Chapter 26

This time, Joe Morelli didn't come to greet me. Instead, I was met by a plump middle-aged woman who smiled and held out her hand to me. "Ms. Plum? I'm Detective Burroughs." That was my first surprise.

"I can see I've surprised you," she said with a wry smile. "All the guys call me Eddie. At first I hated it, but now Edwina seems so formal I've adapted to really being one of the guys."

"I know quite a few of the detectives," I said. "I'm friends with Joe Morelli, but I didn't know you were part of the Crimes Against Persons squad." It felt strange and right at the same time to call Morelli a friend.

"I know about your friendship with Morelli," Eddie said. "The DA is insistent that you be re-questioned by a more, uh, neutral party. I am with Crimes Against Persons, but I'm not usually part of the homicide investigations."

And then came my second surprise.

"I specialize in sexual battery. Sometimes it's easier for a female victim to talk to another female. That's why the DA wanted me to re-question you."

"I'm not the victim here!" I exclaimed. "Paloma Acosta was the victim last night."

"She was," Eddie agreed, "but you are also a victim, my dear." Eddie's voice was soft, non-confrontational. "As I understand it, you've been abused, some might say tortured, and then blackmailed by Mr. Acosta and have dealt with the trauma for years. Now let's get down to the questions, shall we?"

She asked all the questions Joe had the night before and a few more. I was able to answer them all in a straightforward manner that kept all the information about Rafael's sexual relationship with David completely out of the picture. Everything was going to fall on me, just as we'd planned. All the details of my relationship with Rafael would come out and I could explain what I'd overheard the last night we were together before he'd disappeared.

I still had the text from Rafael when he had commanded me to show up at his house. I'd shared that screen shot with Joe the night before. It explained my presence, and RangeMan had everything lined out as to why Vince and Lester were there, as well as Tank and Ranger who were backing them up. And we had his confession. It was a solid case and I could see Eddie thought so, too.

But all the time I was answering, my mind kept leaping back to her looking at me with what I thought was pity in her eyes and saying, "You are a victim."

I knew on some level I had been a victim, but my victim card expired when I decided to take charge and go after Rafael. Apparently the DA, Joe and now Eddie were convinced I was some sort of walking wounded, damaged individual. I was not that person. I could handle having my worst nightmare dragged out in court and reported on in the papers. I would only be a pariah until the next worst thing came along. I could handle it. My boat was a steamship, and it was chugging up the river of denial.

"If Acosta pleads guilty to the murder of David Guzman, which is unlikely, there will be no murder trial. I've heard that it's his intent to plead self-defense in the murder of his sister," Eddie said. "And then there are the charges of his assault on you. Those will be harder to dismiss as there were several witnesses. Sometime before the trial you'll be paired with a victim's advocate."

"Victim's advocate?" I questioned. I was surprised at the weakness of my own voice. His intent to plead self-defense shook me a little because she'd come in brandishing a gun and he might have a case.

"A victim's advocate is someone who will talk with you before each day of the trial and prepare you for what you might hear. Before you take the stand, she can help prepare you for your questioning. We will know what our side plans to ask you, but of course the defense will have the right to cross examine, and we are never sure what tactic they'll take."

For some reason, Dickie Orr crossed my mind. Not likely that Rafael would use him, but I had to ask. "Do you know who Rafael's defense attorney is?"

"So far, he's refusing counsel and is saying he will act as his own counsel. He is an attorney after all, but the judge will encourage him to use another attorney. Less chance of a mistrial that way."

I shook hands with Eddie and left the police headquarters and hoped I seemed completely in control. I was not. I was shaking from head to toe. The thought of being inches away from Rafael in a courtroom while he badgered me and tried to get me to say things to exonerate him, petrified me.

By the time I got to my car tears were streaming down my face. I looked in vain for something to wipe my face, but there was not even a tissue let alone a random Cluck-in-a-Bucket napkin. I used my sleeve to wipe both tears and snot, and it was that simple action that made me see just how much of a mess I was. I dug in my messenger bag and pulled out my phone and the card Vince had handed me barely an hour ago. I dialed and half-hoped she answered and half-hoped it went to voice mail. She answered.

At a little after six I answered the knock on my door to find Lula carrying a Pino's pizza box and Connie behind her holding two bottles of wine.

"Come in," I said. "Thanks for picking dinner up, but it's my treat. What do I owe you."

"You don't owe us nothin'," Lula said. "This here meal is on Officer Hottie. He was at Pino's with his girlfriend, Sister Elizabeth the nun, and he paid for this."

"She's not a nun anymore," Connie said. "Even Morelli would draw the line at nailing a nun. She's just plain Elizabeth now."

"Yeah, she is kinda plain," Lula said. "Not fashionable at all. I should give her some wardrobe tips." Both Connie and I rolled our eyes at that thought.

"Anyways," Lula continued, "Morelli heard us say we were pickin' up an order for you and he said it was on him and to be real nice to you cause you had a rough day."

"You could say that," I said. "Put the pizza on the coffee table and we'll eat in the living room. I've got quite a story to tell you."

"That's what I figured," Lula said. "We tried to get the details outta Vince, but he wouldn't talk."

"Lucky for you I'm in the mood to talk," I said. "I've been talking all day, but you guys need to hear the whole story."

"That we do," Connie said. "I know you though and I know what I've heard from the family, and I think you need some wine in you before we talk. I want to make sure you don't leave any details out."

"You don't have to get me drunk to make me spill the whole story," I said. "You remember the day when I caught Buddy Riggins and I came in to find the two of you reading about Rafael?" Two heads nodded. "I said I didn't know him, but I did. He was the first man I slept with after Dickie."

