The Eyes Tell No Lies

by Marquaylla Lorette

  No, you can’t tell him, he would think you’re crazy and probably admit you into a mental institution. He didn’t even believe his own sister, what makes you think he would believe you?

  “Yes, and feeling guilty that it was them instead of you. Feeling guilty when you laugh at something and suddenly remember your loss,” Cris said as he closed his eyes and sat back in his seat.

  Cris kept his eyes closed as Arie spoke. Just the sound of her voice had him wanting to do unspeakable things to her. Like reach across the table, pull her toward him until he could feel her hot breath caressing his lips, and kiss her senseless. Stop thinking like that, you have to focus in order to find you sister’s killer and the person who has been terrorizing the city for years.

  “Yes, that is exactly how I feel,” Arie said as she pick up a strand of her hair and began to twirl it around her finger. “See that photo right there? That is my mother, father, and I on my eighth birthday,” Arie said as she pointed at a picture tacked on the wall next to them.

  When Cris looked at the picture of Arie and her family on the wall, he knew something was off about the picture but didn’t want to say anything, he wasn’t sure if it was his place to or not.

  “Are you guys ready now?” The waitress came back just in time so Cris wouldn’t have to comment on the picture.

  “Sure, I would like the wheat waffles with whipped cream and strawberries on top and a side of berries. Oh yeah, and an apple juice,” Arie ordered.

  “Number one with extra sausage, a large orange juice, and the strongest coffee you have,” Cris ordered as he handed the waitress his and Arie’s menus.

  “While we’re waiting for the food, we need to come up with a plan for how we are going to backtrack Grace’s steps,” Arie said as she looked at Cris when the waitress left.

  “Last night after I left your house, I searched Grace’s room and found some of the notes she had on the Daytime killer. I know there are some more notes at my mom’s house, but I couldn’t find them for some reason,” Cris said as he took a sip of his coffee the waitress had just placed in front of him.

  “Just get me to your mother’s home and I can find it. You can tell your mother Grace is the reason I can see again and I wanted to thank your family,” Arie said.

  “You can ask my mom if you can see Grace’s room and I can volunteer to take you. That way we can search her room in private without my mother suspecting anything. I don’t want my mother to know anything more than she already does until he is caught,” Cris said just before the waitress placed their food in front of them.

  Over an hour later they were pulling up to the front of Cris’s mother’s driveway. When Cris abruptly stopped the car, the items in Arie’s purse flew out onto the floor. Including something Arie didn’t want Cris to see. As Cris leaned over to help Arie pick up her items off the floor, he spotted her gun sticking out of the top of her purse. Before she could stop him, Cris leaned over and confiscated it.

  “I am confiscating this until we get back to your house. You know I can take you to jail for having this on you?” Cris said to Arie as he checked to see if the gun was loaded before locking it up in his glove box.

  “No you cannot. I have a carrying permit for it,” Arie said as she tried to open the locked glove box to get her gun back.

  “How do you have a carrying permit and you were blind up until two weeks ago?” Cris asked with a confused yet cautious look on his face.

  “Here is my carrying permit right here and don’t worry about the how or the why. Just know that I got one and I am an excellent shot,” Arie snapped as she angrily shoved her carrying permit at him.

  He could hear the anger and frustration in her voice and didn’t know whether it was because he took her gun or the reference he made toward her blindness. Cris didn’t mean it the way it sounded, he just wanted to know how someone who was just blind could obtain a carrying permit so easily, not the way she heard and took it. He didn’t want her to be pissed at him even though he thought she looked beyond sexy when she was pissed. The way her right eyebrow arched up, the corner of her mouth slightly lifted up, and how she clenched and unclenched her hands. On any other woman it would had looked ridiculous but on her, it was the sexiest thing he ever saw. He had only known her for two days, if you didn’t count the week he spent with her after her parents’ death, yet it felt like he knew her or at the very least wanted to get to know her. He didn’t know what it was about her that sent his mind and body in a frenzy and had his heart thumping. There was something about Arie that made him want more out of life—more from her. Cris shook his head to clear his thoughts when he heard Arie clearing her throat and saw her staring at him.

