Chapter 14

Rukelle was on autopilot as she left her desk at the police station. She had stayed up most of the night working till she had decided to wrap it up at around 2:00 am. The police station was not really empty. Rookies working overnight to rise through the ranks, speckled the office. They were zombies pecking at their computers and sipping on coffee that had long gone cold and tasted like clay. Probably the reason for the nickname; "clay". She shuddered as she remembered her own rookie days which believe it or not, was not that long ago.

The stench of sweat and stress wafted off the bullpen in unbearable waves as she roamed around looking for Benjamin Moore. Today, they had talked to each other for the first time in six years. They had seen each other around the station a lot but they had both done their best to avoid each other.

Benjamin Moore had been her loving ex-husband. They had built something good for themselves away from the scrap of their hometown till she had gone ahead and destroyed it the first chance she'd got. Benjamin had forgiven her that time but then she had gone right ahead and done something worse. Something unforgivable to both him and the state of Boston. Rukelle had broken the law and that had finally ended their year old and very turbulent marriage.

She finally spotted him a few desks away determinedly typing away on his computer. Benjamin was always on desk duty because he liked it that way. Most cops found desk duty abhorring and wanted to be part of the action but Benjamin preferred it that way. He believed that it was the small things that helped solve the case not the interviews.

Benjamin's brown hair was disheveled as if he had run his fingers through it multiple times. Rukelle wished she could be the one to do that. His hair was soft because he took extra care of it. His pronounced jaw was covered with a two day old beard and his green eyes were focused on his desktop. He covered his mouth to stifle a jaw cracking yawn and stretched his arms. He saw her walking towards him mid-stretch and abruptly stopped.

Instead of getting straight to the point, Rukelle decided to talk shop.

"How is she?" Rukelle began. The "she" was their six year old daughter whom Rukelle had not seen since she was just a baby. Benjamin had taken her away from Rukelle almost immediately she was born right after he had uttered the words that had made her quit her foolery.

You can come see her when you are ready to be a mother.

Those parting words had been a wake up call for Rukelle and had enabled her to rebuild her life from scratch. She had joined the police academy four years ago and had risen through the ranks rapidly to become who she was today.

"Rachael is fine." He had named their daughter Rachael after her sister who had lost the battle to breast cancer many years ago. She was on the verge of crying now.

"You can come see her if you would like?" Rukelle would have liked that very much but she was not ready. She was not ready to see her own daughter. She did not feel worthy enough.

Benjamin stifled another yawn with his hand and a cheap, faded and scratched silver ring came into view. Rukelle recognized it instantly as the ring she had put on his finger on their wedding day at the courthouse in downtown Boston. It was a small event. It was just them, Rukelle's dying sister and Benjamin's older brother who had served as witnesses. Rukelle could not handle the wave of nostalgia that threatened to push her down to her knees so she did what she did best. Work.

"I want to know everything there is to know about Victoria Houghton." Her tone was demanding but she didn't care. She would do anything to stop herself from feeling weak around Benjamin.

"Well, the Houghtons were among the few remaining rich families in Mattapan. They lived right across the Barker family and engaged in a lot of charity through the Mattapan Cathedral." If Benjamin was irked by Rukelle's brisk tone, he didn't mention it and that's why she had fallen in love with him. He was too kind and too patient with her. He loved more than she could ever love back and that's probably why she had ruined everything.

"So wouldn't they have heard the commotion at the Barker house on July 10th." Rukelle had skipped over a major detail but then it hit her full force. "Were? Like as in they are dead?"

"Yes, the entire family perished in a tragic car accident about a year ago. The accident was so bad that they recovered mostly ash from the car."

Something about this accident didn't feel right to Rukelle, "Who were the investigating officers for this accident?"

Benjamin thumbed through a file on his desk till he found the names. "Here." He said when he found his notes. "Detective Bianca Lawson and Detective William Pearson."

"Give me their contact details. I want to talk to-" Rukelle started as she pulled out her phone to copy down the numbers but Benjamin cut her off.

"I already talked to them. Detective William Pearson had recently retired and had a lot to say about the accident in question. He particularly told me that he had a theory that the car accident was staged. It looked to him more like an arson but he couldn't get enough evidence because the car was burnt real bad by the time the fire fighters got there."

"Wait who owns the Houghton house in Mattapan now?" Rukelle asked.

"It's owned by a trust based in Norway. It has ties to a conglomerate car company here in the U.S.A."

"This case just gets more and more complicated every single day." Rukelle put her phone back in her jacket pocket and turned around to leave.

"Rachael Bernice Moore."

"What?" Rukelle asked as she turned back to face him.

"That is the name of our daughter." Benjamin smiled because he knew what he had done.

Rukelle had only been able to get through the past six years because she had compartmentalized her daughter as something perfect. Something she didn't deserve. Something she would ruin. Giving their daughter a name made her real. Benjamin had smashed the compartments in her brain and now they spilled over as hot fat tears on her cheeks. Rukelle walked away before she wept loudly. The station had seen enough telenovelas for the day.

                   _________________

Why did I have to pack my car so far away? Rukelle thought to herself as she walked across the street to where her car was parked. The station building, much like most city buildings in Boston, did not provide much space for parking and most of the parking space was taken up by squad cars so most of the cops either walked to work or like Rukelle, parked their cars a long distance from the station.

She caressed Benjamin's Honda as she passed it. The Honda was a second hand car which Benjamin had probably taken time to fix himself. She peeped inside the car and just like she expected, everything was well arranged. There was no trash on the floor of the car. She swiped more tears from her cheeks as she closed the distance to her car.

Rachael Bernice Moore

Her daughter has spent six years without a mother and that was probably the best for her. Rukelle was finally following Benjamin's advice. He had told her to come back when she was ready to be a mother and she was going to do just that.

She was humming Dangerous woman by Arianna Grande. That song summed up her life. The chorus alone hit so close to home. She was getting lost in the song when another humming sound pulled her back to reality. Someone else was humming a different song. It was definitely a male voice. She quickened her pace, got to her car preparing to open the door and immediately regretted it.

She looked into the face that she had long suspected from his earlier visit to the station. She had caught him looking at the security footage of the Walmart store on her desktop and he had quickly looked away.

His eyes gleamed with excitement, anticipation? She couldn't tell because her heart was fluttering in her chest like a trapped hummingbird. His black hair was damp from the light drizzle.

Rukelle finally mustered up the courage to scream but he covered her mouth. Rukelle fought him. Not for herself but for Rachael Bernice Moore, for a daughter that finally deserved to see her mother. She kicked, punched and scratched him but he was over poweringly strong. Rukelle could not give up. She couldn't die before meeting her perfect little daughter. The only thing perfect that had ever come out of her life.

Rukelle hit his stomach and he momentarily let go. Rukelle ran for her own dear life. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her until they could not carry her any longer. She fell down. White hot pain fired through her left leg and a warm liquid ran down her leg soaking her boots. He had shot her. He had fucking shot her. How dare he? She tried to stand but the pain was debilitating. He walked over, grabbed the baseball bat from where it was leaning on her car and brought it down on her head sending her into oblivion.