“Okay, whatever you think is best because I’m more than just a little freaked out by this letter.”
“Go ahead and respond to the letter. Answer the questions the best way you know how and we’ll do what we can to unearth more evidence to help you.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. Cody was right. He does have the greatest friends on the planet.”
Mark grins at me. “Thank you. We try.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CODY
WHEN I FINALLY MAKE IT home, I’m exhausted to the bone. I’m a little puzzled when Calico Jack doesn’t meet me at the door like he usually does — but a quick tour of my place quickly turns up the answer.
Tori is curled up in the middle of my bed with her computer in front of her. Calico Jack is sheltered in her arms. She’s wearing my favorite pair of headphones and she’s sound asleep. She doesn’t even stir when Calico Jack realizes I’m in the room. He jumps off the bed and dances around my feet. He yips excitedly and begs for me to pick him up.
When I pick him up, he licks my face. I try to stifle my laugh at his silly antics. I set him on the bed and try to quietly grab blankets from the linen closet. Unfortunately, one of the blankets is stuck on a box of spare Christmas decorations and the whole thing crashes down.
Tori sits straight up in bed and screams. Calico Jack starts to growl at me. “Hey? What’s that about? You were licking my face thirty-seconds ago. Oh, I see; you have to protect the damsel in distress now.” It’s then I notice Tori doesn’t seem to be quite awake as she looks at me blankly. “Tori, wake up! It’s only me,” I urge as I walk over and gently shake her shoulder.
“I see that now!” she exclaims sardonically. “A hello would’ve worked just fine. Come to think of it, aren’t handsome Prince Charming types like yourself supposed to wake someone like me up with a sweet kiss instead of a racket loud enough to wake the dead?”
I feel my face heat with embarrassment. “Honestly, I didn’t intend to wake you up at all. You looked so beautiful and peaceful laying there I was planning to let you sleep. Obviously, I need to do a better job of housekeeping because I was trying to get some extra bedding when my closet exploded with Christmas decorations.”
“Okay, that’s plausible. Can we just have a do-over? I’ve been waiting for days for you to come home. This is not how I wanted to greet you. I’m really not this kind of person. I’m just stressed out and exhausted.”
“Sounds good. Let’s start over.” I stand up and leave the bedroom. I turn around and stand in the hallway. I tentatively knock on the door frame as I announce. “I’m home.”
Tori hops off the bed and sprints toward me. With a grin, I realize she’s wearing one of my favorite baseball jerseys. It’s one that Dylan got me when we were on an undercover operation. It has Mickey Mouse splashed across one side. Funny thing, it never looked nearly as great on me as it does on her, paired with a pair of tight yoga pants. It looks like it was made for her. I mean, it’s just a goofy novelty shirt. On her, it’s a designer dress.
Her hair is tied back with a folded bandanna and her feet are bare with bright red toenails with, ironically, silver Mickey Mouse silhouettes. She catches me looking at them and flexes her toes. “Aren’t these perfect?”
“There isn’t anything about you that’s not perfect.”
She puts a hand up toward her hair and says, “You’re such a liar. My hair is a rat’s nest and my clothes look like pajamas.”
I tilt my head to scrutinize her. “Okay, your clothes might look a little like pajamas, but at least they’re cute pajamas.”
“Just as I thought, there’s no excuse for my hair,” she retorts, before I can say anything.
I grab her hands and pull her close. I capture her lips in a lingering kiss many days in the making. “Oh, man. There aren't enough words to tell you how much I’ve missed you. Let me tell you, there isn’t a single thing wrong with your hair. It looks soft and wild. Exactly the way I like it. I can’t stand women who shellac their hair with product.”
“Guys do it too,” she argues defensively.
“Not this guy. Besides, have you ever tried to touch that stuff? It’s gross.”
Tori runs her hand through my short cropped hair. “Obviously, you don’t need it. Your hair is perfect. Just like the rest of you.” She stands up on her tiptoes and kisses me again.
