Without a price
Chapter 11
Lucky could not, would not admit that the place he worked at, the people that were his coworkers, and possibly the leaders would do such a thing. No one was perfect but there was no reason to believe that any of them were that treacherous. There was no way. Still, he didn't have a better theory, so he went with it for now until he could find one.
"Okay, if someone is indeed doing some inside work to mess up the murder investigation, why?" Lucky asked Emily, deeply hoping she won't have an idea and the whole hypothesis was wrong. Of course, he didn't have much hope in that.
"Well, I can't exactly say what the motive is but obviously it has something to do with Officer Murphy. He had to know the person who did it closely, know something they didn't want anyone else to, or something of the sort in order for someone to be so careful with the shooting." Emily replied as she saw his face fall, knowing the difficulty about admitting that the place and people you get to know are murderous.
"Lucky, I really don't want to be right about this. I want to believe that your coworkers and leaders are innocent of these charges as much as you do but all the evidence points to inside work. I can't help that and that is the facts we are looking at." Emily explained, though she probably would never like the police department or trust them. That was based on personal reasons though.
"I know," Lucky said quietly, significantly torn about the accusation. After all, that was where he spent most of his present life, a place where the people were supposed to be good doers that did not commit these deeds but rather stopped them. It wasn't the easiest lead to swallow considering all this.
Sensing that it was time to go and let Lucky come to terms with this finding, Emily started grabbing what she brought and put them in her folders somehow managing to look natural doing it. "I need to go home and get something to eat." Emily excused herself, pausing only to ask one question. "Should I help explain this to your boss tomorrow?"
Lucky was slow with his answer but replied soon enough. "I should be able to do it but keep your cell on just in case I find myself needing some assistance." Emily nodded, as she stood up from the table chair she was sitting in before recently.
Lucky watched as she grabbed the folders and her purse and slipped out of his apartment without another word. He really should stop her and say he didn't blame her and he didn't, but he didn't. He couldn't handle that right now. He will later but just not right now.
As Emily left Lucky's apartment building, her cell phone went off again. Impatiently, she took it out, hoping for Vincent's sake it wasn't him. She had told Vincent that she would come when she could! It wasn't him calling though, it was Jason. She didn't know why he would be calling though, especially this late at night. He never went to bed early but he also never stayed up this late, unless it was a special day. Then again, keeping watch over Sonny's territory and fixing any problems while Sonny was away was time consuming when you took into account the size of the operation.
"Hello," Emily said as she reached her SUV, unlocking and opening it to get in at least to escape the cold wind that blew that night.
"I have a question for you. Have you ever met Eleanor?" Jason asked on the other line, skipping all forms of greeting in order to just get to his point. Emily immediately became suspicious of this; usually Jason at least did that. She didn't think she was going to like this conversation very much, not if he was as determined as she sensed.
"Eleanor?" Emily repeated the last word, searching for a face, a family member, anything and failed. "I'm afraid you are going to spell this one out for me."
"Sam's newly adopted daughter." Jason explained simply which indeed brought the court house memory to her mind. That girl got really clingy for very little reason.
"Oh, that Eleanor. Yeah, we met at the court house about a week ago." Emily answered though not fully sure that it was a week ago. Her days seemed to be endless while others were not.
"Not before that?" He asked, making her a little suspicious of his purpose of asking. She also felt somewhat insulted by him not trusting her on this.
"No, should I have?" Emily replied, putting some rudeness in it before she could catch it from coming out. Then again, as far as she was concerned Jason deserved it but maybe not that much. It was already out though so she could do nothing about that.
"No, of course not. I just thought you would know more about her." Jason explained over the phone, and Emily ignored this accusation to get to the heart of the matter.
"Should I even ask why you think Eleanor or her adoption is your business?" Emily asked, knowing what was going on now.
"It's fishy, that's all. I mean no adoption goes that fast." Jason again was quick for an excuse but Emily saw through it easily and decided to broach this issue directly. Ducking around the bush held no attraction whatsoever.
"No adoption?" Emily replied skeptically. Jason was not that brain damaged that he couldn't remember how hers went.
