Tainted Pictures (16 page)

           Craig came around the counter and Liz walked ahead of him out the front door while Mike made sure to box him in around back.  The two escorted him onto the sidewalk and walked around the corner to the alley that was one shop over from the coffee store.  They were purposefully making him uncomfortable and acting just threatening enough to get the information that they wanted, but not enough to cast disrepute upon their jobs.  

           “Craig, I think you should just come clean now.  Save yourself a lot of time and hassle if you just admit to us what we already know.”  Liz told him, crossing her arms and leaning against a wall of gray, concrete slab insulating them from the happy customers on the other side.  She was bluffing of course, but Craig didn’t need to know that and Liz had plenty of years of lying under her belt.  Growing up with a mom like she had, you learned to lie to everyone so no one suspected anything.  

           “You don’t waste our time, we don’t waste your time.  Don’t you just want this to be over with, Craig?”  Mike chimed in, his hands crossed in a military pose as he stood stoically in the center of the alley at the entrance, as if blocking Craig from leaving.  Craig put his hands up in a defensive posture and looked back and forth between the two detectives.

           “Listen, man, I don’t know what the fuck you guys are talking about.  I don’t know why you are harassing me, I swear on my grandma, I ain’t done nothing.  Now you all coming up in here and disrupting my job, making my employers think I’m some criminal.  Well, I did my time and for nothing.  This is total bullshit.”  Craig stomped his foot, angrily but with the defiance of a child throwing a tantrum.  

           With one forward thrust of her hand, Liz shoved Craig backwards knocking him to the ground.  She had had enough and wasn’t going to sit through his mindless antics anymore.  This case was coming to a boiling point, The Photographer had followed her to her house.  This wasn’t just Kate’s case anymore, this was hers too and she was not going to let some young college dropout screw around with her life.  

           “Don’t you fuck with us, McDermott! This isn’t a fucking joke!  You know something and I want to hear it right now.  This is a woman’s life we are talking about!”  Liz shouted at him, waving her finger down at him as he was still sprawled on the ground attempting to get up on his elbows.  She realized that at that point she wasn’t even sure that it was Kate she was talking about because her life could be on the line now.    

           “I am not lying, man!  I never hurt that girl back in college and I never hurt no girl now!  I ain’t even trying to get laid lately!  Girls been nothing but problems, I don’t need that!”  Craig stood up and shook the dirt off his clothes.  

           “Listen, I was a party kid, okay?  That’s my only crime.  But hey NYU is a party school!  Well at least for some people it is!  I drank too much and I am telling you I don’t remember what happened that night but I know I ain’t raped no chick because when I get drunk it don’t...you know, man, my, uh... you know what I’m saying right man?”  Craig nodded at Mike, hoping to get some sort of male confirmation.  Mike just glared at him, hands folded across his chest, not showing the slightest flicker of emotion.  Craig rolled his eyes and pushed his hair back, groaning.

           “My flagpole doesn’t fly.”  Craig said lowering his voice, and looking around embarrassingly.  

           “Your what?”  Liz asked him, bewildered.  

           “Come on, don’t make me say it.  My soldier isn’t at attention.  My tent ain’t got no pole.  My pocket is all out of rockets, my morning don’t got no glory, there ain’t no wind in my sails, you know!”  Craig continued.  

           “That is absolutely the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.” Liz said and turned to look at Mike who was hiding a grin behind his hand and attempting not to laugh.  The ever serious Mike, former soldier, laughing at a penis joke.  She couldn’t believe it.  

           “Seriously, Mike?”  Liz said sarcastically to her partner, hands on her hips.

           “I’m sorry!  It’s funny!  We just dragged the kid out here to tell us he can’t get it up when he is drinking!  That’s just embarrassing!”  Mike flat out laughed in Craig’s face.  

           “I mean I know I said it was a ridiculous excuse before but look at his face!  That boy is not lying, he is humiliated.”  Mike continued, holding his stomach as he doubled over with laughter.  

