Chapter 2
For the second time in a row I find myself downstairs in the basement, which is filled with complete silence. This silence however is a little different from yesterday's silence. The air between Nick and I is thick and filled with a little bit of tension. He is sitting on the couch while I sit adjacent to him in the lazy boy. He is sitting up straight taking in his surroundings while I'm somewhat leaned back in the lazy boy with my legs crossed and my right hand is holding up my chin with help of my thumb which is under my chin, while my index finger rests on my cheek and my other fingers cover my mouth slightly. For 10 minutes we are both quiet, he continues to ignore the fact that I'm staring right at him reading him, and well…I'm staring right him.
We both stop what we are doing when we hear the sounds of the basement door opening up and footsteps coming down the stairs. The only part of my body that moves to address the noise is my eyes. I go from looking at Nick to looking at my wife who is still in her red house robe. She is holding a tray with two coffee mugs, a tea kettle, cream, sugar and some crackers. The three of us are quiet as Nick and I watch Callie pour hot water into two different mugs. She hands Nick a light brown mug that says London Starbucks on it. It was a gift from Callie's parents a year ago when they went on a mouth vacation to Europe, they got us 4 of those mugs for when we want to entertain people, like now. My mug however is little different from Nick's.
Last year for Zola's 7th birthday party, she had her party at the Color Me Mine art studio. The kids and adults could pick from a wall of white ceramics objects that range from human figures to dinner plates. Once the kids picked their object they could then paint it whatever they wanted before the employees did some finishing touches on it so the kids could take the object home and use it safely. I was supposed to be at that party, but Hannah West, the 16 year old daughter to one of the hospital board members was in the last stages of kidney failure which forced Alex and I to miss the party because we were busy trying to come up with alternative ways to keep her alive while we waited for UNOS to find us a new kidney.
Since I wasn't there my tiny humans each painted their own ceramic object before the three of them worked together to paint me something special. They decided to paint me a coffee mug. My mug is a light purple, my favorite color, and on both the outside and inside of the mug they used white paint to put their finger and hand prints all around the mug. Also using white paint they each put their name next to their handprint. Ever since they gave me this mug it is the only mug I use whenever I drink coffee or tea.
"I'll be in the living room if you need me," Callie somewhat whispers when she is done pouring our tea. Callie leaves the basement and closes the door behind her. We are quiet for a few more minutes, both of us making sure that Callie really is in the living room and not hiding at the top the stairs listening to our conversation.
After 5 minutes of pure silence Nick finally decides to speak up, "holy 1950s Batman." Nick says with a laugh. "Women still bring tea and coffee for their guests?" Nick leans over and puts two spoonfuls of sugar in his mug before he takes a sip of his tea.
"They do when your in-laws are hard core Catholics with old school beliefs." I say in a monotone voice as I reach over and grab my mug. We are silent again as we take a moment to enjoy our pumpkin spice tea. "What did I do in the past to make you and Tim think I am a serial killer?" I cut right to chase while playing the innocent card so I can see how much he knows about my not so secret, secret.
"Who do you think told him to guide you down the path on killing criminals? Your first kill since Jena, Dr. James Blomstrom your calculus 2 teacher, who do you think had to calm him down when you went running to him with all that evidence saying that he was a pedophile?" Nick points to himself. "Truth be told, I created you, not your brother. Your brother was a hot alcoholic mess when you showed him those photos of Dr. Blomstrom violating those young boys. I had to stop him from calling the police, and reporting you, on the night you actually killed the sorry bastard." Nick takes another sip of his tea before he lowers his mug back on his lap. "Tim didn't understand you like I do. You are magnificent creature, Arizona. Society sees you as a mistake, and believes that you should be locked up for the rest of your life, but you're not a mistake. You're flawless, you're perfect, and you're an example of what humans should be."
The man is practically drooling over the fact that I kill people, and everyone wants to look at me with disgust, seriously, what's wrong with our society? I don't say anything as I take a moment to fully take in Nick's appearance. Looking at his Navy uniform I see that he is currently a lieutenant colonel, which I bet Tim would be if he were alive today.
Even though Tim and I were military brats that always moved every six months, Nick was a military brat as well. Nick's dad worked closely with my dad in the Marines engineering department meaning every time we moved, Nick and his family moved. When you become a military brat you either become good at making friends or become good at being a loner. At first this lovely little blonde was loner, but Tim and I guess Nick turned me into a fake person who was good at 'making friends' I didn't want to be around let alone care about. Nick and Tim were two years older than me so my junior in high school was my first real test at faking because I was forced to talk to people without Nick or Tim by my side. It was rough at first but I eventually got the hang of it, and now people see me as cute, happy and bubbly…if they only knew.
When Nick and Tim graduated they got full ride Navy ROTC scholarships to the University of Stanford in California. Tim majored in computer engineering while Nick majored in psychology. After they both graduated they were both stationed at the Boston Navy Yard which was about 13 minutes away from Harvard where they both went to get their Masters degrees. Tim got his in Computer Science and Nick got his Neuroscience. After 4 years of military service (Navy Seals for Tim, Military Police for Nick) they were allowed paid leave to pursue their doctorates which they went back to Stanford for. Tim got his in…surprise computer science and Nick got his in neuropsychiatry.
