Chapter 4

It had been a week since the parole hearing, and they had yet to receive word that Carson had been released. Tru wasn't sure how the news would come to her. She had heard that sometimes the prison would make an automatic phone call to the felon's victim when he was released. Or maybe that was just for bail? She also wondered if Sonny would bring her the news. She was almost certain that he would be one of the first to know.

Maybe it had already happened, and she just didn't know. She tried to live her life without worrying about that. She forced herself to believe that maybe he wouldn't even try to contact her. After all, he did spend time in prison because of her. Would he really risk going back? He wouldn't even be able to get close to her with Sonny around, so why even try?

It was nearly 9 o'clock in the morning when she walked into the morgue for her shift. She headed to the office to set her stuff down and look at the schedule for the day. She opened the door and walked in, then stopped dead in her tracks. On the desk before her sat a long, white rectangular box with a red ribbon tied around it. Her breathing began to accelerate as she took an uncertain step forward toward the box. Right away her mind flashed back to opening the box with two dead love birds. This can't be happening again, she thought. She outstretched a shaky hand and slowly lifted the lid from the base, she set it aside. A dozen red roses lay before her. She tried to swallow, but her throat was dry and her tongue felt like sandpaper. She picked up the small card that was folded on top of the flowers and opened it. Printed neatly on the inside of the card were three words that could either be so sweet, or so terrifying. For my everything.

"Isn't my boyfriend just the sweetest?" Melinda Warren's voice suddenly boomed from behind her.

Tru shrieked as the card went flying into the air and she spun around to face her boss, clutching her hand over her heart. Melinda jumped back, startled at the outburst.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Melinda asked, as she eyed her suspiciously.

Tru struggled to catch her breath, "Yeah, I'm fine. So-sorry!" Tru stammered. "So the—the flowers are for you?"

Melinda picked the card up off the floor and set it back on the flowers, then put the lid back on. "Yeah, it's our first anniversary." Melinda turned to face her.

Tru let out a shaky breath as slowly as she could, trying to have it go unnoticed. "That's great, congratulations."

Melinda grabbed a clipboard off the desk, "You know, I heard about the hearing…" she paused for a moment and looked at Tru sympathetically, Tru swallowed hard, like she was swallowing a hard-boiled egg. "If you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know."

Tru forced a polite smile, "Thanks, but I'm okay." She said, "I just need to stay busy."

"In that case," Melinda handed her the clip board, "We just got called to a crime scene, wanna come?"

"Absolutely."

Carisi leaned against his squad car outside the probation office. He had gotten the call this morning that Carson had been released and he was supposed to check in with his probation officer right away. So far Carisi had been planted outside for two hours, he checked his watch again, yep two hours. He pulled a stick of gum out of his pocket, unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. He shoved the wrapper back into his pocket and made sure to position his jacket so his gun and badge were still visible. The door swung open, and Carson strolled out as if he didn't have a care in the world. Carisi must have missed him go in, or maybe he had went in the back?

Carson didn't notice Carisi right away, or he pretended not to. Carisi stepped forward as Carson walked by, stepping into his path. "So, you're a free man, huh." Carisi removed his sunglasses and looked Carson in the eye.

The color drained from Carson's skin, and his eyes got wide, just for a split second before he regained his slick composure. He wasn't expecting a confrontation. Maybe he was wanting to make the first move? But Carisi didn't want to give him the chance to make any move at all. He was gonna meet this head on. He spent so much time being the by the book cop, the knowledgeable one with the law degree, it was time to remember where he came from. Staten Island—where people looked out for each other, and you didn't mess with some else's girl. Time to let his Italian side take over.

"Sonny, I didn't expect to see you here." Carson shoved his hands in his pockets.

Carisi cocked an eyebrow in amusement, Sonny? What were they on a first name basis now? "It's detective Carisi."

"Detective Carisi, you have nothing to worry about." Carson said. "I have no intention of hurting Tru."

"What makes you think I'd give you the chance?" Carisi asked.

Carson sighed, getting agitated, "I'm one of those people who go to prison and rehabilitates, you have to believe me." The words sounded flat and void of emotion; rehearsed.

"I have to believe you? No, I don't, you're a rapist." Carisi said.

