by J. J. Jones
After a quick shower, I drive into work. In my mind, I know that I will see Olivia, and I am not sure what to say or how to react when I see her. I haven’t been sexually involved with someone I work with before, and I am pretty sure now I understand why people generally don’t like to do it. It makes going to work feel very awkward – and I’m not even there yet.
From the parking lot, I can tell that I have beat Olivia to work. I breathe a short sigh of relief knowing that if a confrontation is going to happen, she will have to initiate it, because I will stay glued to my desk all day.
I exchange familiar greetings with other officers as I walk into the precinct, and then make my way over to my desk. I start to rummage through some files and try to make myself look busy. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Olivia walk through the front door. I quickly pick up my phone and pretend to be talking about a case with an invisible someone on the other end.
I make eye contact with Olivia, smile and wave to her. She gives me a half-hearted smile in return. My heart sinks knowing that I’ve done something wrong by the look she is giving me. She doesn’t seem mad, but she’s also not excited to see me either. She makes her way over to my desk after talking with a few officers.
I realize that I can’t pretend to be in the phone forever. “Hey, Detective, something’s come up over on my end. Can I give you a call a little later when things settle down?”
I pretend to wait for an answer and smile up at Olivia holding up a finger to let her know I’ll be off the phone in a minute.
“Yeah, yeah, okay, I’ll call you later, bye,” I hang up the phone. “Morning.” I say to Olivia as a feeling of dread overwhelms me. This is going to be an interesting conversation.
“So it is morning,” her voice is like ice.
“Huh?” I reply completely clueless.
“Never mind,” she says shaking her head.
“Did you sleep well?” I ask unable to think of anything else to say.
“Fine, thanks. A little surprised to wake up alone, but fine,” she whispers so no one else in the office can hear. But her voice isn’t a cute little whisper; it is more of a hiss than a whisper.
Tom walked by my office windows and started raising his eyebrows and making gestures behind Olivia’s back. On any other occasion than the current one, I might actually find his humor amusing, but not today.
“Tom,” I call out perhaps a little too anxious.
Tom turns and looks at me a little bewildered. “Yeah?” he asks.
“Tom, did you follow up on any of the leads from the Jones case?” I ask searching for anything to get me away from Olivia.
“What do you mean? We didn’t have any leads,” Tom looks at me obviously confused.
“Well, what I mean is, did you contact forensics and CSI to see if they found anything at the scene? A fingerprint or shoe print perhaps?” I look at him steadily and wait for an answer.
“No, I guess I hadn’t followed up on that, yet. I guess I just assumed that if there was something significant, they would contact us.” Tom said shrugging his shoulders and looking to Olivia to back him up a little.
“Well that’s a problem, Tom. We can’t assume anything. We need to follow up on everything.” I wave my hand, “Come on, let’s go. We’ll swing by autopsy on our way back. I’m sure they’ll have finished by now. Maybe they’ll have something for us.”
“Uh, okay,” Tom replies.
I jump from my chair and slide past Olivia where Tom and I walk out of the precinct together. I finally feel as if I can breathe properly again. I take in a few really deep breaths to fill my body with renewed oxygen. Maybe I was holding my breath in there or something.
I spent the morning wasting time with Tom. We walked through the whole building talking to different people about the “Vampire Vigilante” case, which of course I already know the outcome to. I am extremely bored with all the details, but my fear of returning to the precinct is far greater than my boredom.
My phone receives a text. Need you interrogation. It’s from Brogan. Tom sees me read the text and I must have had a strange look on my face, because he says, “What’s going on?”
“Did you know someone was being brought into interrogation today?” I ask holding up my phone.
“Nope, didn’t know a thing. What case is it for?” Tom asks.
“I don’t know,” I say wondering the same thing.
“Well we better get back if you’re needed there,” Tom says.
“Yeah,” I say following his lead back toward the precinct.
**
We make it back to the precinct, and I can’t find Sergeant Brogan anywhere. I decide to just go back to my office and wait it out until he finds me. Once I’m back in my office I start to look through files again, thinking about the fact that I didn’t get any information out of going the to bar last night. I feel Olivia walk into the room before I look up and actually see her.
“What are you playing at, Jack?” Olivia spits her words at me.
“I don’t know what you mean?” I ask feeling confused.
“You come to my apartment, have sex with me, and then leave once I’m asleep,” her eyes are piercing into me.
“I’m sorry,” I say a little too much like a question.
“You’re sorry?” she says sarcastically.
I stay silent, not knowing what to say next.
“Are you just using me, Jack? Did you use me last night?” her tone is accusing and hurtful.
“What?! No, that’s not it all, Olivia,” I try to think of a way to explain.
