Naked Truth

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  She pressed the open button. “Be careful.”

  He winked at her. When the door closed, he brought his weapon to bear and sidled over to the open door. He listened for a moment and, hearing nothing, slowly eased the door fully opened. Using the door as cover, he kept low and crept inside.

  The room was completely destroyed. Her couch and chairs had been slashed open and the stuffing strewn across the room. Spray paint soaked through her art posters on the wall with various Russian slurs. Drake moved toward the next open doorway, leading with the pistol. Although the rooms looked abandoned, there was no way he was going to take the chance. Peeking in, he saw that the bed had been stripped, the blankets a heap on the floor. If the smell was anything to go by, the intruder had used it as a toilet. Drake’s lip curled in disgust.

  Her reading lamp was smashed, and all her clothes had been yanked out of the closet and thrown on the floor. A teddy bear was propped up on the naked bed. It was missing an eye, and a belt was tightened around its throat. In English, “Sorry to have missed you” was scrawled in black marker across the mattress.

  Drake heard the elevator and hurried out of the bedroom. He wasn’t quick enough to stop Pam from entering with the two uniforms behind her. He watched her turn a shade paler and put a trembling hand up to her mouth. Her eyes sought his in question.

  “The place is trashed,” he said. “It’s not pretty. Is there someone I can call for you? You can’t stay here tonight.”

  “Why?” Pam took a step around. “I have to see what’s missing.” She headed for the bedroom, and Drake sidestepped to keep her from walking in.

  “I need to get a team up here and take pictures. Dust for fingerprints. Why don’t you come back to the station with me? We can fill out a report there.”

  “I want to see,” she said.

  He shook his head. “No, you don’t.” He blocked her from moving farther into the room.

  “Vadim did this, didn’t he?”

  “I don’t have a magic crystal ball. But it looks like whoever was here was looking for you. And when he couldn’t find you, he got a little upset and took it out on your stuff.” He took Pam by the arm and led her to the door.

  Drake motioned to the two uniformed cops to come in.

  “You call in a team”—he pointed to one of them—“and you”—he pointed to the other one—“start knocking on doors to see if anyone saw or heard anything. I’m going to take Dr. Krupin downtown.”

  “Oh no!”

  Pam had gotten around him and seen her bedroom.

  “Why? Why would anyone do this?” she asked.

  “That’s what we’re going to find out. Now, come on. I’m sorry you had to see this.”

  Drake strong-armed her out the door. She was sputtering and talking, but he didn’t care. She was too vulnerable, too exposed here. He could almost feel phantom crosshairs on his back when he deposited her into the passenger seat of her own car.

  As he pulled onto the highway, he glanced over at her. Her arms were crossed, but the trembling of her lips gave her away.

  “It’s a good thing I’ve got renter’s insurance,” she said with a hitch in her voice.

  He put a hand on her knee. He meant it to be comforting, but when she jumped, he removed it. “You can put together a list in the morning. Right now, I’d feel a lot better if you stayed at the station while we get a statement and figure out the next step.”

  “I can go to Harding General. I have a change of clothes, and I can sleep on my table in the office tonight.”

  Drake shook his head. “Stay at a hotel instead. One of the five-star ones with a spa. Isn’t that what you girls like? Get a massage or a facial or something.”

  “I’m really not in the pampering mood.”

  “You don’t need to deal with all this on your own. Don’t you have a friend to call?”

  Pam shook her head. “Not locally. I’d rather not get anyone involved in this.”

  “I hate the thought of you being alone tonight.”

  “So drive me to the hospital, and I’ll spend the night walking the wards and visiting patients. I’d be doing that anyway, if it were my swing-shift night. Does that work for you?”

  “What would work for me is to have you under guard until we get some answers out of Oksana. But I don’t have the budget for it.”

  This time, she put her hand on his knee for comfort. He didn’t jump, but a part of him did take notice. “Thanks for thinking of me, but I’ve been in worse spots.”

  “Is there a reason why you’re the neighborhood pariah?”

  “What do you mean? Just because everyone hates me?”

  He was a little disappointed when she snatched her hand back. Drake reached over and brought the back of her hand to his lips. “I like you.”

  “Thanks,” she said drily, but at least he’d gotten her to smile.

  “My father gambled a lot,” she said, letting him hold on to her hand. “He owed money to just about everyone in the neighborhood. Then one day, we were foreclosed upon. He’d sold the house to the bookies to save his own skin. We didn’t see him for a few months after that. He caught up with my brother and me at school because he didn’t know where we lived anymore.”

  “Where did you live?”

  Pam shrugged. “Depended on the day. Outside, if it was warm enough. Churches. Libraries. Pretty much any twenty-four-hour place that was willing to look the other way.”

  “How old were you?”

  “High school. Darren got caught driving the getaway car soon after. It was his first offense.”

  “Jeez, you think they would have gone easy on him.”

  Pam nodded. “His lawyer was a joke. I couldn’t convince him to appeal the decision, and Darren...well, he was determined that prison was now his new home.”

