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“A Mother’s Tale”


~Chapter Sixteen- Sweet Tough Words

He drops the sheet of paper on the table in surprise at the story Jasmine went on to explain. “Ok…ok…let me get this straight. Your daughter Eliez wrote that all over the wall in front of you and did you ask her about it?” Kevin raises his eyes brows, his gaze focused on the little girl playing with the open toy chest on the floor near the chaise.

“I know its beyond odd! To think she managed to write that just scared the living daylights out of me. I don’t know what to do with her. I know she needs to talk about things and when I try she becomes closed off or just becomes silent.” Jasmine lets out her burdens, glad to have made the appointment with the doctor as she goes on to tell him about the issue.

“Let me talk with Eliez and see if she wants to share anything with me.” Kevin languidly strolls over to the child kneeling besides her. “Eliez sweetie, can we talk?”

Eliez snaps her head up gulping as she frowns. “I’m good. I no trouble.” She pouts fearing she was involved in some trouble.

“Oh no no, you’re not in trouble. I want to know how you are. You ok?” Kevin looks at her, softening his expression in hopes she was willing to share today.

Eliez smiles, tilting her head as she gives him a quick nod: her little hands crawl over to a lego piece snapping a red piece with a green one.

Clearing his throat, he maintains his gaze on her as she quietly puts together the small colorful lego pieces to create a strange what seemed like a face.

Kevin softly smiles, looking down at the legos. “Your daughter is quite creative. In fact, she seems like a little genius to make this.”

“What did she make?” Jasmine examines the red and green pieces as she gasps. Her lips contort into horror as she keeps her gaze on the lego shaped face.

Gulping, Kevin looks over at the woman trying to understand, “Mrs. Carter what is it?”

“Oh God…that’s my son! She made my baby!” Jasmine cries out, shaking her head rapidly at the sight.

Kevin looks over at the child in confusion and raises his eyebrows as she sits on her backside, her little legs sprawled out on the lush midnight carpet before her. He nervously reaches over for a pad of paper to take down notes as Eliez hums softly building a little tower quietly lost in her own world.

Jasmine holds back a sob, her light eyes frozen on Nick’s profile. “My baby…my baby…” She chokes out quietly, blinking back tears as she sits back in the chair astonished.

Kevin eyes both of them and frowns realizing the mother and child had a long way of healing before they can move on in their lives.
~*~

His eyes scroll over the tidy apartment, picking up a small mantle frame in his hands. He wanted to understand who the victim was and hopefully hide some clues that can lead to the reason for the young man’s death on the roadside. He spots a crate fill of folders and drawings. “Can you hand me that?”

Damien blinks and rolls his eyes, kicking the crate over to the officer. Howie frowns and quickly stops the crate from crashing into him with his foot. He eyes the young man walking around idly in the apartment as if almost annoyed or bothered he was offered to come.

“There seems to be a lot of pictures of his friends and family but none of them of just him. In fact there are no pictures of him at all.” Howie raises his eyebrows.

Damien smirks and pulls out his wallet pulling out a photo of a blonde haired man with piercing blue eyes. The man in the photo seemed to fit the description perfectly.

“Wow…that’s Nick huh?” Howie looks over the photo. “Can I keep this picture? I’ll need it for later.”

“Yeah sure…do whatever you want with it.” Damien shrugs, leaning on the window sill.

“Thanks. So he had a close relationship with his girlfriend correct?”

Damien smiles, “He sure did…that is…until he cheated on her.”

Howie shakes his head: “Oh…look kid if you know something fill me in ok?”

Damien towers over the man smiling: “If something pops up, I’ll make you’ll be the first to know.”

Howie nods and eyes the photo quickly tucking it into his pocket: “Thanks…why do you have the only picture just out of curiosity?”

“There’s tons of them man. Right over here.” Damien pulls out a thick green photo album to hand it over to the officer. “You can look through it all. It’s some basic photos. He was going into modeling but changed that fast when he got a scholarship for music.” Damien calmly states, strolling over to a wooden chair to push it against the small kitchen table.

Howie quickly walks through the apartment, pulling out his camera to snap a few photos of the rooms and what once existed within the confinements of the apartment. “Alright then. I got all I needed. Thanks for taking me here, I was beginning to wonder if the man had an actual place he lived at. Like you would be lying to me or something heh.”

Damien smiles: “Well sir that would be wrong on my part to lie to an officer on duty now wouldn’t it?”

Howie nods, tucking the photo of Nick away stepping over to the entrance of the front door: “Well I’m going to head back to the station since there is new evidence now. Thank you for your time.”

Damien nods: “Yeah no problem…” He trails off looking out the window to the floors below.

