"I didn't bother checking. I figure if it was the station calling they'd use the radio since I was sitting in my car most of the time."
It was a dumb excuse. What cop went without answering their phone or even checking the display? Leo didn't feel like arguing so he let it go. "What are you two fighting about now? Does she still think you're gay and hiding it?"
Daniel frowned. "That's not even funny. I don't even know how the hell she came up with that. I swear she sits at home and come up with shit to annoy me. Like she sits and brainstorms. That has to be the only damn explanation. No sane person could come up with this bullshit out of the blue."
"Trust me, Dan. I don't think you're
that
important in the grand scheme of things."
"I guess. She picks on everything. I can't do anything right."
"Sounds like most marriages. You guys just have to learn not to take it so personal all the time like it's the end of the world."
"But I try to walk away. That doesn't work. She just follows me, runs her mouth, and just drives me so fucking crazy. I don't know if I'm cut out for this. We've been arguing a lot lately. And it's over stupid shit—nothing of consequence. I can't take a shit without her riding my ass about something."
"I believe two people in love should work out their crap. But if all you do is argue, have you thought maybe you should just let it go before one of you kills the other?"
"Too late for that," Daniel muttered.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel took a breath and closed his file. "We're too old to break up now. It's just mindless arguments. Eventually she'll get bored and give up this whole gay crap for some new stuff."
"So you can both sit around—you watching sports, withering away, and her, knitting and wishing you'd eat shit and die?"
Daniel laughed. "Sad, but true. No one else would put up with our bull anyway. What's up?"
Leo eyed Daniel for a bit. There was something about the mood he was in that worried Leo but he took a breath and leaned back in his seat, hearing the chair creak slightly. "Did you get the lab results and stuff?"
"Yeah. So I guess you heard."
"I heard. Don't know what to make of it. I'm still stuck on the break-in. I was thinking I'd swing by there today and go over the scene, now that it's been cleaned. Maybe there is more to see in the tidy than in the mess."
"You're going all deep on me again. Anyway, the prints came back from the lab too. There's nothing there. All the prints are from Jazmon and a few were found of Anderson's in the kitchen. It seems the guy is smart and wore gloves."
"What about the break-in?"
"They're still running those. They're mostly partials. I don't think there's a break there."
The door to the break room burst open and Isha hurried in. "Damn you two are hard to find. Listen we caught another case and they're asking for both of you."
"Son of a bitch," Leo muttered. He followed Isha and his partner out the door, stopping only to grab his coat. They drove to the crime scene while he desperately tried reaching Anderson. His panic grew when Anderson didn't answer his calls. At the scene while everyone rushed to the house, Leo tried again but still no response. That gave him more incentive to climb from the car and duck beneath the yellow tape.
But when he saw the body, it wasn't Anderson. It was the woman who'd helped Leo avoid failing high school. Leo shook his head. He was so confused. She was naked, head detached and sitting between her legs. The room was once again clean with a love-lies-bleeding sitting on the floor beside her body. On the wall was the same damn quote from "The Raven".
"Oh god."
"You know her?" Daniel asked.
As Isha stuck the thermometer into Mrs Harrison's body, Leo turned his head away. His chest heaved, causing his heart to hammer painfully in his chest. He could barely breathe. The room was all of a sudden so warm he wanted to remove his coat. "Yeah. This is starting to not be funny anymore."
"Funny?"
"It never was. Just a figure of speech. I just don't understand. Both these victims are people I know. I'm the connection."
"We'll put a rush on everything, Kim," Isha explained. "Don't start jumping to conclusions yet and driving yourself crazy. This could all be a coincidence."
"I don't see how. All these people are people who were good to me."
"Well I think we should make a list of all those people you can think of and put a shadow on them. We can't be too careful."