With their new degrees the Navy asked both Tim and Nick to be officers in the Naval Criminal Investigative branch, yes for 3 years both Tim and Nick worked for NCIS like the TV show. Tim did mainly intelligence stuff while Nick did the questioning. They traveled all around the world to different ships, stations and bases investigating any shady officers in the Navy or Marines.
Eleven years ago Nick and Tim traveled to Marine Corps Base Camp Semedley D. Butler in Okinawa Japan for their final mission together. There were several reports filed against Colonel Even P Hopkins. Several women claimed that he would take young female enlisted sailors out to several bars in Okinawa to get them heavily intoxicated. Once they were drunk he would lead them to dark back alleyways where he would then rape them. When Colonel Hopkins found out the true reason to why Tim and Nick showed up to his base camp he took my brother out to The Sidedoor which was the Colonel's favorite bar. He tried everything to get Tim drunk, but Tim was always on duty and couldn't drink. Tim decided to call it a night and was walking back to the base when Colonel Hopkins shot my brother three times in the back, and once in the back of the head. All I can say is, it was a good thing that Nick got to him first because it would not have been a pretty picture if I had gotten my hands on him.
"I'm sure you've heard about The Road Truck Killer, he's all over the news." Nick says breaking me from my violent thoughts of killing the man that killed my brother.
"I have," I say in soft whisper with an expressionless face.
Nick just gives me a slight head nod, "well it has become a government case and for the past few months my team at NCIS and some other teams from the Air Force's special investigation unit have been working on finding this killer and we have had no luck." Nick pulls out a small brown folder and hands it to me.
As I grab the folder I put my mug on the coffee table and fully open up the folder. The folder is filled with the pictures that were too grotesque for national television. I feel my breath hitch a little bit as I flip through the pictures. The average human would this sick, twisted, and disgusting but I find these pictures beautiful. In my twisted world these pictures are like a work of art. I see an assortment of body parts from both men and women, their limbs are perfectly cut from their bodies and strategically placed in various locations around the United States. Seeing something so grotesque like this is usually enough to awaken my dark passenger, and as I continue to flip through the photos I feel him start to awaken from his slumber. When he fully awakens I'm not greeted with the feeling of killing. For the first time in years my dark passenger is fully awake and sitting in passenger sit of body, but he isn't forcing his way into the driver's seats. Instead he just sits with me and looks at these…beautiful pictures.
The more I look at these pictures the more I do feel like hunting, but I don't feel like killing. I don't have that need to kill the artist behind this work, I want to meet him. I want to talk to him. That would be a weird lunch date. 'Hi saw your work and I must say I'm fan. How long have you been doing this, did you experiment with others before you found this technique? I've secretly killed 228 people how many people have you killed?'
"This guy doesn't have an MO. The men and women that we found so far have nothing in common." The sounds of Nick's voice interrupt my imaginary lunch date this…genius. "The solid information we have right now, is the victims are killed in a different location then the dump site, and according to the Air Force's coroner the victims are already dead when they were cut up limb from limb."
"They're not dead when he cuts them up." I say nonchalantly never taking my eyes off the pictures in front of me.
"What?" Nick leans forward to look down at the pictures, "How do you know?" He questions.
I remove the current picture that I'm looking before I place the folder on the coffee table. I flip the picture around so Nick can get a good look at it. It is a picture of a severed right hand with all of the fingers cut off as well. Judging by the long finger nails and red nail polish of the fingers the owner of this hand was a female. "There are various forms of the healing process going on with this hand, and in order for the healing process to work the body the hand was attracted to has to be alive." I pause of a moment to look at the picture for a second. "Since the fingers starting with the thumb are at the end stages of healing, he cut off all of her fingers before moving on to her wrist."
Nick takes the picture out of my hand and leans back onto the couch with a loud sigh. "This is why I was against using the incompetent assholes the Air Force calls doctors," Nick says under his breath while shaking his head. "Chris would have never missed something like this, this could be a break and thanks to Air Force we almost missed it."
I don't say anything as I sit back in my chair and just study Nick as he looks at the hand while having a silent conversation with himself. He's hiding something from me, but I don't know what it is. As I think about his hidden secret a thought occurs to me, the victims were alive when their limbs were being cut off which could be viewed as a form of torture. If he is torturing them then they must have something common and he is looking for information that will lead him somewhere, but where? I need to see the names of the victims to find the common denominator. I'm about to ask for the names of the victims but the sound of the basement door opening stops me.
I move my attention the basement stairwell. I know from the slow footsteps it's not Callie or Sofia. Jackie usually stays down for the night unless its thunder and lighting, so that must mean that it is my son, William, coming downstairs. "Little man," I say when he reaches the bottom of the stairs.
His short dirty blonde hair is a little messy, and he has sleep with a splash of fear in his dark blue eyes. He is wearing his favorite Looney Tunes two piece pajamas which are white with the face of every character in the show, and he is currently holding his favorite blue teddy bear, Charlie. "What are you doing up so late?" I get up from my chair completely ignoring Nick to put all of my attention on my son.
"The monster is back," William says as he lifts his arms for me to pick him up. I pick up my son and once he is in my arms his head immediately rests on my shoulders. I turn around to address Nick, but I see that he is holding the tray that Callie brought down earlier and he is walking towards me.
