Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. Once again, thanks to SWWoman and Maddsgirl75 for betaing this and catching lots of my mistakes.
Chapter 2 - Grief
Seeing the Mom and Pop stores whizzing by was a familiar sight to Joss as she patiently sat in the back of the cab. Finding that she needed to talk to Lauren, she told her chief that she would be looking for a CI to see if he had some information on a recent case. The captain looked to be quite busy dealing with the recent news. It looked like the department was getting quite a bit of undesirable attention and he was trying to rectify the problem. After letting him know, he gave her an acknowledged grunt, seeing that he still had his hands quite full.
After she left and closed the door to give him his privacy, she headed back to her desk. Joss made sure to pack all her files neatly into her desk drawers. She didn't want any prying eyes. After securing the drawer lock, she fetched her keys and thick jacket and was on her way.
She had opted to take a cab as a way of making sure that she wasn't drawing attention. She had been acting a bit more paranoid than she would like to be, but it would help for now since she didn't have all the facts just yet.
She had made this trip often in the past 3 years. She and Bill had been assigned as partners and they went together like bread and butter. They would joke around and hang out after work like the good friends they had become. As they got to know each other better, they would talk about troubling things as well. She had told him about her deceased husband while he spoke to her about a case where he had to kill a kid because he was holding a gun to a hostage's head.
They understood that this job wouldn't help with the stress levels that they would experience so the talks really helped calm things down. Talking around the water cooler, he would always chat on and on about what Lauren, his wife did the day before and Joss could see the sparkle of love in his eyes. He would talk about her often and Joss couldn't help but smile at the nature in which he told the story, always with a smile.
After a while, she had been invited to dinner with the two of them at Lauren's request. When she had arrived, Lauren was quite the host. She welcomed her with open arms, which was something Joss didn't get often in her line of work as a homicide detective. Lauren had made a beautiful roast and the three of them chatted about many things including vacations and funny incidents.
To this day, Joss would visit Lauren during her lunch break to have one of their friendly chats. They would only last for maybe a half an hour but she could tell that Lauren always enjoyed the time they spent together as well, no matter how long.
Unfortunately, the circumstances of today's trip were quite a bit more depressing. Joss had not personally told Lauren the bad news, Joss couldn't bear to face her and see her reaction. She'd never had this problem before when she would have to give the bad news to the loved ones of murder victims. She attributed her actions to the fact that they were really good friends. Now she would have to talk to the recent widow and see if there was something that she could tell her about the events leading up to Bill's death.
Joss knew in her heart that she had to clear Bill's name, not just for him but for his wife. She would allow Lauren her space however if she refused to talk to her. She wouldn't expect Lauren to be able to talk to anyone, possibly due to depression or anger. She would try her best and if she refused to speak to her, she wouldn't force the issue and find other methods to find out what happened.
The driver found a spot just in front of the old brick apartment building. It was remotely similar to her home except for the black color of the outside material. She couldn't help but take a deep breath to calm herself down. She was hoping that Lauren would be reasonable. Her instincts told her that there was something to be found here and she always trusted her instincts.
She couldn't recall the amount of times she had done this during the course of her career, visiting a mother and father or siblings of a murder victim to try to collect information or anything conclusive about the person's whereabouts or activities during the day. It was somewhat easier when there wasn't any sort of personal connection she tried to reason with herself.
She took the job of a homicide detective, knowing the effect that it would have on her and her sanity. In the Army, she had been able to keep her emotions in check and was able to care. Lots of men and women lose themselves when they go through something so traumatic. There were so many times when she would try her best to find the means to solve a hard case but constantly hit a dead end. It took many of her colleagues to convince her to file them as unsolved and it would leave her crushed.
As she looked through the first floor window, she could see movement in the corner of her eye as the curtains began to sway slightly inside. Lauren lived in the apartment where the curtains were so she knew that it had to be her. Carter continued to worry that Lauren would be angry with her, find her in some way responsible for what happened and turn her away. If she hated her and asked her to leave, she would respect her wishes because she understood the grief she was experiencing all too well.
