Murders & Romance, page 9
He raised up and stretched out his back, glancing at the clock across the room. He was shocked to realize several hours had passed. It was getting close to shift change.
He balled up a piece of scratch paper he’d been making notes on, and reached to toss it into the small waste basket beside his desk.
At the same time, a janitor reached for the waste basket, his bare forearm connecting with the back of Isaac’s hand.
Razor-sharp claws tore at Isaac from the inside, and the flash that came with it showed the janitor shove a man backward out of a doorway. Then he stepped inside the house and proceeded to beat the other man with an old fashioned billy club.
“Ahh!”
Isaac doubled over in his seat, clutching the edge of his desk.
“Ike! You okay, man?”
Pete sounded worried.
“Sorry, dude. I didn’t mean to hit you there.”
“What? You touched him?”
The worry in Pete’s voice morphed into pissed in zero point two seconds, and Isaac fought to regain his composure.
“It’s okay. I’m fine.”
He held up a hand to back Pete up. But he did appreciate the way his partner had become something of a watchdog for his personal space.
“You sure?”
“I’m really sorry. I was just reaching for the trash can here.”
Isaac looked up at the guy. He knew that the janitors who cleaned the station rotated on trash duty, but he thought he knew all of the ones on staff. This guy he didn’t recognize at all. Must be new.
“It’s all right. Do your job.”
The man emptied their can and moved on to the next set of desks. Isaac took a good look at the man’s face, still slightly panting. Then he took a deep breath and tried to shake off what he’d just seen.
“You sure you’re okay, man?” Pete asked again.
Isaac glanced at Pete and thought about telling him, but then decided against it.
“Yeah.”
He turned back to his paperwork, but he couldn’t get the images out of his mind. And he wondered if that flash had been from the past or from the future. Either way, it had freaked him out. Such brutality and cruelty.
The real question was how the hell a man like that had gotten hired by a janitorial service that frequently went into police stations and courthouses. Isaac knew for a fact that all employees of the service were required to go through a stringent background check, so how had this guy slipped through the cracks?
At any rate, he knew that he had to find out more, because that flash had been more than disturbing.
He glanced around the detectives pit and spotted the man across the room, emptying more trash cans. His gaze zoomed in on the man’s uniform, and he took note of the name embroidered there. Savage.
Fitting.
“Did Hiroshi have any news?”
Pete’s question brought him back from the rabbit hole’s edge.
“Uh, yeah.” He tried again to shake it off. “He said both our vics were hit in the head with a blunt object. A means of subduing them for transport to the crime scenes, where they were then woken up and made to watch while they were unmanned with something like a machete or a kukri.”
“Damn!”
Pete visibly flinched and repositioned in his seat, and Isaac couldn’t blame him.
“What about you? Any luck locating our third alleged rapist?”
“Yes and no.”
“Explain.”
“Well, apparently he’s a senior at Cleveland State University. At least, he’s enrolled there. But no one’s seen him for a couple of weeks.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean no one’s seen him.”
“Well, it is technically summer. Maybe he left campus to go home for a few weeks.”
“Home is a dwelling in Fairfax where he lives with his older sister. Seems their mother, a single parent, moved to Akron for her job a year ago, allowing Michael to stay with his sister so that he could continue to go to Cleveland state. I’ve reached out to the sister, who says that Michael actually lives on campus in a dorm and is rarely at the house. I’ve tried contacting his roommate, but I can’t locate him either.”
“Huh. That can’t be good.”
“I’ll keep at it.”
“That’s all we can do, I guess.”
Isaac locked eyes with the strange janitor as the man passed by his desk once more on his way out.
8
At Hope House, Sidney stood up from her desk and began to gather her things. Zoe was already gone for the day, and Julie, a social work graduate student that Zoe employed to stay with the residents in the evenings, was getting settled at her desk in the office.
“Okay, Julie. I’m out. If you need anything during the night you know where to find us.”
Julie looked at her and smiled.
“You say that every evening, Sidney, but calling you or Zoe during the night is always my very last resort.”
“I know. But we’re there if you need us.”
Julie laughed, and Sidney headed out of the office. She stopped by the kitchen, where the residents were having dinner, and popped her head in the door. She smiled as she watched them. There were only three adults right now — Ann, and her two children, Laney and Ben. Beth, and her daughter, Kylee. And Tyneesha, a soft-spoken librarian in her second trimester of pregnancy — and Sidney marveled at how willing the women always were to help one another through what had to be the darkest time in their lives.
“I’m leaving, gang. Julie’s in the office if you need anything.”
They all smiled or waved their goodbyes to her, and Sidney headed for the door to leave.
When she opened it, a man stood on the other side.
He was disheveled, with bloodshot eyes and reeking of alcohol, and Sidney’s heart clawed its way to her throat.
“I want to talk to my wife.”
The heart in her throat dropped to the depths of her stomach.
