Fading To Embers

Chapter Three

Detective Carlos Vega

The minute I saw her get into her car and drive off in the opposite direction down the street, I was rushing back through the halls like someone had lit a match under my ass in search of my partner.

I couldn't believe my luck. I had been trying to pin that bastard Hale for as long as I could remember but every fucking time, I had even come close, one of three things always seemed to happen. The victims refused to press charges, they simply "disappeared", or the evidence that at one point would have been damming enough to put him behind bars until he was a shriveled old man suddenly became inadmissible in court.

I wasn't going to let it happen again.

After just one brief encounter with Halle King, I knew that she was the woman who was going to help me make that happen.

It was clear from our short conversation that she was as stubborn as she was beautiful. She was petite, barely reaching five foot five, but there was a fire in her eyes that rivaled several of the hardened men I knew here on the force, and I had to admire her for it. If I would've told her that I hadn't believed that she really saw Darrius Hale last night she probably would've told me to kiss her ass and went on until she found someone who did. I could tell that she had a strong sense of right and wrong and she wouldn't let what had happened to Aubrey Green go without punishment.

I was going to make sure it happened.

I found Vince in the break room, a half-eaten donut in one hand and his cell phone in the other. The minute I barged in, the hand holding the donut froze midway on its journey to his mouth.

One look at my face and he was tossing the half-eaten donut on the napkin on the counter before turning to give me his full attention.

"What happened?"

"Darrius Hale."

It was all I had to say.

Twenty minutes later I had finished giving Vince the rundown of what Halle had told me earlier this morning.

"Well, shit." Vince muttered as he ran a hand down his face.

My thoughts exactly. If we played our cards right, we had a real shot at finally nailing the bastard.

"Has anyone been to the hospital to get Aubrey's statement?"

Vince shook his head.

"What the hell are we still doing here then?"

One fifteen-minute drive later, we were standing outside Aubrey's hospital room, the nurse looking at us warily before pushing the door open and letting us in.

"Aubrey?" The nurse called gently and a pair of blue eyes (well, eye given that the other one was completely swollen shut) snapped up to look at us standing in the doorway.

"Detectives Vega and Patterson are here to see you."

I could sense the fear and suspicion coming from her in waves even from where we stood.

"I'll be back in a few. If you need me just press the button" the nurse told Aubrey, giving us one last look before she exited the room, closing the door behind her.

"I already told the officers that brought me here, that I don't have anything to say." she stated as Vince and I made our way further into the room.

"Do you mind if I grab a seat?" I asked gesturing toward one of the chairs used for visitors in the corner of the room.

Aubrey glanced at the chair and then back at me before shrugging her shoulders.

I felt the burn of her apprehensive stare on the side of my face the entire time I was pulling the chair from the corner of the room to the side of her hospital bed. It wasn't until I was seated in front of her that her gaze shifted as she glanced at Vince and then her probing stare was right back on me.