           “Come on, man, that’s fucked up.  How you going to say that to me?  Supposed to have each other’s backs as men, man.”  Craig kicked his feet awkwardly against the ground.  

           “Yeah, I don’t think so, pal.  You just keep you and your malfunctioning equipment a good yard away from me.”  Mike turned around to walk out of the alley, still laughing.  Liz looked after him and then threw up her hands, scoffing and followed her partner.  Craig awkwardly stood in the alley, not knowing what to do with himself after such a humiliating encounter.  

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

           “So, do you plan on telling me what the fuck that was back there?”  Liz said to Mike as she got in the passenger side of the squad car and he settled into the driver’s seat.

           “What do you mean?”  He said, putting the car in drive and pulling out onto the street to head back to the precinct.  

           “Your little Mike meltdown!  Mister Stoic suddenly laughing at a damn dick joke?  Seriously?  Then you just walk off, we didn’t get anything out of him!”  Liz huffed angrily at him.

           “Snow, calm down.  You are too close to this.  Listen, The Photographer was at your house last night.  I want to catch that asshole just as much as you do, maybe more.  But you can’t start thinking like a victim, think like a cop.  Go back to the entire conversation we had and listen to it as Detective Snow would listen to it, not Liz.”  Mike told her, as he turned down a side road for a shortcut.  He was many years her senior on the force and so he often pushed her to be a better cop when she was flailing.  

           Liz looked at him angrily but knew that he was right.  She was letting this affect her heavily and it was clouding her judgment.  She took a deep breath and focused her eyes on the dashboard while she replayed the interrogation with Craig in her mind.  She was quiet for a minute and then her eyes popped open and she turned to look at Mike.  

           “Holy shit.  NYU!  Clara McConnelly went there.  The time-line is about the same as Craig, you think that they went to school together?”  She asked her partner.  He just nodded his head at her and shrugged his shoulder.  

           “I’m thinking that we need to look into the witness that testified against Craig who was also at NYU.  If Craig is innocent, why did that kid lie?”  Mike pointed out to her.  She pondered what he was saying and was suddenly very eager to get back to the precinct and look through the old files from Craig’s case again.  Who was this classmate and had he made the entire thing up?  Had Craig been innocent all along?  Liz was not going to stop until she found out the truth.  

~~~~

           “I want you to wear your favorite dress and be ready by six o’clock.”  Derrick said through the phone to a grinning Kate as she sat at the kitchen table in Derrick’s apartment.  Technically it was their apartment now, even though she still had more things to move over. He was at work on his lunch break and had called her to tell her he was planning a special dinner date for them.  

           She hadn’t been out for a while, at least not anything fancy or social, so she was looking forward to it.  Tomorrow would be Friday and then the next day she would be picking Annie up from the train station to spend the weekend together.  It was looking like it was going to be a good few days.  Liz from the police station had called to tell her that things were looking up in the case and that they had a police cruiser driving past her apartment every fifteen minutes to ensure her safety.  

           “Where are we going?”  She flirted back at her fiancé.

           “It’s a surprise, guess you are going to have to wait and see.”  Derrick chuckled into the phone, enjoying torturing her a bit.  

           “You know I am not patient enough to wait for surprises!  I want to know now!”  She begged jokingly with him, hoping he would crack with enough pleading and prodding.  Derrick was locked down like a vault though and not planning on telling her anything.  

           “Oh and wear a jacket, it might get a little chilly. Love you, babe, gotta go.”  Derrick finished and then hung up the call.  He had just peaked her interest and she immediately got up to go searching through her closet for the perfect outfit for tonight.  She had no idea what they were planning on doing but she was excited to have something positive to focus on for the day.  

~~~~

           Kate was putting in her earrings and doing the final touches to her makeup in the mirror when her phone buzzed indicating a new message.  She smiled as she saw Derrick’s name light up her phone’s screen.  She looked in the mirror a final time and smoothed her dress down, then pulled on a loose fitting cardigan to keep her warm.  She wanted to feel sexy tonight so she had chosen a dark, forest green wrap dress that tied around her side and fell to right above her knees.  Her sister, Annie, always joked around calling this her “easy-access” dress because of how quickly it could come off.  