Flashbacks of the incident from a few weeks ago flew through her mind like a shock reel. She blinked and pulled herself together.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I don’t want any trouble. I just want to see my wife. I need to talk to her.”
How would Zoe handle this?
She formed a barrier with her body, one hand on the door frame and the other firmly on the door itself. Then she looked the man in his eyes.
“I don’t know who your wife is, sir. And If you…”
“Donald?”
From behind her, Sidney heard Ann’s voice, and the woman sounded terrified.
Sidney’s stomach sank even lower.
“Annie!”
The man lurched forward, his beer belly nearly knocking Sidney over. But she refused to budge.
“Honey come here! Let me talk to you for a minute.”
“No!” Ann yelled. “Donald, you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Annie, I just want to see my kids! Where are they?”
“No. Donald, go away!”
“Sir, I’m calling the police if you don’t leave this property immediately!” Sidney hoped her voice sounded more forceful than it had to her own ears.
Donald ignored her and the barrier she created, and pushed his way into the foyer of the house.
“Dammit, Annie, I want to see my kids! You can’t keep them from me.”
A surge of frustration and pent up rage ran through Sidney.
Perfectly executing a hold Pete Vega had taught her in the self-defense class, she grabbed Donald, twisted his arm behind his back, and shoved him into the nearest wall.
“You’re trespassing!” she growled.
Donald was momentarily shocked.
So was Sidney.
But his drunken confusion didn’t last long. He pushed off the wall and backhanded her across the face, knocking her backward into the door.
Ann screamed.
Julie and Tyneesha came running from different directions.
Sidney was hurting, and pissed.
She had no clue where the rage and determination came from, but she was damn sure going to use it to her advantage.
She launched herself at him, punching him three times in the face before she landed a kick square in his chest with her stiletto.
The kick knocked him into the banister of the stairs, and then he flopped to the floor on his ass.
His stunned expression gave her just enough time to pull her .380 Ruger out of her purse and level it at him.
“You’re trespassing. And you’re violating Ann’s restraining order. Julie, call the police!”
“Dialing now!” Julie called out.
“All right, I’m leaving! I’m leaving!”
Donald scrambled to his feet and ran out of the door and down the porch steps.
Adrenaline crashed into Sidney’s chest. She could feel the collective rush of relief that everyone else seemed to expel, but she was shaken.
She’d never pulled her new gun on anyone before, and she noted the shaking of her hands when she lowered it and put it away in her purse.
“Oh, my God. Thank you so much, Sidney! Thank you.”
She tried to accept Ann’s gratitude, but she couldn’t do much more than nod.
Ann’s kids suddenly ran from the kitchen and into their mother’s arms. Sidney watched the woman shoot a grateful smile to Beth.
“Thank you for keeping them in the kitchen with you.”
“Of course,” Beth said.
“The cops are on their way,” Julie announced.
Sidney nodded, still unable to speak. She placed a hand on her chest, silently begging her heart to calm down.
She pulled out her cellphone and sent a text to Ike.
* * *
Sidney:
Not an emergency
All ok now
But just pulled my gun on resident’s husband
* * *
She put her phone down just as the door opened again, and Dr. Lance Tobey stepped inside. He seemed slightly amused and surprised to find them all congregated at the front door. He glanced around with a smile.
“Hi, everyone. Why are we all standing in the entryway?”
His smile suddenly faded.
“What happened?”
Julie launched into an animated retelling of the events, and Lance stared at Sidney.
“He hit you?”
He stepped closer and reached out to touch her face.
Sidney jerked away, glaring at him.
“Your face is beginning to bruise and swell, Sidney. Let me do my job and check you out. Okay?”
“You really should let him look at you, Sidney.” Ann’s voice was full of misplaced remorse. “Donald is very heavy-handed. I know. He broke my jaw once slapping me that way.”
Ann turned her embarrassed gaze to the floor. Then she ushered her kids back into the kitchen.
“I’ll wait for the cops out front,” Julie said, pointing to the door.
Sidney nodded and then, abandoning her purse and cellphone, walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
Her hands were still shaking.
Lance followed with his black medical bag and sat down beside her.
He gently moved a curl from her face. Then he lightly touched a spot near the corner of her right eyebrow.
Sidney flinched at the contact, surprised at the pain. It was the first she’d felt, and she knew that meant the adrenaline was wearing off. The whole right side of her face began to throb, and it burned like it was on fire.
“Ah!”
“Sorry. You’ve got a small cut there that’s beginning to swell. He must’ve got you with a ring.”
He opened up his bag and got to work holding a cotton ball there, applying pressure to stop the bleeding she hadn’t realized she was doing. Then he added a dab of ointment on the cut, and placed a small bandage there.
“It won’t need stitches. Probably won’t even leave a scar, okay?”
Sidney nodded, and met his gaze. She allowed herself a moment to study his face. He was actually a very attractive man when he wasn’t being creepy.
