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Chapter 7: All At Once
The next few days passed in a blur of fruitless interview that left the entire team beyond frustrated. After the first day, they'd had no breaks in the case despite late nights at the office. It wasn't until Thursday morning that Vera finally put down the phone, triumphant.
"Finally got the full toxicology report on Holly Wilder," He said, leaning back in the chair and rubbing his tired eyes. "Absolutely no history of drug use, even before her death. Seems like the parents were right."
From his place buried under what seemed like miles of records of past arrests at the drug corner their victim was found, Scotty spoke up. "Girl wasn't ever arrested for trafficking either. Clean record."
Lilly sighed, the more they dug, the more they confirmed what the parents had maintained all along. Holly was a good girl who got caught up with a bad boy. It was always harder when their victim was completely innocent. No one deserved murder, but there were victims no one felt any sympathy with because they themselves had screwed up so bad that they'd signed their own death warrant. There had even been times where sympathy lay with the doer, but this was obviously not one of those cases.
"Got somethin'." Kat called from where she'd been seated in front of the computer for the last 4 hours. "One of our Wayne Simmses was booked on three possession and trafficking charges, once from that same corner."
"No way. Ain't got no Wayne Simms over here." Scotty said, clearly annoyed.
"Well check again, sleazy lookin' guy in a red baseball cap." Kat retorted. Inwardly, she fumed. There was no way Valens had gone through all those arrest records, not enough to definitively disprove her claim anyway. What the hell was wrong with him?
"You mean this guy?" Scotty held up a mug shot that matched Kat's description.
"That's right genius, how d'you miss that?" Kat said sarcastically.
"Hey, he didn't give the police a name and charges were never laid." Scotty claimed in his defense.
"Ain't that why you're a detective?" Kat shot back without missing a beat. When she and Scotty continued to stare at each other, the frustration of the past few days clearly getting to them, she looked toward Vera for arbitration.
Hoping to diffuse the situation, Vera stepped in. He was not used to being the one trying to calm tempers. In fact, he and Valens were the ones who butted heads the most often. Save for maybe him and Miller. "Time for No Drugs Today." He said, smiling widely. "Can't make Simms come to us, gotta go to his turf."
His statement was met by eager amusement from Scotty and Will, and confusion from the two women.
"No Drugs Today?" Lilly asked. "What are you talking about?"
Jeffries was the one to answer. "We camp out in front of a known drug dealing corner and wait for our person of interest to come to us. Usually they break in half a day, after we've turned away all their customers."
Understanding fully, Lilly thought of the day she and boss had driven by a drug corner, and laughed when they saw Vera, Jeffries, and Scotty, sitting on the corner, sipping lemon slushies despite the cold weather and trying to get their suspect to turn up. When they'd rolled down the window to talk to them, Scotty had jokingly informed them that he hoped Philly's finest weren't looking for a fix and Vera had complained about the lack of cherry slushies.
Kat snorted in derision, "Sounds stupid. Just waitin', aren't we supposed to chase after justice?"
Nick raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh you got no idea. Other than the damn cold weather and lack of marshmallows for s'mores, nothing gets a druggie faster."
"Fine. Let's go." Kat said, grabbing her coat. "You in Lil?"
"Definitely. I've been hunched up in this chair for the past two days." She also stood and reached for her jacket.
"But… " Vera stuttered, trying to figure out a way to say this in the most non-offensive, harmless way possible. Hopefully a way that wouldn't get his ass kicked. "No Drugs Today… is kinda a guy's thing." He said carefully.
Immediately, Kat leaned a hand on her hip while Lilly paused, halfway through putting on her scarf. Both women fixed with him a stare that would usually have made him back down, but there were marshmallows and male gossip at stake for God's sake. Frantically, Vera looked toward his male counterparts for some support.
Taking one look at the falling snow outside, Jeffries said. "Miller can take my place. It's gotta be below 0 out there today. Besides, boss has been bugging me to learn how to use that thing." He gestured toward Kat's computer.
"Dude" Scotty said. "You can't use the computer? That's like, rookie tech stuff."