"Okay, yours did but you were almost twelve and the Quartermaines' paid extra to get it done that quickly. Sam doesn't have that kind of money and Eleanor is a baby." Jason did have a point but he was still overstepping his boundaries in looking into this.
"And maybe you are overanalyzing this whole thing. I am hardly an expert on how adoption agencies work but perhaps they didn't have the space to keep another child and needed to make room so they pushed things up and paid the extra cost." Emily said, seeing the business component of that logic.
"I never considered that," Jason admitted, which was actually quite generous of him considering all of his previous excuses.
"Here's a suggestion Jason, ask the agency or even Sam why it was rushed. I mean isn't that easier than just obsessing over nothing?" Jason inwardly realized she had a point in the direct option but still…
"It's not nothing," Jason argued.
"Yes it is. Maybe you haven't realized this but you miss Sam still so you are making something small turn into a huge investigation so you can still be indirectly part of her life. You have to let her go." Jason probably knew this but wouldn't really take it to be true. He could be quite stubborn when he wanted to.
"That's not why I am doing this," Jason denied her observation but not as strongly as he could have.
"So you keep telling yourself. Whether or not you want to hear this, you have two options. Either you let both you and Sam move on or you get her back. This is not one of those things that can be placed in the gray area between black and white." Emily explained to him, trying not to be so harsh but that was the truth of the matter and she couldn't change that. Trying to force some patience, a rare event for her, she continued. "Now, if you excuse me, I have my own problems to deal with." She didn't even say goodbye, just ended the phone conversation by putting away her cell phone. If Jason could skip formal phrases, so could she.
Leaning back against the seat, Emily rubbed her temples on the onslaught of an upcoming headache but glanced sideways at her bag that she kept her cell phone in. It only brought more trouble but there was no way she could just turn it off and just relax. Not now and the way things are going, not ever. Her problems never seemed to really go away. Yeah, they took a small vacation but they always came back to haunt her- there didn't seem to be a permanent solution as much as she tried searching for it.
Quickly shaking away these depressing thoughts, Emily focused on her next priority and pulled her SUV into gear and pulled out of the parking space she held until now in the silent and deserted parking lot.
Putting his cell phone back on the desk, Jason refused to take what Emily had said to mind. He was not obsessing or crossing boundaries by investigating the adoption and if he perhaps was, it was not because he could not find it in him to let go of Sam and what they had. They both were moving on, had already done so he was just finally reaching the ability to do it with this investigation. He wanted to see her happy and Eleanor did but he didn't want to see that happiness fade again. That was why he just might be obsessing.
Once he found nothing, he'd let it all go but Emily was right about one thing. Maybe he is looking for something not there, perhaps the adoption agency really was just overcrowded and seeing a potential foster mother had jumped on it. Looking at the clock, he sighed and sat up from the chair. It was far too late. He'd make a phone call and see if that was indeed what happened during business hours. Meanwhile, some sleep wouldn't hurt.
The next day, Lucky reluctantly had to bring Emily in to help him explain the whole situation to his boss. Like him, he wasn't real open to considering there was a traitor in their midst but he accepted that it was entirely possible after they went over the evidence. Since he, with Emily's help, had figured this out it was also his job to see if the theory was right which meant starting on a whole new lead.
Walking back to his desk, they talked about what needed to be done. "I am going to need to make a record of who Murphy knew well and interview them about what they might know, what was so important that he had to be killed." Lucky complained slightly, knowing that was a big job considering Murphy was a popular guy, inside and out of his job.
"I'm sure it's not that bad," Emily reasoned as she stopped where she was at and looked around her, trying to trace the scent that reached her nose. It was so familiar, not to mention a horrible scent.
"You have no idea how big it can be. This guy literally was a friend to everyone," Lucky said, preparing to go on but saw how preoccupied Emily was. What had got her so distracted? "Em?"
Emily looked back to him quickly. "Do you smell that?" Emily asked him, Lucky giving her a confused look and set to correct her question, "the perfume I mean."