“Looks like he really did a number on you.”
Something about that comment irked her, and she cocked her head, giving him an ‘oh really’ glare.
“Actually, he did this damage with just one backhanded punch.”
Lance moved on to the bruise at her cheek.
“Good thing he didn’t have time for more. A little ice should help the swelling, okay?”
His tone was condescending, and Sidney side-eyed him.
“That one punch was all I let him have before I knocked him on his ass and pulled my gun on him.”
Lance’s eyebrows shot up, and then he grinned.
“Well, I bet that surprised him.”
“I guess.”
“Then you saved the day.”
Sidney shook her head.
“No, I didn’t. I should’ve insisted that he stay put until the cops got here. I mean, I was the one with the gun. I shouldn’t have let him get away.”
“I think Ann would say that you saved the day. You’re being too hard on yourself.” He put his things away in his bag. “But I get it though. I tend to do that too when I’m feeling down or depressed.”
He stared into her eyes, and Sidney wondered what he was talking about. What did he know about the way she was feeling?
He stared so long and so intently that Sidney suddenly felt uncomfortable sitting this close to him. She turned away, and Lance reached out and touched her chin, turning her face back toward him.
She thought he wanted to look at her wounds again. Instead, he leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips.
Sidney pulled back instantly, then she physically scooted away from him.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He smiled, oozing charm.
“Well, it’s called a kiss, but if you have to ask, then I guess I did it wrong.”
“You shouldn’t have done it at all.”
“My bad,” he grinned. “I just thought we were sharing a moment here.”
“Then you read the moment very wrong. We’ve just had a troubling domestic incident in this house, and I’m not in the proper headspace for your moves right now. Not to mention the fact that I’m engaged to be married, and you know that.”
“Whoa.” Lance held up his hands. “First of all, I was under the impression things weren’t going so well in your relationship.”
“Well, you got your facts wrong too! I’m sure that happens a lot when you creep into doorways and eavesdrop on private conversations. But since we’re on the subject… even if things were bad in my relationship — which they’re not — that still wouldn’t give you the right to force an uninvited kiss on me.”
She stood and walked away from him.
“Okay. Calm down.” Lance stood too. “It was obviously just a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? Do you misunderstand your patients at the hospital and lay kisses on them?”
“No, of course not. But I thought we were kind of feeling each other here. Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little? I mean… maybe you’re upset with yourself because you wanted me to kiss you. Did you ever think of that?”
Sidney turned on him.
“Are you listening to yourself, doctor? We’re standing in a women’s shelter right now. A safe place for women who’ve seen all types of abuse from their domestic partners. A place that works diligently to empower those women to stand up for themselves, and you’re trying to tell me that I don’t know my own mind?”
The smile slowly slid off Lance’s face.
“Next are you going to tell me that I’m being hysterical? Or that I was asking for your advances? Maybe my clothing was too suggestive, or I somehow made you act like an ass?”
“Sidney, I didn’t mean to…”
“I think you should go do whatever it is you came here to do, and leave me alone now.”
She glared at him, and Julie ushered two uniformed police officers into the room.
“Sidney, these officers need to speak with you and Ann.”
Sidney heard her, but her focus remained on Lance. Until she heard Isaac’s voice in the entryway.
“Sidney!”
“Isaac?”
She started for the door when he burst into the room with Pete behind him.
Sidney rushed into his arms.
“God, baby, I texted you back, and I called, but you wouldn’t answer.” Isaac squeezed her tight. “I was going insane.”
“I’m sorry. I seem to have lost track of my phone.”
Sidney looked up at him, and Isaac let go of her and gently lifted her chin, turning it so that he could study her face. His light grey eyes darkened like storm clouds. She could see the anger come down like a torrent of rain.
“Who the fuck put their hands on you?”
“Calm down.” She placed her hands on his chest. “It’s all over now, and he’s gone.”
“What happened, Sid?”
“Excuse me, Detective,” one of the officers interrupted them. “We still need a statement from Ms. Fairchild, and from the wife of the intruder.”
Isaac nodded, and then led Sidney over to the couch. She sat down in the exact spot she’d been in before. And she watched Isaac zero in on Lance, who now stood behind the couch.
“Who are you?”
“Oh. I’m Dr. Lance Tobey.” He held out his hand, which Isaac ignored.
“Lance works at Cleveland Clinic,” Sidney said, her tone flat. “He volunteers here a few hours each week. He bandaged my cut.” She motioned to the tiny bandage near her right eyebrow.
“And where were you when some asshole was threatening the women and slapping Sidney around?” Isaac asked.
“Driving,” Lance responded. “I arrived just after the asshole left, apparently.”
Isaac grunted and sat down next to Sidney and wrapped his arm around her, holding her hand while she gave the cops her statement.
“So, you punched him twice and then kicked him in the chest?” the officer asked.
“Three times. I punched him three times, and then kicked him.”
