Second Chances Ch. 02

Rory stood outside the large storeroom at the docks, listening intently to the men speaking on the other side of the door. All were speaking Spanish, not a problem really, she could fluently speak the language, but it was what they were saying that made her flesh crawl. Drug shipment, a huge one worth millions of dollars that four men had already died over, was going to be delivered in two days time to this location. This was the break in the case that she had been waiting months for.

With a deep breath, she checked her bulletproof vest once more and turned off the radio in her hand, stuffing it into the pocket of her slacks. Justin and a small group of backup was no more than five minutes away, but if she waited any longer, the men would get away. She had seen the black cars situated outside as she silently made her way into the warehouse, warrant in hand. She wasn’t Lorelei anymore, the woman who was always sharply dressed and charming. Now it was her time to show them Detective Rory Baldacci, the smart and able cop who was going to bring them all down.

Pulling her gun from it’s holster on her hip, she turned and gave a swift kick to the door, her eyes narrowed in determination as the five men inside snapped their attentions to her in an instant.

“Put your hands up!” She screamed, getting blank looks from all around the table. “Ponga sus manos para arriba!” She shouted at them, getting a chuckle from an older gentleman sitting at the head of the table.

Arturo Sagranda, one of the biggest drug czars in the city, sat there his tan face lined as he laughed at the woman. Dressed in his Armani suits and expensive shoes, he cut an imposing figure in the city, striking fear into people’s hearts with just one glance of his coal black eyes.

“You’re serious?” He asked, his voice thick with a Spanish accent that he had never lost, even in his thirty years living in America.

Rory stood her ground, gun aimed at the men in front of her. “I’m very serious, Sagranda. Tell them to get their hands up and dispose of any weapons they have.” She stated, her eyes watching each of the five men intently for any sudden movements.

They all looked to Sagranda for an explanation, one man even asking him what his son’s girlfriend was doing here. The statement made Rory angry; she had no ties to Manuel Sagranda except that she had been leading him on for a few months now, enticing him with the hope that one day they could have a relationship.

Rory had been working undercover for the past four months, tailing and getting to know Arturo and his youngest son, Manuel. She had been working on point for her partner as he infiltrated the gang, gathering financial and physical evidence while Rory was wined and dined by the suave Sagranda’s. She had even gone so far as to use her real name, adding a bit of mystery to her identity and as far as she could tell, Arturo never caught on that he had two cops so close at hand. For all he knew, she was joking, just trying to get a piece of the shipment that was coming in.

“Lorelei, if you wanted a piece, all you had to do was ask.” He said with a another laugh, causing a few of the men to chuckle nervously. “You mean to tell me that all of this playing cop is just for that?”

“I have a warrant, smart guy.” She stated, pulling out the paper from the front of her vest, tossing it on the table as she kept her gun trained in front of her.

“You have to be kidding.” Arturo insisted, pushing the paper back towards her, not even bothering to look at it.

Rory glared at him, reaching one hand into her blouse and pulling out her badge, which hung on a chain around her neck. Arturo’s eyes widened for a moment and he leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair as he thought for a moment. His face was grim as the seriousness of his situation sunk in, his black eyes burning with barely contained anger. He looked at the men sitting at the table and nodded to them, telling them to toss their weapons onto the floor.

“I should have suspected. Where is Manuel?” He asked, watching as three of his associates threw their guns onto the ground.

“You tell me where my partner is and I’ll tell you where Manuel is.” She countered, quickly kicking the guns behind her as the sounds of sirens in the distance caught her ear. Judging by the noise, they were only a short distance away and that eased Rory’s mind a bit. At least she wouldn’t be totally alone for long.

Rory’s partner, Victor Ortiz, had been missing for two days now. No trace was to be found of him anywhere, something that ate at her mind. She knew she could use Manuel against his father as a bargaining tool, but something she would never mention to Arturo is that Manuel had come to the station willingly, giving them the information they needed to put out a warrant. Unlike his father, Manuel had a hunch that Rory was more than what he saw and his suspicions had been confirmed when he stopped her outside the station, a sad look in his eyes as he realized it had all been an act.

