The Silence Broken: Part Three: the District Detectives, #1, page 13
Davis spread his arms as far as the confining truck would let him. “Ask away. We have some time.”
“I have this gnawing suspicion that you know how and why Dallas ended up in The District. Do you?” Olli tilted her head slightly.
Davis’ grin flashed again. “Oh, I do. I needed a way to get my hands on you. And what better way to do that then to have you called out to rescue a fellow detective in The District. Your home turf.”
“Sweet of you,” Olli agreed, the irony he pointed out not lost on her. She mentally kicked herself. She was so used to Davis being Ben Sandy that she was having a bit of difficulty remembering that he was someone to be feared.
Davis smirked. “But before I could swoop in and whisk away your partner, that awful, skinny thug with the black Cadillac and huge bodyguard snagged him.” Davis glowered at Dallas for a moment. “You have been an absolute trouble ever since I decided that you were going to be my decoy. You didn’t even pay my cabbie as much as you were supposed to!” Davis waved his hands back and forth in clearing gesture. “That doesn’t matter anymore. Somehow I managed to miss you again when you came past The Line, and even after you were captured by that bull-headed gunman. And I missed again when you escaped. You are very hard to pin down, Young Lady,” Davis tsked, looking at Olli and shaking his head.
Olli frowned for a second. “And I assume that Officer Jackson was supposed to take me on a quick trip back to your headquarters, but that didn’t work either,” she couldn’t help the note of pleasure that snuck into her voice.
Davis shook his head sourly. “He did nothing right. Do you have any more questions, my dear?”
Olli’s lip pulled back momentarily. “Toby Jenkins.”
Davis’ mouth stretched into a somewhat smile. “Ah. Jenkins. He was my partner, but he had outgrown his usefulness and was becoming a dead weight. So I decided that after we fought about when to clean out the bank, he was no longer necessary.”
Olli blinked. She wasn’t expecting that answer, but it seemed to make sense. “Let’s talk about the bank. Why?”
“Two reasons. I needed to throw the two of you off my trail somehow, you tenacious gumshoes,” he said it with an almost fondness, “and I needed money to run my operation. Surely you can understand that, Olli.”
Olli’s eyebrows rose. “Oh sure, I can understand you wanting to take money from people who can barely make it themselves to fund your illegal gun trafficking,” Olli agreed sarcastically.
Davis clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Olli, Olli, Olli. Such a mouth.” He blinked with a patient air. “Do you have any other questions that will make you feel accomplished before I kill you?”
Dallas looked at Olli warning shining in his eyes. There was no need to get the man worked up.
Olli glanced at him and shrugged. She turned back to Davis, her gaze level. “Why didn’t Al ever hear back from the police department about the badge-checking?”
Davis chuckled in a scoffing way. “Surely you can figure that out, my dear! Else you wouldn’t be a third of the detective you claim to be.”
Olli blinked, solidly waiting for a reply. She was pretty sure that she knew the answer to that, but she wanted to hear him say it.
Chapter 14
The One with the Answered Questions
Davis’ shoulders slumped slightly. “Very well, I’ll humor you.” He waved his hand in a forgiving motion. “The department did give your father a call, but they didn’t talk to him, they talked to one of my men. Simple thing really, tapping the lines. Surely you figured that out yourself,” he admonished.
Olli looked down at her tied hands for a moment and sighed heavily. She looked up and her eyes narrowed. “How do you know about the tunnels?”
Davis’ eyebrows jumped. “The tunnels?” he stumbled.
Olli couldn’t hide the look of satisfaction that brought an assured smile to her face. She hadn’t expected him to expect her to guess correctly. “I ran into a corner because you turned the lights out when you left,” she retorted in an accusatory tone.
Davis recovered easily from the surprise and smirked. “At least I caused you the inconvenience. Where were you?”
Olli narrowed her eyes. “How do you know about the tunnels?” she repeated.
Davis sighed. “How do you know about the tunnels?”
