Compromising Positions

by Beverly Bird

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’m—” Then he smiled, as well, looking almost abashed. “I’m remembering. I was...uh, talking about Tessa, anyway. Did I get my point across?”

  “Yes.” Jesse waited a beat. “Are you asking me my intentions?”

  Gunner let out a breath. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t suppose it would help to point out that Angela is well past the age of consent?”

  “Nope.”

  “Or that this is really none of your damned business?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “Well, then, all I can tell you is that I haven’t yet been able to give it a lot of thought—”

  Gunner’s face hardened. He advanced on him from the window. Jesse thought he was actually going to hit him.

  “Well, you’d better damned well start thinking, because this morning it looked to me like you’d found plenty of time for everything else.”

  “Either mind your own business, John, or let me finish,” Jesse said mildly. But Gunner was heating up again.

  “When I left for Australia, she was dancing with you—and that alone blew my mind! Then I come home and find her standing there sopping wet and you’re half-naked.”

  “I believe I was wearing a robe.”

  Gunner scrubbed a hand over his jaw again. “Showers are wicked places,” he muttered to himself.

  “I haven’t had time to think about where I want this to go or how I’m going to get it there,” Jesse admitted. “There’s been this little matter of Price hanging over our heads. But I’m not treating it casually.”

  “Well, good,” Gunner answered, slightly mollified.

  Then the door swung open and Tessa and Angela came inside. Angela’s cheeks were flushed. No doubt Tessa had told her a little bit, as well—not everything that was going on, but enough to pique her curiosity and raise her hopes. Her eyes were golden today, clear and bright. Her hair was caught back in a thong again, and she wore the short black skirt. The bright yellow blouse caught the golden tones in her eyes, and it shouted at a man to notice. It was silk and clung to her.

  She was incredibly beautiful, yet she had just spent a day doing things he couldn’t even imagine, couldn’t bring himself to do if he tried. Her world was coming apart at the seams with an old nightmare exploding again, and she looked around at them all expectantly, clearly ready to fight back.

  “What?” she demanded. “What did you find out?” Her gaze swung to Jesse. “Do you know?”

  “No. I wouldn’t be so cruel as to keep you guessing.”

  “Okay, okay,” Gunner said. “Everybody sit down.”

  Tessa dropped into the nearest chair. Gunner leaned back against the windowsill, and Angela hovered. Jesse looked at her questioningly. then his heart slammed again.

  Her eyes said that she wanted to come close, maybe to touch him, at least to be near him. They said that she had been thinking of him all day, as well. But there was Gunner, and Tessa, and a lot of problems and unanswered questions, and for a moment she waged a war with herself.

  Jesse held a hand out to her. He thought he heard a soft sound as she breathed. He was eminently aware of his sister and brother-in-law watching them, and he actually wished for a moment that they would take their news about Price and go. Then Angela took a deliberate step toward him and slid a hip onto the edge of his desk beside him. Her back was half-turned to him, and he knew that that, too, was a small measure of trust.

  Jesse put his palm to the place where her spine curved, then a moment later, he tugged impatiently but gently on the back of her blouse. He slid his hand beneath the little gap he created and rested his hand against her skin, out of sight of the others.

  He felt her breath catch, then felt something jerk to attention inside himself. It was good—in fact, he thought, it was pretty damned terrific.

  Tessa cleared her throat and he had to forcibly drag his attention back to her.

  “Ed Thackery recognized Charlie Price the other day in the morgue.”

  There was a stunned silence. “Then why didn’t he say so?” Angela demanded.

  “No one asked him that,” Gunner said pointedly. “And he wants your job. He sure as hell wasn’t going to pipe up and bring a lot of controversial attention to himself. I twisted his arm today. It sort of changed the complexion of things in his mind.”

  Jesse’s face hardened. “So we’ve got Price in the right place at the right time trying to lift a corpse. It’s not enough.”

