Title: You Never Can Tell
I'm reposting the first part, because I made a few changes. But here's the rest of the story. Comments and criticisms please!
Pale light filters in through the window above the door, though it’s too dusty to see anything through. The two men, bound by their arms to chairs, are waiting and should probably take the opportunity to be silent rather than vent their anger; inevitably, men can only complain when put in such situations, unless they have had training to keep their mouths in check.
“Any time now…” said Everett.
“How long do they expect us to wait?” questioned Max.
“They can make us wait as long as they want.” replied Everett.
“No shit. But why’d you have to say ‘Any time now…?’” Max said as he stamped the ground and let out a labored breath. “My nose is itchy.”
“Just try to be optimistic for once in your life.”
“Why the hell should I?”
“Because you may live longer. Once we get out of here, maybe your heart won’t give out on ya in a year.” Max was silent for a while, pondering the likelihood that they would see the next day or the day after that, or maybe just trying to forget how itchy his nose was. The room was plain: grey concrete walls, wooden table, matching wooden chairs, no windows except for the one over the door, and the wooden door of cherry with a finish that had started to turn black and wrinkle from countless greasy hands opening and closing it. The door had become a point of interest to Everett realizing the lock and the hinges were on the opposite side from them.
“I wonder what he’ll be like…” said Everett trailing off in thought.
“Does it really matter? For all we know he’s not even in the country. But you insisted on coming here to see him anyway…and now look at the mess that you’ve gotten us in now!”
“Well…for what it’s worth, I’m sorry that I dragged you into this.”
“Damn right you’re sorry—I could be at home—instead I’m here and tied to a chair waiting for who-knows-what to happen.” Max fumed and Everett retreated into thought once again. This was a hard situation for both of them, but Everett took the blame on himself and realizing the guilt was his. Of course, Max didn’t help the situation with his constant blathering about his nose and what not. Next he’ll be concerned that his shoe is coming untied.
Reflecting on the circumstances of their dilemma and the events that led up to their detainment, Everett replayed them in his mind. The night before he had taken Mrs. DeBartolo out to dinner and had simply been a gentleman and offered to entertain his “colleague’s” wife since he would be out of town. Simple enough. Right?
“Hello…Mrs. DeBartolo…how are you this evening?”
“Please call me Eva…any friend of my husband’s is a friend of mine.” Eva was a little more than a “friend,” as she put it. Her husband Vincenzo DeBartolo was one of the “higher-ups” for the FBI, the only connection between him and Everett, a detective for the NYPD, was that they had met four years ago at a convention in Las Vegas concerning the growing the drug culture epidemic. Soon after that, Vincenzo moved to the FBI office in New York, and they bumped into each other occasionally. They became more known to each other simply from acting as acquaintances to avoid mingling at social situations that their jobs required them to attend. Eva was a reflection of Vincenzo, intimidating, but in a different sort of way. Not to mention that Everett, or any man for that matter, would be struck dumb by the dark-haired siren.
“No problem…umm…Eva. I’ve got…ah…I’ve got reservations at the House of S-S-Silver Leaves.” Everett had been given instructions that Eva enjoyed certain types of food, one being Japanese. The previous night stuck out in Everett’s mind and he lost himself in thought, replaying how well everything seemed to go, when Max’s voice jarred him back into reality.
“So you said that you took her home, walked her to the door, and went home?”
“Yeah…that’s exactly how it happened. Do you think that I’m lying to you?”
“What!?! NO. I wouldn’t accuse you of that, but I would accuse you of being a huge ass and turning us into the authorities!” Max had a point. Everyone knew that Vincenzo was not on the up and up, but nobody said anything and he was respected, if not only because he could “fix” you if you became a problem. The man himself was intimidating from the first sight, huge shoulders, neatly combed black hair, a constant scowl that would make a child cry, and always a finely pressed suit. “So when do you think they’ll come to a decision?”
“Hopefully after we get a chance to explain what happened. And not before…Sshhh.” They could hear at least a pair of footsteps coming down the hall, soon enough a key was clicking into the deadbolt, and two goons in worn-out Zoot suits entered.
“Yous guys are really in for it no…Oww!” said the tall, hulking goon.
“Shut up—moron!” said the shorter one as he backhanded the other across the chest. They obviously had a plan worked out. Everett took advantage of the situation.