Carson sighed again, he was getting to him, "Just listen—"

"No, you listen," Carisi said, stepping in closer. "You took a life, her life, the life that she knew, the life that she had before you. You made her afraid. And you got away with a slap on the wrist. So if you think you're gonna waltz out and pick right back up where you left off you have another thing coming. You're not fooling me, Carson."

He held his gaze, making sure Carson understood what he was saying. Carisi moved his hand to his hip—next to his gun. Carson's gaze landed on it. "So you better stay away from her, cause I swear to God, cop or no cop, I will hunt you down." Carisi finished.

Carson was speechless as Carisi walked to his car and opened the driver's side door.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a threat," Carson said.

"No, no threat." Carisi said, "Just a promise."

He got in the car, turned the key, and shifted into gear while still maintaining eye contact. He made his point. He glanced at his phone where he had a message to report to a crime scene at the bay of the Hudson River.

Carisi made his way down the bank, onto the beach by the river. The crime scene was already taped off, cops scattered along the beach, crime scene techs were hovering over certain areas, picking up this and that and putting it in their plastic baggies. As he came closer, he spotted the body; a partly clothed woman in her mid to late twenties. He approached the body and instinctively made the catholic cross from his head to his chest and both sides.

He looked around the scene, looking for anything out of place, any obvious signs of struggle. After a moment he spotted Tru. She was hunched over, making an imprint of a shoe print found in the sand. Her loose brown curls fell over her face, but he could tell it was her. He walked closer, as she stood up.

"Hey, you," he said. She turned to look at him, the sun caught her hair for a second and made it glow. Carisi couldn't help but think how beautiful she was.

"Sonny," she smiled when she saw him, then motioned toward the body, "this wasn't the crime scene, this was a dump site."

He followed her as she walked towards the grass, "We found one of her high heels right here, I think it fell off when she was being dragged into the water. If she was brought here in a car, why didn't they just drive down to the water?" He studied her as he followed her shifting train of thought, she was smart. Smarter than she got credit for, but Carisi noticed; he noticed everything. "It must be somewhere close by—the crime scene I mean—you might want to have uni's check…" she looked at the ground, the drag marks, then down the beach both ways before pointing to the left, "that way."

Carisi narrowed his eyes on her, "How do you know?"

She walked back toward the body, he followed. "I think she was killed late last night, early this morning, this stamp on her hand is from a club not too far from here—to the left—" Tru picked up the murder victims hand with her own gloved hand, Carisi looked at the stamp and nodded. "I think she was walking home, maybe with someone, I'm not sure about that but look," she turned the victims head to reveal a large gash at the back of the neck. "Obvious signs on blunt force trauma. She was struck with something, knocked unconscious and dragged to the water."

"Any signs of rape?" Carisi asked.

"Her clothes are torn, underwear is missing." Tru stood to her feet, "Looks like—" She fell back a step, losing her footing, Carisi reached out and grabbed her by the arm, she fell against him. Her hand flew to her mouth as she strangled her gag reflex.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "You look—"

"I'm fine," she cleared her throat, the wind blew a piece of her hair in front of her face, and she pushed it back behind her ear. "I won't know for sure until we get her back from the lab."

"Okay," he acknowledged her last note, "but what just happened?"

"I forgot to eat breakfast this morning." Tru offered, "I've been so preoccupied, wondering, worrying if today is the day he gets out."

Carisi shoved his hands in his pockets. He was dreading this part, telling her that today was in fact the day. But he didn't have to say anything, she must have seen it on his face. Her expression dropped, and her skin paled.

"Oh, no," she said. "He's out?"

He sighed and looked down at the ground, then back up at Tru. He forced himself to look into her beautiful brown eyes. He didn't want to see them cloud over with worry, but it was far too late for that. "Yeah," he said, "He's out."

Tru nodded slowly, as she looked away and bit her lip. He could see the whirlwind of thoughts brewing inside her head. He wanted to stop her from worrying, he wanted to take this weight off her shoulders.

"Look, I promise you, I'll protect you." He spoke. It sounded sweet in his head but once he spoke the words it sounded lame as hell. After all, he had vowed to protect her after her initial attack and yet she was raped a second time and kidnapped right out from under his nose. Maybe he wasn't any good at protecting. Maybe all he was good at was cleaning up the mess left behind. "I'm not gonna let anything bad happen."

