Jackknifed

"Always," said Lesley. "I would do anything for her."

Bea turned to me. "See, I told you she good girl."

"I know Bea," I said, putting my arm around my partner.

"You go catch the bad guys now," she said.

Chapter Two

Dancing with the Devil

My day job was still dealing with the drug trade in the West End. Lieutenant Odette told me the priority was to find out more about Lily Chao, and the extent of her operation. Lily was a sultry, beautiful, and crafty woman who had already bested me twice. Word had gotten around that Jumbo Williams was out (having been charged and convicted with possession with intent to distribute) and that Lily Chou's crew was in. What wasn't common knowledge was that I had sex with Lily in her Rolls Royce and that she had orchestrated Alessandra's arrest (as well as Jumbo's).

I found out (not to my surprise) that Jackson "Chili" Jenkins, Jumbo's former head of security, was now in the same position with Lily. I wondered if Chili double crossed his former boss and that it was him that planted the drugs in Jumbo's house. I wouldn't have put it past either of them.

I decided to pay Lily a visit. There didn't seem to be any secrets between us, and I wanted to find out the extent of her operation. She might be willing to share. She seemed to be pretty confident that she could handle me so maybe she would be a bit cocky about it and let slip something useful to me.

This time I decided not to bring Lesley and sent her back to the station to catch up on her weeks of backlogged paperwork. There wasn't anything to be gained by having my partner there, and Lily might feel freer to share if it was just me. I drove a squad car to the Asian grocery store that was the front for her operation, not at all hiding my presence. I came in the front door this time and wound my way past the produce displays to the locked storeroom door in the back.

To an ordinary person, it was just a storeroom, but a close inspection would reveal more. There were two security cameras pointed at the door, and although the door looked like an ordinary one, I could see that it was reinforced with a thick enough steel plate to withstand a bazooka. The final giveaway was the retinal scanner used for access. No cards or codes to get through this door.

I knocked, and I'm sure the person on the other side was looking at me in a monitor. I looked at the camera. The door clicked. I opened it. Chili was on the other side.

"Fancy seeing you here," he said. Chili was a former high school football teammate to Jumbo Williams. He'd lost a bit of weight, but was still clearly at least three hundred pounds.

"Still pounding down the cheese chili coneys from Skyline?" I asked, harkening to the origin of his nickname.

He patted his gut. "Not so much. Lily's got me eating more vegetables."

"Control freak," I said, referring to Lily.

"Yeah," he acknowledged. "So you want to see the big boss?"

"Uh huh."

"Wait here."

He left me in the storeroom surrounded by crates of fresh vegetables and boxes of canned goods. He came back a minute later.

"You're good to go." He pointed to another door in the back of the storeroom. "Through that door and down the stairs."

"You still fencing Chili?" I asked. When he was working for Jumbo he had a side business fencing catalytic converters.

"Naw. Boss lady would cut my balls off."

"She runs a tighter ship."

"You got that right."

I went to the back and down the stairs. Jasmine, her executive assistant and part-time sex slave was waiting for me. Last time I visited, Jasmine was kneeling next to Lily as we talked. Jasmine was still wearing the diamond studded choker that was really her collar of obedience to her Mistress. Jasmine was probably shy of five foot and slight of build. She was wearing a black silk robe, tied around the waist, and sandals. I strongly suspected she wasn't wearing anything underneath. I watched her hips sway as she led me to Lily's office.

"Here you are Officer Max." She opened the door to let me in. Lily was sitting behind her desk talking on the phone. When she saw me, she waved for me to take one of the guest chairs. Jasmine closed the door behind her as she left.

Lily put her phone on mute. "Just another minute."

She finished her animated conversation in Chinese. I sorely wished that I understood the language. I was sure she was planning a hit on one of her enemies or chatting with one of her drug connects. She hung up, placing her cellphone deliberately on her immaculate desk, and then looked at me.

"Good afternoon Max. You're looking fit." Her shoulder length jet black hair had a gentle wave to it. She was wearing green eye shadow and a touch of blush that accentuated her high cheekbones. Her lips were ruby red.

"Good to see you Lily. Serious business?" I said, pointing to her phone.

She laughed. "If you call ordering lunch serious business, then yes."

