Con Game Page 6

  “This is business, I’m afraid.”

  Megan lowered her heads and feigned a frown. “Business? Darn. I was hoping this was a social call.”

  “I wish it was.”

  “How silly of me to think that you would do something as spontaneous as drive over here to flirt with me.”

  “Maybe some other time.”

  “Mmmm. I’d like that. You know what they say.” Megan pulled Delta closer and nibbled on her ear. “Variety is the spice of life.”

  With chills running down her spine and goose bumps popping up on her arms, Delta slowly pulled away. “You drive me crazy. You know that, don’t you?”

  Megan’s eyes sparkled. “I hope so. Now, what is it you need, Officer Stevens?”

  “Meg, I need you to tap some of your old sources for me.”

  “How old?”

  “I need to know who the new man is in town. He’s a martial arts expert, or he may even be a weapons enthusiast. I think he’s pulled two jobs so far, both on my beat.”

  Megan nodded, the color slightly leaving her face. “Very dangerous?”

  “Extremely. He’s already killed once. Something tells me he’ll do it again.”

  “And you want me to see if any of my street buddies know anything.”

  “You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really important.”

  “I’ll see what I can do, but I don’t have much to go on.”

  “I know. We don’t have much. Only that he has a predilection for ancient or antique weaponry. It’s possible he may try to pawn of an ax that he ripped off. Try your pal—what’s that pawnbroker’s name?”

  “Carl Locodo?”

  “Yeah, he’s the one.”

  “We’re looking for the creep who threw that star at you, aren’t we?”

  Delta nodded. “Yep. I think he’s the same one who killed the guy in the drug store.”

  “Carl owes me a favor or two. I’ll see if he can check out the other pawn shops around the city as well.”

  “Great. I really appreciate it, hon. Right now, we’re pretty much stumped.”

  Megan stepped up to Delta and ran her hand along the inside of her uniform top. “You know I’d love nothing more than to help.” Bowing her head, Megan sighed. “It’s weird that you should come by tonight.”

  “Weird? Why?”

  “After our talk the other night, I felt like all I had done was point the finger at you, blaming you for our rough spots.”

  Delta waited, threading her fingers through Megan’s and holding Megan’s hand against her chest.

  “Then I realized that some of my blame-laying was misplaced. All this time, I’ve believed that you were spending too much time and energy on your job. I don’t hate what you do, Delta, I...”

  “What is it, Baby?”

  Shrugging, Megan shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, Del, but I think I’m jealous.”

  “Jealous? Of Jan?”

  “No, silly, of your job. When the four of us were working to bring Miles’s killers in, it was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life. Since then, I’ve just gone to school and work, with nothing really interesting to grab my attention.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You know what I mean. Delta, I understand why you love your job so much. Really, I do. Maybe I’m a little envious that it’s so much more exciting than what I’m doing now. I mean, I knew being a prostitute was risky. Then, I got involved with you and Miles’s murder case, and there was even more excitement than hooking.”

  “Are you saying you’re bored?”

  Megan shook her head. “Not with you. Not with my life. I just want you to know that I’m a little envious of the excitement and the thrill your job brings you. Delta, I love you more than anything in the world. I wouldn’t ever want you to stop being a cop, if that’s what you want. But part of my problem with our relationship is me. I’m not saying that you don’t still need to work on making our relationship first; I just need to come to terms with the fact that my life just isn’t as exciting as yours.”

  Delta released Megan and took hold of Megan’s face between both of her hands. “Is that why I saw that law book laying on the floor the other night?”

  Megan nodded and smiled shyly. “I’m thinking about changing my major.”

  “From business to law?”

  “What do you think?”

  Pulling Megan to her, Delta kissed her tenderly on the lips. “I think you’d be a great lawyer.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Do you understand that I didn’t mean to put all the blame on you?”

  Checking her watch, Delta nodded. “I’m not perfect, Meg. And most of what said was right. Can we finish this conversation later? I really need to follow up on a few things before the shift ends.”

