Unbroken Page 2

  “We have pumpkin,” I yelled, hoping she heard me.

  I really didn’t have time for a stop and chat with Mac and Reid at the moment. Del Mar’s was slammed, and I had to get the rest of my walk-in inventoried if I wanted to get out of here on time to pick up JJ. Thursdays were his spelling tests. If he got a B or above, we stopped at our favorite ice cream shop for a cone. I never missed a Thursday, but if I didn’t get this food order in, the café would be out of just about everything.

  I found both men sitting at their normal spots at the end of the counter. I don’t know how it was possible that they always got the same two seats every morning they came in. I often wondered…if customers were sitting in those chairs when they walked in, did they tell them to move? That wouldn’t surprise me at all.

  “Good morning, gentlemen. Running a little late I see,” I taunted Mac. He was a stickler for being punctual.

  “No, smartass. We were going over a case,” Mac told me.

  “Ohhh…” I leaned over the counter towards the men so no other customers could hear me. “Anything good? What diabolical scheme is the dynamic duo, Batman and Robin, saving San Francisco from today?” I teased.

  “A missing persons case was ruled a suicide by the coroner,” Reid spoke up.

  “Oh, nothing to joke about then. Sorry. Would either of you like more coffee?” I asked, feeling like a shit-heel for joking.

  “Please,” they said in unison.

  “Jinx!” I threw over my shoulder at them on my way to the coffee station.

  Jinx? What was I, twelve? The joys of having a ten-year-old boy as your closest friend. Not that I would ever have it any other way, but sometimes my brain forgets I am around adults and I embarrass myself.

  Laura rushed past me with a huge slice of pumpkin pie with a mile-high dollop of whipped cream. The whistler. I glanced around my small café and, sure enough, there he was in his corner. He had his back to me so all I could see was the same damn fedora he wore every time he came in. Strange! The man was just downright strange.

  I heard the loud rumbling of pipes before I actually saw the motorcycle pull to a stop in front of the café. The large windows allowed me to watch as the bike parked. The shock of blue hair sticking out from under the driver’s helmet told me my day was about to get interesting. Misty. And if Misty was here, I knew Reanna Rains wasn’t far behind.

  The last thing I had heard about Reanna and her band, Shadow & Flame, was from one of those rag magazines. She made the cover again. This time it was something about her beating the hell out of some paparazzi jerk that was trying to sneak a picture of her. I couldn’t wait to hear about all of the trouble she’d gotten herself into during this last tour. Reanna was one of my favorite people. I wouldn’t say we were close friends. We were more than acquaintances, less than BFF’s, but she always had the best stories.

  I went back to my task of filling coffee cups and clearing dishes. I was short a busboy this morning, leaving me to fill in. Yet another thing I didn’t have time for. I cleared three spots at the counter, knowing if Misty and Reanna were here, chances were Reanna’s guy, Royston, would be with them.

  “Where’s the fire, Ava?” Mac asked as I quickly reset the now clean spots next to them at the counter.

  “Customers, Mac. Have you looked around? Gotta be quick around here. Reanna and Misty are here. Can you please make sure no one bothers them, or God forbid someone tries to take a picture of her? I like my new bar stools.”

  “Sweetheart, I think that was you that broke the last bar stool, not me,” Reanna said as she approached, pulling me in for a hug.

  “Well, no one likes their picture being taken while they’re eating. That’s just rude. I asked him to leave nicely like five times. I swear you throw one bar stool at a photog and you never live it down,” I laughed and returned Reanna’s hug. “And honey, if you want to go incognito around these parts, you might wanna tell Misty that blue hair stands out.”

  “The blue hair stays. How’ve you been, Ava?” Misty kissed my cheek as she sat at the counter. “Reid, Mac. Getting into trouble, I hope. Nice to see you two.”

  “Would you both like some coffee?” I asked as they sat at the counter. “Where’s Royston?” I looked around the café, but didn’t see him.

  “Oh, he’ll be here in a minute. Work call or some shit. I never know what he’s doing,” Reanna answered.

