LOST
It’s Not Valentine’s Day Anymore

Detective Keith Valentine sat in his car at a stoplight at the intersection of North Davidson Street and Thirty-fourth Street. Beside him, in the driver’s seat, was his partner, Chris Taylor.

“You think Alderman’s dragging her feet on purpose?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think she’s the sort of officer that can be turned, but something’s not right. That, I know for sure. Of course, something’s not been right from the get-go, with that Faustini guy, somehow, turning up…” Interrupting his train of thought was a black van—big, Dodge Ram—that sped in front of them, just as their light turned green and Taylor had started to move forward through the intersection, causing him to hit the breaks hard.

“What the hell?” Taylor screamed.

Valentine looked at the driver’s face in the van’s side view mirror and the driver was looking straight back at him and grinning. Scruffy looking with a brown, corduroy golf hat. “Follow that van.”

“Why?” Taylor wondered as he continued through the light. “This intersection still has a camera. He’ll get a ticket in the mail.”

“Just do it,” Valentine ordered.

“Okay. What’s up, Val?”

“Mm. Dunno, but I’ve learned to follow my hunches and see where they take me.”

“That’s a big hunch,” Taylor said as he pulled the car around, turned onto Thirty-fourth Street and followed the van, making sure to stay back several car lengths. They trailed it for several blocks until it pulled into the parking lot of strip mall on North McDowell Street. The man in the corduroy hat parked in front of a row of shops and waited. Taylor parked their car where they could see it but stay inconspicuous. The driver got out, walked over to a gumball machine by the wall and bought a gumball. He held it up and looked at it for a second before putting it in his mouth.

“Is that guy walking funny to you?” Valentine asked.

“Yeah,” Taylor replied. “He looks like Lisa when she puts on her momma’s high heels. That’s kind of weird.”

“Weird’s one word for it.”

They watched the strange man get back in the van, moving his jaw like a cow chewing his cud. A few minutes later, a man dressed all in black came out of a shop just a couple doors down from where the van was parked. Valentine strained his eyes to see what kind of shop.

“Fantastic… Voyage… Trav—it’s a travel agency.”

The man walked to the passenger’s side of the van, which was on the opposite side as the curb. As he turned, the sun hit his face.

“Whoa. Where’s that sketch of Di Corvo?” he asked, though, not expecting an answer from Taylor, as he turned the in-dash computer toward himself and searched for the picture.

“What sketch?”

“Remember? That rookie, Stowell, heard the description from Alderman’s informant and said it sounded like a guy him and Lewis ran into at the crime scene the night that kid was attacked. Here it is,” he said as he pulled up the composite sketch. “Six foot, dark hair, sharp nose, fierce eyes. That’s him. Loo—Fierce eyes? Seriously? Whatever,” he turned the screen so Taylor could see it.

“It sure is. Call it in, man. Let’s go get him.”

“No, no, no, no. We go after him now, and he runs, we won’t have a choice but to call for backup and then, Alderman will make it look like it was all her… without even intentionally doing it. No. We follow and see where they go.”

“But the dude just came out of a travel agency. He’s going somewhere. Besides that, they probably know we’re tailing them. You think they’re going to lead us to somewhere we want to go? Maybe even into an ambush.”

Valentine sighed in frustration. “Okay. Call Kalinsky and Bryant. Tell them what’s going on. We’ll see if we can trap ’em.”

Marie and her partner, Robles, sat at the counter at Kristy’s Diner eating lunch. Robles had a BLT and Marie, a Reuben.

“The food aint too bad here,” Robels said with a mouthful of sandwich.

“Yeah, it’s all right.”

“We should hear something soon from the tech guys about Di Corvo’s hard drive. Maybe it’ll produce something.”

“Maybe.” Marie was a little discouraged having found Di Corvo’s hideout but, as of yet, not one useable clue as to his whereabouts. Her pocket vibrated with a message on her cellphone. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. “Valentine. I wonder what he’s got.” She flipped it open and read the message. “1245 Thirty-second Street. Found something. Need you to see.”

“He didn’t say what he’d found?” Robles asked as he put his sandwich down on his plate and wiped his mouth.

“No,” she replied, standing up. Her eyes were focused and her brow rigid. The muscles in her jaw rippled as she clenched her teeth. She took her jacket off the back of the chair and put it on. Both she and Robles started to pull money out of their wallets, but the waitress stopped them.

“On the house.”

“Really?” Robles asked. “Awesome. Thank you.”

“No. Thank you.”

Marie and Robles each put a dollar on the counter anyway for a tip.

“What do you think?” Robles asked as they walked out to her car. “You think he’s got something useful?”

“I don’t know,” she said with steel resolve. “I guess we’ll replace out. Something’s not right.”

“Are you okay?”

“No,” she said, getting in the driver’s seat. “Valentine would not let me in on something until afterward. According to the message, he’s at the scene.”

“Crap. You’re right. That does not sound like Val.”

