Before Natasha could try to interrogate him about what other information there could be, he cut her off. “I have to go catch up with Mark and Ronnie. Goodbye, Natasha!”
Natasha laughed, saluted him, and sauntered out of the building.
Watching her go, Ben noticed her high-fiving Cheyenne and Erica on her way out.
When Ben entered the detectives’ office he walked straight over to Veronica. “Thank you so much for dropping me in it back there. Yes, I returned the favor. No, I’m not gonna warn you how much you’re gonna have to explain.” Then he returned the wink that she gave him earlier and moved over to his desk.
He never got a chance to sit down because Mark walked into the room with news for Ben and Veronica. “Sorry to interrupt, but Blake wants to see you guys.”
The pair exchanged a glance and shuffled over to Blake’s office. Before they made it all the way to the door Veronica muttered, “There’s no way he knows something’s up.”
Ben inched up closer behind her and whispered in her ear, “That’s right...because nothing’s up...right?” His hand grazed from the small of her back across her side as he stepped past her to open the door.
Veronica fought to keep the blush off her face as she stepped into Blake’s office.
Ben fought a similar battle to keep the smirk off his face as he entered the room after her.
◆◆◆
For the second day in a row Blake paused for a moment before he spoke. Thanks to his glass walls, Blake was able to see their entire interaction as Ben and Veronica approached his office. If he ever had any doubts that something was going on with them, he no longer did. It took him a moment to stop himself from making a comment about it. They needed a little more time left to their own devices before anyone caused too much of a fuss. He did wish that he could get involved in the bet the most of his officers had started.
Once Ben and Veronica were both sitting in front of him, Blake started talking. “I had an idea last night that I would like you two to follow up on. Before you get all offended again Ben, I was not trying to do your job for you. I just had an idea. I know you guys had a bit of a rough day yesterday, and I can’t follow up on this myself, so I was hoping you would. I’m sure you would have covered this angle eventually anyways. All I’m saying is, hear me out and if you don’t come up with anything else today, look into it.”
Ben was in a great mood so he found it amusing that Blake was trying so hard not to insult him. “Boss, before you say anything else, I should probably apologise for yesterday. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. You know me, my temper gets the better of me sometimes.”
Blake was glad that he could get on with things. “It’s good to see you’ve finally admitted it. Anyways, I was thinking about the period where our guy went dormant. The question I’m asking is; why he went dormant for so long? The way he’s behaving now shows that he is obviously still angry, so why did he stop communicating for such a long time? We know that it doesn’t have anything to do with anything new that Veronica did, so what changed?”
Veronica looked down sheepishly. “That might not be entirely true, sir.” Veronica would not look Blake in the eye as she continued. “Well, you see, you can probably tell I finished the physical therapy for my leg a while ago. I was using the excuse of getting back in shape and getting my head on straight before I took the steps to start working here again. Well...the truth is...I didn’t think I was ever gonna come back. That’s why I started working at the museum during my leave of absence. I know I hadn’t told you anything, and I’m sorry. Ben was the only person who knew I wasn’t planning to come back, and I know he didn’t tell anyone. So, the killer probably knew that I was running out of time on my leave of absence. This might be his sick way of welcoming me back.”
Normally, he would have been frustrated with her for keeping things from him, but they did not have time for lectures at the moment. “Okay...we can talk about that later. But I don’t think that will turn up much in the investigation. Anyone who was watching you as closely as this guy appears to have been, would have known you had not contacted us about coming back. I still think your best bet is to look into why he left you alone for so long after promising revenge.”
Neither Ben nor Veronica was sure how they would be able to check that information, but they were willing to play off their boss’ hunch.
If Veronica was being honest, she would have had to admit that she was not sure anything they checked would be useful. With so many people watching her and her apartment 24/7 they were bound to catch him next time he decided to taunt her. She would never tell Blake or Ben, or anyone else for that matter, but she was using herself as bait.
They would get angry and throw her in a safe house for the rest of the investigation, but she was perfectly fine with the situation. She was willing to do anything that had to be done to get this guy. If that meant that she had to continue dangling herself in front of him, and deal with bodyguards all the time, she could do that. She was also willing to chase what she thought would be a dead end line of investigation until he slipped up and gave them another clue to look into.
Blake mistook Ben and Veronica’s silence upon hearing his idea for shame at not thinking it up themselves. “I know. It’s shocking that I came up with this all by myself, right? Like I said, I’m sure you guys would have looked into it on your own eventually.”
Veronica’s lips tightened into a thin line in an attempt to avoid laughing. Laughing at one’s superior is a bad idea. Ben saw her struggling and thanked Blake so that they could get out of the room.
◆◆◆
Ben and Veronica practically sprinted to the detective's office and collapsed into each other as the door closed. Their laughter filled the room and they were both grateful that there was no one else there. Once they had recovered from the laughing fit, they straightened up and looked around.
Ben became distracted by all of the faces turned in the direction of the office. “Right now I’m wishing we didn’t have glass walls for all of our offices. There is no such thing as privacy in this building.”
