"It's a tarot card reading store on East 33rd," Reece said. "Mike and Jo are going to check that place out."
vvvv
Jo and Mike stood in front of the store with the address - most likely bogus - on file at Bellevue as the home of Adam/Farber. The gaudy red and black neon sign intermittently flashed a large, open eye inside a triangle with the words 'Psychic' and 'Tarot Readings' underneath it, at passersby in an attempt to lure them inside and part them from their money.
"Ten dollars a pop for a reading," Mike cynically noted, readjusting his belt. "When I was a kid they only cost fifty cents."
"Inflation," Jo dryly remarked. "Plus they have to compete with the online psychics now."
"Long as they can give me some winning lotto numbers," he jokingly repeated.
They entered the small, darkened cubby-hole of a storefront and were greeted by a young woman in jeans and a T-shirt with black eyes and long, black hair who appeared to be barely out of her teens. She wore a small, triangular, black head scarf dotted with red, yellow, and green half moons. The detectives had half-expected a much older woman with withered skin wearing large, hooped earrings and maybe a necklace of animal teeth.
"Welcome," the young woman mechanically greeted them. "I am Zandora." She motioned for them to take a seat in the two chairs opposite her on the other side of the small round table.
"Ahhh, a couple," she dispassionately continued. "You are here for a reading about your upcoming nuptials?" As a seeming afterthought, she flashed them a smile.
Both of them found the erroneous assumption a bit hilarious. Just a bit.
"No," Jo replied. "We're not - " she said before being cut off by Zandora.
"If it's for more bedroom harmony, as we call it," Zandora told her, "marriage counselors and sex therapists are on the third floor." She thrust a business card at them, which they ignored.
Obviously annoyed, Jo flashed her badge. "Det. Jo Martinez NYPD. This is my partner, Det. Mike Hanson."
Zandora deflated, rolled her eyes and flopped down into the chair on the other side of the small round table with a crystal ball in the center of it.
Jo pulled a 3" x 5" photo from her pocket and held it up for Zandora to see. "We're here to ask questions about this guy. Have you ever seen him?" she asked.
"Uh, no. I've never seen him before," the girl replied.
"Is there anyone else here with you?" Jo asked her.
"Aunt Zora!" a now agitated Zandora yelled. "I'm just filling in for my aunt," she quickly told them, snatching the scarf of half moons off of her head. "And I'm a minor. Aunt Zor-raa-aaa!"
A short, pudgy woman in her late 50s with closely-cropped white hair scurried into the room, bursting through the curtain of door beads.
"What is it, little one?" she asked her, ignoring Jo and Mike. "Have these terrible people harmed you?"
"Not yet," Zandora grumpily replied. "These 'terrible people' are cops!"
The woman, apparently Aunt Zora, stiffened, the concern on her face replaced by what looked like astonishment. "Why are you here?" she asked Mike, still ignoring Jo.
Mike, slightly confused, replied that they were there on official police business and to leave the questions to them. He then hurried over to the doorway, lifting the curtain of beads aside with one arm, his weapon in his other hand. He peered down the short, poorly lit hallway and saw a smaller room beyond that.
"Anybody else here?" he asked the older woman. She shook her head. "Pardon me if I'm a skeptic," Mike dryly replied. He then looked at Jo, who now held her own weapon but pointed at the floor.
"I got this," she told him. "Go check it out."
He disappeared into the hallway. "Det. Mike Hanson NYPD!" Mike shouted. "Anyone else here, show yourself!" Mike moved down the hallway, weapon in hand, and into the back rooms repeating the order.
Jo positioned herself between the women and the front entrance, occasionally glancing at the curtain of beads swaying in Mike's wake. After a few moments, he returned, his weapon lowered.
"No one else here," he told Jo.
Zora eyed Mike as he reentered the room and stood by Jo. "Why are you here?" she asked him again.
"Look, Zora, or whatever your real name is - " he replied before being cut off by her.
"That is my real name. Zora Antonescu."
"Mine's Theodosia," the younger woman told them. "I prefer Zandora - more exotic sounding," she haughtily added.
"And to answer why we are here," Jo said, emphasizing the 'we' for Zora since she appeared to be ignoring her presence, "we're here to find out if you've ever seen this man." She showed the photo of Adam/Farber to Zora.
Zandora eyed the photo glumly because the NYPD's search for this man had brought their business day to a screeching halt. That meant she'd ditched school for nothing. But she glanced questioningly at her aunt.