  I hurried off to grab three cups of coffee and the guys’ order. I really had to get my inventory finished. As much as I wanted to visit with everyone, I didn’t have time.

  Royston was seated and already engrossed in conversation with Mac and Reid by the time I got back around to them.

  “… I’ve been following the case closely. Let me know when you have time to sit down, to go over my notes. I think I found something of interest,” Royston spoke softly to Reid. He turned his attention towards me. “Ava, dear. A pleasure to see you. You are looking radiant this morning. New moisturizer?”

  By the time my laughter subsided, my cheeks hurt. “How nice of you to notice, Royston. Always the gentleman. And to answer your question, yes, I gave up on the expensive wrinkle cream and went back to good ole’ fashioned Vaseline Intensive Care. I figured if it was good enough to smooth my elbows it should be good enough for my face.”

  The five of them laughed and carried on while I dropped off the coffee and Reid and Mac’s food.

  “Seriously, Ava, you know I am only joking with you. It is nice to see you.” Royston flashed me his award-winning smile.

  He was kinda hot in that nerdy-sexy way. Quite possibly one of the smartest people I have ever met. When he came in during a lull, I loved talking books with him. Him and Reanna both. She put on this badass rocker persona, but when she opened up and showed you the smallest sliver of the real her, you had to sit back and enjoy. She was wicked smart and extremely well read.

  “Alright everyone, sorry to cut this short, but I have to get to my inventory.”

  “No, we just got here. Stay and play a minute,” Misty suggested.

  “While the invitation is tempting, I have to get out of here early today. I promised JJ ice cream if he did well on his spelling test.” I leaned over the counter in front of Reanna and whispered, “But please come in again soon, I have to hear all about the photog you beat up. I bet it was great. Just tell me. It was great, wasn’t it?”

  “Oh-my-God-it was fucking hysterical. I promise I will call you this week to tell you all about it. The only thing that would’ve made it better is if I didn’t break my guitar. But fuck it, sometimes you just have to roll with it.” Reanna winked at me. “Go. Get your work done. Family first. Tell JJ we all said hello and I hope to see him soon.”

  “Sorry guys, I really wish I could stay and chat.” And that was the truth, I really wanted to join them for coffee.

  “…yea, text me when you’re free and we’ll meet up at Reid’s office…” Mac was speaking to Royston.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Royston, dynamic duo, I have work in the back. Laura will be around to check on you. Laters.”

  “When the fuck did she start with the dynamic duo shit? And who’s Batman in this equation? I’m not Robin, bro.” Reid laughed and pointed to Mac. “You’re Robin.”

  I waved as they shouted their goodbyes.

  2

  Craziness and Cloves

  Reid

  I watched as Ava walked away. I might have let my eyes linger on her ass a tad longer than was appropriate. But Goddamn, the woman had a nice ass. It was days like this, when she was smiling and happy, that I had a hard time remembering why I hadn’t made her mine yet.

  In the beginning, after Jacob died, I watched her from a distance. She grieved in silence and refused to allow anyone to comfort her in any way. She even rejected Mac’s help. The more she rebuffed Mac’s offers, the harder it was on him. After all, Mac was Jacob’s best friend as well as JJ’s Godfather. Mac never complained, but I saw how much it crushed him not to be there for them
the way he wanted to be. The way Jacob would’ve expected.

  Recently something had changed in their relationship. Mac now pushed her buttons on purpose to get her to react to him. And Ava, well, she seemed to be overcritical of everything Mac did. It was like watching an old, disgruntled, married couple. I hated that for them. I didn’t like the distance that was growing between my two best friends. The longer it went on, the more Ava seemed to resent Mac. I had to figure out a way to put a stop to it.

  It had not escaped my notice that Ava didn’t even ask Mac to get JJ from school anymore. When she was running late she called me. Not that I minded. I selfishly loved it. JJ was a good kid, and I enjoyed every minute I had with him. But I knew that Mac missed his time with JJ.

