Lennie's Apartment
Lennie heard the knock at his apartment door and went to it hesitantly.
"Hi, let me take those," he said, offering to take the bags Anita had from the deli, and then turning to let her follow him into the apartment.
He busied himself with setting out the sandwiches and getting them drinks. Anita finally stopped him by placing her hands over his.
"Lennie what's wrong? Why are you acting like this?" she asked him.
"I don't know what you mean," he said, trying to dodge her question.
"Don't do that, tell me what's wrong."
"I don't know, you tell me. After all, I'm the one who woke up alone," he said, as he spun away from her, equally unable to face her or hide the hurt in his voice.
She closed the distance between them and reached out a hand to touch him, but at the last moment couldn't quite bring herself to touch him.
"Oh Lennie, I was afraid to stay. I didn't know what our being together meant to you, and I couldn't have taken it if you, if you –" she couldn't finish the thought.
He turned around and found her so close to him that it was almost instinctive to pull her into his arms.
"Anita, how could you doubt what being with you meant to me? I love you. I've been in love with you for a long time, but I never dreamed I'd be able to hold you in my arms and make love to you. Couldn't you feel my love for you?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"Yes, only, because you never said the words out loud, I convinced myself that it was only my wishful thinking, that only because I love you I imagined that you felt the same," she replied.
Lennie smiled, "I just couldn't find words. Of course I would have, eventually, if you'd hung around," he said with gentle reproach.
"Well, I'm here now," she said with a smile. She threaded the fingers of her right hand through the hair at the back of Lennie's head, and then pulled his head down so she could kiss him. Her left hand roamed over his chest and around his back. His hands began a similar roaming over her body, caressing her breasts and then moving down and around to cup her ass and pull their lower bodies together, letting her feel his desire for her. His mouth devoured hers, and then began a journey down her neck toward her cleavage. Suddenly he pulled away and swallowed hard.
"We can't do this," he said, leaning his forehead against the top of her head.
"What?" she asked incoherently, as she was still lost in the fog of desire he had stirred in her.
Lennie pulled away from her, and walked over to look out the small window in the living room.
"I'm a suspect in a murder investigation that's been assigned to two detectives in your squad, one of whom happens to be an ex-partner of mine. You can't have anything to do with me, and you shouldn't have Ed Green on this case. I asked you to come here, because I wanted to convince you that you ought to hand the Ciello case off to another homicide squad, or maybe even send it to IAB," Lennie said, almost sounding angry.
"Lennie, we both know you couldn't have shot Ciello"– Anita began to counter Lennie's argument, but Lennie interrupted her.
"Yeah, we both know it, but you sure as hell can't go testifying to that," he replied hotly.
"Why not, I can sure enough give you an alibi for the time Ciello was shot," she countered.
"Sure, tell them how I couldn't possible have shot Ciello because I was here making love to another man's wife, making love to a woman who used to be my boss. A prosecuting attorney will say you're lying to protect me. The NYPD might be willing to believe you were with me at the time, but I'd lay odds they won't believe it was the first time we were together. No, they'll start digging for proof that we were lovers back when I was serving under you, and you know what, they'll find something! Even though we both know there's nothing to find. Unless Ciello's real killer is found, all that your coming forward to provide me with an alibi will do, is ruin your career," Lennie voice softened as he finished and he turned back from the window to face Anita, seemingly having run out of steam.
"First of all, my career has been ruined since I sued the department for discrimination. About all they've got left to do to me now is fire me, and you know what? If they sink that low then I don't want to work for them anyway. Second, I suppose your right about the DA saying I'd lie to protect you, I probably would, but since I'm not lying, what we have to do is find another way to corroborate my story. And finally, you're probably right about taking Ed off the case, maybe you're even right about turning it over to another precinct, though it scares me to think of your fate in someone else's hands," as she had ticked of her points, she had come closer and closer to Lennie, and finally had draped her arms around his shoulders, locking her fingers behind his neck.
"What are you doing?" he asked, as he tried to pull her arms down from around his neck.
"Well, since I'm already here, the damage is done. If we're in trouble for being together, we may as well enjoy ourselves," she said with a naughty grin.
"I like how you think," he responded with a wicked grin, and then began leading her back to his bedroom as he quickly began undressing her.
A while later
"God, I wish I was about thirty years younger," Lennie said as he lay next to Anita, trying to catch his breath.
"Why?" she asked puzzled.
"So, it wouldn't take me so long to recover from fucking you, so I could do it all over again," he said happily.
Suddenly he realized that Anita wasn't happy. She'd gotten decidedly quiet.
