Page 36 of Craving Vengeance
Spinelli shrugged. “Somewhere around my age. 32 or so.”
“She’s the right age. Maybe she knew Meyers. Maybe she kept in touch, or maybe she knows who he may have kept in touch with,” Walker commented as he stepped closer to the crime board. “You know, it’s just too coincidental that Meyers returned home on the day of all these murders and then gets murdered himself.”
“And murdered wearing a cupid outfit,” Marsh added. “Could he have been double crossed?”
“What do you mean?” Spinelli asked.
“I mean, was he partially responsible for the murders of Carter, Rosso, and Williams, and then got murdered himself because the plan went bad or the orchestrator of the plan wanted to tie up loose ends?”
“It’s as good a theory as any right now.”
Spinelli pulled his cell phone from his hip and tapped the screen.
“Who are you calling?” Marsh asked.
“Bethany.”
Marsh glanced at his watch. “It’s after 10:00, you know. We could just pick this back up in the morning.”
“Do you have someplace important to be?”
Marsh shook his head and shifted his eyes to Walker. “No, I don’t, but maybe other people do.”
“You got that right,” Captain Jackson blurted as she walked up to the crime board. “I’d rather be at home, but I’ve got the Mayor breathing down my neck over this cupid case. The media is having a field day over the murders and our lack of response.” She shifted her annoyed gaze to Spinelli, pinning him in place. A shiver ran up his spine. Her small frame never kept her from showing who was in charge and demanding the utmost respect. She perched her hands on her narrow hips. Her nostrils flared with each breath she took. “So what do we have here, Spinelli?”
Spinelli glanced at his phone screen. His call to Bethany went to voicemail. He looked up to find all eyes on him. “She’s not answering.”
“And you’re surprised by that why?” Marsh asked as he chuckled. “The woman despises you,” he assured Spinelli as if hadn’t already had a clue.
The impatient tapping of Jackson’s foot drew Spinelli’s attention. “What?”
“I asked you a question? Where are you guys at with the cupid case?”
Spinelli’s gaze shifted to the crime board, then back to Jackson. He sighed heavily. “We don’t have anything other than the fact they were all poisoned by cyanide ingestion. We’ve just now linked the first three cupids together, but not the fourth.” He glanced back at his phone. “And just now I was trying to contact Bethany. She may be able to shed some light on Meyers, the fourth Cupid, and perhaps help us link him to the other three, but she didn’t answer her phone.”
“Our Bethany? The pathologist?” Jackson asked as her head snapped in Marsh’s direction. She shot him a scowl. “Is that who you were talking about when I walked up?”
Marsh nodded.
“Well, that doesn’t make any sense at all,” Jackson added as she turned her attention back to Spinelli.
“Why does that surprise you? I thought every Tom, Dick, and Harry knew how she felt about me,” Spinelli stated as he avoided making any sort of eye contact with Shannon at this point. He wondered why he felt guilty as they talked about his old girlfriend, especially since he’d caught Shannon kissing one of her old flames earlier.
Jackson pointed at the heart-shaped box of chocolates on his desk. “She dropped that off for you a couple of hours ago. Right before I left to go home. She seemed all cheery at that time.”
All eyes shifted to the box of chocolates.
Spinelli stepped over to his desk and lifted the lid. They looked like normal chocolates. Everyone else hovered around the desk and leaned in.
“Bethany?” he whispered.
“I’ll get them to the lab,” Walker said as he gloved his hand and gingerly took the lid from Spinelli.
Jackson cleared her throat. “Okay, but it will take several days at best to get the results.”
She flashed Spinelli a sympathetic look. He shifted his gaze to his feet. God how he hated the sympathetic look. He’d received it too many times as a child. Every time he entered a new foster home, the foster parents flashed him the same look he’d just received from Jackson. If he never saw that sympathetic look again, it would be too soon. Was he that pathetic?
“I’ll send a black and white to Bethany’s house. We’ll bring her in for questioning,” Jackson added.
