Trial by Fire
Chapter 5
Trial by Fire
Chapter 5
Michael Robinson lived north of the Columbia University campus in Hamilton Heights. I couldn't help noticing that Heather had lived in a more upscale neighborhood than her professor. We didn't have time to walk it, even though it was only a 5 minute drive. We were just pulling up to the building when Goren's phone rang. I got out of the car and walked around to the sidewalk. He was already standing there listening. I could hear that it was Rodgers, but I couldn't make out what she was saying.
"Okay, thanks," he said and then closed his phone and put it back in his pocket. "It was Rohipnol," he told me quietly.
"How hard would it be for a professor to get a hold of it?" I wondered aloud as we stepped into the foyer. The building had a buzzer system, but Dr. Robinson didn't answer. We tried the super next and after he'd answered we waited while he came to verify our I.D.s.
"When was the last time you saw Dr. Robinson?" Goren asked when he'd let us in.
"Who?" the fiftyish man squinted at us.
"4C," I clarified.
"Couldn't say," he shrugged. "4C is one of the good ones. Don't see the good ones much."
"Can you come with us in case he doesn't answer?" Goren nodded toward the elevator.
"You got a warrant?"
"He's been ill and he didn't answer his buzzer. We're concerned about his well-being," I told him what I'd say in court if it came to that.
"Hmmph," he consented grudgingly.
When Goren knocked on the door the first time there was no response. The second time he pounded on the door and announced that we were NYPD. That resulted in some muffled noise from behind the door, but still no one came. We were looking at each other in a silent agreement to have the door opened by the super when it was opened by a very bedraggled, unshaven young man.
"Dr. Robinson?" I asked as I showed him my badge.
"Ya?" he was leaning against the door for support.
"Can we come in?" Goren asked.
"Ya, I guess," he sighed. "I know the school was clamping down on sick time, but cops?" he held the door open for us. I could tell he was trying to be funny but it came out so weakly it just sounded pathetic.
"Thanks," I nodded to the super, who was still hanging around. I'm sure he wanted to know what the cops wanted with one of 'the good ones'.
"You don't look well," Goren commented as we entered.
The studio apartment was clean, but it was stuffy and the bed was unmade. It looked like Dr. Robinson had been asleep.
"Some sort of stomach bug," he nodded. "I haven't been able to keep anything down since Sunday."
Goren and I sat on the futon couch while the professor collapsed into an overstuffed chair that didn't match the rest of the furniture.
"We're actually here to talk to you about one of your students; Heather Kane," I began.
Even in his weakened state, his entire demeanor changed at the mention of her name.
"Why? Did something happen?" he sounded scared.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you like this, but she was murdered early Sunday morning. Her body was found in Morningside Park," Goren told him empathetically.
His eyes began to blink rapidly and he shook his head. "No," he stood up, wobbling as he rose.
Goren stood up quickly and put a hand on the professor's arm to steady him.
"She can't be, not what happened in the park, no," his body was quaking violently.
"You should sit," Goren tried to direct him back to the chair.
"I'm gonna -," he put a hand to his mouth and turned toward the bathroom.
Goren stepped out of the way to let him pass. We looked at each other and I knew we were thinking the same thing. I didn't get a chance to say anything because Dr. Robinson didn't make it to the bathroom. I cringed as I heard him retch. His body was still heaving as he crumpled to the floor. Goren reached him in three strides. I could see that he was lying face down in his own vomit. Goren pulled him into the recovery position and felt for a pulse.
"It's weak and thready," he looked over at me. I already had my phone out.
It only took the ambulance 5 minutes. The paramedics quickly started an IV and told us they were taking him to New York Presbyterian after we'd given them what little information we had. The super, who'd reappeared shortly after the paramedics told us he'd clean up and lock up for Dr. Robinson.
"You want to call Deakins?" I sighed as we took the stairs down.
"Nope," he said bluntly. "That's why you get the big bucks."
As I suspected Deakins was less than thrilled to hear that we no longer considered the professor to be a suspect. The fact that we had no other suspects lined up didn't amuse him much, either and he told me he wasn't ruling Dr. Robinson out until we had something else for him to take upstairs.
I sighed heavily after I hung up my phone and slipped it back into my coat pocket.
"He would've yelled at me," Goren winced.
"He did yell," I informed him.
Goren took a breath to argue with me, but my phone rang again, so he closed his mouth.
"Eames," I answered gingerly.
"Detective Eames, this is Patrick Kane."
"Mr. Kane, what can I do for you?" I looked up at Goren as I spoke.
"I'm calling to let you know that we are having a memorial service for Heather tomorrow, here at our home. The coroner released her body to us this morning and we are having a private funeral this afternoon. Heather didn't want to be embalmed," he informed me quietly. "It's only going to be family at the interment."
