WPCTS9

Nash sighed heavily as he walked through the living room, tossing his jacket onto the back of the sofa on his way into the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of coffee, then took his cell phone off of the battery charger. He was surprised when it started ringing mere seconds after clicking it on. “Nash,” he said succinctly, then took a sip from the steaming cup.

“Hey bossman. It’s Harv. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“No, homicide beat you to it,” he returned.

“Homicide? The guy at Mercy High?”

Nash hesitated. “Yeah. He was one of ours. We picked him up for burglary about five years ago. Are you there now?”

“On my way,” Harvey returned.

“Okay. Want to fill me in on how you heard about it before me?”

“Anna was the one that found the guy.”

“Anna as in Jerry’s mother?”

“Yeah. She called me after the cops on site started raking her over the coals. She was pretty upset. It sounds like they did everything except put her in handcuffs.”

“All right. I’m about ten minutes behind you. You can fill me in when I get there.” Nash slapped his cell phone closed just as two hands circled his waist. He smiled as he turned to wrap his arms around Victoria.

“Did you think that you could slip out of here without a word?” she asked sleepily.

“You should still be in bed,” he chastised her lightly as he brushed a lock of her hair away from her dreamy eyes.

“So should you,” she returned as she took his coffee cup away from him to take a sip.

“Hey, hey! I’m willing to share just about anything, sweetheart, except for my car and my morning coffee,” he teased gruffly as he took his cup back to finish off the contents. Victoria chuckled softly, forgiving him immediately when he gave her a warm kiss.

* * *

Harvey strode into the gymnasium with purpose, barely giving the body a glance as the crime scene unit took it down from the gymnastic rings. Of all the ways that a man could die, he thought hanging was the worst. It did things to the body that brought home the gruesome reality of death. Instead, his attention was focused on Anna who was arguing with a plain clothes officer. As he got closer, he recognized Sarah Drake from vice.

“Harvey! Thank God!” Anna exclaimed the moment she saw him.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze as he studied her face. “Are you all right?”

“I am now that you are here,” she admitted without hesitation. “This officer here obviously thinks of me as a suspect?”

“What?” Harvey’s brow furrowed as he looked over at Sarah. “How did you catch this case, Sarah?”

“Cassidy and I are on temporary assignment,” she returned with contempt in her voice. She already felt like they were being unnecessarily punished. She didn’t appreciate the fact that Inspector Leek was interfering. “I take it the two of you are friends?” Sarah asked, her arms folded over her chest as if preparing for a confrontation.

“More than,” Harvey returned, not noticing the startled look from Anna as he eyed Sarah up and down. He hadn’t spent much time with Sarah when she was working with Nash to catch Cruz Montipinia, but she did strike him as confrontational to say the least. However, playing devils advocate seemed to be a favorite pass time of hers. “What’s going on Sarah? Why is Anna under suspicion?”

“Because she has no alibi for last night and then she shows up here at the crack of dawn to find the body.”

“I told you that I was here to meet a tour group!” Anna repeated, her irritation evident.

“And yet, not a single person from that tour group has shown up here,” Sarah said, continuing with the argument.

Anna growled noisily, then started to mutter under her breath as she turned away. She would have walked off, but Harvey grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Hold up,” Harvey intervened quickly as he looked at Anna. “Tell me what happened.”

Anna sighed heavily as she glared at Sarah before turning back to him. “I came here this morning to meet my Mother’s Day Out group. We were taking the kids to the zoo, but I got the time mixed up. We were originally suppose to meet at six, don’t even get me started on why, but we had to push it back two hours. Anyway,” She waved off any further details. “When I arrived, I found that guy hanging from the rings.” She shook her head as her eyes lingered on the rings, still swinging after having the body removed. “I thought someone was playing a bad joke,” she said, her voice becoming defensive. “I thought someone had hung a CPR mannequin up there. He didn’t look real the way his arm was twisted over...” Her voice trailed off as she squeezed her eyes tight at the memory. “His face was blue and his tongue was...” Again she had to stop.

“It’s okay Anna,” Harvey consoled her. “You can skip that part. What did you do after you found the body?” he asked softly.

“I dialed 911,” she returned. “After they took me off hold, I told them where I was. That’s when I realized that I had gotten the time wrong and I called one of the other mothers to stop anyone else from coming here.”

“Yeah,” Sarah added as she looked at Harvey. “She claims she had her kid with her too, but he’s no where to be seen.”

