The Bed You Make
Chapter 22
~ Let's Play Twenty Questions ~

“You asked to be informed if your call was returned?” The intercom squawked to life.

“Yes.” Alexis reached for the phone. “Which line?”

“He's not on the line. He's here waiting to see you.”

“Oh. Send him in,” Alexis instructed. She straightened her shoulders and fought the instinct to quickly check her appearance in the compact she kept in her top drawer.

“Miss Davis.”

“Detective Taggert. Thank you for coming.” Newly selected District Attorney Alexis Davis gestured toward the seat opposite her desk. “As I informed the Officer on Duty, I merely wanted to speak with you about your testimony for the Lindermann trial.”

“Kingsley told me,” he shrugged. “I had to take a report over on Cambridge, so I just came here when I was through.”

“Oh. Very well.” Alexis flipped open a bulging manila folder full of papers. The folder constituted only a portion of sixty-three year-old Gertrude Lindermann's pending charges. The frail-looking, grandmotherly old woman turned out to be, in fact, one of Port Charles most successful car thieves. Her mistake had been in trying to boost a car from the parking lot of a store in which off-duty detective Marcus Taggert had been shopping. Backup arrived to find all eighty-eight pounds of Gertrude Lindermann lying prone and handcuffed on the pavement. ‘ She tried to run me down ,' was Taggert's terse explanation.

For ten minutes Alexis consulted the folder and quizzed the bald detective on several important details that would cinch the case for her office. Marcus was calm and resolute, unshakable on what went down outside the Whole Foods Market that day.

“I couldn't ask for a better witness for my first trial as District Attorney,” Alexis smiled hesitantly. One of the things she'd discovered when she took over Schulz's office was that the Port Charles Police Department had no intention of letting bygones be bygones. To a man, they made plain their resentment of having to serve beneath a not-too-former Mob mouthpiece. No… so far the men in blue had not been exactly welcoming to the new District Attorney. Alexis hoped that the innate sense of fairness she'd always witnessed in Marcus Taggert would prompt the handsome detective to smooth things out a bit with his brethren on the force.

“Yeah, well...” Marcus unfolded his muscular body from the chair. “If that's all, I've got some paperwork to file before I quit for the day.”

Alexis stood as well. There was an awkward silence as she tried to decipher Marcus' expressionless face. “Umm…thank you for coming.”

“It's part of my job, Miss Davis.”

“Detective!” Two steps from the door, Alexis called Taggert back. “I will do a good job for this office. Just … just give me the chance.”

“Rebuilding bridges you've burned isn't easy, is it, Miss Davis?” Alexis felt as though the Detective's stare dissected her into tiny, little pieces. “I'll give you a chance, though,” he shrugged.

continued