"It's getting late and you have a family to attend to." Nick says to me as he walks past me and up the stairs. The way how he said family doesn't sit well with me, but I push the comment aside and follow him upstairs.
The two of us get upstairs to see Callie sitting on the couch reading a Rachel Ray's Everyday cooking magazine. She looks over towards us and her eyes get wide when she spots a now slumbering William in my arms.
"I didn't even hear him come downstairs; he must have sneaked past me when I was in the restroom." Callie says as she gets up off the couch. She walks over to me and tries to take William out of arms. "I'll put him up stairs, Arizona can you put the tray in the kitchen and you guys can go back downstairs and finish talking."
"No it's okay," Nick starts as he sets the tray down on the counter top in the kitchen. When he sits the tray down he comes back out into the living room to join us. "I did drop by unannounced which is rude seeing how Arizona has a beautiful wife and a handsome son that need her right now more than me."
I don't like the tone that Nick is speaking in right now. He is making it seem like William and Callie are a waste of my time, and that I should have nothing to do with them.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow." Nick says as he walks over towards the front door and shows himself out.
"I'm going to put him back upstairs in his bed," I say avoiding conversation with Callie.
Callie doesn't say anything as she goes to the kitchen to clean the mugs, while put a still slumbering William back in his bed. When I turn around to the leave I see that his nightlight has burnt out which is probably why he got scared when he woke up. I change the light before I join Callie and Hilton in the master bedroom.
"Is everything alright?" Callie questions as I get into my side of the bed.
"Yeah," I say to her. "Nick needed my advice on an important case that he is working on, that's all."
Callie studies me for a minute before she nods her head and turns out the light. Hilton is lying right in the middle of us, while Callie and I stay on our sides of the bed. It takes me an hour to fall asleep because Nick and his behavior towards Callie and William don't sit right with me.
Even though Callie and I started out sleeping on our own side of the bed at some point during the night one of us will usually kick Hilton out the middle and force her to sleep down by our feet. When Hilton is down by our feet is when the subconscious cuddling commences in the middle of the bed.
Roxie's constant jumping on and off the bed is what wakes me from my sleep. When I wake up I see that I'm lying in the middle of the bed facing Callie's side of the bed (subconscious cuddling), I feel Hilton's head resting on my left hip while the rest of her body is curled up along the back of my legs. When I look down towards my feet I see both Hilton and Roxie staring at me. "Ok," I whisper as I get up and the leave the master bedroom with the dogs hot on my trail.
I walk downstairs to the back sliding glass door with the dogs and open the door for them. They both go running out into the backyard to pee and poop. When I see them both going to the bathroom I turn my back on them for a brief moment to grab a bag to pick up after them. Hilton and Roxie are both good dogs, and won't venture off the lawn and run up to anyone that is walking around. I pick up their mess and throw it away before I return to the kitchen to wash my hands. When I turn to face the stove I see that Callie has left me note. It is the directions on how to properly heat up her breakfast. I heat up my breakfast and eat it at the breakfast bar with the dogs begging for food right underneath me.
As I eat my breakfast Nick and his appearance along with his attitude only crosses my mind once for about five minutes. I have the next four days off; Saturday and Sunday are going to be spent with Mark and Lexi because they are getting married, but today and tomorrow are going to be spent with my dark passenger.
My dark passenger has been waiting patiently for his turn in the driver's seat of my body, and now that it is fully his turn he doesn't want to waste a single minute thinking of something so small and meaningless like Nick, and his case against a genius.
My dark passenger pushes Nick from my mind and soon all of my attention goes to the family killing cop, Erica English. I am 80% positive that she was the one that shot and killed her husband and daughter. Tim always wanted me to make sure that I was 100% positive, which is one of his rules I never followed 100% once you were on my table it was too late. I was going to kill you whether you were guilty or not. Now I fully follow the rule of making sure that they are 100% guilty, because I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Callie. You have no idea how much I need her in my life. It's kind of sad when you think about it. I never needed anyone in my life until I met Callie. I never believed in that sole mate crap, because let's face it who would want to be with me after they found out the truth about me. It took some time but Callie has fully accepted me, somewhat…
Erica English… A low voice says from right behind me.
Right. Sorry Callie, but for the next two day there's going to be another leading lady in my life.
After I eat and clean up my breakfast I take a shower and get ready for nice fun day of watching and studying Erica English. Before I leave the house I make sure that Hilton and Roxie have enough food and water to last them until Callie or I get home.
I open the door that leads to the garage to see what car Callie has left me. Since the kids have gotten bigger the cars that Callie and I used drive were no longer cutting it. Well my car wasn't, BMWs are nice if you're single or only have 2 kids. Callie ended up trading her (my) older Range Rover for the newer model, while taking my BMW and trading it for a cooler version of a soccer mom minivan, a Chevy Tahoe. If we want to go somewhere as a family we always take the Tahoe, because it is nice and spacious inside. It can seat 9 people comfortably. Seeing how Callie had to take the kids to school this morning and is probably picking them up she decided to take the Tahoe leaving me with the Range Rover.
