Arbitrage

by Thomas Ransom

  He started his car. First things first, he had to checkup on Diaz. Within an hour, he reached Diaz’s apartment. He showed his badge at the reception and inquired about Diaz.

  “Ms. Nicole? Oh! She is a lovely lady,” said the woman at the reception desk. “You know most of the people just ignore us, unless they need something but not Ms. Nicole. She would always say hi and wish everyone a good day.”

  Detective Sanjay smiled, “Yeah. So, have you seen her today or in the last few days?”

  The woman shook her head, her long earrings dangling along, “No.” Suddenly her eyes widened, “Is something wrong?”

  That’s the last thing he wanted, panicked people around him. “No, no. Nothing like that. It’s just that one of her clients have been trying to reach her but couldn’t. I know how busy lawyers are but still, I got to do by duty. She probably I busy with other cases.”

  The woman relaxed, “Yeah.”

  “Okay. So, I am just going to go up and check.”

  “Let me know if you need anything.”

  He nodded at her and got on the elevator. He soon found her apartment, knocked and waited. There was no response. He knocked harder, “Diaz? This is Detective Sanjay. Open up!”

  The door on the opposite opened, “Is everything okay?”

  Detective Sanjay turned to see an old man staring at him, “Yes sir. Don’t worry about it.”

  “She isn’t home.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Oh! She is always rushing in and out at odd hours. I hear that door opening and shutting all the time. But it has been quiet in the past few days.”

  “Did you hear anything unusual?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Okay. Thank you, sir, for yo…”

  “Wait! I do remember something.”

  “What is it?”

  The man looked a bit sheepish, “I don’t know if it means anything. You know she a beautiful woman, intimidating, but beautiful. I always wondered how she never have anyone over at her place. I… don’t get me wrong…”

  “Don’t worry about it, sir. Just tell me what you saw or heard. Did someone come over?”

  “A few days ago. I heard heavy footsteps that stopped right outside. Before I could see who was there, they went inside Nicole’s apartment. She came home a few minutes later, which was odd but I figured she might have sent someone over while she was getting her mail or something,” he shrugged.

  “What happened then?”

  “You do know I don’t just stand by the door to whatever happens outside, right?”

  “Yes, sir. I didn’t say that,” Detective Sanjay patiently replied.

  “Anyway. I did hear a thud. Like something falling to the ground. Then, I didn’t hear anything at all.”

  “Thank you. Now, I want you to go inside, okay? Close the door and stay inside.”

  “What is wrong?”

  “Just do as I say,” Detective Sanjay reached for his gun as the man closed his door. He turned and knocked the door down of Diaz’s apartment. He didn’t have to do much digging. It was clear as day, there had been a struggle here. A vase was broken in the middle of the room, and few droplets of blood on the floor. He immediately called for dispatch as he checked all the rooms. The apartment was empty. Whoever did this was in a hurry. They didn’t do a good job cleaning up. There might be some actual clues that could lead them to Diaz, and even Ellen.

  He heard footsteps in the corridor, he pointed his gun towards the broken door and waited. A man appeared and Sanjay shouted, “Police! Hands where I can see them?”

  “Woah! Woah!” The man raised his hands.

  “Who are you? Step forward.”

  “I am… It’s Clark. I just came to see Diaz regarding Aria’s case.”

  Sanjay lowered his gun, “Well. She isn’t here.”

  At the end of the day, Kelly asked Aria, “So?”

  “Yeah. I talked to the detective. I told him everything and he did believe me. He said he would go check her apartment and will find her. God! I am so worried about her. What if they… what if she…”

  “Nah! Don’t do this. Okay? You don’t know if something bad happened to her. She could have escaped and is in hiding, ya? This will only drive you insane and you might end up making a mistake here. And, let me tell you a mistake here will cost you a lot!”

  “Kelly?”

  “What?”

  “Why are you here? I mean, are you really in jail for biting a guy?”

  Kelly sighed. “There is more to the story Aria.”

  “You can tell me, I'm a good listener,” Aria smiled.

  Kelly sat opposite her, “I had been with this guy for years. Not a good relationship. He was abusive. But, ya know, I just ignored that part because he was also very loving and kind when in a good mood. I didn’t know better, see?” she sighed. “He had been cheating on me on and off. I just pretended that it’s not true and kept on going with my life. I got a daughter,” Kelly smiled proudly, “Oh! Not from the guy. No. He ain’t the father. I thought she should have a father. A complete happy family. Every child deserves that.”

  She paused.

  “One day I finally caught him. Cheating on me. In our own house. I couldn’t take it. He stormed out and I told him to stay away. I was in bad shape. Of course, he came back after a few days and started apologizing and giving me flowers and whatnot. He promised, never again. I foolishly believed him. A few weeks later, I caught him being a bit too friendly with a young girl in a café. I'd had it then. I punched him and slapped him. Then finally, I bit his throat so badly, he was bleeding all over. People came to his rescue. Of course, they did. Didn’t know what a cheating bag of scum he was.”

  Aria sighed, “and that’s why you are here?”