  “Look I am—” Before he could finish his apology, Arie lifted up her hand and cut off his apology.

  Arie blew out an angered hot breath and began a deep breathing exercise trying to control her anger. She ignored him. She hated when people tended to assume something without asking or barged in on her personal space. Cris did both in a matter of seconds, leaving her pissed off. Arie was annoyed with both Cris and her body. Cris because she felt as though he was stereotyping both her and blind people, not to mention he implied that she would break the law, and she would never break the law. When he thought she was carrying a concealed weapon without the proper training or paperwork, it felt like he was trying to control her. She knew it sounded strange, but it felt like one of those times her mother stopped her from having something. Arie felt chastised.

  Her body betrayed her by responding to the sound of Cris’s voice. His voice was deep, raspy, and had so much determination and power behind it. It sent Arie’s body into a tingling frenzy, especially when it had so much fervor and anger behind it. His voice had been wrecking havoc on her body for months now. After her father’s funeral, all she could focus on was the sound of the sexy detective’s voice. Just by the sound of his voice, she knew what kind of man he was: strong, powerful, in control yet not controlling, and determined. Since she was blind, she learned to readapt to everything, and figuring out a person’s personality was one of them. With just the pitch of someone’s voice or how they walked, she could determine whether they were weak, vulnerable, strong, funny, powerful, and a host of other things.

  Now she was even more pissed at her body and mind for thinking about how Cris put her on fire in every way imaginable. No, no, no stop thinking about him that way, think about how he stereotyped blind people. As far as thinking they cannot take care of themselves. It is just like saying we are weak, Arie thought as she focused her mind on something else, other than how Cris turned her on.

  The sound of someone banging on a window drew her out of her thoughts. She was so focused on the transparent figure of Grace in a room on the second story that Arie didn’t notice Cris had gotten out of the car and was talking to his mother. She didn’t realize she had grabbed her purse, got out of the car, and walked up the path to the front of the house all the while staring at Grace’s ghost. It was as if Grace was trying to show her something in the room, but she couldn’t see it. Arie knew no matter what, she was going to get in the room. She was in such a deep trance that she didn’t realize Cris was introducing her to his mother until he nudged her a little with his elbow.

  “Hi, how are you, Mrs. Crow?” Arie asked Christoph’s mother as she took the woman’s outstretched hand and shook it.

  “I am okay, and call my Daya, Mrs. Crow was my mother-in-law,” Daya said as her eyes swept over Arie.

  Wow, so that’s where he got his looks from, except she has jet-black hair, Arie thought as she looked back and forth between mother and son. Cris looked like a male version of his mother except he had his father’s hair color.

  “Come on, sweetie, let’s go inside so you can meet Cris and Grace’s cousins,” Daya said as she wrapped her right arm around Arie and guided her into her home.

  As Arie walked into the house, she noticed out the corner of her eye a living room to the left, a staircase that led to
the second floor straight ahead, and a family room which led into the kitchen as well to her right. She didn’t have time to look around as she was ushered further into the house toward the family room.

  Daya didn’t know how she would feel meeting the woman who now had a part of her daughter in her. She didn’t know whether she would be sad or depressed but somehow she felt herself being excited that her daughter somehow lived on in a bright young woman.

  Cris introduced Arie to his two cousins, the two men looked so much alike that they were often confused as twins, except they were three years apart and one was taller than the other and had a green ring around his pupil. The other brother’s eyes were magnetic blue and both men immediately perused Arie and her shapely figure.

  Cris unconsciously pulled Arie closer to him when his cousins began to openly stare at her. He didn’t know what was going on because he had never felt possessive or jealous over a woman, especially one he wasn’t even dating. He knew he had to hurry and catch the Daytime Killer before he developed any stronger feelings for her. Snap out of it and remember what we came here for, Cris thought as his mother began to introduce Arie to his cousins.