“So you guys have got the plan then?” Everett asked. “I’m sure two men of your caliber have been entrusted with the proper information to keep us until Vincenzo has come to a decision, by the way did he say anything about us?”
“Duhhh…no…but he will once he gets here,” said the big one wringing his hands like two baseball mits.
“Would you shut up already!?!” barked the short one. “You’re telling them things they don’t need to know, so just stop it all together.” Turning to Max and Everett, “I don’t know who yous guys think you are, but once Vinny gets back he’ll tell us exactly what to do with ya’s!” They turned to leave, and Max couldn’t restrain himself.
“Vinny, huh, tell Vinny that I said ‘Hello,’ and that if he expects to keep us here, he’s got another thing comin! Oowwww-Ooooo!” Everett tried to kick Max over in the chair, but the best he could do was to hit him in the shin. “What the hell did you do that for!?!”
“Same reason he slapped the big guy, you idiot.” Max was never one to contain his feelings and all the training that they had gone through as recruits was never a major concern of Max’s. Max was a bit younger than Everett, showing it in his excitable demeanor, but in the end he was a good cop. Not technically good, but morally good; he knew when something was going wrong within the precinct before anyone else did. Everett doesn’t know how he does it, but he’s usually right. Max lived alone, and sometimes felt like Everett was the only friend he could trust. Women had not found a decent causeway to Max’s heart, to him they needed too much attention and spent all of his money, therefore remaining single and in Everett’s presence more often than his partner would have liked.
“You know, the second I heard you were getting involved with Vincenzo, and especially Eva, I knew something was gonna go wrong” started Max.
“Well why didn’t you…”
“I tried—you brushed me off—during lunch—you were more interested in your pastrami sandwich than what I had to say.”
“—listen—I’m gonna get us outta this, but I needya to calm down and follow my lead. Okay?” Everett knew that good cops, even detectives, “disappeared” under curious circumstances every now and then. He did not want to become one of them. Ideas pelted his brain ever since they had been locked behind the fading cherry door, and reasoning would be their only chance. But to reason, he would have to know exactly what had transpired and why he had become the mark.
“We have to straighten out all of the events that led up to us coming here. Now, after I dropped off Eva I went straight home, I swear it.”
“I know that already, tell me what went down this morning” Max was regaining some of his sense and beginning to sharpen up.
“It was a perfectly normal day, until the Lieutenant called me into his office before lunch, saying something about a special lunch meeting and to get to the Italian place down the street…”
“You mean Luciano’s?”
“No, it was Yolanda’s, does it make a difference?”
“It does if you want to ‘get the facts straight,’” remarked Max.
“Okay, sorry. It was at Yolanda’s and I walked in and asked for a table. The guy took me to the booth in the back corner of the restaurant, and there weren’t many people in there, so I got a little suspicious. Anyway, he took me up to this table four guys sitting at it, and I didn’t recognize one of them. ‘Sit down,’ one of ‘em said. ‘I’d rather stand,’ I told him.”
“Get to the point, would ya,” Max interrupted.
“Keep your pants on. Anyway, there was this guy with a really pointy nose and the ugliest pea-green suit and he asked me, ‘Where is she?’ I had no idea what he was talking about and said, ‘Who?’ The others held somber expressions like stone, but the nose insisted, ‘Eva. You were the last one to see here. She wasn’t at home this morning, the place all locked up tight.’ My stomach sank. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I dropped her off last night after dinner and went home. I saw her go in the house.’ ‘Well, she ain’t there now and Vincenzo ain’t happy neither. So you either figure it out, or we’ll figure it out for ya,’ his nostrils flared out to emphasize ‘ya.’ I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. ‘We’ll be watchin’ you, so don’t go put out an A.P.B. and keep it quiet, got it?’ I nodded at turned to leave. They watched me the whole way to the door, and until I turned the corner back towards the station, I couldn’t breathe.”
“Well at least they didn’t shoot you in the back.”
“Thanks, Max. That’s real encouraging. I just don’t know why they think I did something with her. Would I go to the restaurant alone if I had just committed a crime?”
“No, that would be stupid. Maybe they’re just being tactical and covering all the bases. Maybe they’ve got five other rooms down here that look just like this one, with five other guys in them.”
