Good Cop/Bad Cop
Summary: Rachel is sure that something is going on with Kevin Holloway, and not knowing the possible cost, is determined to find out what it is. [Season one, AU]
A/N: This is probably my only Water Rats fic that is not about Rachel and Jack... although I almost found a sneaky way to put Jack in it! And Anna, I will see how I go with that Rachel/Jack date epilogue! :)
She knew there was something wrong with him when she met him at Mort Bay Park that afternoon. His demeanour, the look on his face, the solemn sound of his voice. They all pointed to something being wrong. But Rachel didn't really know what to say or do that would make him feel better; she didn't know what would comfort him. Putting her arm around him seemed like a good idea, so she did just that, and he told her he was fine. She didn't believe him, but as he dropped her home, she knew there wasn't a lot she could do about it.
"Get a good night's sleep," Rachel smiled across at him, "Okay?" she opened the car door and got out, shutting it again with a loud and heavy thud.
"I'll try," Kevin returned the smile, although it was an uneasy one. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he knew that the truth would get her into trouble. Big trouble. "See ya, Rachel," Kevin started his car and drove away, leaving her standing on the curb, before she had a chance to react to the fact he'd called her Rachel for the first time. From the moment they met a few months ago, he'd always called her 'Goldie' - a nickname she secretly hated.
With her head held down, Rachel walked to her front door, put the key in the lock and pushed the door open. She was immediately met with Frank's unhappy voice, "Where the hell have you been?" he asked of her, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, but also a little frustration.
"I just went out for a bit," Rachel threw her keys down onto the coffee table. She didn't know whether or not to tell Frank she had just seen Kevin, and that he seemed very depressed.
"Who with?"
"You're not my mother, Frank," she snapped, deciding, in that moment, not to tell him about Kevin. Rachel walked to her bedroom and let herself fall, heavily, onto her bed. "You know, you can go now!" she called out loudly, not knowing that Frank was now standing in the doorway, "Everything is fine!"
He cleared his throat, "I'm right here."
"Oh," Rachel sat up a little, pretending she hadn't flinched at the unexpected close sound of his voice, "Well, like I said... you can go now. Everything is fine," she heard herself repeat, though unconvincingly this time.
Frank quite obviously didn't believe her either, but he wasn't going to press the issue. Although he and Rachel hadn't been work partners for that long, he knew when to back down. If Frank knew that the 'issue', however, was mostly to do with his brother Kevin, he may have asked her more questions.
Later that night, well after Frank finally left, Rachel got into her car and drove to The Rocks. She parked her car a few houses away from Frank's place, although still within view of the house itself. Rachel sat in silence for a while, before starting to wonder what she was doing. There was no way she was going to knock on the door, not with the possibility that Frank could answer it. As she was about to start her car and leave, Rachel saw the outside light come on and the front door open. Feeling like she was on surveillance, she watched Kevin, rather sneakily, walk to his car and drive away.
With her police instincts as well as her curiosity piqued, Rachel followed, wondering where Kevin could be going at 10:50pm. Sometimes heading into the unknown excited Rachel, but this time she couldn't help but feel a little nervous, especially when she realised she was following Kevin to Watsons Bay: The Gap.
Despite the poorly lit street, Rachel turned her lights off as she got closer to where Kevin had parked his car. He was still sitting at the wheel; she could just make out the slight movement of his silhouette every now and then. Rachel shifted herself down in her seat when she saw Kevin get out of the car and stand perfectly still for a few moments. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to see her, but the troubled feeling in her gut returned and she got out of her car. "Kevin," Rachel called out as she walked towards him.
Startled, Kevin turned around at the sound of her voice. "Goldie!" he exclaimed anxiously through his almost closed mouth, "What on earth are you doing here? You have to leave now! It's not safe for you to be here."
"Why? What's going on?" she asked, concerned about what was happening with him.
Kevin sighed, looking at Rachel, whose soft facial features made her look even more attractive in the dim light. "It's just... you shouldn't be here, okay? Please go. I don't want you to be in any da-"
"Well, well," came a man's voice from behind Kevin, "Who's this then, Kevin?"
Rachel didn't recognise the sinister sounding voice, and when Kevin slowly turned around, unblocking her view, she realised she didn't recognise the man's face either. He was relatively short (for a man), had an olive complexion and dark, harsh eyes, in which Rachel could only see apathy.
Kevin fumbled with his words, stopping short of telling the man who Rachel really was.
