by J. M. Madden
When the headlights dimmed, I saw Burke walk around to the back door of the lake house. He must have seen us on the dock and called out, “Briggs?”
“Sarge, we’re headed back up to the house. Just give us a sec.” I leaned down and kissed Claire on the lips, then tucked my dick down in my pants, hoping Burke wouldn’t see my erection or what was left of it. “It’s all going to work out just fine. I know it.”
I could only see shadows on her face, but I think she smiled.
We walked back to the deck holding hands, but then I thought better of it and dropped her hand before Burke could see us.
“Claire.” Burke’s demeanor was standoffish. “Briggs. You want to talk out here?”
A string of white lights illuminated the deck, and it was late enough in the season that the mosquitos weren’t hovering, so I sat in the Adirondack chair, and Claire and Burke sat at the picnic table. I lifted my hip a little and pulled the recorder out of my pocket.
“Here.” I tossed the recorder to Burke. “This has Claire’s story. You can give a listen, so she doesn’t have to go over it all again.”
“Tell you what, Briggs, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ll handle this my way.” He placed the recorder on the table. To Claire he said, “This shit has to stop.”
Claire’s good mood dropped off her face. “What shit?”
“The half-truths and lies. You came into the station this morning begging for a plea deal and offering up information in return. Then we find out the people you’d just ratted out couldn’t care less that you snitched because they were fucking dead.”
Claire picked at her fingernails. “I was afraid if I told you about the murders, you’d think I did it. I was in the house, and my fingerprints were everywhere.”
“Again, half-truths and lies. I want only the truth. If you can’t do that, then we’re done here.” Burke stood.
Claire jumped up. “Wait. Look, I know I should have come clean, but I was scared. The only people who ever believed in me, or had my back, were dead. I was still in shock when I went to the police station. And I knew I had to give up something in order to stay out of jail. You don’t understand, Geoff has contacts on the inside and outside, and I was going to die before I ever got to trial.”
Burke sat back down. “Geoffrey Nunce? Who does he have on the inside?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know names, but I do know that he’s threatened us before. If we ratted him out for a lesser sentence, he said he’d know, and we’d be dead. Inside or outside, we’d be dead.”
“You think maybe he was just blowing smoke up your ass, to scare you?”
She continued to pick at her fingernails, then put her right hand up to her mouth and chewed on the tips of her nails. I wanted to go to her and pull her hand out of her mouth.
“Maybe.”
“How are you feeling? Are you still clean, or did you shoot up last night when you went back to the house?”
She shivered and put her hand back on the table. “I didn’t shoot up.”
ELEVEN
“Why do I even bother with you, Claire? You’re your own worst enemy.” He stood and pulled handcuffs from his belt. “Let’s go.”
This time I jumped up. “Wait,” I said to Burke. To Claire, I said, “Remember what we talked about. Stop covering, lying, stepping around the truth. It’s not going to work anymore. These people are smarter than you and your manipulation.”
Claire looked as if I’d slapped her in the face.
“I snorted a line of meth.” She dropped her head on the table and wrapped her arms over her neck.
I wanted to strangle her with my bare hands. She’d told both me and Isaac, she wanted to change, and yet she went right back to that life and did drugs that night. Now I was positive she’d needed my help.
“Was that so hard?” Burke said without feeling.
“But you’re going to arrest me now,” she said to the wood of the table.
“I’m not. If you keep telling me the truth, and help us get Geoff and whoever his supplier is, I’ll keep my promise, and on Monday, I’ll stand up with the D.A. and plead your case to the judge. But you can’t do any more drugs, and you can’t hold back.”
She sat up straight and told her story again. Only this time she added more detail.
“After I saw Andre in the kitchen, I knew I didn’t have the strength to say no for long. I went upstairs and looked out the window in the hallway. I thought I saw someone creeping around the house.” She looked at me.
“Did you recognize the person?” Burke took notes on his iPhone. He usually took them on paper, so this was a step for him.
“I couldn’t be sure who it was. But it was a guy. He wore all dark clothing, and he had a hoodie, so I couldn’t see his face.”
“How do you know it was a guy?” Burke asked.
I wanted to ask the same question, but I bit my tongue.
“You know, guys move different from girls.” She looked at Burke, then at me again. “He disappeared, and then I saw someone get into a car and sit for several minutes. Then the person started the car and drove away.”
“What kind of car?”
“I’m not much into cars, so I can only tell you it had two doors and it was a dark color. I tried to read the license plate because I was sure it was one of Geoff’s men, but I couldn’t see straight. I needed a fix kinda bad. The only reason I stayed at the window so long was because I was scared.”
“Really scared or drug induced paranoia?” Burke stared at her.
“A little of both maybe?” She said it as a question more than a statement.
“What next?”
Now she was picking absently at her skin. “I had to pee, so I went into the bathroom. Leon, or someone, had left a meth baggie on the counter, and I took the blade out of the razor in the medicine cabinet and scraped the edges of the baggie, trying to salvage the dust. Then I snorted it. The relief was overwhelming. But the amount was so minimal, I knew the high wouldn’t last long.”
“How long were you home when you saw the man and the car?”