"Scotty, when I first joined the force, everything was done by hand. Those fancy gadgets came by later," Jeffries replied wearily.
"World had to wait for the 70s for me," Scotty bragged. "I was practically born with a computer."
Suddenly an idea hit him. If Lilly, Miller, and Vera went on No Drugs Today, and Jeffries was busy catching up with the 21st century. That would give him the rest of the day off. Perfect to arrange a little surprise he'd been planning for Lilly since the first night they were together. Eagerly, he agreed. "Lil, why don't you go out on the street with Vera and Miller."
"Great." Lilly agreed, shooting Scotty a look of thanks. In all her years, she'd always been known as the one who dug through old cases or had a knack for getting confessions. Being out on the street, not just for an interview, provided a level of danger and action that she had to admit, she missed about her days on the line. Of course, there was no greater satisfaction than putting old cases to rest, but like any police officer, she missed being out there with the world.
Of course, Scotty felt that desire probably more than any of them. Lilly remembered from his first few days in cold cases, wondering when he'd be allowed to prove his worth and join the big boys in homicide. Lilly had been offended at first, but her new partner had settled nicely in with them, in time learning to love his job just as much as she did.
Usually though, Scotty relished the occasional chance to be out there, and was the first to volunteer for jobs like this. Perhaps him passing it up had to do with him freezing his nuts off last time, as Vera had gleefully reported. But Lilly refused to think that he was letting her go due to their recent – extra curricular – activities.
Looking up and pushing the thoughts out of her mind, Lilly was met by Vera's look of indignation and shock.
"What the hell, man?" He demanded of his two male colleagues. Staring back and forth, Vera wondered grimly how he got stuck between two of the most, prickly, women he knew. This was going to be a long afternoon.
Lilly cursed as she hugged her coat more closely around herself and shivered in the cool November air. How had she let them confuse her into thinking No Drugs Today, was some sort of glamorous task? Here she was, standing out in the cold for more than three hours now, occasionally flashing her badge at a jonesing addict to let them know that they couldn't get a fix today, their suspect nowhere in sight. She sighed heavily and looked over at her arguing colleagues.
"Don't you learn this kinda stuff in boy scouts, or wilderness camp or somethin'?" Kat demanded of Vera. It had been three hours, three freaking hours and the idiot hadn't figured out how to start a fire in that rusty old garbage can yet.
"I was a hockey player." He informed her bitterly. "Valens was the boy scout. He usually takes care of this sort of thing." Kicking his bag of unopened marshmallows, that he'd saved and cherished just for an occasion like this, Vera tossed the matches at Kat. "Think you're so clever? You try. Bet you can't even light a match."
"I can birth babies, I'd like to see you try that. Now put your white ass to good use and make a fire before me and Lil freeze to death." She informed him icily. Kat then walked over to where Lilly was standing.
"Maybe he was right about this bein' a guy's thing." Kat complained, not that she'd ever admit to Vera that she was suffering out here. She'd been shot for God sakes, given birth to a child in the back seat of a taxi; she should be able to take a bit of cold.
Lilly unstuck her chattering teeth to respond. "I don't know, but I do know that I would kill for the largest Triple Americano I can find right now. You and, uh Vera, doin' okay over there?" She glanced over at her male colleague, a pile of used matches at his feet, cursing quietly under his breath.
"Well we would be if the fat ass could get the damn fire started." Kat replied. "I can't believe I agreed to this. You know, Valens and Jeffries probably knew about this. That's why they didn't want to come. When I get back to headquarters, hauling Wayne Simms with me of course, I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind and they will never…"
The rest of Kat's words were lost in a gust of wind that sent chills all the way down to Lilly's bones. She shrugged helplessly at what no doubt would have been a formidable threat. Looking behind her at the building that Wayne Simms undoubtedly dealt his drugs from, Lilly had half a thought of busting in there, No Drugs Today be damned and apprehend the suspect herself.
"I'm sure Scotty didn't mean to." She said quietly. With a start of surprise, Lilly realized that she'd inadvertently defended the man she was sleeping with. She glanced over a Kat, hoping her offhand comment could be brushed off as nothing more than partnerly loyalty or that she hadn't been heard at all.
