more plot! ugh!
--
"Good morning Alex. I was hoping to catch you."
It was Mark Elliot. "Good morning." They were standing at the front desk. She'd been talking with Viv.
"I was hoping I'd get here early enough to speak with you. I was wondering if you might be free for dinner? Later tonight or tomorrow, perhaps?"
"Oh." She was slightly surprised. "I, um, I really don't think I can. But thank you."
"Oh. I see."
"Really, though. Thank you for the invitation. It's very flattering."
"To what do we owe the pleasure, Mr. Elliot?" Gene had stepped up to the desk behind Alex.
"I'm here to see a client. Timothy Chandler."
"Lovely. Shall we, then?" Gene led the way down the corridor.
--
Sitting in the interview room, Gene offered Chandler a cigarette.
"No, thank you, I don't smoke." Gene lit it for himself.
Elliot spoke first. "I do believe that once your forensics report comes back you will have no choice but to release him."
Smug bastard. "Mr. Chandler, would you mind tellin' us where you were on Saturday morning between 3 and 8 am?"
Chandler looked at Elliot, who nodded. "I was home. In bed. Like any normal person would be"
"Have you ever seen this symbol before, Mr. Chandler?" Alex pushed a piece of paper towards him.
He shook his head.
This went on for some time before Ray knocked on the door, "Guv?"
Gene went out in the corridor.
Alex continued. "Mr. Chandler, is there anyone who might be able to confirm your whereabouts for this time?"
He said nothing. Gene opened the door.
"Thank you, Mr. Chandler. We're sorry to have caused you any inconvenience." Alex turned and looked at him. "You are free to go. Thank you for your time."
"What?" Alex got out of her chair, and Gene handed her a file.
"See you around." It was Mark Elliot. "Next time have some evidence first." He smirked at them both and walked out into the corridor.
"Gene, what the hell?"
"Look in the file. Forensics got nothing. No matches, no blood, not the murder weapon. Nothing. Either he's very good or he's not our killer. We're back where we started."
--
"In a half hour I want to know where we are starting over," Gene barked at her. She went into the squad room.
"Excuse me." It was Elliot.
"Whet the 'ell do you want." He glared at Elliot. He didn't want to talk to this prat.
"I asked around, you know. There are rumours about you and Inspector Drake, people are talking about it at the court…. Everyone says she's a bit crazy, but no one can quite figure out what she'd want with a washed up copper."
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" What could this shitebag want?
"I didn't believe them, but apparently…." He shrugged. "Sleeping with a subordinate? That can't be good for anyone's career."
Gene smirked. "Are you threatening me?" He couldn't believe it. What he think he was he doing?
"No, D.C.I. Hunt. I doubt threatening you would have much effect. No. It's not you I'm threatening."
How big a pole did this poof have up his arse? Then it registered. "She wouldn't get anywhere near you." Gene stepped towards him. "I think you should leave."
Elliot flinched. He turned and left with a nod.
What was that about? Was this idiot blackmailing him so he could try it on with Alex? Could he be that desperate? As if she'd have anything to do with him. Should he tell her? Probably. If he didn't and she found out it'd be the end. He knew what her reaction would be. Fuck that arsehole. None of his bloody business and it's her career and she could make those decisions on her own, thank you very much. He thought about it, looking at her as he walked through the double doors.
"Great. We're back where we started. Now what do we do?" He was annoyed at that Elliot arsehole, and more than annoyed that they were back to square one. Had he let her do too much?
"The profile's good, Gene. Just need to find the right man."
"Maybe, but how do you propose we start, now that we have no suspects?"
"There are still three people on that list we haven't talked to. We need to get them in." Alex was sure she was on the right track.
Gene looked at her. They'd wasted too much time. "What's that?" He indicated a package on her desk.
"What? Oh, I have no idea." She picked it up. It was about 15 cm square and wrapped in paper. She unwrapped it, opening the box. Shit. "Are any of our bodies missing an ear?"
"What?" She handed the box to Gene. Inside it was an ear packed in tissue, along with a folded note card. He took out the card. Carefully printed in ink were the words "NO. NOT HIM."
"Ray!" He'd come over to look in the box. "Are any of our victims missing an ear?"
"No. They're not."
"Christ. We've got another victim." He looked at Alex. "Was this here when you came back from interviewing Chandler? Think."
She did. "I think so. Yes."
He rushed to the front desk. "Viv. Do you remember seeing this come in?" He waved the box at him.
"Yeah, Guv. About an hour ago. Someone left it on the desk. It had Inspector Drake's name on it."
"You didn't see who dropped it off?" An hour. They were in the interview room.
"No, sir."
Gene stood there. "Get this to forensics immediately." He handed Viv the box. Tell them I want everything in three hours."
Viv nodded and left.
"We're going back on the street. Now. We need to catch this bastard. And now we have another body to find."