“You know, Lorelei, I did like you.” Arturo stated, slowly standing up out of his seat, reaching for something behind his back.

“Put your hands where I can see them!” She shouted, her eyes narrowing as the man laughed and shook his head. “I mean it, Sagranda!” She aimed her gun at the man’s shoulder, remembering the shoot to wound although he deserved to be killed for what he had done to so many people over the years.

It was then that Rory realized what he was doing, the sharp click of a gun being cocked loud in her ears as she turned her head to look at the man in the shadows. She should have just shot the old man, but he had done his purpose in distracting her from the person lurking just to her left. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she recognized him, her heart sinking as her eyes started to water with tears.

“Victor?” She whispered, the sound of Arturo’s laugher grating on her ears as she watched her partner level the gun at her.

His eyes were harsh and uncaring as he squeezed the trigger, the loud pop drowning out everything as the bullet hit Rory’s shoulder, throwing her hard against the wall. She struggled to take in a breath as the gun slid from her hands, blood slowly starting to seep over her blue shirt and down her arm.

He had hit the shoulder, a place her knew had a weakness in the vest. Looking at her arm in disbelief, she froze when she felt cold metal pressed against her forehead. She slowly turned her head, looking up at her partner with fear in her eyes as he pulled back the hammer on his gun.

“Now, my dear, I’m going to let Victor here take care of business while we make a hasty retreat.” Arturo said, appearing over Victor’s shoulder as he looked down on her. Rory worked to calm herself down, taking deep breaths against the pain as her eyes pleaded with Victor to reconsider. “You know that I never leave witnesses to anything. Finish it, Ortiz.” He stated before following his associates out of the room, running towards their cars as the sirens became even louder, just seconds away.

“Victor.” Rory whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek at the helplessness of her situation. “I need help.” She whimpered, feeling the barrel of the gun pressed tighter to her forehead.

Victor just shook his head, pulling back the hammer on the revolver. He slowly reached down and grabbed the radio from her pocket, the place that he knew she always kept it. Turning it on, he listened to officers talking to each other, they were just a block away from the docks. He pressed the talk button, his voice calm and clear as he began to talk.

“Officer down. Two shots fired. She’s dead.” His voice strong as Justin on the other end stated barking orders, demanding to know who it was who was talking.

“Victor, please.” Rory pleaded again, weakly trying to stand up, but the pain forced her back down. “Don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry, Rory.” He whispered as Rory sobbed, slowly closing her eyes, waiting for the inevitable to come.

*******

A loud bang made Rory startle awake, her brow covered in sweat as she shot up from her desk. The precinct was bright in the morning sun, empty except for McCartney who was yelling into his phone at someone in his office and her new partner, who had slammed a drawer on his desk shut while searching for something.

She took a deep breath, slowly letting it out as she cradled her head in her hand as she tried to shake the nightmare from her head. Daniel stood at his desk, digging through a box, searching for something as he chewed on a bagel.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” He asked, his mouth full of food as he looked at her.

“It’s okay. What time is it?” She asked, moving her mouse to wake up her computer. 8:30 a.m., the clock in the corner said and Rory groaned, feeling like she had a bad hangover, although she hadn‘t had alcohol in almost a year.

Damn, I slept here again. She sighed, leaning back in her chair a bit to look up at the ceiling. She was so tired that all she wanted to do was close her eyes and go back to sleep, but work was too important right now.

It had been a week since the murder of Natasha Eckert, the murder still fresh on Rory’s mind. It was like she couldn’t give up on this case, so pouring her heart and soul into finding her killer had become her only goal.

“Anything else on the Eckert case?” She asked, smoothing out her hair and the red shirt she was wearing, while trying to stifle a yawn. The coffee sitting on Daniel’s desk looked so inviting to her at the moment, but she didn’t feel like asking for it, still a bit weary around him.

“Nope.” Daniel said, sitting down at his desk as he looked over a file of the first case that Rory had told him about, taking a swig of the coffee as Rory started typing on her computer again.

Everything about Ursula Rivera’s murder was eerily similar to Natasha Eckert’s.

