Double Entendre: (City of Steel 2) (The Vault)

by Katherine Rhodes

  “What did you say?”

  “I said this is hard—”

  “No. No the other thing.”

  Vanessa flushed absolutely red. I could even imagine the flush over the delicate skin I couldn’t see.

  “I love you,” she said. “I do. I’ve been trying not to say it, but it’s true. And I love her. I’ve been trying not to let that happen, but there it is.”

  “You really love me?”

  She smiled. “Yes. You’re very easy to love, Simon Garabaldi.”

  I pulled her to me across the car and slammed my mouth over hers. I didn’t ever want to forget the moment this gorgeous woman admitted she loved me.

  “We’ll figure this out, Nessa. We’ll figure it all out. If you love her, I want to meet her. And I’m sure she feels the same way.”

  She nodded. “She does. You know a lot more about her than she does about you, so I’ll work on fixing that, too.”

  We would figure everything out.

  Simon

  I knocked on the door of the apartment I had never been in before and might never be again.

  I’d spent a full day just thinking about Vanessa and me and how we could make this work. The first thing I realized I had to do was…divorce my wife.

  There were days when I didn’t even remember being married. There were days I forgot we hadn’t started to finalize the divorce.

  But now that I had Vanessa in the house, I was seriously thinking I wanted this forever. I needed to sever the ties. Which meant facing Cameron and solidifying the split.

  A moment after I knocked, the door swung open, and I lost my voice.

  I had honestly forgotten how beautiful she was. How her copper hair shone in any light, and how bright her blue eyes were. Cameron McKinney, the most beautiful girl on the whole campus at Robert Morris University.

  I was almost embarrassed at losing my voice, but she also stuttered at me standing there. “S-Simon?”

  “Hi, Cameron.”

  “What…what are you doing here? How did you…?”

  “I’ve known where you live for months.” I shrugged.

  She held the door a moment longer. “I…uh, come in. I guess. I was just getting ready to go out and meet with a client.” She stood out of the way.

  “I guess you’re not teaching anymore?” I asked as I walked into the little apartment. Neat, tidy, organized but crowded—which was mostly her. We’d had more space at the house, so not as crowded.

  “No…I wasn’t happy teaching anymore. I’m...selling houses. It’s decent.”

  “That’s the skirt, then.” I smiled.

  She laughed. “Yes. That would be the skirt.” Leading me into the kitchen, she motioned to the table. “Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “Um, sure,” I said, pulling out the chair.

  Cameron set to work at the coffee pot and tossed a glance over her shoulder at me. “So, after a year…you decided to come visit?”

  “Well, I haven’t heard or seen you at all, and I just…” Letting out a sigh, I folded my hands on the table. “Cameron, what’s going on with us? Are we planning to work on this? Are we going to walk away? I mean, I get that we’re only separated still, but there’s been nothing since. You haven’t sent me papers, or even tried to contact me.”

  Closing the lid on the coffee maker with a quiet snick, Cameron didn’t turn around. Her shoulders slumped. “You’ve known all this time I was here. You didn’t come to talk to me.”

  “I was respecting your space. You asked for that when you walked out that day.”

  She leaned against the counter, facing me. “I don’t know what we are. I don’t know how I feel about any of this now.”

  “What happened to make you leave?”

  With a snicker she rolled her eyes. “Oh, I lost my way. I came very close to getting involved with someone else and I didn’t know how to deal with that. I wasn’t happy teaching. I knew I wanted something. Maybe I overreacted by running.”

  “Maybe?”

  This time, it was a snort. “Yeah, let’s move that to probably.”

  “It’s been a whole year, though, Cam. A year. Did you ever even think to call me? Or send me an email to tell me what you want to do with this now?”

  “I kept chickening out over and over and then it just moved to forgot,” she admitted. “I just got into life and kept avoiding the subject.”

  “You forgot we were married?”

