Page 3 of No Time for Doubt
The age-old question rolled through his mind while Cade walked the house, looking for anything that would add or detract from the theory.
He couldn’t be sure what had happened until they found the wife to corroborate the story.“So, you stayed at the office.”
“Yes.”The man was testy.“It happens when we’re busy.”He plucked at his wrinkled shirt.“Happens more often when my wife picks a fight.”On a sigh, he added.“I called first thing this morning to apologize.When she didn’t answer, I cancelled my morning meetings and came home.To this.”
Standing beside the husband, Cade used his pen to gesture to the room.“Must’ve been a shock walking in on this.”
Daniel nodded.“Yes.As I’ve said, the door was open.”
“Open or unlocked?”
“Both!”He closed his eyes, took a breath.“I apologize, it’s just too much.Can’t you please do something, take someaction, to find my wife?”
The desperation sounded sincere, but something in Cade’s gut wouldn’t accept it at face value.“Do you have somewhere else to stay while we handle the scene?”
“The scene?”Daniel echoed.He scrubbed at the stubble shading his jaw.“Yes, of course.I’ll be at the office.”
The man was a classic workaholic and Cade knew better than to offer his opinion on the decision.His own girlfriend would stick him with the same label.He tried to find that elusive work-life balance, yet here he was, knee-deep in the case on his day off.
After verifying the contact information, Cade cut the husband loose.“Someone will reach out when you can come back into the house.”
“Great.”
“Wait.One more thing.”Cade stopped him at the front door.“Does your wife have someone she might stay with?Maybe a place she goes to cool down after an argument?”
“Of course.”Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket.“She spends plenty of time at her favorite spa.Damned expensive spa,” he groused under his breath.“She has a couple of friends nearby.”He gave the names, but didn’t have any other contact information.
Cade noted that Daniel didn’t think the friends were in the neighborhood.
His mind kept returning to the wife’s missing car.The department had issued a city-wide BOLO and Cade extended that be-on-the-lookout for the state.Maybe the wife had hit her limit.Packed up and left the man who spent too much time at his office, with his work.
Cade made himself a note to look for a mistress.Work was often an easy excuse for an affair.
With the forensics effort focused on the main room, where anyone would think a battle royale had gone down, Cade wondered why no one called in the fight itself.Looking through the front windows and out into the neighborhood, he shook his head.“Someone would’ve heard something,” he grumbled.
“Maybe the wife trashed the place to set up the husband?”an officer suggested.
Definitely possible.“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Cade allowed.“Has anyone been upstairs?Did we walk the husband through to see if anything’s missing?”
“Far as I know, just the wife’s friend.Husband said everything is here.Luggage, her belongings—”
Cade stopped, one foot on the first step.“What friend?”
Whatever the officer might have said was lost as Cade stormed up the stairs.He paused at the second floor, then followed the sound of a voice.Female, and not speaking in the cadence of a police officer.
“What the hell?”he demanded when he reached the main bedroom.“Who are you?”
A woman stood near the bed with a phone to her ear.Her black hair was tied back, the long tail a stark contrast against the ivory sweater.She turned, and her gaze struck him like a punch.The shock of her pissed him off.She wasn’t a cop he had ever seen.No way he’d forget those deep eyes.
His gaze skated over her, head to toe.High-end clothing, no sign of a badge.If she was new to the department he hadn’t been introduced.Whoever she was, this wasn’t her case.
“Who the hell are you?”he barked.“Put that phone away.This is a crime scene.”
“Got to go,” she said to whoever was on the other end of that call.She paused, her eyes on him.“We’ll see.”Lowering the phone, she slid the device into her pocket, as if she had all the time in the world.
The relaxed move, so damn confident, pissed him off more.
“Identification,” he snapped.“Now.”
