Crossing Lines

by KD Williamson

  Nora waited for more. There had to be a point in there somewhere.

  “The other night was awkward and exciting, right?” Susan asked.

  She put her pen back in her pocket. “Yes, both those things.”

  “And then you shot out of there like we were contagious. Did I do—”

  “No, it had nothing to do with any of you. I…” Nora felt someone watching her. When she looked in that direction, she noticed a couple of nurses near the desk, leaning in and listening. “Can we walk and talk, please?”

  Susan nodded and fell into step beside her.

  “There’s so much… I just don’t have room for everything. I’m sorry,” Nora said. That was a gross understatement. Even though Rader’s murder happened just two days prior, there had been a thousand more eyes on her than usual, and the weight of all the extra scrutiny was becoming formidable. In fact, the only time she had felt almost normal were the heated moments with Kelli, which didn’t make sense given the fervor of their argument. Still, it felt good to find her voice in this mess and to finally communicate with Kelli about it.

  “I get that. I do. I can’t imagine being you right now. I guess it’s kind of selfish of me to bring up our little outing at all.”

  “No, it’s okay, and thank you for giving me space. I probably needed it.”

  “I bet.” Susan paused. “We haven’t really known each other that long, but I know you like to keep things close to the vest. You just look like you’re carrying Mt. Everest on your back every damned day. I’m here if you want to unburden yourself. No judgment. Everything doesn’t have to be complicated, Nora.”

  The use of her first name within the hospital did something to Nora. Her chest tightened, and the ache that was her constant companion bloomed inside her. She stopped walking abruptly. It was too hard to move and catch her breath at the same time.

  “Nora?”

  Why couldn’t she breathe? She knew the reason. For the moment, the weight on her shoulders was unbearable.

  “Nora?” Susan grasped her by the elbow. “I’m going to get us to one of the on-call rooms up ahead. Just hold on.”

  A few seconds later, Nora sat down on a couch as her breathing finally started to right itself.

  Susan forced a plastic cup filled with water into her hands.

  “Drink it or pour it down your scrubs. Whatever helps.”

  Nora sipped at the water. Susan sat down beside her.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. I can stay for a while. No one will care.”

  Habitual awkwardness took hold of Nora along with a healthy dose of embarrassment. “No, you don’t—”

  “Nora, just shut up, okay?” Susan sounded exasperated.

  Nora turned quickly, catching Susan’s gaze. The prickly feeling passed when she saw the sincerity in her eyes.

  “I’m not going to go out there and tell everyone that cyborg Nora had a panic attack. You can trust me.”

  She wanted to. Part of her already did. Otherwise, Nora would have never gone out for drinks.

  “I’m a suspect in Rader’s murder.”

  Susan shrugged. “I figured that. Did you do it?”

  “No!”

  “Good, you don’t seem like a bash-your-head-in type of person…ripping hearts out with scalpels though…” Susan raised her hand and tilted it from side to side. “Eh, maybe.” She smiled.

  Nora glared but a chuckle escaped. She sobered quickly. “I’ve cleared my afternoon. I’ve decided to go to the police and volunteer for questioning. I just want the whole thing over with.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Kelli…” Nora swallowed. It felt strange to say her name in conversation like this. “Thinks I could be in danger. If Fuller did this, it’s definitely a possibility.”

  “Taylor Fuller? Crap. That makes sense. It’s creepy though, but who’s Kelli?”

  Nora looked down in the plastic cup. “She’s…” Nora had no idea what to call her. They had been friends, lovers, and now, they were nothing? No. That didn’t fit. There was something boiling underneath. Nora still cared too much…wanted too much, and despite everything and all her efforts to the contrary, she didn’t want that to stop.

  “Ah, she’s that complication you were talking about?” Susan asked.

  “Yes.” Nora nodded.

  “You screwed things up?”

  Nora’s shoulders tensed. Well, she really didn’t hold anything back. “We…did that together.”

  “I see. I’m assuming that’s the other thing that’s been eating at you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she just as stubborn as you?”

