By the Book Chapter 2
The emails continued on a regular basis, for a couple of weeks now. After a while Bobby came to the conclusion that, although they were disgusting and very sexually explicit, they appeared to be fairly harmless. Nicole, for whatever reason, was playing with his mind again, and it did bother him. He figured somewhere along the line she was up to something, but until she actually did something there was nothing he could do.
Having had the weekend off, he arrived at work on Monday carrying two cups of coffee, black for him, black with lots of sugar for Alex. Alex was already there, ahead of him for a change.
"Thanks," she said as Bobby handed her one of the coffees. Taking a better look at him she shook her head. "Did you sleep at all?"
"Yeah," he replied, turning on his computer.
"Liar. Look at you. You look like you haven't slept for a week!"
"What's wrong with the way I look?"
Ignoring his question she asked, "It's those damn emails, isn't it? I can't—"
"I've got another one," he said.
Getting up and walking behind Bobby, she peered over his shoulder at the e-mail.
Bobby, I missed you the other night. You were all I could think of. I waited for you, but apparently you were busy with your other girlfriend. You were very naughty. I cannot forgive you this time, Bobby. Do not let it happen again.
Nicole
Bobby's face turned crimson at the knowledge that Nicole had actually watched him with his girlfriend, Lauren. And now Alex knew, which embarrassed him even more. He slammed his fist down so hard on the desk it made even Alex jump.
"Son of a bitch! She's been watching me! And… and that means Lauren could be in danger…"
Alex truly hated Nicole for the torture she constantly put Bobby through.
"I take it you were with Lauren last night?"
Bobby looked at her and just nodded.
Nicole studied her young lover, Jake, asleep in the bed beside her. Despite being young and somewhat nice looking, she was both bored and disgusted with him. Disgusted with him because he was a typical male, only out for what he could get. He was also hot headed and had quite a vicious jealous streak, which fit nicely into her plans, not to mention he had a relative in the upper echelon of the police department. Surely she could use that to her advantage.
She then thought of Bobby, and wondered how he was coping. If he was privately embarrassed by her emails, how fun would it be if they were made public? She thought of contacting the Ledger, and giving them all the sordid details of a police detective cavorting with an escaped murder suspect, giving them the emails. He'd have quite a bit of explaining to do after that. She smiled. Bobby was so fun, in a way it would really be a shame when he lands his ass in jail for murder, with all that she had planned for him. She would have to imagine his life after that. The way she figured it, one very used, very miserable ex-cop in prison equals one very used, very miserable dead ex-cop. They could put him in protective custody and all the solitary confinements they wanted. Eventually someone would get to him, whether a guard or another prisoner. They always did; it was inevitable.
Poor Bobby. He was the only one who ever really "got" her, her only real challenge. She really would miss him.
Her plan was a very simple one. Kill Jake, lure Bobby over, and then leave. Bobby would be caught with the body, take the fall for Jake's death in what would supposedly would have been a battle between rival lovers. With Jake's connection to the police, they would push hard to get Jake's killer. She had it all worked out, all the details, down to the nth degree. It was just a matter of time now.
The following morning, when Bobby started up his computer, as expected, there was another email from Nicole. Bobby sighed. He was growing weary of all this. He'd debated whether to even mess with the computer at all, but figured that wouldn't help with his job. Sometimes that computer really helped out. Almost as much as a library card. So, use the computer he must.
After reading Nicole's note Bobby slammed down the top of his computer, and stood up angrily, scraping the chair behind him, knocking it over in the process, and attracting curious glances from his co-workers. He paced, very distracted, running his hands through his hair.
"What's it say this time?" Alex asked, seeing the look on his face.
Bobby did not look happy. "It just says that now she is not only just watching me, but Lauren all the time, too. She knows where Lauren lives, where she works, what her bedroom looks like. She, uh, she's seen us there together."
"Are you sure she's seen—"
"I'm positive."
There was something else, too. "What Bobby?"
