Mind (the) Game

by Kelly Shade

  “Take a wild guess, who do you think it may be?” Jane pressured him.

  “Jason Carter?” Gray said with a high pitched voice “He was very upset with your break up.” Ryan looked at Jane but she shook her head for no.

  “Someone in narcotics? You helped Collins lock the Alvaradoz and nobody touched them before. Maybe they had an inside man who got angry?” Ryan kept guessing.

  “Remember the timeline. I worked with Kyle recently.” Jane wanted Ryan to figure it out himself.

  Gray nodded and kept thinking. He had several more suggestions, but none of them the right one. At the end he begged Jane to tell him.

  “The only people with access, opportunity and motive are Nick Lee and Victoria Evans.” Blake said firmly. “But I don’t think Nick is the one.”

  “Jane, you just don’t like her!” Ryan didn’t agree “And what’s her motive?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I’m sure she has one.” Jane admitted then added “She is the one that brings me coffee every single day, Gray!”

  “Victoria brings coffees to all of us, Jane! She wants us to like her and accept her in the team!” Gray argued.

  “Okay, maybe you’re right.” Blake decided to keep Ryan off of this, she was better off alone anyway.

  “What are you going to do, Jane?” Ryan asked. He knew her well enough to know she never agrees this easily.

  “Rest.” Jane said and closed her eyes, showing he should go.

  “Don’t lie to me, Jane! You are thinking of something and I want to help!” Ryan said and put hand on her shoulder.

  Blake was about to talk but the door opened. Kyle was there with flowers in his hands and a sad smile on his face.

  “Jane, how are you?” Collins went to her bed and hugged her.

  Ryan stepped back in surprise.

  “You got me worried!” Kyle said and kissed her. At that moment Gray realized that Jane and Collins were in a relationship and he got out of the room as fast as he could.

  The next couple of days Jane was kept in the hospital. Kyle and Erick were the only people who visited her and she felt grateful but she was wondering why Ryan haven’t called. Jane didn’t want to bother Gray, she knew it was probably because of Kyle, but she tactfully asked Ian about Ryan. It turned out that Gray took the weekend off and the rumors were that he went on a vacation with agent Barlow.

  On the third day, Saturday, Blake felt much better and decided to check herself out against the doctor’s advisement. She got out of the hospital early in the morning and since she was suspended and there was no way Hunt would let her work, she took a cab to her house. Now it was under construction and Jane hoped that soon she would be able to move back in her lovely home.

  The workers greeted Jane and she was excited to see that they were a week or two away from finishing. Blake walked around, admiring her new flooring and bright yellow walls. She spent some time in the house and went down in her bunker. There she had everything she needed to enjoy a peaceful day. Jane needed time on her own to think, she wanted to be alone. Blake laid on the bed, lit up a cigarette, turned off her phone and closed her eyes.

  Her thoughts were jumping from one thing to another, Ryan and his girlfriend, if Victoria was actually trying to poison her, Jane’s new relationship with Kyle, and of course Michael Morse. Where was that bastard and who was tipping him off every time they got close?

  Blake was deep in thoughts and speculations over the past events when she heard the sounds of police sirens near her. Jane quickly ran out of the bunker, causing a big shock to one of the construction workers when she popped up from nowhere. Blake ignored the scared man and fixed her eyes on the two police cars with lights on, passing by her house.

  Jane decided to see what is happening in the neighborhood, so she ran quickly in the direction the cops were headed. Luckily, she had to run just two blocks away from her house to see, that the police cars were stopped in front of a small house at the end of the alley. She could see the CSU team walking in and out of the one-story building. Blake got closer, greeted the CSU team and was about to go in when someone stopped her. Ian Valdez grabbed her hand with the words “Jane, I don’t think you should be here.”

  “Hey, what’s up?” Blake acted as if she was glad to see Ryan, Victoria, Nick and Ian.

  “A murder.” Gray said and walked by her into the house.

  “Hunt suspended you, Jane!” Ian said politely “And you need a rest, we will handle that one, okay?”

