"Shouldn't be long," the geezer said.
Something in his tone set Lucie's teeth clattering. She cocked her head, studying his body language, the emotionless stare of a man who'd been working homicide too long.
Lucie strode to the door, swung it open, and peeped outside. No Willie. Okay. She wouldn't panic. She met her best friend's eyes as Ro walked toward her. The younger detective checked out Ro's recently acquired ample bottom.
"Hey!" Lucie grabbed both men’s attention, jabbing two fingers at her eyes. "Eyes up. Do you even know who she is?"
And, dear God, what was she doing? For years Joey had used that “Do you know who I am?” line on people.
Before today, Lucie hated it. After all, wasn't the legend of Joe Rizzo the thing she'd been running from her entire life?
"Luce," Ro said, "call Joey. Tell him where I am."
"Don't you worry. We'll be down there." She exchanged a look with the geezer. "Waiting for you to come out."
"Thanks, Luce. I love you."
"I love you too. But, for the love of God, don't say anything. Not one thing until Willie gets there."
"This I didn't see coming," Dad said.
He sat back on the wooden bench in the police station lobby and crossed his arms, his gaze following Lucie as she paced. She reached the entrance, swiveled, and started another lap. How long did they intend to keep Ro in there?
“Me neither, Dad.”
Joey, to his credit, had been insanely calm, sitting on that same bench, tapping his sneaker-clad foot, playing on his phone, and generally keeping his mouth shut. A miracle in itself. Now he looked over at their father. "What?"
"For once I'm the one out here." Dad swung his thumb. "Usually, I'm the guy back there."
Really? He was going there? Lucie shook her head and completed another lap. On the turn, she tossed a glance at the receptionist sitting behind the glass partition separating the small lobby from the administrative area.
As police stations went, this one wasn't so bad. More modern with tiled floors and gray walls that, based on the lack of bruising, must have been recently painted.
And it didn't stink of stale, closed-in air. Another plus.
"Luce," Joey said, "is this about those stupid dog outfits?"
Her brother. The idiot.
"First of all, they're not stupid. Ro works hard—extremely hard—on her designs. Sometimes it takes her months to get one perfect. Someone stealing them is...hurtful. It's her work. She's proud of it."
"But are they worth this?" Her brother glanced at the receptionist typing away on her computer.
Rather than talk from across the room, Lucie halted in front Joey and dipped her head close to his ear. "I think the tweet must have started this."
"What tweet?"
He didn't know about the infamous tweet. Not surprising, considering the way he and Ro hightailed it out of mom's last night. Being the horndogs they were, Lucie didn't expect they did much catching up overnight. Outside of the dirty talk Ro thought it was funny to tell Lucie they excelled at.
Blech.
Lucie shoved it from her mind. Hard. "Ro had a bad day yesterday, what with you acting like an ass." Before he could mouth off, she held up her hand. "Don't say it. We're talking about Ro, who went a little cuckoo. When she was cruising Twitter, she saw one of her designs in Buzzy's feed and—"
"Crap."
Yep. "She, uh, responded."
Joey ran both hands through his thick dark hair then hunched over, resting his elbows on his knees. "Do I want to know what she said?"
"Ro called her a thieving bitch. Actually, she said beyotch."
"Ah, hell."
Joey stood and shoved his phone in the back pocket of his jeans before folding his arms. "They dragged her down here for that? Are you kidding me? Last I heard, there wasn't a law against telling the truth. Buzzy is—"
"Was."
"Was a thieving bitch."
Dad circled a hand. "I keep telling the boys that twitting is bad news."
Somehow Lucie couldn't picture a bunch of mob guys sitting around Petey's making up funny hashtags.
Joey sighed. "It's tweeting. Not twitting."
"Eh." Dad waved him off. "It's nothing but trouble, that's what it is."
For once, Lucie agreed with her father.
A door slammed from inside somewhere and Joey angled back, his face showing signs of relief that maybe Ro might soon join them. But, nope. Just a uniformed cop talking to the receptionist.
"It's been over an hour," Joey said.
