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“Nothing new. Got a few leads. I’m waiting on a warrant to access a safe deposit box Williams has to see if that gives me anything.”
“That’s it? It’s almost been a week. We need to get an arrest on the books. Our UCR stats haven’t been that great over the past few months.”
After twenty-plus years of referencing UCR, Uniform Crime Reporting, Captain rarely acknowledged NIBRS, National Incident-Based Reporting System. However, he didn’t have to because, much like himself, his colleagues were programmed to use specific metrics.
“There’s not much to go on at this point. I’m going to dig a little deeper into Williams to see if . . .”
“None of that is relevant to the case, Davis. We need an arrest, and going on some witch hunt isn’t going to get us there any faster.”
“I’d be more than happy to bring Evans in, but considering we don’t have a weapon, DNA, or solid evidence that ties her to the crime scene, nor would anyone around here appreciate me hauling her ass back in here with an official charge, digging into Williams is the best lead I have right now.”
Davis had gone over the fine details of Cassidy Evans’s life. Nothing was out of place or suspicious. Sure, her husband was living an alternate life and cheating, albeit still unconfirmed, but that wasn’t nearly enough to get a conviction. The DA would hand him his ass if he presented a case against Evans seconds before they laughed him right out of their office.
“Well, if Cass is clean, you need to figure out who had a motive to kill the guy. If he’s living a double life, then he had to have pissed off somebody. You don’t have anything?”
“Not yet, but as I said, I’m looking a little deeper into Williams’s life and trying to understand why neither name goes back any further than eight years. Both are clean. No criminal history, not so much as a traffic ticket. You don’t recreate yourself if you’re a standup kind of guy. There’s something there. I just need to figure out what the hell it is.”
Captain leaned back in his chair, brushing a palm down his face. “Yeah, you do, and you need to light a fire under your ass. Maybe I should put someone else with you to speed this thing up. Make sure the case is moving in the proper direction.”
Captain’s heated glare fastened to Davis’s with a warning. Get something solid, or Davis would be assigned a partner on his case regardless of whether he liked it.
“I don’t need someone else getting in my way. Let me do what I do, Captain. Rushing creates mistakes, and I’m sure you’d much rather not travel down that road again.”
Captain offered a stiff nod. “See what you can find about Williams, but if nothing comes up, you need to figure out something else. We need a solid arrest on the books.”
“And if that arrest is Cassidy Evans?”
Davis knew everyone here wanted her to be clean on the murder of her husband. Hell, he even wanted to pin the shooting on someone else. The woman deserved vindication, considering her husband had played her, but a small part of Davis believed Cassidy had already played judge and jury.
Nothing like a woman scorned.
“Is there anything pointing to her?”
“Not at the moment, but my gut is telling me something isn’t right. I can’t say for certain she did this, but things aren’t piecing together properly with the woman.”
“I expect you to handle this case like you would any other, but if you put this on Cass, you had damn well better have iron-clad evidence, or you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of a complicated situation.”
“Is that a threat, Captain?”
“No. Just offering a reminder that if this investigation leads you that way, make sure what you have is solid before you go tossing out charges, especially if you’re charging Cassidy Evans.”
“I know better than to compromise myself or this precinct, Captain. If you don’t trust that, then put someone else on the case. Until then, I will handle this how I see fit.”
Davis delivered a warning of his own, which he felt the captain didn’t appreciate. When it came to the job, Davis never allowed his personal feelings to cloud how he handled a case. Apparently, their captain needed to adopt the same policy. “I’ve got work to do, so if that’s all . . .”
Captain offered a sigh paired with a tight nod. “That’s all, but keep me updated.”
“Yeah.”
Davis walked back to his desk and plopped down in his chair, staring blankly at his computer screen while he drummed his fingers atop the case file for the Williams murder. So many things didn’t add up, but none of those loose ends got him any closer to finding out who had murdered Williams.
He flipped open the file and began shifting through what he had so far. A bunch of nothing. Witness statements, eighteen to be exact, with no solid details about the guy. After doing a little door-to-door on the third floor where Williams’s apartment was located, all of his neighbors gave various stories with the same details. Nice guy, kept to himself, seen with several different women. They could not provide any reliable information other than the women were attractive.
Cassidy was attractive. Beautiful even. Had she been one of those women? Was she lying about knowledge of the apartment or her husband’s alternate life? Davis shifted his attention once again, annoyed to be thinking about Cassidy as more than a suspect.
Refocusing, he circled back to the details he could rely on. Williams’s apartment was clean. No DNA or prints other than his own. He was careful about covering his tracks. He was the type of man who didn’t want to leave anything behind that could connect him to anyone with valuable information about who he was and what he was up to. Not even the rental office could say anything about Williams other than that he’d paid for the apartment a year in advance with a cashier’s check.
Thinking of the bank, Davis leaned forward to lift the phone to check on his only hindrance. He’d reached a dead end with finding anything crucial on Anderson or Williams to aid his case, which was frustrating as hell. One man and two identities, neither of which had ties to anyone or anything other than . . .
