The Nick Spinelli Romance Mystery Series

Chapter 5

Spinelli opened his mouth to defend himself but thought better of it when an image of Captain Jackson's unpleasant glare flashed through his mind. He pressed his lips together.

Spinelli stepped into Shannon's office and took a seat in the chair opposite her desk. He leaned back in the chair and stretched out his legs, making himself at home. He stared across the desk at her and wondered if she wore her hair in that "old lady" bun every day or if perhaps, she let it down at times. The dull suit she wore today reminded him of the drab suit she wore yesterday but rather than navy blue today's version came in a frumpy dark brown color. He wondered if she ever wore clothes that suited her age and petite, yet shapely, body. He imagined she might look pretty hot in one of those fitted sweater dresses gathered tightly at her waist with a big clunky belt. He further imagined her in a pair of sexy tall black boots.

He looked on as Shannon dug through the neatly stacked files on her desk. "Here it is. The Smith file," she said as she flipped the file open and drummed her fingers on her desk as she scanned the contents.

Spinelli fought the urge to reach over and place his hand over her drumming fingers.

Shannon closed the file and looked up at him. "We need to do an unannounced visit today at the home of Mike and Tiffany Smith."

"What's the story?" Spinelli asked.

"The Smiths...well they're a little...shall we say slow. They're trying to care for a three-month-old baby but it's not going very well."

"What part isn't going well?"

Shannon sucked in a deep breath then exhaled. "Well, the Smiths are in their mid-thirties but their academic level is somewhere in the neighborhood of about the fifth grade level. They've made numerous visits to the emergency room with the baby."

Spinelli frowned and quickly shifted his body forward toward Shannon's desk. "Why? What did they do to the baby?"

"Nothing, they haven't really done anything to the baby. They just don't know how to care for her. They don't even know the basics. The baby cries and they don't know what to do so they take her to the emergency room."

Spinelli flashed an accusing scowl in Shannon's direction. "Well, if they don't know how to care for a baby why is the baby still in their custody? I guess this is our great system at work, huh."

"Well, I'm sorry you don't like our system, Detective, but it's just not all that simple sometimes. Rather than debate this maybe we should just get a move on, and maybe today you can just stick to your part of the job and let me do mine. Shall we?" Shannon added as she flung her double-breasted wool coat over her shoulders, and motioned for him to leave her office.

Spinelli followed Shannon to the parking lot where they climbed into the same green minivan, they had used the day before. He drove them to the Smith home, which happened to be only a few blocks from the Washington home. He parked the vehicle and scanned the area looking for anything unusual or unsafe.

Spinelli hated this neighborhood, the neighborhood in which he grew up, the same neighborhood in which his mother sold herself on the street corner for money to buy crack. He recalled the many times she left him home alone to fend for himself for as long as he could remember until finally, at the ripe old age of thirty-two, she succeeded in killing herself by drug overdose, leaving him completely on his own at the young age of sixteen. After a couple of years pool hustling and card sharking for a living, he figured out what he should do with his life. He decided that if it was the last thing he ever did, he was going to clean up the streets of Milwaukee and make sure no children would ever have to grow up in the same environment he had. He put himself through college and took a job with the Milwaukee Police Department. Tears of rage burned behind his eyes but he wouldn't let them fall. He hadn't cried since he was six years old and he wasn't about to start now.

Spinelli turned toward Shannon and nodded. She opened the passenger door and stepped out of the van.

Shannon led the way through the decrepit old apartment building stained with grit and mold. She stopped in front of apartment 4C but didn't knock right away. She stood at the door for a moment and just listened. Spinelli could hear the faint cries of an infant. Shannon knocked on the door but no one answered. After a brief moment she knocked on the door again and again no one answered. She turned the knob and when the door opened, she stepped through and called, "Tiffany?" No one responded. The cries of the infant continued.

