Chapter Eight
Emily
"Hey Em, we got a 187. Suspect is on the move," Don tells me as he walks past the our desks.
"Uh, okay! On my way." I get up. "And by the way, I'm driving!"
We get into an NYPD squad car and we race to the scene. Don helps me out by handing me a Kevlar vest and I strap it on. We walk into the apartment building and go up to her place and there is blood all over the door of this woman's apartment. I draw my weapon along with Don.
He bangs on the door. "Fern Lazlow! NYPD!" I stand behind Don and he nods and the uniform busts the door down. I've only done that once for real and it was pretty awesome.
Don walks in first and I peak around his broad shoulders and there is a naked woman, probably Fern Lazlow, standing at her bathroom sink. I go up to her because I don't want Don seeing that.
"Is he really dead?" She asks looking at me in the mirror. "It's not a dream?"
"Somebody get her some clothes. Please." I take her hand. "You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." I recite the rest of the Miranda Rights that I know by heart as we get the clothes. I only cuff one of her hands for now so she can get dressed but once her shirt is on, the other one is slapped on. I walk her out of the building with a uni on my other side.
I see her face in the squad car's window and it looks like she's smiling as I put her in the running car. Don and I look at each other.
"Was it just me or was she smiling when she looked across the street at Stella and Mac while they were working?"
"I didn't see anything."
"Well she's one sick son of a bitch if she was."
"Agreed. Now let's get some information for Mac and Stella." We start walking and when we are out of ear shot, Don says, "so you look pretty good all strapped in like that."
"Oh really? And later will you explain to me why this is so alluring to you detective?"
"But of course." I sneak in a quick grin and then turn back to everyone else and I have the cold, stoic look on my face again. Don and I ask the uniforms about the vic and they tell us a great deal.
"We got a name," I tell Mac and Stella."Your vic is Mitchell Bentley III. Son of everybody's favorite billionaire, Mitchell Bentley Jr. He hit on me once. The third, not junior. They should have stopped at two."
"So this is the guy that was just aquitted of attempted murder and rape in Central Park?"
"One and the same."
"And get this, the vic in that case, Fern Lazlow, an ER nurse over at Queen of Mercy was seen running from this crime scene to her apartment. We got her in custody. When we picked her up, we found traces of blood, which I'm assuming is Bentley's, cause she didn't have a scratch on her," Don tells them as they listen patiently while collecting evidence.
"Looks like a good clean case of revenge."
"She certainly made her point," Stella says.
Don and I go back to the precinct to talk to Fern Lazlow, our prime suspect. I sit at my desk for a second as does Don.
"So, you want to interrogate or do you want to stand behind the scenes?" Don asks.
"I'll let you interrogate. I don't particularly want to get mad and slap her because knowing how short my fuse is, I would."
"Kay. Well Mac might be in there with you. He's a sneaky one."
"Trust me, he's the one that taught my dad how to take the tooth from under my pillow and put the money under there. And being a cop's daughter, I've got the right instincts and I never knew it when it happened."
"That's good." I nod. "Okay, let's go interrogate."
"You do good, I'll buy both of our dinners tonight while we are out with Danny and Lindsey."
"You don't have to."
"Then I'll just reward you with something else that I know you'll enjoy." I grin and wink as I walk into the interrogation room and I observe Don in the corner for a while and it's interesting but not much happens till right about the end.
"A coincidence? Bumping into a dead body outside your apartment, who, it turns out, happens to be the same man recently acquitted of raping you?"
"I was coming home from the hospital. I cut through the park."
"You ran right past your door man covered in blood. Didn't think to ask him to call nine-one-one? And you made no attempt to contact the poice on your own." She shrugs.
"I told you, I was upset."
"But not so upset that you couldn't dispose of your bloody clothes or take the time to try to wash away any evidence, come on."
"I just wanted him off of me." That I get but it's not going to hold up in a jury if she's innocent, which I doubt she is. "All right. I didn't care about anything else."
"Not buying a word of it."
"I know how this looks. I have every reason in the world to want to kill him, but as much as I would have loved to..." She chuckles. "... I didn't kill Mitchell Bentley." Don rolls his eyes but sits down. He talks to the suspect some more but doesn't get anything else other than she didn't kill him and she just wanted him off of her.
Mac walks in and Don gets up to come stand next to me. Mac puts some pictures and evidence on the table and starts explaining them.
"Those are your prints. That's from the coat you tried to dispose of. It was found at the crime scene."
"Must of got caught in the fence when I fell." Fell? Who the hell said anything about falling?
