Dimitri happened to have a picture of Poppy. He uploaded her driver’s license photo.
He showed him.
“Jesus. She looks just like her mother.”
“She’s your child.”
The man blanched.
“I asked for a paternity test. Eloise told me to kiss off. She knew I’d try and take her if she was mine. I would have done the right thing.”
“Why didn’t you get a court ordered one?” Tessa asked. “Fathers, even back then, still had rights. You could have fought for one if you wanted it so badly.”
His face said it all.
“I had an affair.”
“And?”
“I didn’t want to lose my wife. Eloise was easy. She worked as a florist and I went in to buy my wife flowers. She flirted, I flirted back. I went in again, and she flirted more. Before I knew it, my wife was getting a lot of flowers and I was getting laid.”
Dimitri said nothing.
“The police investigated me. It nearly ruined my marriage. My wife died ten years later, and I had to live with what I did. I killed her with my affair. It was never the same after that.”
“You also had a child,” Tessa said. “One who found her mother and sister murdered.”
“I am aware.”
Dimitri glared at him.
“Did you father her other child?” Tessa asked.
“No. We’d broken up before that child was even conceived. Poppy is mine. I will give you that, but the other one…no clue. Like I said. Eloise was easy. She wasn’t the marrying kind. She was the fucking kind.”
Dimitri wanted to hurt him.
He felt Tessa’s hand go to his back.
It helped him stay calm.
“They put her into the system. She was abused for years. She became a cop to find her mother’s killer. You could have saved her,” Tessa stated.
“I tried. My wife said no. I wanted to save her. I just couldn’t do it to my wife. I wanted my family. I have two kids, and we were happy.”
“You’re a scumbag,” Dimitri stated. “You had another child out there. She should have mattered.”
“What do you fucking care?” He asked. “She’s fine without me. She’s doing her thing.”
Dimitri grabbed the man by his shirt.
“Someone is trying to kill her. That animal is back. That’s why I care. That animal thinks she’s her mother!”
Tessa touched his arm.
“Unless he’s the killer,” she stated.
The man looked horrified.
“I didn’t kill anyone!”
“We’ll come back for him,” Tessa said to scare him. “As for that little statement, you did kill someone. Your dick wandered, and you destroyed lives. That’s on you.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“You can’t hurt me. I’m dead inside. My wife died, my kids grew up and moved away, and I haven’t seen my grandkids. There’s nothing you can do to me that will hurt me. I’m in my own hell.”
He slammed the door.
Tessa waited for Dimitri to calm down.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m in love.”
“Awww, pumpkin, I’m sorry. As much as I’m flattered, I’m married.”
He started laughing.
“With Poppy, not you, Tessa, but you did kick that madam’s ass for me. That was hot.”
“I know. My husband has jumped me multiple times with his ‘bad girl’ fantasy, so thanks for that.”
He gave her a fist bump.
“My pleasure.”
“Do you think it’s him?” he asked. “I don’t know how to do this cop thing. It’s not as much fun as the killer thing.”
She laughed.
“Truth.”
For now, he needed Tessa’s opinion.
“Well?”
She considered it.
“No. He’s lucid. Poppy said he called her by her mother’s name. The killer is delusional. Her father has known she’s alive for a long time. He could have killed her a while ago.”
She had a very valid point. Dimitri hadn’t thought about it that way.
“Where to next?” Tessa asked.
“We have the name of some guy who was her neighbor. Poppy and I stopped there yesterday, but he was out. Her file says he’s an accountant.”
Tessa looked at her watch.
“It’s tax season.”
Oh, he was aware.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be home today. Brent Hendricks heads out and works at his client’s homes. We can’t catch him at work.”
She understood.
“That works for me. Maybe you can let me rough him up if he’s home, and then tell my husband about it. You know, on the DL. He won’t flip his shit if he knows he can use it for sex.”
“Awwww, pumpkin, I’m not lying for you,” he said, using her previous sarcasm.
She laughed her ass off.
“Nice one.”
“I have a question,” Dimitri asked.
“Yeah, what?” Tessa said, getting behind the wheel of the vehicle.
“Want a job?”
She stared at him.
“Are you fucking with me, Dimitri Gideon?” she asked. “If you are, I’ll hurt you.”
He laughed.
“No, I’m serious. After you give birth, you’d make a good employee. You’re vicious.”
She laughed.
“Sign me up, but…”
“What?”
“Tag,” she said, touching his shoulder. “You have to tell Paris.”
He laughed.
He’d walked right into that one.
Oddly, that was fine.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Commissioner’s Office
It was so hard not to speak during the time in front of him, but Poppy managed to hold her tongue and let Finn do all the talking.
The minute they got in there, Poppy was forced to listen to the commissioner pick apart every single case she’d ever worked. In the last year, he’d ripped apart all of her cases with Hunter Dietrich.
