Killing Roses

3__Seconds from death

Tuesday

19/08

10:15 am

Roman locked his SUV and jogged up the stairs into the building, comfortable in his dark fitted jeans, black t-shirt, and sneakers. It was his day off so he was just dropping in to lock an important file in his cabinet, find out if the Lieutenant hadn’t changed his mind yet before he could drive off to the Social Services Department.

The station was abuzz with the general vibe of hot cases and caffeine-fuelled adrenaline. It was like coming home whenever he walked through the doors and Roman let himself embrace it.

“Yo, Detective Parker!” called a grinning cop.

Roman nodded, barely hiding his scowl, trying to walk with his head down to avoid the unwanted attention, but very quickly others turned in his direction and whistles and shouts of “Detective Parker!” could be heard all around him.

He tried to ignore it, but couldn’t when colleagues began walking up to him offering handshakes and fist bumps in congratulations, all unaware of his inner annoyance.

“Detective Parkeeer!”

Roman’s head snapped up and he already knew who it was.

Officer Daniel Stark came prancing dramatically down the corridor, chuckling at his own exaggeration.

“Look who it is!” he gasped, punching Roman in the arm. “Our latest Detective! How’s it goin’, champ?”

“Don’t dance like that in our uniform, it’s an embarrassment,” Roman informed him flatly.

Stark only grinned wider, pressing both hands against his own chest. “Ha! This uniform is honored to cover my gorgeous body.”

Roman sighed, rubbing a hand across his forehead. “You told everyone?” he demanded tiredly.

“About my gorgeous body?”

Roman gave him a look.

Stark laughed. “Oh, the promotion? Of course not! I only told Marvin... who told Butch, who told Shawn, who told Anna, who—”

“Okay, break it up, you guys!”

Lieutenant Davis came walking up to them with as much swagger in his gait as he had thirty years ago.

Officers dispersed back to their stations to resume what they were doing before Roman had walked in.

“Parker,” said Davis. “In on your day off, I see.”

Roman shrugged. “You insisted I have one after my first day back, so I’m just here to drop something off. This Detective thing’s sticking?”

Davis shoved his hands into his pockets. “Like glue. And speakin’ of which— the detective thing, not the glue— you wanna come meet someone?”

Without waiting for a response, Davis turned around and swaggered towards his office.

Roman sighed and Stark gave him a double thumbs up. “Good luck, Detective.”

Ignoring him, Roman followed Davis to his office and walked in through the open door.

Davis was just lowering himself into his seat and before him, Roman could see there sat a man. He stared at the back of the man’s head, noting the scatter of silver strands in the mane of blonde hair.

“Close the door, Parker,” said Davis.

Roman closed the door and got closer, approaching Davis’ desk.

When he reached the side, the man looked up and Parker felt his throat tighten.

Vividly, he remembered the light brown eyes that stared up at him.

Struggling to contain his fury, Roman slowly turned to Davis.

“What is this, Chief?” he demanded quietly. “What’re you doin’?”

Lieutenant Davis sat up straighter in his seat. “Got you a partner, son. Transferred from the Bronx precinct after four years personal retreat. This is Detective Michael Cooper. He’s—”

“The man who failed to catch my mother’s killer,” Roman growled, his gaze returned to the older man’s paling face. “We’ve met.”

Detective Cooper could feel the tremor in his hands begin and he fought to suppress it, fought to not react.

“Now, Roman,” said Davis. “Detective Cooper is a seasoned cop, regardless of what happened in the past. He is, in my opinion, still one of the best in the field and there is so much, son… so much you can learn from him.”

Roman wanted to laugh. Loudly and bitterly, and Davis saw it.

“This isn’t funny, Lieutenant,” said Roman. “You want me to work with this man? Should I just hand in my resignation?”

“You’ll never do that, Parker,” said Davis, staring confidently at Roman. “You’re Roman Parker. You never run away from shit.”

His eyes narrowed as he stared at Lieutenant Davis and Roman cursed how well the man knew him.

Slowly, he turned to Cooper and settled a cold look on him. Cooper looked up and held his gaze with apprehensive brown eyes.

