Trained To Kill (8 page)

Isa was silent, and Jannsen watched
her pace for a moment before changing the subject. He knew once she
stopped talking she was done with that subject and no amount of
pushing would budge her. “Did you meet this adequate
lawyer?”

“
What?” Isa stopped
mid-stride and stared at him. He stared back, searching her eyes.
Sometimes she made him react oddly and he couldn’t quite place his
finger on why. It wasn’t fear exactly. More like a wariness. There
was something else there today too. Something hidden. “Did you meet
him?”

“
No,” Isa gave a derisive
snort.

“
Why not? You never talk
about dating Isa.”

“
Because I have other
things to do besides date.”

“
Or have sex, or let
anyone close to you.”

Isa heaved a sigh and sat back down.
“You know sometimes I forget that you’re an actual
therapist.”

“
Thank you?”

“
Sex isn’t on my agenda.
You know why.”

“
Rape isn’t sex, Isa. What
happened to you isn’t anything remotely like sex, we’ve gone
through this. I guarantee you’ll like it.”

“
I’ve had sex since
then.”

“
Being too drunk to
remember doesn’t count.”

Wincing, Isa shifted uncomfortably in
her chair, “It was a start.”

Jannsen tilted his head and regarded
her like an imbecile for a few minutes, then patiently said, “I
want you to go out on an actual date. One date with someone you
like. No sex.”

“
No sex? You just said I
should be having sex.”

“
I changed my
mind.”

“
That right there,” Isa
pointed at him. “That’s why I forget you’re a
therapist.”

“
Yeah, yeah. Just do
it.”

“
Who with?”

“
Anyone. The mailman. Who
cares? You have to start somewhere. We need human connection to be
emotionally healthy, Isa.”

“
What about
introverts?”

“
Even them. Just not as
often.” He paused, looking apprehensive all of the sudden, “Look,
this is something I would never normally do. It might even be a
little unethical. I’m not sure. I’ll have to look it
up…”

“
What?” she asked when he
continued to think.

“
I know someone you can go
on a date with.”

Isa was taken aback. “Who?” she asked
suspiciously.

“
Relax, he’s a friend. Not
a patient. At least not anymore,” Dr. Jannsen laughed. “I know!
I’ll have Jorge do it, that way I can say it was his idea, not
mine.”

Isa stared at him like he was the one
that needed therapy.

“
Come on,” Dr. Jannsen
stood up and put his notebook and pen away in his desk. “Come in
here with me. Your time is up anyway.”

Isa rose slowly from her seat and
followed him out into the hall and the house where he
lived.

“
Jorge!” Jannsen yelled up
the stairs to the right. He continued on to the kitchen. “Ah there
you are. Jorge, this is Isadora La Beau.”

“
Isadora! Jorge said,
rushing over to kiss her cheek. “I’ve heard so much about you. Oh!
Nothing confidential.” He swatted at her arm as she lifted her
eyebrows. “Maarty would never do that, but he is fond of you, I can
tell. What is it?” he asked turning to Jannsen.

“
I need you to set Isa up
on a date with James.”

“
James Mackenzie?
Really?”

Isa studied Jorge as she sat down on a
stool at the kitchen counter. He was about 6 inches shorter than
Jannsen. Sandy hair. The same age. Lean and strong. She could
picture them working-out together every morning. He wore jeans and
a button up, blue checked, short-sleeved shirt. He had kind, blue
eyes that twinkled when he smiled at Maarten, and got a mischievous
glint when he turned them on Isa. “That is an outstanding
idea.”

Isa lifted her brows again. She felt
like a bride about to be given away at an arranged marriage. When
she said as much to them, Jannsen leaned over the counter and said,
“Please don’t feel uncomfortable. If you don’t want to go, I’ll
understand. I won’t force it. But, this is my recommendation and I
want you to try. It doesn’t have to be with James, it can be
someone you choose, of course.”

Jorge had gone mysteriously deaf and
continued what he had been doing before they came in, which seemed
to be some sort of decoupage.

Isa studied Jannsen and saw the
sincerity and deep, abiding trust in his eyes. An image of Alex
flashed in her head, along with an image of his shiny Sergeant’s
badge. Sighing again she said, “I’ll go.”

“
Wonderful!” Jorge hurried
over and got her phone number, and gave her James’. “This will be
magnificent. You’ll see darling. James is extraordinary,” Jorge
said. “I’ll call him and tell him to call you.”

“
He is. You’ll like him.
Even if you never want to go on another date with him again, you’ll
still like him,” Jannsen assured her.

Isa hoped her logical, no bull-shit
therapist knew what he was doing.

Chapter 13

Alex walked into Captain William’s
office just before shift and closed the door.

“
You wanted to see
me?”

Able Williams was a tall lanky man
with graying hair and a bushy mustache his wife hated but he
refused to shave because of a bet he had made five years ago
against the Phillies winning the World Series. He had a coffee
stain on his hastily pressed buttoned down shirt, and Alex
respected him more than anyone, except perhaps his father. Williams
habitually arrived at the office a half hour early so he could
‘give hell to the stragglers’. He sometimes reminded them of a
school principle rather than one of the best of New York City’s
Finest.

He was a genius when it came to
undercover work and sting operations. He could outwit the witty and
fool the best Con Men. Alex hated to think where he might have
ended up if Williams hadn’t taken a liking to him. With his temper
he could very well have been writing traffic citations in Midtown
at this very moment. It made him shiver thinking about
it.

“
Yeah, Yeah.” Williams
waved at one of the guest chairs. “I have to pull you out Jax you
know that?”

“
I know.”

Williams nodded. “Not knowing how your
cover was blown, we can’t risk it.”

