“It’ll get worse before it gets better,” Agnes said in a low voice.
“What?” Eve asked. She was staring off to the side, lost in thought.
“It’ll get worse before it gets better. That’s how it always is.” Agnes took another sip of her drink.
“It’s just so much pressure,” Eve seemed to finally, crack no longer able to hide how she felt. “This case, I just can’t figure it out. The mayor wants to take me off of it and I really can’t blame him. I haven’t found shit.”
“You need a drink, enough of that water,” Agnes said and waved her hand to flag down the waiter.
“No…that’s alright,” Eve responded.
“Nonsense, you’re not pregnant are you?”
Eve abruptly shook her head from side to side.
“Well okay then. Waiter two more mojitos,” Agnes demanded.
The waiter nodded and took off to get their drinks. Eve sighed and leaned back in her chair while Agnes finished off her glass.
“Pregnancy isn’t so bad you know,” Agnes said suddenly.
“I know.”
“Well, you just seem so aghast at the idea.”
“No, no it wasn’t that. It would just be a bad time to be pregnant right now. Me and Marc, we want kids eventually.”
“I was pregnant once.”
“You were?” Eve said with a look of surprise.
“Is it that hard to believe?” Agnes asked, sounding slightly offended.
“No, of course not, but I’ve never heard you talk about your kids.”
“That’s because I don’t have any. I lost the baby in the second trimester.”
Eve frowned. “I’m so sorry. That must’ve been horrible.”
“It wasn’t really,” Agnes said nonchalantly. She had an odd smirk to her face and her eyes glazed over like she was reminiscing some a fond memory.
“Your drinks,” the waiter cut in.
Agnes grabbed her drink and began to sip it casually. Eve watched her, wondering if there was some punchline on the way. But Agnes continued to drink her mojito in perfect bliss.
Agnes looked up and Eve caught her eye. She sat her drink down and cleared her throat then leaned forward.
“I was married Eve, married to an evil man. He beat me, he raped me and he forced me to carry his child.”
Eve gasped and covered her mouth. “That’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”
“I know it sounds wrong, but carrying that man’s child, that monster…it was inhumane. I never wanted it, that thing growing inside of me was a reminder of how evil he was.”
“How did you lose the baby?” Eve asked softly.
“I was in a car accident. It was bad and I when I woke up in the hospital I’d lost the baby. But I didn’t shed one tear over it and I won’t.” Agnes gulped down the rest of her mojito and began to chew on the ice. “But being pregnant wasn’t bad, aside from the circumstances it was quite nice.”
Eve glared as she tried to soak in everything that Agnes was saying. It was hard for her to see Agnes as some jaded and abused woman. She always seemed so friendly and polite, albeit odd.
“Enough about me,” Agnes said. “What about you and Marc, how are you guys?”
“We’re great,” Eve smiled.
“But who really wants children Eve?”
“We both do, just not now.”
“Well, don’t let a man force your hand. You have to carry them. You have to care for them. You choose when.”
Eve smiled. “Of course. Marc doesn’t pressure me much.”
“Any is too much,” Agnes said sternly.
“O…okay,” Eve mumbled.
“Men can be such pigs Eve. We really have to stick together and watch out for our own.”
“Don’t I know it,” Eve smiled and started to drink her mojito. “The mayor is definitely a pig.”
“Yes he is,” Agnes agreed. “And he’ll get his due,” she whispered.
“Marc is okay though. He’s one of the good ones.” Eve said and seemed to lighten up. “Although he does have his moments.”
“Tell me about them,” Agnes demanded while trying to sound polite.
“It’s nothing serious. The normal stuff, he wants kids, he can be a bit demanding…normal man stuff. He worries too much, he thinks he always has to protect me, even from myself.”
Agnes grinned. “Typical,” she growled.
“But he loves me and I love him. And I know he’d do anything for me. We work great together, we’re a team.”
