ONLY YOU - SECRETS AND LIES

PREVIOUSLY

Tea smiled through her tears, squared her shoulders, and stood tall. "Oh, I'll be alright Carlotta. I have always been able to take care of myself; I'm a survivor. I'll move on, and I WILL get everything back. The respect, the success.. I'll find someone else, maybe even raise a family of my own. I'll have it all, I will. Tea Delgado will survive, I promise. And one day, it won't hurt so much." She squeezed her surrogate mother's outstretched hands, and left.
Carlotta watched her go, silently cursing the man who had caused her dear Tea this pain. She couldn't bear to watch her hurt like this. "You are never alone, hija mia," She whispered after her. Then she sighed, and went back to her work.

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SECRETS AND LIES

--- "Mr. Sykes, may I have a moment?"
John Sykes looked up from his desk in the crowded police department to see Llanview’s most infamous defense lawyer, and smiled at her. "Good afternoon, Ms. Delgado. Is there something I can do for you?"
"Actually, I believe there are a few things we could do.. for each other.." She perched herself on the edge of his desk and flashed a seductive smile, reaching into her briefcase. Sykes watched her with bemused interest. "Take a look at this," she said, handing him a file.
Bo Buchanan, just entering the room, caught a glimpse of the intrepid Ms. Delgado and paused. Sykes looked like a fly caught in a spider’s web, staring at the beautiful young lawyer leaning across his desk. She was turning the charm up to 10, her body language inviting, but Bo could see from where he was standing that her game was deadly serious. Yes, just like a spider, and poisonous too. Careful John, she’s after something..
"Isn't it a little late to be hunting for evidence? The trial is already underway.."
"I got this case secondhand, remember? His previous lawyer wasn't using this angle, and I want to make sure to cover the bases." He was right, it was late. Tea knew the case had to go to trial as soon as possible, to keep the jury as much in Matt's favor as possible, but there was still a lot of questions they hadn't answered. They decided to go with what they had, and if they picked anything up along the way so much the better. Anything she could dig up at this point would be welcome, to make the balance swing a little more in their favor. "Just look them over, John."
"Financial records," Sykes muttered, glancing at the file. "Of the deceased officer."
"Notice the rather large deposit just before her death."
"Yes...?"
"Where did that money come from?" she queried innocently.
"A bonus. A gift. She won the lottery. Could be a number of things. Tell me, Ms. Delgado, what you’re doing going through the financial records of a dead woman...?"
"Looking for answers. Where were you on the morning of May 16th?"
He sat up straight, visibly on guard. "I was here, as you know. Interviewing suspects for a robbery case."
"Who took the call on Matt Eagan?"
"I don’t know what you’re talking about?"
"Let me refresh your memory.." She placed both hands flat on his desk, leaning over him like a hawk, her eyes narrowing. "Someone tipped off the police that Eagan was in town. The press releases indicated that the office had known his whereabouts for some time, but you really only found out the very day you tried to bust him, isn’t that right?"
"I wouldn’t know."
"But YOU took the call."
"I took A call, reguarding the Eagan case, yes. Which I transferred to commissioner Buchanan."
"On May 16th. That evening, you moved in on him. On whose orders?"
"I was not involved with the bust itself, but I was present. We were waiting to arrest the man once the officer had acquired the proper information. I was operating, as does every other man in this presinct, under Buchanan’s orders."
"Were they his orders? Or did this come from elsewhere, from above?"
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"You move on the suspect within hours of being tipped to his location, federal agents already on the scene. Agents who were already on their way to Llanview before you took that call, am I right?"
Sykes stood, eye to eye with her. He hissed at her, "I don’t know what you’re looking for, but I don’t have it. As I am no longer commissioner of police, I am no longer privy to the details you’re looking for. Why don’t you ask our current commissioner?"
Tea tried to soothe his ruffled nerves, and played to his ego. "You were commissioner once. You know all the players, you know how things work here. You had this office running like a well oiled machine. So I think you’re just the person to ask about this department, if anyone. So tell me, isn’t it possible that someone in this department had an agenda, and would profit by seeing Matthew Eagan go down?"
"That’s enough, Tea," Bo said, finally stepping in. "If you have a question about your case, you can talk to me, and not harass my detectives." She tilted her head up to him, and smiled sweetly. "Alright Mr. Commissioner, I do have a few questions for you."
"Step into my office then." Tea made one last look at Sykes, who shook his head. Bo led her to his office, throwing up his guard. One had to be alert around these lawyer types, especially the ones named Tea Delgado.

