Tuesday, August 15
Narcotics Squad Room, 3:56 p.m.
"Do you still have a crush on Antonio?" Bobby asked Alex as they exited off of the elevator and headed towards the Narcotics squad
room. "What?!" Alex exclaimed as she stopped in her tracks and looked at her partner as if he had lost his mind. "I'm...I'm just
curious. That's all." Alex threw up her hands as she shook her head. "You are the last person I would expect to listen to the rumor
mill. NO! I don't have a crush on Antonio. Geez!" Alex walked quickly away from him, still shaking her head and mumbling under her
breath. Bobby practically had to run to catch up with her. As they entered the room, some of the people in there greeted Bobby either
with a polite head nod or a "Hey, Bobby. How you doing?" Bobby acknowledged them with a wave or saying "I'm doing good." Alex
knocked on the door that was marked Lt. Antonio Garcia. "Come in," a male voice said. Bobby followed Alex through the door. Lt.
Garcia was on the phone when the detectives walked in. "Listen, I've got company in my office. I'll call you back later," he said before
hanging up. He stood up with a big smile on his face and extended his hand to Bobby. "I shoulda known that if anybody was going to
take a large amount of drugs off the streets, it would be you." Bobby shrugged. "I got lucky." He and Bobby shook hands and briefly
hugged each other. "Hey, Alex. How are ya?" "I'm doing good, Tony," she answered after giving him a brief hug, too. Antonio waved
to the chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat." They sat down while he closed the blinds before sitting back down behind his desk.
Antonio Garcia had worked with Alex her last year and a half in Vice. He worked with Bobby his entire 4 years in Narcotics. When
he heard that they were going to be partners in Major Case, he called Alex one day and invited her to lunch. At lunch, Alex had shown
him the letter requesting a new partner. Antonio talked to her, telling her that he may be "loco en la cabeza" but he had a method to his
madness, just give him some time and she'll get used to him. She was skeptical, but she trusted his judgment. As she got used to
Bobby's way of solving cases, she felt better and better about having listened to Antonio.
"Okay. What do I have to do to get you guys to come to Narcotics?" he asked. "Pray for hell to freeze over, for starters," Alex said
with a smile. Antonio laughed. He looked at Bobby and said, "Well, she's out. How about you?" "What my partner says goes double
for me." Antonio held up his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, okay. I know when I'm beat. I just want you to know that if you ever
decide to leave those cushy desks in Major Case, you're always welcome here. So, what's up?"
Bobby opened his binder and pulled out a blown up picture of DeMarco's driver's license and showed it to the lieutenant. "We
wanted to know if our vic was on your radar. Name's DeMarco Louis Anderson." Antonio looked at the picture closely. "That's his
real name?" he asked. "Yeah, it is. Why?" "Damn. He was good," Antonio said more to himself than to Bobby. "What's up, Tony?"
Alex asked. Tony shook himself a little before answering, "The name we knew him by was Mason Newberry. We couldn't find
anything on him, so we assumed he was new to the game. He showed up on our radar twice about a year ago. How did he die?" "He
was injected with heroine and cocaine." "In the arm and on the back?" Bobby and Alex looked at each other. Alex replied cautiously,
"Yeah. How did you know?" Antonio sat back in his chair, staring in amazement at them. "I'll be damned. The Frick and Frack Show
is back in town." He sat up and started typing something on his computer. Bobby asked, "Who or what is 'The Frick and Frack'
show, Tony?" Tony stopped typing and turned his computer screen around so that Alex and Bobby could see.
"Meet Franco Holland," Tony said. "We call him Frick." The record that was showing had him at 6 foot even, brown hair, hazel eyes,
slim build with some drug and assault arrests. Tony pushed a button and another record appeared. "Meet Francisco Torres. We like
to call him Frack." Alex read some of his stats out loud. "5 foot 4, black hair, brown eyes, compact muscular build. Drug and assault
arrests." Alex looked at Antonio and said, "I could mop the floor with this guy." "Shit. I wouldn't try it. I've seen him take on guys
Bobby's size and win." Bobby jotted down this information in his binder. "Using a speedball to kill is their weapon of choice?" he
asked. Antonio nodded. "Oh yeah. The stuff they use would make a 400 pound gorilla keel over in a matter of minutes. They've
known each other ever since they were in diapers. They left NYC 2 years ago." Bobby pulled out the picture of the brand. "You ever
come across this brand before in any of your investigations?"
