The Ties That Bind….
As Kevin Tidwell poured over the details Seever dug up for him on the Bank of Los Angeles robbery, one name seemed to attract his attention over all the rest – Captain Jack Reese, SWAT Commander and Dani's father.
He stopped, staring out through his blinds into the bay at her empty desk and envisioned the white haired man who climbed from Crews' car at the hospital just over a week ago. Then his eyes narrowed as he remembered Crews' tone on the phone and the fact that Crews just took an entire week's vacation - Tidwell knew it was to be with Dani.
Tidwell had only talked to Dani once in the six days since she'd been discharged and she seemed so far away. He knew she was just across town, but she might just as well have been on Mars. How could someone like him compete with Crews? The man was filthy rich; he drove fantastically exotic cars, dressed like a movie star and was everything Tidwell wasn't. Did he have to be red haired and blue eyed too? And the Zen thing, well that just pissed Tidwell off – it was like Crews was a comic book hero. Geez! He shook his jealously out of his head and refocused on the files in front of him.
Despite Seever's prodigious research ability, no one had been able to place Jack Reese's personnel jacket on his desk - yet. Tidwell had confidence in Jane Seever's tenacity and desire to succeed, but could not know Jack's file was lying on the marble countertop in Charlie Crews' kitchen while he had Seever turning over boxes in archives looking for it.
Eighteen million dollars vanished, not like it was logged into evidence and some of it disappeared – like would happen back in the United States of New York City. It was just gone and you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know the cops took it. Of course, the cops took it, Tidwell thought. And one of those cops was Dani's father. It made sense, it didn't make sense to Tidwell yet, but to someone this all made sense.
His phone rang and Tidwell answered absently "Homicide, Captain Tidwell". There was a pregnant pause on the line, during which he looked at the caller ID and paled when he saw the number displayed.
"Are you enjoying your position there, Captain?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked insidiously.
"Uh, yeah" he fingered his collar as it suddenly felt too tight.
"Doesn't LA have enough homicides to keep you busy, Captain?" the voice inquired.
Tidwell gulped but said nothing. "The Bank of LA robbery really isn't why you were brought out here. See that you stay focused on what we brought you here for" the disembodied voice threatened.
"And if I don't?" Tidwell asked, pissed off at being pushed around by someone he couldn't look in the eye.
"Well, that DA in New York is still very interested in you. Would you like to take your chances with an indictment and maybe a stint in Riker's or keep enjoying the sunshine, Captain?" the snide voice pushed again.
"I'm fine where I am," Tidwell said gritting his teeth.
"Leave Bank of LA alone or you could find yourself back east faster than you want. Do we understand each other, Captain?" the phantom caller asked.
"Yeah" Tidwell sighed. The voice on the other end was replaced by the sound of an empty line. Bastard hung up on me, Tidwell thought, slamming the receiver down in its cradle.
He closed the file and resigned himself to the piles of casework littering his desk, looking around he wondered if "they" could see him in his office or just knew he was poking around. He made a note to himself to check the place for pinhole cameras later when the bullpen cleared out, just to be certain he wasn't being watched.
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Four days had passed since Dani was discharged from the hospital, four days and nights she'd spent in the pleasant company of Charlie Crews, the last man she'd ever have expected to fall in love with. He was coincidentally a man her father hated and after four days of examining Crews' "off the books" investigation – she was pretty sure she knew why. Jack Reese probably played a big roll in Crews going to prison for a very long time.
Kyle Hollis, who confessed to the Seybolt killings, was her father's confidential informant. Snitches for cops, in those days, pretty much did their bidding. Dani also knew her father was a principal player in the Bank of LA robbery and probably brought the money home to their house for a time. But none of that explained why her father would come to see Crews, to talk with him and Dani thought it was time that she knew.
"So…." She began "what did you and my father talk about the other night?" wincing as she rose off the couch gathering his glass and hers to take into the kitchen.
Charlie looked up surprised, kind of hoping she'd forgotten since she was still weak and doped up her first night home. "Uh.. He came by to see how you were…." He flipped a page in a file and tried not to finish the sentence.
