CHAPTER NINE
Ava retreated to the break room where she poured herself a cup of coffee. Frank came in behind her and sat down at one of the small tables. There were two other officers in the room, quietly discussing something.
“You told me you knew him a bit this morning,” Frank said. “But he was talking to you like you were friends back in the day or something?”
No, not friends,” Ava said, shaking her head. “But you know how it is….you meet someone with a similar interest and you feel like you know them better than you actually do. Add that to the fact that he likely just wants a friend—someone who can show him some form of support through all of this—and of course he’s going to try appealing to me.”
Frank sighed softly and came closer to her. As he did, Ava watched the two officers at the able, trying to see if they noticed. From what she could tell, though, they were oblivious.
“You can level with me, Ava,” Frank said quietly. “How well do you know him? We’re not about to step into a case where there’s going to be a conflict of interest, are we?”
It slowly sank in. She understood what he was asking her—almost accusing her of telling lies about how well she knew a murder suspect just because they’d had a few passing moments in the past. Apparently, he thought she was covering for him.
“Frank…if you think I’d keep something like that from you in regards to a case, you don’t know me as well as I thought you did.” Biting back anger, she picked up her cup of coffee and walked away from him. “So maybe think of another line of questioning and let’s try this again.”
“Ava, you have to think of—”
“No,” she said, making her way to the door. “Not right now.”
Making her way across the backside of the bullpen, she was very aware that Frank had come out of the break room and was following along. She had nearly made it to the stairs that would lead her down to the Women’s Bureau when he reached out and took her shoulder. It was gentle and almost kind, but there was enough firmness in it to annoy her.
“Ava.”
She wheeled around on him, now not really caring if some of the anger slipped out. “What?”
“Maybe I was wrong to bring this case to you. Maybe it’s…well, maybe you’re just too close to it, just like with Clarence’s case.”
She gritted her teeth and stepped closer to him. She’d never been this mad at him before and in a very strange way, it almost felt good. “How dare you,” she said. “You brought this case to me. And I think you did so because you were trying to earn points. Putting this case aside, I’d really appreciate it if Clarence’s name never came out of your damn mouth again.”
The look of shock on his face was so jarring that she figured she may as well have slapped him; it would have gotten pretty much the same effect. “Ava, I swear to you that I meant no disrespect. But a case like this—”
At the same moment, another officer went walking by. He was on his own little menial task but happened to see them out of the corner of his eye. As he passed, he reached out and nudged Frank in a good-natured way. “Heard you and Gold landed that case with the already-guilty thug. Good work, man. How long do I have to work here to get that sort of duck soup?”
The words were like a magnet for Ava’s anger. Even as she wheeled around on the officer, she knew she shouldn’t. And though she tried to keep her mouth shut, the pressure built up by the anger was just too much to contain.
“Thug?” Ava asked. “What makes him a thug?”
“Well, he’s a killer, right? Another black goon littering up the street. Make sure you keep him in that cell, yeah?”
“You ignorant bastard,” Ava said. There was a bit of bass and volume to it. “The story currently being presented against him doesn’t make sense. And unlike some, I’m not willing to just accept flimsy testimony. I’m certain Carter Epps is not a perfect man and has his faults. But in terms of this case, he’s only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“God, Gold…don’t get your panties in a bunch.”
She felt her hands creating fists, but that wasn’t what helped her to realize that she was on the verge of stepping out of line. It was the fact she’d slightly shifted her left foot back and was starting to stretch the arch, prepared to send the full force of her body into a punch. He’d never see it coming and she’d likely knock him out cold.
So she stepped away. But, as immature as it seemed, she could not help but release a final statement as she made her was down to the Women’s Bureau offices.
“White men only, I see. You boys have fun dividing and conquering the world while the women, colored people, and immigrants sit quietly in the dark.”
She heard a few snickers and some collective murmuring as she made her way down the stairs. And though she was filled with anger in that moment, the rage spiraling and stinging like bees, she found herself near tears when she reached the WB offices. She stormed over to her desk, barely even registering that Lottie was sitting at her desk.
“Hey, Ava,” she said, not noticing there was something wrong until she’d started on the word Ava. “Oh…oh, is something wrong? Sweetie, what is it?”
“A bit of everything,” she said, wiping a tear away as it managed to escape the corner of her eye.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“No, thank you.”