"I understand," I assured him. "What time is the service tomorrow?"
"2 p.m."
"And you don't mind if my partner and I attend?" I hoped I wouldn't have to insist.
"Of course not," he promised me. "We want to help in any way we can."
"Thank you, Mr. Kane and we'll see you tomorrow." I hung up the phone feeling worse than after I'd talked to Deakins. At least Mr. Kane hadn't asked me if we'd made any progress.
During the short ride to the hospital I filled Goren in on the details about the funeral and memorial service. It was 2:30 before anyone could talk to us and when they did they couldn't tell us much. Dr. Robinson had been very dehydrated when they brought him in and he was running a high fever. Whatever he had was not a garden variety stomach bug. It wasn't even garden variety food poisoning according to the doctor we'd spoken to. He hoped to be able to tell us more when they'd run more tests. Judging by what I saw in Goren's eyes when we looked at each other as the doctor was speaking; I knew he thought the professor's illness was no coincidence.
"I'm starving," Goren pulled out his phone once we were outside. "Pizza?"
"Are we taking it back to the squad room?"
"Ya," he nodded.
"Then order three," I laughed, "Unless you want to piss off a lot of people."
The pizza place Goren liked was close to his apartment, so it was ready by the time we got there. . When we got to the squad room, all eyes followed me as I took two of the boxes to the interview room.
"Help yourselves," I told the room when I was safely out of the way. Goren already had the third box open and was eating a slice when I sat down.
I had just taken my first bite when Deakins appeared at our desks.
"How's the prof?"
"On IV fluids and antibiotics," I told him when I'd finished my mouthful of pizza.
"And still unconscious," Goren added.
"When will you be able to talk to him?" Deakins put one hand on each of our desks and leaned forward.
"We'll check in tomorrow," I let him know.
"But," Goren paused, his hand palm up as he spoke. I knew that meant he thought Deakins wasn't going to like what he had to say. "We think he's another victim."
"You think it's connected?" he straightened up.
"The doctor said this was no ordinary stomach virus or food poisoning," I told him almost apologetically.
"Heather Kane's death was a spectacle. The professor's illness is unusual," Goren's hand was up again. "Our guy wants attention. He wants people to see that he's special."
"Are you saying that he's killing them for the attention?" Deakins furrowed his brow.
"Not at all. He doesn't think he'll get caught," Goren leaned back in chair. "But he's not as smart as he thinks he is because now we have a witness."
"It has to be related to the school," I was tapping my pen on my desk. "Something they had in common besides being lovers."
"Something that was stopping everyone from seeing how extraordinary our guy is," Goren's eyes met mine.
"All of Heather's professors told us what a great student she was," I thought back to the morning interviews. "How would that affect anyone," I was thinking out loud.
"A scholarship, maybe," Deakins offered.
"And she didn't need one," Goren nodded. "That might piss someone off."
"Do some digging," Deakins looked a little happier. "I assume the whole witch angle is off the table."
"Well it doesn't seem like many people knew that Heather was a Witch and this guy did, so he must have been close to her," Goren pointed out.
"I still want to stop at that store on the way home," I nodded, looking at Goren. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized that they crossed the line I'd established between our work and private lives, but neither Goren nor Deakins seemed to notice.
"And tomorrow?" Deakins prompted.
"The hospital, the school again and the memorial service," I let him know.
"This hump has you running around in circles," Deakins hands were on his hips.
"Ya, but the circles are closing in on him," Goren pronounced confidently as he reached for another slice of pizza.
"I'll feel better when I know what this guy thought he deserved," Deakins shook his head. "Then we'll be running circles around him."
"You and me both," I nodded.
"Keep me in the loop tomorrow," he said before turning to return to his office.
I had just taken another bite of pizza so I could only nod in affirmation. Goren and I continued to eat in silence once Deakins was gone. I thought I was hungry enough to eat a third slice, but I only ended up managing a couple of bites. I set it on the open lid of the box, intending to throw it away when I got up, but Goren picked it up and finished it.
I looked around the room but it seemed that no one had noticed. Probably no one would have thought it was odd that Goren was finishing my food, anyway. Deciding that I was being overly sensitive and a little to hard on Goren, I found myself smiling at him. Judging by the look on his face, it wasn't a work appropriate smile.
I opened my laptop so I could add some notes to the case file. I needed to look busy. Once I'd added a few things to the file, I called the university to set up an appointment with the chair of the Environmental Science Department.
After another ten minutes Goren picked up the pizza box. "I'll just put the rest of this in the interview room."
"Are you ready to go?" he asked when he'd returned.
