Trial by Fire (20 page)

“But, Laura, my contacts are telling me that Stryker’s famous ‘vibes’ are telling him that the murder wasn’t a professional hit. You told me that’s what he would believe. Fuck, Laura, that’s why you insisted we cut off Mike’s prick….”

Laura shrieked when Sherm’s voice rose to a whine.

“Forget Nate’s fucking vibes! Listen to me, Sherm. In the next couple of days Nate Stryker is going to be dealing with this case in a very personal way. His ‘vibes’ will be of no value when he has to put his famous investigative powers to defending himself. Dammit, Sherm, this is happening exactly as I said it would. Precisely the way we planned. But! If you wig out on me, there is no telling how this will end. Ultimately this is all up to you, Sherm. You know you can count on me to do my job without fail. It’s up to you to do yours.”

Sherm reached for the whiskey bottle and poured himself yet another shot. His hands shook so violently he spilled at least as much as he got in the glass. Watching Sherm guzzle the potent alcohol and reach again for the bottle, Laura smiled to herself. Oh yes, Sherm would do his job and do it with flair. She’d see to that. That he wasn’t yet aware of what that job entailed—and wouldn’t be until the very end—made it all the more delicious.

Chapter 19

Connor grinned when he answered the door and saw them standing on the doorstep.

“I take it from that big smile, half pint, that my cuz behaved himself last night.”

Nate reared up in mock horror.

“Hey, what the hell kind of an accusation is that?”

Erin gave him a prim smile. “I guess it depends on how you define ‘behave,’ Connor.”

Connor laughed and pulled her inside and gave her a hug. Smiling over her head, he winked at Nate. When Nate dragged Erin away from Connor and into his arms and kissed her, Connor groaned.

“Okay, you two, I can tell you’re back to your usual lovebird behavior. Out of here, both of you. Some of us, including you, rookie, need to get to the Fire House. I’ve heard the lieutenant there is a real hardass.”

Nate grinned. “Nah. From everything I know about the guy, he’s as big a softie as you’re likely to find. We just stopped by to get Erin’s car and to thank you for letting us use your house last night to stage our latest drama.”

Connor sighed but the twinkle in his eyes gave him away. “You gotta admit, there’s never a dull moment with you two around.”

“Hey, man, that’s what you get for hanging that CFF shingle over your front door.”

Nate threw an arm over Connor’s shoulder and added, “And even though I give you a hard time, Cuz, I’m glad that ConnorfuckingFreud is in my life.”

Erin reached up and kissed his cheek. “I am too, boss!”

Connor flushed and nodded. “Okay, okay. Enough of the mushy stuff. But, I’m glad to see you both smiling. It’s been a tense week, Nate. Let’s hope this damn investigation gets over quickly so we can all get back to normal.”

Nate grimaced. “Unlikely. But at least we can make sure it doesn’t intrude on our personal lives.”

As they walked over to Erin’s car, Nate asked, “Where’s your key, baby? I want to get that suitcase of yours out of the trunk. I don’t want to take a chance of losing you again to the Motel Six.”

Erin blushed and leaned up to give him a kiss. “You know that’s not going to happen, Nate.”

“I know that, darlin’. For better or worse, you’re stuck with me.”

Erin nodded and smiled. “Yes I am. I love you, Nate.”

Nate nodded and his voice caught for a moment. “And, I love you, Erin. Have a good day, darlin.” He opened her door for her and leaned down and kissed her good bye.

He murmured, “By the way, that little five hour escapade we had last night? There’s more of that where it came from. Tonight, little spitfire. Get some rest today if you can. You’re gonna need it.”

She flushed and shook her head. “I should warn you, Detective. I hope you’re prepared. I owe you several
initiatives
and I’m not going to go easy on you.”

Nate was still chuckling when he drove off, a big smile on his face.

~~~

“Good morning, Naomi. Sorry I’m late.” Nate grabbed the stack of reports on the corner of her desk and began rifling through them.

“Nate, the Chief wants to see you in his office.”

Focused on the coroner’s report, Nate nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, good. Let me do a quick read on these reports—”

Naomi held up her hand to get his attention.

“Sorry, Nate. But the Chief was adamant. Wants to see you a.s.a.p. He’s already called twice to see if you’d come in yet.

Nate frowned and gave a heavy sigh.

“Okay, Naomi, hold my calls for the next twenty minutes. I’ll go see what’s up Chief Robert’s butt that’s got him in the ‘Stryker, get your ass in here’ mode.”