I laughed with her. "Lily, I never know if you're telling me the truth or fucking with me."

She gave me a sly smile. "Max, I always tell the truth, and the truth is I'd like to fuck you, not fuck with you."

"Now there you're telling me the truth."

"Enough of the sexual innuendo for now," she said.

She rose up from the desk and came over to my side. She was wearing her usual traditional Chinese gown, though this time with a high neck and a slit on the side that showed almost her entire leg. I watched her move like a cat stalking its prey. She sat next to her prey, which was me.

"I'm glad you came here. We have much to catch up on." She reached over and put her hand on my pant leg. I made no move to stop her.

"So how's your partner Lesley? Has she completed her detox? Is she back in the field with you?"

Of course she knew everything about Lesley.

"She's doing better, thank you," I said. Her hand was still on my leg.

"And Alessandra. Has she recovered from the trauma of County jail? I know it was DaVanna's perverted little revenge scheme... against you and her. I wanted you to know I was against it, but DaVanna insisted on her little bit of fun, after all she spent almost a year in prison because of you."

It was strange for Lily to talk about DaVanna as her girlfriend. It was an odd pairing, a woman from China, via Detroit, who ran a cutthroat drug operation and Alessandra's sister DaVanna, born into one of the oldline and monied families in Cincinnati. DaVanna used her guile and ambition to become Hamilton County Prosecutor before I engineered her fall from grace and into prison. Lily and DaVanna paired together made a formidable opponent.

Lily pulled her hand back as she sat up straight.

"I'm sorry for being impolite. Can I get you any refreshment, a snack perhaps?"

"No thank you," I answered. I was tempted. The last time she made that offer Jasmine brought delicious dumplings that I got to eat while looking at her nubile body kneeling next to Lily. The imagery from the thought made me pause before I continued.

"I... I was hoping you could tell about your plans for the West End. I know you've taken over most of Jumbo's operation. In fact I saw that you hired Chili, I presume as your head of security. Isn't that right?"

I wanted to let her know she wasn't the only one collecting information.

She laughed. "So you think we know so much about each other. It's like a little chess match Max. I tell you what I know about you. You tell me what you know about me. I'm enjoying this, much like I enjoyed that night we spent in my car together. You remember that, don't you?"

Of course I remembered it. How could I forget the mind blowing sex with Lily in the back seat of her Rolls Royce while her sex slave/driver was watching us in the rear view mirror? It gave me shivers every time I thought about it.

"Vividly," I admitted. I'm sure it was as exciting for her as it was for me. We were both hot, panting and sticky when it was over. It was the hot, nasty sex we both craved... so wrong and yet so right.

"Well then, maybe we should consider ourselves good friends," she said.

"Except for one little detail?" I reminded her.

She laughed again. "Of course, I did tell you that I intended to kill you... when the time was right. As I recall, you made the same vow to me."

"You said you loved danger."

"Ah Max, you do understand me. As you know, I already have enough wealth to last a dozen lifetimes. I'm living for the thrill of the chase. The adrenaline. The high. I'm feeling it now. I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to touch myself now... but I would if you asked me."

Her hand lifted up the hem of her dress to show me more of her leg. I could see that she was watching the movement of my eyes and enjoying it. I desperately wanted to lock the door and fuck her, but that wasn't supposed to be the purpose of the visit. I exercised the little self-control I had left.

"As attractive as that offer may be, I think I'm going to have to take a raincheck on that. I'm here to talk about you."

"Max... Max... I'm terribly disappointed," she said, as if she was the teacher and I was the disobedient pupil. She smoothed her dress to cover her leg. "And now you want to spoil the game. You don't want to skip to the last chapter of our story, do you? The fun of it is the journey. I think you'll need to find out for yourself. Maybe you'll even win our game and put me in jail before I do something terrible, like kill you... or your pretty little partner."

She put the last phrase in there to bait me. It worked.

"You leave Lesley out of this," I said angrily. She was off limits and Lily knew it.

She laughed again. "You're too easy to read Max. I know your sense of loyalty gets the best of you. Why else would a good detective like you let a partner who's high on Oxy go into the field and create an embarrassing incident in Jumbo's house?"

How did she know it was Lesley instead of me? I took the fall for her hoping no one would find out the truth. I never told anyone... I thought. She had me doubting myself.

