Third Eye Watch (A Serena Shaw Mystery) (11 page)

He laughed. “No one’s ever called me a witch.”

“But you see things.”

He nodded; then clarified, “Sometimes, Not all the time.”

“And can you see inside someone’s mind? Like can you see anyone around us right now? Or read my mind?

“No, no, of course not. There isn’t anyone around us right now. And no, I can’t read your mind or anything”, he knew he wasn’t being entirely truthful, but felt that he needed to keep it vague; also because he didn’t want to let on that he had scanned her mind without her knowledge. Yet. Or, perhaps never!

“So, you said only a handful people know. Who?”

He told her that she belonged to an elite group who knew his secret. Besides his parents, his siblings, and his partner, the only other people who knew were his boss, and four of his close friends, two of whom were also fellow agents in the FBI, the third an Assistant District Attorney, and the fourth, a current US Senator from Michigan.

“Senator Adams is a close friend of yours?”
“No, Senator Melanie Sanders.” He smiled seeing her stunned look. He too sometimes felt amazed that his childhood friend, the one in pigtails and who was a bigger tomboy than him, who got into every scrap imaginable, and who dragged Sam into every brawl imaginable, was now a respectable member of the United States Congress.

She watched him silently, as she processed what he had told her. 

He wondered if she was debating about sharing her secret with him now that he had shared his. Ever since he had scanned her mind without her knowledge, he had been feeling guilty about knowing her secret, while keeping his own abilities a secret from her.

But then the idea had come to him.

What if he shared his secret with Serena? Then perhaps she’d feel comfortable in sharing hers. From what he had tell, no one else knew about her abilities, which he knew had to be hard on her; he still struggled with the weight of the responsibility God had bestowed upon him, even though he had a group of people to rely on when he felt overwhelmed by the burden.

He also felt that given her own abilities, she’d keep his a secret too.

He had something else to tell her.

“Serena?”

“Uh huh.”

“I broke up with my girlfriend today.” 

Her eyes widened.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me,” he chuckled, deliberately being obtuse.

“I thought you said…wait, did you just say that you broke up with your girlfriend?” she asked, and then seeing the reply on his face, she grabbed his face and kissed him.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he tugged her ponytail gently, to raise her head so that he could look into her eyes, “before you have your way with me, you’ll need to dump your boyfriend too,” he teased her.

“You know I don’t have a boyfriend, you idiot,” she playfully pounded his chest.

He laughed, grabbing her hands, and then capturing her eyes with his, he said, “Just the thought of another man with you, hurts here.” He pressed her hands to his heart.

They stared at each other for a long moment; then Sam bent and brushed his lips against hers.

FREDRIK

That had been the turning point in their relationship. Sam’s hours were erratic and entirely dependent upon the occurrence of criminal activity, so some days he met her at the gallery during the day; other times he showed up at her apartment late at night, bringing ice cream which they fed each other while they watched television.

He told her about his cases, and she told him about her customers; her stories so wacky, that he knew she peppered them to make him laugh.

Their text log would show hundreds of texts, because they texted each other all day. Sam had laughed when Serena had told him one day that one of the biggest thanks she gave daily was for their unlimited mobile data plans.

On the weekends; Sam, an early riser, awoke Serena by leaning against her doorbell, bringing bagels and parfaits for breakfast; other times he dragged her to different restaurants around downtown, where they relaxed over a scrumptious brunch. When Serena complained that she was getting fat, he kissed her and told her she was perfect just the way she was, making Serena beam with pleasure.

Serena learned Sam was ticklish and stored that tidbit away for use when she may need to get her way. He learned first hand, when Serena screamed over a tiny spider, that she hated creepy crawly things, and teased her incessantly about her phobia.

His favorite food was pizza, he could eat pizza every day, any time of the day; hers was Crème Brule; he laughed when she told him that she rarely ate it because one serving was enough to put five pounds on her. He had backpacked across Europe during college and his favorite place in the world was Aruba; she hated backpacking; but she told Sam that someday, she hoped to travel across the globe, in luxury.

Neither of them mentioned the four-letter word beginning with L, and no promises were made or extracted. They adored each other, and it showed in the way they showered each other with affection. Their passion never went beyond kisses, and Serena thought that Sam was perhaps the last standing gentleman.

Serena had not shared her secret with him, but Sam knew it was only a matter of time before she would. He was patient, knowing that she wrestled with it every day, and had come close to disclosing it several times; changing the topic at the last minute. He couldn’t read thoughts as she could, but he had a strong intuition or third eye; something else he hadn’t shared with her.

The criminals were taking a weekend off, he had laughingly said to his partner, when on Friday, they had looked through their case files and found nothing pending.

They decided to also take the weekend off, and Audrey had left directly from work to go up North to visit her grandfather for one night; while Sam had spent all day Saturday with his family; visiting the Detroit Zoo with his parents, his siblings, and their collective brood of five. He wished he could have invited Serena but knew that would complicate things all around, so had not done so.

