And involved she had been. She found herself mindful of the promise she had made to her first partner at his gravesite. She swore she would take care of the corner of the world his children lived in. It had taken her two near death experiences and the shooting of two suspects, but again, Delta Stevens had come out on top.
Now, several weeks later, Delta and her buddies were on to new cases. Now, they were returning their attention to the locals and trying to find ways to make their beats safer; a task which was becoming more difficult all the time.
“What’s going on in there?” Tony asked, pointing to Delta’s head.
“Nothing. Just thinking about muster, that’s all.”
Tony drove for a while longer without a response. When too much silence passed between them, he became too uncomfortable to let it go on.
“You don’t have to share anything with me if you don’t want to. Just know that I’m here if you wanna talk. I’ll be here for the next nine and a half hours, so any time you want to dump a load of mind trash, go for it.”
Delta nodded and drew deeper into herself and her thoughts. Tony Carducci was finally beginning to understand. But that understanding didn’t appear overnight. It had taken him a while to get used to the idea that his partner wasn’t only a woman, but a woman who belonged to the ten percent club. Eventually, he accepted their differences, and with that, made an attempt to understand a lifestyle and orientation that couldn’t be further away from his. His attempts earned him a lot of points. Tony was neither patronizing nor intrusive. When he realized that Delta and Megan’s relationship went through the same kinds of peaks and valleys as everyone else he knew, he stopped viewing them as some social anomaly. Now, Megan and Delta were just another couple trying to keep everything together.
“Carducci,” Delta said as they cruised through the dark streets. “Don’t you ever get tired of being single?”
Tony thought for a moment before answering. This pause was a new revelation from a man who used to blurt whatever thought popped in his head, however stupid it might be.
“Sometimes, sure. It’s not the greatest. Is being alone starting to get to you?”
Delta shrugged. “Good days, bad days.”
Tony nodded his understanding. “Today one of those bad days?”
“Is it that obvious? Don’t answer that.”
“Hey, man, I know what it’s like when the lovin’s there one minute, and in the next minute, it’s gone. All of a sudden, a hug is a big deal.” Delta remembered a break up she’d had four years ago. She did nothing but eat Chinese food and read magazines for weeks. One day, Connie sat down with her and explained what Delta was doing. Connie said the body gets used to being touched, to being stroked and caressed. And when the touching stops suddenly, there’s a sort of withdrawal the body experiences, something called ‘skin hunger.’ That hunger, ache for human warmth is why so many inmates have same sex lovers while incarcerated, and then return to their straight world upon release. Four years ago, Delta wondered if this was another one of Connie’s tall tales. Now, she wasn’t so sure.
“I’d give you a hug, Delta, but I don’t think it would help.”
This made Delta grin. “No, it wouldn’t, but thanks for the thought.” They drove in silence for some time, until Tony slowed down in a dark alley. Delta turned and studied him for a moment. “Do you want to find that one special someone to settle down with someday? You know, that one certain love who steals your heart?”
Tony nodded slowly, but did not look at her. “Had one once.”
“Really? What happened?”
“I guess you could say she was the one who got away.”
Delta aimed her spotlight at the doorstep where one of her favorite homeless men usually sequestered himself from the cold night air. She was surprised he wasn’t there. Checking her watch, she made a mental note to swing by and check again in a couple of hours.
“She got away?”
“Yep. Gwen was the love of my life. She meant more to me than all the others put together. And,” he paused again, grinning, “I don’t think I need to remind you just how many that is.”
Feeling no need to comment or boost his ego, Delta waved him on to tell the rest of the story.
“I don’t even know what happened,” Tony continued. “We’d been going out for about six months, and I was having a blast. We did almost everything together. She loved football and could beat any of my friends in pool. She was really a great friend.”
“Sounds like it. So, what changed?”
“I don’t know. Things were moving along, and then one night, right after making love, she said we were through. Finished. Over.”
“Just like that? No explanation?”