"You stay away from Lesley. I mean it Lily. If you want to go after me, have at it, but leave her out."

"But Max, chasing your loved ones makes the game that much more exciting. Why, I wasn't in favor of framing Alessandra, but you should have seen DaVanna's reaction when she heard you arrested her sister. Imagine that. You living in your little ethical world and arresting your partner's lover. It was precious."

God. She did understand me, and hearing her dissect me made me lash out blindly.

"I think you're sick. You and DaVanna both."

Of course that's the reaction she wanted. She was fucking with me. That's what you get when you dance with the devil.

"Think what you want Max. But I'm in your head, aren't I? So according to my scorecard I'm winning our little tête-à-tête, wouldn't you say? You know almost nothing about me and I know everything about you. Like your drinking habit. Nigel. Courtney. Room 204 of the Royal Palms. Your daily visits to Happy Donut. I could go on and on, but I fear I'm boring you."

Fucking shit. She did know everything about me. I was blithely going about my business not knowing she was watching my every move. She had won this round, and it was time for me to cut my losses.

"I'll see you around Lily," I said as I got up. She couldn't resist one last stinging barb.

"Please give my regards to Lieutenant Odette."

She smiled at me, and the smile wasn't fake.

Was Odette my leak?

Naw... impossible, I thought.

I had to give her credit. She did know how to fuck with me.

Chapter Three

Digging into the Past

I took a personal day off so I could do a bit of looking into Alessandra's story. The logical first stop was Homicide. I rarely ventured to the other side of the station. Homicide was a clique of misogynistic men run by a flaming asshole, Bobby Bickel. Think of the sheriff manning a speed trap in a small backwater town. Shit eating grin. Pompous. That was Bobby. I never showed my face down there because I didn't have to and didn't want to. But desperate times call for desperate measures so I swallowed my pride and went down there to ask for their help.

There were a handful of detectives shooting the shit around the water cooler when I arrived. Bobby recognized me first.

"Hey, if it isn't the great Max Pemberton," he said in a smarmy voice. The others chuckled.

The fucker's roll of fat hanging over his belt looked a small melon. His thinning hair was dark and greasy.

"What brings you to our humble abode?"

The three other detectives, all male, were staring at my tits. Apparently they didn't know I was a lesbian. I wanted to give them the evil eye, or worse, but I was the one with my hat in hand wanting a favor.

"Got a cold case I wanted to look into."

Bobby leaned against the cooler. It tipped slightly before it righted itself. "We don't go backwards, only forwards," he pontificated. "We've got thirty unsolveds right now and the Chief is on our ass to clear them before the end of the year." He turned his head away from me telling me our conversation was over.

"No, no, I'm not asking for your help. I just want to see the file," I said, gaining back his attention.

He thought about it for a second. "Well, in that case, let me refer you to our junior detective. She can help you."

"I'd appreciate that."

Bobby hefted his frame on his tip toes and yelled over a cubicle partition, "Hey Sky... get your ass over here."

I heard a rustle of papers and then a younger woman, I'd say no more than twenty-five, hustled up to us. I was struck by her short, wavy dark hair, thick dark eyebrows and glowing green eyes behind horn rimmed glasses. She was Lesley size, probably five foot three, though not as built as my partner. She looked Eurasian judging by the tone of her skin. She was a lovely breath of fresh air after talking with douchebag Bobby. She had a big smile on her face.

"I know you," she said with stars in her eyes. "You got the citation for Jumbo Williams's bust. I was at the ceremony."

"That's me, though I can't say I deserved it," I said, humbly (and accurately) in my view. Bobby and the others thankfully drifted away. I was out of their (thinning) hair.

"That's not what I heard. You cultivated a CI and used that information to catch him with a kilo of cocaine. That's noteworthy."

I didn't want to tell her that Lily was my CI and that I fucked her and she used me in the process to eliminate her chief competitor. I liked Sky's abridged version of the facts better.

"So how can I help?" she asked me. I could see one of the men still leering at me over a partition. I gave him the finger before I turned back to Sky.

"I'm looking for a file. It's unsolved. It's from 2006, I think."

"You just flipped off the Lieutenant I report to," Sky said to me in a whisper.

