Know That I 7/11
Title: Know That I
Disclaimer: Not my characters - except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club - TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy, Jill/OC.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
Ch. 7 - Waiting and Wishing
Lindsay liked Jill’s office. So much so that sometimes she wished that they met more here than they did in the morgue. Not that the inspector didn’t like Claire’s office either, but Jill’s office lacked the smell of formaldehyde and death.
That was a plus.
The downsides to Jill’s office were her friend’s afternoon dalliances and the potential to have to put up with Denise Kwon if she decided to poke her head in.
Those two factors, even though the dalliances were questionable at this point since Jill hadn’t shared any news of them recently, deterred them from meeting here with any frequency.
It did not stop the trial prep meetings that Lindsay never missed though.
So the inspector inhaled the scent of aged leather and legal texts for the time being and resigned herself to always having to deal with the morgue’s unique odors. “Did Tam’s lawyer say why they aren’t pleading out?” Lindsay wondered as she looked down at her notes.
“He wants to win,” Jill spoke up from the chair across from her. “And to be honest, you two,” the blonde stopped and looked pointedly between Jacobi and Lindsay, “A shaky confession and circumstantial evidence…”
“We busted him with enough dope to slap him with intent to distribute,” Jacobi reminded the lawyer.
“And having the same heroin as the vic isn’t really a lot.” Jill closed Tam’s file and tossed it on the coffee table between her and the inspectors. “His lawyer has already started moaning coercion. What we have on him is knowledge of Yeo’s apartment, the same heroin batch that killed Yeo and a flimsy motive.”
“It sounds good to…” Lindsay started to say.
“Don’t even,” Jill stopped her friend. “We all know that the likelihood of Tam being the one to kill Yeo isn’t high. You both told me that he didn’t ‘feel’ right, but we’ve built the case anyhow.”
Lindsay’s arms folded across her chest and she slumped back down in her seat.
Jacobi mopped his face with his right hand and scratched along his jawline. “We won’t get anyone to roll.”
“I know,” Jill said, shifting in her seat and uncrossing her legs. She placed her hands on bent knees and went for it, “He’s also are best shot at justice for Yeo’s murder.”
“But you still think he could walk,” Lindsay reminded her friend.
The lawyer bobbed her head. “I think he could if his lawyer is as smart as he thinks he is. There’s enough there to plant the seed of reasonable doubt.”
“Do you have a plan?” Jacobi asked looking between the two women. He wasn’t sure if they would start arguing, but things were just now starting to get back to normal for his partner and her friends. Since Lindsay told him about Jill and that MacKenzie woman a few weeks ago, their club had been a little off.
He knew Cindy and Lindsay were good. Beyond that he was still a little, but thankfully, clueless.
“I do. It’s going to depend on your testimonies. United front, strengthening the way in which the confession was taken. If his lawyer starts unearthing people for an alibi, then I’ll handle that, but it’s a possibility.” Jill smoothed her skirt and recrossed her legs.
Lindsay looked over at Jacobi and nodded. “We can do that.”
“Good. Now how’s the rest of your work load?” Jill asked the duo.
“Tom wants us to get in on a bust of the Do Boys going down in a few days. He wants to see if he can tie anything else to them,” Jacobi filled the prosecutor in.
Jill nodded. “Denise was talking about that. The few other bodies that were discovered because of the heroin shook a few people up.”
“And it’s an election year,” Lindsay sing songed.
“And it’s an election year,” Jill agreed. “It’s supposed to be a pretty big bust. Tom, Whilenheck and Denise are coordinating things with the media to have them there for the cleanup.”
Lindsay’s eyebrow cocked. That was news to her. The O.D.’s that came in due to the heroin were maybe a handful of users. Narc had busted, from what she was told, half a dozen dealers all pushing the same batch around. “I didn’t think they’d go that far.”
“If it goes bad,” Jacobi surmised his partner’s wariness.
“It’s probably why he wants you two in on it.” Jill’s head tilted to the side. “In fact, that makes a lot of sense…if I were Tom. If not you two, then that would probably leave Marin and Sawyer.” All three faces pinched in thought of those two in on the bust.
