by Ashley Nemer
CHAPTER FOUR
Spot on, at five forty-five a.m., her alarm sounded off, waking her out of her dream. “Every bloody morning.” She turned it off and got out of bed, heading for the shower. She looked in on her nephews, passed out, their best side, asleep. Sweet angels, when they’re sleeping, she thought. She got dressed and fixed her hair in a cute style and went and woke the boys. It almost made her sad to disturb them. Tony the Tiger rubbed along her leg in the threshold of the spare room’s door while she looked at the two boys.
“I know, you want to play, don’t you?” She picked up the kitten and walked over to the bed, setting him down and gently stirring the boys awake.
“Aunt Dia, stop licking me” Daman said. Leon mumbled in reply, “Dummy that’s the cat.”
“Hey, no name calling. Come on, get up, we need to get ready for school.” Nadia said, tussling Leon’s hair. “Pancakes ready in 10 minutes; be there or starve.” She left the boys and went to prepare breakfast. The kitten followed her and hopped up on the counter top. She could tell, by letting him on her desk yesterday afternoon, she had started a bad trend.
“You are going to be trouble, aren’t you Triple T?” She scratched under his jaw. He purred into her touch and his tail began swinging back and forth. “Yup, nothing but trouble.”
Nadia dropped the boys off at school then drove into work. Gabe was waiting on her in the parking lot when she pulled into her assigned spot. She gave him a little wave as she turned the steering wheel. She knew once he was interested in something, there was no stopping the lengths he would go to when he wanted to talk.
“Hot chocolate, mi lady,” he said, grinning and shaking a Starbucks cup at her.
“Mmm, my lord.” She faked a little bow before grabbing the drink from his hand and taking a sip. “You look happy to see me. Something to talk about?” She eyed him with a questioning look.
“Can’t I just be happy to see you, love?” He grabbed her arm and guided her towards their office. “Or could it be I have a bit of gossip for you that is to die for?”
“Spill, Bill.” She walked into the office and headed right for their desks. She loved being partners with him; they were going on five years of, quote unquote, crime fighting. That was their inside joke because it seemed like every month they were getting into trouble with some crime story or some conspiracy in politics.
“Well little missy, I dug into your mysterious writer, and it seems that they did interview the pet store owner on her disappearance, but he had an alibi, so there wasn’t much they could do about it. It looks like they worked on the case for a week and then chalked it up to an unsolved crime.”
“Unsolved? But it’s so obvious. Are we going to have to do the police’s job for them again?” She drank some of the hot chocolate and rolled her eyes. “They should really, just add us to the payroll.”
“You know what the judge said, no more crime fighting for you for at least a year.”
Nadia scoffed at Gabe’s comment. “You think I’m going to let that stop me? You see there’s a story; I see there’s a story, so what’s the deal? Besides, I’ve been clean for five months. I’m jonesin’ for some trouble.”
“Alright, but when your ass is locked away for obstruction of justice, don’t expect me to bail you out.”
Nadia sat in her chair, laughing. “Oh, I won’t be calling you, since you’ll be there with me. Don’t cha know? We’re partners in crime.”
“Oh lord, remind me why I said yes to this.”
“Because you love me, and five years ago I gave a poor, helpless boy a chance.”
“Ahhh that’s where you’re wrong. I was a man not a boy.” He grinned at her and tossed a folder full of papers on her desk.
“Men, always thinking they are more than they really are.”
“You two done bickering yet?” They both looked up and saw their boss walking toward them.
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
“Good, got a call this morning from your guy in the police department; I was told to tell you to proceed with caution. So spill, what’s going on?”
They began to fill him in on everything that had been uncovered. Together everybody came up with a schedule for a six man surveillance team. Everyone was instructed to only work with their partners to make sure everyone stayed safe and accountable. Nadia and Gabe were to be the lead reporters on this story. Four new hires were assigned to stand watch and follow and were specifically instructed not to engage anyone.
“Do you think we can win the hearts of a mob hit man with some cookies? As a thank you for my kitten?” Nadia said as she twirled a plate of chocolate chip cookies in her hand.
“Where did you get those?” Gabe asked her, the look on his face curious yet not surprised.
“The break room, someone is celebrating a birthday so I just took a few.” She laughed and bit a small part off of one of the cookies.
“A few? Did you leave any for the others?” Gabe reached up and grabbed the other half of her cookie and ate it.
“OK, so I swiped all of them; gonna rat me out? I don’t see you bitchin’ while you’re eating the rest of mine.”
“Nah, I’m just messing with ya. Come on, let’s go woo the mob.”
They strolled out of their office and went into the parking lot. Gabe knew she would want to drive. She liked being in charge when the story was her idea. “Should we play like we’re married or just friends?”
“I think we should go with married since he took my address when I had to show him my license to fill out the adoption form.”
“What? Stop the car. What are you talking about? They have your home address?”
“Well yeah, I had to fill out the papers for the cat.”
Gabe ran his hand over his face and shook his head over and over. “Nadia we can’t do this; you can’t go back in there. They’ll suspect you. How could you let them have your address?”
“Stop it Gabe. I had no choice; I wanted the damn cat. Now come on, just act like you love me and we’re married. It’ll be fine.”
“Act like we’re married, you think it’s so easy to be your man?”
She laughed, pulled the car onto the street, and pointed it in the direction of the pet store. “Yeah, just act like we never sleep together and I boss you around a lot. He’ll totally believe we’re married.”
“Funny, you described our actual relationship there, sweetheart. Maybe I should be upping my fee to washing my boxers.”
