Page 68 of Spark
“Until about ten hours ago,” Maxwell said, sitting back in his chair to look at Chloe from across the conference room table.“Frankie has been working a string of heroin cases on Vice, trying to take down a mid-level dealer.Her unit did a raid of about half a dozen residences late last night belonging to a bunch of known associates.One of them was a condo in the Metropolitan belonging to a woman named Amanda Walters.”
“Okay,” Chloe said slowly, trying to connect the dots between this woman’s seriously expensive digs and the man Esme had watched stab someone to death.“What does she have to do with Leo Navarro?”
“Personally?Nada,” Addison said.“But her roommate, Paisley Johannes, has a lot to do with him.”An image of a supermodel-gorgeous brunette flashed over the screen, followed quickly by a less flattering mugshot of the same woman.“While Amanda was one of the original suspects in the heroin ring—super guilty, by the way, if the stash Vice grabbed from her place last night is any indicator—the search turned up something far more interesting in Paisley’s room.”
A few keystrokes from Capelli had an image of the dagger in a clear plastic evidence bag on the screen, and oh, God.“Is that…”
“Oh, yeah,” Addison said, her blond ponytail swinging with her nod.“Turns out, Paisley is the hostess at Leo Navarro’s restaurant.They’ve also been seeing each other for a few months.A couple of weeks ago, he asked her to hang onto something for him and handed over the dagger, wrapped in linen cloth.He told her not to show it to anyone.Smartly, she didn’t ask any questions.According to her, she never even looked at it to know what it was.”
“But as soon as it was logged into evidence in last night’s search, Frankie recognized it and called me,” Maxwell said.“It took Paisley all of fifteen seconds to come out with the truth once Frankie told her she’d face murder charges if she didn’t start talking.”
Chloe made a mental note to send Frankie a double batch of peanut butter fudge—her favorite—as soon as she walked out of the building.“So, what does this mean, exactly?”
“The dagger was wiped clean of visible blood and all fingerprints,” Capelli said, an image of a forensic report replacing the one of the dagger on the screen.“But further analysis of the handle yielded traces of blood that were missed when the weapon was wiped down.The blood is Brinkman’s.This is definitely the murder weapon, and with Paisley’s testimony, we can prove Leo Navarro gave it to her a few days after the murder.With Brinkman’s blood on it.”
“Where does this put Esme?”Tom asked, voicing the question Chloe’s shock hadn’t let her form.
Tara’s frown wasn’t encouraging.“On the stand, unfortunately.If we had Navarro’s DNA from the crime scene, it might be another story.But Phil Constantine is a shark.He’ll do everything he can to create doubt about the dagger, and the chain of custody on itisa little iffy.I’m going to need Esme’s testimony if we have any hope of putting him away for Brinkman’s murder.”
Chloe had known from the beginning that Esme would almost certainly have to testify for this case to proceed, and yet, somehow, here she was, still wanting to throw up at the thought.“How would that work, exactly?”
“The first step is getting the arrest warrant,” Tara said.“Given this new evidence, that won’t be a problem, but I’ll need to disclose Esme as a witness to make the charges stick.”
The words knifed through Chloe’s chest.“You know what this guy is capable of,” she blurted.
But Tara was already shaking her head.“And that’s why we’re going to protect her.Given that Esme is a minor, and in the foster care system, and the factsomeoneviolently destroyed crucial evidence from the crime scene, I’ll petition a judge to sign off on not disclosing her identity for the sake of her safety.She’ll have to be named in the protected database as a witness and meet with the judge face-to-face.That, I can’t help.”Tara held up her hands.“But she’ll give her testimony from the judge’s chambers during the trial, and we’ll disguise both her appearance and her voice.Navarro’s lawyer will get to ask her questions, too, even though he’ll be in the courtroom and she won’t.That’s another thing that can’t be helped.But no one will know who she is, before, during, or after the trial.”
“The RPD database is behind a series of firewalls, of course,” Capelli added matter-of-factly.“But I’ll set up a few extra precautions to ensure that access to this case is monitored and extremely limited.No one will get to the information without authorization.”
Chloe gave him a grateful look before turning toward Tom, who nodded slowly.“Those all sound like reasonable safety measures.I’m assuming you want to proceed as soon as possible?”
“We do,” Tara said.“The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can take Navarro down for good.”
Forcing her voice not to shake, Chloe said, “Okay.Then let’s tell her what’s going on.”
In an effort not to overwhelm Esme entirely, Chloe, Tara, Addison, and Tom headed to Tara’s office while the rest of the team proceeded with what Chloe could only imagine was going to be about fifty kilotons of paperwork to move the case forward.Esme sat between Tyler and Xander on a couch to the side of Tara’s desk, the heel of one Converse sneaker bouncing up and down as Tyler said something to her softly that made her nod.All three of them looked up quickly as soon as the door opened, and Chloe’s heart lurched at the worry etched all over Esme’s face.
Xander stood, exchanging a glance with his wife that conveyed a thousand things even though it only lasted for a second.“I’ll head back to the conference room,” he murmured to Tara, who murmured back a “thank you” that made her gratitude—and her love for him—plain.Addison and Tom settled into the two chairs across from Tara’s desk, and Chloe met Tyler’s eyes for a shot of calm she knew she’d need before taking Xander’s place next to Esme.
“Hey.Sorry that took a while.I know you’ve got a lot of questions.We had to sort through some things before we could figure out how to move forward.”
“The DNA is wrecked, isn’t it?”Esme asked, swinging a look at Tyler a second later.“Sorry.I know you said everyone’s on my side, and I know you kind of are.I just…”
“You deserve to know,” Chloe said evenly, “and I wish it were better news, but yes, the DNA was destroyed by the fire.”
It took patience she didn’t know she possessed until that very moment, but Chloe stayed silent for a beat to let the truth sink in, to let Esme feel that same gut-punch of emotion that she’d felt not even twenty minutes ago when she’d gotten the news herself, to let Tyler process it, too.
Esme reacted first, her eyes wide and her face ashen.“So, what does that mean?The proof is just gone?He gets away with murder?”
“No,” Chloe said, emphatically enough to keep Esme listening.“I mean, yes, the DNA from the crime scene is gone.But no, Leo Navarro isn’t getting away with murder.”She looked at Addison, then Tara.“The results from the forensic analysis aren’t the only development in the case, but I think Detective Hale and A.D.A.Kingston-Matthews can explain it a bit better than I can.Okay?”
Esme bit her lip, her shoulders a rigid line that said her defenses were about to lock into place so she could shut everyone and everything out, and even though it was a massive risk, Chloe let her feelings fly.
“I know you’re scared, Esme.I’m scared, too.But I’m right here with you and I won’t leave unless you ask me to.No matter what happens.I promise.”She held out her hand, surprised to find it perfectly steady.
Not nearly as surprised, though, as when Esme gave up a tiny, broken nod.Although she didn’t go for the full hand-hold, she edged her fingers closer to Chloe’s, her pinky finger making the slightest contact with Chloe’s thumb, and it wasn’t just enough.It felt like everything.
“Okay,” Esme whispered.“What happens now?”