I'm not worried about her taking the Tahoe or Range Rover because I no longer keep emergency backups in my car, because Callie doesn't want that stuff in or around the house. A secret between you and me, I keep my backups in my in two small duffel bags, one is in my locker at work and the other is well hidden in my side of the closet. I think Callie knows I have the bag, but as long as she can't see it she doesn't care. Out of sight, out of mind.
I get into the Range Rover and start my 12 minute drive to South Dearborn Street. Erica's last place of residents was nice little townhome on South Dearborn Street. Thanks to I-5 I get to the house in about 10 minutes. I pull up right across the street from the townhome and turn off my car and look at it. It's nice modern townhome with views of the city and Mount Rainier. In that true modern home style there are several large windows in the living room and from the right angle you have a perfect view of the kitchen. The house is 1,407 square feet with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and one half bathroom. According to KC Sells team, Erica has listed the house for $400,000. I can't imagine why she would want to move from such a nice house with beautiful views. Not unless she's hiding something.
I grab a brown folder from the passenger seat and get out of my car and walk up to Erica's house and right through the front door. The living room and kitchen are on my left and bedroom number one, which was turned into an office, is on my right. I hate modern homes, they look ugly both inside and outside. Plus there is no place for privacy and we all know someone like me needs privacy.
I'm about to walk in the living room to snoop around when a short brunette with huge, no massive breast walks down the steps in front of me. "Are you here for the open house?"
This woman has medium length brown hair that just barely touches her shoulders; she has bangs that go down to her eyebrows. Like I said before her boobs are massive and she seems to be rocking a smedium red blouse with a very low and classless v neck. Her blouse is so low I can tell you she is wearing a black 'Angels by Victoria's Secret Dream Angel' bra from their spring 2014 collection.
I'm not a pervert with lingering eyes, I know this exact make and model bra because Callie has the same bra but in luxe cherry bi color embellished with lace, and she also has the matching Chantilly lace garter and V-string panties. She makes the underwear look sexy, and not trashy like this woman.
Moving on from the images of my wife in very sexy lingerie, to round out this woman's trashy look she is wearing a very tight and very short black skirt. Because of the tightness of her skirt, you can tell that she is wearing underwear, thank God, but she's wearing a thong. And to tell you the truth her ass isn't all that great, which is probably why she has big boob to keep everyone's eyes on her front cleavage on not her back. Callie on the other hand, her ass…STOP!
"Yes, I am." I say in my bubbly voice and cheerful smile. Come on Robbins pull it together, you see Callie and her sexy self on a daily basis. You can make her put on a fashion show and then ruin her and your sheets after you kill Erica.
"Ok," the woman says as she finally makes it down the stairs and over towards the front door where I'm still standing at. She extends her hand for a handshake which I accept, "My name is Robin."
I pause for a moment, while still holding this women's hand. I'm about to say a fake name but for some reason my Dark Passenger won't allow it. "Arizona," I say with a smile as I finally let go of her hand.
I may be smiling on the outside pretending like I give a shit about this dumpy house, but on the inside, I'm confused as hell. I never use my real name to kill some, before and after Callie revised my rules. Clearly my Dark Passenger knows something that I don't.
Robin is trying to pass off Ikea future as American Signature future. Thanks to Callie and the kids I can tell the difference plain as day. 4 months ago we had to get new couches for the basement because the kids kept jumping off the couches and finally tore holes in the couch, loveseat and lazyboy. Callie dragged all of us out of the house one weekend to go furniture shopping. Now instead of helping Callie in the mega store that is Ikea, the kids and I played hide in seek on the 2nd floor while Callie shopped around. However when we walked into American Signature she kept us on short leash. No running, jumping, playing, screaming or laughing. Our time in American Signature was the only time Callie allowed us to play the quiet game without freaking out. Well freaking out verbally because you could tell by the look on her face and her body language that she still doesn't like the quiet game even if she was holding Jackie's hands who is walking on her left side, while William and I are on her right side and Sofia is right in front of her.
Kitchen…
Robin is talking about the view of city when I hear my Dark Passenger speak to me. I remove my focus from the massive window and look over towards the kitchen. Robin notices that I'm no longer next to her and that I am now walking towards the kitchen.
"We just up graded our kitchen to all new whirlpool appliances and tomorrow we will be replacing all the counter tops with black granite." Robin starts.
Just like the living room I tune out Robin and listen to what my Dark Passenger has to say. I run my hand along the counter top while visually looking at the cabinets. He's getting antsy meaning that I'm close to something. I make it the kitchen's double sink, Robin tries to play up the standard kitchen sink, but I just continue to tune her out. I look at the sink for a few seconds before my eyes shift slowly upwards towards the left to see two light switches.
The minute I spot the light switch I feel my Dark Passenger jump for joy like a giddy little school girl. I compress his excitement and reach over and flip the first switch on the far left side, a light over the sink comes on. I turn off the light and flip the switch right next to it. Nothing happens. I turn it off and then back on again, nothing. "What does this switch do?" I say to Robin.
"That is for the garbage disposal," Robin says as she turns round to face me.
I flip the switch a third time to show its not working.
"Well that is weird," Robin pushes past me to play with the switch to make sure I'm not doing it wrong. "I guess I have to call a plumber."
