Written in 58 minutes. SEE YOU TONIGHT *cackles*

---

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Miller & Davis: Lobby

Elizabeth shook out her umbrella before wrapping it up and shoving it in her purse. “I don’t remember the last time it rained like this,” she told Jason, whose hair was still a little damp. “I’m so sick of gray skies and puddles.”

“It’s supposed to clear up in another day—” Jason started but stopped when Spinelli came out of his office. “Hey. We’re late, sorry—”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t—” Spinelli made a face, shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t really have a lot to to tell you. Not bad news,” he added. “It’s just a lot of data to go through, and you know — it’s never the first file you open.”

“No, we’d never get that lucky,” Elizabeth said with a weak smile. She took a deep breath. “But you still think something will be found with everything you got?”

“The security footage has to give us something, and don’t forget, we’re about to have a list of every single time you opened that trunk between the murder and the time your car was seized,” Spinelli reminded her. “You said you didn’t even remember opening it at all — so it should be one trunk pop — we line that up with your schedule, and security footage from the neighborhood or the hospital, and we prove it’s not you.”

“And with any luck, prove who it was,” Jason added.

“Seems so easy, doesn’t it?” Elizabeth said. “But you’re right. I’m just ready for this to be over.” She saw Diane heading down the hallway towards them. “But now we get to talk about my bail being revoked next week—so—I hope you find it fast.”

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Sonny’s Office

“I don’t know what was so important I had to rush over here,” Alexis said, with a huff. She tossed her briefcase on the chair, then turned to face Sonny as he closed the door behind her. “You said it was an emergency, and I have to remind you — I’m not technically your lawyer—”

“But you are Kristina’s,” Sonny said, and Alexis closed her eyes. “You’re don’t seem surprised by that.”

“No.  I’ve been dreading this since I spoke to Sam this morning. Has Kristina talked to you? Do you know what she did?”

“That would depend on what we’re talking about,” Sonny said. He went behind his desk, but remained standing. “Do you know the whole story?”

Alexis furrowed her brows. “Are we not talking about the same thing? You know I don’t like riddles.”

“Let’s start with this. Dante just left here. He’s convinced Kristina sent an email that tipped off the U.S. Attorney’s office about Rocco and Danny’s incident with the official report leaving out that the boys were picked up in front of Elizabeth’s house. With Aiden.”

“Oh, God. Dante knows? This is a disaster.” Alexis sat down for a moment, then jumped back up. “What did he say? What does he want to do?”

“He’s been suspended because Anna thinks he abused his power to change the report — so he’s a little pissed off. Not to mention — Kristina didn’t think it through. She’s made it so that Danny and Rocco’s names are on the federal record for drinking and smoking weed.”

“And everyone thinks Sam did it,” Alexis muttered. She sank back down, rubbed her temple with one hand. “I accused her, Dante went after her — Jason came after her last night, and Danny was in court when it happened, so of course, he believes his mother did it after all the ridiculous things Sam has done lately—this is a nightmare, Sonny. Because while I am now convinced Kristina actually sent the email, I’m not sure I can persuade Jason or Diane that Sam wasn’t involved in some way.”  She looked at him. “Kristina wouldn’t have done it if Sam hadn’t been filling her head with all the ways Elizabeth destroyed her life—she’s got no reason to go after her—”

“I…wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Sonny said. Alexis frowned, straightened in the chair. “I’ve been avoiding it — trying to come up with anything that explains what I know in a different way —”

“Sonny, what are you talking about? Kristina was obviously trying to help Sam. I’m the one that gave her the damn idea. I told her Diane was worried about Elizabeth’s bail—”

“The gun that killed John Cates matches one that’s missing from my safe.”

Alexis closed her mouth, her eyes widening. “The gun—” She held up a hand. “Wait a second. Wait.”

