by G. D. Madsen
"David," she whines, her back still to me. "I 'm not sure how to tell you this, but the woman you were with, she was my secret informant. She told me there would be another heist. Only it was a trap."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Invisible grains in my throat turn my voice hoarse.
"She is the one who sent us to our deaths, David!" Evelyn cries out her last words, plummeting on the couch, her face hidden inside her hands, and suspicion darkens my mind like the storm.
Could this have been a twisted and sick plan all along? Could Lavinia's injuries have been less severe than I believed?
"No, it is not possible," I say, shaking my head to push the blasting suspicions aside. "She almost died, because I doubted her once..."
"But she didn't! Did she, David?" Evelyn is in front of me again, her arms sliding around my neck. "She didn't die, and now you would never consider doubting her. Can't you see it? She trapped you!"
"No!" I push her hands off me and walk away. I don't want to doubt Lavinia again! But, what if Evelyn is telling the truth? What if making me remorseful was their ultimate goal. She has no reason to lie...
There must be another explanation. Nobody chooses to go through what Lavinia... Fuck! She is not Lavinia! She is Kahina, my Kahina. "You can't imagine how close to death she was."
"But are you sure?" Evelyn is not giving up. "What if the doctor was paid off to make those wounds appear more dramatic?"
It's like she has thought of everything, while the guilt was consuming me alive. Have I failed to spot anything crucial?
But of course, you idiot…
"There is no way the doctor was part of it."
"But how do you know?" Evelyn's voice raises a few octaves higher.
"She would have never arranged for Ka... Lavinia to escape the hospital."
Evelyn's jaw drops as she stares at me, speechless for the first time since she walked through the door.
"I... I thought you did..." She finally speaks.
"See, nobody bribed the doctor. Not even me. And if you are certain about Lavinia, maybe she was forced to lead you into the trap." The storm in my body begins to settle. "No matter what, you should give an official statement. Evelyn, you might help to put this bastard behind bars."
"Will you also bring Lavinia in to tell her side of the story?" Evelyn asks hesitantly. "I mean, that woman cannot go unpunished for what she did. She needs to pay for making you fall in love with her."
"What are you talking about?" I snap. "Who told you I was in love? Why would you even think I knew about her whereabouts?"
"You don't?" A genuine confusion in that question.
"I had no idea she escaped until the SVU cops came to interrogate me about it."
Silence.
Evelyn goes to the window and looks out. "This story is so twisted. David, it terrifies me."
I walk to her and put my hands on her shoulders. Evelyn swings around and kisses me. In this moment of surprise, I kiss her back, violently almost, making up for all those months I considered her dead. I kiss her until she moans against my mouth, and I realize I feel nothing for this woman, not even pity.
"Stop!" I push her away. "We should go."
"Please, David." She wants to touch my face, but I grab her wrists again. "All this time I kept thinking of how much I hurt you back then, and how much I wanted to fix everything. Give me a chance. Give us another chance. One night. Let me stay here with you, and tomorrow we can go to the station. But tonight, let me—"
My phone rings, cutting her off. I look at the number on the screen. "I need to take this in private," I say, trying to sound as unaffected by the caller ID as I can. "Stay here." I clutch my keys and walk out.
Only when I am standing outside my building, I call back.
"David," Kahina murmurs, her voice like the most refined melody.
"Hey, beautiful!" All remaining suspicions evaporate. No matter what Evelyn says or believes, there must be an explanation to this madness. "How is my queen?"
She chuckles. "Better now." Still, the sadness in her voice is undeniable. I have learned to recognize it by now. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I painted. I just woke up now like a perfect nocturnal owl."
"Lucas told me." A smile returns to my face. "He also told me about your morning conversation, Judy."
"What do you think?"
"I think you have every right to reclaim your true name and identity, but to me, love, you will never seize to be Kahina."
"And this is the only name I want to hear you call me by. It makes the butterflies in my stomach go wild," she hums, and those damn butterflies somehow invade my stomach.
"If you continue teasing me, I will jump into the car this very moment and drag you straight back to bed."
She laughs, but then her laughter breaks abruptly. "David… I swear I was not snooping around. I was looking for the charger, and found it under a folder on your desk. That folder. Please, don't be mad."
"Why are you telling me this?"
She had days to read every word, and I would have never known. She didn't need to tell me now.
"Because I saw something in there. The photo... The photo of a woman."
And I know exactly what she is talking about – Evelyn's picture, attached to my recount of the stakeout night.
"David, she is the same woman from the basement!"
Chapter 22
David
"She's alive?" The cigarette Greg was flicking when I delivered the news slips out of his fingers. "Damn. And she's still at your place?"
He lights up another and looks at me as I lean against my parked car in front of the station.
I did not tell Kahina the woman she implicated was at my place the very moment she called because she seemed on edge simply by talking about that photo. She once compared Evelyn to Silvio himself. If this is true, I should be more than careful around my former fiancée, and having her in my apartment is a perfect way to keep an eye on the woman.
I sigh in response, as we walk toward the station. "Yeah, I left her there after Evelyn begged me to give her time to prepare for her resurrection."