~~~

Nate frowned when he arrived at the Chief’s office. Not only was the Chief at his conference table, but so were Dan and Sam. To a man, they looked serious as hell.

“Whew. I don’t know if I want to know. You guys look like you came from a funeral. In our business that’s not good.”

He glanced from one to the other, then focused on the Chief. “Sorry I’m late. Had to deal with some things with Erin. What’s up, Chief.”

The Chief’s response heightened the seriousness of the group.

“Sit down, Nate. And yes, we do have an issue. A big one.”

Nate frowned and sunk into the chair at the end of the table.

“Okay, I believe you. Out with it. I presume it is something to do with our investigation.”

The Chief sighed again and nodded to Dan. Dan didn’t meet Nate’s eyes, instead he put a recording device on the table, and turned it on.

To Nate’s surprise, he heard Laura’s voice. The message was vaguely familiar and the tone and intent sure as hell were.

“I’m waiting for you darling. Let me know when you’ll get here. I’m… I’m dressed or should I say, ‘undressed’ for the occasion. Hurry. I miss you. Can hardly wait to see you…”

The recording ended with a distinctive smacking sound.

Nate frowned. “Who’s she talking to?”

Dan glanced over to the Chief, who shrugged and nodded to him to continue.

Dan gave a nervous cough, and cleared his throat.

“Uh, to you, Nate.”

Nate reared up in surprise. “What the hell are you talking about, Dan? I never got that message.”

He turned to the Chief. “What the hell, Chief?”

The Chief’s voice was pained.

“I’m sorry, Nate. Sorry as hell, but we have close to a hundred of these. They’re all similar, some are more… more explicit than others.”

Nate stared at his mentor as a cold sweat slithered over him. He had a sinking feeling remembering the voice mails he started receiving a year ago and how they’d gotten more frequent. He’d stopped listening to them months ago.

He glared at Dan. “Where did you get these?”

Dan sucked in a deep, troubled breath. “From Laura, Nate. She… she called me late last night. Said she had to talk to me. Privately. Meaning without you.”

The Chief broke in. “Look Nate, I’m sorry as hell, but there’s more.”

Nate was on his feet, his hands clenched at his sides. He moved toward the Chief.

“Stop telling me how sorry you are, and tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“Nate, Laura called Dan last night to say that she was frightened and had information that she thought we needed to have. Among that information were these recordings.”

A tight fist gripped Nate’s chest. He paced across the room running his hands through his hair. He turned to the group at the table who were all staring at him. He focused on the Chief.

“Look, all of you. I will admit, I started getting calls from her about a year ago. I never told you, Chief, because I know you hate her almost as much as I do. This is classic Laura. She can’t stand the thought of one of ‘her men’ getting on with his life. Hell, after Erin moved in with me she started calling more frequently. I got so I didn’t even listen to them, just deleted them.”

When no one answered, Nate pushed at the gorge welling up in his throat.

“You said more. What more? Jesus, Dan. Why the hell didn’t you call me? Did you think this was one of those things you could just put on the fucking morning agenda?”

“No, Nate. I knew how important it was. I went to see the Chief. We listened to all of the recordings. We both called you and left a message but you didn’t return our calls.”

Nate ran his hands through his hair again. Damn, last night. Erin. Holy Christ, Laura was….He stared at Dan.

“Did she tell you that she came to my office yesterday? UnfuckingInvited, I might add! Except that it was damn well contrived. She knew that Erin… Fuck! Fuck!”

Nate glared at Dan.

“Goddammit, I asked you a question, Dan. Did she tell you that she set me up? That she knew Erin was coming and she just happened to throw herself at me at that moment. For God’s sake, get Naomi in here. She’ll tell you what happened.”

Dan’s face, normally a healthy pink, flushed a dark red.

“Damn, Nate. Twenty people saw you and Laura in the hallway. Most of them also saw Erin run for the elevator. According to Naomi, Laura was hanging on you. Not only in your office but also in the hallway. It… it could have been misunderstood, Nate. I’m tellin’ you, man, this is a real cluster fuck.”

Thinking back to his rage yesterday, Nate imagined what someone walking by might think. Especially those people who don’t know Laura and only saw a beautiful woman who was upset! God help him. A hideous pattern was emerging.

