Delta Stevens 1: Taken by Storm (7 page)

After a few minutes of heart-wrenching crying that wracked her body with violent jerks, Jennifer slowly took a tissue out of her purse and wiped her eyes. “I . . . I suppose you know . . . I haven’t been willing to talk to anyone from the station.”

Delta only nodded.

“You know why, too. All they would have done was feed me a line of shit. They always think we wives are too weak to handle the truth. But we’re the ones who see our husbands break down after a child has been molested or murdered. I was the one who held Miles while he cried after that horrible child abuse at the preschool. I may not have been there to see the things he did, but I felt what seeing them did to him. I’m stronger than that, Delta. You know it, too.”

Delta nodded again.

“And I couldn’t talk to you because . . . because it hurt so much. You were there. You held him as he died. It was too unbearable to be that close to his death.”

“I understand. Really.”

“And I knew, I know, that you will tell me the truth. You won’t hide anything from me, even if it hurts.”

Delta reached for Jennifer’s hand and held it in her own.

They were chilled.

“I understand that you saw the whole thing.”

Delta winced and then nodded once.

“I just want to know . . .” Jennifer struggled to maintain control. “Did he suffer?”

Squeezing Jennifer’s hand, Delta shook her head. “No, Jen, he didn’t. It all happened so fast.”

Jennifer fell back into the brown leather chair. “Thank the Lord. I was so afraid—”

“We did everything by the numbers, Jen. He wasn’t careless, he didn’t screw up. No matter what the final investigation report says, you must believe that.”

Jennifer nodded. “I know that. He would never endanger your life by heroics or stupid antics.” Jennifer let out a deep sigh. She looked twenty years older than her thirty-four years. Her eyes were sunken and dark, and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth had formed overnight. Delta knew from experience she hadn’t slept much.

Leaning over, Jennifer touched Delta’s knee. “How are you doing? It must have been awful.”

“I’m hanging in there. You don’t lose a friend like Miles without it tearing a grand canyon-size hole in your heart.” Delta sighed loudly. “The nightmares are the worst.”

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you.” For a moment, Delta drifted off to the recurring image plaguing her. It was Miles alive, laughing, vibrant one moment, and violently ripped away from her the next.

“Delta, I know how much you meant to Miles. He talked about you all the time.” Jennifer grinned. “As fond of you as he was, if I didn’t know you were a lesbian, I’d have thought he was having an affair.”

Delta grinned back. Her sexuality had been a topic of conversation in the patrol car on many occasions, and Delta remembered, years ago, when Miles shared with her how relieved Jennifer was to know that his partner was a lesbian.

Before Delta could reply, the father poked his head through the door. “Excuse me, Mrs. Brookman, but I’m afraid we need to get started.”

“Thank you, father.” Turning back to Delta as she stood, Jennifer looked her square in the face. “He wasn’t, was he?”

For a second, Delta was unsure of the question. “What? Having an affair?”

Jennifer nodded. “Or something like that.”

Two months ago, Delta would have been taken aback by such a question from Jennifer, but she remembered her own questions just days ago. “No, Jen, he wasn’t. And I honestly believe he would have confided in me if he had. We didn’t have too many secrets.”

Jennifer wiped her face with the tissue before gazing deeply into Delta’s eyes. “I believe you,” she said, bowing her head as if ashamed that she could ask such a question. “I guess I just needed to hear it from you.”

Delta followed Jennifer out the door and took her seat next to the children. They too, looked older than their years. In all of her life, Delta never felt more pain than she did when she looked down at the two innocent faces staring out at her. They did not understand death. They did not understand what would possess someone to do what had been done to their father. Their innocence, their fragility, drove the pain deeper into Delta’s soul.

As the father opened to a church that was wall-to-wall with blue uniforms, Delta glanced around at the mournful faces. She had worked with many of the people there, and many of the married officers had their wives sitting closely to them, lest the angel of death choose them next time. There were lawyers, doctors, merchants from their beat, and people who could have been Miles’s childhood friends. All these people, most of whom had never met, all shared a tiny piece of the memory of Miles Brookman. If they had nothing else in common, they had all known a very special person.

As Delta started to turn back around, her eyes stayed glued to the face of a pretty young woman sitting in the back pew. Eyes transfixed on a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, Delta scanned her memory bank for the information on this woman. With beautiful, blonde hair flowing over her right shoulder, Delta zeroed in on the red lipstick. Red lipstick. The red brought the red pumps and leather skirt to her memory. This was the woman Miles had stopped to see that evening.

Wheeling back around, Delta’s palms began to sweat. What was a hooker doing at a cop’s funeral? And what was this particular hooker doing here now? Did she know something about Miles’s activities. Oh God, Delta thought, how could she sit through the whole funeral, wondering whether or not that woman would slip through her fingers? What would Miles or Jennifer think if she suddenly raced through the church chasing after a woman?

Miles, she thought wryly, would say she was a damn good cop.

Turning back around, the woman locked eyes with Delta. For a moment, neither moved. Suddenly, adeptly, the woman slid off the pew and scooted out the door. A fraction of a second later, Delta tore down the center aisle in pursuit.

Two steps from the door, six steps away from catching her, an extremely large gentleman known to all as “Bear” leapt out in front of Delta and stopped her.

“Delta, it’s gonna be okay,” Bear said soothingly, taking Delta into his arms and hugging her tenderly. “We understand how hard this must be on you.”

Delta looked up at the hulking man taking up most of the aisle and shook her head. The church had grown extremely quiet in the wake of her mad, unexplained dash.

