Chapter Twenty-Six
"Well, that's weird," Nadia commented, tilting her head and frowning at the television.
Orion turned his head to raise an eyebrow at her from the opposite side of the couch. "What is?"
She pointed at the screen, which was set to the news, as it usually was. "They've been promising us that Burgess would be formally arrested today; we've been sitting here off and on since the morning news, keeping an eye out for it and there hasn't been so much as a hint."
"Is it typical for them to announce every story they do in advance?"
"No, not every story. But the major ones? Yeah, they usually do; at some point during the day, at least."
He shrugged. "Ah. Regardless, we will just have to wait like everyone else."
Nadia giggled to herself, already reaching for her cellphone. "As if."
Orion rolled his eyes, settling back to watch the television while she set to circumventing her boredom. Calling Chief Roman's number, she got comfortable as well and waited for him to pick up.
When he did, his voice sounded strained. "Police Chief Daniel Roman."
"Chief, it's me," she began, but he cut her off before she could say more.
"Look, Nadia, I appreciate your interest in what we do here, but it's been a long day, could we do this another time?"
"What's wrong?" she frowned. "You don't sound quite yourself tonight."
He chuckled dryly. "Not myself, huh. Yeah, I suppose I wouldn't. Remember when you dropped by two days ago?"
"Yes?" she confirmed, still not sure what he was getting at.
"Well, right before you left, the evidence on Burgess was handed to me; and we had some great stuff on the man, too. All yesterday, we were arranging for his formal arrest and telling... well, making sure we wouldn't have any interference."
Nadia felt herself furrowing her brow at that. "Interference from whom, Chief?"
He sighed. "Look, I shouldn't have said anything, but since I have already, keep it to yourself, all right? The reason we've been stalling on bringing Burgess into custody is because of the... well, we'll call it influence, of some of Icarus Development's 'friends'."
"Who does a construction business know that could influence the police?"
"Oh, it isn't I.D.I. itself; it's who they're owned by. Some multinational, trillion-dollar umbrella corporation I've never even heard of. Apparently they provide a lot of funding to various government agencies; our police force included."
She blinked. "They threatened to pull money from the police for Burgess' sake?"
"Look, I'm not proud of having to go along with it, but the fact is we need all the money we can get if we want to keep the city a safe one."
"I wasn't judging you, Chief," she reassured. "But that doesn't explain why Burgess is off the hook. They couldn't just wave away his case... could they?"
"No, we weren't going to be pushed around that completely. Yesterday, had you asked any officer in the city, they would have told you Burgess would be behind bars by now."
"Then what happened?"
"Burgess did," he replied, a slight, bitter laugh accompanying the pair of words. "He turned up this morning. Just walked in the front door and asked to see me; put a recording on my desk. A recording of one of our newer officers confessing to tampering with the evidence."
Nadia winced reflexively. "Oh no... The whole case?"
"Gone," he confirmed.
She shook her head, refusing to believe it. "But there has to be something you can do! I mean, you could prove which parts of the evidence were-"
He cut her off again, his voice firm, but weary. "I sent to see Baldwin, he's in the hospital having some broken bones in his foot looked at. I got him to tell me what he screwed around with and, as luck would have it, it was the only real evidence we'd had. Without it, we've got nothing incriminating enough to see the case through. Burgess is a free man."
Nadia sighed. "All right. Sorry, Chief; I didn't mean to push."
"It's all right, Nadia. Take care."
Closing her cellphone, Nadia put it down on the coffee table; a little harder than she had meant to. Orion, glancing her way at the sudden noise, frowned. "Is everything all right?"
"No," she stated simply. "What time is it?"
"Time?" he blinked then checked the clock on the wall. "About eight, why?"
"Because I want a pizza," she stated flatly. "And you're going to help me eat it so I don't feel as guilty about it."
He blinked. "But we already had supper."
"And?"
Orion sighed; she had her stubborn face on, there was no talking her out of this. "Very well."
"Good," she said, getting up. "Let's go."
"Go?"
"To pick it up," she replied, as if it was perfectly obvious.
"I had been under the impression that the delivery service was invented so you did not have to?"
"Yes, it was. But I feel like going for a drive. Are you coming, or not?"
He frowned, clearly deliberating the pros and cons of the idea; Nadia rolled her eyes and sighed. "All right, tell you what; I'll wait downstairs in the car for exactly five minutes. If you're coming, get down there before I pull out."
His ruby eyes blinked as he nodded; but it was good enough for her. Tugging her shoes on, she grabbed her purse and made for the elevator. Orion, meanwhile, considered her invitation; oddly, he did want to go. How peculiar, he thought to himself. But perhaps it would not be altogether unpleasant. Beginning to stand, he noticed her phone had been left on the coffee table; a quiet smile crawled onto his face. Miss Lawson is quite ingenious about getting her way.
When he reached his hostess' blue Prius, she smiled innocently at him through the windshield as he approached. Opening the passenger side, Orion slid into his usual spot and offered Nadia her phone. "I believe you left this deliberately?"
Looking a tad sheepish, Nadia took her phone from him and rested it on the dash, managing to contain a grin. "I don't know what you mean. I'm ever so glad you decided to come along, though."
Rolling his eyes, Orion buckled up while she did the same; before either one could say anything further, however, her phone began to ring. Typical, Nadia thought. Always at the worst time. Lifting it up, she saw it was her parent's number on the display.
She smiled apologetically at Orion. "It's my parents. They're probably calling to talk about Burgess getting off; I won't be long, I'm not really in the mood to talk about it for long."
Her fellow occupant nodded. "Take your time. There is no need to rush."
He was being surprisingly easy to talk to; that, at least, cheered Nadia up a little. Opening her phone, she put it to her ear. "Your daughter speaking."
There was silence on the other end of the line; not so much as a dial tone. Frowning, she tried again. "Mom? Daddy? You there?"
A voice she didn't recognize answered; male and, if she had to guess, older than thirty. Not that that narrowed it down very much. "They're here, all right." She paled, feeling her free hand unconsciously grab hold of something for support. The man, making a deliberate effort to disguise his voice, continued. "Get over here; but come alone. If I catch wind of Orion, the police, or anyone else... well, I don't think I need to elaborate; I'll just let you imagine what would happen."
"Tell me my parents are safe," she demanded, but heard nothing in response other than Orion turning to look at her in surprise. "All right, I'll be right there, but I will swear to a deity or political entity of your choosing that I will make damned sure you pay if you hurt them."
Awaiting a response, the dial tone suddenly kicked in and she realized she had been hung up on mid-retort. Her anger dissipated quickly, however, overtaken by the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had known her parents could get involved and had hoped it would never happen. It only hurt worse that it had after she thought she could relax. After all, Black had been the only one to appear anywhere near them; now that she knew he was a part of Orion, who was u
sually with her, it had seemed more of an afterthought. And, sure, Burgess was still a free man, but he had never made any mention of her folks before. She swallowed, closing her phone and letting her hand fall to her side. She realized her chosen 'anchor' was Orion's hand, but didn't even care. No, the feeling she felt squirming up from her stomach was overpowering all of that. It was fear. Fear for her parents, but most of all, fear of not knowing who it was threatening them; of not knowing what to expect. A fear of the unknown, made so much worse by the fact that the unknown was in her parents' house.
In Icarus' Shadow Page 42