Читать книгу Ailanthus - Antonio De Vito - Страница 11

-6-

Jack Folasky was in his office attempting to fix some papers, when he saw Stacie coming in from the partially open door.

“Welcome back, Stacie. Frank was in anxiously waiting. I guess you’ve already met, so I can spare you the details.” Folasky wasn’t as fascinated as Douglas about Stacie’s investigative abilities. In addition, he didn’t have a big estimation of women. Despite everything, he was used to give everyone a chance.

“I’m here most of all to know you better and understand if there are some suspects, some traces I can start following. Prosecutor Douglas gave me free reign and I’m completely at your disposal.”

“Stacie, It’s clear to everyone that this murder preludes to something else. Because of this, all of my best men are with their eyes open in the worst streets of Flatbush neighborhoods. Unfortunately, from my experience, I think that the next victim will hardly be in that area. In the meantime, Frank and you can take any action. Keep me updated about any aspect, even apparently insignificant.” Although he doubted of Stacie’s abilities, Folasky couldn’t refuse the expertise of the District Attorney’s assistant.

“I’ll try to give my aid to the investigation. I see that this story has some totally different edges from the one I previously dealt with, but my engagement won’t be different, that’s for sure.” Stacie was lying. Surely she was scared of what was going to be. It wasn’t about a missing person but a brutal murder. The difference was obvious. Moreover, she was entering that case in the worst state of mind possible, after Sam’s death. Only a huge strength of character, united to her huge commitment to her job, could give her back full confidence in herself.

By the time Stacie got back home, it was late in the evening. The return had been definitely challenging. If only Sam was there with her, now she would have gone to bed tired but willing to go back to the Department deciding with Frank how to give the first breakthrough. Unfortunately she unavoidably dragged with her the pain from the separation with Sam, a pain that was going to accompany her over a very long period of time.

From the manholes was coming out so much steam that visibility was really reduced. As if it wasn’t enough, the street lighting seemed to work worse than usual. It was really cold and that wool coat wasn’t enough at all to shelter her. It was hard to move forward without risking to trip over something or simply catch the corner of a wall.

She was walking slowly putting her hands in front of her to make her way. She started hearing her shoes making a strange noise. She had the feeling of walking in mud. She started to have difficulties to move forward and didn’t understand what was over the shroud of mist. A few more steps and just a little more light showed her the most horrible scene in which she really was. She was walking in a gigantic blood pool that went from one side to the other of the street. At least a centimeter of smoky liquid blood was covering the asphalt that she was hurrying so hard to traverse. She managed not to vomit and walked another couple meters until she turned the corner to understand where was that stuff coming from. She saw a black car with the motor off and the lights still on. From the driver’s window she could see a shadow. She forced herself to move forward in that terrible situation. The stink was so strong to get into the brain. She could feel the smell of blood inside her.

When she was two steps from the car, she stretched out a hand towards the shadow. A street-lamp lighted again in that very moment and lighted up what was Sam’s face with the throat torn apart so that he had lost river of blood, that same blood that was rinsing down the whole street. Stacie didn’t ‘t hold back a scream, although her hands were on her mouth. Then she backed off of a few steps but she fell disastrously on the ground swallowed by mist and blood.

In that very moment, Stacie opened her eyes and found herself on the floor next to the couch of her apartment swallowed by blankets. She took a few minutes to get over the state of panic which she had drowned in. Another nightmare. She burst into tears and stayed sit there for a while before deciding that having a shower was the only way to get that discomfort away. So she did.