Deviant (25 page)

I knew where this was heading, but I did my best not to let him get to me. “Tyler is special and you know full well the reasons why.”

Grinning, Humphrey grabbed an apple and bit into it. “Yes, but you’re not one to have the same pussy for too long. You’re motto was always once was enough. When was the last time you fucked anyone other than Tyler? I know you didn’t fuck Samantha or Katie the other night, but not once have you invited a girl back to your place to do just that.”

I grunted and took another sip of my beer. “I’m too fucking busy to worry about a whiney woman right now, Humphrey. And that’s just what they are. No matter how many fucking times I tell them it will be one time and one time only, they always want to be the one that breaks me. To be the one that finally catches Dean Scozzari.”

Humphrey sighed, taking another bite of his apple before reaching for the door. “From where I’m standing, Dean Scozzari has already been caught. In fact, he was caught a long time ago. I just don’t think he quite realises it yet.”

Humphrey walked out the door and I was left reeling over what he just said. It pissed me off that I was feeling more for Tyler than I wanted but, more than that, it pissed me off somebody else could see it.

Downing my beer, I walked down to the basement and into my cinema room. I never used this place as much as I should but, tonight, all I wanted to do was watch a Bruce Lee film. Before setting it all up, I sat down with another beer and sent all the info about Tyler to Jimmy. Once all was done, I tried to get lost in the movie. It was no use, though. Normally, Bruce Lee did the trick, but not tonight. Tonight, all I could see was Tyler’s body moving up and down on my cock as she moaned my name. She was everywhere in my head and I fucking hated it.

*****

I was in Tyler’s bedroom and could see Lotus. He was hovering over her with a knife and she was screaming at me to help her.

“Dean! Dean, please help. Please make him stop!” she cried as she bore her eyes into mine.

In a blind panic, I roared and rushed to tackle Lotus to the ground. I wanted to kill him for daring to touch her. I wanted him dead for even thinking it was okay to hurt her. But something was blocking my path. It was like I had an invisible glass in front of me, blocking me from saving her. I banged and kicked with all my might, but it didn’t break or give way. It was stronger than me and I felt weak.

I could see the fear in Tyler’s eyes, and the feeling of helplessness surrounded me. I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her from the demon.

Lotus—myself—turned to me as I stood there, giving me an evil smirk. He was goading me, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop him.

With a turn of his head, he went back to Tyler and raised the knife in the air. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, and I felt myself beginning to lose it, thinking I would never see Tyler again.

As the knife came down, Tyler looked at me one last time before screaming my name, “Dean!”

“Dean!”

I woke with a start, sweat dripping down my face as I scrambled to gain control. For a fleeting moment, I didn’t know where the fuck I was and the panic rose like never before. I felt a tug on my shoulder and was about to turn and swing…until I saw it was Humphrey.

“Fucking hell, Dean. You look like shit. What the hell is wrong with you? I was calling your name, and all you were doing was shouting something I couldn’t understand.”

Knowing it was all a bad dream, I felt my breathing calm a little. I could still see her pleading eyes, and I could still hear her screams for me to save her. Just as I had told her, the demon always won. Tyler would never listen to me, even when we were young.

“I’m fine. What do you want?” I asked, knowing I was snapping.

“The cops are here, Dean. They’re waiting for you upstairs.”

Rubbing my face in my hands, I sighed and looked at my watch. Fuck. It was ten-thirty? I had almost slept for ten hours?

“Okay. I’ll come right up.”

“Don’t you want a shower first? I can hold those fuckers up, if you’d like. It would be my pleasure.”

I looked at Humphrey’s smiling face, knowing just how much he loathed the cops. A while back, he did a stretch for an auto theft ring he had set up. It was very successful for a while, then he got too complacent with it and started making mistakes. Of course, the police were tailing him for a while, but Humphrey never knew anything about it. Then, one night, they raided his garage, confiscated the cars, and arrested him.

“No, it’s okay. Let’s get this over with. We knew they were bound to come at some point.” I raised my eyebrow at him. I think he knew what I meant. I didn’t need to kill anyone around here to raise any suspicion. If any whiff of a gang-related incident happened around here, I was immediately suspect number one. I’d never been caught simply because I was always careful. My parents were good at what they did, but there were lessons learned and I learned along with them. One thing in my favour was that I took everything in like a sponge. That was why I’d learned so much in so little time. With the sudden death of my parents, I was really left with little choice.

I walked past Humphrey and took the stairs up to the lounge. I knew exactly where to go as Humphrey always knew where to take guests like this.

As I opened the door, the two police officers sitting on my three thousand pound sofa stood up. One of the officers looked to be in his late thirties, whilst the other looked like he had only just left the clutches of Hendon, a police training academy. He was barely a kid. A snot-nosed rookie who was, more than likely, brown-nosing all the higher ranking officers.

“Gentleman, what can I do you for?” I smiled sweetly at both of them, holding out my hand. The older cop smiled, shaking my hand, but I didn’t even try to offer it to the younger one. He had the look of “he’s guilty” before I even got in the room. I
was
, but everybody was innocent until proven otherwise.

Sitting down, I motioned for them to take a seat. All the while, snot-nosed kid was watching my every move and, no doubt, sulking that I never offered him my hand.

“Can I offer you a drink? A coffee or tea, perhaps?”

Snot-nosed kid was about to speak, but the older cop beat him to it. “No, but thank you. I must say, Mr Scozzari, you look a little tired this morning. Did you have a late night?”

I chuckled. “You could say that. Sometimes women can be a handful, but I certainly am not complaining.” I winked towards the older cop, who laughed along with me. The snot-nosed kid didn’t find it so amusing. More than likely, he probably hadn’t even been laid himself yet.