"Yup," I closed my laptop.
Once we were inside the elevator, Goren looked sideways at me.
"What was that about?"
"What?"
"That smile."
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I'd been wondering what people might think about you finishing my pizza, but then I decided that I was over-reacting and should cut you some slack," I explained.
"Well, thanks," he chuckled. "But please don't smile at me like that at work. I was forced to eat another slice of pizza to kill some time."
"Just from a smile?" I was incredulous.
"That wasn't just any smile," he lowered his voice as the elevator doors opened. He scanned the area before continuing. "That was an 'I love Robert Goren smile'."
"My smiles say a lot," I chuckled.
"Yes, they do, but it's actually your eyes that do most of the talking," he told me softly.
Our conversation was starting to make me warm. This was precisely why I wanted to separate work and home, but I wasn't sure that I'd be able to keep myself from smiling at Goren, or keep my eyes from talking to him, for that matter.
I barely had my door closed before he lunged at me. He had one hand in my hair and his tongue was in my mouth. I knew we should stop, but I didn't want to. As soon as I began to return his kiss, Goren pulled me onto his lap. When I felt his erection I knew we'd gone too far.
"Bobby." I panted when I broke out of his kiss.
He ignored me and pulled my head back. I clamped my mouth shut and pulled away again.
"Bobby, we can't!" I told him forcefully.
He let his arms fall allowing me to scramble back to my seat. Leaning my head back on my seat, I tried to calm my heart rate.
"Sorry." He sounded meek.
"It was my fault as much as yours," I admitted, my eyes still closed. "If I'd been wearing a skirt..." I opened one eye to look at him.
"Unh," he groaned. "I wish you hadn't said that." He shifted in his seat, but nothing he did was going to hide the very prominent bulge in his pants.
There was something about knowing that I had this affect on him that made my higher reasoning abilities vaporize. I was kneeling on my seat with my hand on his fly in the blink of an eye.
"Alex, I –" He tried to say something but when I took him into my mouth his words melted into another groan.
Normally I like to prolong Goren's pleasure, but I was planning to make this the fastest blowjob I'd ever given him. Using my mouth and my hand I had him trembling in no time. In a couple of minutes he pulsed into my mouth. When he began to grow soft again, I tucked his cock back into his boxers and did up his fly. He was still breathing hard when I checked myself in the rear-view mirror. After smoothing my hair, I did up my seatbelt.
"Seatbelt, Bobby," I said as I turned the key.
He reached for it without opening his eyes. "That was really, uh, I really enjoyed that," he told me lazily.
"I didn't think you were into almost getting caught." I looked over at him. He was still leaning back, his eyes were closed and he had a contented look on his face.
"We were in the very back corner of the garage and the windows are tinted. We weren't in any danger of getting caught," he argued. "If you had en wearing a skirt and the car was rocking –"
"I'm telling you," Bobby." I cut him off. "If I'd had a skirt on I might not have been able to stop myself." That thought only added to the throb between my thighs. "So, if it wasn't getting caught, what did you like so much?" I was curious.
"Besides picturing you with a skirt hiked up to your waist?" He grinned at me as we drove out of the garage.
"Okay, Bobby. You might be feeling really good right now, but remember that I've had no relief," I reminded him.
"Sorry." His grin faded. "Do you still want to know why I enjoyed it so much, because that was part of it?"
"It was?" I had no idea how his mind worked.
"Yeah, your smile in the squad room, then knowing you were as turned on as I was, I was three-quarters of the way there and then your mouth felt so amazing." He sighed.
"I still can't believe I gave you a blowjob in the parking garage of 1 PP." I shook my head. "This is exactly the kind of thing Deakins warned us about."
"Next time you need me to calm down, just say Deakins name. That'll do it," he chuckled.
Brigid's Chamber was located on the second floor above a watch repair shop in a small building in the Village. The smell of incense was evident as soon as I opened the door to the stairwell. As we climbed the stairs it seemed as though I could feel Goren's eyes on me. I stopped halfway up the stairs and turned around to look at him.
"What?" He tilted his head at me.
"I just had a feeling that you were looking at my ass."
"I'm almost always looking at your ass." He kept his voice low.
"I must be more sensitive to it then usual right now." I smiled wryly.
When I opened the door to the shop some wind chimes rattled to announce our arrival. A woman in her mid-thirties looked up from what she was reading. Curly salt and pepper hair fell loosely to her shoulders. She was wearing small silver-rimmed glasses and a lilac turtleneck. I wondered if she was hiding hickeys too.
"Good afternoon." She smiled at us.
"Hi, I'm Detective Eames and this is my partner, Detective Goren." I made the introductions.
"Amanda King." She held out her hand to me.