Olli closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. “Fine, it’s not important, I suppose. One of your men shot at us when we were at the Corner Diner the day after you cleaned out the bank.” She decided to change the subject and continue with the conversation.
Davis smiled pleasantly, but his eyes were hard with hatred. “Yes. And missed, unfortunately,” he added the last word with an almost growl. “You have an annoying fog-like act. You disappear into thin air just when I think that I have you, and then you reappear where I least need and expect you.”
Olli smiled tightly and nodded. “You killed the Harbor Watchmen.” Her eyes were steely and her jaw was tight. She didn’t really appreciate the way that her stomach knotted at the sound of his voice changing like that. It made it harder for her to concentrate.
Davis’ eyebrows shot up for a second. “My good detective, are you sorry I did?”
Olli frowned and closed her eyes, trying to reign in the frustration at the pokes he was landing.
“Why?” Dallas demanded, saying something for the first time. He had been too busy watching the men in the truck, judging them and keeping an eye on Beth.
“Oh. He does speak. Tell me, good Sir, what is it like working with a firebrand like your partner?” Davis turned to him, patronizing interest shining in his eyes.
Olli snorted. “Answer the question.”
Davis pointed to her with a finger and looked at Dallas. “She’s quite the handful.”
Dallas smirked tightly. “I don’t need to ask any questions. You didn’t hurt me by bein’ the bad guy.”
Davis blinked and nodded. “You do have a point. I killed the ‘Watchmen’, Olli, because those three maggots in The District would have been a slight problem unless I could keep them busy blaming each other and you for the problems that were happening. I truly didn’t expect them to band together and start to hunt down my men. That was an unfortunate thing.” Davis shook his head bitterly. Suddenly his face brightened like he had thought of something that was in his favor. “You know, now that I think of it, I did succeed in capturing the two of you once. I even had you both in holding cells. And somehow both of you disappeared right out from under my nose.” He peered at them for a second looking a little disgruntled.
“I assume you know about the meeting that The Three had about three weeks ago. What were you doing there that morning?” She pointed an accusing finger in Beth’s direction.
Beth just pulled an evil face and ignored the direct demand for information. She turned instead to Dallas and smiled coyly.
Davis sighed. “She was there to re-bug your office and-or lure you both to your capture in the back alley. Unfortunately, both plans went up in smoke that day.” He glared evilly at Beth, who quailed.
“When you ripped those pages out of that book, why didn’t you just take the entire thing?” Olli questioned, shifting on the bench slightly.
“It was faster, and it really put a stop to your searching for the day.” Beth shrugged.
“It was faster to rip out twenty-five pages and leave the book?” Olli was skeptical.
“It was thirty!” Beth snapped sharply. “I slipped right past you when you were in your father’s office talking about something or other. I did it mostly because I wanted you to worry about someone watching your every move.”
Olli barely held back the sneer. So it turned into more of a disapproving look. “It was clever of you to use your own men to move in Dallas’ things into my office so you could plant bugs.” She turned to Davis.
Davis smiled brilliantly. “Yes, I thought that was a stroke of genius myself. You figured it out,” he praised.
Olli closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. “No, actually Dallas did. About the same time as we found the bugs.”
Davis looked puzzled. “Yes, about that. How did you find them?”
Olli smirked in pleasure. She looked at Dallas and then turned back to Davis, a slight chuckle shaking her shoulders. “Trade secret.”
Davis pouted. “Now, now. That’s not fair. I told you everything you wanted to know.”
Olli snorted and shrugged. “Sorry.”
The truck jounced to a quick halt. It sat where it landed for a moment, its motor coughing, protesting the low RPM.
Olli glanced around, thinking that maybe since the traffic light was red, she and Dallas might be able to escape. She blinked. Conman just winked at her again. She stared at him openly for a moment, not sure what that was supposed to mean. This time she was positive that she had seen it.
The truck jerked around a corner and sped up again. Suddenly, it screeched around a tight corner and the motor died with a pop. Silence covered the truck for a moment.
