White Roses Calling

by Hudson, Dakota

  “Time for me to leave. You two have a nice evening,” he said then retreated down the hallway.

  Sydney picked up her leather soft-sided briefcase from the floor and began placing various files and a laptop computer in it.

  “I was actually thinking it might be nice to get out of the office,” she said as she gathered items together. “If you give me a minute to pack some stuff up here, maybe we can go across the street to Starbucks instead?”

  “Actually,” Alex said, “I had kind of an early lunch and I’m really famished. Would you be up to grabbing some dinner instead?” Sydney stopped packing her bag and looked up. “I mean,” Alex added quickly, “unless you’ve already got plans. That’s cool, we can just grab a quick cup and I’ll fill you in on what I know.”

  “No, I have absolutely no plans. Dinner would be great.” Sydney put the last file in her satchel then grabbed her purse. “Give me two minutes in the ladies’ room then we can be on our way.”

  Sydney had no need to use the restroom. She stood in front of the mirror and tried to collect herself. As she brushed her hair, refreshed her make-up and removed otherwise invisible lint from her suit jacket, she attempted to calm her excitement. She’d been trying to think of a casual way to make this more than just a quick cup of coffee and now it was.

  Is this a date? She wondered as she removed her suit jacket, analyzed the look in the mirror, then put the jacket back on and reassessed the look. She thought about what Tyler had said about the visit the day before. Now here Alex was, on a day off, asking Sydney to join her for dinner. It sounded kind of like a date. Sydney undid the top button on her blouse. No, too much. After all, maybe it was exactly what Alex had implied. Maybe she was just hungry and felt like a meal was a better use of time than coffee as they discussed the case. Sydney certainly hoped that wasn’t it.

  Sydney visualized Alex, imagining the toned body concealed beneath the leather jacket and jeans that hugged in just the right places. She couldn’t deny the physical attraction she felt. But was that feeling the slightest bit mutual? There was only one way to find out. She finally settled on no suit jacket and removed it and carried it over her arm, but she left the blouse fully buttoned except for the top one.

  “All right, Sergeant,” Sydney said as she re-entered the office and picked up her satchel. “Ready to go?”

  Alex turned from where she had been looking at the various diplomas and legal certificates on the wall.

  “Sure,” she said. “There’s just one thing.” Alex paused and Sydney looked at her with questioning eyes. “I think you should call me Alex, you know. We run into each other so much I really think we’re a little more familiar with one another.”

  “Sounds good, Alex. And you can call me Sydney.” Sydney smiled. “Or Syd.” Then she led the way out the door, pausing and trying to find the keys in her purse in order to lock the door. Alex reached out and grasped the shoulder strap to her satchel.

  “Here, let me hold this for you.” She took the bag as Sydney smiled her thanks, her hands now free to manipulate purse and keys. She locked the door and they continued down the hallway. Alex made no move to return the satchel, clearly intending to carry it to her car for her. As Sydney led the way down the hallway she smiled to herself, silently placing one more point in the—it might be a date—column.

  “So, any idea where you’d like to go?” Alex asked as they rode the elevator down.

  “I’m up for just about anything.”

  “How do you feel about Mexican?”

  “I absolutely love Mexican.”

  “Outstanding.” Alex grinned. “How about El Cholo? Ever been there?”

  “Went there once on an office luncheon and loved it. I’ve heard the original on Western is better, though.”

  “The original is usually the best. But the one on Flower Street is still really good. Does that sound okay?”

  “Sure, sounds great. Shall we take separate cars to avoid having to come back this way?” They exited the elevator and Alex walked Sydney to her car. She placed Sydney’s bag in the trunk then pointed to her Dodge truck parked a few rows away, one of the few cars remaining in the subterranean garage.

  “That’s me over there,” she said. “I’ll follow you.”