“I thought it was one of my guys, and framing Jason makes sense — he’s still seen as an informant with my people — but Kristina screwing with Elizabeth’s bail?” Sonny leaned forward. “Her phone went missing right after that bullshit tip was sent to the Feds. She was furious with Cates—”

“That doesn’t mean she killed anyone! Oh my God, Sonny, can  you hear yourself right now—” Alexis got up, turned away, dragging her hands through her hair, squeezing her eyes shut. Then she turned back, looked at him. “The day before that damn gun was found — the FBI came back around. Asking about our alibis.”

“They couldn’t do anything with Jason — his alibi was tight. So they did their second round of statements,” Sonny said nodding. “I remember. Kristina—” He sighed. “She was angry. She didn’t have an alibi. Oh, man.” He sat down, looking every inch of his years. “She did this, didn’t she? She killed an FBI agent, and then decided to frame Elizabeth.”

Davis & Miller: Diane’s Office

“I don’t know how we avoid any of the boys taking the stand,” Diane said with a shake of her head. “I understand neither of you want that. I don’t want it either. We can try to have the hearing sealed—”

“I just don’t — I don’t want Danny to get up in court and have to talk about any of this,” Elizabeth said. “Testifying is terrifying, and he was so upset yesterday—” She looked at Jason and he reached for her hand, squeezing it.

“He blames himself for all of this. We’ve tried to talk to him about it, and I know he realizes that we don’t blame him, but I’m not sure it makes a difference,” Jason said. “Elizabeth’s freedom comes first, but—”

“Then we need to reframe this for Danny. Yes, he made a terrible and stupid decision that night. A decision that he, Aiden, and Rocco had been making for months. But he has a chance to help Elizabeth stay free,” Diane told them. “That might even be empowering for him—”

“I’m not agreeing to it until we have a chance to talk to his doctor,” Elizabeth said. “I’m trying to get in to see Fletcher this week,” she told Jason. “But his schedule is so filled — he only took Danny as a favor to me.” She looked at Diane. “You can call everyone else. Dante, Sam, me, Jason, Dex — I don’t care. But the boys are off limits—”

“Elizabeth—” Jason began at the same time Diane scowled and said, “Nothing is off limits—”

But they were both cut off when there was a knock on the door, and Spinelli opened. “Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt—”

“Did you find something?” Elizabeth demanded, getting to her feet. “Tell me you found something that makes this entire conversation useless—”

“I—” Spinelli looked at Diane, took a deep breath. “Okay—”

“Wait—” Diane held out a hand. “Spinelli, let’s go have a conversation in your office.”

“What?” Elizabeth frowned. “Why? What’s going on?” She looked at his lawyer. “Diane? What’s going on that he can’t say in front of both of us?”

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Street

Dante flicked on the windshield wipers — the rain had picked up again and was now coming do so fast that the wipers were going at full speed. The dashboard screen lit up with an incoming call — Chase.

Dante tapped the button to answer it. “Hey. Tell me you got something.”

“Sam’s here. She just went in the house.”

Dante grimaced. “Damn it. They’re going to circle the wagons, aren’t they? Alexis has been in with Sonny for almost twenty minutes. Kristina’s gonna find a way to make Sam feel like this was Elizabeth’s fault or some bullshit, and Sam will eat it up. She was already halfway there when I talked to her last night.”

“You don’t think Sam is pissed that she’s getting the blame?”

“She is. But Sam thinks her sisters are her responsibility. She’s been covering up Kristina’s messes for years. She’ll blame everyone but Kristina—” Dante shook his head. “No. I’ll get someone to cover me here, but I need to be in that house. I need to get in the middle—Call someone to take over here. I’m heading your way.”

He put the car in reverse so he could back out of the spot, and started to edge out into the road — but then a car pulled in front, turned sideways so that no one could get around him. A familiar one.

“Goddamn it, what the hell is she doing here?”

“Dante? What’s going on?”

“Anna,” Dante bit out. “I’ll call you back.” He turned off the engine, and got out into the rain to confront the commissioner.