Olli sighed. Hopefully, she and Dallas could come up with something quickly. She glanced at Davis and was confused when she saw the puzzled look on his face.
The back doors opened with a jerk, and bright light flooded into the back of the truck. The two guards on the end jumped out first and seemed to be swallowed by the light.
Olli slid out and hit the ground. She was pushed around the side of the panel truck, behind the open door. Olli was about to bolt as Dallas was shoved next to her, when she saw what was straight ahead of them.
The back of the police station never looked so amazing, or so out of place. Olli couldn’t figure out what had just had happened. She wasn’t the only one.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Davis roared, looking at the building.
The two guards that hadn’t said anything of late smirked slightly at him and each grabbed an arm. That’s when the driver appeared with the struggling Beth in hand.
“Sorry about the detour, but I thought it would be better for you to be arrested here, rather than at the bank.” He smirked.
“You! You work for me!” Davis snarled, struggling against his sudden captors.
“No.” He shook his head.
“What?” Davis snarled, shock on his face.
“Surprise.” The driver shrugged.
Olli blinked and took a couple steps closer, brushing off Dallas’ protest. She walked right up to the driver, almost close enough to touch him and studied him intently.
He stood perfectly still for a moment and then smirked. “You really don’t recognize me, Olli? I didn’t think that I changed that much.”
Olli’s face split into a huge grin. “You’re alive,” her voice full of hushed disbelief.
That’s when Beth decided to react. She kicked her captor in the shins as hard as she could, ripping her arm out of his hand as she did. The next instant blood exploded from Olli’s nose as Beth back-handed her across her face. She bolted away, running surprisingly fast.
Davis threw a fit, instantly preoccupying his captors. He almost got away a couple of times, but they quickly subdued him with help from the driver and Dallas.
Olli glanced at the four struggling with Davis and bolted after Beth, her hands still tied, intent on payback for the backhand. Beth may have had a head start, but Olli was wearing her pants, instead of a skirt, and she started to work on catching up.
Beth zipped through the pedestrian traffic, constantly checking over her shoulder to see Olli’s progress. It wasn’t until just before Beth ducked into an alley that Olli lost sight of her because of the crowd. If it hadn’t been for a lucky break, Olli wouldn’t have seen Beth dart into the alley.
Olli walked down the alley, watching the shadows, her adrenaline pounding. “Beth, I know you’re in here somewhere. You might as well come out. It’s over.” Nothing but absolute silence answered her. Olli kept walking, mentally cursing the rope that held her wrists together.
She watched a shadow start to move toward the end of the alley and darted after it. She had almost caught up to Beth when both of them realized that the alley was a dead end.
Beth was the first one to the solid wall. She looked around for another way, but since she couldn’t find one, she settled for picking up the broken handle of a broom. She turned around and swung menacingly at Olli.
Olli almost missed the handle flying at her head and managed to duck enough so it grazed her shoulder. She grunted. ‘That’s going to leave a mark.’ She ducked the back swing and jumped closer to Beth. The next swing, the handle smacked into her hands loud enough it echoed in the small alley. She smiled wickedly at Beth and wrenched the handle from her hands. The handle clattered onto the pavement and rolled away when Olli dropped it. She took another step closer to Beth.
Beth looked around for something else to hit or beat Olli back with, but there was nothing close enough. She eyed the detective still advancing slowly toward her. There was no doubt in her mind that if Olli got any closer, she was going to be arrested. In desperation, she lashed out nastily with her left hand.
Olli saw it coming and avoided it easily. The next instant she swung her hands under Beth’s arm and into her stomach. She was surprised when the older woman lashed back. Sparks flashed in front of her eyes when Beth’s hand smashed across her already tender nose. That made her angry. Olli drove her hands into Beth’s stomach again and then followed up quickly with a backhand-punch with her folded hands across Beth’s face.
Beth reeled back and bumped against the wall. Blood was now dripping from a small cut on her bottom lip, and a bruise was going to form across her chin where Olli’s knuckles had contacted her skin. She blinked once and then launched herself at Olli again.
