A hush fell between them as Ben all but hung her name on the verbal accusation. My friend was among the few who thought she had simply managed to dodge a bullet when Internal Affairs had cleared her of any wrongdoing in the Eldon Porter debacle. However, I was beyond shocked the he had just made his opinion so blatantly public.
The two of them stood staring at one another, Albright’s jaw working as her mouth curled into a hard frown.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant?” a crime scene technician edged into the envelope of the standoff.
“What is it?” she barked without shifting her glare from Ben.
“The medical examiner just arrived,” the technician answered with a bit of trepidation. “You said you wanted to know when she got here.”
“Thank you,” she returned evenly. “I will be right there.”
She continued staring at Ben, and he at her, as the crime scene tech made a hasty retreat. After a long measure, she looked away for a moment, then back to my friend as she placed one hand on her hip and pointedly stabbed the index finger of her other at him.
“We will discuss this later, Detective Storm,” she forced the words between her clenched teeth. “But right now I want you as far from this crime scene as you can get. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yeah,” he spat. “As a freakin’ bell.”
She didn’t stop there. “And, I want you to take your damnable Satan worshippers with you before I have them arrested for trespassing.”
CHAPTER 26:
The morning sun was filtering through the green canopy of the trees and had already set about the task of bringing on the heat of the day. Even with a slight breeze, it was starting to get hot out here, and the sun was far from the only reason. The two detectives were squared off, their tempers swelling outward with a palpable hatred for one another. I watched on as Ben stared back at Lieutenant Albright, painfully silent in the wake of her voiced threat.
My friend was ready to fight; there was no doubt about that. While the lieutenant was certainly guilty of repeatedly baiting him, for all intents and purposes, he had taken the first swing. It was clear from his current stance that he was planning to finish this without regard for the price it may cost in the end.
I continued watching as he worked his jaw and slid his palm across his chin then allowed his arm to drop to his side. His hand clenched and unclenched repeatedly, and I recognized the motion to be a precursor of him working into a rage. Following the visual cue, I took hold of his arm and then gave him a healthy nudge just as his mouth opened. When he glanced over at me, anger in his eyes, I simply shook my head and mouthed the word ‘no.’
“Is there something you wanted to say, Detective?” Albright spat, daring him to cross the line.
Ben continued looking at me, and I shook my head again. I knew full well that what had just set him off was her verbal assault on Felicity and me. I didn’t like it any more than he did, but I’d grown jaded to such insults over the years. Moreover, I wasn’t going to let him jeopardize his career any more than he already had, especially on our account.
“No, Lieutenant,” he finally growled as he turned back to her. “Not a damn thing.”
“Good,” she retorted and then looked over at me. “Mister Gant, I expect you to be available for questioning.” She shot her glance at Felicity then added, “That goes for both of you.”
“Whatever you say, Sheriff,” I told her with my own injection of sarcasm. “Don’t leave town. Got it.”
“Crack jokes if you want, Mister Gant,” she retorted. “But, make no mistake, as far as I am concerned, both you and your wife are suspects.”
“You have got to be kidding me” was my incredulous reply.
“By procedure, maybe,” Constance interjected. “But, that’s ludicrous and you know it.”
“Is it?” Albright queried. “How did they know where to find the body?”
“We already covered that,” Ben told her.
“Did we?”
“Oh, gimme a fuckin’ break,” he snarled.
“I am,” she replied. “I’m not bringing you up on charges right this minute. Now get out of here. All of you.”
“I’ll be staying, Lieutenant,” Mandalay announced in a cold tone.
“I see no reason…” Albright started.
“I will be staying, Lieutenant,” Constance repeated, emphasizing the words as she cut her off. “If there is a problem with that, we can contact the Bureau field office, and I’m sure the SAIC can give you several reasons for me to be here.”
The lieutenant regarded her silently for a moment, then sighed and motioned toward us. “Suit yourself, Agent Mandalay, but I am still lead detective, and I want these three out of here now.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Constance told her evenly.
“See that you do.”
“One more thing, Lieutenant,” Mandalay replied in a careful but frosty tone. “I suggest that you don’t push me. I’m the last bitch you want to cross right now.”
“Yes, I am sure that you are,” Albright returned in her own cold voice and then paused before adding, “A bitch.”
They stared at each other for one of those time-warped moments that lasts only a few brief seconds but feels like an eternity to everyone within its sphere of influence. Albright finally turned and headed away from our small clutch.
At first, she retreated without a word, but after a few steps, she paused and called back over her shoulder, her voice thickly frosted with sarcasm. “By the way, I had Miz O’Brien’s Jeep towed and impounded as possible evidence. I do hope it won’t be an inconvenience.”
“ Fek tu saigh,” Felicity calmly issued the curse of mixed colloquial Irish and Gaelic.
This wasn’t the first time my wife had launched that particular phrase at the lieutenant and at one point, had even supplied her with the English translation. Apparently the meaning of the foreign words had stuck with Albright ever since, as evidenced by her reply.
