Chapter
3: Expanding the Team
“What is
it, Billie?” Van asked as he entered her clear plastic walled office in the
middle of the Candy Store.
Billie didn’t look up from her computer screen as she motioned for him and Deaq to step inside and sit down. “I think I have some good news,” she said finally, looking up at them with bright blue eyes.
“Good
news would be if you found out where Gallo was getting his goods,” Van mumbled
as he slumped down into one of the chairs in front of her desk.
“There
might be a new member added to our little team within the next week with more
information on Tommy Gallo than both of you have come up with in the last six
weeks,” Billie answered as she pointed to the wall screen behind him where a
police profile of an attractive woman with dark brown hair and green eyes was
displayed.
“Who’s
she?” Deaq asked, a little lost in thought as he tried to put a name to the
face. He had seen her somewhere before, just where he didn’t remember.
“Detective
Sara Pezzini, NYPD homicide. She just asked for a temporary transfer to a new
location. Her background is quite interesting, if I might say so myself. Mother
died when she was a baby, father murdered at the age of six. Joined the force
when she was twenty-two, has been working homicide ever since with her partner,
Daniel Woo. She’s worked several undercover ops, including one involving our
man, Tommy Gallo. She’s an asset, boys. Be thankful that she asked for a
transfer,” Billie explained as she stared down at the file on her desk while
Van and Deaq stared at the wall screen.
“So, why
did she ask for a transfer?” Van questioned, a little suspicious of the
circumstances surrounding their new recruit.
“Doesn’t
say. If anything, it was probably because Bruno Dante was her captain,” Billie
snickered. Under her breath, she added, “Ass hole.”
“It says
here she has a record of disobedience,” Van pointed out as he continued to
read Sara’s profile.
“Big
shit, I deal with you everyday.” That shut Van up for good. He merely glared
at her as he stood up and walked out of her office.
“When is
she gonna be here?” Deaq asked, letting Van leave without following. Sara was
really nagging at his insides. He had to know where he had seen her before, and
he wouldn’t find that out until she arrived.
“Today is Tuesday, so I’m guessing Friday, at the earliest,” Billie speculated. Deaq nodded as he stood up and walked out of the office, heading towards the basketball court where Van was working off some steam.
“I
don’t like this one bit,” Van said, taking a half court shot as Deaq walked
up beside him.
“Hey, if
she can help us crack this case, I’ll be glad to have her around,” Deaq
replied. “Besides, she’ll probably only be here for a little while
anyway.”
*~*~*
“LA?”
Danny asked as Sara stepped back into the office she shared with him and told
him the news. “They’re transferring you to LA to work on the Gallo case?”
“Yeah,
pretty nice, huh? I think that’s about as far away as I can get from Jake
McCarty. Too bad I’m not heading for
“Do you
know who your new partner is?” Danny continued to question as he sat down
across from her.
“Actually,
I have two. Donovan Ray and Deaqon Hayes. Oh, here’s the best part, my CO is
Billie Chambers, who just happens to be the lieutenant behind the famed ‘Candy
Store,’” Sara answered in a tone that could be mildly put as excited.
“You’re
working at the Candy Store, the one with all the seized goods worth a small
fortune? Oh Pez, you suck!” Danny whined. “But I guess that means you’re
not allowed to reveal your true identity. You know the hype that surrounds this
operation, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I
know all too well. I’ll be so deep undercover I won’t even carry a badge.
I’m not allowed to break cover. But Gallo knows me too well, so I need a cover
story, which hopefully Billie Chambers has already set up for me. Otherwise,
this is just going to be a walk down
“When do
you leave?”
“Dante
just has to finalize a few more things and I’m gone by the end of the morning.
I’ll probably be packing all of tonight, then leave tomorrow afternoon, unless
Dante says otherwise. I’d better go say goodbye to Vicky before she gets
pissed at me for leaving her high and dry about the situation.”
Sara left
the office once again, this time heading downstairs to the morgue where her good
friend, Vicky Po, worked as the coroner. As she pulled open the door to her
office, Sara discovered that she was actually sitting at her desk doing
paperwork instead of picking through a dead body as she usually found her doing.
‘Must by a slow day everywhere,’ Sara thought as she walked in and said,
“Hey, Vic. You busy?”
“Nope,
just finishing up some work that I’ve been putting off for a little while
now,” Vicky replied. She stood from her rustic metal desk to stretch her arms
and legs. It had been a while since she had been up to move around even for the
shortest amount of time. “So, what’s up?”