“This ain’t right, Chief,” Roman told Davis as he took in the sorry sight of the old Detective.

“You don’ know that, Parker,” said Davis. “So the sooner you accept this situation, the sooner you can get to crackin’ cases, yeah?”

The chair creaked and Roman watched Michael Cooper stand up. He stood at five foot nine, barely reaching Roman’s chin, with a small beer belly added to his aging body. Studying him, Roman saw the exhaustion in the man’s eyes and wondered to himself just how long Cooper would last before he broke.

“Look,” Cooper said tiredly as he turned to face Roman. “I had no idea that when I transferred over here and that when Will said he had a partner for me, it would be you, son. I’m forty-two years old and as close to givin’ up my badge as I’ve ever been, so let’s not make this difficult, alright?”

Roman shook his head in disbelief. He couldn’t believe he had to work with the man who stood, barely held together, before him.

“I’ve got no problem, Cooper,” Roman said, his voice sharp as a giant icicle and just as cold. “Just don’t slow me down. I’ve got no patience for failure.”

Cooper wasn’t sure if he’d managed to hide his flinch, so he simply looked away from Roman. Turning to Davis he nodded and said, “I’ll be outside if you need me.”

Davis watched the man leave the office and turned to Roman when the door closed.

“What is the matter with you, Parker?”

“Lieutenant, the man is—”

“The man is your fellow Detective, to whom you will show respect! I know you’ve got history, but lemme tell you this, son. You were a kid when the Rose Killer was on the loose, you don’t know what that case was like. It drove that man insane and he was a damn good cop!” Davis pointed at the door. “His career fell apart for over six years after the case closed, he went through depression and stuck to the bottle like a fuckin’ koala! He went out of it and was put on forced leave with therapy for four years! You don’t know what that’s like. If there was anything that could’ve been done to catch the Rose Killer, Michael Cooper did it. All of it, and still didn’ catch that bastard, so until you know what that’s like, don’ judge him, son!”

Roman stood stock still, his jaw clenched so tight, his teeth could’ve shattered. All of Davis’ words rang clear in his head, but Roman couldn’t help but think: “He let mama’s killer get away.”

His hands fisted, but he gave the Lieutenant a curt nod. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, I know it’s your day off, but since you don’ want it anyway, I’ve sent a case through to yours and Cooper’s office. Discuss the basics with him before you leave. Y’all can start on it first thing tomorrow mornin’.”

Roman clenched his fists tighter and gave another nod. “On it.”

Davis watched Roman leave the office and sighed heavily. That was harder to do than he’d anticipated. Parker had had his fair share of a shitty life and Davis hadn’t meant to add to it, he just wanted for Parker to learn. And who better to teach him than the man Roman thought was weaker than a worm?

************

07:45 pm

Valerie was practically dragging herself out of the building, shoulders hunched forward. She wasn’t even sure whether her mouth was hanging open or not. God, what a long freaking day! She’d never run around town as much as she had today and with her phone missing, things had been hard, but she’d had an extremely productive day and was super proud of herself.

It was dark and the underground parking lot was shadowy in the places where lights hadn’t been installed. Places like where she’d happened to park her car. Bloody tire slashers. If it hadn’t been for them, she’d have parked her car up by the entrance parking. Valerie sighed as she shuffled her bags in her hand, wondering how on earth she’d worked this far overtime anyway.

Lowering a hand into her bag, Valerie dug around and finally pulled out her car keys. Her limbs felt heavy as she high-heeled her way across the lot, and she let her mind drift, thinking off a nice glass of red wine.

Moaning in longing at the thought, she raised her hand and unlocked her car. It beeped and the lights blinked on and off.

Valerie gasped.

Her steps froze and her body turned hot inside her wool top. Every muscle in her body was tense as she stared into the shadows.

There was somebody standing behind her car.

Valerie froze staring into the dark corner beyond her car, cursing herself for parking there. The car lights had blinked on and all Valerie had seen was the figure of a man in that corner.

A man just standing there, completely still, facing her. Now, with the car lights off, she saw nothing but shadows.

Her knees began to shake from the fear that took over her entire mind and thus her body.

