When Brian finished, he didn’t realize at once what was wrong. The car wasn’t moving and the radio was silent. His gaze fell upon the young woman sitting next to him in the driver seat. Amanda was looking at him with wide-open eyes, her lower lip slightly quivering.
“I… I didn’t expect that”, she whispered.
She wanted to say “I’m sorry” but she realized that there were simply no words that could express her grief and sorrow over him and Liz nor words to ease his pain.
“He’s been beating himself up for 2 years”, she thought, “in her last words she blamed him for the thing he had been afraid of all his life”.
“I didn’t listen to her message till the end… After hearing about the kidnapping I immediately started gathering a SWAT team, ignoring the first rule any officer must know - do NOT risk the hostages!”, he banged his fist on the dashboard, “her last words were exactly about it! “Keep in mind Estela’s safety”, she said. But I got so scared for them that I lost my head!”, his voice was thick with emotion.
“Brian…”, Amanda made a movement to take his hand but he jerked back.
“I don’t need your pity!”
“I don’t pity you! And I’m not going to say that what happened wasn’t your fault. You probably have heard that thousands of times already. Moreover, I think Liz was right to blame you. But it doesn’t mean you didn’t understand your mistake. You spent the last two years agonizing over it. You buried yourself in work but it didn’t help much, right? Here’s your chance to try again”.
Amanda was aware that they still needed to talk to Mark’s uncle and Brian shouldn’t be in such a wound-up state. He will ruin everything and then clam up blaming himself again. That’s why she tried to shift his focus back to work.
“You’re wrong, work does help to distract yourself. Especially if it demands a lot of effort and time, not like yours”.
This is typical self-protection. Hurting others to alleviate or hide your own pain. At least that’s progress. Let him vent his emotions on me. He’ll come down faster. There are some benefits in having a thick skin, after all.
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****
Nathan Clark’s confession came as a bolt from the blue. Myles couldn’t believe his ears. Nocturnal Phoenix turned out to be Capiono’s minion! What an irony!
“You?! You are the mysterious killer the city is terrified of?”, he raised his eyebrows pretending to be extremely shocked and puzzled (which, in fact, he was, at least the shocked part), “you killed all these people?!”, again he pretended to care about those addicts.
“Yes, but it wasn’t my fault, I didn’t want to, I just had to protect myself!”
“Tell me everything. And calm down, for Christ’s sake!”
Professor nervously licked his lips.
“It all started when I was working on a new formula for Luis’s people. We needed to make them more resilient, strong and… you know…”
“Yes, I get it. Please, go on”, annoyed, Darrell urged him on.
“Yes, yes, of course. So I needed to test my formula on someone but Luis refused to give me some of his men saying that lab rats would be enough. I disagreed but it was out of my hands. No one defies Luis Capiano!”
While the professor mumbled, the mayor took out his phone and discreetly pressed the record button. Here was his ultimate weapon against Capianos. And it came into his hands on its own!
“...I needed to find someone who I could watch, whose results I could observe. I knew about illegal wrestling battles and I scouted there. After some time I met this guy, Mark. A former quarterback, used to take some sports drugs, that’s why they had kicked him out. He was bitter and angry at the whole world. It was easy to convince him to participate in my experiments. I promised to help him get back his career. That’s how it started”.
“So what went wrong?”
“At first my substance enhanced his abilities greatly, he began winning almost every battle. But after each victory his body got so exhausted he had to spend half a day in bed. It was unacceptable. So I decided to change some components. It helped. But then I started suspecting that his psychosomatic factors affected the results. He was always too excited, he could subconsciously make himself stronger, which retarded my research. So one day I injected him in secret, from behind. That was my fatal mistake. He shook all over, foam appeared on his lips and he lost his consciousness. I tried to wake him up but to no avail. He stopped breathing in 5 minutes after the injection. I still can’t understand what I did wrong!”, Nathan grabbed his head.
“So what did you do then?”
“I needed to get rid of the body! Thank God it happened late in the evening and there was no one in the lab! I always conduct my research alone! The fact that my formula dissolved in human’s blood was also a stroke of luck! So I took the body to the outskirts, close to the laboratory. There are some old houses, youngsters love gathering there after school. I took a big stone, put it on the ground and pushed the body, so that he hit it with his head. It would have appeared that he stumbled in the dark and fell down”.
“Quite cunning of you”, Myles remarked.
Scientist’s eyes flashed from the praise. He wasn’t sorry about Mark’s death at all. He continued:
“But then I got scared that Luis would uncover my crime, so I started panicking. I destroyed all the evidence of my research and began thinking on how to keep myself safe. Only one idea appeared in my head - I could cover up Mark’s death with some others! And to divert suspicions to a completely different direction! I created a “maniac”, a psycho who kills at Capianos’ night clubs. To make it more authentic, I painted a black phoenix in the place I injected all of them!”
Nathan looked extremely proud of himself.
“A phoenix flying out of the chasm is our city’s symbol”, Myles said, “that was indeed a genius idea, professor Clark!”
Darrell intentionally called him by his full name, so that Luis and Margaret couldn’t weasel out of this one. Especially Margaret. That bitch is as sly as a fox. Of course, this recording will not be his only leverage, he will find something else! He will! He is so close to his freedom!
“So this is my sad story, Mr. Darrell”,Nathan said pleadingly, “please, help me, sir, I will do anything you want!”
Myles was silent. His thoughts ran one after another with the speed of an express train. He could use this person’s loyalty. Yes, he’s a bit unhinged, but he could come in handy later… For now, though…
“Clark, you must stop the killings. And I will find a scapegoat”, he smirked, “I do have some candidates”. One of his army friends’ image came to his mind. Something may come out of it…
Nathan’s face brightened up.
“Really, sir? You’re bringing me back to life, this city is blessed to have such a mayor as you!”
