Tag Archives: Martinez

Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter nineteen, part two

“You better be decent.”  I rapped lightly on the door before pushing my way in.  Even though I had my game face on, I couldn’t help grimacing when I saw Matt who was battered and bruised.  Not to mentioned bandaged and bored.  I could tell he was bored by the way he was flipping through the television channels, much to the chagrin of his roommate who appeared to be trying to rest.

“Hey, it’s my best girl,” Matt said, setting down the remote.  I noticed his roommate, a young guy in his early twenties, perked up as well at my appearance.  “Did you get Danny?”

“Yeah, we got him,” I said, sitting in the chair by Matt’s bed.  I patted his hand, afraid to touch him for fear of breaking something.  “He stayed the night with me, and he’s with my parents right now.”

“I told my parents about him,” Matt said, grimacing as he spoke.  His mother was deeply religious, so I could only guess what she’d said to that bit of information.  “They want to see him.”

“Sure, if it’s ok with you,” I said cautiously.  “Do you think it’s a good idea?”

“Yeah.  After my mother calmed down, she was dying to see him.  I think she thinks this might be the only chance she’ll have to have a grandchild.”  Matt smiled, but it held little mirth.  “So, fill me in.  Did we get the bad guys?  Is Kayla back?”

“We got Digger and Brenda.  We don’t have Kayla yet, but the cops are working on it.”  I didn’t tell him that they were at a dead end because I didn’t want to cause him any grief.  “What did the doctors say?”

Turned out that because Matt was in such great shape, most of the wounds were superficial.  Only the one across his abdomen had done serious damage.  Oh, there was another semi-serious one on his left bicep, but it wasn’t as bad as the one on his stomach.  The doctors wanted to keep him for a few more days, but they were optimistic that he’d regain full mobility if he followed his physical therapy plan to the letter.  Knowing Matt, he’d do as much and more than they planned.  They would have to stop him from doing twice as much as they wanted because he’d be determined to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” I said, punching him lightly in the arm.  “Do you know—I thought…”  I let my voice trail off because there wasn’t any reason to say what I’d thought now that Matt was going to be ok.

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Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter eighteen, part one

“Shit,” Martinez said, glancing at the screen.  “It’s Rogers.  I bet he broke one of them.  Come on.”  He waved to Daily who looked pissed.  I was torn between going and staying with Matt.  Martinez must have sensed my ambivalence because he told me Matt was going to be in surgery for awhile, and we would be back before he woke up.  That decided it for me, and the three of us were off.

I didn’t say anything as Martinez and Daily talked about the case on the way to wherever we were going.  Martinez had called Rogers the second we stepped out of the hospital and procured an address before hanging up.  Daily and Martinez were talking in a language of their own, and I didn’t even try to keep up.  Instead, I closed my eyes to take a well-deserved nap.  I was deprived of the pleasure, however, because every time I closed my eyes, I started remembering Digger touching me.  Despite my best efforts to keep quiet, I whimpered as I felt the weight of him against me.

“Scarlett?  Are you ok?”  Martinez broke off his conversation with Daily to ask me.

“I’m fine, Martinez,” I said, my voice patently false.  I didn’t want to lie to him, but I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Daily, either.  As he was driving, there wasn’t much Martinez could do but accept my falsehood.

I focused on Danny, trying to reach him to reassure him that help was on the way.  When I contacted him, I wanted to reach through the ethers and grab him.  He was huddled in the corner of his closet, making whimpering sounds.  He had his hand in his pocket, holding his piggy like a good little boy as he banged at the closet door.  It was obvious that he had been in there for awhile because of the dark stain spreading under his pants.  He had been crying, presumably for a long time.  I gathered my concentration and tried to touch his mind.  It must have worked because he sat up in a hurry.

“Auntie?  Is that you?”  His eyes widened in hope, making me glad that I was on my way to finding him.  “Are you coming for me?”  How many times had he asked a variant on that question only to be disappointed?  How glad I was that I could answer in the affirmative this time.

“Yes, baby.  I’m coming for you.  There will be two police officers with me, “Detective Martinez and Detective Daily.  We should be there very soon.  Hold on, ok, Danny?”

“You’re really coming for me?”  A light shone out of Danny’s eyes.  He looked ten times happier than just seconds before. Continue Reading

Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter sixteen, part two

“Ok, Scarlett.  I have one question for you—what exactly is your relationship with Mr. Reynolds?”  His question caught me off-guard.

“What?  Matt?  He’s one of my best friends.  I told you that.”  I evaded the question behind the question because I wanted Martinez to ask outright if there was something he wanted to know.  “Are you asking me professionally or personally?”

“Both,” Martinez said, his voice serious.

“Um, well, he’s one of my best friends,” I repeated uncomfortably.  I didn’t know where he was going with this line of questioning, but it couldn’t be anywhere I wanted to go.

“Please don’t take offense, but would you lie for him?”  Martinez was giving me his full attention, which made me feel even more uncomfortable.

“Lie for him?”  I tried to figure out if that was personal or professional.  I decided it didn’t matter because I didn’t lie.  At least, not about important things.  “No, I wouldn’t.”

“Are you attracted to him?”  The minute the question left Martinez’s mouth, he looked as if he’d like to snatch them back again.

