by Rayna Morgan
“What’s eating him?” Maddy complained. She dropped her purse on the table and plopped on a chair, squirming to find a comfortable position.
“Sorry about the room,” Pat said. “We usually have someone in here we’re trying to make as uncomfortable as possible.”
“You mean like suspects you’re grilling. Is that what I am?” Tom’s mood was contagious. She was feeling grumpy herself.
“Of course not,” Pat assured her. “You’re a cooperating witness.”
Maddy relaxed but sensed the rookie’s hesitation.
“However, you were found at a crime scene,” Pat continued. “You could have a lot more explaining to do if someone thinks you caught your ex with another woman and took your revenge.”
Maddy didn’t know if Pat was baiting her or conveying Tom’s suspicions. Either way, it had an impact. Her face flamed. “What the blazes are you talking about?”
Pat responded calmly. “I know better. No one else does.”
“For that scenario to be true, I’d have to have feelings for Eric, which I don’t.” Maddy flipped her hair over her shoulder. “As far as his being with another woman, it’s the reason our marriage ended. I’ve hardly seen the guy since our divorce. If it didn’t bother me enough to kill him then, why would it bother me now?” She lowered her voice a notch. “Besides, I wouldn’t be mad at a woman who spends time with Eric. I’d pity her.”
She turned and spoke in the direction of a recording device. “Did you hear that, Tom? I’m not into this guy.”
Pat smiled. “You’re not a suspect, Maddy. I haven’t turned the recorder on. See?” She pointed to a machine at the edge of the table. “No red light.”
Maddy felt her ears burn. Still, Pat would report her reaction to Tom.
Pat straightened the papers in front of her and handed a single sheet to Maddy. She slid a pen across the table. “Please read this statement carefully and sign it, if it presents the facts as you related them to us last night.”
After Maddy returned the signed document, she stood to leave.
“Tom seems wound especially tight on this case,” Pat noted. “I understand your relationship has to make dealing with your ex touchy for everyone, but it feels like there’s more to it. Is there something my boss isn’t telling me?”
Maddy twisted a strand of hair around her finger and resumed her seat. “There are things about Eric that Tom doesn’t like.”
“Such as?”
“Eric’s father was a cop. That’s one of the things we had in common when we met.”
“You attracted to cops or something? Your dad, Tom, your former father-in-law.”
“You’d think, huh?”
Pat looked puzzled. “What’s for Tom not to like about Eric’s father being a cop?”
Maddy leaned toward the table and spread her hands in front of her. “Eric’s father split when he was in middle school. His mother got a divorce and raised Eric as a single parent.”
“Did he stay in touch with his father?”
“His father moved across country. Eric went to visit one summer, but his father never tried to get shared custody. He didn’t bother to keep up with support payments either. His mother wanted nothing to do with Eric’s father. It was easier for the boy to let his relationship with his father fade away.”
“Tough story. If anything, Tom would be sympathetic with Eric’s background.”
“That thing we had in common about our fathers being cops…” Maddy shuffled her feet under the table and cleared her throat. “There was a major difference.”
When Maddy didn’t continue, Pat prodded her. “I’m listening.”
“My dad retired after a distinguished career and with medals.” She shrugged and lifted her hands. “Eric’s father was dishonorably discharged. He was a dirty cop.”
Pat whistled. “That explains a lot. Except that would prejudice Tom against Eric’s father, not against Eric.”
“Unless he thinks—”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Pat reasoned. She studied Maddy. “Did it?”
“Eric doesn’t want to be anything like his father. That’s what drove him to the corporate world. He wanted to be as far from public service as he could get.”
“I doubt that knowing Eric’s father was a dirty cop set too well with your father either.”
“That’s what Eric believed. He whined our entire marriage about Paul and my dad not liking him because of his father. The truth is they just plain didn’t like him.”
The door swung open and Tom walked in. “Should my ears be burning?”
Maddy suspected he’d seen the entire interview from the room behind the one way mirror.
“Got everything you need, Fisher?”
“Yes sir, I do. We’re done here.”
Tom grabbed Maddy’s elbow and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s get coffee,” he said abruptly.
Maddy and Pat exchanged looks. Maddy acted out a mock conversation. “‘Will you join me for a cup of coffee, Maddy? I’d enjoy your company.’ ‘Thank you for asking, Tom, that would be nice.’”
Tom paid no attention to Maddy. Instead, he turned to Pat. “We’re going to the waffle place. I want something other than the sludge that comes out of the machine in the break room.”
“All coffee comes out of a machine, boss,” Pat said. “Some places are just fancier than others.”
“Sarcasm from one of you is enough,” he grumbled. “Get that statement filed. We’re going to the crime lab when I get back. I want the results of the fingerprint dusting.”
Maddy was glad to hear that Tom wouldn’t be going to the hotel right away.
* * *
The working crowd had come and gone by the time they arrived. An elderly couple sat in a booth next to the door. He poured her coffee from a carafe.
“How sweet,” Maddy observed as they waited at the hostess stand. “He’s still taking care of her after all those years. I wonder if someone will pour my coffee when I’m that old.”
