See Part 1 for disclaimer.
Author's Note: This is completed and I will be posting it all today (3.20.2022).
Author's Note 2: Any mistakes are completely mine as I've made a few changes on the chapters I'm posting today after my beta sent them back. She's awesome…I, however, am fallible. Especially when it comes to writing.
Author's Note 3: Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story and especially Loafer who agreed to finish beta'ing it 7 years after I started posting it. I promise to never do this to you again. :-)
*OoO*
Carlton rubbed his gritty eyes as he fought the urge to lay his head down on the table for just a few minutes. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept but he knew he was close to figuring out who this guy was and he didn't want to lose the almost intangible thread he had in his grasp.
He thought back to the day before. Whoever this guy was, he got tired of being ignored by Carlton, O'Hara, and the police so he'd sent his next letter to the local news station. Luckily, the head producer there knew Carlton and owed him a couple of favors. He'd called him before letting anyone run with the story.
The letter had said Carlton and O'Hara had killed innocents and they had to pay for their crime. This let Carlton know they were on the right track with moving their focus away from people they had put in jail. Now he just had to figure out who this guy was talking about because he knew damned well he and his partner had never killed an innocent person.
He sighed and opened another case file. The needle in the haystack he was looking for had to be here. It had to be because O'Hara would still be in danger until he discovered who this guy was and that was unacceptable.
He started reading and his eyes got wider and wider. He slapped the file folder shut, grabbed his jacket, and raced out to his car.
*OoO*
Juliet and Christine were woken from a dead sleep to pounding on the front door. Christine stumbled out of her bedroom first because Juliet was still moving slow.
She looked through the peephole and wasn't surprised to see Carlton Lassiter standing there. She unlocked the door and opened it to glare at him.
By this time, Juliet had made it to the living room as well.
"Carlton?" She rubbed sleep out of her eyes as she peered at him. "Do you know what time it is?"
Christine noticed his disheveled appearance, even as she continued to glare at him. "I've got a better question. When was the last time you slept?" she asked grumpily.
Carlton realized he'd woken the two women and probably should apologize but he had more important things to do.
"I found it, O'Hara!" He waved the file folder in the air. "I know who our perp is."
Juliet was wide awake now. "Who?" She beckoned him in as she headed to the kitchen to make coffee, leaving Christine to close the door and follow behind them.
"The note to the station mentioned innocents dying so I started going through old case files to see if there was something we'd missed," he replied. "I knew it had to be in one of them so I just kept going back over them and I saw this!" He slapped the file down on her bar as she turned from the coffee maker.
She picked up the file and started reading. "I remember this," she said slowly. "We were chasing a convenience store robbery suspect and he t-boned another car when he ran a red light." She looked up to see him nodding. "The woman in the other car and the suspect both died at the scene. Her brother wanted us brought up on charges of reckless endangerment. He said if we hadn't been chasing the suspect, the wreck wouldn't have happened and his sister would still be alive."
Carlton nodded again. "Right. The department looked into it and found no wrong-doing on our end so they cleared us." He took the cup of coffee she handed to him. "I never found out if the brother did anything else but I thought he'd let it go when we were cleared."
Juliet took a cup for herself and handed another to Christine. "I thought so too. Do you really think this is our guy?"
Carlton shrugged as he swallowed. "I don't know for sure, but this is the best lead we've had so I say we go with it."
Juliet nodded. "Well, the first thing we need to do is find out who this brother is and what he's doing now."
Carlton nodded as Juliet reached for her phone to call Chief Vick. Vick couldn't give the information to Carlton but she might give it to a detective who was still on her payroll.
*OoO*
Carlton still couldn't believe it. Vick had given O'Hara the name and when they ran the guy down, it turned out to be his neighbor with the yappy dog. Carlton and O'Hara hadn't known the brother's name because of department policy. Officers weren't allowed to know who lodged a complaint, to protect the civilians from retaliation from dirty cops.
So Carlton had never known the guy who tried to kill them had been living beside him for months. Apparently when Internal Affairs had cleared them, the guy had gone off the deep end and started planning a way to kill them as revenge for what had happened to his sister.
Arresting him had been anticlimactic. He'd just opened his door and asked them what had taken them so long to find him. He'd made a snide remark about Carlton not being a great detective since the guy who tried to kill his partner was his neighbor.
Greg Thompson, with the dog named Siler, had been the mastermind behind trying to kill Carlton and O'Hara. It was pathetic he'd gotten away with as much as he did.