“Does that mean I have to say yes?” Lindsay whined.
“Afraid so,” Jacobi smiled and patted his partner’s knee. “We’ll take a back entrance or something. Let S.W.A.T. and Narc have all the fun in the front.”
Lindsay frowned. “That doesn’t sound like much fun either.”
Jacobi laughed, shaking his head. “Why don’t we worry about that later? I’m going to head out for the day. See you tomorrow?”
“Sounds good,” Lindsay waved at her partner.
“Thanks, Jacobi,” Jill offered her own wave as the inspector stopped at the door.
“Anytime counselor.” He smiled and left through the partially open door.
As the room settled, Lindsay had to ask, “So do you think we’ll win, I mean really?”
Shrugging, Jill stood and started gathering her things. “We have a seventy-thirty shot, I think.”
Lindsay grunted and looked at her phone. She typed out a quick message and said, “Come on. Claire and Cindy are waiting on us.”
Slipping the strap of her tote over her shoulder she nodded and parroted Lindsay’s goodbye to Jacobi back to her, “Sounds good.”
“Why?” Jill typed out her reply to Mac’s cancellation of their date tonight on her Blackberry and hit ‘send’. She let her friends’ chatter fade and focused on the string of text messages between her and her girlfriend.
This was the first date that Mac had had to cancel, but Jill didn’t really care. It had been a little over four weeks since they started seeing each other and tonight she was supposed to spend the night at Mac’s place.
In four weeks, Jill had only managed to get the other woman topless once. Mac had promised a more fulfilling evening for tonight and now…with four weeks of pent up frustration and annoyance of being rejected, or romanced as Mac liked to put it, she was beyond frustrated.
“System & network issues. I’ll be up all night running diagnostics with my team,” was Mac’s reply a few seconds later. “I’m sorry. Make it up to you tomorrow? =0/”
Jill grunted and rolled her eyes. “I thought you had something planned for us tomorrow?”
“Do. But left the night after open.” Mac’s reply came almost instantly.
“Fine,” Jill typed the short reply and dropped her phone into her purse. She tilted her head back against the couch, pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a grumbling sigh. “Does she do this to all of her girlfriends?” she asked to no one in particular, but knew that Cindy was going to be the one to answer.
Since the initial round of hostility, everyone had sort of fallen into some sort of truce that suited Jill just fine. Mac kept her interaction with the group to a minimum and hung out with Cindy only a handful times since she learned of Jill and Mac’s relationship. Neither woman was too forthcoming with the details on the truce they’d worked out.
“What?” Lindsay spoke up from next to her.
Jill tilted her head up and let her hand fall to her lap. “MacKenzie. I mean does she do this with all of her girlfriends or is it just me? I’m honestly ready to pop and she goes and cancels on me tonight.” She narrowed her eyes at Cindy and hissed, “Is this something with her? Work up her women and not deliver?”
Cindy’s eyes grew large and saucer-like. She held up her hands in reply. Honestly, she had no clue. Since Mac’s return, Cindy had come to a few conclusions about her friend. The first being that the core of her personality was still Mac. One hundred percent, she was still the girl that had been Cindy’s rock the first two years of college. The second conclusion was that Mac’s approach to relationships had changed, at least from what she could tell by the interaction she witnessed between her best friend and oldest friend.
But why Jill was asking her this, she had no clue. “Uhm , don’t know…?”
Jill’s face soured and she pleaded, “Come on, Cindy Lou.” She pressed her palms together in supplication and whined a little more, “Did she do this with you?”
“Jill,” Lindsay hissed, “I really don’t need to know what they did…”
“Woah, what? Huh? Who did what with who?” Cindy sputtered looking between her girlfriend and friend. She was met with blank stares so she turned to Claire for help. “What?”
Claire didn’t hide the amusement she felt at the current situation and shrugged. “Did Mac make you wait before you had sex?”
