Secrets Of The Guilty [Nanowrimo 2019]

SIX

The sun streamed in but the room was cool. Eli shivered and sat up. It took her a moment to orient herself, to separate the real from the unreal: the dreams fading away. The noise from the apartments waking up around her fuzzed her senses.

Eli found her pants and spent some time going through her closet for a shirt before padding down the steps in the loft. The rain fogged the windows, turning the sun into beams of light twinkling with the dust moving around the room. The clock on the microwave blinked at her as she pressed her coffee leaning back against the counter.

The TV she had left on, switched broadcasts. A reporter, standing outside a house in the East End, with police tap behind her, police officers moving up and down the stairs.

"... authorities say he was tortured before he was shot execution-style..."

Eli knew that house. The manicured lawn and the large front window. It was the house that belongs to Charlie Fenton. "... Charlie Fenton was released yesterday evening, after posting bail. At this time the Police Commissioner has declined to comment. He set a press conference today in the wake of the murder."

The mug slipped in her hands. Eli tightened her grip, before placing it down altogether.

"What the hell," She steps into the living room. Toes grazing the side of the carpet.

She reached down to turn the volume up coming up short before straightening. The picture screenshot of August Pontecorvo rests under the remote. The tattoo branded in her mind.

The phone buzzed angrily on the floor upstairs. Robert Bates flashes on the screen next to a long line of missed calls. She picks up the phone, shoving it into her ear and rushing to the door.

News vans covered the streets, blocking main traffic and grid locking cars. Eli slung her press pass over her head before tipping the cab driver for his efforts. Everyone worth their spit was outside waiting for the commissioner. The old city hall, grey and almost crumbling stand tall over the sea of reporters and police. The wind catching the bottom of her beige coat.

The first person she saw was Ryan leaning against the news van. Of course, he was there early, it was his story and if the rush wasn't enough to get him up this early then a paycheque was. Anderson came around the side of it stepping off the sidewalk to pull the doors open. He swung the camera over his shoulder, checking the lens.

"Party starts in five minutes." Ryan wiggles his eyebrows. He pushes himself off the van, following her taking the steps up to the second tear where the podium was set up. Eli's fingers tightened around the large black buttons at her stomach. She was jumpy, the sounds of car doors closing set her heartbeat against her ribcage.

She left the gun at home thinking it would be best to leave it behind until her keys locked the door behind her and the pit in her stomach almost upturned her coffee. The cool metal digging into her skin. Ryan slides his arm over into her space, a hash brown covered in ketchup in his hand. Offering her a piece without speaking. Eli shook her head. Anderson settled a little behind them his camera light blinking red.

The old hall doors open, setting off cameras all around them in a sea of umbrellas and gloomy wet concrete. Flanked by the Mayor and the Senator, Commissioner Flass steps up to the podium.

"Today," his deep voice rumbled through the speakers and onto everyone's TV sets at home. "Today, we have some unfortunate news that the body found by police early this morning has been identified as Charlie Fenton."

"Yes, we know." Ryan mumbled beside me.

"Mr. Fenton was released by police yesterday evening. We have reason to believe that Mr. Fenton was targeted in this attack and that it was not a random event." Alex Tanner comes around the steps taking a wide berth from the speech. He stands along the concrete wall at the far end of the steps, hands clasped in front of him. "Because of the nature of the homicide, the CCPF asks the public to remain calm and to let the police do their jobs."

Some more cameras flash as the commissioner steps away from the podium allowing questions.

"Is that all they're giving us?" Ryan scoffs, his attention focused on the questions being thrown around and deflected. But Eli wasn't here for the questions.

She swept through the faces around her. There were more than a hundred people lining the steps, each focused straight ahead, except for him. He was alone. There were others around him, but Eli remembered the solidarity quality that surrounded him. He was looking past the commissioner to the detective, just to the left of Eli's site line, then without warning, he turned his head, looked back a few rows of people and looked directly into Eli's eyes.

Her hands started to shake as they stared at each other. Then there was movement, and the press conference was over. Streams of people came between them as they left the steps.

When Eve stepped up a step to see him again, he was gone.

Eli looked back to the detective finding him in the same place despite the flurry of people. He had his elbow on a young women, a women she recognized from the command centre. Forman was speaking into the detectives ear, the bottom of her chin moving as she spoke. When she looked down, a manilla envelope was pushed into the detectives grasp. Forman walked back up the steps while Tanner walked down them, as if they hadn't spoken.

11/06/19