When asked how he'd gotten such broad access to the hospital and who the nurse was whose last name started with an S, he'd laughed. The nurse had actually been an orderly buddy named Small who had a grudge against hospital administration and had been happy to help out. Greg had used Small's badge to get into the hospital and after that, he'd just walked around dressed as an orderly. No one questioned his right to be in the hospital or what he was doing, and the badge allowed him access to areas a visitor wouldn't have. Even the uniforms guarding O'Hara's room hadn't noticed him. Greg had gotten a big laugh out of that. He'd left the letters and taken the pictures without anyone being the wiser.
The shoddy security in the hospital had only solidified an idea he'd had rolling around in his head for weeks. There needed to be better training for private security. Not everyone could be cops but they could learn how to appropriately guard sensitive areas. His partner could've been killed any number of times because all it took was a badge to get in and out of any part of the hospital.
Carlton was pissed about all of it, but the lack of the attention by the uniforms really irritated him on a personal level.
The only good thing about arrest happening so quickly after they'd gotten an I.D. on the perp was the fact that Spencer hadn't had time to stick his oar in. He'd been off checking out a new taco joint and the case was wrapped up before he'd even know about the new lead.
They'd hauled the guy away and put him in a psych ward until they could get him a lawyer and evaluate him to see if he could stand trial. Carlton thought the guy had to be a little bit crazy to try and kill two cops and think he was going to just get away with it.
Carlton shook his head as he dialed O'Hara's phone. "Hey O'Hara, we got him. He's being booked and then sent to pysch until he can be evaluated."
"I'm just glad it's over," she said softly.
"Me too," he answered. "What do you say to lunch? On me. I'll even spring for Christine if she's with you."
There was a pause and then she answered. "I'd like that, Carlton. Christine had to go back to work today. Last night was the last night she was going to stay with me."
"Are you sure you're okay? Have you recovered enough to be alone?"
"I'm fine, Carlton. She was only going to stay with me until she had to go back to work anyway. I'm a little sore still but even that's going away." She shifted the phone to her other ear as she stretched to help get rid of the soreness sooner. "So where are we going to lunch?"
Carlton smiled for what seem the first time in weeks. "Lady's choice, O'Hara, lady's choice."
*OoO*
Carlton pulled into SBPD's parking lot with a bittersweet feeling. It had been two weeks since they'd caught the perp who had tried to kill O'Hara and he knew everyone thought he would be coming back to work as head detective. They'd be surprised at his decision.
He turned the car off and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He hoped everyone trusted he knew what was best for him.
He walked into the bullpen and it simultaneously felt like he'd never left and also like he was a stranger there. He nodded to a few detectives and continued to Vick's office and knocked on the open door. "Hey Chief, do you have a minute?"
Karen Vick looked up from her ever-present paperwork and pleased to see what she hoped was her returning head detective. Then she saw his eyes and sighed internally.
"Absolutely, Carlton, come in." She put her work aside and gave him her full attention as he came in and shut the door before taking a seat in the chair in front of her desk. "What are we discussing today? Hopefully the return of my head detective?"
Carlton looked her in the eye and shook his head. "Karen, I've been thinking about this ever since we caught Thompson." He ran his hand through his hair. "I don't think I can come back to work here."
Karen nodded and leaned back in her chair. "Care to tell me why?"
Carlton relaxed a bit as he got the worst of his announcement out. "I don't fit here anymore."
"Carlton, you're the most by-the-book, born-to-be-a-cop person I've ever met. How can you say you don't fit here anymore?"
"Karen, I walked in here today and felt like this was unknown territory for me. I've never felt like I didn't belong, no matter how long I've been away." Carlton leaned back. "When I turned in my badge I always thought, in the back of my mind, I'd be back as soon as I caught the perp and protected O'Hara." He paused. "But doing the work by myself, being free of the politics of the job, of the…"
"Constraints?" Karen asked. "I didn't take you for a man who didn't play by the rules, Carlton."
He shook his head. "No. I have no problem playing by the rules, Karen, you know that." He took a breath. "I like the idea of working for myself. Working cases I want to work. Working for people who need help and feel like they don't have anyone to turn to."
"Carlton, are you telling me you want to be the A-Team?" Karen asked.