Tom ignored her sentiment.
“Sit anywhere,” the waitress said. She grabbed two menus.
“We’ll just want coffee,” Tom said.
Maddy followed him to a booth in the far corner of the room.
“Being a bit overcautious, aren’t you?” Maddy suggested. “That couple couldn’t hear if they were at the next table.”
They sat across from each other. Before they had time to feel uncomfortable, the waitress brought coffee, filled two cups, and placed the carafe on a warming stand. She removed the extra place settings. “Give me a holler if you decide to look at the menu.”
Tom reached for the cream. He didn’t offer it to Maddy, knowing she took hers black. He swirled a spoon in his cup turning the dark liquid to brown and white.
Maddy lowered her head and twisted a napkin around her finger. She held her breath until she feared she'd burst.
They looked up in the same instant. She blushed and spat out a single word, “Awkward.”
A smile crept slowly from the corners of his mouth to the corners of his eyes. “Quite a situation you’ve put us in,” he said. He poured more sugar in his cup.
“You’re killing yourself with that stuff,” she told him.
He stopped pouring. “Who’s killing whom?”
It set off a round of snickers between them.
“Seriously, Mad. You’ve got yourself in a mess.”
“I know." Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry you’re in the middle of it. I wouldn't have imagined this in a million years. It’s a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I could kill Eric for calling me.” She looked startled by her own words. “Sorry, bad choice of words.”
“Why did you respond?” Tom asked. “That’s what I can’t understand. Why didn’t you tell Eric to call the police, hang up, and leave it alone? Why go to meet him?”
“I'll be asking myself that question for a long time.” She sagged into the vinyl cushion of the booth. “It was
a gut reaction, that’s all I can say. When someone you shared a slice of your life with calls for help, you go. Without worrying about consequences or whether it makes sense, you show up for the person.”
“You told me he means nothing to you now, that you’re not friends, that you don’t keep in touch. Has that been a lie?”
“I swear it’s true.”
“Maybe I’ve grown too cynical being a cop but I can’t believe you’d still feel any sense of loyalty.”
She chose her words carefully. “It’s not loyalty, but something in our genes that responds in times of crisis.”
He reached for the carafe and refilled their mugs. He poured cream in his coffee and lifted the sugar canister from the stand. After a moment’s hesitation, he replaced it without pouring any in his cup. When he lifted his head to eye level, his eyes were naked with pain. “Do you still have feelings for him, Mad? Is that why you couldn’t say no?”
A pain in her chest gripped her so tightly the room spun. “If you believe anything I’ve told you in all the time I’ve known you, believe this. There’s nothing between Eric and me except our history of being married a long time ago. I don’t love him. I hardly even like him.” She held her breath, afraid of his reaction to what she needed to say. “But I’m not going to stop trying to help him. He deserves to know the truth. So do I, and so do his kids.”
Tom pushed his mug away and stared out the window.
“The reason you’re such a great cop,” she told him, “is because you go after the truth. You hold people accountable, make them face consequences for their actions. But it’s more than putting bad guys behind bars for you; it’s putting the right guys behind bars.” She paused as he turned his head toward her. “I hope you’ll find it in your heart to apply those standards in this case.”
Moments passed. The only sounds were dishes being stacked in the kitchen, a radio blaring from a car in the parking lot, and the old couple telling the waitress goodbye.
Tom stood up, picked up the ticket, and took her hand to help her from the booth. “All right, let's go figure out who did this.”
* * *
“What’s up, Fisher?” Tom asked when they got back to the station. Having Pat cut them off in the parking lot wasn’t a good sign.
She avoided his question and looked at Maddy. “What we were talking about earlier…”
“Him?” Maddy jerked her head in Tom’s direction.
“Yeah.” She looked at the lieutenant. “The Chief wants you in his office. Pronto.”
Tom stiffened.
Maddy grabbed his arm, and he turned in her direction.
He looked back over his shoulder. “Message delivered, Rookie.”
Pat disappeared in a hurry.
“I’ll call you later,” he told Maddy. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your ex stays in one piece. We’ll sort this out.”
She drove out of the lot and watched in her rear-view mirror as he strolled into the bowels of the precinct.
Chapter Nine
He walked through the squad room. Neither of the two guys at their desks looked up, but he felt their eyes on him after he passed.
Stopping at his office, he threw his keys in a drawer before continuing to the end of the hall. The Chief’s secretary looked up as he paused at her cubicle.
“Hey, Becky. Got a message the Chief wants to see me.”
“Go ahead, Tom. He just got off the phone.”
The man behind the desk had gray hair and a wrestler’s build. He summoned Tom into his office by pointing to a chair in front of his desk, pushed his glasses to the top of his head, and set aside the file he’d been reading. The legs of his chair scraped the floor as he stood up. He walked around Tom to poke his head out before closing the door. “No calls, Becky.”
He resumed his place behind the desk and stared at his lieutenant.
“Surprised you’re here this morning, sir,” Tom said, “it being a three-day weekend and all.”
“I think you know why I’m here,” his commander responded testily. “Let’s get to it. Any progress on the hotel murder?”
