Chapter 34 Dominique
Dominique
Kobe arrived at ten, bursting with unrestrained energy.
He barreled through the door—nearly tripping on his boots—the second I opened it, falling into my arms and crashing his mouth to mine.
The kiss was heady and hungry and hotter than I expected, stirring my cock and making me forget my name.
He clutched my cheeks between his frozen fingers and walked me backward until I bumped into the wall and could do nothing more than kiss him back.
It went on for ages, brisk winter air pouring through the open door.
Only when I shivered did he break free. His smile was luminescent.
“Hey, sexy. I missed you.”
“Apparently.”
“Is Cosette up?”
“She’s been in bed for hours.”
“Crap. It’s late. I know. Forgive me.” Kobe kicked the door closed but didn’t release my hand. “I had the best fucking night. As I was packing up to go home, I had a brilliant idea and needed to explore it.”
“Come in. Tell me about it. Do you want a drink? I’m making snacks.”
“Hell yeah. It’s New Year’s Eve. I plan to get trashed and spend all night naked in bed with you.”
I couldn’t help the smile. “Is that so?”
Kobe removed his winter gear as he explained his theory that the girl from Yates’s unfiled report might have gone to the hospital for help and ended up in the care of Navid Kordestani.
“Of all fucking people, right? It’s the link I’ve been looking for and could explain why he’s dead.
” Kobe followed me into the kitchen, where the scent of baking hors d’oeuvres permeated the air.
“He wasn’t one of the ones who raped that girl—I don’t believe that—but he didn’t help her either.
That guy had a reputation for being an asshole to his patients.
A scantily-clad teen at the ER in the middle of the night, crying about rape?
Can you see it? Suppose she was as elusive about details with him as she was with Yates.
I can totally understand how he might have gotten frustrated and stopped caring.
His bedside manner was shit on a good day. Ask any of his colleagues.”
I pulled a tray of food from the oven, and Kobe groaned at the sight. “That looks so good. I’m starving.”
“Keep going with your story.” I left the tray on the stovetop and found a clean glass in the cupboard. I mixed Kobe a strong drink as he chattered excitedly.
“So, I went to the hospital and sweet-talked a nurse into peeking through old files to see what she can find. I gave her the date it happened and an overview of the story. I know it’ll be tricky without names, but that girl would have signed in at triage.
There will be a record of suspected rape.
In a matter of days, I’ll have a name, Dom.
I know it. I feel it in my bones. I’m close.
This is it. My god. I’m so pumped right now. ”
I handed him the full tumbler with a quirked brow. “Back up. Don’t you need a warrant for that?”
“Technically, but I have ways. Besides, I’m doubtful I can get a warrant signed based on an unfiled report with no names.”
“So, you sweet-talked a nurse.”
Kobe slurped a sip of the spiced rum and Coke before setting the glass aside. A spark of mischief danced in his eyes. “I was selective about who I approached, and I may have flirted a little, but if it’s any consolation, she saw right through me.”
“You have no shame.”
“None at all, but it worked.”
I located a serving platter and used tongs to transfer the hot pastries. I’d bought an array of finger foods to enjoy, mostly to soak up the booze. “There are sauces and a cheese and meat plate in the fridge. Can you grab them?”
Kobe complied, shedding the plastic wrap over the two plates and filling small dishes with dips. He added the sauces to the hors d’oeuvres platter and grabbed the box of crackers I’d left out.
I tucked a few napkins under my arm, and we carried the food into the living room, spreading it on the coffee table. I’d set the mood earlier. Soft jazz—something I knew Kobe would enjoy—played from my phone, and the lights were dimmed.
I had packed the tree away for another season, and the area where it had sat for the better part of a month felt empty. Regular household decorations did not have the same impact as Christmas shine.
The Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration played on the TV, but I muted it long before Kobe showed up.
The announcers chatted and laughed on the screen, bundled against the cold.
The streets were filled with thousands of people in party hats or silly bands with the shimmering number 2026 bouncing on springs above their heads.
Kobe stacked crackers with cheeses and meats, stuffing them into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten all day.
“How will you explain this to Rue and your boss?” I asked as we got cozy.
I passed Kobe a napkin, and he wiped crumbs from his lips before selecting a sausage pastry and popping it into his mouth.
“I don’t know,” he said, breathing steam. “I guess that depends on what I discover. Until I know more, I probably won’t say anything.”