Leo nodded and walked from the room. He'd stuck around as long as he could. How sad was it he could now smell death the moment he walked into a room? He hadn't even been a cop as long as some others and it was already ingrained in him. He'd already become jaded against it all and it was killing him inside. It was like the walls were starting to close in on him. All he could think of then was he needed Anderson—desperately needed to feel Anderson's arms around him. How silly was that? He had one night with the man and already he wanted to take up roost.
Pushing his hair back, he took a breath and tried focusing on the people who were more than just friends to him. All his ex-boyfriends were either in different countries now or so far away and all he wanted to do was to give a few of them a good, swift kick. The sad part was he didn't have many people in his life who were any good to him. He had a coach who lived in Elmont, New York, who was amazing and everyone else, aside from Anderson, was gone. He turned to head back into the house to find Daniel but almost crashed into his partner coming out the door.
"I am getting real tired of this asshole being one step ahead of us every time," Leo grumbled.
"I know. Now we wait for Isha's results."
Glancing over his shoulder, Leo pulled Daniel aside and leaned in. "Listen—I have to take off for Elmont in a bit."
"Why Elmont?"
"There's someone there I need to talk to. You remember my old coach?"
"Yeah." Daniel nodded.
"I'm not sure. And I could be so off track on this one, but I think the killer is going around killing people who are close to me."
"Okay, you're nuts."
"I would rather be safe than sorry. You stay here and watch Isha's back."
Daniel nodded. "You're serious about this?"
Leo nodded.
"Sure. All right. But when this is all over, you'll see how nuts this sounds. All this could just be one big coincidence. You be safe."
Touching fists, Leo took the unmarked cruiser and ran some errands throughout the city, including paying his rent and cable before turning the car around. Before he could even think of going to Elmont, he was going to have to make sure things were okay with Anderson.
Chapter Eight
"Hello?" Anderson pressed the phone to his ear using his shoulder while his hands were free to skim the pages of information the two funeral homes faxed over to him.
"It's Leo. I was just calling to check in on you."
"I'm fine. I know I should have called, but I've been busy calling funeral homes and the like. You don't sound so well. What's going on."
"We found another body."
"Oh… I'm sorry."
"I'll talk to you more once I get a chance but I have to go."
"Okay. Talk later then."
He waited until the phone clicked and went to dial tone before he hung up. The air around him seemed to have stopped and Anderson reminded himself to breathe.
So much darkness. So much death.
Anderson spent the day wondering why the latest victim deserved to die and going over funeral arrangements for his father. There were so many people to contact. He figured he would just stick with the people who cared for his father the most and call it a day. There was no use in inviting the whole damn state. By the time evening rolled around, he told the school he would be taking a sabbatical after the current semester. They weren't pleased but they understood. He stopped by his place to grab some fresh clothes but he still didn't feel like staying there. He walked in, went straight for his room, grabbed what he needed, and left again. Next on his to-do list was cooking. Leo deserved a home-cooked meal since he'd been so good to Anderson. But Leo didn't come home nor did he call. When Leo finally walked through the door, it was way past midnight and Anderson was sitting at the dinner table marking some papers and pissed off.
"Hi," Leo said walking over and kissing him. "I thought you'd be sleeping."
"I was thinking of going over to Byung's for a bit," he lied. "But I wanted to make you dinner."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's okay. It's not like we're married or anything. There's food in the oven. Once you take yours out, put what's left in the fridge."
Leo rested his back on the counter and folded his arms. He was staring. At first he just seemed confused, which gave Anderson the chills. Then those chills turned to fire.
"What did I do?" Leo questioned.
"Nothing," Anderson lied. "Don't worry about it. I should get some sleep." He quickly gathered his things and hurried from the room with Leo calling after him. Stacking the papers by his bag, he disrobed and climbed into bed. While he was awake and working, he didn't realize just how tired he was. The moment he hit the bed however, his lower back throbbed with exhaustion and his eyes could barely stay open.
"Anderson?"
He didn't move.
"Anderson, come on. We need to talk about this."
