[Sign Behind the Crime 02.0] Aries

by Ronnie Allen

  What? The DEA has been watching them? For how long? Damn! Good thing I got what I needed last week. Oh, no! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

  I’ll be on that tape! And so will Ram, Cloud, and Moon.

  ***

  In the back office of an Italian eatery near the Todt Hill section of Staten Island, Paulo Philetano sat on the luxury leather couch with his three sons in dark blue, wing chairs opposite him. He hadn’t lost his heavy Sicilian accent, despite forty years of living in the United States. Most likely, it was because he’d tried so hard to keep it. He loosened his tie and unbuttoned his Armani suit jacket, but nothing would make him comfortable. “The three of you. You’re not doing ya jobs.” He rustled an arthritic hand through his full head of white hair. Cracking his knuckles caused him to wince in pain and he blew out a deep breath as he shook his head in disappointment. He rubbed his trimmed salt-and-pepper beard with his fingers, then covered his mouth, feeling as if he were holding back lava readying to burst out in a volcano, right from the center of his heart. He had barely touched his lunch, which had gotten cold. He usually couldn’t resist the fresh fragrant savory herbs and the melted cheeses in the homemade lasagna his son prepared. But today, his stomach churned and if he put anything into it, that would mean a trip to the emergency room.

  His second eldest son leaned in toward him and put a reassuring hand on his thigh. “Papa, we’ll find her. She hasn’t answered her phone.”

  Paulo swiped his son’s hand off his leg absentmindedly as he gazed out the sheer curtained window. He leaned in to meet his son. “Carlo, you like this restauranté? Yes?”

  “Yes, Papa. You know I do. It’s my life.”

  “Well, if you don’t find her soon, you lose it, along with that strip club of yours. Am I making myself clear?” Paulo shot Carlo a stern disciplinary glare, just as he did when his sons were young. They understood that sharp dark-eyed stare. The one that told them they’d better conform or all hell would break loose, usually on their behinds.

  Carlo’s face reddened.

  His father smiled, knowing that he could still intimidate his son, even though the boy was thirty-eight.

  Carlo sat up, swallowed hard, and hesitated a moment before he answered. “Yes, Papa, perfectly clear.”

  Paulo turned his glare on his other two sons. “And you, my hotshot lawyer. How about you finance your practice on your own? And you pay the sixteen-G-a month rent? How would you like that?” His son’s eyes opened wide and his mouth nearly followed suit. “Stephano, don’t you dare say a word. And you, my high-priced doctor. You’re the only one with an excuse. You work all day. But, as God is my witness, Paulie, you better help your fratelli as much as you can. Don’t just sit there, frowning at me. I can tell what you’re thinking. I know exactly what you’re thinking. I’m not losing it. I’m seventy, but still head of this family and no one, but no one, especially you three sorry-ass excuses for sons, will take all that I worked for away.”

  Paulie changed his seat to the couch to sit next to his father. “Papa, we’re not trying to take anything away from you.”

  “Paulie, close your mouth.” He waved a crooked index finger at his eldest. “I will not allow you to dig my grave.”

  Paulie wrapped a supportive arm around his father’s back. “Come on, Papa, calm down. Your blood pressure is high enough. Of course, I’ll help Carlo and Stephano. You know we do whatever you ask. Always. Ever since we were little, we’ve done what you say. We’ve never once disputed you. Even without the threats. Now, come on. Be reasonable, Papa.”

  Paulo’s soft spot for his eldest showed through. His tone of voice immediately mellowed. “Yes, Paulie. I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for my tirade. I’m just so frustrated. All of you out. Find AriellaRose Larcon and bring her to me. With her father’s murder on our property and being a close friend with Leonardo, the police will be investigating her too well. I don’t need any more collateral damage falling upon us. Leonardo tells her everything. If she knows the weapons supplier, both of them are in danger. She’s such a sweet young woman. I just can’t imagine what she’s going through now. At least we know Leonardo wasn’t involved in the murder. He’d been in jail three days before it had happened.” He swallowed hard. “Some consolation. So go. I need to talk with her. Your youngest fratello’s life depends on it. And I want to give your mother some positive news. The holidays will soon be upon us.”