"How do you explain your prints on Bentley's neck, Ms. Lazlow?"
"I checked his pulse there." Bull.
"You said you checked his wrist," Don speaks up. Good for him.
"Maybe I checked both." Dumbass. I hate people like this.
"Must have, maybe, I don't know. Prosecutor's going to eat you alive," he tells her as a truth and a tactic to scare her.
"The prosecutor?" Looks like it didn't work. She laughs. "Is this the same incompentent ass that let that piece of garbage walk in the first place? We're running in circles here, gentlemen. That's all I'm telling you until I see my attorney." She quiets down and it's a losing battle from there if we try to get her to talk. Then the laywer won't let her talk if we try again. Wonderful. A uni comes in and takes her out of the room.
"She certainly has all the answers," Don mutters.
"When you've taken the time to plan a murder it's very possible you've already considered all the questions," Mac says as a sort of small lecture. Great, thanks Mac.
A couple of hours and a coffee trip run later Stella calls and tells Don and I that we need to go to a spanish grill and find some evidence about the case. We do and we show the manager pictures of blonde women and on of them is our suspect.
"They are pretty, but I don't recognize any faces," he tells me handing it back to me. Don digs in his coat for the picture of Mitchell Bentley.
"Does this guy ring a bell?" He walks past Don and I and takes the photo.
"Awh yeah, everybody knows that bum from the news. Hard to believe he'd come back here."
"Was he with anyone?" I ask.
"This smokin' hot brunette in a red dress. She made the reservation under Florence Nightingale. I'm thinking fake name." I resist the urge to roll my eyes at how obvious it was and how stupid he is.
"Real sharp, Larry."
"How'd they pay?" I ask.
"Cash. She picked up the tab. She left a nice tip considering she was so ticked off."
"Ticked off at him?" I ask.
"No, they got along fine, but she lost something like a contact. Never found it, didn't want any help, refused to leave a business card in case it turned up."
"Show me where they sat," Don says. We follow him.
"They sat right there," he tells us pointing at on of the unoccupied tables.
"Thank you," I tell him. We start tipping chairs and looking at the bottoms.
Don tips one over and it's his lucky day. "There's something stuck on the bottom of this chair."
"Yeah?" I put the chair I was looking at back up and I walk over to his side of the table. "Huh. It's pretty beat up." Don makes a makeshift envelope and put the evidence in it. "Hard to tell what it his."
"Well I will leave that up to those scientists."
"I'll get it to them, stat."
"That's medical," Don tells me with a sight grin on his face.
"Still science," I say, flashing him a smile. We take the unknown to the crime lab. We go back to the precinct and get down to business with the nitty gritty.
"So, Bentley raped her and two other people?" I ask.
"Yeah and she just so happens to run into him outside of her apartment after he's dead, though we think she killed him." I nod.
"She said she fell but I don't think she did because I didn't see any scratches on her when we picked her up. She was stark naked and the only blood she had on her was Bentley's. Stella tested it and all that jazz." Don smirks briefly. "What?"
"You always have these weird little phrases that you always say."
"I think it's a me thing. My dad used to say stuff like that and I would catch on because, well, I grew up with him and I still use them. It's something that keeps me close with him still. That and having his house in my name now."
"You own a house?"
"I guess I do. It never really came as a big shock that I would get the house and all of his posessions when he died. All of it is in a big storage locker and I rent the house out. I have one of my siblings check on it still."
"Whatever happened to your mom?" Don asks. I am immediately quiet. I look everywhere but at him. I do rest my chin on my hand and look away. He places his hand next to my outstretched one and touches it. "Hey, I'm sorry for asking. I didn't know this was a tough subject. If you want to talk Em." He just leaves it at that because Mac walks in.
"What's wrong?" he asks almost immediately. We both know Don or I will crack but not right now.
"What's up?" Don asks.
"Evidence, we are taking a drive then you're off. Emily, you're off now."
"Thank God," I say. I get up and I walk away with my jacket and my phone. My mother has always been a touchy subject. She didn't die but it was more than the typical divorce. My life has always been shaky with her. But it's really not something I want to think about.
I head into the bedroom when I get home and I strip off my clothes till I'm just in my bra and underwear. I crawl into bed as I get a call from Danny.
"Hey Danny. What's up? Got a date with some evidence tonight instead?"
"Yeah something like that. I just wanted to reschedule for after the cases are finished."
"Of course. That's perfect. Don and I will just stay in and watch the rangers game. Speaking of which I should probably get the TV on that channel. Anyway, how's the case you're working on?"
