Page 51 of Whispers Left Behind
Alex had caught sight of Shane at the bar with some members from Vice. They had acknowledged one another, but neither had taken the time for an in-depth conversation.
“Congratulations on the promotion,” Alex said after shaking the man’s hand. “I had no idea you wanted to leave Vice.”
Shane’s record spoke for itself, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that the man would want a coveted position in homicide. Undercover work could take a toll on a person, though the same could be said for dealing with death every day.
“It was time for a change.” Shane glanced down at Alex’s tie. “Guess I’ll be brushing off my suits. Jeans and a tee probably won’t cut it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Alex said as he gestured toward one of the desks against the far wall. “Crosby has already told the captain that the department would have to pull his jeans off his dead body before he would resort to suits.”
“Crosby is also five years away from retirement and a lot higher on the seniority ladder,” Shane said wryly as he leaned forward and reached for his mouse. He pressed down with a click, and it wasn’t long before a swooshing sound came from the built-in speakers. His email to HR had been sent, and he proceeded to shut down his computer. “I’d rather be on the horizontal ladder, so it looks as if I’ll be shopping this week. Two suits won’t cut it.”
Alex didn’t find it odd in the least that neither one of them had brought up Kinsley. While he had been privy to their relationship, they hadn’t flaunted it around the station. Given that their brief hookup had ended a year ago, it probably wasn’t on anyone’s mind.
Kinsley had broken things off between them right around the time she had been dealing with the fallout from the Gantz trial. He recalled her mentioning how the two of them were complete opposites. Shane was military, and everything had its place. Kinsley, on the other hand, was like a tornado within a hurricane. Regardless, he would always have her back.
“Congrats again,” Alex said as he glanced toward his glowing monitor. “I need to review some footage from our vic’s neighborhood. Neighbors sent over their security feeds.”
“Good luck with that. Like I said, I doubt Haugen and I will be in tomorrow.” Shane grabbed his leather jacket off the back of his chair. “I’ll see you Monday.”
Shane headed in the direction of the stairwell. He was about eight to ten years younger than Alex. The thought of walking up or down four flights of stairs after hitting the gym this morning for the first time in months had him grimacing in pain. Maybe in a week or two after getting back into his workout regimen, he could use the stairs with ease.
Alex closed the distance to his desk and settled into his chair. The wheels protested slightly, but he leaned back after starting the software program one of the techs had uploaded the footage to earlier today. He sought out the length of time at the bottom of the screen. To his surprise, he had been way off on his calculation.
He had been given four hours of footage to review, collected from four different houses that had a view of the Hanson residence. The only thing he could gather from the short clips was that they must have received numerous postal deliveries over the past few months. Another possibility was that their frequent yardwork toward the end of summer had triggered their security systems.
Alex sighed and settled back in his chair while the footage played, all the while keeping his gaze trained on theHanson driveway. Besides delivery drivers coming and going, homeowners collecting said packages, and friends visiting at all hours, nothing unusual could be spotted across the street. It was a mundane, almost painfully ordinary parade of everyday life in the suburbs. The dates and times scrolled past in a blur as he cataloged which neighbor's security camera had captured what and when.
He had almost finished with his second cup of coffee by the time he had completely gone through one neighbor’s footage. He weighed the pros and cons of starting the second of the four security systems. The clips were labeled as Deborah Welling. Leave it to her to supply the entire year’s worth of footage from her doorbell camera.
Alex decided to stream the footage for another half hour. He didn’t bother with more coffee. The video played on without interruption, and before too long, winter had turned into spring. As the snow melted and the grass turned green, colorful flowers began to bloom as time passed…and with it, something else entirely that provided Alex and Kinsley with a completely different motive.
Amidst the monotony of everyday life, Sebastian Hanson could be observed leaning casually against a vehicle parked just within the frame. He was holding a woman’s hands as they spoke with one another, but there was an intimacy that couldn’t be ignored.
Alex glanced down at the timestamp.
The recording was from over six months ago in April.
He focused on the couple, noting how they glanced across the street as a delivery driver left a package for Deborah Welling. As if the man’s presence wasn’t a threat, the couple went back to their conversation. The gentleness with which Sebastian lifted the woman’s hands was evident. She even laughed as he kissedher knuckles. It wasn’t long afterward that the doorbell camera stopped recording.
The following spliced video occurred five hours later when Welling’s presence activated her doorbell camera. As the woman could be seen picking up her package, the couple and the vehicle across the street were no longer there.
Alex rewound the footage until he had the couple frozen in the frame. He zoomed in on the woman’s face. Sebastian Hanson hadn’t been speaking to his wife or kissing her knuckles. Hanson had been having an affair with Rachel’s best friend—Gia Torres.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kinsley Aspen
October
Friday — 8:47 am
Kinsley wrestled with thestubborn seatbelt of the unmarked cruiser. She had been searching underneath her seat for the source of the pungent odor that had triggered her gag reflex. She grimaced, half-expecting to unearth an old tofu container left by Haugen. She found nothing but crumpled napkins and a pen that probably didn’t work.
“Haugen swiped our usual car, didn’t he?” Kinsley asked, not bothering to hide her disgust. She finally managed to unfastenher seatbelt before opening her car door. “He had to have left his mother-in-law’s tofu in here at some point. After we speak with Torres, we’re taking this cruiser right back to the station to be detailed. Disgusting.”
“Actually, it was Levick who signed out our car.” Alex had parked the cruiser along the tree-lined streets of Gia Torres’ neighborhood. “He and Haugen had their requalification at the range today.”
Kinsley refrained from stringing together several expletives. She recalled complaining to Shane several times about Haugen. The man’s penchant for odd-smelling foods was close to some freakish fetish. She never would have thought such hearsay would come back to bite her in the ass.
