by Lucy Kelly
Captain Udaka had made arrangements for two Homicide detectives to arrest and interview Anton Kadyrov. He emphasized to them that everything had to be done by the book. He called the State’s Attorney and asked for someone to be assigned the case, to observe all interviews and make sure all evidence met judiciary requirements. He was determined that the Defense not have a leg to stand on.
He was also pleased to see Assistant State’s Attorney Carson striding through the bullpen towards his office. Sheila Carson was quickly building a reputation as being hard to beat in the courtroom. She could read people like a book, which helped her when selecting jurors. She was often described as a fast tracker in the State’s Attorney’s office. The Captain smiled at her when she reached his doorway.
“Come in,” he said.
“Good morning, Captain. I was told you’ve arrested Anton Kadyrov. Would you give me a summary of your evidence and what’s happening now?” she asked.
“Right now, he’s in the holding tank. He lawyered up immediately so we can’t interview him until the lawyer shows up. He didn’t ask for a phone call. The detectives that brought him in say he told his maid to call his grandfather and his lawyer.
“I’m actually surprised you showed up before them,” he added.
He proceeded to go over the case as it stood. He went over all the evidence, including the statement given by Jett Contadina and the recording from Jett’s phone. For good measure, he added in the battery earlier in the day of Mrs. Levin, producing the sketch, fingerprint report, and signed statement.
“We may not get him for the conspiracy to commit murder,” said Ms. Carson. “Without further evidence, he can argue that this low-life Ron is lying. Information from the other attackers would be considered hearsay. With his record, he doesn’t make a credible witness. Any good defense attorney will rip him apart on cross. And believe me, Kadyrov surely has the best attorney money can buy on retainer. We have a better chance with the battery. I’d suggest having the homicide guys question him about his whereabouts for the entire day. Better yet, get him to agree to a line up; can you bring in the victim?”
“Don’t bring up Mrs. Levin during the initial interview,” she continued. “Let him assume it’s all about the attempted murder. I’d also like to meet this Contadina guy. Frankly, after what you’ve just told me, I’m amazed he’s not in the hospital. What’s he like; does he have a record? Tell me a story, Captain, draw me a picture,” she said, leaning back in her chair.
Captain Udaka wanted his operation kept in the dark for now. He was hesitant about revealing too much information before the listening devices had a chance to get more evidence. He didn’t want to mention right away that they had a tape recording of Anton ordering the hit. If what she said was true, though, he would eventually have to show her the tape to make the charges stick. For now, he was keeping that information to himself. He was actually relieved when he saw Vasily Kadyrov walking through the bullpen.
“I’ll fill you in later. The grandfather has arrived.” He gestured with his chin and she turned in her chair.
“Let the games begin,” she said under her breath as she stood up.
Vasily Kadyrov walked up to the door. “Captain? I am Vasily Kadyrov; I had some disturbing news this morning. I’m told my grandson has been arrested.” he said.
“Your grandson is currently being charged with ordering a murder. Additional charges may be filed,” said Captain Udaka, hedging his bets.
“Outrageous! My grandson doesn’t behave in this way. Who is telling these lies about him? I want to speak to his attorney. Where is he?” asked Kadyrov.
“Mr. Kadyrov’s attorney has not yet arrived,” said the Captain.
He could see the anger in the old man’s eyes at that remark. Kadyrov immediately pulled out his cell phone and pressed a number. He stepped back out of the office and to the side of the door for a little privacy. Captain Udaka exchanged a look with Ms. Carson.
“Has the guy on speed dial,” he said softly, and she fought down a smile.
Mr. Kadyrov came back to the office. “He will be here right away. Now, I want to see my grandson,” he demanded.
Captain Udaka, who had stood when Kadyrov Senior had first arrived, now stepped forward and motioned to a detective.
“Show Mr. Kadyrov to Room B and bring up the prisoner from holding,” he ordered. He waited until they had moved off before turning back to Ms. Carson.
“You see why I need you here. I need to make sure every ‘T’ is crossed and every ‘I’ is dotted on this. Everything strictly by the book,” the Captain said to her.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure everything is done properly. I would hold off on search warrants, though. Currently your evidence is flimsy and you wouldn’t want to find a gold mine and then have it all thrown out as fruit of the poisonous tree because of a bad search,” she said.
Captain Udaka then turned her over to the detectives he’d assigned to the case. They didn’t know about Contadina being Interpol or about the listening devices, so they wouldn’t leak anything. He wasn’t worried about this meeting between the two Kadyrovs. Grace said the bugs were on them at all times. And currently, they had no expectation of privacy. The meeting with his attorney when he came would be privileged, however, and they would have to take care to delete that portion of the record.
For now, until he had a chance to speak with Jett, he’d keep track of the times when the prisoner would have a legal right to privacy. Perhaps they would be able to edit the tapes and remove those time periods without reviewing them. He seemed to recall Jett saying something about time period allocations. It was late and a lot of the tech speak went over his head. He picked up a pad and made some notations on it. Then he picked up his own secure line and called Grace.
