Page 32 of Red Snow
Detective Jarrod Granger
WHEN I WALKinto HQ, through the gaggle of uniforms and detectives, I see Marcus in our media room. He’s seated in a chair with his eyes glued to the screen, and standing behind him is Sergeant Danielle Howell. She has her hands on his shoulders like she’s giving him a massage, even though she supposedly has a boyfriend and Marcus obviously has Yolanda. She’s wearing a white button-up with a brown skirt that’s much tighter than it needs to be, and her brown hair is sexier than necessary. I mean, I’m all for feminism, I suppose, and a woman should be able to wear what she wants, but this shit is obviously over the top.
I brush it off as I weave through the crowd, ignoring glares from the world’s biggest hater, Detective Chavis, until I walk through the doorway behind Danielle. I admit it, I totally stare at her ass when I walk in, and when she turns around and sees me, I can tell she knows.
“Nice of you to join us, Detective Granger,” she says with a you-were-totally-staring-at-my-ass grin on her lips.
“Yeah, what do we got?” I ask, ignoring the sergeant and her fuck me eyes.
Marcus doesn’t turn around, keeping his eyes glued to the screen that’s obviously the inside of Chilkoot Charlie’s. “You’re here, good. Come check this out.”
Marcus grabs the remote and rewinds the video for about fifteen seconds. On the screen, I see a bunch of people crowded around the bar. Most of them are ordering drinks from the tall bartender, but some of them are just sitting there with drinks in front of them, having conversations. I lean in and look closer, because I’m sure I can see someone who resembles the head we found in front of the school.
“Is that her?” I ask, pointing at the screen.
“Sure is,” Marcus answers.
“She’s alone,” I say, thinking out loud as I pull up a chair and sit down next to my partner.
“Yeah, but not for long,” Marcus replies.
Right on cue, a chubby, smooth-faced man sits down at the bar. He’s wearing a blue flannel shirt and thick glasses, and when he orders a drink, it’s obvious he knows the bartender. The two of them say hello to each other, and even though the video doesn’t have any sound, it’s obvious they’re friends or at least acquaintances, because they shake hands and smile. The slender bartender makes the guy’s drink and doesn’t even seems to charge him for it. After only two or three minutes, Brenda Cox, wearing a red and black flannel shirt and short bob haircut, gets up from her seat and moves down two spots to sit next to the man.
“There we go,” I say to myself. “Is this what you wanted me to see?”
“Not quite,” Marcus says, picking up the remote again and fast forwarding. He speeds past about thirty minutes of lapse time on the video, and when he finally stops, Brenda Cox is alone.
“Hey, wait,” I jump in. “What are you doing? Where’d the guy go?”
“Relax your balls, Jarrod,” Danielle chimes in from behind me. I don’t bother looking back at her as she speaks. “He shot her down. They talk for about ten minutes, well, she talks to him. They laugh and smile a bit, but then the guy gets up and walks away. He’s friendly enough about it, but he leaves her there by herself. But she isn’t alone for long.”
Not even a second after Danielle’s synopsis, we see Brenda get up from her seat and walk to the corner of the bar, where another man is sitting all by himself. This guy is pretty good-looking, with sharp facial features and thick, wavy brown hair. He’s about six-foot, maybe six-one—hard to tell since he’s sitting down—and he carries thick shoulders on his burly frame. Brenda is all over the guy, leaning on him and smiling from ear to ear. This one’s not as friendly as the previous guy. He looks put off by her aggressiveness, although he’s obviously trying to be nice about it.
“Geez, looks like she’s trying to fuck him right there at the bar,” I say, shocked at Brenda’s aggression.
“Can’t say I blame her,” Danielle says with a shrug. “He’s gorgeous.”
Marcus and I glance at each other, but neither of us says anything. On the screen, we see Brenda—who I have to force myself to remember was married—rubbing this guy’s arms like she’s admiring the size. The guy still looks dejected, but after a minute, he starts talking to her like he’s loosening up, but before we can really see anything worthwhile, Marcus starts fast forwarding again.”
“Dude, what the fuck?” I snap.
“They talk for a while longer, but eventually she leaves him alone, and goes to talk to this guy,” Marcus says, stopping the video right as Brenda wraps her arms around another man standing next to the bar. This guy has friends with him, and he doesn’t look interested at all. Maybe it’s because his friends seem to be laughing at the obviously drunken cougar as she leans on the guy. I’m not sure if she’s leaning on him to flirt or if it’s because she really needs the support to stand up. Marcus doesn’t even have to fast forward this one, because the guy moves with his friends as they all wave goodbye to Brenda and leave her standing there alone. After ten seconds of standing there with a dejected look on her face, Brenda walks away from the bar and out of the picture.
“That’s it?” I ask, turning to face Marcus.
“We watched for a while longer and didn’t see her talking to anybody else. In fact, she doesn’t even come back into the view of the camera,” Marcus tells me as he stops the video.
“Alright, so we see her talking to three different guys in one night,” I say, thinking out loud again.
“Doesn’t mean one of them is the killer,” Marcus says.
“It also doesn’t mean one of them isn’t. We have to look into all of them,” I say, but Danielle is already a step ahead.
“Got you covered,” she says as she turns around and grabs three printouts from the table behind us. “These are zoomed-in printouts of the three guys we see talking to our victim on the tape. We don’t have identities on any of them, obviously, so that’s where you two come in. Head back to Koot’s and see if anybody there recognizes any of them. A good place to start would be with the bartender who was so friendly with our first guy.”
“Back to Koot’s, huh? Fuck,” I exclaim to Marcus’s delight.
“Yep, we gotta talk to your best friend, Jim, again,” he says behind a chuckle.
