by Kay Bigelow
When they were all settled around the coffee table in the living room, with the dozen or so takeout containers strewn around the table, Quinn asked, “What’s new?”
They explained what they knew and then told her what they didn’t know.
“It sounds like you actually know less than what you don’t know. Am I right?”
“You are,” Leah said. “But it’s early days yet.”
Quinn laughed. “If I had a dollar for every time you’ve said that to me in the early days of an investigation, I’d be filthy rich.”
“You already are,” Cots murmured.
By the time they’d eaten their fill and cleaned the detritus from the living room, Leah just wanted to spend some quiet time with Quinn. “Let’s all get a good night’s sleep,” she said.
They said their good nights and went to their separate rooms. Leah was exhausted, and as much as she wanted to snuggle with Quinn, she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She woke up later long enough to enjoy the feel of Quinn snuggled against her back and her arm thrown across her to pull her tight.
“I love you,” Quinn whispered.
“I love you,” Leah said sleepily.
Chapter Seven
When Leah awoke the next morning, she was alone. Seconds later, Quinn padded softly into the room with a coffee mug in each hand. She wore only a huge T-shirt. She set a mug down on Leah’s nightstand and took the other to her own side of the bed.
“Good morning, love,” Quinn said softly as she slid back into bed.
“Good morning. What time is it? And why are you up?”
“I heard someone in the kitchen, so I went to check. I found Cots and Peony. They looked very guilty,” she said with a smile.
“What ever happened to dating and courtship?” Leah asked as she moved closer to Quinn.
Quinn pulled Leah even closer. “You’ve got to admit it’d be pretty hard to date and court within the confines of this condo. Sometimes things happen fast. No harm in that.”
“True.”
“I need to go to the office today,” Quinn said, changing the subject. “I’m finalizing the purchase of several pieces of property here in the city.”
“Be careful out there, okay? Check in with Cots or me a few times.”
“Of course. Do you want to shower first or shall I?”
“You shower. I’m going to sit here and enjoy my coffee. Thanks for bringing it in.”
Quinn kissed her lightly on the lips before getting up and heading into the bathroom. I wish we had more time this morning. Leah watched Quinn walk across the room taking off her T-shirt as she went. Leah wondered if she could follow her into the shower. No. Once Quinn is up and preparing to go to work, her focus is at her office. She heard her singing something she didn’t recognize. She didn’t have a particularly good voice but sang with gusto nevertheless. Leah was pretty sure Quinn didn’t think anyone could hear her. She didn’t so much as hum outside the shower.
When Quinn walked out of the bathroom with only a towel around her waist, Leah had a visceral reaction. She very nearly leapt out of bed and followed Quinn into her closet. She refrained only because she’d told her about her early morning meeting. When she emerged from the closet, Leah thought Quinn was as sexy dressed as she was nude. She looked away, forcing her libido into submission. She slid out of bed and went into the still-steamy bathroom. She could feel Quinn’s eyes on her as she walked across the bedroom. It was truly a shame they didn’t have more time this morning.
As soon as Quinn was dressed, she said, “I’m headed for the office. I’ll see you later. Have a good day, love.”
“You, too,” Leah said as she headed for the shower.
When Leah entered the kitchen twenty minutes later, Cots and Peony were there. They were talking quietly and had mugs of coffee in front of them.
“Pancakes?” Cots asked. Leah and Peony nodded their agreement and Cots set to work. Peony headed into the living room. Leah heard the news come on.
“Anything of interest pop on Bishop Cohane?”
“He’s squeaky clean and appears to be legit.”
Leah wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed. Maybe a little of both if she was honest with herself, and she always tried to be. “Keep digging on him.”
Cots served up pancakes and sausage links. He’d cooked the sausage while he and Leah had been talking.
“Are these real?” Peony asked. “I haven’t had real sausage since I left home. I’m honestly salivating.”
Peony cut a sausage in half and put it into her mouth. She closed her eyes as she chewed and made what sounded suspiciously like purring sounds. “I’m in heaven. Where did you get these?”
“I don’t give away all my secrets.”
“Okay, then you’ll have to marry me. And cook me breakfast every morning for the rest of my life.” When she realized what she’d said, Peony blushed from head to foot. “Uh, what I meant was—”
“That’s okay. I understand.” Cots saved her from herself, and his grin made it clear he was enjoying her blunder.
“I have to admit these are wonderful. I can’t remember the last time I ate the real thing, either eggs or sausages. Those soy things they try to pass off as sausages are awful,” Leah said.
“These are divine,” Peony said as she popped the other half of her first sausage into her mouth.
They all cleaned their plates. Peony looked like she wanted to lick the sausage molecules off hers, and only barely refrained from doing it. After putting their dishes in the cleaner, they adjourned to the living room.
Peony turned up the sound on the news. Cots only stayed a second before slipping into the secure room to resume his searches. The reporter was retelling yesterday’s news, which meant the police either weren’t releasing details or they really didn’t have anything new about the bombings. Perhaps the police were so disorganized that no one was investigating. Leah hoped it wasn’t the latter. She turned her attention to staring out the windows. She focused her attention on the killing fields, hoping she’d find something she’d missed since the last time she looked at the murder board.