“
Yes sir,” Alex said
calmly.

“
What’s wrong with
you?”

“
Sir?”

“
Last time I tried to pull
you out, you threw the chair across the room.”

“
Oh yeah,” Alex remembered
fondly. “It’s ok Cap. I’ve been wanting to pull out for awhile now.
I’m tired, you know?”

Williams studied Alex’s face, and must
have been satisfied with what he saw there, because he sighed with
relief and said, “We all know the potential pitfalls with this job,
especially undercover work. If you need to talk to someone, go see
the department shrink, or you can talk to me when we’re off duty.
Your choice.”

“
I’m ok, Cap. I actually
think I want to take a vacation after this case is wrapped, and
I’ve been thinking about transferring.” Alex waited to see how
Williams took this information. He hated losing any of his cops. “I
hate to lose you as a Captain but I think I need a change from
Narcotics before I burn out, and I think I have a lot of good years
left in me.”

“
Well, let’s see how this
case finishes up and we’ll talk about it some more. Give me a
status report.”

Alex reviewed his movements over the
past two days, leaving nothing out, save personal feelings. When he
got to the part about Isa coming to his apartment, William’s raised
his eyebrows but didn’t interrupt. Of course Alex left out about
the part about the B&E.

“
So, I’m meeting with her
today to do a more thorough search in the most likely places to see
what we can find. Ms. Shrewsbury and her lawyer are meeting with
the DA this morning to see if they can get anything else to charge
Malone with.”

“
Is La Beau still a
suspect?” Williams asked. Captain believed in trusting his men’s
instincts especially when they matched his own.

“
No. She’s been in England
for the last five months.”

“
The other owner,
Axworthy?”

“
Still a possibility. La
Beau sent me information on all her employees, so I’m going to go
over that and see what shakes out.”

“
Alright, start knocking
on doors.”

“
Yes sir.”

“
Let’s grab a beer soon to
catch up even if you don’t want to talk about the job.”

“
As long as you’re
buying,” Alex said walking out to his desk.

He was thinking about what Cap had
said about pitfalls, and wondered if that was what was happening
with Isa. It didn’t feel like Isa was a pitfall though, he mused as
he sat at his desk with his own coffee. It felt right. She felt
right.

Cops were coming in now at change of
shift. He could smell coffee and bagel and lox from Jenkins desk.
Alex cringed, eating fish for breakfast? He had to get started on
his paperwork from last night.

After writing up his report, he stood
up and went to the break room and he shot the shit with his guys he
hadn’t seen in a while. His friend, Rick Dissibio, had been under
with a gang in Hell’s Kitchen for so long he couldn’t remember
where the coffee was. Alex was glad to see him in one piece; those
bastards were a dangerous group.

Rick had managed to make an arrest but
a lot of the underlings had scattered and it would take a long time
to find them all. Alex had been lucky to have SWAT help him with
the take down, very lucky. The more men behind bars, the less Alex
had to worry about. Rick would be looking over his shoulder until
the majority of them were caught….or killed.

Leaning back in his desk chair, Alex
stared at the flash drive Isa had given him. He had already been
over all of it with fine tooth comb. He threw it up in the air and
caught it, thinking. Some of it he had already known, but there was
a lot of personal information on there that no public database
contained. He knew how she had gotten it. Hacking. He was still
working out how he felt about that.

On the one hand, she wasn’t using her
skills to steal people’s identity or bank numbers. As far as he
knew. But, on the other hand, she was gathering people’s private
information without legal authority. Of course when he put it like
that, he felt like a boy scout. But, he was a cop for God’s sake.
He wasn’t supposed to think hacking was ok sometimes and not other
times.

Disgusted with himself, he sat up with
a clang. It was time to start tracking down Isa’s employees to see
what they had to say about Malone. He threw on his jacket and hat,
and was walking out, when he heard his name. Detective Parker
Daniels. She hadn’t been happy with him ever since he turned down
her offer of “a drink and whatever” at her place a few months ago.
But, he had made it clear, he didn’t date at work.

“
Jax, heard about your
fiasco. What happened?”

“
Not sure yet, I’m going
to find out now.”

“
Well be careful, I heard
some rumors about the people Malone work for.”

“
Yeah I heard the same
rumors. Thanks Parker. I gotta go.”

He ran down the stairs to the garage
level and cranked the engine over. Letting the heat run a few
minutes before pulling out, he made his way to Greenwich Village.
He was taking his list geographically by who had answered their
phone when he had called.

Lester Pruitt, Isa had written. NYU
third year. Pre-med, Student Loans. Bartender.

Alex knew Lester; he had worked with
him at The Inferno. He knew all the people on the list, but it
would be a whole different ball game when he held his badge up to
their eyes. He hadn’t known Lester’s Student Loans had been piling
up, and that Lester financially had no help from his
family.

The thought of Isa gathering this
information into the wee hours of the morning brought a smile to
his face. Hell, she should be on the cover of a magazine or up on
the stage with her looks; but there she was handing him information
it could have taken him weeks to procure with a warrant. He
couldn’t use it legally seeing as how it had come to him
il-legally, but Alex knew how to use it to his advantage without
sending up red flags. Was it any wonder he was so interested in
her?

He drove through the noise that was
New York, mostly tuning it out. He saw a traffic accident in
Midtown and radioed it in without getting out. They didn’t look
like they were coming to blows anyway.

It wasn’t until he turned onto
Lexington that Alex spotted the tail. That black van had been in
his rear view for several blocks. Maybe he was being paranoid, but
he called it in anyway and decided to take a few detours along the
way. The van stayed with him all the way to Gramercy Park when the
radio squawked that the van was stolen.