by Fiona Price
"Nope, not at all."
"I didn't think it would." He chuckled.
"Hm, well, I hope you get somewhere." She said, taking a pause for thought that Matt picked up on. He didn't know how to read her voice when they were talking about it. He pushed it to the back of his mind, sure it was nothing, and pulled Vanessa back into his bed.
Alissa's approach to things concerning Matt was very different. She wasn't dating anyone else, like he was, and she was just trying to keep her head above water among the emotional hurricane surrounding her.
Alissa took up running to get her mind off of Matt. Every time she felt herself spiraling, she tied her sneakers and ran until she felt better. It didn't matter the time of day, even in the dead of night she'd run around her house if she had to so she could sleep peacefully. She had no idea what Matt was doing, and it was best that she didn't know. If she knew, then running would be useless. Nothing would be able to help her if she knew that Matt was getting over her with Vanessa.
Alissa headed out early one Saturday morning to one of the state parks. She was grateful it wasn't a disgusting and humid day, for she'd be able to get in a five-mile run without many complications. But, she ran into a complication she didn't expect: she saw Shane running towards her in the opposite direction. He looked like he was finishing up his run, but he locked eyes with Alissa and slowed down in his confusion.
"Lieutenant, is that you?" Shane asked, pulling a headphone out of his ear.
"Yeah, Commander, it is. Shocker, right?" She responded, a twinge of sadness in her voice. The first thing Shane noticed was the fact that Alissa wasn’t wearing her diamond rings anymore. His stomach dropped, knowing that Alissa must have really gone through something by deciding that. He didn’t want to ask, Alissa already knew that he noticed that, and he was waiting for her to decide to come to him about it.
"Alissa, you hate running. I didn't expect to see you out on this trail." Shane spoke, bumping into her on his normal route as he was coming down and she was going up.
"Yeah, I hate running, but it's a distraction. I hate what's going on in my head a hell of a lot more." She explained. "It's either this or smoking, really. I promised myself I wouldn't do it again after what happened."
"Do what again?" Shane asked, not aware of that part of her past. Alissa bit her lip, feeling uncomfortable but taking a breath and explaining it to Shane.
"After my time in the Navy, I lived in Boston and I went through the academy, worked on the force for a bit. I was working a case and one of my CIs was killed by the Irish mafia after they found out she was my informant for them. I never forgave myself for that. I knew I needed to make a change, so after my health began improving, I moved to Florida and stayed at the family beach house. Then I met Alex when she ran over my mailbox, and then I quit smoking for her. I just don't want to fall back into those patterns, but Alex is gone and now so is Matt. When I wanted to smoke, I had Alex. Now I'm not sure if I have anything to fall back on. I know if I start again, I'll probably die, and I guess I'd rather run instead." Alissa explained on the trail. They had stopped completely for Alissa to open up and so Shane could listen to her best.
Shane understood. After he came back from his deployments, he was experiencing a handful of PTSD symptoms and it was tough to get a handle on them. He knew exactly what Alissa was doing, trying to take negativity into a positive action to divert dissonant feelings. He had done the same as Alissa, running to push it out. And, he figured that he would tire himself out enough to sleep on his toughest nights.
"Mind if I join you for the rest of your run, or is this something you need to do alone?"
"Nah, let's finish out this course." Alissa answered, putting her second headphone in. They ran in silence, Shane following Alissa's pace. They ran on the trail, and Alissa would take the pain in her lungs over the pain in her heart any day.
After their run was finished and they were showered, Alissa headed back into the office to look into the case more. Work also gave her a distraction, something to focus on other than every conflicting thing she had heard and experienced from Matt. She just didn't understand how things could turn around so drastically, and so quickly. But, closure for the case would give her some sort of healing that her heart so desperately needed.
Alissa began with the waitress. She was 26, working at the 24-7 diner part time to make some extra cash so she could finish her master’s degree and pay off her student loans. She had a degree in business management, and was often working when Andrei, their prime suspect, would eat at the diner. She had memorized his order, and he always came in on the same days at the same time. Mostly, she just kept her mouth shut, but when it was past midnight and he would come in for an egg white omelet and a cup of coffee with his employees, she couldn't help but listen in.