Davis & Miller: Diane’s Office

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jason said, getting to his feet. “If you’ve got something, Diane represents us both—”

“Jason, I’m asking you to trust me,” Diane said, also rising. “Spinelli and I are handling this very carefully—”

“Handling what?” Elizabeth wanted to know. “Do you have a suspect or something else?” she looked from her lawyer to the investigator, then back to Diane. “Whatever it is, we can handle it. And we’re obviously not going to tell anyone.”

“It’s not just—” Diane started, but Spinelli interrupted her.

“I think it’s time, Diane. We wanted to have enough—” Spinelli held up the paper in his hand. “It’s not enough to act on, but it’s enough for me. And besides — Stone Cold needs to know this.”

Diane sighed, took her seat. “All right. All right. What do you have?”

“The email trace came through from the Feds. We know who emailed Reynolds,” Spinelli said. “The IP address led them to an account that’s paid for by Sonny.”

“Sonny?” Jason’s frown deepened, and he exchanged a mystified look with Elizabeth. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s where the Feds would have had to stop looking — without a way to look at the account,” Spinelli said slowly, “they can’t pin it to a device yet. But I can. Not officially. Not yet. But I can tell you because I set up this computer as a favor last spring and I had to connect it to Sonny’s security. That’s why he pays for the internet.” He paused. “It’s Kristina’s. Kristina sent the email.”

Davis House: Living Room

Water dripped down from Sam’s soaked sweater and jeans, puddling on the wooden floor beneath her as she stood on the landing, her hands curled into fists. There was something obscene, she thought, finding Kristina sitting in front of a warm fire, curled up on their mother’s sofa like she didn’t have a care in the world.

Because she didn’t, did she? No matter what happened to Kristina, there was always someone right behind her, picking her up.

Always.

Kristina looked up, startled at Sam’s sudden entrance, and her eyes went wide. She set down the phone in her hand and got to her feet. “Sam. Hey. I was, uh, waiting for Mom.”

“Yeah, I bet you were.” Sam came down the two steps into the living room, the water trail following her. “Going to make this her problem, aren’t you? Just like you made it mine.”

“I—” Kristina closed her mouth, took a deep breath. “Dante already talked to me, so I know you guys think I did—I know you think what happened in court yesterday is my fault, but I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t hurt Danny like that—”

“Shut up,” Sam said, and Kristina closed her mouth, startled. “Don’t. You don’t get to ever say my son’s name again. Do you understand me? Not after what you did to him.”

“Sam—I know you’re angry, and I understand that you and Dante need to blame someone—” Kristina came towards her, her hands held out — liking she was talking to a wild or feral animal.

“Don’t—don’t—lie to me. I held your hand at every step after that baby—after Irene died,” Sam said, and Kristina’s nostrils flared at the use of the baby’s legal name. “I told Molly to have patience, to give you space, after everything you were planning to do to her, to TJ—I took your side. And you repaid me by destroying my life.”

Kristina scowled. “Destroying your life? Please, Sam. You barely have a life left to destroy. Everyone immediately knew you did it, and now you’re trying to shove the blame off me like I’m the one who came up with the idea. I only did what you wanted me to do.”

Sam went still, and the rage drained from her body suddenly, leaving nothing but ice. “So that’s the plan. You’re going to tell everyone I made you do it.”

“And they’ll believe me, won’t they, Sam?” Kristina tipped her head, a slow smile curving on her face. “They want to blame you already. Everyone knows how insane you are about Elizabeth. They want to give me a reason for doing it. We did it together —” Her voice changed, hitched. “We did it together, S-Sam, I w-was just so scared what would happen if you didn’t get Danny back. I was so scared of what you’d do to yourself. I’m so sorry. I was just trying to help.” Kristina’s smile deepened. “What do you think, Sam? Who are they going to believe?”

← Flash Fiction: You’re Not Sorry – Part 94 |