It's A Shame (28 page)

I was startled when the receptionist rose from her chair and walked over to where we both sat with a
confident air that confirmed my opinion that she thought the world was there for the taking.

If only she knew…

Cole stood and waited for me to stand then guided me in the direction of the receptionist, like he guided me out of Luke’s that night so many months ago. Like he guided me through the lobby of his luxurious hotel. Like he guided me into his apartment…so many memories.

Please just grant us
more time to create more memories…some time to be happy…is it all that much? 
I didn’t want to go where that thought pulled me.

We entered through the door held open
by Lemelson’s secretary, whose smile beamed like life was on her side…
Keep smiling honey
.

“Come
in and sit, please.”

I heard the voice
bellow from inside the vast space, but until Cole led me into the office I didn’t know where it came from.

Stewart Lemelson stood
up and gestured with his arms that we take the chairs sitting in front of his enormous desk. I took little notice of my surroundings. My heart was beating so fast I thought I would surely have a heart attack. I lifted my hand and rested it over my chest.

“Please
, Ms. Preston…may I call you Grace?” he asked so politely.

“Everyone else does
,” I offered.

He laughed
. His smile reached all the way up to his eyes. So un-lawyer like.

“Lemelson
.” Cole’s greeting was even-toned.

“Mr. Grayson.”

It always amazed me how men with money—lots of money—commanded respect. The kind of respect the rest of the world thought eluded them.

“I believe we’ve got some good news
,” he smiled.

How odd
, I thought. Paradoxical even.

He looked to the back of his office and smiled again.

I looked at Cole, who in turn looked at Lemelson.

“Get to the point, you called us do
wn here. What do you have?” Cole spoke.

I knew
, as a businessman, Cole expected nothing but the facts at all times. But this was all odd to me and I wasn’t comfortable. It felt like something was not right. Cole squeezed my hand reassuringly, which I was sure was trembling.

“Perhaps you would like to tell them the ne
ws?” Lemelson said staring straight past where we both sat.

“What?” I pressed out.

“Stewart, I am rapidly losing my patience,” I heard Cole say.

This whole thing
was getting stranger by the minute. I was finding it hard to concentrate.

Lemelson stood looking
towards the door behind us, holding his arm out, as if he were introducing someone. We both simultaneously turned around to see Dean, Detective Johansen, standing in the back of the room near the credenza.

He
smiled and walked slowly out of the shadows, towards where we were both sitting, grinning like an idiot. He nodded at the two of us, catching me off guard. I turned to look at Cole, speechless for a change, thinking Dean must surely be on drugs or something.

“Grace… Cole…” He looked
at us both. “I think this information just might make the both of you smile for a change. Been sick of looking at your mopey, pasty faces.”

Lemelson cringed. He wasn’t used to dealing with New York City policemen
, which was evident in his crooked smile. I laughed inwardly. Dean did know how to deliver a line I’ll give him that.

“Detective…Dean
…what the hell?” I heard Cole speak, but was still laughing at Lemelson’s expense. I fleetingly thought; Dean and Michelle were definitely well matched. He reminded me so much of her I almost hugged him, but rapidly came to my senses.

“Someone tell us what the hell is going on here.” I stood and faced Dean, my back to Lemelson.

“I’ve got a tale to tell…shit, do I got a tale…Sit down, Grace.” When I didn’t comply right away, he said it again adding a little more emphasis. “Sit. Down. Grace.”

I felt Cole tu
g at my wrist pulling me down to my seat.

“
Got your attention?” He smirked. “Good. Where to begin…See…I got a weird vibe…” he started, “when a CSI I know, personally came to me and told me something about a case I was working didn’t make sense. In fact, nothing about that case made sense.” He paused, more for effect. He was like that… sometimes I think he was the woman and Michelle the man. I smiled, finding I liked
this
Dean.

“It appears that our perp,
the murderer, missed something. Seems
she
forgot to remove the trace evidence that led us directly to
her
door.”

He paused again looking be
tween Cole and I for some reaction.

“She?” I asked.

Bingo
…his face lit up.

“
SHE
forgot to clean up after herself.”

“Dean…get to the point
,” Cole demanded, obviously loosing patience.

Dean smiled wryly.

“I first got an inkling something wasn’t right when I took a sip of my Coke in the cafeteria.” He looked up with a big, here’s my moment, smile.  “I pulled CSI O’Brien to the side when I saw him walk into the cafeteria. He told me something about my case,
your
case, seemed off. I agreed. So he wanted to re-run…well, actually, I told him to re-run the evidence found at the crime scene. He looked at me like he knew exactly what I meant.”

I heard a chair scrape the floor and we both spun around to see Lemelson take his seat. It looked to me like he was bored. Like he’d heard this all before. I smiled again.
Dean cleared his throat and kept on going.

“Anyway, he re-ran the trace, the fluids
, the bio and came up with a great big fucking question mark!  Where the fuck did the pube come from?” He smiled and walked to the left of me. I turned my body in the chair to face him.

“
The pube?” I asked. Totally confused.

Dean walked over to the window that overlook
ed the New York City skyline, and stared out a moment as if in thought. Then turned and walked back towards where we sat. “I had him run all the evidence through all the systems, fingerprint, DNA…so on and so forth… and we finally got a hit… a ‘big as fucking day’ hit.”

I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but I felt a surge of hope. He was so enthusiastic it was contagious.

“Like I said, we got a hit. Here’s the pay dirt Cole…It seems your insurance company demands a check, fuck, a check I didn’t know even existed.” He looked squarely at Cole. “They take a DNA test on all flight personnel. Pilots, flight attendants…” he paused long enough for me to feel Coles hand tense. He had been holding mine for support but now I felt his fingers squeeze mine a little tighter.