"No you don't, I've seen this problem before I can fix it." I say before I lower myself down and open the cabinet right below the sink. Thanks to Robin's tight trashy outfit she can't bend down with me and from her angle she can't see me remove a pair of latex gloves from my pocket and put them on.
I open the sink pipe and take a look inside; my Dark Passenger allows a smile to grace my face when I see the source of the problem, a single latex glove which is dark blue. Nobody in the health care system or legal system uses dark blue latex gloves in the state of Washington. Erica's death bar has moved from 80% to 85%. I quickly put the remains of the dark blue glove in a Ziploc bag and put that bag in coat pocket. "Try it now," I say as I get up from the floor.
Robin flips the switch and the disposal starts working. "Thank you so much, Arizona" Robin says as she pulls me into a hug.
"What's going on in here," a voice says from the kitchen/living room nonexistent doorway.
Both Robin and I break a part to see Erica standing their looking at us in her police uniform.
"Arizona, here fixed your garbage disposal free of charge." Robin says with a smile.
Erica turns her gaze to me slowly and the two monsters in the room silently and slowly size each other up. "Thank you Arizona…" Erica trails off as she extends her hand for a handshake.
"Robbins," I complete as I shake her hand. I know their better be a damn good reason why my Dark Passenger is allowing this.
"I have to get going, Robin, but I'll talk to you later." Erica says never taking her eyes off me, "and thanks for all your help Arizona Robbins."
Intimidation, 85% to 90%.
Robin spends the next 45 minutes wasting my time by showing me the rest of house while Erica leaves for work. I promise Robin that I will call her to make an offer on the house before I can finally leave. I walk into my car and set my folder down on the passenger seat again and take out my new latex friend from coat pocket. I just smile at it before I set it down on the passenger seat as well before I turn on my car and drive to my boat. My drive to The Corinthian Yacht Club should have been 20 minutes on I-5, but a 5 car pile turns that drive into a 45 minute one. Looks like Callie and the others are about to have a long late morning and early afternoon.
When I get to my boat, or yacht as some people call it, I sit at the kitchen table and open my laptop and look at the file on Erica's case. Police found the remains from blue latex glove but couldn't find the rest of it. Crime Scene Investigations took a picture of the glove. I hold the glove piece I found up to the picture. They match each other. Police found finger prints on the glove that didn't match Mike's but the evidence was tampered with so the finger prints were unreadable, the last person to handle the tampered evidence, Erica English. 90% to 95%.
After about 2 more hours of looking at Erica's case I hear my stomach growl, lunchtime. I put everything away before lockup and leave my boat. All this talk and thinking about killing has this monster craving red meat. I drive 10 minutes into downtown Seattle and go to Daily Grind Burgers. They are small burger joint Callie and I found when we were walking around on our low key 7 year wedding anniversary. Callie wanted to do something small and inexpensive, so we went salsa dancing and discovered Daily Grind Burgers.
I get my usual, which is a smokehouse burger with fries and drink and decide to dine in. After my lunch I decide to call it a day and go home, however, faith has something else in mind for me.
I decided to take the scenic route home which is 11th Ave. I just crossed the university bridge over the Portage Bay when a cop from Seattle Police Department decides to pull me over. I renewed my tags over the summer and don't need to renew them for another two years. I wasn't speeding, and I just took this car in for an oil change and tire rotation and they didn't say anything about my tail lights.
"Step out of car ma'am," the familiar voice of Erica English says from window. More intimidation, someone really wants me to kill them. Erica opens the car door leaving me no time to grab my driver's license and resignation. The door opens and I get out of the car. "Step in front of car and place your hands on the hood."
I do as I'm told, "did I do something wrong, officer." I say with my fake happy chirp as Erica starts to pat me down.
"Arizona Robbins, Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital." Erica says as her hands lower themselves to check my pants. "Wife to Calliope Robbins, Doctor of Medicine and the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, mother to Sofia Sloan, William Corbin, and Jacqueline Mary who attend Bright Water, a Private Waldorf School on 10th Ave in East Seattle." I feel my breath hitch when her hands stop their search at my left back jean pocket. I become nervous when I feel her hand slip inside my pocket and pull out my ID. She has the ID of the real Arizona Robbins, but not like she didn't know it already. It seems we have been stalking each other this morning. Anyway the ID that I want her to have is sitting in the center console of the Range Rover. The ID that has Arizona Robbins M.D., F.A.C.S. living on her boat at The Corinthian Yacht Club.
"Did I do something wrong, officer?" I repeat when I feel Erica back away from me with my license.
"I don't know, you tell me?" Erica steps from behind me and stands in front of me on the right side. "Why would a surgeon, a surgeon who according to US News is one of the top 25 best surgeons in America with a nice 6 figure income, waste their time on a lower middle class house that comes nowhere close to holding her family?"
"Money doesn't always buy you happiness, my wife and I are getting a divorce and I need to find a new house."
"Why don't you kick her out of your house. Even though you both signed for it, legally the house is yours not Calliope's."
The constant subliminal threats against my family are her way of warning me that I do not have the upper hand in this situation.
"What does my family, occupation or my income have to do with house hunting? I think it's safe to say that I can afford your home with no problems." I question trying to regain control.