“What I want to know is how does Vincenzo get away with all of this? Think about we’re locked in his basement, the Lieutenant basically sent me to the dogs this morning, and we still don’t know what actually happened to Eva.” Everett was starting to upset himself, and that worried Max because he depended on Everett. They had been partners for about two years now, and after so much time together and apart from the uniforms they had learned to surmise what the other would do next. The problem was this situation was getting out of hand, lack of information and freedom really impeded on the duo’s progress.
After leaving the restaurant Everett went back to the station and tried to gather his thoughts, and since it was Max’s day off he had no one to bounce ideas off of. Concluding that the only way to get anywhere with the situation would be to get Max’s help, so he called him and they planned to meet outside Long Island, in a place called Bay Ridge where Everett had dropped Eva off the night before. Bay Ridge is not your typical New York suburb; it’s a little nicer. Old-fashioned shops line the main street and people actually look at you and smile when you walk down the street, it’s like entering a different state altogether.
Coming upon the DeBartolo household gives you a slightly different feeling though. It’s nice on the outside, white siding, brick walkway, row of green hedges, just like all of the other houses, but you can only imagine what goes on inside. Everett waited for Max for about half an hour in front of a little coffee-shop newsstand, around the corner a few blocks from the house. When he arrived he mumbled something to the effect of, “…I didn’t even know this place was here…” but by that time Everett had too much on his mind to chastise Max. With next to no explanation to Max they went to the house and walked right up to the front door. Ringing the doorbell, they waited.
“So they’re blamin’ you?” Max asked.
“Yeah…apparently…” The door jolted open and the two detectives found themselves on the cold marble floor of the foyer before that had the chance to say anything.
“So you dropped by for a visit, huh, Buddy?!?” There were 9mm Berettas with six-inch silencers staring each of them in the face. Two goons pointed the guns, while two more emptied their pockets and removed their guns from the holsters underneath their jackets. Nothing more was said. At least not anything that either Max or Everett could remember. The last thing they both remembered was a cloth over the face and waking up with a splitting headache.
“Well then we don’t know anything at all…” Max concluded having finished reviewing the sparse facts. “I’m starting to think this is a set-up.”
“Valid point. We need a motive,” Everett regained some hope.
“Well if Vincenzo really is ‘out-of-town’ then he’s not on assignment, because of his status over the FBI office he’s not gonna be sent out on field work. He is, however, likely to partake in some dirty dealing.” Max was getting at something.
“And if he’s trying to cover his tracks when his wife goes missing, the day after I see her…it’s a diversion…it’s gotta be. Vincenzo comes back into the country, all in a rush to find his wife, slips through customs with his badge and the goods, no one’s the wiser.”
“Well it makes sense Everett, but why are we involved if that’s all it is?” Max had a point, where did they fit in? One thing that neither of them knew was that Eva had requested to introduced to and taken out by Detective Everett Wallace, and Vincenzo, being the trusting husband that he is, made it happen. In the middle of their thoughts, a cascade of shoes echoed down the hall. “Definitely more than just Abbott and Costello this time…” Max trailed off. The troop stopped in front of the door and, once again, the key clicked into the deadbolt. The door swung open, banging against the wall, here came the one they had been waiting for.
“Where the hell is my wife you assholes?” Vincenzo barely got the words out through his clenched teeth.
“Wife? You’re married? Huh, imagine that…” Vincenzo slapped the words right out of Max’s mouth. It wasn’t exactly the right time to be an entertainer.
“Listen Vincenzo, I don’t know what happened to her. I took her out; I brought her home; I saw her close the front door. You know I wouldn’t lie to you,” Everett’s reasoning didn’t really have the affect that he had been hoping for.
“Well…well…” Vincenzo craned his neck, loosened his tie, and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. “Neither of you two are going anywhere until we get some answers…” At that moment there was some commotion back in the hallway where the crowd of underlings had assembled. Someone was pushing their way through.
“Eva!?!” Vincenzo gasped. The dark-haired, slender figure emerged through the crowd, wearing large tortoise shell sunglasses and wearing a long, black leather jacket.
“Vinny, what are you doing? I can’t leave for a few hours to see my sister in Jersey?” She had a surprising lack of New York accent given the motley crew that made up the guests of the house. “Why’s Detective Wallace here? I’m sorry Everett…these guys are so excitable sometimes. I hope they didn’t cause you too much trouble.”
“Hey—wait—wait just a second!” Vincenzo was dazed by her appearance. “You’re telling me that you went to Jersey and the idiots here didn’t know?”