Cindy’s draw dropped open as she started shaking her head. Her mind searched through her conversations about Mac with her friends trying to figure out if she ever told them or hinted at the idea that her and Mac had…her face pinched at the thought and she shook her head to clear the images. “Okay,” she held up her hand as she drew out the word. Her mind going over the first two weeks of Mac’s arrival. Lindsay’s attitude issues before she found out Jill and Mac were dating. The pieces began to fall in to place as the heel of her palm connected with her forehead.
How could she have been so blind? She remembered the night she introduced Mac, the subsequent run-ins with her and the club. Of course…
“Mac and I have never and will never have sex,” Cindy barked.
“Skipper,” Claire warned lightly.
Cindy’s head whipped around to her friend and she shook her head again. “No, really. Maybe it’s my fault that you guys think that, but I just didn’t…Mac and I didn’t think that we…” She trailed off at the disbelieving looks being directed her way and tried another approach. “Look, Mac’s hot. I know. She’s funny and she’s caring and loyal and okay…yeah, like obviously,” she pointed at Lindsay, “sort of my type, but Mac’s also my sister from another mister. That would be…” Cindy shuddered.
“So you two never…” Lindsay tried to clarify against her better judgment.
“Never. We never even thought about it,” Cindy reassured her girlfriend. “That’s why you got all jealous and mean.”
Lindsay’s lips were clamped between her teeth and she gave a little shrug.
“But I thought for sure,” Jill wiggled a finger at her friend. “You two were all touchy-feely and ‘Augie’ this and ‘Daddy’ that.”
“Yeah, ‘cause she’s like the sister I always wanted. She watched out for me…like a sibling,” Cindy annunciated ‘sibling’ slowly so that they would get the message. “Incest isn’t really a turn on ladies.”
“Oh,” Jill and Lindsay said at the same time. The two women exchanged looks as their shoulders slumped.
“You two haven’t had sex yet?” Claire asked from across them.
“No!” Jill nearly shouted as the conversation was brought back to her original gripe. “No sex. I don’t go four weeks without sex. I need sex. Mac hasn’t put out yet.”
The three other women chuckled at the lawyer’s expense. Lindsay patted Jill’s knee. “Sounds horrible,” she teased.
“Bite me, Boxer,” Jill snipped. “She says all the right things and does them too. It’s just…”
“The sex,” Claire ribbed.
“Yes!” Jill’s hand shot up in the air for added emphasis. “She wanted to wait, I guess, is what she said.”
Cindy’s eyebrow perked up at that bit of information, but she remained tight lipped.
Jill took notice of Cindy’s reaction and pressed, “What do you know?”
Cindy shook her head and opted for a half truth, “She hasn’t really said anything beyond her liking you.”
Jill rolled her eyes. “Normally, it’s obvious, but she’s all…tonight we were supposed to…”
“Ah, well,” Cindy swallowed, “if she…I’m sure her cancelling upset her too.” The least she could offer Mac was a little defense and maybe some consolation for Jill. “She’s into you, Jill. If Mac does something, there’s usually a good reason behind it.”
Jill’s arms folded across her chest and she huffed. “That doesn’t help.”
The three other women chuckled at the frustrated attorney.
Claire rolled over on the stool she was sitting on and patted Jill’s knee. “Just think about how much fun you’ll have when it does happen.”
“I’m kind of surprised you haven’t gotten someone else to scratch that itch,” Lindsay teased.
Jill angled her head towards Lindsay and frowned. The blonde would argue, but the inspector was right. She hadn’t really looked at anyone since Mac came along. Her brow knitted together as she did the only thing she could think of and smacked Lindsay in the stomach.
Lindsay shut the door to their unmarked and adjusted the gun at her hip. She squinted behind the sunglasses perched on her nose, surprised the fog in the morning had burnt off relatively quick. She looked over at Jacobi and the house they were in front of. Much like the other houses in the neighborhood, it was classic San Francisco. Tall and skinny with a postage stamp front yard. The colors of the house were green and brown that looked far more inviting that it sounded.
“Did Tom say that our suitcase body was for sure this girl?” Jacobi asked as he pulled a pack of gum from his pocket and offered a stick of Big Red to Lindsay.