Darrell laughed.
“Yeah, I know I’m awesome. Now go home and sit tight”.
When the door after the professor closed, Myles almost did the victory dance from his childhood.
Capianos’ reign will be over soon! Myles Darrell’s era will begin!
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****
By the time Evan’s house appeared on the horizon, Brian had completely gotten hold of himself. He couldn’t afford losing his temper while questioning a witness. Moreover, he didn’t want Amanda to fuss over him as if he were a child. He still couldn’t find the strength to apologize to her for his outburst. After all, she was the one who pushed him to tell her everything! He used to guard this secret like a Cerberus and now he so easily shared it with Amanda. How did she do it? Will she babble about it now?
“What are you going to do?”, he asked, exiting the car.
“I thought you wanted to be in charge of the interrogation”.
“It’s not what I’m talking about now and you know it”.
“You forget who you are talking to. I know how to keep secrets. It is basically my family business’s description”.
She loudly shut the door. Brian grabbed her arm.
“Do you expect me to believe you just like that?”
“You don’t have a choice. But if it makes you feel any better, you have my word that no living souls will ever find out about your secret. Not from me, at least”.
She proudly raised her head and looked into his eyes. Brian regarded her suspiciously. After some silence, he said:
“Fine. You are right. I don’t have a choice. I wish I didn’t tell you anything. Let’s get some work done”.
Amanda smiled melancholically and followed him. He has closed off again. It’s not surprising. It’s the only way he knows. But she will get through to him again somehow. She felt that he left some things unsaid. Things that weigh him down.
But I won’t grill him. He will come to me himself, I won’t force him!
For now, she needed to follow his lead. As much as Amanda hated to admit, Brian was a professional detective. He knew what he was doing even if he was messed up himself in some places.
A stocky man in a sports wear opened the door. He had brown hair with several grey strands and a penetrating gaze.
“Hello, Mr. Chilvers, we are…”
“Police guy, hello. Did you forget something last month?”, he had a low, rough voice.
Amanda’s eyes rounded up.
“How did you know we…”
“I wasn’t talking about you, young lady”, he turned back to Brian, “so what are you doing here? Do you have a warrant?”
“I don’t need a warrant to talk to you, sir. We’re not here officially. Some new details came to light but it’s too unclear to make conclusions, so we are just comparing the facts”, Brian was polite and concise.
Evan thoughtfully looked from Brian to Amanda. She noticed that Brian’s face hardened up.
“And what about her? She doesn’t look like she has anything to do with the police”.
“I’m actually…”, Amanda began, feverishly trying to compose a plausible lie. Giving up her identity would be downright foolish. She berated herself for not thinking far ahead.
Brian stepped protectively in front of her.
“She’s with me. You are right, she’s not with the police. It’s enough for you to know that I trust her and nothing you say will ever go outside your house”.
Amanda was speechless. Just a second ago he questioned her virtues and now he says he wholeheartedly trusts her! This man is made out of contradictions!
Though there is a chance he’s lying to get what he wants. But Evan isn’t stupid - he would see right through his lie, right?
“Very well. You may come in”, Evan said, stepping aside.
His house interior looked a lot like its owner - simple, laconic design, wooden furniture, an old fireplace and a dark carpet.
“No doubt made out of some poor animal’s skin”, she thought.
“Sit down”, the owner said, lowering himself in an armchair.
“Thank you, sir”.
“So to what do I owe the pleasure, officer…?”
“Davis. And this is Amanda Camedy”.
“Well then. Shoot”.
“We’re here to talk about your nephew, Mark Chilvers”.
“Ah, that one. What about it? The case is closed, it was an accident”, he made an accent on the word “accident”.
“We’re not at liberty to share the details. I hope you understand, as an ex-military”, Brian said confidently, “but I can tell you that it’s connected with Nocturnal Phoenix”.
“Oh, is it? How curious”, Evan smirked, lounging in his seat with a blase look, “do you mind if I smoke?”
“No, not at all”.
“That’s good. I would do it anyway”.
He took out a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.
“Here, your lighter”, Amanda readily gave him the rectangular object that was lying on the table. She understood Brian’s plan.
Having lit the cigarette, Evan said:
“We had a falling out with Mark after he started taking those drugs. They weren’t the dangerous ones to get hooked on but those that enhance strength and agility. It’s important in sport, you know”.
He puffed out a cloud of smoke.
“Nothing good ever comes of that. These kids end up in rehab exhausted mentally and physically. Believe me, I’ve seen enough in my time”.
He didn’t elaborate on why he was there, instead he threw back his head and closed his eyes.
“I tried to get through to him but it was futile. The only things he saw were won matches and awards. Nothing else mattered. When he had gotten kicked out, he was so enraged and depressed, I was afraid he would do something to himself. But he recovered and even found a job. About a month before his death he called me and sid that soon he would get back his career and everything would become better than it had been before. He was so excited”, Evan shook his head sadly, “I really thought it would work out. But it didn’t”.
Suddenly his face contorted in anger.
“If it wasn’t for those drugs and drug dealers, he would be alive now, don’t you see?!”, he furiously extinguished his cigarette, “they made him sell and then killed him to cover the trucks!”
“Why do you think so, sir?”, Amanda asked soothingly.
“What else should I think?! First you close the case when there are obvious signs of murder, then you come to me with the same questions! Oh, I get it now! You want to make sure I won’t talk? News flash: I won’t! I’m not an idiot to get into the thick of Capianos’ affairs!”
He was short of breath.
“Now get out! I made a mistake by inviting you here, now get out of my house!”
Brian quickly grabbed Amanda’s hand and together they wisely made a tactical retreat. Fighting a drunkard was one thing and fighting an ex-military was completely another9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZjyeWSD2cZ
