"A Shift of Axis"
Copyright 2006 Penn O'Hara
M
Usual disclaimers apply.
Chapter Six
Wincing as Barek pulled out into the busy street and cut off a horn-happy cabbie with fast reflexes and colorful language, Logan hung on to the dash with one hand and his door with the other.
"Take it easy, Barek. A fender bender won't look good on our records."
"Check my record," she snapped. "There's no vehicle incident entry, nor is there likely to be."
Logan did have faith in her, but sitting in the passenger seat of nearly a ton of fast- moving metal diminished his control of a situation. "Slow down anyway, will ya?"
Barek blew air through her teeth in exasperation. "I've never understood why men turn into cowards when being chauffeured by a woman."
"Maybe, because they rightly fear for their lives." He yelped as they took, in his opinion, a left turn too fast. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
Her head spun round to look at him. "Men can be so clueless."
"Yeah, well, sometimes I get tired of readin' between the lines. You worried 'bout Alicia?"
"Worried, no. Annoyed, yes."
"I told you she was ancient history." Logan tried to remain calm. He knew from a lot of experience in dealing with women that you had to keep cool and act as if you were agreeing with everything they said. "And I told her I won't be calling socially. What more can I do?"
"I know what you told me." Barek braked at an intersection, gave a swift glance both ways and powered through. "But I also saw your face when she opened the door. It wasn't the reaction of a man seeing an old girlfriend after all these years. You were…floored, Mike. Your face lost all its color and you looked ready to pass out."
Shit! Logan knew this was his first test, but he hadn't expected it so soon. Up-front honesty in a relationship didn't come easy to him. He preferred to bluff his way through any touchy situation, but this time he was determined to do right by Carolyn from the start.
Turning in the seat to watch her profile, he mustered all the sincerity he possessed to convince her. "Alicia… we… well, the relationship was pretty intense. It was the closest I'd ever come to… wanting the whole shebang. Then it ended, cruelly." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I went on a soul-destroying binge after that, blaming her, blaming the father, blaming society for decreeing cops aren't good enough for its daughters."
"A binge?" Barek frowned. "You mean, screwing around."
"Yeah, that's what I mean. How succinct of you to say it." She winced and he could have cut out his tongue for the sarcasm. "I'm sorry, Carolyn. Sorry I said that, and sorry Alicia Haynes was behind that door. Seeing her again brought all of that back. The good and the bad. I was hit out of the ball park for a while. That's all."
"How do you feel now?" She still sounded testy and Logan guessed he wasn't making any headway.
"She's very much a thing of the past," he repeated.
"How do you feel about rekindling ancient history?"
Logan was sure his eyes were bugged out of his head and that he'd misheard her. "What! Are you crazy?"
"No, brave, maybe, throwing my man into the lioness' den." Her mouth thinned and she flicked him a look. "I've thought it through if you haven't. Alicia's lying through her teeth. That's why I cut the interview short. I'll bet my pension she's still thick with Nicole Wallace, despite the heartfelt declaration that Nicole betrayed her trust."
"I dunno–"
"How gone was Alicia on you, Mike? When you were together? Was she in love? Did she want to marry you? What?"
Logan shifted on his seat, uncomfortable with where Barek was heading. The whole tone of the conversation had changed on him like quicksilver and he didn't know if it was a trap or if she was still mad at him, but he did know he had to tread carefully.
"Well, she said she did," he confessed, bracing himself.
"Did she have expectations that you were just as serious? You've already admitted you were. Did she know that?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess she did."
"Then she's not going to think too highly of her brother for wrecking her relationship with you, is she?"
"She might have resented him–"
"I think it went deeper than resentment. What did she say, Mike? Back there in the den." Barek's voice quickened with interest. "'I could have killed my brother for telling my father'. Well, someone tried to. Someone she was thick with."
"Where are you goin' with this?"
"Remember the photo? Gavin Haynes, the brother and husband, was out in the cold. The women were arm in arm." The look she gave him was longer this time and more piercing.
Logan was starting to see the light but was far from convinced. "Nicole's girlfriend, Ella-something was the one who tried to kill Haynes."