Antonio whistled. "Dammit, Bobby. When you get lucky, you get lucky." He typed on the computer again and brought up another
record. "Lady and gentleman, meet Frank James Devlin, a.k.a. Frankie Devil." Frank James Devlin was listed as being 5 foot 10,
sandy blonde hair, blue eyes with a slim build. Charges against him included drug trafficking and fraud. "This guy banished Frick and
Frack from New York. They had messed up some drug buy that he had been planning for a while by getting the supplier pinched. If
that brand was found on your vic's hand, it means he stole something from Frankie Devil." "Drugs? Money?" "It doesn't matter with
Frank James. He'd have a beat down put on you even if you took a toothpick out of his house without him knowing about it. He's that
petty." "How did Devlin hook up with Anderson?" "Newberry, I mean Anderson, showed up last February at Devlin's Valentine's
Day party with some guy and gal." Bobby showed Tony the picture of Eric and Eden. He looked at it and pointed to them. "That's
them. Anyway, we had a couple of guys in there posing as bartenders at this party. Devlin allowed him to ply his trade at the party.
When this one guy shortchanged Anderson, he beat the living daylights out of him. The 2nd time Anderson showed up at Devlin's was
in late June. Only he and his girl showed up. They stayed about 2 hours before leaving together. She came back later by herself later
on that night."
Alex asked Antonio, "Why did you call her 'his girl?'" "The way she clung onto him. We assumed that she was his woman. Alex
shook her head. "That's his younger sister, not his main squeeze." Antonio sat back in his chair again, stroking his chin. He looked
from Bobby to Alex, then back again. "Dang. That's deep. You planning on going after Frankie Devil for this guy's murder?" "If we
can tie him to it, we will," Bobby replied. The lieutenant nodded his head. "Well, maybe you'll have better luck catching his ass than
we've had. We've just been watching him for awhile. Devlin hasn't really done anything drug related worthy for us to try to put
someone inside again. He's actually quite the renaissance man. He's got his hands in a little bit of everything: drugs, prostitution, fraud.
Right now, his latest job is being a real estate investor/developer." "Are any of the other squads looking at him hard besides you
guys?" Antonio shook his head. "It seems like every time a case is about to be brought against him with charges that will stick, his
lawyer always seems to pull some witnesses out of a magic hat that can disrupt those charges." "Who's his lawyer?" "David Joseph
Brewster. That guy oozes snake oil out of every pore of his body."
Alex said, "Brewster. That's the lawyer that drew up DeMarco's power of attorney." "If your vic was tangled up with Devlin and
Brewster, his days were numbered." "How come?" "If Anderson was trying to do business with both of them, but Devlin found out
about it, he'd get Frick and Frack to do some damage to him. Devlin and Brewster have this really weird love/hate relationship going
on between them. Brewster wants to be just like Devlin. Drugs, money, the whole nine yards. Devlin can't stand him, but needs him to
keep him out of jail. If Devlin has something that Brewster wants, Brewster will try to steal it from him. Especially when it comes to
women. Frank absolutely loves all women of all varying shades. Doesn't matter what race they are. Now Brewster only loves light
skinned black women. The lighter, the better." "Why is that?" "Because according to him, they give the best blowjobs. Sorry, Alex."
"That's okay. I've heard worse." "Anyway, if Devlin has a bevy of beauties at his place and any of them happens to be a light skinned
black woman, Brewster will do anything to take her away from Devlin. He gets some kind of strange pleasure in rubbing that fact in
Devlin's face. All Frankie ever does is goes and slaps him around for a little bit before making up with him about a week later." "You
think Brewster is capable of taking over Devlin's empire?" "Nah. He doesn't have that kind of juice to pull it off. He's got enough
respect as a lawyer to get the thugs and criminals outta jail, but enough respect to get anybody to try to help him overthrow Devlin."
Bobby pointed to the picture at Eden. "Has this woman been with Devlin a lot?" "Yeah. She's actually the most steady woman he's
had in over a year." "Has she been in Brewster's company lately?" "We haven't seen her with him. We've been mostly concentrating
on Devlin anyway, not him." Bobby gathered up all the pictures and put them back in his binder. They all stood up at the same time.
He held out his hand to Antonio and said, "Thanks for the info, Tony." "You're welcome." Tony shook Alex's hand and said, "Sure I
can't interest you in working here in Narcotics?" "Fat chance, buddy." He laughed. As Bobby and Alex turned to go out of the door,
Antonio said, "Do me favor, will ya?" "Sure. What is it?" Bobby said. "If you do manage to get close enough to Frankie Devil to catch
him doing something drug related during your investigation, you'll let me and my team in on it, so that we can catch this guy together?"
Bobby looked at Alex; she looked at him and nodded. Bobby shook Antonio's hand again. "You've got yourself deal."
Tuesday, August 15
Major Case Squad Room, 7:00 p.m.
Alex stood up and stretched to work the kinks out of her back. She and Bobby had been going over DeMarco's financial papers and
work history from the past 5 years in the conference room. They found hotel receipts that corresponded with the days he had taken off
from work. That was the good news. The bad news was that those hotel receipts came from about 3 dozen different hotels. And none
of them were in New York state. "You think the Wonder Twins had something to do with their brother getting killed?" Alex asked.