“Funny you should say that, Miz O’Brien, because it is exactly what I was thinking.” She made the comment with an air of satisfaction and then continued on her way.
The lieutenant’s haughty attitude told us that as far as she was concerned, she had come out on top this go around, and truth be told, she had. However, whether she wanted to admit it or not, this was merely a single skirmish, and the war was far from over. Still, it took everything I had to stand there motionless and not say a word, and I’m sure the same was true for everyone else. In fact, I could tell by looking at Ben that he was struggling just to contain himself; and, though I’d seen him angry a number of times before, the darkness of the emotions seething from him at this moment actually worried me.
Right or wrong, the fact remained that there was nothing we could do; at least, not with a head-on approach, and not at this particular moment. It was beyond obvious that any further confrontation would only make the situation worse, so we stood our ground and kept silent.
In the end, it still took some swift talking from Constance, as well as Felicity and me, to convince Ben not to go after the lieutenant. While I doubted he would resort to physical violence, I knew for a fact that his mouth would get him into more trouble than he needed at this point in his life.
I can’t say that I blamed him. Albright was deep under everyone’s skin, not just his. I even caught myself having some intensely dark thoughts about the woman and had to mentally back away from the ill wishes for fear I might inadvertently manifest one or two of them. I glanced over at Felicity and couldn’t help but notice that even at a distance, she was systematically vivisecting the lieutenant with a razor sharp stare. I have to admit that the intensity of her gaze made my spiteful ruminations appear pleasant in comparison. Mandalay was probably the calmest of our small group, but even so, almost everything that came out of her mouth was clipped and official, no matter to whom she was speaking.
However, what really stood out to me was the mood of the cops working the scene. I certainly
wasn’t about to diminish how horrific this crime scene was. They were all nightmares in the making. Still, over the past few years, I had worked some that were far worse than this. I thought I knew what the atmosphere should be like, and this wasn’t it. Considering that these men and women were veterans whose experiences were sure to overshadow mine in both volume and intensity, I was somewhat taken aback by their overall tenor. The emotional climate in this corner of the park had been barreling downhill since the arrival of the first uniformed officer, and that pace had been quickening. It had now progressed far beyond any level of edginess I would have expected.
At first, I assumed the air of discontent was simply due to the fact that they were working such a high profile homicide. Let’s face it; this wasn’t Jane Q Public, this was the daughter of the Saint Louis city mayor. There was bound to be more than the average amount of pressure on these cops. But, as I watched, it became clear that there was more at work here. While it might have gone unnoticed by a casual observer, paying attention to the various interactions between crime scene technicians and Major Case Squad detectives told a story. And, the story was that wherever the tension was greatest, Albright could be found at the center, pulling the strings.
As irritants go, she was at the top of the scale and virulent to a fault.
My concentration on the scene was shattered by a hard nudge against my shoulder, and I broke my stare away to glance up at my friend.
“Huh?”
“I said, c’mon,” he voiced, apparently repeating himself. “I’m takin’ you two home.”
*****
Sleep was a welcome commodity to us all, although for me, it was nowhere near as restful as I would have liked. Even though my conscious mind knew Felicity was safe and was lying beside me in the bed, my subconscious had elected to unload the emotional baggage of the past few hours.
My slumber was plagued with more than one nondescript, but horribly intense, dream of loss and despair: each cycle driving me upward into wakefulness, only so I could dry my dampened cheeks on the pillowcase then roll over and repeat the process, or so it seemed. I’m not sure how long it took before I fell into something resembling actual sleep, but in the end, even that was shallow and fitful. I suppose that is why I’m the one who heard the noise.
I’m not sure which sound I heard first, the dogs barking or the banging on the door. In either case, there was enough racket to pluck me out of the twilight sleep I’d finally become semi-comfortable with and deposit me face first into the harsh world of the awake.
I opened one eye and saw that the bedroom was dimly lit by sunlight that was forcing its way between the slats of the closed mini blinds. I lifted my head and cast my monocular glance in the direction of the clock and saw that it was 3:43 in the afternoon. I closed my eye and let my head fall back onto the pillow then listened for a moment. All I heard were the muffled reports of various Sunday afternoon outdoor activities- children playing, lawnmowers running in the distance, an occasional car passing by, the usual stuff.
I struggled to think about it for a moment. Firstly, there was nothing more than ambient noise meeting my ears. Secondly, I really didn’t want to get up yet. And, thirdly, Ben was in the living room. We had convinced him not to drive, since he was surely as tired as we both were, so he had crashed on the couch. It stood to reason that if there had been any such noises as barking dogs and door banging, he would have heard it first and gotten up. My foggy brain tallied the column and then decided that since I wasn’t hearing anything now that I hadn’t actually heard anything before.
Besides, considering the abnormally busy expressway running between my conscious and subconscious, whatever it was I thought I’d heard couldn’t be real anyway. It was most likely yet another dreamlike terror come to wreak havoc upon my already abused psyche. I’d had more than enough of that and didn’t plan on dealing with any more, so I simply rolled over and pulled the pillow up over my head.