“Well, dear, I left early and I don’t feel that I, as a grown woman, have to leave notes for my babysitters every time you’re out of town.”
“Okay—okay—I’m sorry. Thins got a little out of hand, and everything will be ok.” Turning to the short goon in the Zoot suit, “Untie them, there’s nothing to keep them for.”
“Sure thing boss.”
“I would like to talk to them for a minute, alone. If that’s ok?” Eva spoke up.
“Sure honey, no problem. Alright boys get outta here.”
“I can’t apologize enough to the two of you, though I needed your help Everett, for that I thank you.”
“Wa—wait a second—You needed my help?” The motive and plan they had devised earlier just went out the window.
“Yes. I can’t really explain now, I have to make a call.” She flipped open her cell phone and started dialing. Everett and Max just looked at each other stunned by the enigma that was unfolding before them.
“Hello…this is Eva…hi chief…whenever you’re ready. Yes, I’ve got the two of them right here, we’re in the basement, everyone else should be upstairs. You’re welcome, Buh-bye.” She closed the phone and sat down on the corner of the table with a nail file that she had pulled from her purse oncs she put away her phone. Seconds later glass shattered upstairs.
“What is going on up there?!” Everett wondered out loud. Eva went on filing. Several gunshots were fired stampeding of feet through the house, then all went silent.
“Just had to clear the air with my husband.”
“You turned your own husband in?” Max asked.
“Yes. I found out about what he was doing, those apes hanging around the house kinda gave it away. I could have lived with that, but I found out that he was screwing around too. That pushed me over the edge.” Eva put the file away; Everett and Max’s jaws hung open. “This morning I had an appointment with your boss, told him everything; had him send you to the restaurant and on from there.” Max and Everett stared at her, then at each other, then back at her.
“You could’ve gotten us killed,” Max was a little incensed.
“Well that’s why I apologized. I’m glad they didn’t shoot you or anything.”
“Eva,” Everett began, “I don’t quite understand why you did it, but I’m glad someone stood up and did the right thing. Max you were right, it was a set-up, but we tagged the wrong person. Eva what are you doing Friday night?”
“I like Greek food too. See you at seven.”
Pale light filters in through the window above the door, though it’s too dusty to see anything through. The two men, bound by their arms to chairs, are waiting and should probably take the opportunity to be silent rather than vent their anger; inevitably, men can only complain when put in such situations, unless they have had training to keep their mouths in check.
“Any time now…” said Everett.
“How long do they expect us to wait?” questioned Max.
“They can make us wait as long as they want.” replied Everett.
“No shit. But why’d you have to say ‘Any time now…?’” Max said as he stamped the ground and let out a labored breath. “My nose is itchy.”
“Just try to be optimistic for once in your life.”
“Why the hell should I?”
“Because you may live longer. Once we get out of here, maybe your heart won’t give out on ya in a year.” Max was silent for a while, pondering the likelihood that they would see the next day or the day after that, or maybe just trying to forget how itchy his nose was. The room was plain: grey concrete walls, wooden table, matching wooden chairs, no windows except for the one over the door, and the wooden door of cherry with a finish that had started to turn black and wrinkle from countless greasy hands opening and closing it. The door had become a point of interest to Everett realizing the lock and the hinges were on the opposite side from them.
“I wonder what he’ll be like…” said Everett trailing off in thought.
“Does it really matter? For all we know he’s not even in the country. But you insisted on coming here to see him anyway…and now look at the mess that you’ve gotten us in now!”
“Well…for what it’s worth, I’m sorry that I dragged you into this.”
“Damn right you’re sorry—I could be at home—instead I’m here and tied to a chair waiting for who-knows-what to happen.” Max fumed and Everett retreated into thought once again. This was a hard situation for both of them, but Everett took the blame on himself and realizing the guilt was his. Of course, Max didn’t help the situation with his constant blathering about his nose and what not. Next he’ll be concerned that his shoe is coming untied.
Reflecting on the circumstances of their dilemma and the events that led up to their detainment, Everett replayed them in his mind. The night before he had taken Mrs. DeBartolo out to dinner and had simply been a gentleman and offered to entertain his “colleague’s” wife since he would be out of town. Simple enough. Right?
“Hello…Mrs. DeBartolo…how are you this evening?”