"I know, but who's to say Alicia wasn't behind it too? Or, at the very least, all for it?"
"It's a stretch–"
"But not a very big one." Barek's knuckles showed white on the steering wheel, a sure sign of her increasing excitement with her theory.
"And?"
Slowing to a stop behind stationary traffic, Barek turned in her seat and gave him her full attention.
"The Wendell fire is your case, Mike. Yours and Alex'. But Alex phones in and says she and Bobby are investigating it and won't be in the office. She also stipulates you and I are to continue with your investigation. Four detectives on one fire. Isn't that overkill?"
"Maybe, but–"
"Stay with me a minute. Who's the common denominator here?"
Logan cupped his chin with a hand and pursed his lips. "I'm gonna take a real leap here and say Nicole Wallace 'cos I think that's where you're heading." He nodded ahead. "Traffic's moving."
Barek turned back to the road and let the car roll forward. Negotiating the slower driver ahead with an acceleration into a gap that put Logan's teeth on edge, she nodded in satisfaction. "Well done. I'll recommend you for another medal."
He was going to deserve one for remaining in the passenger seat of the car. Swallowing, Logan tried to sound cool. "You're sayin' Nicole started the fire. Motive?"
"None that I can see yet, except to say to Bobby, 'I'm back in town.'"
"But I got the case, not Goren."
"Nicole couldn't have known that and besides, who got it might be immaterial. It was enough to say, 'Here I am.'"
"She's not an arsonist–"
"–that we know of. Besides, what's stopping her adding it to her résumé eventually?"
"And now?"
"Now we find out where Alex and Bobby have gone. Call them on their cell phones. See if they're together."
Logan shook his head, not yet won over by her argument. "You're adding to the overkill."
"Maybe, but I'm also following a lead. Call them."
Barek stopped at a yellow light and Logan was pleasantly surprised she didn't run it. Flipping out his phone, he rang Goren's number and waited. It went to voice mail. Scrolling through, he selected Eames' entry and drummed his fingers on his knee as he watched Barek watching him. He sent her a kiss and, as expected, her mouth twisted in annoyance. He wondered how someone who professed to like him could be so consistent at disliking everything he did.
Closing his cell, Logan shook his head. "Voice mail. Both of them."
"Shit!" Barek stared back at the road ahead, frowning as she watched for the light to turn. "It won't hurt to roll on by their apartments to check where they spent the night." She looked pointedly at him. "If I had agreed to go home with you last night, whose place would we have chosen?"
Logan had to grin. "The way I was feeling, the closest." He tapped his chest. "Mine."
"And whose the closest where Bobby and Alex are concerned?"
"Goren's."
The light changed, Barek gunned the car and beat the Porsche 911 beside her off the mark.
Logan whistled in admiration.
oOo
Bobby stared down the barrel of the Glock held in Nicole's trembling hands through a red haze of fury.
He hated to admit it, but he was close to breaking point. He didn't fear for his own life, but should something happen to him, he feared for Alex.
Nicole had pushed him hard, threatening the woman who had become more important to him than life, forcing him to degrade her and to debase himself while she had him alone in the ensuite and now was demanding they perform for her like porn stars.
"Put the gun away, Nicole," Bobby said, biting down on the words to hide his tremble of rage. Convinced her insanity was finally in charge didn't so much trouble him as the unpredictability of her moods. He couldn't get one step ahead of someone capable of such mercurial changes in mind-set.
"What are you going to say now, Goren?" Rafiq unfolded himself from the chair where he'd been watching their interplay and walked slowly over to Nicole. "Little girls don't play with guns?" The man smiled with an evil akin to Nicole's. "That's how you've defused her every other time." Rafiq ran his hand down her hair before resting his wrist on her shoulder, pulling Nicole to his side. Her face was as pale and still as a porcelain doll's, but her hands still shook with the gun. "It's not going to work this time. She wants this too bad."
"This!" Goren fought the desire to put his hands around the man's throat and choke him.
"Your humiliation or your misery," Rafiq said, his refined tone sounding more ominous than the click of a primed gun. "If you don't do the lovely Alex, I will. And you won't like how I do her."
