08: Murder in the First-Degree Pt. 1

Two men dressed in neatly pressed, black business suits started toward Victoria and Mike as they stood near the posting wall delving into the new cases and pending notes from previous convictions. “Detective Carson?” asked the taller of the two. He was a medium built man of African descent with dark circles beneath his brown eyes. He wore a wedding band on his left hand with a matching gold watch. The hair on his face was neatly trimmed and from what could be seen he was athletic which spoke of a man who respected his body.

The man in his company, on the other hand, appeared in stark contrast of him. The edges of his light brown hair were graying and the cut was hastily trimmed. Although he was thin, he wasn’t athletically built. His pale complexion was covered in tiny red blemishes and pock marks with deep crow’s feet beside his mouth and pale blue eyes. He had coffee-stained teeth and bristly dark furs stabbed out of his chin, indicative of a close shave gone wrong, and a tan line existed where a wedding band used to be.

“Yes, and you are?”

“I’m Agent Brian Ford, this is my partner, Agent Steve Douglas,” spoke the neater of the two men. “We’re with Internal Affairs.”

“IAD?” Mike asked taking interest and moving around behind his partner. “What the hell are you guys doing here? Not enough bad guys to go after so time to start pointing the fingers at a few good cops?”

“If ‘good cops’ were involved, our department wouldn’t have to make the trip down,” Agent Douglas snapped. “We’re here investigating some complaints our office received on some of your past cases, Detective Carson.”

“Mine?” At that moment Captain Mason stepped out of his office with his coffee mug in hand starting toward the break room.

“Is that your captain?” Without waiting on a response from either detective, Douglas stepped forward stopping Mason before he disappeared from the room. “Excuse me, Captain.” Mason eyed the man up and down analyzing his appearance and quickly assessed who the man was.

“Which of my detectives are you here for?”

“Detective Victoria Carson. My partner and I would like a word with you in private please.”

He motioned for her to come forward before backing up into his office. Victoria stepped into the doorway behind the two and Mike slipped in after her. “No, there’s gotta be some mistake. IAD should have no interest in Carson. She’s one of my best detectives!”

“If that was the case then we wouldn’t have received over five allegations of misconduct from five separate individuals,” Douglas continued speaking in his ‘holier-than-thou’ tone of voice.

“WHAT?!” Victoria shrieked and inched her way into the center of the room. “That is not possible!”

“And yet the record stands. From what our office has been able to gather from eyewitness statements and the complainants themselves you’re being accused of contamination of evidence, forced or coerced confessions and witness tampering.”

“You can’t be serious! This is complete bullshit! And who may I ask is making these accusations?”

“We cannot disclose that at this time. The investigation has just gotten underway. You should however consider this your notice,” Agent Ford replied and stepped toward the detective. “As of right now, you’re on investigative suspension with pay until further notice. Captain Mason, please remove her badge and service weapon.”

“What? You can’t do this! I’m being falsely accused and I have a right to know who my accuser is!”

“In open court during a trial but not on our investigation,” Douglas remarked. “Come on Detective, you know how this works. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe this is why you’re being indicted!”

“This is fucking stupid! You know very well Vik did nothing like what she’s being accused of, Mason! And the only thing these assholes are going to do is sully her name and put a black mark on her jacket. This whole thing is just going to turn out to be some revenge tactic of an embittered thug she’s put behind bars,” Mike charged.

“That may be so,” Mason replied nodding toward her. “But until IAD has completed their investigation and Carson has been cleared of these accusations, she cannot resume her active duty.”

“Captain!” Mike started to protest but was waved off by the elder gentleman.

“I’m sorry but my hands are tied. Please turn over your gun and shield.” Victoria solemnly removed the items from her waistband and set them on the edge of Mason’s desk. Turning toward the door she took in the soured expression on her partner’s face with a heavy heart and exited the office.

Victoria got home and poured herself a glass of wine. She quietly sipped it down allowing the burn in the back of her throat to slowly ease her mind as she paced over the soft carpet of her den trying to think up anything that would have caused these allegations against her. Never had she believed something like this could hold water with any of the bigwigs to the point that she would be under an IAD investigation. She knew it had to be someone she put away though she couldn’t think up how recent that would have been. Any one of the hundreds of drug dealers, murderers, rapists or burglars she’s put behind bars could be coming after her; they’d all have reason to anyway.

After filling her glass to the rim once more she dropped heavily onto the couch situated against the far wall. Looking up, she found herself staring at the certificate of merit she received upon her graduation from the academy for exemplary display of courage and strength. She outshined many of the recruits enrolled with her and never backed down from a challenge. The same could still be said of the Detective now skirting her 8^th year on the job protecting and serving.

