Authors: Andrew Hess
My morning was spent hanging out with the tech team doing my best to hide from the Lieutenant. A room was set up to view the videos that were collected from Ambrose’s house along with facial recognition equipment to help identify everyone in them. There was still hope that one of the tapes could turn up a solid lead or a potential suspect. It didn’t take them long to set up. I was ready to go, but seemed to be missing both of my partners.
I wondered if Rodney was on his way or if he had passed out at his desk. Then I thought about how long Rodney had been up for and started to worry about him driving anywhere. I reached for my phone, scrolled to his name, and called him.
He picked up by the third ring to my relief. “Hey partner. The techs just finished setting up. Where are you?”
“Esposito just sent me home. He said I put in too much time and can’t afford to give me that much overtime.”
“What about the Ambrose case? I thought that was supposed to be top priority for us.”
“Yeah, I tried to use that excuse too. He told me there are enough officers working that case. He needs me to rest up so if something else comes in, I can work on that instead.”
“So that’s it? You’re off the case just like that?”
“Looks that way.” He took a long pause. I could tell he was pissed about being taken off the Ambrose case. The Lieutenant had already tried throwing him off the case from this morning. Although for the life of me, I didn’t know why. All I knew was that he wanted me to look over the crime scene. “Where’d you go this morning,” Rodney asked.
“I’ve been hanging out with the tech team.”
“You’ve been with them all day?” His words sounded accusatory. I should’ve felt hurt from them, but I couldn’t blame him for being suspicious.
“I stepped out for coffee and some lunch, but I’ve been here for the most part.” I hoped telling him that would put him at ease. I’ve been mostly waiting for the techs to get all the equipment set up and for you and Thornton to show. Plus it kept me out of the Lieutenant’s crosshairs.” One of the techs knocked on the wall and signaled the first tape was ready to go. I gave him the thumbs up. “So I gotta ask, what’d you do to piss off the Lieutenant?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. One day he was promoting me. The next he’s taking me off cases. Ali, you gotta help me.” Oh now he wanted my help. Before he was looking like he wanted to throw something at me just for mentioning that I’d talk to the Lieutenant, and now he wanted me to intervene.
“I’ll see what I could do. For now, go home and get some sleep. You need it. I’ll go over the tapes and let you know what I find.”
“What about the Lieutenant?”
“Don’t worry; I’ll handle him.”
I hung up with Rodney knowing I would have to stick to my word and take on the Lieutenant. This time it would be on behalf of my partner instead of just the usual. As I turned to walk back to the room they were setting up my little viewing party, I spun and collided with Detective Thornton.
“Uh, sorry Detective,” he mumbled. He wasn’t acting like his usual self. Maybe he had a rough night last night. Maybe he was hung-over. Or maybe, just maybe, he was embarrassed by the voicemails he left me while he drowned himself in beer.
I let out a half smile to let him know I listened to his messages. “And hello to you too Detective.” I said the last part louder and more sarcastic so that the pounding in his head would intensify. It was mean I know, but I considered it payback for our first few encounters. “They’re ready for us inside.”
“Oh, I uh thanks.”
We entered the room without saying another word. Our seats were on opposite sides of the tech that operated the equipment while he started the first video.
“Should I get the popcorn,” the tech joked. The stilled silence of the room made the joke seem even worse than it sounded. He muttered an apology under his breath and clicked play.
At first there was nothing but an empty room. The bed was perfectly made just like we found it the day before. It took a few moments before anything happened. The door opened and a petite blond woman stumbled into the room with her arm draped over the shoulder of an attractive older man. He helped her to the bed, practically dragging her there in the process. He faced her towards the camera recording them from the secret room. The woman’s eyes were almost completely closed, but that didn’t stop Ambrose. His lips smothered her neck working their way up and down. The woman did nothing to stop him. She stood there leaning into Ambrose as his fingers trailed down her arm. They gently slid under her shirt and raised it to the woman’s chest. He massaged her breasts while the woman moaned. It seemed like she was enjoying herself, but also looked like she was about to pass out.
He raised the shirt over the woman’s head and let her fall to the bed. Ambrose glanced over his shoulder at the camera, pulled a small remote from his pocket and smiled. The video switched to an overhead shot. The woman was on the bed with her eyes closed. Ambrose hovered over her, letting his finger nimbly walk up her stomach inching closer to the woman’s white bra.
“How much longer until you can confirm the woman’s identity,” I asked. Watching an amateur porno with a man I despised was not how I wanted to spend my day. My only hope was to pull up a clean image from the video and locate the person in our system.
The tech did a double take before typing something on his keyboard. A square popped up on his laptop as it examined the woman’s face. “It should only take another minute or two to scan the database.”
The video continued playing on the larger screen. Ambrose had already removed the woman’s pants and had his hand down her front. He was pulling down the zipper of his pants.
I took control over the remote. “Do we really have to keep watching this?” It was degrading to watch a woman that was either drugged or drunk have sex while unknowingly being recorded.
The tech’s eyes shifted to his computer screen and nodded. “We have a positive ID on the woman.” He printed out the information and handed it to me. He fetched the next tape but Thornton stopped him.
“We can’t just dismiss the video because we have a match on the woman he slept with.” What the hell was he doing? Was he getting some sick pleasure out of this?
“Are you kidding me?”
