Page 26 of Tough as Steele

Interview Wendy again. Keep investigating her past. Interview cook and housekeeper. Review men on Charles’s list. Forensics. Suspicious cars in the area. Alert on Mimi’s Lexus.

“Wendy gave me a list of business people that Mimi has had altercations with,” Londyn said. “We should add them to the list too, but honestly, I don’t know if we can trust anything she says.”

“We’ll just have to play it by ear.” He noted the info next to his item for Charles’s list.

“FYI,” Londyn said, “I also asked my sister Bristol to dig up the file on Charles. She’s with Multnomah County and has a detective getting the file from storage.”

Nate arched a brow. “What file?”

She ignored the fact that Nate looked dark and mysterious with his brow raised. “He has a record for assault from his twenties in Multnomah County. I want to see if he served time, and if he might have former cellmates he could contact to have Mimi abducted.”

“He has a record?” Nate added a note to the board. “I had no idea.”

“Could just be a fluke thing, like a bar fight or something like that.”

“We have to ignore who he is and evaluate the info as if he were anyone else.”

“Agreed. In fact, we need to do a deep dive on both Clarice and Charles,” Londyn suggested.

Nate turned to look at Londyn. At the anguish in his eyes, she wished she didn’t have to suggest such a personal thing, but it had to be done. And she was already thinking about asking Ryleigh to do that work and to look into Wendy too. Ryleigh had amazing computer skills and would do a better job than Londyn or Nate in digging up dirt.IfRyleigh had the time. A big if. With cybercrime on the rise, she worked long hours.

His gaze cleared. “That’s something you should do. I’m too close.”

Wow. Great response. He seemed to have iron control over his emotions and could put them aside when needed. Would she react the same way if someone close to her had to be investigated? She doubted it.

“You know their personalities though,” she said. “Tell me about them.”

He set down the marker and perched on the corner of Mimi’s elaborately engraved cherry desk. “Clarice is warm and loving. She has a big heart and is always ready to take care of the sick or hurting. She puts her faith into practice and it’s why she took me in.”

“What happened to your parents?” Londyn tapped a finger on her knee, wondering if he would share such a personal detail.

He sat for a moment. Staring beyond her. Then shook his head and met her gaze. “My dad died in Afghanistan when I was fourteen. My mom didn’t work. As a military family, we moved frequently, and with my dad being deployed at lot, she was the one who took care of everything. But when Dad died, I learned we had very little in savings. She did her best to find work, but she started drinking heavily and kept losing her jobs.”

He was reciting the details like reviewing case notes, not having lived the experience. Londyn didn’t know how he could be so dispassionate over such an emotional topic, but perhaps his years in law enforcement taught him how to bury emotions. She’d seen it often enough.

He shifted on the desk but kept hold of her gaze. “Then Mom hooked up with this guy she met in a bar. He was bad news—heavy drinker who took my mom on way too many binges. We lost our apartment due to the drinking, and this guy let us move in with him. Wasn’t long before he started abusing her, and I got her out of there.”

That put a crack in his voice, but he raised his shoulders and continued. “Problem was, that left us homeless. She got a job cleaning a large office building at night. She found a spot in the basement that no one visited, and we lived there. Until someone reported us. She lost her job again. Started drinking again. I wanted her to get help for the drinking and to find a shelter we could stay in. She refused the shelter. She said she couldn’t risk being in the system and someone taking me away from her because of her issues. So we argued. She took off. Went to find the abuser. He picked her up. He was drunk. Crashed the car, and she was killed. It was the day before my sixteenth birthday.”

Londyn thought to reach out and touch his arm but held back. “I’m so sorry for your losses. You suffered so much at a young age.”

“I guess, but that’s when God brought Clarice into my life and things got better. I was bitter, blaming myself for my mom’s death. Took it out on Clarice and lashed out at her all the time. And she just took it and told me that I was going through a really rough patch, and she knew I didn’t mean to be that way. That she loved me and nothing I said would change that. Just like God’s love for me. Nothing would change that, and He would be with me always.”

He shifted on the desk and shook his head. “I didn’t even know who God was. Not until I saw that she could be so calm and serene when I’d hurt her so badly. It was as if she turned her face and let me slap her over and over with my words. I’m ashamed of how I behaved, but my faith came from that year after my mom died, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Out of great sorrow came great faith.”

Londyn didn’t often take the time to appreciate her upbringing with a strong family and faith from her childhood on. She needed to do a better job of that. “Clarice sounds like an amazing woman.”

“She is. And I strive to be like her, but I fail all the time. Especially on the job. It’s hard to offer the other cheek when someone just spit on the first one.”

“I hear you on that. Thankfully, as a detective, that doesn’t happen like it did when I was on patrol.” She offered him a friendly smile. “And what about Charles?”

Her phone chimed, and she held up a finger. “Hold that thought.”

She read the text from Ryleigh.Working on the videos. Should have something to you within the hour.

Thank you, she typed and stowed her phone. “Text was from my cousin Ryleigh who’s an FBI agent.”

“Whoa.” Nate frowned and came to his feet. “It’s way too early to bring them in on this investigation.”

---