by E. C. Diskin
She saw that hair. He looked up at Abby’s window. She gasped and hid behind her curtain. She sat, dumbstruck, staring into space with her hand clutching her open mouth. A sickness welled up in her belly. She saw her digital camera on the dresser, grabbed it, and crawled back to the window. From behind the curtain, she zoomed in on his face and took the shot. She then watched as the man shook Mrs. Tanor’s hand and left.
Mrs. Tanor walked back to her apartment and paused to look up at Abby’s window. Abby ducked out of sight. Mrs. Tanor looked baffled. She was shaking her head as she went inside. Abby felt like she had done something wrong. She couldn’t imagine what.
MARCUS arrived twenty minutes later. He had on his gang-look, though it no longer fazed her. Abby had called him as soon as Mrs. Tanor went inside and he had told her to stay put. She hadn’t moved an inch since she dropped the phone.
He was just inside the front door when Abby shoved the camera at him. “I know this guy. His name is Trip.” She started up the stairs. The kitchen and living room were on the second floor. She kept going up. “Let’s put it up on the computer so you can see it better. I’ve got an office in the spare bedroom.” They headed up to the third floor and began downloading the pictures. Within a minute, Abby had the image on the big screen.
“I’m telling you, that’s him.” The picture was now as big as the screen.
Marcus stared at the photo. “So tell me how you know him.”
“Two weeks ago I went to a wedding at the Drake. It was that Saturday before I met you. I met him at the bar in the lobby. He bought me a drink. He was friendly, a bit forward. He said he was a businessman.”
“What kind of business?”
“Didn’t say. I don’t remember. He didn’t tell me much. He wanted me to leave with him. He said his name was Trip.” Should she add that she might have even slept with him, but couldn’t remember? “That’s him. I’m sure of it. In fact, I just saw him again on Monday. He was walking into the courthouse as I was walking out.”
“Did you speak with him?”
“No. He didn’t see me. But Mrs. Tanor just talked to him. Come here.” Abby jumped up from the computer and pulled Marcus down the hall and into her bedroom. “Look out my window. I have a good view of the courtyard. Maybe we should go ask Mrs. Tanor what he said.”
“Wait.”
“What? She talked to him!” Abby began toward the door and Marcus grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Abby, wait. This kid has been coming to your house. This same kid may have planted drugs at Quick Mart. The man that came here and arrested him found you at the Drake.”
“So? What do you think?”
He released her arm and went to the edge of the bed and sat as if to work it out first. “I think I know who it is.”
“Who?”
“A couple of weeks back, he was pointed out to me by some kids as a dirty cop. Someone to avoid.”
“Why would he be after me? What’s going on?” She paced the room, fell against the wall, and slid to the floor. “He didn’t seem like a cop.”
Marcus crouched in front of Abby and put his hand on her head, now resting on her knees. “Abby, that was the Saturday night before we met, right?”
“Yes.”
“You called Officer Reilly on that Friday night with a description of a man leaving Reggie’s.”
Abby finished his thought. “A white guy. Light hair.” And then it came to her. “He’s a blond, white guy.” She clamped her own mouth, afraid of the revelation. “So, maybe this is the man I saw coming out of Reggie’s?”
“All right, let’s just think about this.” Marcus began pacing the room.
“Do you think he’s after me?”
“Well, hold on.” He went to the window then and searched the courtyard. As if for answers. “If this is the man you saw coming out of Reggie’s, and he showed up at the Drake after you called in that ID—”
“Was he going to kill me?”
“Maybe he just wanted to see if you would even recognize him, see if he had anything to worry about.”
“Well, obviously I didn’t. But here he is. So what does it mean?”
“It means I need to find out who this guy is and what he’s up to. I’d rather not go to Mrs. Tanor. I’d like to see what she says to you about all of this. Let’s not let her know about me or any of this if possible.”
“Why?”
Marcus didn’t answer right away.
“She’d be in danger?”
Marcus’s eyes met Abby’s, but then he looked away.
“What?”
“Abby, it’s just that, in my experience, if a cop is dirty...,”
“He’s dangerous.”
Marcus crouched down in front of her again. “Now, don’t look so panicked.” He patted her knees, stood, and offered her his hands to help her stand. She took them. He led her out of the bedroom and back into the hall. “Let’s just see what Mrs. Tanor says to you. Without me here confusing things. Let her make contact. She does that right?”
“Well, she certainly has a thousand times before. And she’s been disturbed by this boy showing up here. She thinks I’m at work right now. I would guess that she will be stopping by tonight to tell me all about it.”
“Okay, then.”
Abby stopped walking. She felt frozen.
Marcus pulled her in for a hug and she buried her head in his big leather coat.
“I’m here, Abby. And this cop, I should be able to figure out who he is pretty quickly. If he just arrested that kid, then within the hour I should be able to look up the booking records and get a name for the kid and the officer. He doesn’t know anything about me or my investigation. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Abby pulled back and looked up at Marcus. “But if this is the guy from Reggie’s, then I’ve had drinks with a murderer. And he knows where I live, and…,” She wanted to say the rest but it stuck in her throat.