"Shit, if I'm not screwing up by NOT saying something, I'm screwing up by saying the wrong thing. Anita I didn't mean to imply that what we just did was,"- Lennie trailed off, afraid he was digging himself in deeper.
"Ah, hell," he said, levering his lanky form out of bed and reaching for his clothes.
"No, Lennie it's OK." Anita said, reaching out to stop him from getting dressed. "I know what you meant, and you don't have to worry. I don't expect you to always say the perfect thing in the perfect way. It's not like our life is some Broadway play, and you've got Neil Simon scripting every word that comes out of your mouth. Besides, I've been around enough cops t know how they talk. Now, I'd ask you come back to bed and fuck me some more, but I've got to get back to work!"
"Oh Christ, you are so late," Lennie said, glancing at the old Uncle Ben alarm clock on his nightstand.
"I know, help me find what you did with my clothes?" she requested with a grin, as she started scanning the bedroom for various articles of clothing.
Lennie smiled and nodded, and Anita wondered how she'd managed to hold out against her feelings for this wonderful man as long as she had.
"Do I look OK?" she asked a few minutes later as she smoothed down her hair and clothes.
"Do you mean, will anyone suspect you're late getting back from lunch because you you've been in my bed?" he asked with a broad grin.
"Alright yes, I guess that's what I'm asking," she answered.
"Only Ed and Joe, but they'd have suspected that whether you had or not." he answered with a laugh.
"Ooh you," she said, and took a playful swat at him, then gave him a kiss goodbye, which threatened to turn into, much more than they could afford to let it turn into.
"OK, you better go now, and remember what I said about taking Ed off this case," Lennie reminded Anita.
"I know, I promise, I'm going to look into it," she said and then disappeared quickly out his front door before he could complain that that wasn't really a promise.
Back at the 27th precinct
"So, wonder where our fearless leader is, or do I want to know?" Joe Fontana said with a smirk.
"Give it a rest, Joe," Ed said in a tone that made it more than a request.
"Sorry Ed. I guess for you it must be like contemplating mama and papa doing it," Fontana teased.
"Would you just shut up, before I shut you up?" Ed said in a disgruntled whisper.
The other detectives in the bullpen were trying to figure out what was going on without looking too much like they were eavesdropping, just then Anita returned from her long lunch.
"If none of you has anything to keep you occupied, I'm sure I could find something for you to do," she announced to the squad room in general, and suddenly everyone became very busy, everyone that is except Joe and Ed, who waited for her at the door to her office.
"Well gentlemen, what have you got on the Ciello case?" she asked, stopping just in front of her desk and giving them each a look she hope gave off her normal air of authority.
Joe and Ed looked at each other, neither knowing exactly where to start.
"Well? Cat got your tongues?" she asked showing an excess of irritation as she moved around her desk and sat down.
Joe looked at Ed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well first off, how much do you know, besides the fact that Lennie Briscoe couldn't have done it, because he's got an alibi for the time of the murder?" Fontana asked pointedly.
Anita crossed her arms in front of her breasts defensively, realizing she really didn't know that much, as she and Lennie hadn't talked about specifics. "Assume I don't know anything but that, detective," she answered sharply.
"Well, Forensics makes it look like Lennie Briscoe is a suspect because there's a set of old dress blues at the scene, circa late 60s, that belonged to a thin man about 6' 2" with dark hair and AB negative blood. There were sweat stains on the cap that the techs are getting DNA off of, so we've gotten samples of all the people in Ciello's SIU unit to see whom it matches, but there's a real good chance that it's Briscoe's uniform," Joe reported and Anita looked at Joe and nodded. Now she understood better why Lennie was saying he was a suspect in the murder.
"We've had several discussions with Briscoe and Ciello's old partner Gus Levy, who just happens to be Briscoe's cousin," Joe continued.
Ed interrupted "Yeah, man Levy and Lennie are dead ringers for each other, except Levy has salt and pepper hair. He says the difference in their hair color is because Lennie's got this beautician girlfriend who keeps messing with his hair color, and I for one believe him on that score."
"Her name is Cele, if I remember correctly," Anita replied sounding peeved. "Care to move on to more relevant things than why Lennie doesn't have salt and pepper hair like his cousin?" Anita asked sounding annoyed.
"Levy claims he didn't hold any grudges against Ciello any more, and he's got a fairly good alibi for that night. He did admit that he was angry with Ciello for letting the commission go after Briscoe, getting him kicked off the force, which by the way, explains why there is the discrepancy in the records. Briscoe's service jacket was altered to expunge his first three years on the force, which were apparently stellar," Joe explained, he and Ed finally falling into a pattern of summarizing their investigation for the lieutenant.