"If it means anything to you guys, I'd go ahead and make that deal. I think the benefits outweigh the risks." She pitched in one night. They often talked business and politics, but she never knew exactly what kind of business they had, until she was a witness to Andrei killing one of his men in cold blood in the alley behind the diner as she was taking out the trash. Then, she knew everything, and she was taken out too. Alissa hadn't figured out that piece yet, and she had begun looking into the accountant.
As she suspected, the accountant had found out about dirty money, and all of the mob's financial books. There were lots of transactions that didn't match up, and were in large sums. He wasn't sure if he could keep his mouth shut, he just thought he was doing taxes and making sure the orders of business were in place for Andrei Petrovitch. He didn't know there were any ties to the mob, but he found out on his own. He asked Andrei about it one day, and sure enough, the accountant was found dead in his home within the week.
The used car dealer didn't lead them anywhere other than to the overall connection to Andrei, and was overall a dead end. He seemed to just be collateral, and without any convincing leads, they quickly hit a stall in the case. They were all working overtime, poring over the three murders, knowing that they couldn't let the cases go cold. Three murders with a tie to organized crime was the kind of case that had to be solved, and fast. The team was poring over the data over and over, going through every nook and cranny, trying to find something they hadn't seen before, another connection, a witness, some other piece of evidence. They were beginning to get discouraged, until Alissa saw something critical.
"Wait, hold on. Go back on that security footage. I've seen that car before." Alissa spoke, spotting a familiar white BMW pass by in the back of the frame of security footage from the diner. She had a feeling that they were coming up on a lead, but it was going to mean something terrible if her gut feeling was right.
"Let's run the plate."
"We don't have to. That's Vanessa's car!"
"The plate came back, and the car belongs to a Brianna Petrovitch, and a listed alias is Vanessa Williams." Scarlet spoke to the group, confirming Alissa's statement once she enhanced the footage to get the plate and run it through the DMV.
"Sound familiar? Look familiar?" Alissa spoke, frustrated. She knew that Vanessa was bad news, and it just wasn't right. "Look, I knew Vanessa's name sounded familiar because I saw it when I cross-checked the names of customers at the car dealership with the other victims. Vanessa bought the BMW at the dealership of the third victim, and she's Andrei Petrovitch's daughter."
"This is bad. This is very, very bad. She's just a mole for the mafia and Matt's in serious danger. We have to go find him, now!" Shane answered, hitting the ground running in his search for Matt.
"Shane, Wait. We have to think this through. If her intention was to get information, I'm sure Matt gave it all to her. She could be after any one of us. We are all in danger, Shane." Vicki spoke rationally, trying to get everyone to take a pause and put a game plan together.
"You're absolutely right. Okay, Scarlet, let's start looking into each of our computers if there's a bug or a virus lingering on them. We have to assume that Vanessa
could have done anything to get our information. Everyone get your computers. Let's track down Matt, ping his cell phone, look at his last credit card charge, let's just make sure everyone on our team is okay. Then, we can find a way to bring in Brianna, Vanessa, whatever. She can take us to her father."
Just a few hours before the team figured it out, Matt had found it out the hard way. He knew that there was a reason for Vanessa to ask about the team, it felt a little sketchy to him. He had always wondered how exactly his mom knew her, but she was a conwoman. She was the daughter of a mobster, she had her ways of trickery and infiltrating the lives of whoever the target was to get information. She was a spy, and a damn good one. She used him, his vulnerabilities, his life, his job, to her advantage.
"Vanessa, as much as I enjoy your company, I have to go to work." Matt spoke as he rolled out of bed, his back turned to the blonde in his bed. He was shrugging on his dress shirt when he heard the cock of a gun behind him. He knew that sound anywhere. He slowly turned around with his hands up to meet Vanessa, standing behind him and pointing a revolver at his head.
"No, I don't think you're going anywhere, Matt." She spoke.