"Since when is Valens the most trustable person ever?" She asked quizzically. "If anything it's Will that deserves the benefit of the doubt."
Damn it. She should have known, Kat never misses a damn thing.
Lilly racked her brains for an answer, "He's just… not the kind of man who would leave us out here in the cold on purpose."
"Then what kind of man is he?" Kat asked, raising her eyebrows at the squirming detective next to her.
"How am I supposed to know?" Lilly snapped. "Let's just… go help Vera with that fire before we catch hypothermia okay?" And with that she walked toward the safer, less perceptive male detective.
Kat stared after Lilly, suddenly alarmed at this dramatic change in character. Since when has Rush thought so highly of Valens? She asked herself silently. And more importantly, why the hell was she dodging her questions and acting so oddly. Thinking back to this morning, Kat felt the puzzle pieces falling together. Valens' disheveled appearance, Rush's feigned nonchalance and defense of Scotty Valens. Lil and Scotty?
No way. Uh uh. No freaking way. Cold must be gettin' to you. Kat told herself, but she resigned to watch the two of them more closely from now on. Hunches like this of hers usually turned out to be dead on and she'd be damned if she let the story of the century escape her.
Scotty nervously approached Jeffries and his boss, wondering how best to ask for a few hours off amid the chaos of a new case and a new lead. But he really needed to. Lilly and him had been together almost every minute of the past few days, which was wonderful, but gave him absolutely no time to carry out his surprise. This kind of opportunity was rare, and Scotty was determined to seize it.
"Boss?" He asked quietly.
"What's on your mind Scotty?" Stillman could tell when one of his detectives was nervous, and most of the time it had to do with making a request they believed was exorbitant. He put down his pen and fixed Scotty with a kind look.
"I, need a few lost hours." He said, praying that Stillman wouldn't ask him why. He had a story about his sick mother requesting his help, but he preferred not to use it. "And I figured that as long as we got nothin' to do here, I could take them now and…"
"Scotty, you've got enough lost hours saved up to take off from now til the summer." Stillman informed him gently. In fact, it pleased him when his detectives recognized their own need for sleep and rest every now and then.
Scotty hastened to add, "I could come back when they bring in Simms, help with the interrogation?" But he crossed his fingers, hoping that boss wouldn't take him up on his offer. He needed to be home when Lilly got home for this to work.
"That's okay, me and Will can take care of the interview. I'll see you tomorrow morning, alright Scotty?"
"Sure thing boss" Scotty replied eagerly. Within seconds, Scotty was hopping into his own car and driving off toward the nearest department store.
"Vera. A wind like this, you're never gonna get that thing started." Lilly informed her annoyed colleague. "Might as well huddle up and save your body heat."
"Valens always manages it." He said simply. If Scotty freaking Valens could start a fire, then he surely could.
"Well then why don't you call him?" Kat suggested sarcastically as she approached the two of them. She acted as though the suspicious exchange between her and Lilly from a few minutes ago hadn't happened and Lilly smiled in relief. Oh, it ain't over Rush. She thought inwardly.
"Yeah" Lilly chimed. "Doesn't make you any less of a man." She said smiling, knowing now that there was no way Vera would ask anyone for help. She remembered once saying the exact same thing to Scotty, back when he was only her partner, which resulted in him making a point of not shivering in a cold warehouse.
Instead of the sarcastic comment Lilly expected though, Vera stared at the sidewalk across the street and said, "No need, we'll be out of here soon." He pointed at a tall burly figure currently making his way menacingly toward them.
"Oh thank god" Lilly groaned. Finally.
"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?" Their suspect yelled angrily.
"Lookin' for you." Kat replied. "Wayne Simms, you are under arrest, for the murder of Holly Wilder. You have the right to remain silent…" With a strength that neither Lilly or Nick knew Kat possessed, she hauled their struggling suspect, who was at least a foot taller, toward the car.
As Kat continued to rail off their suspect's rights, Vera turned to Lilly. "Told you this would work." He said gleefully. "You two should be thanking me for getting him."
"My hero." Lilly cooed sarcastically. And she would have said more if she wasn't so cold.
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