"But..." Alex tried to interrupt.
"No. Chuck yer profile at the moment. We haven't time."
--
They hit the area where the bodies had been found with Chris, Ray and about 30 uniformed officers. Checking and double checking people, empty buildings, everywhere. The scheduled demolition had
been put off indefinitely due to the murders, and there were a lot of empty locations to look through. They were out there all day.
"We've lost two days to pissin' about Alex." She and Gene were looking together. Chris and Ray had taken another building. "We could have been banging on doors. I should have had a bigger presence out in the street."
"It wouldn't have stopped him, Gene."
"There's another bloody body out there, and we haven't even identified the ones we have!"
"Gene, I know the profile's still good. We just have to find him."
"How the hell are we going to find him? We've got nothin'. I let you lead this, and now we're nowhere."
"What's that supposed to mean? 'You let me lead this'?" She turned to face him. "I did my job, and you listened to me, for a change!"
"Yeah, maybe that's the problem!" He shouted at her.
"I did what I was supposed to do! Don't blame me if you didn't!"
He did blame himself. He should have handled this differently. He let her have too much control. Shit.
"Well we're not bloody getting anywhere here!" He stormed off, Alex following.
Ray and Chris met them at the Quattro, but neither of them said anything all the way back to CID.
--
Alex sat at Luigi's bar expecting Gene to join her. Most of the crew were already there, and they still had an argument to finish. After drinking a bottle of wine alone she decided he wasn't going to show up. He had a key, she thought. There was a lot going on. She went up to her flat and went to bed, expecting him to wake her later.
She didn't see Chris follow her up and sit outside her door.
--
Gene stripped off his clothes and crawled into his own bed. It felt foreign. It smelled wrong. It was cold. He lay on his back. It really hadn't been that long, he thought. A few weeks. Barely. If they ended it now things could get back to normal in a few weeks and they could work together. He tried to think about what a pain in the arse she was. She was a bossy know-it-all. She never listened. She was stuck up. She made careless mistakes and got herself into trouble. She was more trouble than she was worth. Who are you kidding?
She was a good cop. She was smart, and bloody gorgeous. She never backed down, even when she was wrong. Her hair smelled great. She had fantastic legs. Stop it. This isn't helping.
He rolled onto his side. Stop thinking about her. He shut his eyes. It didn't work. He tried not to think about her mouth, the noise she made when he bit her bottom lip. He tried not to think about her tits, firm, round, her nipples taut under his tongue, grazing his chest as she rode him, her hair bouncing.
He reached for his straining cock with one hand. Stroking it slowly. He couldn't stop now. He thought about her fingernails dragging across his chest, digging into his back, her hands pulling him into her. He thought about how her skin felt under his mouth, his tongue between her legs. He thought about her taking him into her mouth, the things she did with her tongue, licking his head, bringing him closer. He stroked himself faster as he thought about how it felt to enter her, hot, wet, always ready for him, always wanting him, her hips moving in rhythm, the need in her eyes. He thought about the sound of her voice when she cried his name as he came onto the sheets, groaning into his pillow, wishing he were somewhere else.
--
Alex woke at around 4 a.m., realizing Gene wasn't sleeping next to her. She got up and looked around her flat. No sign of him. Maybe he forgot his key. No, he'd just bang on the door. She opened the door to her flat, and found Chris sleeping on the floor.
"Chris?" she kicked at him gently with her toe.
"Wha?" He moved, waking up with a start. "Oh, it's you Ma'am."
"What are you doing here?" Now she was confused.
"Guv told me to sleep out here. Said he had some things to take care of, and didn't want you unprotected."
"My God, Chris, come inside."
"It's OK." He said.
"No, really. You can at least get a few hours on the sofa. Get up."
"Ok. Thanks." She handed him a blanket when he came in. "Oh, and it looks like someone tried to break into your flat, Ma'am. The hinges are a bit loose."
"No, Chris. They've been that way." She looked at them and frowned.
"Well, you should get them fixed. I'll take care of it in the morning."
"OK." She said absently. "Thanks. I'll wake you in a few hours, OK?"
"Thanks."
Alex got back into bed. What was going on? Was he really that angry at her? What did she do? They hadn't got very far, true, but she didn't think that was anybody's fault. This guy was calculated and crazy. He was right, they needed to refocus. She needed to refocus. They had to catch this guy soon.
Maybe he just needed to clear his head. She could understand that. But he could have told her. It was OK with her. She didn't expect him to stay here every night. It wasn't like he'd moved in. It was fine, she told herself. He was under a lot of pressure. Though she did think she could help with that, she smiled. Maybe tomorrow night.
--
Alex got to work late. She'd been waiting for Gene to show up for clean clothes, but he hadn't. Might as well get started.