“Oh right. I’m sure you sleep with different women all the time and probably do the same thing. Only you fucked up with me, because now you have to see me every day. Those other women were probably just one night stands you never had to see again,” she’s heated and out of breath.
“There are no other women, Olivia. I don’t sleep around and I’m definitely not a player or whatever you said. I just don’t always know what to say or how to act around women. I always screw it up,” I put my head in my hands and rub my temples.
“I don’t believe you. You’re smart and handsome. I’m sure women are falling all over you all the time. And a player like you wouldn’t even try to resist, would you? You love all the attention and take everything you can get.” I see tears brimming on her eyes.
“Olivia, please believe me. I’m not like that. What happened last night was something I would have never expected or planned to happen by asking you out. Please you have to believe me,” I stand and reach to put my arm on her shoulders, but she pulls away resisting me.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore, Jack. Everything is so fucked up now,” she turns to leave my office just as Sergeant Brogan comes through the door. The two practically collide. Olivia apologizes quickly and exits the office before any further questions are asked.
I don’t have time to really process the conversation that just took place between Olivia and me. I wish I could figure it out, but women are just so damn confusing. They have never made sense to me, and I’m not sure they ever will.
Sergeant Brogan looks a little confused by the confrontation and turns to watch Olivia leave. He turns back to address me.
“We’ve got a man in interrogation for the rapes and murders of all those women on the upper Eastside. I need you to go talk to him. See what you can figure out. I’m not sure what to make of this one.” Brogan waits for me and together we walk over to interrogation. Could this be my guy?
I stand outside the door and whom do I see, but Gerald. I’m shocked that the department found him before I was able to take care of him. I try to hide my shock and move forward with the interrogation. Brogan hands me a file. It’s paper thin. I look inside and find one sheet of paper talking about Gerald.
I already know all of this. Gerald has a perfect record, not even a speeding ticket. He’s a model citizen who pays his taxes and most likely is loved by his neighbors. But Gerald is also a rapist and a killer,
and for these offenses against society he will pay. I just need confirmation of his crimes. Anything will do.
Brogan notices me looking in the file and speaks, “We don’t think this is our guy. I mean look at him? He doesn’t really shout rapist or murderer to me. But we found his fingerprint in the apartment of the last victim, so we’re just following up. The arresting officers had a little bit of a conversation with him, so there’s a few more details about him I can tell you. He’s got a girlfriend, named Margo. The girlfriend has a daughter, and Gerald is practically raising her. They live in a pretty nice little apartment up on 72nd. That’s all I know, so go and do what you do best Jack.” Brogan gestured to the door.
I nod at Sergeant Brogan before opening the door and heading into the room. I toss the file onto the table and sit in the chair opposite Gerald.
“Gerald, my name is Detective Van Pierre. I’m here to talk with you a little about a girl you might know, her name was Hillary Broadview.”
“Oh, yeah Hillary, what about her?” Gerald asks calmly.
“She was raped and murdered a few nights ago. Were you aware of that?” I ask looking him in the eye.
“What?! No, not Hillary. She was the sweetest girl in the world. I just never would have thought…wow…that’s awful.” Gerald rubs his hand on the side of his head as if he was thinking of something.
I tried briefly to read his thoughts, but with it being daylight, I just didn’t have the mental strength to complete the connection. It is a pity I do not get more night shifts.
“So Gerald, have you been to Hillary’s house before?” I ask hoping to catch him in a lie.
“Yeah, quite a few times actually. Hillary was a favorite babysitter for my daughter. We used her whenever we had the chance. She was affordable and she was great,” he speaks completely in control.
“So can you explain why your fingerprint would end up in her bedroom?” I ask pressing him further.
“Oh yeah sure. Sometimes my daughter would fall asleep in the car on the way over the Hillary’s. Instead of waking her up, I would just carry her upstairs to Hillary’s room and she would sleep there. I’m sure I probably left a fingerprint or two on various objects in the room while I was sneaking her in or sneaking myself out.”
His story is completely rehearsed, almost as if he planned to get caught, or at least had planned what he would say if he did. A quick knock on the two-way glass mirror signals to me that I’m needed in the hall.
“Excuse me, Gerald, I will return soon.”
“Not a problem, I’ll be here,” he smiles.
I nod in return and step out of the room.
“What is it?” I ask.
“This is a waste of time, he seems clean to me. I can buy his story about how the fingerprint showed up at the apartment. And I just don’t feel it in my gut that this guy is the killer. What do you think?” Brogan asks me.
“I agree. I don’t see how we can keep him when everything seems to be checking out on him. What about an alibi? Did we check on that?” I ask.
