Nick hung up shortly after, leaving me confused and without any answers.
He said he knew who killed them. How?
I tried calling him back, but he didn't pick up.
"Vee? What are you doing here this early?" William asked, as he entered the officers' lounge, looking exhausted after his night shift. Morning light had been steaming in through the windows for a few hours already.
I gathered the files, strewn all over the table where I was sitting at, into a neat pile. Luckily my laptop was closed, otherwise he would have seen all the notes that I have been typing up for Danté.
"I couldn't sleep." I wiped at my eyes, which were stinging from not having slept a blink last night.
William put his bag on a chair, and sat down in the one opposite mine. "Having those nightmares again?" He looked worried.
I smiled, and ruffled his messy curls, hoping to keep the mood light. "No, it's okay, big bro. Don't worry."
"You're lying," he said, with a knowing side-smile.
William and I were never that close, but his eyes missed nothing when it came to me. And that was why he was the only one that knew about my nightmares. He was an older brother through and through, and sometimes even a little over-protective in his own quiet way.
"I just... Had a rough day yesterday," I said with a tired sigh.
"I..." William struggled to find words. "I know your nightmares bother you most when you're stressed, and you have been under a lot of pressure. Are they still... the same?"
I looked away, out the window, at the grey clouds gathering in the sky. I did not want to think about the nightmares. Nor did I want to think about the new ones that will accompany them.
Will must have seen the troubled look in my face, and decided to change the subject. "What are all those?"
He referred to the files in front of me.
"Oh, I was doing research on gang-related incidents," I replied.
Will frowned in a concerned way. "You're interested in the mafia?"
I nodded. "Yes. I have been for quite a while, actually. But Sergeant Marx's recent case made me want to read up more."
William's tired, bloodshot eyes studied me.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, because he made me feel uneasy.
"Vee, you should stop."
"What do you mean? Why? I'm just reading," I explained as I tapped a file, to demonstrate my point.
He couldn't know about how deep into mafia-related business I really was. He would lock me in a child-proofed room, and never let me out of his sight again.
"Interest becomes obsession," William said, looking serious. "Before you know it, you'll be in too deep to get out again."
William sounded like he talked out of experience. His words carried a heavy weight, as heavy as the load that was weighing on his broad shoulders.
"Will, you dealt with the mafia before - in your rookie days. Your first big case," I leaned on my elbows. "Could you tell me about it?"
William stayed quiet for a while, just examining my face with his eyes. "Don't tell me you're trying to do what I did? Taking on a big mafia-case to get recognized? Venus, it's not worth it." He took my hands in his, surprising me with the sudden affectionate act. "Winning Dad's attention is not worth risking your life. And that attention too is a burden in itself."
I could only stare at my older brother. He seemed desperate to keep me from following in his shoes.
Why would he not want our father's affection? William was the favorite child - he had everything I could only dream of. Father never once looked at him with disappointment. How could he refer to that as a burden?
"I-I'm not taking on a mafia case," I lied. "Something just seemed suspicious with how those young boys died, and I thought it might've been related to The Riot."
William's eyes widened when I mentioned The Riot.
"B-but I didn't find anything. So, don't worry," I said, awkwardly patting his rough, calussed hands that still held mine.
"Why did you think it had something to do with The Riot?" William sounded intrigued, but it almost seemed like he was fighting it.
"The abandoned factory where the boys were killed - I, I mean - died, is in The Riot's control."
"How did you know that it's The Riot's territory?"
I felt like a naughty child who stole cookies from the cookie jar. "I might have read some classified case files when no one was looking..."
"Venus!" William yelled. "If any of the other superiors find out what you've done, you'll be stripped of your badge!"
I covered my face with my hands. "I know, I know! I'm sorry, okay? It's just that when I heard about Sergeant Marx's case, I wanted to get my hands on as much information as possible." I sighed and removed my hands, looking dowm in dismay. "And there was no way that you would tell me anything."
William dragged his fingers through his hair. "Sergeant Marx's plan was crazy to begin with. I can't believe his superiors approved it. But you are just as crazy to want to throw yourself in harm's way like that."