“Please call me Eva…any friend of my husband’s is a friend of mine.” Eva was a little more than a “friend,” as she put it. Her husband Vincenzo DeBartolo was one of the “higher-ups” for the FBI, the only connection between him and Everett, a detective for the NYPD, was that they had met four years ago at a convention in Las Vegas concerning the growing the drug culture epidemic. Soon after that, Vincenzo moved to the FBI office in New York, and they bumped into each other occasionally. They became more known to each other simply from acting as acquaintances to avoid mingling at social situations that their jobs required them to attend. Eva was a reflection of Vincenzo, intimidating, but in a different sort of way. Not to mention that Everett, or any man for that matter, would be struck dumb by the dark-haired siren.
“No problem…umm…Eva. I’ve got…ah…I’ve got reservations at the House of S-S-Silver Leaves.” Everett had been given instructions that Eva enjoyed certain types of food, one being Japanese. The previous night stuck out in Everett’s mind and he lost himself in thought, replaying how well everything seemed to go, when Max’s voice jarred him back into reality.
“So you said that you took her home, walked her to the door, and went home?”
“Yeah…that’s exactly how it happened. Do you think that I’m lying to you?”
“What!?! NO. I wouldn’t accuse you of that, but I would accuse you of being a huge ass and turning us into the authorities!” Max had a point. Everyone knew that Vincenzo was not on the up and up, but nobody said anything and he was respected, if not only because he could “fix” you if you became a problem. The man himself was intimidating from the first sight, huge shoulders, neatly combed black hair, a constant scowl that would make a child cry, and always a finely pressed suit. “So when do you think they’ll come to a decision?”
“Hopefully after we get a chance to explain what happened. And not before…Sshhh.” They could hear at least a pair of footsteps coming down the hall, soon enough a key was clicking into the deadbolt, and two goons in worn-out Zoot suits entered.
“Yous guys are really in for it no…Oww!” said the tall, hulking goon.
“Shut up—moron!” said the shorter one as he backhanded the other across the chest. They obviously had a plan worked out. Everett took advantage of the situation.
“So you guys have got the plan then?” Everett asked. “I’m sure two men of your caliber have been entrusted with the proper information to keep us until Vincenzo has come to a decision, by the way did he say anything about us?”
“Duhhh…no…but he will once he gets here,” said the big one wringing his hands like two baseball mits.
“Would you shut up already!?!” barked the short one. “You’re telling them things they don’t need to know, so just stop it all together.” Turning to Max and Everett, “I don’t know who yous guys think you are, but once Vinny gets back he’ll tell us exactly what to do with ya’s!” They turned to leave, and Max couldn’t restrain himself.
“Vinny, huh, tell Vinny that I said ‘Hello,’ and that if he expects to keep us here, he’s got another thing comin! Oowwww-Ooooo!” Everett tried to kick Max over in the chair, but the best he could do was to hit him in the shin. “What the hell did you do that for!?!”
“Same reason he slapped the big guy, you idiot.” Max was never one to contain his feelings and all the training that they had gone through as recruits was never a major concern of Max’s. Max was a bit younger than Everett, showing it in his excitable demeanor, but in the end he was a good cop. Not technically good, but morally good; he knew when something was going wrong within the precinct before anyone else did. Everett doesn’t know how he does it, but he’s usually right. Max lived alone, and sometimes felt like Everett was the only friend he could trust. Women had not found a decent causeway to Max’s heart, to him they needed too much attention and spent all of his money, therefore remaining single and in Everett’s presence more often than his partner would have liked.
“You know, the second I heard you were getting involved with Vincenzo, and especially Eva, I knew something was gonna go wrong” started Max.
“Well why didn’t you…”
“I tried—you brushed me off—during lunch—you were more interested in your pastrami sandwich than what I had to say.”
“—listen—I’m gonna get us outta this, but I needya to calm down and follow my lead. Okay?” Everett knew that good cops, even detectives, “disappeared” under curious circumstances every now and then. He did not want to become one of them. Ideas pelted his brain ever since they had been locked behind the fading cherry door, and reasoning would be their only chance. But to reason, he would have to know exactly what had transpired and why he had become the mark.
“We have to straighten out all of the events that led up to us coming here. Now, after I dropped off Eva I went straight home, I swear it.”
“I know that already, tell me what went down this morning” Max was regaining some of his sense and beginning to sharpen up.
