28
Vivian
The Police
Vivian was halfway back from checking on the staff in the kitchen when she heard Chappie yelling.
Since Chappie never yelled, Vivian picked up her skirt and ran.
Jake, from Valkyrie, who seemed to be her assigned minder, went through the door ahead of her.
He was an enormous individual, but he moved surprisingly fast.
“Detective Bodge, I am a man of the cloth, but I’m also a damn Captain of the Army, and I will personally pray over the broken nose I’m about to give you!”
Vivian didn’t think she’d ever seen Father Fred that red in the face.
“Shit, shit, shit. Jake, stop Chappie!”
Jake put on speed, but Rowan beat him to the priest. With one arm, he hefted Chappie up and walked him back about eight feet, and then a wall of bodies put themselves between Father Fred and the police detective, who looked surprised to find himself blockaded.
“I’m not done talking to him!” barked the detective.
Vivian dropped her skirt and tried to catch her breath before going around the wall of service members.
“I think, for the moment, we all might need to take a breather,” she said, smiling forcefully.
“We don’t want Father Fred calling the archdiocese now, do we?
I know the Archbishop would hate to disturb the police chief at this late hour. ”
The detective paused. He was a lean individual who looked too sour for his luxuriously bushy mustache.
He’d flashed his badge around when he’d arrived, ogled her boobs, and then ignored her.
She’d put Chappie on him because no one ever ignored a priest. Apparently, Chappie hadn’t liked the detective’s attitude either.
“OK, fine, you know what? I’ll talk to you. You were out front when the old guy got shot.”
“The old guy,” repeated Vivian. “You mean Howard Hoskins, the lawyer? Owner of the Hoskins building. Lead partner at Hoskins, Branch, and Kato. Board Member of the Victory Mission. Veteran of the Navy and victim of the crime. Is that the old guy you’re referring to?
” Vivian could hear the anger lacing her voice.
She was aware of all the guests watching the scene and managed not to swear but that was the best she could do.
“Yeah. You know, maybe if you Richie-rich libtards hadn’t voted for socialists, there might have been more cops on the street to prevent this kind of crime.”
“And maybe if you fascist boys in blue hadn’t tried to overthrow the United States government, we might actually want that.”
They had both sunk to the bottom of Seattle’s political slings and arrows.
The city council’s policies had led to a downtown city center that was drug-ridden and lawless.
But the six Seattle police officers who had attended the January Sixth coup attempt had only deepened the perception that the police couldn’t be trusted.
Vivian knew she’d gone too far, but she now saw why Father Fred had threatened to punch him.
The detective went red in the face and raised his hand, one finger pointing toward Vivian and aiming straight at her chest.
“Touch her, and I will break your arm,” said a deep voice, and Vivian didn’t have to look around to know that Rowan was behind her. The cop’s finger stopped moving as he eyed Rowan.
“Are you threatening a police officer?”
“Are you threatening the victim of a crime?” retorted Rowan.
“Your demeanor is unprofessional,” said Vivian, redirecting the police officer’s attention back to her, “and your conduct is insulting to myself, Howard Hoskins, and my firm. If you cannot be bothered to perform a thorough investigation, then we will file a complaint and reach out to the Sheriff’s Department to investigate both the crime and your response to it.
I will be in the green room in five minutes.
If you would care to interview me as a witness, then you may meet me there.
But until you are out of this building, I expect you to behave in a manner befitting your badge. ”
Vivian turned on her heel, and the wall of veterans parted as smoothly as a parade pivot, allowing her and her escorts to go through.
She didn’t have to look back to know that they immediately stepped back into place after she passed.
She kept her head up even though she felt like she was only a couple of inches from freaking out.
“Where’s Chappie?” she muttered.
“Walking it off,” Rowan muttered back. “Mark and Teddy are with him. He’ll join us in a minute.”
She saw Grant Ichikawa out of the corner of her eye. That meant there were more Hoskins lawyers around. She snapped her fingers at him, and he jumped in surprise but fell into step.
“Grant, I’m going to need you to gather up whatever staff members we have on hand and start shadowing that police detective.
The man is a certified twat loogie. I’m not convinced we can trust him not to violate someone’s civil liberties just by breathing.
I want qualified, professional witnesses observing him every fucking second he’s on my turf.
Don’t interfere in a police investigation.
