Chapter Five
"You're lookin' for who?"
My patience sure is being tested tonight. I sigh at the raven-haired girl, just waiting for the heavy tray of drinks in her hands to fall to the floor, and again raise my voice over the noise.
"Casey Jones! He's about six feet tall, muscular build. Shoulder length black hair, blue eyes? He comes in here all the time!"
The waitress steps back as two brawny college kids cut in between us and she almost loses her balance. She then gives me a dumbfounded look and shrugs her shoulders.
"Look, Mister," she moves around me as she speaks. " I've only been workin' here for a few days. I don't know who this Casey guy is! And if ya couldn't tell, this place is packed tonight, and I got four tables watin' on me!"
Geesh, a simple 'no' would have sufficed.
She disappears into the throngs and I sigh once more. I don't ever remember this place being so rowdy! When I first joined the force, The Dakota was nothing more than a quiet Irish pub where middle aged business men gathered to share a few quiet drinks with friends. Ten years later, the place is a cacophonic Irish pub where middle aged men come to pick up college girls after the NYU football games and do shots from the 'V' in their ample chests. My, how the times have changed.
I push past a huddle of drunken jocks and find an empty seat at the bar. The bartender, who has bright red hair and arms bigger than my head leans down from his mountainous height and asks me what I'll have. Something from the tap sounds good; nothing too heavy. I need to be clear headed when I confront Mr. Jones. He slides the frosted mug to me, and my first drink is interrupted by a sudden loud cheer from the table behind me. I look over my shoulder, and I want to be annoyed by the four guys sitting in that familiar spot, but a sad smile comes to me instead. I take a sip from the foam, and my memories rush back to life.
"Here's to Leo, who's finally done something with his life!"
Raph and Mikey join in my laughter while Leo shakes his head at my comment. Our mugs clink together and we take in a group swig, which afterwards Mikey entertains us with one of his famous belches.
"Nice, Mikey." Raph grumbles into his beer. " Don't ever let anyone tell ya you don't have any class."
"So, Captain," I further poke at Leo and his newly appointed position. " Will we be expecting a raise anytime soon?"
Leo leans back into the cushy booth seat and smiles widely. " I've been Captain for five hours, and you're already asking for more money?"
"Hey, I gotta pay for these drinks somehow, right?" I joke again, and Leo places his hand to his face, trying to block out the laughter that pours from his mouth. Our waitress then returns, and I can't help but stare at her as she shifts her weight to one side, sticking out of those slender, long legs. She flips her long red hair over her left shoulder, that gorgeous smile returning. I lift my mug to my face, trying to hide my eyes as they creep up along her curvy silhouette.
"How is everything over here?" The low lighting above catches in her green eyes as she speaks. "You guys need anything else?"
"Nope. We're good!" Mikey answers for us.
"Okay, just let me know if you need something." Before she turns to leave, our eyes lock, and I swear that was a small wink that just escaped from those twinkling emeralds. I watch her walk away, and apparently I wasn't the only one.
"Forget it, Donnie," Raphael's voice pulls me back. "She is way outta yer league."
I turn to him and glare as he finishes his beer. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," He wipes the foam from his lips and points a finger at the redhead. "Besides, I'm good friends with her boyfriend, and I don't think he'd like it too well if he knew some mutant turtle was puttin' the moves on his lady."
I looked back just in time to see Raph's friend in question pull the redhead into his arms and deeply kiss her. Raph leaned in closer, and I could almost feel the wicked smile that spread on his face.
"I'd just back off if I were you."
The college kids behind me roared again, zapping me out of my daydream, and my sadden eyes went down into my nearly flat beer. I know I should have listened to Raph, but the temptation was just too strong. I went back a week after that, alone. April and I had a few causal drinks, a causal conversation. Then we causally went back to my apartment and began what later became a year long affair, something that I knew I should have stopped before it started. Casey had known about us for some time, but only waited until Leo was gone and I was out of the hospital before coming after me, ambushing me in my apartment and beating me senseless while April watched helplessly. To this day, I still don't know how Casey found out. We never told anyone, but around here, someone is always watching.
