The Craving (38 page)

Her ringing cell phone jarred her from her thoughts. Toothpaste in her mouth, she rushed to the phone she’d left in the living room and saw that the call was from Simon. Irritated, she let the call go to voice mail. Was he going to keep texting and calling all night? She wished she could turn her phone off so he’d get the point that she didn’t want to talk to him, but she didn’t want to miss a call from Tyler or Vijay.

She finished brushing her teeth, then decided to nip it in the bud and text Simon back. She didn’t think Tyler would have a problem since so much time, about five hours, had lapsed since the “meeting time” at Grand Central. Besides, if she didn’t respond, Simon might show up at the apartment, and the last thing she needed now was another traumatic scene in front of Jeremy.

Keeping it short and sweet, she texted him:

The
I miss u
seriously pissed her off. How dare he miss her when he was God knows where with God knows who doing God knows
what. He was playing twisted head games, that was what he was doing, and she was so over his silly, immature crap. She wanted to be in a real relationship, with a real man.

She was in bed when the phone rang again. She grabbed the phone angrily, assuming it was Simon, but brightened when she saw that Vijay was calling.

Smiling widely, she sat up and said in a kind of sexy, flirty tone, “Why hello, how are you?”

“Hey,” he said, “sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner; it’s been a crazy, hectic day.”

“I know, I figured,” Alison said. “I just wanted to say hi, see how you were doing.”

“No, actually I’m very glad you called,” Vijay said. “I was going to call you too, to apologize.”

“Apologize?” Alison was confused. “Apologize for what?”

“For putting you in touch with Stephen,” he said. “I guess I didn’t really think it through all that well. My mistake.”

Even more lost, Alison said, “I don’t get it. Everything went great with Stephen. Actually I’m just waiting to hear from him to see how things are going with his investigation.”

“He wasn’t inappropriate with you?” Vijay asked.

“Inappropriate? What do you mean?”

“Never mind,” Vijay said. “I was just concerned, that’s all. Stephen is like a frat boy who never grew up, and sometimes he can … Anyway, I’m glad to hear that all went well on that front, but the main reason I wanted to talk is I’ve been doing some thinking about what happened with us last night, and, well, I really don’t think it’s a good idea for us to see each other again.”

“Oh.” Alison had to absorb this. “Okay.”

“I think you’re a wonderful woman, don’t get me wrong,” Vijay said, “but you’re going through a lot right now, and I don’t want to be a distraction for you.”

“You’re not a distraction,” Alison said.

“I just don’t feel comfortable with the situation,” Vijay said. “I’m sorry.”

Alison felt the letdown.

“No, it’s okay,” she said. “I understand.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate that,” he said. “I also think someone else at your company should take over my account. Just so there isn’t any conflict.”

“Oh, that isn’t necessary,” Alison said.

“I’d feel more comfortable,” he said. “If you don’t mind.”

A few minutes later, Alison was sitting up in bed, tears trickling down her cheeks. She wasn’t upset about losing Vijay—they’d barely gotten involved and he was right, starting something now probably wasn’t a great idea—but she still couldn’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of loss. She’d already lost her husband and her family, and Vijay had been a nice escape. Without him, the future suddenly seemed lonely and bleak and terrifying.

G
eri was heading up the stoop to her apartment building on West Forty-eighth when she heard:

“Hey, beautiful.”

She was used to getting catcalls from guys on the street, and for a second she thought it was some guy hanging off a garbage truck. Then she looked back over her shoulder and saw Ramon in a double-parked red Toyota Camry, smiling widely.

“What’re you doing here?” she said, excited to see him.

“I missed you, baby,” he said. “You know I can’t stay away from you.”

A laundry delivery truck was trying to squeeze past the Toyota but couldn’t fit, and the driver honked the horn.

“Come on, get in,” Ramon said.

“Now?”

“Yeah, come on.”

“Where’re you going?”

“A mystery ride, come on.”

The truck honked again.

Geri didn’t know why she was hesitating—it was either hang out at home with a couple of cats or go for a drive with a guy who had turned her on the way no guy had ever turned her on before.

She got in the car and they drove away. It was amazing, how just being next to him excited her. She was already getting turned on.

“You look incredible,” he said.

Although Geri had barely slept last night and had been working all day and just rode home on a hot, crowded subway, she believed him.

“Thank you, so do you,” she said, and she meant it as well. In jeans and a tight black T-shirt, Ramon looked smoldering. “I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight.”

“I guess I’m just full of surprises,” Ramon said.

They drove past Eleventh Avenue.

“So is this your ride?” Geri asked.

“Nah, I just rented it at Hertz,” Ramon said.

“You rented a car just to take me on a mystery ride?”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Well, that’s kind of romantic,” Geri said. “I mean, it’s not exactly
a horse-and-buggy ride in Central Park, but yeah, it is pretty romantic.”

She reached out and gently rubbed Ramon’s right thigh. She was dying to have her hands all over him.

“So are you gonna give me any clue where we’re going?” she asked.

“If I did, it wouldn’t be a mystery ride,” Ramon said.

“That’s not true. Mysteries have clues. Take it from me; I am a detective, after all.”

“You’ll find out soon, baby, you’ll find out soon. Why don’t you just chill out and enjoy the ride?”

He turned on the radio to a Latin station—a cheesy Spanish love song that somehow seemed romantic and perfect.

“I was thinking about you all day today,” Geri said. “You’re very distracting, you know that?”

