But it was a job and a paycheck and the current economic state made just having a job a prize in itself. The honest truth was that Kate didn’t really know what it was that she wanted to do. Even with a bachelors degree in psychology and a desire to help people, she didn’t know how to translate that into a career or what direction she wanted to go. Selling office furniture was not going to be her career, at least she hoped it wouldn’t be. For now, though, it was a good place holder and allowed her time to contemplate life’s choices.
She was always grateful to her Uncle Lenny for everything he had done for her, even though he wasn’t technically related to him, so she tried to do her best at the job. It wasn’t easy though because he ran the company in an old school way that didn’t include a lot of today’s technology and so the business was starting to dwindle as online shopping became more and more popular. After she finished settling her things into her desk and hanging up her coat, she wandered down the hall to find Lenny and say hello.
She had asked him to keep a distance as she had most people over the last two weeks because she didn’t want everyone to see her looking so vulnerable. She still didn’t feel particularly shielded now but at least her heavy make up job covered most of the bruises and only some of the healing lacerations showed on her face. She rounded the corner and walked up to her uncle’s assistant, Frank Bild.
Frank was sitting at a desk, busily tapping away on an ancient computer. He wasn’t particularly tall or handsome, but he wasn’t ugly either. He just wasn’t very noticeable and you could probably meet him ten times and still not recognize him. That is until he opened his mouth.
Every office has that one jerk that no one can stand and Frank had signed, sealed, and displayed that title all over himself from the first day he arrived. Lenny was the only one who seemed oblivious to Frank’s lack of charms. Kate didn’t care very much because she rarely had to interact with Frank. He was more an annoyance than anything else.
“Hey Frank, is Lenny in?” Kate asked, gesturing to the closed door near Frank’s desk that had Lenny’s name on it in gold plating. Frank just glanced up at her for a brief moment, then looked back at his computer and continued typing.
“You look horrible.” He said simply. Not an insult, not a compliment, he just stated it like he was stating a fact that he couldn’t care less about. Kate sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Thanks.” She sarcastically responded then pointed back to her uncle’s office door, waiting for him to answer her question. He didn’t look back up or say anything to her until he finished typing a moment later, then he turned his full body to face her and folded his arms across his chest.
“What do you want with him?” Frank narrowed his eyes and looked at her with disdain, as if he couldn’t understand why someone like her would have anything of value to say to his boss.
“Uh, I just wanted to say hi. He is my uncle, I haven’t seen him in a few days. Is he available?” Kate started getting exasperated and you could hear it in her voice. Frank just stared at her, looking like he hadn’t decided whether or not he was going to let her in. He had the tiniest smirk on the edge of his lips as if he really got off on wielding his control over other people.
“You look like someone knocked the hell out of you.” He said to her, ignoring her question as he leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet out, crossing his ankles. The smirk still decorating his lips, now almost in a snarl. She just stared at him, her eyes slimming into a squint trying to hold her irritation at bay.
“Car accident, right? At least that’s the word going around the office.” He said to her, not even pretending to be concerned.
“Yeah, thanks for your concern.” Kate responded sarcastically, noting that her sister must have told everyone at the office that she had had a car accident and that was why she had been out for two weeks.
“He’s free.” Frank said to her in a gruff voice after staring at her for a moment and sat up, going back to typing at his computer. He nodded his head towards Lenny’s door and just like that, she was completely off his radar, absorbed back into his own world.
“Thanks,” Kate mumbled, walking to the door and then mumbled, “for nothing.”
She walked into Lenny’s office without knocking, which was not really unusual since he was her uncle. He was sitting at a round table to one side of his office instead of the desk in the back center of the room. The round table had four chairs around it and stacks of papers spread out across it, including a legal pad that Lenny was currently writing on while punching numbers into a large print calculator, staring carefully through his thick glasses.
He glanced up when he heard the door open and then beamed, smiling at her and clearly glad to see her. Kate was surprised at how happy she was to see him in return, because her entire body suddenly relaxed and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She felt the first true and genuine smile spread across her face since before her attack. The entire sensation shocked her because it was new. There is a genuine feeling of happiness and relief that most people think that they have experienced before, but Kate realized then and there that this wasn’t the case.
What Kate had once thought was happiness and joy in the past was nothing compared to what she felt seeing her uncle for the first time since her attack. Here was a friendly face, a familiar face, and someone who loved her no matter what. She had never truly appreciated that or felt these emotions before because she had never experienced the opposite until two weeks ago. Until she had been subjected to some of the worst experiences a human being can go through and felt the emotions so far from happiness that happiness wasn’t even a speck on their horizon, she couldn’t have fully felt real and true happiness.
Happiness is the face of someone who loves you.
CHAPTER FOUR
Both detectives weren’t even fazed by Craig’s cussing and angry retaliation as he stood up out of his chair in the interrogation room and walked back and forth angrily. Snow continued to sit in the chair across the table from him and McCraig leaned against the concrete by the mirror, unwavering in his cold stare towards their suspect. Craig was pacing now, his face clearly a flurry of emotions and thoughts that Snow was trying her best to decipher. She couldn’t form an opinion yet about whether this was Kate’s attacker, but she was carefully looking for any signals of guilt.