"Well the file clerk at my station, he's a friend." Erica says as she steps closer to me. "He told me, yesterday, that our coroner Mandy Briceland pulled my family's case file. When I talked to Mandy about it she told that she had lent it a colleague." Erica pauses for a moment, " when I get to back to my desk to look up this colleague I see your face, and then today, this morning there you are standing in my kitchen."
"What a coincidence," I say with a small smile. "I asked for your file because I'm doing a study on the risk of bleeding with parenteral omega-3 lipid emulsion therapy and your daughter…"
"Are you one of those sick fucks who gets off on this type of stuff?" Erica cuts off.
"Well I do love medicine," I start out keeping the smile on my face. I chose to play the oblivious card, because I'm noticing that Erica is a control freak and I plan on using that to my advantage. "I want to help the medical community anyway I can. Omega-3 is one of the most…"
"You enjoy watching other women in pain don't you?" Erica cuts me off again.
"I am not that type of sick fuck," I continue with my dumb card.
"I lost my husband, and I watched my daughter die right in front of me. Do you know how agonizing that was?"
I just shake my head. Agony and sadness are probably the two hardest emotions to fake. Too little or too much can give you away. It took me all four years of high school to get those emotions squared away. I lost a lot of fake friends because of my poorly played agony and sadness emotions.
"Agony would be the proper emotion for something like this." I say to her.
"I will not let that wound be reopened." She says to me. "Do you understand?"
I just nod my head while she continues to stare me down. "I suggest you avoid Harvard Street on your way home, traffic is a little heavy." Erica tosses my license in front me, and I don't say anything as I reach over to pick it up. "It's 1735 Hamlin Street right?"
My heart drops to my stomach and I lose the dumb blonde act as my face because stone cold. "I am letting you off with a warning, Dr. Robbins." Erica says before she walks over to her cop car.
I stay in front of my car and watch as Erica breaks the rules by leaving first. Legally she has wait until I leave before she leaves. When Erica leaves I decide to turn around and head back to my boat for a bit of fresh sea air to clear my mind.
When I get back to my boat, I see that my encounter with Erica will have to wait because sitting on one of my couches is Nick. Today he is wearing civilian clothes, which is a nice green sweater with light blue jeans. We don't say anything to each other as we just stare each other down.
"We're both Marine and Navy brats, Ari. We always come to water to help clear our minds." Nick says almost reading my mind to why he is here.
I just sigh and nod my head while I make my way to the door entrance to the haul. When I open the door and step inside I hear Nick right behind me. We both step inside and I make sure I close the door behind him.
Nick takes a moment to look around the boat, he looks in my master bedroom and he takes a closer look at some of the family pictures I have hanging up on the my wall as well. After he gets a good look around he takes a sit at my kitchen table, while I lean up against the counter top right across from him with my arms crossed over my chest.
"Sorry if I ruined your fantasy of Tim being the perfect brother in your eyes." Nick breaks the silence between us. "He came to me in tears when you were in the 8th grade and he found your animal graveyard in the woods behind your house in Colorado. It took me some time but over the years it was me who created you."
"Created me?" I question sarcastically as I lean forward. "Congratulations you've made me a monster, have a cookie on me." I say as I toss a box of Chip Ahoy's at him. "You want some beer? I have Samuel Adams in the fridge."
"I get that you are angry because I'm ruining your fake perfect world, but you shouldn't be angry at me. Out of all of the people in your life, I never turned my back on you. I fought for you; I almost ruined my friendship with Tim because I wanted you to walk around freely. Yes I get that this was an experiment that could have gone horribly wrong, we were kids with no clue about what we were doing, but the experiment didn't go wrong. It worked perfectly, you are perfect, and I created the perfect human being."
"I'm so fucking happy. I can sleep easier at night now knowing that I lived up to your expectations." There is so much venom and anger in my voice right now. "Is that why you're here? To knock Tim off his pedestal in my sick little twisted world that was created by you."
"No I'm not here to take credit from your brother, I'm hear to collect on a favor."
"I don't owe you any fucking favors, Nick."
"You owe me your life, Arizona." Nick's voice starts to fill anger. "Without me you'd be in some mental health facility, or sitting in death row right now. It took me awhile to fully understand what you are and how you function, but when I did finally find out about how you and your kind work, I used that information to help you." Nick pauses for a moment. "I finally figured out that no matter how many animals you kill or how big the animals got nothing would satisfy you like the kill of a human. While Tim was off doing his thing in the Navy Seals I was doing my thing in the military police. My time as a police officer showed me that humans can be animals too, so Tim and I focused your killing ability on animals of the human kind."
My only response to Nick is a loud sigh as I roll my eyes and shake my head.
"Last night you gave me more good information than my own team in the Navy and way more than those ass clowns in the Air Force. Help me find The Road Truck Killer. I will give you anything and everything you need, and if you find him before me and decide to kill him, you know I have no problem in looking the way and covering up for you." Nick pauses to stand up from the table. "That is all I'm asking, help me find him. You can kill him if you get to him before I can make an arrest." Nick moves towards my door, "Dr. Hunt said you have next three days off and won't be in at the hospital until Monday. I'm giving you until Monday morning to come up with an answer." That is the last thing Nick says to me to before he leaves.
