Black Moon Rising

by Ann Simas

  The good doctor frowned. “She’s had three asthma attacks since last evening.”

  From his tone, Luca couldn’t tell if the doc took that as a personal affront or if the attacks stymied him.

  “Three!” Harry said, “but she hasn’t had any problems with her asthma since….”

  He trailed off, his compassionate glance going back to his daughter.

  Luca wondered what he’d been about to say.

  “After talking with Sunny, I believe these are isolated incidences, brought on by the stress of having been arrested erroneously, and compounded by not being allowed to make contact with her family.” Madani shot Luca a dark scowl.

  Bebe and Harry turned around to look at him. “Are you a policeman?” Bebe asked, her tone cold. Harry bunched his hands at his sides, ready to seek justice for his child, no doubt.

  Luca opened his mouth, but Della spoke before he could. “I’m Della Amorosi, Ms. Carson, I mean Mrs. Keene, and this is my brother, Detective Luca Amorosi. Someone hit me while I was riding my bike and Sunny is the only one who stopped to help me. Some guy mistakenly reported that she hit me and took off, and the patrol officers who arrested her, well, at least one of them was rough with her.” She looked to her brother for assistance in finishing the story.

  For an instant, Luca considered letting her flounder, but she was his baby sister and she’d been hurt, so he cut her some slack. He opened his mouth to speak, but this time, Harry Keene cut him off.

  “You condone this kind of behavior when making arrests, do you?” He took a step forward, raising a fist, but Luca held his ground.

  “Dad!”

  “Harry!”

  “Mr. Keene!”

  “No,” Luca said, keeping his tone calm and professional, “I do not. In fact, Internal Affairs has been notified of the incident and should have the officer involved in custody shortly. I was just getting ready to apologize to your daughter for what she’s been through.”

  Harry glanced at Sunny, then back to Luca. “She looks like she’s been run over by a goddamned truck!” he bellowed. “An apology’s not going to cut it!”

  “Dad!” Sunny protested weakly from the bed. “He’s not the one who did this to me! It was that big dumbass ox” —she grimaced, as if in pain— “who wore a name badge that said Boyson.” She turned bloodshot eyes on Luca. “I personally hope he does some time for what he did to me. I wish I could be more forgiving about this, but frankly, I’m in too damned much pain to call up my touchy-feely side.”

  Luca had to admire her for maintaining a sense of humor. “My touchy-feely side wants to go beat the shit out of him,” he admitted, “but if that leaves this room, I’ll deny I said it.”

  Harry lowered his fist. “So, you didn’t have anything to do with the arrest?”

  “No, sir. We’re not allowed to investigate cases that involve our own family members.” He shot a concerned glance at his sister. “However, I was in the process of looking at the evidence this morning when I discovered things weren’t as originally presented. Your daughter is completely in the clear and free to go whenever” —Luca hesitated, silently cursing his verbal ineptitude— “whenever the doc says she’s well enough to leave.”

  Clutching her daughter’s left hand, which seemed to be the only piece of skin not marred by bruises, but which sported a vivid dark circle of bruising from the handcuff, Bebe turned to Della. “Are you all right?”

  “I have a concussion and quite a few scrapes and bruises, but no broken bones, thank goodness.”

  “What about your leg?” Harry inquired, his gaze on her outstretched, bandaged knee.

  “I either fell on a piece of glass or I broke a bottle when I fell. I have a pretty sizeable gash just above the knee, which took fifteen stitches, so the doctor wants me off my feet for a few days.” She looked down at her knee, then at her brother, then to Sunny. “I remember being freaked, because I couldn’t get up. I was tangled in the bike and in a lot of pain, and no one would stop. Then Sunny came by. Some of what happened is foggy, but the one thing I remember is that she was calm and her voice was so soothing and reassuring, I didn’t feel afraid anymore, and then I guess I passed out, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

  “That’s our Sunny,” Bebe said with a smile.

  “That it is,” Harry agreed.

