I want to apologize for the short chapter. But I hope you enjoy it anyways. the next one should be longer. I also want to thank you guys for reading and reviewing. I absolutely suck at writing so i appreciate it so much that guys are still willing to read this.
Giuseppe walked into the kitchen with his newspaper in his hands as he sat at the kitchen table. Meanwhile Liz was frosting a cake at the kitchen counter.
"Where breakfast?" he asked Liz.
"You want it. You make it." She answered.
Giuseppe sighed loudly and folded the newspaper back up and placed it on the table as he stood up and walked over to the pantry and pulled out a cereal box. "I hate cereal." He said in a quiet tone. "Why am I being punished for your daughter's mistake?" He questioned Liz as he continued to make his cereal.
"She didn't make a mistake. She made a decision about her life. Which you don't agree with."
"And you do?"
"It doesn't matter. And by the way Caroline is our daughter. We back her right or wrong. Regardless of personal feelings that's what parents do."
"Not this time"
"Then you better get used to cereal." Liz said as she focused on frosting the cake.
Caroline was rummaging through Marcel's file as Katherine walks up to her. "Hey! Guess whose neighbor called the police for domestic abuse?" Caroline said as she handed Katherine the file.
"Marcel beats his wife." Katherine answered while skimming through the report.
"Mm—hmm."
"And maybe his mistress?"
"It would explain why Cami is so messed up. But the wife never filed charges."
"Most of them don't." Katherine added.
"Well the neighbor said this isn't the first time he'd heard yelling. When the cops showed up they found the wife crying, Marcels hand bleeding. He said he accidentally cut himself while gardening." Caroline informed Katherine as she picked up the papers scattered over the table and placed them in the manila folder.
"Well, you questioned him. What do you think?" Katherine asked Caroline. They both began walking out of the filing room.
"I don't know. I'll call the local hospitals. See how many times Mrs. Gerard has visited the E.R."
"We're still missing something. We need to talk to Marcel, but he's on vacation." Katherine said as they arrived to their desks.
"I have it on good authority that he's vacationing at home." Katherine gave her a questioning look. "I may have left the streets but I kept my informants." Caroline answered smugly and Katherine gave her a wicked smirk as they both began getting their jackets.
"Are you sure this is the right address?" Caroline questioned Katherine as they pulled up in the driveway to a beautiful mansion.
"Looks like Marcel might be hiding more than just domestic abuse." Katherine said.
Both girls wait patiently at the front and door is opened by Marcel who has a couple of bruises around his eye. "Is that my ice sculpture?" Marcel's wife yells in the background.
"No dear." Marcel answered frustrated. "What are you doing here?" he questioned.
"We need to ask you a few questions." Caroline answered as Marcel looked back to see his wife still staring at him.
"Come around back." He answered and closed the door. Caroline and Katherine looked at each other and wondering why he was acting weird.
Marcel walked up to them a few minutes later as they waited out back. "Okay. What do you want?" he questioned.
"We want to know why you've been to the E.R. six times in the past year." Caroline asked.
"I'm a cop. We get hurt."
"That's what we thought. Only we couldn't find any record of you being injured on the job." Katherine said.
"Which means you've been getting into fights that aren't being reported?" Caroline stated.
"Beating your wife just isn't enough?" Katherine added.
"I don't hit my wife."
"Cut the crap. We know about the domestic abuse."
"You don't know anything." Marcel said.
"Then set us straight because none of this makes sense. This house, you, your wife." Caroline asked.
"I'm not allowed to love someone with money?"
"And risk it all for a bartender?"
Marcel quickly turned around to make sure his wife wasn't near to hear what Caroline asked him. As he did so Caroline and Katherine looked at each other and it began to make sense.
Caroline turns to him and asks "how'd you get the scratches on your arm?"
"We know you didn't get them from the bar fight." Katherine added.
"Stray Cat." Marcel answered quickly.
Katherine turns to Caroline and raises her brows and nods towards the house. Caroline begins to walk towards the house.
"Where is she going?" Marcel questions.
"To check your wife's nails." Katherine tells him.