"Difficult but processable."
"Good. I'll let you go now. Have a good night."
"You too Seattle."
I lay my head down and I cover myself up. It's dark in the apartment but the lights from the city illuminate the walls and I look at all the pictures. Some of me and my sister, then my brothers, and my dad. On my nightstand there's a single photo of my dad on it when he was a teenager and it's one of my favorite pictures. I've got one of him and I when I was a teenager, a couple years before he died, and one of those photobooth pictures of me as a toddler with my dad. I wasn't smiling but I didn't know how the machine worked and I was confused. I still laugh every time I see it.
About an hour later, I'm listening to the Rangers game on TV as I'm making a pizza casserole. It's noodles and cheese and pepperoni and olives. From what I've heard, Don isn't allergic to any food items. He is allergic to cats. I remember him telling me that when I asked.
I hear a key in a lock soon and I smile. As soon as Don walks through the door, my arms are around his waist and my face in his chest. His arms wrap around me and I sigh, content.
"Hi," I say into his jacket.
"Hey." He bends and kisses the top of my head. "What smells so good?"
"Dinner." I look at him and he's confused. "Danny and I both thought it would be good to postpone dinner till we are finished with both of our cases."
"Ah. Gotcha." I stand on my tiptoes and kiss the air as a way of saying 'kiss me'. He bends and presses his lips to mine.
"Thank you." I step back and I wander back into the kitchen. I can feel Don's eyes linger on my body. I'm wearing shorts and one of his long sleeve shirts tucked into the waist band of my shorts. I'm at the counter taking the top off a bottle of beer for Don when his arms wrap around my waist and I feel his hips against my bottom along with his arousal. I hand him his beer.
"You restarted the game, got me a beer, made dinner, and dressed like this? How did I get so lucky?"
"No clue babe. I think it was the smile that finally got me. But maybe it was the baby blue eyes." I turn in his embrace and his arousal presses against my stomach. "Definitely the baby blues," I say as his face gets closer to mine. He smiles and quickly dips and presses his lips to mine. It's not a simple kiss either. Don begs for entrance to my mouth and I happily give it to him. He and I are at it with each other.
Making us stand back away from the counter, he lifts me up on to it and I pull him so he's between my legs and he's definitely lined up to pound me into oblivion. I shift so he can pull my shorts and lacy underwear off. Then I unbutton and unzip his pants and push down his boxers and I pull him out. I love having a tall boyfriend.
He lines his hips up with me and pushes into me slowly at first. After the first couple of pumps he's much faster and he just goes for it. Don kisses and bites at my neck and chest and leaves a hickey on my chest where it isn't visable but it's there and it's going to be sore for a couple of days and I swear if someone touches it, there will be hell to pay.
Don's movements become much more frantic and I moan. "Don," I pant out. "Oh my goodness. Oh, Don. Yeah, that's it. Right Goddamn there." I pant out in his ear. "Holy, damn it, fuck," I yell out. I rest my head on his shoulder as he growls in my ear as he lets his release out. "Oh babe. That was, yep. I could get used to this." I look up and I see him smiling widely. I place my hand on his cheek. "I really love your smile." Wait, love? Where did that come from? He's probably going to notice because it's his job.
"Thank you." He kisses me once again and he grows hard inside of me as soon as I trail my fingers down his sides and I slip my tongue into his mouth. He picks me up and moves us to the couch and starts moving again once I'm on my back and it's a lot faster to come this time since we are both still so sensitive. "I..." he's about to say something when the phone rings. I reach over to the coffee table while he's still inside of me.
"Hello?" I pant out.
"Emily?" That was a wake up call. It's Mac. "What are you doing?"
"Just ran to the phone Mac." Don's eyes widen with mischief. "Didn't know if it was dispatch or not since it was in my room." He doesn't buy it but he doesn't say anything about it.
As soon as he starts talking, Don starts moving his hips and kissing my neck again. "Well you and Don need to keep an eye on the girl he and I talked to tonight tomorrow. Stella and I have her schedule, come by the lab and get it at around six."
"Got it." I pant and surpress a moan.
"And will you have lunch with me tomorrow?"
"Of course Mac," I say a bit rudely but I'm trying to get Don to stop.
"What's wrong?" I giggle at the ticklish part of my neck that Don found with his tongue.
"Oh Don's just trying to distract me, nothing going on here. He's teaching me hockey. Now I should probably go. Cell phones aren't aloud in class."
"Have fun with that." I hang up and toss my phone to the table again.
"Donald, not cool."
"But oh so much fun."
