Conviction: Book 3 of the Detective Ryan Series (10 page)

Chapter 18-Ali

I entered the house carrying the box the lieutenant gave me. Amanda’s car was still out front, when I walked in. Normally, she would be in bed or getting ready for work by eight or nine in the morning. Instead, she was sitting on the couch watching T.V.

“Morning,” I said as I walked past her.

“Morning? That’s what you say after being out all night?”

“Morning, sunshine?”

“What the hell, Ali? You had us freaked out this morning.”

“I was working the case. Someone set fire to the flower shop we were trying to get evidence from. I was hanging around to see if there was anything salvageable.”

“You could’ve called or texted James to let us know you were okay.” She was beginning to sound more like our mother. We were both thankful she didn’t know about the last month or neither of us would hear the end of it.

“I was too focused on what needed to be done. Besides, I told James last night where I was.”

“Yeah and that you’d be back home in a bit.”

“In my defense, I never specified what constituted a bit.”

“You’re an ass,” Amanda said as she finally let a smile slip out. “So what are you doing home? Did James scare you away from the crime scene?”

“No, he pulled his macho, territorial, B.S. stating it was in his county and under his jurisdiction. Then called and ratted me out to Esposito.”

“Serves you right.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“His,” she joked while putting the box down on the ottoman.

I took a pillow from the couch and smacked my sister in the face with it. She retaliated with a shot of her own. Before she knew it, we were in a full wrestling match with her stomach pinned to the seat cushion with me sitting on top of her.

Taking my cuffs from my belt, I restrained my sister’s arms behind her back. “That should hold you.” Taking the pillows in hand, I repeatedly delivered blow after blow to the back of her head.

“What the hell? Not fair, Ali.”

“Life’s tough; get a helmet.” I smacked the back of her head one more time with the pillows for good measure.

She struggled to get up, but found her restraints kept her from doing so. “Come on; let me up.”

I felt around my pockets for the keys. I gave my sister the “oh shit” look. “I-I don’t know where it is.”

“Cut the crap, Ali. I have work in less than two hours.” Pulling the keys from my pocket, I unlocked the cuffs and returned them to my belt. I could see her attention turn towards the box. “What’s in it?”

“Homework,” I replied. “Lots and lots of homework.”

“What kind? Maybe I can help you.”

“Sorry sis, this one is all for me. I’ve got three cases worth evidence, statements, and interviews to go through. Hopefully something will help me with the investigations.”

“Investigations? As in multiple investigations?”

“James and I are working on finding out who dropped off the flowers and who went after the flower shop. But I’m also looking into Rodney’s case to see if I can help him.”

Amanda jumped to her feet, throwing her arms around my neck, pulling me into a tight embrace. “Thank you, she whispered.

“Don’t thank me yet. It’s going to take a lot to get the charges dropped. If not, we need to get him the best defense we can.”

“So you believe his innocent?”

“I think someone intentionally set him up to look like he did it. I’m going to make sure that someone gets what’s coming to them.” I sat down on the couch and pulled the box closer. I closed my eyes and started to rest.

“Why don’t you sleep in the bedroom?” Amanda asked.

“I don’t know. I just feel more secure out here.”

“Suit yourself, but I’ll be leaving in a bit.”

I could hear my sister talking for another minute or two before the exhaustion dragged my body into a deep sleep. It was the first time I slept without having a dream about Matthew or his death. In fact, it was the first time I slept without a single nightmare.

I woke hours later, feeling more refreshed than I had in a long time. Maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling the loneliness of sleeping in a bed without feeling Matthew next to me. Taking a deep breath, I could smell James. It was as if he was right next to me, wrapping his arms around me. That’s when I realized I was wrapped in the blanket he slept in every night.

Reaching down, I opened the box finding the files piled to the top. I knew it would take me all day just to read through each file and debated on enlisting James’ help. Matthew’s name was on the top file. It called out to me, begging to be read. I picked it up, flipping the folder open, and skimmed through the report.

