Chapter Eleven
Bhodi
Rob, Eva? Who the fuck are they? What fucking van? Daniel…who’s Daniel? And now it turns out Luca is likely fucking that pathetic excuse for a mother.
The questions constantly spin around in my mind, as James silently drives towards the warehouse. I didn’t want to leave Summer so abruptly, fuck, I would have given anything to spend more time with her, hold her close and just listen to her beating heart. For just over twenty-four hours I believed she was dead, I thought my happiness was gone and now all of a sudden ….she’s here, alive and telling me she’s sorry. Sorry for what? She never has anything to be sorry about. I couldn’t even kiss her, I knew I’d lose control and the fear I felt that I could break her. Her gorgeous body covered in cuts, scrapes and wounds felt like too much to take in. I felt the demons crawling over my back and peering over my shoulder to lose control, scream the entire place down and destroy everything in my path to make whoever the fuck did this pay.
She never has anything to be sorry about…
Jimmy fucking does mind, dragging me away after a few stolen minutes. The look in his eyes was telling me whatever it was was urgent but still, I’m not happy about it. I didn’t want to ask whilst Summer was in earshot, she’s been through too much in such a short space of time. I know she’s safe for now with Pamela watching over her, but instead of holding Summer in my arms, he’s driving me towards the hellish warehouse, the one place I really didn’t want to be anywhere near right now. The burning question on the tip of my tongue can’t be contained any longer, as the grim building nears.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me she was alive?”
I finally turn to Jimmy, yet his face gives little away.
“What would you have done if I did?”
I mull the question over in my mind, but I have no idea what I would have done. The shock and confusion would have taken a while to comprehend and then the questions would fly around, how the fuck did this happen, who, why, where is she now?
“What sort of stupid question is that, Jimmy? I thought she was dead, I was fucking arrested for it and chucked into a fucking cell. I had Callaghan and Dean parading me around the precinct like some criminal, with DNA evidence and photos.”
I spit out, the sweat forming above my brow as I run a frustrated, tense hand through my hair.
I eventually let out a low breath as my head falls back into the headrest. Jimmy’s car pulls up outside the warehouse and I feel the ghostly chills rush through my body, the sharp goosebumps rising all over my skin as I take in the dark exterior. A black cloud permanently hangs over this building, much like my soul. Luckily for me, since meeting Summer, my cloud began to disperse, a warm sunlight began to peek through, but the same can’t be said for this place. One day, when this is all over, I’ll burn this place to the ground. Our wicked deeds will remain a secret, that once upon a time four people fell together during a difficult period and found a purpose for a short time. We brought a few people peace and comfort.
“Why are we here?”
I ask, sliding from the car and taking in the late afternoon sun as it begins to descend, and the evening air lingers across the ground.
“You should know.”
He ignores my question. “Summer said it was Daniel Daly in some of the photos she found.”
“Some girl called Eva’s ex-boyfriend?”
My body tenses.
“Yeah. You were right, he was being too forward earlier, he’s wrapped up in it too.”
“Who the fuck are Eva and Rob?”
He looks forward for a moment, an amused smile curls on his lips, before he turns to me.
“Do you believe in coincidences?”
he asks, raising a brow.
“No, should I?”
“They’re the younger cousins of Luca.”
“What the fuck? Where the hell did they come from?”
“My thoughts exactly, Eva’s story is she saw Summer fall from the van, panicked then managed to get help from her brother. Summer was with them for maybe a day.”
“Where are they now?”
“At the hotel, separate floor. Rob’s pissed off, Eva is worried about Summer.”
“What do you think?”
I ask, unsure of how to react.
“I’ll check out their story, I need to do some digging but for now, they can sit tight. Probably safer for them.”
He shrugs.
Jimmy pops open the trunk, throwing a familiar black duffel bag towards me. A smirk tugs at his lips, as he begins to remove his shirt and suit pants, stepping into a black pair of cargo pants and pulling his head through the large black hooded sweatshirt. I begin to feel the slight buzz crawl through my body at the thought of what awaits me on the other side of the large doors but at the same time, a feeling of dread. Two/Face is exactly that, two people stuck inside my head, one is trying to do good and the other a detective. It’s fucked up and so am I, it’s only now I’ve begun to question all this shit and it’s because of her.
Sliding on his familiar black devil’s mask with the horns and pointy toothed sneering smile, Jimmy cocks his head towards the warehouse, whilst sliding his hood up. Pulling the zip up and flicking the hood of the jacket low over my head, I hold my black mask in my hands, knowing as soon as I slide it over my face, another person will emerge from the darkness, but no innocent souls are brought here. We’re fucked up and a little sick, but we’re not monsters and whoever awaits our company inside deserves to fucking bleed.
