Death of a Chorus Girl (The Delacroix Series Book 1) (18 page)

“Is that a concern?” he finally inquires.

“Isn’t it always?” I snap. 
Especially now that it seems you’re using me.
  “If I sign your paper, agreeing to play cloak to your dagger, am I stuck having to portray a false romance if we don’t work out?”

“How about we cross that bridge if we need to?”

I am a fool.  I pull my hand out of Richard’s and shift to fix them both in my sights.  “How long have you two been planning this?”  Damn it if my eyes don’t burn with unshed tears.  Their faces tell me my eyes are glassy.

“Captain, we need a minute,” Richard states gravely.  The captain leaves but only after clarifying that they never discussed this until that afternoon.  Richard instantly turns in his chair to try and recapture my hands as I continuously evade him.  He finally gets the message and drops his hands dejectedly into his lap.  “Em, I know what you’re thinking.  Please don’t,” his penitent voice begins.

“How could you possibly have any idea what I’m thinking,
detective
?”  It’s a cheap shot, but considering I have just been blindsided by this man,
again
, I don’t care.

“You think I betrayed and used you,” he rightfully assumes.  “And you should, but I swear my feelings for you are genuine.  They are born of genuine attraction and desire.  I love-”

“Don’t!” I hiss.  “Don’t you
dare
finish that sentence!”

He is right about the emotions I am currently mired in but I just am not in a place to deal with his.  He catches my face and forces my eyes to meet his.  The same sorrow I feel fills them, along with dread.  “Please don’t let this cost me you.  I need you.  If you’re not up for this then tell him no-”

“And what?” comes out as an angry hiss and I slap his hands away.  “You think I actually have a choice now?  There are three options as I see it.  One, I agree to this charade, subjecting all of my colleagues to the scrutiny of the NYPD.  Two, I don’t.  We continue to date.  But you do it behind my back anyway on your captain’s order.  Or three, I cut you loose now and never see you again.  I’m sorry but none of those are particularly appetizing to me!”  Richard’s eyes grow progressively wider as I tick through my list until I think they will pop out of his sockets at the end.  He opens his mouth to spew whatever blather he thinks will keep me from running but I bowl over him.  “You don’t get it.  You’ve put me in the position to disappoint someone, if not everyone!  This situation offers no winners.”

“You’re hurt and angry,” he allows.  “You don’t have to do anything now.  Let me take you home.  Let’s get some distance from this.”

I cross my arms over my chest and agree.  I don’t want to be here anymore.  He whips out his phone and sends a text to the captain who returns stating the check is paid.  He backs Richard’s statement, confirming that I don’t have to make a decision now.  That I can say no.

Which is why I am sitting in Richard’s car, as far from him as possible, curled into the door with my head leaning on the window, seeing none of the scenery that is streaking by. 
Will we EVER just have a normal day?

Richard Giordano: My Home

The minute I pull up to the curb Em flees.  I am not fast enough to keep her from escaping the car, but I can’t let her get away.  I leap from the charger, toss the keys to Walter, and race after her.  My arm slides between the doors to her elevator just before they close.

Her broken voice pleads with me to leave but I refuse, stepping into her elevator once the doors pop back open.  She retreats into the corner with tears streaming down her face as I advance on her.  “Don’t shut me out.  When it comes to us, nothing’s changed.”  I gently set my hands at her elbows.  “I’m still the same guy.”  I risk it all to pull her towards me.  Her arms bend, placing her hands on my chest.  She pushes against me, but it is a half-hearted attempt.  “Let me stay.  Don’t cut me loose.”  The doors open on her apartment and I reluctantly release her, praying I won’t lose her.  She backs away from me into her home, saying nothing as the doors slide closed.

I ride the elevator back down in a daze.  Walter is surprised when I reappear and why wouldn’t he be?  Over the last few days, I have become a permanent fixture.  I drive home, thinking through everything that happened today.  My entire world was flipped upside down, turned inside out, swallowed by a monster, and spat back out.  My job, my partner, and my captain all conspired to tear Em away from me.  And it worked!  She is gone.