Ursula had been picked up in a bar, just a few blocks from where Natasha lived, although Ursula was known to the area as a prostitute. The photo clipped to the manila envelope showed a woman in her late twenties with a beautiful face. She was thin and tall, not a bad figure by any standards with an almost overly exaggerated chest. Shoulder length red hair that was straight as a stick with almond shaped chocolate brown eyes. She had a rap sheet a mile long, being picked up two weeks before her murder for prostitution and drug possession.

Out on bail, it looked like she had finally picked up the wrong person.

Found in her two bedroom apartment by her roommate, no one had seen the man that she came home with, but a next-door neighbor had heard them talking in the hallway. She would swear that the man had an English accent. She was found tied to her bed, nude with her chest cut up so badly that it was almost impossible to look at the pictures without feeling ill. This was something that struck Daniel as odd, since Natasha Eckert had her hands mutilated in almost the same way.

“Shit, I have to feed Jack.” Rory said suddenly, jumping out of her chair as she struggled to put on her jacket. Her arms were tangled helplessly in the fabric as she cursed.

“Who’s Jack?” Daniel asked, standing up to help her.

He grabbed the sleeves and held them out for her to slip into. Once her arms were through, he ran his hands over her shoulders, frowning as she stiffened and turned to glare at him. Rory buttoned up her jacket and looked at him for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to say thank you.

“Look, I have to go home for a bit. If Justin asks, that’s where I am.” She said, using her curled left hand to scoot her keys across her desk, scooping them up with her right.

“I thought we were going to start a profile.” He said quickly, pointing to the two envelopes on his desk.

Rory sighed and looked at Daniel, her brown eyes rimmed red with lack of sleep. “I’m too tired to argue about this.” She muttered as she flopped down in her chair again. She sat there silently for a moment, thinking. “Why don’t you come with me? We can talk on the way. I live a few blocks away.” It sounded almost like an order, brooking no room for argument from him.

Daniel stared at her for a moment, taken back by the fact that she had just invited him to her house. This was the same woman who hadn’t said more than ten words to him in almost a week. The ice queen, as he had taken to calling her in his mind, that one impenetrable personality that he longed to break through. She was everything that he looked for in a woman, he had decided: strong willed, independent, with the hint of a wicked sense of humor hidden deep beneath that tough girl image.

“Sure.” Daniel said simply with a shrug, sliding on his coat as he grabbed the two files on his desk and pitched the bagel into the trashcan.

Fifteen minutes later, Daniel stood outside a very nice apartment building about four blocks away from the station. It was red brick, four stories tall with a certain charm that only a row house could have. Without a word, Rory pushed past him and into the building. She hadn’t talked to him since she had told him to come with her, the car ride he had suffered through in uncomfortable silence. He followed her through the stairway, cursing under his breath at having to exert himself as they climbed to the third story.

“Make yourself at home.” Rory muttered as she unlocked the door to her apartment and pushed inside the warm, bright living room. “Just watch out for Jack.” She said over her shoulder as she took off her coat and threw it on the couch, turning on the lights throughout the apartment.

Daniel stepped inside, looking around the surprising large apartment. It had a full living room, furnished with a leather couch, armchair, and a large TV that was nestled into a nook in the wall. Just past the living room was dinning room that connected to a small but well furnished kitchen. From the living room, Daniel could see two doors that he guessed led to bedrooms.

“Not bad.” He whispered to himself as he unzipped his jacket and lay it down on top of Rory’s. After all, he had been spending his nights since he arrived in New York City living in a trashy hotel on Statton Island. He asked himself many times that week why he stayed there. It was so far out of the way it was almost absurd, but then he reminded himself that the price was right.

Pictures and diplomas hung on the pale yellow walls and Daniel was intrigued at the prospect of a clue to his partner’s past.

One diploma from William and Mary stated that Lorelei Marie Baldacci had graduated five years ago with a degree in Sociology. Just beside that was a merit from Quantico, something that took him by surprise. She had worked and trained there for three years as a profiler and the merit was to congratulate her on a job well done. Settled on top of those two was a diploma from a high school in Virginia. He had been right about her southern accent he thought with a smirk.

