“Bobby, get out,” Jules shouted, shoving him backward and slamming the door nearly on his head. “I’m so sorry, Piper. I didn't know he was coming. He always just comes right in like that. I should have locked the door.” Jules hustled over to her and reached down under the chair for the sweater. Piper was still standing motionless. Then a small smile broke across her face. Jules wasn’t sure exactly what to make of it. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m trying to imagine what he’s thinking in the hallway. Like what kind of scenario is he’s envisioning that would have me in your office half dressed in the middle of the day? This is pretty embarrassing for me, but I’m betting he is dying out there.” Piper slipped the sweater on and sat back in the chair.
“Should we let him sweat it out a little, wondering what the hell we’re doing in here?” Jules was so grateful that Piper had taken a lighthearted approach to this uncomfortable situation. Having Piper around had helped alleviate some of the tension that had grown between she and Bobby since Scott came along.
“No, let’s let him off the hook. It’s not like he came running into the ladies’ room or anything. This is an office, I should have known better. I guess we’re lucky it was him and not some stranger looking for directions to the bathrooms,” Piper said, gesturing toward the door.
“All right, Bobby, it’s safe to come in now,” Jules said as she opened the office door and waved him into the room. He slinked back through the door, trying hard to avoid eye contact with Piper.
“I’m sorry about that Piper, I really didn’t see anything. I’ve come in this office a thousand times and there have never been any half dressed women before. I can assure you if there were I’d be by more often.” He regretted his joke the moment he said it. He fixed his gaze on a colorful framed picture on the wall.
“It’s not your fault. I had a little accident on my way here, and someone spilled his drink all over me and knocked me on my butt. Jules was nice enough to offer me her sweater, and I wasn’t thinking when I started to change. Let’s forget it ever happened. And like you said, you didn’t really see anything anyway. Now someone change the subject please,” Piper said, looking expectantly at Jules.
“Oh, all right, well why are you here, Piper? Did you need something or was it a friendly visit? I’ve got to get back up front to help out, so I can’t stay back here too long,” Jules said, amused by Bobby’s red face.
“Actually, I need some time down in the courthouse archives. An attorney friend of mine needs a hand with some research, and I told him I’d help out. I need you to point me in the right direction.” Piper stood, and was ready to get back on course, the one she had been on before Judge Lions physically knocked her off it.
A page rang out over the old intercom system calling Jules to the front to assist. She rolled her eyes and headed for the door. “I swear they can’t last five minutes without me up there. If you want to hang on for a bit, I can come back and help you out. It’s a little confusing down there. It takes a while to find what you’re looking for unless you’ve already used our system.” The static and cracking of the intercom rang out again, calling for Jules to come to the front.
Bobby, looking for a way to make this situation right, cut in with an offer.“I can give you a hand. I know my way around the system pretty well, and we can probably figure out the rest together until Jules gets a free couple of minutes.” Bobby was still not looking directly at Piper for fear his eyes would be drawn back to her chest out of some uncontrollable magnetic curiosity.
“Great,” Jules called as she headed out of the office. “When I get a few minutes I’ll join you guys.” She walked swiftly toward the front of the building as the intercom rang out a third time.
“Bobby, I know you’re busy. I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to put you out.” Piper was confident that she could have researched the cases she needed with the help of Jules without raising any suspicion, but Bobby was a different story. In the last few weeks that they had spent time together she had found him to be very perceptive. He, in true police officer fashion, asked piercing questions and seemed to retain information exceptionally well.
That troubled Piper. Most people preferred to talk about themselves and rarely remembered details she shared with them about her past. This was helpful as the particulars were all fabricated and, at times, difficult for her to keep straight. It was why, whenever possible, she redirected the conversation away from herself. But this had stopped working with Bobby.
“I know that was kind of awkward, me walking in and seeing you without a shirt, but I don’t want it to make things weird for us. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out over the last few weeks, and I hope this doesn’t mess that up. Before you came along, Jules and I were on a pretty destructive path. You’ve helped offset that dynamic a little, and I don’t want what happened today to wreck things.” Bobby finally found the courage to look back in Piper’s direction as he spoke.
It amazed Piper how much he had changed in the last month compared to the first day she saw him in the diner. It wasn’t limited to the fact that he was much more considerate and soft-spoken than he had been during their first few meetings, but he actually looked different now, too. In the diner he was pale, unshaven, and thin. During the past month he seemed to have gained a much-needed ten pounds, and the color had returned to his cheeks. With his shy smile and his face clean-shaven, Piper found him almost unrecognizable from her first impression.
He was not the same kind of handsome as Michael. He and Michael were polar opposites in many ways. Michael kept his fingernails perfectly groomed and shining, whereas Bobby tended to have painfully short nails often imbedded with grease from the work he had been doing on his truck. Michael had piercing green eyes and Bobby’s were a swirling espresso flecked with gold. Michael was like a performer; he walked with an air of confidence, almost a stage presence. Bobby stood like a soldier, back straight and arms by his side. They were both tall, but Michael had maybe an inch or two over Bobby.