Goren sought Alex where she sat in the other chair, but her face was closed and neutral. "You're giving me a choice?" he bellowed.
"Which is the greater evil for you, Bobby?" Nicole asked.
"This is too sick, even for you Nicole!" Taking a breath, he fought to keep his anger under control. "Stop this nonsense now. You want my humiliation? You got it when we were alone in there." He flung out his arm and pointed toward the ensuite, deliberately avoiding Alex' questioning gaze. "You want my misery? Every time you cross my path, I'm suffering. Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Isn't that enough?"
"You know it's not, Bobby." Nicole smiled, the coy dip of her chin at variance with the lethal weapon in her hand. "I want you in knots. I want your head so messed up that you won't be able to ever look your partner in the eyes again."
Rafiq started to walk toward Alex and Bobby saw her flinch, her eyes darting toward his, the flash of appeal cut short by her innate courage.
Despite the man's height, Goren was more than a match for him in weight. He could take down Rafiq with one hand but he couldn't defend himself from a loaded gun at the same time. Still seated on the chair, Alex had no chance to avoid Rafiq and disarm Nicole.
And Goren still believed Nicole would shoot them both rather than lose out to him again.
He had few choices, but there was no way in hell he would allow Rafiq to touch Alex.
Ignoring the gun aimed at him, Goren moved, his body blocking Rafiq's advance toward Alex and held out his hand to her. Alarm flared briefly in her eyes and she hesitated. Putting as much assurance in his face as he could, he silently implored her to follow his lead.
Sensing her confusion of his intentions and her hope that he had a plan to get them out of this, he couldn't let her guess he had none. His usual tactic-based battle of wills with Nicole was negated by the presence of the armed muscle. All Goren could do was buy time until an opportunity presented itself.
Until then, he needed Alex' trust.
His eyes holding hers, hand steady, Goren waited.
Alex' lips parted as she placed her hand in his.
Locking on her gaze, Goren tugged lightly and Alex stood, swayed, then tilted her chin bravely. Her face told him all he needed to know – she trusted him implicitly. Goren deliberately prolonged the moment, abhorring what Nicole demanded of him, but accepting it was preferable to the alternative.
"I won't let Rafiq touch you," he promised Alex.
"For God's sake, Bobby," Nicole said, "get on with it. You're here to entertain us, not bore us to tears."
Goren had no idea if he could go through it, but he had to take one step at a time.
Leading Alex to the bed, he stopped and sat down on its edge, turning her to him and taking her other hand in his. He held her fingers lightly with his, his face upturned but couldn't prevent his mouth from trembling in torment. Tears welled in his eyes as he tried to convey how deeply sorry he was that she was being put through this.
A movement on his left caught Goren's attention. Nicole and Rafiq had stationed themselves on the sofa and settled in as if they were the audience to a live show. The analogy was vilely accurate.
"Take off her clothes, Bobby," Nicole urged. "Let's see how impersonal you can be the second time around."
"No!" he howled, anguish cutting through his heart. "Not with your sidekick in the room. I can accept you want to see me humiliated and I'll grind my pride in the dust myself if that's what you require, but humiliating Alex in front of that sadist isn't part of the deal. Get rid of Rafiq and I'll do whatever you say."
"My, Bobby," Nicole scoffed, "you love repeating yourself and throwing out the conditions like you're in charge or something. Where do you get off thinking you have a say in anything? You're boring me, and I'm losing patience. It might be more fun to see you both run around the room dodging bullets." She arced her wrist, waving the Glock haphazardly.
"Undress Alex now, Bobby," Nicole snarled. "Make love to her like you mean it. Put on the best show of your life. For me. Do it all for me."
"And then? What's next?" Goren felt his lip curl as he speared Nicole with his disgust. "Rafiq rapes her anyway?"
"Tsk, tsk, Bobby," Nicole jeered. "You know me. One card at a time. I'm not going to show you my whole hand, and certainly not now, when you've done nothing to earn it. Time's running out. For you. For Alex."
Throwing back his head, Bobby sighed in defeat. He bit his bottom lip and looked into Alex' eyes as he tightened his fingers around hers.
"Come to me, Alex," he whispered.
oOo
TBC…