I pull away and fish something out of my pocket. “Close your eyes.”
“Should I be scared?”
“I don’t think so,” I answer, trying to cover my nerves. It’s been a long time since I’ve cared about a woman enough to put my heart on the line like this.
Much to my relief, Tori dutifully closes her eyes.
“Hold out your wrist please.” Tori looks like she’s having difficulty complying with my simple request.
“Do you trust me?” I ask, teasingly. But I hold my breath for her answer.
She nods. “I do, but it’s hard.”
I flinch even though I try not to.
“Don’t take it personally. I’m having a hard time trusting anybody these days.”
“Maybe you can trust yourself,” I say as I fasten a three toned bracelet on her wrist. Each strand has a different word engraved on it. The first band says believe, the second says strength, and the third says justice.
Her eyes pop open when she feels the cool metal against her wrist. She gasps when she sees the delicate bracelet. “Oh my gosh, this is beautiful.” She examines it closer and sees the words. She takes a shallow breath. “It’s perfect!”
“Happy birthday, Tori. I’m sorry I had to be gone.”
Tears leak from the corners of her eyes. “I didn’t even know you knew it was my birthday. I understand why you had to go.”
“Birthdays are kinda my thing. I’ve known about yours for a while. The timing just sucked for you, but coming home to you was the best present I could hope for and it’s not even my birthday.”
Tori holds up her wrist and jingles the little metal bangles in her bracelet. “I don’t know. I think I did okay. This bracelet is perfect for me. Some days, I get discouraged and forget what’s important. This will be the perfect reminder for me to focus on what’s important. Thank you so much. I love it.” She stands on her tiptoes and kisses me. “Now, tell me why I’m the best thing about your day. What happened while you were gone?”
I heave a huge sigh as I place my arm around her waist and escort her back over to the bed. I stack a bunch of pillows against the headboard and pat the spot next to me. She curls up beside me and makes a spot for Calico Jack. After we’re all comfortable, I sort through my thoughts and decide what I can tell her. A lot of it has already been leaked to the newspaper so technically, it’s public information — much to my captain’s dismay.
“Well, let’s just put it this way. Nothing unfolded quite like we expected it to. We found Isadora, but she wasn’t alone.”
Tori jerks upright and stares at me with wide-eyed amazement. “You found all the missing teens?”
I shake my head regretfully. “I wish that were true. Unfortunately, that’s not what we found. Isadora’s kidnapper had two of his own children — or so it seems. Poor kids — they’re not even old enough to go to school yet.”
“Where’s their mom?”
“Would you believe this? Felena Hopner was already in jail awaiting trial for fraud and identity theft. So, for all intents and purposes, those kids are orphans.”
“That’s sad,” Tori says as she snuggles closer to my chest.
“Oh, you haven’t seen sad. They were so bonded to Isadora, they didn’t want to leave her side, even when their aunt came to get them. They begged to stay with Isadora. It broke her heart. She should have been happy to reunite with her own family, but she was so distraught over the kids’ reaction, she couldn’t be happy for her own reunification. It was a giant mess.”
“How devastating for her! I can’t even imagine. Is she getting counseling? I imagine
it’s damaging for her. Those kids were like her family.”
“That’s all covered. Whatever her insurance doesn’t cover, Tristan has an anonymous benefactor who works with the charity, Locate My Heart, to grant money to families who need help after someone has gone missing.”
“Oh, that’s very generous.”
“Yeah, so she’ll have all the counseling resources she needs.”
“I hate to ask this, but does she know what happened to the other kids like Dashonte’s brother?”
“We’re working to figure that out. I guess occasionally, there were other kids who came through. But, they didn’t stay long. Isadora said Bex was sort of like a clearing house for the other kids. He kept them separate from her and his own kids. The only time Isadora had any interaction with the other kids was way back at the beginning of her captivity. Apparently, Isadora is a dead ringer for Bex’s wife and the kids behaved better for her, so he kept her around instead of auctioning her off to the highest bidders like he did the others.”