The man, becoming impatient, raised one hand offhandedly, his palm facing forward. "If she's a prostitute -"
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
"- I don't particularly care," he told Kevin, shrugging, "If she's a cop, however... then we may have a problem or two."
Kevin was smart enough to know he couldn't lie. He couldn't say that Rachel was a prostitute or anything else for that matter, because sooner or later his partner would turn up, and his partner knew Rachel. He knew that she was a detective. "This is Rachel," Kevin eventually said, unwilling to say much more.
The man nodded, slowly, looking her up and down, "And what do you do, Rachel?"
Although she was quite creeped out by the man, Rachel confidently opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by another sinister voice, emerging from the shadows on the side of the road. "She's a cop, Jim."
This time, Rachel was pretty certain she recognised the voice, but it wasn't until the man stepped into the light, which almost formed a kind of spotlight on him, that she could see who was standing in front of her and Kevin. If Rachel was a cartoon, her chin would've dropped to the ground. She glanced over at Kevin, feeling her heart beat racing in her chest. What the fuck was he involved in?
"Rachel," John 'Knocker' Harrison smiled at her, it was a cross between a friendly and an unfriendly smile. He then looked around curiously, wondering if or when Frank was going to come out from behind the bushes. "Well," he said after about 20 long seconds, figuring that Frank wasn't showing his face anytime soon, "It looks like you're both going to have to come with us."
Kevin took a couple of small steps forward, "Just let Rachel go," he pleaded with the men, running a nervous hand through his smooth blond hair, "She has no idea what's going on, and she doesn't have to know what's going on, okay?"
With his eyebrows raised, the man named Jim briefly glanced at John, sneering, "Oh wow, would you look at that, Kevin Holloway trying to be the hero. Let the woman go, he says! What should we do, John?" he asked, pulling a gun out of his pocket, which Rachel noticed was fitted with a silencer attachment. "I don't have a problem with hurting women."
John, who had a bit of a soft spot for Rachel - she was a smart, beautiful woman - thought about letting her go. John wanted to let her go, but his selfishness got the better of him. He didn't know if Kevin was telling the truth when he said she doesn't know what's happening, and he couldn't risk it. "She's coming with us," John said firmly, ignoring the desperate looks he was getting from Kevin.
Jim cocked his gun, forcing both Kevin and Rachel to move tentatively forward. As they all walked up the long and windy hill, towards the cliff top, Kevin leaned towards Rachel slightly and whispered, "Run," into her ear.
Rachel glared at him, surprised by what he said, "No," she whispered back, "I'm not leaving -"
"What the hell are you two whisperin' about, huh?" questioned Jim, using his gun to threaten them once more, poking it at Kevin's back, "Keep moving!"
At the top of the cliff, where the raging sea below them was crashing loudly onto jagged rocks, Jim pushed both Kevin and Rachel forward, towards the white railing which was the only thing preventing them from going over the edge. "You wanna knock 'em off, or should I?" he asked John, who had a rather evil expression on his face.
Rachel couldn't believe it: John Harrison was corrupt. He had to be. There was no way a good cop would be doing this. Another terrifying thought then crashed over her, just like the waves crashing onto the rocks... Kevin must've found out his partner was bent. That's what had been wrong with him, that's why he had lost faith. It all made sense to her now. Shit.
John took the gun from Jim's hand, saying quietly, "You take Kevin, and I'll take Rachel. Alright?"
"Oh come on!" he argued through his teeth, "Let me take the woman. I can do it!"
Watching them squabble, Kevin used Rachel's arm and shirt to pull her closer to him, "Go, get the hell out of here... while they're distracted," he said, wanting to protect her.
When Rachel hesitated, fearfully, Kevin repeated, "Go!" firmer this time, and Rachel fled, running back down the path, in the dark, trying her hardest not to look back. But something, guilt perhaps, stopped her; she couldn't leave Kevin there, not when it was certain that they were going to kill him. Rachel patted her pockets, hoping her mobile phone was in one of them, but she soon remembered that she left it in the car. Did she have enough time to go back to her car and get her phone, Rachel wondered, before answering herself by shaking her head. Kevin was in trouble, she needed to act quickly or else he'd be dead.
"Where's Rachel?" John asked Kevin, menacingly close to the younger detective's face.
Kevin, an honest man, replied, "She's gone. I told her to run," and when John gave him a look, he added, "Goldie knows nothing, alright? You know her, she's not going to say... or do anything."