Who the hell was that?! Valerie didn’t know what to do. Should she turn and run? She bit her lip, her eyebrows drawn together in anxiety. This … person could chase after her. Then what? Should she scream for the security in the building?

Valerie swallowed, still standing frozen, listening for even the slightest noise from that corner. Maybe she’d been seeing things, she was very tired. She’d check again.

She raised a shaky hand and locked her car again. The lights blinked on and off. Nobody. She saw nobody standing in the corner.

The breath she’d been holding shuddered out of her and Valerie took shaky steps towards her car, cursing her loud heels. Immediately, her steps faltered again.

She held her breath, afraid to breathe too loud as her ears picked up a sound. Footsteps.

Valerie could clearly hear footsteps behind her and her heart had started to hammer against her ribcage, its beat frenzied by fear.

The steps got closer and closer and she felt a sudden sense of claustrophobia, as though something terrible was closing in on her and yet she couldn’t escape.

Please be a security guard, please be a security guard, please be a security guard.

“Oh, my God!” Valerie screamed, jumping when a hand tapped her shoulder.

“Miss Quinn? You alright?”

Valerie hunched over, a hand clutching her racing heart as she panted shakily.

“Officer… Officer Parker.” She could remember that voice anywhere.

Roman stepped forward. The girl looked like she’d just seen a ghost. His hand went to her shoulder where she was hunched over.

“Are you alright, Miss Quinn?”

Valerie looked up at him in the darkness, her hand curled around his thick wrist where he held her shoulder as she glanced nervously behind her.

“Uhm…” Valerie swallowed, her heartbeat finally slowing to more normal rates as her eyes swept through the shadows behind her.

There’s no one there, Val. Calm down, for f**k’s sake.

“Miss Quinn.”

Roman wanted to let go off her shoulder, but was afraid she might pass out, he had to ensure that she was able to stand on her own. Also, her hand curled around his wrist was just so warm.

Valerie turned back to him and straightened.

“Uhm, y-yeah. Yeah, I’m alright, you just… startled me. That’s all.”

Roman hesitantly let her shoulder go and bent to retrieve the bags that she’d dropped.

Valerie held a hand to her forehead, trying to get her wits about her. Damn, was she that tired?

Roman straightened and handed her her stuff. She thanked him.

“I’d advise you to park your car closer to the front of the property, miss. Where there are more guards and better lighting.”

Valerie didn’t miss the ‘duh’ tone in his voice, but she ignored it. Of course. How could she forget that Officer Parker was sure she was a dimwit?

“There wasn’t space…” she mumbled, looking down at her toes to avoid making eye contact with him.

His big body loomed over her and that, coupled with the shadows around them was enough to send her imagination wild. As in, wild. So Valerie took a step back, where it was safe.

Roman shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, suddenly jittery now that he stood before her. He rubbed the back of his neck, annoyed at the bizarre reaction he was having to her.

“How did you know I was here?” Valerie questioned softly.

“I was about to enter the building to leave something at your reception, but when I asked, the guards let me know that you’d come back here. Here.”

Valerie looked down and saw her phone sitting in the palm of his hand. She gasped and nearly did a little hop, but stopped herself just in time.

“Oh, yeah, my phone! Thank you sooo much!” she exclaimed. She knew he’d bring it back sooner or later, but was glad she didn’t have to wait any longer to have her precious phone!

Roman said, “I apologize for leaving with it, it was completely accidental.”

She nodded.

Pressing a button, she watched the screen light up. Valerie’s smiled dimmed when she saw that she’d left her phone unlocked. Open sesame. Free for the whole damn world to go through.

Swallowing quietly, she peeked up at Roman. His expression was shadowed, but Valerie reckoned it would be that same detached one he’d had last time.

Quietly she said, “Uh… you didn’t… you know?”

Roman raised his brows. “Didn’t what?”

“You know…”

Her face was illuminated by the lights further on behind Roman and he studied the worry in her big brown eyes as she nervously bit the inside of her cheek. She was scared he’d gone through her phone and seen all her naughty stuff.

For the first time that day, Roman had to fight the smile curving his mouth.

