Acquainted With the Night (6 page)

“Alex?” Wheeler’s voice was gentle again. “Why isn’t that possible?”

“Because I have no idea where she is,” Alex said at length. “She left me. She left me, and I don’t know why.”

Chapter Five

“God damn it, Fullerton!” Alex was yelling at the detective in her office. “You’re not some rookie. What the hell were you thinking?”

Her voice was carrying into the outer bullpen where her detectives sat to work when they weren’t in the field. She saw a couple of them look up into her office in surprise. Alex certainly had a temper, but screaming was out of the ordinary for her.

Across the bullpen, Sergeant Frank Morelli nudged his partner Detective Chris Andersen, the youngest detective in the room and the only other woman. Morelli was Alex’s senior detective, her informal right-hand man. Chris Andersen had been her most difficult challenge as an employee. Chris had seemed determined to start an affair with Alex, but their issues had been settled. Alex thought Chris had the most potential to be a good investigator among all her staff, but she still had a lot to learn.

Chris met Alex’s eyes through the office window and then glanced meaningfully at Detective Roger Fullerton, the object of Alex’s tirade. Chris knew better than to smile, but she did slowly nod as if to say, whatever you’re doing to him, he deserves it.

Alex turned her glare back to Roger and said, “Well? I’m waiting, Detective.”

Roger, his voice surly, muttered, “Waiting for what?”

“Your explanation,” Alex snapped back at him. Fullerton’s partner, Kelly Porter wiggled uncomfortably in Alex’s other visitor’s chair. Porter was a bland, baby-faced man who looked younger than his thirty-six years, and he’d been suffering as Fullerton’s partner for almost five of them.

Porter tried to defuse Alex with, “Captain, the guy was being really non-cooperative.”

Alex swept her gaze to him and he swallowed. “I’ll deal with you in a minute, Detective. At this moment, I’m still waiting to hear your partner’s explanation about why I have not one, not two, but
three
citizen complaints on my desk about you and your actions yesterday.”

“Jesus, Captain,” Fullerton griped. “The scum we arrest are presumed innocent. How come I don’t get the same break as the bad guys?”

Alex felt her temper ratchet upward from anger to fury. “Unlike you,” she snarled fiercely, “I have an answer for the question. Because we’re the damn
good
guys, Roger. The cops get held to the highest possible standard for our conduct so people can tell the difference between us and the so-called ‘scum.’ We play by the rules, not just some of the time, but all the time, you understand me? That’s what
makes
us the good guys. We do not scream at citizens, or threaten them, or push them to get what we want. Particularly seventy-four-year-old citizens. That was an
assault
you committed, are you aware of that?”

“I was doing my job,
ma’am
.” He was all but snarling at her. “He was fucking with us. You been gone so long you forgot what it’s like on the street, actually doing the job. You have no fucking idea.”

She could see Porter go pale at this level of insubordination. Suddenly the fury that had been boiling her veins turned to ice. She was done with Fullerton. He’d been nothing but trouble from the day he’d swaggered into the bullpen, tormenting Porter, Chris, and anyone else he didn’t like. Most of the other detectives avoided him, and a few, like Frank and Chris, actively disliked him.

“That’s it,” Alex said, surprised at how cool she sounded. “Badge and gun, right now. I’m putting you on administrative leave and recommending that you be suspended pending both an Internal Affairs investigation and an investigation to determine if possible criminal charges should be brought.”

He jumped from his chair and Porter actually scrambled up beside him, looking ready to either flee or grab him.

“You stupid bitch!” Fullerton screamed. “You have no fucking idea how to do the job, you know that? Or is it that you just like fucking around with guys? Oh, wait, that’s right, you don’t actually fuck guys anymore, do you?”

Porter went an even deadlier shade of white. Through the glass, Alex saw both Frank and Chris get to their feet and start toward her office.

Alex felt herself actually tremble with the effort to stay in control. She said, “The difference between a police officer and a bully with a badge is self-control. However frustrated you were at Mr. Sato, you had no right to touch him. Take me, for example. Right now, I’m exercising my self-control not to break your jaw so I don’t have to listen to you anymore.”