  Drake felt a chill. It was what the vor v zakone, the thief-in-laws, thought. Darren was too young to have been in the Russian gulags, obviously, but the new vor had similar traditions. At some point, someone should have intervened with Darren and stopped him from pursuing this future.

  “He told me he no longer had a family. No mother, no father. I was no longer his sister.”

  Drake swallowed. Another part of the thieves’ code. The only reason Drake knew this was because he’d tried to join. Only, they’d laughed at him because he wasn’t Russian. All Darren had to do was forsake his old man and go to jail, and he would be a candidate—if he survived.

  “I told him I would always be his sister. He told me I was just a woman.”

  “Looks like the vor got their hooks into him.”

  “You seem to know a lot about them.”

  “At one point, I wanted to be them.”

  “Why?” Pam said, her tone unbelieving.

  “Respect, tradition, family, loyalty, and power. All the things I didn’t have and had no idea how to get.”

  “But you became a cop? How do you go from being a wannabe gangster to being a detective?”

  “I joined the police academy to be their man on the inside.” Drake had waited until he had parked the car at the station so he could see her full reaction. He regretted it when she gripped the door handle like she was going to jump out.

  “You’re a dirty cop?” she whispered, her beautiful eyes wide with fear.

  He cursed. He had wanted to make her laugh. He hadn't thought he’d take him seriously. “No. I found everything I had been looking for at the academy. Including some more things, like friendship and honor. By the time I graduated, I was on the right track.”

  “Of course, if you were a dirty cop, you wouldn’t admit it,” she said, releasing her death grip on the door.

  “I’m not a dirty cop,” he said. “I drive a crappy car. I drink cheap beer. I live in a studio apartment, and I don’t have cable. I spend my vacations fishing on a friend’s boat.”

  “How have you stayed single for so long? Sounds like marriage material to me,” she said.

  Drake smiled. “Is that a propos
al?”

  “Normally, I wait to know a guy more than a few days before I start fitting him with the ball and chain.” She had a faint tinge on her cheeks. He was glad, because she had been looking so sad and pale.

  “How do you feel about handcuffs?”

  Her nose wrinkled. “On you or on me?”

  “I’m flexible.”

  “Good to know,” Pam said and glided her hand over his cheek. “You look so different without the beard. It was your eyes that gave you away. You should wear brown contacts to mute the color when you’re dressing up as a hobo and saving women from gangsters.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He turned his face to kiss her palm.

  “I want out of this situation, Drake.”

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s see what we can do about that.”

  The Harding police department was small, but the staff kept things moving. Drake wove through the corridors, holding on to Pam’s hand. He nodded to a few people, but mostly kept his head down. The last thing he wanted was to subject Pam to more cop humor. He sat her in the guest chair by his desk.

  “Can I get you a cup of coffee?” he asked.

  “That would be great. Milk and sugar, if you have it.”

  “Just how I like my women—” Drake started to say.

  A snort came from behind him. “Cold and bitter.”

  “No, Mark, that’s just usually what I get.”

  “The question is, did they come like that, or did you make them that way?” Pam asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Oh, I like her.” Mark was smiling his shark’s smile that normally made Drake roll his eyes, but seeing it directed at Pam rubbed him the wrong way. He wanted to give him the “back off, man” look, but of course, Mark was more concerned with staring at her legs than looking at his partner’s context clues.

  “Great. Get her a cuppa joe, light and sweet.” Drake launched himself into his chair and fired up his computer.

  “I’ve got to talk to you about the interviews.”

  “In a few,” Drake said. Just as soon as Pam stopped looking like she was about to cry.

  The report itself didn’t take long. She didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know about the apartment break-in. He took her statement from the drive-by at Nikolai’s while he was at it, just to be thorough. The coffee and conversation seemed to be helping her unwind a bit.

  “I’m going to see what Mark needs. If you want, you can use the conference room to make calls.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Am I free to go?”

  “Unless being cute is illegal, we’re not charging you with anything,” Mark said.

  “I can’t believe you went there,” Drake said to him. “That’s right up there with ‘is it hot in here, or is it just you.’”

  “Hey, that’s a good one. Can I use it?” Mark pretended to write it down.

  “Feel free. I’ll be with you in five, okay?” Drake stepped in front of him and took Pam by the arm, guiding her to the conference room. “You weren’t planning on going back to your apartment, were you?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ll get a hotel room.”

  “I don’t want you to go to the hospital tonight either. I don’t think it’s safe.” He closed the conference room door behind them and, as unobtrusively as possible, shut the blinds.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, looking more amused than concerned.

  “I just wanted to do this.” He gathered her in his arms.

  She was stiff at first, but when all he did was hold her, she gradually relaxed, and he tightened the hug.

  “Don’t be nice to me. I’ll start to cry.”

  “Nothing wrong with crying. You can do that here. You’re safe, and you’re not alone. In fact, if you want to, come back home with me tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  He felt her smile against his chest. “You’re a nice man.”

  “I’m not, really. I’m having really impure thoughts right now.”

  Her chuckle made him grin, and he pressed a kiss against her forehead. “I’m trying hard not to take advantage, but I really want to kiss you without the vodka fogging the sensation.”