"Ninety minutes actually."
And counting. Which meant that any second now either Joey or Dad would suggest she call Tim. No matter how many times she told her family she wouldn't involve Tim in their legal affairs, it never quite sank in.
"Call Tim," Joey said. "See if he can tell you anything."
There it was. "Joey, please. You know I can't."
"You won't. Big difference."
"That is not fair. If I thought he could help, I'd call him. This isn't even his precinct. And he's not homicide. He probably knows as much as we do."
"Yeah, but you could ask."
"It's not right to put him in that position."
Dad held up his hands. "I agree with your brother."
As if that were late-breaking news. "Well, Dad, I'm not asking Tim to risk his job by leaking information. If you want to have one of your cronies do that, fine, but I won't."
On cue, Lucie's phone rang. Tim’s ringtone. She slid the phone out of her pocket, grabbed her coat from the arm of the bench, and headed for the doors.
"Where you going?" Dad wanted to know.
"This is Tim. His ears are probably on fire."
"Luce," Joey called. "Please, just talk to him."
Oh, snap. When he asked like that, all pleading and nice, how could she refuse?
Complications. Serious complications. All thanks to her last name and the ramifications that came with it.
On the third ring, she poked at the screen. "Hey," she said into the phone.
She pushed through the station door and was hit with an icy blast of wind that should have sliced her in half. Damned lake wind. A stark reminder that Lucie hadn't had a vacation in two years. After this, she wanted one. With Tim. Somewhere warm where they could sit around and drink silly frozen cocktails all day.
"Hi. Where are you?"
A man carrying a briefcase strode toward her and she sidestepped to avoid smacking into him. Once he was gone, she hunched her shoulders and wedged herself between the doorway and the barely two feet of alcove wall that blocked the wind. Moments like these, she blessed the gods that had made her small enough to fit into confined spaces.
"I'm at the police station."
"They brought you downtown?"
"Actually, surprise, surprise, they didn't come looking for me."
"Come again?"
"As we expected, two detectives showed up this morning. I was all ready for them, but they wanted Ro."
"Ro?" Judging by Tim's reaction, he didn't know diddly.
"I take it you didn't hear?"
"Not a peep. It's actually impressive how tight they're keeping this. Considering who she was and the media frenzy, the brass doesn't want any leaks. Did they question you? At all?"
"No. They came into the shop, asked for Ro, and brought her down here. She's been in there almost two hours. Is that bad?"
Tim's silence gave her the answer.
"It's always bad when you're quiet."
"Relax. I'm thinking. It's not necessarily bad. They might have her on ice while they look into a couple things. She has a lawyer, right?"
"Of course. Willie."
Tim had the nerve to laugh. Part of Lucie couldn't blame him. At this point, the Rizzo bunch should have a dedicated phone line to Willie Clay, defense attorney extraordinaire. Still, Ro didn't deserve to be sitting in some crummy interrogation room being grilled.
"Laughing? Really?"
&nbs
p; "You're right. I'm sorry. You guys keep Willie hopping."
"Dad had him on alert at Petey's in case the cops showed up for me. I swear that man could buy a vacation home or two with the fees he collects from my family."
Another blast of wind whipped and she burrowed further into the alcove.
"Tim?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm worried. I mean, she sent out that damned tweet. They probably went straight to Buzzy's social media accounts looking for haters and found Ro. She basically put herself on a silver platter."
"Okay, calm down."
"I hate when people tell me to calm down."
"I'm doing it anyway. Don't get ahead of yourself. This is a murder investigation. They'll work through all the possibilities and start eliminating people. Yeah, it's unfortunate about the tweet, but they'll talk to her, figure out that she was just being Ro, and they'll let her go. Don't make yourself crazy. Believe me. This is standard procedure."
Lucie drew a breath. Standard procedure. Yes. She'd go with that. A woman had lost her life. Had it been one of Lucie's loved ones, she'd expect detectives to question the entire city.
"Wait," she said. "The security system. When Ro and I were at Buzzy's, she was showing us how she could pull up live video on her tablet. At any time, she could log on and see what was happening at the house. If the system was activated, they'd have everything on video."