  “I forgot to talk to you about our marriage,” Cameron answered quietly. “I didn’t forget we were married. I’ve never forgotten that.”

  “Are you happy here?”

  “Isn’t the real question, am I happy without you here?”

  Blinking, I looked around the room. “I guess that’s the better thing to ask.”

  She pulled out the chair across from me. “Are you happy that I’m here without you?”

  “I wasn’t, not for a long time, Cam. A long time. But that’s why I’m here now. I’ve found someone. She moved in two weeks ago, and I’m thinking about the long term here. If I’m thinking about long term, I need to know what’s going on here. We’re done, I’m assuming.”

  She looked like I had just punched her in the stomach and couldn’t catch her breath. “You found someone?”

  “Yes. Why are you so shocked?”

  The chair pushed back violently, and she seemed to leap out of it and turn her back to me, once again facing the coffee pot. “You found someone.”

  I stood and headed over to her at the counter. “Why are you so surprised? We haven’t lived together for at least a year and haven’t spoken in about eight months. Of course there was a chance I would meet someone.”

  Leaning on her elbows, she expelled a long breath. “I didn’t realize…Simon, I left to find myself and I never really thought you wouldn’t be there.”

  “Are you done finding yourself?”

  “One thing I learned is that I’ll never be done.” Turning, she leaned back on the counter and looked at me. “I had been thinking about…maybe us dating again for a while. See where it went. You’ve always been there for me and I just guess I didn’t think you’d be the one…”

  I nodded. “That’s why I’m here. She’s a wonderful girl and we really work well together. I want to work on our relationship and for my own sake, I need to be free to do that. I want to work out a beneficial divorce decree for us.”

  Cameron choked, and I saw tears in her eyes. “I didn’t realize how much that word would really hurt.”

  “I’m sorry, Cam. But it’s what I need. I don’t want to hurt you, but we’ve been operating independently for months. We’re not a couple, we’re not…anything at this point.”

  Both her hands scrubbed down her face. “God, I don’t know if I’m really ready to admit defeat, Simon. I thought you would be there. I don’t know if this is over.”

  “Cameron, I do still love you, but that love hasn’t brought you back to my house or my bed. It hasn’t helped me through the night or a tough case. It hasn’t been there for me. I can’t keep waiting or wondering when I have her, there, and she’s been amazing through all the tough days that I’ve been working.”

  “Simon, I don’t…”

  I took a deep breath. “This isn’t fair to her either.”

  Her gaze was confused and dark and tired. “I’ve been seeing someone as well. But just seeing them. I don’t know what I want.”

  Putting my hand on hers, I shook my head. “I can’t wait for you to figure this out, Cam. I need to get this going.”

  “So you want the divorce?”

  “Yes.”

  Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “I waited too long. I’m a coward.”

  I was about to answer her when my alert on my phone went off. I knew it was the station—they used a paging app that just integrated into smartphones. Pulling out the phone, I looked at the face. An attack at a private house, by the Northside Sadist.

  “I have to go,” I said
, shoving the device in my pocket. “There’s been an attack and I’m lead on the case.” I wrapped my hands around her arms. “I’ll be back. I don’t want to make this contentious, Cam. I want it to be smooth. If you want me to sell the house or buy you out, or if there’s something you need, or want a reasonable alimony… We’ll talk about it. I’ll call you and we can sit down about this.”

  She didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave her upset, but I had to call and to find out what was going on with the case. I dropped a kiss on her head and made for the door. I stopped and looked back. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t want to upset you. I do still care about you. I just can’t live in limbo.”

  Darien stood at the bottom of the stairs, with Franz Dorn, Killian, and Victor Walsh.

  This was really, really bad.

  Popping the door of the car open, I walked over. I braced for the onslaught from Darien.

  It came from Franz.