"Oh, that. Yeah, it's been following Baldwin around for a while." Lucky motioned toward the district attorney who was leaving the department, probably going to the court house to mess with some court case that was probably fine the way it was.
"So he actually has a girlfriend. Who knew he actually attracted them instead of scaring them off." Emily commented, but Lucky sensed there was more to her implication but said nothing.
"I know, surprised everyone else too. Not to mention whoever she is, she needs a new fragrance. That stuff is horrid." Lucky shook his head, knowing he would never get use to it considering it had been a while and he was still not use to it.
"No kidding," Emily murmured in agreement, still somewhat distracted as they presumed walking to his desk.
"Anyway, I need to get to making a list of all possible connections. What do you have planned today?" Lucky asked, out of curiosity more than anything. This "new assignment" intrigued him.
"I need to work tonight but I have a meeting with the governor at noon." Emily mentioned, giving him no clues as he expected. It was worth a try.
"It seems that you know some powerful people Em." Lucky glanced up at her as he made this comment.
"He implicated some changes with the New York National Guard and is interested to know how they are coming." Emily answered, and considered what do until then when she remembered something. "And he'll want to know how the investigation in Murphy's murder is going too." Emily was pondering something as Lucky looked up at this comment.
"What does the governor have to do with Murphy's murder?" Lucky asked, never hearing the relation between the two people. Emily looked at him as if he grew two heads after he asked this.
"Him and Murphy were roommates during their college days and got to be best friends. The friendship continued to the day Murphy died." Emily explained. Lucky knew his jaw dropped at hearing this news. "You didn't know?" Emily questioned him as she saw his face.
"No, another thing that has escaped notice it seems," Lucky replied with a somewhat cynical tone. He was getting really sick of these missing facts but now that he knew maybe he could follow the lead Emily introduced him to. "Do you think I can come along? He might have some good insight on who could have done it or even a motive." T
"I suppose it can't hurt," Emily agreed, "I can tell him about the changes after he is done answering your questions." This meant that there was some secret information that he was not supposed to hear and Emily was not even denying it. It as annoying but also impressive how much she could keep secrets now days.
"Let me go and tell Mac about it. I'll also ask if he knew of the association between Murphy and the governor." Lucky doubted he did; there was no way he would have kept something like that from the people working on the investigation. It would have made the investigation that much easier in the first place.
The commissioner didn't know about the relation which only pounded the idea of an inside job further in. Someone had to have deliberately kept that from the department. Luckily, Emily did or else he would really be out of leads but something that big to be kept out really meant that this killer was serious about keeping his secret. Not that resorting to murder did not help that clarity before.
When he returned, Emily was waiting to hear what his boss said but pretty much knew what his answer would be. Emily shook her head, "I'm sorry Lucky but my theory is really panning out here".
"I know," Lucky admitted out loud which was not the easiest thing for him to do but this connection was so big it put considerable doubt in an alternative hypothesis. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was nearly nine thirty. Emily said the meeting was for noon. "How long will it take to get to the city?"
"Hour and half, maybe more with the usual traffic," Emily replied, used to the city more than he was.
"If we leave now we may be too early but I also would hate to be late for this golden opportunity." Lucky remarked and Emily agreed with his judgment with a nod. "When do you need to get back to Port Charles?" When Emily said she had to work tonight, she did not say an approximate time just a vague one.
"By four or so, even though coming earlier could be in my best interest." Emily replied corrected when she thought about it again.
"Okay, do you mind if we carpool? I have no idea how to get to the Governor's office much less anywhere in New York City so you will have to drive." Lucky pointed out, but knew Emily took that into consideration much earlier.
"Works for me, my SUV is outside with a full tank of gas." Emily told him and Lucky grabbed his coat off his chair and shrugged it on as they left the building. Lucky had no idea what he would find out in this meeting, if anything, but he hoped it was good. Murphy deserved to finally be able to rest in peace.
Author's note: Still swamped with homework and life's problems but this chapter has been sitting on my computer for a while just waiting to see its final form so I decided to jump on that and give myself a small break. I hope it will hold the story readers because my five classes are giving more work than I fully realized.