A/N: Sorry I'm slow to update. I'm sick with COVID, and I'm struggling to do much of anything right now. Fingers crossed I get to feeling better ASAP and my creative juices can get moving again. Again, my apologies.
Lester and I rolled up to Elena Avalos's apartment shortly after 11:45 AM. As I drove in the lot, it occurred to me there were dozens of things I'd rather be doing than checking in on Elena. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the day was warm, and the Jersey pollution was only moderately toxic. I had some regrets that I was working instead of sitting at Point Pleasant with my toes buried in the sand.
Elena's apartment was a standard two-story wood-frame apartment with tan siding and black shutters. It was one of many buildings just like it, all circling a large macadam lot. Grass and trees were sparse, and the lot only had a handful of cars. The cars in the lot weren't total trash, but they weren't new or particularly nice either. I wasn't surprised by any of this. It was the middle of a workday, and most of the people who lived here likely worked minimum to moderate wage jobs.
I pulled the Avalos file out of my messenger bag and browsed it again.
"What's up? Lester asked.
"I'm looking to see what she drives," I explained.
My eyes scanned the page, finally landing on the information I sought.
"Looks like she drives a white 2004 Honda Civic."
We scooped another loop around the lot looking for the Civic, finding it parked on the far side of the lot.
"Looks like she might be home," I said somewhat unhappily.
"You sound like that's a bad thing," Lester said, grinning.
I sighed. "Sometimes, this job is an adventure. Other times, it's a freak parade or a nightmare."
And that was the truth. I had to admit, I was somewhat addicted to the adrenaline rush this job could provide. But sometimes, that adrenaline rush was unwelcome when accompanied with possible death or loss of limb.
I parked, and we climbed out of the Jeep looking like Robocop and his sister. We were both in Rangeman fatigues with black boots, which accessorized well with my black eye. Lester had insisted on wearing flack vests, wireless two-way earbuds, and gun belts too, so I was more accessorized than I thought was necessary. I added pepper spray, cuffs, and a stun gun to the ensemble, and I was ready for action.
"How do you want to do this?" Lester asked, checking his gun.
"Let's go knock. According to her file, she lives on the second floor," I said, beeping the car locked.
We hustled into the apartment building and up the stairs to the second floor. The interior of the apartment building was dimly lit and felt sad. The walls were beige, and the carpet was beige berber. The only color variation was the white ceiling and the dark wood doors with gold handles and numbers.
We found Avalos's apartment, and I knocked on her door. When she didn't answer, I knocked again.
"Elena?" I asked loudly. "Are you home?"
I heard a lock tumble, and the door opened a crack with the chain still attached. I could see a small sliver of a woman's face. From what I could see, she was attractive, with dark hair, dark eyes, and caramel skin. Her eyes were bloodshot and glassy, matching her red blouse.
"What, bitch?" she asked through the crack.
"Hi, my name is Stephanie. You missed your court date, and…."
The door slammed closed in my face, and the lock tumbled.
"Shit."
"That her?" Lester asked.
"It looked like her picture," I said, shrugging.
Without blinking, Lester reared back and kicked the door in with his black boot. The door flew open, with splinters flying from the frame.
We stepped into the apartment, scanning the room for Avalos. The inside of the apartment was beige, just like the hall. Beige carpet, beige vinyl floors, beige walls, a beige couch. The main room was shotgun, with a kitchen first, then a tiny dinette followed by living room area. The apartment was sparsely furnished and incredibly dirty.
"The fuck! The fuck!" Avalos shouted, standing in the middle of the dining area. She reached into her waistband.
"Gun!" I shouted, hitting the floor.
Lester pulled his sidearm, but Avalos got off a shot before he was able to fire. He took two shots to the chest before collapsing to the floor.
"Lester!" I cried, crouching behind the kitchen peninsula.
Avalos tried to squeeze off another shot, but she was either out of bullets or her gun had jammed. She slammed it onto the table and ran for the living room window, where I assumed a fire escape must be available for her to escape.
