by Cass Sellars
Syd watched Darcy, dressed in white linen pants and a black A-line blouse, glide next to Taylor who draped an easy arm around her waist, never breaking the stride of her conversation.
Jenny swiped a glass of champagne from a passing tray as she confided, “I pumped enough for a week just so I could be a grown-up tonight.”
“Cheers then. I love you guys so much.” Parker kissed Jenny’s cheek and reached for Sydney’s hand.
A few moments before the end of the cocktail hour, Darcy dragged Taylor over to the foursome. She wore considerably fewer earrings now, having adopted a slightly more traditional persona for her corporate role. Parker offered Taylor a congratulatory hug. “Wow, what a year for you, huh?”
“Certainly not what I expected.” The tall blonde caught Darcy in a kiss. “The best part is standing here.”
“You already have my undying love, Tay. You don’t have to butter me up anymore.” Darcy joked, but her smile was electric as she looked at Taylor.
“I’m just ensuring that no one sweeps you away from me.” Taylor gripped Darcy’s waist firmly.
“Looks like you might have met your match, Darc. Don’t blow it,” Sydney mused.
Guests settled into folding chairs facing the makeshift stage while Mason Bailey introduced the executive staff. The last name was the most recent addition of the new CSO. Dawn Turner spoke eloquently about overcoming challenges and embracing obstacles. She pointed to the board’s faith in her to set up best practices and introduced Taylor as her partner in the endeavor.
The speeches were long over and the revelers were thinning by 10:30. Parker enlisted Jenny to make the final pit stop to the facilities while Sydney and Mack were introduced to Provost’s replacement.
Parker was impressed by the gleaming finishes in the ladies room. Onyx vessel sinks perched on quartz counters and brushed nickel faucets hung from invisible pipes in the walls.
“Maybe they could sell off some of this stuff and make up for Bryce’s thievery,” Jenny whispered to Parker.
“It’s definitely a thought, but I think his boat and mortgage-free mansion should do nicely for starters. Allen would love it in here.” She snapped a few shots with her phone and sent them off to her favorite architect.
Parker swept the lipstick wand across her mouth and thanked Jenny for relocating an errant strand of hair before they headed back. Jenny was admiring the giant canvases in the adjacent hall and wandered down a path leading away from the lobby. Parker followed, appreciating the works of modern art which rose over yards of rich cherry wainscoting.
Parker paid no attention to where exactly they were strolling until they found themselves in a quiet hall lined by ten-foot wooden doors. Jenny motioned for Parker to join her at the end of the long hall as she disappeared around the last corner.
Parker heard Jenny gasp and she watched a hand slip roughly around Jenny’s neck. She was flattened against a grimy man in a stained white shirt. Parker could smell sweat and alcohol. She could see the small round hole that indicated the muzzle of a gun was now pointed at her.
“Well, if it isn’t the dyke of the Silver Lake Ball. Where’s your bodyguard now?” Bryce Downing looked pale and unkempt as he jerked Jenny against him more tightly and glared at Parker.
“What do you want, Bryce?” Parker attempted to keep her voice calm as she walked with her hand out toward Jenny. The adrenaline careened through her body as she fought to focus on the disheveled man.
“Well, first of all, I want the money you all stole from me, you bitch. Well, the money your dyke friends stole from me.” He spat the words at Parker who fought the fear she felt watching Jenny struggle to breathe. Jenny was using her fingers to attempting to create a barrier between her neck and the man’s ratcheting arm.
“The company just took back what they owned, Bryce. We don’t have any of your money. This wasn’t a good plan.” Parker grasped at a logical attempt to snap Bryce Downing out of the madness he wore on his shiny, bloated face. It was a far cry from the well-groomed schmuck he presented at the ball.
