Boulevard of Broken Dreams
author: BambiBlake007
summary: Danny suspects something is going on b/t Lindsay & Flack. Danny & Lindsay question Chloe Phillips' friends.
rating: M, just to be safe.
pairing(s): none. hints of DL past/present. eluding to a possible FM relationship forming. idk.
author's note: idk. i was never really sure about what was going on b/t Danny & Lindsay during the Montana thing. ya kno, i think she was totally using him for her own advantage, now, but when i was writing this, i had no clue if he was the one being "love sick/jealous" or if it was her tht was just manipulating things to get her own way. so some of this may be a lil OC, idk. you judge it for yourself, i guess, lol. great, now i've told ya too much & you probably won't even read the rest, just cos ya think i have no idea what the heck i'm doing!! ignore me. just read it :)
author's note pt2: R/R plz. feedback is love!!
Chapter 7
Danny stopped by his office to call Lindsay.
He needed her to go with him to interview Chloe Phillips' friends. He felt that if he brought a girl along with him, they would be more apt to answer the questions. He would have called Angell, but she had already done enough for the time being. Besides, this was his and Lindsay's case. She might've gotten offended if he didn't call her.
Just as he was about to dial her number, Lindsay appeared at the door. Her face was flushed. She seemed distracted.
"Hey! I was just 'bout to call you," Danny told her as he put the phone back on the hook.
Lindsay didn't reply.
"Where ya been?"
Lindsay avoided his eyes. "With Flack."
Danny nodded, not pushing for details. "We gotta go talk to Chloe's friends."
Lindsay nodded, still not meeting his eyes.
"The boyfriend is a no-go. His DNA doesn't match up with the perp's semen."
"You found him?" Lindsay asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Yeah. Me and Angell tracked him down." Danny moved around his desk. "You OK?"
Lindsay looked up, blinking. "Huh? Yeah. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"You seem kinda out of it. Have ya been cryin'?" Danny leaned down toward her as he spoke.
Lindsay shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm just--I'm fine, Danny. Ok?"
"Ok. I just thought--"
"You can't be my Knight in Shining Armor all the time, Danny! I have other friends, ya know."
"Whoa, Montana! I just asked ya if you was ok. You have got to stop biting my head off every time I ask you that."
"Maybe you shouldn't ask every five minutes," Lindsay answered, coldly.
Danny stepped back. "What were you and Flack doin'?"
"Nothing. Working."
"Anything else?" Danny asked, suspicious.
Lindsay's eyes widened. "You can't be serious!"
Danny didn't answer, keeping his serious eyes trained on her.
"Nothing is going on between me and Flack! God! Could you be any more childish?" Lindsay threw her hands up in disgust.
Danny pushed his hands against his hips. "I know Don."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lindsay asked.
"He's charming, Linds. He's... Don Flack. You do the math," he answered.
Lindsay shook her head in disbelief. Sometimes Danny could be so damn impossible. Sometimes he could be insanely jealous--for no reason at all--and just expect her to accept that. Sometimes he could be annoying in the way that he jumped to conclusions--outlandish ones at that. She wanted to strangle him when he acted this way. He thought he owned her sometimes, and she liked the thought of that, most of the time, but sometimes she just couldn't deal with his possessiveness. It was like she could push him away and he'd just retaliate by smothering her even more. She knew it was not his fault entirely, because she had a bad habit of letting him get too close and then running away from his advances. She wanted to Love him, but it was not that easy for her to let her guard down and just let herself fall like that. She had too much from her past to begin letting go of it and letting Danny in. He had no idea of how to treat her, how to react to her, sometimes. She knew this. She knew she was the reason behind him behaving like some jealous idiot.
"Flack and I were working on another case, if you must know. He asked me to help him out with some DNA. We had to wait for some lab work and decided to get a cup of coffee. We were just talking," Lindsay told him.
Danny snickered sarcastically.
"That's not fair, Danny."
"What did you two talk about?" Danny asked, innocently.
"Stuff."
"Stuff?"
"Montana."
"Oh, Montana?"
"Danny--"
"No! That's fine. I get it. You can talk to Don about Montana, but not me. That's cool, really," Danny cut in.
"You know why I can't talk to you about what happened in Montana, Danny. It's just too hard..."
"Because I'm not Don Flack. Ya know what? You don't have to talk to me about Montana. I just want you to talk to me... About something," he reminded her.
Lindsay sighed heavily. She hated confrontations. "Are we done here?" she asked, after a moment.
"I guess we are. We have work to do." Danny pushed past her and headed down the corridor without another word. Lindsay followed behind, a headache coming on.
The three girls set on the couch, eying the two Detectives who were seated on the love-seat.
Ashley Du Gray, the one on the right, was a blond. Her hair was short, cut into a bob, and streaked through with a copper color that matched her eyes perfectly. She was dressed in a tight blue sweater that accented her curves perfectly with a short denim skirt that was tattered at the bottom. On her feet were silver colored strappy shoes.
In the middle was Michelle Lehman. She was tall and slim with reddish brown colored hair. She wore a similar outfit to what Ashely had on, except that hers was a mint green color and she wore black colored leggings that stopped just above her ankles. On her feet, were a pair of silver strappy shoes, like Ashely's pair.