"I'm good," Lester said through labored breaths. "Just knocked the wind outta me. Get her."
I took off after Avalos, running flat out through the apartment. She was just climbing out the window when I got to her. I grabbed her jean-clad legs and tried to yank her back in the apartment window. She grabbed on to the rails of the stairway, holding tight as I pulled. The jeans pulled off her body, leaving her clad in nothing but a red lace thong and her red t-shirt.
Avalos ran at the opportunity, barreling down the fire escape. I was out the window racing down behind her in no time. She made the turn to descend the final flight when my body came into contact with hers, and we fell ass over teakettles down the stairs to the concrete slab below. We landed with a woosh of air, with me on top and Avalos moaning beneath me.
"Fuck you, bitch!" she moaned. "Police brutality! Help!"
Out of nowhere, two guys rushed out of first floor apartment doors and began filming us on their smartphones.
"Police brutality!" Avalos shouted. "Help! Get her off of me!"
"I'm not the police," I explained. "Bond enforcement. You missed your court date, and we need you to reschedule with the court."
"I've got rights!" Avalos shouted as I clicked the cuff on her left wrist.
"Actually, you signed those away when you signed your bond agreement," I said, struggling to get her right hand behind her back as she struggled. After several attempts, I finally got both of her hands contained behind her back, but she began kicking out at me.
"We can't breathe!" one of the men videoing shouted.
"Whoa," I said to Avalos. "Calm down. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."
"Hard way this, bitch," Avalos said, kicking out again and connecting with my shin. It hurt like hell and I knew it would leave a bruise, but I did my best not to give her the satisfaction of knowing it was painful. I was tempted to give her a couple thousand volts with my stun gun, but thought better of it since I was currently being captured on video. To her credit, she was holding her head high and being a hard-ass despite wearing no pants. I would have been mortified in her shoes.
"Good job, beautiful," Lester said, coming down the stairwell. He had Elena's jeans in his hand, and a shit-eating grin on his face. "I knew you had it in you."
"Holy shit, are you okay?" I asked him.
"Yeah, nothing punctured the vest," he said, cracking his knuckles on his chest. "It knocked the wind out of me, though. And I anticipate I'll have one hell of a bruise."
"That was friggin' scary!"
"You can never be too safe," he said. "These vests have saved my ass a time or two."
Avalos was still shouting about police brutality and her rights when Lester grabbed her by the cuffs and pulled her to her feet. She turned her face to Lester and spit directly into his face.
"Jeez Louise. You're cranky," I exclaimed to the pissed-off woman.
Lester wiped his face on his shoulder, then shoved her forward. "Walk, or you're gonna regret waking up this morning."
Elena uttered something in Spanish to Lester, and he responded back in Spanish before slamming her face into the side of the building. She cried out, and a small trickle of blood ran from her eyebrow.
"Oops, gotta be careful not to trip on curbs," Lester said, shoving her forward toward the car.
The men videoing began shouting more loudly at Lester and I.
"Let's get her to the car and off camera," I said. "Then I'll lock up her place."
We got her around the building and settled into the Jeep, helping her into her jeans before shackling her feet to the floor.
"You're gonna pay for this, bitch!" she shouted, seething.
"You'll cool down," I told her, shutting the Jeep door.
With the apparent police brutality over, the men with smart phones had wandered back into the apartment building. I followed, going back to Avalos's apartment. I noticed some syringes and other drug paraphernalia on the small table in her apartment, as well as a few small stacks of cash, cigarettes, and some liquor bottles. I closed and locked her window, and as I turned, a flash of something caught my attention. I realized a man was racing out of the bedroom for the apartment door. He was wearing brown leather loafers, tan chinos, a brown belt, and a button down white shirt. It took me a moment, but it occurred to me that I knew the man.
"Dickie?"
He glanced over his shoulder at me just enough that I could see his face, confirming my suspicion. I took off in pursuit, and he ran flat out, slamming the apartment door behind him. I ripped the door open, looking left and right down the hall but seeing nothing. I raced for the stairs.
