Reunited by the Badge

by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  She dropped her fork and empty container back into the bag. After reaching for her phone she dialed again.

  Her brother Mingus Black answered on the second ring. “What’s wrong, Simone? And why is Parker texting me to ask where you are?”

  “I need you. I’m at the Karavan Motel on Cicero Avenue.”

  “Karavan? On the South Side? What the hell are you doing there?”

  “Someone tried to kill us tonight,” she said, explaining all that had happened since Paul Reilly had called her.

  “So, you two check into the city’s seediest motel?”

  “We’re not planning to stay, and they take cash,” she continued, hoping to rationalize why the no-tell motel had been a good idea and why Paul felt going to the police was not. Even after saying it out loud Simone knew it sounded like she and Paul had lost their collective minds. And she definitely couldn’t tell any of them that she just needed to be with Paul because she had missed him terribly.

  Mingus listened, taking it all in. A private detective by profession, he heard his sister’s dilemma with a different ear than their police officer brother. He didn’t yell or give her orders he knew she wouldn’t heed like Parker did. Instead, when she was done talking, Mingus said, “Sit tight. I need to put some things in place. I’ll be there before breakfast tomorrow. Are you carrying?”

  “Yes,” she said, taking a moment to check the weapon in her handbag. The Glock 43 had been a gift from her father, the patriarch ensuring she and her sister both knew how to handle a firearm just as well as their brothers. Regular visits to the gun range kept her shooting and safety skills honed.

  “Keep it close, and if you need to use it, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger. You can always ask questions later.”

  “What are you going to tell Parker?”

  “That I didn’t put your leash on you this morning. That he should check with whoever did.”

  “Thank you,” Simone responded, chuckling softly.

  “Get some rest. I’m sure you’re going to need it,” Mingus concluded.

  After disconnecting the call, Simone moved back to the bed and kicked off her heels. Laying her body beside Paul’s, she eased an arm around his waist and shifted herself close against him. She nuzzled her nose against his back, inhaling the scent of his cologne. The familiar fragrance reminded her of their last trip together, a two-week excursion on the island of Jamaica. They had walked hand in hand along the beaches of Negril, had swum beneath the cascading waters of Gully Falls, and had danced under a full moon in Montego Bay. They’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms and woken each morning making love. It had been as magical as any holiday getaway could possibly be. Weeks later, they were no longer a couple, barely talking to each other about the weather.

  Taking deep breaths to calm her nerves, Simone closed her eyes and settled into his body heat. She couldn’t begin to know what he had gotten her into and despite trusting that Paul would have never purposely put her in harm’s way, running from gunfire added a whole other dynamic to his situation. The nearness of him only put her slightly at ease, not enough that she could fully relax.

  Sleep didn’t come as quickly for Simone as she lay listening to the occasional sound outside the door and the steady rhythm of Paul’s heavy snores. Simone hated showing any vulnerability, but she was scared. This was bad and had the potential to get worse.

  Her mind continued to race as she thought about what she might need to do to help her friend. Thinking how much she had missed him when he’d been gone and being grateful to have him back, even under the dire circumstances they found themselves trapped in. Wondering if she should heed Parker’s advice and run for the security of the police department and shelter with her law-abiding family. Her father was, after all, Jerome Black, the Superintendent of Police, leading the entire Chicago Police Department. Her mother, Judith Harmon Black, was a federal court judge, and both were well respected in Chicago’s judicial system. With two brothers on the police force, another who was an attorney in private practice, the baby boy in the family a city alderman, her favorite sibling a private investigator, and her only sister front and center in state politics, law-abiding protection was a given.

  Despite her best efforts she couldn’t turn her brain off. For another two hours she lay pressed against his back, not wanting to disturb his rest and needing him near, even if they weren’t a couple anymore. Thinking about the past and the present, Simone’s thoughts ran the gamut from sane to senseless until sleep finally slipped in and delivered her from her misery.

  Chapter 3

  Outside, the morning sun was just beginning to rise. Paul stood at the foot of the bed staring down at Simone’s sleeping form. Fully clothed, she was curled in a fetal position around a pillow. Her mouth was open, low gasps expelled from her lush lips. Her freckles were like stardust across her nose and her skin shimmered under a layer of light perspiration. Simone was a beautiful woman, but there was something about her when she slumbered, where she seemed most angelic and at peace. In those moments her beauty was extraordinary, leaving him to wonder what he had done to get so lucky.

  In that moment though, he was wondering what he needed to do to ensure she was protected. How to get her, and himself, out of the mess he’d pulled them into. He sighed, feeling as if things might implode if he didn’t tread cautiously. But he had neither the time or the wherewithal to play nice with Lender Pharmaceuticals.

  The knock on the door pulled him from his reverie and startled Simone out of a deep sleep. She sat upright, clutching at the well-worn spread atop the bed. Bewilderment furrowed her brow. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she threw her legs off the side of the bed as Paul moved to look out the window. He heaved a deep sigh as he sidestepped to the door and opened it, greeting Simone’s brother Mingus. The two men embraced like old friends, an exchange of shoulders bumping and chests grazing.