"Ray. We need ID's on the victims. Right now it's our best chance of connecting evidence to the killer. Re-check missing persons, see if any descriptions match. Chris, get the least difficult to look at photos of the victims and head back out to the streets. See if anyone recognizes them. Now, everybody!"
They started moving as Gene walked in the door, wearing a suit Alex knew had been in her wardrobe this morning. That was a bit unforgivable. She followed him into his office and shut the door behind her.
"I have Ray and Chris focusing on identifying the victims." He nodded. "Did you wait for me to leave this morning before you went in to change your clothes?" He nodded again, not looking her in the face. "Why?"
He didn't say anything.
"Are you that angry at me about this case that you can't even talk to me? Gene, I thought we were past that." Would he really do this?
"I don' know." He finally answered. "But, we can't have this conversation here. We've got a killer to catch."
"Fine," she shook her head, anger and disappointment in her eyes.
It was better this way, he told himself. "Get back to work," he said softly.
--
She tried. She went over everything they had, again. They simply had no clues to lead them to the killer. Getting frustrated, she decide to walk outside, get some air. Without thinking she went to her flat, letting herself in. She went to the bedroom and opened the wardrobe. He'd taken all of his clothes.
Alex sat on the bed. This was ridiculous. He had totally overreacted to this case. He couldn't possibly have gone from wanting her as much as she knew he did, to not wanting her at all. It was the middle of the afternoon, but she put her pyjamas on and crawled into bed. He could come over and drag her out by her hair if he needed her back. Given how he had been acting she doubted he would.
Well, she certainly wasn't going to let it happen like this. He was going to have to make her believe he didn't want her any more. Even angry at him she wanted him. Thinking about him like this made her body ache. Her hand slid down her leg, across her thigh. Thinking about him she reached a finger for her clit, curving her body, she reached a finger inside, imagining him doing the same, his mouth on hers, his tongue finding hers. Her fingers went deeper inside, working herself. Imagining his mouth on her breast her other hand found a hard nipple, squeezing it gently, needing more, wanting him. Why wasn't he here? Her palm massaging her clit as her fingers played inside her, she thought about her tongue on his cock, feeling it throb onto her tongue, then moving deep into her. Her hands moves faster as she imagined him thrusting hard, knowing what she wanted, bringing her with him, her hips shook as she climaxed, imagining the feel of him inside her, his body covering her, his arms around her.
She lay on the bed, relieved but not happy. No, she was not going to let this happen. She dressed and put herself back together. They were going to have it out.
Alex ran down the stairs and pushed open the door to her building. She didn't see the man step out from behind the bushes as he covered her mouth with a damp cloth. She struggled for a minute before losing consciousness completely.
--
Viv crashed through the double doors. "Guv, the other body, we've just got a call."
Gene lept from his desk, "Where. Let's go." He looked around. "Where's Drake?"
Everyone looked around. "Well she's not in the bloody room!"
Viv spoke up. "I thought saw her leave a couple of hours ago."
"Alone?"
"I think so."
"Bloody woman." This was the limit. "Ray, take two cars and forensics to the new crime scene."
"Where you goin' Guv?"
"To pick up our wayward D.I." He smashed out through the doors.
--
Gene ran the few blocks to her flat, taking the stairs two at a time.
"Alex!" he banged on the door. "Alex are you in there?" He fished his keys out of this pocket. It'd be just like her to be sittin' in her flat drunk and whining while he was trying to catch a bloody killer.
He looked around, she wasn't there. Maybe she was parked on a bar stool downstairs. He locked her door, stopping for a second when he noticed her hinges were a bit loose. He sighed and kept going.
"Luigi, have you seen D.I. Drake this afternoon?"
"No Mister Hunt. Not since last night." Luigi shook his head as Gene turned and left.
Gene stood on the corner, looking around. Where could she have gone? She knew he didn't want her going anywhere alone, that he still thought she was in danger from this scumbag. She wouldn't care, though. She'd just off and do whatever she liked anyway. Turning to go back to the station he caught a glint in the sidewalk. "Bloody hell" he reached down and picked up her keys from under a shrub.
She could have just dropped them, he told the pit in his stomach. He ran back to the station anyway.
--
Alex woke up tied to a chair, a gag in her mouth. He head felt like it was going to explode, but she didn't think she'd been hit so it must have been whatever he drugged her with. She tried not to move. She opened her eyes and recognized the room. This was the same warehouse she and Gene had been in yesterday when they'd argued. Had he been watching them? At least they'd been in the right area, she thought. She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Nice to see you again, Inspector Drake." She didn't recognize the voice. She couldn't answer.
He walked in front of her. "Don't you recognize me?" She didn't. "You arrested me a few months ago, for beating up my bitch girlfriend. She didn't press charges. She can't now."
Alex looked at him. She had to stretch her memory. She couldn't remember his name. Take off my gag, she thought. I can talk to you.
He came closer. He snipped off a lock of her hair. "Let's see if they can find you in time."