Dance With Me
AUTHOR: Lucky.
DISCLAIMER: Except for the creations of the author, all characters, characterizations, situations, and locations described in this unsolicited and not-for-profit work of fiction are the property of ABC Television, Capitol Cities, Inc., Steven Bochco Productions, the many talented people who created the world of NYPD Blue, and the actors who have made that world such a lively place. The author would also like to extend her personal gratitude to Mr. Scott Cohen for his light, his vitality, his inspiration, and for being such a compelling muse. Thank you, sir.
FEEDBACK: To Lucky
"You mean you turned it over to him."
"No, I mean he found it," Posey repeated herself, planting her hands on Lieutenant Perry's desk. "I don't know what you were expecting. We spend almost every waking moment together. I can't all of a sudden get distant without making him suspicious."
"So what did you tell him when he found the tape?"
"I fed him a story about recording undercover operations being standard in Detroit and that it was just something I did."
"Do you think he believed you?"
"I think so."
"Where's the tape now?"
Posey swallowed hard, realizing that there was no way to answer this question without either lying to her superior officer or selling Matthew up the river. She gathered a breath, hoping that it would pass off as frightened concern instead of outright misdirection. "What do you think is on that tape?"
"Weren't you there when it was recorded?"
"It's in French. I can't understand any of it."
Perry braced forward on her elbows, leaning across her desk, looking supremely confused. "He conducted the operation... in French?"
Posey was nonplussed. "Yeah."
"Did he happen to explain why?"
Uh-oh... "Um... I'd assumed it was because the people we were dealing with spoke French and it was part of the cover."
"I wasn't aware that Detective Denby spoke French."
There are a lot of things you don't know about 'Detective Denby', Lieu. "Well, now you know."
"I guess so." Sherill let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair. "I can translate it, I guess. Give it to me."
"Um... I don't have it... here. I'll... It's in my apartment."
"Why is it still there?"
"It's relatively difficult for me to get away from Harry."
Sherill nodded slowly. "I've noticed that he's gotten incredibly protective of you recently. Is he interfering with your duties to the department in any way?"
"Duties to the department? If you're asking what I think you're asking, it's pretty easy to keep an eye on someone who won't let you out of his sight, so I'd have to say no, he isn't."
"Do you know why he's so protective of you?"
Posey shook her head quickly. "Does it have anything to do with these below-board 'operations' you think he's involved in?"
Perry nodded. "We think so."
Posey didn't miss it. "We? Who are we?"
The lieutenant stared in silence for a second, then, "IAB." She put her hands up at Posey's sudden shocked reaction. "It's not a full blown investigation yet and I assure you that you're not in any professional danger, but I'd like to assign a tail to you... just to make sure you're safe."
"You're not suggesting that Harry might hurt me, are you?"
"I'm suggesting that we do everything we can to keep you out of harm's way."
It's a little late for that. "Wait a minute. I'll admit that Harry doesn't seem like the most... prudent person on Earth, but I haven't seen any evidence that he's involved in anything illegal. In fact, I haven't seen any evidence that he's involved with anything that even remotely resembles what you described to me."
"What are you getting at?"
"That story you told me, about the money laundering, is that really what you're going after him for or is this just a fishing expedition?"
"The laundering is one of our theories."
"One of your theories. How many more are there?"
"I really can't discuss that with you right now."
Posey straightened up, folding her arms. "Then as the lead operative on this case, I'd like to call a meeting. I can't work in the dark anymore. Not with Harry Denby. Get the rat squad on the phone and let's talk."
Sherill shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I don't know if that's immediately possible."
"Then let's talk off-record about it."
"I told you, I can't do that."
"Who's the commanding officer on this case? I'll contact him myself. Certainly he would have been kept appraised of my progress."
"Posey," Sherill planted her hands on her desk and pushed herself to her feet, leaning forward like a fiery vulture. "That's not going to be possible."
Posey shook her head slowly. "Respectfully, Lieutenant, if I didn't know better I'd think you were wildcatting."
"Excuse me?"
"Wildcatting. You're using your authority and my short time in the department to carry out an unauthorized investigation. What are you hoping to find out about Harry?"
Perry slammed her hands on her desk and whipped around to yank her coat off the rack behind her chair. "This conversation is over. I told you I won't discuss this with you and your conspiracy theories are insulting to the point of insubordination." Sherill punched her arms into her sleeves and snatched her purse off the rack, slinging it over her shoulder. "I expect that tape on my desk tomorrow morning. If it isn't, you'll get your meeting with IAB, but I don't think you'll have a whole lot of fun with them. Get out of my office."