Harvey’s brows drew together. “Jerry was here? Did he see this?”

“No. Yes. I mean...” She sighed heavily as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Can’t keep your story straight?” Sarah prodded.

“I’m sure you have no problem staying straight with that stick shoved up your...”

“Ladies! Ladies!” Harvey interrupted again as he chuckled at Anna’s no-nonsense way of making her point. “Can we just stick to the subject at hand please.” His brows rose as he fixed his gaze on Anna. “Jerry?” he reminded her.

“He was here, but he was asleep,” she assured him. “I had Marsha, a friend of mine, pick him up. He didn’t see any of this.”

“That’s good,” he sighed.

“And all of this was suppose to have happened before any of the crime scene units arrived,” Sarah said sarcastically.

“Is it my fault that you people are so slow?” she snapped back as she fixed Sarah with another glare.

“Real convenient that the rest of the people in this group can’t be reached for verification as well.”

Anna’s mouth dropped open in shock. “They went to the zoo!” she repeated, then shook her head in disbelief. “You know what? I’m glad that I was able to stop the rest of the group from showing up. I would hate to have all of them accused of kidnapping their own children.”

“Look lady,” Sarah began as she leaned into Anna, but Harvey interrupted yet again.

“You’re done questioning her,” he said with authority as his arm went around Anna’s shoulders. “You can check out her alibi later today when the moms come back from their field trip. Until then, she’s going to be at home.”

“You can’t walk off with a witness,” Sarah argued with him when they started to leave.

“Watch me,” Harvey insisted as Sarah kept stride with them. “It sounds to me like you’re reading a lot into Anna’s presence here. She doesn’t have an alibi? She found the body?” He gave her an incredulous look.

“You know as well as I do that the killer or accomplice have been known to report finding the body in a large percentage of cases.”

“You’re opening yourself up for her lawyer to make one hell of a harassment suit,” he countered, then stopped abruptly to look at Sarah squarely in the eye. “Did you Mirandize her?” he asked out of curiosity. When Sarah didn’t respond right away, Harvey shook his head and walked out the door with Anna.

After arguing with her most of the way, Harvey took Anna’s hand when she had unlocked her car door to stall her one last time. “Are you sure that you’re going to be okay to drive?” he asked suspiciously. He couldn’t remember ever seeing her so unnerved.

“I’m fine, Harvey, really,” she insisted, then sighed heavily before pasting a smile on her face. “Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said with a more pleasant tone of voice.

He smiled as he gave her fingers a squeeze. “You thought that I was protecting you?” he asked curiously. “I’ve seen that wild-eyed look before and I knew you were ready to take Sarah out. I did that to save her neck.” When she gave him a chuckle, he knew she would be all right. Anna was strong. Nothing could shake her resolve for long. “I’ve never known you to need rescuing from anything.”

She stepped closer and put her hands on his chest. “Still. It was nice to have a champion for a change.” She gave him a light peck on the lips, then climbed into her car.

Nash walked up to Harvey as they watched her car pull out of the parking lot. “Was that Anna I saw leaving?” Nash asked.

“Yeah,” he returned. “Apparently Anna and Sarah Drake aren’t going to be voted most congenial.”

“That bad, huh?” he asked as they started walking into the gymnasium.

“They were screeching at each other when I walked in. It seems that Sarah has Anna pegged as a serial killer.”

Nash stopped just outside of the gym door as he turned to Harvey once more. “Not to choose up sides here, but are you sure that Anna has nothing to do with any of this?”

Harvey shrugged his shoulders as he thought about the question for about two seconds. “Anna hasn’t exactly been straight forward with me about a lot of things, but she’s not a killer. Regardless,” he continued. “If I had walked in on that scene with anyone else, I still would have broken it up.” He shook his head at the police woman’s tactics. “Sarah was all but accusing her of killing the guy, but hadn’t even bothered to Mirandize her.”

Nash sighed. “I hope she’s not teaching Cassidy that kind of sloppy police work. What about the murder?”

“I haven’t gotten the details yet. They were just taking the guy down when I arrived,” he said as they started inside once more.

Nash had to sidestep quickly when the stretcher with the body nearly ran him down. “Whoa, bubba! Don’t you know that you can get a ticket for speeding with a rig like that.” He started to ask to see the body when a familiar face walked up to them. “Hello Tom. How is Scooby Doo Squad doing?” he teased as he held out his hand.