Gathering her things together, she looked to make sure that traffic was clear before exiting the cab, the brisk December air made her pull up the collar of her jacket. She turned to the building and made her way up the clay stairs. Looking at the buzzers of the different tenants, she pressed the one that read Szymanski. The wait wasn't long as the beep sound was heard through the speakers, indicating that the front door was now opened and she made her way inside.
It was a step in the right direction, but that didn't necessarily mean that Lauren was in the mood to talk. She may have invited her in just to give her a verbal lashing before slamming the door in her face. The small hallway inside was quiet as she made her way over to her apartment unit. Standing in front of the door, she prepared herself for the worst as she raised her gloved hand and knocked gingerly on the door.
She waited as she could hear movement from behind the door and then the sound of locks being undone. The door then opened and what greeted Joss broke her heart. What stood in front of her was the middle aged woman that stood about five feet eight. Her red, bob cut hair was disheveled and her face was quite red. Joss could see the fresh tears clear as day and her puffy eyes were being tended to by a tissue. The two women looked at each other for what felt like minutes before Joss decided to say what she had to say.
"Lauren, look I'm just going to say something right now. I know that you hate me for what happened to Bill because you think it's my fault and I understand. I just want to let you know that whatever happens, I still know he's a good cop and I'm going to be damn sure to clear his name."
Before she attempted to turn around and walk away, Lauren threw herself forward, crushing her in a bear hug. She was clearly still distraught over what had happened and gave her a comforting hug in return. Once the exchange was over and they pulled away, Lauren invited her inside.
"Joss, I can't thank you enough for coming over today. I just don't know what to believe anymore." She could hear the desperation in her voice. Hopefully Joss could help her somehow.
There was a different feeling in the apartment from her last visit a few weeks ago. The main thing that she noticed was that the entire collection of pictures of Lauren and Bill had been arranged face down so that they wouldn't be visible.
Joss took a moment to look around the apartment, a chill crawling its way up her spine even though she was still enveloped in her jacket.
"Have a seat Joss. I'll bring you some coffee. You still take yours black, no cream and two sugars?" She nodded her answer and watched Lauren walk to the kitchen.
She began to recall how many times she sat on this exact same cushion, sharing tales of her cases with Lauren. She always got a kick out of some of the more humorous tales of bad guys that were just too easy to bag.
Lauren understood the dangers of the job. She knew that Bill was putting himself through a lot of trouble to make sure that she was financially taken care of. She was happy for him because he would make a difference every day and wouldn't compromise his morals for anyone that didn't obey the law.
"I just don't understand why all this is happening to us," she heard Lauren state as she came back into the living room with two large ceramic mugs. She handed one over to Joss as she took a seat opposite of her. Joss had noticed that she had cleaned up a bit but the look in Lauren's eyes told her that the widow hadn't gotten much sleep since she had gotten the bad news.
"I take it that you heard what they have been saying about him?"
Lauren continued on. "How could I not, it's on the news every time I turn on the television? I just don't understand how these reporters can just sully Bill's name like that, calling him a dirty good for nothing cop and an attempted murderer. That's not like Bill at all. He would never hurt anyone at all."
Joss put her cup down and reached over to cover Lauren shaky hands in reassurance. "I know Lauren. Believe me I'm in the same boat as you with all of this. That's actually the reason why I came to see you today." Lauren took a sip before placing the cup on the wooden coffee table, a ghost of a smile gracing her tired features. "I'm just glad that you are alright Joss. I was worried that something might have happened to you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well you were his partner and friend. You helping Bill clear his name with the misunderstanding earlier and I was just thinking that the same guys that did this to him might be coming after you." Lauren was a very smart woman, learning a few tricks of deduction from her husband.
"So you think that this is connected to the trial that Bill was supposed to testify?"
"How could it not? He went over the case with me these last couple of weeks whenever we had dinner and Bill told me himself that he was the key witness that would put those brothers away."