  Megan nodded and ran her hand through Delta’s hair. “I love you so much, Delta Stevens. I’ll be waiting up with bells on. Nothing else. Just bells.”

  Delta grinned. “I thought you wanted to finish talking.”

  “Oh, we will. But when that’s done. . . I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. Now get out of here before I throw myself at your feet and beg you stay.”

  Taking one step out the door, Delta turned and smiled. “Really?”

  Megan’s grin instantly transformed into a warm smile. “Really. Delta Stevens, when will you ever get it through that thick head of yours that I love you?”

  Delta shrugged. “Sometimes, I don’t feel like I deserve it.”

  “Sometimes, you don’t. Now get going before Jan falls asleep.”

  “I love you.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re not going to let this one go, are you?” Jan asked, starting the engine.

  Delta shook her head. “No, Jan, I’m not.”

  “Because of the D.A. or because he tried to take you out?”

  “Maybe both. Maybe neither.” Delta stared out the window.

  Sometimes it felt like the women in her life were always questioning— always demanding reasons why she did the things she did. After college, Sandy, her ex-lover, never let up on why she would “throw away a college education” to work with street scum. Delta believed that becoming a cop was the beginning of the end for their relationship. And even when Delta tried to explain why she wanted to be a cop, Sandy didn’t listen or care. Delta had spent her entire childhood reading comics and dreaming about being somebody’s heroine. She wanted very much to be an X-Man or a member of the Fantastic Four—to be so brave and courageous and take chances no one else would. Few knew of Delta’s past penchant for comics. Delta’s love of the comic book heroine “Storm” was one of the reasons Connie had nicknamed her the same. That, and the fact that, as a rookie, Delta had always stormed into situations. In fact, she was still like that young, energetic woman, who proudly donned badge number 182.

  “Delta?”

  “Huh?”

  “You okay? You want to take a break or something?”

  Delta looked at Jan and sighed. “Jan, something inside tells me I have to stop this guy. There’s more to this than the murders. I don’t know what it is, but my gut instinct is screaming at me to dig harder and deeper than I already am.”

  “How much harder can you dig, Del? You’ve tapped into most of your reliable street sources. What more is there for you to do besides work yourself to death? And look where that’s already gotten you.”

  Delta studied Jan’s profile. For Jan, the job was just that: a job. Ten hours long, and left behind when she hung up her badge and nine-millimeter. For Delta, it extended well into the hours of her personal life. She could not leave behind in her locker the details she had witnessed during the night, nor could she easily forget about the victims and suspects and great lines of people who tramped through her life every night. They became a part of her psyche, some adding to her worries, some not, and either way, Delta wasn’t capable of letting go completely. These people—their pain,
their losses—were all a part of Delta’s life. And though she often wished she could be like Jan and leave it all behind, she wasn’t capable of doing that; it just wasn’t in Delta’s chemistry to turn away and not look back. If she could only learn how to successfully balance both her career and her relationship, she’d be one of the happiest people in the world.

  “I know that, Jan, but I can’t let go.” Delta listened to herself say this and then shook her head. “No, wait a minute. It’s not that I can’t let go of it. It won’t let go of me.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means, this creep has his hooks in me and isn’t letting go. It’s almost like I’m being reeled in. It’s weird. That’s the only way I can explain it.”

  “That is weird. Well, if he’s reeling you in, then I feel sorry for him. He’s got a much bigger fish than he could possibly bargain for.”

  As they cruised along the darkened streets like a tiger shark in the belly of the darkest ocean, Delta began scribbling notes on her pad and tried to hum an upbeat tune.

  “Is Dennis getting ready for the big race?” Delta asked, as they rolled to a stoplight.

  “As usual, he and the guys have this betting pool going. They bet on each other—you know, who’s going to lose the most, who’s going to luck out, that sort of thing.”