"I... just wanted Father to see that I wasn't completely useless. I wanted to make him proud." My voice broke a bit, but I cleared my throat to keep myself from crying.
Will reached out to pat my head.
"I get it. Better than you might know. But believe me, Father really isn't the person you think he is." He smiled softly, revealing the dimples that you rarely saw. "It's not worth earning his trust."
It was easy for William to say that. He didn't need to grow up the way I did. Father never looked at him like he was worthless.
But the sadness in his hazel eyes told me that his heart bore many secrets.
"Thanks for looking out for me, as always. I'll be fine, and I'll find my way," I reassured him. "I wasn't allowed to participate in Sergeant Marx's case anyway."
William must have seen the disappointment that I tried so hard to hide. "There will be better ones, sis."
I nodded as I picked at the corner of a file. I knew what I was busy doing for Danté was going to earn me much more recognition. But it was just as dangerous - if not more so.
And I had to get some information out of William if I were to succeed.
"Could you just tell me a bit about your first big case? I just want to know what you went through - your experiences."
Will was reluctant to tell me about it. I know it was because that case wounded his soul. He went through many mental breakdowns and sleepless nights after that case. My father didn't know that though. I was the only one that saw him cry and wake up screaming.
So asking him to recall what he went through made me feel a bit guilty.
Finally he stared down at his hands, but his eyes looked into the past. "My unit and I worked under Lieutenant Parker. At the time he was a Sergeant, though. I looked up to him a lot, and Dad respected him a lot. That's why he let him take on the case of Jasmine Park.
Jasmine's body was found torn to literal pieces. Only her face was left untouched, as if the killer purposefully wanted her to be identified.
The body was found in the center of the city, The Inferno's turf.
An autopsy revealed that she had been brutally raped and cut by a knife," William took a breath to steady himself before continuing his story. I had to ball my fists to stop my hands from trembling.
"I knew it was The Inferno's territory, because I illegally read classified case files like you did. That also made me wiser in the fact that each gang of the mafia had a special tattoo that identified them.
I was the one to find Jasmine's tattered body with two other team members. They were too shocked to do anything and couldn't go near the body.
I was a Bellingham. I was Dad's prodigy. If I couldn't even examine a body, what kind of name would I give our father?
So I fought against the urge to run, and examined her body.
Just beneath her collarbone was a little tattoo of a devil's pitchfork."
"The Riot," I said, covering my mouth in shock.
William nodded. "Yes. And since her body was found in The Inferno's territory, it meant that she must've been killed by them."
I knew it. The Inferno were not as innocent in the gang-war. They were the ones that started everything.
"But I found it strange. In the case files that I have read, The Inferno never killed women. I actually thought of them as the most civilized gang in the mafia, as compared to The Riot or The Free. Sure, they had many counts for assault and violent acts. And they did kill. But each time it seemed to be for a reason; like someone tried to cross their boss, or a member of an opposing group hurt someone that worked for them.
The Riot and The Free seemed to kill for fun.
I told Lieutenant Parker about what I found, and he told me to not tell anyone, and that he would handle it."
What?
William furrowed his brows and crossed his arms over his chest. "He came to the conclusion that The Inferno murderered her, without investigating much. He even left out the fact that she was from The Riot, and I couldn't understand why he would do that.
An investigation was opened to investigate The Inferno, but we couldn't find anything on where their base was, or any of their members' locations.
I received a tip from someone who called from a payphone, telling me that they saw three members of The Inferno near the the theater on Diamond Street."
Why would they be there? That area was under The Free's control.
William saw my look of confusion and guessed what I was thinking even without me having to say it out loud. "That was my thought exactly. The different gang members rarely just hung out in groups as big as that in each other's territories.
But Lieutenant Parker, again, just waved it off and ordered us to arrest them immediately."
William's face was masked over by a dark cloud. It seems what came next in his story was what really messed him up.
"If only I went above his head. If only I didn't do as he ordered. If only I didn't pretend to be blind..." he violently scratches his head in frustration. The regret and guilt he held in his eyes was like a mirror to my own.
When Will's eyes locked onto mine with a fierce, desperate intensity, the air left my lungs. "My silence caused the slaughtering of countless people," he uttered.