I considered the path he was on and the possible unfolding of the case.
Would he uncover the name of a fourteen-year-old girl who had long ago reported rape to an unkind doctor?
Would he learn her story? Would he empathize?
Understand the decisions she would make in the future when the agony became too much to bear?
Would he abide by the laws of our country and make an arrest?
Kobe was an emotional being with a soft spot for children. Would the truth render him incapable of acting? Fourteen was little more than a child. Would her pain become his? Would her secret become his burden?
Would he love her in all her brokenness and look the other way?
Or was the effort futile? The nurse may discover nothing. The girl, her friend, and their nervous companion may forever remain a mystery. A stain on Ari Yates’s conscience, if the man was to be believed.
The dismissive cop and his story bothered me in a way I couldn’t articulate. As an outsider looking in, all I had were Kobe’s regurgitated conversations with the man and the supposed report he had failed to file, but I didn’t trust Yates’s version of the truth. There was more he wasn’t saying.
“Did you confront Yates?” I picked at the snacks with less gusto than Kobe, who couldn’t seem to eat fast enough.
“He’s the reason I ended up at the hospital.
I asked him to go through the report he never submitted and fill in the details he missed the first time, in case there was something there I could work with.
When he brought it back, I read it more thoroughly and realized how many times he told those teens to go to a hospital.
He told the boy to take them. It made me think, what if they did go?
What if they left the police station and went to the hospital? ”
“Yes, but did you ask him about Jesse? Yates claims he couldn’t locate him, but with Jesse’s reputation, I can’t believe that’s true. He’s lying.”
Kobe didn’t seem concerned. “I asked. He stuck to his guns. He seemed distraught that he was never able to find him. To be honest, I don’t think he looked.
I think it’s a story he tells himself so he can sleep at night.
I do think his grief over the whole thing is genuine, though.
Jesse turns up dead, and it all comes back.
In retrospect, as a mature officer with a newborn baby, he sees the error of his ways.
Those feelings of guilt are probably more compounded because he became a father himself. ”
“I see.”
I didn’t and wasn’t sure I agreed, but I let it go. Kobe was on a high, and investigating suspects wasn’t part of my job. My involvement started and ended with the dead bodies on my table.
“How do you normally celebrate New Year’s Eve?” I asked, changing the subject after we’d eaten through most of the snacks.
“Depends.” Kobe drained his rum and Coke and sat back, balancing the empty glass on his knee. “If Elifet doesn’t have plans, we usually share drinks and entertainment.”
“He’s your neighbor?”
“And friend.”
“And sometimes fuck buddy?”
“When neither of us is attached.”
“It was never more?”
Kobe rolled his eyes, a gesture that shed years off his life in an instant, reminding me of the slight age gap between us.
At times like this, I felt ancient. “No. We don’t go together, and our hookups were much rarer than you’re probably imagining.
Elifet is unfairly hot, financially comfortable, wildly intelligent, has the perfect job, a boss who dotes on him, and a family that loves him to the ends of the earth.
I feel inadequate in his presence. The kicker? He never rubs it in.”
“Sounds like a bastard.”
Kobe laughed. “That he is, but he’s the closest thing I’ve had to family in years, and he puts up with my whiny, sorry ass more than I deserve.”
“I don’t think you’re whiny.”
“Oh, I’m like an eight-year-old being made to wash his hands before dinner.”
We shared a smile, and I motioned to Kobe’s empty glass. “Another?”
He followed me to the kitchen, where I mixed two fresh drinks. Rum and Coke for him. Rum and eggnog for me. As I measured and poured, I felt Kobe’s inquisitive gaze on the side of my face.
“You’re staring. What?”
“Nothing.”
I replaced the lid on the ground cinnamon. “No. You’re wondering something. Ask it.”
“It’s not a question. It’s an observation.
” He accepted the new drink but didn’t retreat to the living room.
Hugging it between his palms, he leaned a hip against the counter.
“When I first asked you out, and up until about date number three-ish, you always seemed reluctant to pursue this.” He waved a finger between us.
“I was.” I copied his lean and sipped my drink.
“I almost backed down, fearing I was pushing you toward something you didn’t want or weren’t ready for.”
“Grief is a heavy burden to carry, Kobe. It plays tricks with your mind and your heart. I lost a lot.”