"I'd like to believe you, Kevin, I really would, because I actually don't want to hurt Goldie," John said as Kevin scoffed at the response, "But you know I'm going to have to hurt her, just like I'm going to have to hurt you," he glanced over at Jim, who was smirking.
Kevin couldn't be bothered arguing with his unreasonable, ego-driven partner anymore. He just hoped that Rachel was further enough away for them not to find her.
John seemed to read his mind, threatening, "You know, we'll find her eventually, Kevin. Even if it's not tonight, it won't matter. Because I can walk into the Water Police station at any time and see her there," his voice was cold, as was the tight-lipped smile that then appeared on his face.
One of Kevin's hands formed a fist at his side; he wanted to punch that arrogant smile right off John's face. It was bad enough that Kevin had known John for a long time; almost 20 years to be exact, more than half his life. He trusted him, but in one fateful moment a few weeks ago, that trust had evaporated into nothing.
"Let's just get it over and done with," Jim said impatiently, looking anxious.
"Alright," John replied, and they both began to edge closer to where Kevin saw standing near the railing. The gun in John's hand was steady, directed at Kevin's chest so that he didn't do anything stupid.
Kevin thought himself to be a strong guy, he certainly wasn't small, but he felt utterly helpless as the two men closed in on him. Just over Jim's shoulder, however, Kevin saw Rachel quietly sneaking towards them. She had something in her hand, slightly bigger than the size of her palm. Kevin tried using his eyes, somehow, to tell her to leave, but she continued to approach them, tip-toeing her way forward. Rachel knew she had to disarm John, and in one swift and surprising motion, she clobbered him on the back of his head with a large rock. Her action knocked the gun from John's hand, it flew through the air and landed on the ground, just as John did.
While Rachel quickly went and picked up the gun, Kevin used the time to catch Jim even more off guard, and did what he had wanted to do to his partner - punched him hard in the face. When both men were grounded, literally, Kevin looked over at Rachel, smiling gratefully at her. "You should've just left, you know," he told her, watching as she rolled her eyes.
"I don't think your brother would ever forgive me if something happened to you," she replied.
Kevin put his foot on Jim's back, to stop him if he tried to move, "And my brother would never forgive me if something happened to you!" he answered, with an ironic laugh, as John began to rub the back of his head and groan.
Rachel pointed the gun down at him, "Don't even think about moving," she said firmly.
"Goldie," Kevin said, as he reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his keys, "In my car... I have my pager and gun. Quickly go and grab them, and I'll stay here," he handed her his car keys, and she gave him the gun.
"Okay," Rachel answered with a nod. She didn't really want to leave Kevin there again, but he at least had the advantage this time, and a gun. Rachel turned around and headed back down to where their cars were parked. Along the way, she passed four women, all dressed up and all clearly a little drunk. Rachel got an idea and stopped, asking the women if any of them had a phone.
"Yeah!" one woman responded with a loud laugh, fumbling her hand into her jacket pocket. She then held out the phone for Rachel, "Here you go. But I want it back, okay?°
Rachel flashed the woman a look, "Of course," she turned her back to the women, dialled 000 and began speaking to the operator.
The women watched Rachel, whispering to each other, intrigued that she was calling the police.
When Rachel was finished talking to the 000 operator, she quickly called Frank's landline. Despite Rachel telling him countless times that he should get a mobile phone, he still hadn't bought one. He thought the police service should be buying him one.
"Hello...?" came Frank's sleepy sounding voice after a few rings.
"Frank, I need you to come to The Gap," Rachel didn't waste any time, "Now."
"Huh? Wh-" he was cut off by Rachel hanging up on him. Frank looked at the phone in his hand and put it back in the receiver. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that he had to get going; there was an urgency in Rachel's voice that he didn't like the sound of.
Frank arrived at Watson's Bay around 15 minutes later. He parked on the main road, immediately noticing the flashing blue and red lights of a police car, as well as both Rachel's and Kevin's cars in front of his. A uniformed police officer walked over to his car as he was getting out, "I'm Detective Frank Holloway, Sydney Water Police. What's going on here?" Frank asked him.
Before the officer could reply, Frank heard Rachel say his name and he turned around. He saw Rachel walking towards him, closely followed by Kevin. "Frank," she repeated his name, almost soothingly this time.
"What happened?"