  “No, not okay!” Jane raised her voice “It is in my neighborhood and if there is a killer here, I want to catch him! And I will, with or without your help!” Blake finished and turned her back. After so much time working with the police, Jane was so addicted to the mystery, the chase and the thrill of revealing and catching killers that she couldn’t stay away.

  “Okay, I’ll let you go in with us but that’s it. Okay?” Valdez offered.

  “Fine!” Jane cut and walked in the house.

  The body wasn’t inside, Jane had to walk through the living room, pass the huge glass door and go in the garden. There she saw a man near the swimming pool. The victim was shot in the forehead and spread on the ground with his eyes open.

  Ryan was talking to one of the CSU team with Nick and Victoria, while Ian was looking at, what seemed like, the bullet casing. Jane used that time to go and examine the body.

  The victim was around thirty, dark short hair, muscular, wearing a bathrobe and a speedo underneath it. He was apparently preparing to take a swim. Blake looked carefully for signs of a struggle but didn’t see one.

  Nick walked to Jane and she stood up expecting he would make her leave.

  “White male, twenty-eight years old, William Spencer, one shot in the head with a forty-five, execution style.” Nick read the CSU’s report and looked up at Jane “Spencer works as a bodyguard for Shawn Higgins.”

  “Why that name sounds so familiar?” Jane asked thoughtfully.

  “Because, Higgins was accused of being associated with Michael Morse but the feds had no evidence against him and they left him alone. He proved his business is legit and that was it.” Lee said nervously. “Spencer was his right hand and a friend, maybe this murder is a message for Higgins.”

  Jane nodded and kneeled down to look at the victim closely. She noticed something in his hand and carefully took it out. It was a neckless with a small gold cross.

  “He knew he was going to die!” Jane looked up to Nick and showed him the cross.

  “Jane, you didn’t use gloves again!” Lee frowned.

  “Sorry!” Blake apologized and continued “Anyways, he was holding the cross which meant he had time for a reaction but he didn’t do anything. Maybe the killer is stronger than him or Spencer was too afraid of him.”

  “Why?” Ian asked. Blake looked behind her, he was apparently staying there and listening.

  “Because, as you can see, Spencer is a big guy, a bodyguard, probably well trained. Spencer works for Higgins and he wouldn’t trust his life on someone without fighting skills. But Spencer didn’t try to fight his killer, he didn’t try to save his own life. Instead, he grabbed the cross and said a prayer.” Jane explained “This tells me that Spencer was terrified of his killer.”

  “Thanks for the intel, Blake, but we will take it from here.” Ian said with a look that meant she had to go.

  Blake decided to check the victim’s face before she go and, without gloves, she turned his head towards her and with horror she realized she knew him. He was one of the kids at her school in Chicago when she was in fifth grade. Blake remembered him well because he came in the middle of the school year and most of the kids bullied him. Spencer was the poorly dressed outsider in her class. Blake closed her eyes and she the memory flowed as it was yesterday.

  It was a lovely spring day, just getting warmer after the cold Chicago winter, she was walking to school enjoying the good weather and listening to music on her Walkman. When she turned the corner to the school, she saw
two huge boys hitting another small, skinny one. Jane ran towards them and saw Spencer on the ground. She shouted at the boys but they didn’t listen and continued kicking the poor kid on the ground, and laughing. Blake took out the pocket knife her grandfather had given her, grabbed one of the boys and turned him sharply. The boy froze when he saw the knife and both of them ran in panic. From that day on, Jane was keeping Spencer’s back until the next school year when his family moved somewhere else. Jane never saw him again.

  “Jane?” Valdez was padding her on the shoulder “Are you serious? No gloves! Again!”

  “Yeah,” she woke up from the day-dream “sorry!”

  Blake stood up and slowly headed towards the exit. Ryan, Nick and Ian looked at her with confused expressions. Jane murmured “I have to go now!” and walked through the door. She nearly bumped in Victoria but didn’t bother to apologize or even say hello.

