Love Lost (15 page)

“What the hell is that?”

Lucio smiled, going through the contents in the bag.  “My escape plan.”

“What are you thinking, Lucio?  You can’t use that without killing someone.”  He looked toward the bedroom.  “What the FUCK!?  Is that a dead body?  Have you lost your fucking mind?”

Lucio lifted his gun and cocked it.  “I’m bored with this conversation.  Leave before I decide to add another body to my bed.”  

The captain moved slowly toward the door and left in a hurry.  Lucio locked the door and went back to organizing his new merchandise.  Two new passports with identification to match along with the information to the airstrip and payment for the plane.   His plan was ready to be set in motion in a matter of days.  

“Sorry
, Mimi, but I need to put you on ice.  I wouldn’t want you to stink up the apartment.”   

As he emptied the refrigerator, he couldn’t wait to see Selene again. 

“I’m coming, Selene, and you will never see him again.”

Selene left to head to her office as Jason woke up.  She stopped off at the coffee shop and smiled at the memory of their first meeting.  The ginger tea tasted amazing to her very sensitive stomach, but then again, everything seemed to be going great since Jason came into her life.  Selene walked to her car and started it up to head to work.  She parked in front of her building and walked to the front door.  As she punched in the code, Selene entered her office and set down her things at the reception desk.  She heard scraping from upstairs and
curiosity got the best of her, so she decided to investigate it.  The cleaning ladies were probably upstairs in her apartment for their weekly cleanup and Selene was going to just check on things.  She was interrupted by the phone ringing and she reached over her desk to answer it.

“Good morning, Selene speaking.”

Silence was the only response coming from the other end.

“Hello?”  Selene shook off the weird feeling of being watched and hung up the phone.  She sent Jason a text to let him know she was safely at work as she walked toward the hallway.  She was greeted by two moving men at the entrance. 

“Sorry Ma’am.  We’re moving some furniture in upstairs to Apartment 2D.”

“Oh yes.  I forgot.  She left me a note a few weeks ago about that.  I heard some noise and I thought it was something else.”

“Nope.  Just us.  We will try to keep it down.”

“It’s fine.  Now that I know where the noise is coming from, I’m not too worried.”

She said her goodbyes and walked back into her office. As she sat down in front of her computer, Selene picked up the phone and dialed the DA’s office.

“District Attorney’s office.”

“Melinda, it’s Selene.”

“Hello,
Sweetie.  How are you feeling?  I am so sorry about Daphne.”

“Thanks
, Melinda.  I need a favor.  I’m sending over a request for an arrest warrant and I was wondering if you would be able to push it to be signed quickly.”

“Is it Daphne’s shooter?”

Selene paused.  “I’m not positive if he was the shooter, but he was definitely the one behind it.”

“I’ll take care of it.  Do you want me to send it straight to the station or would you like it delivered to you?”

“Have an officer bring it over to me.  I have someone that would like the pleasure of arresting him.”

“Will do.  Take care of yourself,
Sweetheart.”

They hung up and Selene felt relieved.  She had kept her promise and it was only a matter of time before Lucio would be behind bars where he belonged.

Her phone chirped, reminding her it was time to head home to her fiancé.  Selene smiled ear to ear at the thought of walking down the aisle, watching Jason’s face light up as he saw her in her wedding dress.   She organized her desk with the pile of files she would need to work on the next day and started to gather her things to leave.  She heard a loud thump from upstairs again and she frowned.  It was too late in the day for the cleaning ladies to still be in her apartment and the movers left hours ago.  They had been kind enough to let her know they were done before they took off in their truck.  Selene reached for her phone and dialed the number for the cleaning company. 

“Merry Maids. How may we be of service to you?”

“Hi. I was wondering why your cleaning staff is still cleaning my apartment.  I find it unusual for them to be there this late.”

“Ma’am, what’s the address
? I will look up the information to see what’s going on.”

As Selene gave the address, more noise echoed in her office like someone was dragging furniture. 

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but the cleaning was done over a week ago in that apartment.  Our staff is not there.”

Selene ended the call and reached for her purse.  She cursed when she remembered the gun was still upstairs with whoever was there.  Selene almost panicked until she realized she had given Mimi a key to her apartment.  She dialed Mimi’s number as she started up the stairs when she heard the phone ring inside.  Selene let out the breath she was holding and turned the knob on the door. 

