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Til Death Do Us Part
Chapter 3
It's another early morning for Santana, but at least this morning she gets a goodbye kiss from an awake Rachel since she was working the early shift at the diner. She has a bust morning ahead, she had prepared herself as much as she could the night before, and she has to get information out of the suspects if she wanted to make a good case against them in court.
As she enters the station she finds her partner at his desk reading through some case files. As she approaches his desk, he looks up.
"Good morning sunshine. You okay?"
"I'm good, thanks Dobbs. Rachel and I talked last night and I think we're going to be okay."
"That's great San. I'm happy for you."
"So do you know the schedule for the interviews?" Santana asks.
"We'll start with Marsden. Estevez's lawyer isn't here yet and the lawyer we appointed Phelps can only get here at ten."
"Alright, do you want to take the lead?"
"I think you got this one Lopez."
"I've always got it."
"That's because I'm just here to look pretty" Dobbs laughs.
"You're an idiot. Come on, we've got a criminal to interrogate."
Santana picks up the police files that Dobbs was reviewing earlier; she has her own notes with her too. One thing that Santana has learned during her time as a police officer is that you can't be prepared enough.
Santana enters the interview room with Dobbs following behind her. She eyes up the man sitting at the table as she sits across from him. She's only seen him once before and that was the night she arrested him at the warehouse.
"Please state your full name for the record." Dobbs says.
"Eric Marsden."
"So Eric what were you doing at the warehouse in Lima Heights?" Santana asks.
"I was just hanging out with some friends."
"Which friends are you referring to?"
"There were a lot of people there, we were having a party, but lots of people left about an hour before you arrived."
"We had officers sat outside the warehouse long before you arrived so we know that there were only three people that entered the warehouse." Santana informs her suspect.
"Okay fine, it was just me, T and some other kid. I don't remember his name" Marsden admits.
"You're referring to Tiago Estevez and Thomas Phelps." Dobbs presses.
"Yeah, Tom that's his name."
"We found evidence of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy on a table in the warehouse."
"It ain't mine" Marsden says cutting off Dobbs' question.
"Then whose is it?"
"I don't know."
"Eric since your still on parole, your case is going to be revaluated after your arrest. If you help us out then maybe we can help you out." Dobbs explains.
"I told you, I don't know whose it is, but it ain't mine."
"Eric your previous conviction was for drugs, you've been out of prison for a few months and you've already been arrested on another drug charge. You must have some connection to a supplier."
"I don't know any supplier. T called me and said that he needed someone to help him out and since I got out of prison, it's been hard to get a job and I needed money. I told him I would help him out once and that was tonight." Marsden explains.
"So you have no idea who supplies the drugs to Tiago Estevez?"
"No I promise. If I knew I would tell you, I know that T will throw me under the bus so honestly I would admit it if I knew."
"Okay, we'll put you in the holding cells for tonight. We might talk to you again if we gather any new evidence or if we need more information Thank you Eric."
Santana was just finishing her lunch when her fellow officer Daniel Clarke appears at the side of her desk.
"Lopez, Dobbs. Thomas Phelps is waiting in interview room three."
"Thanks Dan." Dobbs says, rising from his desk.
"You can take the lead on this one pretty boy." Santana teases, as she walks past her partner and over to the interview rooms.
The first thing she sees as she enters interview room three is a nervous looking man in his early twenties. She takes a seat at the table, with Dobbs copying her movements.
"Please state your full name for the record." Dobbs says.
"Thomas Christopher Phelps, but I didn't do anything I swear."
"Why were you in the warehouse in Lima Heights?" Dobbs asks.
"I'm scared okay, I messed up. If I talk, they'll hurt me."
"Thomas the only way we can shut down this operation is with your help. If you help us then we can help you; we can get you police protection."
"Kyle told me about the deal." Phelps admits.
"Kyle who?" Santana questions.
"Kyle Walker. He said that he had a job for me; he said that I just have to push some weed or pills and I would get cash in hand. I just lost my job and I got bills you know."
"What did Walker tell you about this deal?" Dobbs presses.