“This wasn’t even my plan. I guess I just got lucky.” He laughed as he vented about the injustice he had suffered. “Do you understand how long I worked for what I had? Do you understand that taking that from me was wrong?” He barely refrained from shouting as he jerked Jenny roughly, inadvertently allowing her to collapse against the carpet. He saw his insurance policy crumple into a heap and snatched a handful of Parker’s long hair in his fist. Parker angled toward him and clamped her hands over his wrist attempting to lessen the painful tension on her scalp. She fought a wave of fear and refused to let it cloud her ability to defend herself.
“Bryce, please. Just tell me what you want, something I can actually help you get. You’re going to get caught in here. Someone will eventually come this way.” Parker swept her gaze around the corridor, assessing the possibility of escape. She forced away the same panic she recognized from the last time she stood this close to Bryce.
“No way out for you, you snotty bitch. I know every entry and exit in this whole building. They didn’t see me come in and they won’t see me leave.” His bravado looked more like madness and he kicked a boot into Jenny’s side causing her to cry out. “Get up,” he growled cruelly at Jenny who managed to stand, holding her side. Jenny reached for Parker’s hand.
“What, you sleeping with her, too?” Parker felt his spit reach her ear and she tried not to react.
“Walk that way. Make a sound and I’ll shoot you both, understand?” He shoved them into a door marked IT—Authorized Access Only. He pushed them between two upright racks and turned to check that the door was secure. Parker shifted Jenny behind her just as Sydney had done during her confrontation with Bryce.
Jenny took a ragged breath and tilted her forehead into Parker’s shoulder. Bryce paced the small area lit only by a single fluorescent emergency fixture at the corner of the room. He sweated profusely despite the constant blast of cold air being pumped through the vents. He skimmed his fingers along the bottom of a large server unit and smiled, coming away with a thick envelope. Parker could see stacks of cash as he brushed his fingers over the paper. She scanned the room listening for anyone who might be searching for them.
Bryce paced and dragged a forearm across his sweaty brow, seemingly deep in thought. He folded the large envelope and tucked it into his waistband under his shirt. Jenny raised a hand, guiding Parker to lean against one of the racks. Parker noticed as Jen begin to disconnect the cables plugged into the switches near her hip. Parker chanced a glance behind her and realized what her crafty friend was doing. There was no slack in the cables so they weren’t obvious as they dangled among the multitude of the other blue wires.
Slowly she shifted Parker to the other rack, intently watching the gun-wielding fugitive who seemed consumed with wearing a path over the industrial carpet squares instead of monitoring his unintended captives.
* * *
Sydney glanced toward the distant hallway and then back to Mack and gestured. They met in the center of the room. Mack looked tense, a fact that made a normally overprotective Sydney feel more justified in the vibrations that gripped her gut.
“Have they been gone a long time or is it just me?” Mack asked Syd who was clenching and unclenching her fists at her sides.
“Twenty-three minutes, but I’m not counting.” Syd glanced toward the hall as Mack stepped to scan over the room. Mack led their quiet walk down the hall, flexing her right hand, still in a soft cast as a precaution. Syd walked quickly behind her, waiting outside the restroom door while Mack searched inside.
“Not in there. Where would they go? We’re being nuts, right?”
Mack peered down one end of the hall as Syd scanned the other.
“Probably,” Syd responded automatically. She watched the alarm panel blink a gold light. She knew the flashing LED indicated a communications failure. Sydney idly thought that the new CSO had her work cut out for her.
Mack pushed ope
n several large doors along the hall, finding only dark cavernous rooms, empty but for the abandoned furniture waiting for Monday morning occupants. Sydney kept a solid pace on the other side until they met again at the end of the hall. Two card readers flashed yellow outside doors, one marked with the CEO’s nameplate and the other on the telephone room just past it. Syd grabbed Mack’s arm and pointed at the indicator.
She whispered in Mack’s ear, “That’s Bailey’s office. Somehow I think those should be working, don’t you? I recognize the model, and this company designs all their systems to be fail-open which means the whole building could be unsecured right now.”
Mack nodded and slid her fingers over the gun at her right hip. When a faint alarm tone found Sydney, she reached under her jacket and behind her back, folding her hand over the butt of the small Sig she dropped against her right thigh.