  Nora glared again, but she nodded slightly.

  “Figures. Those are always the most interesting ones.”

  “I wouldn’t know. This was my first…relationship.” Nora was taken aback by her own ability to share. Once the avalanche started, there was no stopping it. Obviously, Susan was right. She needed to unburden herself, and every other person she knew socially was tied to Kelli somehow. This friendship that she was cultivating with Susan was hers and hers alone. Nora just realized how good that felt.

  “Oh damn, and they always hurt the worst.”

  “Yes, I’m realizing that now.”

  Susan cleared her throat. “Is she hot?”

  Nora’s lips twitched. “I suppose.”

  Susan groaned. “That makes it even harder. So you guys are just going to float around in limbo until you just pitter out like some sad balloon?”

  Odd. “I… I’m not sure how to answer that.”

  “Perfect imagery I’d say, but I’m definitely not in the position to give relationship advice. I’ve been divorced three times. I do know it’s better to take stuff out of the box and look at it. Nothing stays locked up.”

  Three loud beeps interrupted them.

  “Well that certainly wasn’t me.” Susan patted Nora on the knee and stood.

  “No.” Nora didn’t want her to go. “Let me…I know who this is.” Nora set her cup of water on the table and got up. She reached for the phone and punched in the extension for Mr. Travis’s room.

  “Hello?”

  “I’m alive and unharmed, Mr. Travis. Would it be okay if I present myself within thirty minutes for confirmation?”

  Travis laughed. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

  Nora hung up. She glanced at Susan who was looking at her rather strangely.

  “It’s Kelli’s way of checking on me.”

  “Oh that’s not controlling at all.” Susan’s tone was sarcastic.

  “It’s in case Taylor shows up. Kelli’s a homicide detective. She’d be here herself, but I think she’s giving me space since we’re in…limbo.” Nora had to defend her. Kelli was many things, but she was no stalker.

  “Aww, okay that’s actually sweet, but it sounds like she doesn’t want to let go either.”

  Nora didn’t answer. She just didn’t know.

  *

  Kelli forgot how uncomfortable the chairs in interrogation were. Or perhaps it was because she wasn’t used to sitting on this side of the table. She leaned back and waited for Johns to get organized. He threw the Rader file on the table and sat down.

  “You want a Coke or something?”

  “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Johns leaned forward. “Keep in mind this ain’t fun for me, McCabe.”

  “Yeah, sorry.” All of this was just a formality. He had to do his job.

  He nodded and opened the file. Johns lined up the pictures of Rader’s body for Kelli to see. “You knew him…James Rader?”

  She didn’t even flinch at the bloody stump he had left for a head. “He was my doctor while I was in the hospital.”

  “Heard you didn’t like him. Why?”

  Kelli shrugged. “Something was off about him. I didn’t figure out what it was until he cooked up some scheme with his girlfriend to bring another doctor down.”

  “Dr. Nora Whitmore.” It wasn
’t a question. “You guys together?”

  “No…not…shit. Whatever.”

  “Alibi?” Johns asked.

  “I went to visit Travis from 8:30 until 9 p.m. I got to my mom’s around 9:30, I think, and stayed there until she went to bed at 11:30. Then, I went back to my place. There are cameras at all the exits. Should show the time I came in and that I never left.”

  Johns scribbled on a legal pad. “What happened to your hand? It’s bruised.”

  “Coping skill,” Kelli answered.

  “Uh-huh.” He stood abruptly. “Okay, we’ll check things out. Be right back.”

  “Okay.” When he was gone, she waited a full minute before grabbing the file. Fuller’s prints were all over Rader’s place. That wasn’t unusual since they were fucking, but she had motive. Combined, that was enough for a search warrant for her house. They would find what they needed and then some. Taylor wasn’t Dexter. There was no way her house was as spotless as some parts of it looked.

  The door opened but Johns’s back was to her. He was talking on the phone. Kelli flipped the file closed and pushed it back across the table.

  He turned. “Okay, I got what we needed from you.”