“He said that the timeframes kind of match and since we know the vic was Caucasian, female and within the age range, we should see if we can get a DNA sample,” Lindsay filled in. She took the stick of gum, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. The wrapper went into her pocket for later and she started up the walkway.
Jacobi pressed the doorbell and Lindsay’s right hand gripped her left wrist, both waiting for someone to answer the door. Seconds ticked by and the burn from the cinnamon was welcome. The onions she had on her burger had started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
She looked up as the front door lock clicked and it swung open. Behind the dusty screen door, a woman that Lindsay put in her late fifties answered the door. “Hi, ma’am. I’m Ins. Boxer and this my partner, Ins. Jacobi. We’re with the San Francisco Police Department and we’d like to ask you a few questions about the missing persons report you filed for Amy Delgado.”
The woman’s features clouded over at the mention of her daughter and Lindsay couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic. “Of course,” Mrs. Delgado replied, pushing open the door and ushering the two inspectors in. “We already spoke with two officers, though. Have you found her?” she asked hopefully.
Jacobi placed a comforting hand on the woman’s arm and shook his head. “No, ma’am. We’re just doing a routine follow up and were hoping you had something we could take a sample of DNA from?”
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes and Lindsay took point, leading her to the front room. The couch she sat on was floral print and well cared for. Picking up a box of tissue from the coffee table in front of them, Lindsay offered the weeping woman one.
“Thank you, I’m sorry…it’s just…” She blew her nose and forged ahead, “Amy’s a responsible young woman. This isn’t…you can’t help but think….”
“There’s nothing to think yet, Mrs. Delgado. We’re just doing some follow up and like my partner said, we’d like to take a sample of DNA. Maybe she left a toothbrush here or something?” Lindsay asked, her voice taking on a soothing timber to try and calm the woman down.
Mrs. Delgado nodded and sniffled a little more into the crumpled tissue in her hands. “She has a room upstairs.”
“Would you mind if we…” Jacobi asked as he stood. “We won’t be long.”
The woman only offered a nod as the duo stood and made their way up the polished, oak steps to the second floor of the house. The hallway was merely a series of doors and thankfully, Amy’s room was easy to spot. Her name on a California license plate was screwed into the upper portion.
Lindsay eased the door open and stepped over the threshold to the cream colored, wall papered room. Where the wall paper wasn’t visible was where it was covered by posters. Jacobi asked, “What’s a New Pornagrapher and the Broken Social Scene?”
Lindsay snickered. “Music or it’s supposed to be. Cindy listens to Broken Social Scene.”
Jacobi bobbed his head. “How old is she again?” he couldn’t help the gentle teasing. Silently, he thought the two together were a perfect match. Lindsay had been through too much in her thirty-seven years to retain the carefree spirit of youth. Cindy was jaded just enough to find Lindsay’s cynicism endearing. Jacobi, well, he just thought it was sweet.
Rolling her eyes, she stuck her middle finger up at him and then slipped on a pair of gloves. “It doesn’t look like the uni’s that came to take the report did any searching. You want to see if we can find anything?”
Jacobi was already a step ahead of her with his own pair of gloves and rifling through a chest of drawers off to the side of the bed. “It’s worth a look.”
Lindsay’s mouth opened to speak, but snapped her jaw shut when she noticed the opened door. Crossing the room in two quick, long strides, she shut the door softly and then spoke, “If we get a match, you’re telling the parents.”
That caused Jacobi to stand straight up and look at his partner. He used his pointer finger and poked himself in the chest, shaking his head. “Not happening.”
“Come on, partner. You owe me…” Lindsay whined.
“First of all, we don’t know the body and this girl are a match and second, how in the hell do I owe you? Wasn’t it me that covered for you when you took off with Cindy right before the Valentine’s Day weekend to ‘follow-up’ on a lead?” He air quoted ‘follow-up’ and glared at his partner.
Lindsay’s shoulders slumped as she stomped her foot. “Paper, rock, scissors?” she tried.
The man just rolled his eyes and went back to searching the room.
Next>>>
Disclaimer: Not my characters - except for one or two. The rest of the ladies and gentleman contained herein belong to entities with a higher pay grade. Thanks for allowing li’l ole me to play; I promise to return them as I found them…just like the tools I borrowed from dad when I was a kid. Also, this is unbeta’d so…mistakes are really all me. Sorry about that.