“These days Eve, women can no longer afford to be part of a man’s team. We must have a team of our own. We have to be better than them at all times or we just get left for dead.”
Eve looked away and stared around the café. The mood had become uncomfortable and she tried to avoid Agnes’ hardened gaze.
“It’s true, to be truly free you must learn to live without a man,” Agnes finished. Reaching into her purse she pulled out some money and tossed it onto the table. “I forgot I had an errand that must be done. We have to do this again Eve…soon.” Agnes stood up and quickly walked off leaving Eve alone at the table.
“Thanks…” Eve mumbled.
CHAPTER 15
A GOODBYE TO LOVE
Water ran down the mildew covered concrete and dripped onto a red metal pipe. It made a constant pinging sound that seemed to vibrate through the entire underground structure. It was the heartbeat of the city, the pulse that only a few ever had the pleasure to hear.
The air down there was cool and moist, easy to breathe but left a foul taste on the tongue. Years of fungus and mold growth were not easily removed. But there was something about the smell that was inviting.
A dim red light flickered from a box on the wall. It was a tiny beacon in the darkness, the only source of light in the entire room.
Agnes sat in a rolling chair in front of a row of blank monitors. She seemed to have become one with the darkness, blending in with black tights and a black t-shirt.
Someone began to stir, a labored grunting noise echoed from the other side of the room. Agnes took a quick breath and stood up.
She walked across the room and flipped a switch against the wall. Lights popped on and images fizzled into view on the monitors.
“Who are you?” a man asked in a scratchy voice. “Why am I here?”
“Because you are a pig,” Agnes responded dryly.
The man was strapped to a gurney like the two men beside him. An IV ran to his arm and wires attached to monitors were stuck to his chest. Unlike the other two men, he had a potato sack drenched over his head.
“Please…please let me go,” the man yelled. He turned his head from side to side frantically, but he couldn’t see anything through the thick, beige sack.
The two men next to him didn’t move or make a sound. They were still unconscious or worse.
Agnes laughed then stepped next to his gurney. She pulled at the potato sack and slowly lifted it past the man’s eyes.
In her free hand she clutched a small, silver scalpel. Her face was stone, ice crept through her veins and a fierce sense of conviction glimmered in her eyes.
“You!” the man said in shock as the bag was pulled from his head. “Why? No…no not you.”
“Who else could it have been?” Agnes said.
She raised the scalpel into the air and then plunged it into the man’s chest. He screamed in pain and tried to wiggle free from his restraints without success.
Agnes jabbed the scalpel into him over and over like she was possessed. “You no good bastard!” she yelled, punctuating each stroke.
Blood sprayed into the air splashing across her face. The man’s screams turned to hushed gurgles and grunts as his life seeped from the multiple stab wounds.
Long after he’d fallen silent and stopped moving, Agnes continued to drill the blade into the man’s chest. She stabbed him viscously time and time again until his torso was nothing more than a mushy pile of blood and shredded flesh.
Her hands were soaked in his blood, her face dripping with the thick, red syrup. She smiled and breathed heavily. She rubbed her hand roughly across her cheek and swallowed hard, savoring the sensation. Her body shivered in joy as an almost orgasmic feeling ran up her spine.
“This is what you deserve,” Agnes snarled.
~~~**~~~
A cell phone shrilled loudly and Eve jumped up. Her head ached like someone was slamming it in between a car door.
“Ugh,” she groaned and pressed her fingers against her temples. Looking around it took her a moment to recognize where she was. The last thing she could remember was sitting at the bar when Agnes left. Now she was lying in her bed fully dressed with all of the lights on.
The phone continued to ring and Eve finally reached across her nightstand and grabbed it. “Hello,” she mumbled in a harsh dry tone.
“Rosario?” an anxious voice called back.
“Yeah, yeah this is me. What do you need?”
“Hey kid, it’s Sal. I…um, you need to get down to the park on 59th,” Sal said.