  “What the hell is going on in this community, Garabaldi? Why haven’t you caught this scumbag yet? Do you realize that our attendance at Imperial is down because of the rumor of this psychopath? You were all over Emmy’s case and Cece’s charges. Why are you slacking off on—”

  “Stop it,” Victor snapped. “Detective, I apologize for my husband. He’s been under a lot of pressure lately. We are all worried about these attacks and we know you’re doing what you can.”

  Darien unfolded his arms. “This is a personal attack on me and my house.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” I answered. “You can view it that way, but this wasn’t directed at you. This is part of the pattern, I’m sad to say. One of the private houses. It fits perfectly, really.”

  “Do you want to see the mess?” he growled.

  “I would like to see the scene, yes. Where’s the victim?”

  “UPitt Medical,” Killian said. “I sent her there. The attack was far more brutal than all the rest I’ve seen. I called in a neurosurgeon because…well. Her neck was affected.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Penelope Delgado. She and her husband like to visit once in a while. For…”

  I held up a hand. “Reasons. I know. Where is her husband?”

  The four of them looked at each other, and then back at me. Victor answered me this time, “We haven’t been able to find him. He won’t answer the phone.”

  I jerked violently. “Take me up to the scene. Fast.”

  Darien reacted to my sudden startle. He dropped any attitude I thought he would give me and headed up the stairs and into the house.

  I had never been to Wanderer’s End and it was a massive and impressive place, but I didn’t have time to admire it. Darien led me up the winding staircase to the second floor and down a long hallway.

  Nearly all the way to the end, the door had an officer on it and I nodded at him as I walked in.

  I was familiar with what the room would look like: blood splatter everywhere. “What did he use this time?”

  “The cane,” Darien said, nodding at the wall where the implement hung, dripping blood.

  Next to the rack that held the cane, and other items, was a closet door. I reached into my coat pocket and grabbed a latex glove that I always kept there. I grabbed the knob and pulled the door out.

  The body fell out with a terrible crash to the floor.

  “Jesus!” Darien gasped, jumping back.

  I pressed a finger to his throat. “Pulse. Get Killian up here!” Darien sprinted out, and I turned to the officer on the door. “Call for another bus! Fast!”

  The officer pressed the button on his walkie and started talking.

  “Pen…” the man on the floor gasped.

  “She’s alive, at the hospital. We’re going to get you there. I have a doctor on the way up.”

  “Penny…she hurt…”

  “Yes, Penny is hurt.”

  He grunted, a negative one, “…ssshe hurt Pen…”

  A cold flash rushed through me. “Who hurt your wife?”

  “…couldn’t…see…face…acrylic nails.”

  Killian slammed into the wall, trying to get into the room. “Move!” He pushed me out of the way and hit the ground next to the guy. “Can you help me assess?”

  I nodded and motioned the officer over to witness and pulled up next to Killian for his initial. He even had a black doctor’s bag.

  “…sssshe… hurt… Penny…”

  Killian snapped his head around to look at me.

  Nodding again, I answered. “I heard him the first time.”

  Turning back, Killian told the victim to try not to talk. “You were nearly suffocated in that closet. Let’s conserve our air, and we’ll talk about that later.”

  Ten minutes later we watched Killian climb into the ambulance with the guy and pull away. Darien turned to me. “Why do you look like someone just shit on your birthday cake?”

  I blinked a few times. “According to the vic, the Northside Sadist is a woman.”

  Simon

  “And you’re sure that’s what you heard him say?”

  I nodded. Again. The captain was leaning back in his chair, looking very concerned. I felt the same. The silence hung there as I shook my head, processing the whole thing.

  But finally, Captain Wanamaker leaned forward and folded his hands on his desk. “Gimme your thoughts here, Garabaldi. You’re the area expert. What the hell is going on with this?”

  “I don’t have a damn clue right now, Captain. Not one. I’m shocked and confused that a woman would be doing this. You know the stats on this.”

  “Women don’t usually perpetrate crimes like this.” He waved the words away as he said them. “Forget that. We have a female serial attacker here, and we need to get her caught and off the street. It’s not a large community, but they’re tight-knit.”