Placing the mask over my face, I crack my neck each side, allowing the tension to ease. Throwing the bag into the corner of the room, Axe stands next to the quivering body which is held upright in chains, their arms above their head and a black bag over their face. Their weak snivels fill the room, along with the stench of fear and desperation. I look between the two men; Jimmy finally removes the bag and reveals a very familiar face. I take a step back for a moment, taking in the sight before me. The medical examiner Nate Jordan, someone I’ve worked with on many occasions, as have a lot of detectives and officers in the precinct. There’s never been a whiff of criminal behaviour, no complaints of malpractice or even a dodgy rumour roaming the halls of the precinct, so yeah, I’m a little taken back to see him in front of me, trussed up like a pig on market day.
“Nate, would you like to tell us why you’re here today?”
Jimmy begins pacing around Nate, a humour flowing through his voice. “Or shall I explain?”
Nate’s words are lost, his jaw falls open, his bloodshot eyes pleading with all three of us, but even I know he’s hiding something. Surprised or not, he was waiting for this day.
“I..I… Don’t know.”
He manages to force the words out, albeit mumbling.
“So, you didn’t falsify records? But I’ll be a little clearer, I appreciate we’re all busy people.”
Jimmy leans in close to Nate, causing him to tug on his chains and try to pull away. “You didn’t lie on an official report and claim Detective Grey had raped and murdered Summer Harper?”
I let out a low breath, I feel my fingers twitch before the rage begins to rise towards the surface. I cock my head to one side, both men have my full attention. The temperature in the dark room plummets to minus figures within seconds. Nate’s eyes flash to Jimmy, a wide-eyed fear falls over him. Like a deer caught in the headlights, his lies come barrelling towards him at a hundred miles an hour and there’s no jumping out of the way to safety.
He’s fucked.
“I. Didn’t…”
“You didn’t what?”
“I didn’t…have a choice.”
“Did someone have a gun to your head?”
“No, but..”
“BUT WHAT?”
Jimmy’s voice bounces off the walls, echoing into the abyss. Grabbing Nate’s cheeks, he forces a blade towards his eyes. “You nearly had an innocent man arrested for something we all know he didn’t do, and for fucking what, Nate, huh? What is so important you’re willing to potentially see someone get the fucking needle?”
Nate shakes, a sob finally escapes him before Jimmy pushes him away and he stumbles onto the floor. Axe hauls him back to his feet, whilst Jimmy scratches his head with the long sharp blade, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I owed him money…”
He sobs. “If I falsified a few reports… he’d let the debt go…but it went on and on.”
Nate begins wailing, his knees giving way and he falls to the ground.
I lean back against the wall, taking in the sight before me. Someone I know had no issues with me potentially ending up on death row. I want to slice his fucking skin off his face and stick it to the doors of One PP…show them they have fucking snakes amongst them, hell I’d even wear it when I told his wife what a lying deceitful cunt he was, watch the blood drain from her face and the sickening screams of horror filling the room as her husband finally tells her the truth, even if it’s not his words.
“You’d make a terrible poker player, Nate.”
I push myself from the wall, leaning in close. “You haven’t even bothered to ask how we know? You haven’t tried to lie, deny it, claim it was all a mistake.”
“Because it’s haunted me for too long,”
he whispers. “I want it to be over.”
“You tested the DNA, you know the body lying in your morgue isn’t Summer Harper, whoever that poor victim was, but you forged reports to send Detective Grey off to jail, why?”
“What will happen to me….will you kill me?”
Nate looks into my eyes, his own Grim Reaper hanging over him.
“Should I?”
“I’ve ruined so many lives…”
His eyes scan the floor, a strange moment of levity falls over the man. As though, he needed to let this out. “But… I can’t go to prison…they’ll get me from there.”
“Who, Nate?”
His sobs continue, I can’t work out what he’s saying, he’s almost incoherent and I can feel the budding frustration filling the bleak space around us. I’ll happily take the life of a killer, a rapist, a child molester and never let it sit on my conscience. I’ve only ever been faced with taking the life of someone I knew once, but that was a very long time ago and I sleep just fine at night after I watched their house burn around them. I knew what they had done and knew they’d lied and used a young boy’s fear against him. This hits differently, I should want to bathe in his blood but for some reason, I can’t.
“What will happen to me and my family?”
“That depends…on what you tell me.”
“They’ll kill us.”
“That’s the chance you take, you either tell us the truth…or you continue on with your life, always looking over your shoulder, never knowing where the final blow will come from. If you’re honest, I can at least promise you a head start towards safety…and redemption.”
Nate’s head finally snaps to mine, his eyes darting around the mask. The cogs in his mind are turning, trying to work out if this is real, if there really is a chance he can escape all of this. Like I’m some kind of fucking redeeming angel, looking to offer him help during his time of need. Am I fuck….I just want to know who the cunt was that set me up. I couldn’t give a shit about his reasons, he betrayed everything he stood for.
“You took an oath, to help people as a doctor and to protect and serve the people of New York as an officer of the law.”
I hear Axe snicker behind me, I get it. Look at me…Detective by day and vigilante by night, but we aren’t talking about me.
“Daniel Daly…. He works for Luca Bernardi.”
