Saturday found Anna sitting in her office. It was almost amusing, because ordinarily, she might've found something else to do. Like staying on Staten Island. But Jack knew where she lived, and he didn't like venturing into her side of things, otherwise known as the law offices of Henshall and Langan. So she was here, when she could have been somewhere else. She liked to wander around Manhattan, but had the feeling she'd run into Jack if she did, so she holed up here in her office. Doing paperwork, of all things, and organizing it, in alphabetical order, because she couldn't think of anything else to do.
It was the same thing she had given Jack hell about however long ago it had been, and now she was doing it herself. She stared down at the manila folders spread across her desk, suddenly frustrated as she ran a hand through her hair. She bit her lip as she felt the tears starting to come. Avoiding him was starting to take a toll on her. She'd deleted the voicemail he'd left, but had answered all the others, the ones not from him. It was one thing to lose a friend because of a falling out, another to lose a friend because of something like this. She didn't want to think about it.
"You're working yourself too hard, Anna," said Kaye's voice, and Anna looked up in time to find the other woman entering her office. She sighed
"I know," she said, "I know. And I know I need to take a break, and I'm going to. I just need to get this done."
"So you are finally taking a break," said Kaye, "It's a miracle. You go through Trevor this time around?" Anna nodded.
"I should've told you earlier; I'm sorry. I just…I needed a break, and I was going to talk to you, but you weren't around, so I talked to him about it instead, and he cleared it all."
"You know, you really should be a partner already, then you wouldn't have to go through either one of us." said Kaye. "He didn't make you wait too long, did he?"
"No, he didn't," said Anna, looking amused. "I think he knew better." Kaye laughed.
"Well, where are you headed?" she asked. Anna leaned back in her chair, smiling faintly.
"Home," she said. "Hope Mills, North Carolina…it's gotta be the most random place for me to go, but it's home."
"North Carolina, huh?" said Kaye. "Sounds interesting." She looked at the paperwork on Anna's desk and sat down. "When do you leave?"
"Tonight, which is why I was hoping I could get all this done, but I keep thinking about…" Anna trailed off and looked away, her face going slightly red. "I keep thinking about Jack."
"You still haven't talked to old Hang 'Em High, have you?" Kaye asked, and Anna shook her head.
"No," she admitted, "No, I still haven't talked to him, and I know I should, but I just…I can't make myself do it."
"You're afraid of something?" Kaye asked, and Anna shook her head.
"Heavens, no," she said. "I'm not afraid of him. I've known him for years. I'm just…I really don't want to know what's happened to this so-called friendship we've had for all these years."
"Anna, the only way you're going to find out whether or not Jack still wants anything to do with you is if you talk to him, and if you don't, then you won't get anywhere."
"But I don't want to lose him."
The admission had come out of nowhere. Anna's face went even more red than it already had been before, and she stared down at her desk. Kaye looked at her with raised eyebrows, and shook her head, smirking.
"I knew it," she said. "I knew there was something more going on than you just accidentally kissing him…"
"What? There's nothing!" Anna protested. "I swear there's nothing; we're just friends. It was a total accident…Oh, for the love of…Don't give me that look."
Kaye was still looking at her with raised eyebrows. "You just said that you didn't want to lose him," she said. "What do you think that's supposed to tell me? Anna, the fact that Jack hasn't given up on trying to talk to you means something, or haven't you realized that yet?"
"It means that he wants to know exactly what I think, and I'm afraid that if I talk to him, all I'm going to do is lie about it because I don't want to deal with this. And I don't want to deal with it. He still keeps Claire's pearls in his desk for heaven's sake!"
Now that was something she hadn't told anyone, not since he'd told her, a few years back, and she felt almost guilty for saying it to Kaye, but she, too, had been friends with Claire, and so it hardly really seemed to matter. Now Kaye shook her head, the amused look leaving her face.
"Anna, it's been almost eleven years now," she said. "Sooner or later he's going to have to get over her; I wouldn't be surprised if he already has gotten over her. Sure, he'll always have feelings for her, because they were together, and that's just the way things go, but you can't tell me that he's going to be stuck on her forever."
"Is this the lawyer talking, or the friend that has way too much experience on the playing field?" Anna asked dryly. Kaye kicked at her foot under the desks.
"Loser," she said, teasingly. "Seriously, Anna, I think you're overreacting about all of this. Avoiding him will get you nowhere. And taking off to Alaska sure as hell isn't going to get you anywhere."
Anna leaned forward in her seat again, and smirked. "But it will get me a place to clear my head, and a place to think."
"…in cold blood. There is, ladies and gentlemen, only one conclusion you can draw. This murder was pre-meditated, it was carried out, and now, a woman is dead. Find it in yourselves to make sure that justice is served."
Closing arguments were definitely the worst. It was the one thing he really hated about trials, because they were, to put it shortly, the difference between an acquittal and a conviction. The closing arguments, and the evidence that had been presented. Jack was halfway confident that they'd come out with a conviction, but at the same time, he had learned a long time ago never to think about it until after the decision had come.
After the jury went into deliberations, he left the courtroom, on his own. Connie had decided not to follow him. Well…at least, to wherever it was that he was going. She had followed him out of the courtroom, but other than that, there was nothing. She wasn't behind him, and he didn't feel like looking for her, either.
