embezzlement case practically closed their doors. Why do you think they brought in the Enforcer?”
Who? “You talking about the new monsignor?”
“Yes. The city loves this guy. How many times do I have to remind you not to screw with good press? Seems like you’d know that with your family background.”
Anything else Kirsten said at this point would not serve her purpose, but she wouldn’t budge another inch on this investigation. Cecelia could shove her ridiculous opinion where her head was obviously planted.
Kirsten’s cell phone rang, saving her from having to respond. She answered, “Massey.”
“Detective Turner, Philly PD. I’m at the morgue. Coroner found something odd on that body from Germantown – ”
She did not want to discuss this in front of Cecelia. “Excuse me, detective. Would you please hold on?” Kirsten cut him off and made a point of glancing at her watch. She had a morning full of interviews and meetings, but she wanted to find out what the detective knew about this case. Talking in front of Cecelia would only cause more problems. She pulled the phone back to her ear. “I’m in a meeting right now. Can I meet you there at 11:00?”
“Meet? Here?”
“Yes, I’ll meet you there.” She wanted Cecelia to think the call was about asking for a meeting and she could get more done on this case outside the office.
“ Fine .”
She flinched at Turner’s curt answer. Add him to the list of people she’d rubbed wrong today, but she’d smooth it over with Turner when she saw him.
“Something on the Germantown murder?” Hope for confirmation of a domestic killing curled in Cecelia’s voice.
“Possibly. Catch you up when I get back from the morgue.” Kirsten squashed the guilt fingering her neck over letting Cecelia think this would be positive news.
She’d done more than her share of stretching the truth since entering the investigative field, but she still felt the slap of a ruler on her hand from back in Catholic school.
If she were a good Catholic, she’d go to confession
No. If she were a good Catholic she’d have taken this position just to do the job and not for her own agenda – to find the truth behind a missing person.
Cecelia headed for the door. “Unless you receive indisputable evidence at the morgue that proves otherwise, this case is DV.”
Kirsten considered using the stack of files getting bent in her grip to beat some sense into this woman. Refusing to allow Cecelia’s threat to burn a hole in her control, Kirsten gave a noncommittal, “I understand.”
Once Cecelia disappeared down the hall, Kirsten headed to where she’d left her purse and coat with the receptionist outside the conference room. She took a minute to hook up her cell phone Bluetooth receiver on her way out of the building. She considered swinging by her office in Three Penn Square to pick up her emails, but that would run her late with meeting the detective she was already inconveniencing. Besides, he could catch her up on the case in person.
Her cell phone beeped with a call coming through on her way to the elevator. When she hit the receive button on her ear piece, she heard, “Hello, Kirsten?”
How had he gotten her cell phone number when she’d just changed it? “Hello, Dad.”
Chapter 6
Kirsten exited the elevator on the ground floor of City Hall, waiting to find out why her father was calling. What game would he play this time to get her to come home?
“I left messages for you.” Her father said that in his lecture tone, the one he used on employees who revered Theodore Massey.
They didn’t recognize it as the voice of a man who could be cold as the Grim Reaper when someone refused him.
Especially his daughter.
She hated how the Bluetooth earpiece made it feel like he was inside her head. Flexing her jaw to loosen her clenched teeth, she tried to sound civil to the man whose voice turned her stomach inside out. “No, your assistant left
London Casey, Ana W. Fawkes