White Night

Chapter 48

Connors fought through the last of the lunchtime traffic as she and Ross made their way to Nikolai's home to assist in the execution of the search warrant. It was their best chance at finding something, anything to get a break on this case. The weapons charge had been enough for the warrant, and Banner was already there with a team of officers. Ross stared straight ahead. He hadn't looked her in the eye since his PTSD confession.

Nikolai's house was surprisingly plain for a mobster's house but close to the businesses he terrorized. Located in Williamsburg, one of the nicest areas of Brooklyn, it was still more than the average person could afford, including her.

As they entered the house, a pretty woman with brunette hair sat on the couch, a small child pulled close to her. Ross smiled at the girl, who smiled back and waved her tiny fingers. Dressed in her little snowman costume, she was too cute for words. Pretty brown curls waved over her shoulders and she had her mother's dark green eyes, eyes that were glaring fearfully at both of them as she pulled her child closer.

She must've known who Nikolai was, but this was no hardened mob wife with big hair and bigger nails. Pretty but pale, with small, fierce features and sharp eyes, she clearly wasn't used to cops tramping through her house. She'd been lucky so far; Nikolai had avoided most of the heat that came with his lifestyle, thanks to the Romanos.

"You started upstairs yet?" Connors asked Banner.

"Yeah, just started, but we're open to help." He grinned.

The house was old but had been well restored. High wooden baseboards, ornate plaster moldings, and plush area rugs spoke to its owner's wealth. No one in her department could afford this place, except her partner.

She travelled carefully up the stairs. Her leg had already taken more than it could over the last few days and complained softly at each step.

At the top of the stairs, it was easy to identify the child's bedroom. Plastic toys were stacked in shelves around the room and several stuffed toys sat on her neatly made bed. Nikolai ran a tight ship.

The parents' bedroom was further along the hall. They would start there. Pulling on her gloves, Connors started to look through the nightstand. The top drawer held several watches, a ring, and a passport. The bottom drawer was empty except for a paper liner with rust-colored watermarks dotted over its floral pattern. The color was familiar, but with no scent to it, only the lab could tell her what it was.

"Can you get this checked?" she asked the officer in the room and slipped the paper liner into an evidence bag.

Ross rifled through the tall cupboard as she took the dresser. There had to be something to connect Nikolai to Weston or White Night.

"There's something here," Ross said, stretching tall into the closet in the wall.

He pulled out a plain silver case and flicked the clasps open to reveal two black revolver barrels nestled into yellow felt. A small tool and piece of paper were nestled in their own sections in the case, along with a spare wooden grip and a metal plate with the words Daniel Wesson Arms stamped onto it.

"Two barrels are missing," she said.

Ross nodded gravely as they looked at the two open spaces. Only a snub-nose barrel and the longest barrel remained in the case.

One of the missing two would be the barrel on Nikolai's gun. The other would be hidden or disposed of. It explained the ballistics report. He'd changed the damn barrel. The pang of guilt at suspecting Ross again returned to her gut, but she buried it. She didn't have the luxury of a conscience, not with less than twenty-four hours until White Night.