  Jane walked home slowly, thinking of the boy she used to know. Somehow she felt sad about his death. The memory of him made her realize that because of Spencer she had the confidence to be who she was now. Saving Spencer from these bullies was Jane’s first touch to the life she lived, it was the moment Blake realized she is strong enough to start searching for her biological parents. Protecting Spencer made Jane feel needed in times nobody took her seriously.

  Blake was determined to find who killed William Spencer, she had to avenge his death. She felt as if William wasn’t the muscular man she saw at the pool but the short, skinny boy, the Willy she used to know.

  The thoughts about the past distracted Jane so much that she didn’t realize when she arrived in front of her house. The workers were still there, sitting around a small plastic table, having lunch. Blake asked one of them for a ride to the motel.

  When Jane was in her motel room, she called her hacker friends and asked them to make a background check of William Spencer. Then she dressed up and arranged a meeting with William’s boss – Shawn Higgins.

  Jane knew she couldn’t work with the homicide team on this one and she didn’t want to anyway. Blake knew the team didn’t trust her, not after she faded, not after Chile. Maybe it was better, maybe she made a mistake pretending to be a cop and a team player, maybe this had to show her, she was better off alone.

  Blake had to find who was responsible for Spencer’s death and she preferred to do it all by herself.

  Chapter 18

  Who’s the killer

  “Hello, Mr. Huggins!” Jane said with a pretend accent when a confused housemaid let her in the baroque style office. Blake was at Shawn Higgins’s apartment downtown.

  Higgins was a skinny man in his sixties, with gray hair and a black suit. He had many wrinkles, dark circles under his eyes and dark spots here and there on his face, he looked like a man exhausted from worries and work.

  “You are welcome, Miss. Jensen!” Higgins greeted her with soft voice with the name she used to make the appointment with.

  Blake didn’t care he looked like an ordinary man, she didn’t bother the fact that he had sad and worried eyes, she didn’t mind that Higgins obviously had a bad day and she ignored the fact his eyes were puffed up from crying. Jane wanted the truth and she would do everything to get it out of him.

  Blake touched the weapon she had tugged in her jeans, but before taking it out, she decided to try with a less invasive approach.

  “I was told you work for a foreign magazine?” said Higgins and walked to the minibar on the left. Jane walked back, locked the door quietly and followed him.

  “Yes!” she answered and tapped him on the back twice. Then she continued with a soft voice “I am a journalist from a foreign magazine and you want to share the story of William Spencer, your bodyguard. I am the one who is going to catch his killer if of course I haven’t already found him! Now I want you to sit down, relax and start talking!”

  Higgins turned around and looked at her, for a moment Jane thought the hypnosis didn’t work. His confused, wandering eyes were almost the same as the moment she met him for the first time. Higgins hesitated for a minute, as if he didn’t know what he should do, but then he walked slowly to his office chair, sat and started speaking quietly.

  “Willy was a great boy, he was the son of my best friend. When Willy’s father and mother died in an accident, the boy was only fifteen. I took him and raised him as my own son. I loved this kid so much!” Higgins’s eyes were fixed on Jane, unmoving, scary empty, but tears started rolling down his cheeks, he was grieving for William, he was in sincere pain.

  “Did Willy had any enemies?” Jane asked calmly even though the reaction shocked her.

  “I was on a business trip in Brazil and he was with me. After that, he changed. He didn’t have enemies but something happened in Rio de Janeiro, he was afraid of someone.” Lisped the man.

  “Did you work for Michael Morse?” Jane asked the next question ignoring Higgins’s shaking hands.

  “No. Never, they accused me but I earned my money working hard all my life. There was a man in my company who was using my business for money laundry, he maybe worked for this Morse.” Said Higgins still staring at her.

  “What’s the name?” Blake asked.

  “Dominik Kostra.” Answered Higgins.

  Blake had enough to let him out of the trans. She went behind him, whispered in his ear “You told everything about your travel business to Sabrine Jensen, a gorgeous Swedish journalist with short blond hair and huge blue eyes.” Then she tapped his back again and walked out of the room.