On the way to the address Marie was given via text message, a call went out over the radio. “Officers down. Thirty-second Street between Yadkin and North Alexander. Officers down.” When they got there, it seemed they had arrived at what looked to be a law enforcement and emergency services circus. Yellow tape quartered off an area on the street about the size of a football field. The intersection of Yadkin and Thirty-second was closed. Two crime scene vans, three K-9 units, two fire trucks, two ambulances and six squad cars were scattered from endzone to endzone. Taylor’s car was sitting next to the curb with all four doors wide open. Neither Taylor nor Valentine were anywhere. Not alive, anyway. Kalinsky was talking to another officer who was taking notes. He had just finished as Marie and Robles walked over to him. Kalinsky’s eyes were red and glossy.

“What the hell is going on?” Marie asked. She looked into Taylor’s car from where she was standing, thirty feet away, and there they were, slumped over as two crime scene investigators took pictures and gathered evidence.

“It looks like your man, Di Corvo, killed Val and Taylor,” Kalinsky replied. “Same M.O. as the others. Claw marks around the neck. Feather calling card. I should have gotten here quicker. He called me and told me he had Di Corvo on the run. I just…” Marie rubbed his shoulder gently as he began to sob.

“Detective Alderman!” one of the crime scene investigators called from Taylor’s car. “I believe I have something for you.”

Marie walked toward her, taking in the whole scene as she went. Robles stayed with Kalinsky and tried to console him. She tried to count those who had died at the hands of Di Corvo and her mind swam with bewilderment. Faustini, Ellis, Valentine, Taylor, who knows how many others they hadn’t found. At least four bodies.

“Take a look,” the officer said, handing Marie a cellphone.

Marie looked at it and the screen was black. “What am I looking at?”

“Let me see,” the officer said, looking over Marie’s shoulder at it. “Oh, press the ‘ok’ button.”

Marie pressed the button and the screen lit up, revealing a text message yet to be sent. After she read it, her face became ash grey.

“Are you okay, Detective?”

“Yeah,” Marie replied, slowly walking backwards, back toward Robles and Kalinsky. She turned and she walked through the chaos, the message kept running through her mind. You’re messing with the wrong bird, Ms. Alderman. This matter is between me, Modeos and Xamn.

“You don’t look so good, Marie,” Robles said, concerned. “What was it?”

“I need to talk to Wiz. Can you ride with somebody?” she asked him.

“You’re going to leave me here?”

“Derek… Wiz already trusts me. We don’t have time for him to gain trust in you, too.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me. What did Crime Scene replace?”

“I’ll let you know if I replace out anything. Okay?” She began walking to her car without waiting for a reply.

“You didn’t answer my…”

The word ‘question’ hung in the air like a signal flare. So many questions left unanswered. For Marie. For Robles. For everyone.

Marie stormed into Kristy’s Diner, throwing the door open so hard, it cracked the window beside it.

“I am so sorry,” she told the waitress, whose mouth hung open in shock as she came around the counter and joined Marie in front of the window. Marie held her hand in front of her mouth. “Just let me know what the bill is to fix it and I’ll give you the money.”

“No problem, Hon. One thing’s for sure… I would not want to be whoever’s supposed to be on the receiving end of that.”

Marie chuckled in agreement. “Has Wiz been in today?”

“Uh-oh. Is he the cause of this? Haven’t seen him since the other day. He was in here with two other fellas. Some strange guy came in and talked to ’em for a minute or two. They left soon after he did. Wiz didn’t look none too happy, neither.”

“So you have no idea where he is today.”

“Sorry, Hon. I wish I could help.”

“It’s okay. Thanks, anyway. Sorry again about the window.”

“Sweetheart… that window still has a ‘D’ on it from when this was a Denny’s ten years ago. I think it’s about time it got changed out, anyhow. But if it eases your conscience to pay for it, by all means. I’m sure Charlie won’t mind.”

Marie’s cellphone vibrated in her hand. She looked at the screen. Robles. “I’ll see you later,” Marie said, leaving her business card on the counter. “Alderman,” she said as she brought the phone to her ear. “Xamn and Modeos. That is a complicated story. So, you got the Crime Scene cop to show you what she showed me? I wasn’t sure if you’d think of that. Come on. Be honest. You are not the best at looking at the most obvious option. Please don’t make me explain this right now. No. He wasn’t in the usual spot. I just missed him, actually. I don’t know. I’m going to call Alex and see… Stew’s girlfriend, Alex. Yes. I’m going to call her and see if she’s seen Wiz. I’ll call you. Hey… Is anyone going over to visit with the Valentines and Taylors tonight? At Val’s mother’s? Can you text me the address? Thanks.” She pushed the end button, brought up Alex’s number and then called her. “Alex. This is Marie. Er… Detective Alderman. Yeah. Listen… Have you seen Wiz? Yeah. It seems I always am. All right. Tell him I’m looking for him. Okay. Be careful. Bye.”

Marie stared at the clouds on the horizon, growing red in front of the setting sun. She wondered where Wiz was, what he was doing. She needed to talk to him, though she was surprised by the reason. She needed him to help her replace Di Corvo. But she also missed him. She needed to know if he was feeling the same things she was feeling. Did he miss her? Di Corvo scared her. The thought of someone being able to kill four people in a month’s time and not think twice about it, and that same someone running loose in Charlotte, scared the living hell out of her. But there was something that scared her even more than that—having strong feelings for someone who didn’t share those feelings with her.