Fandom: Women’s Murder Club - TV show only.
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy, Jill/OC.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An old college friend of Cindy’s moves to town and shakes things up.
Ch. 7 - Waiting and Wishing
Lindsay liked Jill’s office. So much so that sometimes she wished that they met more here than they did in the morgue. Not that the inspector didn’t like Claire’s office either, but Jill’s office lacked the smell of formaldehyde and death.
That was a plus.
The downsides to Jill’s office were her friend’s afternoon dalliances and the potential to have to put up with Denise Kwon if she decided to poke her head in.
Those two factors, even though the dalliances were questionable at this point since Jill hadn’t shared any news of them recently, deterred them from meeting here with any frequency.
It did not stop the trial prep meetings that Lindsay never missed though.
So the inspector inhaled the scent of aged leather and legal texts for the time being and resigned herself to always having to deal with the morgue’s unique odors. “Did Tam’s lawyer say why they aren’t pleading out?” Lindsay wondered as she looked down at her notes.
“He wants to win,” Jill spoke up from the chair across from her. “And to be honest, you two,” the blonde stopped and looked pointedly between Jacobi and Lindsay, “A shaky confession and circumstantial evidence…”
“We busted him with enough dope to slap him with intent to distribute,” Jacobi reminded the lawyer.
“And having the same heroin as the vic isn’t really a lot.” Jill closed Tam’s file and tossed it on the coffee table between her and the inspectors. “His lawyer has already started moaning coercion. What we have on him is knowledge of Yeo’s apartment, the same heroin batch that killed Yeo and a flimsy motive.”
“It sounds good to…” Lindsay started to say.
“Don’t even,” Jill stopped her friend. “We all know that the likelihood of Tam being the one to kill Yeo isn’t high. You both told me that he didn’t ‘feel’ right, but we’ve built the case anyhow.”
Lindsay’s arms folded across her chest and she slumped back down in her seat.
Jacobi mopped his face with his right hand and scratched along his jawline. “We won’t get anyone to roll.”
“I know,” Jill said, shifting in her seat and uncrossing her legs. She placed her hands on bent knees and went for it, “He’s also are best shot at justice for Yeo’s murder.”
“But you still think he could walk,” Lindsay reminded her friend.
The lawyer bobbed her head. “I think he could if his lawyer is as smart as he thinks he is. There’s enough there to plant the seed of reasonable doubt.”
“Do you have a plan?” Jacobi asked looking between the two women. He wasn’t sure if they would start arguing, but things were just now starting to get back to normal for his partner and her friends. Since Lindsay told him about Jill and that MacKenzie woman a few weeks ago, their club had been a little off.
He knew Cindy and Lindsay were good. Beyond that he was still a little, but thankfully, clueless.
“I do. It’s going to depend on your testimonies. United front, strengthening the way in which the confession was taken. If his lawyer starts unearthing people for an alibi, then I’ll handle that, but it’s a possibility.” Jill smoothed her skirt and recrossed her legs.
Lindsay looked over at Jacobi and nodded. “We can do that.”
“Good. Now how’s the rest of your work load?” Jill asked the duo.
“Tom wants us to get in on a bust of the Do Boys going down in a few days. He wants to see if he can tie anything else to them,” Jacobi filled the prosecutor in.
Jill nodded. “Denise was talking about that. The few other bodies that were discovered because of the heroin shook a few people up.”
“And it’s an election year,” Lindsay sing songed.
“And it’s an election year,” Jill agreed. “It’s supposed to be a pretty big bust. Tom, Whilenheck and Denise are coordinating things with the media to have them there for the cleanup.”
Lindsay’s eyebrow cocked. That was news to her. The O.D.’s that came in due to the heroin were maybe a handful of users. Narc had busted, from what she was told, half a dozen dealers all pushing the same batch around. “I didn’t think they’d go that far.”
“If it goes bad,” Jacobi surmised his partner’s wariness.