I feel a shudder go up Tori’s spine. “That is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard. I guess it turned out to be a break for Isadora because at least you were able to locate her.”
“Jameson and the rest of Tristan’s team at Identity Bank are working on it around-the-clock. Additionally, Jameson has recruited his wife Kendall and her organization, Locate My Heart, which specializes in searching for missing children.”
“Oh, that’s right, they helped to track down, Toby Payne, correct?”
“Yeah, that’s how Jameson and Kendall met.”
“How does your boss feel about all the civilian help? I know agencies can be territorial.”
“Look, at this point these kids have been missing for so long, we’re treating this like one big task force. The more the merrier at this point. We need as many resources as we can get. Every day they’re missing puts them in more danger. The more time I spend with Toby Payne, the more that’s drilled into me. I figured I knew all about missing children. I studied it at the academy, I’ve even gone to special workshops held by the FBI and the National Missing and Exploited Children organization. I thought I was pretty cognizant of the dangers and the way the perpetrators operated. In reality, I knew nothing.”
Tori strokes her hand down my face. “You can’t beat yourself up. I felt the same way after we spent that night with him putting the information into the computer. I put the bad guys on trial all the time but it’s a whole different experience hearing the whole story from the mouth of the victim without the pressure of a formal interview and the veneer of law enforcement roles between us. Just to be talking as friends and to have him honestly tell us how it impacted his life will forever change my life.”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t sleep the same now. His words penetrate my dreams.”
“I thought I was thorough when I prosecuted child sex predators before, but if I ever get to practice law again, Lord help the next one. I will be so much more prepared. They won’t know what hit them.”
I shift in my position to look at her. “What do you mean if you ever get to practice law? Why can’t you simply find another prosecutor position in another county?”
Tori hangs her head. “I didn’t want to tell you this while you were gone because I didn’t want to add to your stress level.”
I lift her chin with my finger. “You can never be just another stressor in my life. You mean too much to me.”
“Zane is trying to have me disbarred.”
“What? Is he bonkers? It’s one thing to play games with office politics. It’s another thing to mess with someone’s livelihood. Is he absolutely insane? I can have a ‘discussion’ with him. I don’t mean the rational kind either.”
Tori shakes her head. “The Bar has to do its process. I have no idea what he’s thinking, or what the outcome might be. I can guess, but I might be wrong. After all, the whole eastern seaboard knows about what I allegedly did in that stupid elevator.”
“The key word is allegedly. You didn’t do squat!”
“Yeah, I know that, and you know that … but the only people who know what really happened are Mr. Cavanaugh and whoever the building maintenance person was. But, I don’t think I’m allowed to talk to them and, because you’re my boyfriend, I doubt if you’re allowed to talk them either.”
“Please tell me you have a lawyer,” I plead as I watch her bottom lip tremble.
“Not yet. I tried to tell Mark I have no money to hire one. Unfortunately, Mark doesn’t handle cases like this. He said he would hire me the most qualified attorney he could.”
“Well yeah,” I answer somewhat sarcastically. “Of course he should. This is your freaking career we’re talking about here — one you happen to be awesome at. You shouldn’t lose your law license for something you didn’t do. That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Mark tells me an investigation by the Bar Association is probably the best thing that could happen because it will help clear my name. I’m hoping he’s right but you know it was a sucky thing to happen — especially on my birthday.”
“I can tell you one thing, aside from you, Mark is one of the smartest people I know. If he tells you this is a positive development, you can take it to the bank.”
“Are you sure? I’m afraid to put my faith in any good news recently.”
I point to her bracelet. “Yeah, I’m sure. You have the facts on your side. Not only that, you’ve got a great reputation and a solid record behind you. I don’t know how all the planets lined up to cause you to lose your job, but I have a feeling it actually had very little to do with you. When all the facts come out, I think you’ll be vindicated and a lot of injustices will be exposed.”
