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Brax’s heart was hammering when he got out of his Mercedes and saw Roni crouched down against her unmarked vehicle. In her heels and pantsuit, and her soft afro, she looked more like a model than a cop. He wished to God she had become a model rather than a cop.

But her mother made it clear: Roni was going to do what Roni was going to do and he had better not stand in her way. And since Roni wanted to be a detective, and because he loved her, he helped to make her dream come true. It was times like these when he wished he hadn’t helped at all. But he somehow thought that being a detective would be less dangerous for her than being a beat cop. He apparently thought wrong.

Brax had to walk by Bruce’s body when he first got out of his car. Dean stood up and hurried over to him, but Roni remained where she was. She didn’t even bother to look up at him. Which said it all to Brax.

“Thanks for coming, sir.”

“Thanks for calling me.” But Brax was looking at that dead body. “What’s his name?”

“Detective Bruce Synder. He and his partner were known on the Force as BG.”

Brax looked at Dean. An extremely handsome man in his mid-thirties, he knew he was taking a chance by agreeing to let him become Roni’s new partner. But he told her precinct captain that he wanted a good, strong, honest cop for her, not some racist follower like her previous partner. Dean was good looking, but he was a good, honest detective who would protect Roni in every way he could. Despite his fears that Roni could fall for the divorced dad, Brax had to put Roni’s safety above his own insecurities. He gave the okay to the captain for Dean to team up with her. “He’s the one that dangled Roni out of that ninth floor window?” he asked Dean.

“Yes sir.” In many ways it was surreal to Dean to be holding a conversation with a billionaire like Braxton McCrae. He’d known about the McCrae family all his life, from the father and the brothers who still ran McCrae Aeronautics, a company that competed with the giant Boeing Corporation, to the eldest son Braxton who branched out on his own and became even richer than his family, and that whole clan was considered royalty in Victorville just as the Rockefellers used to be royalty in America. They were just that wealthy and just that well-known in all of upstate New York.

“But why did he do it?” Brax wanted to know. “What set him off?”

“He was hitting our suspect with a pipe and Roni kept telling him to stop. He not only didn’t stop, but he killed the guy.”

Brax frowned. “He killed the suspect?”

“He killed him, sir. Then he turned his rage toward Roni. That’s what started it.”

Brax shook his head. “You said he had a partner?”

“Yes sir. Gabe Richardson.”

Where is he?”

Brax could see a sudden hesitancy in Dean. But Dean told him. “When Bruce pulled Roni up from dangling her out of that window, Roni retaliated and kicked Bruce in the groin.”

Brax wasn’t surprised in the least. He’d seen her temper unleashed.

“Gabe tried to intervene and Roni took that same pipe and knocked Gabe’s legs from under him. He fell, but he still aimed his weapon at her and was about to fire on her, so I had no choice but to fire on him. I took him out.”

Brax could hardly believe it. He thought NYPD cops were bad, but got damn! Victorville too?

Then he looked at Roni. This was not what she signed up for, he knew it. He left Dean with the body and walked over to her. “Hey.”

It took a moment, but Roni finally looked up at him. In the light of the streetlamps, her face looked drawn and drained. These cops had broken her heart.

But he steeled himself. Her friends always said he treated her harshly, but that was because he had to. Because her mother told him right: the worst thing he could ever do was baby Roni. She’d rebel hard against him if he did. “I’m not asking if you’re okay, because I know you aren’t. But looking like this is not going to fly. Stand up. When you start looking dejected you become dejected. Get your ass up.”

Roni continued to stay where she was. She didn’t feel like being bothered with his controlling ass, not today. But she knew Dean was right. The Brass could really railroad them if they weren’t careful. She stood up.

“Dean told me what happened.”

“We need to call it in. This is obstruction of justice, which is a crime.”

“I know what it is. And I did call it in.”

Roni stared at him. “To whom?”

“Who do you think? The police.”

Roni was baffled. “I don’t understand.”

“What did you think I was going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I didn’t think you would call it in.”

“Well I did,” Brax said. But before he could say anything else, two police cars drove up. Dean, surprised, held his hands out to the side in bafflement as he looked at Roni. “You called it in?” he yelled over to her.

“No,” Roni said. “He did.”

Dean was as dumbstruck as Roni was. What the what , he said out loud.

But it was too late now. The patrol officers got out and began to cordon off the area as if they were already given their assignments. Dean couldn’t believe they didn’t ask his permission, since he was a detective on scene, but he didn’t interfere. This was how the rich folks did it, he assumed, and left it alone.