I got to the parking lot and saw Dickie racing through the lot toward Elena's car. Lester was lounging with his back against the Jeep scrolling on his phone, paying no attention to what was happening around him.
"Lester!" I shouted. "Grab him!"
Lester glanced up at me, confusion on his face. I pounded past him as Dickie wrenched open the door of the car and flung himself in. The car sputtered to life, and he burned rubber as the car shot backward out of the parking spot, nearly running me over.
I changed course again, running back to the Jeep.
"Get in! Get in!" I shouted. "It's Dickie!"
I threw myself into the car, and I chirped the tires as I screamed out of the lot after the car.
"Let him go," Avalos moaned from the back seat.
"What?" I asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror.
"Please. Let him go. He's the good guy."
Her words literally made me cringe. Dickie? A "good guy?" No way.
"You're delusional," I said, speeding through a stop sign in pursuit.
"Please," she begged. "He's trying to help."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "What trouble has Dickie gotten himself into now?"
"I can't tell you," she mumbled.
Dickie took a short corner, taking out a mailbox with Elena's car. The mailbox came off its post and smashed into my hood, rolling up and breaking spiderweb like veins through my windshield.
"God damn it!" I cursed.
"Careful, Steph," Lester warned as I raced through another stop sign, failing to stop once more. "I thought you said he wasn't a high bond. It's not worth killing yourself over."
Dickie took at quick right, then a right again into an alley. I was on his tail now, but I wasn't sure how to get him to pull over. I wasn't a cop—I had no real authority to pursue him through town like this. Dickie surged through the intersection of two alleyways, and I hit the gas so I wouldn't lose him.
I was entering the intersection when I saw a small red SUV entering the same intersection from the alley to my left. I slammed on my breaks, but it was too little, too late. The SUV rammed into my door, sending shockwaves through the Jeep. The front and side airbags deployed, and the impact slammed the Jeep into the dumpster in the alley with a loud crash.
The impact of the airbags knocked the air out of my lungs and sent sharp pain through my ribs. As the airbag began to slowly deflate, I beat them down and out of my face.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked, glancing at my passengers.
"Fine," said Lester.
"Damn, woman, you drive like an idiot!" Avalos said from the back seat.
I assumed her complaining meant she was fine.
"I could say the same about my ex-husband," I said, rubbing my hands down my ribcage in an effort to determine if any real damage had been done.
"Ex-husband?" she asked.
"Dickie."
"Whoa, you were married to Dickie?!" she sputtered.
"Give me a break. It wasn't my finest moment."
"I didn't say it was a bad thing," she said, rolling her eyes.
Lester and I got out and checked on the passenger of the red SUV, who claimed to be fine. We surveyed the damage to the Jeep before Lester called Tank to request assistance. It was clear the Jeep wouldn't be going anywhere soon.
Hal showed up five minutes later in a black Suburban, and Ramon arrived minutes later in a black Mercedes GLB wearing a shit-eating grin.
"It was only a matter of time," he said, handing me the keys to the Mercedes SUV.
"Excuse me?" I said, giving him my best bitch face.
"Nothing, señorita," he said, laughing quietly. "Have a good day."
Ramon climbed into the Suburban with Hal, and they drove away.
Eddie Gazarra pulled into the alley moments later and ambled out of his cop car.
"What have we got here?" he asked me, eyeballing the accident.
We gave him the abridged version of what had happened and filed a report, and he took the statement of the lady driving the red SUV. Thirty minutes later, the Jeep was towed being away, and I was the unlucky recipient of a $419 reckless driving ticket.
Lester and I got Avalos moved into the Mercedes, and we headed for the Trenton cop shop.
An hour later, we had Avalos re-booked at the station, and I had collected my body receipt.
"Jeez, she was cranky," I said to Lester.
"Cranky doesn't even begin to explain it," he said. "She was high as shit. You could have landed a plane on one of her pupils."
"I thought you weren't supposed to sample the products if you're selling," I said. "I thought that was bad for business."
"She must not have got the memo," he said. "What do you think she meant when she said Dickie was the good guy?"
