Charged - Book One (4 page)

I didn’t bother calling the cops; it would just be
more paper work for them and nothing of value was taken as far as I
could tell. I had all my guns on me. Plus, I could already hear the
comments regarding my very small dog. Not worth it. I could’ve
scooped up the multitude of shards of glass and had Aaron inspect
them for prints, but my gut told me it would be useless.

Then the cell in my pocket vibrated. I pulled it out
and the screen showed Marie’s number.

“Hello.”

“Lewis, its Marie. You find anything?”

It was obvious Marie knew more than she was letting
on. There’s a huge difference, I thought, between the questions,
“you find anything?” and “you find anything out?” She should have
asked the latter.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Oh.”

“How about you? The cops have any leads?”

“No, nothing. You used to be a cop; don’t you keep in
touch with the old buddies?”

I was slightly irritated by the ‘used to be part.’
Like cops ever stop being cops. “Not recently,” I said, knowing
this was a lie. I hadn’t seen any of my old buddies in years. “What
was Richie last into?”

“I couldn’t tell you, Lewis. We hadn’t spoken for a
long time. But if you find anything, anything at all, please call
me. I gotta go. Talk to you later.”

She hung up quickly, like someone was rushing her to
get off the phone. Red flag number two. She wasn’t going to answer
any of my questions. A part of me wondered if it was her who had
vandalized my place. It was too much of a coincidence that she
would call right afterwards. Plus, if she hadn’t kept in contact
with Richie, why did she go looking for him in the first place? And
why did she sound scared? Scared for me, or for herself? Either
way, it was doubtful her apartment looked like mine.

I thought about all of this for too long. I came to
the conclusion that I had to search Richie’s one more time. I
proceeded to clean up the glass on the kitchen floor and would head
back to Richie’s tomorrow.

WHEN I RETURNED TO RICHIE’S, I was a little more
cautious. I parked a couple blocks down from the laundromat. Since
the cane was a dead giveaway to someone looking for me, I left it
in the truck and tried not to limp. I also brought in a basket of
old clothes and proceeded to put them through a cycle.

The laundromat itself was dirty, not any place I’d
actually wash anything. Two women were also there, washing clothes.
When everything felt right, I headed outside, lit a smoke and
slowly walked to the stairs around the outside of the building that
led to Richie’s flat. As I reached the top of the stairs, I noticed
I wasn’t alone and I quickly stubbed out my smoke.

Standing in the center of Richie’s dinky living space
was a beautiful woman, bending over the coffee table rifling
through a stack of papers. The girlfriend? This made me pause as I
peered through the door, which was only slightly open. After a
moment, I noticed she was model-like, but not in a frail, bony way.
Her face was perfectly symmetrical. There wasn’t a single line on
it. But, at this point, she was a suspect. And now I was certain
she wasn’t Richie’s girlfriend.

I unsnapped my gun from its holster and tried to
determine whether she was alone or not. I knocked the revolver on
the door lightly and she turned around startled, dropping the few
papers in her hand. I kept the gun on her as I stepped into the
small room, motioning her to be silent and checked the bathroom and
storage room to make sure we were alone. There was no way she was a
new detective; she couldn’t have been more than twenty years
old.

“Mr. Kagen, I assure you I am the only one here,” she
said, with what sounded like a sincere tone.

“And you are?”

“Kye,” she said, holding out her hand. Her body
language was all business. And there was nothing in her voice or
her stance that said she was twenty.

Of course, she gave me no last name. Even though she
appeared to be unarmed, I didn’t shake her hand. I approached her
slowly, hoping the bad knee wouldn’t give, only to realize she must
have been five-ten and with those heels, over six feet tall. Even
so, I got six inches from her face and looked her right in the
eyes. I knew she wasn’t a cop. I knew all the cops in this city, or
at least I used to.

“Kye, I don’t suppose you have a badge that would
allow you to enter a crime scene?” Technically, it wasn’t the crime
scene, but I knew if she was a new officer, she would’ve disclosed
it the minute we met and she wouldn’t be alone. Plus, the door was
already busted open the night prior, so she wasn’t exactly breaking
any laws at this point.