The mischievous smile that he loved so much flashed across her face. “Oh, there are plenty of places to find privacy in this building...Nick and I found all of them.”
Although it was an offhand comment, Ben was blown away by it. This was the first time that Veronica had talked about Nick without an ounce of sadness on her face since he died. He thought back to the kiss they shared the night before and could not help but wonder where some of the private places were. Someday he might ask her, but for now he would keep those thoughts to himself. He could not wait to kiss her again, but he knew that she needed time to digest what happened last night. If he pushed her now she would clam up and then he would never have a chance. Ben was a bit shocked as these thoughts flew across his mind. In the past three days Veronica had gone from being his best friend to being a woman that he had to try not to touch.
“Okay, before we draw anymore attention to ourselves, we should get working.”
Veronica sat down in the chair that she had moved to Ben’s desk yesterday. “Fine, but you do know that if this idea pans out you and I will never hear the end of it.”
Ben smiled, “Nah, it’s good for Sarge to use his skills sometimes. He only took the promotion because he needed the money, otherwise he’d still be a detective. He loved it, but when his daughter got sick he needed to bring in more cash. He does this with a lot of cases. He’ll call the lead detective in, give them a few suggestions. They’re always good...usually lead to something. I’m not sure what happened with this one. Maybe he was desperate to give us something to do. I don’t know about you, but I was running out of ideas.”
The talk of Blake’s daughter sobered Veronica up quickly. “How is Sarah doing? Did the chemo work?”
A genuine smile graced Ben’s features as he answered her. “She’s doing well. She went into remission a few months ago. Blake and his wife threw this big party for her. Half
the precinct showed up. It was good to see her smiling again. She’s so young to have gone through all of that.”
Hearing that Sarah Blake was doing better made her happy. Sarah had always been a sweet girl and when she was diagnosed with lung cancer it had broken her heart. She knew she should have kept in touch after Nick died, but she did not do a lot of things that she should have done after Nick died. “That’s great! Maybe someday soon I can go see her.”
The smile continued to shine on Ben’s face, “I think Sarah would love that.”
Once they had both managed to focus their minds on work again they started brainstorming reasons why a psychotic, obsessed killer would put his criminal life on pause for so long only to pick it up right where he left off.
They cleared the timeline of victim’s lives off of their board and started writing up any idea that came to mind. It all started out serious. The first few items on the board included “moving to a new city/state/country,” “recovering from an illness,” and “changing his M.O. and staying active.” As the list became longer the suggestions became sillier. At one point, Veronica was spinning in her chair and periodically stopping to point at the board and yelling out suggestions. The end of the list included such things as “recovering from a sex change operation,” “hiding from a vigilante,” and “abduction by aliens.” Once they hit “abduction by aliens,” Ben knew that it was time for a break so they decided to meet up with Ryan and Cheyenne at Uncle Sam’s for lunch.
◆◆◆
When they all got there, Cheyenne and Ryan sat on one side of the booth while Ben and Veronica sat together on the other. All of them were still feeling a bit awkward about the conversation they had two nights before so they avoided the topic as they ate. Instead they chose to reminisce on old times. They spent an hour swapping stories and making fun of each other. Laughter filled the room as they all let themselves get lost in each other’s company.
Neither Ryan nor Cheyenne had realized how wrong it had felt to have Veronica be gone until they were sitting at a table with her in uniform again. Neither one of them had seen much of her in the past year, but they were both on the scene when she found the new card on her windshield. They could see the dramatic difference in her countenance between then and now. She had so much more color, only a few days later. Her eyes were starting to sparkle again and they loved seeing her smile and laugh.
While Ryan and Cheyenne were watching Veronica and admiring how well she was doing under the circumstances, Ben and Veronica were having fun trying to get the other to blush. When they first sat down they made a point of making sure that their legs were not touching. As the meal progressed, they slowly relaxed more and more until the full length of their legs were resting against one another.
Veronica felt like her whole body ignited when his knee brushed against hers. At first she had a difficult time concentrating on all the stories that were being told, but by the time their legs were fully touching she had managed to regain her poker face. This was totally blown to pieces when Ben dropped his arm under the table and placed his hand well above her knee. She squirmed in place and did her best not to blush or lose track of the conversation. She knew that she needed to turn the tables on him or she was never going to hear the end of it. To do this she discreetly crossed her legs under the table effectively trapping his hand on her thigh. The subtle flinch that followed made her smile wider. It appeared that she had called his bluff and won. That is, until he shifted his hand higher up her leg. She glanced over at him and noticed that he had slightly lifted one eyebrow. Veronica was determined not to let him win so she slowly shifted her foot over to made contact with his leg and then she started rubbing her foot up and down it. She was sure that this tactic would have been more effective had she not been wearing her bulky uniform boots, but this would do for now.
