The Heat

4. On the I-5

Cruz had sent them to L.A. with a computer and some monitors that tracked the bug in Yelnick's phone, and had instructed them to book into a nondescript hotel somewhere by the interstate, where the signals were apparently best to pick up. So they left the previous hotel and drove for the next, which was called The Blue Palace Hotel.

Lou reclined her seat as far back as it would go and put up her feet on the dashboard. Debbie glanced at her in annoyance, but said nothing, knowing she owed her the success of tonight. Presently Lou asked, 

"So what's up with you and your brother?"

"What?" Debbie said, startled. 

"Back at the office. I heard Cruz say something about your brother."

Debbie looked away. "You know, it may come off as a shock to you, but I make it a point to wait at least until I'm two years into a friendship before opening up about all my secrets."

"So that's why you have no friends?"

"Miller--" Stung, Debbie looked at the cop, but there was no mocking smile on her face. Lou looked, for once...like she was serious.

"It's no secret, because Cruz was talking about it. And unlike you, Ocean, I've spent a lot of time with people and I know trauma when I see it. There's something more to this mission than you're letting on."

Debbie glared at the stretching road in front of her silently.

"I'm not forcing you to say anything...all I'm saying is if there's something behind all this that'll put my...both of our lives at risk, I'm pretty sure I deserve to know. And besides it's easier to let things out than bottle them in, you know?"

"Danny," Debbie said. 

"Pardon?"

"His name was Danny." 

Lou sat up and looked at her. Debbie kept her eyes and voice steady, never once looking away from the road, hands tight on the steering wheel. 

"He was killed a while back. Probably seven months? Apert's doing." She switched lanes and took a deep breath. "We were so close. We almost had it. Then a stray spark--apparently Apert knew we were tracing him. The bomb was set off, but too early. It took Danny." 

Lou was silent, and Debbie fell into silence as well. She was pleased to see that her voice had remained expressionless, her face impassive. Something had shut down inside her that day, the day when the sky exploded with fire and she watched the life go out of her brother's eyes, the eyes of the only person in the world who understood her, who loved her. It was as if someone had drawn the curtains on who Debbie was inside. She was a hard shell, quick, brisk, emotionless. Sometimes the terror of that day haunted her, sometimes she woke up in a cold sweat, screaming inside her head. But it never showed. The brown eyes stayed blank. The heart stayed cold. 

Finally Lou spoke. 

"I'm sorry."

Debbie shrugged. "But again--I never let any emotional barriers come in the way of my work. All I care about is closing this damn case."

"I don't believe that."

"It's true. Revenge won't bring him back."

Lou shook her head. "I couldn't imagine...I have a brother back home, I can't imagine..." her voice trailed off. "If anything happened to him it's hell on earth."

Debbie shrugged again, and they fell quiet so that for a while the only sounds were the rumble of the engine as they streaked through the highway. Then Lou said, in a voice so low Debbie barely heard it, 

"You won't lose another loved one to this animal. I promise."

Debbie looked at the blonde in surprise. The conviction was so intense she wondered for a moment whether Lou was talking to herself. But Lou cut her blue eyes, so startlingly luminescent in the dark, at her. The promise stayed hard in her face. 

She must be an empath, Debbie thought. Her determination was touching, in a way. Or perhaps there was more to Lou about this Apert case than Debbie thought she knew.