On the left side of the couch set Kristine Whitmore, who everyone had been calling Kris since she was a little girl. She might have had a tom-boy name, but she was far from a tom-boy by the looks of things. She was dressed like the other two in pink. She did not wear leggings or a denim skirt, she wore a black one, instead. She had blond hair, obviously dyed, because her dark roots were showing through. She had on the same kind of shoes as the other two girls: strappy and silver.
Danny took note of the three girls' shoes. The mystery girl had been wearing a pair of shoes that had silver glitter on them. Adam had found the glitter in the imprint. Was one of these girls their mystery woman? The mystery woman who had watched?
"You three knew Chloe Phillips, then?" Danny asked, breaking the eerie silence that had fallen over them.
Ashley crossed her legs, seductively. She leaned over toward the young Detective. "Are you really a cop?"
Danny nodded, instinctively licking his lips. It was a terrible habit he had, but he couldn't seem to break it. He did it so much, it had become part of who he was.
"Ooh. Sexy lips..." Ashley purred.
Danny blushed, even though, he didn't mean to do it. She was just a kid. What was he thinking--leading her on like this? Making her think that he liked the way she was looking at him; the way she was speaking to him.
She moved her fingertip up her leg, letting it linger just below the hem of her skirt. She liked this. She liked to make boys sweat. This was not a boy, though, this was a man. A hot--ruggedly handsome man, who had a lot of life-experience under his belt (and probably something much more tasty beyond it) She giggled softly, as that thought went through her mind. Naughty Girl.
Danny tried not to look at Ashley's fingertip as she moved it up her leg, but he was a man--a red blooded man--who enjoyed the game as much as the pleasure that would follow. He knew that if this were some girl--an older girl--he would play along and get the reward at the end of the night. But he had to remind himself that this girl was barely legal--and part of an open murder investigation. He might not of played along with her game--even for a second--if he had not been angry with Lindsay. He knew, deep down, that he was being unprofessional by letting the girl think--even for a second--that he was interested in her. Or that he enjoyed her sexual advances, no matter how blatantly subtle they might have been.
But he wanted to piss Lindsay off because she was being completely ridiculous about the Montana thing. The nerve of her to go behind his back and talk to Flack about everything that she was going through--hiding from everyone around her--and leave him there in the dark, like some Love-sick fool. Danny only wanted her to feel foolish, even if for only a moment. Especially after he'd gone all the way to Montana to sit right beside her inside that court room, holding her hand, being there for her, being her friend. He'd thought that was what she'd wanted from him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she'd rather had Don with her.
He knew it was mean of him to be acting like come junior high schooler, but he couldn't help the way he felt. He just wanted retribution for what she was putting him through. Make her squirm a bit under the cold stare of ridicule. He cut his ice blue eyes over to Lindsay. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, staring daggers at the oblivious girl across from her as did so.
"You're too hot to be a cop," Ashley continued, not moving her eyes from Danny's face. She bit her lip, her eyes betraying her, showing that it was lust she was trying to hide behind them.
"Ash! Stop actin' like a slut!" Michelle cut into her friend's fun. "Alice is dead."
"Like I don't know, Michelle!" Ashley turned to her friend, and stared at her, a cold look over her soft features.
"Then, do us all a favor and stop hitting on the nice policeman," Michelle told her through gritted teeth.
"Look at him, Michelle." Ashley whined as she turned her attention back on Danny. "He's like sex-candy."
Danny cleared his throat, glancing back at Lindsay. He had enjoyed the attention from the young girl, at first, but now it wasn't as flattering as it had been only moments earlier. Now it was border-line stalking. So wrong. He pleaded silently for Lindsay jump in at any time with his eyes. She just smiled sweetly at him with a shrug. She knew he had let things go too far. He would have to fix it himself.
"Miss, as flattered as I am that you find me to be..." It was hard for Danny to admit. "You find me attractive, this is a serious police matter. I have to conduct this with professionalism. Do you understand?" Danny asked, staring into the young girl's face.
She nodded.
"Good." He reach up and rubbed his chin. When he noticed the excited look creeping over Ashley's face once more, he stopped. He turned to the other two girls. "You three were friends with Chloe Philips?"
Michelle glanced over at Kris, who had not spoken since the two Detectives had arrived. She began to sob lightly. Her shoulders heaving uncontrollably beneath her sweater.
"We were Alice's best friends..." Michelle whispered, reaching over to comfort Kris.
"Where were you two nights ago, between midnight and 2 a.m.?" Danny continued, keeping his eyes on Michelle as he spoke.
"Um, we were here. Working on some acting material of our own," she answered, not moving her eyes from Danny's set.
"Alice wasn't part of the project?" Danny grinned. "Thought you guys were BFF."
Michelle's face fell. "We are--We were. Alice was our best friend. If it hadn't have been for her wild dreams, we wouldn't be here. We'd be going to some community college."
"Why wasn't Alice in the project?" Lindsay asked.
Danny gave her an odd look. Better late than never, she had always thought.