Spinelli followed Shannon as she walked through the living room, then the kitchen, and then into the hallway leading to the two tiny bedrooms. He pushed aside the stacks of what appeared to be bagged clothing to make a wider pathway through the cluttered hallway. He couldn't believe that people lived in such filth.

They entered the baby's room where the baby lay crying in her crib. Shannon reached for the baby and scooped her up into her arms. Spinelli watched as Shannon glanced around the room looking as if searching for something specific. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"She's soaked through. I need a diaper and a change of clothes. And I'd like to know where her parents are."

Spinelli's nose crinkled up. "Oh."

Shannon set the baby back into the crib and started undressing her as Spinelli retrieved a diaper and located a dry sleeper. Once Shannon got the baby cleaned up and in dry clothes, a blanket of silence fell over the apartment but only for a brief moment.

"What is that? Can you hear it?" Spinelli asked as he turned his head in the direction of the closet.

Shannon looked toward the closet as well.

Spinelli stepped closer to the closet and just listened for a moment. He looked back at Shannon. "Someone's in there and crying."

Spinelli opened the closet door to find Tiffany sitting on the floor, with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She rocked back and forth as she whimpered. Tears rolled down her plump rosy cheeks like a faucet fully open. He glanced back at Shannon. "Christ, I think she's having a nervous breakdown."

Shannon stepped around Spinelli to get a better look at Tiffany.

"Tiffany, are you okay?" Shannon asked but Tiffany did not respond.

Shannon handed the baby off to Spinelli giving him no choice but to take her. The second the baby hit his hands his entire body tensed up. He'd never held a baby before. He tried to position her in his arms the same way Shannon did moments earlier but it felt uncomfortable for him. Once he thought everything seemed under control, he looked down at the baby's face to find it scrunching up like a large plump raisin then all at once the corners of her little mouth began turning downward. "Uhm, Shannon...Shannon."

"What?" Shannon snapped without looking back at him.

"I think she's going to cry," and before he could get the last syllable out of his mouth the baby began to wail again.

"You need to deal with her Spinelli. There's a bigger issue for me to deal with over here," Shannon replied as she knelt in front of Tiffany. "Tiffany, what's wrong? What's the matter?" she asked as she slowly reached toward the troubled woman.

The second Shannon's hand touched Tiffany's shoulder Tiffany snapped out of her trance and lunged toward her. She tackled Shannon to the floor and struck her several times before Spinelli grabbed Tiffany by the back of her shirt and pulled her off Shannon.

Tiffany attempted to make a run for it but Spinelli held her shirt too tight and she couldn't free herself. Tiffany spun on her heel to face him, both arms flailing. He shifted his body to protect the baby from the blows. He took a blow to his jaw and shoulder before pushing Tiffany away and face first into the wall. With the baby in one arm and Tiffany secured with the other, Spinelli looked down at Shannon who lay still on the floor. A thin trail of blood led from the corner of her mouth down the side of her chin. She stared wide-eyed at the ceiling.

Spinelli opened and closed his mouth a couple of times to loosen his jaw. "Shannon, are you okay?"

Still looking a little dazed, Shannon glanced about the room. "Yeah, I guess."

"You need to get up and take the baby so I can deal with Miss Tiffany here."

"Okay."

Spinelli continued to hold Tiffany firmly to the wall. She appeared to be running out of steam. She placed the palms of her hands flat against the wall and gave one last push to free herself but Spinelli's strength overpowered her.

Spinelli watched Shannon as he waited for her to pull herself together and get up off the floor. All at once, Spinelli felt a blunt forceful blow to his right side which sent him tumbling toward the floor. He released his grip on Tiffany and shifted in an attempt to shield the baby, but in doing so he landed on top of Shannon causing her to take the full brunt of the fall. He knocked the wind right out of her. He watched as her eyes rolled back into her head and the blood drained from her already pale cheeks. She gasped for air. She appeared unable to fill her lungs. She gasped again.