Now, she regretted the decision to work late. She should have listened to her boss.
The nerves were already pumping through her veins; she could feel her own heartbeat against the walls of her chest. She could see every movement in her peripheral vision, seeing even the slightest break in the shadows.
Gripping her purse tightly in one hand, her keys in the other, she stepped towards her car, parked on the other side of the lot, a mere fifty yards away.
Her knuckles turned white with the force of her grip.
She stepped into the dark.
There was movement in the shadows.
She knew it.
She could see it.
But now, the distance between her car and the office door was the same. Twenty-five yards each way.
Each door was locked.
Neither would be easy access.
She was stuck.
Vulnerable.
Helpless.
In a panic, she began to run towards her car.
Heart pounding.
Muscles clenched.
Vision focused on her destination.
But then…
She was hit from behind.
She fell to the asphalt.
Clutching her purse, she turned to see her attacker.
The shadow was wearing a balaclava.
Their face was completely covered.
And then…
A fist hit her in the face.
And then another.
Right above the eye.
She loosened her grip on the bag. They could take it.
It was not worth her life.
But they didn’t touch her bag.
They didn’t want it.
“Take it,” Kate pleaded. “Take it.”
They ignored her pleas.
And then…
Another fist.
Kate began sobbing, her tears mixed with blood, and the attacker stopped.
They raised their fist, but this time, the hooded person turned and walked away.
They didn’t take her bag.
That wasn’t their target.
Chapter 23
“Bill?” There was a desperate plea in Kate’s voice.
“Kate. Kate! What’s wrong?”
“Someone… someone… they attacked me.”
“What? Who? Are you ok? Are you hurt?”
“I’m… ok.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the car, outside the police station on sixth. I don’t want to get out of my car, Bill. How do I know it’s safe out there? I don’t trust the night.” Her tears started flowing again.
After her attacker left her bloodied on the pavement, Kate focused on getting into her car, locking the doors, starting the engine, and racing to the nearest police station. It was only once she arrived that she let her guard down. It was only once she felt safe that she let the tears come.
“Kate, wait there. Keep the doors locked, and the engine running. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t get out of the car.”
With a swollen face, and still spitting blood, Harvey frantically raced to the station.
When he arrived, he saw her car, engine running, lights on, exhaust fumes slowly escaping into the chill of the night air.
Carefully, he approached her driver’s side window.
She was gripping the steering wheel tightly, staring straight ahead.
Seeing dried blood on her face sent anger pulsing through his body.
He had let her down. He should have protected her, but he let her down.
Gently, he tapped on the driver’s side window.
Kate turned her head, taking a few seconds to process who was standing by her car. When she finally realized it was Harvey, she leapt out, embracing him in a tight hug.
He held her tight, tighter than he had ever held her before.
This was the woman he cared for more than anything, and he let her safety be threatened. He couldn’t forgive himself for that.
“Are you sure you’re ok? Should we get you to the hospital?”
“I’m not hurt.” She wiped the wetness from her eyes, sniffing back more tears.
“What happened?”
“In the parking lot, after work, someone jumped me between the office and the car.”
“At our office?” Another wave of guilt washed over Harvey. That was his office. The place he should be able to ensure was safe. “What were you doing there so late?”
“I was looking for the delivery date of the new armchair, like you asked. I got it, Bill. The armchair was delivered the morning Judge Hardgrave was shot.”
He put the woman he cared for in danger. “That doesn’t matter now. What matters is that you’re ok. What matters is that you’re fine.”
“They didn’t want my purse, Bill. I told them to take it, but they didn’t want it. Why didn’t they take my purse?”
Anger continued to consume Harvey’s thoughts.
This wasn’t a random attack. This wasn’t a coincidence.
This was a targeted assault.
For both him and Kate.
“Did you get a look at them?”
“No, not really. It all happened so fast, and they were wearing a balaclava. They didn’t want to be seen.”
“Anything? Did you see anything about them? Anything at all.”
“The only thing I saw was that they were wearing a blue and green love heart necklace. It was tight around their neck, but the shine of the love heart caught my eye. That’s all I saw.”
Harvey hugged Kate tightly again.
He had seen the necklace before.
He knew who it belonged to.
As they hugged, they melted into each other, and Harvey could start to feel it.
He didn’t want to, but he could feel the emotion building inside him.
His father was the same. He didn’t want emotions in his life. He only wanted to do his job, provide for his family, and watch football on Sunday with a beer in his hand. He didn’t want to be drawn into the weakness of emotions. He didn’t want to be suckered into feeling something.
That was the only way Harvey learned to deal with emotions. It was all he knew as he grew up. His only male role model avoided showing his feelings at all costs.
“Caring for something will make you weak, boy,” his father told him over and over. When Harvey was only six years old, he still hugged his pink teddy bear every night. He loved that teddy bear, a present from his late grandmother. His father tore it away from him on the night of his sixth birthday and told him that it was time to grow up. The thing he loved the most was torn away by the person he respected the most.
