“Come in, Yaritza,” Dr. Julia Dials
smiled. “How did your night go?
Yaritza walked quickly into her shrink’s office and plopped herself
right on the couch. The doctor shrugged and sat in her chair. “So much for
pleasantries.”
“Sorry, Julia. Not the day for casual banter.”
“Has it ever been?”
“I think I’m fucked.”
“Well, at least some things haven’t changed since last night.”
“What?”
“You’ve said that many times.”
“This time it’s not just personal….I might lose my job now.”
Julia whistled. “Busy day!”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Talk.”
Yaritza discussed her day from
the talk with Corday to the interview with James Plank.
“I think you are letting your judgment get clouded
Yaritza looked at her. “You think Corday was right?”
“Do you? If you were in Corday’s position,
what would you do?”
“I think if I were in his position I would have fired me on the spot. I
guess he is being generous.”
Dials nodded. “There you go. Use your time wisely. You still have me to
talk to, also.”
“Yes, thank god it’s a paid suspension.”
“Good.”
“And I just found out that Nikea has been hiding things from me.”
“Somehow I’m not surprised. Is she still considered a suspect?”
“She sure as hell is now!”
“Why?”
“She lied.”
“She lied regarding her alibi?”
“No.”
“What did she lie about?”
“She lied about hating a cold-hearted bitch when in fact she came on to
her before she met me.”
“Did this cold-hearted bitch kill this man?”
“I don’t think so.”
Julia sat back and closed her eyes. “You sound jealous. But you have no
more evidence yet that makes Nikea or this other woman a solid suspect. I’m not
an investigator of crime, but I’m calling it as I see it.”
“I’m pissed! If you hadn’t made for an opening today, I would have
killed both of them!”
“Does this new set of lies impact the case one little bit?”
Yaritza sighed heavily and closed her eyes. When she opened them again,
tears ran down. “No.”
“And you haven’t seen Nikea since before our session last night?”
“No.”
Julia clasped her hands together,
thinking. “Do you truly think you’re a lesbian?”
“I don’t know, but my feelings are leaning that way.”
“And way too fast.”
“What?”
“It’s the timing. That’s why the suspension is a good idea. You need to
step back and look at everything. Nikea is pushing you faster than you can go.”
“The thought occurred to me.”
“I suggest staying away from her.”
“And not explore these feelings? I think I still want her.”
“If after you take your time and explore yourself and still believe you
want her, then go for her.”
“But I don’t know yet if I can sleep with a woman.”
“I think you could if you really felt that way. But not with this one,
she sounds dangerous. It’s like she met you, then started you on this path.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s the fact that she’s the ex-wife of the victim that
puts the red flag up.”
Yaritza nodded slowly. “My red flag was up from day one and I still let
myself get in trouble.”
“Do you feel 100% that the only way you will know is if you pursue her?”
“Nothing is 100%, but once I feel this way, it’s damn near impossible to
feel otherwise.”
Dials rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, sighing. “If I tell you
not to see her, will you do it anyway?”
“You know me.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’m fucked.”
“Not if you play it right.”
“How so?”
“Look, Yaritza, I’ve slept with a lot of men I didn’t trust. It was a
matter of getting laid. I was satisfied without involving the emotions. If you
can separate the libido from the emotions, you can still win out. But if you
let your emotions get in with the sex, it will bring you down, at least at this
stage.”
The tears gone, Yaritza cocked her head at him. “I expected more
psycho-talk from you.”
“Not today. This is Thursday, common sense day. Psycho-babble comes on
Mondays and Tuesdays, psycho-babble-light is on Wednesdays, and the other two
are common sense and wits to get one through the weekend.”
“Oh.”
“Makes the end of the week a lot easier.”
“Not mine.”
Yaritza sat in her car outside of Nikea’s house. She so wanted to go up
to the porch and knock. She so wanted to reach out to the woman and….and what?
And strangle her? Interrogate her? Hit her? Kiss her? She didn’t know. The
therapy session had ended 45 minutes ago, and she didn’t feel any closer to a
decision.
One thing was for sure, each minute she thought of Nikea, she got a warm
feeling inside, and the feelings accumulated more heat with each thought. Maybe
Julia was right, maybe Corday suspended her so she could sate her curiosity
without jeopardizing the department. With a deep breath, she opened her car
door. There was no point in just sitting there. She had to know.
She made her way to the front door, sighed, then knocked. When she did,
the door moved in a bit. Yaritza looked at the knob. The door was open! She
reached for her gun, then realized it was not there anymore. It would have been
a great time to call for backup, but she had no call there, and Corday would probably
cancel the deal with her.
She stuck her foot in the door and it just opened more. What an
opportunity to walk right in. She almost did, then stopped. It was stupid to go
in unprepared…unless it was a set-up by Nikea to walk in, like a seduction? Yaritza
turned again toward the door, then walked in. She instinctively checked around
the corner, but nobody was there. Nobody in the living room. All was intact,
though. The furniture was there, and so were the pictures. Nobody was in the
kitchen. Yaritza slowly made her way toward the bedroom. She had not seen it
before, and was slightly nervous with anticipation about what she would see.
The door was closed. She reached for the knob and tried to turn it. It was
locked!
She yelled, “Nikea?”
No answer.
“Nikea!”
No answer.