Tony shook his head. “She said she’d fallen in love with someone else. How and when she could have done that, I don’t have a clue. We were together all the time. When I asked if I knew him, she wouldn’t answer. Just said it was best to go our separate ways.”
Delta reached out and lightly touched his arm. She had watched Tony stare death in the face with less emotion than he was sharing now, and she hurt for him. Affair pain was all too familiar to Delta, and it didn’t matter whether you were straight, gay, or in between, being cheated on was the shittiest feeling in the world.
“So, you just said goodbye?”
Tony nodded and sighed loudly. “There wasn’t anything left to do. She didn’t want me anymore. I asked her what I had done wrong, but she just kept saying to let it go. To this day, I don’t know what I did. All I know, is I lost the only woman I’ve ever thought about marrying.”
The M word brought Delta out of her seat. “Marry? You were going to marry her?”
“I hadn’t asked her yet, but I was planning on it.” Tony chuckled bitterly. “At least I didn’t look like too much of a chump, huh? The only stupid thing I did was buy a pool table so that we could stay home and play pool instead of always going to some bar.” Tony flicked off the spotlight and kept talking. “She always kicked my butt in pool. And you know what? I never got pissed. She was so beautiful when she studied the balls and the angles. God, I miss those times.”
“You were really in love with her, weren’t you?”
“Yep. I still carry her picture.” Struggling to dig into his back pocket, Tony pulled his wallet out and removed a picture. “Want to see?”
Delta smiled warmly as she turned on the small dashboard lamp and aimed it toward Tony’s picture. Taking the picture by the edges, Delta peered closely at this object of Carducci’s greatest passion. Gwen appeared to be in her early twenties, petite in stature, a bottle blonde who wore her long hair straight down. She was standing next to a pool table, holding a pool cue in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.
“She’s cute,” Delta said, allowing her eyes to linger as though studying a mug shot. Something about this picture haunted her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “And you haven’t seen her since?”
“Nope. Right after we broke up, I went to all of our old hangouts hoping to see her, but I never did. I finally gave up and moved on. My buddies were happy about that. Said I’d been acting like a fool.”
Delta handed the picture back and flicked the lamp off. “You weren’t a fool, Carducci. You were in love. Love makes us all crazy sometimes.”
Tony grinned. “Sometimes?”
“Most of the time. What would you have done if you saw her?”
Heaving another heavy sigh, Tony replaced the picture and put his wallet back. “I guess I’d just want some answers. Del, I did all the things women say they want from a guy. I sent roses, took her to bed-and-breakfasts, made her dinner, cleaned the house, took her to see those mushy women movies, and all that other shit, and it still wasn’t enough. I just want to know what more I could have done.”
Delta hid her incredible surprise. She could hardly imagine Tony Carducci even knowing what a bed-and-breakfast was, let alone spending the night at one. Her narrow opinion of the man evid
ently needed a minor adjustment. “And she never told you why it was over?”
“Nope. She packed her things and headed for greener pastures, I guess.”
Delta stared out the window and felt her own sliver of pain still embedded in her heart. Some years earlier, she’d walked in on her lover and best friend in her bed one afternoon. Apparently, the tryst had been going on for some time, but Delta was either too busy or too stupid to notice.
“Affairs suck.”
Tony smiled at her, a deeper understanding flowing between them. “Yeah, and so do cheaters.”
Suddenly, the radio came to life and Delta took the call.
“S-10-12, you have a 1-0-0 going off at 139 Wolfe Avenue. Possible 4-5-9 in progress. R-11-12 will back up. Copy?”
Flipping the lights on, Delta felt her heart rate accelerate as a burst of adrenaline surged through her. A burglary-in-progress was a dangerous call. Since few burglars were ever caught in the act, their reactions to being caught were as unpredictable as the weather. Some immediately gave up, some jumped out of second-story windows, and some...well, those who had already been to the Big House often fought back with frightening tenacity. It all depended on what kind of burg it was; there were druggy burgs, juvenile burgs, and professional burgs, any one of which could pull a gun out and start shooting. A 4-5-9 in progress meant cops might scare a perp into doing something neither of them wanted to happen. Delta never took this type of call lightly.