I didn’t even have a chance to get comfortable when the banging sounded again and was followed by our doorbell ringing in a rapid staccato. The entire disorganized symphony was underscored by the dogs wildly yapping and growling. This time, however, there was an added thud as Ben’s feet hit the living room floor, and I could hear him muttering something. While I couldn’t make out the actual verbiage, I had a fairly good idea of the content because I was considering a few expletives myself, and I’m pretty sure they were the same ones.
“Aye,” my wife mumbled in a tired voice. “Who do you think it is?”
“Who knows,” I muttered.
“Are you going to get up and see?” she asked.
“Let Ben get it.”
“That would be rude. It’s not Ben’s house, then.”
“He’s family.”
“Rowan.”
“He’s closer to the door.”
“Rowan…”
“All right, all right…” I was already moving as I spoke the words.
I sat up on the edge of the bed and let out a yawn as I rubbed my eyes. After a quick stretch, I slid on a pair of pants and then pulled a t-shirt over my head as I trudged around the end of the bed toward the door. I could hear movement and voices out in the living room and knew that Ben had already answered the door, so I didn’t rush.
“Listen,” I said. “He already got it.”
“Go and see who it is,” my wife mumbled as she rolled over on her side.
“Why me and not you?”
“Because you’re already up,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” I huffed. “Because I’m already up. Go figure.”
I was just reaching for the door handle when there was a hard knuckled rap on the bedroom door.
I followed through, giving the handle a twist and then swung the wooden barrier open. As expected, I was greeted by the disheveled countenance of my friend. His clothing was rumpled, and his hair was protruding from his head at odd, pillow-induced angles. He was standing there massaging his neck and staring at me with surprisingly clear eyes. Even though his outward appearance bespoke of recent intimacy with sleep, he was obviously far more alert than I.
“You two better get cleaned up,” he said simply. “Mandalay’s here. Looks like ‘Bible Barb’ wants you both downtown.”
CHAPTER 27:
“Constance, why don’t you go home and get some sleep, then,” Felicity said.
We were all seated in an interview room at St. Louis City police headquarters. This wasn’t the first time I’d been in one and probably wouldn’t be the last unless my life made a very drastic change and dead people suddenly stopped talking to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that happening any time in the near future. Still, this was a bit different. I was used to being on the metaphorical other side of the table. Being the interviewee was yet another new experience to add to my resume.
We were waiting for Lieutenant Albright to arrive and had been for better than fifteen minutes. I knew that making us wait was nothing more than a stalling tactic intended to set a mood. It was a blatant textbook attempt to make us nervous and give her an upper hand. What she failed to realize was that not only was there nothing for us to be nervous about, we were still simply too tired to care.
“Maybe when this is over,” Mandalay returned in a spent voice.
She was slouched in a chair, head tilted back and eyes closed. She hadn’t had the same luxury of sleep as had we, and in the past quarter hour, she had nodded off at least once.
“You look like hell, Constance,” I said.
“Yeah, probably,” she agreed, then chuckled. “But have you looked in a mirror lately, Rowan?”
She was correct. We had done our best to get ourselves together, but both Ben and I were just to the other side of folded, spindled, and mutilated. Not the good side, mind you. Even Felicity was showing some signs of wear around the edges, and that was unusual when you considered that she always looked like a perfect china doll even when she had just crawled out of bed.
The ragged F
BI agent tilted her head down with a yawn then slowly pushed herself upright in the chair. She gave us a sleepy glance and then spoke again. “So, did you manage to get hold of your attorney?”
“She wasn’t in,” Felicity answered. “I left her a message though.”
“You said when you picked us up that we weren’t being charged with anything,” I offered.
“Not that I’m aware of,” she replied. “Like I said, she didn’t tell me what this was about. But, I’m not putting anything past Albright. I really think your attorney should be present for this.”
“I’m sure she’ll call as soon as she picks up her voice mail,” Felicity offered.
“Well, until then, I’m staying,” Constance replied.
“I know you have a law degree, Constance,” I told her. “But wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?”
“Fuck it,” she replied. “Friends don’t let friends get railroaded.”
“You’ve been hanging around Ben too long,” I quipped.
She nodded. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
“‘Bout time ya’ learned ta’ speak English,” Ben said. “I knew I’d rub off sooner or later.”
“Wouldn’t having an attorney here just make us look like we were trying to hide something?” my wife asked, still dwelling on the earlier thread of the conversation.
“It doesn’t matter with this bitch, Felicity,” Mandalay replied. “She’s got it in for you two. That’s all there is to it.”
“Ya’know she’s prob’ly on the other side of the window listenin’ in right now,” Ben said.
“Yeah,” Mandalay agreed. “She probably is. So what?”
“So she prob’ly just heard ya’ call ‘er a bitch.”
“Good,” she replied as she twisted in her chair and looked toward the one-way glass. I watched her reflection as she stuck out her tongue and then twisted back around to face us. “I sure as hell wouldn’t want her to get the wrong idea.”
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