It struck Piper as odd how she could find two men with completely contrasting features and builds both incredibly attractive. And yet she didn’t consider dating either one of them. Any other woman in her place would be pouring her time and energy into gaining the affection of one or the other, or maybe both. The fact that she wasn’t doing this only reminded her of how damaged she truly was.
“I guess you can get me started, but I don’t want to keep you here all afternoon. I know you’ll be having dinner at Betty’s tonight, and you need lots of time to prepare funny digs about Scott to drive Jules crazy,” Piper teased, poking an elbow into Bobby’s ribs as she passed him. She might not be actively pursuing his affection, but it sure was nice to find reasons to touch him every now and then.
“Do you think I do too much of that? Maybe it’s to the point where I need to be supportive of her. She’s married now and I’m her best friend. Best friends don’t act the way I’ve been acting.” A look of worry filled Bobby’s face as he thought about how terrible he had been lately. He gestured down the dark hall where the court records were kept, and she joined him in that direction.
“Jules is lucky to have you as a friend. You love her, and sometimes it’s hard to watch people we love do things that aren’t in their best interest. It’s a lot like how she probably felt when you became a cop. You’re both watching each other make these choices, and then acting like idiots because you’re worried. You had your reasons for becoming a cop, and Jules had her reasons for marrying Scott. But what you need to decide is if you’d both be willing to give up those things to be together.” Every now and again Piper surprised herself with how insightful she could be. Maybe she didn’t know the proper etiquette for everyday social settings, but she understood the idea of love.
They entered the small windowless room that housed the court documents, and Bobby flipped on a switch that brought the humming florescent overhead lights to life.
“I’ve certainly considered it. It’s not li
ke I’m doing a bang-up job at work or anything. What would I really be walking away from? But when I think about what our lives would be like with everything that’s happened I feel we’re better off as friends. I don’t know if I could be with someone who asked me to give up everything I believe in. I don’t think that’s the right foundation for a relationship. All I want is Jules and I to be happy for each other, even if we can’t be happy together. I’m not making any sense,” Bobby stuttered, heading toward the computer and turning it on.
“It makes perfect sense to me. I completely understand why she doesn't want you to be a police officer, but I also understand why you feel like you have to be. It’s amazing how one event can impact people so differently.” Piper and Bobby hadn’t ever talked about Stan’s death, but he assumed Betty had shared it with her. If Piper was coming over for Wednesday dinners that meant Betty trusted her. Bobby was inclined to agree, but was taking a bit longer to form his full opinion.
“That’s exactly it. Stan being murdered made me want to chase down criminals, and it made Jules want to protect everyone she loves and her own heart. When we were younger it didn’t matter as much because doing either of those things was outside our control. Eventually, though, we grew up and had to decide if we were going to stay on our paths or make a new path together. I’m hoping there is some middle ground somewhere. I feel like we’re finally on our way to finding it.” Bobby pulled two chairs up to the computer and sat down. Piper joined him, her leg brushing his thigh as she sat. This man was solid muscle. She let her thoughts move from the melancholy of Bobby’s heartache, to the idea of what he might look like under that uniform, then finally to the anxiety of what she was about to do. She wished now she had been firmer in her objections to his help, but she had to admit being here next to him had its perks, too.
“So,” Bobby continued, “you tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll use this program to drill down to the specific cases. The drill downs are almost endless. Just give me the criteria you need and I’ll enter it. Then it will tell where in these filing cabinets we can find the public information linked to them. Also, by searching here in this field, you can pull up any news stories that may have been printed about it.” Bobby sat with his fingertips over the keyboard waiting for Piper to direct him. She bit her lip and let her mind run through the possible repercussions of over-sharing here. As long as Bobby was under the impression that she was gathering the work for a friend then it seemed fairly safe. She decided that sitting quietly while he waited looked far more suspicious than having him dig up some old files in the name of research.
“I need to find case files from the last eighteen months where the sitting judge was Judge Lions. Then I need only the cases that were found in favor of the defendant. I’d like to drill down into cases that included special judicial rulings like the suppression of evidence for any reason, technicalities resulting in an acquittal, or petitions by either the defense or prosecution that were ruled in favor of the defense.” Piper pulled her notebook onto her lap and waited as Bobby typed the information into the system.
“Okay, that gave us thirty-nine results. Now we just need to write down the reference numbers and then go dig them out.” Bobby called the numbers off to Piper as she jotted them down.
It took them over an hour to gather all thirty-nine case files and, by the end of it, Piper’s arms were tired and her eyes were strained. Every time they crossed paths Piper felt her body tingle and her face become warm.
“Why exactly do you need all this stuff anyway? Are you trying to site precedence in a case or something?” Bobby asked as he handed Piper another stack of documents.
“It’s not for a case per se. It’s more along the lines of a thesis, something for my friend Michael to publish eventually. He’s a lawyer and you know how gigantic their egos are. Well apparently they like having their names in writing too. He’s trying to show how strict adherence to the letter of the law in our society has prevented the spirit of the law from being enforced.” Piper had spent the last twenty minutes getting that story straight in her head.