  Ava had done well for herself. She single-handedly started a restaurant and had made it a success. I glanced around the café, impressed at the newly remodeled space. When Ava got an idea in her head there was no stopping her. Recently she decided the walls needed a fresh coat of paint. That meant new stools for the counter and new accessories for the walls.

  A beautiful brunette caught my attention. I had to do a double-take before recognition set in. Sally Levenson. It was a rare occasion I saw the Medical Examiner out of her scrubs and with her hair down.

  I nudged Mac, interrupting his conversation with Royston. “Sally’s here. You ever seen that man she’s with?”

  Mac glanced over his shoulder and Royston turned on his stool to get a better look as well. “I don’t think so. He looks a little familiar, but damn, Sally looks hot with her hair down like that,” Mac commented.

  “I don’t know what she normally looks like, but she certainly is eye-catching,” Royston weighed in.

  “Let’s go say hello. I need to talk to her about an email she sent me anyway,” Mac suggested.

  Mac grabbed his coffee off the counter and followed behind me as we made our way through the cramped café.

  “Hey, doc,” I greeted. “Whatcha doing here?”

  Sally was positively glowing. Maybe it was the relaxed setting, maybe it was because her hair was loose and not pulled up in the severe ponytail she normally wore while working. Either way, she looked beautiful.

  I glanced at the man sitting across from Sally. He had a certain air about him. He screamed money and class. He was not a man to be fucked with. I liked that for Sally.

  “Hey guys.” Sally stood and kissed me on the cheek, then moved around me to reach Mac. “Fancy seeing you here. Did you get my messages?”

  “We were just discussing that case,” Mac said. He held his phone out for her to see. It was a damn miracle he even knew how to check his mail on that thing. “I got your email.”

  “Yeah, I had to amend my initial report,” Sally said.

  “What made you change your mind?” I asked. I had never known Sally to change a report.

  Her entire demeanor changed, she was now in work mode.

  “Several things, actually. When I talked with you earlier, it looked like your typical OD. However, things weren’t adding up. The victim has contusions around her throat suggesting strangulation, but that’s not the cause of death. Then there are the puncture wounds from the needles.”

  Mac interrupted. “Wouldn’t needle marks on a drug addict be normal? I mean, I’d expect she has track marks up and down her arms and legs. Hell, even her toes. Why would a few puncture wounds change your findings?”

  I glanced around, making sure no one was paying attention to our conversation. The topic wasn’t exactly, breakfast crowd friendly.

  “Well, the track marks are normal, but the puncture wounds aren’t self-inflicted. I’m thinking someone grabbed her, then stuck her with a needle several times. Either the same one, or several different ones. At least five marks that I can see. That’s where the overdose came from.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. Even after all these years being an investigator, people still shocked the shit out of me. I had worked with the police on hundreds of murder cases, and I still got sick to my stomach at what people do to each other.

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked. I was trying to figure out how Sally could possibly know if the needle marks weren’t self-inflicted.

  “Addicts are really good at finding usable veins, almost religious about it. Like Mac said, they’ll use the veins between their toes if they have to. Thing is, they’re experts and approach the vein at a forty-five-degree angle.” She paused for a second. “But that’s not even the weirdest thing.”

  “Go on,” I prompted.

  “She had cloves in her mouth. Aspirated a couple of the buds,” Sally replied.

  A sudden boom of laughter pulled us from our conversation. A man at the next table over had his phone out in front of him, obviously finding humor in whatever he was watching. He turned his head to see us all staring at him. Startled, he quickly pulled his fedora lower on his head and went back to eating his pie.

  I turned back to Sally and continued. “Addicts are huffing cloves now?”

  That was the first I had heard of addicts using cloves to get high.

  “Not the spice.”

  “But you said cloves?” Now I was confused. I looked over at Mac to see if he was following or if he was as lost as I was.

  Of course, the ever-prepared Mac, had his handy-dandy notepad out taking notes. No technological skills whatsoever. He still used pen and paper.