“It was a perfectly normal day, until the Lieutenant called me into his office before lunch, saying something about a special lunch meeting and to get to the Italian place down the street…”
“You mean Luciano’s?”
“No, it was Yolanda’s, does it make a difference?”
“It does if you want to ‘get the facts straight,’” remarked Max.
“Okay, sorry. It was at Yolanda’s and I walked in and asked for a table. The guy took me to the booth in the back corner of the restaurant, and there weren’t many people in there, so I got a little suspicious. Anyway, he took me up to this table four guys sitting at it, and I didn’t recognize one of them. ‘Sit down,’ one of ‘em said. ‘I’d rather stand,’ I told him.”
“Get to the point, would ya,” Max interrupted.
“Keep your pants on. Anyway, there was this guy with a really pointy nose and the ugliest pea-green suit and he asked me, ‘Where is she?’ I had no idea what he was talking about and said, ‘Who?’ The others held somber expressions like stone, but the nose insisted, ‘Eva. You were the last one to see here. She wasn’t at home this morning, the place all locked up tight.’ My stomach sank. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I dropped her off last night after dinner and went home. I saw her go in the house.’ ‘Well, she ain’t there now and Vincenzo ain’t happy neither. So you either figure it out, or we’ll figure it out for ya,’ his nostrils flared out to emphasize ‘ya.’ I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. ‘We’ll be watchin’ you, so don’t go put out an A.P.B. and keep it quiet, got it?’ I nodded at turned to leave. They watched me the whole way to the door, and until I turned the corner back towards the station, I couldn’t breathe.”
“Well at least they didn’t shoot you in the back.”
“Thanks, Max. That’s real encouraging. I just don’t know why they think I did something with her. Would I go to the restaurant alone if I had just committed a crime?”
“No, that would be stupid. Maybe they’re just being tactical and covering all the bases. Maybe they’ve got five other rooms down here that look just like this one, with five other guys in them.”
“What I want to know is how does Vincenzo get away with all of this? Think about we’re locked in his basement, the Lieutenant basically sent me to the dogs this morning, and we still don’t know what actually happened to Eva.” Everett was starting to upset himself, and that worried Max because he depended on Everett. They had been partners for about two years now, and after so much time together and apart from the uniforms they had learned to surmise what the other would do next. The problem was this situation was getting out of hand, lack of information and freedom really impeded on the duo’s progress.
After leaving the restaurant Everett went back to the station and tried to gather his thoughts, and since it was Max’s day off he had no one to bounce ideas off of. Concluding that the only way to get anywhere with the situation would be to get Max’s help, so he called him and they planned to meet outside Long Island, in a place called Bay Ridge where Everett had dropped Eva off the night before. Bay Ridge is not your typical New York suburb; it’s a little nicer. Old-fashioned shops line the main street and people actually look at you and smile when you walk down the street, it’s like entering a different state altogether.
Coming upon the DeBartolo household gives you a slightly different feeling though. It’s nice on the outside, white siding, brick walkway, row of green hedges, just like all of the other houses, but you can only imagine what goes on inside. Everett waited for Max for about half an hour in front of a little coffee-shop newsstand, around the corner a few blocks from the house. When he arrived he mumbled something to the effect of, “…I didn’t even know this place was here…” but by that time Everett had too much on his mind to chastise Max. With next to no explanation to Max they went to the house and walked right up to the front door. Ringing the doorbell, they waited.
“So they’re blamin’ you?” Max asked.
“Yeah…apparently…” The door jolted open and the two detectives found themselves on the cold marble floor of the foyer before that had the chance to say anything.
“So you dropped by for a visit, huh, Buddy?!?” There were 9mm Berettas with six-inch silencers staring each of them in the face. Two goons pointed the guns, while two more emptied their pockets and removed their guns from the holsters underneath their jackets. Nothing more was said. At least not anything that either Max or Everett could remember. The last thing they both remembered was a cloth over the face and waking up with a splitting headache.
“Well then we don’t know anything at all…” Max concluded having finished reviewing the sparse facts. “I’m starting to think this is a set-up.”
“Valid point. We need a motive,” Everett regained some hope.
“Well if Vincenzo really is ‘out-of-town’ then he’s not on assignment, because of his status over the FBI office he’s not gonna be sent out on field work. He is, however, likely to partake in some dirty dealing.” Max was getting at something.