The Chief’s expression was grim.

“There’s something else, Nate. You better sit down, Son.”

Nate’s voice was ice cold.

“If you don’t mind,
Chief Roberts
, I’ll stand. Continue. Now.”

The Chief’s face reddened at Nate’s reference to protocol and his insolent order. Leaning forward, his forearms pressed against the table top, the Chief held Nate’s angry gaze.

“She told Dan that we should check your weapons safe. That we will find Latigos, whips from your Eskrima collection. She also told Dan that before you two were married, you liked to show off your skills with whips.”

Unbidden, a long ago memory made it to the top of Nate’s frazzled brain. He’d spent four months in the Philippines trained by hard core Eskrima fighters. In addition to learning a fearsome array of knife skills, he trained with one of the foremost Latigo masters. At the end of four grueling months he could slice a four inch piece of paper in half with the crack of his whip—from six feet away. When he returned on leave to Chicadia Falls, like the cocky son of a bitch that he was, he liked to entertain his then-fuckbuddie, Laura Chumpter, with his expertise.

A sickening wave of emotion flooded Nate as the full impact of the accusation hit him. Looking from one to the other of the men at the table, his astonishment turned to rage. Ice. Cold. Infuriated. Rage.

Grinding his back teeth together so hard he was lucky they didn’t break, he glared at the Chief. His voice was dangerously soft.

“Are you fucking telling me, Chief, that Laura, that fucking lying bitch, accused me of killing Mike?”

The Chief grunted a despairing sigh and nodded. “Yes, Nate. In so many words, that is precisely what she did.”

Nate’s jaw tightened. It was difficult to spit out the words.

“And you… you fucking believe her?”

The Chief leapt from his chair and moved toward Nate. He stepped back when Nate raised his hands, keeping him at a distance.

“Jesus Christ, Nate. Of course, we don’t! Who the hell do you think I am? We are? Damn, Nate, I am as shocked as you are that she’s gone to this extent. Even for Laura, this is beyond the pale. “

The Chief ran his hands across his closely cropped grey hair and shook his head. He turned away from Nate and sunk back in his chair. As if remembering who he was, he drew himself up and pinned Nate with a hard glare. His voice was firm, tight with resolve.

“Look, Nate, I’m going to have to take you off the case.”

Nate took two steps backward then not taking his eyes off the Chief, said, “Like goddamned fucking hell you are.”

The Chief’s voice cut the air like a rapier.

“Nate!”

They stared at each other for several long moments. The silence in the room was deafening.

The Chief swallowed hard and then pointed to the chair.

“Please, Nate, sit down.”

Nate struggled to breathe. The enormity of what was happening still hadn’t hit him but was slowly leaking in. The Chief’s face was pale, strained. Nate struggled with the incongruity of their situation. This was the man who loved him like a son. Who was the only father Nate had had. And they were facing each other with more anger than had been between them in their more than twenty-year relationship. But his fury was too intense, too raw to let go.

He shook his head.

“I can’t do that, Chief.”

At the Chief’s darkening frown, Nate stepped back, trying to contain his anger but it was no use. He glanced around the table and snorted, “Who you gonna put in my place, Chief? Dan? Hell, he’s as corrupted as I am.”

The Chief breathed out heavily then spoke with quiet assurance.

“No. I’ve asked Commander Carter to lead the investigation. He has distance and experience—”

Nate whirled as if seeing Sam for the first time. Infuriated by his calm, serious demeanor, Nate turned back to the Chief, incredulous.

“What?! You’ve fucking got to be kidding me, Chief.”

The Chief was stern.

“No, Nate, I’m as serious as the situation is. We need to do this by the book.”

Still astonished that the Chief would even consider removing him, much less putting Sam in his place, Nate’s voice was rife with angry sarcasm, “Oh yeah, Chief. By all means let’s do this by the book. Let’s take the number one fucking detective in the country off the case and bring in some nepotistic Police Chief wannabe? Is that the book we’re gonna use?”

Ignoring the Chief’s warning frown and the slight flush that rose on Sam’s calm countenance, Nate refused to contain the anger that was swamping him.

“What do you want, Chief? You want my badge? You want my gun? That’s not a bad idea. I’m goddamned likely to kill the bitch—”