“Mimi, you can’t leave the door unlocked.  You don’t know who could walk in here.”  She looked around the kitchen and everything was in place.  She saw the refrigerator door open and walked toward it to close it.

“Mimi, did you forget to close the door to the fridge?”

She tried to shut the door, but it wouldn’t close.  She opened the door and screamed at what was inside.  A pair of arms reached around her, a hand clamped on her mouth forcing a rag to cover her nose and mouth. 

“Shhhhh.  Mimi’s sleeping, and you’ll be sleeping, too.” 

Selene felt a wave of dizziness and her body went limp.  Lucio’s face was the last thing she saw as she passed out in his arms.

Jason put the final touches in his spare bedroom, excited to see Selene’s face when he surprised her.   He had called his parents to tell them the good news of the engagement
, but held off on telling them about the baby just yet.  Selene was still nervous about the whole thing and wanted to wait a little longer before telling anyone. 

Jason painted the spare bedroom, adding a mural to one of the walls.  His artistic skills were starting to come in handy.  He painted a few whimsical animals and fairy tale creatures so that a boy or girl could enjoy the room.   Jason looked at the clock and it read 7pm.  Selene was late and
that wasn’t like her.  Starting to worry, he called her cell and it went straight to voicemail.  He decided to drive over and see what was holding her up.  She probably lost track of time while busy working on a case.  As he got closer to her building, there were fire trucks and police cars everywhere.

Jason ran out of his car and stopped
at the scene in front of him.  He saw her entire building in flames.  Jason prayed that she was on her way home to him until he saw her car parked in front of the building.

“SELENE!”  Jason tried to run toward the building. The captain saw him and told the officers to hold him back. “Don’t let him through.”

Jason tried to pry the officers off of him.  “Get the fuck off of me.  My fiancé is in there!”

One of the officers tried to calm Jason down.  “We don’t know if anyone is in there. Let the firefighters do their job.”  Jason frantically called Selene’s cell phone but it went straight to voicemail.  Not knowing what to do next, he called his brother Julian.

“Julian, there’s a fire at Selene’s building.  She might be in there.”

Julian showed up at the scene in a matter of minutes.  He kept reassuring Jason that she could have left the building for coffee or be on her way home. 

“Jason, let’s go home. She might be there when we get there.  You’re stressing out when she could be at home waiting for you.”

“I’m not leaving until they tell me she’s not in there.”

Julian placed a supporting hand on his shoulder.  “Fine.  We’ll stay.”

“You don’t have to stay.”

“Yes I do, Jason.  We’re brothers, remember?”

Jason couldn’t take his eyes away from the scene.  He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that his life was about to change and it wasn’t for the better.

It took almost three and a half hours for the firemen to put out the blaze that engulfed the building.  They walked into the burnt down building as Jason paced around frantically.  Julian was standing at a distance until they finally came out with what looked like a black body bag.

“Who is that?  Who is in that body bag?”

His captain walked over and said, “We’ll send this over to autopsy and I’ll call you to let you know.”

Jason screamed, “Hell No.  I’m going with you.  I want to be there for the autopsy.”

The captain tried to put his hand on Jason’s arm, but he shrugged it away.

“Jason, I don’t think it’s a good idea.  This will be a priority for the medical examiner, but you shouldn’t be there.” 

“I’m going unless you’re telling me I can’t be there.”

The captain looked over at Julian.  “Go with him and don’t let him touch anything.  He can’t compromise any evidence but he can watch the autopsy from the viewing room, against my better judgment.”

Julian nodded and Jason followed the medical examiner’s car all the way to the hospital. As he drove to the hospital, he kept calling Selene non-stop on her cell phone.

“Please, please, please. Baby, pick up the phone.”

Tossing his phone into the back seat, he punched his steering wheel in frustration.  His world was falling apart in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it. They took the body in while Jason parked his car.  He walked into the viewing area and listened to the report as the medical examiner started the autopsy after taking x-rays first.

“Female remains.”  Jason felt his heart start to break. 
Maybe it wasn’t Selene.

“Badly burnt due to fire. Unable to identify face or lift any fingerprints.  Face seems to be badly beaten with broken bones seen in the x-ray.  No teeth left to use for dental records.”

Jason rubbed his head as his eyes started to tear.  Selene should be sitting in the apartment right now, smiling at what he did for her and their baby.

The captain and other officers walked into the room, but Jason did not bother to look at them.