But then another patrol car drove up and instead of a uniformed officer getting out, Roni’s precinct captain, a slender white man, got out. But when Police Commissioner Arnie Lambert got out, too, Roni and Dean were floored. It was as if her captain picked up Lambert and brought him to the scene.

Roni looked at Brax. “You called the Commissioner ?”

Brax looked at her. “Your ass in trouble. Who else was I going to call?”

But what amazed Roni even more was that Commissioner Lambert actually came out to a crime scene himself. She’d only been a cop on his force a few months, but she’d already seen for herself and heard about how arrogant and obnoxious he was, and how he belittled the rank and file all the time. For him to be at the scene was a real shocker to her. But Dean was right again: Brax had clout.

While the two heavyweight cops talked with Dean to hear everything that happened, Brax was more concerned about Roni’s wellbeing. “None of this is your fault,” he said. “You know that, right?”

But Roni didn’t give her sassy retort the way she usually did.

“Roni?”

“I shouldn’t have dangled him out of that window,” she said. “That’s on me. That’s all on me.” Then she looked at him, her face unable to shield her agony. “Isn’t it?”

Brax’s heart felt for her. But he wasn’t going to lie to her. “You’re a cop. You have to be able to control your anger, which sometimes your ass just can’t do. So yes. That’s on you.”

Roni continued to stare at him. She could always count on him to tell it to her straight. That was why she loved him.

But when Dean came over, along with Lambert and her precinct captain, her heartbeat quickened. And she stood erect. Although she felt dejected and guilty, she wasn’t letting them see it. “Hey Cap. Hello Commissioner Lambert,” she said.

“Let me tell you something, young lady,” Lambert said to her. “I was attending a very important function not far from here when Braxton called me. Had it been anybody else and I would have told him to go fuck himself. But his father and I go way back, and I’ve known Braxton for years too. That’s the only reason I’m here. I don’t give a damn about you or anybody else at this scene. But he gives a damn about you. Why, I’ll never know. But he does. Maybe because your old dead mammy who used to work for his father has something to do with it. I don’t know and I don’t care. But you may be hot stuff to Braxton, but your ass ain’t shit to me.”

Roni’s temper flared, mainly because of how he referred to her mother, and she frowned. “Your ass ain’t shit to me either,” she shot back at him.

Dean wanted to jump out of his skin. As did her precinct captain.

But Lambert only stared at her as if he didn’t know what to make of her. Then he smiled. “Braxton told me you were a handful. For you to come back at me like that?” He nodded his approval. “You’re more than a handful, I’ll tell you that.”

Her precinct captain laughed nervously, and so did Dean, but Roni didn’t crack a smile. She didn’t like Lambert and she couldn’t pretend she did.

“Since I have a function I need to get back to, I’m going to make this fast and simple and sweet. Here’s what happen,” he said to Roni and Dean. “Everything Dixon told us that happened will stand. Except for the window-dangling bull crap. That didn’t happen.”

Roni knew a lie was about to be concocted. “What do you mean it didn’t happen?”

“It didn’t happen,” said Lambert. “BG were already here when you two got here. They were under attack by the suspect when you two got here. The suspect shot Gabe, and then he and Bruce fought. Bruce fell out of the window in the struggle. When you and Dixon made it up to the ninth floor, the suspect was hiding behind a door and came at you with a pipe. Dean tried to grab the pipe from him, and there was a struggle. You, Ross, tried to shoot him, but you was afraid you’d shoot your partner so you let them fight it out. Dean had to continually hit the suspect in his head or wherever his injuries are, until he finally was knocked unconscious. That’s how the suspect died. BG go out as heroes still. You, Detective Dixon, will be a hero for saving Ross’s life. The department won’t have any cops gone bad scandals on their hands. And you and Ross gets out of this unscathed.”

But before Roni could object to the lies, Brax was objecting. “That’s not going to work,” he said. “It’s too risky.”

“What’s risky about it?” the precinct captain asked. “It’s a good story.”

“Both Dean and Roni have guns, but they have to beat the suspect to death with a pipe?” He shook his head. “No. No way. That’s not going to fly.”

“Then what’s your version?” Lambert asked Brax.

“Roni and Dean split up for lunch,” said Brax. “Dean get the call from BG, tries to get in touch with Roni, but her phone goes to Voice Mail. And before you mention the phone company, don’t worry about that. I own tech firms. I know how to make sure her phone records disappear. Never to be discovered again.”

“Okay, that’ll take care of that part of it. But go on,” said Lambert.

“Dean couldn’t reach Roni, so he came to the scene alone. And all that shit you said happened is what happened, except Roni wasn’t here. It’ll be more plausible that only one cop had to fight off that madman suspect, than two cops standing around with guns and then they had to bludgeon him to death. That two-cop scenario is not going to fly. But my version will.”

