Without a price

Without a price

Chapter 14

While Baldwin was no saint and did his share of breaking the law, Lucky had trouble believing he would resort to such drastic actions. He had been the inside corruption before but he had never gone so far-even he was smarter than that. He knew you could only mess with justice so much before it became obvious and well traced so what happened? Why did Baldwin loose his carefulness?

It was possible that during his affair with Maria he found a heart, he had certainly been happy enough for a month or so but would love even bow down his intelligence and capability to break the law and not get caught? Then again, it was not unheard of ex-boyfriends to go so far to kill the ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend out of jealousy.

Still, he needed to be careful if he was to see if it all added up. Yes, the motive and the inside corruption did say something but what he needed was solid evidence-not just speculation. And considering he needed it on the DA….well he was going to have to be clever and resourceful. He also needed Emily's help because he was clueless as to how to do that. Baldwin covered his tracks quite well in the evidence category.

Sure he could see if Baldwin registered for a gun, the kind used in the murder, but he could have also got it from the black market, borrowed it from a friend, and could have stole it even. Like Emily said, it was the common gun, just more circumstantial evidence. He needed concrete evidence.

Cursing himself for losing his head and possibly ruining Emily and his friendship, he shook his head. He had got himself in trouble at the worst time possible.

While Lucky did this, Maria looked at her husband. "I was sure Emily would be here."

"Emily had to go out of town and take care of some things." The Governor replied, smiling slightly as he was starting to see his wife again, that they were going to be all right, somehow.

Lucky caught that and realized that he should call, even asked about it previously. Whatever "it" was anyway. He didn't have a clue where she would be in order to "take care of some things." Somewhere along the line Emily didn't want to talk about it and the only thing Lucky did was concern himself with his murder investigation. He remembered the face Emily made immediately after his accusation.

It showed shock but it also showed a bit more. Whatever was going on was becoming too much for her to handle, and it was just building-physically and mentally. She didn't want to admit it though. Maybe it was time his priorities changed.

He requested a two days off at the end of the day after telling his boss his conclusion and given that it was Friday, that meant he had an extra two days. He had been working weekends, but had done so by choice rather than it was ordered because he wanted to solve Murphy's murder case so bad that it became an obsession. So, he had four days to find Emily and be there, help out and do what he could. The hardest part will probably be finding her. They both had changed so much, would she still go back to their old haunts? He didn't know but he was going to find out nonetheless and if that did not work, well he would have to use his many resources.

He didn't have to go that far luckily, finding Emily at the catacombs. Neither went there anymore because they had more responsibilities and a life outside that. That and the fact that it closed a couple years ago as it became a health hazard but Emily and him had gone there so often they knew every knack and corner and where you can sneak in. He didn't know why it came to thought, it was outside the city and isolated and easily forgotten as a result but for some reason it did.

After wandering for a bit, he heard some water steadily dropping, the sound distracting him so that he went on one of the less safer paths. The path wasn't finished and meant to be a dead end but the end of the track had fell and water from the outside started coming in through cracks in the structure and built a lake underneath it. It was dangerous, he knew, but took his chances anyway.

As he rounded the last bend, he saw a figure in the dark, sitting at the end of the broken track watching the water fall. The figure was sniffling and didn't hear his arrival, much too preoccupied with their grief and pain. By the time they noticed, he was one step behind them, reaching for his handkerchief, and handing it to them.

Emily looked up at his hand and almost laughed at the irony of Lucky's presence. She really should have foreseen this happening-would have if she was attentive previously. She took the handkerchief and allowed him to sit next to her. Lucky noted her tear stained face as Emily blew her nose.

Lucky stayed silent for a minute, allowing her to clean herself up. "It's dangerous here you know." He commented later.

"And yet you are here as well." Emily replied, much more level headed than he arrived.

"Yeah, well I kind of deserve getting harmed after what I said to you last week. It was wrong of me to blame you; I was just caught up in my drama when it was well apparent your life was not that great either." Lucky looked over at her and saw that quite well, even in the dark. She looked like she was on the brink of exhaustion and saw no opportunity to succumb to it which probably only made her further fatigued. "I'm sorry."

Emily nodded, sniffling once again. "I knew you were going regret it later," Emily told him, "that was why I didn't say anything back." She couldn't deny that the words hurt though, had for a while.

"You should have smacked some sense into me though" Lucky responded.

"It was tempting, I have to admit." Emily said, meeting his eyes for the first time. As he thought, they were red, irritated, and showed little spark of life.

Lucky wasn't sure it would help if he told her about Baldwin, even if he should, but did so anyway in order to really let the argument go. "So, I think I found Murphy's killer."

"Was it really the ex-lover?" Emily still had difficulty believing it was that straight forward, that that was the way they would find them. It was logical yes, but also very cliché.

