WHISPERS IN THE DARK

Chapter Six

From the moment I woke up, I knew today was going to be a disaster. At five a.m., Naomi burst into the house, shouting, “We’ve got a hit! We’ve finally got a hit!” We all scrambled down to the meeting room to see what was going on.

In the meeting room, Naomi had pinned up a CCTV photo of the woman from the warehouse next to a government database photo. Just as my father was about to speak, Naomi jumped in.

“Her name is Heather Fitzpatrick, 27. She’s from Northern Ireland and moved to Spain two and a half years ago after escaping prison. She was sentenced to life for brutally killing her father, Noel Fitzpatrick, who was 58 when he died.”

Before Naomi could continue, Mal spoke up. “He dealt in armored cars. I was present during some of my father's deals with him. Let me make a call.”

While we waited for Mal to return, Naomi filled us in on more details about Heather. It turned out that she moved close to where a mutual friend of ours had relocated. “Isn’t Spain where Olivia moved to?” Steph asked me.

Everyone looked at me, but before I could respond, Luca chimed in. “She moved to Spain two years ago with her parents after I broke up with her,” he said, shaking his head. “Her father was a petty criminal who scammed people using his car lot as a front. He left before any debts were settled. Spain is not our territory,” Luca added, looking out the window.

After weeks of searching for leads, we had finally found a connection. “Let’s summarize what we know so far,” my father said, looking around the room.

I stood up to speak first. “We were infiltrating the decoy warehouse to find out who was stealing our assets. I didn’t find anything useful.”

I sat back down, and Malik stood up. “After our initial meeting, we discovered that the money from our recent deal with David was mixed with counterfeit cash.”

*RING* *RING* *RING*

We turned to Luca, whose phone was ringing. He pulled it from his pocket and walked toward the door. “I have to take this,” he said before leaving the room.

Once Luca was gone, we resumed our discussion. Ryan stood up next. “Naomi and I discovered that the money was packaged by Luca and given to the transport chief, Simon. He went missing for an hour, and we couldn’t account for his whereabouts.”

Ryan sat down and signaled Naomi to stand. “I traced Simon to an abandoned parking lot. When we searched it, we found Simon dead in the back of a car. We were back to square one.”

Naomi sat down and quickly added, “Oh, and there was the symbol we found.” She put it up on the screen.

Just as Naomi finished, Luca stormed back into the room, looking angry. He flung himself into a chair. “Continue the layout. I’ll add what I’ve got at the end,” he said, rubbing his head.

My father nodded, and I stood up to speak again. “Naomi’s tablet alerted us to a warehouse breach. When we arrived, we found four guards dead in one room and the head guard dead in the office. There was a phone in the head guard’s stomach that rang. When we answered, a man’s voice said, ‘He’s coming. He’s coming for us all.’ That’s also what the man said before I killed him during my solo job,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

We sat in silence for a moment before Ryan spoke again. “Naomi and I managed to pull some CCTV footage. Eight masked individuals infiltrated the warehouse during the night. We identified Heather Fitzpatrick, daughter of Noel Fitzpatrick, who killed her father and fled to Spain.”

Ryan sat down and put his arm around Naomi. We turned to Luca. “Anything you’d like to add, Luca?” my father asked.

Luca sighed and nodded. “I think I’ve found another connection, but I hope it’s just a coincidence. Olivia’s back in town.”

He paused and looked at me. “But you knew that already, didn’t you?” he said, scrunching his face and turning away.

Before Luca could continue, Naomi stood up angrily. “Luca, you need to get off your high horse. It’s really not a good look.”

“Enough. What’s the connection you found, Luca?” my father interrupted. Luca sighed and turned to me and then back to my father.

“Heather lived three streets away from Olivia in Spain. Olivia called and wants to meet tomorrow night. Her father wants back in,” Luca said, looking down.

“We’ll discuss that tomorrow,” my father said. The rest of the afternoon was spent speculating about the situation. Cole even joked that Olivia was the mastermind behind everything.

“She’s a follower, not a leader. Callie, can we talk?” Luca said, walking toward the door. I followed him to the main sitting area. He sat on the sofa and motioned for me to join him. I refused, standing with my arms crossed.

“Look, Callie, I’m sorry. I overreacted yesterday. You didn’t deserve that. But I still think he’s a random guy you don’t know,” Luca said quickly.

I walked over and sat next to him. “It’s not what you said, Luca, but how you said it. You pushed it too far and were outright nasty. Why didn’t you just talk to me?”

Luca wrapped his arms around me. “I’m really sorry, Callie,” he whispered.

We hugged for a while and talked before heading back inside. As we entered, we heard Cole shout, “You’re joking! There’s a second movie?”

We walked into the living area to find Naomi cuddled with Ryan under a blanket, Vader at their feet. Cole was in a recliner with Steph on another, and Malik was on the middle sofa. He smiled and patted the seat next to him as I approached.

I sat next to Malik, and Luca sat on the other side of me. Malik laughed as he passed by Luca. “Are you both good now?” he whispered, handing me a blanket. I nodded, and he smiled.

“We were watching 'The Hunger Games' because Cole said he’d never seen it before. Should I put on the second movie?” Naomi asked.

“Obviously! I need to see if it tops the first one,” Cole said, screeching.

We laughed and turned back to the movie. We ended up watching all three 'Hunger Games' films before heading to bed to prepare for the next day.

As we walked to our rooms, Naomi laughed. “At least we can go out tomorrow night. Don’t worry, Luca, we won’t go anywhere near where you’re going,” she winked as Ryan dragged her to her room.

At 3 a.m., the outdoor alarms went off. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my gun, and headed downstairs. I was the first one down when Olivia screamed, “Ahhhhhh, please don’t shoot, it’s me!”

Mal rushed over to me. “Callie, are you okay?” he asked, pulling me away from the soaking wet Olivia. “No, I think we need pest control. There’s a wet rat in the house,” I said, shaking my head and heading back upstairs.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

“Come in, Mal,” I laughed, wrapping myself in the covers. “Didn’t take you long to follow me, did it?” I asked as he lay down next to me.

“I’m never far from you, my love,” he said, pulling me close.

As I started drifting off to sleep, Mal said, “After you left, Cole told us pest control was on its way. He was so proud of himself.”

I laughed. “He’s something else. How did he not understand it was sarcasm?”

Once we stopped laughing, we fell asleep quickly, ready to face whatever the next day would bring.