"You here to see Kim?" a voice asked. Anderson stopped to address the speaker.
"Yeah. I was told to go to room two?"
"Follow me."
As he walked down the corridor past desks of other cops with pictures of families they are slowly losing to long hours at work, telephones ringing, and someone yelling they 'didn't mean to kill her' Anderson thought of what he was going to say to Leo. What do you say to someone after you made love to them only a few hours before? This was new to him—sleeping with someone before he had a clear picture in his head of where the relationship was going. He took a deep breath when the officer stopped and opened a door. He stepped aside to allow Anderson into the room. He stepped in and looked at Leo, who was hunched over a desk cluttered with papers, photos, and coffee cups. Anderson said nothing. Seeing Leo again sent his body into overdrive and left him speechless. He forced himself to speak after licking his suddenly-dried lips. Anderson stepped forward and Leo looked up from his work. The look in his eyes wasn't something Anderson was prepared for. He wasn't prepared for the unfamiliar coldness that dwelled in the cop's eyes. That told Anderson to keep his mouth shut for Leo had already forgotten everything that happened between them.
"Hey," Leo greeted him. "Something wrong?"
"I don't know. I just wanted to see you before I headed over to see Byung."
"I'm glad you're here," Leo said. "I want to kiss you so bad."
"Why don't you?"
"The walls have eyes… Sit down for a sec. I need to talk to you about something."
"Sounds serious."
"It kinda is. Remember me mentioning we found another body?"
Anderson nodded.
"This time it was one of my high school teachers."
"Serial killer?"
He watched Leo's Adam's apple roll up, then down. ""It's not your fault your father is dead, Anderson… It's mine."
"Leo… you're not making any sense. Don't say that!"
"But it's true. First it was Jazmon. Now my teacher? I don't know what else to think. I mean, I really don't want to take all the credit for this but I'm starting to think someone out there is out to get me."
"You may be right—about someone being after you." Anderson spoke slowly. "Like they say, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you."
Leo chuckled. "Great. Thanks a lot."
"You're welcome," Anderson said.
"I'm heading over to Elmont to go see my football coach. I am thinking if we got ahead of the killer we can catch him faster."
"I'm coming with you."
"Anderson. You have classes…"
"I'm coming with you! If you're right and this guy's is going after people you care about—and I don't mean to think you give a damn about me—but he may not see it that way. I'd rather be with you than wandering around being serial killer bait."
Leo shook his head. "Do you always have to be so dramatic?"
Anderson leaned in. "I'm coming with you."
"I'm not going to win this one, am I?"
Anderson shook his head with a roll of his shoulders.
"All right. Did you drive here?"
"Yeah."
"Andy… I don't want you to think I'm only here because of your dad. He brought me here but I'm here now because of more than that. After we…"
"You didn't promise me anything, Leo. And right now I'm just going with the flow and see what happens… this is going to bother me!"
"Er… wasn't really the reaction I was looking for."
"No you don't understand. They broke into my house and didn't take anything. I think I might know why they did break in."
"Why?"
"My father has this book—this really old book he gave me when I got through my first year in university. He told me it meant a lot to my family."
"And you think this crazy person wanted this book?"
Anderson shrugged. "I don't know. I know it's a stretch but they broke into my place and took nothing. Nothing was missing from dad's place. Maybe they didn't find what they were looking for and the only thing I can think about is the book?"
"How do you explain the teacher?"
Anderson frowned.
"What's in this book?"
"'My father said pictures of everything that meant something to my mother. The first few pages have pictures of my father back in his Harvard days with some friends and my mother. But other than that, I haven't really gone through it. I mean—I'm clumsy. Who knows? There might be someone in the pictures who connects all of us instead of just my father."
"Where is it?"
"In a safety deposit box at the bank. How does it work? Do I sign something to give you permission to go into it? Or do I take you to it?"
"'Either is fine or I'll tell Daniel about it and he can get it while we're away."
Anderson nodded. "Just tell him to handle it carefully. If you don't have to take the book from the bank, don't take it. It's all I have left of my father and I can't lose it."
"Speaking of which," Leo said. "Remind me later to give you back your ring. The inscription was a bust"
"I will. I'm sorry it wasn't more help. What time are you leaving for Elmont?"
"I sent a squad car to watch the house for me, so first thing in the morning."
"Good." Anderson stood. "I'll see you later. I have to meet Byung and now I am officially late."
"This book could be a long shot—maybe we should hold off on it a second. Let me go through my theory first."
"What's that again?"
"He's after me."
"Oh right, that's a much better theory." He rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Will I see you later?"
Anderson eyed him for a moment then smiled. "You know where I'm staying."
Leo nodded with a smirk. "Oh yes, I do. Do you have to spend time with this Byung guy? Can't I just steal you away for some alone time?"
Anderson thought about it and made a face. "Let me make a call?"
He left the room, pulling his phone from his pocket, and walked by Daniel going the other way. The man looked at him in a way that set Anderson's skin crawling. It was a simple kind of stare that lasted too long.
There's that paranoia again, Andy boy.