  Tessa glanced at Angela. “Your night watchman also says Price was masquerading as a cop the night the note was left on Lisette. We talked to him, too.”

  Angela shuddered.

  “Better.” Jesse allowed. “But we need something more definitive than that to pin him to Lisette’s murder.”

  “I haven’t found that yet,” Gunner answered. “But how about another rape? That ought to at least keep him out of the election.”

  Angela’s heart stalled. She could almost feel her blood drain to her toes. Jesse’s touch became firmer as though to give comfort. But no one, none of them, could possibly understand.

  “Oh, God,” she breathed. “He did it again? To someone else? How do you know?”

  Gunner’s expression softened considerably. “Angie, I’ve always told you that he wasn’t going to stop. Not given that he got away with it the first time.”

  “How did you find out about her?” Jesse snapped.

  “I pulled open files from the rape and sexual assault unit. And I found one that sort of fits. At least, there are a lot of similarities. The problem is that we can’t locate the victim. Either she’s left the city, or she’s changed her address, or is making herself scarce. I haven’t had a chance to dig deep enough yet to be sure which way it is.”

  Tessa tugged the file out of her briefcase and slid it onto Jesse’s desk. “The woman met her rapist at a bar in city center repeatedly over a three-week period,” she began, taking over. “She said she thought it was all harmless flirting. This guy bought her drinks and paid her compliments, but she swears she didn’t want anything more than that.”

  “That happens all over the city all the time,” Jesse argued.

  Tessa held up a hand. “One afternoon, this guy came directly to her house. She had never told him where she lived, or her last name, and she says it would have taken a good bit of determined effort for him to find out. But she opened the door, and there he was, uninvited and without warning.”

  Angela made a strangled sound.

  Jesse could feel her start to tremble under his touch. He stroked his fingers down her spine, trying to calm her, but he knew he couldn’t. No one could. His stomach was beginning to feel sour again.

  Tessa flashed an apologetic look at her. “I’m sorry to bring this all up again, but his method almost exactly matched your old complaint. We pulled that, too, just to be sure.”

  “No weapon?” Angela whispered.

  “No. Just physical force and battery. He restrained her by tying her with her own clothing. And the woman’s description of her assailant fits our Charlie to a T.”

  Jesse clenched his jaw and something red touched his vision.

  Tessa cleared her throat. “He beat her up, and some of the things he said to her, some of the phrases and words she claims he used, were exactly what you said Charlie said to you during your own attack.”

  Angela was fairly vibrating under his touch now. Jesse stood abruptly and wrapped his arms around her from behind, as much for his own comfort as for hers.

  Gunner picked up the tale. “She called the cops and filed a complaint as soon as he left. She was all fired up. But less than three weeks later, she tried to withdraw it.”

  “Yes,” Tessa agreed quietly. “There’s more. She said she couldn’t go through with it because the guy would kill her if she did. He kept turning up in her home, even in the lavatory at her office, warning her to shut up, and she told RSA that she was going to do just that. She sa
id she was scared.”

  Angela stiffened beneath his arms.

  “Except you can’t really back off from charges of rape,” Tessa continued. “Like any violent crime, it’s something the state is compelled to at least investigate. Rape is a crime against the people, and she had been visibly harmed. She had bruises, abrasions, so it wasn’t as if she could say she’d made it up. It was too late for that. All she could do was back off.”

  “So the RSA unit went on with the investigation,” Jesse guessed.

  “Sort of,” Tessa returned. “What could they do? The woman swore the act was consensual, and she was uncooperative through every other interview. So the case has just been sitting open on the books.”

  “He got to her,” Angela breathed.

  “Yeah,” Gunner agreed. “And now she’s gone.”

  “So she doesn’t do us any good,” Jesse said angrily. “Then what’s the point?”

  “We need her to come forward,” Tessa said. “Wherever she is. We need to reach out to her.”

  There was something about her tone that Jesse didn’t like.