Tom shrugged. “It’s still early stages,”
“I hear you made an arrest.”
“If this morning’s questioning is any indication,” Tom replied, “it won’t hold up. We’ll have to spring the guy tonight.”
“You talking about the guy who called in the murder?”
“Technically, no.” Tom sensed he was on volatile ground. “The murder occurred in his hotel room. Someone else called the police.”
The Chief lowered his glasses. “Ah, yes, the person at the scene with the suspect. The same person at the station to sign a statement.” He peered over his glasses. “A person near and dear…”
The Chief let his words trail, but he gave Tom the look which had built his reputation as one of the best interrogators in the precinct’s history.
“Chief, let me—”
“The only thing to explain is why you’ve stayed on the case this long.” He pulled a rubber ball from a drawer and squeezed it in his hand. “You should have turned the case over the minute you laid your eyes on Maddy.”
“Fisher responded to the call with me. I couldn’t turn the crime scene over to a rookie.”
“You could have called in and waited for a replacement.”
“Seriously?” Tom knew better than to yell at his superior, but he couldn’t help himself. “And lose the vital first moments of confronting a possible suspect at the scene?”
“We’re not here to argue points of procedure.” He was pulverizing the stress ball. “What’s done is done, but the media’s whipped into a frenzy with no news to report on a holiday weekend. City officials are clamoring for a speedy resolution.”
“I’m sorry they bothered you,” Tom started, “but—”
The Chief cut him off. “We need a clean conviction. I want this case put to bed quickly with no repercussions.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” Tom assured him. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Did you hear what I said about no repercussions?”
Tom looked puzzled.
“That’s the part you can’t comply with, Lieutenant. You’re off the case.”
Tom jumped up and leaned over the desk. “C’mon, Chief, that’s bull!”
The Chief waved his hand, dismissing Tom’s objection. “I’m the last one to find out anything around here, and even I know about your relationship with Maddy. The reporters will have a field day if they get hold of that. It will make the story that much juicier.”
Tom returned to his seat. He knew his boss was right.
The Chief returned the ball to the drawer, the worse for wear. “There’s another issue at play here, Tom.” He lowered his voice. “In reviewing the case notes, the suspect’s name rang a bell. I knew Eric Larson, Senior. We were at the Academy together.”
Tom’s shoulders sagged. He realized where the conversation was headed. “Then you know how his career ended.”
“It was hard for me to accept,” the Captain said. “I tried to track him down to find out what happened, but he’d moved away. No one in the force heard from him again.”
“In all fairness, sir, from what Maddy tells me, Eric isn’t like his father.”
“No man is. Every man is who they choose to be.” The Chief walked to the window and stared out. It wasn’t much of a view but the Criminal Justice Building across the street served as a constant reminder of why he was there. “Keeping an open mind is the toughest part of police work, but our impartiality can never be in doubt.”
He returned to his chair, but remained standing. “Eric’s father being a dirty cop and Maddy being his ex adds up to a double whammy in your case. Your ability to remain impartial will be questioned. If Eric lawyers up, his attorney may even use it against you.”
“You know I never let personal feelings impede police work.”
“I know that about you, but not everyone else does.”
�
��It doesn’t matter what they—”
“What everyone knows for certain is your view on ethics. It’s part of why you’re so highly respected.” The Chief sat at his desk, spread his hands flat on the blotter, and drummed his fingers on the surface. “There are people who resent you for the high moral bar you hold for yourself and expect from your fellow officers, just as they resent you for your meteoric rise in the department.”
“I’m aware of that. It's part of being good at what I do. There will always be people who want to bring me down. It doesn’t bother me.”
“But it may affect the matter at hand. I can’t afford to have you in a position where you’ll be open to charges of bias or discrimination.”
“But, Chief—”
The Chief held up his hand. “I’m sorry, Tom. My decision is final. I’m bringing in someone from outside. You’re off the case.”
“If that’s the way you want it.” Tom’s chair scraped the floor as he shoved it against the wall. “I’ll bring you the case file.”
“I had Fisher get it for me while you were out for coffee.” He folded his hands into a pyramid and rested his chin. “You returned from your last leave three days early. Take your remaining vacation.”
“I’ve got a boatload of other cases to work on,” Tom muttered. “I’ll keep busy.”
“That’s an order, Lieutenant.” He pulled the top folder from the stack and opened it. “Don’t slam the door on your way out.”
Tom stopped at Becky’s desk and asked one question. From the look on his face, Becky knew she’d better answer. “He’s bringing in Cranston from up north.”
“That jerk! I can’t stand the guy.”
“As I recall, the feeling’s mutual. It’s a good thing you won’t be around.”
Tom walked back to his office. Conversation in the bull pen stopped. No one looked at him.
He collected his keys and locked the drawers. Before he walked out, he sent Maddy a text. Don’t blame me for what happens to Eric. I’m off the case.
Pat ran to meet him in the parking lot. “I heard what happened. Did the Captain say who’s coming to replace you?”
“Cranston.” He stopped feeling sorry for himself long enough to consider the rookie. “Isn’t he the guy you had problems with before?”