  ***

  Sam walked down the corridor to AriellaRose’s hospital room. She paused when she heard pained screaming.

  “You’re hurting me! Stop!”

  “AriellaRose, look at me, not your arm. You have to keep your arm still. Come on. I’m here with you.” Frank’s voice was in his usual comforting tone.

  Sam wondered if this man ever showed emotion. They had spent a good part of two days together and he had never raised his voice above a soothing decibel. For such a behemoth, he appeared way too calm.

  How does he do that?

  Maybe she could learn something from Frank. The only time she was calm had been in her classroom. She had loved being with the little kids. But she had to move on after ten years. She had craved the excitement of law enforcement. She got high on the action, and she needed that high. She needed it to survive her boring, celibate life.

  “Okay, we’ll be done in a second. There ya go. Done,” the blood tech said.

  Sam waited outside the door, leaning against the wall and crossing her right foot over her left. Her mind went to the conversation with Mrs. Larcon.

  Is Frank interested in me? She laughed silently. It would be about time she had a relationship. But she wasn’t sure she was interested in him. Is he as calm in the bedroom as he appears to be at work? She couldn’t deal with that. She liked her men a little more aggressive in bed. What am I thinking? He’s a colleague. Off limits.

  However, it had been way too long. The last schmuck did a number on her. She was so naive she wouldn’t believe her friends when they told her they had seen him with another woman, too close and too friendly. And she was the one who was psychic. Yeah, right. Dara didn’t warn her about him. Or maybe she did and Sam didn’t listen to the signals. She had no one to blame but herself. For six months, he cheated. And what for? She knew she was awesome in bed. Her ego was exactly where it should be.

  No worries, Sam. The right one will come along when the time is right.

  The one she felt sad for was AriellaRose. That woman needed someone who’d understand her. Her mother certainly didn’t. Sam had had children like AriellaRose in her classroom, withdrawn, saddened by the way their parents treated them. She had become saddened, too. She had become their surrogate mommy. But AriellaRose was an adult and Sam decided she’d do her best to befriend her. On second thought, that wasn’t in her job description. You’re a detective now. She wasn’t supposed to become attached to anyone in an investigation.

  The tech exited the room and nodded to Sam. Sam waited a second and entered the room. The back of Frank’s stark white lab coat stopped her like a brick wall. Her briefcase slipped off her shoulder and fell onto the floor in one smooth motion. “Hi, AriellaRose. How are you feeling?”

  Her smiley tone wasn’t appreciated. AriellaRose rolled her eyes. Sam took it down a notch. “I just came by to see how you’re doing.” She turned her attention to Frank. “Hello, Doctor Khaos.”

  “Hello, Detective.”

  She nodded in approval at uniform of the moment. “You’re looking rather doctorly, Doctor Khaos.”

  He loosened his tie. “Thank you, Detective.”

  “Oh my God! Why don’t you two get outta here and go fuck?”

  “Excuse me?” Sam couldn’t believe her need was that obvious. Will he see that, too?

  “Oh, man, AriellaRose,” Frank added.

  “Knock it off. You both look like you need it, bad.”

  “Don’t worry about us, AriellaRose,” Sam said. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Well, I’m talked out. This motor-mouth shrink
won’t leave me alone.”

  Frank nodded to Sam. She got the message. “Okay. I’ll let you rest.”

  “Good. Both of you, out.”

  “All right. See you later. Keep yourself covered. It’s chilly in here.” Frank pulled up the sheets for her. He nodded to Sam and they both left the room.

  As they walked down the hall, Sam couldn’t wait to talk to him. “Motor-mouth shrink? That’s an odd term of endearment.”

  He ignored the small talk. “Why’d you really come over?”

  “Loo wants me to go over the file Withers gave to you. I have another one with me.”

  “Okay. Cool.”