  “You’re thinking of the spice used in cooking. It’s ground from the dried flower buds of the clove plant.”

  “What’s your gut tell you? I’ve never known you to be wrong.” Mac spoke up.

  “I think someone tried to kill her in that alley. Maybe they fought over drugs? It could explain the marks on her neck. But if she was incapacitated, I don’t understand why they’d inject her with a lethal dose of heroin rather than just run away. Either way, those puncture marks in muscle weren’t self-administered.”

  “The cloves? What part do they play?” Mac looked up from his pad.

  “For a junkie who’s missed a fix, and in the early stages of withdrawal, maybe she thought it would make her nausea go away?” Sally explained.

  I must’ve misunderstood what Sally had said. The café was loud and dishes were clattering all around me. And now the pie eater the next table over was driving me crazy with his fucking whistling. What was with that guy?

  “By chewing cloves?” I questioned.

  “Some people think clove buds have antiemetic properties. But I’m just guessing here. My job is to report the facts. Yours is to figure out what it all means. If I had the answers, you’d be in the unemployment line.”

  Next to me, Mac chuckled and shook his head in amusement. Sally had jokes today. There was something a little different about Sally this afternoon. She seemed to be… happy. Not that she ever looked unhappy. But today she was different.

  Ava caught my attention, as she rushed passed us. She was hustling around the dining room clearing more tables. She leaned over a table to wipe it down and I almost swallowed my tongue. Her ass looked so hot in those jeans.

  Sally cleared her throat and I realized I had been staring at Ava’s ass a little too long.

  “Hmm…thanks for the update,” I tried to recover. “We appreciate it.”

  The man sitting at the table with Sally set his glass on the table, drawing my attention to him. He looked vaguely familiar.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Sally said. “This is my…”

  Sally seemed at a loss for words. Ah, so this was a new relationship.

  He stood and extended his hand. “Derek Lemark. Pleasure.” Derek shook Mac’s hand before he turned to me.

  A handshake tells a lot about a man. Derek had a nice strong grip, not over the top or too rough. He was not trying to pull any tough guy, macho bullshit. Cool, calm, and confident.

  “Nice to meet you. Do I know you?" I asked.

  "It's possible," Derek said, but he didn't elaborate. I’d have to remember to ask Austin to run the good do
ctor’s date through our database and check him out.

  Mac rubbed the back of his head. “Doc, you really gave us an odd one this time.”

  That was an understatement.

  “I should have another one for you later today…maybe tomorrow,” she said.

  “Really?” I chuckled. “You’re going to have to work hard to top this last one.”

  “Just trying to keep you employed, Reid,” she joked.

  “Well,” Mac said, “give me a call when you finish the new case.”

  Her voice cracked, and she cleared it. “I doubt I’ll have it to you by tonight. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

  If Sally’s pretty blush was any indication, she would otherwise be tied up with her new man tonight. Work would be the last thing on Sally’s mind.

  “Catch ya’ later, Doc.” Mac nodded his head in the direction of Derek.

  “Tell George to call me. I missed out on his last trip to the mountains. Been busy, but I want to see how big that mutt of his is getting,” I said.

  “Don’t let George hear you calling Tank a mutt.” Sally laughed.

  George’s pride in Tank’s pedigree bordered on obsessive.

  “Well, tell him I’m sorry I bailed on him last week, but I’m definitely ready for a trip to the mountains.”

  “I’ll let him know.” She glanced over at Derek and smiled.

  The look of annoyance was clear on Derek’s face. I couldn’t blame the guy. He was trying to enjoy a nice breakfast with his woman and we hijacked his morning. “Nice to meet you, Derek.” With a lift of my chin, I turned to leave, giving the whistling fool one last look.

  By the time I made my way back to the counter, Mac was already reading through his notes. He glanced up when I sat down.

  “Weird, right? Cloves down the victim’s throat. I already called Lance and asked him to run a search of similar MO’s in the area. I doubt anything will hit, but it’s worth a shot.” Mac told me.