J.M.J.
Author's note: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to ErinJordan, Candylou, MargaretA66, max2013, and caseykam for your reviews on the previous chapter! Enjoy and God bless!
Chapter XIX
"I wonder what's taking so long," Mario muttered under his breath as he and Phil stood near the front desk in the hospital ward where Darcy was staying.
Phil shrugged. "It's hard to say. Darcy might not want to see us. Or me, at least. She might not know who you are, unless Angelo mentioned you."
"Who knows if he would have?" Mario replied. "It's been several years since I've even talked to him."
"From Jazz's account, you're not missing a whole lot. Your brother doesn't exactly live up to his name; doesn't sound like he's any angel."
It was a poor attempt at a joke, and Mario's slight smile in response was purely politeness, although he did add, "Maybe a fallen angel."
During this exchange, the receptionist had been speaking in a low voice to someone on the phone. Finally, she turned toward the two young men.
"That was the doctor," she confirmed. "He says that one of you can visit Darcy for a few minutes, but if she starts getting upset, you'll have to leave immediately."
"Just one of us, huh?" Mario asked. He looked at Phil. "I can go, if you'd rather."
Phil shook his head. "No. I think I've got to do this. What room is it?"
The receptionist told him the room number, and Phil walked down the hall to it. Mario opted to stay in the waiting area near the receptionist's desk. When he reached the room, Phil hesitated a few seconds outside the door as he tried to collect himself.
A few days ago, his feelings toward Darcy had been clear: disgust and disappointment and a little bit of guilt and embarrassment on his part for not seeing through her immediately. Now, though, none of those were quite so clearly defined. In spite of himself, Phil couldn't help feeling sorry for her. She had really been the one to suffer from her poor choices, and not just one or two of them. She had to live with all of them, and that clearly wasn't easy. One part of Phil told him that she had chosen exactly what she had gotten, but another part wished he could do something to ease her burden. That part surprised him, but also relieved him. He would have never imagined it, but wishing Darcy well was a balm to the injuries she had caused him. Her power over him had weakened.
Finally, Phil summoned the courage to knock on the door. A soft but raspy voice bade him to come in, so he did. Darcy was sitting up in bed, looking pale and listless. There was a bandage about her neck which instantly drew Phil's eyes to itself and didn't allow him to easily tear them away. A magazine that she had evidently been thumbing through was resting on her lap.
Her eyes widened when she saw Phil. "Oh!" was all she managed to say.
"Uh, hi," Phil replied, feeling very awkward himself. There was a pause and then he quickly asked, "How are you doing?"
"I…I don't know," Darcy said. She set the magazine aside and drew her knees up under the single sheet on the bed. "Why did you come to see me?"
At once, Phil realized that he should have come to see her before just to check up on her. Now he had to admit that he had come primarily for information, and in Darcy's obviously fragile state of mind, that might be enough of a blow to set her back. "Well, um, because. Do you mind if I sit down?"
"I don't care." The words were natural enough, even if not the height of manners, but the way Darcy said them told Phil that she really meant that she didn't care about anything at all.
Phil sat in a chair at the foot of the bed. "So, do they know how long you'll have to stay here?"
Darcy shrugged. Apart from that initial glance, she hadn't made eye contact with Phil once and she was keeping her eyes directed at the white sheet. "They can't say for sure. They've got to have me psychologically evaluated and then they're going to make me go through drug rehab."
"Ah." Phil didn't comment further on that one. Somehow, he wasn't surprised. "What about your parents? Are they coming to see you?"
"Nah. They don't care. My mom's in jail and I don't even know who my dad is, so they couldn't come see me, even if they did care."
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize."
"There's a lot about me you don't realize."
Phil shifted in the chair. "So, I happened to stop at the place where you work."
Darcy turned her head even more to the side. "I was hoping that was one of the things you'd never realize about me."
"The guy there said that you know someone named Angelo Beretta."
Darcy buried her face in her knees and made a strangled sort of sound, like a sob that she was trying to hide. "So that's the real reason you came. I guess that's fair. That's the real reason I contacted you again. No, that's not true, not entirely. What I said, about you being the only guy who ever treated me like a human being, that was true. I'm so sorry, for…for everything. The thing with Joe and trying to push you…and acting like a creepy weirdo…and helping Angelo…and writing you that stupid note."
"Whoa, hold on. What do you mean that you were helping Angelo?"
"You don't care about anything besides that, do you? You just want to know about Angelo. That's the reason you came, isn't it?"
Phil sighed. "Yeah, that's the reason I came, but I do care. I can't even tell you how glad I am that you're alive. I'll admit, I've been angry with you a long time now, but I swear I've never wished that anything bad would happen to you. I know it's not going to be easy for you, but it's not too late for you to be happy. You're going to be okay, if you want to be. They'll help you here, and if there's anything I can do, I'd like to help, too, as a friend."
