AlTonya Washington - Provocative Passion

“Ain’t that cute? You and Clarissa already exchanging scoops about mutual friends. This is serious.” Tigo bounced the weight in his palm.

“All right, all right.” Elias laughed. “Keep your secrets.”

A few moments passed with only the sound of Eli sorting through folders dotting the silence.

“I want her back.” Santigo eased the chrome paperweight back to its stand on the desk. “I don’t plan to let her walk away from me again.”

“Hmm...let her walk away. Don’t you mean you don’t plan to tell her to walk away?”

“Don’t start, El,” Tigo warned through a clenched jaw.

Elias kept his gaze on the open folder. “This won’t work if you can’t be honest about why it didn’t work out in the first place.” He looked at Santigo. “You’re gonna have to own up to the ultimatum you gave her. You can best believe she hasn’t forgotten it. And last I heard, she was still a cop.”

“Right.” Tigo acknowledged the fact in a deep voice as tight as his clenched jaw.

“And that still bothers you,” Eli guessed. He took his suit coat from the rack in the corner.

“So what? It bothers me.” Tigo jerked his shirt cuffs with more force than was needed. “It doesn’t mean I can’t have her.”

“No...it doesn’t mean that.” Eli slipped an arm into the amber-colored jacket. “But if it bothers you the way it did before, you should ready yourself for the sight of her walking away from you again.” Elias finished donning the coat and grabbed the folders he’d been studying. He paused to pat Santigo’s cheek before making his way out of the office.

* * *

“All right, now we’re on the right track. This is evidence.” Paula Starker was speaking to one of her A.D.A.s while nodding enthusiastically at the thick file she browsed. “It’s got gums, but you still need something with teeth... Detective Sophie!” she greeted in the same breath when she looked around.

“Bring me something juicy, Rich,” Paula told the harried-looking young man. She handed him the file and waved him off, grinning at Sophia as the A.D.A. rushed out.

“Something juicy?” Sophia shook her head. “I’ll bet he’s got all kinds of ideas running through his head.”

“Ha! So long as he keeps ’em there, we’re good, Detective Sophie.” Paula tossed a pen on the desk teeming with heavy-bound books, legal pads and folders.

Sophia took a seat on the arm of the tan leather sofa nearby. “You know, I really don’t think your greeting me as Detective Sophie is professional, Pauly.”

“Ahh...” Paula waved off the caution. “Do you really think folks don’t already know we went to school together and were roommates besides?”

Paula Starker was new to her post as D.A. The fact that a woman in her mid-thirties had unseated the former holder of the seat after a ten-year term was almost as startling as the fact that she was a black.

Sophia left the sofa, rubbing chilled hands as she headed for the coffee carafe set out near the liquor shelf in Paula’s office. “It might be an issue if we keep meeting this way. You say Cole wants to deal?”

“Says he’s got deal-worthy information. Funny how an arraignment not going your way will do that. Judge denied bail.” She shrugged. “For now.”

Sophia inhaled the coffee’s aroma as she poured it into a large mug. “So what’s this deal-worthy info?”

Paula waved her mug in a silent request for Sophia to provide a refill of the fragrant walnut blend. “He’s being tight-lipped. Understandable. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure what he’s bartering.”

Sophia filled Paula’s mug and returned it. “He wants to name names,” she guessed.

“I’ll say.” Paula took a timid sip of the brew. “Obviously he and Paul Hertz are on the B-list.”

Sophia added cream to her coffee, frowning over Paula’s mention of Paul Hertz, who had submitted his resignation as chief of detectives following his arrest along with several other uniforms who had been tracked by their badge numbers from a ledger belonging to Waymon Cole. The ledger had been discovered by Clarissa David among her late aunt’s belongings.

“We took down a lot of people, Pauly. That’s nothin’ to sneeze at.”

“Cops and a glorified stockbroker.” Paula set aside the coffee as though she’d lost her taste for it. “Do you really believe Cole and Hertz are as far up the food chain as this thing goes?” A measure of confidence faded from the woman’s round, honey-toned face. “If Cole does have something, I can’t make a deal for it. I could kiss off any chance for keeping my job if I did. We’ve gotta find Cole’s goodies without his help.”

Sophia hissed an indecipherable curse. “I just hoped all this was—”

“What? Over?” Paula recrossed her shapely legs beneath her side-split rose-blush skirt. “Guess you thought all the bad guys were behind bars?”

Sophia smiled in spite of herself. “Yeah...naive, I know, and a little anxious, I guess....”

“Anxious, huh?” Paula’s champagne-colored stare sparkled with a bit of wickedness. “Could that have anything to do with a certain half-black, half-Hispanic brotha, initials S.R.?”

The surprise on Sophia’s dark face sent Paula chuckling. “I heard he came to see you at the station. Ha! We’re a pair, aren’t we? Both of us could use more friends in our places of business. You’ve probably got more pull around here than I do, and I’ve probably got a bit more at the precinct that you do.”

“It was nothing to throw a parade over.” Sophia warmed her hands around the mug and remembered the day Tigo had come by the station. “The visit didn’t even last five minutes.”

“And you were okay with that?” Paula sat behind her desk.

Sophia laughed. “There was nothing to be okay with. Anyway.” She folded her arms across the gray blouse beneath her jacket. “Where should we start tryin’ to dig up the rest of Cole’s secrets?”

“And this is where more friends would come in handy.” Paula toyed with a curl from her bob. “You should have as little involvement in this part of the investigation as possible. Put some other bodies on this. Offer guidance but only at a distance. If you didn’t have any friends at the station before, then you’ve got even less now.”

Sophia looked like she’d just been slapped. “Paula, are you stupid? How can you lay something like this at my feet and not expect me to get involved?”

“Listen to me, So-So. If what I’ve heard is true, you’ll soon be in a position to delegate having somebody to do everything short of wiping your nose for you. Just keep a low profile on this.” She scratched her temple and grimaced. “The curtains are being pulled off a lot of shady windows in this city. Things may get a lot worse before they get any better, so you just be careful, Detective. We can’t afford to lose any more good cops.”

The easy glow returned to Paula’s face and she reached for her coffee mug. “You just delegate and chill out. I’m sure you can find finer ways to spend your time and with finer people. Initials S.R.,” she sang.

Sophia smiled, unable and unwilling to discuss the shiver that danced up her spine.

Chapter 2

Sophia rushed home right after her shift. It was something she rarely did. There was always one more thing to be done—one last report to file, one more lead to follow. That was before Santigo Rodriguez had resumed his place at the top of her thoughts.

She showered, changed and, so as not to appear completely desperate for his company, entertained herself by reading up on the notes she had from the Waymon Cole case. She scoured the pages for anything that might offer a lead to the food chain Paula had alluded to.