Zora paled as her eyes widened while she studied the photo. Her mouth worked silently and then her jaw became tightly set. She then shifted her gaze to Mike to her left.
"He always told us that you would never come. Not in our lifetimes, anyway," her trembling voice whispered. "That we had to do his bidding; provide a cover for him."
"Like letting him use this location to report as his home address?" Jo asked. Zora nodded. "He threatened to harm you if you didn't?"
"Minte creață," Zora said, biting her lower lip and lowering her eyes.
"English, Aunt Zora," Zandora prodded her. She looked apologetically at Jo and Mike and translated for them. "She said 'he has a curly mind', um, that he's - "
"Crazy," Jo and Mike both supplied for her.
"He threatened you?" Zandora asked her aunt. "Why didn't you report him to the police back then?"
"He threatened to make you disappear, little one," Zora confessed. "Just as he made your parents disappear five years ago."
She went on to tell them how Adam had shown up five years earlier and invaded her life and the lives of her son and daughter-in-law. At first, her son, Zandora's father, resisted, demanding that the strange man named Oded leave them alone or he'd report him to the police.
"He laughed at him, that hollow laugh of his," Zora recounted to them. "It made my son, Emilien, angry and Oded only laughed more. Emilien demanded he leave and pulled a gun on him when Oded pulled out a knife. 'Allow me', he said, still laughing. And he slit his own throat!"
Zora clamped her hands over her mouth and sobbed at the memory while Zandora jumped up from her seat and held her aunt in a tight embrace. They traded positions and Zora, now seated, struggled to compose herself. She gladly accepted the cup of water from Jo and took a few sips and struggled to continue.
"That wasn't the worst of it," she said. "But ... you won't believe me when I tell you what happened next."
Jo and Mike exchanged a knowing look and in unison said, "Try us."
vvvv
"Oded," Lt. Reece repeated. "It's Hebrew for 'restore'." Aware that her two detectives were surprised and curious to know how she knew that, she clarified by saying she watched a lot of History Channel, too. But she smirked at the irony of the meaning of Adam's purported true name as she walked from the Interview Room back to her office with them, one on either side of her. They entered her office and shut the door, each of them finding a seat.
"I know it sounds crazy what they were saying," Jo began before being interrupted by Mike.
"Damn straight!" he agitatedly concurred, then quickly murmured an apology for his unseemly outburst. "I'm some kind of, of, warrior, sent to rescue them!"
Reece and Jo pursed their lips and raised their eyebrows opting to allow him to rant.
"Look, I know what you two are thinkin'," he said. "But just because something unbelievable is goin' on with the Doc doesn't mean that all of a sudden I'm some kind of ancient warrior sent to save everyone from this guy," he declared, paraphrasing Zora's words.
"She actually said that you were one of many descended from a Roman soldier named Aetius," Jo quietly and cautiously corrected him. "His descendants are the only ones who can permanently kill people made Immortal by him. Adam is one of those Immortals, you are one of Aetius' descendants."
"Yeah, like she knows," Mike said, shaking his head in disbelief. "All we have to go on is what that psycho told her. Why should we believe any of this?" he asked, frustratedly.
"Well, if it's facts you need," Jo began, "then we know that Zora accused him of having threatened her and her family five years ago, keeping them fearful of him all that time. Zora also believes that he's responsible for the sudden disappearance of her son and daughter-in-law. And most likely, he falsified at least some of his information in order to obtain employment and maybe entry into the country."
"He's also stalked Dr. Morgan and committed more than one murder in my town on my watch," Reece added. "And, according to General Austin, the federal government has known of him and his unglorious activities for more than two centuries!"
"Ever stop to think that Ms. Zora is crazy?" he replied. He looked at Jo then at their boss. Pointing to himself, he raised his voice and declared, "I am not a sleeping warrior. I'm just a man. A cop! There's nothin' more I'd like to do than to permanently put Farber out of commission. The normal way," he emphasized. "This other stuff - ?" His voice trailed off as he shook his head. "Not buyin' it."
"Well, we proceed based on the facts we've gathered, then," Reece proposed. "Later, there might be a way to find out if there's more to you than meets the eye," she added. She sat forward at her desk, clasping her hands and sighed. "We're all in agreement that this psycho must be dealt with and soon." Jo and Mike both nodded.
"But we have to keep as much as we can about our investigation under wraps. You guys like meatloaf?" she asked. Surprised but confused, they both replied in the affirmative.
"Good," Reece replied. "My house 7:30 tonight."