Without hesitation, Yaritza stood back and kicked the door open with all
her might. Inside was a king-size bed, a bedside table, and a dresser with a
mirror. The closet was closed. She opened it slowly. Inside was a mess of
clothes, mostly on the floor, like someone had thrown them around. There were
some clothes on the bed as well. Yaritza looked around some more. The window
was open a crack, not unusual for a warm day, but the screen was completely
closed. So why had the bedroom door been locked? It was possible to lock it
then close it from the outside, but why bother if one couldn’t get back in?
Yaritza looked to the wall that had the closet. Sure enough, there was a
bathroom. She went inside. Across from the shower, there was a door. She
checked it, and it was unlocked. Suddenly, she froze. If this were a crime
scene of any sort, she had just implicated her presence in two major ways: her
prints were on two knobs, and her shoe prints were on the bedroom door! What in
the hell was she thinking?
“Hello, Yaritza.”
She turned around. Corday was scowling at her.
“What are you doing here, Esteban?”
“I was checking on Robertson, and saw the door was partially open.”
“And you decided to investigate? Without backup?”
“You gave me one more day before I was on suspension.”
“To interview Plank. That was early this afternoon and I got no report.”
“I’ve been busy, Captain.”
“With?”
Yaritza told him about what she learned from Plank. When she finished,
he shook his head. “So far nothing’s proven.”
“Look, I’m just doing what you wanted me to do.”
“What?”
“You wanted me to resolve my problems without getting the department in
deep shit, so you suspended me. I came here to do some resolving and I saw the
door was ajar. So I got into cop mode.”
Corday sighed. “You think whatever you want. You know you’ve been
off-balance lately, and I can’t have that in a detective.”
“What are you doing here anyway?”
Corday allowed a small smirk. “A
hunch that I had earlier paid off. A little blood splatter found on a tire on
Nikea Robertson’s car just happens to match up to some DNA belonging to her
ex-husband.”
Yaritza sat on the bed, stunned. “Oh no.”
Corday frowned. “Oh yes. Nikea has just become a prime suspect.”
“And her parents vouched for her.”
“Blows that alibi, huh? Look, parents will lie for their kids, guilty or
not. I thought the alibi was shaky anyway.”
Yaritza wanted to feel hurt and betrayed, she had the right to. But now,
all she could think about was the state of the house when she arrived. “The
bedroom door was locked.”
“What?”
“That door was locked. I kicked it open.”
“So your shoe prints are on it?”
“Yes. And I touched 2 doorknobs.”
Corday sighed again. “I’m glad you’re telling me first, but it still
doesn’t make you look good.”
“I know. But why was it locked?”
Corday looked into the bathroom. “There’s a door in there.” He went in
and opened the door. “Yep, it leads to the side of the house, and there’s a
gate leading to the driveway.”
“Why lock the bedroom door?”
“Why speculate?”
“Humor me, will you?”
“Okay, it’s possible that she wanted to be alone. Someone forced their
way into the house, and she made an escape.”
“It’s a possibility, considering the door was ajar when I arrived.”
“The front door was?”
“Yes.”
“None of your prints on it?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Corday looked more at the bathroom door that led outside. “You ever hear
of these?”
“What?”
“Bathrooms that lead outside.”
“No.”
“Neither have I.”
“What does that tell us?”
“I don’t know.”
Corday had her sit in the living room while he checked the rest of the
house. Twenty minutes later, he came back to her. “No car, no luggage.”
“She skipped.”
Corday sat down next to her. “Looks that way. And you know what?”
“What?”
“I think your visit to Mr. Plank tipped her off.”
“How could it?”
“You mentioned that he said something regarding a relationship between
his ex and Nikea.”
“So?”
“I think there’s a small grapevine between those 3 still.”
Yaritza
just sat still, stunned by everything.
Corday looked at her for a moment, hard at first, then sympathetic. “You
were right.”
“About?”
“Why I suspended you. And now you’ll need time to put yourself together.
It’s still three weeks.”
“I’m a suspect.”
“Not according to my spin on it. After all, I came here to arrest her.”
“And I was here, supposedly to be with her in bed.”
“Any evidence of that?”
“My footprints. My fingerprints. My being here after being suspended.”
“You were still playing cop as far as I’m concerned. As for your calling
cards, a quick wipe with a cloth will kill them.”
“That’s destroying evidence!”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t say it.”
“Why would she run? She didn’t know we have that evidence, I snuck it
from the car.”
“Maybe she was running from you.”
“I think you’re right, and I think I’ve tainted the case enough.”
“Yep, and when you get back in 3 weeks, you’re on a different case,
never to touch this one again.”
“Agreed. I need to do something about this, though.”
“What?”
“She got something going in me, and that won’t just go away.”
Corday shrugged. “She’s not the only woman in town, you know.”
“What, you mean try a bar?”
“It’s a suggestion, no more.”
“It is. I have to think.”
“Let’s get you out of here. I have to call in the unit, get this place
set up for surveillance, get an APB on her car, and order up dinner.”
“I can’t stay?”
“No!”
“But won’t they have questions for me?”
“I asked them and you answered them, got it?”
“Yes sir!”
With that, Yaritza headed to her car and drove off. Her head was
spinning so fast that no one thought could stay in focus. One thing she did
know was that her life had changed too fast in the past few days, like Julia
had said, and she needed time to sort it all out. It occurred to her that she
could do an underground search for Nikea alone. However, that would only
compromise a conviction if Nikea was really guilty of killing her ex. Yaritza
Esteban was about to do something she thought she would never do: leave it
alone. She sighed in resignation, and drove off into the early evening.
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