  So did she. Kelli stood. Johns smirked, and she nodded. He wasn’t stupid. He knew what she’d done. Hell, he’d set her up to look at that file. Professional courtesy.

  Kelli stopped to pour a new cup of coffee before going back to her desk. She was stiff as hell. Sitting in a car all night could do that. After Nora left this morning, Kelli tailed her to the hospital just to be safe. Then, she went home to shower and catch an hour or so of sleep before going to work herself. She got a certain sense of satisfaction from looking out for Nora. It was something she couldn’t fuck up.

  Williams wasn’t at his desk, which meant he was probably the one executing the warrant on Taylor’s house. Good. Kelli sat down and opened the fat-ass file on her desk. It was time to get to work, even if, at the moment, it was on another case.

  Her cell phone vibrated. She glanced at it. There was a text from Sean.

  Still a fuck up. Haven’t found him. I’ll try not 2 eat and sleep 2day.

  Cut out bathroom breaks 2?

  That stung like a bitch, but what did she expect? Maybe it was too late to fix all the damage she’d done…to some people at least. No, that was crap. She needed to get up off her lazy ass and do her part to make it right. There were a million things Kelli could text. She decided to keep it short and sweet.

  Thank u 4 trying. Appreciate it.

  Kelli waited a few seconds for Sean to respond. She got nothing. Sean, Williams, and especially Nora were going to be an uphill battle, and Kelli knew it. The hairs on the back of Kelli’s neck stood up and did a little dance. Someone was watching her. She looked up. Fucking hell. Nora was walking through the squad room, and she wasn’t coming to see her. Nora stopped at Johns’s desk. Kelli stood. Every part of her was tensed and pained. What was Nora doing?

  Johns got up out of his seat, smiled, and shook Nora’s hand. Kelli moved forward a few steps. She had to hear.

  “Thank you for volunteering to come down here, Ms. Whitmore.”

  “It’s not a problem. I thought it best, considering.”

  “Yeah, well, I hope you cleared your day. This may take a while. It’s a murder investigation.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Good, come with me please.”

  When Nora turned, their gazes met. The intensity in her eyes hit Kelli like a punch in the stomach. Nora was full of anxiety and discomfort. Kelli watched them as they headed toward the interrogation rooms. It wasn’t the most proper thing to do, given her relationship with Nora and being a person of interest herself, but Kelli followed them anyway. She waited in the hallway near the outer door, giving them a minute or two to get situated. Then, she let herself in and watched them through the two way mirror.

  “I guess I should have asked a minute ago. Do you need anything before we get started, Ms. Whitmore?”

  “No, thank you. Not right now.”

  Why was she letting him call her Ms. Whitmore? She hated that. It was clearly testament to Nora’s emotional state. Kelli took a deep breath and acknowledged for the hundredth time that it was an emotional state she’d helped to cause.

  Johns opened Rader’s file and lined up his nasty-ass pictures for Nora to see. Kelli cringed. As a doctor, Nora was used to death, but this was different.

  Nora gasped and paled. Sometimes Kelli hated being right. She hated that Nora had to go through this.

  Johns tracked her every movement. “You’re a doctor. This bothers you?”

  “He was a terrible man, but that,” Nora pointed at one of the pictures, “is ghastly.”

  Johns nodded. “I agree. This was personal and very violent. Someone had a score to settle.”

  “Obviously.”

  He leaned forward. “Not you?”

  Nora shook her head. “No, not me. I made my peace with him. We had a…discussion a few days before he discharged himself.”

  “Discussion? Why do you say it like that?”

  “It was mostly one sided. I told him he’d failed to destroy me and that he needed to get on with his life. Talking to him gave me closure and allowed me to let things go.”

  Go Nora. Her respect for Nora went up a notch or two. Kelli wished she knew how to do that. Maybe she wouldn’t be the wreck she was.

  Johns chuckled. “So you just forgave him?” He sounded skeptical.

