by Zee Irwin
“Yeah, okay. I’m jealous. I think you’re blind to his advances, and I don’t like it.”
“I cannot believe after all our time together, all the things we’ve shared and said, you don’t trust me when I say that you are the only one for me.”
He hung his head. “I get it, and I do trust you. I don’t trust him.” His smartwatch alarmed him. “Shit, the last thing I wanted to do was argue with you this morning. I missed you, and last night was crazy, and I wanted to see you before we spent the day apart. I have to get to work. Come on.”
He led me outside, and we paused at the end of the block where we’d both go our separate ways to work. “Bring it in, Flower.”
His hug warmed me back up from the coldness that fell across us inside. The smell of his clean aftershave engulfed me. I never wanted to let go.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose you now that I’ve found you.”
I squeezed him tighter. “You won’t. I’m not going anywhere but with you.”
“The cases have me strung out. We have to catch a break. These robbers, they’re like ghosts, leaving behind not a trace. If I could just figure out how they get in and out. Ah, I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“It’s okay, you probably needed a good vent and I’m here for you. These crooks aren’t ghosts. They can’t just float in from the sky and then quickly disappear. They’re human and that means they’ll probably mess up some time and you’ll catch them. I believe in you.”
He lifted my chin for a slow, lingering kiss, while all the world around us disappeared, stranding us on our own little happy island, for a brief moment. “You’re the best girlfriend ever. I love you. See you tonight?”
“Absolutely. I love you, too.”
We parted, our bodies first, then our arms, and let our fingertips be the last thing that lost touch, smiling at each other the whole time. The rest of the way to the shop, we texted sweet things to each other back and forth, and I floated on clouds.
Sure, Jace might have a slight jealous streak, and sure Frank played his part feeding into Jace’s fears. I was certain we could get through this, or anything in fact. All the days preceding this, I hoped Fate would put a good man in my path, and now my waiting paid off. Because I knew with my heart Jace was the one meant for me.
18
Bubble Burst
Jace
Our love bubble might have burst a little, and it was my own damn fault for acting like such a jealous jerk, but it upset me even more that it was Frank, of all people, who I was jealous of. I knew my Flower well, and there was no way Frank could be the man she needed. He was bad news. So why the jealousy?
I did the whole walking on eggshells thing around her the rest of the week, trying not to bring up Frank or read into anything she said about him if she brought him up. Unfortunately, the surveillance cameras caught everything for me even if I tried to turn a blind eye to Frank. Like every afternoon when the cameras showed him entering her shop around two, and leaving about an hour later.
Going in or out of her door, each time he stood and looked up into my surveillance camera, waving and then giving me the finger. If I could reach through the fucking video and pound his smirk off his face with a good right hook, I would.
Why the hell was he visiting her every day? I wanted so badly to ask Lily, but I didn’t want to shake the ground of what she and I had, so I kept quiet. I continued to investigate him, though, hoping I’d find him guilty of something.
Keep this up buddy, you’ll lose Lily for sure. I looked in the mirror in the bathroom at the station, then I did something I hadn’t done in years. I took my right hand and covered up the imperfect right side of my face and neck, focusing only on the perfect left, just to remind myself what I looked like before the burns. Would Lily have loved me back then?
I blew out a breath and dropped my hand as an officer entered the bathroom. With my hands shoved into my pockets, I stalked back to my desk. I didn’t even have to answer that question. I was a different man before the burns, sort of a dick, but not as bad as Frank. Lily knew me—and loved me—now, and that was all that mattered.
Back at my desk, Travis and I had plenty of leads to chase. In fact, they were piling up. Seven robberies in total now. Cap was all over my ass about it, but all my buddy could think about was showing off the latest round of baby Brianna’s pictures to the other guys. I had to admit my goddaughter was the sweetest, but I was too far into my head to join in the distraction.
Travis finally settled in and reached for a file. “You okay?”
“No. Drop it. We have a lot of work to get through today.” I let my mood infect the team.