"Honestly, I don't have a clue. But he's gotten himself into something, that's for sure," I said, shrugging.
"Where to now?"
It was just after 2 PM, and I was starving.
"Lunch?" I asked, turning the engine over.
"That works for me. Where to? Lady's choice."
I parked the Mercedes on the street near Pino's. We locked up and strolled inside, selecting a booth in a dark corner. The lunch rush was long gone, and the restaurant was quiet. Lester flopped into the booth, but I sat gingerly, my ribs still screaming at me angrily after their encounter with the airbag.
"You alright, Beautiful?" Lester asked, his brow furrowed.
"Just sore," I said in explanation, digging around in my messenger bag for ibuprofen.
"That's to be expected, I guess. What's good here?" Lester asked, browsing the menu.
"Everything," I said, smiling.
Pino's was a hot-spot for Burg locals who enjoyed Italian comfort food, particularly for police and hospital employees given the restaurant's close proximity to both. The restaurant was dark, and the air carried smells of freshly-made bread, simmering red sauce, and baking pizzas. The scarred wood tables and worn leather booths had seen better days, with generations of Burgers having clogged their arteries with pizza, chicken parmesan, meat lasagna, and sausage sandwiches in Pino's. The place wouldn't feel the same if the furnishings got upgraded, and I was perfectly alright with the old school vibes Pino's had to offer. Besides, I knew the menu by heart since it never changed, which made ordering a breeze.
The waitress came over with a friendly smile. I ordered my usual lunch faire-a Coke and a meatball sub. Lester ordered lasagna and breadsticks with a Sprite.
"So Connie, huh?" I asked, curiosity catching up with me.
"Yep," Lester said, smiling proudly.
"What inspired that?" I asked.
"The opportunity presented itself," Lester said, relaxing back into the booth. "I like to take advantage of opportunities."
"Oh, so you're an opportunist like your cousin?" I joked.
"Yes, ma'am!" Lester said as the waitress set our drinks on the table.
"Have you figured out if she's your soulmate yet?" I asked jokingly.
"I'm not looking for a soulmate, Beautiful. But she's pretty good in the sack," he said with a massive grin.
"Ew!" I protested. "Sorry I asked."
"Do you want the details?" Lester asked, waggling his eyebrows up and down at me. "I'm an open book."
"That's a hard pass for me," I said, rolling my eyes. "Please spare me the details."
I pulled my phone from my messenger bag and dialed Ranger, giving Lester an apologetic look. He shrugged it off and began scrolling through his own phone.
"Babe," Ranger said in greeting.
"Hey handsome. How's it hangin'?"
There was a beat of silence on Ranger's end. "I think I should be asking you the same thing," he responded.
I thunked my forehead with the palm of my hand.
"You heard?" I whined.
"Babe, I'm in my office. Tank stopped in after he got the call. Are you okay? Why didn't you call me?" he asked.
I hesitated. "I'm fine. Just…. Sore. I didn't want to burden you with the hot mess that is my life."
"It's not a bother. You need to get checked out," Ranger said, his tone hard.
"I'm fine. Pinky promise. Scout's honor," I said. "The Jeep, on the other hand…."
Ranger cut me off. "Babe, it's just a vehicle. Besides, it's been replaced."
I had no idea how many of Ranger's automobiles I had destroyed, but I added the Jeep to my mental tally and cringed.
"I know," I said. "But I'm still sorry."
"How did the accident happen?" Ranger asked.
I told him about the Avalos apprehension and running into Dickie. When I finished, he was silent on his end of the line.
"What do you think he's into?" I asked, wanting to know his professional opinion.
"I don't know," he responded, "but if he's being considered a 'good guy' in the mix, he's on the outs with somebody. Since he's hiding out, he must have pissed off somebody that has proven to be bad for his health."
I sat in silence, processing his thoughts.
"Are you going to be okay?" Ranger asked with concern in his voice.
"I'm peachy," I said. "See you tonight."
"Babe," he said, then disconnected.