I blinked back tears by the time I turned the page. It wasn’t just any file I was reading. The information in it was the statement I gave regarding what happened. It was the raw, emotional state I had been in when I spoke to Captain Braun. I had been so quick to jump to conclusions and turned on Rodney with ease. There was nothing but regret and a desire to take back every word I read on those pages. I broke an important rule, probably one of the biggest rules of being out in the field; don’t let your emotions get in the way of doing your job. I violated that rule the moment I saw blood spilling from Matthew’s chest.

I couldn’t peel myself away from the file. Minutes turned into hours, yet I still kept reading that one file repeatedly. I was fixated on my own words. The bitter and harsh words I said, wishing at the time I could’ve said them to Rodney, were the same ones I wanted to take back and erase.

When the front door opened, I jumped to my feet grabbing my gun from the table. Holding it out, ready to fire, I watched as James dropped back against the wall. His hands were held shoulder length apart at his head.

“Ali, it’s me,” he said in panic.

I lowered my weapon and placed it back on the table. “What the hell are you doing home so early?”

“Early? Ali, it’s after six o’clock.”

I glanced back at the cable box under the T.V., sure enough it read six-twenty.
I guess I read that file more than I thought
. “Sorry, I must’ve lost track of time.” I could see his eyes relax as he walked towards the couch. Knowing he would start asking questions about the files, I decided to pester him with some first. “What happened with Ms. Lambert?”

“After hours of trying to get her to calm down, no thanks to you, I got her to cooperate enough to know all the tapes were kept in the store.”

“What about seeing anyone suspicious hanging around her store last night before she locked up?”

“Other than our visit, there was no one else out of the ordinary, and she didn’t remember seeing anyone hanging out by the store last night either.”

“So we have no leads from the store. Was there anything on the delivery driver?” James shook his head. “So our two leads are now destroyed and laying in the morgue?”

“You look like you’re working on something big.”

“Esposito gave me everything he could from the Campus Killer, Dr. Cain, and Rodney’s cases. We think there might be something we can use to prove Rodney’s innocence and maybe find a lead we can use in the process.”

“How far have you gotten?”

I took the file with my statement and held it up for James to see. “Kinda got hung up on this one for the last few hours.”

“Let me take a look at it.” He reached for the folder, but I pulled it away from him. “Ali, if you’re having trouble with it__”

“It’s the statement I made the night of Matthew’s shooting.”

James’ hand fell to his side. “Let me help you with the rest of the files. Together, maybe we can get through the box by morning.”

I focused on the Campus Killer files, but found nothing that supported the theory of another killer or that someone helped Nick DeFalco. I had hope that James would find something when he browsed Claire’s files, but everything seemed to point in her direction.

I slammed the files down. “None of this makes sense. There’s nothing here that points to another person. Nick and Claire knew their victims. They both had access. Nick stole the ID cards of his victims which gave him the access into their dorms. Claire had access to the drugs that sedated her victims.”

“Did you ever recover those ID cards?”

I thought about the searches we conducted at DeFalco’s apartment and the house we found Amanda in. “We never recovered them.” I moved towards the window and stared outside.

“What’s wrong?”

“There was something off about the day we took down DeFalco. Rodney was taking my sister to the train station, but got a call about seeing the suspect at the bus terminal. He went to check it out, but it was a false sighting. She was taken hostage. Her abductor contacted me and gave me the directions to find her, but also told me where to meet him. Rodney and the lieutenant took officers to find Amanda while I went to the meet location.”

“What are you saying?”

“What if the person pulling the strings believed DeFalco had worn out his usefulness? What if he took Amanda as a way to make sure I took out the only person that could link him to the murders.”

“So you think this mystery guy was working with DeFalco; why? What did he hope to gain by helping him kill DeFalco?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Claire can shine some light on that.”

“You wanna make another trip out to the jail tomorrow?”