Tom Frey smiled at the question. His crime scene unit had been dubbed worse things, but he rather liked the reference. After all, Scooby was famous for solving ghoulish mysteries and that was what he specialized in. “Giving me a hard time, as usual.”

“What have you got for me?”

“Gymnastic coach got himself twisted in one of the men’s gymnastic rings,” he said succinctly as he pointed back to the equipment, then shook his head. “I certainly don’t envy the guy on how he died. The way his arm got trapped in the nylon strap, it bore a good part of his weight.” He stared down at the bag as if he was imagining the entire scene. “It probably took him several minutes to suffocate. You may want to have a look at the body. We don’t see many like this.” He started to reach for the zipper on the body bag. “The tongue is almost black in the back.”

When Harvey started mumbling and backing away, Nash had to agree. “I think I’ll pass on that one. Thanks all the same. So you’re saying that someone has a particular gruesome idea of entertainment or that they botched the job?”

“I’m not sure that there was a job,” Tom returned. “From what I’m hearing, the coach had a habit of climbing up on the parallel bars to fix a problem with one of the rings. The way it looks, he may have slipped off the bar and got wrapped up in the rigging. Unfortunately for him, the fall broke his arm instead of his neck. I’ll know for certain once I have a chance to examine the body.”

Nash spotted Cassidy coming in on the other side of the gym to meet with her partner. “Okay Tom. Thanks,” Nash said as he tossed him a wave and started toward his daughter.

Harvey fell into step with Nash, leaning his head closer so that he wouldn’t be overheard. “Man, that is one job that I could not do.”

“Me either brother.”

“Is it just me, or did he actually get excited at the way the guy died.”

Nash glanced back over his shoulder to make sure that Tom had actually left. “He has a thing for strange cases,” he confided. “The more unusual the better.” Nash shrugged. “But the man is damn good at his job. You can’t fault him there.”

* * *

“I’d say Harvey’s off the market,” Betty said as she brought a beautiful bouquet of violet colored sweetheart roses over to Rachel’s desk.

“What?” Rachel said with a nervous chuckle. She tried to appear casual, shuffling through the mail she had received for the second time and failing in her attempt not to look at the flowers.

Betty gave her a puzzled look as she sat the vase on her desk. “Roses after a weekend together is always a good sign,” she explained, then realized that Rachel must be feeling what every woman feels after sleeping with a man for the first time. “At least you don’t have to wonder if he’s going to call you the next day,” she teased.

“Isn’t that the truth?” another woman said as she walked passed Rachel’s desk, overhearing part of their conversation. “I think it’s great about you and Harvey,” she added and gave Rachel the thumbs up as she continued by.

Rachel’s mouth dropped open and she held her hands wide in confusion. It seemed that everyone at the SIU knew that she was seeing Harvey. Including the unknown woman chatting adamantly with Betty as they walked off. “Who are you?”

* * *

“So let’s have it,” Nash said as he stepped up to Cassidy and Sarah.

“Dad, don’t start,” Cassidy pleaded, her defenses already active.

“That’s Captain to you and you’re passing off this case to the SIU.”

“What?” Cassidy and Sarah said in unison.

“You can’t do that,” Cassidy argued. It was the first interesting case they had gotten since pulling graveyard with homicide and she didn’t want to lose it.

“It’s already done,” Nash returned as he switched his attention to Sarah. “Now do you want to tell me what you have or am I going to hear about it from the captain of the next department you get transferred to?”

“Hey, we would have lost the collar if we had waited for backup,” Sarah chimed in.

Nash sighed heavily. “The body, Officer Drake. What’s the connection with Anna Paxton?”

Sarah shifted slightly at the abrupt change of topic and shot Harvey a glance. It was obvious that the inspector had filled Nash in with his version of events. “None that we know of yet, but I’m betting that there is one.”

“Oh you’re betting,” he returned skeptically. “So you harass Miss Paxton to the point that she’s not likely to speak with anyone without a lawyer present.”

“She said that she was...”

“Did you get any background at all?” Nash interrupted.

Cassidy’s eyes darted between her partner and her father. She could tell from the expression on Sarah’s face that she was barely hanging onto her anger. “I’ve already canvassed the area,” Cassidy volunteered to give Sarah a minute to reorient herself. “No one noticed anything out of the ordinary last night.” She cleared her throat when there was a long pause. “The coroner guesstimated the time of death to be around three a.m.”