"I heard from him not long before he headed out of the station yesterday. It seemed like nothing was wrong when I spoke to him."
"It was all so sudden. We were just having lunch after he came home during break when the officers came to our door."
"Did you recognize any of them?"
"No, none of them had been in Bill's precinct. When I answered the door, they told me that they had a search warrant for the house due to an anonymous tip. Bill let them in of course because he didn't have anything to hide. After looking upstairs, one of the officers found a plastic bag with a bunch of money it in."
"I saw the same bag when they brought Bill over to be interrogated. Bill was quite adamant that it wasn't his."
"Of course it wasn't" she insisted with a raised voice. "Bill would never accept money to look the other way."
"I know Lauren. I tried to convince the arresting detective that too." She watched as she took another sip of her coffee, trying to better recall the events of that day.
"So do you know who gave them the tip Joss?"
Joss sighed "Yeah unfortunately. It was a narcotics detective named Cal Beecher. I was in an off and on relationship with him. He told me while we watched the interrogation that he got a tip from one of his CIs but wouldn't give me a name."
"Are you sure that he's involved?" Joss shook her head. She was confident that he wasn't innocent in all this at least. "Thank you for looking out for Bill. He was quite grateful when he came back home.."
"Of course, what are friends for? Was there anything else out of the ordinary that day?"
Lauren shook her head. "No. After you helped Bill, he just came home. He seemed calm enough, figuring that this was all one big misunderstanding because of someone that knew the brothers that he was going to testify against. It was an easy opportunity to frame up a cop to make him look like a bad witness and get the case thrown out. I always clean up the bed when we would wake up and never saw that money before until they supposedly found it there. Bill keeps to himself sometimes, but I know that he's not doing anything wrong."
"What about Alonzo Quinn, how does he fit into the picture?"
"Bill wanted to go over to his office with his lawyer to discuss the case and what the mayor could do to help. When he didn't come home that night, I was of course worried. I tried calling the station without any response. I ended up finding out on the news the next day what happened." She began to break down in front of her.
Joss got up from her seat and walked over to her. She placed her hand on her shoulder to comfort her, grabbing and handing her a nearby box of tissues. Joss knew the pain in losing someone you loved all too well. It's never easy to just move on.
She looked towards her with pleading eyes. "Please Joss, find out the truth about what happened. I don't want people to think that I was married to a terrible person. Bill was a good man and I don't want his named to be soiled."
"Don't worry Lauren. I will find out the truth. I promise" she said sincerely.
She got up and hugged Joss once again. "Just be careful okay. I'm afraid to think that you may be in deeper then you think when you got him released from custody. You are a force to be reckoned with, but be on your toes okay?"
Joss nodded her head as she accepted her advice gratefully. Lauren had a point. She was now involved in this whether she liked it or not. Now she was going to do her best to make things right.
After finishing her brew of coffee, she gave Lauren another reassuring hug while telling her what her plans were. For now she would head back to the station and do some more digging.
"Give me a call if you can think of anything else or if someone comes sniffing around that you don't know okay?" Lauren would follow her warning too. Her life would depend on it if things were as serious as she feared. Joss bid her goodbye and headed towards the street to hail another cab.
When she was about to look up the street to start searching, she suddenly got an inexplicable chill running up the course of her spine. She recognized the feeling all too well that felt like she was being watched by someone. Surveying the area, she didn't notice anyone suspicious or anything out of the ordinary. She decided not to harp on it for now and managed to get a nearby cab to head back to her desk. The first thing on her list would be to look at the details of the case more closely again. There may be some more information that she may have missed.
A/N: Once again thanks to my betas SWWoman and especially Maddsgirl75 for doing her best under the circumstances. Thank you for what you were able to do and I greatly appreciate it. I also want to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I made sure to respond to everyone that I was able to and to the guests thanks from me since I can't PM you. I hope that you guys will stick around and continue to let me know how this is for you. We are officially on a big hiatus til our guys come back and they will be coming back on a new night and time nonetheless. Hope this story helps curb you depression guys.