I storm into my house in a rage and throw my keys on the counter before hitting the liquor cabinet.  A bottle of bourbon fills my hand when I collapse in a chair in my den.  The folders on the coffee table taunt me before I take even a swig.  They are copies of the case files I was working on before the show opening.  One of them is Annie’s.  Could there be answers in there?

I set the bottle aside and pick up the folder.  There are the DNA results, two male samples.  One semen sample matches the skin cells under her nails; the other the epithelial trace on her neck.  Neither in our system.  Dead end.

There is the report confirming the tampered screws on the lighting rig caused it to fall.  We swabbed, sprayed, and tore apart the whole damn thing looking for trace DNA evidence on it, but whoever sabotaged the rig knew what they were doing.  There was nothing to be found except traces of Annie.  Dead end.

Chunks of Annie’s life are still a mystery.  We can account for the time she spent at the show and its related events.  It is her personal time we can’t track.  She was a regular at bars the Broadway crowd frequented but always showed up and left alone according to witness accounts.  The girl hardly had an online presence.  There was one Facebook account she hadn’t updated in months.  She didn’t own a computer or tablet.  According to everyone, she did everything through that damn phone of hers!  We still can’t find it, but we did get her phone records.  Overall, there wasn’t anything that stood out.  Calls to Em, Worthy, and other cast members made sense.  There was nothing to Fitzwallace or the other investors.  Dead end.

Her texts didn’t provide any other insight.  Dead end.

Her apps weren’t a surprise either.  DEAD DAMN END!

Frustrated, I throw the papers down.  This case changed my life and put me in the orbit not only of the love of my life but also an elusive, suspected criminal.  My gut tells me this case is the key to getting Fitzwallace, so at a minimum I still have to follow it.  I have no idea what is going to happen with Em but if I can get her out of this mess with Fitzwallace then that will negate the need for her to be the captain’s CI.

I sit there thinking about how to catch Fitzwallace without involving Em until eventually the records for Annie’s phone call to me.  I snatch them off the table and chastise myself for thinking there is anything new in them.  Em, Worthy, Houston, Unknown, Em, Em, Avery, Unknown, Unknown, Worthy, Unknown, Levi, Avery, Em,
Unknown
…

The light bulb clicks on, and I feel like an idiot.  I scan the document again.  The numbers for all the unknown calls, in and out, have the same three-digit prefix.  Everyone gets unknown calls, but there should always be a mix.  In this case there aren’t.  Each call is marked untraceable, which typically means they are disposable phones, but to get that many from the same prefix is suspect.  Finally, something new to look into!  Hunt and Orbach will need to track down the phone records for each number.  It won’t immediately give us a person but maybe we can narrow down Annie’s social circle.

Empathy Delacroix: Answers

Why can’t we just have what most would consider a normal courtship?  That question plagues me all night.  The only answer I come up with: because we aren’t normal.  It is true even without my visions.  I work in the theatre.  Richard’s a detective.  On paper, we shouldn’t work; we are too different.  Yet, we do… or at least I think we do.

I tire of wallowing in bed, now that the sun is up, and dejectedly throw the covers off before heading to the kitchen for some coffee.  What am I going to do?  Who do I believe?  My heart wants to believe Richard, but my head swims with Tom’s warning.  I feel like I am being used but I don’t know by whom.

How did this even come up?  Who runs in my circle that could be a criminal?
  It has to be one of the investor’s since the captain asked about them.  But why did Richard immediately tell his captain about the change in our relationship?

I have no answer for that question until I am about halfway through the mail I neglected for the last two days.  I roll my eyes and groan.  Well, that explains how his captain knows.  I’m sure with the tip I gave them to watch the gossip mags, Annie’s case probably isn’t the only one they search through them for leads on.  If they’re investigating one of the investors, the mags are a good source for that as well.

