A Course of Passion

54: Putting Things Right

After finishing logging and detailing the search, Olivia and I head back into the interrogation room. We show Richie the bag of jewelry and he asks, "W-what is this?"

Olivia tells him, "this is jewelry that the rapist took from three victims, including Sofie Nomaks' gold chain and Robin Daughtry's necklace."

"Where is this from?" He asks next, shocked.

I tell him, "that's from your apartment. It was in the toilet tank."

Olivia adds on for effect, "your wife tipped us off."

"No. No, that that's not possible." Richie almost screams out.

"Richie, Richie, that's enough." Zimmerman chimes in, "don't say another word. I'll get you through this, okay?"

"Get up."I spit, looking directly at Richie.

"You're under arrest." Olivia says, in a more calmer tone, "get up." As Richie exhales and starts to stand, she says to him, "not you." Then looks to Zimmerman, "you." Her state is hard and cold.

"What?" He shouts, mouth and eyes wide open.

I stand, getting closer to his face, "you heard her. Get up."

Richie asks, hands on his head com confusion, "Www-what's going on?"

"He's under arrest." I tell him, as Olivia goes over to handcuff him.

Zimmerman spits, "you two out of your minds?"

She replies, "no, not even a little" and she reads him his rights, "Thomas Zimmerman, you're under arrest for the rape and murder of Robin Daughtry. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you."

As she continues reading them out to him as we walk out, I hear Richie ask from the chair, "wait, w-w-w-what's going on? What is happening?"

An hour or so later, I take Richie out of the room and explain to him what I can. After, he asks, trying to wrap his head around everything, "my lawyer raped near shelters because he knew that sex offenders would get the blame?"

"Yeah." I simply reply, handing him his watch.

"That's, that's insane." He replies, probably not having any other way to describe it.

I agree, "yup. It's pure sociopath."

"And he stabbed Robin?" He asks, "you saw that on that security camera?"

We start walking toward the elevator, "yeah, well, thing is, there was no camera. That was a lie to scare him into planting evidence in your apartment. That we did get on video. Now, your wife, she helped us play him. She's a good woman."I tell him, feeling guilty about everything we had to put him and her through in order to get him.

Richie agree's as we wait for the elevator to get to our floor, "yeah, she is. She's the best, and I ruined her life. We can't travel. You know, we can't move. We decided not to have kids because how can you tell a child that their friends could never come over?"

The doors open, and I say to him, "listen, Richie I wish I could say I never doubted you."

Richie nods, gets in then replies softly, "yeah, well, I'm a convicted rapist. My whole life, everyone's gonna doubt me."

Maddison was already sent home so when I finished the paperwork I rushed back to the apartment. I quietly open the door, not wanting to wake any of them but am surprised to see Maddison awake and reading in the living room, "hey baby, what are you still doing up?"

She closes the book and smiles toothlessly at me, "I was waiting for you, welcome home." She stands as I get to her and she snakes her arms around my neck. She kisses me softly and I quickly turn it into something more passionate. I wrap my hand around her waist to pull her closer to me. My other hand gets caught up in her hair as I let my tongue run down the bottom of her lip.

"I'm so sorry, doll." I manage to mutter through a quick gasp of air.

"Shhh, we'll talk about it later." She replies, pushing her lips back to mine. We make love tonight, the first time since having our babies. It was different, yet incredible and she lays on top of me afterwards and we're wrapped up in a small throw blanket, "you can't do that again Sonny, not for a while at least." She says referring to going undercover.

"I'm sorry" I rub my hand through her hair, trying to get the knots out, "I won't if you don't want me to, but we got the guy."

She exhales, "I know, but it was hard without you here. Your parents are great but I need you. They need you. Yanno, I think Elaina is going to get a tooth in first?" She leans up on my chest to look me in the eyes.

"Yeah? That'll be the first marker she's beat out Elijah on, that's great!" I exclaim, having only missed one milestone of theirs while undercover. It still sucks, but I'm too happy to be home now to dwell on it further.

She lays her head back down, "I think I'm going to ask my dad to come stay for a weekend. You're parents spent a lot of time with them, I think he should too."

"I think that's a great idea, we'll give him a call tomorrow." I rub my hand down her back, "well, you should get some rest. Olivia gave me tomorrow and the weekend off but you have to go in, come on." I move underneath her and she then moves to stand up. We get into bed together and I wrap my arm around her, "goodnight, I love you."

"I love you, too." She whispers back. She falls asleep easily, as do I, for the first time in weeks.