The Eyes Tell No Lies (9 page)

*
***

The daytime killer sat in the dark corner of the Ageless bar with his jittering brother
sitting next to him. He knew he shouldn’t have brought his brother along since he
was even more nervous. Without a doubt, he knew his brother’s nerves were through
the roof since he hadn’t had his
playtime
in a while. He was itching to strike again, but he knew they were getting close to
figuring out who he was, like that journalist had. They were making him feel weak
and powerless the closer they got to him and he couldn’t have that.

I have no choice but to kill them before they discover me,
he thought as he watched them leave the bar together. They thought they were being
discreet and gathering Intel on him, but he could see through them and he was going
to get them before they could get him.

Arie felt like she was freefalling from the sky, her body jerked slightly as it hit
the ground, causing her to wake with a start. Her breathing was erratic as sweat
dripped from her forehead and the red silk sheets clung to her body. She turned and
looked at the clock on the nightstand flashing four a.m. as her breathing evened out.
Right as she was about to attempt to fall back asleep, she heard a rustling noise
downstairs. It sounded like someone was downstairs rifling through her things and
moving stuff around.

She reached in the nightstand drawer and pulled out her gun and phone. She quickly
dialed Cris’s phone and waited for him to answer.

“Come on, come on, please pick up,” Arie mumbled aloud as she listened to the ringing
of the phone and the person down the stairs.

“Hello,” Cris groaned into the phone with a little annoyance in his voice. He was
pissed someone had interrupted his dreams of Arie just when he was about to experience
what her lips felt like against his.

“Cris, someone broke into my house and they’re downstairs,” Arie whispered into the
phone.

He was fully awake now. “Arie, listen to me, lock your bedroom door until either
me or another officer is there. I mean it, don’t try to confront them yourself.”
He didn’t know why but something told him she would do just that.

Arie pocketed her phone, rose with her gun in her hand, and made her way to the door
without saying anything more to Cris or hanging up the phone. She let the nose of
her gun lead as she entered the hall. She could hear the person in the dining room
and quickly made her way toward them, making sure to avoid all the squeaking spots
on her floor.

Arie just knew it was Tate in the living room going through her stuff and she was
about to catch him in the act. She was in shock when she rounded the corner and realized
from the height and build that it couldn’t be anyone she suspected.

The intruder was bent over riffling through her mother’s file cabinet. Arie approached
the intruder with stealth.

“Slowly raise your hands,” Arie said as she pressed the nose of her gun into his back.

The intruder was in shock and decided to comply until he could make his move. Since
he knew one tiny mistake on either of their parts could have the gun going off either
on accident or on purpose. He wasn’t going to chance either of those scenarios.

Arie watched carefully as the intruder raised his hands above his head slowly. “Now
take a few steps back, slowly, until I say stop.”

This is
my
shot.
This was his one shot to disarm her, and as he was stepping back, he decided to make
his move.

Arie kept her eyes trained on every inch of him as he began to move. She could see
it in the way he hesitated that he was thinking of doing something. From the way
the he positions the balls of his feet, she knew he was going to try to turn around
on his left side soon.

Just as he was about to turn around, her right arm instantly reached out and grabbed
him. Without her realizing it, her left hand shot as well, dropping her gun on the
floor. Drawing upon her instincts, she kicked it behind her before using the bottom
part of her body as momentum to throw him on his back.

What the fuck!
He had clearly underestimated her and her ability.

Just slow him down or subdue him until Cris or the cops get her. Make sure to disarm
him first and get your gun back in your hands, dumbass
, Arie thought as she kept a careful eye on her house intruder.

He reached out and grabbed Arie’s ankle rather quickly as she stepped back slowly
to reach her gun. She took a deep breath to say calm and waited for an opportunity
for her opening and she got. While he held onto her ankle, he naïvely faced her as
he tried to help himself up so Arie used her right foot to kick him as hard as she
could in the nose. He screamed and fell back from the agony.

“Now, you’ve done it, bitch,” the intruder said as he covered his nose and rose from
the ground.

