H.O.L.T Blue 5/6
Date: Friday, January 19, 2001

sue hantak <hantaks@mtco.com>

(Part 5)

Laura arrived at Jarvis' office just as he was going through the preliminary report on Simpson's shooting. He leaned back in his chair with a pensive look on his face. "Something isn't right."

Laura picked up the stack of photos and began to flip through, "What? Obviously your officer Simpson, stole the drugs and was trying to sell it. They had some disagreement with grave results."

"Simpson was holding a bottle of beer in one hand and a second broken bottle was found near the body." Jarvis stood up and directed Laura's attention to one of the crime scene photos.

"Good point, you can't very well have furniture-rearranging brawl with a beer in your hand. Not to mention, what self respecting drug dealer kills someone then flee, leaving behind a fortune in primo cocaine?" Laura concurred.

"Any cop, even corrupt ones wouldn't take off their gun off if they had invited drug dealers to their home. Looks to me like an accomplice, someone who you might offer a beer, killed him then trashed the place to throw off suspicion."

"Someone who wants us to believe Simpson was behind the theft." Laura added.

"Awfully convenient to have a dead man take the rap."

Now it was Laura's turn to have the pondering expression. She picked up the bag of white powder from Jarvis's desk. "Was this picked up from the floor?"

"Most of it. We'll have it analyzed, but it's definitely cocaine. Do you want to go with me to the lab? We never made it there this morning."

"So you want me to continue with the case?"

"One dirty cop is bad enough. If there is a second one involved, one who resorts to murder, it's even more important to solve this.....quickly. Besides, we still don't know how Simpson got it out of the property room."


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Gary Hammond held his tuna sandwich in his left hand noticeably uninterested as he offered the clipboard to Jarvis. "Sign here."

"I don't suppose if I tell you I need it yesterday, you would put a rush on it?"

"See this pile, Jarvis?" Hammond pat a stack on the counter next to him, "These are marked 'ASAP'. There's a pile twice as big over there they say is 'important'. And there is a stack marked 'urgent' that we are using as step stool to reach the top of the 'life and death' pile.

"Okay, I get your point, Hammond." Jarvis obligingly handed him the oversized envelop.

"Hey wait a minute.....Sedona?" He swivel on the stool and yelled, "Driscoll, didn't you already test Sedona evidence that week I was on vacation?" He began to grumble to himself, "It's no wonder we're always overbudget, doing everything fuckin' twice." Once Jarvis and Laura left, Hammond tossed the envelop aside laughing to himself, <put a rush on it....yeah, ha, right....I wish I had a dollar every time someone said that>.

David Driscoll looked up from his microscope to see Hammond signing in an envelop. He expected as much. The cops no doubt vacuumed up the cocaine from floor of Simpson's apartment. All he had to do was submit another copy of the original report to attest the cocaine was the same with a new date. There would be little objection from his lazy coworker when he suggested a shortcut. "That Jarvis, he thinks the world revolves around him."
"Can you believe him? He wants the Sedona evidence retested. Big waste of time if you ask me. "

" Too bad you can't just make a copy of the first report, huh? Put a new date on it and I bet they would never notice the difference." Driscoll added a laugh to make it appear that he was joking. But he knew, that given an opportunity, Hammond's slothful nature would do just that.

************************************************************

Laura lay prone on the bed, eyes closed with her cheek resting on her hands. Remington reached under her arm to loosen the towel.

"So this Simpson character was the one who took the drugs from the lockup?" Remington tipped the bottle squeezing a few drops into his palm. He rubbed the warm oil on his hands, then applied his therapeutic touch to Laura. He started at her neck. Pushing her hair aside he worked just the finger tips in small circles.

Laura continued to discuss the case, "I still don't know how he got them out. The only vents in the room supply heat and air from above. I checked, the utility closet is on floor above and the compressor is on the roof. So that blew my whole brilliant theory about him dropping the evidence bags down then retrieving them out of the ductwork later.... And now there's a murder as well."

He moved to her shoulders, "In light of that, I don't suppose you'll finally put on that bulletproof vest."

"That has NOTHING to do with this case."