I go from looking at the door that Nick just used to leave to looking back at the kitchen table to see my brother sitting there looking at me.
'Your mad at me.'
I just shrug at him, 'can you blame me? I looked up to you. You were my big brother who I thought knew everything.'
'You were ten Arizona, and I was twelve. We were kids, the only adult that could have helped me with you, was dad, and we both know he still doesn't love you like he loved you before you killed Jena. I needed help, and the only person to offer a helping hand was Nick, so I took it.'
'Whatever,' I say as I get up and go to my storage room.
'What are doing?' Tim says behind me as he watches me grab Erica's file from its hiding place.
'I'm giving Erica's file back to Mandy and I'm calling off my kill of Erica English.'
'Why? You can't do that?'
'Watch me.'
'She knows were you and your family live, Arizona. She killed her family. You think she is going to give a rat's ass about you and your family?' Tim pauses as I turn to look at him. 'You started it and you have to finish it. I know this is a part of Callie's rules but you have nowhere to turn. Erica is the police you are in a lose - lose situation. What happened to the control freak angle you were working this afternoon?'
'Nothing,' I say as I look off into the distance. 'I can still use that to my advantage. She likes to be in control, if she thinks she is in control she will never see me coming.'
I walk out of my storage room and walk into my master bedroom before a collapse on the bed. I just lie there on my back thinking about my next move with Erica.
'What are you thinking about?' Tim asks me from my left side. He is lying down as well but he is propped up on one elbow looking at me.
'I want to bring Erica here to my boat where I know my family is not around. But when I make that phone to get this ball rolling she is going to go to the house. The house where my wife and children live.'
'Well if you get the ball rolling now you could lead her to your house when Callie and kids aren't home. Callie will be with Mark tomorrow night, Sofia will be with Zola at Meredith and Derek's and the twins have their birthday sleep over tomorrow.' Tim pauses for a moment, 'if you want to kill Erica then it has to be tomorrow night.'
I let out a small sigh before I pull out my burner cellphone from my back pocket, and deal the number for the non emergency line for Seattle's Police Department.
"Seattle Police Department, how can I help you?"
"Records please," I say with my fake signature Midwest accent.
"One moment ma'am."
The phone rings four times before someone answers the phone, "records." A monotone voice says over the phone.
"Hi I'm for Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital and I wanted the coroner report for Denise English." I pause to take a breath, "my boss is doing a medical study and needs all the medical records for Denise including her coroner report."
The line is silent as the man thinks about what he should do next. "Ok," he finally says as his statement turns into question.
"I have the paperwork saying I can legally look at the report, do you need me to send them to you?" I say when I hear the uncertainty in his voice.
"No that's okay, ma'am. When I fax it over whose name should I put on the top of report?"
"Just make it out to the pediatrics department." I say with light smile on my face before I hang up the phone.
I drop the phone next to me as I continue to stare up at the ceiling. Now all I have to do is wait. After about a good 30 minutes of zoning out I look down at my watch to see that it is 4:30, dinner will be ready in an hour.
I get up from the bed and lock my boat before I head home for the night. Knowing Erica she is going to confront me first before she attacks me, hopefully she will confront tomorrow when my family is gone. Luck is on my side because I make to my house without being pulled over.
I walk into the house and I'm greeted by the smell of Callie cooking a three cheese pasta and garlic bread. The kids are already at the table, and Callie has her back turned towards me as she puts food on Sofia's plate.
"Mommy," William says from his seat.
This causes the girls to turn around to face me, "mommy," Sofia and Jackie say with a smile.
I just smile at them as I walk over and give each of my tiny humans a kiss on the top of their little heads. "Hey you," I whisper before I give Callie a small kiss on the lips.
During dinner the kids talk about their day, and all the things they learned. After dinner we eat the rest of Callie's cheesecake squares before we watch High School Musical 2…God I want to kill myself. Out of all the Disney movies I've seen I can't stand the High School Musical series.
Callie and I check William's room for monsters before Callie reads Cinderella to Jackie and Sofia reads Beauty and Beast to me. Once the kids are a sleep Callie and I go back downstairs to watch TV. The two of us are lying on the couch cuddling catching up on our TV shows for at least another hour or so. I could stay up longer but soft snores coming from Callie who is lying right in front me lets me know that she is passed out. While Callie is still sleeping I get up and turn off the lights and TV before I pick her up and carry her upstairs. After I get Callie into bed, it doesn't take me that long to pass out along side of her.
Unlike yesterday I don't get the luxury of sleeping in because in the morning I hear my tiny humans screaming and laughing as they come running into my room.
"MOMMY, WAKE UP!" they scream as they jump and climb all over me.
"Oh God," I say as I open my eyes. When my eyes are open they all stop jumping and just look at me. William is sitting on my stomach, while Jackie is sitting on my right side and Sofia is on my left side. "What time is it?"
"It's morning, mommy" William says to me.
I can't help but chuckle at William's response since he doesn't know how to tell time yet.
"It's French toast Friday, mommy." Jackie says, "You don't want to sleep through that."
"French toast Friday?" I say as I lift my head to look over towards Jackie. She just nods her head. "I do love French toast Friday, but you know what happens when you wake mommy."