“I suppose you’re wondering why we’re here,” older cop said, looking serious all of a sudden. I knew then that pleasantries were finished. “I’m Detective Sergeant Cartwright and this is Detective Constable Tomlinson. We are heading a murder investigation into a man whose body was found in the Thames River around the Kingston area on the early hours of yesterday morning.”

He paused and I nodded, looking perplexed. “That’s terrible. Do you know who it is?”

Cartwright cleared his throat a little. “He was a little unrecognisable when we found him. It seems he was tortured before his death. But initial reports suggest he was Antonio Pinzano.”

I clenched my teeth, but gave the officer a wry smile. It was deliberate, of course. This gesture, though, somehow confused him. “It looks as though you’re quite happy about this, Mr Scozzari.”

I nodded, leaning back in the chair, feeling completely at ease. “Let’s not beat around the bush, Detective Cartwright. I believe you’re here because you already know my history with the man. He was responsible for killing my parents. Who wouldn’t be happy that he was dead?”

Cartwright’s posture straightened “
Allegedly
responsible.”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I knew exactly what his tactics were, as I was expecting them. He was hoping I would get angry at his comment and lose my cool a little. Maybe reveal something in the heat of the moment. I was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

“Quite,” was all I answered, showing him his comment didn’t mean a damn thing to me. Cartwright wasn’t happy with my calm demeanour—far from it. In a sense, he was the one starting to lose his cool.

“Are you admitting that you are responsible for his death in some way?”

Straightening a little, I put on my best “offended look”. “Was there any word in my last sentence that suggested I, in anyway, had anything to do with his death?”

“Well, you did admit that you were happy he was dead.”

“Yes, I did and yes, I am, but that in no way implicates me in the cause of his death. Let’s make no mistake, DS Cartwright. I hated the man. He
allegedly
killed my parents, and I would have loved to have been the man that drew the last breath from his body, but that doesn’t mean I did it.”

Cartwright smiled a little. “So, let’s get this straight. You had nothing to do with Mr Pinzano’s death?”

I shook my head. “No, of course not. I may be the son of a Scozzari, but that doesn’t mean I am one of them. If you look into me, which I know you must have by now, you will see I own many legitimate businesses which earn me a legitimate income.” I leaned back in my chair and smiled at them both. I didn’t need to act it because I felt it. They had nothing on me.

“Hmm,” Cartwright mused. “I understand that, but you must have thought about revenge, Mr Scozzari. Anyone would if they believed someone had killed their parents and gotten away with it.”

The word “revenge” swam around in my head. It was what I lived and breathed for my entire adult life. Of course I wanted revenge. I needed revenge, and I exacted my revenge. Who wouldn’t?

“There is a big difference between thinking of revenge and acting the revenge out, DS Cartwright. You, as a man of the law, know that above all else.”

He nodded and looked down at his notes, as snot-nosed Tomlinson just stared ahead. If this situation wasn’t so serious, I would be laughing by now.

Flicking through his notes, Cartwright suddenly looked up. “Mr Scozzari, can you tell me where you were between the hours of around eleven o’clock Saturday night until three o’clock in the early hours of Sunday morning?”

Looking up in the air, I appeared as if I was thinking. “Hmm, Saturday night. I was here at that time. I had a dinner party.” I smiled brightly as I knew what was coming.

“Okay. Would you be able to give the names of all your guests so that we can verify your story?”

I nodded. “Of course, but there was one particular guest I was with most of the evening. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind verifying my story.”

Cartwright looked a little pissed at the news, but not as pissed as he’ll be in the next few seconds. Poised with his pen ready, Cartwright looked down at his notepad. “Okay. Who was this person?”

With a megawatt smile, I thrummed my fingers on the sofa’s armchair. “I don’t think you need to write his name down. You all know him fairly well. The name’s Carmichael. Aidan Carmichael.”

Cartwright looked up, a shocked expression plastered all over his face. Snot-nosed Tomlinson just stared, his mouth wide open.

“You mean
Chief
Superintendent
Aidan Carmichael?”

I smiled with a nod, then leaned forward. “The one and only,” I said in a whisper before I gave them a cheeky wink. I know shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t fucking help myself.

“He was here from around ten o’clock, I believe, and didn’t leave until about four in the morning. I was a little late showing up because I had a meeting with a business associate of mine at Buddies in Soho. I was there until about ten. I was certainly home by ten-thirty, then I stayed in the whole night. Carmichael can certainly vouch for that.”

Cartwright smiled resolutely, slightly shaking his head as he wrote all this down. “Okay,” he said, rising out of his seat. His little shadow soon followed suit and I knew that was my cue to be polite and show them to the door.

“I will go and speak with Chief Superintendent Carmichael when I get back. In the meantime, if you could write down a list of names of the other people that were here with you, that would be great.”

I smiled and nodded my head. “Sure thing. If you leave me your number, I’ll get it faxed over to you by this afternoon.”

Cartwright dipped into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “That would be great. Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll be in touch.”

I nodded. “No problem at all. You have a good day now.” I shook both their hands, but didn’t offer a goodbye smile to the snot-nosed kid. He was too busy being pissed off that he wasn’t carting me off in his brand new shiny little handcuffs that hung from the brand new shiny belt of his.

They left and I watched as they drove away. I couldn’t help the little wave I gave them as they went.

“You have no shame,” Humphrey whispered to me from behind.

I turned, noticing him shaking his head as he laughed. I couldn’t help the smile that formed. “What?” I asked, trying to act all innocent.

“Nothing,” he said, laughing a little louder. “It just somehow scares me just how much you’re like your father, but even more cunning. No wonder you get away with murder.”