“Boss, listen to this,” Peony said as she turned the volume up some more.
“This just in. The governor has declared the city to be under martial law, stating his belief that the city’s law enforcement is under attack. He cited the killing of hundreds of police officers and said that until they know who is responsible for the bombing of the Forty-fourth Precinct and the crime lab complex, he is taking no chances with the safety of the citizens of New America City.”
Leah called Quinn. “Did you send the governor an anonymous tip?”
“No. I didn’t need to. I called Robert and told him what we knew.”
Leah tried to hold her temper in check. She didn’t recall making Quinn a member of her team. At the very least, Quinn should have checked with her before giving their speculations to the governor. What else has she told him? Leah didn’t bother to ask how Quinn came to be on a first-name basis with the governor, figuring she’d probably sold him a piece of property or contributed to his election.
“I need to go, babe. Let me know if I can be of any more help,” Quinn said with a smile in her voice.
“Count on it. Love you,” Leah said, but Quinn had already hung up.
Leah continued to stand in front of the window after she finished her call to Quinn. She had to decide how to handle Quinn jumping the gun without asking her first. She knew she was just trying to help, but that wasn’t how Leah liked things done. She continued watching the traffic below without really seeing it. The privacy glass allowed her to see out but didn’t allow anyone to see in. It had begun snowing again, and the flakes were, at first, large and fluffy. As the storm moved into the city, the snow began falling faster and the flakes shrank, alerting the populace many more inches would be added to the already menacing hills of snow.
Leah caught her reflection in the window and wondered when he
r last haircut had been. Her hair was shaggy and looked like she’d cut it herself with kitchen shears, and dull ones at that. When this case was solved, she promised herself she’d get a haircut. She brought her thinking back to the present. She felt rather than heard Cots enter the room.
“How’s Peony doing?” Leah asked, turning to him.
Cots grinned, his face lighting up. “She’s good. She’s got a real knack for my work.”
“Maybe you should start your own research company. You could hire her.”
“Who would hire me?”
“I have no idea. But give it some thought. Change seems to be going around at the moment.”
He looked at her contemplatively. “I will.”
The day sped by, but they still had made no advance toward solving the murders in the park by that evening. She was frustrated because there was no movement on the case. She tried telling herself that if they had been at the precinct, they wouldn’t be any further along in solving the case than they were. If they didn’t catch a break soon, she might have to consider leaving the off-site workspace and going to another station so she’d have more people to work the ground. But if she was right about the bombings, she could be putting more cops in danger, and there was no way in hell she’d do that. She had to find a way to get answers without showing her hand to the outside world. Sure. No problem.
At eleven, Quinn still wasn’t home, so Leah went to bed without her. It wasn’t unusual that Quinn would work late. What was unusual was that she hadn’t called to tell Leah she’d be late. What’s that about? I’m beginning to feel like my life is turning upside down and I’ve got no way to control it. It wasn’t that long ago that it was unheard of for people to attack law enforcement officers en masse. Yet, already the bombing had fallen off the newscasts. Had the world grown so callous? Or did they simply not have anything more to report?
She sighed and pulled the covers over herself. Tomorrow. Everything would still be there to deal with tomorrow.
Chapter Eight
Quinn had arrived home at two in the morning. Leah dozed on and off, but then got up four hours later. She showered and put on a turtleneck sweater, heavy sweats, and socks. She was standing in front of the windows watching it snow when Cots came in and handed her a mug of coffee. The two of them stood in companionable silence enjoying the first coffee of the day.
Peony came into the living room in a rush.
“Look at what I found,” she exclaimed, pointing to the murder board.
Cots and Leah turned toward the murder board. Please let it be good news. Or at least not awful news. Leah and Cots stood in front of the boards and read the information Peony had uploaded. It was only a couple of sentences long, but it said the police were looking at a rogue cop by the name of Weston for the bombing of the Forty-fourth Precinct.
“Where is this from?” Leah asked.
“I found it on some guy’s blog.”
“Who is the guy?”
“He wouldn’t use his real name,” Peony explained. “He calls his blog ‘The Baker Street Logbook.’ What does that even mean?” Peony asked.
“It doesn’t matter what it means,” Leah said, not wanting to go down another rabbit hole of speculation and distraction. “He’s probably just one of those news hunters. But it’s good to know they’re on top of things. Interesting he doesn’t mention that Weston is dead. They must be keeping that quiet.” She rubbed her eyes. “More questions.”
“I’m hungry,” Cots said. “Anybody want to join me?”
“Yeah,” Peony said. “Especially if you’ve got more sausages.”
Leah smiled. The kid can put away food, that’s for sure. She wondered how Peony stayed as slim as she was but remembered when she was in her twenties, she, too, could eat anything she wanted and not gain an ounce. Now that she was in her forties, that was no longer true. Leah missed the good old days. Before fields full of body parts and bombings of precincts.
Cots was cooking when Quinn walked into the kitchen and asked, “Is that breakfast I smell?”
Leah saw she had on what they called her civilian clothes. She now wore a pair of slacks and a heavy turtleneck sweater with loafers. Leah wondered what was going on.