"He said that a guy name Estevez could sort me out with some gear. He said that I could trust him because they had worked together before. I have never done anything like this before, I swear, but I was desperate" Phelps explains.
"How long has Walker been working for Estevez?"
"They've been meeting every month for the past year or so. They didn't tell me much just that Estevez's supplier could get anything people demanded."
"Estevez has a supplier?" Santana asks.
"Yeah, he gets the stuff from a supplier and then he hires a couple of guys like me and Kyle to help sell."
"The supplier; what's his name?"
"I don't know, I told you they didn't tell me anything. I just overheard parts of their conversations and I've told you everything I know. I've already put myself in danger with what I've told you, why would I be lying now?"
Santana can tell by the look on Phelps' face that he's telling the truth. He's just a young guy that got caught up in a situation bigger than her realized because he was desperate for money. She's seen this happen many times over her career.
"I know that you've found yourself in a position you didn't expect, but this is why you have to stay away from people like Walker and Marsden or you'll get dragged into something that is way over your head. You've been helpful with the information you've given us and I'll make sure to put that in my report" Santana says.
"Jones, can you please take Mr. Phelps her to the cells?"
Once Phelps is escorted out of the room Dobbs and Santana use the interview room to discus the information they've just been given.
"So Estevez isn't at the top of this drug dealing ladder" Dobbs says.
"No. He's like the manager and Walker and Phelps are his employees. We just need to find the CEO, the guy at the top."
"The puppet master."
"Exactly. It looks like this case is going to be more complicated that we thought. We assumed that Estevez was the supplier and the kids were the dealers and that was it, but if Estevez isn't the top of the chain, then we could be dealing with a drug ring or something bigger. Hopefully we'll get a better picture once we've spoken to Estevez plus I think we should talk to Kyle Walker again too" Santana suggests.
"That's a good idea; he could be helping Estevez recruit new dealers. At least we've made some progress today, we've got three dealers off the street and if we can bring down a whole drug ring that's even better. We'd definitely deserve a medal or something for that."
"Is that all you care about? A shiny new piece of jewelry?" Santana teases.
"I've got to keep the wife interested somehow."
"Well I don't have that problem" Santana smirks.
"You say that now, just wait until your married!" Dobbs laughs.
"Whatever. I'll see you later Dobbs; I've got something to do."
"Alright partner, I'll see you tomorrow."
Santana has been staring at the computer screen for at least an hour, but she hasn't gotten anywhere with her investigation into Rachel's ex-husband. She has been through every search on the police database, but still she found no trace of Nick.
"I'm starting to get frustrated."
"What's troubling you?" Abbey asks.
"I'm looking for someone, but I'm having trouble finding them. I've had no hits on any of the police databases and I even searched the marriage records, but there is no sign of him."
"What's his name?"
"Nick Arnstein."
"Nick Arnstein, like the character from Funny Girl" Abbey says with a laugh.
"Wait, what did you just say?"
"Nick Arnstein he's a character from Funny Girl, it's a musical."
"Yeah I know what it is, it's Rachel's favorite."
"That's a coincidence."
"I don't think it is" Santana says getting up from the chair and heading for the door.
"Thanks Abbey" she calls over her shoulder as she exits he room.
Santana can't believe that Rachel lied to her, not after she gave her the chance to be honest and come clean. The thing that bothers Santana the most is the reason why Rachel lied. Was what she was hiding so awful that she couldn't tell her girlfriend?
The other thing that pisses Santana off is the fact that Rachel used a character from her favorite musical. Rachel knew that Santana wouldn't see the connection and that just implied that Santana doesn't pay attention to Rachel's interests.
Which is not true, she has sat through all of Rachel's musicals and she has even watched a few multiple times, but one showing of Funny Girl was enough for Santana, so she hadn't seen it since the first time nearly five years ago.
As Santana drives towards the apartment she shares with Rachel she spends most of her time cursing musicals and Barbara Streisand. At least she knew who the actress was in Funny Girl; Rachel would never let her forget that.
She tries to calm herself as she enters the apartment but when she hears Rachel humming a song from Chicago it just riles her up again.
