6. Six
six
Phoenix
Good fucking grief. Felix McMann was the most inconsiderate, egoistical fucking prick I’d ever met in my life.
“I can’t fucking stand him,” Spike groused, shivering out his irritation as we burst out the sanctum doors a few hours later and headed back to my car.
“I hope he chokes on the first dick he sucks tonight.”
“Easy, Spike. We got what we needed, so just calm down and let it go. We have a lot of work to do.”
As expected, Felix outright refused to cooperate without a warrant, so we ended up having to reach out to Harley’s office since neither she or Charlotte would answer their cell phones. It had taken a little over an hour to get to us, but it was well worth the wait. We had the list and copies of the security footage.
And man, did we have our work cut out for us.
“Let me see that,” Spike demanded just before we reached the car, pointing at the folder I was holding. I passed it over and then pulled out my keys, getting in as Spike quickly rounded the vehicle and claimed his seat.
We were back on the road in under a minute. I watched from the corner of my eye as Spike flipped through the pages and then blew out a stressful sigh before he leaned back in his seat and squeezed his eyes closed.
“Fuck, that’s a lot of names.”
He rubbed viciously at his green eyes and scoured his hands down his face, releasing the long breath caged in his chest.
“Captain won’t be happy about this. He may give you a slap on the wrist, but I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t take my badge for not coming clean about this sooner.”
He wasn’t wrong, and it was easy to understand why Spike was so perturbed over it. Not only were Spike and I faithful members of The Flirty Sanctum, but we were also there last night when Delilah was attacked. Our names were on that list and even though we’d never harmed a hair on that poor girl’s head, our attendance automatically made us suspects in this investigation. We both should’ve gone back to the precinct and marched our asses in the captain’s office after our interview with Delilah.
“He won’t take your badge,” I tried to reassure him. “Worst case scenario is he takes us off the case and gives us a two week suspension.”
“You know we’ll have to submit DNA samples if Justin’s isn’t a match.”
I nodded, having considered that ahead of time. “I’m aware, but you know we have nothing to worry about. We didn’t do anything wrong, Spike.”
“I know that, and you know that, but that doesn’t mean the captain will believe us.”
Which was precisely why we had to come clean now before we fucked around and dug ourselves any deeper into this investigation.
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough.” I pulled in at the precinct and parked at the front of the building. “Let me do all the talking, yeah?”
Spike rolled his eyes but didn’t refute. He knew just as well as I did that our captain was quite an intimidating son of a bitch. He’d served just over twenty years in the military and had an endless number of connections that could bring any officer’s career to an end with just a simple phone call. Captain Burgess was well respected not only throughout Seaview Pines but by his fellow officers, too. Spike was skating on thin ice thanks to him letting his temper get the best of him, so for his sake, it was better for me to take the lead. With any luck, the captain would show some leniency and still let us work the case. It was a shot in the dark and a massive conflict of interest, but it was a shot work taking.
We entered the building and stepped inside the elevator, tapping the button for our floor. When we stepped out, Officer Peach—I mean, Brown—came storming toward us with an annoyed look on her pretty face.
“Captain wants to see you in his office.”
Spike and I shared a look then. It couldn’t have been about the case because we hadn’t given him the details yet, so if my gut feeling was right, then this likely had to do with the incident with Charlotte.
“Thanks, Peach.” I grinned at her, chuckling as she scoffed and then proceeded to flip me off before walking away.
“One of these days, that woman is going to shoot you in the face.”
“It’s just a bit of harmless fun,” I replied, grinning bigger as we approached the captain’s office. “I mean, come on, you can’t tell me she doesn’t look like Princess Peach.”
“Maybe a little,” Spike agreed, bobbing his head as he glanced behind us to stare at her. “Yeah, I can see it. Still though, give it a rest. Last thing we need is her filing a complaint on you for pestering her, even if it is just harmless fun.”
By the time I could knock on the door, the captain had already opened it and was politely waving us inside. Spike and I took our seats and did nothing but glance through all of the military awards and certificates displayed on the desk and hung up in frames all over the walls. Captain Burgess reclaimed his spot behind the desk and then sighed heavily as he scrutinized us with his brows raised.
“I just got off the phone with Chief. He tells me you two were there when Officer Karl Greene attacked his ex-wife, Charlotte Greene. I understand Harley has her working the rape case with you?”