She seemed a little too calm now. Why wasn’t she
scared? There was something off in her composure, but it wasn’t
fear. It was something I couldn’t pinpoint, hidden under a blank
expression. Something about the way her shoulders slumped for a
moment. The moment faded and she straightened herself quickly,
letting a small frown roll across her lips.

“Mr. Kagen, the device you have is very important to
us and we’re willing to pay for it.”

She knew I had the box. I had to shove aside the fact
that she was gorgeous and basically a kid. Her acquiescing stance
could’ve been deliberate. Her long, straight, brown hair glistened
under the dim light and her green eyes were mesmerizing like they
were almost too green.

Ignoring her statement, I patted her down and stepped
back, putting the revolver back in its holster. In the dim light, I
couldn’t shake the feeling that she different. It was as if she
were too beautiful, too perfect.

“Now, Kye, what is it that I have?”

“A box. A little silver metal box. And whatever you
do, don’t give it to Marie Stakes; it doesn’t belong to her.”

Her voice was confident. There was nothing playful or
childish in it. I wanted to correct her, telling her that the box
wasn’t metal, but I didn’t. Looked like metal, felt like metal, but
it wasn’t metal. Aaron made that clear.

“So this box belongs to you?” I said this with
sarcasm, to let her know I didn’t believe a word she was saying.
Apparently, there were groups of people who wanted the box now. Or
was Kye the one who broke into my place?

“It belongs to me and others,” she said, pausing
slightly, “I realize that me being here looks suspicious, but I
needed to know if he had any—”

She instantly stopped talking, becoming conscious
that she was about to say too much. Unfortunately, I could’ve
filled in the rest with about twenty different options.

“We will contact you in twenty-four hours.” She
gracefully maneuvered around me in the tiny apartment and hastily
walked down the stairs.

What was Kye doing here alone? I could’ve stopped
her, handcuffed her and called the cops. I could’ve, but I didn’t.
My gut was telling me she wasn’t the problem. I shouldn’t have
pulled my gun on her, but with my place being wrecked and Richie
being dead, I didn’t feel I had a choice. I looked around for a few
minutes, but decided it wasn’t safe to stick around too long, so I
snapped my holster and left with my now very wet clothes.

There was no point in patching the wall now; plenty
of people knew I took the box. If there was anything else at
Richie’s, I’m sure it was gone. I wanted to follow Kye the minute
she left, but my injury made that impossible and I was pretty sure
she knew it. She wasn’t really Richie’s girlfriend, but the woman
claiming to be. This, I was positive of.

WHEN I GOT BACK, I searched the apartment and looked
for Zero. He was still there and it appeared that there hadn’t been
any unwanted visitors. I had to ice the knee for a couple hours
because of the weight I’d put on it. It felt like a small knife was
stuck in it and I still needed three more surgeries to get full
movement back.

After I’d thrown the clothes in the dryer, I fed Zero
as I thought over my day. This was the busiest day I had in months,
although it was starting to look more like a giant jigsaw puzzle in
which I was missing more than a few pieces.

I thought about Kye. It was a bad idea for her to be
at Richie’s alone and unarmed. What was she thinking? And what else
was she looking for in Richie’s apartment if she knew I already had
the box? Had I missed something? I closed my eyes and scanned the
women’s faces that I saw in the laundromat, but none of them looked
like the type she would be working with. Plus, there was something
off about Kye that I just couldn’t place. The way she moved,
possibly.

After a few hours of contemplating, I shoved the box
inside of a half-eaten Chinese takeout box in the fridge, believing
a little cold wouldn’t bother it. I also put a chair up under the
front doorknob for extra security, in case someone wanted to visit
me in the middle of the night. Finally, I put the revolver under
the spare pillow next to mine — like I always did. I grabbed Zero,
cradling him in my left arm and decided to tell Aaron everything in
the morning.

I DRAGGED MYSELF OUT OF BED AROUND SEVEN. I barely
slept at all. It was just stupid that I stayed here. But no one had
invaded the flat. All was safe, all was secure. The box was still
in the fridge. After a half a pot of coffee and a shower, I grabbed
the box and headed to Aaron’s shop, knowing he was open at seven
every morning.