Just make sure we know exactly what he’s doing.
I’m not going back to Nadine and telling her we let the police screw the pooch on this investigation. ”
“On it,” said Grant and peeled off.
“Jake,” she asked, realizing that she hadn’t followed up on that thread, “where is Nadine?”
“Ashley and I put Mrs. Hoskins in a car to Harborview with Delacroix,” said Jake.
“Good.” She’d told them to do it and was relieved that it had actually gotten done.
Ashley appeared next to her. “I’ve pulled the contract with the venue. I’ll be able to update you on the insurance and liability status shortly. I recognize that this is not a concern right now, but if anyone asks, you can direct them to me.”
“Great, thanks.”
Kandace arrived next. Vivian could see the door to the green room—it seemed tantalizingly just out of reach. She wasn’t sure when the adrenaline and fumes she was running on would run out, but it seemed like it would be soon.
“Vivian, sweetie, this is a bottle of water. I want you to drink it.”
A bottle was shoved into her hand, and Vivian stared at it. She wasn’t thirsty.
“Meanwhile, I yelled at the security personnel until they did what I told them and released the security camera footage to the cops.”
“OK, great,” said Vivian. Vivian had put Kandace in charge of that because Kandie knew how to get her way.
“I saw the footage,” said Kandie and her eyes welled up.
Vivian stared at her, trying to make Kandie’s emotions make sense.
Kandie was a bold blonde approaching sixty.
Vivian had always appreciated that she channeled her Bring Me the Manager energy into positive things.
But for once, Kandie looked lost. Kandie abruptly turned to Rowan. “You’ll take care of her?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“OK,” said Kandie, nodding and brushing tears off her face. “It was just too close. Too close. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Vivian looked from Kandie to Rowan. His face was expressionless, and Vivian didn’t know what Kandie was talking about. Kandie abruptly walked off, and Vivian, with nothing better to do, continued toward the green room. Jake opened the door and ushered them inside.
“I’ll be outside. I’ll send Hot Lips in when he gets here.”
“Thanks, Jake,” said Rowan.
The door shut behind them, and the silence seemed like a palpable presence.
Vivian realized that she was alone in a room with Rowan.
She also realized that she wanted very badly to turn around and fling herself into his arms. Instead, she cracked open the water bottle and took a drink.
Her hand shook and she put the bottle down after only a tiny sip.
“Did they say anything about Howard?” she asked, her voice husky like she’d been talking too much.
“No. They just put him in the ambulance and left.”
“OK,” she said, nodding.
She turned around and looked at Rowan directly for the first time.
He had a smear of blood on his forehead, and his beautiful suit was now dusty and disheveled, except for the left arm, which was a dark, wet-looking shade of black.
In contrast, the fingers on that hand were a dull red.
She realized it was because his sleeve was soaked in blood, and her stomach clenched.
“I think maybe you should sit down,” he said.
Vivian didn’t want to say that if she sat, there was a possibility that she might not get back up again. Curling up into a little fetal ball on the filthy green room couch seemed like a very attractive idea.
“And I think people are counting on me to keep this thing from going off the rails.”
“Baby, it’s already off the rails.”
“There are degrees of off-the-railness here, and we want to stay in the zone where we can at least still see the rails.”
“And you can do that while seated.”
“You are bleeding out of your cuffs, and you’re not sitting down.”
Rowan took a deep breath like he was about to launch into an argument, but instead, he looked around, found a folding chair, and sat down.
“Happy?”
“Not anywhere close to it,” said Vivian.
“They shot Howard!” Her voice cracked, and Rowan was out of his seat in an instant and pulling her close.
She tried to lean into the arm that wasn’t injured, but she wasn’t sure that he wasn’t hurt all over.
She felt like one big bruise, but she couldn’t tell if that was the truth or if it was just her brain. Maybe it was her heart.
“Viv, baby,” murmured Rowan, rocking her as she smushed her face into his chest. She loved being baby-ed.
She wanted it so bad. But less than an hour ago, he’d been calling her something else, and Vivian knew that at some point when she had stopped panicking about people nearly dying, that she would remember what he’d said, and she would find it hard to forget again.
“Viv, I need to—”
A knock on the door interrupted him, and Vivian stepped back, blinking away tears. The door opened, and Chappie poked his head in.
“Hey, kiddo! How we doin’?”