“It’s probably why he wants you two in on it.” Jill’s head tilted to the side. “In fact, that makes a lot of sense…if I were Tom. If not you two, then that would probably leave Marin and Sawyer.” All three faces pinched in thought of those two in on the bust.
“Does that mean I have to say yes?” Lindsay whined.
“Afraid so,” Jacobi smiled and patted his partner’s knee. “We’ll take a back entrance or something. Let S.W.A.T. and Narc have all the fun in the front.”
Lindsay frowned. “That doesn’t sound like much fun either.”
Jacobi laughed, shaking his head. “Why don’t we worry about that later? I’m going to head out for the day. See you tomorrow?”
“Sounds good,” Lindsay waved at her partner.
“Thanks, Jacobi,” Jill offered her own wave as the inspector stopped at the door.
“Anytime counselor.” He smiled and left through the partially open door.
As the room settled, Lindsay had to ask, “So do you think we’ll win, I mean really?”
Shrugging, Jill stood and started gathering her things. “We have a seventy-thirty shot, I think.”
Lindsay grunted and looked at her phone. She typed out a quick message and said, “Come on. Claire and Cindy are waiting on us.”
Slipping the strap of her tote over her shoulder she nodded and parroted Lindsay’s goodbye to Jacobi back to her, “Sounds good.”
“Why?” Jill typed out her reply to Mac’s cancellation of their date tonight on her Blackberry and hit ‘send’. She let her friends’ chatter fade and focused on the string of text messages between her and her girlfriend.
This was the first date that Mac had had to cancel, but Jill didn’t really care. It had been a little over four weeks since they started seeing each other and tonight she was supposed to spend the night at Mac’s place.
In four weeks, Jill had only managed to get the other woman topless once. Mac had promised a more fulfilling evening for tonight and now…with four weeks of pent up frustration and annoyance of being rejected, or romanced as Mac liked to put it, she was beyond frustrated.
“System & network issues. I’ll be up all night running diagnostics with my team,” was Mac’s reply a few seconds later. “I’m sorry. Make it up to you tomorrow? =0/”
Jill grunted and rolled her eyes. “I thought you had something planned for us tomorrow?”
“Do. But left the night after open.” Mac’s reply came almost instantly.
“Fine,” Jill typed the short reply and dropped her phone into her purse. She tilted her head back against the couch, pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a grumbling sigh. “Does she do this to all of her girlfriends?” she asked to no one in particular, but knew that Cindy was going to be the one to answer.
Since the initial round of hostility, everyone had sort of fallen into some sort of truce that suited Jill just fine. Mac kept her interaction with the group to a minimum and hung out with Cindy only a handful times since she learned of Jill and Mac’s relationship. Neither woman was too forthcoming with the details on the truce they’d worked out.
“What?” Lindsay spoke up from next to her.
Jill tilted her head up and let her hand fall to her lap. “MacKenzie. I mean does she do this with all of her girlfriends or is it just me? I’m honestly ready to pop and she goes and cancels on me tonight.” She narrowed her eyes at Cindy and hissed, “Is this something with her? Work up her women and not deliver?”
Cindy’s eyes grew large and saucer-like. She held up her hands in reply. Honestly, she had no clue. Since Mac’s return, Cindy had come to a few conclusions about her friend. The first being that the core of her personality was still Mac. One hundred percent, she was still the girl that had been Cindy’s rock the first two years of college. The second conclusion was that Mac’s approach to relationships had changed, at least from what she could tell by the interaction she witnessed between her best friend and oldest friend.
But why Jill was asking her this, she had no clue. “Uhm , don’t know…?”
Jill’s face soured and she pleaded, “Come on, Cindy Lou.” She pressed her palms together in supplication and whined a little more, “Did she do this with you?”
“Jill,” Lindsay hissed, “I really don’t need to know what they did…”
“Woah, what? Huh? Who did what with who?” Cindy sputtered looking between her girlfriend and friend. She was met with blank stares so she turned to Claire for help. “What?”
Claire didn’t hide the amusement she felt at the current situation and shrugged. “Did Mac make you wait before you had sex?”