  ALEX SMILED TO herself as she followed close behind Sydney on the drive to the restaurant. She’d noticed Sydney had touched up her makeup when she retreated briefly to the bathroom. Not that she needed to, Alex thought to herself. Sydney was stunning regardless. Alex couldn’t help but think that was a positive sign. But then that nagging doubt hit her again. Perhaps that was just what most heterosexual women do when they go out in public in general?

  “Stop it.” she scolded herself as they pulled into the restaurant parking lot. “Just go with the flow.”

  They ended up at a booth in a quiet corner of one of the smaller dining rooms, far from the noisier bar and boisterous large groups. Alex was thrilled with the arrangement and when she looked at Sydney as they sat down she noted Sydney certainly didn’t look uncomfortable with the somewhat intimate environment.

  Their waitress appeared and asked if they would like drinks as they looked at the menu.

  “I would love a margarita,” Sydney said, looking somewhat guilty. Alex was thrilled at this development and looked up from her menu.

  “How about nachos?” she asked. “They say El Cholo invented nachos.” Sydney nodded with enthusiasm and Alex ordered nachos and her favorite light beer.

  After their drinks were delivered, Alex asked how the day in court had been.

  “Well, we had closing arguments today, and by the time jury instructions were given, it was already well into the afternoon session. The judge decided to release the jury for the weekend. They’ll begin deliberation on Monday. I’m pretty confident in the case we presented, but it was somewhat convoluted, so anything could happen. There were multiple defendants. All gang members. Each defendant had their own public defender, and faced multiple charges. Robbery, false imprisonment, aggravated assault and conspiracy. I requested gang enhancements for every one of them.”

  “Do you expect a quick verdict?” Alex asked.

  “Just the number of charges alone will take the jury an entire day to get through one at a time, and that’s if they all agree on the verdict on each charge from the start. If there’s any real deliberation it’s going to go into at least day two.”

  “You know, I had an amusing experience in a prelim this week,” Alex said after taking a sip of her beer. “It was a robbery caper. The suspect walked into the liquor store with a gun and did your standard stick up then ran out with the bag of money and the gun. One of my units saw him take off down an alley and when we caught him on the next block he’d ditched the bag and the gun. We went back and found it in the trash bin in the alley. He was doing the classic defense of mistaken identity. You know the story, he was never there, and we can’t prove anything since we didn’t catch him with the money and the gun on him. And to be honest, it was a little shaky because the clerk couldn’t I.D. afterwards. He was so scared all he remembered was the red sweatshirt and the gun in his face. So, the clerk was on the stand and testified that the suspect walked in, pointed the gun at him, and ordered him to empty the cash register or he’d—put a cap in his ass—.” Alex raised two fingers on each hand to indicate quotation marks around the final statement. “Well, the defendant jumps out of his seat and screams—That’s not what I said.”

  “Oh my God. That was your case?” Sydney asked through her laughter. “Everyone heard about that case. It was the biggest courthouse story this week.”

  The conversation paused momentarily as the waitress brought their nachos and took their dinner order. The waitress had been gone a few minutes and both had enjoyed several bites from the nachos before Sydney broke the comfortable silence.

  “So, while I’d much rather talk about more pleasant things this evening, I have to ask. Were you able to find out anything on this copycat?”
>
  Alex relayed everything she had learned earlier that day.

  “According to Detective Severs, they may actually turn to scrutinizing old video footage and photographs from the press conferences and trial to see who, other than the media, was consistently present and possibly a little too interested,” Alex said. She wiped her hands on her napkin, partially as a delaying tactic, as she looked at her dinner companion and tried to figure out the best way to broach the next question.

  “Listen, Sydney,” Alex said. “About the roses left on your car. Do you think you can recall the dates of the other two? I want to document that, just to be safe and thorough.”

  Sydney’s eyes widened slightly. Alex could see the gears working in her mind as Sydney thought through the question. Sydney was a criminal prosecutor who dealt with clues, patterns and circumstantial evidence. She was more than capable of connecting the dots. It was apparent moments later that she had done just that.

  “You think the dates may be linked to the new murders?” As much as she tried to make the question sound routine she couldn’t quite keep the concern out of her voice.

