by Amber Lynn
After lurching awake from another unpleasant dream featuring Nate, I realized my phone ringing was what jarred me up. It could've been that I was getting a little too used to seeing Nate sans clothes in my dreams, but I voted for the phone being the culprit.
I leaned over and picked up the phone, no longer surprised to see Nate's number on it. My thoughts the previous day about me feeling abnormally territorial around him made a little more sense when you factored in the fact I didn't have a lot of conscious moments he wasn't involved in.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" I waited to answer until I was up and out of the bed. I'd made it all the way out to the kitchen to grab a protein bar. "Unless the answer is 'way too early', you'd be wrong."
"Sorry, my little butterfly, but this is important work-related business. Have you ever been to a crime scene by any chance?"
It wasn't even six a.m. and I could tell my day was going to be worse than the previous one. Nate hadn't seemed to lose his cheerful mood, which only helped to fuel the violent one I'd been feeling since he walked into my life.
"What type of crime scene are we talking? Please say someone has stolen little Suzie's goldfish." I knew it was a foolish idea, but it was about the only kind of crime scene I could think of that would require my presence.
"Sorry, we're talking the murder type of crime scene. It appears that man Zuba visited with yesterday was killed late last night. The body was found in Central Park. I'd like you to come down to the scene with me and verify it was the man you saw yesterday, since you got a better look at him."
"But you took pictures, can't you just go off those?" I pleaded. I didn't want to see a dead body first thing in the morning. I didn't want to see a dead body at all.
"I want a visual confirmation from someone who's seen him and you're my best chance for that, since I'm not going to knock on Zuba's door and ask him. I'm already at the scene; do you think you can catch the train or a cab over here?" he asked.
"Even though I don't use it often, I do have my own transportation. I'll get dressed and be there shortly. You're really going to owe me after this. My life used to be simple, just sitting behind a computer all day. You make an entrance, and everything goes to, well goes to a not very nice word that's for sure."
He laughed. I would've too if I wasn't annoyed.
"Can you not say bad words?" Nate sounded a little shocked. "With all your snarkiness that seems odd. Anyway, I'm sending the address to your phone now and I promise once this is all over I'll make everything up to you."
"Fine. Just remember unlike most girls, I don't accept chocolates as bribes."
I hung up and found a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans to wear. They coordinated well with my mood and I was all about matchy-matchy.
It took a few minutes to get down to the garage that I rented for my motorcycle, which I rarely used. I couldn't imagine driving a car in New York City traffic, so I bought the Harley a couple of years prior in case I ever got in a jam and needed wheels. I wasn't necessarily in a jam, but I wanted the ability to come and go whenever I wanted, without the threat of Nate tracking me down at a train station.
The motorcycle was a 2009 Wide Glide that I called Winnie. The tank was painted deep purple with bright pink skulls layered on top to give it some depth. The motor and primary were all blacked out and I put on some blacked out short pipes that were louder than snot. Technically, that didn't make a lick of sense, but oh well. They're loud.
I unlocked the forks, then put the key in and turned the ignition on. Once the fuel pump got warmed up, I started her up. She hadn't been out for a few weeks, so I let her warm up a little while I put on my hot pink helmet. The helmet was a flat color instead of glossy and had my name etched in a few places in purple.
I decided five minutes was long enough, I kicked it into first gear as I let the clutch out and rolled the throttle. During my five minutes, I'd put the address into my GPS unit that sat on my handlebars, so I had turn-by-turn directions to my destination.
It wasn't like I didn't know where Central Park was located. An exact location of where Nate was in relation to Central Park was greatly appreciated, so I wouldn't ride around forever trying to find him.
When I pulled up, I easily picked out Nate's car. I also saw about five cop cars, the crime scene unit van and an ambulance. They'd blocked off the area for two blocks making it difficult to get in. I told the first officer blocking my path that I was there to see Agent Barnes, per his request.
I didn't miss the look he gave my bike. He was clearly jealous of Winnie's beauty.
"Are you Ms. Clavens?" he asked as he consulted a clipboard in his hand.
"Yup, that's me."
I was a little worried about his IQ. Anyone could've come up and claimed to be me when he led with a name from a list. I took out my driver's license just because it's what he should've asked for in the first place.
"Okay, come right in and park behind the Impala." He moved the barricade out of the way to let me in. "Oh, and hey, that's a pretty wicked looking bike you got there."
"Thanks," I said, rolling forward to park behind Nate's rental that he happened to be leaning up against.
If he'd been feeling helpful, he could've walked the short distance to usher me in. At least he'd witnessed the officer not asking for my identification. I'd leave it to Nate to report the problem.
"Well, well, well. When you said you had transportation this isn't what I was expecting at all."
Much like the other guy who'd gotten an up close look at Winnie, Nate looked impressed. I liked that no one expected me to have a Harley.
As I slipped it into neutral and turned the bike off I said, "I have to keep you on your toes. I wouldn't want you thinking you know everything there is to know about me. I have quite a few skeletons hidden in my closet that you'll probably never know."