Darcy finally looked up at him. "You mean that? Or do you just want me to tell you about Angelo?"
"I mean it, but to be clear, I mean it as a friend, not a boyfriend."
"So, in other words, you really don't like me, and you really don't care." Darcy looked away again.
"Darcy," Phil said, trying very hard not to sound impatient, "from the sound of it, you've had a lot of people in your life take advantage of you and use you without really caring about you, so I understand that it's hard for you to trust someone who says he really doesn't want anything from you. I don't expect you to trust me just like that, but I hope you'll give me a chance to prove what I'm saying. I do care, and I want to see you happy. Now, I wish we didn't have to talk about this, but do you remember Tony?"
"Yeah. He was nice, too, but he wasn't interested in me."
"Yeah, well, he's in trouble. We need to find Angelo if we're going to help him. Please, tell me everything you know about Angelo."
"You'll hate me if I do."
"No, I won't hate you. Please. It's very important."
Darcy sighed. "Okay, but please try not to hate me. I won't blame you if you do, but please try not to. See, when I was in high school, I joined this sort of club. They only let really cool people in, if you know what I mean. There were a bunch of levels to it, but you didn't know that before you joined. If they felt like they could trust you, they kept letting you in higher and higher. Like I said, I don't have a dad and my mom isn't worth a whole lot and so it was kind of the first time I was ever around people who seemed like they cared about me and thought I was worth bothering about. But the problem was, the higher you got, the worse stuff they made you do. Finally, after a few years, they told me that they wanted me to spy on a couple of boys and report back to them. I'd have to move to Bayport to do it."
"Frank and Joe?" Phil asked.
Darcy nodded. "They wanted me to get into their circle of friends by dating someone in the group. They arranged for me to get a job at the same place as Tony, and I tried him, but like I said, he wasn't interested. Then you came along and you seemed pretty cute, so I thought I'd give it another try. You actually were interested, and the people in the club were very pleased with the progress I was making. They wanted me to get as close to you as I could as quickly as I could, so I could start getting information on the Hardys. There's only one way I know to get close to someone, but you weren't having any of it. You sent me packing, and they pulled me out of there. They said they didn't have any use for me anymore, and good luck to me. So I was on my own then."
"What was this club called?"
"The Conqueror Club. Why?"
"I'm wondering why they would have anything against Frank and Joe for one thing."
"I think they were part of something bigger," Darcy admitted. "Anyway, a few months ago, Angelo contacted me. He knew all about the Conqueror Club and what I'd done in it and other things that I'd rather you didn't know about. He told me that if I helped him, he'd give me anything I wanted. He said that you and Joe were living out here in California, and he wanted me to…help him…" The raspiness in her voice was getting worse, and for a few seconds, she seemed like she couldn't talk at all. "He wanted me to help him get to Joe. Joe had something he wanted, and he thought that I could help him get close enough. At least, that's what he told me." She shuddered. "He treated me horribly. He made me get that job at the club to pay for his expenses, and when I wasn't working, he was treating me like his personal slave. Then I found out what he was really going to do, and I knew I had to stop him. That's why I sent an anonymous letter and some pictures to his brother. I thought his brother would investigate and find him before…"
"Before what?"
"Before he killed me."
"What? Why would he want to kill you?"
"Because that's how he was going to get rid of me once he didn't need me anymore. He wanted me here to throw Joe off his game, so he'd wouldn't be thinking clearly. There's someone Angelo wants to murder, and he thinks that Joe could get him his chance, but only if Joe doesn't realize what's happening. I wish I knew what his whole plan was, but I didn't find out who he really wants to kill or how Joe can help him. All I know is that he wanted me here to throw Joe off and then when he was done with me, he…was going to make it look like I'd killed myself."
"Wait, so you didn't try…?"
Darcy shook her head. "No. I mean, yes. It was me. I beat him to it. Or I tried to. I couldn't take it anymore. I still can't. I don't know what I'm going to do." She started sobbing furiously.
HBHBHBHBHB
Frank lost no time in taking Callie inside to tell Captain Gomez about the call from Angelo, even though Callie had thought that they should go after Joe first. A part of Frank could agree to that, but a stronger part of him was angry enough at Joe that he would have rather avoided him if he could. Besides, informing the authorities of any developments as soon as they happened was vital in a case like this.
Gomez didn't seem particularly surprised by Angelo's request, although he did question why Callie was asked for in particular. "It seems to me that if he wants to keep the police out of this, he wouldn't be making an officer's wife his go-between with him and Joe."
"No, it doesn't make a lot of sense," Frank agreed.
"It also doesn't make sense why he needs a go-between," Callie said. "I mean, he didn't have to break Joe's phone. He could have just returned it with a note or even something saved on the phone itself. All breaking it did was making it so that he couldn't directly contact Joe."
