Chapter 8- Temptations.
Scotty woke the next day feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the day would bring. He hadn't slept that well in a while. He had a shower and then ate some cereal for breakfast. He quickly got dressed and then headed into the station. When he got there he was not suprised when he saw Lily already seated at her desk. He had been beginning to wonder lately whether she ever left.
"Hey Lil.." is all he could get out before she swivelled around on her chair and held up a hand to silence him. She was on the phone to someone, and Scotty had no idea who it was.
"Yes. Alright. Yeah, thanks, bye." She put the receiver back into its cradle.
"Hi Scotty," she said turning to face him once more. "That was a friend of mine who works for the FBI. He's tracking down the man we need to speak to about Sharon Gallagher's possible involvement in the Witness Protection Program."
"Whoa, slow down Lil. Didn't we have to speak with Mr Gallagher about that first, to see whether she had told him?" His face sported an extremely confused look.
"Bit slow there Scotty, Vera and I went and saw him this morning. He said he didn't know a lot about her past, she didn't seem to like talking about it. Oh, and you might not have noticed, but your running a little late today," she said smiling before turning back to her desk.
He looked from the clock on the wall to the watch on his wrist. They showed exactly the same time. It must be the clock on his bed-side table he concluded, it must have stopped or something. He thought that if anything he would be a bit early today.
"Hello, earth to Scotty!" He was brought back to the present time by Lily standing in front of him waving her hand in front of him face.
"We can't really do much until Walter rings me back so lets grab some coffee and I'll fill you in on what Vera and Jefferies found out about Kenny Tiler yesterday."
"So what, you on a first name basis with Walter?" said Scotty with a teasing smile.
"His name is actually Craig Walter if you must know," she said matching his look.
They went to the break room for coffee and she filled him in on what Vera had told her about Kenny Tiler's past. " It looks like he was telling the truth about what happened. Vera and Jefferies found the two friends he claimed had dared him to go into the Gallagher house. They verified it. Said he ran out of the house pale as. He told them about what he had seen and the three of them vowed not to ever tell anyone about it." She stopped talking and took a long sip of her coffee.
Just then her phone went off. "Rush. Yeah. Great. Even better. Thanks Walter. Yeah I know, I owe you one. Cya." She hung up and Scotty looked at the expression on her face. Combining that with her half of the conversation he had heard it told him it was good news.
"The officer who investigated the crime that Sharon was involved in, in some way or another, the same guy who proposed to the commissioner that she be placed into the Witness Protection Program, is Special Agent Kurt Roberts. He's currently in town, visiting friends. He's coming by the station as we speak."
"How does your friend have access to all this information?" Scotty asked slightly confused at the speed of which the guy had been able to find the information.
"I don't ask, and he doesn't tell," was Lily's only response.
Fifteen minutes later Lily got a call from reception. The receptionist told her that their was a Special Agent Robert's here to see her. Lily told her to send him up.
About two minutes later, a man they both presumed was Special Agent Robert's came into the room. Both Scotty and Lily walked over to him.
"Hi, we're Detective's Rush and Valens. Your Special Agent Robert's aren't you?" said Lily.
"Yes but please call me Kurt." He extended his hand out to them, both Lily and Scotty shook it.
"Please have a seat. Kurt do you remember this woman?" Lily showed him the photograph of Sharon Gallagher.
"How could I forget her. What happened to her?"
"She was stabbed to death in October 1992."
"92? Why is this only being investigated now?"
"Well Walter should have told you when he contacted you about coming in. We work cold cases. We reopened her case after some information was presented to us in relation to it. when was the last time you spoke with Sharon?"
"Well I know I wasn't supposed to have contact with her after her change of identity, only the commissioner was, but I called her in 1990. I just wanted to see how she was going. I talked to her for quite a while, she sounded so happy. She told me she was married, had a two year old son and was pregnant again."
"And you never spoke to her again after that?" asked Scotty, joining in on the question asking-answering game they seemed to be playing.
"No. So why did you need to see me anyway?"
"We need to know what her case was about, who was involved, absolutely everything."
" Ok, well I'm flying back to New York tonight, so I will be able to fax the reports over to you then. But I can give you the bare bones right now if you want." Both Lily and Scotty nodded so he continued.
" She was involved in drug trafficking back in the early eighties. Then the people she was working for moved into the field of people trafficking as well. Every time they ship a boat-load of people they would kill one or two of them to show what would happen if any of them ran away. She saw them do this and got out while she thought she could. She testified against them and was then put in the Witness Protection Program. That's as much as I can remember off the top of my head."
"Alright that's very helpful. So you will fax us those reports when you get back to New York?"
"Yes I'll get them to you tonight," he said standing up.
"Well thanks for your time," said Lily shaking his hand.
"Yes thanks," said Scotty doing the same as Lily.
Special Agent Robert left and Lily and Scotty spent the rest of their afternoon going through the police reports again. They didn't find out anything new.
"Hey Lil, you hungry?" asked Scotty turning towards her.
"Yeah, what time is it?" she asked. She hadn't noticed how hungry she had actually been until Scotty brought it up.
"It's half past six. Do you want to come with me and grab something to eat?" Was this asking her out? Scotty thought to himself. He wasn't sure whether it qualified as an actual date because they ate together all the time. Only it wasn't usually at night.
"Yeah sure where are we going to go?" said Lily.
"There is an Italian restaurant somewhere near here that I've been before, it's pretty good, do you want to go there?" Italian. Very romantic, sounds very date like you know he thought to himself. Oh shut up, he thought, she wouldn't be going with you if she thought it was a date,... or would she?
"Yeah, that sounds great."
They got up and went downstairs and out to the car that was issued to them by the station. Lily didn't usually take hers home, she'd usually just catch a taxi, or walk. They drove to the restaurant and then went inside and were seated. They talked and laughed together all through their meal, and Lily found she was really enjoying herself. She talked a bit about her high school years with Scotty and he told her about growing up. Work didn't even come into the conversation, something that she had found unavoidable when she had been with Kite.
They paid their bill and went out towards Scotty's car. It had started to rain while they were inside and the ground was very slippery. As they were walking down the steps of the restaurant back on to the streets, Lily's feet slipped straight out from under her. She felt herself going backwards and braced herself to hit the ground. She felt shocked when she hit something that didn't exactly feel like concrete. Scotty had caught her, just inches before she hit the ground. He helped her to her feet. They were now standing only inches away from each other. Scotty reached out to her and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, but he kept his hand on the side of her face.
Lily saw what he was going to do and could have backed away but she didn't want to. Before she knew it his lips were on hers. He started to kiss her and without thinking she kissed back. Her arms went around her neck and they deepened their kiss.
Scotty tucked her hair behind her ear and left his hand on her face not wanting to remove it. He knew what he wanted to do and since she didn't pull back from his touch, he leaned forward and kissed her. After a few seconds she responded and kissed back. Her arms went around his neck and his around her waist pulling her closer as they deepened their kiss. Suddenly she pulled back.
"Scotty, I'm so sorry, I can't do this. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Tears had started to run down her face and he was too shocked to speak. Before he could even think of what to say Lily and run down the street and gotten into a cab.
He was left speechless.