  Kelly shook her head, “No! my sister got me bail and some lawyer managed to get me community work. I was fine with it. One day I came home to find a sight I never in my right mind could imagine. I… I just…”

  Aria had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  “There he was in my house again… I …” Kelly’s eyes were filled with tears.

  “You don’t have to… it’s okay,” Aria patted Kelly’s hand.

  “My baby! How dare he touch my baby!?” Kelly snarled. “She looked so frightened and relieved to see me. She was crying. It made me wonder how many times… How did I not see this! My blood boiled and I pushed him off. I picked a knife from the table and stabbed him. I kept on stabbing him. I don’t even remember how many times. By the time I came to my senses, there was blood everywhere. I couldn’t even see his face. The shirt was soaking with blood. My hands, my face, my clothes, the floor… blood everywhere.”

  Aria stayed quiet. Her heart pounding.

  “My girl was frightened. I tried to console her. To tell her it wasn’t her fault. She kept backing away from me. I didn’t understand, but then I realized. It was me. I was the monster to her. She was scared of me,” Kelly buried her face in her hands. After a pause, she continued, “I just called my sister to come pick her up and then called the police to turn myself in.”

  “But you were protecting your daughter. I am sure they will…” Aria started.

  Kelly interrupted her, “Yeah. I don’t want that.”

  “What!”

  “My whole life is my daughter. The look she had on her face. I was not her mother. I was the monster,” Kelly replied.

  “I am sure she will understand one day Kelly. She is young now. It could have been frightening for her to see something like that in front of her.”

  “She was scared all the time she was there. She rushed to my sister the minute she stepped in. She couldn’t wait to get away from me. She was crying like I have never seen her cry before. I can’t ever bear to see her look at me like ever again. I don’t want her looking at me like that again. I don’t want to scare her again,” she started sobbing, “That’s why I am just going to stay here. I don’t deserve to get out and scare her again lik
e that.”

  Aria was at a loss of words. She didn’t know how to comfort Kelly. “Trust me. When she is old enough. She will realize what you did for her. She will know how much you love her. This doesn’t mean you have to stay here to punish yourself. You were protecting your daughter. You need to fight this. He was a scumbag and you don’t deserve to stay in prison. God knows how many girls he had hurt, and he never would have stopped.”

  “I just can’t…”

  Aria was about to argue when a guard suddenly appeared, “Aria.”

  Aria and Kelly looked up, “What?”

  “You have a visitor.”

  Aria’s eyes widened. Could it be Diaz?

  She looked at Kelly, “Are you…”

  Kelly whipped her tears away, “Yes, yes. Go quick.”

  The guard led her out towards the visitor’s room as she hoped against hope to see Diaz sitting there waiting for her.

  Chapter 13: The Fate is Sealed

  Aria’s heart sank when she saw detective Sanjay waiting for her. All her worse suspicions seem to be coming true. This was bad news. She could see it on his face.

  “What happened!? Is she okay?” Aria asked instantly.

  “Sit down, Aria.”

  Yeah. This is definitely not good. She thought to herself as she sat opposite him.

  “I went to Diaz’s house. She isn’t there.”

  “And?”

  “There were clear signs of struggle.”

  “Oh God!”

  “Yeah…”

  “What, what!?” Aria knew the bad news wasn’t over you.

  “There were spots of blood found on the floor… the forensic report came back; the blood is hers.”

  Aria felt her hurt would explode, “What does that mean?”

  Sanjay shook his head, “It can mean anything for now. We are starting our investigation. She could be safe but in trouble. She might have tried to fight back and gotten injured in the process. Someone was at her apartment, one of the neighbor’s confirmed. The team is still collecting fingerprints. We will have to wait till tomorrow. Whoever was there, left in a hurry, which means we are bound to find something.”

  Aria was speechless. She didn’t know how to respond.

  Sanjay touched her hand, “I promise you I am going to do everything possible to get to the bottom of this.”

  Aria croaked, “What about Ellen? Did you find anything?”

  “Not yet. But I am hoping that Diaz's disappearance will lead us to Ellen too. I have to wait for the report to come back.”

  “I can’t… I can’t imagine what they must be going through… it's all because of me!”

  Sanjay responded, “What! How is that your fault?”

  “Both of them were trying to help me…”

  “Aria! You are being wrongfully accused of murder. This is not your fault. There is someone else behind this all. Playing with everyone’s life.”

  “You believe me?” Aria asked.

  “Of course! But I can’t figure out how to fix this. Whoever is behind this has eyes everywhere. Makes me think there are several people involved.”

  “I don’t know what to do!”

  “You have to work with a new lawyer now,” Sanjay told her.

  Aria looked up, “I didn’t even think of that! There isn’t enough time to do anything now. They will send me some newbie lawyer who has no idea what to do.”

  “You don’t know that. Hopefully we will be able to find Diaz.”

  “She was definitely on to something. That’s why this happened. I know she didn’t get anything from Ellen but maybe she found something about the stalker…”

  “What stalker?”

  “There was someone following me around,” Aria explained.

  “And you are telling me this now!”