"She says she'll kill Lauren…"
Alex got up and went to Bobby's computer. Opening the email, she read:
Bobby, my Darling, why do you insist on making me angry? I warned you to stay away from your little slut Lauren. You leave me no choice but to punish you. Unfortunately, not in the way you love me to punish you.
Since you cannot seem to keep your hands and certain other parts of your body to yourself, I will have to help you. If you so much as look at that woman again, I will kill her. Watching as the blood streams from her throat would be my second greatest pleasure. My greatest pleasure will be to watch as you watch her die, thanks to your incompetence. Another of your little failures. For the life of me I do not understand why they still keep you on. .
Although I will not share you physically Bobby, perhaps I can share you vicariously. Won't it be fun when I sell our emails to the Ledger? Unfortunately for you, I don't think your reputation could stand to take another hit.
Cheers! Nicole
"Well, maybe we can at least get her for stalking," Alex suggested. "If we can find her."
Bobby sat back down at his desk, his head in his hands, thinking. Finally he looked up, his eyes starting to liven up.
"Well, if Nicole wants to play so badly, we'll play." He sounded confident again.
Bobby got on the computer, hit "reply" and wrote, Okay, Nicole. You've got my full attention. You want to play, we'll play. Name the time, name the place. Then he hit "send."
"Now, we wait."
It wasn't long. Before long there was a reply. She wanted to meet Bobby at the Victorian Hotel at 10 p.m., alone.
"I'm coming along, Bobby."
"No. She said alone, so I'm going alone."
"But—"
"Eames, if she was going to kill me, she'd have done it by now. She's known all along where I am. She just wants to torture me. I'll be okay."
Dressed casually in jeans, t-shirt and flannel shirt, Bobby arrived at the Victorian Hotel at the appointed time. Going to Nicole's room, he rapped sharply on the door. To his surprise, the door opened slightly.
"Nicole?" Getting no reply, he removed his gun from his holster, and holding it in front of him, slowly opened the door and stepped into the room cautiously. "Nicole?" he said again. He moved further in, then came to the bedroom. Again, he moved warily. Then he saw her, on the floor, naked, and lying very still.
"Shit!" He quickly re-holstered his gun and dropped to his knees beside her. Feeling her neck for a pulse, he simultaneously pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance. Not finding a pulse, he turned her to start CPR. At that moment he heard a commotion behind him. Suddenly there were police all around, screaming at him.
"Get down!" one shouted. "GET DOWN!" Before Bobby could react, they were all over him, knocking him down face first onto the floor, while they continued shouting, pointing their guns at his head.
Bobby allowed his body to just go limp, not daring to struggle against these guys as they snapped the cuffs on his wrists. Then they frisked him, finding his gun and his knife. They jerked him to his feet, thrusting his weapons in his face, where a line of blood began dripping steadily from his nose. "What's this?" they demanded.
"It's my gun, and I'm NY—"
One of the cops punched him hard in the back of the head. "We know what it is, Asshole! What are you doing with it?"
Struggling to contain his temper, Bobby said evenly, "I'm NYPD. My badge and I.D. are in my breast pocket."
The hard-ass one who'd punched him took them out of his pocket, and looked at first the badge, then his I.D
"Detective First Grade Robert Goren, MCS, NYPD" he read aloud.
One of the other cops mellowed. "Sorry about that, Detective," indicating the punch to his head and the bloody nose.
Bobby just nodded, halfway expecting them to remove the cuffs. They didn't.
"You mind telling us what you're doing here, Detective?" the hard-ass asked.
"I came here to talk to her. The door was open, I came in, found the body. I was attempting to—"
"What'd you want to talk to her about?"
Bobby decided to say nothing, not wishing to give them any ammo.
"I think we're going to have to detain you for a bit, Detective. We'll just go downtown for a little chat."
Bobby nodded again, just slightly. He hoped their little chat wouldn't include fists. Something told him he was going to be in need of a pretty good lawyer.
tbc