"And?" Dani arched her eyebrows at him.
"And…. he told me about what you were like when you were a little girl, we had a couple beers and he left" Charlie hinted at some of what had happened, but stayed away from the heavy stuff.
"You and my dad had beers?" Dani said incredulously.
Charlie chuckled and leaned way back on the couch, opening his long frame and stretching "Yeah, we did."
Dani stood halfway between the kitchen and living room, glasses in hand and arched her eyebrows at him. It was a distinctively Reese way of demanding more. He thought about his mother and how she could stare him down as a boy and decided Reese had the same gift and looked at his ceiling to escape her penetrating gaze. Spider webs in the corners of the vaulted ceiling annoyed him - gotta get Ted to get an exterminator out here, he thought ignoring the problem in front of him for the moment.
"I heard all about you learning to ride a bike, adventures in roller skating and as it turns out you've always been stubborn, at least that's how it seems from the stories your dad tells" he played with the new found knowledge and it's effect on his partner who held all her cards so close to the vest.
When he looked down Dani was still staring, but her eyes were now narrowed and her lips pursed. Charlie continued "He told me about Chester" teasing and Dani paled.
"I didn't take you for a teddy bear kinda kid, Reese" Charlie winked at her.
"It wasn't a bear it was a rabbit," Reese grumbled under her breath, looking at her feet and scuffing the floor – another habit she shared with her father. Deep down under all that toughness, Charlie could see the stubborn little girl with long dark hair, deep expressive eyes and the shy smile in the photo Jack Reese showed him from his wallet that night and it made him smile from the inside out.
"You were a cute kid, Reese," he said rising off the couch and approaching her.
"Did you know your dad still carries a picture of you in his wallet?" She lifted her eyes to meet his and shook her head "no", silently. "He does" Charlie said softly "and when he talks about you, it's hard to believe he's the same man in those files," he admitted to himself and her.
They both looked back at the array of materials and information strewn across the coffee table, counter top and floor. "The truth isn't there either, honey," Charlie promised her. "It's here" he touched his heart "and here" gently touching hers.
"I know that Charlie" Reese admitted softly. Then her look became wry and she turned to look at him. "I also know that my father did not come here to bury the hatchet and sing kumbaya with you Crews. So spill it." Her grin was like that of an impish child. She was not angry, but not done either.
Charlie gathered her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. He sighed, resigned to not lying to his partner, but not really wanting to get into the drama with her.
The last three days had been heavenly, sleeping with her curled alongside him well into the late morning, followed by him making blueberry pancakes, bacon and fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast and then driving out somewhere for the fancy triple espresso coffee mixtures Dani loved. They had taken his car on long drives together listening to a radio playing a rock station Dani liked in the background as they meandered up the coast road or into the mountains.
Dani could not return the gesture because her hands were full, so he took the glasses from her and walked them to the sink. By the time he returned she had hobbled back to the couch, holding her side and breathing solidly, but hard. "Crews?" she demanded.
"He was here to warn me," Charlie said. His look became hard and dark as he finished "Apparently, we've attracted the attention of some people who are dangerous – to both of us."
"What kind of people?" Dani asked as she returned to their makeshift command center on the couch.
"Mickey Rayborn's kind of people" Charlie said darkly.
Dani said nothing and Charlie knew she was thinking about Rayborn. He remembered the photo Amanda Puryer had of Reese on Rayborn's boat, but said nothing and waited for her to speak. Charlie knew people liked to fill a void – even Dani.
"I went to see him. Rayborn. I went to see him on his boat, when I was working at the FBI" Dani volunteered. "The FBI wanted information on you."
"And you thought Rayborn had information on me?" Charlie wondered aloud.
"No, but the FBI knew you followed Rayborn, had contact with him" she divulged "and they wanted to know why….so did I" she eyed him hard.
Charlie said nothing. He continued to look her in the eye, but neither of them gave an inch. Reese's breathing normalized and she leveled her gaze and continued "I talked to Rayborn about you, but he just toyed with me, he told me nothing useful."
This intrigued Charlie and he slid forward on the couch to ask his question "Why did you want to know about Rayborn and me? For the FBI? Or for yourself?"