Posey was forced to take quick steps out, turning in time to see Sherill lock and slam her office door. At the same time, Matthew returned with the fast food burgers that Posey had begged him to go get. He took in the two flushed faces, one angry, the other panicked.
"I leave for twenty minutes and all hell breaks loose?" he tried to joke. "When did the headline 'Harry Denby becomes the focal point of the universe' show up in the precinct newsletter?"
Sherill gave him a dirty look and brushed past him on her way out, slamming the office door hard enough to make the glass rattle.
Matthew set the paper bag on his desk and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the door. "What the hell was that about?"
"I'm getting fired." Posey dropped herself into her chair, her eyes blank with shock.
"What?" Matthew came around the desks, kneeling down beside Posey to look her in the eye. "For what?"
"Not being a willing enough participant in her plan to railroad you." Posey flapped her hands around in her lap, glancing around the room as though she were lost in it. "Don't they have a procedure for making sure that lieutenants don't have vendettas against their detectives before promoting them?"
"Promoting?" Matthew's brow crossed slightly. "From where? I thought she was a new acquisition."
Posey stared at him. "Juvenile. She was the lieu there for two years before this appointment."
Matthew shook his head slowly. "I hadn't heard that. Who told you that?"
"One of the homicide detectives. Greg Medavoy."
He thought for a moment, then shook his head again. "I don't know where he would have gotten that information. Did he happen to tell you who told him?"
"Not that I recall."
"Interesting." Matthew stood up and lowered a hand to Posey. "Come with me."
She slid her hand into his and let him pull her to her feet. "Where are we going?"
"Juvie."
The heavyset African-American woman glanced up at the sound of Matthew's quiet knock. "Ooh!" She popped out of her chair and practically pranced around the two detectives in the doorway, herding them inside her office and closing the door, locking it carefully. When that was done, she practically tackled Matthew, swaying him from side to side in her gigantic hug.
"Where have you been, boy?"
Matthew giggled gleefully, staggering a little and looping himself around the older woman. "How did you get so short?"
The round little lieutenant pulled back, slapping lightly at his chest. "You say that every time, Mattie Grayling."
Posey cleared her throat a little and the lieutenant turned quickly, her face registering shock. She pointed her look back up at Matthew.
He nodded, smiling kindly. "She knows, Carelynn."
Carelynn pulled away from him and turned to address Posey. "In that case," she offered the younger woman her hand. "Lieutenant Carelynn Tellman."
"Mariposa Jackson," Posey shook her hand. "Just call me Posey. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Tellman smiled. "All mine." She returned her attention to Matthew as she set her frame back in her desk chair. "So Mattie... whose car didn't you know you were in this time?"
"Ha ha," he returned her teasing tone. "I haven't been in trouble with the law since..."
"This morning," Carelynn supplied, grinning wickedly. She turned to Posey. "You would not imagine the trouble this child brought down on himself back in his day."
"We're still working on bringing the day to a close, Lieutenant." Posey tossed a sideways smile at Matthew, who folded his arms and pouted playfully.
"I'll take the two of you out to dinner this weekend and then you can both tease me until I crawl under the table, but I'm afraid that this is a business call."
Carelynn tented her fingers and settled her elbows on her desk. "So you are in trouble again."
"I swear I didn't know whose car it was this time."
Lieutenant Tellman rolled her eyes at him. "Cut the crap, young man. Remember who you're talking to."
Posey's mouth dropped open as Matthew actually deferred, sticking his hands in his pockets and studying his toes. "Yess'm."
Posey couldn't help it. "Remind me to ask you to teach me how to do that."
Matthew tossed Posey a dirty look and gathered a breath, addressing the older woman. "For the record, how long have you been the lieu in this department, Carelynn?"
"How long have you known me?"
"I was thirteen the first time I got arrested."
"I was the lieu in juvie for five years at that point."
Posey broke in. "So you've been the lieu here for almost thirty years?"
"In a row, honey. God bless the Civil Rights Movement. After the Bill was passed, the precinct started moving us around."
"Us?"
"African-Americans and women. I was the youngest person in the history of the department ever to be promoted to lieutenant."
"So there's no way Sherill Perry was the lieu here."
Carelynn looked a little confused, shaking her head. "Not that I was ever told. Detective Perry was decommissioned by the state psych board last year following an incident with one of the children."