“This is S-10-12 with a 10-4 on that 4-5-9. We’re about two away and will make our approach from the east side, over.”
“Affirmative, S-10-12. R-11-12, do you copy?”
After everyone was assured of where everyone else was going to be, Delta hung up her mike and glanced over at Tony. “You do know which side of Wolfe is the east side, don’t you?”
Nodding, Tony grinned slightly. “I do now, boss.”
Delta knew her beat better than her own neighborhood. She knew the back streets and alleys that dead-ended, as well as which side roads offered the greatest protection from snipers or ambushes. Her knowledge came from years of practice and experience, and it was now up to her to teach Tony as much of that knowledge as possible.
“All right, Carducci, a 4-5-9 in progress isn’t something to mess around with. A burglar is a completely different kind of criminal than one you’ve faced so far. Unlike a robber, who rips people off, a burglar doesn’t want confrontation. They most often choose unoccupied homes in order to avoid contact with the victim.”
Tony nodded as he accelerated through a red light. “Okay.”
“So be careful. If he’s there, he could surrender right away or come out shooting.”
Tony nodded as he reached down and turned the lights off. “Anything else?”
Delta grinned. Oh, how he had changed. But then, killing a man had a sobering effect on both of them. Taking another life, no matter how right or just the situation had been, had changed them. No longer was Tony so eager to jump into a brawl without thinking it through. No longer did he push his badge in people’s faces or abuse the authority given to him. The new-and-improved Tony Carducci was a boy who had come to her as a reckless youth and blossomed into a more mature, much wiser man.
Tony parked the car several houses away. As they moved closer to the sloping driveway on foot, Delta stopped at the tall, iron gates blocking their path.
“Damn.”
“What’s the matter? Let’s just climb over.”
Delta shook her head. “It isn’t that. Our burglar is really going to feel trapped if he’s in there. Trapped perps fight the hardest.”
“Let’s not give him that chance.”
Delta grinned like a teacher whose worst student finally got the answer right.
After climbing the gate, Delta landed gingerly while Tony thudded to the ground, his size eleven shoes slapping the pavement loudly.
“Geez, Carducci, would you rather just yell to him that we’re on our way?”
“What?”
“Forget it.” Okay, so he still needed some work.
Squatting down, Delta radioed that they were about to move in and directed backup to the opposite side of the house.
“Let’s go,” Tony whispered, taking a step forward before Delta rose and stopped him.
“Relax, will you? Check to see if there are any flickering lights.”
“Flickering lights?”
Delta shook her head in disgust. “I swear to God, you must have slept through the Academy. Flickering lights, Carducci; the kind flash- lights make. No good thief ever leaves home without one.”
A minute crept by. Then two. Delta nudged Tony and pointed to a window. “Watch.” Turning her face so she could talk into the mike attached to her collar, Delta instructed backup to hit their sirens. “If there’s a thief in that house, they’re gonna blast outta there like a cannonball.”
Tony smiled widely. “Cool.”
After two more minutes, Delta rose. “Well, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone home. Now, let’s have a look-see, shall we?” Unholstering her .357 magnum, Delta started to the side of the house.
“All that and now you take your gun out?”
Delta grinned. “What is it with men and their guns? If it were up to you, and thank God it isn’t, you’d all walk around town holding it in your hand.”
“It? Are you talking about our guns or our di—”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Tony nodded and smiled, but said nothing more.
“If there’s a burglar in there too scared to come out, I want him to see that I mean business. Always assume there’s someone in there just waiting to shoot us.”