  Delta shook her head. Men were only boys in big bodies. “The ponies have never been kind to your husband.”

  Jan nodded. “Isn’t that the truth. He’s tried a thousand different systems, and none of them have worked.”

  Delta chuckled. “Remember when his system was to bet on the horses that peed just before going into the starting gates?”

  Their laughter was interrupted by the radio announcing they had a “possible shots fired” call; one of the worst calls a beat cop could get. A 2-16 could be an extremely dangerous situation. Or it might not.

  A lot like being a little pregnant or sort of blind, the call left a cop with more questions than answers, and answers were a cop’s greatest allies.

  Jan flipped open her book and ran her finger down the list of addresses. “It’s the Oakwood Apartment Complex.”

  “Let’s hit it!” Delta said, turning on both sirens and the lights. In less than a minute and a half, they pulled into an alley paralleling Hemingway Street.

  “The car lot?” Jan yelled, just before Delta killed the ear-piercing sirens.

  “Yes.” Car lots made for good cover when driving up to a 2-16 because they offered plenty of hiding areas should there be an ambush. Delta had seen a fellow officer go down once because he parked right on the street when responding to a PSF call. He hadn’t even gotten completely out of the car when he took two bullets in his leg and one in his abdomen. Since then, Delta always made sure she parked somewhere with sufficient cover.

  Slipping between two Gremlins, Delta motioned for Jan to look at the side door of the apartment building, which stood wide open. There were no lights on the inside, only a very dim exterior bulb, shining nakedly against the peeling paint.

  From her place behind the Gremlins, Delta spoke into her radio and asked for the E.T.A. of backup.

  When it arrived about a minute later, Delta sent them to the other side of the apartment building, issuing specific orders. Ever since she shot her would-be assassin in a warehouse, Delta became the expert in searching and maintaining a perimeter around buildings. Every officer in the city knew of her success against an armed man in a dark warehouse, and her victory was legendary.

  Delta motioned for Jan to cover her while she approached the open door. Entering dark buildings posed a greater threat than almost anything else a cop could face. Delta didn’t know if someone inside waited to shoot her. She didn’t know she was about to walk into the middle of another crime going down She basically knew zero about the situation.

  But someone had called the police because they believe they heard shots being fired. Shots fired plus an open door leading into a dark building meant trouble.

  When Delta reached the door, Jan slid in behind her, taking the low point as she had done at the pharmacy. As Jan and Delta crisscrossed through the interior hallway, Delta flicked on the lights. So far, she didn’t see anyone. Next, they came to a sparsely furnished dining room area that had a card table for a dining table, with papers and a fast food bag strewn across it. Looking around the corner of the dining room, Delta saw a man lying half in and half out of the kitchen and hoped this man wasn’t dead.

  Cautiously moving into the kitchen, Delta inhaled deeply and then held her breath as she looked down at the pool of blood already coagulating underneath the man. Delta leaned back against the wall and tried to control her gag reflex by inhaling slowly through her mouth.

  No matter how many times she looked death in the face, she could never get used to it. Feeling Jan touch her elbow, Delta turned and shook her head. They needed to finish the search of the house before they tended to the victim. Delta shook off her chills and continued with her inspection until she was sure there was no one else in the apartment.

  “Dead?” she asked Jan, knowing the answer, but wanting to make sure.

  “Very.”

  Delta stared down at the lifeless body and shook her head sadly. “Did you make the call?”

  Jan nodded as she stepped around the body. “They’re on their way.”

  In another half hour, the homicide unit rolled up and eased to a stop before Detective Sergeant Russ Leonard stepped from the unmarked car. Leonard looked like a taller Danny DeVito. He combed what was left of his hair across his wildly receding hairline, and wore his too baggy slacks up practically around his thick neck. As he glanced across the room, much like a rat looking for food, Leonard wiped his nose the length of his sleeve.

  “Oh, God,” Delta moaned. “Not him. Anyone but him.”

