Chelsea was relieved to hear him say that. He was only operating off a hunch, not facts. She did not want to believe Dean was dirty. She thought back to yesterday and how Dean had somehow made her feel that she was not fighting her battles alone. He was there for her. Only a handful of people had ever made her feel that way and they were all dead.
Just then they pulled into the prison compound. It was a brown brick building with sturdy walls and barbed wire running along the top between several look-out towers. Her uncle had been locked up here for years, but she had no idea what he was like. She only ever remembered the teddy bear he had sent her. He could not have been all bad – could he?
It took her a minute to come back to reality and she get out of the car. She walked slowly to the entrance, guided by Pierce’s steady hand. Her feet felt leaden as she slowly made her way inside. A feeling of dread seized her and she felt like turning and running. But it was too late to back out now. So, swallowing her fear, she stepped inside as Pierce held the door for her.
They spoke to the officer in charge who was expecting them. He led them to an isolated room and told them to wait, he would soon be back. He soon returned with a female officer.
“Detectives,” she said. “Follow me.”
“We aren’t going to see him like the other visitors?”
“No, because you aren’t regular visitors,” she replied. “And I’m sure you want the utmost privacy so no one will know that you’ve been here, right Detective Carson?”
He nodded. He had thought of everything.
She followed behind Pierce and the officer. She knew she must have looked frightened because Pierce touched her shoulder gently.
“We are in this together Chelsea and I will not fail you.”
Forcing a smile on her face she entered the room and sat down. Now the moment had arrived, she was petrified because she did not know what to expect. What was he going to be like? Would he see her? Recognize her? Would he give her the answers she needed? Would she learn something about her parents that she never wanted to know?
The door opened and she saw him standing there looking like a pathetic old man. The years had taken their toll. His hair was gray, he walked with a stoop and was squinting as if not being able to see so well. But she recognized him, nevertheless, and her childhood memories came flooding back.
Part Two
People do not die immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.
~ Marcel Proust
Chapter Thirteen
Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart and his friends can only know the title. ~ Virginia Woolf
Sitting in the visiting room of the prison, Chelsea looked at her uncle, Isaac Welsh, and remembered him from her childhood. She remembered that he used to come over frequently and she used to enjoy his visits because he always brought her something and would spend time playing with her. She wondered what had caused her to suppress those memories. She watched for any signs of recognition from him.
He scrutinized her face, then tentatively said, “Chelsea? Is that really you?”
“Yes, Isaac, it’s me,” she answered barely above a whisper, her voice thick with emotion.
For a moment his face lit up. “Chelsea,” he said again, as if he did not believe it. He sounded as if she was the last person he had expected to see. She could not blame him for that either.
Then suddenly, his tone changed. “Why are you here?”
The suddenness of the question and her fear caused the answer to be trapped in her throat. She moved her lips several times but the words would not come out. Finally, she managed to force them out.
“Whoever killed my parents is after me now and I need to know why.”
She heard his audible intake of breath, and saw what looked like pain in his eyes before he bowed his head and covered his face with his hands.
Then slowly and with great effort he said, “I am the reason they are dead.”
Chelsea nearly broke down at the news. To learn this after all these years. It was almost more than she could take. Her uncle had the key to the mystery all along and she never knew. She felt like ranting and raving at him, but restrained herself. She needed to find out more.
“Isaac, please tell me. I can’t go into this fight blind. I need to know the facts. My life depends on this.”
“I agree that you deserve to know the truth. I just don’t know where to begin. There is so much to tell.” His voice trailed off.
In her impatience, Chelsea felt like grabbing hold of him and shaking him. Instead, she reached over and held his hand. His arm was covered in tattoos and she saw her name and her mother’s colorfully illustrated on a part of one of them. She also noticed how affectionately he looked at her, as if she were still a child, the one he once knew.
“Tell me what you know first,” he insisted.
“I started getting phone calls yesterday – it was a man telling me to stop, that he knew I had copied my parents’ file and that I should stop investigation of my parents’ murder. I had told no one that I had copied the file and my home number is only known by the staff at the office. So that was weird. Then yesterday we started a new case concerning a college student named Ashlee Thompson who was pregnant at the time of her death. She was dating Austin De Leon, but he told her he was Austin Rodriquez.”
She stopped a minute when she saw the expression on her uncle’s face.
“How was she killed?”
“She was stabbed in the heart and until today, our main suspect is a guy named Justin Quincy. We’re not so sure now.”
He bit his lower lip and shook his head. “Quincy has an uncle named Carlos Mendoza who was a hit man for Emilio. He killed mostly women with a knife in the chest. But Carlos died two years ago from what I know.”
“He did,” Carson confirmed.
“That is your link to Quincy and to De Leon.”
Things were dropping into place, although many more questions remained unanswered.
