Silver Secret (eBook)

Chapter 3

Uniformed officers were flowing through the front doors of the market going back and forth from the bathrooms to the clerk and back to the bathroom again suddenly Sailor heard a familiar voice.

“Well, if it isn’t Sailor Masters, How the hell did you end up at a scene like this?” Detective Jeremy Fuller walked up to Sailor with his partner, Detective Martin Ball. The forensic team was entering the doors behind him and he directed them toward the bathroom.

“Hey Jere it’s been a while” She responded. “But don’t you think you should be over there investigating instead of over here talking to me?” She pointed toward the bathroom.

“Sure, sure. I’ll get there. You are a witness and I need to debrief you.”

“I do believe that that’s a job for someone other than you such as one of your, oh, I don’t know officers?”

“Maybe, but who says I can’t do it too? Or don’t you think I’m good enough?”

“There you go getting all cocky and stupid again. I am extremely tired and I want to go home send one of your officers over here so that I can go. You don’t need to be here with me.” Sailor and Fuller had a personal history and he knew that she couldn’t talk to him he was just doing this to make her angry and she was too exhausted to put up with his crap right now.

“Now, now there’s no need for name calling.”

“Jeremy Fuller! It has been years since we’ve dated and broke up. Freaking high school as a matter of fact, and I have had to put up with your crap ever since. I asked you here because you are a good cop, despite your personal flaws, not to play stupid games. Now get your head out of your ass and get over to your scene, I will consign to give my statement to Detective Ball.”

She didn’t wait for his answer she looked at Detective Ball, tapped the mans arm and walked out of the door with her grocery cart. Detective Ball looked at Fuller, shrugged his shoulders and followed Sailor out. After giving her statement to the good detective, she loaded her groceries into her truck and hurried home.

She made quick work of putting her groceries away and then headed to her Home Office. Trealo and Jazz stretched their backs and rose off of the overstuffed reading chair to greet her.

“How is my favorite Kitty couple?” She crooned as she gave each one of her fur babies a thorough rubdown and a treat.” I put your dinner out in the kitchen guys, I’m sorry it’s late.”

They both raced to the kitchen and Sailor laughed as she sat down at her desk. Silly Kitties, she thought. They were spoiled rotten but they were the love of her life and they deserved every bit of it.

Now to write things down while they were still fresh in her head. She fancied herself a bit of an amateur sleuth, and the Criminology degree that she had obtained in college helped. She was way too tired to deal with it tonight but so much for her cleaning day tomorrow, who was she kidding anyway, all she really needed to do was some laundry and light dusting.

Her parents had encouraged creativity and had been detectives of a sort themselves. They had worked for a large corporation as the head of the Security Department. They had always shook their heads at her, however, for her impulsive junior detective tendencies that had ended up getting her into more trouble than good back in those days.

She was a lot better at it now though, for Example, when all of the highlighters had gone missing at her school. She was the one who had tracked it down to the one classroom assistant who had taken them to aid in a glow in the dark party she had hosted at her home. That was a hard one to close though. The CA had been a very likable girl. But stealing was stealing and it had cost the company money.

Murder was a whole other ball of wax though, and she was determined to show Detective Fuller that she could be just as good as him. She tapped on the keyboard of her laptop. Tomorrow night she was going to do a little investigating herself, at the Silver flame, that was where that lighter had come from. She had recognized the emblem from a poster she had seen and did a search online. It was a newer nightclub in town, and not a really great one either. Maybe she could convince Sapphire to go with her.

She glanced at the Clock on her computer screen. “Crap!” She said to herself. It was already 11:00 o’clock. She closed up her notebook and checked her Facebook page really quick then headed up to her bedroom. A quick shower and moisturizing regimen then she shrugged into a tank top and shorts and climbed into bed.

You would think that sleep would have come quickly but she couldn’t get her mind to turn off. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that woman’s body. “OK,” she said” let’s use this.” So, she closed her eyes and walked the scene. She knew that the eyes saw more than most believed and this technique was a way for her to pick up something she might have initially missed.

In her mind she was standing in that doorway again. She looked around and noted the lighter as well as the fingerprints that she had seen on the sink. She took a closer look at the body. The woman’s fingers showed blood on them. The Prints on the sink were most likely hers. She noticed a piece of what looked like cardstock peeking out from behind the woman’s back. She would have to ask Detective Fuller about that later. Then there was the woman’s eyes, those haunting empty sockets. Hey wait, where were her eyes? She looked around the scene and unless they were under her, which was unlikely, they weren’t there at all.

She pondered this for a bit and then opened her eyes. She kept a notebook by her bed and turned on the bedside lamp to record her thoughts. As she wrote, Jazz and Trealo joined her on the bed and were making themselves comfortable at the foot of it. “Goodnight my lovee’s.” She blew a kiss to them and then turned the light back off. She snuggled back under the covers and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning….

Joseph Preston was smiling as he made his breakfast. Sailor didn’t know it but he’d had an eye for her for a long time now. It wasn’t the fact that she was beautiful, or the insane blue eyes that turned stormy Gray when she was upset and bright blue when she was angry. She had an infectious laugh and an attitude about life that just drew you in. The best thing about her was that she didn’t even realize these things, it was truly her nature and he loved that about her. He knew that someway somehow, he just had to win her heart.

He buttered his toast and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on it. Then walked to the door while he munched. The Saturday morning paper was sitting waiting for him as usual and he picked it up while taking another bite. He took it inside kicking the door closed behind him and went to His cup of coffee that was waiting by his recliner where he settled in to read the news.

He nearly choked on his next bite of toast as he looked at the front page and saw a picture of Sailor looking extremely tired and frazzled, talking to a detective at one of the local markets. The headline read “Local secretary makes gruesome discovery at supermarket.” His first thought was “That’s gonna piss her off.” Sailor would be the first person to tell you that she was no one’s secretary.

“Holy crap!” He shouted to himself. He went on to read the article and raced back to his bedroom to find his cell phone. He had Sailors number but decided to call Matt instead.

“Hello?” Matt mumbled into the phone sleepily.

“Hey man! You’re still sleeping? I guess you haven’t read the paper yet.”

“Joe, it’s Saturday man why are you up at 7:00 in the morning?!”

“Just go get your paper and look at the front page”

“Alright, alright I’m going” Matt grumbled.

A few moments passed as Joe heard Matt go down the stairs and open his door. “Holy Shit!” Matt yelled into the receiver.

“What’s the matter honey?” Joe heard Sapphire call to Matt.

“Baby, get dressed we gotta go! Now!” Matt called to her.

Matt must have handed the paper to her because the next thing he heard was Sapphire running up the stairs and telling Matt that she was going to try and call Sailor.

“Joe my man, meet us at Fishers diner. We are going to go and try to pick Sailor up, I’m sure she is needing some company right now.”

“OK, I’ll be there.” Joe replied

Thirty minutes later Joe was pulling into the parking lot of the small diner when he saw a somewhat sleep deprived Sailor Masters getting out of Matt’s truck and arguing with Sapphire.

“I am perfectly fine!” She was stating. “I could have slept for another two hours, and besides, I have plans today I was going to clean house!”

“Your house is already clean my dear and I know you better than that. These two were worried about you.” She gestured to the guys. “And, I know that you had your little notebook open last night too. Didn’t you?” She put her hand on her hip looking Sailor dead in the eye. “We’ve been friends for over twenty years now. I know that you are up to something and that I can’t stop you, but I sure as hell can make sure you are safe while you try.”

Sailor tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. “Oh, fine then, I was going to try and convince you to go to the Silver Flame with me tonight anyways.”

“Isn’t that the upscale sleazy nightclub that...