Posey dragged one of the old leather chairs over to the front of Carelynn's desk and dropped into it, intrigued. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Carelynn shrugged a little. "She found out that a boy we'd brought in for peddling marijuana at his middle school was part of a bigger ring and she allegedly began trading him favors for drugs."
"Favors. Like sexual favors?"
"Among other things. He said she fixed him up with a place to stay and promised to get his record erased as well." Carelynn shook her head in distaste at the memory. "Ultimately, the department couldn't prove anything without a full investigation, but when she caught wind of that from IAB she reported voluntarily to the psych board and got herself decommed before anything could get started. Once she wasn't a cop anymore, there wasn't much we could do." The lieutenant cocked her head at Posey. "How do you come to know her name?"
"She's the lieutenant in international."
Carelynn laid her hands on the desktop. "Are you sure? Sherill Perry? Tall, striking woman, a little bit of an accent?"
"That's her," Matthew said, laying a hand on Posey's shoulder. "What was she like? Personally, I mean. What was your assessment of her?"
Carelynn gathered a deep breath, thinking for a second. "Well, to be honest with you, I thought she became a cop for the wrong reasons."
"One of those power trip cops," Posey murmured.
Carelynn nodded. "Exactly. The fact that she was dealing with juveniles seemed to feed into that. She didn't like to take orders, wouldn't accept that there was a command structure in the department... The other detectives called her Admiral Perry behind her back." She sighed a little. "I tried to keep order as best I could, but she alienated herself from everyone. Even her own partner asked me to transfer him out of her influence." Carelynn's dark eyes glittered as she looked from Posey to Matthew and back again. "If she's found a way to get back in and buy herself some power, she could be a very dangerous person."
Posey thought about that for a moment, then asked, "In your experience, how many cops who've been decommed for psych reasons get back in?"
"That depends on what she told the psych board on her way out, and I don't know what that was. I've heard that those files are locked in with the dead records, but..." Carelynn looked meaningfully at Matthew, "I can't confirm that and I don't suggest that you pick the lock and look."
Matthew tried not to smile. "I'll take that under advisement. I just have one more question."
"What's that, child?"
"What reason could she possibly have for going after Harry Denby?"
Carelynn chuckled a little. "The ubiquitous Harry Denby strikes again, hm?"
Matthew fluttered his lashes at her. "Unfortunately. Perry's been threatening Posey's job and manipulating her into investigating me... Harry."
"So she doesn't know."
"I don't think so, no."
Carelynn thought hard, her forehead crumpling as she went through the possibilities. "She might be jealous. Denby appeared to get away with something she couldn't pull off. Or she could see him as a threat... or a challenge. She struck me as the kind of person who would be tempted to one-up a rogue cop." She looked into Matthew's eyes as if she weren't sure she wanted to say what was coming next. "Has she shown any signs of... sexual aggression towards you?"
Matthew shook his head. "If she has, I haven't noticed." He glanced down, catching Posey's gaze. "Would you say anything like that?"
Posey thought for a second. "I've never seen anything like that, but she and Matthew haven't been alone together to my knowledge."
"Never," Matthew snorted, gripping her shoulder a little.
Posey dismissed him. "She never seemed particularly pleased with the fact that we're involved, but I had chalked that up to her not being in favor of office romances. It didn't seem out of place to me."
Carelynn nodded carefully, pointing her gaze up at Matthew again. "What about you, youngblood?"
Matthew snorted again. "She's a handsome woman, but I'm spoken for."
Carelynn sighed. "That's as it may be, but like I said, she's not someone I'd trust with authority."
Matthew nodded. "Gotcha." He shook himself a little and pointed a crafty smile at Carelynn. "Speaking of trust..." He came around her desk and dropped to her eye level. "You wouldn't happen to have any... subsequent comments about me not picking the lock in the basement records room, would you?"
Carelynn narrowed her eyes at him, holding back her smile. She slid open her top desk drawer and took something out, holding her fist closed as she slipped it into Matthew's hands. "Mind you have a good story, boy. Knowing you, you're gonna need it."
Matthew's smile came broad, fanning out around his eyes. He planted a kiss on the older woman's cheek. "I mean it about that dinner. You pick the place." He stood, walking back around the desk and taking Posey's hand and leading her to the door, unlocking and opening it. "I'll call you Friday afternoon."
Carelynn grinned. "We'll take my car... just to keep the story straight."
Matthew returned her grin. "Yess'm."
Continued in Part 8.