Nash and Harvey exchanged a disappointed look at the lack of information. “You know what to do,” Nash said to him as they started to walk off.

“Wait a minute,” Cassidy said in disbelief. “That’s it?”

Nash glanced back at her. “Oh yeah. You’re current boss asked me to tell you that he needs you to finish up the case logs you were working on. By this afternoon,” he added, then left.

“Do I even want to know?” Harvey asked as they were leaving. He was under the impression that Cassidy and Sarah weren’t particularly happy with their current assignment.

“They were just being rookies,” Nash returned, trying to make light of it. “Cassidy thought that she could hide it from me.”

Harvey gave his shoulder a slight shrug. “You’ve got to admire her for trying to live up to her dad’s reputation.”

Nash shot him a hard look for inferring that he was somewhat to blame. “Get out of here before I see if Tom Frey has a slot open for you.”

“I’m already gone.”

* * *

“I heard it was a secluded cabin.”

Rachel’s ears perked up when she caught the phrase as the wind shifted directions. Two of the secretaries were sharing some gossip over the coffee pot and didn’t see Rachel taking a coffee break herself just outside.

“With a Jacuzzi and a fireplace,” she returned.

“What a perfect place for your first time,” she sighed.

Rachel’s stomach dropped to her feet. She couldn’t believe that everyone seemed to know about her weekend with Harvey. She strained to hear more, but only stray words made it to her with the shift of wind, so she tried to see who was talking.

“It sounds like you’re sister’s going to love the place,” she approved as they walked off together.

“I really hope so. Your wedding night should be something special and we had a fabulous time in the islands on our vacation.”

Rachel craned her head around the porthole, then she walked to the doorway to see if she could make out who was talking, but several people were milling about at that time of the day and she hadn’t recognized the voices. Who could have been talking about their private weekend retreat? And how had they found out so many details like the description of the cabin? She put her hands on her hips as her mind raced for answers.

* * *

Harvey flipped through his notes, then entered another section of his report onto the computer. Anna’s statement had been the first of a long line of people that he had interviewed that morning and he was in desperate need of a break. That day was not going well at all.

He sighed heavily as he closed his eyes for a moment when they started to burn. Six hours sleep had not been enough after the weekend that he had shared with Rachel. Anna’s phone call had brought reality back full force. The fantasy had ended much too soon for his taste.

“What are you doing, Harvey?” Rachel challenged him after she stormed up to his desk. “Going around telling everyone that you scored? Tell me. Did you send out a memo or post it on the bulletin board?”

Harvey’s eyes snapped open and he looked at her blankly. “What?”

“Everyone knows about us!” she fumed, the anger showing in her voice even though she kept it low.

“Rach, it hasn’t really been a secret since you got shot,” he said, wary of her mood, yet curious as to what had brought it on. “Me staying at the hospital 24/7 probably tipped everyone off.”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about going away together for the weekend. I had a total stranger come up to me and tell me what a great catch I’ve got.” She gave him a mocking thumbs up in demonstration.

Harvey chuckled slightly. “That nice?” he said hesitantly, unsure of how he should respond. He moved back slightly when she started to fidget, her mouth moving, but nothing coming out. When she stormed off, he was left to wonder at her sudden fury. “That can’t be good,” he sighed, then noticed that several people were gathered around a television set toward the back of the SIU. Anything was better than the pile of work facing him, so he wandered over to see what was going on. “What’s everyone watching?” Harvey asked when he found a spot next to Joe.

“It’s a new police drama,” Joe responded as he watched Harvey out of the corner of his eye. “We don’t really have a title for it yet. Maybe you can help.”

Harvey’s eyes narrowed as he watched the couple kissing on screen. He hadn’t seen any faces yet, but somehow things looked all too familiar. When the scene inexplicably jumped to a couple making out in a dark blue PT Cruiser, his heart flipped over and his mouth dropped open.

“What’s going on?” Rachel asked as she joined the growing number of people around the television.

Harvey wanted to rush over to Rachel and block her view, but he could see from her expression that she recognized the scene instantly. Again her lips were moving, but there were no audible words. “You know that she’s going to kill me,” he whispered to Joe.

“Yeah, payback’s a bitch,” Joe returned with a smile. “I’d say that this video will cut you off for a good month at least.”

