Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

9. On the move

Julio Ramirez still lived with his mother. His room was littered with pictures of Gemma Parker.
Cat and Tess had handed the warrant to his mother who agreed to let them look through his things. She told them Julio wasn't working that night, that he was at a Zumba class.
They found the red jeans just after she said this, making them even more suspicious of him and whether he went to his Zumba class on Tuesday.

Moments later Julio came home, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw them going through his things. He turned and ran, making Cat and Tess chase after him out of the house and down the street. He kept running for at least three blocks before he disappeared down an alley. Cat and Tess split up, Tess going right and Cat going left.

Cat found herself at a dead end, at the entrance to an old parking lot. She took out her gun and walked in slowly, ready if he jumped out at her. She walked about halfway in, seeing nothing, when Vincent spoke behind her.

"Where's my picture?" he asks.

She turns, having had her gun ready, and pointed it at him. She dropped it when she saw it wasn't Julio. "Vincent."

He walked up to her, glaring at her and sneering, "Where is it?"

"I left it in my office, I was going to give it back. Look you say you're a criminal but you're a victim, just like my mom."

"That picture is not about your mother," he growls.

"No, it's about you," she says slowly. "And it's about those guys in your unit." He scoffs. He was angry with her. She knew that. But she was really planning on returning it. "Raymond. Matthew. Eric." He glares at her. "I ran it through facial recognition."

"Are you insane?!" he bursts.

"It is evidence."

"Muirfield tracks everything!"

She lifts her hands. She didn't have time for this now. "Okay, I have to go."
She goes to pass him but he steps in her way.

"Oh, you think I just wanna show up here, put you and me both in jeopardy if I don't have to?"

"Vincent, I am trying to help that's what I do."

"Proof Catherine. Of me. JT - "

"And those guys in your unit."

"You know Raymond, his parents think their son died a hero. You wanna tell them that they turned him into a killing machine?!" Cat looked away. "And JT, you know, he has risked his life for the past decade trying to hide me in a warehouse!"

"You shouldn't have to hide," Cat says and steps closer. He steps back and turns around. She is getting close and he was upset. "That's why we have to build a case - "

He turns on her. His features started to morph and he yells, "I am not one of your cases!"

"No Vincent you need justice!"

He roared on her face and turned, punching both arms into the brick wall. Cat looks at him and then away. She didn't like seeing him this mad. It scared her before, but now she just looked the other way. He pulls back, his features returning back to normal, breathing heavily, looking at the ceiling.
Tess's voice came over the walkie that she caught Julio and Cat ran out of the warehouse to go and meet her.

"There you are," Tess says when Cat reaches her. "You okay? You're shaking?" She had Julio in cuffs.

"Yeah, just winded."

**********

Julio didn't confess to any murder, but he did admit to stealing the jeans because he cared and he wanted something that could remind him of her. She had been nice and spoke to him like he was a person.
He said he wasn't the one who gave her flowers, when they asked. And then they asked if he saw or heard anything that could help them.
He was nervous but told them he had followed Gemma to a police station on 27th and Chelsea Avenue, near the ballet studio and that she looked upset.