“It is. Turns out Cots is quite the chef,” Leah said. “You’re dressed pretty casually for the office this morning.”
“I checked in with Klara, and all my meetings are canceled because of the storm last night. I thought I’d work from home, if that’s all right with you?” Klara was Quinn’s assistant and right-hand woman.
Leah wasn’t sure how to answer. Obviously, it was fine that Quinn work from home. But after she’d given the information to the governor without talking to Leah first, she wasn’t sure how much of the case she wanted to discuss in front of Quinn. If Quinn didn’t have information, she wouldn’t have any to impart to anyone, and they wouldn’t have to deal with the issue of boundaries. It would be easier.
“It’s all right with me,” Peony mumbled under her breath when Leah didn’t answer.
“I’ve got to go out for groceries this morning. Does anyone need anything?” Cots said quickly to change the subject.
After breakfast, Leah and Quinn cleaned the kitchen of the breakfast debris, but neither tried to engage the other. How can I have nothing to say to the woman I’ve loved for years? The problem is that I don’t know where to begin. Leah relied heavily on her gut when investigating murders, and right then her gut was telling her that Quinn’s telling the governor things she hadn’t told her to might not be the first time Quinn had done something like that. She wanted to know if she was right, but not enough to ask her right then.
When her phone rang, Quinn stepped out of the kitchen to take the call and Leah moved into the living room. Quinn joined Leah in the living room only a minute or two later, and they watched Cots as he stepped into his galoshes. The shoe had made a comeback a few winters earlier when the planet started to stay more wet than dry due to the perpetual winter. After shrugging on his heavy coat, he made sure it was zipped up to his chin. He added a hat made out of some kind of animal skin that had flaps covering his ears. He wound a long scarf around the lower part of his face to complete his ensemble.
“What?” he demanded when he noticed the others looking at him.
“That’s quite the sartorial statement,” Quinn said.
“It’s thirty-five below zero out there. You can get frostbitten in less than thirty seconds in that kind of cold. Sartorial splendor is less important than having a nose.” His voice was muffled, but his indignant tone came through loud and clear. He left, looking like a fully clothed snowman.
Now that they were alone, Leah decided to broach the subject of boundaries. “Quinn, what in the world made you think it would be okay with me to call the governor and give him information you heard here?”
“I guess I didn’t think it would be a problem.”
Leah could feel her temper rising. How could it not be a problem for Quinn to give the governor what she knew was only speculation on the team’s part? She took a deep breath to calm her temper.
“In the future, I’d appreciate you not arbitrarily deciding to tell outsiders things about the investigation without checking with me first.”
The look Quinn gave her told Leah she was having a hard time holding her temper in check, too.
“I need to go in to work after all. The phone call earlier was from the office. One of my deals is getting wobbly. I need to shore it up.”
Leah didn’t try to convince her to stay, and when she left without a kiss good-bye, Leah didn’t protest. She needed some space to clear her head and focus on the case instead of her personal life, which needed to take a backseat right now. She busied herself by writing down all the questions she could think of, which didn’t make her feel better in the least.
When Cots returned with several bags of groceries, Leah followed him into the kitchen to help him put them away. When they were finished, Cots said, “Can we go into
another room? I need to tell you something and I don’t want you to kill this messenger. Plus, you cannot confront Quinn with what I’m about to tell you. Agreed?”
Leah wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what Cots was about to tell her, but if it would help end the tensions between her and Quinn, she was all ears. “Agreed,” she said, leading the way to the bedroom.
Cots leaned against the wall by the window and took a deep breath before starting. “Before Quinn met you, she was dating a woman named Stephanie Grandini. By the time she’d met you, they had ended their relationship because Stephanie’s father didn’t like aliens.” Cots paused.
The name Grandini sounded familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. She shrugged to let Cots know she didn’t know who he was talking about.
“Stephanie is the daughter of Stephan Grandini. He was the mob boss who was gunned down in front of a restaurant in midtown where he’d gone to have lunch with his daughter.”
The light bulb went on. Leah remembered the case. Another precinct had caught the murder, but she remembered being surprised when it turned out to be a disgruntled employee who thought he’d be chosen to head the family; instead of running the family, he’d ended up on a penal planet serving a life sentence. As she recalled, he’d been shanked a few years later and died.
Cots took a deep breath and looked directly at her. “Stephanie took her father’s place as head of the family. And two years ago, Quinn started seeing her again for the occasional meal, etc.”
“Are you saying Quinn’s been cheating on me with Stephanie Grandini for two years?” Leah’s stomach churned and she felt clammy.
Cots, looking miserable, said, “Yes.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I think Quinn is a shit, and as much as I didn’t want her to marry a human, I think you’re better than she deserves. And I think she may be sharing stuff she hears here with Stephanie. I’ve heard her talking on the phone, and from her voice I’m pretty sure that’s who she was talking to. She was telling Steph about that case you had where the politician was killed by his wife. I have no idea why she would give Stephanie information you’d shared with her. I’ve tried, but I couldn’t plug up the holes in the security surrounding this case since we openly talk in front of her.”