A brick wall had been built around Harvey’s heart ever since.
For him, caring was a flaw.
But now, as he gripped this woman tight, he couldn’t resist it. That brick wall couldn’t hold back the flood of emotion any longer.
He should have protected Kate.
He should have been there for her.
And it hurt him more than anything that he put her in danger.
“What happened to you?” Kate asked as she looked up at Harvey’s face.
“I just walked into the wrong area at the wrong time,” he lied. “Come on, Kate. Let’s get to the station and make a report.”
She rested against his chest as they walked to the station doors, but Harvey’s thoughts were elsewhere.
He was thinking about the owner of the necklace.
Chapter 24
“What happened to you?” Detective Matthew Pitt looked at his old friend in surprise.
Bill Harvey was standing on his doorstep, dried blood on his lip, a cut above his swollen eye. He was holding his side tightly with his left hand, leaning on his other side. His broken ribs hurt, but there was nothing that the hospital could do about that.
And he didn’t have that time to waste.
“I just had a quiet chat with the wrong people.” Harvey’s response was firm.
&nb
sp; “Come in.” Pitt opened the door.
Harvey limped in, short of breath.
“Bev, get the first aid kit,” Pitt called out to his wife.
Pitt’s wife rushed down the stairs of their house with the first aid kit in hand. “Oh, Bill.” She sighed. “You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”
“It finds me, Bev.” Harvey smiled with a split front lip. “I don’t go looking for it; it just comes and tracks me down.”
She smiled, took Harvey into the kitchen, and spent the next ten minutes cleaning up his cuts, making small talk along the way.
“But clearly.” She sighed as she finished cleaning his cuts. “You didn’t come here for my nursing skills. I know that I have a delicate touch, but a handsome man like you can get that anywhere. I’ll let you two boys chat. But Bill, promise me one thing?”
“What’s that, Bev?”
“Stay out of trouble, or next time, it’ll be me giving you a cut lip.” She gently placed her hand on his face before leaving the room.
“I’d listen to her,” Pitt joked. “I tell you, if I make that woman angry, there are some nights I sleep with one eye open.”
“I heard that,” Bev called out from down the hall.
Once Bev was out of earshot, Harvey stared at Pitt, who was resting against the kitchen counter.
“I wasn’t the only one targeted.”
“Who else?”
“Kate.”
“No.” Pitt’s shock was real. “Is she hurt?”
“She’s a little shaken up, but she’s going to be ok. She’s at my place, now. Safe.” After the evening that Harvey had endured, he was in no mood for further small talk. “You need to tell me the truth, and you need to tell it to me now.”
“About what?” Pitt squinted his eyes.
“About you and Miles.”
Pitt opened his mouth in surprise. He shouldn’t be shocked. The lawyer standing in front of him was known for his investigative skills just as much as he was known for tearing a person apart on the stand.
Harvey held Pitt’s stare, and Pitt acknowledged it with a few small nods. Slowly, he turned to the kitchen door and closed it gently. Walking back to the counter, he sat down on the stool opposite his friend.
“Start talking.”
“Roberto Miles…” Pitt sighed. “He’s a big player in the drug scene in East L.A.—Juan Lewis’ partner in the scene. We’ve been after him for years, trying to land something big on him. But all we ever get is something small, a charge that’s just big enough to keep him off the streets for a little while. After he does time in prison, he’s straight back out on the streets, helping Lewis in the drug import trade. But then, he ran into big trouble with the law, and with me.”
“And?”
“And he struck a deal with us. He was going to give us Lewis, and we would ignore the charges. Lewis is the main player out there. He’s the brains behind the operations, and without him, the whole thing would fall apart. So, although we could get Miles, it wouldn’t have stopped the drug operations. We wanted to get Lewis.”
“Miles will just step into the position once Lewis is gone.”
Pitt nodded. “We thought about that. That’s why we have an old case that we can convict Miles on as well. He doesn’t know that. Nobody does. We’re going to nail Lewis, and then we’re going to nail Miles. Roberto Miles isn’t the smartest guy going around. You could tell him that the sun is computer programmed by Bill Gates and he would believe you. The plan is that he’ll give us Lewis, and then we will nail him a week later on the old charge.”
“Except you haven’t nailed Lewis with anything. He’s as free as a bird.”
“You’re right. We haven’t got anything yet. Miles is wired a lot of the time, but we haven’t got anything. Nothing.”
“He’s playing you. I have word that a large run of drugs is coming in soon.”
“Possibly.”
“What’s the old case you have with Miles?”
“I can’t say, Harvey. I can’t let you know that. Just know that it’s big.”
Harvey nodded slowly, processing the information. “Matthew, I need a favor.”
“Of course. I thought that was the reason you might be here. But as much as you’re a friend, it depends on what the favor is. These are treacherous times.”