"Once more. This time," I push the coffee table away as much as I could and I turn us so we land on the floor. "I'm on top."
Don and I are following the girl he and Mac were talking to last night, the rich one that went to dinner with Bentley.
"So you have an older brother, an older sister, and a detective for a father? Did your old man dust you for prints when you got home from a date?" This is actually a nice conversation about my dad instead of the old dreary ones we usually have. It was nice to laugh about my dad.
"If it was up to the men in my family I wouldn't have known the boys existed till I was twenty-one."
"I'm sure the boys knew you existed."
I smile and laugh. "Was that a line babe? Did you just bust out your game on me?"
He smiles and looks away. "What?" The tips of his ears are turning red and his cheeks were pink.
"It was, wasn't it? Look at you, you're blushing."
"Game? What game? I have no game. If I did that's probably as good as it gets."
"I think it's pretty good. I must have rocked your world last night for you to be this happy today."
"I think it was this morning actually." I laugh.
"Detectives. Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" I turn and look at the woman we are following today. She get's into the back of the car and starts yapping her big mouth again. "You two have been trailing me for the last couple of hours. Now, if you are going to follow me, you may as well have a copy of my itinerary. We've got lunch at Stang's in, oh, fifteen minutes. That may be a bit expensive on your boyfriend's salary. The rest of the day is here, Saks, Bloomingdales... I've got a meeting at four in the office, you get the idea. And uhm, I jotted down my cell phone incase you have trouble keeping up. Have a nice day." She gets out and leaves.
"That woman pisses me off," Don says. Wow he must be pissed if he says that. He gets out of the car and into the backseat. I turn.
"What are you looking for?"
"Something to help put her in handcuffs the next time I see her." He picks up a hair and shows it to me.
"Not bad for a guy on a city salary."
"Thank you." I wait for him to get into the front seat and we leave.
"Mac, I'm here for our lunch." He smiles.
"Good. What do you want? I'm buying."
"You don't have to buy Mac. I can pay for my own food." He grabs his coat and leads me out to the elevator.
"And how many times have I ever let you buy your own food?" I look down.
"Never. Fine, lets do chinese because Don hasn't been in the mood for it and I have been and we haven't eaten it yet."
"Chinese it is. How are you and Don?"
"Really good Mac. We finally just got all of his stuff moved over."
"All by yourselves?"
"Danny helped with exchanging the couches. It was difficult to get everything moved in because we work so much and we do need some down time but we also had over a month to do it. It worked out just fine."
"I'm glad."
"How's life with Peyton?" I ask.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about over lunch. She sent me this." He hands me a letter that tells him that they are done because she can't bring herself to leave London again as we step onto the elevator.
"Mac, I'm sorry. She was good but if neither of you want a long distance then please don't do it. I don't want to see you miserable."
"It was all her. But I understand. Sure it's disappointing but I couldn't leave America just like she couldn't leave England. It's just not something we are willing to do."
"Understandably so. When did you get the letter?"
"A week ago."
"And you're just now telling me? Great, thanks Mac."
"You know I love you. I just couldn't bare to see you so sad. I knew you really liked us together."
"I did. Who knows?"
"You and the lab. I don't think Don knows but he might."
"I'll end up bringing it up at some point." I laugh. We get off the elevator and walk out to the parking garage. "So I have a question. How did you and Peyton tell everyone?"
"Everyone found out individually. It got back to Sinclair and he reprimanded me for not telling him myself but I brushed it off." He looks at me. "Are you thinking about telling more people?"
"Yeah. I just don't know if it would be a good idea to go to the crime lab or just keep it a secret."
"Move to the lab. We could use you."
"But Don doesn't need a new partner. I'm good enough."
"There's your father's jealousy coming out." I chuckle as we park next to the curb near a chinese restaurant. "You've got so much of your father in you. You look just like him."
I smile. "Thanks, Mac. Do you think he would approve of Don?"
"Yes and no."
"No?"
"I don't think your father wanted you dating a cop. I don't think he wanted you to be a cop. He wanted you to follow through with your dream of being a writer but you're a damn good detective."
"Thank you."
"Your father would approve of his personality and attitude."
"Do you approve?"
"I do. Good choice in detectives."
"Thank you Mac. I really needed that reassurance in my life. It's been wild and fun and yet stressful. Now tell me about your time in London."
"Yeah of course. Will do." I hang up the phone. "Don, that was Stella. She wants us to come up with hospitial records for food poisoning outbreaks on the night that Mitchel Bentley and Joanna Morgan died. He nods and we get on it.
