Good Chemistry (15 page)

“Oh . . . oh . . . oh.” Heidi was building up to another climax. Her eyes rolled around like slot machine wheels. Everything came up bars as Rick drove into her. Heidi’s thighs began to burn as if they were about to cramp. All she could do was hang on for dear life.

The two climaxed together as Heidi’s second orgasm throbbed with pleasure. The pair panted as Rick collapsed down on top of her. Heidi gazed up into his eyes. Rick lay on top of Heidi for a good long while. Their breath and sweat commingled as they lay there breathing as one.

Finally, Rick rolled over to his side of the bed and grabbed a pack of Marlboro Reds. He took out two and lit them with his silver Zippo.

Heidi got up and went to the kitchen. She came back with two glasses of juice and traded one for a cigarette. Then she sat cross-legged on her side of the bed.

“You know if we pull this off we’ll have to leave the United States forever.”

“Probably.” Rick blew a smoke ring and looked at Heidi as he spoke.

“Yeah, that kinda’ sucks. But in exchange for all the money I could ever spend, I’ll take it.” Heidi smiled and playfully pinched Rick’s stomach.

“So why don’t we just let him bring it to us thinking he’s going to get to use it on you? Then I show up and rob him. He would never even know we were in it together. It would save us killing two people. I could wear a mask.”

Heidi was smiling the entire time he spoke. Then when he finished Heidi curtly said, “Won’t work.”

“Why not? We get the formula and he never has a clue.”

“Wrong! We don’t get the formula. We get a
sample
of the formula. How are you going to make more? No. We need to break into the lab and get both. We need a sample and the formula to make it.”

“Well then you’re not talking about a break-in anymore. What if we hit them when they’re at work so they can explain the formula and hand over all of the research. And if he tries to leave anything out I cut off one of his girlfriend’s fingers and hand it to him.” Heidi smiled.

“Wow. Gruesome. You’ve got to stop skipping breakfast.” Rick blinked his brown eyes as if he didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“Yeah, you’re right. This is a better plan. And we’ll get the formula, as long as they believe there is a chance of them coming out of it alive if they cooperate.” Then Rick made like a gun with his finger and thumb.

“BOOM!” He pretended to pull the trigger.

“So, once we’ve got the goods, where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to give it some thought. Meantime you need to come up with some way to cover your tracks connecting you back to the explosive. Okay?” Heidi gave Rick a quick peck on the cheek. She was thinking that it was really going to be a shame to have to kill him when this was all over.

Chapter 16

Once Debra found the newspaper article with Johansen’s real name, the rest was easy to unravel. Alexander Valentine, it turned out, had a house right there in Miami. Next, she checked Alex’s name against all of the clubs and organizations in the city. She got a hit.

Alex Valentine’s name appeared on a list of hospital volunteers. Debra jotted down his home address and the one for the hospital. She closed her laptop and made a beeline to the hospital.

Debra went in through the main entrance and flashed her badge at the receptionist behind the admissions desk.

“Hi, I’m Detective Manning. I need you to take a look at this picture and tell me if this face looks familiar.” Manning handed her the picture she printed off from the newspaper article.

“Oh yeah, sure, that’s Alexander Valentine. That dear man.” Jennifer shook her head with a look of deep admiration for him. “That man is the best friend this hospital has ever had.”

“How so?” Debra was a little put off and irritated by the foolish woman’s high opinion of him. She was tempted to blurt out that he was a damned jewel thief but didn’t.

Debra was already fighting a losing battle with the changes rolling through her life. Nevertheless, the idea of bringing the Doc Robber to justice because he was a criminal was still central to Debra’s view of herself.

Her beliefs and old ideas just weren’t matching up to her feelings anymore. It had always been a precarious arrangement inside of Debra’s head. But now, with all the men in her life who were supposed to be decent turning out to be chauvinistic jerks, the only man she knew who even came close to her idea of a real man was Johansen, or Alex or whatever the hell his real name was. She just couldn’t quite accept it yet.

Words and names didn’t matter to her anyway. She judged people by the way they acted. It was the true character of all the various men that spoke to her, and the only one who passed muster was the damned jewel thief.

“He’s here right now, if you need to speak with him.”

“Oh really, where?”

Jennifer guided Debra to the huge double doors that led to the children’s cancer ward. “Do you want me to bring him out to you?”

“Oh, no. Actually, I’d rather you didn’t. And don’t mention to him that I was here,” Debra said in her authoritative police officer’s voice.

“Oh, I see.” Jennifer’s expression became vexed as she realized just how much trouble Alex appeared to be in.

“Thanks. I’ll take care of things from here,” Debra said dismissively.

Jennifer took the hint and returned to her desk.

Debra pushed her way through one of the giant steel doors. Quietly she crept in. Inside the ward, there was another reception desk with another receptionist behind it. Debra looked down the main hallway. At the other end, the hall opened out into an activities room for the children with enough energy left to play.

