Love & Loyalty (19 page)
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Griffin stormed out of the office and headed for the gate. Andy, a security guard he knew fairly well, called him a cab. He didn't want to use a Bright Side car. He didn't want any more blood on his hands.
He gave the driver Daisy's address in Bel Air, dialing Jules's cell as they headed onto the freeway.
“Jules, it's Griff.”
“Griffin! Where the blazes have you been? Daisy's been a fucking nightmare the past week!”
“I don't care. Where is she?”
“At the house far as I know. She's been hiding in her room for days.”
“Thanks.” Griffin hung up without another word. He leaned back into the pleather seat and tried to regain his breath.
* * * * *
Daisy's bedroom, as Claus had slept in the guest room for years.
“Daisy, open the goddamn door,” he yelled. “I will kick it down, so help me God.”
A second later the lock rattled and the double doors opened to reveal Daisy in her nightgown, her long red hair tangled around her shoulders.
She looked like shit.
“What?” she asked, and he could see the bright red eyes and drawn skin.
She'd been crying for days, most likely, and self-medicating.
“What do you mean what? Do you know who I just had a meeting with, Daisy? Claus and Tripp fucking Ingersoll. Not only is this project now Claus's, he's putting in the point of view of the fucking murderer.” Griffin squeezed every word out through a tight chest. “Do you know what you've done?” Love & Loyalty
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“I'm sorry,” Daisy murmured. She turned her back on him and walked slowly back to the bed.
“Sorry? No—that doesn't cut it. You have to help me.”
“Help you what? I can't do anything—Claus owns everything…”
“He says he'll give me the project for two million. If I sell my car and my condo and the place in Aspen, I can raise some of that. Do you have any money we can use up front? Anything at all that's just yours?”
“No.” Daisy crawled into the giant bed, under the silky peach comforter. “I don't have anything.”
“Daisy, please. Please stay with me here. I need your help. I have no one else to go to,” he pleaded. He climbed onto the bed, pulling at the covers to get her attention.
“I'm sorry,” she repeated. He could hear the slight slur to her words.
“Daisy, Daisy—come on. Think.”
“Fine.” She forced herself upright, swaying against his shoulder. “Give me the phone.”
Hands shaking, Griffin handed her the cordless from the nightstand. She dialed a number slowly, then raised the phone to her ear.
“Jules? It's Daisy. No, I'm fine. Yes, he's here. Listen, I need you to pull out those legal papers from the safe. The ones in the blue envelope. Right.
Bring them over here as soon as possible. Okay. Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry.” She hung up and turned to Griffin, her face haggard. “I'll get you the money, okay?”
“Promise?”
“Don't you trust me, Griffin?”
“Please don't make me answer that right now.” Griffin slid off the bed, adrenaline letdown beating through his chest.
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“I am sorry I lied to you, Griffin, I really am. You're my only friend in the world.”
Griffin shook his head. “I don't think you know how to be a friend, Daisy.
If this is how you treat me…”
“I was scared, okay? He was going to leave me for that woman!”
“And that isn't what you wanted? Fuck your career, Daisy—don't you want to be happy?” He threw his hands up.
“My career is all I have.”
Griffin shook his head. “Okay, fine. Have your career and your shitty marriage.”
“I have you, Griffin. That makes it all so much easier…” Griffin looked at her sadly. “You don't have me anymore.”
* * * * *
She cried and cried but swore she'd make everything all right with Claus and with the project. He wanted to believe her, to believe that something of their long history together meant something of value.
Griffin called another taxi and went back to his house, head in his hands.
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Chapter Twenty-one
“Jim? Could I see you in my office?”
Their new captain, Ellen Trainer, stuck her head in the break room where Jim and Terry were eating. They exchanged glances; then Jim followed her, wiping his face with a napkin as he went.
“Everything okay, Captain?” he asked. She gestured a chair, and that's when he noticed the PD lawyer sitting on her couch. “Okay, guessing not okay.”
“Jim, this is Frank Seifer. We just wanted to let you know that a lawsuit has been filed by Tripp Ingersoll and his family against the department. You're named in the suit.”
A loud buzzing noise filled Jim's head. He blinked a few times and nodded, both shocked and totally unsurprised.
“Took long enough,” he said mildly.
Captain Trainer looked over at the lawyer. “You'll be covered by the PBA, of course. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.”
“You'll settle before it goes to trial, I'm sure,” Jim said, giving a glance over at the lawyer as well. “I can't imagine the department or the city wanting that much publicity.”
“His lawyers have already mentioned they don't want a settlement,” Seifer said. “I think while we would like to avoid publicity, Mr. Ingersoll would like as much as possible.”
Jim snapped his fingers. “Ahhh, book deal, I'm guessing. Also wondered why that didn't happen sooner.”
He sighed deeply. How much did he not want to deal with this?
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“Are you going to be all right?” Captain Trainer was a nice person and clearly concerned with his well-being. Suddenly Jim felt just as concerned.
He couldn't do this. He didn't want to do this.
“Actually, I'm going to talk to my union rep about retirement options.” The words left his lips, and he felt his face erupt in as much surprise as Captain Trainer's.
“That's your option, of course. It won't prevent you from testifying, however,” Seifer offered.
“I know. But I won't be here, not on duty. Maybe it'll take some of the heat off.” Jim shrugged. He really didn't care, so long as he didn't have to deal with it.
“I'm a little surprised, Jim. I thought you'd be furious and aiming for a fight.”
Jim shrugged. “Life's too short.”
* * * * *
Could he walk away? Just get up and retire and live a life of leisure? Did he know what leisure was?
Maybe Griffin could teach him.
Maybe he'd go to LA and work on his tan.