"Is that a challenge? I'll put you on notice now that I'm going to try my hardest to find out about every one of those skeletons." With a confident grin he added, "come on, the scene is over here."
I climbed off the bike and followed him to my first murder scene. As I took in everything at the scene, I was glad I only had a measly protein bar for breakfast, because if I had much more, the contents of my stomach would've been on the grass next to the body.
"Wow, someone is pretty handy with their knife work," I said as I noted the many cuts and stab wounds on the man's torso. "It actually looks like they used multiple blades to stab him. Did they recover any kind of murder weapon?"
"I thought you said you haven't ever worked a scene before. How do you know about knife wounds?" Nate asked glancing at me sideways.
"I haven't, nor have I seen the damage a knife does to a human body, but knives happen to be something I collect, so I've taught myself how to use them. That includes using life-like dummies to see what the damage is like," I replied, still observing the cuts. "Working within a government agency, there are required courses we have to take to make sure we can defend ourselves. I have, and can, shoot guns no problem, but I just like working with knives for some reason. I figure if I have to hurt someone, I want it to be in as personal of a way as possible. Guns just don't give me that feeling."
"How many knives do you currently have on your person?" he asked. I wasn't sure why he'd presume I had any.
"I never give away that information, but you can rest assured I have more than one."
I finally felt brave enough to look at the man's face and saw why Nate thought it was the guy from the deli. I peeked at his left hand and noticed the pinkie ring I'd seen on the man in the deli.
The ring was a raised skull with emeralds for eyes. I hadn't thought it'd be a useful tool for identification later, so I hadn't paid it much attention, much like the guy himself.
"It's him. I recognize the ring from yesterday. Did the recording you got indicate who the man was and what he was doing with Zuba?" I asked.
"Yes to both parts of the question. He was Manny Martinez. It sounds like he
was part of the Schwartz outfit you were tracking. He indicated to Zuba that the brothers would be in the country Wednesday night to meet with him and take possession of the weapons.
"I get the feeling Zuba really is just the middle man and the weapons are headed to Panama on a ship from here. We're unclear whether they're already here or are being shipped in the next couple of days, but we have people looking into all the ships big enough to hide that kind of arsenal."
"Does this mean there's no need to go to the charity ball?" I asked.
It was stupid of me to bring it up. It sounded to me like they had everything settled, so there wasn't anything preventing me from going back to life as usual. I wanted verification that Nate was on that same wavelength.
"No, that's not what it means. We still need to get Zuba behind bars. We can't just have someone doing this kind of deal within our borders. You'll help us keep an eye on him Wednesday night when everything is supposed to come together. Having you right there with him will make tracking his movements a lot easier."
"You can't fault me for trying to get out of this," I huffed. "You know how much I despised the idea yesterday. When you wake me up by waving a dead body in front of me, you have to know I'm going to keep trying to get out of it."
We began the short trek back to our vehicles. "You'll do fine. After the last few days with you, I'm not sure why you waste all your time behind the desk. You really would be good out in the field. I pulled some strings and got a hold of your file. You finished in the top three percent on all the tests. Why didn't you try to get a position with some action?"
"It's not something I like to talk about. A file doesn't give you all the information of my life. I'm sure you saw I was caught hacking and was recruited into the agency. Like you said, I went through all the tests and did really well.
"If I would've been allowed field work at first, I may have given it a go, but they thought I was too young. After a few years, I would've been old enough to change positions, but during that time my dad's friend, who was like an uncle to me, was undercover for the DEA and was shot and killed when the cartel he'd infiltrated found out who he really was.
"My uncle was the best at being able to blend into the background and he got along with everyone, but they still found out he was undercover. If he could get caught during a mission, there was no way my fumbling self wouldn't be spotted a mile away. It made my decision pretty easy."
"I'm sorry, Avery. I don't know what happened in your uncle's situation, but it might not have had anything to do with how he acted while undercover. The cartel could've had a mole in the DEA who passed the information on. Look how well you did yesterday. Zuba had no idea you were anything other than what you seemed. He talked about you afterward, saying how much he hoped you'd call and take him up on his offer. It wasn't something I really liked listening to, but he totally bought your innocence."
Nate clearly thought his words would be helpful, but I was set in my ways enough that they did absolutely nothing for my confidence.
"Yesterday went well enough, but I was nervous enough that it isn't something I want to get acquainted with doing often. Are we done here? It's still early and I think I'd like to take a ride out of the city for the day just to get away." I needed something to clear my head after seeing a dead body.
"Are you set on getting away alone?" he asked. "I have a buddy here in town who has a Super Glide I can borrow. I haven't had a chance to get out for almost a year, but I figure it's just like riding a bicycle."
"There isn't a lot of talking when we're on separate bikes, so I won't stop you from tagging along. I was just going to head upstate a hundred miles or so, then come back. No real plan, just jump on and go. It's one of my favorite ways to travel.
"That sounds perfect. Follow me, my buddy lives about thirty minutes from here with traffic the way it is," he said as he got in his car. I jumped on Winnie, fired her engine and followed behind Nate while he performed a U-turn to get us heading in the right direction.
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CHAPTER 10
Putting around