I fold my arms on the table and drop my head in the crook of one of my elbows.  I’m exhausted on so many levels, but sleep will remain elusive until I get some answers.  There is only one person who can give them to me.

Richard Giordano: 57
th
Precinct

“All I see in your future is paperwork.  You don’t mind doing it, do you Dick?”

I glare at Steve and put my fingers delicately to my eye.  The touch immediately stings.  Yup, it is a shiner.  “Not this time.”  I turn my back on him and head down to the morgue.  Not only will I find Frisco there but she will also have an icepack for my eye.

“Leave them on the desk,” she orders as I walk into her office.  She looks up then jumps out of her seat after I don’t place anything on her desk.  “Jesus, Rich!  What the hell happened to you?”

Yesterday or today?
  “Hooker got the jump on me while Steve and I were busting her drug-dealing pimp.  I have a feeling it looks worse than it is.  It’s mainly my pride that’s wounded.”

She pulls an instant icepack out of a box and cracks it before motioning to the chairs.  We sit, with her placing the pack on my eye.  “You got a sec?”

“Yeah, but you don’t,” she immediately answers.  I question Frisco with my good eye.  “Captain just called and told me that if I see you, send you to him immediately.”  I take the pack from her and leave.

My mind is still swimming when I knock on his door.  Normally, he just hollers for us to come in but this time he opens the door for me.  I step inside and freeze when I see we aren’t alone.

“Perfect timing, Rich.  I was about to get Ms. Delacroix and myself something to drink.  Would you like anything?”  Dumbstruck, all I can do is shake my head.  He slaps me on the shoulder and leaves the room.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Em when the door shuts.

Her eyes lock on mine and for once I can’t read a single thing in them.  “The answers to all my questions can only be found here.”

“So you haven’t signed the CI papers.”

“Not yet.” 
Not yet?
  Is she possibly considering it?  But what about us?  Are we back on track or will it be an act?  “Sit down, Richard.”  Well, she isn’t calling me detective, which is what she does when she’s upset.  I sit down in the chair beside her, and she reaches out and takes the icepack off my face.  “What happened to your eye?”

I give her the same answer I gave Frisco.  At this point, I don’t give a shit about my eye anymore.  Em nods, scoots forward until she is on the edge of her seat, and tenderly places the pack back.

“Are you considering it?” my small voice questions.  She shrugs and looks away.  I put my hand on her wrist and gently pull her hand from my face.  “Em, we need to talk about what all this means.”

She sighs, pulls away from me, puts her elbows on her knees, and drops her head in her hands.  “What do you recommend I do?  I know what he expects of me.  My role is simple, bring Teddy and you to functions, and maintain the perception of our romantic relationship.”

My role is simple!  Maintain the perception!
  “Is this strictly business now?!”  I grab both of her hands in one of mine while the other lifts her chin.  Tears sit heavy in her eyes, but none fall.  Her broken “I don’t know” tears me in two.  She doubts my feelings so I ask her why.

“Tom told me you need an ‘in’ to our sphere because all your warrants are being denied.” 
How the hell does he know that?
  “At the time I instantly dismissed it.”

“Until we ambushed you at dinner.”

“Yes.”

I take a deep breath because as much as I want to blame Worthy for all of this it isn’t his fault.  It isn’t any of our faults, but it is the reality I need to deal with.  “How can I convince you I’m not using you as a tool for my job?  You mean more than that to me.”

Her eyes close as her head cocks to the side.  “I want to believe that.”  I open my mouth to speak but she doesn’t give me the chance.  “Richard, what’s more important, this investor or me?” she asks after opening her eyes.

“You!” leaps instantly from my tongue.  There isn’t even a comparison.  It isn’t even close!  “Em, I love you.  If it were up to me I wouldn’t have you do it,” the words tumble out my mouth.  “I wouldn’t have brought it up.  There’s more at stake than catching a slippery criminal.  The guy’s a cunning prick.  It’s-”