"Hello? Anderson?"
"What?"
"You called me."
"Oh!" Anderson shook his head and stepped out into the light. "I know I'm supposed to meet you for something to eat."
"Er… what's going on?"
"How mad would you be if I didn't come—if I went with Leo instead? I don't have to. I could tell him I'll take a rain check and meet you."
"So you can use me as an excuse if things don't work out with your cop? No way. We can get together tomorrow."
"You suck."
"That's what she said."
Anderson made a face but laughed. "I love you, you know… Thanks for this."
"You're welcome. There is a catch though."
"That is?"
"I need details when we get together."
Anderson chuckled. "Yeah. I promise."
Hurrying back inside, he dumped his phone into his pocket and leaned against the doorframe watching Leo fussing over the papers on the desk again. "So you're taking me out for some food?"
"A cop's idea of food."
"What's that?"
Leo smirked at him like a sexy minx up to something dangerous. Anderson moaned and bit his lower lip while backing up. If he stayed where he was, he was sure he would do something like dive across the space and rip Leo's clothes off.
"Let me talk to Daniel before we go."
Anderson exited the station then and sat outside on a step waiting for Leo to come out. Instead, when he looked up, Daniel walked out to sit beside him. Anderson said nothing but he suddenly felt as though he was being touched by a ghost.
"What's going on between you and Leo?"
"I don't know if that's any of your business," Anderson replied, "but nothing."
>
"Are you sure? Because the way he's acting, it doesn't seem like nothing."
"I'm sorry. How is this any of your concern?"
Daniel said nothing. He rose and climbed the steps to the top. Anderson turned to look over his shoulder at the man staring at him. When Leo came out, the two bumped fists and stopped to have a brief conversation before Daniel entered the building. Anderson rose and walked with Leo south from the station and toward Times Square. Anderson heard music and stopped to search the crowded sidewalks for where it was coming from. He smiled and walked over to peer around the people gathering around. The musician was playing a song he'd only heard once, a few years prior in Cuba during an educational exchange.
"You wanna dance?" a woman beside him asked.
"Er… sure!" Anderson said, exchanging looks with Leo before taking the woman in his arms and spinning her around. He always did love the Salsa. When he was finished, he kissed her cheek in thanks and walked to stand beside Leo.
"I didn't know you danced like that," Leo said. "How did you learn the Salsa?"
"When I was a kid, I took lessons. And if you tell anyone, I'll deny it."
Leo groaned. "What else is there to know about you?"
"I'm like an onion."
They continued walking with Leo laughing. "An onion?"
Anderson nodded. "Oh yeah, baby. I got layers. But seriously, when I was a kid, my mom made me take lessons. I started out in hip-hop but to impress this boy, when I turned fourteen, I took some ballroom."
"You knew you were gay at fourteen?"
"I knew I was gay at ten."
They stopped at a hot dog stand, ordered food, then walked to a short wall and sat.
Chapter Eleven
Another body popped up. This time it was someone Leo knew, but not intimately. By the time the crime scene was clear, Leo tried calling Anderson but didn't have any luck. After leaving a message, he gathered his files, all the pictures and results, and went in for a meeting with his partner. Leo sat on the arm of Daniel's chair and read through the medical examiner's report while Daniel read through cases with a similar MO. All of them were close to the ones they were dealing with but none had the love-lies-bleeding flower or powdered versions of it. Sighing, Leo dropped the file and took a drink from his coffee.
"This is nuts!" Leo exclaimed. "There is no way this guy is that good."
"Maybe he just hasn't made a mistake yet."
"But that would mean we need another body and I don't think I could deal with that." Leo rubbed his eyes and walked across the room before turning to face Daniel. "All right. Aside from the headless bodies and the flower, these are just murders. But he's not doing anything else to the bodies—no markings, no DNA, no fiber—nothing. How can he be so clean? I'm starting to think this person is a cop."
"Don't even joke about that." Daniel frowned. "Let's run this again."
"I know. Bad joke. But these scenes are way too clean."
The two sat and ran the case two more times but by the time they finished, they were no closer to any kind of breaks or developments. Their lab guy brought the results from the information pulled from the victims' hard drives but nothing added any more light.
"We need a break," Daniel said. "I need a cigarette."
"So do I and I don't even smoke."
There was so much going on, he hadn't even had time to go see Coach Jessops. Though he was worried, he could push it to the back of his mind since the coach had a squad car sitting on the house for the time being. His captain hollered for him and Daniel to enter his office, and Leo wanted to scream his head off.
"Well, you may want to hold off on that break," Leo muttered.
Though he was not ready to talk to the captain and normally the older man would leave him to work his case, Leo rose, took a breath, and walked with Daniel into the office. "Sit down," Captain Heron ordered softly, closing the file on his desk and removing his glasses. He leaned back in his chair, eyeing them with something akin to exasperation. "Where are you on this case?"
Leo exchanged looks with Daniel but his partner spoke first, "Nowhere, really. Everyone that's dead is somehow connected to Kim. We don't know if it's a coincidence or if the killer is going out of his or her way to find people Kim cares for."