“Well, who the hell is it now? How am I supposed to have done anything? When was it? I bet I have an alibi, I’m not alone all that much and I work a lot. I am not even dating anyone, let alone doing anything that could fuck with my probation. So who the hell is this woman picking my picture out?” Craig turned to face Snow and asked her pointedly, purposefully avoiding eye contact with the more frightening detective in the back of the room who had scared him earlier in an angry outburst.
“Where were you two Sundays ago? All evening.” Snow replied, careful about how much information she revealed.
“Sit down, McDermott.” McCraig said firmly from the back of the room where he continued to loom, saying just enough to remind the suspect that he was there but not enough to overtake the interrogation. Snow’s bedside manner was easily better than McCraig’s and they tended to let her play the good cop as often as possible.
Craig sheepishly looked towards him and then decided that it would be a good idea to follow his instructions. He sat down across from Detective Snow and sighed.
“Two Sundays ago? Damn, I don’t know. Let me think.” He looked up at the ceiling and fiddled with his thumbs on top of the table.
“I think I was working. I work every other weekend and I didn’t work last. So yeah, I was working at the Java Jolt, it’s a coffee shop. My parole officer knows about it and I do good work there. It’s not much but I’m good at it and making some money to take care of myself. That can’t be a crime now, can it?” Craig taunted the officers.
“What time did you leave work?” Snow countered, not feeding into his remarks for even a moment.
“I don’t know. The normal, ten
o’clock probably? I wasn’t keeping track, I mean I have an eleven o’clock curfew on work days so I know I was home before then. It’s not like I was writing it down though, I didn’t know I would need a fucking alibi because I didn’t fucking do anything to anybody.” Craig said, getting irritated again with his voice escalating in volume.
“Who saw you come home? Who saw you leave work?” Snow continued, not missing a beat.
“My boss saw me leave work and I live with my cousin, Jimmy. He works with me but he wasn’t working that night. I don’t know if he saw me that night. We don’t like hang out or anything. I probably just made some food and went to my room, played video games and went to bed.” Craig replied. Snow pushed a pad of paper and a pencil towards Craig across the metal table.
“I’m going to need everyone’s names and numbers.” She told him and then stood up from the table and left the room. McCraig followed her, staring menacingly at Craig the entire time as he picked up the pencil and began writing on the paper.
The detectives watched him finish writing the information down through the one way window, carefully watching his facial expressions as he looked angrily around the room and then back at his paper.
“You think he is telling the truth?” Snow asked her partner, her arms folded across her chest as she continued to stare through the window.
“I think it’s a pretty good possibility but we are going to need some serious evidence. We are not getting a confession out of him easily. Even with his temper. He has been through a trial and jail once, never confessing to what he did. We need to come prepared with an airtight case.” McCraig told her, then headed back toward the interrogation room to lead their suspect out and collect the information he had written down.
Snow stood there a bit longer, pondering what her partner had said. She knew he was right but something still wasn’t sitting well with her with this entire case. She couldn’t pin point it, but something was missing from the story.
~~~~
Kate was pushing papers and miscellaneous items into her purse at the end of a long first day back at work, leaning down with her head almost beneath her desk to reach her purse on the floor. As she fumbled through it, she saw a streak of white that caught her eye. She recognized it before she even looked at it fully, gingerly grabbing the edge with two fingers and sliding it out of her purse. She must have stared at it over a hundred times by now.
Still hidden beneath her desk, she stared at that small photograph she couldn’t seem to part with. It was the instant kind of photograph, no bigger than her hand and her own image stared back at her from beneath the cold glare on the glossy paper. Her attacker had taken this photograph and left it for her just moments after he hurt her. She was barely clothed and what few remnants were left on her were torn and bloody. Her face was unrecognizable, swollen and cut up.
Hints of this girl still peered back at her in the mirror even though Kate did her best to hide her behind concealer and face powder. But would she ever really be able to hide these scars? Physically they would heal, but internally Kate felt the lacerations ran deeper than any stitches could repair.
“Ready to go?” A deep voice behind Kate broke out of the silence and the grasp her memories had on her. Startled, she jumped up from her position leaning down underneath her desk. This resulted in her slamming the back of her head right into the bottom of her desk, creating a resounding thud that echoed in her ears as she felt like her brain was bouncing around in her skull.
“Lord, Kate, are you okay?” Lenny was the owner of the voice behind her as he walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She was sitting up in her office chair now, rubbing her head to dull the pain.
“Oh gosh, yeah. That was embarrassing.” Kate grinned as she looked up at her uncle, still rubbing her head.