"Hey baby, how was your day?" Rachel greets as Santana walks into the living room.
"I searched for Nick today."
"Oh, any luck? I had none when I tried to find him years ago, but since you're a police officer you're obviously more qualified."
"I found him."
"Really?"
"Yeah, apparently he lives in New York and has a girlfriend called Fanny, but I guess you knew that didn't you. No wonder you couldn't find him, it's pretty hard to find a person that doesn't exist."
"San..."
"Why did you lie to me?" Santana asks.
"It's complicated."
"Please let's not bullshit anymore, just tell me the truth. Whatever it is can't be as bad as all of the things I'm imagining in my head" Santana says, trying to contain her anger.
"My name isn't Rachel Berry."
"That was definitely not one of the scenarios in my head. What do you mean your name isn't Rachel Berry?"
"My real name is Rachel Jacobi-Jones and I was put in witness protection seven years ago."
"You weren't kidding when you said it was complicated" Santana says taking a seat on the couch, hoping that sitting down would help her get her head around Rachel's confession.
"I know it's a lot to deal with. You're the only person that I've ever told."
"So you've been lying to me the whole time we've been together?" Santana asks.
"I didn't have a choice. The only thing I lied about was my name and the fact that I have been previously married. Everything else about my life I told you was true. I was born in New York to my fathers; Leroy and Hiram. My life growing up all of that was real; I just left out one year when I was Rachel Byrne. I also had to lie about the reason I moved to Lima, but that's it."
"So you really were in the glee club in high school?"
"Yes I was. That's not really something someone would lie about."
"Did you always want to be on Broadway?"
"Yes I did. I went to performing arts college in New York, but left after two years when I got a role in an off Broadway play. I was in the play for two months and then I started auditioning for other roles, but was unsuccessful. I had to get away from New York for a while and I took a break for a year. I've told you this before. What I didn't tell you was what I did in that year."
"You told me you travelled, but instead you were playing house with some guy?"
"I did technically travel, that's where I met him. His name is Patrick Byrne. I met him in London about eight years ago, as I said since I was trying to kick start my musical theatre career and I was getting nowhere on Broadway I decided to try my luck on the West End instead."
"I met him at a bar; I was immediately taken by his Irish accent. He was sweet and I didn't know many people in the city so when he asked me on a date I accepted. I was in London for six months and on the day I was leaving, he proposed. He said he didn't want me to leave and that he wanted us to be together forever. I thought I was in love with him and he loved me so I said yes."
"I had to leave, but we talked to each other on the phone everyday and a month later he surprised me and turned up in New York he told me about a friend that had a job for him and we got married two months later."
"Everything is sounding pretty peachy to me, but you still haven't explained why you're in witness protection" Santana says.
"I'm getting to that part; it comes after we're married. The first month of our marriage was great. We had our honeymoon in Ireland so we could celebrate with his family, everything was perfect. But, as the weeks went on things started to feel different. Patrick was always working late and sometimes he would disappear without a word, but he would always shrug it off as being busy at work.
I managed to get a another part in an off Broadway show so I was at rehearsals during the days and when I would home at night Patrick was never there, I felt we had drifted apart. We hardly ever spent time together so one day I decided to surprise him at work."
"When I walked in, I heard yelling. I could tell it was Patrick by his accent. I was curious about the commotion so I went to see what was wrong, what I didn't expect was to find Patrick standing there pointing a gun at another man."
"He killed him Santana; he shot him right in front of me. The sound of the gunshot made me jump and I unintentionally made a noise, Patrick noticed me. He called my name and started to approach me, the gun was still in his hand so I ran. I didn't know where to go; I was scared to go home. I just started walking around a local park, thinking about what I saw and then I came to the decision to go to the police."
"I testified against him in court, but the case was dropped, there were inconstancies in the evidence. The police put me into witness protection for my safety. I know that I should have told you when you first asked about who I was married to, but I've had to keep this a secret for so long that it was hard for me to talk about it. I'm not actually supposed to talk about it because Patrick is still out there. I know that I can trust you especially because you're a police officer, but I was scared to tell the truth."
