by Ashley Nemer
CHAPTER NINE
Nadia lay awake in bed for a few hours after Anabella and Kain had gone to sleep. She couldn’t get the image of Matt out of her head, his body dangling from the ceiling. How was she going to face his family? He was just a kid. His whole life was still ahead of him. Now it had been ended because she had to have her story.
She was counting the cracks in the ceiling, trying to make herself tired. Nothing was working. She just kept playing out the night’s events over and over, trying to figure out what she could have done differently, and she kept coming back to the same conclusion: never stepping foot outside of the car. That was where tonight’s events had turned bad. Maybe if she had insisted on non-rookies for the job, things would be different.
She rolled to her side and looked at her sister sleeping. She wished she could be more like Anabella, more level headed, less random and careless.
“You’re looking at me,” Anabella said in a whisper while she pulled the sheets up to her chest. “Thought you went to sleep.”
“I can’t sleep. I just replay the night over and over. It’s all I see.”
“You want me to sing to you, like when you were a kid?”
That made Nadia laugh a little. “No, I’m alright. I’m not like Sheldon who needs to hear Soft Kitty to get to sleep.”
“You sure?” Anabella started to pet Nadia’s head and sing Soft Kitty.
The two sisters started laughing, and it did help Nadia find a way to manage some sleep. Her dreams were filled with sadness and death. Her biggest fears became reality while she slept. She had dreams where she quit her job, and she played out the internal conflicts in her dreams. She loved her work more than anything, but after tonight she didn’t know how she could continue if she gave it up.
Nadia woke up in a cold sweat. The dreams of her job had her made her toss and turn all night. She had to make it into work today; it was Election Day, and she had reports and deadlines. Everyone was supposed to be all hands on deck today. She couldn’t afford any slacking. Triple T was lying on her chest, his little body curled up, unaware of the fright that plagued her mind.
“Come on, little guy, lets go explore the house. Maybe find some food.”
She and the kitten left the room quietly; she didn’t want to wake Anabella up. Who knows how long she had been kept awake by her own tossing and turning? They made it to the living room where she was immediately bombarded by Daman.
“Aunt Dia! You had a slumper party without me!”
Nadia laughed and put the kitten down on the ground and gave her nephew a hug. “That’s slumber party, and you were already asleep when I got here. Tonight we can camp out, if you want.”
“Oh yes, we can camp and build marshmenows and tell stories.”
She couldn’t help laughing at how he pronounced the words. Daman always made everything feel better and seem not as important as it was. “It’s a date. I have some good stories for you.”
“Ok, but don’t scare me too bad; I don’t want to never go to sleep again.”
“Daman, leave your aunt alone,” Kain said while he stuck his head out from the kitchen. “Morning Sunshine, it’s eleven a.m. I think you needed some sleep.”
Nadia looked up at him and her eyes went wide. She stood with a purpose that knocked Daman off balance and made the kitten move back a few inches. “Eleven? Crap, I’m late. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Calm your engine there sis. Scully called. He said you have today off and to call him when you wake up so he can go over some things.”
“Oh. Have you heard from Gabe?”
“No, but you can call him in a bit. Come sit down, Daman, you too. It’s time for lunch.”
Daman picked up Triple T, brought him to the table, and sat him in the chair next to him while Nadia and Kain set the table.
“Where’s Leon at?” Nadia sat down and took the kitten and put him on the floor. She didn’t want the habit of sitting at the table to start.
“He went outside to play. I’ll go get him.” Daman ran off towards the back door. Nadia was grateful that she had this place to come to, to get away from the madness of yesterday. She stared off at the wall. Triple T had found her sockless feet and began licking the bottoms of her toes.
“Penny for your thoughts.” Kain placed the tray of chicken fried steak in front of her and the mashed potatoes down on the table.
“Not really thinking about anything, just grateful to be here. Should we get Ana up?”
“No need to, I’m up.” Kain and Nadia turned around to see Anabella walking toward them and the two kids running past her, towards the table.
They all sat together and took a moment to pray in silence, a tradition Anabella, Nadia, and Kain had done since they were young children. Kain made the first movement and broke the silence when asking, “Steak anyone?” Everyone chimed in. They passed the meat and mashed potatoes around and filled each plate full.
“Aunt Ana, do you and Aunt Dia plan on staying forever?” Daman looked around at the adults. It was obvious he wanted an affirmative answer. “No my little one, not forever, just a few days. Is that okay buddy?” Anabella replied. Everyone at the table looked to Daman, he was carefully thinking of his answer.
“I suppose, but you have to be at our campsite tonight too. We’re cooking marshmenows.”
“Daman, it’s marshmallow,” Leon said. He made sure to take an extra-long amount of time pronouncing the word to emphasize where Daman was saying it wrong. Leon was laughing at his brother until Kain gave his son the look. Leon quietly went back to eating.
