Duplicity
By Divamercury
Well, are you guys trying to tell me something? I had to struggle to get 5 reviews! I know it's summer, but surely some of you are home. Those of you who did review, I appreciate it. I'm really not trying to sound too demanding, I promise, I just want to know if anyone's actually paying attention to whether or not I post. So I hope you enjoy this latest chapter, and PLEASE review!
~DM ;)
Chapter 9
"Okay, I'm here now, so everyone can relax," I said as I entered the precinct.
It was practically deserted.
"Well, there go my dreams of heroism."
"Pez! Good, I'm glad you're here. Gina's really pissed at me; she won't say anything," Connor said, flagging me down.
"Hmmm, and why might that be, rookie? Maybe because you think she killed her boss and she's convinced otherwise?"
"Hmm. Could be." He seemed thoughtful.
I sighed. "Let me talk to hermaybe I can actually get somewhere."
"Okaygood luck. But beware: she's kind of sullen right now."
"Gee, wonder why?" I asked sarcastically.
"Hey, it's not my fault. If you had been there and found the drugs, you would have done the same thing."
"I might have. Then again, maybe not. You might have jumped to conclusions, Connor, and if you have, you'll have distracted us all from the real suspect by wasting our time with an innocent woman."
"Oh, great. Now you're pissed at me, too."
"I'll get over it. You told me that you'd call me if anything came up and I should have known that that meant anything."
"Were you asleep?" he wanted to know.
"More or less," I said, allowing him to draw his own conclusions. We arrived at Gina's cell at that point and Connor decided it was prudent not to ask me exactly what I meant. Naturally he'd save it to torment me with later.
"Guard!" I called, and the guard opened the door to Gina's cell. Gina was sitting on her cot, hands folded in her lap, head down. When she heard the cell door open, her head snapped up and a look of anger and apprehension took over her features. Then she realized who it was.
"Detective Pezzini," she said, sounding extremely relieved. The mixed emotions fled from her face. "Thank God."
"Hi, Gina. How are you holding up?" I asked. I sat down beside Gina.
"I've been better. Did you know that your partner Detective Connor is a lunatic! He thinks I killed Mr. Irons."
"Did you?" I asked involuntarily.
She shook her head vigorously, making her jaw-length black hair fly around her face. Her gray eyes beseeched my green ones. "I swear I didn't. Do you think I did?"
"I learn all I can about a situation before I decide what I believe."
"More than I can say for your partner. I didn't even have a reason to kill Irons. He was my boss. I needed the money he paid me."
I turned and glanced back at Connor. "I really do think he means well, Gina, but he's just a rookie. Hopefully he'll get better with a little more experienceand maybe he'll become less impulsive." I gave him a little go away' wave and he reluctantly complied. "So, back to the subject. What's going on here, Gina?"
"Detective Pezzini, I—"
"Please, Gina, if we're going to get anywhere, you'll need to start calling me Sara," I said with a smile.
"Okay, thenSara it is. I have been in a daze ever since your partner showed up. He wanted to investigate the crime scene again and I didn't see why that would be bad, considering I couldn't stop it."
"True. So what happened?"
"I went in there with Connor out of curiosity and he looked all over the office. He found nothing, we walked back out, and he was about to leave. Then, probably on a whim, he looks through the stacks of paper on my desk and inexplicably finds a package of what turns out to be the exact same drug that killed Mr. Irons," Gina deadpanned. She sighed and then looked me straight in the eye. "But I swear to whatever you want me to swear to—God, Christ, whatever—that I have no idea how it got there. I don't even know what it was, just that it was some kind of drug in a powder form. If I didn't know better, I'd think he put it there himself" she mused. Shaking her head as though to clear it, she continued. "Then he brought me here and locked me up, took the bag of powder to the lab—at least, I think that's where he went—and then came back and told me it was the same stuff that killed Irons. But I don't know how it got on my desk or why he automatically thought it was mine."
I took her hand with my right, hoping for a clue from the Witchblade. It showed me nothing to the contrary, so I believed Gina's story. She seemed like a nice girl and I personally couldn't believe that she would do anything to hurt or kill her boss, no matter how much of a bastard he was. She obviously needed the job if she hung around Vorschlag of all places.
"Gina, I believe you. I don't think you had anything to do with this and I'm going to see if I can get my partner to lay off for a while until we get a better idea of what happened. Was there a security camera in Mr. Irons's office?"
Gina nodded. "Mr. Nottingham made sure of it."
"I probably should have thought of that earlier. We'll call Vorschlag and see if they can send us some tapes of what was going on earlier today."
"Thanks. Will you keep me posted, Sara? Doesn't seem like I'll be out of here anytime soon."
"As much as I can. And don't give up, Gina; we'll find out what really happened and you'll be off the hook. Bye."
"Bye, Sara."
Puzzling over what Gina had meant when talking about Connor and the drugs, I caught Connor by the forearm and dragged him down the hall. I wanted to grab him by the ear but I'd save that for when he really screwed up. We stopped outside our office.
"Call Vorschlag and get the security tapes from the cameras in Irons's office and the ones monitoring Gina's desk. Have them here by tomorrow morning. Then go home and get some sleep; I have a feeling that tomorrow's gonna be one hell of a bad day."
I picked up my gear and started to leave. I stopped and turned around, remembering one more thing I hadn't said. "And if you call me in the middle of the night like that again tonight, I can make no guarantees for your safety tomorrow. Think about that." Having said that, I left the precinct and hoped to be able to squeeze out a few more hours of sleep before I had to return.