  “What I’m thinking is this,” Gunner proposed. “Who knows what Charlie has been up to in the years between what he did to Angela and what he did to this woman? Maybe he kept his nose clean. Or maybe he mastered the art of coercing his victims into silence. I’ve got to think it was the latter. I mean, rape isn’t about sex. It’s about power. And no way is this guy going to get a taste of it, then say, ‘Oooh, I was bad, better knock it off now.’ It would have been too heady for him. He would have to have kept going back for more. Carefully. Covering his tracks and bullying the women to keep their mouths shut. Anyway, if I’m right, then there are still more women out there who’ve fallen victim to this predator.”

  Angela felt her heart sink. She understood what he was saying. “I need to talk now,” she whispered. “I need to go public. Again. If I do, maybe this other woman, maybe more than one woman, will be encouraged to come forward, as well.”

  “And press charges,” Gunner added. “With a sympathetic, successful and respected D.A. who will then go for Price’s throat. I grant you that it won’t tie him to Lisette’s murder, but it’ll get him the hell out of the D.A. race, and then Homicide can go after him full throttle without tiptoeing around your campaign.” He glared at Jesse.

  Angela felt Jesse’s arms tighten almost spasmodically around her. “No,” he said hoarsely.

  “Speaking as a Hadley for a moment,” Tessa said quietly, “it will garner you the female vote for certain.”

  “This isn’t about politics,” he grated. “This guy killed Lisette Chauncy in order to set this all up.”

  “But why Lisette?” Tessa asked, still troubled by that, glancing at Gunner. “It’s what just won’t click for me. Why poor Lisette? Price had to know that no one would readily believe Jesse was involved with her.”

  “Let’s just say that that model he was seeing ought to be damned glad she and Jesse broke up,” Gunner answered.

  “Lisette was simply available,” Tessa realized slowly. “She was there.”

  “And she was easy,” Gunner stated rigidly. “Think about it. She would have opened her door to Price, would have let him into her bedroom with no fuss. She was desperate for attention.”

  “I want him,” Angela said suddenly, fervently, her voice trembling. “I want to see him stopped. I want to fight back. I want to destroy him and have some closure here.”

  “You’re not—” Jesse began.

  “I’ve been waiting fifteen years for something like this!” she argued, her voice stronger.

  “Has anybody ever told you that revenge is a dish best served cold?” he snapped.

  “It’s cold,” she answered. “So’s Lisette.” She jerked away, wheeling around to face him. “Don’t you see?” she cried. “He’s challenged me! He thought he could do it to me all over again! The...the fear. And the powerlessness. But I’m not powerless anymore! If I call a press conference, I call his bluff! What’s he going to do?”

  “Kill you.” Jesse’s voice was strangled. He couldn’t get past that.

  “Why? What purpose would it serve then?” she demanded.

  “You said he was crazy! Does he need a purpose? Okay, let’s find one for him. How about he just gets ticked off and he wants revenge?”

  The truth of that finally struck her into miserable silence.

  “We’ll cover her,” Gunner said. “We’ll put the whole damned police department on her until this is over. Hell, she’s Code One.”

  “I want to do it.” Angela was trembling. Hard. If she could only find the courage to do this, it would really, finally, be over. And then, maybe then, she would have something to give to another man.

  What Jesse saw in her face in that moment brought Gunner’s earlier words to mind. She gives you something so...so profound, so special, it changes your life. He felt humbled, small. And terrified.

  “No,” he countered, shaking his head. “It’s not necessary. We’ll work around what happened to you. We’ll work around this. You don’t have to do it.”

  “He’s already dragged you into this, Jesse,” she whispered. “He’s been after me—I’m his worst threat—but he’s dragged your name down into the mire with mine.”

  “Because he’s got to run against me!” He was shouting without realizing it. “It’s not your fault!”

  “I want to do this,” she repeated stubbornly.

  “Not for me. Not because of me! Damn it, no!”

  “For me, then. For both of us.”

