Chapter 16
Rated "M"
XIV - Attached
It was a matter of minutes before I ended up at the crime scene. Ten maybe if you add the time it took to call a taxi and to walk up the two flights of creaky stairs to get to the old, cheap, dirty apartment that the dead body was in. The dead body that was lying face down on the ground next to a pile of cocaine and a needle that had been emptied of its heroin.I looked over in the kitchen where Zak was talking to a young brunette woman who looked like hell as she stared at the body in awe. I rose a brow at Zak's presence, noting that he was merely a computer geek when it came to these cases. The Captain walked to me, turning to stare at the body before speaking.
"He refused to stay back, said something about a promotion or something..." I almost laughed, but refrained as the cleanup team began packing things up.
"That's Zak for you... Talks nonsense until it really matters." I paused for a moment, glancing at Zak as he attempted to calm down the young woman. "I suppose the cause of death is a drug overdose, correct?"
"Yep. Mix of cocaine and heroin." I nodded in agreement, even if he didn't quite see it.
"Why is the investigation team collecting evidence then? Evidence other than the drugs themselves?" The Captain merely stood there, staring at the body before us as he answered.
"Miss Winston requested evidence to be collected."
"Why?" I asked. The Captain shrugged.
"Classified." That was all he said before walking away to speak with a few officers, probably about the security of the building and the security of both the officers, inspectors, and citizens alike.
I sighed as I watched Zak attempt to calm the crying woman down, but to both his and my own displeasure, it didn't seem like her tears would go away any time soon. But it wasn't like anyone would think otherwise. After all, she did seem to be close to the deceased man lying on the floor. I could only imagine the pain she was in.
"Girlfriend." I heard someone speak next to me. I turned to my left to see Roxanne standing there, staring at the young brunette woman sitting in the corner of the room on the floor, her knees pressed to her chest as she hugged them and her eyes swollen and red with tears.
"What?" I asked, noting that Roxanne was wearing a coat. She had just arrived, which was unusual for her, but it was none of my business. The last time I had saw her was two days ago, when she had jumped off a bridge to save a girl and I was told to keep her in my apartment for the night.
"She's the victim's girlfriend. Or was." Roxanne said before walking away toward the kitchen, ignoring the crying girl completely as she passed her. I quickly followed her, trailing behind the blonde as she put on a pair of blue latex gloves and snapped the band, letting it hit her wrist.
"How do you know that? And why did you request evidence to be collected?" Roxanne turned to me, her blonde, arched eyebrow raised at my question.
"Curiosity killed the cat, you know."
"I'm not a cat, Roxanne." She merely shrugged at my statement. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked, eyes wide as Roxanne broke the glass of a painting in the bedroom. She didn't say a word as she reached through the glass and took out a key I hadn't seen.
"You'll see, Sempers..." She said as she took the painting down and revealed a small safe built into the wall. I frowned as she opened it, punching in a combination and turning the key. The safe opened with Roxanne's help and she pulled out several things. A small, black, velvet box, a stack of letters all wrapped up with a string, a hand gun, and a business card with one word written on it in blue ink: Jackson.
"Is that his name? Jackson?" Roxanne sighed and rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
"Dallas." She said as she closed the safe and began walking back to the kitchen/living room. I followed her closely, confused, anxious, and overly curious as to how the hell Roxanne knew this all.
She stopped in front of the crying girl, looking at the envelopes before looking at her. "Ruby, right?" The girl nodded at Roxanne's question. "I believe this is for you. And I believe you'll be able to contact his family, right?"
Roxanne didn't even wait for the girl to answer as she handed her the velvet box and the stack of envelopes. Ruby dropped the stack, her hands clasping the box as she opened it. Tears shed. Eyes widened. Her mouth dropped.
I felt horrible for the fact that she was looking at an engagement ring. At the engagement ring. The one that he was going to use to propose to her. To ask her to marry him. And now he was dead.
Zak was smart to leave the situation. Ruby didn't need comfort, she needed to realize everything that had happened. Alone. I understood that. Zak had finally understood it. I looked over at Roxanne, who was now taking off her gloves. I frowned at her cold appearance as she spoke to the Captain.
"I don't anyone on this case. Got it? It's me and me alone. I don't want to see you send Sempers to try to help. Understood?" I heard Roxanne say in a low voice to the Captain. He just stared at her.
"I don't think this is a good idea, Roxanne. You shouldn't work on a case like this alone..." I overheard the Captain say. Roxanne laughed, but it wasn't a normal one. It seemed harsh.
"Kendrick, I don't think you'd know a good idea if it came up and bit you right on the ass. Take my word for it. Stay the hell out of this." I turned and began to pretend like I was doing something. Inspecting the body, or whatever as I listened into Roxanne and the Captain's conversation.
"Three o'clock. My office. I think we have a conversation to indulge in."
"That we do, Kendrick... That we do..."
Everything was sent to the lab for further instruction. I had barely talked to Summer after the body had gotten there, but as suspected there was nothing to investigate. The files of the guy were constricted, classified. Not even I could get past this one.
Everyone was too busy to realize when I had left the office to go to the file room - the only room that I could get into without a hassle and without people staring at me like I was crazy, and also the only room that I could partially hear Roxanne and the Captain talk from. I swallowed as I leaned back to the wall, my ear almost pressed against the cold brick.
"You know damn well that I can't keep Alexander out of this. Especially if he's dead-set on finding out what you're doing."
"He works under you, Kendrick. What the hell do you mean you can't keep him out of this?"
"I just can't, okay? Alexander is the most dedicated person in this precinct. You know that, Roxanne. You've been working with the guy."
"For two weeks. That's it. Two fucking weeks I've been working alongside him."
"And yet you probably know every damn thing there is to know about him."
"Every damn thing? Like what? What the hell do you think I know about him?"
