A/N: Continued apologies for the slow burn with this. Thanks for sticking with me and to CCAA, Kimtastic, lipamo, Sar'Kalu, GhostWriterLost for the reviews and also to Silversurf4, not least for your fabulous Life story(ies).
Crews and Reese sat parked up, watching the front door intently. Crews munched on one of the exotic-looking apples she had bought him as an afterthought and Dani found herself irritated that he hadn't started with the pineapple that he had been so adamant that he needed more than life itself just thirty minutes beforehand.
"I mean, what has the guy actually done?", challenged Crews.
"Harassment.", Dani stated.
"Harassment or free speech? All he did was slip a flyer or two into a library book.", argued Charlie.
"A misogynistic manifesto, Crews, targeting pretty girls in short skirts who use his library. Just the women. Not the guys. At the very least he's a creep. Two women under 40 then wind up dead, both enrolled at the college, both received a copy of the manifesto from our librarian. In the absence of any other leads, I figure that makes Jackson Bright a person of interest in our inquiry. Beg to differ?". Dani looked at him patiently, waiting for him to protest further.
Crews sighed. "I guess...".
"Why are you defending him, anyway?", she arched her eyebrow at him.
"Oh, I'm not. He is a creep. But he's also a librarian. And we're on a stakeout, sat in the car outside his house and I'll bet he's inside, on the Internet, where he'll be all night, playing World of Witchcraft or whatever it is crazy librarians do. I doubt we'll see much movement here. He strikes me as a virtual kinda guy. All mouth, no action."
"Yeah. Virtual. Until he ups and murders two women in cold blood because they offend his values..." Dani frowned at her partner. "Anyway, what's with you? Somewhere you'd rather be on a Friday night? Am I keeping you from a date or something?" She used his uncharacteristic bad mood against him.
Any mention of either of them dating, since Tidwell, was against the unspoken rules and they both knew it.
"No Reese, there's no place I'd rather be tonight. And you know it." His tone could be mistaken as sarcasm but the serious look he gave her betrayed the fact that he was speaking the absolute truth. Two could play at this game and if she wanted to push it, then bring it on. It was like a game of chicken.
Dani lost her nerve, looked away and aborted this strand of their conversation. "Eat your pineapple. It might cheer you up."
Charlie gazed out of the passenger side window. Dani frustrated the hell out of him and he was tired, it had been a long week. She didn't have to make a grand declaration or anything, but some kind of a sign that she cared, just a little bit, would have been nice. Just enough to confirm that he wasn't entirely imagining it. More than anything, he just wanted to be allowed to show her that he cared. If he got nothing in return he wouldn't mind so much, just as long as she accepted it. He could feel the pressure building up inside him. One day the dam would burst and drown them both.
An hour and a half went by. They chatted about nothing significant. There was nothing from Jackson Bright, as Crews had predicted - the smartass. Dani ate her sushi, Charlie tried not to watch her in the rear view mirror. He loved those lips. At one point she offered him a piece, and he would have accepted but the thought of her holding out her chopsticks to his mouth while she looked him in the eye made him want to head-butt the dash so hard he would set off the air bag. She probably would have had him use his fingers anyway, he thought.
Charlie started to fondle the pineapple. He was trying to work out how best to peel and eat the thing without making too much of a mess in the car and in doing so proving Dani right about its unsuitability as a stakeout snack. He took out his knife and made a tentative first incision. Pineapple juice immediately trickled down his wrist and dripped onto his pants.
Dani rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous. How could a man she felt inclined to throttle so violently by day be all she could think about as soon as the sun went down and he was no longer by her side? Maybe that's why she wanted to throttle him. Because she wanted him so badly and yet couldn't allow herself to acknowledge it openly. She was doing a lot better with the whole duality of their relationship these days. She decided she had successfully compartmentalized her feelings; she no longer felt so conflicted and embarrassed when casually drinking her morning coffee with the guy she had been fantasizing about so wildly just hours before. It was a means to an end to keep her sane. It had just become the way it was and now felt like a totally sustainable way to live. Only every so often did day and night still blur, leaving her confused, dry-mouthed and almost hypnotized whenever he did something to nearly push her over the edge.
There was no duality for Charlie. He was on all the time. He loved her all of the time. Everything she did was seductive; when she looked squarely at him he felt palpitations. He did his best to chase unhelpful thoughts away and he understood that he had to keep his distance but it never stopped him wishing. Not for one second.
Dani suddenly sat up to attention. Jackson Bright was at the lower floor window, looking out into the street. Their car was set back a way and the light was already failing, they wouldn't be seen. As quick as he had appeared, Jackson was gone again. Forty seconds later, he emerged from behind the drapes on the upper floor, again staring fixedly at something in the front yard. The squat little man in the bathrobe at the window appeared to be shooing a cat. He stood there hissing and agitating his arms and then disappeared as suddenly as he had emerged.
"He's our guy.", said Dani, narrowing her eyes.
"Because he's weird?", asked her partner.
"Yup."
"Does being weird qualify a person as a killer these days?", he cocked his head.
"People don't kill because they're weird but it's a step in the right direction.", she deadpanned.
"Like me, you mean? You've gone on record in the past to say that I'm weird..." He could see why the knowledge that he had killed, maybe more than once, would be an obstacle between them. Dani was a cop through and through, after all. Was that why she didn't want him?
"The fact that you're weird is well established, Crews..."
She saw his expression change in the rear view mirror. A mixture of being hurt by her comment and something else. Guilt, maybe. She suddenly felt bad, she was just being flippant. She hated that he still didn't seem to appreciate just how in awe of him she was over what he had done for her and what he had done to Nevikov. And she sure as hell didn't think he should feel guilty for having ended the life of such slime.
"...but in your case the weirdness isn't the deciding factor. With you it's just an added bonus, I guess."
It was the only thing she could think of to say to rescue the conversation. It wasn't exactly what she meant as usual, "...but I love you anyway" would have been more accurate, but it had the desired effect and she saw his lopsided grin spread across his face like sunup.
The moment proved short lived when Charlie grimaced sharply and held his hand aloft. He had jabbed his finger with his knife when she surprised him with her backhanded compliment.
Dani cursed and lunged forward with the wet wipes to stem the flow of blood and pineapple juice.