Tru forced a smile, "I know."

There was an awkward silence between them. Carisi cleared his throat, "You should really eat something. I have a lunch meeting with Isiah, but you could join us if you want. You probably shouldn't be alone today."

She thought for a second, "Thanks but I really don't want to think about Carson or the lawsuit or any of that. Sara's been bugging me to meet her for lunch, I'll get her to go with me."

Carisi nodded. "Okay, I'll call you later."

Tru headed to the morgue van as two other techs loaded up the body. She stopped and turned around, and looked right at Carisi, "I love you."

He smiled, "I love you too."

Tru walked into the agreed upon diner to meet her friend Sara for lunch. She spotted her right away. With long blond hair and a curvy frame, she was hard to miss. She was seated at a table near the window, on hand holding a phone to her hear, the other was motioning for Tru.

Tru approached the table and took a seat across from her.

"Trust me, love, it will be perfect." Sara was saying, Tru picked up the laminated menu off the tabletop in front of her and pretended not to listen to what her friend was saying. "I know, I know. But you have enough to worry about as the mamma-to-be, let me work on the location." She was silent for a few seconds, "Alright, good. I'll be in touch, mwah."

Sara hung up the phone and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "15 years I've been doing this, why do people second guess me?" She asked, she scooped up her camera from the seat beside her and scrolled through the digital options before turning the screen to show Tru, "Isn't this gorgeous? Wouldn't you want this as the setting for your maternity pictures?"

Tru looked at the beautiful field of wildflowers, "Oh wow," she exclaimed, "that is stunning." She wondered if she would ever get to do anything like that. Celebrate a pregnancy, take maternity pictures, or engagement pictures, would her life with Carisi ever move forward. Even before she was raped there was dark cloud hanging over her life.

Every time she was happy, something bad happened. Every where she went, darkness followed. Things were going great for her when she was a teenager, she had gotten into a great college, her life was on the right track and then her both her parents were killed. Not long after that was when her perfect relationship took a darker turn. She broke it off, went off to college and started a new life in the city…and then Carson. And when she was finally building a beautiful life with Sonny, tragedy struck her once again. She couldn't think about that right now. It was all she could do to keep the Carson trauma buried, she didn't need to dig into other old wounds.

Sara must have seen Tru go distant, immediately pulling the camera away, "Oh gosh, Tru, I wasn't thinking!" She exclaimed, Tru snapped out of the trance she was in and looked at her friend, her eyes wide with concern. "I'm so stupid."

Tru shook her head, "I was just thinking how good some French fries sound."

Sara gave her a skeptical glance but let her friend shrug off the moment. That was the good thing about Sara; if you wanted to talk about something, she was there. If you wanted a shoulder to cry on, she was there. If you wanted to vandalize an ex's house in revenge, she was there. Or if you wanted to just completely ignore your problems, she went along with that as well.

"You know, I don't think we're supposed to call them that anymore." Sara said, picking up her menu at looking at it.

"What?" Tru asked.

"They're just fries now, so the French don't get offended." Sara offered.

"NU-uh," Tru laughed, "Really?"

"That's what I read in Cosmo."

"Oh, that's such a reliable source!" Tru chuckled again.

It felt good to laugh. It felt good to be around a friend, to ignore her problems. She was glad she didn't let her anxiety talk her out of this lunch date.

"How bad is it?" Carisi asked.

Isiah sat across from him, cutting his rare steak with his fork and knife. Such proper mannerisms, Carisi thought.

"As far as police lawsuits go, I've seen worse." He popped a bit of steak in his mouth.

Carisi took a drink of his water, "either way it's not good."

"I know you would never frame anyone," Isiah said, "however I do think it will behoove us to go over every detail of what happened five years ago. We need to be prepared for Buchanan to bring up the tiniest, insignificant event and turn it into something it wasn't. We need to have a defense for everything."

Carisi sighed and glanced away.

"What is it?" Isiah asked.

"I just thought I was done having to defend my relationship with Tru."

Isiah sighed and looked down at his own wedding ring. If there was one thing he understood, it was having to defend his relationships "Just answer me one question," he said.

"What's that?" Carisi asked.

"Is she worth it?"

"Completely," Carisi didn't hesitate for a second.

"Well then, let's get started."