"I wish you had told me the truth from the beginning, but I also get why you hid the truth. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that and just so you know, you're safe with me" Santana says placing her hand over Rachel's.
"I know, I think that's what drew me to you in the first place."
"So it wasn't my good looks?"
"Maybe a little bit. I really am sorry for lying to you again."
"I know and an hour ago I was ready to call off the engagement, but hearing your story has put things into perspective. I understand why you lied about your past, hell you had no choice. When you first confessed the first thought that ran through my mind was that I had been living with a stranger for years."
"I promise, everything you know about me is true. I've been through a lot in my life and this is who I am now. I'm Rachel Berry, the Rachel Berry you fell in love with."
"It might take me a while to get used to this new information, but it hasn't changed how I feel about you. I still love you."
"That's good because I love you too" Rachel says, barley managing to contain her smile.
"I know that you said that you are Rachel Berry now, but how do you feel about changing your name again because I think Rachel Lopez has a ring to it."
"I would love nothing more than to become Mrs. Lopez."
"Come here" Santana says, pulling Rachel in for a hug.
Santana wasn't lying when she said that it might take some time to get used to the idea of Rachel's past, but it wasn't the worst news in the world. She can't really blame Rachel for keeping her past to herself; that was the whole point of being in witness protection. Rachel was obviously scared of this man, but at least now she was also under Santana's protection too.
It's Santana's lunch hour, but she has rejected Dobbs' offer of lunch so she could use this free time to investigate Rachel's ex-husband.
Rachel had explained her story so Santana knew exactly who she was looking for. She had some information on Patrick Byrne from Rachel, but Santana knows that she'll get a clearer picture once she has done her own research on the police computers.
Santana starts by pulling up Patrick's police file. It's the first time that she's seen his face. The photo was taken the last time he was arrested seven years ago, for the crime Rachel turned him in for. Byrne had short blonde hair and blue eyes, his clean shaven face highlighted his dimples. He looked like a member of a nineties boy band and even though Santana had a different preference, she can see why Rachel fell for him.
It's funny how polar opposite he is to herself, maybe that's what Rachel wanted; a completely different start in life and a completely different partner to start it with.
Santana scrolls past Byrne's photo, down to his criminal record. It surprises her that his record is fairly short. His last arrest was for the murder of Stephen Rodgers, the man Rachel saw him kill. Santana opens up the case file; it's filled with notes about the investigation. A lot of the information she already knew from Rachel.
He was arrested for the murder after Rachel had reported the incident. There was a full investigation, Byrne went to court and Rachel testified. That's when the problems started, evidence went missing and witness statements changed. The case fell through and Byrne was allowed to walk free.
The police tried to get a case together to charge Byrne with witness tampering after he threatened Rachel, but there was not enough evidence and because there was no physical interference, the case didn't stand. That's when Rachel was put in to witness protection.
Patrick Byrne's record was clean after Rachel's case against him. Santana has a feeling that it has more to do with him being careful not that he had a change of heart, men like him don't change.
That's what worries Santana the most, he had threatened Rachel once before and he would more than likely do it again. Santana is slightly annoyed that Rachel hadn't mentioned that Byrne had threatened her, but she also knows that she probably did it for her own good. Rachel knows Santana inside and out and she knows how she can react in certain situations. That means Rachel would know that if Santana knew that this man had threatened her fiancé then it would probably have set Santana off into what Rachel likes to call one of her "Rage Moments."
The thought of Rachel reminds Santana of why she is doing this research in the first place; she needs as much information as she can so she can protect Rachel from this man if she needs to.
Byrne's record before the arrest for murder was sporadic, just a few arrests here and there, but no charges were ever brought against him. There were a few cases in Ireland and England, but most were minor crimes that didn't involve any prison sentences. Since she exhausted the police databases Santana's next move is a good old fashioned Google search.
She finds a news article from the Derry Journal, a newspaper from the city Derry in Northern Ireland. It was an article about a man that had been beaten in what the paper referred to as a gang related incident. Byrne was nineteen at the time and had been a suspect in the case as well as four other men, but no charges were brought against them as the injured man refused to press any charges.