Grace had just finished dressing when her phone rang.
“Hello? Oh, good morning, Captain.”
“Grace, I’m pulling you off active undercover work on this case. You’ll still need to use the Grace Kelsey persona, but you won’t be working at the casino any longer. I don’t think it would be in character to work at a job you’ve held less than a week when the owner’s been charged with attempting to murder your fiancé’s brother,” he said.
“I’m not going to miss the hot pants,” she said, “but I’m not completely off the case, am I?”
“You can’t be. Jett pointed out that Anton Kadyrov is obviously obsessed with you. It’s likely he’s already put a tail on you. I’m glad the plug’s been pulled on that job at Hell. Your assignment now consists of acting like a besotted fiancée to Jalen. Let him convince you to move in with him, have those kinds of conversations in public places where word will reach Kadyrov. So he’ll know you’re not without protection. Anton Kadyrov is an animal; this is important, no hot dogging out on your own,” said Udaka.
“Have those men watch your back. I have a feeling, based on what Jett accomplished last night, that those brothers will offer you the best protection. I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner the type of woman Junior focuses on. I’m officially requesting a task force to look into the missing women in his life. I finished reading over the Interpol files about seven this morning. If even half of the allegations prove true, you could be in real danger. The man is likely a serial killer, and he’s got you in the cross hairs.”
He looked up from his desk; he thought he’d heard someone outside his office. As Grace responded, he stood up and walked over to the door. Opening it, he looked around but didn’t see anyone nearby.
“Don’t worry, Captain; everything will work out. We’ll take extra precautions. Jalen and Jett’s other brother arrived last night. The Kadyrovs don’t know about him. He’s going to be our ace in the hole,” said Grace.
Closing the door, he went back to his desk and lowered his voice, “Tell Jett he needs to come in. The State’s Attorney wants to speak with him. She doesn’t know about the listening devices and that we got him ordering the hit on tape. I want to wait until t
he end of the week before we release that information to her,” said the Captain.
“No problem, I’ll pass on the word. I’ll also call Gregor, the pit boss at the casino, and tender my resignation. Effective immediately,” she added.
“Good. I’ll expect a report from you later today.” He hung up the phone and went outside to see if the Defense Attorney had arrived yet.
From across the room, the listener at the door watched him exit his office. It’s too bad I didn’t hear more.
Chapter Twelve
After Grace finished the phone call with her Captain, she got the cell phone belonging to her undercover persona. She didn’t want her home phone number showing up on Caller ID.
The office secretary was there at this time of day. She asked to speak to someone in Human Resources. She was glad that she didn’t have to come in and fill out any paperwork. She just had to drop off her employee identification card. Since she knew both Kadyrovs were at the district station, now was a good time to go down and take care of that. She didn’t really want to run into either of them right now.
For the past several years, she’d been working sex crimes. She’d busted some real low- lives. But even the worst of them didn’t give her the creeps the way the Kadyrovs did. As if they were the alligators at the watering hole and she their prey. Jett and Jalen believed Anton to be a serial killer and she was beginning to think they were right. And if he were, then his grandfather would be, too.
She left the bedroom and walked into the living room. The brothers were sprawled over the couch, watching the History channel, something about ancient weaponry or…something.
“Don’t you guys know that you’re supposed to be watching sports, not history? People are going to get the wrong impression of you,” she said.
Jalen picked up the remote, switched off the television, and walked over to give her a kiss.
“Well, maybe not,” she said when he finished.
“We find your planet fascinating. We are always learning new things about your people. You have much more cultural diversity on this planet than we have on HeVan,” said Jalen.
“Maybe I’ll take a leave of absence when we finish this case and show you some of it,” she said giving him a hug.
Then turning to Jett she said, “Because of that stunt you pulled last night, you have to go back into the police station and answer more questions. And since Jalen is supposed to be my fiancé, he has to take me down to the casino to ‘quit’ my job. Starting tonight, I’m on data download duty because the Captain doesn’t want anyone knowing about the personal surveillance we managed to set up.
“For now, we’ll drop you off on the way. If you’re delayed, the Captain wants Jalen to be seen taking me to lunch and convincing me to move in here with him. He wants word to trickle back that I’m leaving my apartment. Justyn, the men we’re after know Jalen has brothers, as in plural. But since you didn’t go with us to the club last night, I’d like to keep your presence under wraps. Is it alright if you stay here while we go out? It won’t be a total waste; you being here would ensure no one got in to plant bugs,” said Grace.
“I recall you saying something last night about insects. What do they have to do with your arresting the law breakers? Are you expecting them to infest your house with pests?” asked Justyn.
She smiled. “That’s an expression. For some reason, and I don’t know where it originated. We call listening devices–bugs. The apartment where I’ve been living in undercover is full of listening devices and hidden cameras, too. Really freaked me out when I realized it. I very much doubt they do that to all their new employees. They must suspect I’m a cop, since they saw me talking to Detective Anthony. He was supposed to play my boyfriend on this Op and his cover was blown. So I substituted you three.”
