Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 18

Rita rolls her eyes, but attempts to keep the judgment out of her voice, "Was this the night you kicked her out of the apartment, Scott?"

Scott nods and then looks down at the table, "Look. It wasn't my best moment. I know that. But I was so angry. Who was she to come in there and scream at Cara like that? To accuse us of — anyway, it doesn't matter. I was angry. I felt like I had done a lot for her — I took her in off of the street. I let her stay even when she couldn't pay her way. And I guess I just really lost it when she threatened us. She said she'd go to the cops if we didn't stop involving Jenna and Marissa with the service. And honestly, it was the last straw. So I threw her out. I didn't actually think she would rat us out, especially since her friends were already so heavily involved. She was scared of getting in trouble, too. But when that cop friend of hers showed up that night, I got worried that she might not actually be bluffing.

"So the next day, we talked to Jayce and we talked to the girls and we agreed that Tamara was a liability. But, by then the girls were making good money, they didn't want to stop; they both had several regulars. So Jayce was pretty pissed off, but, eventually, we got him to agree to let it go — the girls would continue with the dates and occasional events, but no more photos or ads that could tip Tamara off that they were still involved. The girls told Tamara that we had let them walk away, and that was supposed to have been the end of it."

"So that was more than two months before Tamara was shot, right? What happened last week that led to things escalating again?"

Cara and Scott glance at each other and then shrug, "Honestly, we don't know," Cara says. "As far as I knew, things were fine. Tamara believed the girls were out, and Jayce has a temper, but there wasn't any reason for him to go after Tamara if she wasn't going to go to the police."

Lucy deflates slightly; she had really been hoping a more clear reason for the shooting would emerge from the questioning, but at least a motive for Jayce was taking shape. She's also deeply disappointed that Jenna and Marissa had clearly still been keeping far more secrets than she had realized, though of course they must have been terrified to tell a cop that they were actively working as escorts.

The only silver lining in all of this is how proud of Tamara she is. Of course, in an ideal world, Tamara would have trusted her and just told her what was going on. But the situation was complicated, with her family and friends tangled up in something illegal with far bigger repercussions than any teen girl should have to shoulder on her own. She'd done her best to stand up to people more powerful than her to keep her friends safe, and Lucy finds that to be absolutely commendable, and she plans to tell Tamara exactly that when she stops by the hospital after her shift.

***

Angela stops her on her way out of the locker room, "Lucy. I just heard from the team executing the search at Jayce's apartment. They found a gun; it appears to be a match for the weapon used to shoot Tamara, but ballistics will obviously need to provide a formal confirmation. They also recovered quite a bit to build the case against him for the escort service and money laundering. He's lawyered up and hasn't said a word all day, but I don't think there's a chance in hell he's going to be able to get out of this."

Lucy looks at Angela, almost too afraid to say the words out loud, "He really did this? And we're going to nail him for it?"

Angela nods enthusiastically, "We are. And that's in large part due to you, Lucy. If you ever decide that UC isn't the right path, I think you'd really make a phenomenal detective."

***

Unfortunately, Lucy's relief and elation that this might all finally be coming to an end is short-lived. A familiar white envelope is waiting for her on the windshield of her car. Her stomach drops as she goes through the motions of putting on gloves to handle the note, though she knows by now there's little point in it. Nothing has come back on the two prior notes.

Like the second note, there are 2 slips of paper. The first a simple, but nebulous message:

You did this.

The second is a printout of the headline of some sort of scholarly news article:

New Data: California jails are increasingly deadly places.

Her brow wrinkles in confusion as she tries to connect the dots between this and the prior messages; Lucy makes a mental note to Google the headline later. She briefly debates heading back into the station to hand over the note to Grey, or Angela, or Nyla. But she hardly wants to be back — front and center — on Grey's radar again without knowing how Tim's conversation with him went this morning. And she's so eager to see Tamara and let her know that they've got Jayce in custody, that he'll never be able to hurt her again.

And perhaps just as eager to see Tim after that — her desire to escape reality for just one more night far greater than any compulsion to return to the station and dig into an analysis of this latest note. Jackson is due home the following evening, and as excited as she is to see him, she knows this is likely the last evening she and Tim will have to themselves to revel in the newness and excitement of this shift in their relationship for just the tiniest bit longer, before they are forced to make some decisions on what this whole thing looks like going forward.

And so far, the notes have been just that —notes. Creepy and jarring, yes. But no actual threats or escalation so far. So does it really matter if she just lets it wait a few more hours until tomorrow?