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Matthew was lying on his bunk, staring at the ceiling of his cell. I bet I could get a good novel out of this. The justice system from the less photogenic side, a jailhouse satire maybe. A legal comedy of errors. Yes, think of this as research. An experience to draw on. Anything to make this less serious, a comedy instead of the greek tragedy his life was becoming. And the tragic hero, awaiting his fate, brought down by the ultimate literary sin of hubris, pride. Those literature classes weren’t entirely useless after all.
Yes, it was just like those old tragedies, where the good king pushes his luck too far and falls to his doom. He should have seen it coming, after everything had been going so right for so long. Everyone’s got to take a fall sometime; his was just a little farther to fall.
It was that last book, Blue Midnight, that had pushed his luck too far. He had a terrible habit of applying real life experiences to his work, and in this book he had drawn a less than flattering portrait of the wrong people. That’s how they interpreted it, anyway. He never used real people for characters, but he often based events and certain traits on the people he saw.. So when he wrote his modern mob opus, his friends in the shady side of LA told him not to publish.
He was already growing disenchanted with his LA experience, and was thinking of getting out. It never even occurred to him that he knew too much to get very far; that was a cliche that he had never quite believed. He thought he could just back out, no hard feelings, and start over somewhere else, maybe with his hands a little cleaner this time. But he was wrong. His friends had grown fond of their pet writer, as long as he kept his mouth shut, but once he started talking, even in fictional terms, it was time to put the heat on. Matthew didn’t take heat very well. He started to make some real noise, especially now that he was beginning to suspect that their criminal activities ranged far beyond a little strong-arming and blackmail, and into extortion and murder.
Matthew ceased the flow of memories, sitting up, putting his head in his hands.. Ms. Delgado, I really hope you know what you’re doing.. If you’re really serious about going all the way, and exposing everything, I only hope it doesn’t backfire. These are powerful people, more so than you realize. I pray you don’t have to pay for my mistakes.

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Tea let Bo lead her to his office, dissappointed. The detectives know nothing. Bo probably doesn’t know anything, and what he does know he won’t tell me. He’s too smart. Worth a try, though, let’s see what I can get out of him. They went into his office, closing the door behind them.
"Alright, Tea, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the case. But-" he cut her off, "don’t think you can try any of those tricks of yours on me. I’m a happily married man, and happily married to a lawyer at that, who is much better at these lawyer games than you are."
She laughed, and proceeded unbothered. "And how is Nora? I certainly hope she’s not still upset at how I pulled this very prestigious case out from under her, is she?"
"She says you can have it. When you have your own practice, you have plenty of other cases to work on instead of taking up time hobnobbing with the press over a flashy and less substantive one."
"More substantive than she may think, and if she doesn’t want the press coverage I’d be glad to take it for her. Good preparation for when I have that practice of my own."
"Alright Tea," he looked at her seriously, "now that we have our verbal sparring out of the way, let’s get this business over with. Why are you trying to dig up dirt on my department? If that’s the only way you can save your client you might as well settle, because you’re not going to find anything."
"Bo, hasn’t it occurred to you that there are things about this case that just don’t add up? Like why would Matthew bring $50,000 to a small town in Pennslyvania from LA?"
"Why not? He needed somewhere to run, and we were the lucky winners."
"But why not skip the country, if he really was embezzling money? What was he planning to do here, do you know that? No, you don’t, but I do. What you do know is exactly how your police station found out that he was here, and that’s what I need to know. And how those federal agents came to be in the area even before Matthew got here. Coincidence?"
"I don’t know what your talking about. And as far as our department goes, we got an anonymous tip."
"Anonymous."
"Yes."
"So you have no idea of how to contact this person.."
"Anonymous, by definition, means that I don’t know who the person is." He was avoiding the question. Aha. Got him. He knows something there.
"So you can’t tell me anything about this tip."
"Nothing that would help you.."
"How do you know that, Bo? A man’s life is on the line, I need all the information I can get.."
"Your client killed one of MY officers! You think I’m going to help his lawyer get him off?!"
Tea was startled by his sudden ferocity, but quickly recovered. "My client is the victim of a coverup! I thought you’d be interested in discovering the truth, but maybe you’re in on it as well!"
"All I know is, my officer went into a room with your client and only one of them walked out. You connect the dots, Tea. The only person covering anything up is you!"
"Who ordered that sting, commissioner? Was it you? Or were you operating under orders?"
(The discussion was becoming heated, people were looking up from their work in the offices outside to stare at their boss’s closed door.)
Bo paused. "My orders were to bring Eagan down, that night, before he could leave town, any way possible. There was no proof, we tried to get it, and my officer died for it. No- that’s all. I’m not interested in any noble crusade you want to pull off here, saving an innocent man from the crooked police department - that’s bs and you know it! You couldn’t care less about the truth, you just want to stir up trouble and headlines, no don’t think you’re fooling me! I’ve given you all the information I have, and if you want to grill me or any of my officers any further you can do it in court. Now get the hell out of my office."
Tea stood up, looking perfectly calm, but seething on the inside. "I will see you in court, you and anyone else involved in this, and if you’ve been holding out on me, Commissioner Buchanan, then you and all of your people are going to pay the price."
She walked out amid the stares of the entire department. The troublemaker. Trying to make a bad name for Llanview’s finest. Not a good way to make friends in this town, but it was too late now. She was determined to go all the way with this one. No matter what.