Arie just smirked, she knew when someone let their emotions take over for them in
a battle they usually acted too quickly out of anger and failed. Arie waited until
the last millisecond to move out of the way as he charged at her with a burst of anger.
She dipped to the floor quickly and swiped her legs under his, causing him to fall
face first onto the hardwood floor.

She approached him slowly as he laid there not moving and barely breathing. His hands
wrapped around her neck rather quickly when she bent down to pick up her gun. He
quickly rose to his feet with her neck securely in his hands, never taking his eyes
off her. The intruder squeezed his hands around Arie neck tightly and through her
up against the wall never loosing contact with her neck.

She
managed to get in a deep enough breath before he squeezed tighter. Arie turned a
little and dropped her elbow down hard onto his forearm causing his grip to loosen.
Before he could retighten his grip, she kick him in the balls as hard as she could
causing him to instantly let her neck go as he dropped to his knees. She punched
him in the nose once more when he tried to grab her by the right arm as she moved
away from him. He shook his head as he stood and charged after her once more.

****

Cris was glad he had fallen asleep in
his
clothes just this once. He snatched up his badge, gun, phone, and keys and headed
straight for the door. He was going to call the station and his captain on his way
to Arie’s house. He was
in
such a rush he couldn’t remember whether or not he shut his front door, let alone
locked it. He jumped into the car and started it and before pulling away, he put
on his lights so he could get there as quickly as possible, without any interruptions.
One phone call to Lynn and she would get everyone he needed to Arie’s house as quickly
as possible. As he placed his call, a big rig started to pull out in front of him
causing him to drop his phone into his lap. He swerved around the truck, which just
barely missed colliding with him. When he was safely around the truck, he picked
his phone back up off his lap just as Lynn answered and patched him through to his
captain. As he was rel
a
ying everything Arie told him to his captain, backup was being dispatched to Arie’s
home.

Two minutes after hanging up with his captain, he came to screeching halt in Arie’s
driveway. He left his car still running and the door open as he ran toward Arie’s
front door. When he approached the door, he noticed it was slightly ajar. He extended
his gun in front of him and pushed the door open with it. Cris was aware of everything
around him as he cautiously stepped into the living room. He could hear tussling
coming from the dining room. As he approached, he saw Arie roundhouse kick the intruder
in the jaw. He watched in shock as the man stumbled back into the wall.

If the wall wasn’t there, the intruder would have been sprawled out on the floor again.

“Police! Put your hands where I can see them and don’t move,” Cris said as he approached
the intruder with his eyes fixated on him.

The intruder bolted as soon as he heard the word police and ran right into Arie.
Arie tried to catch her balance as she went stumbling head first into one of her mother’s
filing cabinets. Cris didn’t hesitate, he ran over to her. “Stay here until back
up gets here and direct them to me,” Cris said before running out the back door in
pursuit of the killer.

Arie ran to the front door as she heard cars pulling up to the front of her house.
She was surprised to see five police cars outside without their lights going off.
Cris must have had them turn them off so they wouldn’t spook the intruder,
Arie thought and as she walked through her front door, an officer approached her.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” the officer asked.

“I am fine. Detective Crow got here just in time and ran after the suspect,” Arie
said.

“Which way did they go?” the officer asked as he signaled his men toward them.

“They went out my back door and into the alley behind my house,” Arie answered.

The officer turned around toward his men. “Half of you come with me and the other
half stays with the lady.”

Arie peered around the officers when she heard a deep unfamiliar voice say, “All of
you go back up Crow I will stay with the young lady.”

“Yes, Captain,” the officers said right before panning out to go help Cris.

“Let
'
s go inside, miss, so I can take your statement,” Captain Roark said as he guided
Arie back into her house.

****

As Cris ran out the back door, he could see the back of the intruder, just as he ran
into the alley. He could scarcely see in front of him as he ran cautiously into the
alley. Once he entered the alley, he noticed it was so dark he could barely see in
front of himself and it smelled of
urine
and garbage that had been sitting out in the sun for weeks.