  “And they’re all scared,” I added. “Except Dorn and Thompson. They’re just pissed.”

  “Have you been able to get in contact with this Mistress Dee person? The owner of Sadique?”

  “I have the manager calling her in, but he said he hasn’t gotten an email back from her yet.”

  “What’s her real name?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “I can’t ask that yet. Some people won’t ever reveal their real name.”

  “Find out soon, find her soon. Get her here. What about this Wandering Tips place?”

  “Wanderer’s End. Darien Thompson is the house master. He’s willing and able to speak with us anytime we need him. He’s pissed this happened under his nose.”

  I didn’t want to know how pissed he was going to be when he heard this was a woman. I had instructed Killian to keep that under his hat, not to tell anyone he’d heard that. It was a vital piece of information that we could use to our advantage.

  “Do you need help, Garabaldi?” the captain asked quietly. “You run this beat alone. It’s not easy. I can give you a junior officer to help.”

  Letting out a breath, I slumped back in the chair. “I don’t know, Cap. I don’t know if we have someone on the force who is going to understand this community. It took me a while to gain their trust, and to understand it. Never mind how long it took them to trust me.”

  He folded his hands, and then unfolded them. “I have someone in mind who is already in the lifestyle.”

  I jerked my head up.

  He had both hands up. “I found out by mistake. It was the wrong place, wrong time kind of thing. She’s up for a promotion to detective soon, and I think she’d be the perfect person to partner up with you.”

  “She?” I grinned. “How on Earth did you find out that she was in the lifestyle?”

  He coughed. “Ill-advised date. Mutual friends tried to match us up and they had no idea she was into it. You’ve heard of the Vault, right? Dinner got…weird.”

  Chewing my lips to keep the laugh in, I nodded. “A cop and you had dinner at the Vault. That must’ve been the worst.”

  “We tried to make the best of it, but it
was super clear everything about it was a bad idea. Still, I got to meet her and she’s really someone we could use more of on this force.”

  Scrubbing my hair with one hand, I finally nodded. “I’m not going to turn down help on this. If she already knows the community, it’ll be welcome. I got a mess of stuff going on and it’ll help me to have someone who gets this.”

  Wanamaker nodded. “I’ll have her transferred in as soon as I sign, stamp, and send this paperwork up.”

  “Do I get a name?”

  The captain smirked. “Are you really ready for this?”

  Lifting an eyebrow, I was suspicious. “Go on.”

  “Sergeant Jupiter Lysithea Stathopolis.”

  I stared at him. “You’re kidding me.”

  “Not one little bit.”

  I put a hand on my head. “Do people of Greek descent like to torture their children with these names?”

  Wanamaker chuckled.

  “I know her. Well, I know of her. Her brother is Genghis Stathopolis. He’s a bartender at Downbound. He’s dating Dee Ville of Silver Soul.”

  “And how on Earth do you know that?”

  “I know the lead singer well. And that’s all I’m saying.”

  It was his turn to raise an eyebrow, but he wound up still laughing. “Fine. Keep that secret. But Sergeant Stathopolis will be here in a day or two to sign on as your partner.”

  “Thank you, Captain. I’ll make sure to break her in.”

  He choked. “Be sure it goes that way, Simon.”

  Oh. Shit.

  Vanity

  Donny looked worried. Everyone else looked really, really pissed.

  I tapped my fingers on the table and wished they would have let me bring Simon to this meeting.

  “You’re his proxy, Vanity,” Franz whispered in my ear. “We all trust him, but he’s not part of the community. Even the same way my brother-in-law isn’t. It’s not an insult, it’s just reality.”

  “He can help.”

  “We’re going to bring Detective Garabaldi in, just not yet,” Emmy said. “Believe me, I trust the man with my life. We just need to have this frank meeting without worrying about holding our tongue.”