Chapter Two -- Witchblade Karma

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:50:47 10/07/04 Thu
Author: moondreamer
Subject: Chapter Two
In reply to: moondreamer 's message, "The Ghost in the Machine - PG 13" on 08:45:09 10/07/04 Thu

Chapter Two � 09/28/04

Instead of heading home, the call on his cell had taken him over to the Midtown Museum where one of the other detectives had been involved in a shoot-out and explosion. The area was in complete chaos.

It was a moving mosaic of color and sound; all reds, and oranges and blues as the fire trucks and police vehicles vied for position. The noise was deafening; a scene from a nightmare Jake had been through too many times before.

Patrol cars blocked the streets leading up to the museum, their lights and radios adding to the cacophony. Confusion was rampant when he had arrived and they needed all available bodies to sort out the mess. Luckily the Museum had been closing and the majority of injuries were minor.

No one knew at first what had happened but it had obviously been one hell of an explosion. Parts of the museum and its priceless displays were still drifting down from the sky like glowing snowflakes. A Bomb was everyone�s first thought.

Jake had coordinated with the initial officer on scene and then had gone ahead and interviewed several of the supposed �witnesses� as well as the Museum�s Caretaker and some of the injured.

He stayed away from the area where the other officers were congregated, their faces somber and drawn. Whoever had been in there when the place blew had to be pulped. He wasn�t ready to find out who it was just yet.

The stories he received were all pretty similar. Right as the Museum was closing a man had run into the main display hall; followed by a woman who had asked the docent at the door to call 911. Shots were heard and then suddenly, an explosion ripped through the museum, shaking the foundations and causing priceless artifacts in the other wings to rattle in their fragile cases.

Jake could tell who worked in the Museum; not only by their dress and manner of speaking, they were the ones that were more upset at the loss of the items on display than the injuries of those who had been in the way. The Caretaker thought maybe a bullet had hit a gas pipe. As ancient as the building was, they had to be in pretty bad shape.

Unable to put it off any further he finally wandered over to the circle of officers and exchanged greetings.

�Hey, Mark.� He nodded to one of the patrol officers he knew by sight. �So, what do we know?�

�Can you believe this shit?� The other men all shook their heads in unison as Mark Dante continued. �What a mess. It was Pezzini, can you believe it? Somehow she hooked Vespucci, you know, the hit man�s hit man? Chased him in there and got down and dirty.�

�Vespucci? Really?� Jake was amazed. He knew the name, hell, who on the Federal level didn�t? Law enforcement from around the globe had been trying to get a line on him for years.

�One more nail in her coffin as far as Tommy Gallo�s concerned. If he was out to get her before, its open season now.� Another officer chimed in.

Jake did a double take. �She survived? How in the hell did she get out of there?�

�Nobody really knows. They found her under some of the armor in the main display area. That hot blonde from Forensics thinks it might have protected her from some of the blast. Just luck, you know. Vespucci, hell, all they found of him was a couple of molars.�

�Hey, McCartey. There may have been somebody else in there. We can�t see much more than a shadow on the surveillance cameras that survived. It�s like he knew the cameras were there or something. Not that it did him much good. Poor bastard.�

Jake left them shaking their respective heads at the vagaries of justice and made his way over to an ambulance set slightly apart from the others. A woman with disheveled, chestnut colored hair was sitting in the open back door, she was wrapped in a blanket and her jean-clad legs were swung up by her side. He could see the confusion in her eyes as well as the bruising on her face from the explosion.

She still seemed a little dazed, her focus on rubbing an ornate bracelet on her wrist; and no wonder, as she was being repeatedly questioned by several of the men around her.

Jake recognized her partner, Daniel Woo. He had run into him a few times at the station since the transfer and tended to avoid the intuitive Asian with the all too knowing eyes.

Jake hung back a bit and watched as they failed to get any real information out of the battered young woman. He could see shards of glass glistening in her hair and on her clothing, reflecting the lights that continued to flash around them, adding a surreal touch of beauty to the moment.

Here at last was one of his principals. He had thought he would have more time to compile the background information on her before they met; that he would have more time to assimilate and form his opinion, but now would have to do. It was truly amazing she had survived. She looked so fragile sitting there. Not at all like woman in his assignment dossier.

Sara Pezzini had a face that looked like a cross between a hardened street whore and an angel. It was also an open book. He could read each thought that crossed her mind as they finally began to fill in more and more of the details about what had happened.

When they told her the identity of the man she had followed into the now derelict museum her evident surprise was too blatant to be faked. Her story stayed the same. All she knew was they he had drawn on her partner.

He closed his eyes for a moment, caught by the inherent loyalty in that remark. No questions asked, no information given. A plus B equaled C. In that instant, Jake knew the information that had brought him to the NYPD was false.

The woman before him, her very soul laid bare by the events of evening, was incapable of the crimes he had been sent to investigate. His assignment had just changed. It was no longer a token assignment. If he wanted to keep this woman's death off his conscience he would have to out who was.

Wrapped in his thoughts, Jake almost missed the byplay between Sara and Gallo as Tommy Gallo had been walked over to a squad car by Danny Woo. He couldn�t hear the words, but the intensity of the emotion between the two of them was obvious.

She rose to her feet, her frailty turning to hardened steel in an instant. She burned like pure frame as she stood resolute, waiting for her chance to strike at the man before her.

Just as suddenly as it came, the moment passed and she collapsed back in the ambulance as the squad car drove away. Everyone involved knew they had nothing on Gallo. He would be questioned and released. His lawyers were probably already waiting at the station.

The crowd began to disperse as order was being brought to the chaos and the close of this crisis was at hand. Jake watched carefully, looking for his chance and then the opening was there.

With her partner gone and the other officers needed to finish processing the scene, Sara was alone. Without the audience of onlookers to have to hang tough in front of she was beginning to show the strain of the evening.

As her adrenaline surge crashed each ache and pain seemed more obvious. Jake moved forward as the ambulance attendants were urging her into the ambulance and settling her down on the gurney.

A quick flash of his badge to the attendants and Jake was admitted into the ambulance to accompany Sara to the hospital. Even as he emotionally despised himself for taking advantage of the injured woman he knew, intellectually, that this was the opportune moment to make contact.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Chapter Three -- moondreamer, 08:52:07 10/07/04 Thu