“And if he’s trying to cover his tracks when his wife goes missing, the day after I see her…it’s a diversion…it’s gotta be. Vincenzo comes back into the country, all in a rush to find his wife, slips through customs with his badge and the goods, no one’s the wiser.”
“Well it makes sense Everett, but why are we involved if that’s all it is?” Max had a point, where did they fit in? One thing that neither of them knew was that Eva had requested to introduced to and taken out by Detective Everett Wallace, and Vincenzo, being the trusting husband that he is, made it happen. In the middle of their thoughts, a cascade of shoes echoed down the hall. “Definitely more than just Abbott and Costello this time…” Max trailed off. The troop stopped in front of the door and, once again, the key clicked into the deadbolt. The door swung open, banging against the wall, here came the one they had been waiting for.
“Where the hell is my wife you assholes?” Vincenzo barely got the words out through his clenched teeth.
“Wife? You’re married? Huh, imagine that…” Vincenzo slapped the words right out of Max’s mouth. It wasn’t exactly the right time to be an entertainer.
“Listen Vincenzo, I don’t know what happened to her. I took her out; I brought her home; I saw her close the front door. You know I wouldn’t lie to you,” Everett’s reasoning didn’t really have the affect that he had been hoping for.
“Well…well…” Vincenzo craned his neck, loosened his tie, and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. “Neither of you two are going anywhere until we get some answers…” At that moment there was some commotion back in the hallway where the crowd of underlings had assembled. Someone was pushing their way through.
“Eva!?!” Vincenzo gasped. The dark-haired, slender figure emerged through the crowd, wearing large tortoise shell sunglasses and wearing a long, black leather jacket.
“Vinny, what are you doing? I can’t leave for a few hours to see my sister in Jersey?” She had a surprising lack of New York accent given the motley crew that made up the guests of the house. “Why’s Detective Wallace here? I’m sorry Everett…these guys are so excitable sometimes. I hope they didn’t cause you too much trouble.”
“Hey—wait—wait just a second!” Vincenzo was dazed by her appearance. “You’re telling me that you went to Jersey and the idiots here didn’t know?”
“Well, dear, I left early and I don’t feel that I, as a grown woman, have to leave notes for my babysitters every time you’re out of town.”
“Okay—okay—I’m sorry. Thins got a little out of hand, and everything will be ok.” Turning to the short goon in the Zoot suit, “Untie them, there’s nothing to keep them for.”
“Sure thing boss.”
“I would like to talk to them for a minute, alone. If that’s ok?” Eva spoke up.
“Sure honey, no problem. Alright boys get outta here.”
“I can’t apologize enough to the two of you, though I needed your help Everett, for that I thank you.”
“Wa—wait a second—You needed my help?” The motive and plan they had devised earlier just went out the window.
“Yes. I can’t really explain now, I have to make a call.” She flipped open her cell phone and started dialing. Everett and Max just looked at each other stunned by the enigma that was unfolding before them.
“Hello…this is Eva…hi chief…whenever you’re ready. Yes, I’ve got the two of them right here, we’re in the basement, everyone else should be upstairs. You’re welcome, Buh-bye.” She closed the phone and sat down on the corner of the table with a nail file that she had pulled from her purse oncs she put away her phone. Seconds later glass shattered upstairs.
“What is going on up there?!” Everett wondered out loud. Eva went on filing. Several gunshots were fired stampeding of feet through the house, then all went silent.
“Just had to clear the air with my husband.”
“You turned your own husband in?” Max asked.
“Yes. I found out about what he was doing, those apes hanging around the house kinda gave it away. I could have lived with that, but I found out that he was screwing around too. That pushed me over the edge.” Eva put the file away; Everett and Max’s jaws hung open. “This morning I had an appointment with your boss, told him everything; had him send you to the restaurant and on from there.” Max and Everett stared at her, then at each other, then back at her.
“You could’ve gotten us killed,” Max was a little incensed.
“Well that’s why I apologized. I’m glad they didn’t shoot you or anything.”
“Eva,” Everett began, “I don’t quite understand why you did it, but I’m glad someone stood up and did the right thing. Max you were right, it was a set-up, but we tagged the wrong person. Eva what are you doing Friday night?”
“I like Greek food too. See you at seven.”
posted by Zach at 12:04 PM
1 comments