"There's only one food poisoning outbreak that matches the bacteria you discovered in the vics stomach contents," I say walking into Stella's office. "It came from Kalergios Grill in Midtown. I ran checks on the names that the Health Department sent over. A guy named Steve Kaplan showed up in the ER at St. Vinny's with a severe case of food poisoning, Kaplan just made a big scene at the ER. Demanded perscription pain killers."
"For food poisoning? Must have been more than just a bad stomach," Stella says.
"And get this, Kaplan was aquitted of the 2004 murder of a model."
"Kaplan was Joanna Morgan's target. He's the missing piece. He fits the profile," Hawkes says.
"A man who got away with murder."
"Danny and I will talk to him." We go back to the precinct and some uniforms are bringing him in. "Don, Danny and I are going to talk to someone so we will be over there if you need us."
"Got it. So when are we going out to dinner?"
"Does tomorrow work for you? I think the cases will be done by then," Danny asks.
"Perfect." Uniforms come in with Steve Kaplan. Great.
"Gotta go," I say. Danny and I turn around and we sit Mr. Kaplan down. "We need your signature Mr. Kaplan." He looks absolutely dreadful.
"So, what, you were the one who pulled me out of bed to come down here? Not bad," he tells me looking at my body suggestively.
"We appreciate you coming down under the circumstances." Danny leans over toward Kaplan.
"Well, hey, if this paper here is going to help me with my lawsuit against those bastards who, uh, poisoned me, where do I sign?"
"It's just an affidavit saying that you became ill after dining at Kalergios Grill. Says here on your rap sheet you're right-handed, Steve," Danny points out.
"Having some shoulder trouble?" I ask. He moves to get up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Danny says, pulling him back down in the seat. I get up.
"Oh what do we have here?" I pull his shirt over and I see a bandaged shoulder. I grab his shoulder and squeeze after he groans. "Oh I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" I let go. "Pain killers aren't prescribed for food poisoning."
"You know something. I like her." He smiles widely.
"Yeah? Yeah, you like her, huh? You like her as much as you liked Joanna Morgan?" His smile disappears as he's looking at me and hears her name. He looks at Danny and he's all business now.
"Whoa, wait a second. She pulled a gun on me, buddy. She tried to kill me. That's self defense."
"How did you know her?" I ask.
"I met her on the internet. She, uh." He looks suggestively at me. "She couldn't get enough of me." He laughs. "And when I, uh, I saw her picture I, you know, I had to have her."
"Pay attention here lover boy, all right? How did you end up at the museum?"
"She said she liked to have sex in dangerous places. I mean, we, uh, made it to the top of the museum steps, and, uh, she started to shake real bad. Then she turns around and get's got a gun in her hand. She hesitates. We struggled, the gun went off. Hey, it's not what I had in mind for the evening, but like I said before- self defense."
"If it was self defense, why did you run away and not call the police?"
"Man, who's gonna believe a guy who just beat a murder rap?"
"You're going to be charged with murder, Mr. Kaplan," I say helping him up from his chair and cuffing him. "It will be up to your attorneys to raise a claim of self defense." He laughs.
"Well, well, well. You guys do your job, and if my lawyer is on the ball, you'll be testifying in my defense."
"I got to tell you, I really hope your lawyer does drop the ball. Hey, do me a favor, get this moron out of my face." Danny says to another cop. He takes him and I'm annoyed. I go to my desk and sit down with my face in my hands.
"What's up, Em?"
"I'm literally going to work in he A/V lab with Adam. I can't stand perps looking at me like I'm walking sex anymore. I've delt with it for almost ten years and I don't want to anymore."
"You've got this Em. One more case then you can switch to the crime lab if you want."
"But I don't want. That was terrible, like that wasn't even a sentence. I mean, I don't want to switch because if I do, you'll get another new partner and we won't work a lot of the same cases anymore and we won't have lunch together and maybe not dinner for a while because we will be working different shifts so that means no breakfast. It wouldn't be good."
"How about you work part time in the lab?"
"I'd rather not. Unless I knew for sure that I would have right around the same schedule I have now. My internal clock knows this one."
"Em, tough it out for a few more cases and if you really want to switch then I'll be sure to get a male partner. If I get a new one."
"Good. Cause you're mine." Don smiles. "Let's finish up here and go home." He nods.
"I need to talk to Fern Lazlow though. Stella will be with me."
"Gotcha. I'll finish up my half now and I'll meet you at home. It's so nice to say that."
"It is. I'll tell it to Mac or Stella and I just smile."
"I know, Mac told me over lunch today."
