The Enemy Inside (12 page)

“This is not good enough. Not nearly good enough. Do I need to remind you what happened last time there was a mistake?”

They shook their heads desperately. It was seared into their consciousness. No reminders were necessary.

Chapter Twelve

Jay thumped on Berg’s door, an action, he realized, that was becoming an irritating routine. His knuckles were bruised from pounding on it over the last few days, and today, he resolved, he would break it down before he would leave unsatisfied again.

It was eleven on a Tuesday morning, the morning that could, if it went badly, end Berg’s career. Not even a week had passed since her suspension, and a special hearing of the Chicago Police Board had been convened to hear her case.
 

The Office of Professional Standards, the fancy new name for Internal Affairs that Jay thought didn’t fool anyone, had become involved at the request of Chief Consiglio, who was pushing for Berg’s immediate termination and for charges to be brought against her for Rogers’s murder.
 

The board heard in excess of one hundred cases a year concerning Chicago police officers charged with drug abuse, excessive force, domestic fights, and various other crimes. In the end, officers were exonerated, suspended, or in seventy-five percent of cases, terminated.

Jay had never had the dubious pleasure of fronting the board himself, but damned if he was going to let Berg go by herself. So he had asked for the day off, donned his best gray pinstriped suit, and drove his rarely used car to Berg’s.
 

He pounded on the door again. It was almost thirty seconds later before he finally heard her muffled footsteps moving across the floor, and another ten before she looked through the peephole and decided to open the door.

“Hi there, stranger,” he said to the haggard, robed figure before him. “Ready to clear your name?”
 

Berg shrugged, turning her back on him and shuffling back to the couch, leaving the door open.
 

Jay stepped inside. “I can’t help but notice you’re not ready,” he said with forced cheerfulness, closing the front door softly behind him. “We’d better go soon; don’t want to be late.” He inwardly cringed at the tone of his own voice, it sounded like they were going to Disneyland.

Berg slid down on her couch, curling into the fetal position before covering herself with a cream woolen blanket and burying her head under a white cushion. “Not going,” she muttered.

Jay felt the edges of anger prickling around his temples. “Huh? I must be going deaf. Did you just say you’re not going?”

“Yep.” She poked her head out from under the cushions just long enough to ensure he clearly understood her before burying it again like an ostrich in sand.

Jay’s jaw twitched. “Not going to your hearing? The hearing where you can clear your name? That hearing?”

Berg nodded, her head causing the cushion to bob up and down.

Jay took a deep breath and counted to ten in an effort to calm down. “If you don’t show up, they’ll automatically fire you.”
 

“So?” She poked her head back out. “I’ll be fired regardless because I lied to Leigh. So why not just cut out all the preliminaries and get it over with? No need to humiliate myself further. Besides, I’m quitting anyway.” Her head shot back under the cushion.

Jay knew that dishonesty, in one form or another, was the leading cause of police officers being fired. Even if the offense they lied about was minor, once the lie was told, the board had no choice but to fire the officer. A police officer with a habit of lying was not much use as a witness.
 

Berg had already lied to Captain Leigh about being home on the night of Rogers’s murder, and figured that her termination was the only recourse for the board.

Jay shook his head, ripping the cushion off Berg’s head and flinging it across the room. “Leigh hasn’t said anything about your lie. She has only said you don’t have an alibi the night Rogers was murdered. Tell them where you were, back it up, and you’re in the clear.”

Berg shook her head stubbornly. “I told you, I’m quitting anyway.”
 

“Like hell you are. That’s what he wants!” Jay stalked off to her bedroom. Turning and finding the walk-in closet, he yanked open the door. He selected a navy blue pinstripe suit, white shirt, and sensible pumps from the pristine racks. He took the outfit back out to the living room and threw the clothes, still on the hangers, on top of her. “Put this on. Now.”

“No.” Berg crossed her arms. “I’d rather be fired than—”

“What? Tell everyone you’re getting laid? Have a girlfriend? What, Berg? What could possibly be so bad you’re prepared to throw your career away rather than admit where you were?”
 

Berg just glared at him.

Jay stared at her for a full minute, feeling like he didn’t know her at all. He had seen her in action over the years, putting down men twice her size and even once staring down a psychopath intent on slitting her throat. He had thought she was invincible.
Why is she letting a tool like Consiglio get to her?
 

“Jay . . .”

He ripped the blanket off her body, dragged her by the arm up to a sitting position, and knocked the selected outfit onto the ground. “So you’re just giving up, is that it? Giving Consiglio what he wants on a silver platter? Rolling over and taking it? The Berg I know would never give that moron the satisfaction. She would never let anyone get the better of her. Ever. I don’t know who the fuck you are, lady, but you are not my Berg.”
 

“Thanks for sharing.”

“Did you do this murder?” he asked.

“No!”

“Then fucking get up and prove it.” He scooped the selected clothes off the floor, handing them to her. “Put them on. Now. And let’s go before we’re late.”
 

Berg sighed in defeat, stood, and undid her bathrobe, letting it fall to the floor.
 

Jay turned his back and headed to her bathroom, but not before he saw her naked, painfully thin frame covered with livid bruises and welts.
 

What the hell?
 

The shock of her battered body almost ruined his delight at seeing her naked. Almost. Even when too thin and covered in bruises, she was perfect, her stomach flat, her legs long and lean, and her breasts high and tight. Perfect like he’d imagined she would be, in the rare moments he allowed himself to think about it.
 