“Whatever, you have to join us, Aunt Ana.”
“Of course I will sweetie.” Anabella smiled at Daman, and he gave a wide grin. His missing front teeth made the look on his face adorable.
They all finished eating lunch. Anabella cleared the table and did the dishes while Kain and Nadia sat and talked.
“I’ve called and arranged for a new door and locks to be installed in a few hours. There’s also a security company who’ll be out there in the next thirty minutes to install a state of the art system. They’ll install reinforced glass planes for your windows, along with a lot of other special features. It’ll probably take you two weeks to figure it out.”
“Kain, that’s too much; you shouldn’t have. I can’t afford all of that.”
“Don’t even, Nadia. We have this covered,” Anabella said from behind her.
Nadia turned and looked at her sister, then to her brother. She nodded towards them and stood up. “I need to call Scully and check in with Gabe. I’ll be in the other room so I don’t scare the children with any details.”
“Take all the time you need, sis.” Kain stood and walked over to her. He pulled her in for a tight hug.
Anabella put down her dish cloth and walked over to the two of them. Kain stuck his arm out and pulled her in too. The three of them stood in the kitchen holding each other for a minute before Kain broke the peaceful moment.
“Okay ladies, I’m off to get some chores done. I’m going to take advantage of the kids being home from school cause of the election and you two being here to watch them. That okay?”
Anabella and Nadia both agreed, and they went off their own ways, Kain to the garage, Anabella outside with the children, and Nadia to the bedroom.
She opened up the suitcases that she and Kain had put together in a hurry last night and discovered that someone remembered to pack her laptop. She pulled it out, put it on the bed, grabbed the phone off of the dresser, and started dialing Scully’s number.
“Scully.”
“Hey, it’s Nadia.” Her stomach was in knots. She didn’t know what he was going to say or what to expect. She deserved an ass chewing, and she knew she would have to suck it up and take it.
“Are you okay? We’re all worried about you,” he asked, but his tone never changed, the monotone level a constant, as usual.
“Not really but I will be. Eventually. It all happened so fast last night.”
&nbs
p; “Do you want to tell me what happened? If you aren’t ready to talk, you don’t have to.”
“No, I can tell you, I just…” She paused; she needed a moment to wipe the tears that were forming in her eyes when she thought back on Matt’s lifeless body hanging from her living room. “Scully, it was horrible, all of it. Had Matt not flashed his camera then we would have been able to get out of there undetected. I tried to stop him, honest, but it was too late; he had already alerted them to our being outside their building.”
“That’s what Gabe told me. You know I don’t blame you for his mistake. He knew better; we train everyone the same about casing and stake outs.”
“I blame me, Scully. He was my responsibility, and I let him and his family down. I let the paper down.”
“No, you didn’t. Really, I shouldn’t have given you a rookie to use on a case like this. Maybe we all have a part to play in Matt’s death. Either way, take the rest of the week off, drop this story, and come back to work on Monday.”
“What about tonight? You’re going to need people to cover the election results.”
“I’ll send Tracy down to city hall to watch the votes come in. Just rest and take it easy with your family; we want you back at work with a healthy mind set. The cops will catch the guy, have faith.”
“I don’t know if I can Scully. I don’t know.”
They said their goodbyes, and she put the phone down on the bed and turned on her laptop. She had only been online a few minutes when Gabe instant messaged her.
GabetheMan: Hey Babe
NewsGirl22: Hey
GabetheMan: Are you doing okay?
NewsGirl22: ~shrugs~ Not so much, talked to Scully and he wants me staying home till next Monday. IDK about that. I’ll go nuts
GabetheMan: You need a break, this was hard on you
NewsGirl22: Yeah but I don’t feel safe now and I can’t move into Kain’s house
GabetheMan: Aren’t they making your house more secure?
NewsGirl22: Yeah I found out about that…IDK if it will help, would it help you?
GabetheMan: Maybe, but I am dating an officer
NewsGirl22: Oh yeah cause we can all be that lucky right? jerk
GabetheMan: Hey now, you love me, chillax. It will be fine, Kev will catch the guy and lock them up and no one will be able to hurt you
NewsGirl22: I hope you are right
GabetheMan: I am. Go be with your family. I’ll talk to you tmw, k?
NewsGirl22: k, see you later Gabe.
Nadia checked her email and then shut her laptop back off. Gabe was right, enjoy time with the family and let Kevin do his job. Things would look better in a few days. They always did. She walked out into the living room and saw everyone gathered in front of the television. Election coverage had started; the pundits had made their projections. Now the world sat and waited till midnight when history would be made. It was the only topic of conversation, two terms for President Obama or the first Mormon in the white house. Election 2012, one for the history books.
“Scoot over, Leon; I want to watch too.” Nadia sat down where Leon had moved from. She tried to put the bad out of her mind and just enjoy the rare chance that their whole family was together.