  He didn’t mean to, but he caught her shoulders and shook her anyway. “Listen to me. If what...if the way you’re looking at me right now is true, then don’t do this. I can’t live with it, Angela. It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull who’s already incensed to begin with.”

  Her eyes widened. Her breath caught. It was as much of a promise as he had ever given her. She touched a hand to his cheek. “Then I’ll be careful.”

  Gunner cleared his throat. Angela turned around again. She found his eyes fast on Jesse.

  “I know you can’t believe that I’m any more wild about sending her into this than you are,” Gunner began.

  “You’re willing to serve her up like some kind of sacrificial lamb!” Jesse shouted.

  “It’s a damned press conference! It’s not a sting operation, for God’s sake! We’ll have cops all over the place, and we’ll keep a team on her afterward.”

  “He’ll come apart! He shot Lisette!”

  “We’d be on our guard, expecting it,” Gunner argued.

  “No,” Jesse replied with deadly calm.

  “It’s no one’s choice but mine.”

  They all turned to Angela. Tessa reached out and clasped her hand. Angela looked straight at Gunner and Jesse.

  “What you two big, protective guys are missing here,” she protested, “is that in the beginning, Charlie did this to me. I’m the one with the score to settle. I can fight back with or without your approval. I know he’ll panic, and yes, he might even do something drastic. So I think it would be much better if I had the police department and the D.A.’s office behind me.”

  “I don’t like it,” Jesse reaffirmed obstinately, angrily. “I’d rather kill him with my bare hands and spend the rest of my life in prison.”

  A single tear spilled over. Angela swiped at it. In that moment, she finally believed that, too.

  But there was no way she was going to let him.

  Chapter 19

  Angela took a cab and returned to the hotel alone with the issue unsettled between them. She thought of brass rings, of reaching for a dream, of trying to have it all. She thought of being happy, just...happy, all the way through.

  It made her ache in a strange new way, because she had never dared to dream of it before.

  Tessa and John had gone home. They hadn’t said so, but it was obvious that they felt the rest was up to her. And they were right, she realized, kicking of
f her shoes and pouring herself some brandy. Jesse’s approval—or lack of it—shouldn’t matter. But it did, and she nearly groaned aloud.

  She paused with her glass halfway to her lips. Melanie was watching her closely.

  “Why do I feel like there’s a whole lot more going on here than I know about?” the detective wondered.

  Angela surprised herself with a tired half smile. “Because there is.” Oh, so much more. Personal fears. Professional horrors.

  “What can I do?” Melanie asked.

  Angela was overwhelmed all over again by how many times people had said that to her in the past weeks. Now it was time for her to do something.

  The other woman sighed when she didn’t answer. “Guacamole?”

  Angela grimaced. “My stomach’s a knot. Go ahead, though, if you like. I’m going to drink this and take a shower.”

  No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she felt memories flash through her of everything that had happened in there this morning. She flushed with the sudden heat of them.

  She turned her attention doggedly to the television, pacing, sipping. There was no mention of her name on the news. It worried her that another day had gone by, and Charlie hadn’t done anything else. She wondered if he knew where she was after all and refused to fall into their trap.

  This time she did groan aloud. She finished her brandy and went into the bathroom. A shower didn’t help. It didn’t revive her and it didn’t calm her. She touched her fingertips to the tiles, almost as though she expected to still find them warm and pulsing with the memories that lingered.

  She had taken a cab from Jesse’s office to the hotel. He hadn’t mentioned that he would stop by tonight. He was upset.

  She needed him.

  She stood under the spray and hugged herself. “Please,” she whispered aloud. “Please let me end this. Please let me be whole.”

  “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

  She gasped. For a moment, she looked around wildly, half-expecting to find him in the shower with her. Then she wrenched at the curtain.

  Jesse was standing in the bathroom doorway, almost lazily, one shoulder braced against the frame. His arms were crossed over his chest, but there was a palpable tension about him. His eyes weren’t on her face.