The job was hard enough proving someone’s guilt or innocence when not enough evidence was discovered. And there had been times where she knew a perp was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and she wished there was something more she could do to prove it. But never in a million years would she ever plant evidence for a conviction or browbeat anyone into confessing to crimes they hadn’t committed. Victoria looked up at the sound of her front door closing and saw Cole rushing toward her. “Hey! I came over as soon as I heard. Are you ok?” Cole asked reaching out and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“What? No! I’m being accused of something that I didn’t do and it could possibly mean the end of my career! Does it look like I’m ok?” she growled and pulled away from his grip. Holding her hands up to keep him back, her eyes shut tight and she slowly bit down on her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about that, Cole. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“It’s ok. You’re obviously under a lot of stress right now and it’s understandable. The job can do that to the best of us at times.” He smiled sympathetically and reached for her again. This time she didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned more forward and rested her head against his chest allowing him to comfort her.

“I don’t let it bother me like this normally,” she spoke softly and circled her arms around his back. “But to think that anyone could believe I would plant evidence on someone for a conviction is just beyond appalling to me. I am always doing whatever I can to ensure my cases run smoothly and everything is in place as it should be.”

“I know, Vik. You don’t have to try and convince me of anything. This will all blow over, you’ll see. They’ll realize what a huge mistake they made calling your integrity into question and the IAD will send their hounds back to their cages.”

“You sound very confident.”

“That’s because I know what a great cop you are. I trust that whatever happens, you won’t go down on the bogus testimony of a convicted murderer or whoever this is. They are staying behind bars where they belong, Victoria. You did your job and followed the clues where they led you. And now it’s time to let the evidence and your hard work speak for itself.” He leaned her back slightly with his index finger beneath her chin.

Slowly he moved forward until his lips were mere inches away from hers and he looked her straight in her eyes. “Try not to worry about this. Stay calm and let the system work for you this time.” Cole leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead and Victoria’s hands skirted up his stomach stopping just on his chest. With the tips of his fingers, he gently brushed her hair back, whispering soothingly in her ear as he did. 

She looked up at him and smiled. No matter what they had gone through he was always right there when she needed him the most. Cole tilted his head and slowly moved in watching Victoria’s eyes shut in anticipation the closer he came. He brushed his lips across hers delicately, the tip of his tongue poking at her mouth until she obediently parted her lips to allow it to enter. His tongue continued its exploration until his mouth slid gently over hers.

Pushing their lips passionately together and hitting every corner, he moved forward aggressively possessing them in a wet kiss. Cole slipped his tongue against the roof of her mouth and a soft moan escaped through her opened lips and his arms wrapped firmer around her waist. He sighed tenderly against her lips realizing they were still every bit as luscious as he remembered and he quickly lost himself to their softness.

Victoria slipped a hand over his shoulder and guided it toward his face. She stroked his cheek with a soft caress as she delivered tiny pecks to his mouth to end the kiss and pulled away. Dabbing at the moisture that remained once they parted, Victoria grabbed her wine glass from the table and circled around to the kitchen.

She started the water and began rinsing the glass out watching the red liquor swirling within the suds and down the drain. Cole came up behind her and watched as she kept her back to him and sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, he could still taste her on them. “So…I gotta run. I have um some work to take care of back at the office but I could come back later if you want some company tonight? We could pop some corn, watch an old black and white and fall asleep on the couch like we used to. What do you say?”

“I don’t know. I can’t say I’d make a great hostess. I’m not in a very entertaining mood right now.”

“Then we could talk if you wanted. I just…I don’t want to leave you alone like this, Vik.”

“I’m fine, Cole.”

“You are far from ‘fine,’ Victoria. I know you. You’ll stay awake all night stressing about this and what affect it will have on your job. And then you’ll go over 100 different times how anyone could mistake your actions for falsifying evidence and run the scenario again and again to see if you actually did do something wrong. You have enough going on already to have to worry about this on top of it. Let me help take your mind off of it.”

“Then movie night it is. We can rent something from my Netflix; something that involves a lot of bad guys getting shot.”

Cole smiled and folded his arms in front of him as he leaned against the oven. “Does that have any special significance?” He tried to hide his laugh by chewing his bottom lip but it came out anyway.

“Whatever! Don’t make me use my gun on you, Mr. Cole Downing!”

The loud grating of metal on cement echoed in the main room of the prison as the security gate pulled open. A tall man dressed in a gray correctional officer’s uniform sauntered down the narrow corridor heading toward solitary. He motioned to the tower to open the last gate on the end and stopped just on the back wall of a room closed off by a large, metal door.

“It’s done,” the guard’s husky voice boomed through the thick wall of concrete to the man seated on the other side on the bench. “Victoria Carson has been suspended from active duty.”

“Good. Tell the boys to move along with the next step. I don’t want that bitch to skate out of this intact. She’s about to get a nice, healthy dose of her own medicine!”

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