"How are you connected to the recent victim?" Heron questioned.
"When I was a kid, he was my mother's doctor," Leo explained. "He was younger then, of course. I'm not sure why he's dead because I've only met him a couple of times."
"Do you think you're in danger, Leo?"
Leo shrugged. "I don't know. But I'm not about to go crawling under a rock. I have every intention of finding this ass and making him pay."
"What about this Anderson Williams? The judge's son?"
"What about him?" Leo felt the instant his back went up.
"Nothing is going on there. We have to keep an eye on him because he's the judge's son," Daniel spoke up.
Heron rose from his chair and walked to the coffee. He poured himself a cup and took a sip. "People are getting antsy about this guy going around cutting people's head off. And how are we always one step behind him every time? It's the same damn evidence at each scene and he hasn't managed to fuck up once!"
"Not yet." Leo was getting tired. There was a slight throb behind his right eye and all he wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed for a while.
With the meeting with the captain over, Leo sat at his desk, poring over files. When nothing popped, he left the office with Daniel by his side and made their way to Anderson's place. The house was locked up tight after being cleaned and after picking the lock, he stood in the threshold smiling.
"Remind me to change my locks." Daniel walked around him with a smile. "The fact that you can do that scares me."
"Hey, a lock is a lock so it doesn't matter if you change them." Leo shrugged. "Besides, it's not like you have anything in your house I haven't seen before."
"You'd be surprised. Look, the property isn't a crime scene anymore and it would take Anderson way too long to get here to give me a key. I don't have that kind of time."
"Or patience," Anderson added.
"Precisely."
Leo chuckled and they continued into the house. They started their nosing around in the kitchen being sure to put things back the way they found them. They didn't have a warrant, which made what they were doing very illegal. He chose to think Anderson wouldn't mind but what did he know? There were many layers to the professor Leo had yet to see.
The place smelled like it should after being locked up for a while and Leo had to resist the urge to pop a window open.
Daniel overturned a pillow. "What exactly are we looking for? I mean you guys obviously had cleaners come through here."
"I guess we'll know when we find it."
"That's reassuring."
Leo ignored that statement and continued from the kitchen to what looked to be Anderson's office. It felt strange being alone in the house. He'd gone through it before but as a cop with people around and he was on a mission. Then, he was searching the usual evidence. Now he just didn't know what he was doing. He was grasping for something—anything that would make this case click and snap from the funk it was in.
In a drawer at the bottom of the desk, he found a piece of paper. He wasn't sure what it was but it was folded neatly and shoved in between the tracks. He only knew it was there when he pulled the drawer out and it took a bit of muscle to get it back in. He unfolded the paper and tilted his head. It was a list of numbers and letters.
"Now that's strange," Leo muttered to himself.
"You said something?"
Leo quickly refolded the paper and shoved it into his pocket. If they were right and this guy was going around killing people he was close to, letting Daniel in on it would only end badly. He was going to do what he could to keep his partner safely out of it. They both didn't need to lose their badges or worse, become another victim of the killer they hunted.
"Nothing
at all," Leo lied.
"There's nothing here," Daniel called then entered the room. "And I'm starting to feel as if someone is playing a drum on my brain. I'm going to head home. I have to talk to the wife anyway."
"You two aren't going to fight again, are you?"
Daniel shrugged. "I'm all fought out. I'll see you later. I'm going to head home and try not to go crazy or do anything stupid."
"You do that. I'm going to go talk to the guys in the lab. Maybe there's something they missed."
"Oh, they'll take that well."
"The world's smallest violin, man."
* * * *
Time ticked by with Anderson trying to get to spend some time with Byung. It was a pain for Byung kept having things come up on days Anderson was free. Finally, Anderson put his foot down and told Byung he was getting kidnapped. After a quick stop to see Leo and bringing him some lunch, getting to Caesar's didn't take too long for it was only a couple of blocks from the precinct. It was a popular, posh gay restaurant where anyone who's anyone ate. Yes, it was mainly for gay couples but they had amazing food—especially cheesecake, something a lot of people in New York were addicted to. But Anderson didn't feel like eating more calories than he could burn that day and he didn't want to start eating junk when he felt as bad as he did.
Anderson walked into his regular haunt and stopped at the host podium.
"Hello, Marc."
"Good morning, Mr Williams. Byung's already here. This way please."
He followed the man with the cute ass over to where Byung was seated with a large cup of coffee in his hands. He shook his head because he should have known where there was coffee, Bee was a happy man. Anderson reached across to hug his friend before slipping into his seat and placing his keys on the table. After ordering a coffee, he lifted his hands to the table.
"Start at the beginning," Byung muttered.
Anderson took a deep breath. He licked his lips while wondering where the beginning of it all was. There was so much that was going through him that he had switched his cell off because he didn't want to hear it ring.
"Easy for you to say," he said to Byung and smiled at the host who brought his coffee. The man left them again and Anderson sipped from his cup. "Let me start at the beginning. As you know, after my house got tossed, I called Leo."
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