Agnes looked at the clock and groaned. It read 11:30 PM. Rubbing her eyes, she stared around the room once more. “Where is Marc,” she mumbled to herself. “Look Sal, I feel like shit.”
“Eve,” Sal cut in, one of the few times he called her by her first name. “You need to get down here right now.”
There was something in his tone, a desperate sense of urgency that made the hair on Eve’s arms stand on end. Sal was not one to panic or overreact, but Eve could tell something had gone very wrong.
“Okay…okay,” she conceded. “I’m on my way.” Eve hung up the phone and dragged herself out of bed. She stumbled into the bathroom and splashed water over her face.
“Get it together Eve,” she whispered.
She pulled her cell phone back out and dialed Marc’s number. The phone went straight to voicemail without ringing. Eve was a little annoyed, but it wasn’t uncommon for Marc to be stuck at the hospital late into the night.
Still groggy, Eve started the twenty minute drive down to the park. As her head cleared Sal’s sense of urgency began to bug her. She sped up weaving through the sparse traffic, eager to find out what was going on.
Eve pulled up to the glow of police lights. She parked her car and jogged towards the swarm of officers near the river’s edge.
“Another body,” she mumbled to herself.
Harper walked past her smiling on the way to his patrol car. “They really fucked that guy up this time,” he said casually.
Eve shook her head from side to side then made a beeline for where Sal and the others were gathered. Sal saw her coming and took off in a trot to cut her off.
“Holy shit,” Eve gasped once they were near each other. “Never saw you run before, must be some serious stuff,” she laughed.
Sal swallowed and looked up to her with cloudy eyes.
“Another body huh?” Eve nodded towards the water. “Harper says they did a number on him.”
There was a figure lying in the grass covered with a white sheet. The top portion of the sheet was soaked in blood, illuminated by the flood lights that beamed down on it.
“Not the normal MO,” Eve said.
“Eve,” Sal almost whispered. He cleared his throat and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Eve…I have to, I have to tell you something.”
“Okay.” Eve wrinkled her brow. “Just cut all the drama and get to the point. You’re making me nervous.”
Eve leaned to the side and looked back down towards the river. Steve was standing there along with a number of other detectives that had never been to any of the other crime scenes.
“Sal, they ID that body yet?” Eve asked.
Sal wiped his forehead and gritted.
“Sal! Who is that?” Eve shrugged his hands off of her and started towards the river.
“Eve wait!” Sal called after her.
Steve and the other detectives moved towards her, blocking her path. They formed a semi-circle as Steve rushed in front of her.
“Eve,” he said.
“Captain, what the hell is going on?”
“Eve I just need you to calm down.”
“I am calm. What is going on here? Who is down by the river? Is it somebody I know?”
“Eve,” the captain droned. He blinked trying to hide the water in his eyes. “Eve I need you to stay calm.”
“Damn it Steve I told you I’m fucking calm. Just get out of my way. Who is under that sheet? What the hell is going on?”
“It’s Marc.”
“Where is Marc? What does he have to do with any of this?” Eve asked, subconsciously aware of what he meant. “Where is Marc? What…what happened to Marc?”
She fell to her knees as Steve caught her by the arms. Tears started to pour from her eyes like an open floodgate. She began to hyperventilate and whip her head around frantically. “Where’s Marc? Steve, where is Marc?”
“He’s…he’s dead Eve,” the captain said, sorrow ringing from his voice.
Eve jumped to her feet and ran towards the river. “No…no!” she yelled.
Sal tried to grab her, but she slipped him and darted across the lawn. She scrambled past the other detectives and charged towards the body lying on the ground.
Tony moved in front of her and held out his hands. “Detective you don’t want to see this,” he declared.
“Move Tony,” Eve said with venom.
Without a second thought he jumped out of the way. Yelling, Eve sprinted the last few feet and slid to a stop next to the body. With trembling hands she gripped the white cloth, clenching it tightly in between her fingers. She took a deep breath she pulled the sheet back. Instantly, she groaned and immediately fell into the grass.