"I made you dinner. You didn't come home and you didn't call."
"I'm sorry. I'm not used to having someone here. And you didn't tell me you were making me dinner."
Anderson rolled over then. "So now it's my fault?"
"Can we please not argue?"
"Fine," Anderson replied, facing away from Leo. "Good night."
"Andy…"
Not sure how long he'd been asleep, Anderson rolled over and Leo wasn't there. It was probably because of their argument. Feeling like a complete moron, he sat up. Pushing the sheets back, he climbed from the bed and peered out the window. It had rained at some point while he slept for the remnants of water hung against the glass. In the distance a dog barked but other than that, everything outside was still. He pulled on his pants and exited the room, looking for Leo.
He found the cop in the kitchen with crime scene photos spread out on the table, a pen in one hand, and a frown on his face. Anderson folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the door.
"You should get some sleep," he spoke.
Leo jerked around.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I just woke up and you weren't there."
"This case is nagging me. I couldn't sleep." Leo refocused on the pictures before him but Anderson didn't move from where he was standing. "Did you want something? Are you hungry?"
Anderson ignored the questions and walked to sit across from Leo. He rubbed his hands against his thighs and swallowed the lump in his throat. Leo's hair was finger raked backward, and a beard was starting to settle in on his face, leaving him looking rugged and dangerous. But Anderson pushed away the arousal rising within him. "I know I'm not a cop. But I know a lot about sleep deprivation. You can't go too long without sleep.''
"I'm fine."
"Leo…"
"I said I'm fine!"
Anderson bowed his head at Leo's outburst. The sound of such anguished anger made his heart hurt. He went to push from the table with every intention of just going back to bed or even grabbing his things and going to a hotel, but Leo grabbed his hand. Anderson yanked it away and turned for the door. Leo's chair scraped against the floor and before he knew what was happening, Leo had him in his arms. Anderson stood rigid against Leo's chest, even as Leo's mouth moved up the side of his neck to his hair.
"I'm sorry," Leo whispered. "I didn't mean to lose my temper."
Anderson said nothing.
"I've been stressed. I know it's no excuse but I have been. And this case is driving me crazy. Someone I love is dead."
"Someone
you
love? He was
my
father! How can you say that? I know my father meant a lot to you—I guess. But he was the only family I had left. So don't treat me as if I have no stake in any of this."
"I know. But you haven't exactly shown much emotion about this. You've been just…"
"Just what?" Anderson shoved against Leo's chest.
"Anderson, don't."
"No. You started this, so be man enough to finish it. What do you want from me? So I'm not good with the emotions thing. That doesn't mean I don't feel anything. He was my father, Leo. He was the only man on this planet who loved me unconditionally and he's lying in a cold morgue in a freezer with a tag on his toe after they've cut him open! So don't you dare tell me how I'm feeling."
"I'm sorry."
Leo reached for him but Anderson shrugged from his grasp and stormed from the room. Footsteps hurrying down the hall after him made Anderson even angrier.
"I'm warning you, Leo. Don't touch me. I don't want to talk to you right now."
In the bedroom he shoved his things into his bag and roamed the room looking for his shirt.
"What are you doing?" Leo demanded.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Where are you going to go now? It's late."
"I'm a grown man. I'll figure something out." He finally found his shirt between the bed and the wall and shoved his arms into it. When he had it buttoned up, he reached his bag and slipped by Leo out the door.
"Anderson, don't leave like this…"
But Anderson's only reply was to slam the front door as hard as he could, signalling his exit.
* * * *
Ever since he was a child, people kept telling him not to speak or to talk to anyone when he was angry. But Leo's temper always got the better of him and whenever he was pissed, he didn't think before he spoke. It was a horrid habit for a cop. Pressing his back into the wall and fighting the urge to punch it, Leo took deep breaths. He knew he couldn't leave Anderson out there alone. Someone was after him and the last thing he needed was for Anderson to get killed because of a lover's spat.