  “You two good?” Mingus questioned as he entered the room, carrying two large duffel bags over his shoulder and a tray of coffees from Starbucks.

  “No,” Simone muttered as she flipped her hand at him. “I need to pee, and I want a shower.”

  Mingus and Paul exchanged a look, both smirking slightly. Her brother shook his head at her as he extended the duffel bag in her direction.

  “Well, I brought you some things from your house. Clothes, your toothbrush...”

  “My toothbrush!” she exclaimed, jumping up and down like a four-year-old. “I love you, big brother!”

  Mingus laughed. “Until you see what I packed for you. Knowing you, I’m sure it’s all wrong.”

  “As long as you brought me clean panties, I’ll be a very happy woman.”

  “Panties? Ohhh...well... I didn’t...”

  Simone’s eyes widened, a hint of saline suddenly pressing against her thick lashes. “Please, don’t tell me you didn’t get me any clean underwear. How could you not think to pack me clean underwear? I can’t believe you...”

  Mingus held up his hand to stall the rant he knew was coming. He winked an eye at her. “Vaughan packed clothes for you. I’m sure you’re good.”

  Relief flooded Simone’s expression. “You talked to my sister?”

  “She had the spare key to your town house.”

  Simone nodded. “Excuse me, please, while I go freshen up.”

  Mingus dropped to the chair, his clasped hands resting in his lap as he gave Paul a look. “Don’t rush,” he said.

  Simone looked from one man to the other and back, then rolled her eyes skyward. “Don’t hurt him, Mingus.”

  Mingus narrowed his gaze and pushed his shoulders skyward. “No promises.”

  Paul chuckled, dropping his large frame to the bedside. He clasped his own hands together in front of his face as he rested his elbows on his thighs.

  She gave them both another look, then moved into the bathroom, shutting the door behin
d her. “You two work it out,” she muttered under her breath. “Not my problem.” The pipes rattled loudly as the shower was turned on in the other room. When the rain of water sounded steadily on the other side of the door, both men shifted forward to stare at each other.

  “I talked to your brother. He packed that other bag for you. He said to tell you he’s headed north to lie low for a few days. That you would know where to find him. He doesn’t like how folks are looking at him. He also said he has enough equipment there if you need it. He said you knew what that meant, too.”

  Paul nodded. “Did he tell you where north was?”

  “No, and I don’t want to know. And, if that’s where you’re planning to go, you don’t need to tell Simone until after you get there.”

  “I don’t know if I can keep her safe, Mingus.”

  “You better,” the other man said with conviction. “She’s already a target. They know she’s connected to you. If they can’t get to you through regular channels, they’ll get to you through her. I know I would.”

  Like all the members of the Black family, Mingus was just as dedicated to the municipality. But he usually worked alone, sometimes in the dregs of the community, beneath the cover of darkness, getting his hands dirty. He sometimes did what others weren’t willing to do and he did it exceptionally well. Paul had no doubts he knew what he was talking about.

  “I need to go to the hospital. I have patients there I need to check on. I also need to get my hands on some of my files and maybe a new sample or two.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I don’t have a choice. I have to go, but I’m not taking Simone with me. She can stay here until I get back.”

  “If you get back.”

  “Such faith!”

  “In my line of business, we deal in facts, not faith. And the fact is someone is gunning for you. And maybe it’s because you know something about that pharmaceutical company that they don’t want you to know. Or maybe not. For all I know, it could be a spurned lover out for revenge.”

  “Your sister had an alibi. She was with me, so she didn’t have a reason to try and kill me.”

  Mingus chuckled. “Touché!”

  Paul sighed. “I need to print the emails my brother sent me so I can study the results from the tests he was able to run. I’ll swing by a FedEx office first and then head over to the hospital. I’ll be in and out in thirty minutes. Forty-five max. Then Simone and I’ll get on the road.”

  “The print shop is going to want a credit card. Go here,” Mingus said, jotting an address down on the hotel notepad that rested on the desk. “Ask for Liza. Tell her I sent you. She’ll print whatever you need. You can also use her computers. She can back-door you into any system you need to get into. Tell her what you need, and she’ll find it for you.”

  “And she can be trusted?”

  Mingus shot him a narrowed look but didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he passed him a set of keys. “I’ll take Simone’s car,” he said. “There’s a black BMW parked outside beside it. The registration won’t come back to either of you. If you get stopped, the car belongs to Black Investigative Services. Tell them to call and I’ll confirm you’re authorized to be driving it. But don’t get stopped. I did a little digging last night and the men at the restaurant were a professional team. They didn’t miss by accident. They wanted to scare you, not kill you. But if they had wanted you dead, you would be.”

  The sound of the shower suddenly came to an abrupt halt, Simone cursing loudly about there being no more hot water. The two men exchanged a look and shook their heads.

  Mingus continued, “Lender Pharmaceuticals has deep pockets. They can afford to pay well to silence you. If you keep digging and they get pissed off enough, whomever comes next might not miss.”

  Paul rose from his seat and Mingus stood with him. Both stole glances at their wristwatches.