Debra leaned on the counter as she waited for the receptionist to finish a phone call. As she waited, she watched a pair of kids rolling a ball back and forth to each other slowly. It made Debra sad to watch it. This was obviously all the strength they could muster. As she waited and mused, someone stepped across her view of the children.

It was Alex. He stood with his back to her so he didn’t know he was being observed. But Debra recognized him from his walk and his build. For such a hardened criminal he sure seemed relaxed playing with these kids.

Debra was just about to move on him when she saw what he held in his arms. As he gently rocked back and forth the bald, cancer-riddled head of a four–year-old girl flashed in and out of view. Debra stopped. As he rocked, Debra could tell he was singing ever-so-softly to the child.

Debra just stood there watching. At every encounter with Alex, she was acting under the assumption that whatever came out of the guy’s mouth was a lie; just part of a con he was trying to run on her. But she had no way of dismissing this as mere subterfuge. He didn’t even know she was there. This definitely was not a performance for her benefit.

The receptionist finally finished her phone call. “Sorry about that. What can I do for you?”

Debra didn’t respond. She just looked at Alex for a few more seconds.

“Nothing, thanks. I’m fine.” Debra finally answered her. Then she simply turned around and walked out of the hospital. She hopped in her car and was about to start it up. She stopped and just lay back against the seat. Her mind was spinning. So much was happening that Debra was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. My God. What was she doing? What was she thinking? A few weeks earlier, she would have slapped the handcuffs on him and never given it a second thought, but now here he was. Right here. Just walk back inside and get him.

“Shit.” Debra huffed, as she finally turned the key. She backed out of her spot and drove down to the beach. It was where she always went when she had a lot on her mind. The lapping waves seemed to wash away the confusion in her mind.

Debra parked. She slipped off her shoes and socks. She took off her jacket, lowered the top on her convertible, and locked all her belongings inside. As she walked along the water’s edge, she began to think things through more carefully. She had acted on impulse and now she had a case she would probably never solve because it.

To her surprise, that just didn’t seem to matter as much to her now. With the way things were going at work, she knew she was switching jobs at the very least. What Johansen had said to her really hit the mark.

Franklin, the FBI liaison to the M-DPD, wanted her over there. But he might not end up being her boss.

“Crap, he’s right,” Debra muttered, as she walked along the sand. When Alex told her that it would be the exact same game, he hit it right on the nose. Debra had herself convinced that going over to the FBI would somehow magically solve all her problems. In the short term, at least.

Johansen or Alex. Damn it. Whomever, was right about that, too. Debra had been bored and restless well before this whole shit-storm ever got brewing. She needed something new. She understood that. Slowly, it was dawning on Debra just how profound the changes were that life was calling on her to make.

She began thinking about all of the other stuff Alex had said. She hated to admit it but he was right about him being the only man she’d ever met that she felt really understood her. But that damned smug arrogant way he said it. Dammit.

But then the way he was with those kids. Debra really hated to admit it but she was beginning to wonder if she was mistaken about him. She stopped walking and gazed out over the churning Atlantic. Sea birds were diving bombing and turning cartwheels as they hunted their lunch.

Debra began to pace back and forth. She was trying to figure it out but it was useless. This wasn’t a problem she could solve with hard cold reason. In truth, there really wasn’t actually a problem at all, really. Her mind was just throwing up all of this as a smoke screen to keep her from facing the one thing that really mattered, Alex.

She could think and think and think. But it wouldn’t do any good. Life was closing one door and opening another. It was a simple choice now. Debra was either going to listen to her heart this time or she wasn’t, period. Yes or no. Nothing to think about. But she sat and stewed on it for hours anyway.

Debra sighed with a last blast of frustration. A feeling of resignation crept over her. She was only fooling herself, she concluded. Alex was just a man like any other. Feelings come and feelings go. This would pass eventually, she knew. This was what Debra was deciding as she hopped back into her Mustang.

Torn with internal conflict, she changed her mind ever few seconds. Reasoning that Alex would be at his house by now she got out her notebook and found the address to his house. She began the long lonely ride across town to arrest what might really be the only man she could ever fall in love with. Debra’s heart skipped a beat, as she turned left on Maple Avenue.

Alex was pulling into his driveway. Debra quickly pulled over and parked. She watched as Alex sauntered up to his front door. He seemed so . . . who is this guy? He seemed so completely relaxed, as though his conscience were totally clear.

His house only added another new wrinkle to the mystery. It was the size of a postage stamp. Not more than eight-hundred square feet probably. It was at least fifty-years-old. Yet, it was meticulously maintained. The white stucco glistened in the fiery Florida sun.

Alex closed the front door behind him. Debra put her car back into gear. She looked into her rearview mirror as she merged back into the flow of traffic. It was then, that she spotted them. Kane and Meacham were tailing her.