“Yeah, we are working on it. We should know any minute,” even as Sergeant Brogan finished his thought, his cell phone buzzed. Pulling it out, he quickly read the text and returned the phone to his side. “The man’s alibi checks out. He’s not our guy. Just let him go.”
Part of me is excited that he’s being let go, but the other part realizes how it is far too easy to get away from things like this. I couldn’t believe that our department couldn’t find one shred of evidence to connect this guy to the actual rapes and murders. I wasn’t sure how to prove it in court of law, but in the court of Jack, I make the laws.
I nod my head toward Brogan and proceed to enter the interrogation room again feeling mixed emotions.
“Well Gerald I have good news, your alibi checks out and we really don’t have any reason to keep you. If you can think of anything to help our investigation into Hillary’s death, please contact our department,” I hand him my card. “This is the number to my direct line. Please feel free to contact me whenever if you happen to think of something that might lead us to Hillary’s killer.”
“Thanks, Detective,” Gerald stands and starts to walk away from the table. He turns back and looks at me shaking his finger. “Now I knew that I knew you from somewhere, but I couldn’t figure it out until just now. I saw you and some pretty girl last night downtown at a bar. You guys broke up a fight and then caused your own,” he laughed a little.
“Yeah, we were there,” I say trying to keep things nonchalant since I know that Sergeant Brogan is probably still watching behind the glass.
“Yeah how could I forget? You had some pretty nice skills for a cop. You don’t meet many cops that can fight the way you did. Pretty impressive,” he extends his hand to shake mine.
“It wasn’t really that impressive, but thank you,” I reach out and shake his hand. As we touch and he comes closer, I can read his thoughts. He is thinking about Olivia. My blood immediately begins to boil as I see his thoughts unfold. He pictures himself with Olivia, raping her from behind. The manic look on his face terrorizes me and infuriates me at the same time. He shoves his dick into her over and over again while she buries her head in shame and screams in pain. Gerald only laughs at her agony in the vision.
Gerald releases my hand from our handshake and instantly my window into his thoughts is closed and I can no longer see what he is thinking. I try to keep my cool even though I am so mad I feel like strangling him and drinking his blood right there in the interrogation room. I control my emotions and calm myself down a little.
“Have a good day,” Gerald smiles like any regular guy.
“Yeah, you have a good day too,” I reply, knowing it will be his last day also. There is no doubt in my mind now that Gerald is the man I’ve been looking for. I don’t know how he faked his alibi for the night of Hillary’s murder, but that won’t matter to me. I have my man, and I will fulfill justice where justice is due. The city will be a safer place without Gerald to terrorize the women. I also need a good meal, that sex seemed to have sapped my energy somewhat.
I walk out of the interrogation room planning to head back to my office, hoping that Olivia won’t corner me again. But as I step out of the interrogation room, Brogan is standing there waiting for me.
“What’s your opinion on the guy, Jack?” Brogan asks me.
“Oh, well I don’t think he’s our guy if that’s what you mean. We’ve got no evidence to tie him to Hillary’s murder except for the fingerprint, which he explained is there because of this daughter. We don’t have anything to tie him to the previous murders, and not to mention his alibi checks out, so I mean what else is there to do?”
“Yeah, I know,” Brogan continues, “the guy just gives me the creeps. Everything about him screams a great upstanding citizen, but he just rubs me the wrong way, ya know?”
“Oh, yeah if that’s what you mean, sure. I would agree with that completely. He may have a clean record, but there’s something a little off with him.” I finish my sentence and start to walk away back toward my office.
Brogan laughs as he says, “Well I just compared him to you. He gives me the creeps like you do. It’s not something I can place, but some people just send those chills down your spine and you know there’s something different about them. You and Gerald are like that.”
I feel the heat rising in my face, and I can tell I am becoming upset. How dare the Sergeant compare me to that animal? He and I are nothing alike.
“Don’t get upset, I’m not trying to offend you,” Brogan laughs again. “It’s just funny.”
I calm myself down and smile to tell the Sergeant it wasn’t a big deal, even though I’m highly offended inside.
“Well regardless, I am going to follow up on a few things with this guy. He just rubs me wrong, so I don’t trust him completely.” I can tell that Brogan isn’t really talking to me, but more just talking out loud.
I nod my head, “You do what you feel is the right
thing to do, Sergeant.” My voice seems to bring him back to the present moment.
“So you and Olivia were out last night?” Brogan asks curiously.
“Yeah, we just went to a bar downtown to have a few drinks after work,” I try to keep in low key.
“And there was a fight?” Brogan presses further.
“Yeah, a couple guys got into it, so we stepped in,” I shrug it off.
“It sounds like you stepped in,” Brogan replies.
“Well Olivia stepped in first, but the guys weren’t the most respectful. I just did my job and prevented more people from getting hurt.”