“Quite a
lot,” Sara answered as she took a seat beside the desk. “There’s something
I need to tell you.”
“What?”
The tone in Vicky’s voice was foreboding, like she knew something was wrong
and was waiting to hear it from Sara.
“I think
you might want to sit down,” she said, then told Vicky the whole story from
what happened with Jake the night before to her decision.
“Oh, my
God! You’re leaving for LA tomorrow?” Vicky asked in disbelief. She didn’t
want to accept the fact that her one good friend was leaving her for such a long
time.
“Basically,”
Sara answered. “Look, I had to do it. I can’t stand to be around Jake any
longer. He was already annoying, now I just don’t want to be in the same room
with him,” she tried to explain. “I can’t look him in the face, Vicky. He
found my weakness, and if he tells anyone, I don’t think I’d be able to show
my face around here any longer. It would be so much better if I just transferred
until everything settled down and then come back.”
“This is
the first time I’ve ever seen Sara Pezzini back away from anyone, or anything
for that matter,” Vicky said as if she were in a daze.
“I’m
not backing away,” Sara sternly denied. “I’m just trying to diffuse the
situation in the easiest way possible.” Vicky just shook her head. “What?
This is already too much for me. I have to get away.”
“Okay,
Pez. I believe you. I just hope you’re not making a bigger mistake by not
facing this problem head on,” Vicky answered. “Now go before Dante gets
pissed at both of us for spending nearly two hours down here doing everything
but work.”
Sara stood
up, a bit angry and shaken by what Vicky was saying. And the fact that she was
actually shooing her out of her office worried her. Was she that upset that Sara
didn’t want to deal with her problem like she usually dealt with others? Or
was it the fact that Vicky thought she was abandoning her? Sara didn’t bother
to ask. She left quietly and headed back up to her office were Danny was still
working on paperwork.
“Still
slow?” Sara questioned as she sat down at her desk. He nodded. “Has Dante
come looking for me?”
“Yeah,
he was just in here. I told him you’d be back in a minute an hour ago. He’s
been on my ass ever since,” Danny replied. “You’d better go see him. I
think he’s ready to throw you out.”
“Alright,”
Sara said as she gathered her wits.
“Good
luck,” he added, seeing that she was a bit nervous by the confrontation.
“Thanks,”
she replied, forcing the smile on her face as she walked out of her office and
headed down the hall to his. Dante was sitting at his desk, talking on the phone
when Sara entered. She stood there, waiting from him to finish. He quickly hung
up and stared up at her.
“You’re
off my payroll, pack up and leave. I don’t want to see you in this precinct
until you finish the assignment, got it?” Dante growled, but the pleasure
still apparent in his voice. He had wanted to do this for a very long time, she
could tell.
“Got
it,” Sara answered.
“Chambers
wants you in LA by Friday. Don’t bring anything that’s not necessary.
She’ll provide you with everything you need while you’re out there,” he
added, the contempt clear in his voice now. Sara could tell that Dante hated the
fact that she was being so well taken care of, so she reveled in it for as long
as she could, then stepped out of his office to grab her stuff and leave.
As she
made her way towards her Buell, the amulet on her bracelet swirled to life.
‘Damn it,” Sara thought, looking down at it to make sure she wasn’t in
danger. She knew it as the Witchblade, a powerful and mythical weapon reputed to
be worn by such women as Cleopatra and Joan of Arc resembled a strikingly beautiful
bracelet until its wielder or the weapon changed its state into a medieval
weapon. Now it had
chosen her as the next wielder. The Witchblade had leapt onto Sara’s wrist
during a police altercation at the
Its
previous owner was Kenneth Irons, the cold blooded business tycoon who, only
months earlier, after trying to fight Sara to gain it back, sacrificed himself
on the Blade. The memory still haunted Sara, but she had no time to think about
it now. She stared down at the amulet in the center of the beautiful bracelet to
see it swirled warm shades of red, indicating that someone she knew was
approaching, some she should have been able to trust. Sara knew who it was that
she sensed, but didn’t dare look around to see if she could spot him as he
moved in and out of the shadows around the precinct. It was one of the many
reasons that she hated him and feared him. That and the fact that he had been
Irons’ pet assassin, someone he had molded into the job almost too well.
Sara got on her motorcycle and sped away from the precinct, her thoughts focused on getting home before he realized where she was going. But he knew her too well, and was hot on her tail minutes later.