Bobby leaned back in his chair, hands laced behind his head and stretched. "I think they did. I just can't figure out how or why on their
part." "Well, we know Franco Holland and Francisco Torres killed DeMarco Anderson with a mixture of heroin and cocaine because
he stole something from Frank James Devlin, a.k.a. Frankie Devil." "If Devlin's as petty as Tony says he is, maybe the cell phone was
the reason DeMarco got killed. DeMarco stole some clients from him." Bobby sat up and shook his head. "It's got to be something
bigger than that. We're just not seeing it."
Just then, Captain Ross walked in. He looked at them, then at all the papers strewn out in front of them. "I understand you had
some excitement in court today," he said. The detectives nodded. "I had a talk with the Chief of Ds. He said that we can keep the case
and take the lead if it turns out we need to involve the Narcotics Squad in this. Catch me up to speed." Alex and Bobby took turns
filling him in on the details and what theory they were working with. After he digested all this information, Ross asked, "What's your
next move?" "Talk to Brewster. Give him a chance to fast talk his way outta jail," answered Alex. "We should probably stake out the
funeral as well. To see how our suspects interact with each other," Bobby said. Ross nodded in agreement. "Very well. Finish up here
and go home. I'll see you when get back from court." Ross turned and walked out the door. As soon as the door closed, Alex softly
clapped her hands. "You managed not to hit him with your shoe today. I'm so proud of you." Bobby stood up and took a bow. They
both laughed at their silliness as they started clearing off the conference table.
Tuesday, August 15
Bobby's Apartment, 10:00 p.m.
Bobby sighed as he placed his empty dish in the sink. The lasagna Rob had made for him hit the spot. He laughed to himself as he
remembered Lewis standing on his doorstep waiting for him. Bobby knew as long as Rob was going to be in town, Lewis would show
up like some stray dog to be fed. Lewis couldn't stay to have dinner with him because he had a hot date with some chick named Lola.
He had given her the impression that he knew how to cook. Bobby willingly gave him one of the extra pans of lasagna. Bobby settled
himself into his oversized recliner to watch some TV. He had started flipping through the channels when the house phone rang.
"Hello."
"Hey, Bobby-Boy. What's up?"
"Hey, Robby-Boy. Nothing much. What's up?"
"Hold on a sec." Bobby heard Rob take the phone away from his ear and hand it to someone. "Hi, Uncle Bobby."
"Hey, Courtney. How are you?"
"I'm fine. I just wanted to tell you goodnight."
"Well, thank…thank you very much, sweetheart. Same to you."
"Daddy says me and him are coming to your birthday party on Sunday and that there will be other kids there, too. Are they nice kids?"
Bobby smiled. "Yes, Courtney. They are very nice."
"Okay. I was just wondering'. Good night, Uncle Bobby."
"Good night, Courtney."
He heard Rob wish her sweet dreams and to close the door behind her.
"I watched the news earlier tonight. Um, this judge who had his gay lover appear before him in court? This wasn't your case, was it?"
Bobby sighed heavily. "Yep. It was." Rob chuckled. "Man, why am I not surprised by that." "Shut up!" Bobby said playfully. Rob laughed harder.
They didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. Finally, Bobby said, "I bought her a ring today."
Rob didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Which her are you referring to?" "Angel. I bought her a gold band with the word "LOVE" inscribed on it."
"You're choosing Angel over Alannah?" "I...I don't know." Bobby stammered. "Part of me wants Angel to be in my life. To settle
down and have a family with her. The other part of me wants Alannah because the type of relationship we have doesn't hurt either one
of us. We could care less who the other person is with as long as we get together to do our thing. Besides, you know what happens
when I let them in my life: they always leave."
"So you're just going to toss aside any possibility of having a stable relationship with Angel? You're just going to dismiss her without
giving her chance to be a part of your life because you THINK she'll leave you because she can't hack being in your life?! You're
choosing an unstable relationship with Alannah because THAT'S safe?!"
"Oh come on, Rob! You make it sound like I'm being unreasonable!"
"That's because you ARE being unreasonable, Bobby! In all the years I've known you, I know you want what your parents didn't
have: an honest and stable relationship. I listened to you 2 years ago when you talked about this girl. You told me you had told her
about how screwed up your life has been and that she didn't flinch or run away screaming from you. I KNEW THEN she had to be
the one that would stay with you and try to make the relationship work."
Bobby remained quiet as Rob's words echoed in his ears. "I saw Angel today. I had the opportunity to look deep into her eyes. I saw this look of fear and insecurity in them because she was thinking I'd break her heart."
Rob sighed. "Look. I'm not trying to tell you who you should choose. That's your decision to make. But I can tell you this: if you keep leading Angel on for too long, she'll eventually get tired of it and walk away." "I know that."