"Vanessa, what's going on?"
"You are coming with me, Matt."
He nodded calmly, acting like he was going to comply with her, but he was thinking about his game plan.
"Matt, I know you're going to try and disarm me by tricking me into thinking you'll follow my orders before you grab your gun and badge you keep in your dresser drawer, but it's not there. Don't even think about trying it. I hope you realize that I tore this house apart right underneath your nose, I know where all your backup plans are, and they're gone. Get dressed, and we're leaving."
Matt finished getting dressed before Vanessa held him by the back of his shirt, gun still pointed at him.
"Who are you and where are we going? Who sent you?"
"I'd stop asking questions, if I were you."
"You don't need me, Vanessa."
"We don't. I already got what I needed from you, information about your team's work on us. You would have a chance to live if your team just let the case go cold, but your damn girlfriend saw my car in security footage, and matched my name. I was compromised, and you know too much. Now I have to get rid of you."
"I wish you didn't have to, I wish you could choose to just leave me alone."
"I'd shut up now, Matt. For your own good."
And so, it was. Vanessa drove them into the Florida Everglades in her BMW that she had swapped the plates to, far enough into the wilderness to kill him. Matt was thinking of every way out possible, but things looked bleak for him, and he hoped that the team was onto something. If Vanessa knew what they knew, then Shane, Vicki, Scarlet and Alissa were coming to get him. That was best-case scenario for him, and he hoped that it would be his reality.
"If you kill me, you have to promise the rest of my team will remain unharmed."
"I can't promise that when I kill you." She corrected.
"Then what am I dying for?"
"They all know, you just happened to be the first one to die. Eventually, they all will, but they'll never find you after the alligators have their way with you." Vanessa answered, the gun pointed at his chest. "Keep walking." She barked. Matt swallowed hard, and things were looking grim.
"You know, I have a lot of regrets in my life. I guess you don't really think about those until you've got a gun to your head. Alissa, well, she's going to heaven, and so will Shane. All they do is good for others. I guess I'll just have to face those regrets in hell. I can only guess that's where I'm going."
"What part about being quiet don't you understand?"
"Listen, I'm from Brooklyn, and I got a lot of shit to air out before I die. Just shoot me if you don't want to hear it, already. You're the one with the gun, here. I'm the damn hostage." He spoke, turning around to face her.
"You're right. See you in hell, Matty." She spoke before shooting him point-blank in his chest and swiftly stabbing him in the gut. He dropped to the ground with a thud and Vanessa left him there without a second thought.
Vanessa missed his heart, instead he suffered a through-and-through injury to his lungs, and he slowly choked. Time felt like it was slower as he was losing consciousness and slowly suffocating. With the mental presence he had, he did his best to put pressure on the wound, but he couldn't do much to change his outcome. His vision became blurred and the swamp around him began to spin. He thought he was hallucinating when he heard Shane's voice echo in the distance and saw the blue and red flashing lights.
"Matty, buddy, I'm here man. Matt, stay with me, man. We're going to get you some help, okay?" Shane spoke, rushing to his injured friend, attending to his injuries. He soon saw the blurry outline of Alissa standing over Shane. Alissa didn't have anything to say to him, but Matt surely had things to say to her when the paramedics were attending to his injuries and loading him up into the ambulance.
"Alissa, I'm sorry. I told you that I'd never lie to you, and I did. I told you that I'd never break your trust, and I did. I said I'd always be there, and I wasn't. I promised you I'd have your back, and I didn't. I'm sorry, Alissa. I love you and I'm sorry." Matt rushed as he spoke through gasping breaths in the ambulance underneath an oxygen mask.
"His lung is collapsing, we've gotta seal that hole. Let's get gauze and tape to plug it up." The paramedic instructed as Matt's oxygen saturation levels were dropping and his blood pressure was falling. Matt's arm was hanging off the gurney, they had just started an IV drip of fluids into him and his limp hand was brushing against Alissa's knee in the tight quarters of the ambulance. With unexpected tears in her eyes, she reached out for his hand and squeezed it tight as they stabilized him the best they could en route to the hospital.