"You tell me. You two seem so close already..."
"Close? Is that what you see when you look at me and Sempers? Close?"
"I'm quite surprised that you haven't already slept with him." I could almost imagine the Captain shrugging his shoulders and Roxanne glaring at him.
"Yes, because I'm the type of girl who'd sleep with anybody." I could feel the sarcasm through the brick wall. I swallowed as I continued to listen.
"You slept with Emery, didn't you?"
"Emery and Sempers are completely different people."
"Why do you call Alexander "Sempers" anyway? We both know you aren't that cold hearted."
"You don't know a damn thing about me."
"I know plenty of things about you. I've known you since you were sixteen. You don't think I'd realize how much you've changed over the course of a few years?"
"I was sixteen almost ten years ago, Kendrick. Ten years. And you don't think I'd change?" There was a slight pause before the Captain spoke.
"You're dad called. He wanted to know how you were doing."
"Is that why you wanted to speak to me? Because my father called? Of all the people in the world, you have to affiliate yourself with him? How naïve of you, Shelton. How naïve..."
"Eight years, Roxanne. Eight years since you've seen him. Isn't it time for you to go home again? See them?"
"Home is here. New York."
"Maybe it is. But Mississippi is your hometown. That's where your family is."
"And I suppose you want me to go see them? Visit them? You're either on something or loosing your fucking mind if you think I'm ever going back there again for any purpose related to them. You're more foolish that I thought you to be."
"Look at yourself, Roxanne. Look how much you've changed. Is it for the better or the worse? This isn't you."
"It's as much me as anyone is ever going to see in my lifetime." There was a long pause as I waited for someone to talk. I didn't know how to feel, how to act, how to respond to such a conversation. I swallowed.
"You should talk to someone."
"Excuse me?"
"Roxanne, this isn't healthy. We all know it."
"We? As is you, me, and whatever third party you're talking about?"
"Roxanne, you can't keep this all inside. Come on, talk to someone. It doesn't matter who it is, you just-"
"And who exactly do you find me talking to? A therapist? A citizen that is paid to learn every damn thing about every person they talk to? Sure, let them know all my secrets and all the governments', that'll keep the citizens safe..."
"I'm here." The Captain said. "You know I'm here for you, Roxanne. I always have, I always will be. Until the day I die."
"Or until the day I do."
"Roxanne..."
"No. You want to know why I'm ice cold? Do you want to know why I've changed? It's all to deal with this. This life. These people. This God damn circle I seem to be in the middle of every damn second I leave the comfort of my home."
"So that wasn't pain I saw today? At the scene? That wasn't pain, fear, weakness I saw today? Then tell me, what was that?" I heard a chair squeak and heels click against the flooring. "Roxanne Cairo Winston." It wasn't much of a yell, but the Captains voice boomed throughout the room. "If you won't talk to me or a professional... talk to Alex." Roxanne laughed, and again, it wasn't a pretty one.
"Talk to Alexander Sempers, the guy who is mentally scarred because he watched ten of his best men die in a burning building. The guy who has lost a brother to the hellish fire of war. The guy who is as wrecked as I am, but shows more weakness in those categories than I understand. Sure. Let us share our mental instabilities and take a walk down a fiery memory lane. Sure. Let the only woman you know who's done everything humanly possible to ignore the pain of life corrupt the best asset New York has to offer you. Let's go down that road, shall we? I mean, what's worse than one person loosing their mind and destroying themselves from the inside out? Loosing your own coworker because of something as stupid as pain be spread."
"Alexander is tougher than you think."
"He must be if you can't control him."
"Roxanne, it's not like that-"
"Then what is it?"
"Alexander... he's the best worker in this precinct. One of the best I've ever met. Aside from you. I've never seen two people so alike yet so different like I do you and him."
"What does that have to do with any of this?"
"Everything. Roxanne, I don't want to see you end up like him."
"Dead? Everything gone, everything lost? I'd be damned myself if anything but that happened as my ending. I deserve nothing more."
"Roxanne..."
"I was suppose to protect him, Kendrick. That little boy I was supposed to protect. But I was too self centered to save him from the hell I ran away from."
"Roxanne..."
"No. Don't try to turn this around to make me think that it isn't my fault. Because it is. It's all my fault." I felt my heart beat rapidly at her statement. "Do you want to know why I keep myself at a distance from everyone I touch? Do you want to know why I find myself driven into a corner at this partnership with Alexander?" My heart practically stopped beating at my name. She called me by my first name. Not my last. Not a nickname. My name. "Not opening up to people isn't something I do to not feel pain. It's something I do to ensure the safety of others. Everyone I open up to dies. Just look at my past. If he gets killed because of me, it'll be the end of me. I don't care about my own life, but I do care about everyone else's."
"Why Alexander of all people? If he dies, why will you?"
"I think you know why. Think about it. It's not too hard to piece together when you take a few minutes to think about it."
I heard the door open and shut as Roxanne left. I was lost. Me? Dying? That would cause Roxanne to fall with me? Why? How? What?
Two days since I had last seen her. Two more until I'd see her again. The Captain was right. I'd stop at nothing to help her, to see what she was doing. But after the conversation I overheard, I couldn't muster up the confidence to do it. To do anything. I sat for the next half hour at that wall, staring off into space thinking about nothing else but the blonde who, no matter how hard I tried, couldn't seem to get out of my mind. What was with the victim? What was with Roxanne? What was with our partnership that made her so dead-set on not opening up to me? I didn't know. I cared, but I didn't know. All I wanted was to be with her. To work with her. To see her. To learn everything about her despite her own belief.
I didn't understand how I felt. But I did understand one thing. Roxanne was the most mysterious person I had ever met. And somehow, that made me even more attached to her.
No comments:
Post a Comment