Puzzles of the Heart
Chapter 3
I enjoyed the next week we spent together. I think Bobby did too. We did not catch another case. We testified in court, took long lunches, tidied away the endless paperwork. No one would call it idyllic but by police standards it was close. Then our next case descended upon us like a maelstrom.
It started out a pretty little knotty problem with an interesting cast of characters that seemed tailor-made for Bobby's abilities. A jewelry heist pulled off by an Asian girl pretending to be a well-to-do Japanese woman directly from Tokyo and her handsome partner in crime. Bobby was convinced that the man was the only one of the pair who had actually ever spent anytime in Japan. The assistant had ended up dead in subway station just minutes after their getaway.
We followed the leads from the assistant's business card to his place of residence, to the shop where the clothing was bought for the woman to wear during the heist. All the dominos were falling into place. We deduced there was another more silent partner that the Asian woman was staying in sight for during her practice sessions with the assistant and during their shopping trip. We surmised that the Asian woman might be a bike messenger. We found the girls parents, surmised that she might try her next jewelry heist with a Singapore accent and got a hit from one of the store managers. In hindsight, I guess both of us should have realized that no case lays down in such a neat and straight line but neither of us saw the puppet master until she revealed herself at the dress shop across from the second jewelry store.
The clerk of the upscale dress shop remembered what the woman who had come into the store that morning had told her about the time she had spent at Oxford. The clerk said the woman had spent a couple of weeks there chasing boys. My heart sank into my shoes. "That has a familiar ring to it." I said but somehow I could sense that Bobby had already figured out that Nicole Wallace was back pulling the strings again. I watched his face as he dealt with the knowledge. I wanted to scream at him. I knew as well as he did what a rapid blink response meant. Here we go, I thought, down the goddam rabbit hole again. Only this time, I will make damn sure I play the queen and I promised myself Nicole was not leaving with her head.
We picked up Ella Miwasaki and began to question her. It had been my idea to play part of Nicole's interrogation tape for Ella, to try to create some chink in the armor that Nicole had woven around her. Watching our suspect's face, I think the plan worked but watching Bobby's face was an entirely different matter. Again I watch him battle with the dangerous subject matter the two of them had danced around years before. I could tell he was affected but was it by Nicole's rapier insight into his psyche or by just seeing her image and hearing her voice? Was he sickened by her or was he in love with her or was it, as I suspected, some unhinged combination of the two? I finally shut the tape off in disgust.
Once we came out of the interrogation room and the Captain told us Nicole was there waiting for Ella. I made damn sure that I entered the room first. I'm sure Bobby saw through my protective demeanor. Once I was in the doorway, I didn't move forward, effectively keeping him out of the room. As soon as Nicole realized I was not letting Bobby in the room, she attacked me by bringing up my pregnancy. Bobby actually moved me aside to enter the fray. I didn't know whether to be grateful or angry. The three of us sparred with the usual venom but, as Bobby mentioned to her, Nicole was off her game. She was more agitated than either of us had ever seen her. For the first time, I felt a glimmer of hope that she was no longer obsessed with my partner. Bobby was right, there was blood in the water.
Trying to follow Nicole's twisted sense of logic next took us to the financial advisor of her ex-husband Gavin Haines where we were able to thwart an attempt on the man's life.
A call to Sydney revealed a birth certificate showing Nicole Wallace and Rowan Bartlet as the parents and an accident report showing the little girl was swept out to sea three years later.
"We need to bring Ella and Nicole back in." Bobby said.
"Once we do, how do you want to play it?" I asked knowing his mind was already plotting a verbal trap for the false Ms Hitchens to fall into.
"Well," his hand reached back to rub his neck and a devious smile played at the corners of his mouth, "Nicole does seem to like teasing you about your pregnancy."
I grinned back. "I get it. Leave it to me. Do you want me to get disgusted and leave the two of you alone?"
He looked at me apologetically, "She never really loses it until its just the two of us."
As I watched Bobby spar yet again with Nicole from the other side of the mirror, I hoped sincerely that this would be the last time. I hoped that finally we would make a case strong enough to put her behind bars and keep her there. My mind continued to think of these pleasant thoughts when I heard Bobby's response to something Nicole had said.
"People like you and me just aren't fated to have children, Bobby."
"Well, don't count me out yet," was Bobby's reply.
My heart was hammering in my chest. I was sure the Captain and Carver must be able to hear it. Bobby wanted children? This was news to me. Maybe seeing me toddle around for nine months hadn't been such a turn off after all. Maybe seeing me with that pregnancy glow had gotten him thinking. Maybe.
The rest of Bobby's interrogation with Nicole was textbook. I was relieved to see that for the first time Bobby stayed out of Wallace's personal space. He stayed on his side of the table. He stayed impersonal. This was no longer a dance between two would-be lovers. Bobby was the professional. Nicole was just what she really was, a criminal, a murderer, a psychopath.
We used the knowledge of Nicole's deceased daughter to turn Ella Miwasaki and got her to agree to lure Nicole into a trap. The best laid traps of mice and men however often go astray. Nicole killed her young lover and either drowned in the east river or ingeniously staged her death. I couldn't believe she would still be alive but I could tell that my partner has serious doubts about it.
A/N Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Honestly I was overwhelmed. This is my first fan fic and this chapter and the next rely heavily on the details of Great Barrier and Want but the final chapter is all mine. I am also working on another story that parallels this one from Bobby's POV. Its called Mysteries of Love. Again thanks for the encouragement.