“We’ll need to clear it with Reed and Claire’s attorney first, but I think it’s our best shot.”

“What about Rodney?”

“I have an idea that might help his defense, maybe even get him cleared of all charges. I just need to get my hands on the files first.”

I turned to find James had disappeared into the kitchen. I could hear him rummaging through the fridge, moving bottles and food containers aside. He returned a minute later holding two beers.

“I thought we could use one after going through all this shit.”

We ripped off the caps and saluted each other as we collapsed onto the couch together as James picked up the remote. He turned on the T.V. and turned it to some random movie he stumbled across.

“Are you serious?” I ripped the remote from his hand and kept searching for something better to watch, settling on an episode of Law and Order.

“Do you ever turn it off?”

“Turn what off?”

“Being a cop. Do you ever just let it go and be normal?”

Taking a sip from the bottle, I turned to James. “I did. I tried to keep those two parts of my life separate, but that’s been nearly impossible for the last year. I don’t know if I could ever go back to that again.”

James leaned closer to me. “You can never go back. You can only move forward.” I didn’t know what he meant. Was he referring to keeping my personal life separate from my career, or was he talking about moving on from my life with Matthew and focus on a future with him?

“I think it’s getting late. We have a long day tomorrow and should probably get some sleep.” I knew what James wanted. He made that obvious since the first time we met. I was the one he wanted, but couldn’t have. I patted him on his thigh as I stood up. Taking the box of files with me, I told James goodnight and entered the bedroom.

I found Amanda passed out on the bed, curled up with the comforter and pillows. She must have snuck in earlier in the night. She looked peaceful snuggled up in the bed, I didn’t want to wake her, by forcing her to give up the pillows and blankets. Instead, I sat on the floor next to the bed, pulling the files out of the box. I wasn’t ready to let it go. There was no way I could sleep until I had a way to prove Rodney’s innocence.

After an hour of combing through files, I saw footsteps outside the bedroom door. It stopped right outside as the knob slowly turned.

James stood there in a pair of pajama pants. “What are you still doing up?” He saw me searching through the files. “Come on, Ali, I thought you were going to give it a rest and go to bed.”

“You know I can’t. I need to know the truth.”

“Then take it back to the living room and I’ll help you.”

I knew he was trying to appease the guilt that was drowning my sub-conscious, but the offer was genuine and I was happy he wanted to help.

Chapter 19-Ali

The sound of the front door slamming shut woke me. I knew it had to be Amanda leaving for work and decided I should get up too. Pinching the corners of my eyes with my fingers, I blinked until the room came into focus. I was laying on the floor with an arm draped over me.

Shit we must have fallen asleep while reading the files
. I tried to think back, remembering James had tucked a few pillows from the couch behind his head. I remembered seeing him look so comfortable and knew it was only a matter of time before he fell asleep. A half hour later, he was asleep and I had crawled over to him with the blanket.

Realizing what happened, I shoved his arm off of me and moved back to the couch to collect the files. As I placed them back inside the box, I had a sneaking suspicion someone was watching. It was the same feeling I had repeatedly felt over the last year. Quickly opening the walk-in closet, I found the moveable panel and climbed a stepladder to hide the files in the attic.

When I returned, James was walking towards the bathroom, letting out a big yawn as he passed. “Morning,” he grumbled. The way he looked at me seemed like he didn’t remember our late night cuddle session. For that, I was grateful. He emerged moments later knocking on the bedroom door. “Everything all right?”

“Yup. I just wanted to get a jump on the day.”

“I can be ready in about a half hour.”

“Sure, I’ll let you know when I’m ready.” I closed the door and began to peel off my clothes from the night before. Wrapping a robe around me, I exited the bedroom and turned the corner, walking into James again.

“Sorry, I was just about to…were you going to take a shower?” I could see him looking me over as if he were undressing me with his eyes.

