White Night

Chapter 50

They both sat waiting for the captain as the morning sun glistened off the city buildings across the river. Grinair was relaxed, one leg swinging loosely over the other as he leaned back with his hands folded over his ample belly. Connors sat rigid, her fingers clasping the carved wooden arms of the chair. She knew what was coming. All hell was about to break loose.

"I thought you were going to let me deal with Ross," she said quietly.

"Hey, I'm doing you a favor. You stay with him and your career's in the toilet." He stabbed a finger at the floor.

Some favor, choose between your partner and your job. Ross thought she'd already chosen. She hadn't. She'd found Ross yesterday at his desk, pounding the keys on his keyboard and refusing to acknowledge her existence. When she attempted to explain why she backed Grinair, he grunted at her and marched off to the men's room. Though unafraid to follow, she instead let him cool down for a while, but when she left that afternoon, he was with the captain in her office. From the gesturing hands and animated conversation, she guessed he was giving Reyes an update on her fitness for duty, the state of their partnership, or the progress on the case, none of which would make the captain any less likely to fire her, so she spent the rest of the day out of the precinct chasing down leads solo and ignoring her cell phone.

Now Ross had been caught looking through Grinair's phone records by Perez, Grinair's partner, and here they sat, waiting for the captain to return to her office after leaving to "retrieve a file." Total bullshit, Reyes was leaving them to stew.

Reyes returned with a red file in her hand—a personnel file, hers, or Ross'?

"So what the hell's going on?" Reyes spat at them both but glared over the top of her glasses at Connors.

Grinair didn't give Connors a chance to respond. "Her partner starts questioning me about my whereabouts over the last few days and now he's checking my phone records?"

"Detective Ross has been suspended."

Connors' stomach plummeted at the words.

Grinair gave a satisfied nod and looked across at her. Suspended? Ross would quit...

"Captain—" she started.

"Detective Connors, if I thought for a second that you'd assisted him, you'd already be suspended. As it is, you need to think seriously about your career and your future with this department."

She closed her mouth and looked at the file on Reyes' desk.

Connors, Jennifer – Detective.

She was out of time.

"Captain, I need to speak to you."

"I'll go." Grinair started to stand.

"No, it's okay. I think it's best you're here." Connors smiled softly at him and he returned her smile, once again the supportive mentor she'd known at College Point and here for her at the worst moment of her career.

"Captain, there's something I need to tell you."

Reyes' smoldering eyes softened as she waited for Connors to speak the words that would end her career.

"I spoke with the nurses at the hospital. Detective Grinair wasn't looking for a junkie, he was asking about a gunshot victim."

"I don't have to listen to more accusations..." Grinair rolled his eyes and stood.

"Detective Grinair, just hold on a moment and let me deal with this," Reyes said and Grinair sat down again. The captain's burning glare swept across the desk to Connors.

"Detective Connors, what the hell are you playing at?"

"There was no junkie arrested near the construction site that night. No reason for Detective Grinair to be in that area."

"This is bullshit," Grinair snapped. "Captain, she's outta her mind. She shouldn't even be a cop; she can't even walk."

Reyes didn't argue with him.

"Detective Connors." The captain reached for the personnel file.

Connors continued. "I looked up some old cases Grinair worked. You busted the Painted Lady Club two years ago."

"So?"

"It was Nikolai's place."

"Right, so I nailed the son of a bitch."

"But you didn't."

"What?"

"There were no charges."

"So what? I couldn't make anything stick. I believe you and Sir Ross are having the same problem now."

He wasn't lying. The ballistics didn't match their victim's bullet. Nikolai could walk this afternoon and she still didn't know enough about White Night to prevent it.

She forced herself to continue, her voice cracking into a higher octave. "Three months later, you collared a man pimping out his fourteen-year-old daughter."

"Right. It's called doing my job, Connors, you should try it. You got a murderer sitting in holding that's gonna walk, and you and your rich boy partner are investigatin' me?"

"But you couldn't charge him."

"Captain, you gonna allow this witch hunt on one of your veteran officers?" Grinair shouted, but before Reyes could respond, Connors continued again.

"A week later he's in ER after getting the crap kicked out of him."

"So? He finally got what was coming to him," Grinair said more quietly.

"Detective Connors, this has gone far enough..." Reyes stood, her eyes regaining their fire as she opened the file.

She was out of time.

It was over.