“Oh hell no! No perks for you! Keep those nasty things in your apartment.”
“There’s no fun in that. If I have to listen to you whine, I should at least get something out of it.” Gabe reached over and poked at her side. He laughed, watching her jump as she batted away his finger.
“Stop that! You know I HATE when you do that crap. How about this, I let you work with me, an’ I don’t kill ya? Seems fair enough to me.”
She signaled him by moving her head in the direction of the pet store, pulling off the main road and moving to the side street with the car.
“Just don’t do anything stupid, okay Nadia? In all seriousness.”
She put the car in park and unbuckled her seatbelt. “I know, Gabe, same for you. Come on, let’s go bag us a story.”
With her cookies in hand, she got out of the vehicle and wrapped her arm around Gabe’s when he presented it to her.
“Wife.”
“Husband.”
Gabe kissed her right temple and they walked into the pet store. Gabe hated the smells that a lot of pets gathered together gave off. She laughed softly at the face he made.
“Stop it, Gabe. Come on, suck it up for me.”
“The things I do for you, woman.” Gabe’s attention turned to the man handling a cat in the back corner. The cat had scratched the man in the face and ran off into the back room. Gabe leaned over and whispered into Nadia’s ear. “Remind me to tell you why I hate cats.”
Nadia elbowed him in the ribs, and he made a lit
tle grunt. The man who had been messing with the cat looked up and walked over to them.
“Hey, are you here to return that kitten you got yesterday?” he said, coming over to them.
Nadia smiled at him and shook her head while extending her hand presenting him with the cookies. “Oh no, quite the opposite, I’m here to say thank you. He’s a perfect fit for our family!”
Gabe rolled his eyes. She was laying it on thick, and he was sure that anyone would be able to see what a little con artist she was.
The man took the cookies grinning. “It seems you don’t think so?” he asked Gabe.
“Nah, the kitten was for her. I just gotta clean the poop. The things you do for love. You married?” Gabe asked in response.
“Nah, no time for women. These cookies look great; you didn’t have to. Finding forever homes for our pets is my job.”
“Stay away from women, that’s my advice.” Gabe said, just as he felt a hard elbow to the ribs. He looked over at Nadia. “What? I’m just kidding. Married life is great!” He grabbed one of the cookies and walked over towards the cat toys hanging from the wall.
“Your husband doesn’t like cats, huh?”
Nadia walked over to the counter and placed the plate down. She turned around, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “It’s not that. He’s just mad that he lost the bet. I told him that his payment is my little kitten. But seriously, he’s a perfect little cat. I was wondering, it was Ramon right? Anyway, I was wondering, when does he need to have his shots, and can I bring him back here?”
“Good memory, and no, you are going to have to take him to a vet. Would you like the name of a good one?”
“Oh yes please, that would be great, wouldn’t it honey?” she called out to Gabe.
“Yup, whatever you say hun.” He pulled down a collar from the rack and walked up to her. “Look, pink, your favorite color. Would you let me collar and leash you, pumpkin?”
Nadia looked up at him, smiling slightly and gritting her teeth. “Behave.”
Gabe leaned over and kissed her nose and set the collar and leash set down on the counter. “We’ll take this please, then we need to be going.”
Nadia turned around and looked at Ramon with a smile and paid for the new items. “Thanks again, see you when he runs out of cat food.”
They left the pet store, and when they were safely in the car, Nadia looked at Gabe with the most dumbfounded expression she could give. “What the hell was that, a collar and a leash?”
“What? You know I think pink is your color. I’ve always said that.”
“You are too much, you know that? But I think he bought that we’re husband and wife, don’t you?”
“Yeah, he did, but let me tell you what I saw as I was looking through the aisles.”
Nadia’s head turned right to look at him; she waited anxiously at his words.
“On the floor there was a box titled ‘you’re next’.” He smirked and continued. “So I knelt down and pretended to mess with the collars and took a look at what was inside. I saw a lot of crime scene photos of a guy, looked to be Hispanic. His throat was slit, there was chalk on his face and the crime scene had police tape around it. Do you know what that means Nadia?”
She released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding and focused her attention back on the road. “Yeah, that means a police officer gave them the photos if there was police tape in them.”
“Yup, so we need to stay off the grid, completely.”
“That means you can’t call your police buddy anymore, Gabe.”
“Yeah, I thought of that. We need to prepare for the possibility that your buddy Ramon is onto the fact that you and I are investigating or that he’s about to die. Those photos were not pretty.”
“Did you recognize the guy in the pictures?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t. But I think you should come stay with me while all this is going on. You know, just to be safe.”
“I don’t run, you know that, Gabe, besides we don’t know that they suspect us of anything anyways.”
“Nadia…”
“No, not going to run. You can come stay with me, but I’m not leaving.”
“Gah, you are one stubborn woman. Don’t forget I am usually right in these situations, Miss Maverick.”
“You are only right because I let you be right. If I told you everything I knew all the time, then you would never have lasted this long with me. Men do not like their egos deflated.”
Gabe rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, boss. Let’s get back to work so we can come up with a plan.”
“Yeah, but first we need to eat some lunch.” She pulled into Luby’s Café and parked the car.
“It’s 10 a.m., what are you eighty? Why do we need to eat now?” Gabe questioned as he stepped out of the car.
“You’ll see. I have a few tricks of my own, Mr. Sarmani.”
“Oh man, last naming me….never good.”
“That was only cause you Mavericked me. Now come, take my hand, husband. I need your acting performance for a wee bit longer, alright?”
“Yeah sure, whatever you say, Mrs. Sarmani .”