“No, it’s my fault. I’m so light on my feet, like a young dancer in my prime.” Lenny smiled at her, joking since he was probably the weight of ten young dancers combined. Kate burst out laughing. She loved that her uncle was always able to make any situation better, she couldn’t be anything but joyful around him.
“Ready for dinner?” Lenny asked her again, pulling his coat on. Kate stood up and did the same, picking up her purse. The two had planned earlier to do dinner tonight since she hadn’t seen him in two weeks. Plus Kate never turned down a free dinner from her uncle, he always took her to places way outside what she could afford.
~~~~
Kate kissed her uncle goodbye on the cheek outside of a steakhouse right outside Chinatown in Washington, DC. She was full and happy, having just spent several hours laughing and reminiscing with her Uncle Lenny over some delicious wine, steaks, and desserts. The duo parted on the sidewalk and Kate headed down to the metro stop a block south of her.
She yawned while she went and sat on the stone benches underground between the tracks, staring at the metro screen announcing that the next train would not be arriving for another 14 minutes. She looked around at the other people on the platform, which was only three strangers picking spots as far from one another as possible. One young man was leaning against a column while flipping through his phone, engrossed in the mini screen and ignoring everything else around him. She wondered if he would even notice if the train was arriving.
There was an older woman in a hotel maid’s uniform and orthopedic shoes who looked like life had worked her much harder than it had ever rewarded her. A little past her was a university student sporting her collegiate sweatpants, sweatshirt, and even shoes proudly while reading a small book that she was almost done with. Kate sighed and stared back at the screen above her head. She was down to 7 minutes now.
Kate pulled her purse onto her lap and rifled through it, trying to pass the time. She pulled out her phone and looked at her messages, realizing that she had missed a phone call. Derrick’s name popped onto the screen with a short message.
Missing you.
Short, sweet, and to the point like Derrick always was. He knew how to melt her heart with something as small as two words. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling when she read it and felt herself sigh. It was nice feeling those warm and fuzzy feelings of love again and everything about picturing Derrick was very, very warm.
Kate suddenly stood up and slipped her purse back up over her shoulder and headed towards the escalator and up, out of the metro station. She turned down the sidewalk and headed towards Derrick’s apartment. The thought of going home to her empty apartment was much less appealing than going to see Derrick and wrapping herself up in his thick, strong arms.
Home was lonely and cold, full of memories she was desperately trying to push far away. Derrick’s apartment only had memories of laughter, kisses, and curling toes in warm, twisted sheets. Those sheets, those arms, and that boyish grin is where she needed to be tonight.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Kate?” A crackling voice broke through the receiver as Derrick held the phone up to his ear.
“No, this is Derrick. She is in the shower. Did you find something new, Detective?” Derrick had answered Kate’s phone as soon as he saw Detective Snow’s name pop up on the screen.
Kate had surprised him by coming over late last night and Derrick couldn’t have been more pleased. They had definitely not slept as much as they should have, considering that they both had to be at work this morning but it didn’t seem to matter to them during the night.
All that mattered to Derrick was that Kate had forgiven him and she was where she belonged- back in his life, back in his arms, and back in his bed. Nothing further had happened between them because Kate wasn’t ready for that still. Just the sensation of being held by him and feeling his warm protective arms around her was what she needed.
“Oh, hello Derrick. This is Detective Snow from the precinct. I wanted to talk to Kate about a development in the case. I am at her apartment but she didn’t answer the door.” Liz Snow told him.
“Oh, she is over at my apartment. She won’t leave for work for at l
east another hour so come on by!” Derrick told her excitedly and then recited his address to her. He was eager to hear any good news about the case. Derrick knew that he had failed Kate, and not just a small fail but an epic level of failure, betrayal, and abandonment. The guilt plagued him every moment of the last two weeks and even though Kate had finally forgiven him, Derrick was nowhere near forgiving himself.
Derrick got out of bed, pulling his boxers on from where they had been tossed off the bed and onto the floor. He grabbed a t-shirt that was over the back of a chair and yanked it on, barely covering up his intense six-pack abs that still held their sculpted look even through the fabric. He looked towards the bathroom door and considered if Kate would be okay with him just giving out her location to the detective. He was pretty sure that she wanted the case solved as much as he did, so he hoped she wouldn’t be upset about it.
He needed some fresh air and was lucky enough that his apartment had a nice balcony where he had some lounge chairs set up. He grabbed himself some coffee out of the kitchen that had been set to automatically brew for the morning. The weather was a bit warm as he stepped outside onto the concrete balcony and looked around him. He loved his balcony, his own space outdoors, but the view was dismal. If he looked to his right, there was his bedroom window and if he looked to his left, there was the kitchen window.
Straight ahead of him was the balcony jutting off the building across the alley from him. No one had lived in that apartment for a while which he was glad about because they could practically reach across and touch his railing if they really wanted to, not to mention the front row view into his windows. The last tenant who had lived there was a bunch of frat boys who were always smoking on the balcony and playing loud music into the night. He had been really glad to get rid of that noise and that smell when they moved out a few months ago.