  “I wanted to … but you guys never believed what I was telling you, remember?”

  Sanjay sighed, “Aria… this could be important. You should have mentioned something…”

  Aria glared at him, “If you and your partner took me seriously, I probably would have.”

  Sanjay pressed his eyes, “Okay. Tell me everything, and what did Diaz find out?”

  Aria quickly explained how the guy in the hoodie was following her around and how Diaz was going to try and get security footage from some places.

  “How was she doing that?”

  Aria shrugged, “I don’t know. She said she had a guy.”

  “Of course she does.”

  “Maybe she found something…”

  Sanjay got up, “I have to go check. She might have something on her laptop or phone. But, don’t worry. We will figure this out.”

  “Ask Tanya. I told her about this too. She might be able to help you.”

  “I will keep you posted. Stay strong.”

  Just a week before her trial, a new lawyer was sent to Aria. Just as she predicted, it was some rookie lawyer, named David, with hardly any cases under his belt.

  “So, I think you should plead guilty,” he announced after a few minutes.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I have seen your case. The evidence against you is pretty strong.”

  “Yeah David. I know that. But I didn’t do it!”

  David stammered, “But Ms. Aria. I am telling you what is in your best interest.”

  “How is pleading guilty in my best interest? I stand up in court and tell people that yes, I indeed killed my boss. Why? A moment of craziness? Oh no, I just wanted to know what would happen if I stabbed a guy!”

  David gulped.

  “I am not doing that!” Aria leaned back against her chair.

  “It is your only option here. They will find you guilty of murder and you will get life in prison. Of course, you can appeal later but that will prolong the process and unless there is new evidence, the judge will throw it out.”

  Aria stared silently.

  David continued, “If you plead guilty, your sentence could get reduced to 25 years. If you are lucky, you might get parole, which can further reduce your sentence.”

  “So, I just rot in prison for 20 to 25 years for something I didn’t even do?”

  David leaned closer, “Ms. Aria, you will rot in prison for life if you don’t plead guilty. Unless you can magically summon new evidence.”

  Aria pressed her fingers against her eyes.

  “You have a week to think it over. I would suggest you go with the plea.”

  “What exactly will I do afterwards than? Hmm? 25 years lost. I will have no job, no home, nothing!

  I highly doubt I will even get a job then.”

  David sighed, “That’s not true. You can get…”

  “I really don’t want to hear this right now.”

  David got up to leave, “Think about it. I know it is not an easy decision. But I am just looking after your best interest. Any other lawyer would suggest the same thing.”

  Tanya hurriedly walked into the café and looked around, she spotted detective Sanjay sitting at a corner table. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

  He nodded, “Not much. Aria was right. There was someone following her around. Diaz’s guy is still going through security footage. It seems like she was being followed even before Coons murder. It looks like they were planning it for a while now.”

  “What do we do now? There is no new evidence and her trial is tomorrow! Please tell me there has been some progress in Diaz’s case.”

  “Sadly, no. We just know that the blood was hers. There weren’t any new fingerprints. There was a partial shoeprint but it led us nowhere.”

  Tanya let out a frustrated sigh.

  “The footage is the only thing we have right now. I think we should focus on that. We might be able to find a good image that can help us identify the guy.”

  The two of them sent hours going through footage. “This is not going well! There is so much footage. Can’t we somehow narrow it down?” Tanya said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Wait!” Sanjay r
emembered something Aria had told him, “Aria told me she bumped into the hoodie guy when she was leaving the prescient. There are a lot of cameras outside the prescient building, I am sure one must have caught his face.

  They looked through all the footage they could find from the cameras near the prescient. The incident happened at night and the guy’s face wasn’t clear in any of the footage, his hoodie was hiding most of his face.

  “Uggh!” Sanjay punched the desk.

  Tanya looked frustrated, “No! this can’t be over. We have to keep on looking. I know we will find something.”

  Detective Sanjay sighed. He already knew it was over. There were hundreds of clips and the guy was clearly smart enough to keep his face hidden. If they had been planning this for a while now, they probably covered everything. He looked at Tanya, who had this determined look and already staring at the screen. He sighed again. He knew no matter what he said, she won’t stop. He couldn’t let her do this alone.

  Tanya felt relieved when Sanjay resumed the task. She was sure he was about to give up, but she couldn’t do that to Aria. She had to find something. It was the only way to help her friend. Tears formed in her eyes but she blinked them away. She didn’t have time for this. She kept on watching until her yes start feeling heavy. She decided to lay her head down on the desk for a few minutes. She felt herself drifting away.

  The loud ringing woke them both up. “What!”

  It was her cellphone.

  She picked it up, “Where are you?!” it was Clark.

  “Why are you calling me? I have work to do, Clark!”

  “What is more important than the trial of your best friend? I always knew you weren’t good enough for her!”

  “What!” She looked at her phone and blinked. No!! She turned to Sanjay and saw he was coming to the same realization. They had overslept and the trial was starting. They were going to miss it. Without another word, they both raced downstairs into Sanjay’s car. He switched on his siren and started heading towards the court.