Tony hesitated a second before drawing his weapon. Tony Carducci had one of the keenest eyes and softest strokes of anyone coming out of the Academy in more than a decade. It had been his incredible marksmanship that carried him through the rigors of Academy life. He was a natural. The SWAT team was just waiting for the rough edges to be smoothed out and then off he’d go. It fell upon Delta’s shoulders to do the majority of the buffing.
“Looks like the front window’s busted,” Tony said.
Delta squinted through the darkness of night and saw a hole in the window. “Yeah, but not big enough for anyone to get through. That’s odd.” Pulling out her flashlight, Delta shined it at the hole. “See the wires running the length of the window?”
“Yeah.”
“Someone must have been testing to see if this place was as secure as the label on the window.”
“Then you don’t think there’s anyone in there?”
Delta grinned. “I didn’t say that. But there will be shortly.” Pointing to the iron gate, Delta watched as it slowly creaked open to allow a huge Cadillac to roll in. “The Clampetts have returned.”
Tony looked at her. “The who?”
“Forget it, Tony. I can barely remember it…”
After the homeowners had parked and showed the two officers in the house, they turned off the alarm and called the alarm company. While they tended to business, Delta’s eyes roamed from a Ming vase to the marble entryway, and up to what she was sure must be an authentic Picasso. The house had the look and feel of a professional interior designer, yet it didn’t have that “lived in” look. If she were a burglar, she’d come to this house a couple of times a month just for rent money.
“Everything appears to be in order.” The husband, Jerome Turnbull said as he reentered the room after taking a look around the house for any sign of theft or damage. “All my coins, my guns, my belt buckles—”
“Belt buckles?” Tony asked.
“Hell, yeah, son. Been collecting them since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Got my first one from my granddaddy. I don’t know what I’d’a done if someone woulda taken those.”
Suddenly, Mrs. Turnbull came rushing down the stairs clutching her chest with one hand and waving the other frantically. “My ring! My diamond wedding ring is gone!”
Jed turned
around and shook his head. “She loses that blasted thing every other day. I swear, you’d think it was one of those cubit zuchronums the way she leaves it laying around.”
Mrs. Turnbull stepped on the marble floor. “Oh, hush up, Jerome. I know exactly where I left it and it isn’t there. I checked all over the bathroom and it’s gone. Vanished. Stolen.”
Delta flipped her pad open and clicked her pen. “You left a ring in the bathroom?”
“Not just any ring, Officer—” she leaned forward so she could read Delta’s nametag. “Stevens. A 1.5 carat diamond ring from Van Cleef & Arpels. Jerome gave it to me for an anniversary present.”
Delta jotted this down. She found it slightly amusing that the “aw shucks, we ain’t that rich,” attitude was now replaced by the much more apt “my 1.5 carat diamond was stolen.” Delta wasn’t sure which posture bothered her the most.
“What else is missing?”
Mrs. Turnbull shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Excuse me?” Delta said, lowering the pad.
“My emeralds and rubies are still in my jewelry box. My pearl necklace is still draped over my vanity. I don’t think he took anything else.”
“Now, honey,” Jerome said, patting his wife patronizingly on the back. “No thief is gonna come in here and steal just one diamond ring. There’s at least six figures’ worth of jewelry in your box, and you’re telling us he only took one ring? You must have just misplaced it.”
“I did not. I know where I left it and it’s gone.”
“How about we take a look upstairs?” Delta said, clicking her pen. “Maybe we can sort through this from up there.”
Coming to the top of the stairs, Delta’s eyes roamed across the top floor. This was a beautiful home filled with antiques, expensive-looking chandeliers, and colorful oriental rugs. Even an amateur thief wouldn’t walk away with just one ring. Besides, how hard was it to carry a jewelry box?
“You’ll have to excuse my wife, Officer. She has an overactive imagination. Some kid threw a rock through the window and that tripped the alarm. Period. Amen.”
Delta did not acknowledge this as she walked into the first two bedrooms and studied each window. All four windows were locked.
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