“And we’re very happy you did,” said Jett, coming over for a kiss of his own. He picked her up and held her in his arms and kissed her quite thoroughly. When she got her breath and her senses back, she asked him why he’d gotten her all revved up.
“Because, when we leave here, I’m just your fiancé’s brother. I have no claim on you while we’re playing these parts. I wanted you wet and thinking of me while you and Jalen have your lunch,” he said.
“No problem; you got your wish.” She was still taking deep breaths and her panties were damp. Or they would be if she hadn’t put in an extra absorbent panty liner. She learned her lesson fast around these three and going through the bulk of her day with damp underwear would be uncomfortable. She knew Jalen would do his best to keep her on the edge of arousal. After two hundred plus years without a live woman, they were determined to make up for lost time. She’d still be sore if it weren’t for some magic cream Justyn had brought in his duffle bag. He’d gotten it from one of their doctors.
“I’m going to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and then we should get going.” She walked into the kitchen and Justyn followed her.
“Plan on coming home for dinner,” he said.
“Are you going to cook?” she asked.
“Addie showed us how to grill. Your balcony is small, but I saw that you had one of these items. I will cook, if you like. Then I want to take you back to bed and bury myself deep inside you again,” growled Justyn, as he put his arms around her and did some kissing of his own.
She took the bottle of water and held it up to her neck. “Good plan. We’ll go with that,” she panted, as she started to walk out of the kitchen.
“Wait a minute, I have to work tonight. I may have to take a rain check on the steaks and the sex.”
After Grace, Jalen, and Jett left, Justyn sat down on the couch and tried to figure out what a rain check was. Finally, he gave up and called Addie.
Instead of dropping off Jett at the police station first, both brothers insisted they go with her to the casino. Twenty minutes later, they were walking back into Hell. This time they used the employee entrance around the back. The décor was a lot less glamorous than in the 'front of the house', as they called it. Here the layout had utilitarian, linoleum floors and plain, white walls. No art, just legally required employment posters next to a bulletin board and a punch clock. Grace made them wait in the hall while she cleaned out her locker. Then she went into the office to turn in her employee security pass and pick up her final check. Because she had called ahead, they had it ready. It wasn’t much and she would void it and turn it over to the Captain to be part of the permanent file.
She breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the building without running into any unpleasantness. Word must not have gotten around yet about the boss’s arrest. She’d told HR that she was leaving for personal reasons. As they were walking back to the car, she saw Margie coming towards her.
“Hey, there, Betty Boop, how come you’re here so early? Your shift doesn’t start for another six hours,” asked Grace when she was within hearing range.
“I’m not going to be able to call you 'Stilts' anymore. These men of yours got you beat in that department. I’m here because I left my cell phone in my locker last night when I left. I need to pick it up. Now tell me what you’re doing here and introduce me. You have to let me know which one is your fiancé so I’ll know who I’m safe to flirt with,” she said.
Grace couldn’t believe it; she knew Margie was joking. Only when she had mentioned flirting, Grace felt a wave of anger towards her.
Mine, keep your hands off! she thought.
Instead of inviting her to come along with them for lunch, she introduced them and then hurried off with the guys. When they got back into the car, she was still angry. Only now it was at the brothers.
“What the hell did you do to me? Margie is my friend, and one casual mention of wanting to flirt with you and I’m ready to tear off her head. That’s not normal!” she said with an increasingly loud voice while pounding her fist on the steering wheel.
Jalen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned to her.
“Though we have given each other plea
sure, we have not yet completed the Joining ceremony of our people. You are Nephilim, too. The proximity of your Ankida has brought out your instinctual response to keep what’s yours. After we Join, that will fade as the link between us will always be there.”
“Does that mean some freaky telepathic thing is going to happen? I don’t want anybody reading my mind,” she said.
“No, that ability is very rare and it’s one we don’t possess. And if you already had it, I think you would have noticed,” said Arjun.
Ten minutes later, they dropped Jett of at the police station.
Jett walked into the police station. He approached the front desk and waited for an officer to approach and acknowledge him.
“Can I help you?” asked an officer stepping up to the counter.
“I’ve been called in by Captain Udaka to meet with the State’s Attorney,” said Jett.
“I’ll call up and let him know you’re coming.” The officer pointed to the stairs at the right of the lobby. “Go up those stairs, down the corridor, first door on the left is the detectives’ bullpen. Captain Udaka will meet you there.”
“I’ve been here once before; I know the way. Thank you for letting him know I’ve arrived.”
Jett took the stairs three at a time. He realized that it had been some time since he’d trained. He would have to remember to ask Jalen where he had been training before he’d returned last night.
Entering the open door to the bullpen, he walked through the desks to see Captain Udaka standing in the doorway of his office.
“Captain Udaka, I was told you asked me to come here to meet someone?” asked Jett.
“Jett, thank you for coming. I’d like to introduce you to Assistant State’s Attorney Sheila Carson. She would like to ask you a few questions about last night. Ms. Carson, this is Jett Contadina. Come in, Jett, and have a seat.”