“That is correct, Sir,” I agreed, a little surprised I’d proven myself right. But with that surprise were also some levels of concern. Was everything okay? Is Charlotte okay?
“We saw everything,” Spike said coolly.
He and I watched as Captain Burgess scooted closer to his desk with a stiff expression on his face. “Tell me in your own words what happened.”
“We were in my car waiting for Charlotte to meet us. When she arrived, a police cruiser pulled up behind her and parked. Charlotte got out and Officer Greene did the same. He grabbed her and then proceeded to slam her against the side of her vehicle.”
“He slapped her too,” my partner did not hesitate to add. “Hard. Left a nice handprint on her face. Rhodes and I approached the scene with our guns drawn. He released Charlotte and then it wasn’t even five minutes later when Chief showed up to intervene.”
“Are you two willing to go on record and file a report?”
Spike and I shared another look. “What’s going on?” he asked first.
“Yeah, Boss, is everything okay with Charlotte?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Charlotte wants to pursue getting a restraining order against her ex-husband. Since you two are eyewitnesses to her attack, your statements would be quite beneficial to her.”
“I’m fine with filing a report.” When I saw Officer Greene put his hands on Charlotte, it’d taken everything in me not to shoot the fucker in his kneecaps. I hated abusers and worst of all, so did Spike. It was the sole reason why his career was hanging on its last thread. Charlotte may have been a stranger to me, but she was also somewhat of a colleague now that she’d been assigned to Delilah’s case. I made a vow when I became a cop to always protect the innocent. I’d do whatever I could to help keep her safe from Karl Greene, even if it meant I had to sit in court and testify what I saw to a judge.
“Hutch?” Captain wondered, surveying him closely.
“Yeah, Cap, I’ll file a report. Whatever I can do to help.”
“Excellent.” He sat back in his chair with a pleased smile splitting his lips. “Now that that’s out of the way, tell me where you’re at in the rape case. What have you gathered so far?”
“We’ve made a little progress, but I’m afraid we have a bit of a problem, Sir.”
Captain Burgess straightened his spine with his head slightly cocked to the side, his penetrative eyes shooting chills through me. There wasn’t an easy way to tell him, so I just came out with it, starting with the interview with Delilah, ensuring not to leave a speckle of detail out.
“We understand it’s a huge conflict of interest and we’re sincerely sorry we didn’t come to you sooner. Spike and I were there last night when Delilah was attacked but I swear to you, Captain, we had nothing to do with it. We’re fully prepared to submit a DNA test to prove it.”
“How you spend your free time outside of the job isn’t any of my business,” he said sternly, his bushy brows pinched. “And yes, you’re right, this should’ve been brought to my attention first thing.”
He leaned further back in his chair then, steepling his fingers as he calculated us through tight, vexed eyes.
Silence filled the room while he mentally debated how to proceed.
My heart began to pound the longer he remained mute.
Spike shifted uncomfortably next to me and from the corner of my eye, I could see he was getting extremely anxious.
“Is that the list?” Captain asked, nudging his head toward the folder resting in Spike’s lap.
“It is,” was Spike’s nervous reply.
“Let me see it.”
Spike handed it over and together we tautly watched as he opened it up and grabbed the two pages, scanning them thoroughly. It was the sign-in sheets containing the names of all the men who attended the sanctum last night, mine and Spike’s included.
“Damn.” Captain Burgess dropped the pages and massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers. “That’s a lot of suspects.”
He tilted back in his chair again and scrubbed his hands down his face, sighing.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Protocol states I have to remove you two from the case. However, I’m going to put my ass on the line here and allow you to continue with the investigation.”
Spike and I blew out a breath, our shoulders sagging with relief.
“Go down to the lab and submit your DNA. If you’re positive Justin’s not the guy, then we need to rule you two out immediately. I’ll phone Chief and fill him in.”
“Thank you, Sir.” I rose to my feet, as did Spike.
“Take this with you.” He placed the pages back in the folder and handed it off to me. “You said you have the security footage from the club too?”
“We do,” I nodded.
“We need to talk to Delilah again, Cap,” said Spike. “There’s evidence on those tapes proving she wasn’t being honest about what happened last night.”
“Handle it tomorrow. Let the girl rest tonight. For now, get your asses down to the lab and then get to work marking names off that list. I expect a full update by tomorrow afternoon.”
Spike and I offered each other buoyant smiles before turning on our heels and starting for the door.