"We're investigating the murder of Heather Kane," I explained after I shook her hand.
Goren pulled out a picture of Heather to show Ms. King.
"She'd been a regular here for a couple of years." Amanda King nodded sadly.
"Did she come in with anyone in particular?" Goren asked.
"Not at first, but in the last six months she'd been coming in with a boyfriend," she told us.
"What did he look like?" I asked. We didn't have a picture of Dr. Robinson since he didn't have a driver's license and I hadn't asked for picture when we were at Columbia.
"He was older than her, maybe 30; slim build, square jaw, hazel eyes, sandy-colored hair, 5'11", maybe 170 pounds." She seemed to be looking off into the distance as she spoke.
"So they were-" Goren fidgeted a bit. "Holding hands?"
"No, there were no PDAs at all." She shook her head.
"PDAs?" Goren looked confused.
"Public displays of affection." Amanda and I spoke in unison.
"Then how do you know they were a couple?" He cocked his head at her.
"I have a really good sense about that kind of thing." She smiled.
"Oh." I nodded, consciously making an effort not to roll my eyes.
"So what did you sense?" Goren kept probing.
"Energy." She told him evenly. "It was discernable, but not like some couples where it just about knocks you over." She smiled at me and raised her eyebrows.
"You sense some energy from us?" Goren asked with a smile.
"Some energy?" She laughed. "It's like a steam roller."
"Well." Goren smiled broadly at her. "That would be a violation of department policy."
"Don't worry." She winked at him. "I won't tell."
"Can we please get back to the case?" I tapped Heather's picture. "Did Heather ever come in here with anyone else?"
"Do you mind if I work while we talk?" She stood up from her stool.
"Go ahead." Goren nodded.
Amanda picked up a bottle of oil, poured some off into a decanter and set it to one side. "She came in with another young woman two, no three times. Very quiet, I think she was curious, but too scared to even ask me any questions," she explained as she put a couple of vanilla beans into a machine. It whirred when she turned it on.
"No other men?" I asked hopefully.
"No." She shook her head as she put some small pieces of wood into the machine.
"Did you notice anyone who was maybe paying a little too much attention to her?" I was grasping at straws.
"No, if I'd seen anything like that I would've told her right away." She turned to face me. "Do you think she was being stalked?"
"There's no evidence of that." Goren opened up his case file. "Here's what we do know. Heather didn't tell a lot of people about her beliefs, but whoever did this to her knew she was Wiccan."
"Oh, so you think he might have known because he followed her here?" She took a vial out of the machine and poured its contents into the decanter.
"Yeah." I nodded.
"Well, from what I read in the paper, he didn't know her that well." She turned around and began doing something I couldn't see.
"What makes you say that?" Goren's head was tilted again.
"Heather was Irish. She was strongly drawn to the old ways of Ireland, of the Celts. She'd chosen Brigid as her personal deity. That's why she came all the way here," Amanda explained.
"Who's Brigid?" I looked at Goren.
"The mother Goddess of the Celtic pantheon," he told me. "But I don't see how that means the killer didn't know her." He turned back to Amanda.
"Europeans burned witches, and strangely enough, so did the Scots, but the English, Irish and Americans all hanged Witches." She turned around and flicked on another machine.
"So if he knew her well he wouldn't have burned her." Goren began to write.
"How did he know then?" I looked at him.
"She was intensely private about her beliefs." He nodded slowly.
"So he found out by accident?" I rubbed my forehead. "But how?"
"Someone could've let it slip." He was looking into my eyes.
"Megan or the professor?" I suggested.
"Megan or the professor." He nodded.
"Why wouldn't he have made sure he staged the body properly?" It didn't make sense to me.
"He thought he knew what he was doing. He's definitely not as smart as he thinks he is." Goren smiled slyly.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Amanda asked as she set the small decanter on the counter. It had a cork in its mouth and a ribbon around the neck.
"What's this?" I looked over at her.
"Scented oil."
"You made this while we were talking?" Goren was intrigued.
"Yeah, I thought it would suit both of you." She smiled.
Goren picked it up and gave it a sniff. "Vanilla." He nodded. "And sandalwood. Nice. How much do we owe you?"
"My treat." She waved him off.
"We can't," we said in unison.
"Okay," she laughed. "Five dollars."
While Goren retrieved his wallet, I fished a card out of my jacket pocket. "If you remember anything else, please give us a call," I requested as I handed the card to her.
"I will," she told me sincerely.
We were on our way out and I was just opening the door when Goren leaned to whisper in my ear. "You go ahead. I'll be right there.'
He was in the car less than thirty seconds after me, but no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn't tell me why he'd gone back.
End chapter 5