"That's a good point," Gomez agreed. "We haven't looked into that angle as thoroughly as we should have, even though there are definitely some questions raised by it. Not only is there the question of why it was done, but also the question of how. Angelo had to steal the phone from Joe in the first place, which would have been no easy task. If he's like most other people his age, he probably doesn't let it too far out of reach. If Angelo had come anywhere near, Joe would have recognized him."
"Apparently, it happened at the beach," Frank said. "If Joe went swimming at all, obviously he'd have to leave it on land."
"Completely unattended? With probably a few hundred other people around?" Gomez raised an eyebrow. "Is Joe typically that careless with his possessions?"
"He didn't used to be."
"I doubt he is now," Gomez said, "but be that as it may. Angelo also had to return it to Joe's apartment, a place that also would be difficult to get to without anyone seeing him. If he did it in the daytime, not only would Joe and all of his roommates as well as both of you be potential witnesses, but he would also be taking a chance on the neighbors seeing him breaking in. Well, we know he didn't break in, but he would have had to pick the locks, which would have looked suspicious. If he came during the night, the one roommate, this Shaun Stane, was sleeping in the same room. It seems unlikely that he wouldn't have woken up with a prowler in the very room he was in."
"I'm not so sure he's really ever awake," Callie commented wryly, "but you're probably right. So what does that mean?"
"You're saying that Angelo has someone helping him," Frank interjected. "Someone that Joe trusts and could get close to him or his belongings without being questioned."
"It seems a strong possibility," Gomez agreed.
There was a silence for a few seconds during which Frank had the impression that Gomez was waiting to see whether Frank would come to the same conclusion that the captain had already made, rather than Gomez still being in the process of thinking it through.
"What about Darcy?" Callie asked. "The boys said that she tried to break into their apartment and that she was on the beach the day Joe's phone was stolen."
"That's true," Gomez conceded. "Her break-in wasn't successful, but maybe that was meant to be a red herring. Still, she couldn't very well get close to Joe without being questioned. In fact, she would be an even worse choice for that than Angelo." Gomez rubbed his chin. "I was thinking of someone else. How well do you know Joe's roommates?"
Frank stiffened slightly in a defensive manner. "I've known Phil and Tony for years. We grew up together. They're both absolutely above suspicion."
"And what about our Mr. Stane?"
"I hardly know him at all," Frank admitted, and Callie nodded.
"How well does Joe know him?"
Frank sighed and shrugged. "I can't answer that. Do you honestly think he's in league with Angelo?"
"You ask that like it's obvious that he isn't, but I don't see any evidence against it," Gomez said. "Angelo is part of this Black Rose organization. This wouldn't be the first time that they've targeted any of you in a personal way. Doesn't it seem a little odd that he would continue rooming with three people to whom he's an outsider and who have very different values from him? He also reportedly spends a lot of time—including nights—away, and doesn't seem to have a job, but also isn't lacking in money. It would have been a simple matter for him to take the phone without anyone noticing and even simpler for him to leave it in the room he was sharing with Joe. None of this means he's guilty, of course, but I would like to ask him some more questions."
"He was just here," Callie said. "He's the one who gave me a ride, but then Joe asked him to give him a ride home. You don't suppose that's putting Joe in any danger?"
"No, certainly not. He wouldn't try anything at this stage, even if he is involved in the whole plot. It just would have saved a little time to talk to him before he left." Gomez paused. "Now, for this meeting with Angelo."
"I think you should let Joe and me do it," Callie said.
"Definitely not," Frank told her.
"And why not?" Callie asked. "Joe's done this sort of thing before, and I'm not going to try anything stupid. We already know that we can't trick Angelo. He didn't fall for it last time. Doing what he asks this time is probably the only way to get Tony back."
"But what if Angelo tries to double cross you?" Frank pointed out. "He's not going to turn Tony over to you."
"Your husband is right, Mrs. Hardy," Gomez said. "In some ways, doing what Angelo asks might put Tony in even more danger. After all, once Angelo has what he wants, he won't need Tony anymore."
"That might be why he asked for you and Joe," Frank added. "He doesn't plan on bringing Tony to the meeting at all, and he wants someone he's going to be able to take what he wants from by force. Joe's already proven that he's not going to fight back, and he probably expects that you couldn't."
"But we won't have to," Callie insisted. "You'll have officers there, right, Captain Gomez? You can arrest him and get him to tell you where Tony's at."
"Except if he has an associate, that associate will kill Tony and disappear," Gomez pointed out.
"Couldn't you arrest Shaun before the meeting?" Callie asked.
"We don't know that he's the associate," Gomez replied. "He might not be or there might be another. In any case, I couldn't legally arrest him. I haven't anywhere near the evidence for that."
Callie sighed. "Then what are you going to do?"
"There's only one thing we can do," Gomez said. "We'll surround the area well before the appointed time. Angelo will have to come to see whether you're coming or not. When he sees that you're not, we'll follow him and hope he leads us to your friend."