Cindy’s draw dropped open as she started shaking her head. Her mind searched through her conversations about Mac with her friends trying to figure out if she ever told them or hinted at the idea that her and Mac had…her face pinched at the thought and she shook her head to clear the images. “Okay,” she held up her hand as she drew out the word. Her mind going over the first two weeks of Mac’s arrival. Lindsay’s attitude issues before she found out Jill and Mac were dating. The pieces began to fall in to place as the heel of her palm connected with her forehead.
How could she have been so blind? She remembered the night she introduced Mac, the subsequent run-ins with her and the club. Of course…
“Mac and I have never and will never have sex,” Cindy barked.
“Skipper,” Claire warned lightly.
Cindy’s head whipped around to her friend and she shook her head again. “No, really. Maybe it’s my fault that you guys think that, but I just didn’t…Mac and I didn’t think that we…” She trailed off at the disbelieving looks being directed her way and tried another approach. “Look, Mac’s hot. I know. She’s funny and she’s caring and loyal and okay…yeah, like obviously,” she pointed at Lindsay, “sort of my type, but Mac’s also my sister from another mister. That would be…” Cindy shuddered.
“So you two never…” Lindsay tried to clarify against her better judgment.
“Never. We never even thought about it,” Cindy reassured her girlfriend. “That’s why you got all jealous and mean.”
Lindsay’s lips were clamped between her teeth and she gave a little shrug.
“But I thought for sure,” Jill wiggled a finger at her friend. “You two were all touchy-feely and ‘Augie’ this and ‘Daddy’ that.”
“Yeah, ‘cause she’s like the sister I always wanted. She watched out for me…like a sibling,” Cindy annunciated ‘sibling’ slowly so that they would get the message. “Incest isn’t really a turn on ladies.”
“Oh,” Jill and Lindsay said at the same time. The two women exchanged looks as their shoulders slumped.
“You two haven’t had sex yet?” Claire asked from across them.
“No!” Jill nearly shouted as the conversation was brought back to her original gripe. “No sex. I don’t go four weeks without sex. I need sex. Mac hasn’t put out yet.”
The three other women chuckled at the lawyer’s expense. Lindsay patted Jill’s knee. “Sounds horrible,” she teased.
“Bite me, Boxer,” Jill snipped. “She says all the right things and does them too. It’s just…”
“The sex,” Claire ribbed.
“Yes!” Jill’s hand shot up in the air for added emphasis. “She wanted to wait, I guess, is what she said.”
Cindy’s eyebrow perked up at that bit of information, but she remained tight lipped.
Jill took notice of Cindy’s reaction and pressed, “What do you know?”
Cindy shook her head and opted for a half truth, “She hasn’t really said anything beyond her liking you.”
Jill rolled her eyes. “Normally, it’s obvious, but she’s all…tonight we were supposed to…”
“Ah, well,” Cindy swallowed, “if she…I’m sure her cancelling upset her too.” The least she could offer Mac was a little defense and maybe some consolation for Jill. “She’s into you, Jill. If Mac does something, there’s usually a good reason behind it.”
Jill’s arms folded across her chest and she huffed. “That doesn’t help.”
The three other women chuckled at the frustrated attorney.
Claire rolled over on the stool she was sitting on and patted Jill’s knee. “Just think about how much fun you’ll have when it does happen.”
“I’m kind of surprised you haven’t gotten someone else to scratch that itch,” Lindsay teased.
Jill angled her head towards Lindsay and frowned. The blonde would argue, but the inspector was right. She hadn’t really looked at anyone since Mac came along. Her brow knitted together as she did the only thing she could think of and smacked Lindsay in the stomach.
Lindsay shut the door to their unmarked and adjusted the gun at her hip. She squinted behind the sunglasses perched on her nose, surprised the fog in the morning had burnt off relatively quick. She looked over at Jacobi and the house they were in front of. Much like the other houses in the neighborhood, it was classic San Francisco. Tall and skinny with a postage stamp front yard. The colors of the house were green and brown that looked far more inviting that it sounded.
“Did Tom say that our suitcase body was for sure this girl?” Jacobi asked as he pulled a pack of gum from his pocket and offered a stick of Big Red to Lindsay.