"Did you two? You know..."
"What? No!" I glare at Greg, and he raises his arms in surrender. "I told Evelyn something came up, and I had to return to the station immediately after the call."
"What if she vanishes again?" Greg puts the cigarette out before we walk through the door.
"I don't think she will," I say when we pass the new front desk receptionist and greet him with a curt nod. "She showed up at my place for a reason. Whatever the reason may be, she won't leave until she gets what she came for."
"What do you think that is?"
"If what Lav…, no, Judy told me is true, then Evelyn's rebirth is a direct result of Silvio's attempt to find and silence his only remaining weakness."
"Are you still doubting her?" Reproach in Greg's voice is all too apparent.
"No, of course not." I wait for two uniformed guys to walk past. This whole situation is turning me paranoid, and the more I look at it, the more reasons I find to remain such. "I don't doubt that she believes Evelyn to be the same woman, but maybe her mind is playing tricks. She told me the woman kept her distance. Perhaps they have similar features..."
"So what about your ex's claims?"
"No idea. I'm going crazy... I will talk to her as soon as I get to the lake house tomorrow. I am not going to repeat the mistake of not giving her the chance to speak."
"Listen, David," Greg grabs my arm before I walk through the door, "I was at the hospital when Lea and other doctors fought to save Judy's life. Those injuries were the worst I had ever seen, and more, considering the report mentioned nothing about her emotional state. Please, think twice before you say anything that might break her again."
I am about to assure him of my best intentions and thank him for honoring Judy's wish to be called by her real name, but the sight of my captain leaves me speechless. I point for Greg to look, and he cur
ses in shock.
Catherine's clothes are crumbled, her hair resembles a dreadlock-like bushfire, her eyes are puffy and red. "Now, that's not something you see often, or ever." Greg points out.
She apparently stepped out of her office for the sole purpose to summon me.
"Well, I better leave." Greg pats me on the shoulder, but Catherine gestures for me to bring him along.
"Wait, I think she wants us both to come."
We step inside, and Catherine immediately requests for us to shut the door and lower all the blinds. When we are confined, she plummets back into her chair and buries her face inside her hands, elbows resting on her knees. "I can't do this anymore," she mumbles. "I need to tell you the truth before it's too late. I need to clear my conscience before he gets to me."
"Who?" Greg drags the word out as if already suspecting the answer.
"It's Silvio Beltrani, isn't it?" I take a guess.
She nods, her face still hidden. "I messed up, guys. It was never supposed to escalate to this level. God, nobody was ever supposed to get hurt."
"What exactly are you talking about?" I ask because this situation was a total mess from the very beginning. It is so messed up one could get strangled by all the threads, spreading every possible direction.
"The auction…" she whines, revealing her teary face. "I just needed a fresh start. God, that painting was supposed to be my getaway ticket."
"I'll be damned. You are Silverstone's mystery girlfriend, aren't you?" Greg smirks, shaking his head. "Just when I thought this case could not turn any weirder."
"We wanted a new life together far away from here, but his wife would have taken all his money if she could prove he was cheating on her. Her father is a shark of a lawyer, so we had to be careful. And somebody had evidence to discredit me..."
"What evidence?" Greg urges her when it takes forever for Catherine to continue.
"Years ago, when I was a freshly appointed detective, the man I dated since high school couldn't handle my odd working hours, and broke up with me. I moved into the hotel because I couldn't face being alone in an empty house. One night, while I was having one too many drinks in the lobby bar, a young guy comes up to me and starts chatting. Before I know of it, I am telling him my whole life story. I buy him a drink, and we continue talking for another hour, and the more we talk, the more tempted I feel to invite him to my room. So I do, and I never bother asking about his age."
"Not all of them were into girls," I repeat Kahina's words, only now they make so much more sense. Some of them were not men. "Poor bastard..."
"Mauro?" Greg guesses.
"How do you know his name?" The captain's swollen eyes double in size.
"Let's just say, you bought alcohol and had sex with Silvio Beltrani's son that night." I cannot hide my sarcasm this moment. My sneer only expands when her face turns pale. "Yes, Mauro Beltrani, underage at the time, I dare to assume."
Catherine only nods, unable to look me in the eyes.
"What happened after?"
"Nothing, I swear!" Her eyes dart back and forth. "I hoped the incident would never come back to haunt me; my career was advancing fast, and everything was perfect until I became the new captain. When I returned home that night, a bouquet of roses waited for me outside my apartment door. This was around the time I met Patrick, and I was certain he left me flowers, but the moment I opened the note and saw a USB key attached to it, I knew... Somehow, I knew... I plugged the key into my laptop and almost passed out looking at the pictures. However, the worst part was the video. Somebody filmed everything that happened between us in my hotel room."
"Beltrani wanted you to know he owned you," Greg states the obvious. "What else did he want?"
"Nothing for a while…" Catherine weeps, but neither of us comforts her. "The first demand came to my private inbox a few weeks later. I was to raise the suspicion about the museum heist nobody knew had happened. I pretended that my informer assured me there had been a robbery, and that one of the most valued artworks on the exhibit had been replaced with a forgery. When you, I mean, when the FBI took over the case because it was similar to other heists around the country, I was puzzled as to why anybody would want to expose a crime like this. Then one day, Patrick, who is… was… an avid art lover, told me that somebody offered him a stolen painting."
