the floor. Knowing what he wanted next, she raised her arms straight up and stayed perfectly still while he pulled her tank top up and off of her torso. He moved away and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching and wanting. She waited for his nod and then lifted her sports bra off, exposing her pale, full breasts. She then cupped her own breasts with her hands, rubbing her nipples between her thumb and index fingers all the while watching the lust grow within his glorious body. She felt the wetness intensify between her legs.

  Nate motioned for her to come towards him, and she came to the edge of the bed where he was sitting and kneeled down in front of him. "No baby, we aren't going to play our normal roles today. Today, you are going to allow me to serve you. Do you think you can do that, Kali?"

  "Yes."

  "I want you to tell me what you want me to do to you. What is the first thing that you want me to do?" he asked.