Howie eyes the young man and exits, closing the door behind him. Damien sighs and smiles, wiping his hands against the sides of his jeans as his cell goes off. Quickly answering, he hears his friend’s voice on the other line.

“How was the bloody look over?” His English friend blurts out.

“Damn no hi or how you doing huh?” Damien grumbles out, plopping into a chair.

“Sorry…hi how you doing…now answer the question.” Orlando smirks leaning back against the driver’s seat.

“Jerk off…” Damien rolls eyes, “He bought it. In fact I even showed him the picture which really surprised the hell out of him.”

“Well I thought that photo might come in handy…by the way he’s back in town…”

“Oh yeah…where he at?” Damien sits up, running a hand through his dark hair.

“Behind you.” The fair headed man asks, snatching the cell out of Damien’s hand.

“Ass wipe.” Damien smirks as the young man hangs up the call.

“Is everything working out like it’s supposed to?” The man asks, pushing a crate against the wall.

“Yeah yeah…to a tee if you’re happy. I swear if I go jail for your ass I’ll make sure someone comes after you.” Damien grins, heading over to the window.

“Well good. The last I need is for anyone else to know. Just glad you’re doing everything the way its planned. I mean you got the girl and isn’t that a nice treat?” The blonde haired man asks, eyeing his friend.

“Am I complaining?” Damien smiles, grabbing his car keys heading to the door.

“Just making sure.” The man states, grabbing Damien from behind the collar of his shirt and shoving him against the wall pulling out a pistol. “Because if Mrs. Carter doesn’t stop making up these fantasy stories about me or that she knows me, I’ll come back in town and take care of business myself. I don’t like nobody to take me for a fool. She don’t know me and I don’t know her.

Damien gulps, hearing the sound of the cold clip of the gun behind him. “Relax…I got you man. You’ll be fine.”

“Yeah cause if she starts bullshitting again, I’ll kill you off first.” The man rasps out shoving Damien out of the apartment as he follows him.

Frowning, Damien turns around harshly whispering out: “Fuck you. I did everything to fake your so called death so the lady can move on. Mr. Carter told us the whole plan and made it happen. You should be happy its over now.”

Nick laughs, clapping his hands: “Ok ok…I’ll give you that. The plan is working out good. Hell, I saw the body, nice job on it. It looks like me and everything. We’re pretty lucky Carter works in the medical field and able to have access to the corpses.”

Damien annoyed, nods: “Yeah yeah. And don’t ever touch me again dude.”

“Thought you liked being touched.” Nick grins, teasing his friend.

“Not by you.” Damien tugs on his shirt heading down the stairs.

“Not a word to the cops D. Shhhh…quiet. Got that?” Nick calls out from the top of the stairwell.

“Yup…nothing to worry about man.” Damien waves his friend off, exiting the building and heads over to his car.

Nick smirks, tucking his pistol away and heads out the back exit of the building, throwing a hoodie over his head.
~*~


He holds his stomach feeling the cramps as he continues to laugh: “You didn’t like the little present we sent you boy? I thought you would have enjoyed it, seeing Nick back in town.” A.J. smirks, twirling a rubber band around his pointer finger.

Damien frowns, shifting in his seat feeling Arianna’s hand on his shoulder.

“Aw baby its not that bad. He had to come back to check out the plans were working out. I was trying to tell you last night but you had other things in mind…” She smiles sitting on his lap.

A.J. smirks, sitting across from them. “We all knew…we didn’t want to ruin the surprise for you when Nicky boy came back. You know, I can’t blame the guy for bolting out of this crazy town. I would hate to be him at the moment.”

Damien nibbles his lower lip, “Heh…yeah…”

“So where’s Makenzie today?” Arianna cuddles with Damien, eyeing the rugged man.

A.J. smiles: “Waiting for me at my place. You know she was asking me strange questions Ari…you didn’t happen to mention anything to her that could have her acting so curious now do you?”

“No. I told Damien she’s getting too curious. She’s asking to many questions. The other time you guys left me with her, she was asking me questions about Nick and me and how was it possible that if Nick was dead that I’m dating another man or something like that.”

“And you told her what we went through on that right? Cause…if she knows Ari…that would be trouble for us. And we don’t want trouble.” A.J. calmly states, leaning back against the sofa.

“I know…” She whispers out, excusing herself for a moment.

A.J. frowns narrowing his eyes at Damien: “She’s cracking…you better keep an eye on her.”

“She won’t. Don’t worry.” Damien sighs, “Its just crazy we all managed to sabotage a car to make it look like it was the accident. And the body…wow…that was pretty deep, well at least for her.”