“I don’t know. Like I told Dane, I don’t wear a watch. Maybe an hour.” She wrapped her bony fingers around her wrist and rubbed.
“So you said you saw Leon upstairs in your bed, and soon after, you heard the gunshots.”
“I think so.” She rubbed hard at her wrist. “I mean, yes, that’s how it happened. I wanted to pack a bag, just in case, you know?”
“In case of what? Were you preparing to run?” Burke stopped tapping in notes with his stylus and looked at her.
I looked at her too. So my instinct was right. She was going to run.
“Andre said we might need to move quickly.” Her leg started bouncing. “I told him I didn’t want to run, and he got pissed.”
She’d failed to share this detail with me too. After everything, all of the promises, she was going back to Andre, back to the gutter.
“That’s when he told me we needed to save ourselves. Narc out Geoff, and then once the cops cut us loose, we’d blow this shitty little town.” She gave a weak smile.
Nothing she’d told me was the whole truth. Or was she embellishing for Burke? How was I supposed to know? I had no idea.
“Even though you had a court date on Monday, you were going to run?” Burke’s voice went low.
“No, we were going to ask for a deal on Monday. That’s how I got the idea to come in and talk to Officer Leigh.” She grinned with her teeth showing this time, like she was offering a morsel. “Andre and Leon were dead. I didn’t have any other friends. I didn’t know what to do.”
Her words stabbed at my heart. Didn’t she think I was her friend?
“Claire, you need better friends. Andre and Leon were going to get you killed. Not only that, they both gave you up for the drug operation. Said you were Geoff’s girlfriend, and that you were there that night because you were setting up the next major shipment.”
Claire froze.
I couldn�
��t keep quiet. “Well, Claire?”
She turned swiftly to look at me. “What the hell? No. I mean…”
“Why do you think Leon and Andre were out of jail when you went to the house?”
“I didn’t think to ask. I mean, I was out, wasn’t I?” She looked like a deer in the headlights.
“And you think you weren’t being watched? You think, after all of the work I’d done, I was just going to let the system turn you loose?”
“Was it your guy who I saw sneaking around the house?” She was visibly shaking now.
I was shaking now too. Why hadn’t they told me they’d been watching Claire, and the house?
Burke looked at me. “Still think your bitch can be saved?”
I wanted to leap out of my chair and beat the shit out of my boss. Instead, I gripped the armrests until the wood dug into my skin. I didn’t answer him.
“So who were you fucking, Claire, Andre or Geoff? Or both?”
“Fuck you,” she responded without much energy.
TWELVE
“Let’s start again. And this time you can tell me the story, knowing that I know the truth.” Burke relaxed his posture to a friendlier position.
“Fine, Geoff and I were lovers, but only because he gave me drugs for free. And he gave me money, to keep an eye on his operations.” Now she was gripping the picnic bench as if it were a lifeline. “But I wanted out. I even told Andre I wanted out. I think that’s what he told Geoff last night, that got him killed.”
“I thought you said Geoff was mad because he thought they ratted him out?”
“That too. It’s such a mess. And when Geoff found me in the closet, he made me promise to go to the cops and tell them all about the drug deal going down. Tell it like Andre and Leon were still alive. He trusted I’d do it for him. And he said the only reason I wasn’t dead was because he needed me to buy him some time.”
I felt the bile rise in my throat. Now I wanted to wrap my fingers around Claire’s throat and choke the life out of her. She’d played me.
“You know your story doesn't really add up?”
“Like I said, I was high. It’s all sort of a jumble. I just know that Geoff killed Andre and Leon, and he told me to walk to the police station and tell them I wanted to plead ‘no contest’ to the charges and ask about the S.A.F.E. program, to show I was sincere. Then I was to tell you and the D.A. about a couple of drug deals going down next week. They were deals he knew about, and he figured it’d be at least that long before you found the bodies. Who the hell knew someone would call the cops about the murders?”
“So why are you ratting out Geoff now?” I asked, the fire in my words burning my throat.
She looked at me, her eyes melting into tears. “Because I want out. I did everything everyone asked me to do, and nothing went as planned. Geoff said he’d come and get me Monday, after the judge granted me into the program, and we’d be gone. Either way, with Andre or with Geoff, I was outta here.”
“So, let’s say we hadn’t found the bodies right away. What would have happened when we arrived at the location of the drug buy?” Burke’s words were friendlier now.
“Geoff set up one of his rivals. You’d have walked in on a drug buy. A fucking huge deal going down at the warehouse. His rival would be gone, and he’d lie low for a while, then we’d be back in business.” She wiped her tears away with the back of her forearm.
“I thought you were blowing this town?”
“That’s what he promised, but then I realized he’d never leave. Not unless the cops got too close. He didn’t want to start all over in a new place, learn the ways of the cops, and build a new clientele. That’s when I knew I was on my own. My life was over as I know it. And when Isaac offered me a job, I gladly took it. If I get into the S.A.F.E program, I’m going to work it like my life depends on it, because it does.”
The contradictions in her statements were overwhelming. I wasn’t even sure she knew what the truth was.