Fullerton lunged at her, actually taking a clumsy swing over her desktop. She backed away easily, and by the time she got to her feet, Porter, Frank and Chris had Fullerton in a three-way vise. Porter looked as if he were in shock, Frank was furious, and Chris looked actually pleased at being able to pull Fullerton’s arm behind his back.

Fullerton was still screaming at Alex, but she couldn’t hear his words anymore. When he stopped for breath, she said to her officers, “Let him go.”

The detectives stepped back warily. She looked at him and said, “Badge and gun, Fullerton. IA will be in touch.”

He threw his badge down and reached for his service weapon. Chris Andersen stepped up next to him and said quietly, “Be really careful, Fullerton.”

He glared at her, then swiveled his head back to Alex. “This isn’t over. I’m calling the PBA and getting a lawyer.”

“Be my guest,” Alex said coolly. “Call the Police Benevolent Association or the mayor or whoever you want. Just get out.”

When he was gone, she sat back down in her chair again, feeling drained. When she glanced up, the three detectives were still in her office, watching her.

“Kelly,” she said. “You weren’t named in the complaints. Internal Affairs will want to talk to you, but you’re not the subject of the investigation yet. What I need you to do in the meantime is go back through what you and Roger had on your desks so we can figure out how to get you some help. All right?”

He still looked as if he were in shock.

“Kelly? You okay?” Frank asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” Porter rubbed a hand over his face. “I’ll get right on it, Captain.”

Frank walked him to the door, and turned back to look at Alex. “I’ll go give him a hand,” he said. “If you need me, you know where to find me, Captain.”

Frank Morelli was being her friend, she knew that. She nodded and said only, “Thank you, Sergeant.”

When the men had gone, Chris Andersen lingered in the doorway.

“Yes, Detective?” Alex asked.

Chris cleared her throat. “Everyone heard it,” she said. “And there’s not a cop out there who won’t be very happy to testify about what happened. Fullerton is an asshole, and we’d be glad to be rid of him.”

Alex just nodded, trying to figure out yet again how she could feel so empty, so hopeless. Was the rest of her life going to be like this, a black hole of anger and sorrow?

“Captain?”

“Thanks for your help, Chris.”

“I…” Chris seemed to hesitate, and Alex looked at her.

“What is it?”

“If this is none of my business, just say so. But you…I mean, we’ve been kinda worried…oh, hell, I really suck at this shit.”

“Chris, if you have something to say, just say it.”

Chris ran her hands through her short, blond hair in embarrassment. “Frank and I were talking. You haven’t been yourself since…you know. Is there anything we can do? I mean, you could just maybe come over for dinner, or something? Beth is a great cook, and I just…” Both her voice and her look softened. “You were a good friend to us, Beth and me, when we needed it. You and...um, Inspector St. Clair both. It’s, uh, hard to see you so, ah, unhappy.”

Her words twisted inside Alex. She couldn’t even sort out what she was feeling. Everyone had just been trying to ignore what had happened to her, trying to act normal, especially Chris, perhaps because of their past stormy issues. The Chris Andersen she knew was tough and self-sufficient, largely uninterested in other people’s problems. Perhaps being with Beth Rivera, her girlfriend, had begun to change Chris. An invitation to dinner was deeply surprising to Alex, and touched her unexpectedly.

“Tell Beth thanks,” Alex said. “I need a little more time, I think, but I will come to dinner sometime, if the invitation is still open.”

Chris nodded gravely, but Alex could see that she was pleased. “Anytime. I mean that, Captain.”

“Thanks, Detective.”

She called Sergeant McCarthy, CJ’s former assistant in Internal Affairs, to give him the information about Fullerton.

“Hey, Captain, I’m glad you called,” McCarthy said when she was finished. “I got a call yesterday from the DA. They wanted to know about an Internal Affairs investigation on, um…”

Alex heard him scrabbling through the paperwork on his desk. “On Detective Kinsey?” she supplied.

“Yeah. Kinsey. Apparently they’re getting ready to go to trial on some case where he’s the witness and the DA is worried that we’ll have to tell the defense about the IA investigation. You know, exculpatory evidence.”

Alex snorted into the phone. “The DA does not need to do a Brady disclosure on Detective Kinsey because he screwed up his timesheets.”

McCarthy said, “Okay, but the DA said it might reflect on his truthfulness as a witness, so he wanted me to send the IA file over to them.”