Carlton gave a shocked laugh. "No, that's not what I mean either." He looked at her for a moment. "Karen, I don't want to be a cop anymore." He gestured to her office. "For so long, I wanted to be a police chief. To be the one in charge." He shrugged. "Now I know your job is more politics and glorified baby-sitting than I'd ever want to do." He held up his hand to stop her response. "I'm not saying you're not a good cop, Karen, far from it. You're one of the best cops I've ever had the privilege to work with or for."
He stood and looked out her office window. "I'm just saying I don't want the job. I doubt if I would be good at it. I'd probably shoot the mayor the first time he tried to tell me how to run the department." He turned back to her. "I'm saying I don't want to be a detective for the rest of my life and it's the only job I'd want to do if I came back." He sat back down again. "I want to do something different. I realized while I was working O'Hara's case I've been sleepwalking through my job for the last year or so and that's no attitude for your head detective to have." He trailed off and waited for her response.
Karen steepled her hands in front of her and stayed silent for a few moments. "You're sure about this?"
He nodded.
She nodded and dropped her hands. "Then I wish you luck in your future career, Mr. Lassiter." She grinned at him. "Do you have any idea what that future career might be?"
He gave a sigh of relief and smiled back. "Not yet, but I have time." He felt so relieved. "I'm thinking maybe security?"
"Not a private detective?"
He shook his head. "Nope, I have no desire to do divorce cases or run around spying on people for other people." He slouched down a bit in his chair. "But security? Yeah, I think security would be interesting. Building systems and training personnel to protect people? I could see myself doing that."
Karen tried not to let her shock show. She'd never seen Carlton be anything but buttoned up at all times. To see him slouch even a little, as he talked about his future, was a revelation.
"Well," she said as she smiled at him again, "let me know if I can do anything to help your process along. I have a few contacts and so does Richard."
Carlton nodded. "Thanks, I appreciate it." He straightened up in his chair and stood. He offered his hand. "It's been a pleasure, Karen. You're the best chief I've ever worked for."
Karen stood and shook his hand. "Likewise, Carlton. There have been times when you've frustrated the hell out of me, but I've never had a better head detective."
He let go of her hand, nodded to her and left.
Now he just had to tell O'Hara.
*OoO*
Juliet head the knocking on her door as she pulled on her running shoes. She might not be able to go back to work but she could start getting back into shape.
"Hang on! I'm coming!" she yelled. She pulled open the door. "Carlton? What are you doing here?"
"Hi O'Hara, do you have a minute?"
"Sure." She stepped back to let him come in. "What's up?"
Carlton shoved his hands in his pockets. This was harder than talking to Vick. "I wanted to talk about what happens next."
Juliet sat down on the sofa. "First, sit down. You know I hate when you hover." She waited for him to sit beside her. "Now, what do you mean, 'what happens next'?" She curled one leg beneath her and slanted her body to give him her full attention. "You go back to work as head detective and my partner and life goes back to normal."
Carlton shook his head, staring straight ahead. "No, O'Hara, life isn't going back to normal."
Juliet's heart was suddenly in her throat. "What do you mean?"
He turned to look fully at her. "I mean, I'm not going back to the SBPD."
"What? Why?"
"Because I don't belong there anymore." He held up his hand. "O'Hara, let's be honest. I'm never going to make chief and I don't want to. I've done everything I can do, career-wise. If I go back, I'm going to stagnate in the same job until I retire." He leaned back. "I don't want to do that. I want to do something different. A new challenge."
"You don't want to be my partner anymore?" Juliet knew she sounded whiney and she also knew this decision probably didn't have a damned thing to do with not wanting to be her partner, but that's what it felt like. And damn it, it hurt.
"No, O'Hara, that's not what I'm saying." Carlton could hear the hurt in her voice and it tore him up. "This has nothing to do with not wanting to be your partner." He leaned toward her. "Being your partner has been the best part of my job for years. But I can't keep being a cop just to be your partner." He stood up and looked away from her. "Besides, just because I'm not a cop anymore doesn't mean we won't see each other." He turned back to her. "Does it?"
Juliet pushed away her shock and looked at him. He looked happy. Happier than she'd seen him in a very long time. She smiled. "No, it doesn't." She stood up and hugged him, ignoring the way his body stiffened. He never was very good with physical affection. "We can still see each other." She pulled away from him. "But I'm going to miss seeing you every day."
He smiled down at her. "We may not see each other every day, O'Hara, but I'll make damned sure we see each other often."
She grinned at him before plopping back on the sofa. "So, if you're not going to be a cop. What are you going to be?" she asked.
He sat back down and started to lay out some of his plans. Talking to her was just what he needed.
THE END.