  “In a way, I suppose, but it would be idiotic of me to forget. I didn’t want another incident. I thought it best for him to know he had no power over me. Taylor Fuller actually came to see him a few minutes later. I could hear them yelling at each other from the hallway. I believe she called Rader spineless and told him he deserved what happened to him.”

  Johns scribbled something down. “Is that right? Convenient.”

  “If you’re able to check the ICU cameras, you’ll see that it’s true. However, I know from recent experience that there’s no sound with the video.”

  “I’ll look into it. So…you did surgery on James Rader.”

  She did what? Jesus Christ. Nora was a much bigger person than Kelli could ever be.

  Nora nodded. “Yes, I suppose if I wanted him dead. I could have done it then, seamlessly.”

  Johns pursed his lips. “True, or maybe you wanted it messy. Send a message to his girlfriend?”

  “No, that’s incorrect. She did, however, come to my home. Kel…Detective McCabe handled it.”

  His forehead crinkled. “What do you mean? Handled it?”

  “I listened at the door and watched the security feed. Kelli encouraged her to grow up and move on. Taylor tried to assault her. Kelli resolved the situation peacefully.”

  He obviously didn’t like Kelli for the murder. His questions were light and not very invasive. It irritated the shit out of Kelli that he was getting more in depth with Nora. But, necessary evil blah, blah, blah.

  “You sure? McCabe can be a hothead.”

  Nora didn’t say a word for several seconds. Son of a bitch was trying to give her an out. He knew Kelli didn’t do it, but anybody who’d throw an innocent person under the bus had to be guilty of something.

  “I considered that part of her charm.” Nora’s whole face reddened. “So, yes, I’m sure.”

  Kelli smiled. They weren’t even in the same room. They weren’t even together, and somehow she still flustered Nora. Kelli sighed and declared herself queen of all assholes for fucking things up with Nora. After testing the waters the day before, Nora obviously wasn’t ready to forgive yet. Kelli cringed. Maybe if she hadn’t been an ass then too. Moments like these made things between them seem fixable. Kelli was damn near ready to put the anger and the sense of abandonment away. She swallowed, but what would keep Nora from doing the same thing all over again? No, Nora had to be the one to take steps forward. Kelli knew that for sure. She missed her like hell. She wanted her even more. So, Kelli h
ad to stay on the sidelines and do whatever she could to make sure Nora came out of this fucked-up game all right.

  Johns asked the same questions over and over in different ways, but Nora had nothing to give him. Nora had a solid alibi. She even offered to let them search her house, give DNA and fingerprints too. He still persisted, and it was pointless. He was going to be pissed, but this needed to end. Kelli knocked on the window. Johns looked up and rose from his chair.

  He opened the door and glared when he saw who it was. “Are you serious, McCabe? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “You got nothing and you know it.”

  “That’s not for you to say!”

  “I know you wanna put this to bed and do it right. But, coming down on someone you know is innocent? C’mon, Johns. Take a break and go get a Coke. Once you’re outta there, you’ll see what I mean.”

  He pushed a hand through his hair. He was young, so it was still thick and dark. “You’re not saying that just because you two used to—”

  “No, I’m saying it because I’m right.”

  He looked at her for a few seconds more. “Fine. I guess you are. Let me just end it now. I like to enjoy my Coke.”

  “Good. I know you do.” Kelli took a deep breath as he walked back into the interrogation room. She’d been somewhat nice to him. It wasn’t that hard, but she’d done it for Nora. Kelli continued to watch Nora through the mirror. Kelli should have left by now. She didn’t want to.

  Nora was the first one through the door. Their gazes met. Kelli could see her surprise as Nora’s eyes widened. She could also see when the warmth took over. Kelli had to pry the imaginary hand squeezing her heart away, so she could breathe.

  “Hey.”

  Johns slipped out without saying a word.

  “Kelli? Why—”

  “You okay?” Kelli said, as she studied Nora’s face. Her hair, makeup, and all that other shit was perfect, but she was frazzled. There was something in her eyes, and Kelli could always see. Kelli took a step forward. Nora didn’t back away.

  “I…yes, I think so. That wasn’t what I expected. You saw?”