There wasn’t much to remove. One pull of the robe’s belt and he would get an eye full of what he wanted. I was already catching a bit of my own show. I couldn’t take my eyes off of James’ chiseled muscles and six pack abs. He stood without a shirt, and only wore a pair of basketball shorts.

“Um yeah,” I replied while trying to keep from drooling. “You can go first if you want. I mean, it’s your house.”

“Ali, you’re my guest.”

I refused and insisted he take his shower first, adding I needed to contact the District Attorney’s office to arrange the meeting. I let out a sigh of relief when he agreed, noting this was one of those rare times he decided not to fight me on something trivial.

Entering the bedroom, I searched for my cell phone. I dialed A.D.A. Reed’s office and had the secretary connect me.

“Detective Ryan, this really isn’t a good time. I have court in an hour, and need to make sure I have everything.”

“Sorry, I won’t take up much of your time. I was hoping you could help us set up a meeting with Claire Cain and her attorney soon. We have some questions.”

“Well that’s going to be quite difficult. It seems the news of her friend Sheila spooked her, and she feels like it’s her fault since she had the meeting with us. Now she refuses to have any contact with us unless it’s in the courtroom.”

“What about the deal?”

“I was in the process of negotiation, but since she refuses to cooperate, that deal is off the table.” I was a little thrown off by Claire’s change of heart. “Now if that’s all, I really do need to be on my way to the courthouse.”

“One more thing. We wanted to meet with the District Attorney to convince him to drop the charges against Detective Rodney Johnson.”

“Good luck with that. He seemed pretty set on charging and convicting him. If you plan on making such a request, you better have some damn good evidence to change his mind.”

“I was hoping you might be able to help with that. I wanted to get my hands on a few of the reports and crime scene photos to look over.”

“I don’t think there’s much I can do to help.” She let out a deep breath. “But I’ll see what I can do. Meet me at the courthouse for lunch.”

“Thank you.”

James emerged from the bathroom as I finished my call. Beads of water dripped down his body as he peaked around the bedroom door.

“Are we all set?”

“Change of plans. Claire’s no longer feeling talkative since her friend was murdered.” Feeling my eyes linger a bit too long, I decided to jump off the bed, pretending to search for something in my closet. “Has the D.C.P.D. turned up anything new on her case?”

“No, but I’ll put in a call to the medical examiner’s office in a bit.” Using the towel wrapped around his shoulders, he dried a part of his head. “So, there’s no meeting today?”

“I talked to the A.D.A. and she’s going to look into helping us get the files I need to prove Rodney’s innocence. I’m supposed to meet her for lunch later.”

“Okay, I’ll go check in with my lieutenant to see if any new leads turned up.”

“What’s the matter; you don’t wanna have lunch with us?”

“You don’t need me there cramping your style. You’ll do a great job convincing her to give you what you want.”

“Are you sure this has nothing to do with her hating you for acting like an idiot during our past meetings?”

“What do you mean, acting like an idiot?”

“I mean you using your,” I raised my eyebrows and let out a couple of coughs, “charm.” I was referring to the time James and I needed to ask for a search warrant and he tried flirting with the Assistant District Attorney to get what he wanted. She wasn’t too fond of his advances and we ended up spending the weekend on a stakeout to make sure no one tampered with any evidence.

“We both know I messed up that day. Can we please let it drop already? The woman hates me, and it’ll be better if I don’t go.”

I laughed it while brushing past him. “Okay, but I’ll let her know you said hi.” I entered the bathroom and closed the door.

I could hear him yell, “Not funny, Ali,” through the door.

I turned the knobs on the shower and let the water run. With the door closed, I was trapped in the scent of James’ body wash. It was the same relaxing smell from the couch blanket. I felt like he was standing right behind me, wrapping his arms around my body. I wanted to lean back and melt into his chest.

Wait, what the hell was I thinking?
I hurried to wash up so I could run out of the shower and away from the scent that seemed to hypnotize me. Once I was rinsed off, I bolted from the bathroom and back into the safety of my bedroom.