I gulp down the rest of the flatten molten hops and wipe my mouth with the sleeve of my coat. Another nicotine craving is sneaking up on me, and as I reach down to grab the pack of smokes out of my pocket, my eyes catch a flash of black hair. I turn with a sharp jerk, and I find a pair of ice cold blue eyes staring right back at me from across the crowded pub. And in the next moment, I don't even remember jumping out of my seat. I just found myself pushing my way through the herd of partygoers as Casey took off toward the back door, shoving people to the ground as he went by them. He slammed into the door, crushing the lock in one sweep of his muscular shoulder, and raced down the darkened alley.
Fine, if this asshole wants to play chase, I'm game.
I flew into the alley, pushing myself beyond the limits of my thirty-three year old body, cursing myself for smoking so much and letting my abdomen go to hell. The adrenaline rush of a wild police chase was actually something I had missed. Most of my preps on the beat are usually too stoned to run, giving up after five steps and are barely able to lift their hands as I cuff them.
The rain smacked into my cheeks as I turned onto Henderson Street and followed Casey down 16th, the lightening blinding my sight as we headed down another alley, scaring a group of street people as we crashed through their campsite. He took another sharp turn, and I tried to follow suit, but instead found myself skidding across the pavement and landing hard on the cement. Damn pansy-ass Oxfords. Going barefoot would be better than these things!
I shake off the fall, growling under my breath about the pain radiating through my ribs, and climb to my feet. That fall defiantly cost me the range I had on Casey, and seeing how he's in better shape than I am, he might have gotten away. But here is where my advantage comes in. Casey's not exactly the smartest apple in the barrel, and that street he just turned down, it's a dead end. Yep, sealed off with a ten foot brick wall and everything. I brush the mud from my coat and my brown slacks, taking my time in my grooming. There's no way to get around that wall, and he'd run right into me if he decided to back track.
It should be against the law for me to feel so smug as I do right now.
I peek around the corner and watch with a laugh as Casey tries to climb the wall in his broken-down tennis shoes. He does get up about halfway before the rain catches his feet and he slides back down, his cursing echoing up into the night sky as he lands on his butt. This scene is very amusing, but I've got work to do, and I have to do it carefully. Casey's temper, like Raph's, is not to be reckoned with.
Casey must have heard me move closer to him because he suddenly turns around, his blue eyes glaring like a rabid dog about to get a bullet in the head. I hope that wasn't foam I just saw trickle down his chin.
"Get away from me, Donnie!" Casey screams. " I didn't tell them cops nothin', so beat it!"
"Whoa, Case, slow down." I put my hands up and soften my composure. " I just need to ask you a few questions, that's all."
"Fuck yer questions!" Casey spits through his teeth. "Everyone around you ends up dead, so back off!"
"Huh?" I guess I should say: 'What the fuck are you talking about?'
That's when I noticed Casey's eyes aren't watching me, but watching the rooftops and the windows above us. I shield my eyes from the rain as I also look up, curious to find what he thinks he's seeing.
"Donnie, you gotta listen ta me," His Brooklyn accent calms down, his eyes still glued to the sky. "I know we had some bad shit between us, and I'm sorry for that, but ya just gotta stay away from me. And ya better get outta here. Skip town or somethin'."
Again I pose the question:'What the fuck are you talking about?'
"Casey, what is going on?" I take another step closer and Casey begins to tremble, from actual fear, something that I thought he didn't how to do.
"I can't say anything, Don! They'll kill me if I do!" He huddles closer to the wall, inching closer to the corner.
I take in a deep breath and close in on him, grabbing at his shoulders and holding on tightly. "Case, come on. Calm down! No one is going to kill you! Now tell me what's going on?"
Casey's frightened eyes stop on my face. "You think I had somethin' to do with Mikey gettin' all cut up, don't ya?"