"If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn you'd swallowed a lemon." Kaye walked up beside him, and sighed. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Jack, don't avoid me now."
He gave her a look. "Don't think you can stand there and lecture me on not avoiding people," he said flatly, "I don't want to hear it, Kaye."
"Why the hell are you mad at me because Anna decided she wanted to take an impromptu vacation home?"
"You told me you'd try and get her to talk to me."
"What the hell do you think I've been doing, Jack? How juvenile is that, to avoid me because Anna doesn't feel like speaking to you?"
Jack glared at her. "I don't see why you're bothering to try and keep the peace here. If Anna doesn't want to talk to me, then fine. I won't talk to her, either. It's obvious she doesn't want any contact."
Kaye sighed. "Jack, it isn't like that. She just needs time to think."
"About what?" he asked, incredulously. "It was an accident; we both know it was an accident, it didn't mean anything, and it sure as hell hasn't ruined my friendship with her; I could care less."
"It isn't you, Jack. I swear it isn't you."
"And what makes you so sure about that?"
"Anna might not be talking to you, but she doesn't really have a choice but to talk to me; I'm her damn boss, for heaven's sake. She'll be back. You know she'll be back."
But he didn't. They had reached the courthouse doors. Jack pushed one open, and walked out after Kaye, the look on his face somewhere between misery and something that Kaye could not read.
"This is really killing you, isn't it?" she asked quietly, as they continued to walk, down the courthouse stairs. Jack sighed.
"I don't know," he said. "Part of me wants to go out there after her, but the other part wants to just let it go."
"She told me she didn't want to lose you." Kaye closed her eyes and sighed, shaking her head. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"Then why did you?"
"Because I'm not only a lawyer, I'm friends with the two of you, and I really don't like seeing you guys like this. That's why. I might be a defense attorney, but I'm not a cold-hearted bitch, Jack."
"I still think you should've become a prosecutor, you and Anna both. You'd have done well on our side."
"Yes, well, you and Claire did just fine, thanks." Jack looked at her with raised eyebrows, and she sighed. "Sorry. Wrong thing to say. But you know what I meant."
"That I do." Jack fell silent for a moment and then shook his head, looking at his watch. "I know we're on different sides of things, but d'you feel like going for something to eat with me? I don't particularly want to go on my own."
"That sounds great," said Kaye, "Really, it does. And you know, just because we're on different sides doesn't mean we can't be friends."
"If it did, then I wouldn't be speaking to you right now." A pause, and then both of them laughed.
"That's lovely, Jack," said Kaye, "Really, it is. And sooner or later, everything's going to work itself out. It always does, doesn't it?"
"Detective Green, Detective Cassady, Homicide."
Midday murders were definitely the worst, especially in the summer. It was hot, and the smell was almost unbearable. Nina followed her partner behind the crime scene tape lines, fighting back the desire to hold her nose.
"What've we got?" she asked. One of the uniforms nearby looked up.
"Routine murder," he said, giving her a once-over. She glared back at him, and he went on. "Couple of college kids found him." He motioned to the other side of the lines. Sure enough, there were two college-aged girls standing there, looking quite upset. Ed glanced over at Nina and then spoke.
"Any ID or are we looking at another John Doe?" he asked. They'd already had two other murders since that morning, both of them with no ID. It was one of the most frustrating things that a cop had to deal with.
"ID," said the uniform, without looking Nina in the eye, something that she was glad for, because she was halfway to saying something to him as it was. "Name's Michael Garrett. Apparently, he's some kind of psychologist."
"Garrett…why does that name sound so familiar…?" Nina trailed off and then snapped her fingers. "Got it. The psychologist that got McCoy's last trial ended in an acquittal."
"Great," said Ed dryly, "A revenge murder. Exactly what we need right now." He sounded annoyed, not that Nina could really blame him. Three murders in one day was definitely more than either one of them wanted to handle. Then again, they were Homicide detectives, and were therefore left without much of a choice but to deal with it.
"What makes you think it's a revenge murder?" Nina asked. He glanced over at her.
"Nothing, really. But we can't exactly rule it out, either. Lieu's gonna have a field day with this one…"
Yeah, she was, Nina thought. Especially with two other murders and the Chief of Detectives already on their backs. She crossed the crime scene tape again after Ed, and shook her head.
"This goes any farther, they're gonna end up shoving this on over to the Major Case Squad," she remarked.
"I'm not too sure that's not a good thing at this point," said Ed, "They'd probably be able to get somewhere faster than the two of us on our own."
"Hey," said Nina, "We're Homicide detectives. No one does it like we do. We'll get somewhere. We always do."
They hadn't even really been partners that long, and yet she reminded him somewhat of Lennie, Ed thought, what with her sarcasm and all. There really was no replacing Lennie, though, but Nina was a good enough partner, regardless. He offered up a faint smile as they walked towards the unmarked squad car that they always took out, and reached into his pocket for his keys.
"Second worst part of a cop's job," he said, "Having to tell somebody that their loved one's been murdered."
"Sometimes I really hate this job," Nina muttered, but got in on the passenger's side, anyway. They left the scene, headed for the home of the late Michael Garrett. They reached it soon after they left the scene, and walked up to the porch. Ed glanced at Nina and sighed.
"You want to do the honors, or should I?"