Marcus stopped her. “Okay, okay. We’re going to figure this out, Abby.” And then a smile emerged. “You’ve got one bad-ass cop on your side,” he offered with a nudge. Abby smiled and took a deep breath. “You are pretty beefy, aren’t you?” she offered with a faint smile, grabbing his biceps. They both chuckled. He was massive and he really did make her feel safe.
“Now where’s that camera?”
Abby headed back into the spare and Marcus followed. He pulled the storage disc from its side. “I’m going to take this, okay?”
Abby nodded in agreement.
They walked back into the hall to go downstairs and Marcus paused, looking up at the slotted steps above him. “Hey, what’s this?”
“Those go to our roof deck.”
“Our?”
“My. I mean my roof deck.”
“Wow, nice place.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t see the point of sharing all the details. “I think I’m going to sell it, though.” She didn’t think she could continue living here with all the memories. “And those stairs are terrifying. They’re so steep and really scary when you’re on the roof and you want to come down. It’s just like climbing a ladder—not exactly the best when you’re trying to carry food up and down to barbeque.” Actually, she and David used to love the climb up to the roof. It felt like they were going up to their tree house. And they would sit up there and look down at everyone on Clark Street and make up stories about their lives and what they were doing and laugh. When the Cubs were playing they would sit up there and listen to the roar of the fans in the bleachers.
He continued down the steps. “Still, pretty cool to have a roof deck.”
“Yeah,” she agreed without much conviction.
“Abby, I’m going to check the records and meet with Duvane about all of it.”
They were back on the first floor at the door. Abby grabbed for the door but stopped. “Well, what now? How do I go to work and act like everything’s okay?”
“Why aren’t you at work, anyway?”
“It’s been a long week. I took the morning off. But I was getting ready to leave when all this happened.”
“So maybe you should go.”
“Are you kidding me? A dirty cop—a murderer according to you—just showed up at my house. He knows where I live. I can’t go to work.”
“Abby, I’d rather you go to work. What kind of security do you have anyway?”
“The gate is impossible to climb, you need a key for that, and I’ve got an alarm system.”
“Good.” He put on his hat.
As soon as she said it, she knew she had to tell him. “Marcus.”
“What?”
“I drank with him. I danced with him, I….” She looked away. “I kissed him.”
Marcus took a seat on the back of the sofa, like he knew there was more.
“I got so drunk at that wedding. I saw my ex-boyfriend, I was depressed, this guy was so flirtatious and good-looking, and—”
“And?”
She was practically whispering. “I can’t remember.” She looked up at him. “I know we were together for most of the evening. I remember leaning against him outside. We were in front of the hotel. But it’s just a flash. I woke up in the morning here. Alone.” She wondered if it was really necessary to add that she was naked. Maybe she had just drunkenly stripped down and crawled into bed.
“Do you think he might have been here with you?”
She winced at the thought. “I don’t know. There was no sign of him when I woke. But he’s never called me. Jesus. Marcus, I don’t do things like that. I don’t bring strangers home and sleep with them. I just….” She didn’t finish. Her hands now covered her face.
He stood and took her by the shoulders and made her look at him. “Abby, I’m not judging you.”
She took a breath. “But he never called. I kind of assumed that maybe I did. Like some one night stand. And maybe that’s why I’ve never heard from him.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you rejected him and that’s why he’s never called. Here’s what I’m thinking. This guy Trip wanted to see if you’d recognize him when he went to the Drake. You didn’t. You’re an attractive woman. You had a good time together. If he was going to hurt you, it would have already happened. Sounds like he had the opportunity.”
Abby held out Marcus’s gloves. This wasn’t helping either of them. “Have you figured out anything since we last spoke? You didn’t call me after you left Monday. I guess you didn’t get into Quick Mart?”
“Actually, I did. The key was there, just as you said. But there weren’t any tapes.”
“Damn.”
“I did find out who bought the building, though. It’s a company called Weber Properties.”
“Does that mean anything to you?”
“Not yet, but I looked up its property records. It has several buildings in the south and west area of the city. It’s not a corporation, so my check of the secretary of state filings came up empty. I haven’t been able to find out anymore yet, other than the fact that six of its ten current properties were bought at auction. There’s an office address. I was going to check into that today, but I think I better worry about this guy first. Listen Abby, I want that alarm on at all times. And change the code.”
She knew what he was thinking. If Trip had been here, he may have watched her disarm it.
“I should get going.”
“You know, I would never guess in a million years that he was a cop.”
“Why’s that?”
“It was just the way he was dressed and his manner. He was wearing pretty expensive, tailored clothes. No offense, it’s just not the stereotype I have in my head.”
Marcus smiled. “Well, look at me,” as he displayed his bad-ass thug-wear. “You didn’t think I was a cop either.”
Abby turned suddenly as she remembered. “Wait!”
Marcus stopped.
“I have his phone number.” She ran to her coat closet and pulled out the cocktail napkin, still folded inside her long dress coat. “He wrote this.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Abby. I’ll be in touch later. Now go to work.”