“I know all about that. Catching a guy with a box of illegal guns and getting your ass kicked means nothing unless you Mirandize him. If that isn’t bullshit I don’t know what is.” Bobby sat down at the computer again and grimaced. “Let’s not get into that though, what other information do you need about these cases?”
“Well I’ll need a list of the defendants and the charges against them.” Piper rolled her chair back over to his side. She quickly realized another absolute difference between Bobby and Michael—the way they smelled. Michael wore expensive cologne that always made Piper imagine him dressed in a sweater vest, holding a polo mallet and posing for a clothing store ad. Bobby, on the other hand, just smelled clean, like soap and maybe some shaving cream.
“Here’s the list, alphabetized.” He scanned it as Piper read over his shoulder. She noticed a trend immediately.
“That’s odd. Of all these cases, fourteen of them have the same last name—Donavan. And here, five of them have the last name Cheval. That doesn’t seem normal, does it?” If Bobby hadn’t been with her, she’d be running those names through every search engine she could find, frantically looking for more information on them.
“It’s not that odd, really. Donavans are a pretty notorious family in this part of the state. It doesn’t surprise me they’ve had a lot of cases. Duke Cheval is a known associate of theirs. There aren’t too many really bad guys in this area luckily, but they are certainly on the short list. I would have expected to see their names on here.” Bobby passed the list over to Piper.
“What makes them so bad?” asked Piper as she rolled her chair over to the piles of folders on the table. She tried to look as though she were only half listening to what Bobby was saying, when in reality she was hanging on every word.
“Christian Donavan, Jr. is said to have followed pretty closely in his father’s footsteps. Christian Sr. was a notorious gambler who ran an enormous bookie business. When things were going his way he was living the high life, but when times got tough he started to invest in some shady deals. He was around in Stan’s heyday. I remember hearing stories of how Christian Sr. was the number one source for illegal guns at the time. The homicide rate had almost doubled in the underprivileged sections of the state where he had been running prostitution rings and gun sales. A lot of people actually looked at him pretty favorably since he had an unwritten code about not selling the guns in Edenville. Who says there’s no honor among thieves?” Bobby rolled his chair over to sit next to Piper, hoping he’d be able to help her sort through the documents in front of her.
“I love the irony in that name. Christian, it’s so fitting. So all these Donavans on here are related to him?” Piper passed the list back to Bobby and continued to pretend to be otherwise occupied.
“It looks like it. Christian, Jr. is the brains of the operation as far as rumor has it. He picked up pretty much where his dad left off. These two cases here are his cousin Tommy’s. I know of his brother, Sean. He has three cases on this list. He’s not so bright. He’s known for being a bigmouth skirt-chaser, and that’s not conducive to a successful life of crime. If I were going to take these guys down, I’d start with him. Not that it matters—I’ll be working traffic for the next ten years.” Bobby took his hands and rubbed at his temples as though the thought of directing traffic gave him an instant headache.
“I’m sure you’ll be back taking down huge crime rings before you know it. One mistake doesn’t ruin your entire career.” She put her hand on his shoulder and was instantly impressed by how muscular it was. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of fat on him anywhere.
“I think I’ll be asking to stay on traffic actually. The mistake I made had nothing to do with forgetting to read the Miranda rights. It was being overconfident enough to think I could manage that type of investigation and take down those guys my rookie year. I was trying to prove something, to Jules or myself or may
be to Stan. I don’t want to be just an average cop, because if I am then I gave up someone I loved in order to do a mediocre job. I guess I was trying to overcome that. Realistically, I had no business getting involved. I could have blown more than an opportunity, I could have gotten myself and Rylie killed. Those two weeks of suspension were some of the darkest of my life.”
Piper’s hand lingered on his shoulder, and he felt it burning through his shirt. He wanted to believe that it was all the time they had been spending together lately that made the thought of her touching him intoxicating, and hoped it wasn’t the fact that all he could picture was that lace bra of hers. He didn’t want to be that kind of guy.
“I wish I had known you then, because I would have told you I was proud of you. It took someone with an enormous amount of courage to do what you did. You should have no regrets. I wouldn’t have let you stay in that dark place for too long.” She saw a look of gratitude fill Bobby’s face as she spoke.
With a swift movement toward her, Bobby leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. It wasn’t a kiss full of passion and hunger. It was a kiss that two old friends might share. To Piper, even though it was brief, it felt powerful.
“I’m sorry,” Bobby whispered. “No one else has said that to me since this whole thing started, and I needed to hear it more than I thought. I didn’t mean to ambush you like that.” For the second time today Bobby couldn’t look at Piper directly.
“That’s all right, I completely understand. It was nothing.” Piper smiled and waved her hands, indicating it was no big deal, though inside, her mind was reeling. She thought the only thing worse than the awkwardness of a kiss would be a lingering silence to follow it, so she kept speaking. “You found a box of guns and three pretty terrible guys and none of it mattered because you didn’t follow every single step in the process. The justice system is completely flawed and set you up to fail. Those guys should be in jail right now, and you should be a hero.”
Chasing Justice Page 7