“Everything all right in there?” he yelled.

“Yup, I’m fine; just stubbed my toe on the way out.”

I didn’t want to take the chance of him coming to make sure I was okay, I quickly placed socks on my feet before throwing on the rest of my clothes. The moment I was dressed, I put on my ankle boots and made the mad dash for the front door.

“What’s the big hurry?” James asked.

“I just remembered Claire’s trial is set to resume today. Maybe I can talk to her attorney before she leaves.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

An hour later, I arrived at the courthouse in search of A.D.A. Reed. After getting through security and checking my weapon, I headed for the information desk in hopes of finding which courtroom Claire Cain’s case was being tried in. They pointed me to the correct room, and I slipped inside without drawing too much attention to myself.

The defense was pleading for her client’s release, citing the prison was not safe and that she was receiving threats on her life as well as her friends’ lives.

“Your Honor,” Reed said loudly. “The defendant and her attorney attempted to work out a deal with the prosecution in return for information that could impact several pending cases. We were in the process of negotiation when the defense backed out of the deal.”

“Is this true Ms. Reynolds?” the judge asked.

“Yes, Your Honor. However, I’d like to approach to explain the circumstances surrounding the situation.”

“Alright, both councils step forward.”

I watched as they moved towards the judge’s bench. From where I sat, the attorneys seemed to have an intense conversation with the judge, no doubt they were discussing the death of Claire’s friend, Sheila Nichols. After several minutes of discussion, the judge sent them back to their respective tables.

“I have made my decision regarding this matter, and have decided the defendant will remain in lockup until a deal can be reached.” He banged the gavel as he spoke. “This case is in recess. You have one week to figure this matter out before we move on. Is that understood?” Both attorneys nodded in agreement. He banged the gavel again and had the bailiff approach the bench to call the next case.

A.D.A. Reed saw me as she packed up her files and made a beeline for me. “What are you doing here, Detective?”

“Besides meeting you for lunch, I was hoping to get a word with Ms. Reynolds about meeting with her client.”

“That’s not happening, not right now anyway.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the courtroom before anyone from the defense noticed me. “Look, I might be able to broker the deal with them now that the judge denied her request. But if she sees any cops, especially you, they might decide to keep quiet.”

“Okay, I get it. I won’t go near them.” I looked around to make sure no one was nearby. “Were you able to look into the other matter we discussed?”

“I don’t have the files on me. I put in the request before I left. The D.A. doesn’t have a problem with you looking them over, but will not let you take them with you. I’ll call you when he has the files ready for you to look at.”

“So I’m guessing lunch is out of the question?” I joked.

“I’ll be in touch.” Reed stormed off down the hall towards her next courtroom for another case, while I stood there with renewed hope.

Grabbing my phone, I called the Johnson house. Instead of hearing Rodney’s voice, his wife answered. “Mia,” I said with a bit of surprise.

“What do you want, Ali?”

“I was looking for Rodney.”

“Well, he’s out right now. Besides, his lawyer told him not to talk to you or any other cops until the trial is over.”

“Mia, I’m trying to help your husband.”

“Help him into a nice cozy cell you mean.”

“No. We already met privately. I’m trying to sort out what happened in hopes of getting the charges dropped.”

“You’re lying. If he’d met with you, he would’ve told me.”

“We wanted to hash it out without anyone else getting involved. I told him what I knew and he told me what he could remember.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You don’t. You just have to trust me like Rodney does. In the meantime, tell him I have some updates and other potential leads I’m looking into.”

“You really think you found something?”

“I don’t know. I’m waiting to get my hands on a few reports first. Hopefully they can confirm a few things.”

“Fine, I’ll tell him, but you better not be lying to us.”

“Mia, you’ve known me for too long. I would never lie to you or to Rodney. Just tell him to meet me tomorrow morning. He’ll know the spot.”