Page 4 of View from Above

CHAPTER THREE

“On one condition,” she said.

Condition? She’d baited him with the name and email address of a possible threat to Roland Kotite’s life, and now she was withholding the key element of her homicide theory.

Her confidence her father had been murdered was certainly contagious, but Payton followed evidence. And as of right now, she had none. “I’m not sure you understand how this works, Ms. Kotite.”

“Mallory.” The venom in her voice raised chills along both arms.

He’d hit a nerve, and a small wave of victory flooded through him. In truth, he’d been worried he wouldn’t have been able to get anything from the shrink. But he’d obviously underestimated her need to prove him and the ME wrong when it came to her father’s death and the case from this morning. Payton pulled his chair back out from underneath the table and took a seat. “You’re trying to convince me I missed something during your father’s investigation, but you’re willing to risk holding a potential lead hostage. For what?”

“I want to be involved in the investigation.” The way she’d said it so matter-of-factly had him wondering if she hadn’t planned this conversation from the very beginning.

Surprise arced through him. Now that he didn’t expect. “Other than the obvious reasons, why on earth would I recruit a civilian into a homicide investigation? I could easily request a search warrant for your father’s office and digital accounts and recover these supposed threats myself.”

“No judge in this city is going to grant you search warrant for a case that’s already been closed without physical evidence or a suspect. You said it yourself. The ME has already made her ruling, and as far as the department is concerned, there’s no reason to reopen the investigation.” She sat back in her chair as though she were within a single move of destroying him. “As for your question, you need me.”

Heat flared up his neck and into his face. “I’m not sure if you know this, but I’ve solved plenty of cases without your help.”

“So I’ve read, but unless you can somehow get unlimited access to my father’s litigation group, including his clients, business dealings, associates, email, staff, or personal records without a court order some other way, I’m the best chance you have of finding the truth.” Her shoulders hitched a bit higher.

Check. Mate.

Hell. She’d studied up on him. As a detective he’d taken advantage of all kinds of resources. Confidential informants, private investigators, even the FBI’s Violent Crimes Unit a few months ago. If what Mallory was saying was true and the two jumpers from the past two months were connected, he couldn’t afford to say no. He’d joined Seattle PD to keep others from having to suffer decades of unanswered questions and dead ends as he had. Apart from that, her theory could be the key in giving her closure. “Fine, but following through on the most recent threat is as far as this goes. Understand? If there’s something more going on here than what the ME has concluded, I can’t risk you compromising the investigation or getting yourself hurt. Once you have an answer—whether that answer meets your satisfaction or not—you back off.”

“Deal.” Her lung-crushing smile said she’d achieved the exact outcome she’d wanted, and he couldn’t deny the effect on his insides. “I’ll need the phone you took off of me during my arrest.”

Payton drove his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled the evidence bag from inside. Tearing the plastic, he freed her phone from inside and slid it across the table. “You sure you’re not a lawyer? You make one hell of an argument.”

“I learned from the best.” She thumbed the passcode he hadn’t been able to crack and scrolled long fingers across the device’s screen. “Works well when you need to get out of late charges on your credit card statements.” She handed the phone over. “The threats came from a woman named Kiera Hood.”

He read through the collection of emails saved in Mallory’s personal email and logged the originating address for future reference. She must’ve forwarded them all to herself to aid her own investigation. The last email had him setting his elbows on the table. She was right. Kiera Hood, a former client of her father’s, had threatened to have the man thrown from the top of his own building. “I’ll need copies of everything from the firm’s servers.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll have my father’s assistant supply the encryption key to your IT department.” By encrypting the emails on the Kotite Litigation Group server she had given herself the perfect leverage to force Seattle PD—and him—to take action. Smart. “I’ve reviewed the work my father did for Kiera Hood. According to the paperwork, she was suing her employer’s CFO for sexual harassment and wrongful termination after the complaint to HR was made. Guess where she worked up until she was terminated?”

Payton read through the notes she’d collected in an attachment to the original email. Kiera Hood’s home address, age, a list of possible acquaintances, and previous employer information. His gut kicked hard as images of the scene at this morning’s incident flashed across his mind, and he settled back in his chair. It couldn’t be a coincidence. “She worked out of the Logan Building.”

“I was able to talk myself past the receptionist and security on my way to the roof of that building this morning,” Mallory said. “How easy do you think it would’ve been for Kiera Hood to do the same?”

“Let’s find out.” Payton straightened, wrenching the door open. He grabbed his keys from his desk a few rows down. In minutes, he hauled himself behind the wheel of his unmarked SUV as Mallory climbed into the passenger seat. The cabin filled with the light hint of her perfume, cocooning him in vanilla and something floral as he pulled away from the west precinct onto 8th. In seconds, it’d masked the staleness of takeout containers he’d tossed in the back seat last night and dove into his lungs.

“Surveillance assignment?” A strand of dark brown hair escaped from over her shoulder as she surveyed the contents of the vehicle.

Payton tightened his hold around the steering wheel. “Another case.” He didn’t have the energy to elaborate more than that after reviewing three individual serial cases until early this morning. Serial cases that’d connected a few months ago. Three killers. Three different MOs. One goal. His work with Special Agent January Reese and her partner two months ago had changed everything, but the criminologist’s promotion to the Violent Crime Unit’s specialized task force and her instruction to keep the investigation need-to-know trumped Payton’s urge to explain.

“I imagine your commitment to your work makes it hard to relax.” Mallory directed her attention out the window. “As a detective, you’re compelled to search for and ask questions, to the point your investigations constantly bleed into your personal life.”

Silence pressurized the air in his lungs. It thickened until his mouth parted to fill the void, and he was immediately reminded of Mallory’s chosen profession. Despite her debate skills, she’d rejected the family business and set out to heal the world one brain at a time. Therapists trained to become comfortable with silence, to let their patients do the talking. But he wasn’t one of her patients, and they weren’t partners. This was a temporary arrangement to gauge the possibility of homicide in her father’s case and a connection to the investigation from this morning. He couldn’t forget that. “I’d have to have a personal life for that to happen.”

He maneuvered onto Bell Street and headed southeast. The address Mallory had surrendered listed Kiera Hood’s condo in Belltown, the downtown artist hub mere blocks from Puget Sound. The scent of salt and algae breached the vehicle as he spotted the condo complex and pulled into one of the angled street spots beside the building. He unburied his phone, verifying the address and the rental unit through his access to DMV records. “She’s on the fourth floor in the first building.”

“Nice neighborhood.” Mallory shouldered out of the vehicle and slammed the door behind her. “I looked at these units a couple years ago. A little out of the range of a corporate public affairs consultant.”

The staggered orange and gray modern architecture of the building surrounded an impressive courtyard perfectly landscaped and pruned. Waist-high hedges mazed around a single mature tree in the center with several blossom trees peppering the design. They targeted the stairs and hiked four flights to the top floor.

“This is an unofficial inquiry into a closed case. Until we have something to prove your father and the woman from this morning were murdered, let me do the talking.” He rapped the side of his fist against the door.

Mallory took a step back. “Careful, Detective. Your control issues are showing.”

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