  “If the vodka was muting that, I’m not sure it’s safe to kiss you when we could be walked in on,” she said, wrapping her arms around his back and holding him just as tightly as he was holding her.

  “So, you’ll come back to my apartment?”

  Pam let out a long sigh. “I’m exhausted.”

  “I’ll behave. I promise.”

  She leaned back to look at him. “I don’t believe you.”

  He smiled at her. “There are different degrees of behaving. Why don’t we start with a nice Italian dinner? Take-out. We can watch a chick movie if you’d like.”

  “A chick movie?”

  “I’m trying to earn points, and there aren’t any good sports programs on tonight.”

  She laughed. “At least you’re honest. Let me arrange for a locksmith. When do you think I can get some cleaners in there?”

  “As soon as we’re done processing the scene. Why don’t you have them come late tomorrow afternoon? If it turns out we need more time, I’ll tell you to cancel.”

  “That sounds good. I’ll do that.”

  “Great.” Drake leaned down and kissed her. It was much better without the vodka. Which was to say, he had to hold himself in tight control to stop from pushing her up against the door of the conference room. As it was, his hand cupped her backside so he could press her against his hardness.

  Her hands were inside his jacket, shredding his control further as he felt her sharp nails through the thin cloth of his shirt. When her tongue tangled with his, he risked passing his thumb over her nipple. Pam slipped her hand down to his belt, and he forgot to breathe. For a long moment, he let her fumble with his belt buckle, while the angel on his shoulder fought with the devil on his other shoulder.

  “Pam, baby, wait,” he said. He pushed her to arm’s length. And almost yanked her back against him at the passion-dazed look in her eyes. “Can I take a rain check?”

  He watched her face flood with color. “I’m sorry, I—”

  “Don’t apologize. If I didn’t think Mark would barge in on us, I’d take you on the table.”

  Pam laughed nervously. “I think I read that in Penthouse Forum.”

  Drake swallowed hard. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to go out there with that knowledge in my head.”

  “So stay with me.” She gave him a devilish smile.

  “What the hell,” he said and was about to pull her back into his arms when the door opened.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her jump guiltily. He faced his partner dead-on, grabbing a file folder off the table to camouflage the evidence of his arousal.

  “Impatient?” Drake was proud he didn’t shout at him.

  “Captain wants to see us in his office.”

  “Excellent,” Drake said. That should take care of getting rid of my hard-on. “I’ll be back in a few,” he said to Pam. “Help yourself to more coffee.”

  “Thanks.” She gave him an embarrassed half wave and sat at the conference table.

  “She’s got a great—” Mark started to say when he'd closed the door.

  “Don’t even,” Drake warned him.

  “Education,” Mark finished. “I ran her through the computer. She’s either squeaky clean, or she hides it better than most. Her brother’s antics never touched her. Her father’s a gambler—although, reformed by the look of it.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “You look like you’re getting in over your head. I just thought I’d throw a few facts your way. She might not be what she seems.”

  “You worry about picking up Gregor and Piotr for questioning on the apartment. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a match on their fingerprints or maybe a DNA through the waste they left in her clothes.”

  “The lab won’t get back to us for a while.”
<
br />   “Find a reason to hold them until they do.” Drake knocked on the captain’s door.

  “Come in,” a gruff voice said.

  Drake opened the door, and Mark followed him in. “You wanted us, sir?”

  Captain Francis would never win any beauty contests. On a good day, he looked like Lou Grant. Today, he looked like a pissed-off basset hound. “Three more homeless people got torched last night.”

  Drake cursed.

  “One was an older man down on Broad Street. Witnesses say he was mostly a drunk. Another was a bag lady sleeping under her carriage by the Henny Penny. The third was a drug addict sleeping it off in the alley on Fourth Street. All about an hour apart.”

  The captain slammed a folder closed on his desk. “I e-mailed you the details. I want you back on the streets and to stay there until you can tell me anything. This has to stop. The only reason the media isn’t all over us is because no one cares.”

  “I care,” Drake said.

  “Then stop it, Detective Logan.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’m on it. Let me wrap things up here, and I’ll get back out on the streets.”

  “I want him wired,” the captain said to Mark. “No mistakes. I want a team close enough to get there fast if he gets splashed with gasoline.”

  “Got it.”

  “As in, they don’t get a second to light a match. Don’t take chances. Either of you.”

  Mark nodded.

  “Logan,” the captain barked as they were about to leave his office.

  He turned around.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your godfather.”

  “Thanks, Cap. We’ll get these guys.”

  “I can take the doctor home,” Mark said.

  “Get bent,” Drake told him. “I’ll handle it.” He poked his head into the conference room. “Hey, you ready?”

  Pam smiled at him. “Yeah, I just got off the phone with the maid service and the locksmith.”

  “What time are they coming tomorrow?”

  “Around four.”

  Drake nodded. “We should be all done by then. But if we’re not, I’ll need you to call them off.”

  “Sure. Just let me know.”

  “Doctor, it was a pleasure meeting you today. I’m sorry it was so eventful.” Mark took her hand and shook it.