NIP 29

“Sari.” Brad uneasily murmurs. “This is Hughes.” His dilated pupils swallow up his hazel irises. My stunned reflection is staring back at me.

“Did you say Hughes?” I stutter. Neither of us blink.

“Yes. Detective Hughes.” Brad’s straight face is as smooth as a 10 year old boy.

‘Glamourous. G.L.A.M…” Fergie is announcing a text from Lizi. Without hesitation I snatch my phone out of my back pocket.

Message 1
FROM: Lizi

Sounds great sis. I could use a twirl. C U soon.

“Wha…” My mouth agape. “See you soon. What is….why? What?” My forehead crinkles in utter confusion.

“Did you text her?” Brad harmonizes my perplexity. “Is she coming here?”

“No.” The panic launches in the tips of my toes. “I didn’t. Who is she responding to? Who is she meeting?”

The air thickens. My mouth dries up like a desert. I force myself to swallow….raw.

“What do I do???” My chest rises and lowers at a million miles per hour. My mind is racing. My emotions roll up in a ball. My phone feels like hot coal in my hand. “Should I text back? I should text back. I’m going to text back.”

“Wait.” Brad grabs my wrist. “If she is danger then texting could speed up his plans. We have to think this through. We have to consider all possibilities…”

“But..” I cut Brad, the detective, off. The sister in me needs to reach out to her right now. “She is texting me. She has her phone. She thinks we are meeting. She is on her way there. Or is she already there?” I think myself in circles. “Is she alone? What does this mean!!”

“You are onto something. Chances are she is not yet compromised.” Brad rubs his forehead. It crinkles up so tightly it looks painful. “Does her text mean anything to you?”

I reread the message. ‘I could use a twirl’. ‘Twirl.” What is she saying? Why am I not getting this? We talk code all the time. We are sisters for crying out loud. What is wrong with me! I cant give up. I lower my head and fix my eyes on the ground. Focus. Focus.

My eyes lock on the album dated 1983. Lizi would have been an infant in 1983. The same year my mother and who I thought was my father were killed…or rather murdered. Something inside me convinces me to randomly flip the album open. A picture of me and my sisters seems to be glowing. I press my lips together and fight back tears. We were just girls…happy little girls.

“Sari!” Brad startles me back to earth. “Oh shit on a shingle! Check it the fuck out!”

I follow Brad’s indignant index finger to a photo on the next page. The pictures shows the smiling faces of us girls, my mother, my father figure Evan, my aunt Clara, Detective Hughes and…oh my god. Dan Staley, Marks’ stepfather and retired public defender.

“That’s…” The wind has been knocked out of me.

“It’s Dan.” Brad whispers in revelation. “They’re dirty.”

“You mean…my mother…”

“I mean… Hughes is a dirtbag cop and Dan was a dirty lawyer. They are in this together. They took down Ed Hayes.” As Brad’s words hit the air they turn into truths.

“But why?” I stutter. “Why kill my mom and dad? And Ainslie, and Aunt Clara, and Marcy and whoever the hell else!”

“Exactly…why?” Brad taps his finger on the photo. “They framed Ed but why. And more importantly why did Ed let them?”

“The zoo!” I shout. “Oh my god. We gotta go.”

I spin in a frantic storm trying to gather the pertinent info of our search. I madly stuff photo after photo in my bag. I have been taken over by my epiphany. No time to talk we have to GO.

Brad kneels down to help. Without saying a word he follows my lead.

“Albums. Grab all the albums. Let’s go!” I hear myself and I sound hysterical like I am on the verge of hyperventilating. “Run!”

We make a mad dash out of the house. I do not even bother to stop running to lock Aunt Clara’s door. We are weighed down with all of our evidence. As we scurry through the front yard a couple of photos slip out of my bag and sail onto the grass. I stop to bend down and retrieve them. I gesture for Brad to keep running. We have 3 blocks to go and I want the car moving pronto.

Sweat gathers on my upper lip. My armpits are soaked. My hair line is dripping. This full body cool down is not because of our rapid pace but rather my spot on intuition.

The peeling out of the tires alerts me that Brad is driving right up to me. I glance up and in one Dukes of Hazard motion I leap in the car. He puts the petal to the metal and it feels like we are flying.

“The zoo?” He knowingly asks.

“Yes. The zoo.” I steadily inhale and exhale. I am so revved up and on edge I wish we were driving a Flintstone car so I could put all of my energy into this ride. “The twirl is the carousel. It’s a shared place we go to when we hit a snag in our lives. The good memories always seem to put it all in perspective.”

“My guess is this…either Hughes or Dan is behind this. They are meeting her there.” Brad never takes eyes of the road. It is almost as if he is in a trance. “We are going to catch this bastard red handed!”

“I think you are right. That photo…the one were looking at with them in it. It was taken at the zoo.” My voice is unshaken but my insides are a hot mess.