  “One hour,” Mingus said. “Go to the hospital. Get in, get what you need and get out. Simone and I’ll meet you at that address I gave you in one hour. Then you two need to put some distance between you and Chicago.”

  Paul nodded and the two men shook hands. “Thank you,” he said. “I really appreciate your help.”

  Mingus chuckled. “Don’t thank me. Thank the nuisance in there. If she didn’t love you, I’d kick your ass for getting her in this mess. I still might. No telling about me!”

  Paul hesitated as he pondered Mingus’s comment, wondering if it were possible that Simone did still love him. If they might be more than old friends. If when all of this was finished, Simone would still find favor with him. He suddenly wanted it more than he’d ever admitted to himself previously. He felt a mist of saline press hard against his lashes and he swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.

  Paul gave Mingus a wry smile and then he turned to leave, his hand on the doorknob. For a split second he thought about telling Simone goodbye. Just in case they didn’t make it back to each other. Then he reasoned there was no point in tempting fate.

  He turned back to face Simone’s brother. “I really love your sister. I hope you know that. I never meant for any of this to happen,” he said.

  “Yeah, I know,” Mingus replied. “We all do.”

  Paul spun back toward the exit, then he stepped out into the early morning chill, closing the door behind him.

  Chapter 4

  It was the new day shift change, the hospital employees focused on updates about patients and not on him. Paul managed to enter the building and make his way to his office with only two nods of his head and one good morning to an elderly man rolling his way down the corridor in a wheelchair. Paul stole a quick glance out the glass partition before closing the blinds.

  There were manila folders resting on the center of his desk and a boatload of pink message slips. He didn’t bother to look at either pile, instead reaching to unlock the bottom drawer with the smallest key on his key ring. At first glance, it appeared that the drawer held indexed files and nothing more. What Paul was after was duct-taped to the underside of the inner drawer. He pulled the flash drive from its hiding spot and slid it into the back pocket of his denim jeans.

  Just as he relocked the drawer, after pausing to grab his calendar from the desktop and sliding it into his briefcase, there was a knock on the door. Paul froze, his eyes skating from side to side. There was a second knock, someone calling his name. He took a deep breath and held it as he considered his options.

  Paul secured the zipper on the briefcase and rested it in the seat of the chair. He moved from behind the desk to the door and pulled it open. The voice that greeted him was overly exuberant for such an early morning hour.

  “Dr. Reilly! You’re back!” The nurse standing before him looked relieved. “Kelly said she thought someone was in here, but she wasn’t sure. I wanted to make sure we didn’t have another intruder.”

  “Good morning, Grace. Another intruder?”

  She nodded. “Someone was in here yesterday, rifling through the files on top of your desk. We called security but by the time they got here, the men were gone.”

  “Men? There were more than one?”

  “There were two men actually. Both white, dark hair, wearing dark suits,” she said.

  Paul nodded his head slowly. “Do you know what they were looking for?”

  “No, sir. I checked everything afterward and nothing was missing. All the files there for you were exactly as you left them. They made a mess, but they didn’t take anything. At least I don’t think they did.”

  Paul paused in reflection. He had a good idea who’d been there and what they were after. He also knew that the flash drive was now in his possession and he needed to ensure it stayed with him. He gave his nurse a slight smile. “Well, I’m glad it wasn’t more serious, and I appreciate you looking out for me, Grace. Actually, I was just headed out the door. I
only stopped in to check on a few of my patients. I’m not officially back for another week.”

  “Well, we can’t wait to have you back with us.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “I’m good. It’s been busy around here. We’ve been short staffed, so you’ve really been missed. You’re one of the only doctors who’ll roll up his sleeves to pitch in and help out.”

  Paul smiled. “I appreciate that.”

  Grace took a deep inhale of air. “Did you hear about the Lukas kid?”

  “David Lukas?”

  She nodded. “Poor little thing died last week. We were all heartbroken. Parents brought him into the emergency room suffering from seizures. He didn’t recover.”

  There was a moment of pause as Paul took a deep breath and held it, his eyes closed as he recalled the youngster who had touched the hearts of everyone who knew him. The child had been six years old when he’d first been admitted. His symptoms had mimicked those of influenza, hepatitis and yellow fever. Weeks of testing hadn’t been able to find a cause for his symptoms until Paul and his medical team discovered the child had been away on a tropical holiday twelve months earlier. Paul had ordered another round of tests and little David had been diagnosed with malaria. The rashes, high fevers, anemia and subsequent seizures had been consistent with the disease, but the parasites had been missed in the initial testing due to malaria’s rarity in the United States.

  The treatment plan and prescribed drugs Paul had ordered should have had him back to climbing trees and playing games with his little friends. Learning that the child had died felt like a punch to his gut. The antimalarial drugs sold by Lender Pharmaceuticals were used worldwide and Paul had been confident about their capabilities before he’d learned of Lender’s duplicity. Now, that baby was dead, and the guilt was suddenly consuming. Paul no longer had any confidence in any product with the Lender name attached to it.

  He opened his eyes and took a second breath. “Did they do an autopsy?”