An hour later, a new lead came in. One of the building owners on Prince Street reported someone had broken in through his roof access. Like a lightning bolt hitting me, something Lily had said made sense. They can’t just float in from the sky and then quickly disappear.
“Holy shit. The roof.”
“What’s that?” Travis looked up from a file he was studying.
“Roof access. This whole time, we’ve had cameras pointed to the street. Our guys staked out on the street. While we weren’t paying attention, the perpetrators were gaining access through the roof. I’d bet money. I’m right on this.” Adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Detective work was comparable to a puzzle. The edges were easy, but the middle sucked, a challenge with every piece you tried fitting just so. Closer to the end, with a few pieces left, they fell into place—what a rush to finish. Suddenly the Prince Street cases were like that. The missing pieces fell into our lap. The end was near.
Agent Browning called while we were busy reprogramming the cameras to point at the roofs over the remote connection.
“Detective, I’m sorry it took me so long to answer your email. I was out with a broken leg. When I got back today and read it, I couldn’t believe the photos. That’s Bennie Goodson. Who the hell is this guy?”
My hand fist pumped the air and wanted to high five everyone within ten feet of me. “Frank Betto, Jr. Local troublemaker and asshole. Are you absolutely sure this is him?”
“I have no doubts, but we need to put this photo in front of the victims to see. Let me get in touch with my informant and the current officer in charge of the case. I’ll show them Frank’s photo and be in touch soon.”
The day was looking brighter, lifting my mood considerably. Travis and I arranged for a crew of detectives to keep tabs on Frank’s known whereabouts.
After lunch, it surprised me when Daniel visited. “Jace, you have a minute? I have some interesting news in Lily’s fraud case.”
“Sure, have a seat. How are things?”
“Ma’s driving me crazy with her wedding planning. It’s costing me a small fortune, what else is new. Oh well, it’s only money, and as long as she and Paddy are happy in their old age, then it makes me happy, too.”
“So, you’ve been working with the fraud unit, I hear?”
“I’ve been helping Lily with her case. We had her original invoices and documents dusted for fingerprints. Everything she received from the company collected and analyzed. I thought you should see the results.”
He handed me the reports. I skimmed them and my face must have registered shock. “Frank Betto’s fingerprints found on them?”
“Other than Lily’s, yep. And no one else’s.”
I shrugged it off at first. “They’re friends. Lily could have showed Frank the invoices to get his opinion.”
“When I interviewed her, she said it was an older man named James she talked with from the construction company. The guy was nice, professional. She didn’t know who they were, so trusting. He handed her the paperwork in an envelope. If he had been the one to print the invoices and stuff them in the envelope, then his fingerprints should have been all over these papers, too.”
My chair rocked as I leaned back, assessing this new information. Then I leaned forward, grabbing for the papers and giving them another look.
“The name of the construction company is B. Good & Sons?”
What were the odds that Frank possibly had an alias, Bennie Goodson, and involved in fraudulent activities in New York, and then posed as a fake construction company here, as B. Good & Sons, conning Lily from her insurance money? I had to laugh because criminal minds could be so dumb.
Travis and I reviewed all the facts and information we had with Cap, going over each detail, making sure our ducks were in a row.
“It appears like Mr. Betto is the mastermind of the fraud. Still, nothing links him to the other robberies. But I think we can assume his own robbery and fire are not part of the others. This might be enough to obtain a warrant for his arrest. It’s worth a try. I’d hate to put it off much longer in case he gets wind of our investigations and flees.”
I paused. “Oh shit. Lily told me he was thinking of flying to Paris while his store gets rebuilt. Do you think that’s his cover story for fleeing the country?”
We worked fast. Armed with all the information we had, we ran it up the channels for approval to see if we had enough for a warrant to arrest Frank. I couldn’t wait for the moment to slap those cuffs on him. Just like a puzzle, I’d have the satisfaction of fitting that last piece into place.