“
So as I was saying…we got a hit, a big fucking hit that led us right back to fucking Denver Colorado.” He smiled as he turned away. Obviously trying to get his ducks in a row. I could see out of the corner of my eye Lemelson shaking his head ever so slightly, as his eyes rolled back.  Yeah, Dean could do that to you, but right now I was starting to really like him.

“
Led us right to a flight attendant named Jessica McIllwain.” He paused and looked directly at Cole. “You’re feeling me now, Cole, aren’t you?”

I spun my body around and loo
ked at Cole. There was a light in his eyes that I hadn’t seen for weeks.

“Well
, little Miss McIllwain’s DNA showed up on Lauren Buckley’s body by way of a pubic hair. I thought W.T.F.” He actually said the letters W.T. F.
Really Dean?

He cleared his throat and continued. “
Well…I got a warrant to search her house and…well lets just say, she had a freezer full of pops…and I ain’t talking the kind you want to put in your mouth on a hot day.” He laughed out loud. Obviously finding something very funny. “No…she had a freezer full of natural lamb skin condoms—thirteen to be exact—full of frozen sperm.”

Cole’s head nearly spun off his neck.

“Yours pal,” he smiled and took a sip of his water. Apparently going off on a tangent made a fellow thirsty. “Thirteen, crazy bitch had thirteen of your wasted babies in her fucking freezer, all marked with little dates and covered with red magic marker ‘X’’s and ‘O’’s. What a fucking fruitcake this one is.

“
Anyway we take her in for questioning. I gotta say Denver’s got a lot of competent cops, the whole Ramsey case was fucked, but these guys were good, knew their shit.

“
We talked to her, real slow and easy. She saved your packets…liked to take them off you herself, huh?” He looked directly at Cole.

Cole
slowly nodded. My head was spinning here. To quote a brilliant Detective ‘W.T. F.’

“She froze them all, get this shit,
she thought she’d impregnate herself…catch you the hard way.  Well, that wasn’t working for her so she kept them babies frozen. No pun intended.”

I
gasped. Cole sighed.

“
Then she got some crazy fucked up idea into her pretty little head. This is the part where she starts the water works, looking for a little sympathy. I played along, trying to keep her talking. She tells me ‘if she can’t have you, or your baby, she’d kill the woman who could, and frame you as punishment. So that the woman you wanted would be alone like she was and you’d have lots of time to think about how much it hurts not being with the one you love.’ A little over the top with the theatrics, but it was entertaining. You could say that she was somewhat of a fucked up girl. In fact, Grace?” He asked sweetly. “I owe you an apology.”

My eyebrows lifted, was there really more he had to tell us. I sighed.

“Remember when you thought someone was in your apartment…that night after Cole here left?” He smiled weakly when I nodded. “Well, seems Ms. McIlwain had a set of Cole’s keys.  Seems the crazy bitch stole ‘em from Cole’s briefcase when he fell asleep on the plane.

I think I gasped.

“Well,” he continued, he was on a roll for sure. “She told us she followed Cole to your apartment building, and waiting until you both left, then entered and roamed around your apartment. Even told us she tried to enter one more time but heard someone inside and took off running.” He looked perplexed, “don’t know why we didn’t see her on the security footage, but…”

As angry as I was
, I also felt sorry for her. She apparently loved him, just like I had. Just like Lauren had. And because of their strange infatuation, both were left alone and disillusioned.

“Anyway, w
e got her. And because of Stewy here, ” he pointed to Stewart Lemelson, who cringed ever so slightly again, “and someone who has friends in high places...” he looked directly at me lifting his eyebrows.

My brain was trying to process all the information Dean was feeding us, but at his mention of ‘friends in high places’, I pushed away the fog and panicked.

“Franklin was a supreme court Judge in New York County for several years.” I turned to Cole apologetically. “He said he’d bury it all for as long as we needed…” I squeezed my eyes shut terrified I’d just stuck my foot in my big fat mouth.

I heard Cole chuckle softly, and slowly opened my eyes.

“He’s my attorney Grace, nothing you say here could jeopardize my case.”

I took a deep breath
thankful I didn’t screw up his chances for acquittal.

“Contrary to that
,” Dean continued, “He helped you out. The case against you has been dismissed. You, my friend,” he said looking at Cole, “after tomorrow, will be fully exonerated. You’re free.”

Lemelson couldn’t contain himself any longer and stood up.

“Yes…all true, but what
Detective Johansen
neglected to tell you was…” his tone of voice, where Dean was concerned, was right on the money. He
was
an uncouth, big mouthed, son of a bitch. But he was
our
son of a bitch, and I wanted to squeeze him so hard right now his head would pop off.

“Detective Johansen didn’t neglect to tell us anything.”

I turned around to face the man behind the voice.

Cole stood up and reached his hand out to Dean.  Dean shook his hand and Cole pulled him in
and gave him a hell of a bear hug…
guy thing I’m sure
.

Laughter erupted from Cole’s chest and a hundred y
ears of pressure was released. Suddenly he seemed younger than when I first met him.

Even Lemelson had to
take a seat. The stress was that intense and insanely crazy.

“Well
, there was something that Stewy didn’t tell you yet.”

At the mention of Dean’s pet name for Stewart Lemelson
, Stewart bowed his head and after moment or two gratefully looked up, knowing full well that Dean just did his job for him.  He’d be getting paid very well for all of Dean’s solid police work.