"Yeah, and I doubt you'll be surprised but it was Scott Baldwin." Emily wasn't surprised, as her face showed no shock. "We don't have solid evidence on him yet though. Most of the evidence is convincing and distinct but face it, it's all circumstantial and that will not guarantee a guilty plea."

"No, it won't but that still doesn't change the fact that Maria will not love him as he loves her. It will seriously damage his reputation also. I mean this type of news can go national, you know?" Emily pointed out.

"It also won't let Murphy rest in peace. He was an advocate of justice and kind of deserves that, don't you think?" Lucky saw her point though but it wasn't enough, not nearly enough. Then again he was biased.

"Everyone deserves justice Lucky but that doesn't mean it will always happen. That won't erase the pain his widow is going through, or the fact that the kids he left behind won't have a fatherly influence in their lives." Emily explained, probably knowing too well how that feels.

"I'm not saying it would either. We need solid evidence Em, that's the problem and face it by now it's probably all destroyed if I'm right. He is the authority of the police department. If some piece of evidence is missing, they have to tell him and he will just continue covering for himself, again and again." Lucky emphasized this and shook his head. "It's just not fair. I know life isn't meant to be fair but this is just…especially unfair!" Lucky threw up his hands as a helpless gesture.

"Well, what could you do to make him act out and get caught, admitting all his deeds. Everyone is not above gloating if he thinks the listener will be dead." Emily informed him.

He, of course, thought of that but… "That's drastic to say the least Emily. I don't want to go that far. Putting someone out there as bait….that's wrong. I want to nail Baldwin but I don't want to risk another person's life to do it. That's one risk I don't want to take." He shook his strong stubbornly. "I'm not going to do it."

"Well then, what do want to do?" Emily asked.

"I don't know Emily. I hoped you would have another suggestion to be honest." Lucky admitted that he didn't have a clue what to do from here. His hands were tied. He had never felt so…helpless. It was unnerving and he didn't like feeling that way.

"I can't help you anymore Lucky." Emily stated, "You said yourself, he had the chance to destroy everything and probably did. You can't win this round; no matter how hard you try."

"Here's a question then: how do you accept this kind of failure?" Lucky asked, gnawing over what Emily said. He knows she is right, knew what she said long before she actually said it but didn't want to admit, out loud at least.

"Letting go this kind of thing isn't easy, knowing you could have done something but couldn't given the circumstances…" Emily paused, thinking of what to say, finding that her depth of knowledge was no good here and that that previous statement was all too true for both of them, making her feel even worse. She attempted to explain the situation as she saw it.

"Lucky…there are things in life that can't be logically explained or justified and all you know on the subject is that it was just what it was and when that something occurs its just better to move on. You will never feel it is right and it will probably haunt you that that all you could do was give up and move on but sometimes that's all you can really ask for." Emily quickly shook her head, desperately trying to shake off that hard truth that penetrated her and wounded her. She had to move on, she just had to move on! She could dally on this- there were things to do, people to see, and she didn't need to be held back by it, couldn't afford to be.

Lucky saw her struggle through the explanation and got the feeling she was trying to make sense of something, maybe the "it" he didn't know about. There was one way to find out though. "And what failure are you trying to accept?" Emily said nothing in response so he continued. "I mean it has to be pretty big if you were crying over it." Emily rarely cried and Lucky could count on one hand how many times he'd seen or heard about it, all in the time he had known her.

"It's not just one failure I'm upset about; it is so much more complicated than that." Emily responded as more tears sprung to her eyes and she pushed them away only to have more fall. She wasn't even using proper English grammar.

Lucky was more or less at a complete loss of what to do. Emily was confused to say the least and had not been making much sense during this conversation. Her vague responses were not helping at all either. He needed to broach her issues, her multiple ones apparently but if she wasn't making sense, what was the use now?

Lucky stood up and grabbed Emily's free hand to pull her up, something that startled Emily but she followed, finishing the motion and standing up. He let go of her hand and looked at her. "The first step in dealing with your issues is sleep."

"And where do you suggest that I do that? I'm not exactly in the best condition to drive to my apartment." Lucky was glad to hear that as Emily was troubled but not ignorant of her current condition. It showed she wasn't suicidal and prone to unnecessary risks.

"No, you aren't which is why I'm driving and we are going to my apartment. It's closer and safer." Lucky said and Emily nodded, giving into his diagnosis.

Author's note: Yet another update, this time with a lesson: never write a chapter when you should be studying for a physics test. The consequences are not pretty, let me tell you. Anyway, this is my last week of school and next week is finals so its a busy time for me but that just means I'm two weeks from summer break, when I don't have tests, assignments or anything and I can actually update. Cool huh?