Dani inclined her head and her eyes became unreadable like she was remembering something or deciding something, then she spoke "I'm not sure. The question was there and I'm not sure why I went, but in the end I decided that whatever I had learned….whatever that was….wasn't anything. It was a fist full of water. The harder I tried to hold onto it, the more it got away from me."
"That's very…." Charlie began.
"Don't you dare say Zen" she interrupted challenging him with her eyebrows and tone, but smiling.
"Uh…..enlightened" he countered. Dani narrowed her eyes. He hadn't said it and yet he'd said it. They were becoming more and more alike, more in synch and it wasn't conscious or intentional but she could feel it.
Sometimes she'd catch herself thinking something Crews always said or hear him quip some smart comment she knew had come from her earlier. Married couples did it after a time, pick up each other's mannerisms and speech patterns, so it made sense partners would, but it still surprised and slightly unsettled Dani, that Crews could be that close, that fast – and that they fit together so seamlessly.
He had not answered her question. He'd danced around it and avoided it, but never lied directly to her. She knew he was hiding something, the question was – was it to protect himself, her or her father, with Charlie one could never be entirely sure. It preoccupied her to the extent his next comment caught her off balance.
"Reese?" Charlie danced along a knife's edge, knowing he was in a dangerous area "About the FBI?" he began "Didn't Tidwell send you there because he said it would be good for your career?" Charlie asked plainly.
"What about it?" Dani said a little defensively. Charlie needed to remember it was a little less than a week ago, Dani walked away from Kevin Tidwell and towards him. Tread softly, he thought.
"He said the FBI wanted a Detective on loan and it would be good for you, right?" he probed gently. Charlie knew now the FBI had all been Roman's men, they were always Roman's men, which meant Dani going to the FBI was about him. It was why they stonewalled Tidwell and Charlie when they first began looking for Reese and why when Roman began cleaning up, they all died – together and violently.
But Reese didn't know. He needed to show her – without looking like he was showing her. Zen doesn't teach it points, Charlie thought, taking his cue from the art and practice that saved him in dark moments.
"Did they ever ask you to do anything there?" Charlie questioned softly.
He could see the wheels turn in the Dani's head as she began to use her sharp analytical mind to examine the nuances of her assignment to the FBI and the expression in her eyes when the possibility she was set up by the man she was sleeping with – possibly thought she could learn to love, was not something Charlie enjoyed watching.
He knew that Dani's history with men was not a pretty one and this might be more painful than enlightening, but Crews no longer thought Tidwell's presence, interest in Dani or helping her into a slot at the FBI was coincidence. He long ago developed distrust for the man, but at first he chalked it up to a twinge of jealousy over his young, beautiful partner. Now he knew it was one part gut instinct and one part possessiveness, never sure which part was stronger.
Still Charlie didn't say anything. He let her come to the conclusion on her own.
"All they ever asked me about was you" she spoke her thoughts aloud, no longer looking at him, looking through him "Tidwell didn't send them an LAPD officer, he sent them me – your partner." she said more softly as she let the insidiousness of the set up sink in "it was always about you". Rayborn's words echoed back in Charlie's head. "It's always been about you Charlie, even that animal Roman knew that."
Charlie's world spun and listed to one side, he felt unbalanced, as she confirmed his worst fears. If he wanted to be the unwobbling pivot at the center of an ever-revolving universe, he never meant like this. This was about the farthest he could get from it. He felt like if he were standing he'd fall over from his lack of equilibrium. He glanced at Dani – a stable point upon which to fix himself. He looked up just in time to see her stumble, metaphorically.
As what she was involved in began to permeate her brain, Dani became increasingly angry. Charlie watched as the anger transformed her countenance. Her eyes narrowed, her brown eyes darkened to nearly black and her brow furrowed deeply. He could see her jaw set hard as she clinched her teeth and her shoulders tensed. He hated doing this to her, but she needed to understand what they were up against.
Far from making her untethered - anger centered, grounded and anchored Dani. It kept her in the now. Fierceness inhabited her face and Charlie understood that on some level Dani Reese was a woman to be feared.