Damn, Beltrani was good. He took time to cover his tracks and then got the police captain to uncover the crime, so he could sell forgeries to rich snobs.
"So how did you become Beltrani's accomplice?" Greg crosses his arms over his chest.
"Patrick said his wife suspected something, and if she left him... Well, there was only one way for us to start fresh. We conjured a simple plan for the auction. I came back home and sent an email to the address the instructions had come from. Everything was arranged via the Internet, and until the auction night, I had no idea Beltrani was the man behind everything. When Patrick told me about the rumors surrounding this man, I panicked, thinking he would use us as scapegoats or worse, so I altered the plan."
"You double-crossed the devil." I release a long breath. "Tell me, what was Lavinia's role in this?"
Greg glares at me, but the reason I ask has nothing to do with my doubts. She told me about the camera in her clutch. I want to hear what Catherine's excuse for allowing the man, she claims to love, have sex with another woman.
"I don't really know. The last correspondence we exchanged with Beltrani clearly stated Patrick had to take her home to have sex with her. This was the condition."
"Fuck!" I throw an empty glass into the wall smashing it to pieces. It is actually far worse to hear somebody say it aloud than to just think about it.
"Please, you must understand..."
"No, I don't! Quit playing the victim. You are as guilty as Beltrani himself. The only victim in this was Judith! Yes, Judith is her real name – the name and the identity that bastard robbed her of. You all used and abused her over and over again! Shit, even Mauro was a victim!"
"I am so sorry!" she cries. "Neither Patrick nor I wanted anyone to get hurt. The night before his death, we agreed to confess, and now he's gone. I am afraid I'm next."
"That's what you deserve," I hiss through my teeth. "The only other option is for you to turn yourself in, and go into witness protection."
"No, I need to run. He will find me. He has a lot of people in his pocket. Guys, I need a day to write down my confession so you can take down Beltrani, and then I will leave. I will disappear."
"Fine. I would stay here if I were you. As long as you are in plain sight for the whole station to see, he will not come after you. I suggest you start writing now! I want to read the finished confession tomorrow at the latest." Both Greg and I stand to leave. "Keep your blinds open too."
"Thank you," she whispers, sinking into her chair. "And please forgive me."
Her words make me want to jump and rip her heart out. "There is only one person you should be begging to forgive you, and she would do it immediately. No matter how much you all tried to taint her, she remained pure and honest. And because of that, I will make sure you never get to speak to her!"
∞∞∞
We leave the station, walking for a while in silence.
"I need a drink," I finally say.
"Me too, man." Greg blows out a breath. "But I have a date in a couple of hours."
"Really? Oh..." I drag that word out. "The Star Wars princess?"
"Her name is Lea." Greg plays offended, but he can hardly hide a smile. "Man, I cannot stop thinking about her. She is something. In this jumble of traitors, I could guarantee she is not one of them. The way she stood to protect Judy, you should have seen her! You know, Bryan went on calling her 'sugar', and he only does it to the women he admires."
Yeah, it is a strange way of showing it, but the big guy does that.
"Listen, enjoy your date. You both deserve some quality time! Please, say thank you from me for everything."
"I will." Greg shakes
my hand. "What are you going to do?"
"Honestly, I only want to hug her, but now I have to be even more careful. I think I'll just drive around for a while before I can face the harpy in my apartment, and not strangle her."
I get into my car and spend the next couple of hours driving around before settling for Navy Pier.
I must have ultimately turned into that hopeless romantic already, as the idea that Kahina might be looking my direction now makes my heart race. One more day and I will hold her in my arms, and this time, I will not settle for kisses and touches only.
I call her again, and we spend almost an hour talking about simple things, like when we were strangers to each other. She tells me about her evening with the lovebirds, and about her ideas for future paintings. I tell her about the Pier and promise to take her here soon.
There are countless things I want to do with her. I want to introduce her to my African grandparents, and take her to Tenere, as they call the desert, where I am going claim her body and soul until all her past horrors are just that – the past.
Before I reach my car, my phone rings again. Did she miss me already? I fish the phone out of my back pocket and see Greg's name on the screen. "Hey, man, shouldn't you be enjoying your date right now?"
"David," he says, and I halt. I have known this guy forever, and I recognize this tone. When he told me Kahina was fighting death, his voice shook nearly the same. "Lea is missing. We were supposed to meet an hour ago, but she never came."
"What? Did she get cold feet?" I try to joke, but suspicion is taking over my mind. "Or maybe there was an emergency at the hospital?"
"No, man... I went to look for her. The nurses said Lea had left early because she had a date. I even went to her apartment. The janitor of her building let me in. She never came home. Fuck, I'm afraid to say it..."
"The bastard got to her," I say it for Greg. "Where are you now? I am calling Bryan, and we are coming. We will find her!"
I only hope we find her in time.
Chapter 23
Kahina