Marc’s water-logged and fear ridden face stared back at her. His hazel eyes had gone grey and dead. His mouth was crooked in a painful snarl, frozen into his pale skin.
Blood stained his entire torso. His t-shirt was riddled with holes, his chest shredded and disfigured. Eve stared into his eyes.
“No baby…no,” she said softly. She brushed her fingers across his skin and shivered at the cold touch. She lifted his head and pulled him into her arms. “No…oh God no,” she cried out.
The captain was at a loss. All he could do was look down on her with pity. He wiped tears from his face and placed his hand on Eve’s back. “We’ll catch them Eve. I swear to you we’ll catch them.”
Eve didn’t hear him. She didn’t hear anything. She was lost in herself, lost in the moment. Her whole life had just crumbled around her and she felt buried in the rubble.
Time seemed to stop as she sat there cradling her deceased husband. So many things she wanted to say, so many things she needed to tell him. He was so close to her, yet so far away.
“Please come back. Please come back to me,” she begged. She rocked back and forth, squeezing his cold body into her warmth. Tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto Marc’s face.
She could hardly breathe, like someone was crushing her chest. Her lips quivered as nausea set in and the world started to spin.
“Captain,” Tony whispered. “I found this in his pocket.”
Tony handed the captain a wet card with black writing on it. The captain looked down on it and shook his head.
It read, “For you.”
CHAPTER 16
FADING
Dark gray clouds swirled slowly across the sky. A flock of horns played a muted bluesy tune that echoed through the trees. The wind whistled softly and the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance.
Eve stared at the mahogany casket from behind a pair of dark sunshades. Cold tears mixed with mascara and turned into dried black streaks on her face.
“Marc Rosario was a good man,” someone started to speak and Eve looked up.
It was Marc’s best friend, a man named Holton Warsdorf. He was dressed in a black pin-striped suit with a white shirt. He had blonde hair and a clean shaven face and
when he spoke he had an air of authority to his voice.
“He was a man that believed in family. He was a man that believed in honor and hard work,” Holton went on.
Eve cried harder and her head slumped. A warm hand reached out and gripped hers. The fingers slowly interlaced and squeezed.
“It’ll be okay,” Agnes whispered into her ear. “Remember him as the good man that he was.”
Eve turned to her and smiled. She’d never expected Agnes of all people to show up, but her support was a welcomed surprise. She’d been there every step of the way, comforting Eve, keeping her from falling over the edge.
Holton finished his speech and Marc’s casket was slowly lowered into the ground. Eve shook and trembled as she watched her husband’s body committed to the Earth. She’d feared this moment, the moment it became real, the moment she really had to say goodbye.
Sal and Steve along with what seemed like the entire police department watched the proceedings with bleak faces. They were wearing their formal dress uniforms clad with every medal that would fit. Although Marc wasn’t an officer, the husband of one was just as good and deserved as much respect.
A light rain started to sprinkle across the cemetery. Eve looked up to the sky and let the water wash across her face. It rolled down her cheeks, washing the dried mascara down her neck.
For a moment everything faded away. The smell of the grass and sounds of chatter vanished. Even the touch from Agnes’ hand disappeared.
Eve took a deep breath and let herself fall into the illusion, letting go of her somber reality. She envisioned a different time, a different place. She was standing on a deserted beach as the sun began to set. Eve could feel the warmth of the dimming sun across her face, the crunch of millions of grains beneath her feet.
Marc smiled at her and waved. He was striding across the sand with a drink in each hand. The sound of the ocean sweeping against the beach masked his footsteps.
He bounded closer and closer. Eve could smell him; see the subtle lines in his face, the strands of his brown hair whipping about in the wind.
She smiled back at him and took a step forward. Marc sped up, closing the distance and almost tripping over his own feet. Eve laughed and blew him a kiss. Then the vision suddenly faded as abruptly as it had begun.
Murderer's Row Page 9