“He said that the timeframes kind of match and since we know the vic was Caucasian, female and within the age range, we should see if we can get a DNA sample,” Lindsay filled in. She took the stick of gum, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. The wrapper went into her pocket for later and she started up the walkway.
Jacobi pressed the doorbell and Lindsay’s right hand gripped her left wrist, both waiting for someone to answer the door. Seconds ticked by and the burn from the cinnamon was welcome. The onions she had on her burger had started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
She looked up as the front door lock clicked and it swung open. Behind the dusty screen door, a woman that Lindsay put in her late fifties answered the door. “Hi, ma’am. I’m Ins. Boxer and this my partner, Ins. Jacobi. We’re with the San Francisco Police Department and we’d like to ask you a few questions about the missing persons report you filed for Amy Delgado.”
The woman’s features clouded over at the mention of her daughter and Lindsay couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic. “Of course,” Mrs. Delgado replied, pushing open the door and ushering the two inspectors in. “We already spoke with two officers, though. Have you found her?” she asked hopefully.
Jacobi placed a comforting hand on the woman’s arm and shook his head. “No, ma’am. We’re just doing a routine follow up and were hoping you had something we could take a sample of DNA from?”
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes and Lindsay took point, leading her to the front room. The couch she sat on was floral print and well cared for. Picking up a box of tissue from the coffee table in front of them, Lindsay offered the weeping woman one.
“Thank you, I’m sorry…it’s just…” She blew her nose and forged ahead, “Amy’s a responsible young woman. This isn’t…you can’t help but think….”
“There’s nothing to think yet, Mrs. Delgado. We’re just doing some follow up and like my partner said, we’d like to take a sample of DNA. Maybe she left a toothbrush here or something?” Lindsay asked, her voice taking on a soothing timber to try and calm the woman down.
Mrs. Delgado nodded and sniffled a little more into the crumpled tissue in her hands. “She has a room upstairs.”
“Would you mind if we…” Jacobi asked as he stood. “We won’t be long.”
The woman only offered a nod as the duo stood and made their way up the polished, oak steps to the second floor of the house. The hallway was merely a series of doors and thankfully, Amy’s room was easy to spot. Her name on a California license plate was screwed into the upper portion.
Lindsay eased the door open and stepped over the threshold to the cream colored, wall papered room. Where the wall paper wasn’t visible was where it was covered by posters. Jacobi asked, “What’s a New Pornagrapher and the Broken Social Scene?”
Lindsay snickered. “Music or it’s supposed to be. Cindy listens to Broken Social Scene.”
Jacobi bobbed his head. “How old is she again?” he couldn’t help the gentle teasing. Silently, he thought the two together were a perfect match. Lindsay had been through too much in her thirty-seven years to retain the carefree spirit of youth. Cindy was jaded just enough to find Lindsay’s cynicism endearing. Jacobi, well, he just thought it was sweet.
Rolling her eyes, she stuck her middle finger up at him and then slipped on a pair of gloves. “It doesn’t look like the uni’s that came to take the report did any searching. You want to see if we can find anything?”
Jacobi was already a step ahead of her with his own pair of gloves and rifling through a chest of drawers off to the side of the bed. “It’s worth a look.”
Lindsay’s mouth opened to speak, but snapped her jaw shut when she noticed the opened door. Crossing the room in two quick, long strides, she shut the door softly and then spoke, “If we get a match, you’re telling the parents.”
That caused Jacobi to stand straight up and look at his partner. He used his pointer finger and poked himself in the chest, shaking his head. “Not happening.”
“Come on, partner. You owe me…” Lindsay whined.
“First of all, we don’t know the body and this girl are a match and second, how in the hell do I owe you? Wasn’t it me that covered for you when you took off with Cindy right before the Valentine’s Day weekend to ‘follow-up’ on a lead?” He air quoted ‘follow-up’ and glared at his partner.
Lindsay’s shoulders slumped as she stomped her foot. “Paper, rock, scissors?” she tried.
The man just rolled his eyes and went back to searching the room.
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