“Miles would want you to stay,” Bear whispered. Bear was one of Miles’s best friends. He was a California Highway Patrolman who had gone to the academy with Miles and had come as backup for Miles a couple of times just because he cared. The two men had a bond Delta always admired, and even now, Bear was thinking about what Miles would want.

But Delta knew better.

Thinking of the only thing that could get him out of her way, Delta stood on her tiptoes and whispered, “I think I’m going to puke.”

Immediately, Bear stepped aside, allowing Delta to brush past him and go through the door.

Once outside, she looked up and down the street, but the beautiful blonde with the red lipstick was gone.

Looking into the sky, Delta sighed. “Okay Miles, she beat me this time, but I swear to God, I’m going to find out the secret you’ve been hiding from us all. And if I have to, I’m going to twist it out of your little friend in red.”

“Have you been back to work?” Jennifer asked, handing Delta a cup of coffee.

“I’m on light duty until Internal Affairs is finished with their investigation. God, is it boring.” Delta tried not looking at the box on the floor that contained most of Miles’s police gear. Jennifer had called her earlier that morning saying that she had found some peculiar things in Miles’s safety deposit box. Delta wasted no time in coming over, but the small box filled with items that were once so important to Miles, struck a melancholic chord deep within her.

“Miles used to say that Internal Affairs was like the keystone cops; they couldn’t tell the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground.”

Delta smiled. She’d heard him say that a number of times.

“How is the investigation going?”

Delta shrugged. “Same old stuff. I wish someone would answer my questions.”

“What questions are those?”

Shaking her head, Delta leaned on her left elbow. “Where the hell was our backup? We requested backup nearly two full minutes before we made the stop. How long did they want us to wait?” Delta rubbed her tired eyes. She had asked that question nearly a hundred times.

“Miles didn’t want to wait, did he?”

Jennifer knew her husband well.

“No, Jen, he didn’t. They were very late in backing us up. If I were I.A., I’d be asking our backup a whole lot more questions.”

Jennifer nodded. Her gray eyes were soft and caring. “I want you to know I don’t blame you. I know how much you loved him, and I know you would never have let anything happen to him if you could have prevented it.”

Delta’s eyes welled-up. God, how she had needed someone to say that to her. Instantly, half her burden of self imposed guilt lifted from her drooping shoulders. “Thank you. So often I wonder about all of the what-ifs.” Delta looked down at her hands. She felt tired and old.

“Doing that will only make you crazy.”

“Sometimes, Jen, I feel like I’m already there.”

Jen leaned closer to Delta. “There’s something more, isn’t there?”

Delta looked up from her hands and into Jennifer’s face. She didn’t wish to burden a woman who had lost the most important part of her life. “Sort of. I don’t have a handle on anything concrete yet, but when I do, I’ll let you know.”

Turning from Delta, Jennifer pulled a small spiralbound notebook out of the box on the floor. “Maybe this will help. When I went to get his off-duty weapon, I found this tucked inside a manilla envelope.”

Taking the pad from her, Delta opened it up and found a list of a series of numbers. The first number read, 7336412201. Delta stared at the list of about thirty numbers for a long time.

“What do they mean?”

Delta shrugged. “Beats me. I’ve never seen them before.”

“Do you think that Miles was in some kind of trouble?”

Delta lowered the pad and cocked her head. “What makes you ask that?”

Looking out the window at the soft rain, Jennifer sighed.

“He’d been acting so strange lately.”

“Strange?”

You know, not coming home until well after his shift, leaving really early for work. That’s . . . that’s why I asked you what I did at the funeral.”

“Did you ever confront him on it?”

“I did ask why he was getting home so late. All he would ever say was that this was his ticket to bigger and better things.”

Delta nodded. He had said that to her as well. Whatever he had been doing, the generic story remained the same for both of them.

“I wish I knew what to say, Jen.”

“You don’t have to say anything. You being here is enough. The kids ask about you often.” Jennifer reached out and laid her hand on Delta’s leg. “I don’t think it’s quite hit them that daddy isn’t coming home anymore.”

Delta gently laid her hand on top of Jennifer’s. They were still cold. “Is there anything I can do?”

Jennifer pushed the manilla envelope closer to Delta.

“Finish what he started. He would want that.”

Delta looked down at the worn envelope.

“There’s one more thing I’d like you to have.” Reaching into the box, Jennifer pulled out a small package wrapped in cotton and handed it to Delta

Carefully unwrapping it, Delta looked down at Miles’s shiny, silver shield. “But I thought-”

Jennifer shook her head. “I only told them that I was burying him with it on. I know that he would have wanted you to have it, Del.”

Looking down at the glittering badge, Delta could almost feel Miles’s presence.

Wiping the tear from her eye, Delta looked up at Jennifer through blurry eyes. “Thank you, Jen. I’ll treasure it forever.” Slipping it into her pocket, Delta grabbed the envelope and headed for the door.

“If there’s anything I can do . . . anything.” Jennifer hugged her tightly before opening the door.

“Find who killed my husband, Delta. If anyone can do that, you can.”

“I’ll give it my best. I can promise you that much.”

Staring out the window of the bar, neon beer names flickered on and off, Delta looked at their reflection in the crystal of her watch. This was the second night she’d come downtown hoping to see some sign of the red leather skirt and pumps. The rain had slowed to a fine mist, and the city’s nightlife bloomed. Tonight was the night, Delta told herself, that she would catch that woman and find out everything the could.

Three hours later, she was right.

After waiting and watching, Delta saw the blonde on the corner of the street outside. Jumping off her barstool, Delta raced through the front door and jammed across the street, dodging two cars at the intersection.

Delta was on her before the woman had a chance to move.