What about Lily? At some point, she’d need to know Frank was the ringmaster behind her fraud case. She thought he was a friend, but he was a manipulative, lying S.O.B. How would this affect her?
It was getting late, and with everything happening, I hadn’t texted Lily all day. I was starving, and although my head was spinning fast with all the details, I hoped to take her to dinner and show her how much I missed her.
Me: Hey, I’m done for the day. Let’s go out to eat. Anywhere you want, on me.
I waited for what seemed like an eternity until her reply.
Lily: I have plans tonight. But I’ll be there later.
Odd, but I thought little of it. Maybe I’d missed a book club meeting or something. Instead, I meandered my way home, taking advantage of the evening breeze to clear my mind after a hectic day. I checked my phone every five minutes in case we received the warrant, and I also called into the patrolmen assigned to watch Frank’s movements.
“Hey, where is he now?”
“Sir, he’s with a woman at Antonio’s Italian Bistro having dinner.”
I was a block away from the place, so I walked over to spy. Looking through the window, I easily spotted Frank.
My heart stopped beating and would need an electric paddle to get it going again. It was Lily seated with him. Fucking hell. It took everything I had not to rush in. Lily said to trust her, and that’s what I’d do, even if it killed me. I couldn’t blow my cover or let Frank think we were following him.
Frank moved his chair closer to Lily, resting his arm across her back. Shove it off, Lily. Put him in place. But she didn’t move. Dammit! I wished I could get closer to hear what they said.
Instead I watched them, these friends with a past, letting my imagination read into every nuanced eye lift, and every sly smile of hers because I knew them well. She had charmed me with the same looks. And there was Frank, his confident air, and his debonair hair, and perfect skin, sitting inches away from my girlfriend, eating her charm all up.
They sipped wine, then Frank launched into some long speech that had Lily dabbing at her eyes with her napkin. My heart lurched, and I almost reached for the door when my phone sounded off. It was Travis.
“Hey, what’s up.”
“Holy shit, dude. Not only did we get the warrant to arrest Frank, but another warrant came in from New York for the arrest of Bennie Goodson, a.k.a. Frank Betto Thanks to Agent Browning. Where are you? We can pick him up together.”
I suddenly couldn’t talk because through the window, Frank was doing the one thing to Lily that I only imagined myself doing. He was down on his knee in front of her, holding out a ring.
“Jace? Hello?”
“Actually, I’m watching Frank propose to Lily. So how about I bring him in now?”
“Jace! Don’t do it. Wait for backup!”
I hung up the phone and somehow found myself table side, standing between Frank and Lily. With eyes blinded with a rage, it took everything I had to keep under control.
“What’s going on here? A little party for two?” Something on the table caught my eye—two airplane tickets to Paris, in his name and hers.
Frank scrambled off his knee to his feet.
“Jace? What are you doing here?” Lily tugged at my arm.
“Looks like I’m crashing a party. What are we celebrating?” I grabbed Lily’s glass of wine and drank it in two huge gulps. “Ah. Damn, nothing like the expensive stuff, Frank. You always appeared to have style.”
He got right up in my face. “You’re interrupting something I should have done long ago, detective. Now if you’ll excuse us, I’d like to finish asking Lily to marry me.”
My face was fiery, and if I could have breathed out flames, I would have. But I stepped aside and shrugged, trying to control my shaking voice. “Is this what you want, Lily? Him?”
Her eyes darted between us. “No. I didn’t know Frank was going to ask. But I know one thing. Jace, I asked you to trust me, but here you are, following me. Are you spying on me now?”
“Excuse me, but when I see my girlfriend sitting in a nice restaurant with her ex, I’m thinking I have every right to figure out what the hell is going on.”
She grabbed her phone and pointed to it. “I texted you I’d stop by later. I planned to tell you then. Frank has listed the pizzeria for sale. He’s leaving for Europe tomorrow and won’t be back. He wanted to take me out to dinner tonight as a send off. I didn’t know he was going to ask or give me plane tickets to go with him.”