"Lieu, uh, I appreciate the invite but - " Mike said before she cut him off.
"We have a lot to discuss, as I said. Including the phone conference I had with General Austin, Dr. Morgan and ... his roommate, Abe."
They both nodded, understanding why in this venue, she purposely referred to Abe as Henry's roommate instead of his son. Keep as much of their investigation under wraps. They rose from their chairs and left her office.
vvvv
Bedroom of Mike and Karen Hanson later on that evening ...
"Aetius. Derived from Greek αετος (aetos) 'eagle'. A famous bearer of the name was the 5th-century Roman general Flavius Aetius, who defeated Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons." Karen, an ancient history enthusiast, was visibly impressed as she sat on the bed with a large book on her lap. She lowered it to watch her husband finish dressing after he'd showered.
"Why'd you want to know about him?" she asked.
Mike paused while dressing and hesitantly replied, "Oh. Just something to do with a case."
"Some case," she noted. "And tell me again why I am not invited to this gourmet meatloaf dinner at the Lieutenant's home?" she playfully asked. "Will some beautiful police women be there, too?"
"Yeah," he sarcastically replied as he looked in the mirror to finish tying his tie. "The Lieutenant, who belongs to her husband and Jo, who belongs to Henry and vice versa - whether either of them admits it or not."
Satisfied with his appearance but both apprehensive and curious about his 7:30 dinner appointment, he turned around to face is wife. He spread his arms to wordlessly seek her approval. She placed the book on the bed and quickly walked over to peck him on the lips, lingering in front of him with her arms around his neck.
"Hot," she whispered to him through a smile. "You'll be the life of the party."
"Not that kind of party, honey," he grumbled wearily. When Karen's smile faltered and she eyed him worriedly, he realized his mistake in responding that way. With a forced smile, he attempted to alleviate her worries when he jokingly added, "When your boss is the one dishin' out the gruel and orderin' ya to be there or else - it's hardly a party."
It brought back Karen's smile and she kissed him again. "Have a nice time, anyway, sweetie."
Mike left the house and climbed into his car, wondering why he'd even spilled that much to his wife about his so-called ancient, knife-wielding ancestor. That thought caused him to stop in his tracks and shake his head as if to shake it out of his mind. His ancestor?! No! He wasn't believing any of that crap the old lady laid on him, he adamantly told himself.
But he hated lying to his wife. Keeping some of the more unpleasant aspects of his job from her was fine, even recommended by the department. It was for her own good not to have visions of bloodied corpses and crime scenes in her head. But lying left a bad taste in his mouth and didn't set well in his stomach, effectively robbing him of his appetite. Then it suddenly struck him that Henry had had to do the same thing for a much longer time than he had. A couple of centuries. Hiding, bending the truth, out and out lying in order to keep his secret and himself safe from others who wouldn't understand or be accepting of it.
And what if it was true? Was he really a sleeping warrior, as Zora had declared? One of a few living beings who could permanently kill the Immortal Oded aka Adam aka Farber. He pondered if he or these other sleeping warriors could also permanently kill Henry. Mike shook his head vigorously again and started up the car. As he drove off, he pushed these and other troubling, fantastical thoughts out of his mind. It was the Doc who had the unbelievable wedged into his life, not him. Not him.
vvvv
Despite his misgivings about the evening, the meatloaf dinner was one of the tastiest Mike had had in years. Reece refused to share the special blend of seasonings with them, though. They chuckled when Jo threatened to take some home and have it tested in the lab later on. They drank coffee at the end of the meal but remained at the dining room table in the comfortably upholstered chairs and Reece shared the details of the conference call earlier that day. The meal wound up being a pleasant interlude before they got down to the real meat of the reason for their gathering.
"Are ... are they ... safe there?" Jo asked, not wanting to give in to her fear for the two men who had become very special to her. Especially Henry even though she had never revealed her growing feelings to him.
"Yeah, Lieu. Can this General Austin be trusted not to whisk them off somewhere where no one can find them?" Mike asked, just as concerned. He didn't want to show how much, though, because he didn't want to spook Jo any more than she already was.
"I have to believe that they'll be fine," Reece replied. "I simply wanted to share the details of our conversation with you. It's important that we each know all the facts in order to help keep them safe and see that they get back to their lives here in New York as soon as possible. Although, I have to admit, it irks me no end that Austin had their home bugged and that he and his crew knew all this time about Adam." She scoffed and added, "I don't care what his real name is. He's dangerous and has to be taken care of."
"How about layin' him out again like the Doc did?" Mike smirked.