When I got there, he locked up and we headed to
Barney’s and I told him about my night.

He listened attentively about my place being wrecked
and meeting Kye. When I was finished, he sat back, taking in all
the information and asked the waitress for another coffee.

In order to figure out what the hell was going on, I
knew I had to tell Aaron the whole truth. I needed his help. So I
gave him the short version about Richie.

“The victim was Richard Stakes. His sister asked me
to look into his murder. Richie and I… we were friends when we were
kids. Went to the same school, lived next door to each other. It’s
the way he was killed that bothers me. Someone basically sliced his
head open and tore out his brains and was smart enough not to leave
any evidence. Richie wasn’t anyone important, a pot smoker who
couldn’t see the difference between right and wrong on a
petty-theft level.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows for a second and let out a
long sigh.

“Do you think this is related to you somehow?” he
said.

“I can’t see any connection. I hadn’t spoken to
Richie in twenty years, except for a few chance encounters.”

“Do you believe Kye? That the box belongs to
her?”

“I don’t know, but she’s definitely hiding
something.”

“And Marie?”

“She’s blatantly lying. I don’t think she even cares
that Richie’s dead.”

Aaron paused and rubbed his forehead for a
minute.

“Okay. We need to find out what it opens.”

I was hoping he would say that. I slid the box across
the table over to him.

“I’ll give it a shot,” he said. “Oh, and I wouldn’t
mind meeting this Kye,” he said, smiling.

“She’s taken,” I said.

“Yeah, right! I’m sure she was really charmed by the
Elmer Keith revolver you shoved in her
chest!”             

“What, this?” I said, pulling my jacket back a
little, showing him my holster with the .357 Magnum in it. “This
talks to women.”

“Besides ‘freeze, turn around and put your hands up,’
what exactly does it say? I’m curious,” he said, smiling again.

“Well, it says, ‘I’m here to protect you, assuming
you don’t make any sudden movements.’”

“Charming.” Aaron was shaking his head and laughing
under his breath now.

WHEN I GOT BACK TO THE APARTMENT, there was a man
knocking on my front door as I entered the hallway. I was caught
off guard and he saw me immediately.

“Mr. Kagen?”

Actually, I noticed he was just a kid, couldn’t have
been more than sixteen.

“I have a delivery for you,” he said, holding out a
box that looked like it contained flowers.

After a very long hesitation, which made even the
delivery boy uncomfortable, I took the box, signed his sheet and
watched him leave. I unbolted the door and laid the box on the
kitchen counter. I made my quick search to make sure the place was
empty and found Zero hiding in the shower stall, trembling.

“Some guard dog you are.”

The apartment was empty. I went back and bolted the
front door and snapped my gun back in its holster. I figured if
someone wanted to blow me up, I’d be dead by now. Plus, Kye said
she’d be contacting me. I walked over and opened the box. It was a
dozen of long-stem roses with a card that read,
Tonight. Rusty’s
at 8
. It was a woman’s handwriting. Kye probably wrote it
herself. I thought it was a little old-school, but it was just too
easy to listen in on a cell phone.

While I thought about Kye, I picked up and held Zero
for a while just to see if for once he would stop trembling. He
didn’t. His bulging little eyes were fixed on the box, so I walked
toward it with him cradled in my arm and he started growling. This
made me a little uneasy. I grabbed the note, flicked on the gas
fireplace and tossed the note in. I didn’t need anyone knowing
where I was going, should my place be vandalized again.

I rubbed the dog’s head for a while, trying to come
up with a plan. I could watch the restaurant till Kye showed, but
she might not show if she didn’t see me. Plus, I had no intentions
of actually bringing the box. I needed to find out if it really
belonged to her. Rusty’s was always a crowded place, so I decided I
would just show up like a normal customer, except I would be
packing both the revolver and my pistol.

IT WAS APPROACHING SEVEN-THIRTY and I’d already
showered, shaved and dressed. I picked out a black sweater and blue
jeans with my brown leather coat to conceal the shoulder holster. I
had the pistol in my ankle holster and took more than a couple
ibuprofens for the pain in my knee.