It was all about protecting Roni Ross and everybody standing there knew it. Including Dean. But they also all agreed that it was definitely more plausible than the commissioner’s version.

Even the commissioner agreed. “That does make more sense,” he said.

“A lot more,” said the precinct captain.

“Okay then,” said Lambert. “We’ll go with your version, Braxton. Understand that, Dixon? You showed up alone. You had to handle the suspect alone.”

“Yes sir, I understand it,” said Dean.

“And you’re okay with it?”

“Yes sir. It’s more plausible. I’m definitely okay with it.”

“But I’m not okay with it,” said Roni with a fixed frown on her expressive face. “You’re asking us to falsify records. To lie about what happened. To commit all kinds of crimes.”

“Your ass already committed crimes,” said Lambert. “You’re the one that dropped Bruce Synder out of that window. Why would you even dangle him out of that window?”

“Because he dangled me out of that window after I objected to him beating our suspect to death for no good reason!”

Everybody looked at Brax. He had to control her or they all could face the music.

But Roni wasn’t even finished. “You can sugarcoat this shit anyway you want to,” she continued. “You can try to make BG out of heroes all you wish. But everybody on the Force and many of the citizens of this town know that BG were nothing but murderous thugs with police badges who cleared their cases by concocting confessions out of innocent people or killing them and putting the blame on them for crimes they never committed.”

Lambert was outdone. He looked at Brax. “Are you going to handle her or will I have to remind her of her jeopardy.”

“What jeopardy?” asked Roni.

“If your ass don’t cooperate, I’ll fire you and slap a murder charge on you and Dixon so fast it’ll make your heads spin. That jeopardy!”

Roni and Dean both looked at Lambert. “What murder?” Roni asked him.

“The murder of Bruce Synder. You two dangled that man out of a window and then dropped him, Ross.”

“After he dangled me out of a window.”

“But he didn’t drop you, now did he?”

“That’s because Roni was still and didn’t panic,” said Dean. “But Bruce panicked.”

“Whatever the reason,” said Lambert,” that’s the jeopardy. You can both get fired and fight it in court, which I doubt you’ll win, but what do I know? Or you can cooperate. Your choice.”

Everybody looked at Roni. Even Brax. Which made that guilt hit Roni again like a ton of bricks. But to her what they were asking her to do was worse. “When this case goes before the review board, I will have to swear before God and testify that I wasn’t at the scene. I can’t do that. I’m not doing that.”

“Then cuff her, frisk her,” said Lambert to the precinct captain, “and haul her ass downtown. I don’t have time for this shit!”

Roni held out her hands to the captain, ready to be cuffed, but Brax grabbed her by those hands and began dragging her away. “My version stands,” he said to the commissioner and the captain as he dragged Roni to his car.

When they got to his Mercedes, he opened the passenger door and all but threw her inside.

But Roni was angry too. “You’re upset with me because I’m not willing to coverup multiple murders?”

“Do you want to spend twenty years in prison, Roni?” Brax angrily asked her. “Because that’s what you’re looking at. And because you’re a cop, you might just get thirty years. And not just you, but Dean Dixon too. Do you want that, Roni? That man has children, do you want that? The courts will be glad to hang both of your black asses out to dry. Do you want that?!”

Roni knew it was a Hobson’s choice. She knew there was only one true choice. “No,” she said defeatedly to Brax.

He felt awful that she had to compromise her principles. But this was the profession she decided to go into. This was the field she chose to play on.

He was angry too. Because her dream was her nightmare. Because the field she thought was lined with gold was nothing more than a cesspool of crime and lawlessness. And they loved to scream law and order. Law and order his ass! He didn’t know cutthroat tycoons as ruthless and as crooked as most cops. And the good ones, like Roni and Dean, didn’t stand a chance.

He slammed the door, walked around to his driver side, got in, and sped her away from there.

Since he was taking Roni home, Brax sped away in the opposite direction than his arrival. Because when he first arrived at the scene, he sped right by an old Chevy that was parked on the side of the road. He didn’t notice it; Roni was his only focus. But it was there.

The owner of the car was further back in the woods. He put up his camera equipment and lugged it back to his car. Once he and his equipment was inside the car, he drove off too, making the phone call as he did.

“Got anything tangible?” asked the voice on the other end.

“Are you kidding me? I just got a goldmine of video like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “A veritable goldmine. The end is near. And I’m not overselling it either. Our troubles are soon to be in our rearview, and theirs will just be beginning.”