Harvey groaned with a chuckle mixed in. He knew that the incriminating video footage of him and Rachel kissing, hugging and whispering intimately with each other was going to fall onto his shoulders. It only added fuel to the tirade she had just thrown. He didn’t need to know why she was angry to know that this wasn’t going to go over well. He dared to take a glimpse in Rachel’s direction and could practically see the steam coming out of her ears before she hurried over to pop the tape out of the VCR. Everyone booed and hissed at her for stopping the show, then laughed amongst themselves as they slowly returned to work.

“Did you know anything about this?” Rachel asked Harvey.

He held up his hands in innocence. “I swear, I didn’t find out about it until just now. Just like you.” Rachel gave Joe a vengeful look, then stormed off. Harvey watched her go, then leaned in closer to Joe. “How did you get that?” he asked out of curiosity. He had thought that they were being discreet.

“Isn’t it amazing what you can get with twenty bucks these days?” he said in lieu of answering.

Harvey lowered his voice even more. “Can you make me a copy of that?”

Joe slipped a copy of the tape out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Harvey on the sly. “You haven’t seen the best part yet,” Joe told him, then gave him a curious look. “So are you going over to Rachel’s tonight to try to smooth things over?”

“Are you kidding me?” he asked with a chuckle. “I’m in love, not suicidal.”

* * *

Nash pulled the Cuda over to the curb as he watched Rachel pace outside the little Irish pub that many of the local officers liked to frequent. She didn’t even notice when he shut the engine off and stared at her for a full minute. She simply continued to pace and mumble to herself. Nash chuckled and climbed out of his car to see what was up. “Is this the debate about going in when you still have work to do or the debate about what you’re going to tell me after having a drink on the clock?” he asked as he stepped into her path to gain her attention.

“The debate about going in,” she admitted freely.

“You’re off the clock,” he said succinctly and took her arm. “The first one’s on me.”

He watched as she slowly brought the draft up to her lips for the third time, but the glass never quite made it there. “I have no idea what I’m going to do, Nash,” Rachel said as she gestured with her hands, heedless of her drink. “I’m an extremely private person,” she insisted. “That was way over the line!”

“Okay,” he agreed with her judiciously as he watched the swaying beer mug, amazed that none was spilled. “Just for clarification’s sake, what are we talking about?”

“There’s a tape Nash. A tape!”

He shook his head in confusion. “What tape?”

“Of me and Harvey!” she growled, jamming her fingers into her hair as she tried to sort out her rampant emotions. She was too embarrassed to even look at him.

“You and Harvey doing...”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She fought to get the image out of her head and started to take a sip from her glass, then she suddenly latched onto the catalyst of her stress and ignored her drink. “Don’t even get me started on the roses.”

“The roses,” he said with a nod as if he understood.

“Why work? Why send them there? Why not my house? Now everybody knows.” She shook her head as she shot him a stunned expression. “I had complete strangers coming up to me to tell me what a great guy Harvey is and how lucky I am. It was like putting up a billboard saying WE HAD SEX!”

Nash chuckled as he glanced around the bar. Several nearby patrons turned to check out the body behind the voice and gave Rachel an approving nod. “Not quite as affective as your announcement just now,” he teased.

“Oh it’s worse,” she returned and took his arm to stress the seriousness of her next statement. “Because it was an incredibly thoughtful gesture for him to send me flowers, I can’t say anything without looking like a complete jerk!”

“Harvey’s diabolical like that,” Nash joked unable to erase the smile on his face.

She started to bring the frosted mug to her lips once more when she suddenly realized he was making fun of her. “Thanks for being such an understanding confidant,” she said sarcastically. “Where are all of these words of wisdom you’re suppose to impart? Where’s that lightning bolt that you like to throw around in situations just like this? What am I missing that everyone else seems to see?”

“You want words of wisdom?” he said with a chuckle, then his expression became more serious. “Try this on for size. You’re happy. Relax and enjoy it.”

“Am I?” she asked in genuine confusion as her eyes locked with his. She didn’t remember happiness as being so invasive. When she had bared her soul to Harvey, she had no idea that he would be sharing it with the world.

Nash hesitated. There was something in her eyes, in her voice that held him captive. “I don’t understand what’s going on,” he said softly. There was a definite change in the air. His senses were on full alert.

“Neither do I,” she whispered, then their lips met. Her mind was a fog. She didn’t know if he had moved or if she had, but they were both left staring at one another in stunned silence a moment later. “What just happened here?” she asked nervously.

He shook his head almost imperceptibly. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly.

* * *