The women crept down the hall skimming shoulders against the canvases hung along the executive wing. A lever handle angled down as light shifted from the IT room. Mack pushed Sydney into a small alcove holding a janitor’s room and a water fountain. She jerked her head toward the door as they watched Bryce Downing force Jenny and Parker toward the exit door at the opposite end of the long hall.
Mack caught her partner’s eye as she jerked out first. Sydney followed in a quiet run. They had no plan beyond separating Parker and Jenny from the fugitive. The carpet muffled their approach until they were just feet behind Bryce. He wheeled around to see Mack and barely registered the intruder before feeling Mack’s elbow drive into his stomach. As he involuntarily bent to catch his breath, Syd twisted the gun from his hand and drove the butt of the weapon into his neck, collapsing him to the floor. Bryce, who still held Parker’s arm, forced her into the wall with his folding body.
Mack held Bryce to the carpet and allowed Sydney to once again peel his hand from Parker’s skin.
“You all right?” Syd asked them both on an anxious breath feeling the heat rise up her spine when she replayed the last few seconds.
Jenny nodded and looked at Mack, her fear visibly transforming into anger. “He came to get a big packet of money from that room. It’s in his pants.” She snarled at the prone man still groaning from his injury.
Mack jerked him on to his back, kneeling hard on his upper arm, while Syd extracted the envelope. “Well, I guess you couldn’t leave town without the rest of your money, huh?”
He spat at Mack before he was shoved roughly back toward the floor. He could see only Sydney’s face as she jerked his other arm painfully behind his back. She waited for Mack to muscle his wrists into cuffs.
“You’re just pissed I wrecked your precious little car, bitch.” He couldn’t stem the flow of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth as he was pressed into the rough carpet.
Mack laughed as she knelt heavily against his neck while dialing 911. “Actually, I think it was the time you hit on her girlfriend. She hates that.”
Syd pointed the gun she had no intention of firing and pushed it hard against Bryce’s nose, driving him even more roughly into the floor. “You know, Mack, I do hate that. Okay if I put a hole in his head?” Sydney’s words were joking but her voice was toxic with the fear and the fury and the chaos the greedy murderer had brought into the lives of so many people she cared about.
“Fine by me,” Mack answered happily, “but I thought he might enjoy all his senses while he’s making new friends in the pen.”
“Good point”—she spoke in a low snarl as her lips stopped just shy of his ear—“you try to fuck with what’s mine again, Downing, I won’t feel nearly as charitable. And Mack might forget her manners if you ever touch her wife again.”
Syd slid her gun home under her jacket and, using her shirt tail, unloaded what she knew was the weapon that had killed Sandy Curran. Mack took the clip and free round, shoving them into her pocket. She then took the gun from Syd who held it by the trigger guard.
“It’s a Glock 20, Syd.” Syd nodded as Mack jerked Bryce up by his cuffs, awkwardly forcing his arms up and farther behind his back. They began pushing him toward the lobby.
“You’re some kind of idiot coming back here, Downing. And even bringing the gun and admitting you caused our little accident—I guess an ego that big will trip you up every time.”
Mack looked over at her wife. Jenny’s fingers slid around her elbow. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Better,” she sighed, still caressing her side.
* * *
Bryce was suddenly mute as he looked down the hall and into the lobby. A semi-circle of remaining guests and CTI employees had formed as three SLPD cars stopped on the apron outside the front doors, unaware that their most famous ex-employee was being led through the crowd from the back. Dawn Turner walked quickly toward them, eyeing the man she knew only from the news.
She acted as crowd control, moving people gently aside as the now swearing, sweating murderer was led to the waiting officers. Darcy followed Taylor as she broke through the crowd to stand near her boss. Syd squeezed Taylor on the arm as they walked past, reassuring her that they were all fine. She’d helped push Bryce Downing through the front doors of CTI for the last time.