Alex sighed. After the scene with Fullerton, she did not need the unpleasantness of a conversation with her ex-husband, the current District Attorney. “I’ll call him myself and explain exactly why he does not need the IA file, Sergeant.”

McCarthy sounded fulsomely grateful. “Thanks, Captain. Thanks a lot.”

It took her a couple of minutes to gather the strength to even dial his number. Everything seemed difficult for her lately. In the beginning, after CJ had left, she had spent weeks doing everything to find her. When every effort proved futile, her failure took her energy with it. Now even getting through the day was almost too difficult to manage.

As she waited for her ex to pick up his line, Alex could only think that the conversation she was about to have would never have happened if CJ had still been on the job. CJ would have known the answer and probably would have taken some pleasure in calling Tony to tell him how wrong he was. Tony had never liked CJ and hated that Alex was married to her. CJ had tried to treat him with equanimity, but eventually had surrendered to her deep resentment of his interference in Alex’s life.

“Alex.” Tony’s deep baritone sounded warm. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

God, she hated that he always sounded as if he were still interested in her. “Not pleasure, Tony, business. I’m calling about Detective Kinsey.”

“Kinsey. Kinsey. Which case is that?”

Alex sighed. It took her three minutes to remind him about the topic and another ten to explain why his office did not need the IA file. Finally he said, “Look, I get it. You don’t want your guy to look bad. But I don’t need an accusation from the defendant’s lawyer that we didn’t disclose the evidence, so humor me on this.”

“You want me to send you the IA file and hang my detective out to dry because you’re afraid to look bad to the public defender’s office?” Alex snapped at him. “When did you stop acting like a DA and start acting like a politician?”

“The District Attorney is an elected official,” he said, his tone defensive. “Alex, you’ve been around enough to know how things work. You can’t do any good unless you’re in a position to do good, and sometimes you have to do something expedient to get there.”

“Save it for your next Rotary Club speech, Tony. I am never going to agree with you that the ends justify the means. I’ve never been afraid to admit when we had a bad apple in the department, but Kinsey isn’t a liar. He made a mistake, but you don’t have to tell the PD about it because it’s not going to have an impact on his credibility. Okay?”

“Yes, okay.” She could tell he was unhappy about it.

She was ready to hang up but Tony said in a mollifying tone, “So how are you doing, Alex? We haven’t talked for a while.”

“I’m fine,” she lied.

“No, really. I mean, it’s been a long time and I figured since you haven’t heard anything from her—”

“What?” Alex cut in. “You thought you were safe to assume that I was over it by now?”

“Come on, don’t be like that.” His voice turned condescending. “I’m worried about you, honey. She treated you like shit, taking off like that.”

“Stop it,” Alex said, weary of the conversation and of him. “I’ve told you this before. My current marriage is none of your business. I’m not interested in your worry about me, I’m not interested in your opinion of CJ and I’m definitely not interested in anything personal you have to say to me. Goodbye, Tony.”

She managed to hang up without slamming the phone down, then tried to shut everything off, to concentrate on the latest index crime section of the Uniform Crime Reports. Her pain was beginning to feel like a permanent change in her, as if her eyes had somehow changed color. How long would it be before she stopped reaching for the phone in the middle of the day to call CJ? How long would it be before she stopped reaching for her in the night?

She looked up to see Deputy Chief Paul Duncan in her doorway. Sighing, she put the UCR aside and said, “Paul, come in. Are you here about Roger?”

He wedged his bulky body down carefully into her visitor’s chair, a frown wrinkling his already lined forehead. His bad hip must be bothering him again, Alex thought. Glancing down at his hands, she wondered if he hadn’t developed some arthritis in the thick, gnarled fingers.

Paul smoothed down the navy blue tie on his uniform. “Sergeant McCarthy called me. Said you put Fullerton on leave pending an IA.”

She nodded, and briefly described the complaints and the encounter in her office, watching his frown deepen with every word.

“You think I shouldn’t have put him on admin leave?” she finished, reacting to his expression.

“Well, hell, Alex, of course you should. Aside from the pretty serious citizen complaints, he can’t talk to a superior that way, much less take a swing at one. I know you haven’t been happy with him for a while.”