  ***

  AriellaRose got out of bed and retrieved her smartphone from her canvas tote bag that lay against the wall under the ledge of the window. She heaved. The slightest exertion exacerbated her breathing.

  Come on, Arie, you’ve dealt with this a lot. You can do this.

  She guided her life with self-talk. Some positive. Mostly negative.

  She sat back down on the bed and bent over. She felt dizzy sending the text. In hospital. Some shit doc says I have pneumonia. Doubt it. Getting out of here. Meet me at the main entrance on First in 30. She pitched the phone back in the bag.

  She checked the length of the cord attaching the IV to the monitor. Good. Long enough to reach the closet. She had to get out. Her body ached. She needed her meds. Not the ones they were giving her. Good thing, though, she didn’t have any stashed with her.

  Damn that shrink. He actually had the nerve to want to go through her bag. And damn her for letting him. No. That had been smart. She had shown him she had nothing to hide. But now she needed her Blue. She’d pop at least two when she got home.

  She pulled her sweatshirt and sweat pants from the closet. She looked at the IV inserted into her left arm, studying the tape securing it. She prepared herself for the pain as she had nothing in her system now to prevent it. Lifting the end, she pulled it up and around. The tugging on her arm made her cringe. She grimaced and stifled an “Ow!” as she pulled. The plastic stint came out of her arm. Relief. She grabbed tissues from the box on the table and held it over the incision. The bleeding would stop in a few minutes. She’d had IV’s before, a few times a year, when she had been admitted for asthma. But this was the first time she’d tried to escape.

  She got dressed as fast as she could with her labored breathing. That was actually slow. She had to take a break between pulling on each pant leg. She couldn’t bend down to tie her shoelaces. She was too out of breath. She just slipped her feet in. She was sick but she couldn’t stay now. The need for her stuff took precedence.

  Come on, AriellaRose. You can do this. You once had an attack so bad, but you drove yourself home in a blizzard to get extra prednisone.

  Bundled up with the hoodie covering her head, she left the room and nonchalantly held onto the wall railing as she walked to the elevator. Thank God she didn’t have to pass the nurses’ station.

  ***

  Sam scanned the office. Nothing great. A bland doctor’s office in a hospital. Sterile. White walls. His diplomas hung on a wall opposite his colonial, dark wood desk. No pictures on the wall. Either he wasn’t a showy kind of guy, or he didn’t feel that this place was his milieu.

  She deduced that it was both. If she was going to help him find his wife’s killers, she’d have to know him and, so far, this hunk hadn’t let out a clue to his emotionality. Everything she needed to know about him was hidden behind his even temper and soothing, deep voice. She had to make a connection with him, even on a primal level.

  “Is this your private office?”

  “Yeah. I insisted they get me something where I could write out my reports in private. Hate doing them at the nurse’s station. Way too busy for me.”

  She removed a huge file from her bag and put it on his desk, looking for the slightest reaction. Nothing.

  Frank didn’t pay attention at first. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry. She couldn’t believe that it didn’t affect him anymore. That surprised her and worried her at the same time. He had probably been through Jen’s folders more than a million times and didn’t expect anything different from these new ones. Discouraged and pained would describe how he probably felt. It had been over two years. It was considered a cold case now. She agreed with the lieutenant on reopening it. Never give up on a colleague’s case, no matter how long. There was no statute of limitations on a murder case, so she’d do what she had to, even wake up the dead.

  She imagined what Frank thought about his department’s cool attitude.

  How can he still be vested in his job?

  He must be one strong and dedicated man. She decided she did like him. More like, she appreciated and respected him. She couldn’t imagine herself staying with the job after such a painful loss.

  He removed his lab coat and hung it on a coat rack in the corner. He didn’t stop there and pulled off his tie as Sam organized the paper work on his desk.

  “Come on. Sit. This will take a while.”

  “I have to get out of this first. Feel suffocated.”