As they approached the ambulance entrance for the trauma wing of the hospital, the back doors of the ambulance opened for Matt to meet a team of doctors and nurses to help him. Alissa stepped off with them, and she knew that she wouldn't be allowed back with him, but she comforted Matt in his last few moments before they had to part.
"Who's the on-call cardiothoracic surgeon? We need them ASAP."
"It's Doctor Phillips, I'll get her on the phone."
Alissa knew that name.
"Wait, Doctor Adrienne Phillips? She works here?"
"Yes, and she'll be here very soon to operate on Mr. Daniels."
Alissa only knew one Adrienne Phillips, Cardiothoracic surgeon, and it was an ex. She was beginning medical school while Alissa was finishing up her college degree, but they called it off because Alissa was alone more often than they were together. Everything was happening so fast, and it was a lot to take in. They told Alissa that they would let her know when she could see Matt and all she could do was wait, so she sat outside the hospital and waited for the rest of the team to arrive after processing the case.
Shane spent his time in the waiting room, Matt’s blood still on his hands. It had sunk into every crevice in his skin and had spread, but that was the least of Shane’s worries. Matt had been put through a lot of tough situations, but this time, he was shot point-blank in the chest and was stabbed in the gut. There wasn’t a lot of hope for Matt, but Shane held out as much hope as he could possibly muster.
He remembered when they were in high school and they were sitting in Shane’s truck, talking about girls, life and everything in between. Shane could never forget the look in Matt’s eyes when he glanced over, in the middle of his rant about his bad breakup with his girlfriend. Matt was looking at Shane as if he was the most important thing in the world. Shane knew that glance, and he had given the exact same look to his ex-girlfriend. Shane’s heart skipped a bit in that moment.
Shane’s mind then wandered to college, when they were both seniors and living in their first apartments. Shane happened to be in town and decided to swing by and give Matt a visit when he was in New Jersey. Matt invited Shane in, realizing that college had been good to him, and his slim face was acc
ompanied by a dark beard. This was the day that Shane told Matt that he was going overseas for his first tour after he graduated college, and his deployment was coming up. Neither of them expected it to be a hard conversation, but they realized it was and they had extra feelings attached to each other. Neither of them knew which kinds of feelings they had for each other, but they didn’t have to do much thinking when they were so distracted by each other. Matt’s hands cupped Shane’s bearded cheeks and kissed the lips that told him he was going away, trying to erase the words, trying to undo it all. Shane couldn’t leave. Matt didn’t want him to.
Shane thought of that 22-year-old kid that he pushed down on the couch and kissed. He thought of that 17-year-old kicker for the football team who looked at him in a way that nobody had ever looked at him before. Shane thought of that 27-year-old detective he laid next to as he cried, grieving the death of his partner. Shane thought about that 32-year-old who was fighting for his life.
Just like Matt kissed Shane when he told him he was going off to fight another man’s war in another country, Shane wanted nothing more than to do the same for Matt, begging him not to say goodbye. Desperate to tell him that it wasn’t time for him to go yet. He just wasn’t ready to lose Matt. Maybe he was being selfish, but it was the truth. Shane came back from war, but Matt barely stood a chance to fight against the bullet in his chest.
The thought of losing Matt made him feel like he was suffocating. He ran into the bathroom to splash his face with cold water and to wash the blood off of his hands, before collecting himself enough to go into the courtyard and find Alissa.
Alissa sat outside the hospital, far enough away that she'd be able to smoke. Matt was in surgery to fix his collapsed lung and stab wound and Alissa had a lot to think about. Shane sat down next to her on the bench in the courtyard. Alissa didn't even have to say anything before letting out a series of hearty coughs.
"How long have you been out here?" Shane questioned, meeting her red and puffy eyes.
"Well, long enough to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes." Alissa answered in a raspy voice. "Matt apologized for everything in the ambulance. It hit me hard. I don't know what to do, Shane, and my ex is his surgeon."