He raided her bathroom cabinets and came back out just as Berg was finishing dressing. “What’s with all the bruises?”
 

“I’ve been hitting the dojo a lot,” Berg replied easily.
 

Jay knew that was bullshit but didn’t press. “Here.” He thrust various makeup tubes and a hairbrush into Berg’s hands. “I don’t know what any of that stuff is for, but put it on—you look like run-over shit. I’ll be in the car. And so help me, if you’re not presentable and in my car in five minutes, I’ll drag you out by the hair.”

In just over five minutes, Berg, looking more like her usual self, joined Jay in his car.
 

“Don’t be too disturbed, but I have bad news,” he said as he pulled away from the curb.

“There’s news worse than the fact I’m being fired and possibly charged with multiple murders?”
 

Jay sighed. “Stella just called. Her office has been tipped off about your hearing today.”
 

“Fuck,” Berg muttered.
 

“While the tipster couldn’t give names, he all but said it was you. I’ll give you one guess who I think it was. Anyway, out of appreciation for our previous help and to say sorry for dumping us in it with Consiglio, she’s going to sit on it for as long as she can. If nothing comes of it, she’ll bury it.”
 

Berg shook her head.

“I know, right? Only Consiglio could turn something like this into a positive for himself and his political career. What a douche.”

She nodded and closed her eyes.
 

While Jay drove, Berg sat in the passenger seat, feigning sleep.
 

He snuck a look at her out of the corner of his eye. She had at least made a partial effort and was looking half decent. Even so, clothes that fit only a week ago now swam on her, and the dark circles under her eyes stood out like livid, black half-moons.
 

“Do you have a lawyer?” he asked.

“Sure, some union guy left a message saying he’d be there.”

 
“You look like you haven’t eaten or slept in days. What have you been doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh good. We’re back to one word answers. Nothing? I keep calling and I came over the other night, but you weren’t there.”

“I didn’t feel like talking.”

“So you’ve just been hanging around your apartment feeling sorry for yourself?” Jay asked, knowing that wasn’t true, thanks to the nosy neighbor.

“Yes. I’ve been there making friends with Johnny Walker and Jim Beam. Nice guys,” Berg replied.

“Whatever.” He sighed again. “You don’t want to tell me what you’ve been doing, that’s your problem.” He took off his gray suit jacket and threw it at Berg. “I can’t see any media, but keep this to put over your head in case they are inside.”
 

Berg took the jacket.

With no sign of media anywhere, Berg’s union-appointed lawyer, Mike Malloy, who was in his fifties, met them outside the allotted courtroom. Having tried to contact Berg over the previous few days with no luck, he looked relieved she had actually shown up.
 

Jay had heard he was a pretty good lawyer, despite the fact he looked like he lived in a time warp, with his wide mustard tie and plaid suit. With a few minutes before the hearing was due to start, Malloy dragged Berg out of Jay’s earshot for a private briefing that consisted of Malloy getting increasingly agitated while Berg shook her head in response to his questions.
 

Jay noticed she still clutched his jacket. He felt sorry for the lawyer; he was not used to Berg’s pigheadedness and didn’t stand a chance.

Lips pressed into a thin line of displeasure, Malloy led Berg back to Jay. The trio walked into the courtroom and got settled. Berg sat next to her lawyer at the defendant’s table, with Jay sitting so closely behind her in the wooden stands that he could smell the musky scent of her skin. Apart from Jay, the stands were devoid of spectators, as was usual for police board hearings.

Consiglio burst into the court shortly after their arrival, sitting at the prosecution table with his chosen attorney, a smug smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
 

Berg ignored him, sitting and staring straight ahead as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

“That’s my Berg,” Jay whispered.
 

Malloy leaned over to the detectives. “The superintendent usually brings cases before the board,” he whispered. “The fact that he’s not here is a good sign. He mustn’t want to touch this.”

Malloy’s whispers were interrupted by a group of eleven sober-faced men and women filing into the room. While the hearing was held in a courtroom, it was not presided over by a judge. The Chicago Police Board was headed by a group of eight civilians who were selected by the mayor, plus some administrative staff. Everything else was just like a regular court trial.
 

The current president of the board began with the usual formalities before the prosecution outlined the preliminaries of the case.
 

The president, a small woman by the name of Reinhardt, quickly began the hearing. “Does the defendant have an opening statement?” she asked.

Malloy stood and spoke without preamble. “We ask that Chief Antonio Consiglio’s request to terminate Detective Alicia Raymond’s employment be dismissed. The prosecution has nothing connecting her to the murder except for circumstantial evidence and much speculation. This is a case of simple evidence transfer that the prosecution is trying to beat up into more than it is. Detective Raymond is a highly regarded police officer with a spotless record and is responsible for the incarceration of some of this city’s most violent offenders. We also have it on good authority that the media has been tipped off to these proceedings, further indicating the prosecution is after nothing more than a sound bite here today.”

Reinhardt nodded and invited the prosecution to begin its case.
 

The first witness, Captain Leigh, was sworn in before Consiglio’s attorney peppered her with questions. Leigh answered them honestly and did not bring up Berg’s deliberate lie in her office the previous week. Jay was grateful. Leigh’s silence could well come at the cost of her own career.
 

“Is it your opinion that Detective Raymond is responsible for the death of John Rogers?” Reinhardt asked the captain at the closing stages of the examination.

Leigh shook her head. “I have no reason to suspect Raymond carried out this crime. She is a very talented, exemplary officer. One of the CPD’s best, in my opinion.”