  Luca said, “Thank you for stopping, Ms. Fyfe. God only knows what condition Della would be in now if you hadn’t.” He swallowed his pride and went on. “I want to apologize for my earlier attitude, and especially for what you endured at the hands of Officer Boyson.”

  “Thank you.”

  More tears trickled from Sunny’s eyes. Luca hated seeing a woman cry. It made him feel so…helpless

  Della added her contribution. “I want to thank you for stopping to help me, too, Sunny, but if I could go back and do it over again, I’d tell you to just keep driving. No one should have to endure what you did, just for helping another human being.”

  Luca pulled some tissues out of the box on the tray table and handed one each to Della, Bebe, and Sunny. At another glance, he also handed one to Harry.

  Madani decided to continue his medical analysis of Sunny’s lungs. Luca thought he and Della probably didn’t have any business being there for that, but no one asked them to leave. Just as the doc was describing some of Sunny’s injuries, the door swung open.

  “Della! Luca!”

  He didn’t have to turn around to know that his sister Maria had arrived.

  Hot on her heels was a nurse. “Folks, this is the ICU! There are entirely too many people in this room. Everyone who is not related to the patient must leave immediately!” She knew exactly who was who, her gaze ping-ponging from Della to Luca to Maria. Hands on her hips, she finished her tirade with one word. “Now!”

  . . .

  Back in Della’s room, Della and Luca took turns filling Maria in on the past thirty-six hours.

  “You let some jerk cop arrest that poor woman?” Maria said, her question more of an accusation aimed right at Luca.

  Offended that he was being held responsible for the actions of a bad-apple cop, Luca defended himself. “Hey, I didn’t let him arrest her. I was on my way to the hospital and didn’t even know they’d pulled the Fyfe woman over!”

  “You’re not going to let him get away with what he did, are you?”

  Both sisters glared at him with disgust, as if he had control over what the FPD or the District Attorney’s office would do with Boyson’s sorry ass. “I’ll do whatever I can under the law to see that he gets locked up for this.”

  “You’re not going to plead any blue-line crap, are you?” Della persisted.

  “Yeah, screw the cop’s honor-code stuff,” Maria chimed in.

  “Will you two back off? There’s a witness to the assault. Boyson’s not going to walk on this.”

  “Witness?” they both said at once.

  “His patrol partner.”

  “His patrol partner let him beat the crap out of an innocent woman?” Maria screeched, further incensed.

  “Keep your voice down,” Luca said. “Crawford didn’t let him. They were following standard procedure and by the time he realized Boyson was going overboard, he intervened, and even then, Boyson managed to trip her and she fell face-first into the pavement.”

  Both his sisters had tears dribbling down their cheeks.

  Luca threw up his hands. “Oh, for God’s sake!” he said, but didn’t know if he was more disgusted with them or himself.

  “What?” Della demanded. “You’re a big tough guy. You can’t imagine being a defenseless woman against a hulking piece of crap like that. I saw him today. He’s bigger than you are and Sunny’s about the same size as me and Maria. Can you imagine either one of us being manhandled and tripped with our hands cuffed behind our backs?”

  “Yeah, can you?” Maria chimed in.

  Luca didn’t like to think of it happening to any woman, let alone his sis
ters. The dislike and disgust he felt for Boyson intensified. “No,” he admitted solemnly, “I can’t.” He knelt down beside the wheelchair. “I’m glad you’re okay, squirt, but I think it’s time for you to get back into bed. You’re still in ICU, you know, and I think they’ll keep you here one more night, if Dr. Fenton has her way. When is she due back to check on you?”

  “Right now,” came a voice from the doorway. “I hear the woman next door is cleared of causing your injuries, Della.” She tilted her head at Luca. “I hope to God there’s no more cops like that Boyson gorilla down at Fremont PD, Detective.”

  Luca’s blood began to boil. Was there anyone in the goddamned hospital who didn’t know what had happened?

  . . .

  Sunny took a brief nap while her parents went to the cafeteria. Or at least it felt brief. When she looked at the wall clock, over two hours had passed.

