Devilish Necessity
1842 Words
‘How many years? How many moons?’
The illusions were too much for me to inhale. I couldn’t say if I was in my dreams or the realities. It was a heavy feeling to endure.
Someone was with me, I couldn’t see. The voice was like a breeze, no sound, just a tone, and the tone was saying the same thing over and over again, ‘How many years? How many moons?’
I wanted everything to be silent. I wanted that tone to fade away. I wanted to breathe the air that wasn’t heavy. I wanted everything, to be a nothing. Loneliness was always my favorite, but this time, I was begging for it. I replied shouting, ‘Now, many years. Now, many moons.’
I felt like every entity was agreeing with me, I felt like I was the messenger of denial to myself.
When I opened my eyes, it wasn’t that dream in void. It was a waterside. The ground was covered with hard rocks and crabs running here and there. I got up slowly, I needed some time to readjust my eyes to locality.
It was already morning. I tried to remember how I ended up here. Suddenly one thing struck me hard, Micah!
I started running to the shore, looking for her. She was found easily, covered with some aqua algae and river moss. The escape way wasn’t a fancy one. Maybe it was a cliff behind the mansion, that dropped us into this river. There was no current in the river, nothing to explain how we ended up here.
I bent over to check her pulse; she was alive. I had no idea how much river water she had inside her. I started to give her chest compression. Her whole-body skin looked fragile and thick, maybe due to soaking in water for so long. We spent a night unconsciously drowning in water. It was likely a miracle for both of us to be alive.
I saw two policemen strolling on the shore. I shouted from the full of my lung, ‘Help, please, help. Aiutaci. Help us, please.’
They came running towards us, ‘Siete stranieri?’
This was irritating. People shouldn’t ask ‘Are you foreigners?’ in any native language. It was an ironic insult, not helping.
But I knew enough Italian to handle this type of incompetence, ‘Parla inglese? Can you speak English?’
The bulkier one replied, ‘Ah, yes. I can speak. What are you doing here at this morning.?’
Stammering English in Italian voice was totally vague, but at least more understandable. I looked at the guy, ‘We had an accident. We were quite drunk last night. Can you tell me where are we?’
The guy showed me the river, ‘It is Canale Villoresi. Do you recognize that now?’
Unfortunately, I did. f**k! We were outside of Milan.
The cop came near me, ‘Sir, can you come with us? We need your words in writing, for our report.’
I nodded, ‘Okay, let me grab her. Do you have a car nearby? She is still unconscious, we need help.’
We carried Micah the back seat. I was still holding her hand, warming them constantly. She shouldn’t die. The blood shouldn’t be on me.
When she gained consciousness, we were in the police station. Apart from my working as a law enforcement guy for this long, I never had a good experience in police precinct outside Illinois.
She was wrapped in a thick towel, it was good for her. They offered me one too, I didn’t take one. It was awful, and I was alright.
The bulkier guy offered me some lobsters, ‘You will love them.’
I disagreed, ‘Maybe, officer. But I would be happy if you could speed up the process. I have a flight to catch on this afternoon.’
He was quite helpful, ‘Okay sir, what is your name?’
I stated, ‘Lazarus Imperia Ephron.’
He asked furthermore, ‘What is your profession?’
I sighed, ‘I am a federal agent at Illinois Bureau of Criminal Investigation. I am currently on suspension due to a possible involvement in a homicide.’
He looked at me, ‘Okay, so why did you come to Italy?’
I ignored the look, ‘I am here to visit an old friend. Her name is Lilith.’
He got a phone call, ‘I am so sorry. I'll be right back at you.’
He took the phone, ‘Ciao…. si, davanti a me…. Che cazzo!... Tienimi aggiornato.’
I couldn’t understand most of that, but hearing him yelling ‘What the f**k!’ in Italian was a rush.
He called Micah. She sat beside me.
He cleared his voice, ‘Ma’am, are you alright?’
She nodded, still shivering from the cold. He pointed at me, ‘Do you know this guy?’