"Let me pass that along. See what pops."
How much did she adore Tim O'Brien? Cool and unruffled, the man knew how to talk her down. To get her off the highest of ledges. These past few months with him had been heaven. Literally. If they argued, it lasted 3.5 seconds and then it was done. No lingering bitterness, no prolonged silent treatment like Joey and Ro. No drama. Zero.
"Thank you," Lucie said.
"You're welcome. Honestly, don't get worked up. With the media hype on this, I think everyone is a suspect right now. And thank you."
"For what?"
"Respecting the boundaries. You didn't ask me to snoop around."
"Don't give me too much credit. I almost caved to pressure. I'm sitting here with Joey and Dad, after all. It came up, but I told them to forget it. Because, guess what, big guy?"
"What?"
"I happen to love you and don't want you put in an uncomfortable place because of my last name."
"Got it," Tim said to someone on the other end. "I'm on it, boss. Luce? I gotta run. Call me when Ro is done. Keep me updated."
"I will."
Chapter Five
Lucie walked back into the police station and found the guy with the briefcase sitting opposite Joey and Dad. He looked over at her and nodded a greeting. She did the same. Even on a really hard day common courtesy never hurt.
From her coat pocket, Lucie's phone tinkled the arrival of a text.
Joey waved her to his spot on the bench. "Who's that? Tim? Did you talk to him? What'd he say?"
Yeesh with the rapid-fire questions. "Hold on. It's Willie."
She tapped the message envelope and...wait.
"Oh, no. No. No. No."
Okay. So maybe that last no got a little loud. She looked around, found the owl-eyed receptionist staring at her and the guy on the bench shaking his head.
Joey sidled up next to her and read the text over her shoulder.
"Are you effing kidding me?" His voice boomed in the confined area and Lucie winced.
Dad's head snapped up. "What happened?"
"Unbelievable!” Joey flung a hand out. “The dumbasses are arresting her."
Talk about getting loud. "Sssh," Lucie said. "Keep it down, will you?"
"Both of you relax. It's a misunderstanding that's all."
It'd better be. This was nuts. Ro? Arrested for murder. Ridiculous. This was Lucie's BFF, the woman who'd protected her all through school, the one who'd listened and consoled her every time a boy broke her heart. The one who'd helped her launch Coco Barknell.
"You bet your life it's a misunderstanding," Lucie said. "Do these detectives have nothing better to do than harass honest citizens? The real killer is out there and they're wasting time with Ro. Give me a break."
"This is news to you?" Dad asked, his voice thick with sarcasm. "After all I've been through with the legal system? Now you know how I felt."
Oh, please. Totally different scenario. Considering what her father did for a living. Why did every damned thing revolve around Dad and his legal issues?
"This is bullshit," Joey said.
The receptionist stood and knocked on the glass partition. "Folks, you need to pipe down or we’ll ask you to leave."
Ha! Ask them to leave? As if they were the issue?
Nice.
Try.
Lucie swung and faced the woman. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers. You people have just locked up an innocent woman. It's insane!"
Dad, apparently the reasonable one—a first for sure—patted the air. "Calm down." He stood, holding up his phone. "Let me get Willie. He'll explain all this."
"You do that," Lucie said.
The interior door opened and two uniformed cops stepped out. "Everything all right out here?"
"Everything is most certainly not all right." Holy cow, Lucie must have been channeling Ro.
"What's the problem?" the taller cop asked.
At least a foot shorter than the cop, Lucie screwed up her courage and puffed out her chest. "Two detectives have just arrested my friend. I'd like to know why."
"I'm sure you would, but you need to keep your voice down. We're not gonna have this out here."
If it got Ro out of this mess, they'd have it wherever Lucie said they'd have it. "I want to see Roseanne Buccarelli. Right now."
"She's being processed. No visitors. Leave your number and I'll have her lawyer call you."
"I'm sure," Lucie snapped. Was she being nasty? Yes. Absolutely. But...Ro? In jail? If it wasn't so dumb, it would be comical.