Pictures scattered over the walls showed her smiling as a teenager, on a seashore somewhere on the coast; her slender body shown off by a simple black bikini. Beside that picture was what looked like a family portrait, her with an older man and woman, seated in front of a young boy with Rory’s white blonde hair and Rory herself, much younger than the picture at the beach. She must have been nine or ten when the picture was taken he guessed..

She has a brother. Daniel thought to himself as his attentions were drawn to a bookcase standing in the entryway.

“Jack?”

He could here Rory calling from the kitchen, banging cabinets in an attempt to find this elusive Jack.

Daniel just laughed and looked at the pictures on the bookshelf. Mostly crime textbooks and a few biographies filled the shelves, nothing too interesting. Laying in front of one picture was a bullet, slightly crushed as if it had been shot. Looking up, Daniel noticed the picture was of Rory and a man with dark hair, smiling and dancing at what looked like a policeman’s ball.

She had her arms wrapped around the man’s neck, a sweet smile on her face as she looked into his eyes. The man had on his dress uniform and looked exceptionally dashing in it. He had a smirk on his face, his look, although focused on Rory in her long black gown, didn’t seem to show the same love that she was giving him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel caught a flash of blue as something latched onto his face, forcing him off balance and hard to the ground. “What the hell?” He cried out in surprise, as Rory ran from the kitchen, laughing loudly as she saw the sight before her.

“I see you found Jack.” Rory said as she reached down and pried the Russian blue kitten off Daniel, cooing to the small animal as it rubbed his face all over hers, crawling onto her shoulder and settling down as he stared down at the stranger with curiosity.

For the fright that he had just been given, Daniel couldn’t help but admire the way Rory’s smile brightened up her face. He had only ever seen her with a frown or a scowl, despite his best efforts to make her laugh.

“Well, Jack found me is more like it.” He said, staring at the kitten that probably weighed no more than three pounds, nuzzling against Rory’s neck as if he hadn’t seen her in ages.

Rory just shook her head as she turned and went back into the kitchen, the sound of food pouring into a bowl as the cat soft mewling filled the apartment. Daniel pulled himself up off the ground, brushing the cat hair off his dress shirt as he sat down on the couch, tired of snooping around. Nothing much that he could learn without prying too deep.

“It’s a nice place you got here.” He shouted to her as Rory came into the living room, sitting on the armchair as she shrugged and looked around, her eyes seeming to take in every detail as if she had never been in this apartment before.

“It’s too big, I think. Two bedrooms is too much for me alone.” She said looking nervously at Daniel and then to the floor as she pulled her hair back behind her neck. “I bought it when I was planning to get married.”

“Planning to get married?” Daniel asked, nearly choking on his words.

“Yeah.” She said softly, curling up in the chair as her eyes took on a distant look. “He’s long gone though.”

He could see how painful it was to talk about her lost love and his heart went out to her. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and comfort her.

You are such an ass, man. He thought to himself about the way he had treated her, as he pulled out the two folders and flipped through them, searching for something to change the subject.

“I just want you to know that the way I act is nothing against you. I’ve just had a bad time with partners in the past. I’m not really ready to trust another person, if that makes sense at all.” She let out the statement in one breath, leaving Daniel a bit shocked at her confession.

“You can always trust me, Rory. After all, that’s what partners do is trust one another.” He said softly, watching a small smile cross her face as she stood up and stretched with a yawn, a small line of her toned tummy showing as the shirt rode up her body.

“I’m going to change real quick and then we can get started.” She said, walking past him and pushing open the door to her bedroom. “By the way, where are you staying?” She asked, poking her head out the door to look at him.

“Statton Island. Cheap hotel there that I‘m getting a good rate on until I find an apartment.”

“Are you nuts? That’s an hour away!” Rory said, startling him with a look of fright on her face. “You must get up at, what, five in the morning.”

“Something like that.” Daniel mumbled with a chuckle. “Makes for a long day… especially with a partner who doesn’t talk that often.”