  He unbuckled the belt on his dress slacks and pulled out his shirt. He unbuttoned it as Sam pretended not to watch. She just glanced up out of the corner of her eye. He removed it slowly. The nerve of him to tease her. She felt that was exactly what he was doing. A strip act, just for her. Then he slid his arms out of it.

  Oh. My. God! She couldn’t help but stare. She didn’t know what to look at first--his perfectly defined torso with more like an eight pack rather than six, or his colorful tats that traveled from both wrists up over his shoulders.

  Hot. This man was beyond hot. Her pelvis twitched.

  Before anything witty could expel from her mouth, without a knock, the door opened. A security guard yelled in. “Doc, the Larcon girl left the building. She just went out the front door.”

  Shirtless, he ran out of the office. In mid-November. Sam followed him, shocked, as all the women in the lobby stopped dead to stare at him. He didn’t seem to care. Okay, there were perks having an office right near the main entrance. He looked out the revolving door and spotted AriellaRose waiting by the curb.

  He bolted through the door and grabbed her arm from behind.

  She turned around and blinked. “Sorry I interrupted you two.”

  Passersby stopped and stared at the Hercules. A woman fell down the last step on the Express Bus in front of the hospital. No one went to help her. They just stood still. Sam just blended amongst them.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked AriellaRose.

  Um, a change in his tone. Sam studied him.

  “Home.”

  “No. You are not. Let’s go.”

  He held onto her arm, paying no attention to the people who Sam thought were judging him. Pretty aggressive for a doctor.

  Though gasping for air, AriellaRose struggled to pull her arm away, unsuccessfully. “Let go of me!”

  “You either walk with me, or I carry you. Now. Your choice.”

  “You carry me? Yeah, right.”

  He moved closer and bent his arms to pick her up, glaring down at her. “I could twirl you like a baton. Don’t ever test me.”

  Oh. My. God. Alpha male be born. Take me now. Waves of sensual energy hit her from head to toes. Sam became beyond ready for him. This was not supposed to happen. Thanks, Dara, for waking up my soul.

  CHAPTER 13

  Back in his office, Sam sat opposite Frank as she opened the newest file. She couldn’t help but stare at him, now back in his Khaos Rules T and skinny jeans.

  He glanced up and caught the stare. “Okay, what?”

  She gyrated involuntarily in her seat. “Oh, nothing.”

  “Say it. Now you’re holding your tongue?”

  “Nothing. Uh, the flash drives are in the pockets, here.”

  His intense glare seemed to peer right through her. “That’s not what you wanted to say. Spill it.”

  “Um, you
could have stayed shirtless. I wouldn’t have minded.”

  His wickedly sexy smile told her he’d play. “Yeah, okay. And I’d like to see you without that clingy top and bra.”

  She gasped. Yup. He certainly would play.

  “But right now, these files--” The phone ringing interrupted them. He closed his eyes and sighed.

  Yeah. He didn’t want an interruption, either.

  He lifted the handset on the phone on his desk on the second ring. “Doctor Khaos...You’re kidding?...How does she have the strength?...She won’t let you? What do you mean, she won’t let you?...Tell her I’m coming right up.” He disconnected. “Let’s go. Little Miss AriellaRose is being difficult.”

  ***

  Frank and Sam raced down the third floor hallway to AriellaRose’s room. Staff moved out their way, stood still, and watched. His heavy sneakers thumped in the hall as AriellaRose’s raspy screams bellowed.

  “Stay away from me! No! I won’t let you!”

  They heard the clang of the five thousand dollar IV pole with the attached monitor hit something hard.

  Frank bolted into the room and saw the mess she’d created. The bed table had been pushed toward the closet. The IV pole and monitor lay diagonally against the windowsill. The sheets had been kicked off the bed and lay wrinkled on the floor. AriellaRose bent forward on the bed, hyperventilated with a panicked, frenzied look in her eyes, shaking her head. Perspiration dripped down from her hairline. Sweat saturated her hospital gown.

  He studied her for a moment before he spoke then approached the bed with deep concern. “What is going on in here?”