           She tapped her phone to read Derrick’s message and furrowed her brow in confusion but also smiling as she read a text message from him telling her to come downstairs.  Eagerly she grabbed her clutch and shoved her driver’s license and some cash inside, then tousled the fur of her cat stretched out on the bed as she headed out the door.  She pulled on her little black stiletto heels at the front door and then walked out, locking it carefully behind her.  

           She began to head down the hallway but then went back to double check that she had indeed locked the door.  She knew that she had and she felt silly for checking but there was still that nagging in her brain.  She wanted the attack to be behind her but in moments like this, it somehow still snuck in and took control of her thoughts and actions.  

           She shook her head and took a deep breath, doing her best to put everything related to that horrible day out of her mind.  She was going out on a date with the love of her life, in fact it would be their very first date since everything happened.  They were starting a new life together and there was no better way to do that than to start dating each other again.  Kate wanted to date Derrick every day for the rest of her life.  

           She hurried down the stairs and towards the apartment lobby, excitedly pushing through the front doors and standing out on the front steps.  She stopped in her tracks as she realized what she was looking at.  There was Derrick standing on the sidewalk holding open the door of a very long, black limousine and grinning at her with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning.  She smiled at him and sauntered slowly down the steps towards him.  

           “What’s all this?”  She asked him coyly.  

           “Every princess deserves a royal carriage.”  He teased her and made a slight attempt at a bow.  She laughed and leaned in to kiss him which he more than happily obliged.  

           “Well then, Prince Charming, let’s go to the ball.”  She giggled and slipped into the back seat of the limousine.  She had never ridden in one before and was feeling quite privileged to be doing so now. Derrick climbed in after her and made a motion to the driver to go.  The driver just nodded and then pressed a button that raised the divider between them, leaving the two of them in total privacy.  

           “Care for a drink, my princess?”  Derrick pulled open what looked like a wall panel at first but turned out to be a mini fridge instead.  He lifted out a beautiful bottle of fine champagne and opened another panel for some glasses.  He handed her a glass and expertly opened the bottle without even a popping sound.  The movies always make it seem like you are supposed to shoot the champagne cork across the room and take out someone’s eye in the process but the truth is that a real sommelier who works with wines and champagnes daily will tell you the exact opposite.  

           “Thank you!  Champagne means we have to toast, you know.”  She told him in a matter of fact way, daring him to be put on the spot.  He wasn’t easily intimidated and just smiled, raising his glass in the air.  

           “To a beauty that never tarnishes, no matter the hardships she faces and to a love that never ends, no matter the mistakes he has made.”  He said softly, gently touching the edge of his glass to hers.  Kate’s eyes swelled up slightly as she felt her heart almost throbbing with emotion at how beautiful and sincere his sentiment was.  She knew that trying to talk would only lead to choking up so she gulped down her champagne instead.   

           Derrick gently touched her cheek, brushing aside a piece of hair and then grazed his finger down her jaw line, grabbing her chin delicately between his thumb and index finger.  He pulled her towards him and met her for a kiss, their lips soft and tender as they reminisced with one another.  He then kissed her cheeks, her forehead, and the tip of her nose with such loving affection that she felt herself feeling like a school girl falling head over heels insanely quickly.  

           Of course she already loved this man but he had this way of making her fall in love with him again and again.  Time with him was never boring or stale, but rather exciting and continually fresh.  She loved kissing him and feeling him against her and most of all she loved how much he loved her.  He would do anything for her and she knew that now.  Derrick was no longer the boyish guy she first fell in love with, he was a man and growing more so each passing day.  

           She took another sip of champagne a bit too quickly as she felt the butterflies in her stomach when she looked at him.  She didn’t know where they were going or how long of a drive it was but there was nothing more she wanted to do then yank his suit and tie off right then and there.  Derrick leaned in to kiss her again, eagerly looking at her lips and wanting to taste them again.