She continued to speak. “Then Emilio’s son was killed in my apartment yesterday and a message was left on my wall saying “blood is thicker than water” and the teddy bear was also left there.”
“That sounds like De Leon, all right.”
“So you are saying that Emilio was the one who ordered his own son killed in my apartment yesterday? Why would he do a thing like that?” Chelsea asked, considering the man a monster.
“Such men brook no opposition, not even from family, and they will remove anyone who becomes a serious threat to them.” Chelsea shuddered.
“Do you still have the teddy bear?” Isaac asked.
“Yes, well sort of. It is now being kept as evidence.”
“Keep it safe, never throw it away. It is very precious.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“One day you’ll find out,” he said cryptically and continued speaking. “And it does not surprise me that Emilio would kill his son. You see, he doesn’t have the same mindset as me.”
“And that is what,” inquired Pierce. “You aren’t exactly a saint.”
“I know I’m not,” he snarled. “I did a lot of bad things of which I’m not proud.”
“Why did you get involved in drugs in the first place?” Chelsea wanted to know.
“I had been a dealer since I was seventeen, but your mother never knew that. I made good money and I never had to work hard. I was only dealing pot anyway. There isn’t really anything too wrong with that. Anyway, my supplier invited me on a trip to Mexico. It was the weekend of your tenth birthday and I would be back in the states in time for your party. But that weekend I was not simply visiting Mexico. They brought me there to smuggle drugs into the country for them. I was against it and they threatened me and so I finally caved in.
It was while I w
as on my way back from that same trip that my brakes gave out and I slammed into another car. It contained a mother and her son who died on impact.” He paused for a moment to bring his emotions under control.
“They were just two people that died in a freak accident. Hell, I was not even supposed to be there! Had I thought about that trip to Mexico before, I would never have gone.
I was arrested and the drugs were found in my car. So I was tried for both manslaughter and the drugs and sentenced to life. When I realized what I was facing, I decided to make a deal with the DA. I promised to give them De Leon in return for a shortening of my sentence. But somehow, someone got wind of the plan and leaked it to De Leon. The reaction was swift. Within a few days your mother and dad were killed. Mendoza came to visit me and he had your teddy bear. He told me that if I ever stepped out of line again, it would be you next.”
His voice was nearly a whisper and tears were seeping through his hands that he held over his face. He spoke in between sobs.
“My foolish choices got my baby sister and her husband killed. I swore to her I would keep her safe and I failed her. I failed you too,” he said, looking up.
Tears were streaming down my face too as I mourned the loss of my parents who were innocently caught in a war not of their own making.
“We can’t change the past, Isaac,” I said to him. “But tell me what I need to know so I can end this.”
“You can’t! De Leon has people everywhere and he runs the black market in drugs for most of Arizona and California. There is nothing you are going to be able to do to stop him. This one is bigger than you, Chelsea. Back off if you want to stay alive. You’ll be in over your head.”
“I wish I could, but I am obliged to settle this matter. If De Leon is really alive, then I am going to get him. I’ll make him pay for what he did to our family.”
“You’re playing with fire, Chelsea. Detective Carson, please talk some sense into her.”
“She’s a stubborn one, not sure if I can do that.”
“Tell me what I need to know, Isaac!” Chelsea insisted.
“You don’t have any jurisdiction in Mexico. Plus you don’t have it in you to become a killer.”
“So you think, Isaac because you only remember the little girl I was long, long ago. You don’t know who I have become. That innocent little girl died that night with my parents. I am now all grown up with a different view of life. Believe me when I tell you that I will not rest until I have accomplished my mission to see that justice is done.”
“Tell us what you know, Isaac. It’s not too late and the police department will provide you with protection,” Pierce said.
“No thanks, I’m quite comfortable where I am. I have nothing more to say.” But as he spoke he kept looking at Chelsea as if trying to tell her something, but not directly.
“Before you go though, do you remember anything about that little girl you were? Do you remember what your mother used to tell you?”
“She always told me that I would do great things.”
“Yes, and she also told you that you had a pure heart and that you never had it in you to harm another human being. Your life was never supposed to turn out like this, Chelsea, and I’m sorry. If only I could turn the clock back.”
She felt as tears began to sting her eyes and so getting to her feet, she said, “Thank you, you were really very helpful, Isaac. Now I know what I’ll have to do.”
As she was walking towards the door, she turned toward him and he spoke the one sentence she had not heard in years.
“Kocham Cię na zawsze mój słodki, Chelsea.”
A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek and she nodded. “I love you too, Wujek.”
Walking out of the room, she felt that her entire world had been shattered. The information was almost too much for her to manage as things became clearer, but not easier to bear. If she had any innocence left, it was completely shattered. She would never have suspected her uncle of such deeds and she was not about to underestimate who or what she was up against. But something had to be done, things could not be allowed to slide, just like that.