"Yeah, they kicked Lennie off the force for his involvement in the SIU, which was apparently pretty minimal, since he was the newbie in Ciello's squad. Lennie didn't know how or why, but later he was allowed back on the force. He always suspected his cousin had something to do with it, but didn't ever ask for explanations. Levy explained that during his undercover work in the garment district, he found out that a young beat cop, whose father was high up in the NYPD, was on the take. He threatened to rat the young cop out to the commission, if the father didn't fix it so Lennie was reinstated. That young cop was Dan Giletti, current Chief of Detectives. Lennie believes it's possible Giletti had his dress uniform from when Lennie was kicked off the force." Ed picked up the explanation.
"So, now we're supposed to be poking around looking at the Chief of D, huh?" She asked skeptically, getting up and starting to walk around her desk. "Maybe Lennie's right, maybe it is time to hand this over to somebody else," Anita pondered out loud, stopping and perching on the front of her desk.
"Hand the case off?" Joe asked with a note of agitation in his voice.
"Yeah, Lennie called me over to his place for lunch," Fontana who was very close to her in the close quarters of her office, looked her up and down, as if to say he knew it was a lot more than that. She felt heat rising to her face and hoped her natural coloring would hide her embarrassment. She continued hoping neither detective noticed that she was flustered by Fontana's appraisal. "He felt that given his involvement in the case and his former relationship to this squad, we should hand the case off to another squad, or maybe even to IAB," she managed to get out.
"Man, we can't do that," Ed responded immediately.
"I agree," Joe added.
"And just when did you two get the impression that I was looking for your opinions on that decision?" she snapped at them.
"Well, you damn well better get somebody's opinion besides your boyfriend's," Fontana barked back at her.
"Say what?" Anita straightened up from where she'd been sitting on her desk and got into Fontana's face.
"Whoa, take it easy," Ed said trying to get a handle on the situation and wondering what the hell had gotten into his partner.
Fontana put his hands up recognizing he'd made a huge tactical mistake, but his next words didn't sound like a complete surrender.
"Look, Ed and I know that you can alibi Briscoe. We also know, he doesn't want you to, and frankly he's got a point. If we turn this over to somebody else and those dress blues are his, they're more than likely going to haul him in for questioning. If he doesn't give you up as his alibi witness, they'll be lazy and rather than work any other leads, they'll just charge him. I sure don't see any other unit going after the Chief of Ds without a lot more to go on than what he'd be willing to give 'em," Joe explained his position.
"Just because Lennie wouldn't use me as his alibi, doesn't mean I won't come forward on my own," Anita said.
"And ruin your career?" Fontana asked her frankly.
"What career?" Anita asked with a laugh. "Or haven't you heard, I've been stuck at lieutenant for 11 years. One Police Plaza would like me to resign or retire or maybe just take a bullet in the line of duty, anything just to get me out of their hair," she added in a huff.
"Oh well, then you're gonna be a great alibi witness. They'll rip you up six ways to Sunday. You're lying to protect your lover. He's been your lover for years, and of course everyone in the 2-7 knows it," Fontana started in on her.
"That's not true and you know it!" she shouted at Fontana.
"What would I know? I'm the new guy around here. What I do know is, you'd make a lousy witness. Look at how rattled you're getting," Joe argued.
Anita took a deep breath to calm herself, "Right now, I'm not very happy with you Detective Fontana, but I can see your point. All right, I'll let you two hang on to the case a little longer, but remember, if there comes a time when our having the case seems to be as bad or worse for Lennie than turning it over, then we give it up, understood?" she pointed at each of them as she asked the question and looked for their nods of understanding, which they begrudgingly gave.
"OK gentlemen, you're dismissed," she said.
"Give me a minute, Ed?" Joe asked.
"Sure," Ed said, thinking he knew what Joe was about to do.
"Yes, Detective?" Anita said in a tone that should have given Fontana frostbite.
"I wanted to apologize," he said in a very gentle voice. "I know I was pretty rough on you, but I felt it was necessary. I wanted you to realize how difficult the situation was, but I didn't mean to embarrass you or demean your relationship with Briscoe," he added.
"Apology accepted. I'm afraid I've got a pretty thin skin on the subject," she said in a warmer voice.
"Yeah, well it's usually that way when you fall in love. Especially when you're not sure if you're doing the right thing. Unfortunately, I've been there," he replied, and started to leave the office. He paused at the office door. "Be careful," he added.
Anita didn't know what to think of Fontana, but she did know with the way things were going, she wanted to get back to Lennie ASAP. She just had this weird feeling that their time was now, and there might not be too many tomorrows for them.