* * *
Officer Perry switched out the cuffs Downing wore with his own and handed the empty set back to Mack. “Thanks, Sarge.”
She slid them back over her belt, chuckling. “It was a total fluke that I even had these. Force of habit I guess.”
“The chief called and said to handle the paper in the morning. This guy’s not going anywhere.” Perry placed a palm over the prisoner’s head as he bent him into the caged back seat. “Have a good night.”
* * *
Mack nodded as she found Jenny and framed her face in her palms and kissed her gently. Mack whispered, “I’m so sorry. Let’s go get you checked out.”
“No way. I’m fine. I’ve had quite enough of hospitals. Let’s just go home.” Jenny inhaled as if the insanity she’d experienced an hour ago had returned.
Mack smiled. “We have to take Syd and Parker home first.”
“Actually, no, you don’t. I think we’re going to walk a bit,” Syd looked down at Parker who had closed her eyes, her head pressed against Syd. She simply nodded at Syd’s unspoken question. Jenny walked over and kissed Parker soundly on the mouth.
Parker whispered, “I love you, Jen.” Jenny replied in kind holding her best friend for an extra moment. Jenny whispered a thank you to Syd before walking to the car with her wife.
Now Sydney gathered Parker against her, unconcerned about the audience that still clustered inside the glass walls. Parker gripped the front of Sydney’s jacket as if it were a lifeline to her sanity; perhaps it was. Sydney felt Parker shivering in her arms, and Syd shrugged out of her jacket. Parker allowed herself to be swallowed by the darkness around her before Sydney led them slowly toward the lake where the moon melted into the still water made silver by the light.
Chapter Twenty-two
“I’ve never seen so much brass in all my life. It looks like a military funeral.” Parker leaned against Sydney, whose heavy platinum watchband rested against Parker’s hand as Syd held it nervously.
“It’s ridiculous that we’ve been to three political functions in six months.” Syd scanned the crowd.
“How about we swear off anything requiring a tie or an evening gown for the rest of the year?” Parker adjusted the sleeve on her ruched crepe dress and smoothed the skirt under her legs.
“You have a deal.” Syd tapped a kiss on her cheek. Parker thought the three-inch scar on Syd’s neck looked much better and the mark at her side was almost healed. She had begun her workout regimen too early for the doctors, but Parker accepted that it was just who she was.
A voice from the speakers hushed the crowd. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Every year we’re given with the opportunity to recognize some distinguished achievements in the Silver Lake community. First of all, as chair of the Silver Lake City Council, it is my pleasur
e to welcome, in his first official role as the leader of the Silver Lake Police Department, Chief Mark Cash.”
Mack Foster clapped as loudly as she could.
Chief Cash stood in full uniform behind the podium. He looked every inch the distinguished leader, and the SLPD loved him for it.
“Thank you for that very warm welcome. I asked to be here today. I asked for this honor because I wanted to take this moment to recognize a very special member of our police department. Despite the possible personal risk, this officer decided to do what was right. She followed a hunch and we found out too late that she was right.” He took a steadying breath before he continued, “This officer cannot accept this today and for that we will always feel a loss. Accepting the Medal of Valor on behalf of Sergeant Sandra Whitney Curran, please welcome her partner Mia Wright.”
Waves of coughs and sniffs flowed through the crowd of people who would always feel the loss. Mia stood alone, her hands trembling slightly as she took the blue velvet box and hugged it to her chest. She walked to the podium and cleared her throat, unmistakably trying to swallow her emotions.
“Many of you knew Sandy for much longer than I did. You knew what kind of person she was. All Sandy Curran ever wanted to do is make a difference.” Mia glanced up at the sky as she spoke proudly. “You did that, honey. I love you. Sandy would want me to tell all of you thank you.” She was one of many crying openly as the crowd stood and a member of the color guard walked her offstage to retake her seat next to Mack. She turned the case in her hand thumbing over the map and accepted Mack’s arm around her shoulders.