This morning, he arrived at her apartment early, waking her up with coffee and bagels from
Einstein Bagels
. They had talked the night before about spending the whole day indoors, doing nothing more strenuous than reading and eating.

It was late when they began prepping for dinner. Sam was making penne pasta with sautéed asparagus, broccoli, and garlic, coated in olive oil with fresh garlic bread, which Sam had run out and picked up from the corner deli. A 2008 Sterling Reserve Merlot, the bottle stood on the counter, waiting to be opened.

The penne had just gone into the boiling water, and Sam had tasked Serena with washing & prepping the vegetables, when his phone rang. He dropped an apologetic kiss on Serena’s nose and took the call in the living room.

Serena decided to sauté the broccoli and asparagus while Sam finished up, when she heard him return. When she glanced at his face, she knew it wasn’t good news and so she turned off the stove and waited for him to speak.

“That was Audrey. Thirty minutes ago, a body was found in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant in Hamtramck. The Hamtramck police notified Audrey when they found her business card shoved in his mouth; they texted a photo of his face to Audrey and she ID’d him. It was Fredrik.”

“Holy crap,” Serena exclaimed. Then her eyes widened as a sudden thought occurred to her. 

“What about Lena?”

“Audrey didn’t know. She is on her way to the crime scene and….”

“Go.” She interrupted him; then hugged him tightly; he kissed the top of her head, and then held on to her for another moment, not wanting to leave.

xxxx

She sat on the couch and watched him as he put his shoulder holster on, then covered it with a black. Then he grabbed his black dress shoes and sat down next to her. His phone signaled an incoming text; it contained location details from Audrey.

He loved his job; being a federal agent was everything he had dreamed of; the adrenaline rush when it all came together, and the high when he put bad guys away.

But today for the first time, he wished he had a day off like other ordinary people. Today had been the first full day he and Serena had planned to spend together, but they’d not even made it through dinner when duty had called.

At the door, he captured her mouth in a devouring kiss; she too clung to him.

“Aren’t you going to be late?” She pushed him away, her voice breathless. Then she added, “And Sam, text me.”

“Yes Mom,” he grinned, tugging at her hair playfully.

He waited till he heard the deadbolt click into place, and then took the stairs, too impatient to wait for the elevator to arrive.

xxxx

Sam texted Audrey that he was on his way; then he turned on the red and blue strobe and threw it on the dash and drove towards the crime scene at a breakneck speed.

He wondered who might have murdered Fredrik. Perhaps he hadn’t taken Sam’s warnings seriously and had gone poking into things that he shouldn’t have. He shook his head, saddened that a foreigner was killed in his town.

Sam had lived in a suburb of Detroit his whole life, but he’d only been to Hamtramck twice. He had read once that it was one of the most internationally diverse cities in Michigan with people from Poland, Yemen, Bangladesh, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

As an FBI agent, he also knew that Hamtramck was famous for its high crime rates, although many of the crimes there were spillovers from adjacent Detroit. Only once had he and Audrey been involved in a case in Hamtramck; it had been a homicide investigation a few years ago, where a woman, a nurse, had been stabbed when she had opened the door to her boss, a physician who lived in the suburbs and had five clinics across the Metro Detroit area.
Sam and Audrey had been involved in the trial because the man had been under federal investigation for Medicare fraud.  The physician had been arrested on the scene, but the woman had died on the way to the hospital. The trial had been short; within three days, the jury had found the man guilty of first-degree murder. Audrey and Sam had both testified at his trial.

He saw Audrey’s Suburban, parked on a side street and also noticed five cruisers just ahead, their red and blue lights flashing and illuminating the area. He noted how they complimented the blue neon lettering on the building to his left; they proclaimed the restaurant’s name as “El Mexicana Fiesta”.

He parked behind Audrey, and got out, taking in his surroundings. Audrey too stepped out of her vehicle and waited for him to approach.

“It was too good to be true,” she muttered, “but at least we got one day off.”

He grunted, his attention on the two women who stood across the street, in the red and blue lights that illuminated the area, he could clearly see their shiny skimpy tops and short, short skirts; their feet encased in tall, uncomfortable stilettos. Working girls, he told Audrey, who nodded in agreement.

A few feet away from the women, a small crowd had gathered; three men in hoodies, their ages and ethnicities indiscernible from this distance, and two women, African American, each with a baby on her hips. He let his gaze travel over them, not looking for any particular face; then continued on; Audrey keeping pace with him, knowing he was scanning the crowd to pick up clues that others would never find.

They arrived at the crime scene taped area, where one uniform stood watch while another dozen or so uniforms milled around inside.

“Special Agent Glennon,” Audrey badged the uniform.

“Let them in,” a voice called out, and they looked behind the uniform to see a man in a suit approaching them. The uniform lifted the tape to allow them inside.

“Ed Weiss,” the man introduced himself, then said, “You made good time” as he shook hands first with Audrey, then Sam. Ed Weiss was a tall, trim man of medium height; he wore a dark blue suit; and was clean-shaven and bald. His pale blue eyes blazed with keen intelligence.