Apparently, the man didn’t file them correctly, and the commissioner was dumping it on her—not the asshole dead man.
Great.
As she stood there, she was told she mishandled, broke the law, and a few made up things that made her cringe.
Then he really went in for it.
Commissioner Raye informed her that she had complaints against her.
They had only been brought up now—miraculously. Apparently, the cops who harassed her on the police scene had banded together to file.
Yeah, bullshit.
Poppy knew why too.
This man.
Still, she held her tongue, simply because of her attorney, Finn Braydon, told her to say nothing to implicate herself.
So she didn’t.
It was a miracle.
“Commissioner, where are you heading with this?” Finn asked from beside her in his pricey suit.
“As of this moment, I’ve decided that Miss Wayne is a security risk for the police department. She was seen canoodling with a man who has mob ties. That will risk court cases.”
Poppy said nothing.
She wasn’t shocked.
“Since she was seen making out with Dimitri Gideon, we’ve put her on administrative leave—pending an internal investigation.”
“Like you did with Riley Henderson?” Finn asked, curiously, and to rattle the man.
The commissioner didn’t reply.
Instead, he gave the man a dirty look.
“Riley is Delilah’s client. See, you think Ms. Wayne is a security risk, but I have bad news for you. There are about six other cops who are also our clients. We don’t charge them. Delilah and I want to make your life hell.”
The man scowled.
“Who are they?”
“Well, Riley, Miss Wayne, Detectives…”
He smiled.
“You’ll find out.”
Commissioner Raye held out his hand.
“Badge and gun, please. Until IA can investigate your cases and your relationship to Dimitri Gideon, we can’t have you on the force. Thank God I rescinded that captain offer.”
“WHAT? I told you I didn’t want it!”
He looked confused.
“Oh, Miss Wayne, you have some serious memory issues. You should get them looked into and soon.”
She knew it was his word versus hers.
“You’ll be hearing from us,” Finn stated. “If you take her badge and gun, you’ll have my lawsuit on your desk by tomorrow morning.”
“Gun and badge, please.”
She handed them over.
When she moved closer to do it, she saw the file on his desk.
“Why do you have my mother and sister’s cold case file?” she asked incredulously.
That couldn’t be good.
She didn’t trust the man with a pet rock let alone a file that was sacred to her.
He dropped another file over it to make it disappear.
Then he stared her in the eyes.
“You’re not well, Detective. These are all the cases that you handled. I am deeply concerned about your mental stability. Now you’re getting paranoid.”
Her mind began racing.
Something was up.
Something huge.
Poppy’s mind was just fine. This man was up to something, and she could feel it.
Was this a distraction?
Was he playing some game?
She knew how sick and twisted he was, and Raye couldn’t be trusted. He killed and didn’t think twice.
“Come on, Ms. Wayne. Let’s go. He’ll see us face to face in court.”
The man smiled and waved.
Poppy started out with her attorney. Outside, she was furious, and she wanted to cry.
“He took my badge. He took my gun. He knew the only way to hurt me was to make me lose my job!”
Finn put his arm around her and lowered his voice. For now, it was about getting her out of there.
“It’s okay. I’ll get him so tangled up in red tape he’ll wish you shot him in the ass. By the time I’m done, you’ll own part of the city.”
That was all fine and dandy, but she had a much bigger concern. Mainly, the file on his desk. It had her disturbed.
“I want to go home,” she muttered.
“Want me to take you?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“No, I want to be alone. I need to think about all of this,” she stated.
Finn gave her his card.
“If he harasses you, looks at you, or even talks to you, you call me. I’ll handle it.”
She nodded.
“Thanks, Mr. Braydon.”
“It’s Finn. You’re part of the Croft family. They take care of their family. I will show up at two in the morning if I have to. It’s my job.”
Yeah, and he wanted to make sure he kept their business now that Delilah was threatening to leave their partnership.
“Thanks.”
Poppy headed down to the vehicle that Dimitri had let her borrow that morning. She was so upset.
Poppy had nothing.
In a matter of minutes, Commissioner Raye had destroyed her life. He’d taken everything she had ever worked for and turned it upside down.
What was she going to do?
She got into the car, and she pulled away.
Home would be best.
She needed peace.
She needed silence.
She needed a plan B because plan A had just blown up in her freaking face.
Chapter Fourteen
Re-Interview
Team Two
I t wasn’t that they didn’t think Greyson did a good job in interviewing Johnie Baker, it was just that the man’s guard was likely up the second Greyson came into the room. He was the mob boss, and no one liked tangling with that viper.
Well, Emma did.
He was sexy.
So, this time, they opted to find him at his place of employment, and catch him as he ran out to get some coffee at the place across the street.
“Good call. Caffeine and cigarette break,” Chris stated. “Want to grab him now or later?”
“Let’s let him get his coffee. Why really ruin his day?” she asked jokingly.
He laughed.