  “Hey,” Alex said. “We don’t know anything yet. There’s probably no connection and it’s someone trying to throw you off your game.” But Alex knew Sydney didn’t believe that any more than she did.

  They remained quiet for several minutes as Sydney had a slightly faraway look in her eyes. Alex saw her shiver slightly and fought the urge to move next to Sydney and hold her. When Sydney looked up and saw Alex gazing at her she blushed noticeably.

  “You okay?” Alex asked. “I know, it’s stupid and crazy,” Sydney said. “It’s just been in the press so much with this new guy out their replicating the murders. It’s just...creepy. I even imagined I saw him one day.”

  “Sinclair?” Alex asked.

  Sydney nodded. “Do you remember the day there was that gang fight in the hallway at the courthouse?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “I saw someone in the elevator I thought looked like Sinclair. That’s why I froze.” Sydney looked down at her plate. “I know, he’s in prison. It’s crazy.”

  Alex shook her head. “It’s not stupid and it’s not crazy,” she said. “It’s perfectly understandable. The guy is an animal and you had to study all the terrible details about what he did. It would be crazy if you didn’t react somehow, especially considering what happened at the end of the trial, with what he said to you. I was there. And then there were the roses. Yeah, it’s entirely natural for you to respond this way. Just keep reminding yourself this is someone totally different, some psycho who watched too much TV and read too many newspaper articles. Even if Sinclair manages to avoid the needle, he’ll still never get out of prison. You’ve got nothing to worry about from him.”

  Sydney smiled weakly and nodded in agreement. Then she took a large swig of her margarita, her second margarita actually, and leaned forward looking into Alex’s eyes.

  “And besides,” Sydney said with a coy smile. “You wouldn’t let anything happen to me, right?”

  Alex paused momentarily with her beer to her lips, then continued drinking in order to give her an extra moment to digest what Sydney just said, and what it indicated. Was she flirting?

  “Of course I wouldn’t,” Alex said quietly, gazing into Sydney’s eyes and matching her shy smile. Sydney blushed, finally breaking eye contact as the waitress showed up with their dinner entrées.

  The rest of the evening went by in a blur as they discussed their respective jobs, office politics, interesting cases and incompetent bosses. Too soon they were sipping coffee and the waitress was placing the bill on their table. The conversation lulled for several moments as neither of them spoke. Instead they simply looked at one another. Both aware of something intangible passing between them. Alex cleared her throat and broke the silence.

  “Thank you for humoring me and joining me for dinner,” she said and reached for the bill. “And it’s on me, by the way.” Sydney reached out quickly and grasped Alex’s hand, not allowing her to pull the check away. Both women were aware of the tingle that erupted from the contact. Alex smiled and tugged gently only to have Sydney’s hand squeeze more tightly. “Really,” Alex said. “I insist, it’s on me.”

  “On one condition,” Sydney said after a moment. “You have to come to my place and let me cook you dinner.”

  Alex’s smile grew. “Okay,” she said. “When?”

  “Sunday,” Sydney replied firmly and with certainty. “Sunday at six.” Alex could only grin and nod.

  Sydney reached into her purse for pen and paper and wrote her address and phone number while Alex settled the bill and left a tip. Then they walked out in companionable silence to Sydney’s car. As they approached, she used the remote to unlock the vehicle and Alex reached out to open the door for her. Sydney handed Alex the paper with her address.

  “Can you find it?” she asked.

  Alex’s eyebrows rose when she noted the address in the hills above Hollywood. “I can find it.”

  Sydney leaned closer and pointed out the phone numbers. “I added my home number and the office number for my task force, just in case.”

  “Got it. Just in case,” Alex repeated.

  They stood there in the dim light with only the door between them, looking at one another, saying nothing. Just as Alex was contemplating leaning in to kiss her, Sydney lowered herself into the car and slid behind the wheel.

  “I’ll see you Sunday,” she said and grinned.