The darkness lightly eased the farther he ran in the alley. He could now see the
intruder as he ran just a few feet ahead of him. Cris quickly caught up to the man
with his long powerful strides. He felt as though he needed to catch the man without
a doubt in order to keep Arie safe. He didn’t think he could take it if he lost
her
as well.

The intruder turned around and looked
him
in the eyes as he raised his gun and fired before turning the corner that led out
of the alley. Cris threw himself against the brick wall next to him, his chest heaving
up and down rather quickly. He could hear his heart beating rapidly in his ears as
a bullet whizzed by him awfully close. After a few seconds without another shot being
fired, he cautiously leaned off the wall and continued the pursuit. As he rounded
the corner, his heart pounded in uni
s
on with his feet beating a path into the ground.

The intruder was nowhere in sight when Cris turned the corner. He looked to his left
and right looking for the intruder as he exited the alley. He couldn’t see the man
no matter what direction he looked until he heard the car across the street start.
The car quickly pulled off as Cris closed in on him but not before he could get the
license plate number.

Cris turned around at the sound of many people running toward him.

“Detective Crow, where is the suspect?” the officer in charge asked.

“He took off in a black Toyota, looked to be around 2005 with a dent on the driver
side door. The license plate number is 15jms97. Find it now, even though the car
or license plate may be stolen, and also have someone check the alley way just in
case he dropped something,” Cris said.

“I will put my men on it now, Detective Crow,” the officer answered right before rel
a
ying everything Cris said to dispatch.

“Who is with Miss De’laross right now?” Cris asked.

“Captain is with her,” Officer Rhye answered.

“Let me know as soon as you find anything, just call me on my cell phone,” Cris said
before making his way back to Arie’s house.

****

Arie and Cris sat on either side of the Captain as they told him everything that had
been going on for the past few days. Well, everything except for how Grace’s spirit
brought them together and has been helping them with the case ever since.

“The only thing I have trouble with is you not telling me this sooner and bringing
a civilian in,” Captain O’Kelly said as he turned toward Cris.

“If it helps, I have been pulled in to help the FBI when they needed help and I can
give you my contact number to verify it,” Arie said in defense of Cris before she
could stop herself. She didn’t want to tell them about her helping the FBI, but she
didn’t want Cris to get in trouble either so she blurted it out.

Cris turned and looked at Arie in shock as she handed Captain O’Kelly her contact’s
number. There was so much about her that he didn’t know and he wanted to figure out.
She was a complete
and
utter mystery to him.

Thoughts began to bombard his mind as he continued to look at Arie. How did she hold
her own against a man twice her size? How did she obtain a carrying permit so easily?
Why did the FBI let a blind civilian help them solve their cases? What did she do
for the FBI anyway?

Cris didn’t realize he had asked the questions aloud.

Arie quickly began to answer all of his questions. She felt like since she had already
opened the can she might as well let all her secrets spill out, well, at least the
ones that answered Cris’s questions. She told them about how her father had her continue
her boxing, Aikido, and Krav Maga training. How she was at her Uncle Brandon’s house,
who was a FBI agent at the time, when she overheard him and his partner going over
a case. Ideas began to flow through her head of how she could help them as she closely
listened to them recount all the evidence and they went over how their prime suspect
was going to get away. Even though they knew his alibi wasn’t as airtight as they
were led to believe, there were holes in the alibi but not enough for them to be able
to disprove it in court. After helping them solve a few cases, she was brought into
the department as an intern to help the whole department.

“Why aren’t you still interning there?” Cris asked.

“I stopped after my uncle was killed while undercover a few weeks before my parents
died. His partner wanted me to continue and eventually move up to become his partner,
but I couldn’t continue so soon after my uncle’s funeral,” Arie answered.

Arie couldn’t believe she had told them everything.

Cris sat there and let everything Arie said settle in to his mind. She was changing
his mind about a lot of things in the past he thought were impossible.