Rachel shared a sideways glance with Kevin, and between them, they made a silent decision that it was going to be Kevin who told Frank about John. As Kevin talked to Frank, Rachel stood back a little, watching the two brothers in earnest conversation. She watched the expression on Frank's face change: from shock, disbelief, and then finally, anger.
"How bloody long have you known about this?" Frank asked, annoyed that he was only just finding out about his 'mate' of 20 years.
"Not long... a week, maybe," Kevin said sheepishly.
Frank's mouth opened wide, "A week?! Were you ever going to tell me about this?"
Kevin thought about the question momentarily, "Probably not," he said honestly.
"Bloody hell," he ran his hand across his face, before looking over at Rachel. "And how long have you known?" Frank asked her; starting to feel the same way he'd felt when he found out that Rachel and Kevin had slept together.
"Just tonight," Kevin whispered an answer for Rachel before she could respond herself.
Frank had so many questions he wanted answered. He wanted to ask how Kevin found out; how Rachel found out. But Frank was so dumbstruck that he couldn't say anything, even though he could easily whittle at least one of the questions down to a single word: how?
Rachel took a couple of steps forward, tentatively. She wanted to tell Frank how sorry she was, but like him, she couldn't yet put a sentence together without it coming out as a jumbled mess.
As Kevin was asked to go with another police officer to answer some questions and make a statement, Frank could feel Rachel's sympathetic eyes on him. He blinked and glanced at her, watching as she walked towards him. Now that Kevin was not within an earshot of the pair, Frank finally managed to ask, "Do you want to tell me what happened? Because I'm still a little confused. I mean, I kinda get why Kevin was here, but... what were you doing here?"
"I ah..." Rachel paused, taking in a deep breath, "I followed Kevin here because I thought something was wrong."
Frank folded his arms over his chest, "And what made you think that something was wrong?"
Rachel gave herself a few moments to think about how she was going to explain it to Frank, but what she thought she should say and what she actually said turned out to be the same. "I saw Kevin earlier... he rang me while you were in the shower. He asked me if I wanted a drink, but we ended up going to a park instead."
He frowned, a million questions whirled around in his mind, "And, what? You thought something was wrong with him from that? What did you talk about? What did he say?"
"Kevin said some things, like he was thinking about leaving Homicide..." Rachel said, recalling the conversation, "And then he had to go... so he dropped me back home."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Frank asked her through gritted teeth.
Rachel just shrugged, saying, "I don't know!" even though she knew the stupid and petty reason why she didn't tell Frank about seeing Kevin.
"Jesus, Rachel! You're both bloody lucky!" Frank exclaimed loudly out of annoyance, causing him to become pessimistic, "Something a whole lot worse could've happened here tonight, ya know! Kevin could've been killed... YOU could have been killed!"
She nodded in agreement, knowing that he was right, "Yeah, I know..." Rachel then paused, she had been waiting for the right moment to tell him she was sorry and figured now was the time, "I'm sorry about John... it's... hard to believe."
Frank gave her a small, appreciative smile, "I'll see you -" he looked at his watch, noticing it was after midnight, "Well, today... sometime."
Rachel felt quite empty when she arrived home. The emptiness came from a mixture of her being extremely tired and the events at the Gap. It still hadn't quite hit her that John Harrison, a well-respected Homicide detective, came close to killing her and Kevin.
She was lying on her bed in relative darkness, staring up at the ceiling, when there was a soft knock at the door. Rachel lifted her head at the sound, but didn't get off her bed. If it was Frank, she really wasn't in the mood to hear another short lecture from him. But it wasn't Frank, Rachel realised when she heard Kevin's clear voice say her name.
Rachel got up and opened the door, seeing Kevin standing in front her, looking a little pale. She moved to one side in silence, letting him into her house. He followed her down the corridor and into her bedroom, a word still not spoken. Rachel got onto her bed first, laying down on one side, as Kevin laid down next to her. "I'm glad you're here, actually," Rachel spoke first, in a whisper, "I don't think I could've slept by myself tonight. I can't turn my thoughts off."
Kevin nodded, "I know what you mean," he said, as Rachel sighed heavily and closed her eyes. He watched her for a minute or so, waiting until she fell asleep, before he tried to do the same. There was a comfort Kevin felt lying there next to Rachel, but also a comfort in knowing that the good cops had won this battle. For as long as he could help it, he wasn't going to let the bad cops take control ever again.
End.