The silence in the room is deafening, Jimmy merely shakes his head and leans back onto the workbench. “My wife, Gabrielle…she fell ill with cancer around nine years ago…to begin with, we could afford the medical bills. After eighteen months of treatment, we began to suffer…The insurance wouldn’t cover it all and I was left in debt. I began to gamble, at first I won…but the more desperate I became, the debt began to rack up. I was seventy-grand deep before I realised who I owed the money to.”
“So, when he saw you in a bind, Bernardi offered a way out?”
“Yeah…”
Nate looks away for a moment, blinking away the tears. “Luca was standing trial for the rape and attempted murder of Pamela James. He said if I falsified the reports, destroyed the DNA evidence, that my debt would go away.”
Rising to my full height, I look to Axe and he doesn’t move. I can see the rage in his stance, the way his hands flex, he wants to rip this guy’s arms off his body. We all do, this case is the entire reason we all came together. We knew something was wrong, something was off, but we never assumed someone so close was capable of such cruelty.
“You stupid fucking cunt, Nate, you really believed one favour to someone like him, and you’d be off the hook. No…. this just means he now has something else to hold over you until he feels you’re of no use.”
I speak matter of factly, almost stunned by this well-educated person and his sheer fucking ignorance.
“I was desperate….”
“NO! You were fucking stupid and look where we are now….”
I gesture around the dank warehouse, the echoing of the drips from the old pipes filling the background silence. “Fuck sake,” I mutter.
Taking long strides out of the warehouse, I push the doors open and slam them shut behind me. It doesn’t take long before the familiar noise of boots follows me. Leaning against the warehouse wall, I watch as the sun sets. The sky filled with a baby-pink and lilac hue, the gentle soft breeze scattering across the stark ground. Lighting the cigarette, I inhale deeply, watching my right-hand tremble. Blowing the smoke up into the air, both Jimmy and Axe look to me. Right now, I just see three lost men who have been hit with a trainwreck of lies and catastrophe.
“What the fuck do we do?”
I shrug. “He’s a fucking prick, but he doesn’t deserve to die.”
“He was bent over a barrel, Bhodi, this wasn’t always going to be straight forward,”
Jimmy states, pulling a cigarette from my pack and lighting it. A vacant look masks his face.
“It’s taken eight years, but now we know Pam was fucked before she even took the stand. He fucking made that trial a show, to mock her and rape her all over again. That greasy fucking mouthpiece knew too,”
Axe spits out.
“I think Elom might be starting to see the faults in his client.”
Both men turn to me, their questions already ringing in my ears. Letting out a heavy sigh, I stub the cigarette out and throw it towards the deep pit.
“What?”
“When he was sitting in the captain’s office, he wasn’t angry that his client was dead. He seemed almost numb, like he was expecting to hear that Harry was dead. There was no massive show in the office, he just didn’t care.”
“You think Luca wanted Harry dead?” Axe asks.
“Wouldn’t you? Luca’s a piece of shit but he doesn’t suffer fools. Harry was a jumped-up little wanker, uncontrollable, erratic behaviour, a bad drug habit and wouldn’t leave Summer alone.”
“He was arrested, Luca probably thought Harry would talk and make a deal.”
“Did we ever find out why he got Eric to call her?”
I look to Axe, running a frustrated hand over my face, I shake my head. I never got the chance to, we only assumed it was because Harry knew about the two rapes Eric was accused of, but now with Summer’s mom being involved, it just wields more speculation.
“Summer found photos in her dad’s apartment, showing Bernardi and her mom, clearly something was going on there.”
“Michael knew?”
Jimmy raises a brow.
“He must have, he hid the photos in the closet in a jacket pocket.” I shrug.
“He never said anything though?”
Axe’s tone is concerned.
“Michael wouldn’t go into anything half cocked, he’d make sure it was legit first,” I state.
“I’m gonna head to the apartment tonight, see what I can find.”
I turn to Axe and my brow furrows.
“I’ll go too.”
“No, if you start hanging around it’ll look suspicious, NYPD already think they have you on the hook for murder, if they catch you at the apartment, it’ll look worse. I’ll go in, see what I can find.”
My shoulders sag, but I nod in agreement. Whilst I hate the idea of being left out, Axe has a solid point. One wrong move and I could find myself facing more charges, even if we all know it’s false.
“What are we gonna do with him then?”
Jimmy points to the warehouse, both Axe and my eyes follow.
Running my tongue against my teeth with a click, I stare at the closed door for a moment. My eyes narrow as different scenarios flash through my mind. As much as I want to, ending his life doesn’t seem right…or fair. He’s been dealt a shit hand and did what he had to, to keep his family safe.
“Someone’s been following me and wants me locked up, guess we’ll have to find out who….and why.”
“Someone was watching Michael’s apartment, regardless of whether they got pictures of you or not. You coming and going was a lucky break, something they could use when they took her. To place the blame elsewhere.”
“We’ll all meet back at Jimmy’s in a few hours. Is that enough time to look at the apartment?”
I ask, turning to Axe.
“Sure, I’ll call when I’m on my way.”
“Go now, take the van.”
“What are you gonna do with Nate?”
Letting out a huff, I shake my head.
“Offer him a way out I guess.”