Remington held the bottle of oil above her back and trickled a path from between her shoulder blades all the way down to her tailbone. "I just don't want anything to happen to your lovely body."

"I have this nagging feeling that it's right under our nose, we just can't see it."

"Well tell me where this nagging feeling is and I'll alleviate it." He rubbed with added emphasis.

"You're right, maybe if I just clear my mind, put it on the back burner for a while....How about we change the subject?...... How was <your> day?" Laura asked with sickening sweetness and an evil grin, thinking about his 'arrest'.

"I have to admit there was a certain novelty in being frisked by you and refreshing naughtiness in being handcuffed, but cutting off my credit? Tsk, tsk, Laura. Couldn't you have had a little more originality though. I mean you've done that....what?...... five, six times already?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Come now, Laura, admit it. I couldn't use my credit or bank cards today. I know you cancelled them. You're always trying to prove you have the upperhand in this relationship."

"I did NO such thing! And I only cut off your credit twice." Indignant by the accusation, Laura tried to sit up and recover her body with the towel.

Remington saw his plans for the evening upset and trying to leave. Aside from an enticing view of her backside, the full-body massage barely progressed past her shoulders. "Laura don't go."

Laura went into the bathroom. Arm crossed, Remington stood in the doorway preventing her from shutting the door. She spoke as she yanked her underwear back on "I have a busy day tomorrow." Her head popped through the opening in the neck, "Jarvis wants to wrap this up as soon as possible." She pulled up her jeans and snapped them with a decisive finality. "I'm going home, I doubt if I'll come into the office at all. When you're ready to apologize, you know where you can find me."

Remington had enough. What did he do to deserve this? Sure, he followed her earlier, but he paid his dues, they moved past that. "Me apologize! Now wait just one bloody minute..." Laura moved past him making a beeline for the door. Laura pulled the door open just as Mildred was about to knock.

"Oh, Miss Holt!" Mildred exclaimed startled by the door suddenly opening in front of her. She had been around the two of them long enough to recognize when they were fighting. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting...."

"You're not interrupting anything, I'm leaving." Laura said to Mildred, but looked at Mr. Steele.

"I just wanted to give the boss his new parking pass. He didn't come back to the office this afternoon and I thought he might need it tomorrow morning."

Seizing another opportunity to take a cheap shot, Laura insulted, "What? Did you manage to lose your parking pass too?"

Remington bit back with noticeable resentment, "For your information, Miss Holier-Than-Thou, mine didn't work this morning."

Not too long ago, Mildred would have jumped in, pulled the two of them together to smooth things over. She feared their relationship would self-destruct assaulted by misunderstandings and arguments. Now she realized that these little disagreements were merely waves in the eternal tide of their relationship. Sometimes they would reach shore in thunderous crashes, sometimes they would gently surge, but they always, always, always calmly receded. Mildred gingerly stepped forward to place the parking pass on the table in the entry. "I'll just leave this here." She backed out, "Goodnight, folks."

Laura grabbed her purse off the same table then was grabbed by a thought, "Your parking pass didn't work either?"

"Laura, it's late, If you want me to take the blame for that too, so be it. I don't want to argue anymore." Remington conceded.

"No, no, that's not what I mean. Were your parking pass, credit card and bank card all in your wallet?"

He nodded.

"You don't happen to have a magnet in your wallet, do you?"

"A magnet? No... Why?"

"Yeah, magnets disrupt the coded strip on the back. Where has your wallet been today?"

"In my suit pocket. I had a devil of a time finding it at first, this morning. It was hidden by that vest."

Laura got a insightful gleam on her face. She clutched the new parking pass in one hand and Mr. Steele's wrist in the other, "C'mon.... and bring that with you." She pointed to the bulletproof vest.

They pulled into the entrance to of Century towers. He was still in the dark concerning Laura's little experiment.

"First the control," Laura announced inserting the new pass into the slot. She watched the barricade go up. Without moving, she allowed the gate to return. She then rubbed the passkey against the fabric of the vest and reinserted. Nothing. She quickly put her car in reverse, "We have to go see Jarvis."

End Part 5

To Part 6

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