For the first time in years, Veronica was actively trying to keep all thought of Nick out of her mind. Flirting with Ben, kissing Ben would be too strange if she thought about how he was her dead fiance’s best friend. The morning after Ben told her that he wouldn’t be coming back to the cemetery, Veronica told herself that she was going to start doing the things that make her happy again. She knew that it was not healthy to be living the half life that she had ever since she woke up in the hospital. In all honesty, she probably would have found herself back at the station eventually. However, what she never expected was how good it would feel to get this close to another person again, especially seeing as that person was Ben. After Ben kissed her last night, she had been going over everything in her mind. It was fun, having someone to do all these things with again. No matter how strange it felt, she wanted to see where this would go.
When they finished their burgers, everyone got their things together and started heading back out to their cars.
As they were approaching the door, Cheyenne tugged on Veronica’s arm and hissed in her ear. “By the way...I totally saw that. There is something going on between you two and I. Want. Details.” Cheyenne smiled knowingly at her as she passed.
This is gonna be interesting.
Veronica followed Cheyenne out to the lot and climbed into Ben’s truck.
He was already inside and waiting for her. “That was so mean.”
Veronica smirked at him, “A lady never starts a fight, but she can finish them.”
This earned a deep-belly laugh from Ben, “Did you seriously quote ‘The Aristocats’?”
Veronica laughed in turn, “Did you seriously admit to knowing that movie well enough recognize the quote?”
Ben pushed her into the door of the truck, “Hey! I have a little sister. That was one of her favorite movies growing up. She must have made me sit through it a thousand times when we were kids.”
Veronica shoved him back, “Yeah, and I’ll bet that you made Megan watch The Sandlot at least twice that many times.”
Ben nodded his head and started the car. When they got to the station, their antics continued as they crossed to the detective’s office. They were so distracted that they did not notice two people were already there. When they opened the door they both stopped in their tracks and became silent.
Blake and Mark were standing in front of their board reading it.
Blake turned around and they looked down guiltily. “Abduction by aliens...interesting.” He lifted an eyebrow and left the room.
Mark had been able to hold in the laughter while Blake was there, but now that he had gone there was no reason to. Mark doubled over and almost hit the floor he was laughing so hard. “Sex change operation! I forgot how ridiculous you two could be! Although, it probably would have been better if you had erased the stupid ones before you left the building.” Mark picked up an eraser and started removing all of the suggestions at the bottom of the list. “Don’t worry, if anything, seeing you two goof around makes him worry about you less. I did notice that you were missing something from this board. Have you considered the possibility that this guy went to jail. If he was put away for something minor and got out, it would explain why he dropped off the face of the earth for so long.”
Veronica was skeptical, “Would someone that careful get caught for something minor enough to only get him a year?”
Ben understood why she was unconvinced, but he knew that they had to look into everything. It did not matter if they doubted the theory or not. “It’s worth looking into. We’ll definitely add it to the list. Thanks, Mark.”
They spent the next few hours working on the first theory on their list. This was long and frustrating because they were relying mostly on the goodwill of realty companies and apartment managers. There was no way for them to track who had entered the city recently so they had to come up with some creative methods.
A judge would never give them warrants for the information they needed without more evidence, so they had to try to talk people into giving it to them voluntarily. They called all of the major realtors in the city and begged them to provide access to their client lists. The pl
an was for them to run the records of any names they got to see if any had lived in the city a year ago. They would take all of those people and check to see if any matched the sketchy physical description they possessed.
The problem was the realty companies; they were under no obligation to provide any information to the police. In fact, many of them made it their policy not to give out any information on their clients. With every person they spoke to they had to explain who they were going after and what that person had done. A few were moved enough to agree and give them their client lists. Even though most companies refused to cooperate with them, they still got enough names to keep them busy for the rest of the day. When it was time for them to leave they had the names of about fifteen men who had recently moved back to the city after spending a year away. They were planning on giving those names to the police psychologist the next day so that she could check whether or not the men fit the psychological profile.
Before they left Ben and Veronica stopped by Blake’s office to update him on their progress for the day. He listened to them describe what they had done and what they had come up with, and then he gave them his suggestions. “You aren’t going to get anywhere with the other realty companies. They knew the story and they didn’t care enough to give you the information, and we would need a whole Hell of a lot more than a theory if we want to get any kind of warrant. I suggest that you move on to another theory while you wait for the shrink to get back to you on the names you already got. If you keep turning over stones then eventually we’ll find the hole that this man lives in.”
Blake watched Ben and Veronica as they left the building. It was obvious how close the two of them had become over the last few days. All anyone had to do was watch them walking together to see it. They moved as a unit; their steps were in sync with each other. When they came across an obstacle they would move closer together and squeeze past it rather than separating and going to either side of it. Sometimes, when they were close enough, their arms would brush one another’s as they moved and if you watched carefully, you could see that their hands would momentarily hesitate before they separated. The most amusing thing was that they thought they were hiding it so well. Blake couldn’t help but wonder what it was about the men of this precinct that Veronica found so appealing.
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