A.J. shrugs, getting up: “I’m going to my girl, keep a look out and if you need Nick, he’s staying at the hotal Rwanda near the bay for the next two days.”

“K, cool. I got the number.”

“Good boy.” A.J. smirks seeing Arianna trudge back into the living room. “Well goldilocks, I’m heading out. You take care of my boy.”

“Not a problem. I keep him happy.” Arianna settles on the sofa, adjusting her halter top.

“I know you do…damn…” A.J. strolls his eyes over her to check her out as Damien throws a pillow at the man.

“Relax…just checking out the inventory. I got the real deal back at home. Peace. I’m out of here.” A.J. grins, strolling out of the apartment.

Arianna giggles as Damien laughs and pulls the woman out of the room.
~*~

Bethany yawns, crawling over the cool night blue sheets of her bed flopping down on her stomach. Her eyes lazily watch the late night program of Conan O’ Brian as she drums her red French painted mails on the edge of her bed.

“Thany you sleeping yet?” She hears her cousin’s voice calls out from the hallway.

“No why?” Bethany responds back, sitting up as Janelly steps into the room.

“Wanted to talk to you that’s all. You’ve been a little distracted recently. Is everything ok?” Janelly asks, sitting on the edge of the bed, her fingers entwined with the blue covers.

“Yeah I’m fine.”

“You sure? I know you’re worried about Eli.”

“I feel bad for the little girl. She’s dealing with the loss of her brother and I don’t know what to do to help her out. I mean her mom isn’t exactly all there herself you know and what’s up with that hubby of hers? He’s a little off himself.” Bethany wraps her arms around a soft black satin pillow, resting her head on it.

“He’s dealing too, I’m sure its hard for the entire family.”

“Oh I know that. Its…its maybe nothing. I’m probably just making it seem more than it is, but I think there’s more to this than we both know. Like you know, I feel like there’s a secret with friends and I’m the only one that doesn’t know.” Bethany frowns, plucking off a small lint off the pillow.

“Why do you feel that way? You seem to get along with the younger people around this community just fine.” Janelly smiles: softly running her hand through her cousin’s long dark hair.

“Oh I do. I mean especially this one girl, who’s dating one of the guys. She’s a sweetheart. And I think she feels the same way. Like her boyfriend isn’t telling her something either. But it’s probably us just over thinking about things and probably nothing.” Bethany shrugs, lying on her stomach as she mutes the television.

“Maybe. You get some rest then. I gotta get up early for work.” Janelly whispers, kissing the top of her cousin’s head, getting off the bed.

“Night.” Bethany waves as her cousin steps out of the room closing the door behind her.

Turning off the television, Bethany yawns and ties up her hair as she looks over the night stand seeing the red light on her cell. “I got voicemail?” She curiously pops open the cell listening to the voicemail left by Makenzie.

“Ummm…hey girl. I know it’s a bit late to be calling, but don’t worry just wanted to leave you a quick message. I think something is definitely going on and we don’t know it. Arianna is acting shady about things and I was questioning her yesterday and she seemed strange answering it. I mean its like she doesn’t care her boyfriend…err ex is dead. Like its not a big deal for her. I don’t know, I just thought you might like to know cause I know Eliez is acting weird too. Did you hear what she did yesterday? Roger told A.J. and he told me. The poor thing was scribbling on the walls that her brother is around or something like that. I feel so bad for her. She’s so little and she has to deal with this loss. But yeah I have to go, night.”

Bethany blinks and saves the message making sure she called the woman in the morning as she turns off the light settling down for the night sleep.
~*~

Eliez yawns cuddling against her doll as she smiles falling asleep. Jasmine watches her daughter sleeping, smiling softly as the sight of her baby girl. Going back to her master bedroom, she crawls on the bed, the room already dark as her husband lied on his back in deep sleep already. She closes her eyes and sinks herself into sleep enjoying the peace and calm that filled her. She shifts and sits up, looking over at the clock to see its three thirty already. Getting up to use the bathroom, she goes to the sink to wash her hands with warm water as the bathroom mirror fogs up before her. She looks at the mirror and scrolls with a finger her son’s name slowly: ‘Nick’ on it before frowning. Suddenly she leans her head back and crashes the mirror with her forehead sending shards of glass to spill on the white tiles, quickly breaking it.

Jasmine gasps touching her forehead as she jumps out of bed snapping her eyes open, only to see it was nightmare. Frowning, she hated these dreams that invaded her at times. She tried to understand what it all meant, she knew her son was gone and that nothing can bring him back to her, but she had that hope inside her, that maybe…just maybe he’s still out there safe from harms way. Call it a mother’s instinct, but down in her heart she knew her little boy had to be ok somehow.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**