“Now, I know that’s personal because I can’t see how it would have any bearing on the case.”  I infused my voice with as much indignation as I could muster, but I knew he had a right to ask.  Shit, I would be all over him if the situation was reversed, but I didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t waited until our date to ask me.  This was an investigation for God’s sake.

“You’re right.  It’s personal, and it’s been eating at me for the last few days.”  Martinez looked me in the eyes, his gaze not wavering.  I had to give him props for being forthright about it; I just wasn’t sure I was ready to answer.  To equivocate, however, would be doing him a disservice since he had a right to know.  As I had vowed that I wouldn’t keep anything from him in terms of the investigation, I now vowed that I would be honest with him about my personal life as well.

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Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter thirteen, part three

We migrated to the living room where we hashed out everything we knew.  We both thought that the club should be the center of our focus, but we differed on the most likely candidate.  Matt insisted that Digger was involved, but that was his prejudice talking.  I thought we needed to talk to the girls in depth because who knew Kayla better than her coworkers?  Besides, with the way she was blackmailing some of them, more than one stripper had a reason for wanting to do her harm.  Then, of course, there was the drug dealer.  He had my money for being the one who’d taken Kayla and killed the other woman.  From Kayla’s description of him, he sounded like the most ruthless of the bunch.  If it was him, he wanted his coke back.  Where the fuck we’d find that, I didn’t know.  I mean, if Kayla hadn’t blown through it all.  It must be somewhere in her house, but wouldn’t the cops have found it?  Not if she hadn’t wanted it to be found.  I started when the doorbell rang, but I got up to let Martinez in.  To my dismay, Daily trailed behind him.

“Where is this alleged email,” she barked, doing away with pleasantries.  It was clear from the expression on her face that she thought I was making it up.  That, or she’d heard about Martinez’s date and wasn’t pleased about it.  The way she was glaring at me, I’d bet on the latter.

“This way,” Matt said, starting towards his room.

“You stay here,” Daily snarled at me as she trotted after Matt.  I caught Martinez by the arm before he could follow.

“How are you?”  I asked, keeping my voice low.  He looked about ten years older than he had a mere hour ago, so I assumed it hadn’t gone well.

“Not well,” Martinez said honestly, trying to smile.  “She was the only child of two elderly people whose lives centered around her.  The mother had to be sedated.”  I winced in sympathy, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

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Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter thirteen, part two

I suggested coffee and moving to the living room.  Martinez must have had similar thoughts to mine because he agreed with alacrity.  I went into the kitchen to brew the coffee, insisting that he leave the dishes for later.  I’d make Matt do them when he got home if I had to, but I wasn’t going to waste a minute more than I had to in the meantime.  I waited for the coffee to perk, using the time to center my thoughts.  My hormones were raging out of control, and I didn’t want to come across as a slut.  Oh, I was one, but I didn’t want it to appear that I was too easy.  As soon as the coffee was ready, I brought it to the living room, where Martinez sprang up from the futon upon my entry.

I could tell by the expression on his face that he was as tentative as I.  That made me feel marginally better, that he wasn’t just on the prowl.  We did a bit more talking about previous relationship-.  He had been engaged to a fellow officer a few years ago before they realized that they couldn’t handle being together both at the job and in their personal lives.  The split was mutual, and she eventually transferred to Miami to be closer to her family.  She was a Latina, one of two in the whole department.  It was difficult being a person of color in Minnesota—let alone a woman of color in the Minneapolis Police Department.  Martinez didn’t blame her for returning to Miami, but he had no desire to go with her or to return to Philly.

I told him about the man I thought I was in love with—until I realized he was dogging me from day one.  I made light of it, but it had hurt at the time.  Matt had warned me at the time about this guy’s reputation—I met him through Matt.  He was a friend of a friend of Matt’s—but I hadn’t listened.  I was sure I was in love and that I knew what I was doing.  Besides, he was Asian to boot.  That was a definite plus in my book, something that Matt couldn’t understand.  He didn’t know what it was like to grow up a minority in a state like Minnesota.

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Out of Sight, Into Mind; chapter eight, part two

“First time I’ve been called ‘God’,” Martinez said, his eyes amused.  I opened my mouth to make a ribald comment before clamping it shut again.  I had the sneaking suspicion that Martinez knew what I was about to say because he was openly smirking.  His voice was all business, however, when he asked if I’d spotted anything yet.

“No,” I said, discouraged.  “This is like the proverbial needle in a haystack.  How do you not go insane doing this kind of work?”

“It’s better than factory assembly,” Martinez said, shaking his head.  “I did that every summer during my high school years, and there is nothing more tedious than putting together the same two pieces over and over again for eight hours a day.  Don’t let it get to you.  Just think of it as a scavenger hunt.”

“Some prize,” I murmured, turning another page.

“Well, I have to go,” Detective Martinez said, looking at his watch.  “Johnson here will keep an eye out for you.  If you need anything, let him know.”  I looked up, startled to see an officer in the room.  I hadn’t heard him come in, which made me exceedingly uneasy.  He looked as if he were fresh out of training, and he certainly didn’t look old enough to be a cop with his round cheeks and clear blue eyes.

“Ma’am,” Johnson said, nodding his head.

“It’s Scar.  Or Ms. Hsu,” I said sharply.  He made me feel a hundred years old when he called me ‘Ma’am.’  “How am I supposed to find you?”

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