Jackie's eyes get wide as she lets out a giggle. "No mommy," Jackie shakes her head.
"Yes Jackie," I reply as I get up and lightly tackle Jackie.
Jackie starts to squeal and laugh as I tickle her sides, and not too soon after William and Sofia start to jump and climb on me to help save their sister. For 10 minutes the four of use goof around until Callie stops up.
"Arizona, Sofia, Jackie, William, breakfast is ready." Callie says from the doorway. The four of us stop what we are doing and we follow Callie downstairs to the kitchen, all of us on the breathless side.
The kids talk about how excited they are about spending the night at their friend's house and I'm not going to lie I'm pretty excited I get to spend the evening with Erica. After breakfast I say goodbye to Callie and kids before I clean the kitchen and get ready for the day. After my shower I dress in my street clothes but I pack a bag with my usual kill outfit in it.
Today I have to wait for Erica to come to me, plus Callie has given me some errands to run today. My morning and lunch time go by uninterrupted, however, I'm in East Seattle at a BP filling station when Erica and her patrol car come into the filling station.
Game time.
Erica is out of her jurisdiction so I know she's here because of me. I continue filling up my car ignoring her, playing the dumb card again, before I lock my car door and walk into the rarely used women's bathroom. I keep pretending that I can't see her even though through in my peripheral vision I can see her exit her car and follow me.
I walk into the bathroom, but I leave the door open just for officer English. When I enter the bathroom I walk straight ahead and stand in front of the sink…
Wait for it…
No more then 5 seconds later, in comes Erica. She enters the bathroom never taking her eyes off of me. She closes and locks the door before walking right up to me.
"Fancy seeing you here?" I say as my dumb side comes back out to play.
"You want information about my daughter and her death." Erica says as she shoves a brown folder against my chest. "Here you go, ask me anything you want." Erica backs away from me slightly as she crosses her arms.
"That file for my study," I say with wide doe eyes.
"I asked you nicely to leave me alone." Erica says in a low voice.
I just give her a light shrug, "you threatened me."
Erica leans back slightly while giving me an eyebrow raise. "You think that was a threat?"
"What? Are you going to murder me too?" I question back in low tone. My sudden change in attitude and my lower voice tone lets me know that 'Arizona' is longer in the driver seat of my body; my Dark Passenger has taken the wheel. "Like you murder your family, your own daughter."
Erica lets out a small gasp before she shakes her head looks away from me. "You're sick you know that."
"I know what you did, and I can prove it. I have evidence that can prove that you did it."
"One, you don't have any evidence, and two your just a dumb surgeon." Erica says as she turns back around to face me.
"I got my evidence from the garbage disposal, the gloves you wore that night. There was gun powder residue, and two, the FBI is good at making a special agent's back story." Erica's face drops a little bit, while I keep a straight face to hide that fact that I'm lying to her. "I have a meeting with superiors tomorrow to report what I found, and we both know government trumps local."
Erica and I silent while she stands there playing out her next move against me. She lets out a sigh before her right hand lowers and she pulls out her gun. Her left hand pushes up against my chest while she places the gun against my temple. "You tried to rape me."
"I'm not touching you," I counter back.
"You were at house yesterday, and Robin my Realtor will testify saying that she say you flirting with me. You liked what you saw so you stalked me here to this bathroom where you tried to assault me leaving me no choice but to defend myself the only way I knew how."
"Expect," I cut off "my blow back in the muzzle of your gun will show a flat contact which is highly unlikely during a struggle." Erica doesn't say anything as she moves the gun from head to my chest. "You could shoot me center mass but the low directionality will show that I was in a defensive position. You would have to calculate the correct distance to support your self defense claim." I never did like physics, but it looks like my Dark Passenger did and I'm grateful for that when I see Erica lower her gun and lean in close to whisper in my ear.
"Go ahead and tell them, the police here will believe me over you." Erica backs away and slowly walks away from me. "Please, tell them everything…" Erica trails off as she leaves the bathroom.
If I played my cards you won't let me.
I wait for a few minutes before I exit the bathroom to see that Erica has left. I get back into my car and complete the rest of Callie errands. It's around 5:30 in the evening when I return home. Before I get started with anything I do one clean sweep of the house both inside and outside to make sure that Erica isn't already waiting for me. Once everything is clear, I go inside and change into my all black kill outfit. After I'm changed I turn off all the lights upstairs and I put the dogs upstairs as well. Callie and I kept one of our baby gates which we use when we want to keep the dogs upstairs since they haven't figured out they can jump over it yet.
Once everything is taken care of upstairs I go downstairs to the kitchen for a light snack. Killing on an empty stomach is no good for anyone. I decide to eat a banana with some peanut butter before I turn off the kitchen light and sit in the living room with lights and TV turned off.
I'm sitting in the living, in complete darkness, waiting for Erica for little over an hour when I hear movement coming from kitchen door that leads to our small grilling area. I don't do anything as I just listen to someone pick the lock on the door and quietly enter my house.
Showtime…
A/N: Well I'm going to apologize right now to any Air Force people because, I'm in the Navy, and while I was writing this chapter my roommate (Air Force Veteran) and I got into an argument about which branch of military was better *cough*Navy*cough*. Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and hope you have a great New Years.