  Bebe and Harry sat in two chairs next to the window in her room, speaking softly. Her mother was crying again.

  Sunny felt for her. What mother wouldn’t be freaked out if her kid was supposed to arrive at a certain time and never showed up? “I am so sorry!”

  They jumped up out of their chairs like jacks-in-the-box and rushed to her bed. “For what?” her father asked. “Doing the right thing?”

  “No,” she answered, “for screwing up Mom’s big night.”

  “Bosh,” Bebe said, utilizing a resurrected favorite blasphemy from an old movie set in Victorian times. “Your father watched Maisie and Carson. With Molly’s help, he got them fed, bathed, and tucked in.”

  Her father grinned. “I’m not completely useless, you know. I used to feed, and bathe, and tuck you and your sister in, too.”

  “I remember,” Sunny said fondly. “When Mom wasn’t home, you’d read those wonderfully long illustrated stories to us over several evenings.”

  Bebe sniffed. “I’d still be angry with him over that if it hadn’t influenced your career.”

  Sunny nodded with mock seriousness. “I’m sure.” She swallowed over the sudden lump in her throat. “I’m also sorry that you spent so many hours worrying about me, wondering if I was dead or alive.”

  “We called the hospitals and the police and the sheriff’s office. No one knew anything and here you were, all beaten up and…and….” Bebe buried her face in her hands and sobbed some more.

  Harry slid an arm around her shoulders. “We’re just so grateful you’re alive, Sunny,” he said, his own voice choked with emotion.

  “You and me both,” Sunny said her tone droll.

  Her father offered her a wry smile and followed her lead. “How was New York?”

  “Still big. I’m glad I only have to go once a year.”

  “Electronic communication has been a godsend,” Harry agreed. “I know it’s made my life a helluva lot easier.”

  Given that her father was an outrageously successful investment banker, Sunny had no doubt of that. She herself was able to send manuscripts and JPGs so easily, it almost made her head spin.

  “I’m going to grab a coffee. Want one, sweetheart?”

  Bebe flashed him a smile. “No, thanks, darling.” When he’d gone, she said, “I wonder when they’ll let you come home.” She gnawed on her lower lip. “Don’t you think you should stay at our place while you’re healing?”

  Sunny knew her mother wasn’t being a buttinsky or a control freak. She was just trying to be helpful. “I think I’ll be okay at home, Mom. Libby called and said she’s on her way, so she’ll be all the help I need, and then the kids won’t have to be uprooted on top of everything else.”

  She shifted in the bed, moaning once as the pain got to her.

  Her mother’s brow furrowed with concern. “Have they given you something for pain?”

  “They were giving me Tylenol, but that never works for me. They switched to ibuprofen, but I almost feel like I need something stronger….”

  “When Dad comes back, I’ll have him talk to a nurse.”

  She frowned. “I’m a little worried about how the kids will take it when they see me. I haven’t looked in the mirror, but it feels like that jerk really did a number on me.”

  Bebe’s expression said it all.

  Harry pushed through the door to find them both blubbering again. He fussed over them for a moment, then said, “I ran into Detective Amorosi in the cafeteria. Boyson was arrested and apparently went completely berserk when they tried to put him in cuffs. Sent two officers to the ER. He’ll be arraigned tomorrow.”

  Sunny grimaced on another wave of pain. “I hope they don’t allow bail.”

  “The detective said the DA will cite him as a flight risk and ask the judge to deny it.”

  “Harry, please go see if they can give Sunny something stronger for pain. She’s hurting.”

  Her father put down his cup and bolted out the door. He was back in minutes. “They’re getting something.”

  “Harry, what if the judge allows bail anyway?” her mother fretted. “We’ll need to hire a security firm to look after Sunny and the children.”

  Sunny opened her mouth to protest after the words hire a security firm, but closed it on children. If it was just her, she could take care of herself. A two-year-old and a four-year-old put a different spin on things. Instead of taking a position on the matter, she said, “Let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.”

  “Good idea,” Harry said, “and on that note, we should take off and let Sunny get some rest.”