Stop. She needed to get hold of her emotions. Another switch. What was going on around here today with everyone acting out of character? Normally, she was the sane one. Deep breath, Luce. Deep breath.
"Miss," the other cop said.
She opened her eyes just as he lightly touched her arm. She peered up at his kind eyes and immediately knew he was one of the good ones. A man who'd become a cop to serve. To help people. Maybe he could help her.
"Whoa," Joey said. "Hands off my sister."
What? She swung her head in his direction and nearly reared back at the carved tightness in his cheeks. The pressed lips. Her brother, if they didn’t do something, was about to blow. In truth, his rage probably had nothing to do with this cop barely—barely—touching her and everything to do with Ro being locked up.
Whatever the reason, it wasn't good. She knew her brother. For years she'd watched him operate. When it came to a hair trigger, Joey had been cursed. He took hair triggers to another level. A double hair trigger. Maybe even a triple.
Cop number one nudged in closer, getting in Joey's space. "You don't tell us what to do. We tell you what to do. Now leave."
Oh, boy.
"You—" Dad poked his finger at Joey, "—calm down. Right now. Don't even think about busting this place up."
"Ray," cop number two said, "I've got this."
Except Joey inched closer, and with him came an electric buzz that sent the energy in the room crackling. "Get away from my father before I kick your ass."
Ohmygod. "Joey! Stop it."
The cop snorted. "You think you're gonna kick my ass. That's it. Up against the wall."
Could there be anything worse than a bunch of high-strung alphas in a confined space? Enough already. Lucie wedged herself between Joey and the jerky cop and shoved. Unfortunately, at 6'5", her brother was basically a human mountain and didn't budge. Lucie dug her heels in and threw all her weight forward. Pushing, pushing, pushing. Her sneakers squeaked against the tile and...grrrr...began to slip.
Damn it.
Joey grabbed her by the arms, picked her up—whoopsie—and set her beside him.
Well, that was a bust.
The cop inched closer and Lucie inserted herself into the fray again, throwing her elbows to separate the two men. Damned Joey. He'd get them all arrested.
Cop number two stepped in, pointed at Lucie and Joey. "I want you two over there."
"Bullshit," cop one said. "I'm arresting him."
First Ro, now Joey. For the love of God.
"On what charge?" Joey said.
"Resisting arrest. I told you to put your hands on that wall."
Cop one reached up...and shoved Joey, sending him back a step. That'll do it. A sudden pained look crossed cop number two's face.
Joey shoved back and Lucie rushed in to break it up. She plowed into cop one, and once again the petite one was overmatched. She bounced off him and flew backward, sticking her hands out behind her to break her fall. She hit the tile, her wrists taking the brunt of it before her rear got in on the act. Pain shot straight up her arms clear to her shoulders. Dang, that hurt.
And Joey saw red. Well, first he saw his sister flat on her ass and then he saw red.
On his best day, her brother set an example for idiots everywhere. She'd be the first to tell him that. Above all that moronic behavior, though, was a man fiercely loyal and protective of his loved ones. In his mind, that cop had just put her on the floor.
So what did he do? He shoved the jerky cop again. Of course he did. Testosterone must have flooded the jerky cop because he shoved back. The nice cop got between them. Dad hollered at everyone to knock it off, because he was on parole and couldn't get in the middle of the whole thing.
Lucie stood stunned. Completely gobsmacked at the sight of her brother being manhandled by two Chicago cops. Something sparked inside her. Idiot or not, she loved Joey and it was two against one.
And those were never good odds. Next to her, Dad made a move to step in. No. He couldn't do that. They'd lock him up, and her mother would face the humiliation of having a jailbird husband all over again.
So Lucie did the only thing she could.
She leaped, landing on the jerky cop's back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and hanging on as he swung around trying to buck her off. If she could hold on long enough, he'd step back from Joey and not do some sort of crazy body flip on her. Hopefully. One could never tell in a situation like this.
Dog Collar Chaos Page 5