Debra quickly put two and two together. She realized that she must have been spotted at the beach as she tried discreetly to duck out. They’d already copped a forty-carat diamond and floated a bogus cover story that only Debra could contradict. And she could only do that if she were willing to hang herself for tampering with evidence. Not to mention withholding critical information from the investigation.

Debra pulled over and stopped once more. So did they. Unfortunately, this put her right in front of Alex’s house. She’d led them right to him. She had a pretty solid notion that they weren’t here to arrest him.

She was right on his doorstep. Now she finally had a clear and simple choice. Go and arrest him right now and admit to throwing the diamond into the Atlantic Ocean, or just drive away. Knowing that she’d probably just given Alex a death sentence and allowed two more dirty scumbag cops to walk away Scot free. Her mind was racing a hundred-miles-an-hour. She had to act now.

Debra got out of her car and made the slow walk up his sidewalk to go arrest Alex and then face the music. At least this way Alex would live, even if it meant life in prison for the string of second-story jobs he’d pulled.

Debra stepped up to the front door. She put her finger on the doorbell. After a few tense moments, she finally rang it. She was rehearsing the words she would use in her head, ‘Alexander Valentine, I’m placing you under arrest for theft.’

The door creaked, as it slowly swung open. Alex broke an instant smile when he saw her. “Detective Manning. You’re looking lovely today.” Alex pushed open the screen door for her to enter.

Debra stood there stunned. This was it. The next words to come out of her mouth would set the course for the rest of their lives.

“Alex . . .” Deb’s voice was grave. “. . . don’t look, but about a block down the street there’s a dark-blue unmarked police car. It’s Detectives Kane and Meacham. They found the blue diamond after I threw it in the ocean.”

“You what?” Alex chuckled softly. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation.

“Alex. This is serious. They’re not here to arrest you. They want the money and jewels you’ve stockpiled.” Alex laughed. “There is no money. I gave most of it away.” Alex peered deeply into Debra’s eyes as he spoke.

Goosebumps began to rise on Debra’s arms. She broke out in a cold nervous sweat.

“I . . . I . . . I know. Listen, I’ll lead them away from here. I’ll buy you as much time as I can. You’ve got to disappear. Understand? You’ve got to run.” Debra didn’t wait for a reply. She pulled herself together as best she could. This had to look innocent and meaningless to Kane and Meacham.

Debra screwed on a straight face and marched back to her car. Suddenly, everything was as clear as the blue sky above. She knew exactly how she felt. She couldn’t hide it or hide from it anymore. She loved Alex. She knew that now. As she tried to pretend that this was just a meaningless dead-end interview, her heart was screaming ‘
No
’. Debra loved him and now the only way she could show it was by telling him to run and hope he got away.

Debra hopped back in her car. She got on her police radio. “This is Detective Manning, badge number one-seven two-seven. Could you put Jasmine on for me?” As Debra spoke over the open channel, she prayed to God that the idiots Kane and Meacham were listening.

“This is Jazz,” crackled through the static.

“Hey, Jazz, this twenty-one eighteen Maple is a dead end. Rick Tooms used to live here but the new tenant says he’s been there for over a year. See if you can find anymore known associates on him. Go back another five years. If this guy has any more of that explosive, we need to find him before he has a chance to use it again. And Jazz, check the voice mail in box seventeen.” This was meaningless gibberish to anyone except for Jazz. Box seventeen was their code for an immediate call on a private line.

Debra’s phone started ringing on cue.

“Hey, Jazz, I don’t mean to cut you off, but I have a phone call.” Debra hooked the mic back onto the dash-mounted radio. Into her cell phone she said, “Hey, Jazz. Listen, give me five minutes and then call me back over an open channel again. Give me another address for a known associate of Rick’s. Just make something up. But get the address for somewhere clear across town, okay? I’ve got a few hangers-on I need to lose.”

Jazz did as Debra asked and in five minutes, Debra was jotting down a phony address and hoping that Kane and Meacham were listening. Debra started driving to the fake address. She was going slowly enough that Kane couldn’t possibly lose her in traffic.

She pulled up in front of the address. It was perfect. A huge six-story abandoned building rife with dope slingers and prostitutes. Debra found a good place to park as if she were putting the building under surveillance. She just prayed that Kane and Meacham were good enough cops to recognize what she was doing.

She saw Kane make a quick right after she parked. She just had to keep these two occupied long enough for Alex to make a clean getaway. Debra looked in her rearview mirror. She saw that Kane had turned the car around and now they were parked just around the corner from Debra. “My God, you guys suck at this,” Debra exclaimed aloud as she easily spotted the idiot patrol.

Debra hunkered down and pretended to be staking out a second-story apartment as if she knew whom she was after. As she sat and watched for a fictional criminal, she had plenty of time to delve back into her mess.