  Entering the family room, Daya began the introductions. “To your left is Tate.” She pointed to the shorter brother with the green ring around his eyes. “And this here is Mark. Mark is the oldest by three years and Tate is the same age as Cris,” Daya said as she motioned for Arie to take a seat at the brown rectangle table with six matching chairs.

  “Mark and Tate, this is Arie, the young woman who was given Grace’s corneas so she is able to see again,” Daya said as she sat next to Arie in one of the chairs at the table.

  Mark smiled at the mention of Grace’s name while Tate grimaced. No one but Arie seemed to notice the look on Tate’s face at the mention of Grace’s name. He also gave her a creepy feeling that sent electrifying currents deep into her bones.

  “I still cannot believe our sweet, caring, fun loving, not to mention troublemaking and prankster, Gracie is gone. I remember the first time staying here for the whole summer. I was ten at the time so that would have made Tate, Cris, and Gracie at the time seven years old. I woke up the next morning with a long hissing snake crawling up me. I immediately screamed and heard Tate’s and Cris’s earsplitting screams at the same time. While we were screaming, Gracie was laughing uncontrollably in the hallway.

  “Back then, it wasn’t funny but now I can look back and laugh at the whole scene,” Mark said as he gave out a light chuckle throughout the story.

  “Not to mention she came into each of our rooms, and picked up the snakes out of the beds while laughing at us and then kissed them on the mouth before walking out of the room,” Tate said as he shook his head then got the same look on his face he got earlier before quickly blinking it away.

  Cris’s family was suddenly engrossed in recalling many of Grace’s pranks or how she would cheer someone up with just a smile and twinkle in her eye. At first Arie felt uncomfortable but as the stories about Grace were told, she was just as engrossed as the family until someone whispered in her ear.

  ‘Remember what you are here for,’ the voice she now knew belonged to Grace spoke to her after a few hours of listening to stories about her.

  From the look on Cris’s face when she turned toward him made her suspect that he had gotten the same message as she did. Her suspicions were quickly confirmed when he spoke.

  “Mom, how about I show Arie, Grace’s room while you finish lunch,” Cris spoke up as his mother excused herself to go finish the lunch she had started for them.

  “Sure, I was just about to suggest just that,” Daya said before disappearing into the kitchen.

  Arie rose out of her chair behind Cris as they passed the living room and headed for the stairs. The living room was filled with photos from the time when Cris and Grace were babies until adulthood. There were also pictures of Cris’s parents from their wedding. A fireplace sat along the wall with a bear rug in front of it and a black sectional couch, which surrounded the fireplace.

  Cris took the stairs two at a time with Arie quickly following closely behind him. They headed down a long hallway that held a floral design and another set of family pictures. Arie found herself wondering which room was Cris’s until they finally reached the end of the hallway.

  “That door over there leads to my old room,” Cris said as he pointed to the door on their right. “And this right here is, well, was Grace’s room,” he said as he opened the door on their left.

  Arie cautiously stepped into Grace’s room, not wanting to break anything. As she looked around and Cris was looking for Grace’s notes, she noticed the walls were a lilac color with a family portrait painted on the walls from when they were younger. Making her think Grace hadn’t changed the color in her room for a long time; either that, or the portrait and color was significant to Grace. In the middle of the room was an oak wood bed with matching dressers and nightstands on either side of the bed.

  The nightstand closer to the window suddenly began to move from side to side, Arie and Cris both looked at each other in shock. It looked as though it was walking on its own as it moved forward, swaying. Neither one of them moved until Arie saw Grace’s spirit urging her forward toward the moving nightstand.

  “Can you come move this for me?” Arie asked Cris when she noticed how heavy the nightstand was.