Olli was ready for her. She deflected the blows and somehow managed to get her hands behind Beth’s head. She pulled her down and brought her knee up, contacting Beth’s lower face.
Beth collapsed on the ground. After a moment or two she slowly took in a breath and moaned.
Olli wiped her hands across her face, trying to smear away the blood that was dripping off her chin. She pulled a face at the amount of blood that was on her knuckles. “All right, get up.” She reached down, grabbed two fistfuls of Beth’s blouse and pulled her up. “You’re fine,” she told the now-groaning Beth. “Let’s go for a little walk, shall we?” Olli shoved Beth toward the opening of the alley.
Beth stumbled but caught her balance. She looked back at Olli, hate shining in her eyes. “You’re awful!” she snarled.
Olli walked a couple of steps to catch up to her. “I’m sure you think so. Keep walking.” She pushed her again.
“I hate you.” Beth spat.
“Well, the feeling’s mutual. Walk!” Olli snapped. She was in no mood to talk to the woman who had tried to bring calamity on her town.
Beth complied sullenly and walked slowly in front of Olli, seemingly resigned to her fate. She turned toward the police station all by herself when they reached the sidewalk, but once she was in the midst of the crowd, she tried to bolt.
“Where do you think you’re goin’?” Dallas asked, somehow appearing out of nowhere. His hands landed on her upper arms.
Beth stared up at him in surprise. She had very nearly run into his chest. she tried to fight him off, but gave up with a sigh because, of course, it was useless. “You don’t have to hold on so tight,” she whispered hotly.
Dallas raised his eyebrows. “I’ll risk it.” He caught sight of Olli’s face and pursed his lips. “Did you-” He turned to Olli, “Did she do that to you?”
Olli shrugged, her hands coming apart a little.
Dallas glared at Beth evilly. “If you weren’t a woman I’d hit you right here for that.” He snarled, his voice low, and his accent think. He jerked her around and pointed her toward the police station. “Let’s go see where your friend Davis is shall we?” He motioned Olli forward in front of him. “After you.”
THE TWO GUARDS WHO had been holding Davis down appeared and whisked Beth away from Dallas. They brought her through the back door of the police station, kicking and spitting like an angry cat. Once the door clanged shut behind them, Beth’s voice was finally silenced.
Olli sighed. She was so glad that her part in the arrest was over. She plunked down on the back bumper of the panel truck. She looked at her bound and bloody hands and wrists. That could have gone much worse.
Dallas suddenly crouched in front of her, a hand on each of her upper arms. “Olli, you all right?” he asked, eyeing the blood on her lower face.
Olli snorted and shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
Dallas shook his head and started to untie the rope that was still tightly wrapped around her wrists. “You know,” he looked up from working on the knot, “Your lipstick’s runnin’.” He paused and looked her in the eye. “Oh wait, that’s right, you don’t wear lipstick.” He pulled the rope off completely and tossed it over Olli’s shoulder into the box of the truck.
Olli stared at him for a moment. “What?” she squeaked, grinning at him.
Dallas stood up and pulled her to her feet, her right hand in his. “Anythin’ to see that smile.” He lightly kissed her knuckles and pulled her hand through the crook in his left arm. “There’s someone inside who wants to talk to you.” He started toward the police station’s back door.
Olli was too taken aback to say anything and walked with him. She glanced at him shyly. She was relieved that he wasn’t looking at her.
Once inside the station, Dallas pulled open a door near the interrogation room where he had been held and motioned Olli inside. “I’ll go track somethin’ to clean up with.”
Chapter 15
The One with the End
Olli nodded and walked through the door. She wiped her right knuckles under her nose again. More blood smeared across them. She glanced around the room. It was a meeting room of sorts, there was a table with six chairs that pointed toward it.
Over in the far corner was a smaller table with mugs and a steaming pot of coffee. It was at this table that the driver stood, mixing sugar into the dark liquid that filled his mug.