  “See you then,” Alex said as she closed the door for her. She watched as Sydney pulled out of the parking lot and drove out of sight.

  Part of Alex could’ve kicked herself for not kissing Sydney when she had the chance. She felt pretty sure Sydney was sending the signal that she would welcome a kiss. But then, on second thought, she wondered if Sydney was even aware she was sending the signal. Maybe it was best Alex hadn’t kissed her. She didn’t want to scare Sydney away.

  WHY DIDN’T SHE kiss me? Sydney wondered as she drove from the parking lot. I lingered. I sent all the signals. Wait. Maybe the signals are different for women?

  Her mind drifted back to the first few minutes at the table, right after their drinks arrived. Alex had taken her jacket off, revealing toned and muscular shoulders underneath the slightly snug white button down shirt. Sydney had never been so physically attracted to another woman. She couldn’t remember being instantly attracted to anyone in the way she was to Alex. She found her unbelievably sexy. But it was more than that. The emotional strength and confidence, the humor, the way she expressed herself, the compassionate soft side Sydney could tell was hidden beneath. They seemed to click and it just felt right to be with her.

  Sydney drove up the 101 Freeway and then east along Mulholland Drive virtually on autopilot. Her mind returned to the vision of Alex sitting across from her at the table, looking into her eyes and smiling. She thought again of how it would feel to have those arms around her, to have Alex’s hands slipping under the bottom of her blouse and up

  toward her...

  “Oh, geez,” Sydney gasped quietly.

  She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting in her car, parked in her own garage. She shook her head and scolded herself, then went inside and took a cold shower despite the cool January weather. Even then she had a hard time falling asleep.

  SYDNEY WAS AWOKEN around seven the next morning by the ringing telephone. She rolled over and grabbed the phone. Tyler didn’t even wait for her to say hello.

  “So,” he said in a mock conspiratorial whisper. “Are you alone?”

  Sydney couldn’t help but giggle. “Yes, silly. I’m alone.”

  “Oh,” he said raising his voice. “Well. That’s boring.”

  “Please. What kind of girl do you think I am?”

  Tyler laughed. “So, tell me everything.”

  Sydney giggled again, and proceeded to share all the details of the evening, including the conversation that led to Sunday
’s dinner date. This seemed to thrill Tyler. When Sydney talked about her doubt as to whether Alex had wanted to kiss her at the end of evening Tyler reassured her.

  “She doesn’t want to move too fast and scare you off. Trust me, she wants to kiss you.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “Please, girlfriend,” he said. “She made up a corny excuse just to stop by your office then essentially tricked you into a dinner date. She wants to do way more than kiss you.”

  Sydney still wasn’t sure but didn’t argue the point. The two agreed to meet for lunch later to discuss menu options for Sunday evening. Sydney’s face held an exasperated smile as she hung up on Tyler in mid-sentence as he began listing every culinary aphrodisiac he could apparently think of.

  Chapter Seven

  ALEX SPENT MOST of Saturday helping her best friend Sal, and his girlfriend, paint the interior of their new house. Sal and Alex had been friends since being partnered together in their early careers, and now were both assigned as supervisors on the Violent Crime Task Force. Sal’s girlfriend, Tiffany Pierce, was an emergency room nurse at a local hospital. The two of them met years earlier when Sal had ended up in the emergency room after a particularly violent arrest resulted in several stitches to his forehead. He’d been immediately enamored with the attractive ER nurse and after several bouquets of flowers were delivered, Tiffany had relented to a date. They’d been inseparable ever since. They had recently purchased a town home in Glendale, just a few miles from Alex’s.

  As they worked Alex casually brought up the subject of Sydney. “Do you remember that Assistant D.A. I told you about? The one from the White Rose case?”

  “You mean the one you thought was incredibly sexy?” Sal replied. “The one you keep coming up with bullshit excuses to bump into? That one? Yeah, she sounds vaguely familiar to me. In fact, I seem to recall telling you she was interested.”