  The next step of Blake’s investigation was to get all the information she could for William Spencer from her hacker friends. But now she had no time for the usual routine with these kids, this time she headed to their apartment in Crenshaw.

  Blake walked in their small condo, kicking the door open and with a gun in her hand.

  “Wow, wow!” Shouted the two boys in their twenties and jumped from their chairs.

  “What the fuck, Blake!?” yelled the one with shoulder length greasy dark hair and a baggy sweater.

  “Sit down, Steve!” shouted Jane and lifted her gun.

  She felt incredibly good after the doctors cleaned her system with several banks of saline solution.

  “Jane, we have…” started the taller one, who’s hair was also greasy and untidy, wearing a wide tank top and with several earrings on his ear.

  “We do not have anything. I am sick and tired of the game we are playing for years. I pay you, so I’m calling the shots around here, understood, Oliver?” Jane demanded.

  Both boys sat back down in their chairs and slowly turned towards the laptops on the desk.

  “Now, I want everything on William Spencer, especially when he was visiting Rio de Janeiro.” Jane said firmly, slammed the door behind her and sat on the small couch next to the door.

  The boys started typing furiously on the keyboards. From time to time they turned to glance at Jane and check if she was still there with her gun pointed at them. Blake was determined to get the job done fast and she stayed behind them with lifted weapon and stern look.

  Soon enough Oliver, the little brother, put his hands down of the computer and started reading the info he had found.

  “William Spencer was in Rio de Janeiro with Shawn Higgins between October 19th and November 1st. They stayed in the Rio Cabo 45 Hotel.” Oliver took a deep breath and continued “While William was there he used his credit card mostly in the hotel’s restaurant but he went twice to a nearby town named Japeri. On the 22nd he bought liquor from a supermarket and checked in the Saraiva’s motel for two hours. The same happened two days later. And he went to the town once more, bought binoculars from a gift shop and he paid for a coffee at a café. Then he went back to his usual stuff and back in the USA. Nothing special!” finished Oliver and looked at his brother.

  Jane also moved her gun from Oliver to Steve, waiting for his information.

  “Everything looks ordinary here in the States except one thing.” Started Steve “Williams r
eceived 10k on the 5th of November from a foreign account which I can’t trace. It is hidden very well.”

  “What can you find about Dominik Kostra?” Jane asked.

  The boys started searching and minutes later informed her that this man was in jail. He was definitely not the killer.

  Blake listened them quietly, thinking. It took her a minute or two to decide she had to go. She stood up, threw some cash on the couch and stormed out without saying a word.

  What was William doing in Japeri? This was the town that Morse was before someone tipped him to move. What was that payment for and why Higgins didn’t know about William’s trip?

  Blake decided that she should try and call the motel in Japeri and with some luck she would get more information about William’s stay there.

  Jane went back to her room and searched for the motel’s phone number. It was a small motel and the owner Vitor Saraiva was also taking care of the reception. Jane dialed the number she found in their website and waited. A man picked up and started talking in Portuguese. Jane knew enough to tell him she didn’t speak the language and he started speaking in English with almost no accent. Blake explained she was from Missing Person’s unit in California and she was trying to trace the steps of William Spencer, who was reported missing. Vitor was understanding and decided to help. He asked Jane to wait until he finds the records of the dates she asked for five minutes to find the needed information.

  “Mr. Spencer came with a woman here. But I don’t know the name of the woman, I’m sorry!” The man said after a few minutes.

  “Do you remember him?” Jane hoped she would get something worth it.

  “Yes, I remember the second day they came. And I know for sure because that was a horrible day for the motel! Spencer and a lovely brunette walked out and after leaving the keys, they wished me a good day and walked out. But minutes later Spencer and the girl came back running and yelling. I asked what happened and they said ‘call the police, Vitor, now’. I did and they ran out again, I never saw them again!” explained Vitor with concern in his voice.