"What- why-," Dammit Donatello! Stop stammering like the idiot you are and talk! "How did you know I was going to ask you about that?"
He then grabbed onto my coat sleeves and hung on for dear life. "You gotta believe me, Donnie! I didn't kill Mike! After ya left, I asked Mikey if he needed help closing shop, and he said he could do it, then I went home.Then April calls me, saying' Mikey never made it home. So I went back to the Diamond, and I found him, layin' there in his own blood!"
"Then why did you run away from me?"
Casey looked around again, and his deep voice lowered to a whisper. "Listen ta me, Donnie. There are some things goin' on around here, and ya just need to get outta here. If ya don't, you'll end up dead."
What the hell? I pulled back away from Casey and he huddles his knees to his chest, scared like a little girl who's seem a monster in her closet. That makes two enemies in one day that have warned me to watch myself. Maybe Raphael was right, maybe I really don't understand what's going on in this city. I place my hands back on Casey's trembling shoulders and continue with my Q&A, ignoring his darting, anxious eyes.
"Okay, Casey. If you just answer a few of my questions, I'll help you get away from whoever it is that's threatening you. Deal?"
Casey shook his wildly. "No way! It don't matter where I go! They always know where ya are!"
"Casey, come on!" I shake him, trying my hardest to keep my cool as his annoying behavior gets under my shell even more. "Who were those two goons that killed Mikey? I know you saw them! And why does everyone think that I was the one who did it?" I pulled Casey closer to my face and gave him the dirtiest look my humble face could muster. "If you don't start talking, I'll be the one to take you out!" I then stated to reach for my still warm revolver.
"Okay, okay!" Casey cried as he held up his hands in defense. " The guy that wants you dead sent those guys after you, and they payed us to keep our traps shut!"
"Us? Us who?" God, this was getting really irritating! "And who is this guy that everyone is talking about?"
"Me, and-and," I knew that Casey didn't tell me who his accomplice was, but after I shoved the hot barrel of my gun into his pretty face, he quickly changed his mind.
"It was Raph! They paid us both to make it seem like it was some accident!"
Just the mention of my so called brother's name made my gun clatter to the pavement. Raph? There's no way Raphael would be that evil as to help plot my death. My anger was slowly getting the best of me, and it took all I had to stop myself from kicking the shit out of Casey.
"Mikey wasn't supposed ta die, Donnie," Casey knew he had shamed himself, and he hung his head low, the rain dripping off on his long hair. "Leo wasn't supposed ta die either. It wasn't supposed ta happen like that."
That's it! I don't want to hear anymore! I sprung at Casey and jerked him to his feet, sending a hard hitting punch into his cheekbone. He crumbled into a ball at my feet and whimpered as the blood ran out of his mouth. I grabbed him again, ready to throw another one, but the plea in his blue eyes made me stop.
"Why, Casey?" I asked as I held my stern expression. "Is this still because of April? Are you still out for blood because I took her away from you? Is that why you want me dead? And what does all of this crazy shit have to do with Leo? Tell me! Now!"
Casey slowly shook his head. "It's not us that want ya dead, Donnie. It's the-,"
My ears then picked up a shrill whistle as it ripped through the rain. The source of the sound slammed into Casey's back so hard that it almost sent both of us to the ground. Casey convulsed in my hands, a pool of blood seeping down the front of his shirt, and he fell limp. I looked down at the blood and noticed the pointed end of a dagger, sticking out from the middle of his rib cage. I dropped Casey's lifeless body down to the ground and backed out of the alley, my senses on full alert as I looked through the rain to the rooftops above.
So, I've now got two dead bodies, a traitor brother, a mystery man with tons of money that wants me dead, and a million more questions that have no answers. And as I stand here in the cold rain, my eyes jumping between the sky and the weird looking dagger in Casey's back, I can't help but wonder:
What kind of deep shit have you gotten yourself into this time, Donatello?