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Bo remained standing for a few minutes, staring out the window. A coverup. A setup. A payoff. Not in my department. But the vague disquiet stayed with him throughout the afternoon, even as he started on other work. He avoided his other officers for today, stayed in his office. And then the call came. He had been expecting it.
"Look, you can’t contact me anymore. Thanks for all your help, but I can’t accept any more information... Eagan’s lawyer thinks there’s a coverup; she’s trying to dig into the department. She wants to know how we found him out... No, I haven’t told her anything.. Listen, I have to ask, how DID you come up with this stuff about him?.. Yes I know you’ve always been right.. But I have to know.. Hello?"

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Mr. Jack hung up on him, and stared thoughtfully out the window at the LA skyline. Perhaps his work in Llanview wasn’t finished after all.
He placed a call to the airport, and prepared to order himself a return ticket. Never let anyone finish what you started, he reminded himself. It would, after all, be interesting to watch them put Eagan away. Not to mention fun.

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Tea went from the police station directly to her office, and reread her records on Matt’s arrest, and the news reports from LA for the two weeks leading up to it. She was missing something vital, she knew it.
After some time, she placed a call to the police station. "Hello, is the comissioner available? This is Ms. Delgado.." She was assured that he would be right with her, and put on hold. Tea leaned over her desk and rubbed her temples absently while she waited for Bo to be hauled back to his office. She was out of asprin. She should probably go and get some sleep, in a few hours at least. Couldn’t waste too much time, though - the clock was ticking. For her and for Matt. She was not going to lose this case. No way.
Bo got on the line. "Buchanan here."
"Bo, it’s me again, Tea Delgado. I need to speak with my client."
"If you want to speak with a prisoner, you can come right down here and talk to him in person. But weren’t you just here? It's after hours."
"It’ll be just a moment, Bo. I’ll be down soon, if you could have him ready. We need to discuss some things in private."
Bo considered for a moment, then sighed and gave in. "I suppose I don’t see why not. But keep it quick. I’ll have him up soon." Both Tea and her client had been very cooperative with Bo and his men, so he was willing to give her some leeway.
Immediately after she had hung up, she got a call. She grabbed it with one hand as she cleared her desk with the other. It was Vicki. "I’d love to talk right now, but I’m on my way out the door.."
"That’s fine. I just wanted to know if you were coming to Starr’s play.."
"Play?.. Vicki, I didn’t hear anything about that, when is it?"
"I’m not surprised that Blair didn’t tell you, that’s why I called. Her playgroup is putting on a little show Saturday afternoon. None of my children are going to be able to make it, so I wondered if you would like to accompany me."
Tea grinned broadly. "I’d love to come! Thanks so much for telling me, it’s just what I need right now." They made some plans to meet, and talked about Starr for a few minutes before Tea excused herself and dashed out the door. Always running. She rushed into the police office in time to see guards escorting Matt to a conference room.
"Hey, Tea, you’re up late tonight." He smiled, bleary-eyed, in her direction.
"Oh, did they wake you, Matt?"
"That’s okay. I’ve had plenty of sleep lately, and not nearly enough social calls. What’s up?"
"This isn’t exactly a social call, Matt.." She waited while the guards uncuffed the prisoner, and motioned for them to leave the room. "I need to ask you something very important, and I need you to tell me the truth."
"... Alright, shoot."
"Well.." How can I put this? "You remember our first meeting, I told you that I wanted this case. I wanted it no matter what you were going to tell me about your involvement with the murder. Whether you were guilty or not, in fact, I wasn’t even going to ask."
"But I told you anyway. I didn’t do it. I told you everything I know."
She looked at him sharply. "Did you?"
He recoiled, looked hurt, a little angry. "You don’t believe me? You think I’m guilty?"
"I meant it when I said I would defend you either way. I still do. But I’ve been looking up and down for proof of this conspiracy you keep talking about, and I’m just not finding anything. So I have to wonder if I’m looking for something that isn’t there, when I could be working on strategies for what we do have."
"You said you could PROVE my story, you said you were going to turn the tables. You’re backing out on me?!"
"No, I’m not. I just need to know if I’m on a wild goose chase for something I’m not going to find. I can’t turn the tables without something to go on, Matt. So I’m asking you. If there’s anything you haven’t told me, any facts you’ve kept from me, or any way you may have mislead me, I need to hear it now."
He jumped up, and paced back and forth in the room for nearly a minute. Then he walked over to her, visibly calmer, and looked her in the eyes. "Everything that I have told you is true. As far as the case goes, you do whatever the hell you want. I have nothing to lose. But I have not lied to you, and I’ve told you all I know. And I did not kill that woman."
She stared back at him, then nodded. She walked past him. "Guards, we’re finished in here."
"Tea?!" he called after her as the guards cuffed him
"I’ll see you in court tomorrow, Matt," she called over her shoulder as she walked out.
She believed him. That was just the trouble, it made it that much worse. Her strategy was good, and she could run with the case she had, but she had a feeling deep down that it wasn’t going to be enough. Not without the proof she needed, and someone had done an excellent job of burying it. She believed him. And if she couldn’t pull off a miracle, an innocent man was going to jail.

End Part 7
next: One Last Dance