Chapter 9
Dean
Iheardthe shower running downstairs, and it was pissing me off.
It was pissing me of because it was making me think about her.
Her and the way she said things that got under my skin.
I mean, why the hell would she care? Why should she care?
None of it mattered. Thomas was dead, and Liv would be gone soon. And, both of them will turn into an uncomfortable memory I’ll avoid with work or booze.
The only problem was I still heard the water running.
She was a floor below me.
Naked and wet.
Instead ofaccidentallywalking through my sister’s apartment or looking to borrow a cup of unwanted sugar just to bump into a towel-clad woman, I called a few of the guys. I figured a poker game and a few beers would hit the spot. At least, it would stop my brain from unhinging around her.
Jack, Max, and the new guy Ryan were over my house within thirty minutes, all carrying two six packs and a cigar case tucked inside their coats. Callie brought over whiskey and a bunch of deli sandwiches.
After two games, Jack was already starting his conspiracy theories. “So get this,” he said, through a mouthful of ham and Swiss, “I heard he got in trouble for something and IAB was looking into him.” We all knew theheJack was talking about was Thomas. His name was still hanging in the air between us, and it was thickening like fog and getting harder to see through. I was starting to suffocate from it.
“I don’t want to hear about—” I started, but Max cut me right off.
“But it’s something we have to talk about,” he rumbled. Max and I were pretty close, and he never pulled the boss card on me, even though he was my superior, but the look he gave me made me feel otherwise for the first time ever. “Look, Dean, I know you and Thomas were close, but if he was into to something, they’re looking at all of us. I just want to know, so I can protect the rest of us.”
“He was a good cop, Max. A good one,” I said.How could he think differently?
Ryan leaned forward and wrapped his hand of cards along the top of the table, “I know I’m just the replacement, and I didn’t know him, but I heard he got questioned over some missing money that was supposed to be vouchered and never was.”
I knew Thomas and Lucy were having money problems, but not enough that he’d steal money from an arrest. Right?I looked at Max for confirmation. “Did you hear anything about that?”
“I know he had a CCRB, a day before his death,” Max replied.
CCRB was the civilian complaint review board and going before it meant someone had filed a complaint against him personally. “What did they say? You have to know,” I asked Max.
He shrugged, “I don’t. I don’t have any idea what the complaint was. No paperwork came past me. That’s why I thought he might have told you something.”
Jack chugged his beer and laid it noisily on the table, “If they were looking at him, then they’re looking at the whole team. I can’t give up any more days. I don’t have any.”
“But no one has called the rest of us on the carpet,” Callie said. “Maybe it’s got nothing to do with the squad. Maybe it was just him.”
“I went to go see Lucy today,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I didn’t want to have this conversation. I called them over, because I wanted to forget.Why was I letting this continue?
“And?” Max asked, seriously.
“She thinks that he was cheating on her. She found his phone and went through it. There were a ton of calls to someone named Katherine Meyers.”
“No way,” Callie snapped. “Maybe she was a lawyer—if he was in trouble at work—because he was crazy about Lucy, and he would have never done that.”
I stood up, shaking my head. “But you think he’d steal money? He wasn’t like that either,” I said, throwing down my cards. It was a shitty hand anyway. “I’m going out to smoke a cigar. I need air.”
“Sounds good,” Ryan nodded at me, “I’m right behind you.”
Behind us, the rest of them started packing up the plates of food and cards.I guess shitty poker night was over.