“You’ll be required to participate in a 12-step program too. You need new friends, and I don’t think Dane can do this by himself.” Burke grabbed the recorder from the table and put it in his pocket. Then he pulled out a brown evidence bag, unfolded it, and put it on the table. “Dane, I need the shirt she was wearing last night when she left the house. I want to do a GSR test on it.”
I tried to remember what she was wearing. So much had happened that night, and my mind was a jumble.
“It was your shirt, Dane. I had on the shirt and sweat pants you gave me.”
No, it wasn’t. She’d changed back into her own clothes. Her lie made me remember. But I didn’t think that shirt was still in the house. Without responding, I went into my bedroom and dug through her suitcase. I found the clothes she’d put in the washer, and I put them in the evidence bag. I wasn’t going to say anything, but then I didn’t want to stoop to her level. I’d already stooped low enough.
When I handed the bag to Burke, I said, “She had actually changed clothes. She and my uncle were sitting at the kitchen table, and I remember she had changed back into the clothes she’d been wearing when she got out of jail. She’d washed them and had put them back on when she thought I was asleep.”
Claire looked at me as if I was the devil.
“I’m not lying for you Claire, not when I know the truth. That’s not how relationships and friendships grow.”
I saw the will blow out of her with one breath. “Fine, you’re right.” She looked at Burke. “My mistake. Not a lie, just a mistake.”
Burke stood and turned to leave. He looked back. “Try to enjoy the rest of your weekend. And if you even consider fleeing, just remember, I’ll hunt you down until my dying day. And I don’t care if I bring you in dead or alive.” He looked at me. “We’ll be having a long chat on Monday, now is not the time.”
The sound of crickets was the only noise other than Burke’s footsteps. I didn’t even know if I could look at Claire. I wanted to look at her, forgive her for everything, but I’d already gone too far, and she’d given nothing in return.
I needed to know. “Why didn’t you tell me everything back in the car?”
“I didn’t tell your sergeant everything either,” she shot back at me.
I frowned at her.
“It was a dark gray Nissan I saw last night. Would you like me to tell you the license plate number?”
I froze.
“And I saw you in the house too, Dane. I saw you sneak in and take Andre’s phone off the kitchen table. The only thing I’m not sure of is how you knew what number to call to get in contact with Geoff and how you knew what to say to get him to come to the house.”
Oh, shit.
“Did you know he’d kill Andre and Leon? I didn’t hear the conversation, obviously, because you left the house before you called. That’s what you were doing in your car. Calling Geoff, and you stayed long enough to make sure he showed up.”
“If you knew all of this why didn’t you tell Burke?”
She shrugged.
“You know I did it for you, right? I saw you go into that house, and I knew you’d never get away. I knew you’d end up dead in a gutter somewhere, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Oh, you knew all of that, did you?” She stood, leaning on the table.
“I’ve loved you since I was twelve years old. I couldn’t bear to see the way your life had turned out. I thought, if I can get rid of the magnets drawing you back, I could make you love me too.”
She walked up to me and took both of my hands. “I’m not the same girl, you understand that, right? It’s been many years and lots of life between those days on the lake when we were innocent kids and now.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “I’m sorry. I understand if you want me to take you somewhere. It’s crazy of me to think we could go back. Pretend life didn’t happen and start from scratch.”
She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed my lips. “Sorry, dude, you’re stuck with me. I’m
not skipping town, and I have no one else. You’re the only person who has ever looked at me like you do.”
My brows went high. “Like what? How do I look at you?”
She grinned. “Like I matter. Like someone actually cares about me.”
She took my hand and led me into the house. “This may be our last chance to go back and pretend the world between then and now doesn’t exist.”
We walked to my bedroom, and she shut the door behind us.
“Claire, after all you said out there, I’m not sure this is a good idea. I don’t even know what I was thinking.”
Then she placed her hand on my cock, and all reason went out the window.
She pushed me back on the bed and before I could lie down, she pulled my shirt over my head and said, “Just for the next hour, let’s pretend we’re teenagers and the rest of the world doesn’t exist. After that, we can worry about the present and the future.”
I knew better than to do what happened next, but when she pulled a condom out of her bra, I was a goner.
THIRTEEN
We spent the next day getting to know each other better, both physically and mentally. And with each admission of our past, I cringed at what I’d done Friday night. I’d gotten two men killed.
I kept telling myself it was a PSK (public service killing), since Andre and Leon were leaches on society, and would end up costing taxpayers thousands of dollars, if they ended up in the penal system. I hadn’t pulled the trigger, just made the phone call.
I’d been careful not to get my prints or DNA on the phone, in case it was ever found. I’d tossed it out, somewhere over the canal. I’d been a cop for a week, and I’d already bent the rules. I had secrets.
Only were they really secrets? Claire knew. And as long as she knew, she had me over a barrel. The barrel of a gun, in some ways, because if she wanted to tell her whole truth, I’d be behind bars, or at the very least, I’d no longer be a cop. The disgrace that’d bring to my uncle would be unbearable.
As I lay in bed, after my first solo shift as a cop, Claire’s naked body wrapped around mine, I knew I’d done the right thing.