“I need you in court tomorrow.”
“What for?”
“I have a hunch, and I’m going to make a play.”
Pitt laughed. “Your hunches have gotten me into trouble before, Bill. A lot of trouble. I’m not sure what to make of that request.”
“They may have gotten you into trouble, but we’ve always gotten the criminal. Don’t tell me that you’ve changed your story, and now you don’t want the criminal? I thought all the police wanted was for the guilty to pay—you worry about the details later.”
“Very true.” Pitt sighed and pulled out a cold beer from the fridge to pass to Harvey. “This should help your lip.”
“I need someone in court that I can trust. I’ve got a big-time drug dealer coming to the stand, and under cross-examination, I plan to get him to admit he committed a crime. I need someone in the courtroom that isn’t connected to his syndicate of high-powered contacts.”
“Juan Lewis is on the stand tomorrow?”
Harvey nodded slowly.
“Be careful… although, I can imagine that’s probably why you have a cut lip right now, so you don’t need me to tell you how dangerous he can be.” Pitt took a long drink of his beer. “He’s got friends in high places. Very high places. He can get away with a lot of stuff. If you’re going to take him down, you have to take him down hard. Don’t do this for a little play. Even if you pin that $50,000 worth of heroin on him, it won’t keep him off the streets for long. If he walks away, he can have you hit the second you walk out on the street, and they can brush it under the carpet. With the level of protection that he has, you have to be very, very sure of what you’re doing. It has to be a play that’s going to take him off the streets forever.”
“It appears that he’s quite a dangerous person.” Harvey gestured to his cuts and bruises. “But that shouldn’t stop men like you and me. We have to be better than that, Pitt. We have to be above the fear that they want to instill in us. This is when courage counts.”
“That’s a lovely speech,” Pitt replied. “But I’m not some officer fresh off the street. I know what pain is. And so do you. You’ve seen it before. You’ve seen the worst of it. We have people to protect now. I can’t risk my family for this—because that’s what will happen. They’ll come after my family.”
“Don’t get scared on me now.”
“Even what you and I have seen in the past isn’t going to compare to what Lewis can do. His connection to Judge Hardgrave opened a lot of doors, and when a man like Lewis sees an open door, he jumps right through it. We know that he has anger issues—he’ll snap if you push him.”
“That’s why I need you.”
“Bill, because you’re my friend, I’ll be there. But we have to be clear with each other. This needs to be a really big play to take down Lewis. Really big. If you’re going to take him down, make it count.”
“I’m going to make a play so big that no one is going to want to go near him. Everyone will disown him. The people that protect him won’t want to be associated with him anymore. They’ll distance themselves from him very, very quickly.”
“If you don’t get this right, he’ll come down on you even heavier than last time. On both you and Kate. You’re risking your lives here. And Kate’s got a son to think about. Don’t think that they won’t go after Kate’s son.”
“I know what’s at risk.” He looked Pitt up and down, judging his old clothes. “And wear a nice suit, you might be on television tomorrow.”
“Is this play foolproof?”
“No. It’s risky. Very risky.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Chapter 25
; The second morning of the trial hummed along smoothly. Chettle did her best to present the circumstantial evidence, and Harvey did his best to dispute it. Like an unhappily married couple, they went back and forth for hours, arguing at any chance they got.
Standard procedure for a morning in court. Nothing special.
But all that was about to change as Chettle called Juan Lewis to the stand. She even shuddered when she called his name. She knew how important this testimony would be.
For the prosecution, it was about applying pressure. They needed to increase the pressure on the major drug supplier. They needed him to know that they were coming after him. He was their target.
As he walked with confidence through the courtroom, the case was balanced slightly in the prosecution’s favor.
Lewis’ presented himself well—suit was bright enough to force people to look twice, his hair slicked to the back and left, and his accessories were glittering under the lights. It almost seemed appropriate for Lewis to moonwalk to the witness stand.
As he walked past the defense table, one accessory caught Bill Harvey’s eye—a blue and green love heart necklace hanging around his neck, resting between the open collar of his shirt.
Harvey’s leg twitched nervously under the defense table. He knew it was time. Time to make a play to win this case, but more importantly it was time to ensure Kate was kept safe.
He couldn’t risk her life again.
His heart wouldn’t take it.
Lewis was sworn in, and Chettle opened with her questions. “Mr. Juan Lewis, how long have you know Mr. Carlos López?”
“Many, many years.” He winked at the prosecutor. “And may I just say that you look mighty fine today, lady.”
“Mr. Lewis,” Judge Windsor’s voice echoed around the courtroom. “I will remind you that this is a courtroom, not a bar where you pick up women. Please save your sleazy comments for another place and respectfully answer the question that has been asked of you.”
Lewis grinned, full of self-assurance. “Certainly, judge.”
“Are you related to Mr. López?”
“I am. He’s my cousin.”
“Would you say that you and Mr. López are close?”
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