Santana was certainly getting a clearer picture of Patrick Byrne now and the more she read, the more worried she became. This man was dangerous and somehow he is able to slip through the law's net quite easily.
Santana is sat at her desk reading over some witness statements. They were called to a house yesterday morning after a neighbor had called about a domestic disturbance. When they arrived they found a man standing on the front lawn as his wife threw out his belongings out of the bedroom window. According to the wife after ten years of marriage, her husband decided to seek pastures new and had an affair. When his wife found out she went crazy and took her anger out on her husbands' possessions. Santana hopes to god that she and Rachel don't end up like that.
Santana loves her job, but sometimes cases like this make her want to tear her hair out. She's got better things to do with her time than playing peace maker in a marital dispute.
"Hey Santana, Matthews wants everyone working on the Warehouse case to come for a briefing in ten minutes" Officer Clarke says as he approaches her desk.
"Thanks Dan."
Santana enters the briefing room and makes her way over to the empty seat next to Dobbs. As she passes him, she takes the donut out of his hand. She sits on the seat and takes a bite of the sugary snack.
"That was my breakfast."
"This crap is the reason why you can't keep up in a foot chase" Santana says as she tosses the donut in a nearby trash can.
Dobbs is about to reply, but is interrupted by Captain Mathews.
"Listen up, it's been a week since we busted the warehouse and I wanted a quick update from everybody. Lopez, what information did we get from the suspect interviews?"
"Clarke, what have you got for us?"
"We finally got the CCTV footage from the building opposite the warehouse. They have a camera that faces the front door of the warehouse so we scoured through hours of footage to see if there was anything useful. We found a clip of someone entering the warehouse just hours before the bust" Clarke explains as he plays the footage of a white Audi pulling up outside of the warehouse.
A man exits the car and enters the warehouse. He's facing away from the camera and it all happens so fast that it doesn't mount to much useful information.
"He exits the building seven minutes later" Clarke says as he fast forwards the video until the man exits the warehouse again. This time he's facing the camera but the footage is distant.
"I asked Abbey in the lab to try and get us a better view of this part of the footage and he managed to get an enhanced image of the man's face."
The image of the man's face appears on the screen, it isn't perfect but the man's face can be clearly seen.
"We think that this man could be involved in the drug ring so we need to find out who he is, so we can speak to him."
Santana is still in shock at seeing the man's face, the face she was analyzing just yesterday.
"That's my fiancée's ex-husband."
"Santana, you know this man?" Mathews asks.
"Yes sir. I was researching him just yesterday. I have a file on him in my desk."
"Please get the file, any information on this man could be useful."
Santana exits the meeting room and returns just a few minutes later with a file in her hand.
"His name is Patrick Byrne, he's thirty years old and is from Derry in Northern Ireland." Santana explains as she pins a photo of Byrne on the whiteboard.
"He has a record that includes multiple arrests for multiple violent crimes, including one for murder but he hasn't been charged for any of the offences."
"When was his last arrest?"
"It was seven years ago. It was an arrest for murder, his case went to trail, but he was never convicted because of an inconstancy with the evidence."
"Okay, thanks Santana. We need to bring this guy in for questioning so Tom and Alan, I want you two on that. That's it for the meeting, thank you everyone."
"Santana can I speak to you for a moment?" Matthews asks.
"Yes sir."
"You said something before you revealed Patrick Byrne's identity; something regarding your fiancée."
"She was married to Patrick Byrne, we'll technically she still is married to him."
"Santana if you have a personal connection you know you can't work the case" Matthews explains.
"I know but Byrne is only a person of interest at the moment, he's not a suspect."
"This is a big case Santana and if you could jeopardize a result if Byrne is involved, then you can't be on the case. You mentioned that his last case had inconsistencies in evidence, we can't risk anything like that with this case."
"I understand that Captain but.."
"Don't make me suspend you as a precaution."
"That won't be necessary sir, just keep me updated, but if we clear Byrne from the investigation that means I can work the case again right?"
"Right and I'll find another case for you to work on in the meantime."