One thing she knew, she was no longer a fearful cowering little girl waking up to the shock of her parents’ murder. She was not going to stop until she got what she wanted and no one was going to stand in her way. No one!
Chapter Fourteen
When love is not madness, it is not love. ~ Pedro Calderon de la Barca
They were back at the station after the visit to the prison. Chelsea was going through the database at her desk when Pierce came by.
“You know Isaac is right. If Emilio De Leon is in Mexico, you won’t be able to get to him.”
“Let me be the only one worrying about that.”
“Chelsea, you need to stop,” he warned, “you have no idea what you are saying!”
“I actually do, Pierce, and I will do everything in my power to get justice for my family.”
“Chelsea, please don’t do anything foolish.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
Seeing the obstinate look on her face, a frustrated Pierce left and went into his office. Chelsea barely noticed. She could feel a fire burning deep in her heart. All her anger at the many injustices in the world fed the flame within. She was too angry to be afraid and her thoughts were consumed with how to carry out her plan. De Leon must be stopped one way or the other. She refused to sit by and let any more people die at his hands. The cop in her and her sense of personal justice were clashing head on and the latter was winning. Life was not fair and sometimes one had to intervene to redress the imbalance.
Pierce re-emerged from his office. “Just a minute, Chelsea.”
He waited until she had come in and closed the door. “Want a seat?”
“No, I’d rather stand.” She suspected he was about to say something she did not want to hear.
“I am sorry to tell you, but we can’t allow you to continue on the case any longer.”
“But I am the best chance at getting De Leon and you know that!” She was almost shouting, although she wouldn’t say she was totally surprised.
“True, but you’re too close to it, and I’m afraid you have lost your objectivity.”
“But, I promised Ashlee’s mother and…” Her voice trailed off. She felt like crying but that would be a sign of weakness.
“I must also tell you that you’re suspended too.”
The shock of that nearly made her knees buckle. What had she done to be suspended?”
“Don’t look like a deer caught in the headlights. You’re suspended for breach of official policy when you copied your parents’ file without authorization. You seem to have forgotten that.”
“You…you…” she could not find the right words to describe him.
“Don’t add insubordination to your charges, Chelsea. Believe me, it is for your own good, Chelsea and that of the department. I’m trying to protect you and I can’t allow you to do anything that will jeopardize the case with Quincy.”
While he was speaking, he was scribbling on a sheet of note paper which he handed to her. She read it and tore it into tiny bits immediately. It said, “Do what you have to do, but you can’t be on this case for now and that’s why the suspension. Do it for Ashlee, others and yourself. I’ll give you whatever information I get.”
She understood and for the first time since getting back from the visit to the prison she smiled.
“We thought it best if you had some kind of a police protection given what has happened. I checked around and the only person who has an extra room available was Dean. So since you’re not able to return to your apartment, we thought it might not too bad an idea for you to stay by him for a while.”
“Well, it could be worse…”
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Pierce assured her. “We could come up with something else…”
“No, it’s alright…” It would only be for a short time and at the moment she wa
s too tired to care.
As if on cue, Dean came in as she was returning to her desk.
“So that which you feared has happened?”
“You mean being taken off the case and the suspension?” She decided to keep what Pierce had written on the paper to herself.
“I think it is totally unfair…but I’ll bide my time and lie low.”
“Are you ready to go? Pierce said I should take you home and keep an eye on you, considering all the threats you have been receiving.”
“I am not afraid, but it might not be a bad idea.”
“I do not have a luxury apartment, I just wanted you to know.”
“Neither do I, as you already know.”
He smiled and she followed him outside. It had started to rain again.
“Are you sure you are comfortable bunking with me?” He asked.
“No,” she replied not wanting him to know that she had mixed feelings about the arrangement. She had never actually shared house before with a man who was not a relative.
“So you’re not afraid of the big bad wolf?”
“No, I’m not…I am a grown woman, remember.”
They both burst out laughing.
They got into the car together and Chelsea lapsed into silence.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Yesterday must have been a horrible day for you.” His voice was thick with concern.
“It certainly was,” she agreed. “It was a lot to absorb and I am still trying to figure it out.”
“That shouldn’t take too long. You’re a very smart woman.”
Chelsea warmed at the compliment. She was tempted to fill him in on all the details of what had happened, but decided not to do so, more out of tiredness than caution. She changed the topic.
“You’re not looking so hot yourself.”
“You’re right about that. Some things kept me awake most of the night.”
“Personal or work related?” she asked.
“You could say a little bit of both.”
She could not help wondering about the nature of the personal things. Did they include thinking about her? She dared not ask.
Romantic Thriller: Only Time Will Tell – A Romantic Suspense and Romantic Mystery Book: (Thriller Romance, Suspense, Mystery Romance, Suspense Romance) Page 7