“Clearly, you’re the nice one.”
Oh, she wouldn’t bet on that. Vegas had made her maternal and mean. Two very dangerous things when it came to her family and their wellbeing.
When the man exited the café, he lit up and headed back toward his office building, carrying a coffee as he smoked. When he rounded the corner, he walked right into Chris’s much bigger body.
“Uh, excuse me,” he stated.
Then he saw Emma.
“Oh, shit! Not you too!”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Emma said, as Chris grabbed his smoke, snapped it in half, and tossed it on the ground. “Here’s the one thing you don’t really know about the Crofts,” she stated. “Greyson is the nice one.”
He swallowed.
“Here’s the funny thing, Johnie, my BFF here, Christopher, is going to hurt you. I’m not even going to pretend. See, my husband came home with information from you, but I think you left some out.”
“Like?” he asked, as Chris stared at him.
“You said Michael Skinner was hitting it with Libby, the missing and likely deceased woman.” Emma made sure it was nice and loud. “You neglected to mention that you weren’t only working with her but having ‘fun’ with her.”
He looked around in a panic.
They weren’t alone.
“Oh, don’t worry about all the people with cameras following us. It’s just the media. Watch this…. What do you mean you had sex with that dead woman?” she said so loudly that people stared.
“SHHHHHHHHHH! That sounds like I was fucking a corpse!”
She laughed and leaned against the wall.
“Yeah, I know. Perception is important. Now spill it, or I’m sending my husband back after me to clean up this mess. I don’t want to have all of the fun.”
He swallowed.
“Okay, we were an item, but so was Libby and just about every other man. She was freaking miserable in her marriage. We’d sneak away on our lunch break and have a nooner.”
“Yeah, okay, we know that. What we really want to know is where the hell you came up with all that money? We have your financials.”
He moved toward her in anger. It was clearly written all over his face.
Chris grabbed him and shoved him into the wall.
“I’ll call the police!”
“We’ll be out in thirty minutes. The lawyer I can afford compared to yours is nothing. Trust me.”
He swallowed.
“Okay! Just stop okay?”
She waited for it.
“Libby had a big client. He came in, left her a shit ton of money to invest. We did. Only, we told him he didn’t make as much money as it did. We skimmed off the top. We kept a little finder’s fee. It happens a lot in our business. You’ll find it with your investment people too.”
“My brother-in-law handles our money. We trust him. I’ll make sure my husband yanks any money he gave you.”
“Come on! I have to make so much a month, or I lose my job!”
“Then you want to tell us who that client is. Maybe he killed her.”
“It was Tristan Bauer.”
Emma smiled.
That was Emily, the work friend’s husband.
Well.
Well.
Well.
That was a fun little fact.
She pulled out her phone to show Johnie a picture of the man. It happened to be the one she snapped the first day as they went back to interview the wife.
“Him?”
He nodded.
“Well, thank you for that. It explains a lot.” And it did. Emma knew tha
t something was up. He’d made a call to someone, and that someone was likely behind the death of Libby Raye. They were getting closer.
She could smell it.
“You won’t tell him it was me, will you?” he asked. “I need my job.”
Chris began laughing his ass off.
“I’d be worried. EMBEZZLEMENT?” he shouted really loudly, and again, people looked.
Emma knew their fun was over. They’d gotten one hell of a lead on this one, and this was going to be huge.
She could feel it.
“Let him go.”
Johnie Baker took off like a bat out of Hell to escape their company. The second he was gone, Emma started laughing her ass off.
“Oh, that never gets old. I’m glad you’re my partner. We have WAY too much fun together,” she stated.
Oh, he was aware.
As they headed back to their ride, there were reporters around it. The second they were closer, the questions began.
“Mrs. Croft! Are you having a sexual relationship with your bodyguard?”
She didn’t speak.
“Are you having some orgy?”
Still, she didn’t speak.
Chris helped her up into the vehicle.
When he got in, they’d said something that upset him. It was clear from the look on his face.
“What did they say to you?” Emma asked, as soon as he was in the privacy of their ride.
“They asked about my ex-wife. She’s been talking shit to the press.”
Chris left it at that.
Emma hated that woman’s guts. Here was the proof.
“I wish she would have stayed in Florida. She’s telling everyone I’m impotent in the sex and love category.”
She was horrified.
“I’ll kick her ass.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
Oh, but it wasn’t.
Grabbing him by the front of the shirt, she planted one on his mouth. It was deep, it was a full-on kiss, and she didn’t hold back. When she set him free, he was grinning.
“I think that beats the hickey Greyson had. Can I have my gum back?” he asked.
She took it out of her mouth and handed it to him. He began chewing it as the media took pictures.
Chris pulled away, laughing his ass off.
“You’re a menace, but you’re a good kisser. When I was dying, I didn’t get that kiss! I feel cheated. You were holding back,” he teased.
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