He quickly turns to Caroline before she reaches the house and says "She didn't mean it"
"Which time?" Caroline stops and turns to him "Was it when you had to stay overnight in the hospital with a concussion or the fractured wrist? Or maybe it was the eight stitches on the back of your head." She says as she walks back to them.
"Why don't you just get a divorce?" Katherine asks
"With her money I'd be lucky to get weekend visitation." He answered as he turns to see his two boys playing in the yard a couple feet away.
"So that's it? You just continue to be abused? What about your boys?" Caroline questioned.
"She doesn't hurt them." He answered.
"You don't have to hit someone to hurt them."
Marcel looks to floor as he lets the words sink in. "Look, Can we just keep this between us?" He said while looking between both of them.
"As long as you tell us the truth." Katherine asked
"Okay, just someplace else."
"You're lucky I'm craving turkey. We'll meet you at corner bakery." Katherine said as she started walking towards the car.
Caroline grabs a card from her jacket pocket and hands it to him. "Call him, he's a good lawyer."
"Marcel started seeing Camille three months ago, but before that she had been dating Logan Fell." Katherine said as her and Caroline sat in two chairs in front of Alaric's desk as he patiently listened to the information they got from Marcel.
"The plot thickens" Alaric says.
"We got a regular soap opera."
"When Camille broke up with Logan Fell, she didn't want to hurt his feelings. So she told him she just needed some space." Caroline added.
"Logan thought she was playing hard to get, so he continued to come to the bar."
"Marcel found out and finally had enough. So he told Camille if she didn't Logan to get lost he would."
"Who threw the first punch?" Alaric asked.
"Logan Fell, Marcel was just defending himself." Caroline answered quickly. "Only it turned into a brawl, Camille got hurt when she tried to stop it."
"Why didn't Marcel tell you right away?" He asked.
"He was scared if the affair came out, his wife might kill him, literally. Or worse take his boys away, and he'd never see them again." Katherine answered.
Alaric scoffs "A cop abused by his wife. That had to be hard to get out of him."
"It just all added up. Along with the money Mrs. Gerard has she could have left at any time." Caroline said.
"Why doesn't he just get a divorce?"
"Still working on that, sir."
"Okay. Good job, Detectives. You give me that report first thing tomorrow." Alaric told him as he took a sip of his coffee.
Both girls walk out of his office and close the door. "Heads or Tails?" Katherine asks Caroline as she pulls out a quarter.
"What are flipping for now?"
"Who does the report?"
"Oh. Heads." Caroline answered as Alaric opens the door and calls her
"Detective Salvatore. We just got an officer involved in a shooting. Want it?" He asked while handing out a post it with information on it.
She takes the post it "Thank you, sir." She answered surprised he gave her another investigation so quickly. She turns to Katherine "Shall I drive?"
"Save it for homicide." Katherine said while walking to her desk.
"Welcome to the Party." Another detective said as they walked towards the murder scene. "Luka Martin. 15 years old. Robbed the quick mart down the street. When our boys in blue showed, he gave chase turned the corner and his gun on the two pursuing officers. Officer in the lead shot him twice in the chest. They found a gun two feet away from the body."
"Was it fired?" Caroline asked.
"Waiting on Ballistics." He answered.
"Any witnesses" Katherine added.
"We're still canvassing the area."
"Where is the officer involved?"
The detective nods behind them and both of them turn towards the direction. As the patrol car moves from their line of vision Caroline realizes it's Stefan looking pale and facing the floor while Klaus stood next to him patting his back. Stefan looks up to see Caroline staring at him and both of them with shocked looks on their face. Caroline starts to walk towards Stefan but Caroline stops her "Not yet, Homicide takes the lead." She says.
A Homicide detective walks up to Stefan. But before Stefan walks away with the other man Klaus whispers something to him. Stefan nods and walks away. Caroline watches as her brother gets in the passenger seat of the detectives car and drives off.
Later on that night Caroline is seated at a bar near her apartment. She takes out her phone and searches her contacts " Hey… I need to see you." She says when they pick up.
A couple minutes later she is standing in front of a door. When Liz opens the door she finds Caroline with tears in her eyes. She steps forward and embraces her in a hug.