· · ·
MARCUS sat in his apartment, staring at the laptop. His eyes were stinging. He was on the phone with Duvane.
“There’s no arrest record for this kid in the first or the nineteenth or twenty-third districts in the last two hours. If he took a kid in, it would be in one of those districts. It should be in the system by now.”
“Did you check the thirteenth district, where you saw this cop for the first time?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, what about the internal docs? Did you go through all the cop photos yet?”
“I’ve searched first name Trip in every district. I’ve checked the pictures of all the cops in the two districts where we’ve seen him and the surrounding districts. This guy is a ghost. He’s either not a cop or his name’s not Trip.”
“Or both. I don’t like it. Marcus, I know there are twelve thousand cops on the force, but I want to find this guy.”
Marcus had already checked hundreds of internal photos. He couldn’t imagine how long it would take to get through them all.
Duvane must have sensed it. “Marcus, don’t worry. I’m not expecting you to do it alone. I’m going to get some staff on this.”
“Okay. I also think I should tail Reilly. He’s connected to this. He arrested that kid at the Quick Mart twice in the last year. We saw the store’s surveillance tape.”
“So, are there charges pending against this kid?”
“No. Charges dropped. Insufficient evidence.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Reilly’s on duty right now.” Duvane was obviously on the system as well. “Gets off at five. Keep your phone on. I’ll check with dispatch and see if they can track his location.”
“Great, thanks.”
“And Marcus,”
“Yeah?”
“Keep your eye on Ms. Donovan. If we’re talking about a murder rap, I don’t want anything happening to our witness.”
“Got it.” Duvane didn’t even have to say it. Abby had gotten to him. He wasn’t about to lose anyone else he cared about.
“And Marcus. Find that kid.”
· · ·
ABBY had just settled down at her desk and was trying to get through the thirty new e-mails when her secretary, Mary, popped in.
“Hey, Abby, where’ve you been?” It was now two o’clock in the afternoon. Marcus had left Abby’s by eleven thirty, but she had taken her time getting here.
“It’s just been a long week, Mary. I took the morning off.”
She could see the surprise on Mary’s face.
“Well, Jerry came by looking for you.”
Not again. “What did you tell him?”
“I said you were at a dentist appointment. He left this for you.” Mary was holding a large envelope.
Abby took it. “Thanks, Mary. You’re so good to me.”
Abby waited for Mary to leave to open it. She half expected some sort of written warning that she was slipping. She knew it was true. She had done a lot this week, but the last two weeks were ridiculous. She had been leaving by five whenever possible, showing up after nine, and turning down new assignments. She’d delegated as much as possible so the clients were covered. She just couldn’t seem to do much work herself. And it was just a matter of time before some new screw-up would expose her lack of attentiveness.
But it wasn’t a warning from Jerry. It was a confidential memo sent to the seven associates up for partnership consideration. The memo asked the associates to spend some time outlining their work history at the firm, the major cases they were involved in, the partners they worked for, the procedures they had mastered, the skills they had acquired, a summary of how they had developed as attorneys during the last seven years, and the clients and prospective clients they had strong relationships with. For Abby, of course, it had only been six years, but Jerry had always said she was on the fast track. It
was assumed the associates would spend considerable time evaluating themselves, thereby making the process easier for the partnership committee. The report was due Monday morning.
This was it. It was time to shine. This was all she had focused on for the last six years, longer, really. Nothing else, no one else, had ever been as important as achieving this goal, and yet now, today, reading the memo made her feel emptier. She wondered if becoming partner was really going to make everything okay. It seemed like a stupid idea all of a sudden. And yet, for years, she was sure this was what she had to do.
She brushed aside her introspection after a minute. It was too late to second-guess her whole life now. It was going to take a long time to go through her files and memory about everything she had done for the last six years, so she would spend time this weekend on it. She put the memo in her briefcase and got back to work.
· · ·
MARCUS walked down Cicero toward Lake. The late-afternoon sky was darkening and the temperature was dropping. If he was lucky, he could hook up with Darnel and the boys, who should be out in force on a Friday. Maybe the neighborhood boys had an opinion about Reilly.
His cell rang. It was Duvane. “Reilly’s at the corner of Lake and Kildare.”
“Got it.” Marcus headed that way.
· · ·
ABBY pushed aside her work and called Marcus. He should have called her with news by now. He answered in a hushed voice.
“Marcus? It’s Abby.”
“Oh hi, Abby. What’s up?”
“Did you find that cop and that kid? Please tell me this is over.”
“Well, actually, no, I didn’t.”
“But I gave you a name, a picture, a phone number.”
“Abby, the name must be bogus. No ‘Trip’ in the system. I went through hundreds of officer photos. I can’t find him. I’m looking into the phone number, but because it’s not a land-line, it’s harder to trace. It may take a few days to get a name.”
“But he made an arrest, right? What about that?”
“Well, there are no arrest records matching up to a kid being arrested at your address. I’m thinking it was staged.”