He looked up with his big brown eyes. There was no cockiness in his voice, and no smile on his face. “We need to know everything that happened on those tapes. We need to know how they had sex, how he left them, if someone joined them, if the women woke up during or after and if so, how did they react?”
Crap, he was right. As much as I didn’t want to watch anymore, there are other factors we need to take into consideration for each video. I stared into Thornton’s eyes. He seemed to enjoy this about as much as I did. Neither of us wanted to continue on, but it was our job to get to find Ambrose’s killer; even if that meant we had to comb through his disgusting catalog of his “home movies.”
Countless hours were devoted to every tape and only came up with a handful of names. Some were in the system while others were unidentifiable. Thank God we had the option to fast forward through half of each video, allowing us to get through the parts where they were sleeping and the actual act of intercourse. We watched everything that led up to it and the way he cared for the women the next morning.
One woman woke up in a panic. She apparently didn’t know where she was, how she got there, or what happened the night before. There was hardly any audio on the tapes, but we could tell Ambrose did his best to calm the woman down.
Most of the women woke up confused, but shrugged it off. I guess they chalked it up to drinking too much the night before and going home with some guy they met at the bar. They frantically searched for their clothes. Ambrose smiled while admiring the view of his companions. He would get up moments later.
“Is there any way we can find out what they were saying,” I asked.
The tech typed away on his computer. The screen zoomed in on Ambrose’s lips as he tried to read what was said. “I can’t make it out too well, but he mentions something about a cab.”
“He’s probably offering to call a cab for them or letting them know that he had one waiting downstairs,” Thornton replied. “If a guy takes a girl home after a drunken night out at the bar, he doesn’t want them hanging around and he definitely isn’t driving them home. He wants them out his house or apartment as soon as he can.” There was no doubt Thornton was an expert in the art of the one night stand. “The longer they stay, the more likely they’re going to cling to him or look for it to be something more than a one night stand.”
“Why do men automatically think that? Who’s to say that the woman wants to stay there? Maybe she wants to get the hell out of there just as bad as he wants her out.”
Thornton raised his eyebrows. “Is that coming from experience?”
I could feel the heat rising as it turned my cheeks rosy red. The truth was that I had been that kind of girl once upon a time. It was during my college years. I wanted to break free from my parents’ rules and restrictions. It was the ultimate freedom. As I got older, I realized those hook ups weren’t the smartest decisions I ever made. It was a mistake that almost cost me everything last year. I felt so defeated while investigating the murders on the New Paltz campus that I almost drank myself into the arms of another man. If it wasn’t for my sister, who knows what would’ve happened to me.
Thornton continued staring at me, expecting some sort of answer to his outlandish accusation. I turned to face him. “Trust me; you don’t wanna go there.”
Thornton knew he was pushing my buttons and decided to push his luck a little further. “Why, you got something to hide?”
I released the tension in my shoulders and sat back in my chair. “No, but I’d love to share a few voicemails a certain someone sent me last night.”
Thornton’s face went ghostly white. He turned to the tech. “Get out; now,” he snarled. The tech didn’t know what happened or what he did wrong. He just knew Detective Thornton was barking orders for him to leave. Once we were alone, Thornton turned his attention back to me. He didn’t know if he should yell or feel embarrassed. “This isn’t the time or the place.”
“And calling my private life into question in front of a colleague is?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“There are a lot of things you didn’t mean to do. I’m sure leaving those voicemails on my phone in the middle of the night declaring how bad you want me is right up there on that list.”
“Fuck you! At least I can actually express my feelings.”
“I have no problem saying how I feel. Take you for instance. You’re a pompous man whore that thinks he’s God’s gift to women. You think just because you want something that you can get it with the snap of your fingers.”
“Don’t hold back. Tell me how you really feel.”
“I think you’re using this case to win me over in hopes of getting me in the sack. Well, I got news for you buddy. It’s not gonna…”
His arm snaked around my back and pulled me in. His lips formed a seal around mine. For a moment I was lost in the anger and aggressiveness of the argument. Something inside me was telling me to wrap my arms around him, to surrender myself to him. No, he wasn’t doing this to me again.
I broke from the embrace and slapped him hard across the face. “Don’t ever touch me again.” I grabbed my bag and stormed out of the room.
“Are we done for the day,” the tech shouted as I continued towards the doors. I didn’t know about them, but I sure as hell was done.
***********************************************************
I got home late from work. Matthew’s truck was parked in front of my house. He was still there waiting for me like he said. And in typical fashion I kept him waiting. I was prepared for the verbal tongue lashing that I deserved. I promised that we could spend all morning together and didn’t. I should’ve been home two hours earlier and I wasn’t. The fact he was even still sitting at the house had me in complete shock.
I entered the house smelling the aroma of freshly popped popcorn. It drew me in and felt like I was floating toward it like Pepe Le Pew in the Looney Tunes show. As I walked into the living room, I found where it was coming from. Matthew and Amanda were sprawled out on the couch watching TV. A large ceramic bowl filled with buttery popcorn sat between them on the middle cushion.
Amanda saw me out of the corner of her eye. “Ali, you’re home.” There was a smile on her face. She had been smiling a lot as of late which made me happy. “We’re just about to put on a movie. Come join us.”
“Yeah okay. Let me get changed first. I’ll be right out.” I entered the room and started to slip out of my work clothes when the door creaked open. I twisted my body while balancing on one leg to see who was walking in on me. Instinctively, I held up my work pants in front of me trying to shield myself from the intruder.