"Fuck him," I said in a voice loud enough for him to hear.

"All right, all right Max," Sky said, trying to calm me down. "I'll take you to the file room. The cold case files are kept in the archives down in the annex. I can show you if you'd like."

"I'd appreciate it," I said. I couldn't believe my good fortune. I thought I'd have to deal with some limp dick bastard. Instead I got her.

I followed her to the annex. The annex was primarily a filing and storage area, though the evidence locker was there as well. The annex was added to our station about ten years ago and was connected to the station by an underground hallway. I couldn't help but notice how attractive she was as I followed her the length of the station and then down through the connecting hallway.

"Your name is Sky?" I asked as we were walking.

"Actually it's Skylar, Skylar Hobson, but everyone calls me Sky."

"So how do you like working in Homicide?"

"I love it. I've only been there for a year, but I'm learning a lot."

"So what's it like working with those guys?"

"It's OK. They're kind of crude. It's like living in a frat house."

I wasn't surprised. I thought it was actually worse. At least the guys in the frat house were better looking than the sad sacks Sky had to hang with.

"Are you OK with that?"

"Well, they know I'm a lesbian so they pretty much keep their hands to themselves. I can deal with the sexist remarks."

Lesbian. "No Max," my conscience said to me. I told myself not to think about Sky that way. She was too young for me and if I did hook up with her everyone in the department would know about it. But she was young, pretty... and a lesbian. I knew I would eventually give in to my urges.

"Here's the file room. You said 2006 right?" she asked, innocent as a lamb to my sudden burst of thoughts after her admission.

"Uh huh."

I wanted to be as blasé as possible with my answer, though I was already viewing her through a different lens.

My eyes followed her as she went down the row of file cabinets. "Everything before 2010 is still in paper. We don't have the budget to scan this stuff so this is our only copy. I'll have to have you sign out the file if you want to look at it."

Right by the book.

"OK," I said.

There were two drawers labelled "2006."

"So about what date?" she asked.

"It was in the Spring. It was a decomp found on the outskirts of the city in the woods."

She flipped through the files. We looked through a handful of files before we found the one I was looking for.

"This is it," I said. "Female, multiple stab wounds in the torso. This jibes with the report in the newspaper." I lied about the newspaper article. I didn't want Sky to ask me how I knew about the stab wounds.

Sky leafed through the file.

"There's no ID on this victim," she said. "Though I can see they collected and preserved some of the DNA for future identification. I can see they also were able to get some dental from a partial jaw fragment. For some reason they didn't run the DNA against our database."

"You're pretty good at this," I told her, seeing how quick a study she was.

"It's my passion. I've always wanted to work as murder police. Now I am."

"But you're in a file room with me."

"Yeah, I'm not one of the guys. I've got to pay my dues. Nothing but background work on case files. I don't have a case for myself yet and I've been in the department for a year."

"Can we make some copies that I can take with me?" I asked.

"Sure... uh Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you use some help on this case?"

"Help?"

"Yeah. I could help you work it in my spare time."

Eager. I never thought about really working the case. I wanted answers. Maybe she could help me.

"Sure," I answered.

Besides she was cute.

* * *

I've never worked a cold case but it seemed like good police work to me. The scene where the body was recovered came to life as I read the detective's report and looked at the pictures taken. Sky was looking over my shoulder as I perused the stack of photos. Some were grisly, showing the body parts scattered about by scavengers, and some were instructive, showing the footprints in the earth, not yet obliterated by the passage of time. It was clear from the large shoe size it was a man, and the depth of the impression told us he was probably overweight.

"Detective Rawson," I read from the report. He was listed as the lead detective. "Is he still with you?" I asked Sky.

"Nope," she answered. "I've heard of him but I understand he retired a couple years ago."

She leaned closer to get a better view of the pictures. I could smell the lavender soap she used that morning. "It looks to me from this picture that the body was dragged from somewhere."

I picked up the picture. Sure enough there were drag marks in the earth next to the footprints.

"Must have been a car somewhere," she said.

I read further in the report. Rawson had the same idea. They scouted the area and found tire marks and shoe prints matching the ones near the body. Impressions were taken of the shoe prints and tire marks and stored in a separate area. There was nothing in the file to indicate any additional forensic work was done on them.