“Why couldn’t you have texted me that? Do you often keep secrets from me?” Frank snickered behind me and my fists balled up, ready to slug him.
“Because.” She motioned her hands wildly in the air. “At the mere mention of Frank’s name, you turn ugly with jealousy. I thought it best to wait until later tonight to tell you in person.”
Frank had to chime in and open his big mouth. “Speaking of ugly, why are you jealous of me, detective? Is it because Lily can look at me and not cringe?”
I slammed Frank’s head down against the table with his arms behind his back so fast he didn’t know what hit him. Everything from the table crashed to the floor with the sound of glass breaking and everyone in the restaurant turned to watch the scene, as if they weren’t already.
Lily shrieked, “Frank! Don’t be such a bully. And, no, Jace, don’t listen to him.”
I took out my handcuffs. “Frank Betto, you’re under arrest. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law—”
“What is he under arrest for?” Lily’s voice turned up a few notches.
“Insurance fraud.”
“What?!”
“Take a good look, Lily. Your friend here, he’s the one who conned you out of your money.”
At the police station, another warrant came in for Frank’s arrest. Once we connected his name to his alias in the national database, another alias came to light—one suspected of murder in a case out of New Jersey. They’d extradite him in the morning and he’d be out of my hair, and Lily’s, for good.
After intense questioning for a couple of hours, expertly handled by Travis and Cap playing good cop, bad cop, Frank caved and admitted the truth. He had staged the robbery and the fire of Betto’s Pizzeria. And he was behind Lily’s fraud. Then he clammed up and refused to talk or answer more questions about the other cases. He actually had the nerve to ask to speak with Lily, and with me, separately.
After watching the interrogation behind the mirrored glass, I fought with Cap and Travis to refuse Lily speaking with him. The thought of my girl in the same room with that dickhead made me crazy. They talked me down, though. They wanted it recorded, to see what he said to her, in case any new information came to light.
; Lily had been waiting in the station all night, begging to talk to Frank, but not one request for me. That hurt more than anything, but I didn’t want to see her yet, either. I didn’t know what to say. Things had gotten so messed up between us and I carried the blame on myself, the weight of it all like a rock that refused to break.
Right now, she was my extremely mad girlfriend, probably hanging on by a thread to our relationship. Once we talked, or argued more, or whatever, I didn’t know if she’d still be mine anymore. The realization broke me. Avoidance was the only answer for now.
I took a chair behind the glass. My hands shook badly, so I grabbed onto my seat while I watched Lily on the monitor. Her eyes were red and puffy, her makeup had run from tears, and her voice shattered from pain. I caused some of that, me and my big ego and my scars, in a lethal combination with jealousy. I exhaled, leaning my elbows on my knees and hung my head, which grew bigger like a boulder, weighing me down.
Lily sat across from Frank. “They told me you’re being charged with setting your own shop on fire and staging the robbery. I don’t understand. Pops’ pizza shop, your home, it’s all ruined now. Why?”
“I never cared about the Pizzeria. I don’t possess your sentimentality for the past. Pops always tried to beat the bad boy out of me, but it didn’t work. Good riddance to that place.”
“Is what Jace said true? Were you the person who took my insurance money?”
“I’m no good Lily and never have been. You think I went to New York for college? No. Pops sent me there to live with my cousins, to work in the family business, and escape the trouble I got into here. Only it wasn’t a fresh start. Our crooked family there took me under their wing. I’m always looking for the angle, the cheating way out, the win, always looking out for me only.”
“But what about me? I thought we were friends all this time.”
“You were so gullible. Always with your nose in those damn books. When I heard about your insurance claim, the rest was easy. When I came back to Boston last year and saw how grown up you’d become, how independent and confident, and sexy. . . I knew you’d be fun to break down. And I was so close. I really thought tonight I had you, and all it would have cost me was a ticket to Paris and a ring.”