"I'm glad you do. Now that's settled, you wanna go watch Angel perform at Club Silkie's Friday night? I read on the website that she goes on at 10:00. I'd love to hear her sing." "Sure why not. I've never heard her sing, either."
"All right. When I get back to your place tomorrow night, we'll make some definite plans. I'm going to bed. Good night, Bobby-Boy." "Good night, Robby-Boy."
Tuesday, August 15
Angel's Home, 10:00 p.m.
Angel liked rain. She was sitting on her porch in the 2 person swing watching the raindrops hit the street. She inhaled deeply the
fresh smell of the rain on the wet grass. Her cell phone rang, the tune of "Boogie Shoes" coming out of it. She smiled because that ring
tone was assigned to her mom.
"Hey, Mama. Como esta?"
"Hey, baby. I'm good. How are you?"
"I'm okay. What are you doing up?"
"Oh, I 'm doing some research for a couple of professors from the university. I saw on the Weather Channel that it was raining up in your area. I figured you'd be out in it some kind of way."
Angel laughed. "Yep. I'm sitting in the swing watching the water hitting the ground."
"I knew it," Laurel said with a laugh. "How was your day?"
"It was okay. I went into the office today for a client luncheon. I did a little bit of work there before I went down to Silkie's. I had dinner with him and the band. We practiced after dinner. I got home about 30 minutes ago."
"Hmm. You were busy today. What songs did you practice? Any of your songs?"
"Nah. We just did some Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, and Chaka Khan songs. I'm just going to be doing cover songs on Friday night. Silkie wants me to do some of The Saints songs next year on the 5th anniversary of Garvin's death."
"Oh, okay. That sounds like a good idea. Do you think you'll be up to it?" "Yeah. I think I will be."
"DeMarco's body got released to the funeral home this afternoon."
"Oh. Did you get a chance to go see his body?"
"No. I'm letting Lynnette be in charge of the funeral arrangements. She knows what DeMarco would want for his final homegoing."
"Make sure you e-mail me the address of funeral home so that I can send some flowers on behalf of our family." "I will."
Laurel waited for Angel to say something else, but she didn't. "What's wrong, Baby Girl?" she asked.
"I kissed Bobby today." "Oh my. He used the panty dropping voice on you, did he?"
"Ma!" "Oh, please. Why do you think I married your daddy?" "Ugh! Ma, between you and Janelle, I have such lovely visuals running through my already overactive imagination."
Laurel laughed. "Hey. I call them like I see them. So, was it a bad kiss? A good kiss? A good bad kiss?"
Angel sighed. "It was an absolutely fantastic kiss. It's just that…I think I may be fooling myself in thinking that he likes me."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Bobby has a "friend with benefits" that he's been seeing for a while. On his birthday for the past 5 years."
"Oh. I see. So, you don't see yourself having any kind of a chance of being with him?"
"No. I'm probably too plain for Bobby." "What do you mean?"
Angel sniffed. "Let's just say that the Amazon sex goddess can undo a man's belt and unzip his pants with her teeth, hands tied behind her back in under 30 seconds."
Laurel snorted. "That kind of skill eventually fades away. She has to come for air and be able to hold a decent conversation sometime."
Angel lightly chuckled. "Yeah. That's true." "I know you feel a strong connection with Bobby. Why don't you take a chance and ask him how he feels about you?"
Leave to Mom to come up with the most logical solution to a problem. Angel bit her lip and thought about what she said. She had always been extremely shy about broadcasting her feelings to any man she had been with. "I'll think about, Mami."
Laurel smiled, the stifled a yawn. "Oh, excuse me. I guess I'm getting sleepy."
"Well, I'll let you go to bed, Ma. Good night."
"Good night, Angel. Te amo."
"Te amo, Mami. Good night."
Tuesday August 15
Bobby's Apartment, 11:15 p.m.
Bobby came out the bathroom and entered into his bedroom. The reminder chime on his cell phone was going off. He picked it up off his nightstand table and looked at the display. It said that he had a new text message. He flipped open the phone and saw that the message was from Angel. The message said: Hey Handsome :) Just wanted to say good night.
Bobby smiled to himself as he replied back. His message said: Thank you. Call me.
2 minutes later, his cell phone rang.
"Hi," Bobby said.
"Hi. How are you?" Angel asked.
"I'm okay."
"So, why am I calling you?"
"I just wanted to hear the voice that goes with the passionate kiss that I experienced this morning."
Angel chuckled. "I'm flattered."
"You should be." Bobby lowered his voice and asked, "Before you go to bed, Angelica, I want to know one thing. Where and how do you want me?"
Angel's breath caught in her throat. She took a deep breath and said very quietly, "Naked and rock hard in my bed."
Bobby smiled to himself. "That's what I thought. Good night, Angel." "Good night, Bobby."