“You know I was thinking about you, right?” Ramon said. “You drive me crazy.”

“Crazy is a good way to describe it.” Noticing the big bulge in Ramon’s jeans, she continued to rub her fingers against the inside of his thighs, saying. “I mean, I usually don’t get like this with guys. I mean, I
never
get like this with guys. I don’t know what it is about you that turns me on so much, but no guy has ever had this kind of effect on me.”

“That’s ’cause you never met the right guy before,” Ramon said.

“You really believe that? That there’s one person for everybody in the world?”

“Yeah, of course I do. I was telling the guys today at the playground that you’re my soul mate.”

“The guys?” Geri asked. “You mean you saw Michael today?”

Ramon didn’t answer at first. Then he said, “I’ll explain it all to you soon, I promise.”

Geri stopped kneading his thigh but left her hand there. “Explain what to me soon?”

“You don’t gotta worry about anything,” he said. “I got it under control.”

They were on the West Side Highway, going uptown, toward the Upper West Side. She’d figured he’d rented a hotel room somewhere, and maybe they’d have a fun night with room service and robes and hot sex, but now she was starting to get concerned. Ramon, looking out at the road with a very serious expression, suddenly didn’t seem like himself.

Geri stopped touching his thigh and said, “If something’s going on, you should tell me what it is.”

“You trust me, right?” Ramon asked.

“I want to trust you,” Geri said. “But I hardly know you.”

“You know me,” Ramon said. “Just because we just met, that doesn’t mean you don’t know me. Love’s about feelings, not time.”

“Whoa, love?” Geri said. “Did you just say love?”

“What’s wrong with love, baby?”

“Look, I admit I feel something for you that’s strong, okay?” Geri said. “It’s an attraction, a desire, but love is something else.”

“You’re just afraid to admit it.”

“I’m not afraid, I’m—”

“I know you feel it,” Ramon said. “You don’t have to tell me. I know you love me just by the way you look at me. I knew it when you walked into that theater yesterday and sat down. You couldn’t take your eyes off me. The whole stage disappeared, the whole world disappeared. It was just me and you, alone, floating in space. That’s what love is.”

Geri knew Ramon was being corny, but it was true, she had felt something different when she saw him for the first time. Was it love? She’d never been in love with anyone, never let herself go like this before, so how did she know? Besides, the past twenty-four hours had been so crazy, she wasn’t sure how she felt about anything anymore.

She didn’t say anything for a while, listening to the cheesy Spanish love song. Then she realized that they had passed the Upper West Side and were heading toward the GW Bridge.

“Wait, seriously, where’re you taking me?” Geri asked. “Are we leaving the city?”

“You really have to stop asking questions, baby,” Ramon said. “You gotta relax and have faith in me. If you do that, everything’ll be okay, I promise.”

Geri decided Ramon was right—well, about relaxing, anyway. She was probably taking the whole thing too seriously. So what if they left the city for a few hours? He was probably taking her to some romantic dinner spot in Westchester, maybe Dobbs Ferry by the river or something. Was it really such a big deal?

Then, riding along the Henry Hudson Parkway, they passed Washington Heights, where Orlando Rojas and Carlita Morales had been killed, and Geri was distracted by other thoughts. She wondered if Santoro and Reese had made any progress on the case, but she doubted they had. They were playing catch-up, probably rehashing a lot of leads that Geri and Shawn had already checked out, and, more important, they didn’t understand DDP the way Geri did. Meanwhile, Geri still had a nagging feeling that they were all missing something about the case, something obvious.

After Washington Heights came Inwood, the northernmost neighborhood in Manhattan. Geri had worked on a few cases there during her career, including one last year that involved DDP. A kid
had been shot and killed in front of a bodega and local gang violence was suspected, so there had been a large-scale investigation, but the case had remained unsolved.

Then it hit her—the Devon Carter murder, of course.

Geri took out her cell and called Tim Stappini in IT at Manhattan North.

Ramon saw her making the call and, looking over, concerned, asked, “Hey, what’re you doing, baby?”

Tim said, “Hey, Geri, what’s going on?”

“I need you to look up something for me.”

“Can it wait? I’m in the middle of—”

“It can’t wait.”

“’Kay, what you got?”

“I need a full search on Manny Alvarez,” Geri said.

“Who?” Ramon asked.

Geri held up a hand to Ramon like the stop sign and stage-whispered, “Wait.”

“’Kay, let’s see what we got,” Tim said. “I got a Manuel Alvarez.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“On Isham Street?”

“Yeah,” Tim said. “Juvie at Tryon, three at Rikers for possession with intent.”

“Gang association?” Geri asked, knowing she’d nailed it.

“Yeah, DDP,” Tim said.

Going for the clincher, Geri asked, “Siblings?”

“Jeez, what do you think I am, some kinda computer geek?” Tim said. “Yeah, one sibling, a sister, Carlita Alvarez-Morales.”

Thinking
Bingo
, Geri said, “Thanks, I owe you one. You can go back to drafting your fantasy football team now.”

“Ha, ha,” Tim said.

Geri ended the call and, noticing they had crossed the Harlem River and were in the Bronx, said, “You gotta drop me back in the city right now.”

“What’s goin’ on?” Ramon asked.

Geri was trying to decide if she should call it in … why do a favor for Dan? He was protecting his ass; who was going to protect hers?

“It’s just a work thing. Come on, you gotta get off at the next exit.”