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Care to enlighten me?”

Valerie’s eyes darted to the side as she weighed her cons and pros here. If she didn’t find out whether he’d gone through her phone, she’d have insomnia for days! If she asked and he hadn’t, he’d know that she had something worth hiding on her phone, but at least she could sleep in peace.

She cleared her throat. “Did you—”

“Must say, Miss Quinn,” interrupted Roman in a voice so quiet and intense, it robbed her of her breath. “You sure have an interesting reading preference.

Her jaw slowly dropped open and Roman tilted his head to the side, forcing his mouth to stay in a straight line.

“Oh, my God…” Valerie whispered. He watched as she shut her eyes tightly. Her hand rose to hide her face before Valerie realized what she was doing and quickly forced it down.

She looked away, glancing at him at the corner of her eye and Roman leaned over trying to catch her gaze. It was becoming harder and harder to not grin.

“What’s wrong, Miss Quinn?” Roman teased mildly and Valerie stifled the groan of embarrassment rising up her throat.

Whipping her face back to look at him, she cleared her throat and lifted her chin as proudly as she could considering the circumstances.

“Officer Parker—”

“It’s ‘Detective’,” Roman said darkly, suddenly remembering the exact titles and covers of the books in her libraries.

Valerie shut her mouth and stared up at him, feeling the heat of his body from where she stood. Her mouth grew dry and the parking lot suddenly seemed a little too dangerous for her. Her eyes dropped to his muscled chest and rose to his powerful shoulders.

She swallowed and took a step back.

“Oh. Well, D-detective. I-I don’t like your tone. So you can detect that! Hrmph!”

On shaky legs and with that terrible exit line, she quickly ran to her car, pulling on the back door handle.

When she smacked herself against the car, Valerie remembered that she’d locked it again and cursed, hurrying to unlock it. Never once risking a glance over her shoulder, she tossed her bags in the back seat and dove into the front.

Cheeks flaming from embarrassment, Valerie drove out of the parking lot, certain that he was probably roaring with laughter.

Roman was doing nothing of the sort as he watched her taillights move further away from the parking lot. How the hell could he laugh when his mind kept showing him how she’d looked at his body, her large, brown, honey pool eyes filled with desire? Roman swallowed, tugging at his shirt as he started walking back. He was suddenly feeling a little too hot.

*****

The cop was gone. Two pairs of eyes secretly watched from different places in the darkness of the underground parking lot. And then one pair watched as the other person stepped slowly out of his hiding place. The kid put a hand to his midriff, sighing in relief.

“s**t… that fuckin’ cop,” he panted, walking cautiously forward. If he had been caught, he’d have gone straight to jail. He was sure that the lady wouldn’t forgive him twice, neither did he think he deserved for her to do so.

He’d wanted to stay away from her car, he had! Then he’d remembered that he still hadn’t gotten it back. He’d ransacked her car with another boy about a month ago and that was the day he’d lost it. He needed to find that necklace. It was all he had left.

He’d risked his life yesterday, trying to find it and the lady had caught him. He could see that he’d scared her, so he’d just talked his way out of it. As he would have probably done if she’d caught him tonight, but then that cop had shown up and he’d nearly shat himself at how big the guy was. So he’d stayed hidden till they’d both left.

Better safe than sorry.

Throwing a nervous glance around at the seemingly empty darkness, he ran as fast as he could out of the parking lot, grateful to not be in the back of a police car.

The darkness was thick and served well as a veil. The figure finally moved from his place behind the pillar in the parking lot. They’d all left. All three of them.

He felt the muscle in cheek twitch from irritation. She’d been walking towards him in the darkness like a beautiful bride, but he’d been unable to take her.

That boy had been there, he thought.  Giving “boy” a meaning equivalent to “slug” or “bug” considering that the kid disturbed his work, hiding by the woman’s car.

And then he had arrived. “Detective” Parker now. So the cop knew the little social worker. The cop wanted her.

The sound of footsteps reached him and he looked up.

A smile curved his mouth. He was ready to play, but the one he wanted was gone, thanks to the cop.

So now he’d have to find another toy to scratch his itch.