Okay, probably not.
“You all right, man?” Terry hurried over to his desk, looking over his shoulder. “What's going on?”
“Lawsuit. Ingersoll's family.” Jim rubbed his eyes. “I'm named.”
“Am I…” Terry shook his head. “Sorry.”
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“No, no, I totally understand—you're not named, so far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure he only wants to ruin me.”
“Shit, that's just so ridiculous.” Terry fumed. “Anything I can do?”
“No, not right now.” Jim thought for a long moment. “How'd you feel about getting another partner?”
“Shut up, you jerk. I'm not abandoning you…”
“Maybe I'm abandoning you.”
Terry's eyes widened. “What?”
“I'm thinking about retirement, Terry. I'm thinking about it long and hard.”
Terry sat down in Jim's visitor chair. “Seriously?”
“Very seriously.”
“You're still young. You got plenty of years left to travel or…whatever.
You'd have to get a hobby, though.”
“Griffin said I could go to Hollywood and consult. I don't know what that means exactly.”
“Sounds like a lot of time sitting around a pool. So after you get established, you give me a call and find me a job like that.” Jim smiled. “You're a good cop; you need to stay right here.” Terry ducked his head. “Thanks. But, uh—to be honest, I'm thinking about stuff too.”
“Leaving?”
“Transferring. It's just, with the new baby, I don't want to be gone all the time. I don't like going home now with all this ugly stuff in my head—I can't imagine when my kid is there, waiting for me, and all I can think of is dead bodies and cruelty and…you know.”
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“Do what you need to, okay? You want me to make some calls, give you references, whatever. No problems.” Jim felt relieved at the possibility of not leaving Terry totally behind.
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.”
His phone rang, and Jim grabbed it up. “Jim Shea.”
“Jim? It's Pete Van Dell.”
Ed Kelly's closest neighbor.
“Hey, Pete, what's going on?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I had to drive Ed to the hospital this mornin'. He wasn't feeling well, so I insisted. I wanted to give you a call…” Jim's stomach clenched. “I'll be up there as soon as I can.”
* * * * *
Ed sick. Home????
He didn't get a response.
* * * * *
“Detective Shea?”
“Yes?”
“Doctor Pah.” The man shook Jim's hand. His face had a kindly aura, and Jim knew there was bad news coming. “I won't waste any time telling you the outcome…”
“How long?”
“A few days, possibly a week.” Dr. Pah pressed the chart under his arm.
“He's comfortable. We'll do whatever we can to manage his pain, monitor him.” Love & Loyalty
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Jim nodded. He'd been waiting for this for months, and now it seemed a complete and total shock. Reality hitting his face at about fifty miles an hour.
“Thank you. May I go in?”
“Absolutely. I'll leave a note at the front desk that you are next of kin and should be allowed in whenever you'd like.”
Jim shook the man's hand again and slipped into the room. Ed was awake, his head turned to look out of the window to his left.
“Hey, Ed.”
“Jim! They get you out of work for this?” Ed clucked his tongue. “Told 'em to wait till you got off.”
“It's okay.” Jim took a seat at his bedside. “You need anything?” Ed squinted toward the window again. “Nah. The company's nice, though, gotta admit.”
“I'll stay as long as you need me to.”
“Saying it again, Jim, even though I know you don't like it. You're a good man.”
“Stop.”
“Griffin gonna come up and visit?”
“I don't think you're up to working right now, Ed.”
“Workin'? Nah, I just want to see him again. He's a nice young man, Jim—
you picked a good one.”
Jim rubbed his forehead. “We're just dating…”
“Uh-huh.” Ed smirked. “That's what I told my friends about Della. They laughed at me.”
“They sound rude,” Jim said drily. “But apparently I have the same friends.”
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“Good for you, then. Friends and those you love, that's the most important stuff in life. You gotta get 'em and keep 'em and never stop saying how much you love 'em. Life's too short.”
Ed sighed. “'Course, I'm lucky…”
“Lucky?” Jim blurted out. “Sorry.”
“Don't be sorry. I know people don't understand how I can say that. But man, I'll tell you—I know so many people who never loved anyone like I loved Della. And they never appreciated their kids like I appreciated my Carmen. I feel sad for them, Jim, I do. For all the ugliness, I'd do it one more time just to be with my girls again.”
* * * * *
Refused.
Jim hid himself in a box and hadn't had one hundredth of the trials Ed had.
Refused to live.
His phone buzzed. Jim saw a text message and read it.
What do you need?
Griffin's text asked.
Jim's hand wavered slightly.
You
, was his answer.
Soon. I promise.
Jim put his phone away and went back to watching Ed sleep.
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Chapter Twenty-two
Ed's daytime nurse was named Frances. She and Ed chatted when he was conscious and she had time, and Jim appreciated the updates she gave whenever he showed up or called during the three days Ed had been in the hospital.
When he walked up to the nurses' station early Saturday morning and Frances had tears in her eyes, he didn't need a report in words or specifics.
“Not much more time,” she murmured, taking his arm and ushering him toward the door to Ed's room. “He didn't want me to call anyone…” Her voice trailed off, as she clearly waited for Jim to fill in the blanks, but he shook his head.
“There's no one but me,” Jim muttered and went into the room alone.
Ed was lying motionless under the pale blue blanket, even more skeletal than yesterday and hooked to oxygen and an IV.
Jim paused as the door swished closed at his back. For a terrible moment he wished it were already over, so he didn't have to say good-bye, but Ed's chest moved up and down as if to remind him there was still time.
He walked over and sat down quietly to wait for some sign that Ed knew he was here. When too many ticks of the clock passed, Jim laid his hand on the blanket near Ed's arm.