  “I know,” Bebe sniffled. “It’s just so hard, leaving her here all alone.”

  “Dad’s right, Mom, I need some sleep. I’ll be fine.”

  “I swear, I don’t know how they expect anyone to recuperate in a hospital, what with all the comings and goings,” her father said.

  “We’ll be back in the morning,” Bebe said.

  The nurse came in with an eight-hundred milligram ibuprofen as they were leaving and gave Sunny a cursory check. “If this doesn’t do the trick, let me know and I’ll talk to the doctor.”

  Once she was finally alone, Sunny fiddled with the MP3 player her mother had brought. She scrolled through the selections, activated the soft rock section, changed her mind, and chose easy listening instead. That ought to keep her calm and maybe even put her to sleep.

  But it didn’t. Two hours later, she was still wide awake, rethinking and reliving the past two days, wondering what she could have done differently to avoid having been picked up for felony hit-and-run.

  She revisited the visions. All but the last had presented her with a death sentence for both her and Della. Why hadn’t the final vision shown what would happen after she left Della? Even as she considered the answer, she realized it didn’t matter. Four visions had shown her death and Della’s. The fifth vision hadn’t and she was alive, albeit beat to crap. “That’s a positive end result, so be happy you got what you got,” she grumbled into the darkness.

  A moment later, her door eased open. With the backlit hall behind him, all she could make out was the silhouette of a big man. For a moment, her heart stopped, then took off pounding in fear.

  She uttered a sound of distress.

  Chapter 7

  . . .

  “Hey, are you okay? I didn’t mean to wake you.” Detective Pure Male aka Luca Amorosi slid into the room, but left the door open so he could see.

  “You didn’t wake me, but you scared the bejesus out of me!” She removed an earbud. “I was listening to music, trying to doze off, but I can’t find the off switch for my damned brain.”

  “I know the feeling.” He hesitated in the doorway. “Okay to turn on the light?”

  “Sure. I think there’s a switch by the door for the wall light. It’s not so harsh.”

  He walked over and flipped up one switch, which turned on the light over the sink. He shut it off and tried the middle one, which turned on the fixture mounted to the wall. He looked back at her. “Okay?”

  “Perfect.”

  He moved
closer to the bed, holding a vase loaded with an amazing bouquet of summer’s bounty.

  “For me?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “They’re beautiful. Thank you.”

  “I just realized…if you have asthma, do you also have allergies to any of these flowers?”

  She examined the blooms, trying not to be touched by his thoughtfulness. “I can’t handle lilies, so maybe you can take those out.”

  “Not a problem,” he said, and quickly extracted them. Before she could suggest he give them to his sister or the nurses, he left the room and came back lily-less. “Where would you like me to set the vase?”

  “If you move that stuff off that skinny little drawer thingy, it should fit there, and I’ll be able to see them.”

  Sunny pulled the other earbud out and turned off the MP3 player, wrapping the cord around it before she set it on the tray table. Her gaze was drawn to the flowers. “You sure know how to apologize in style.”

  He winced. “That obvious, huh?”

  Sunny slid a glance at him. “Especially since I don’t even know you.”

  He shrugged. “I feel like crap about what happened to you.”

  Sunny tried a smile. Her lips must have moved because he smiled back.

  “How’s Della doing tonight?”

  “Amazingly well. She’s pretty resilient, I guess, but then she always has been hard-headed.”

  Sunny chuckled. “I never had an older brother, but I can just imagine the two of you going back and forth with jibes like that. Your poor mother!”

  “Poor me,” he said, grinning. “Della’s much quicker on the uptake than I am.”

  “Must be your advanced age,” Sunny commiserated facetiously.

  “Ouch, you know how to hit a guy where it hurts!”

  Sunny couldn’t help it, she laughed. It hurt like hell and was followed immediately by a moan.

  “No more laughing for you,” Luca said.

  “That’s going to be hard. I laugh all the time.”

  He considered her doubtfully. “All the time?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “What’s so funny?”