Connie walked into the kitchen. I heard my refrigerator door open and close. She came back in with only one bottle of wine and a corkscrew which she expertly used. She handed the open bottle to me. "Take a swig and start talking." I did.

We ate pizza and drank wine while I once again shared my secret, though I couldn't even consider it a secret any longer. Too many people knew. Lula kept her mouth shut while I told Connie the part I'd shared some time ago with her. I appreciated that. I didn't want Connie to feel slighted that she hadn't known. Part two of the story was the fiasco of the evening before and that was new to them both. I'd gotten good at telling the story. I did it in a concise, straightforward manner. I hoped I'd be able to do it in the same way when I was on the witness stand.

"Girl, you've been through it!" Lula said. "I can't believe you're so calm."

"I'm not calm at all," I replied. "I think I'm in shock or something like it. There is a little more to the story."

"More!" Connie exclaimed. "What more could there be?"

"Rafael is acting as his own attorney," I said. "Unless he pleads guilty the case will go to trial and I'll be a witness. He will be cross-examining me. When I heard that today I had a moment. A really big moment. You might even say I had a kind of breakdown."

"You need to get some counseling," Lula said. It wasn't the first time she'd suggested it.

"Vince thinks I should too," I said. "I kind of lost it with Manny today, and Vince told me he thought I would benefit from talking to someone."

"That don't count," Lula snorted. "Anybody can lose it with that jerk."

"Maybe he doesn't count," I said, "but I was a little out of line with him. And then I went in for questioning at the TPD and the detective they had me talk to is their specialist on sexual battery. She kept calling me a victim and, at first, I didn't think I was, but I'm reconsidering. Vince gave me a card of a therapist he's ...he knows."

"Yeah, he told us about that," Connie said. "He told us he was in trouble at RangeMan and needs anger management help. I've never seen him angry, but he says he can be intense. Are you going to go see her?"

"I did," I said. "I called in the middle of this crisis-breakdown thingy, and she told me to come right over. We worked out a plan and I'm going to start seeing her on a regular basis. I don't know if it will work, but it can't hurt."

"That's great!" Lula said.

The sound of locks tumbling had us all turning our heads toward the door. It swung open and Ranger stepped into my apartment. Lula made a point of looking at his hands.

"Where's the key?" she asked. "I don't see no key. How do you do that?"

Ranger gave her a small tight smile. "Pizza party is over, ladies. You need to head out."

Ranger had said earlier that if I stayed at my place, he'd likely be over, but that didn't give him the right to usher out my guests.

"We've still got wine to drink," I said. "The party's not quite over."

"Acosta made bail," Ranger said. "He's out and not at his home, because his home is a crime scene and he can't get in. We don't know where he is."

"What?" I gasped. "That's crazy. How could he get bonded out? He's got dual citizenship. He's a flight risk. He shot his sister. Why'd they let him out?"

"The why isn't as important as the fact that he's out, and I think this apartment isn't the safest place to be right now."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Connie said. She grabbed the second mostly empty bottle of wine. "C'mon Lula. It's time to go home."

After they'd gone, I stood and just stared at Ranger. The news might have turned me into another quivering mess, and I wondered if that's what Ranger was waiting to see. I was quivering I realized but not with fear. I was angry.

"Who the hell thought it was a good idea to set bail for a man accused of two murders?" I asked. It was a rhetorical question. I wasn't expecting an answer and certainly not the answer I got.

"Alicia Campaneros," Ranger said.

I frowned at the vague familiarity of the name.

"The same judge who alibied him the night of David's murder," Ranger said. "We need to relook at the tapes and ID all the women. The facial recognition software should help."

He was right, and it should have been done a couple of days ago, but I was preoccupied with planning our scheme to get Rafael. We got him but Alicia Campaneros let him go.

"I'm sorry for the judge," I said. "I guess she's one of his victims too. He's obviously got something on her and she probably had no choice, but I'm pissed. At her and and…" I stopped talking, overwhelmed by a sudden thought.

"Who posted bail? Tell me it wasn't Vinnie!"

"It wasn't. It was Munoz Bail Bonds. His bail was set at a million and he had no trouble securing the bond. He paid his bond with his own resources."

"He had a million dollars just laying around? Why did he need a bail bondsman then?" I couldn't wrap my mind around what I was hearing.

"He needed a bail bondsman because he was released under the condition he would be GPS monitored."

"An ankle bracelet?" I asked. Ranger nodded. I knew about GPS monitoring of people out on bond. Vinnie hadn't started doing it yet, but it was probably inevitable that he would. It was technology and the way of the future.

"You said you didn't know where he was," I said to Ranger. "Someone at Munoz Bail Bonds surely knows."

"That's not the way it works," Ranger said. "The GPS doesn't alert anyone of his exact location as long as he stays inside the mandated area. In Acosta's case it's the county. He can move around freely if he stays within the county boundaries. If he leaves the GPS alerts."

"He could be waiting outside my door," I said.

"He could be," Ranger agreed. "I'd like you to stay at RangeMan for the time being."

"It's not fair!" I cried. "He gets out of jail after admitting that he killed a man and he can move around freely. I get put in jail. I can't go about my daily activities. I can't work. I can't even go see my family."

"It's temporary," Ranger said. "I've got a tracker on his personal vehicle. We're monitoring his accounts. We'll find him soon. He has to check in with the courts on a weekly basis. Once we get a handle on his location, I'll assign someone to follow him 24/7."

I should have been comforted by that. Instead, I could only wonder how long it would be until his case came to trial. Or what I would do if he was able to get out of the country. Would I be looking over my shoulder for years to come?

I grabbed my messenger bag and looked around the apartment. I didn't know how long it would be until I was able to come home. "Let's go," I said to Ranger. And then I began to cry.