  Cris quickly moved forward, lifted the nightstand into the air, and placed it in front of the bed. He couldn’t believe what he had seen and was starting to believe in what his sister and mother had been telling him his whole life. Yet in the back of his mind there was still some doubt lingering.

  Arie could see a floorboard sticking slightly up where the dresser had been just a few moments ago. She quickly moved toward it, crouched down, and pried it open with both her right and left hand. A yellow and red folder stuck out of the floorboard. Arie immediately picked up the folders and placed them in her purse when she heard someone walking up the stairs. She quickly moved toward the door as Cris closed the floorboard and moved the dresser right back into place.

  When Mark and Tate entered the room, Arie and Cris were looking over the portrait painted onto Grace’s wall.

  “Did I tell you Grace started painting this the night our father died?” Cris asked when he noticed Mark and Tate trying to sneak into the room out of the corner of his eyes.

  “No, how did your father die?” Arie asked as she traced her hands along the clouds.

  “He died suddenly from liver cirrhosis a few years ago,” Cris answered as his eyes roamed the life-like photo of his father.

  He closed his eyes tightly and tried to will away his feeling about his father’s death as they bubbled to the surface. Cris took slow, deep calming breaths in and out, as he closed his eyes tighter.

  Arie could see the struggle Cris was going through written all over his face and wanted nothing more than to help him through it. She placed her hand in his and guided him out of the room while whispering encouraging words to him.

  “Lunch is ready, everybody, come down.” The sound of his mother’s voice drifting up the stairs quickly snapped him out of his pity.

  He didn’t want his mother to see the pain etched on his face since he knew she would instantly know why and become sad herself. So he sucked it up and put a smile on his face for his mother’s sake. He made a point to make it to his mother’s house at least three times a week and the other days Tate and Mark went. He wanted to make sure his mother had family around when she wasn’t working.

  “Everyone sit down and fill your plates,” Daya said as she sat down and filled her own plate.

  As Arie slowly approached the table, she noticed it was filled with fish, corn, and black beans. By the time she sat down, everyone else was already digging in. She was nervous she didn’t know whether to dig in like the others or what.

  Cris nudged her as Daya said, “What are you waiting for, dig in.”

  That was all the encouragemen
t Arie needed. She didn’t want to seem rude, especially with the host telling her to dig in. As they ate, they made small talk and got to know each other. After lunch, Arie knew Daya and Chane were married at the age of nineteen and had Cris and Grace a year later, and without a doubt knew their life was complete. Mark and Tate’s parents were killed in a house fire when they were sixteen and thirteen the summer they came to live with Cris’s family. Cris was doing everything he could to one day earn the title of Captain. And Daya, Tate, Mark, and Cris learned Arie had no family left after her parents were killed, and that she had a bachelor’s degree in criminology but wasn’t using it at the moment.

  Cris and Arie left for Arie’s home after helping Daya with the dishes and Arie promising to visit again soon.

  Chapter Four

  The next day, Arie and Cris sat in her father’s office with Grace’s notes spread out across the brown wood veneer desk. Arie didn’t want to disturb her father’s chair so she sat next to Cris on the other side of her father’s desk. Every so often, when she lifted her head up from the notes, she would see her father sitting there taking a business call. She felt the urge to reach out quite a few times at the image of her father. Somehow she managed to stop herself right before she lifted her hand.

  They were separating the evidence into a few piles before dividing the piles amongst themselves. Arie was looking over evidence found on the bodies and possible victim connections. Cris was going over suspects and autopsy reports.

  Arie was developing a feel of who the killer was by looking over how the bodies were placed at the crime scene. The more she stared at them the more she felt as though she was getting in the head of the killer. She knew she would have more insight if she were at the different crime scenes and could have seen it with her own eyes. The images from the crime scenes were getting too much for her so she switched over to the possible victims' connections. As she was scanning through the victim connection’s piles, one started formulating, but she didn’t want to alert Cris too soon.