Tori runs her fingers over the metal bangles. “My life is so scary right now. I feel like I’m teetering between love and injustice. It could go so right or so wrong in the blink of an eye.”
“Just so you know, I’m clearly rooting for love,” I respond as I gather her in my arms and hold her tight.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TORI
I PAUSE BEFORE I GO through the doors of Ink’d Deep. I can’t believe I’m about to do this. I used to be straight-laced and all about projecting the proper image — but suddenly, all that doesn’t seem quite so important anymore. The me who I thought it was disappeared several months ago along with my mother’s memories of me. Now, having to fight for my right to my professional identity and a spot in my mother’s ever more rattled brain woke me up and helped me set some priorities. Being true to myself became one of them.
When I open the door to the tattoo parlor, a chorus of people greet me by name. Reflexively, my jaw drops and I look behind me to see if they’re talking to someone else named Tori.
Jade, one of the owners of Ink’d Deep, greets me, “Hey, Beautiful, what can I do for you today?”
“Are you sure you’re talking to me?” I ask as I look down at one of Cody’s old baseball jerseys and my yoga pants. Somehow it’s become my favorite go-to uniform.
The corner of Jade’s mouth hitches up. She looks over at a rough biker type guy lying face down on a bench getting a back piece. “I like Skeeter and all, but I’m not sure I’d call him beautiful. Even if I did, his woman might have something to say about it.”
The guy snickers, “Yeah, she’d tell you to go have your eyes checked.”
Jade glances back at me. “So, I guess I mean you —”
“Oh, okay. Well —” I stammer awkwardly, “are you busy?”
Jade grins. “As a matter of fact, I’m not. My afternoon appointment canceled because she had to take her kid to the orthodontist. Something about snapped bands or something. It all sounded very painful. So, what do you need? I’m up for a challenge today.”
“I guess that’s good. I suppose you’ve heard what’s going on with me?” I let my speech trail off. I’m so tired of having to explain it to everyone.
“Let’s say the rumor mill hasn’
t been kind to you. We get lots of law enforcement types in here,” Jade responds with a grimace.
My stomach drops to my toes. “So, am I winning or losing in the court of public opinion?”
“With the loudmouth jerks? Losing. With the people whose opinion I respect? Overwhelmingly winning.”
My eyebrow raises in surprise. “Well, I guess that’s something. I wish it was as simple as winning over the public. Now, they’re after my law license. I don’t know if you’ve heard about that lovely development. That’s why I’m here. I can’t sit and wait anymore.”
“I can’t imagine. If I were in your shoes, I would be riding my motorcycle everywhere,” Jade commiserates.
“It was one thing when I was at home taking care of my mom. She took up a lot of my time. I can only work out so much. My body can’t take any more stress. If I’m not careful, I’ll permanently injure myself. I can’t stand to watch the news because I can’t do much to change it. I still have to act as if I might get my job back so I can’t become overtly politically active because I might go back to my position. I can’t go look for another job because I don’t even know if I'll still be a licensed attorney.”
“How frustrating for you! How can I help?” Jade asks.
“The other night as I was waiting for Cody to come home from work, I got to thinking about losing everything. I worked exceptionally hard to graduate in the top of my class. I got a lifetime of learning invested in my career as a prosecutor. Somehow I want to acknowledge and recognize everything that I’ve put in to becoming the person I am. I don’t know if I’m going to win or lose this fight with the bar and the guy who is out to get me. But somehow I want to honor the person I am — or at least who I was before I was wrongfully terminated. Deep down inside, even if they take away the number which allows me to practice law, I’m still a fierce fighter and advocate who wants to make the world better. So, I want to get a tattoo to show that. It’s not for anybody else it’s just for me.”
Love and Injustice Page 12