Michelle sighed. "It's Indie. It was Alice's movie. I mean, she planned on being in it. She was the one the director really wanted. Lo and behold, Erin got her way--AGAIN!"
"There's that name again. Erin a ghost or somethin'?" Danny grinned.
"We'd never get that lucky..." Ashley mumbled.
"Ash!" Michelle snapped.
"What?" she demanded, turning to her friend.
Michelle glared back at her.
"What? You know you hate her just as much as me and Kris," Ashley answered, folding her arms.
"You hate Erin?"
"Not really--"
"That's such a lie, Michelle, and you know it!" Ashley cut in.
"Let Michelle answer the questions, Ashley. God! You're just makin' it worse," Kris spoke, her voice cracking.
Ashley set back once more in a huff, obviously out-numbered.
"Continue Miss Lehman," Lindsay coaxed.
"OK. I didn't trust Erin--None of us did." Michelle glanced from Ashley back to Kris. "I guess I never really liked her much. She just showed up one day, out of the blue. She instantly became best friends with Alice and tried to be our friend, too. But Ash, Kris, and me? We saw right through her. God, even Bucky saw her for the phony that she was. But Alice was a nice girl. She wanted to make everyone happy. She didn't want to leave anyone out. So, she let Erin hang out with us when we went out to events or just vegged out here. She just--Couldn't say no to her. But we all knew what Erin was really up to. She just wanted what she could get off of Alice. Ya know? That was all Erin wanted--A way in."
"Ain't that what you guys are doin'?" Danny asked, seriously.
"No. Alice wanted us to be in this movie with her. She asked the director if we could do it. She told him that if he didn't let us in, too, she would walk. That was the way Alice was. She wanted everyone to have a chance. She knew that Ash, Kris, and I wanted to be in the movies, too. She knew that. We all dreamed of it," Michelle explained.
"But she made it, didn't she? And you three haven't..." Lindsay told them.
"That's not it at all. We got the parts. This is our chance. Why would we be angry with Alice?" Michelle whispered.
The three girls were quiet for a moment.
"What about Erin?" Lindsay asked, breaking the silence this time.
"What about her?" Michelle asked.
"Did she get to be in your lil movie?"
Michelle glanced over to Ashley, who offered nothing, then to Kris. There was a look in her tear-rimmed eyes, that made Michelle go on. Danny and Lindsay both saw it. They knew something.
"Erin wasn't slated to be in the movie. Only us. When she found out that Alice had not pleaded with the director to include her, she went ballistic. She told us that we were just using Alice to further our own careers. She said that Alice was tired of always having to put in a good word for us with the directors or photographers she worked with. We all knew it was just her jealousy--Not really Alice who had felt this way. So, when she didn't get her way, she went to Alice and talked her out of doing it, too. I'm not sure why Alice listened to her, but she did. And that's why we were here, alone, rehearsing our lines--And Alice was on that bridge," Michelle explained.
Danny glanced over to Lindsay. She nodded.
"Does Erin have a last name?" he asked as he pulled out a notepad and pen.
"Fowler," Michelle answered. Danny jotted the name down.
"Can you tell us where to get in touch with Miss Fowler?"
"Try her Dad's place on 112th Street. Her step-mom's a monster, but she'll tell ya if she's there or not," Michelle told him.
Danny jotted that information down as well.
"Ladies, would you mind telling me where you got those shoes?" Lindsay asked, eying the shoes they were wearing.
"Alice got them for us... Last Christmas." Kris whispered, her face scrunching up as she spoke.
"Why?" Ashley finished.
Lindsay didn't answer her question, instead she continued with her own questioning. "Did she buy Erin a pair, too?"
"No. Just us," Ashley answered quickly.
"Does this have something to do with Alice's death?" Michelle asked, turning toward Danny as she spoke.
Danny chewed his bottom lip. He nodded.
"Did you find a pair at the scene or something?" Ashley asked, her voice rising a little.
"We can't release that information to you, Miss. I'm sorry," Lindsay told her.
Danny hated what he had to request next. "Do you mind if Detective Monroe and I take them for a little while? We'll get them back to you."
"Why do you need our shoes?" Ashley asked, turning her own attention on Danny, hoping he would fill her in where Lindsay had not.
"I can't tell ya. I just have to take them into the lab. Do you understand?" Danny asked.
The three girls looked at one another. Was that panic in their eyes? Guilt? Fear?
"They need 'em, Girls. We have to cooperate," Michelle told them, softly.
"But Alice gave them to us, Michelle. We just can't--" Kris sobbed.
"I know, Kris. But if this will help find who murdered Alice, then we have to turn them over to the police," Michelle told her.
That was all it took, the three girls gave the shoes to Danny and Lindsay without protest. The Detectives promised to return them later and they left the house in search of Erin Fowler.
i hope ya like what i have written so far. i promise, it's almost to the end. soon ya'll will find out who killed Chloe Phillips & why. i had some trouble with my computer over the weekend or this chapter would've been posted sooner. but it's up now & i'm still not 100 percent sure how i feel about my characterization in this one. ah, well. as long as ya'll like it, right??