  Jan looked out the door to see who Delta was talking about. “Leonard? He’s a good dick.”

  Delta sighed as she leaned up against the kitchen counter, careful not to touch anything with her hands. “I know.”

  “So, what’s the problem?”

  “Problems. Make that plural. When I was in the Academy, Leonard gave a lecture on crime scene protection. At the time, he smoked these awful cigars. Well, when we investigated a mock crime scene, I pointed out that his cigar ash could be misleading if he smoked around the crime scene. I thought my point was brilliant. He thought I was being a smart ass.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He took off my cap and ground his cigar out in it.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Then he stuck it back on my head.”

  Jan chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re still mad.”

  Delta waved her off. “Have you ever worked with the guy?”

  “No.”

  “Then save your guffaws until later. Once you work with him, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  “Stevie!” Leonard exclaimed, as if they were the best of friends. Delta cringed. Two of her ex-lovers called her Stevie. Although sort of cute from them, coming out of Leonard’s fat mouth, it sounded obscene.

  “Jesus Christ, Stevie, can’t you keep a tighter rein on the crackpots on your turf? This is the third one in just over a week. You spendin’ too much time at Winchell’s Donut Shop or what?”

  Delta turned to Jan, who rolled her eyes and stepped back into the dining room.

  “Don’t be an ass, Leonard. A man died here. Show a little respect, will you?”

  Leonard stared down at the corpse. “They seem to be droppin’ like the proverbial flies, Stevie. What’s up with that?”

  Delta winced at one of Leonard’s many mispronunciations. Shooting a look over to Leonard’s partner, Chuck Connell, Delta shook her head. Connell was the nicer of the two, but he spent most of his time playing audience to Leonard’s “picture this” scenarios whenever he was reconstructing a scene. Delta felt sorry for Connell. He had to act as though he actually liked Leonard.

  Delt
a, however, did not. It wasn’t just that Leonard had made a fool of her in the Academy that fueled her dislike for him. He was one of the biggest chauvinist pigs she’d ever met. Once, at a Christmas party, Leonard had had a little too much scotch and entertained a group of men with his distorted view of female detectives and police officers. When Delta heard his comment about women cops being physically weaker than male cops, she walked over to him, plucked his cigar from his mouth, and dropped it in his scotch glass.

  “Care to test that theory, Detective?” she had said, towering over him. Had it not been for Connie’s quick action to pull Delta from the group, Russ Leonard would have found out the hard way just how wrong he was.

  “Leonard, they’re people who are dying, not flies. Try to remember that before you open your mouth.”

  “Touchy, touchy. Who pissed in your Cheerios this a.m.?”

  Delta shook her head and walked away. “Jackass,” she mumbled to herself, walking over to the crime scene tech, who was dusting a glass for prints. “Coming up with anything, Manny?” One of the best techies Delta had ever met, Manny Espinosa was thorough, precise, and knew his stuff.

  “Not much. Looks like he bought it from someone he knew. Two glasses with alcohol. This one here is full, probably the killer’s; smart enough not to pick it up.”

  Delta nodded. “Keep up the good work, Manny.” Delta walked back over to the corpse to find Leonard kneeling over it.

  Delta ignored him and began to record on her notepad about the layout of the apartment and the arrangement of the body.

  “Looks like your psycho has struck again,” Leonard said, rising and looking up at Delta.

  Delta towered over the stump of a man. “I don’t think so.”

  This brought a chuckle from Leonard. “Oh, you don’t?”

  “Nope. What you have here, Leonard, is another murder. Period. I don’t think it has anything to do with the guy that chucked that star at me over at Omega’s.”

  “Sounds like you’re lucky he didn’t give you a new part in your hair.” Leonard put the tip of his pencil to his tongue and jotted down a few notes. “But fear not, Stevie, because I’m gonna get him for you.”

  Delta watched, as Manny stepped over to the body. “You done here, Sarge?”