"No," she quickly replied. "He's got to be taken offline permanently. That's where you come in, Mike. To tell you the truth, I did have something else in mind but this business of you being - "
"Bad. Idea." Mike said, leaning back and swiping a hand through the air. "There's nothing to what that Zora woman said about me!"
"Why is it that you believe what Henry told you about himself and Adam but you doubt what Adam told Zora and her niece about you?" Jo asked.
"Because!" he shouted. "Because we ... we all saw what Henry did to himself, blowin' his brains out like that. Dyin' and comin' back to life in the river. There is no proof - and how in the hell would this Adam or Oded or whatever know anything about me at all? I thought he was obsessed with the Doc for the past 30 years?"
"He doesn't know about you specifically," Reece pointed out. "Apparently, he's picked up a whole lot more information over the past 2,000 years than Henry has in just his 200 years of Immortality. You being one of a few who could permanently kill him? Over the centuries, he had to have done his own research and found out many things that Henry still has not. And no matter how fantastical it sounds - you being a sleeping warrior - I wouldn't rule it out, Mike."
Mike, visibly perturbed, just sighed and pulled his lips in, supporting his head in his hand.
Jo, concerned for her official partner, still wanted a burning question answered. "Lieu, um, what do we do about all of the others who saw Henry kill himself with my gun?"
Reece lowered her head slightly and was silent for a few moments. Finally, she asked, "What do you recall seeing, Jo?"
Jo looked at Mike and then back at Reece. "I ... saw Henry ... " She paused, not wanting to say the words. " ... shoot himself with my weapon and ... his body and, and everything vanished." She stared directly at Reece. "There were at least ten other people in that squad room who also saw."
"Were there? Did they see what you saw?" Reece asked. "Surveillance cameras don't show that," Reece replied.
Both detectives protested that they must have but Reece insisted.
"Trust me. The footage does not support your beliefs. As a matter of fact, Dr. Morgan is not even visible in any of the footage," she stated.
"But he was there, Lieu," Jo protested further. "He was trying to negotiate with Adam on the phone, remember? How do we explain that?"
"And then he was across town in the river saving Lucas from drowning," Mike added.
"Was that him?" Reece cryptically asked. "Or was it someone who merely looked like him?" A smile crept across her lips and an eyebrow raised as she studied them.
"Lieu, what are you saying?" Mike asked, leaning forward, suddenly encouraged about the whole situation. "No footage to back up nearly a dozen eyewitnesses - "
"And someone who only resembled Henry pulling Lucas out of the river - " Jo added.
"What about the gunshot?" Mike asked, playing Devil's advocate.
"What about it?" Reece replied with her own question. "No gunshot is heard on the surveillance footage. And no flashes of light," she added, anticipating their next question.
Even though she decided she was going to share a little more with them, she definitely would not tell them anything about how she'd contacted Liz Chamberlain to do her own bit of magic and alter the surveillance footage. Liz, eternally grateful to Henry for having saved her life, had made the changes to his online files as a favor to him several months ago. This time she'd changed the surveillance footage concerning Henry and, as before, had done so without questioning why. One more confidante taken into the fold.
"It's all taken care of, Detectives," Reece assured them. "Internal Affairs has nothing to back up what a few of the others present at that time had to say. Many weren't willing to say anything about it since there is no physical evidence and ... who would believe them, anyway?" She paused, unclasping her hands and smoothing an area of the tablecloth near her plate.
"Well, that's a, uh, lucky break," Mike haltingly said.
"Yes, but my gun discharged," Jo pressed. "What do I put in my report about that?"
"We don't have a bullet," Reece quickly pointed out. "I'm sure we all know why that is," she said in a lowered voice. "You can come up with something," Reece assured Jo. "Same as you did before whenever you omitted certain things from your reports about Dr. Morgan and/or his son."
Mike frowned at a surprised Jo and Reece chuckled.
"I told you before, I know everything that goes on in my precinct," she quickly added. Even though General Austin's revelations that morning had made her realize that she needed to cast her net a little wider in order to gather the information necessary to keep that statement a true statement.
"Which means that IA most likely won't be contacting you anytime soon, if at all," Reece reasoned. "It's all taken care of, Detectives. Now. Who wants desert?"
Notes:
Romanian female given names
/blog/gypsy-baby-names-real-romani-names
Romanian surnames
names/usage/romanian
Ancient Roman names
names/usage/ancient-roman
Romanian male names
/life/24-funniest-romanian-expressions/