She vouched, ‘Yes, Lazarus Ephron. He is a former detective in IBCI and recently in suspicion on…’
He nodded, ‘Okay ma'am, can you tell me your name?’
She cleared her voice, ‘Naomi Impela Micah.’
Naomi? That was a mouthful. But I wouldn’t disagree, that was really a great name. It would strike a chord in the ears.
He asked her, ‘Ma’am, can you tell me the reason of this visit?’
She said with a trembled voice, ‘Actually, I am the acting head of the homicidal department in Illinois Bureau of Criminal Investigation. I am in charge of a case that Ephron is plausibly involved. So I am here with him to investigate him.’
He laughed, ‘With no offence, ma'am, that is a funny way to investigate if you notify him about your investigating.’
We needed to take advices on investigating from this sloppy useless guy? That was funny, not what he said.
He continued, ‘Here we don’t trigger any alert to the accused. We just work in silence, investigate, gather evidence and drag the guy to court.’
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, ‘So how many accomplices of Fabiazzo did you drag in the court?’
He was silent, and he was pissed, ‘Well, a federal agent surely knows how to piss off somebody by stealing every data.’
I wanted to reargue on that, but I sustained myself.
He asked her, ‘Ma'am, can you remember anything from last night? About the accident or anything?’
She was constantly warming herself, ‘I am sorry, I don’t remember anything. I just remember I was having Charbonnay with Lazarus, and then everything is blank.’
He sighed. He didn’t want to talk with me, but he had to, ‘And you, mister? Can you? Or you were just drinking and forgetting about the harassment or whatever you are accused of?’
I wanted drag him on his own table and put a pen in his eyes also, but I had to keep myself shut. We were on the foreign land, and we hadn’t any important belongings nearby, ‘Sorry, officer. I too was drunk and can't remember anything right now.’
He sighed again, ‘Well then, let me just confirm about your identity, and you need to sign some papers.’
Suddenly I saw a shadow entering the precinct. The sloppy officer stood up to salute the man with the shadow. I kept my eyes fixed at the man. He was short, broad shouldered, grumpy face. But his eyes, they were like ocean, hiding some deep things. He had vibe of a predator, a sly predator.
He looked at the officer, ‘Dove sono loro?’
The officer pointed at us, ‘Questi sono gli americani.’
I wasn’t so much fluent in Italian. But the posture suggested that the man wanted to know about us. We were like refugees, or worst, American refugees.
He came to me, I could smell the distinguished fragrance from him, the smell of a disgusting cologne, ‘Hello, Mr. Ephron. I am detection Leone. Is there any inconvenience here?’
The officer left the room. I tried to indicate at that, ‘From this moment, I think there isn’t.’
He laughed, ‘Sorry for the harsh welcome. You know, we Italians have some grudges about Americans. Well, to be honest, everybody in the world does. I mean, you are the one to keep every secret about us in your database. And eventually, nobody likes his secret to be at stake.’
I agreed. Actually, that was totally true. This madness started with a precaution for terrorist acts, and eventually every privacy was in the database of interstate federal agencies. We were not the one, yet we were to blame not to protest on that.
He bent over to look at Micah, ‘Hello, young lady. Are you okay?’
He patted her; it was weird to see.
He stood up, ‘Agent Ephron, can you come with me for a second?’
I stepped up outside with him. Micah was sitting in the room.
He was walking with me. The sun outside shone brighter than usual. It was splendid to witness that.
I looked at him. The only unusual thing about him was not his vibe, but his appearance. He was wearing a pair of latex gloves.
I tried to start a conversation, ‘So, working on a case, huh?’
He looked at my stare, ‘Yeah, it would be insane if I greeted everyone with my gloves on. We found two bodies this morning. Do you want to give your thoughts?’
Working outside my jurisdiction? That was weird, ‘I think, sure, but isn’t it prohibited to include any civilian in any cases? I mean, after all I have no jurisdiction here.’
He had a smile on his face, ‘Well, I have a gut feeling that you can relate. We identified the two victims. An anthropologist, and a police officer. Bosco Quadrigo, the anthropologist, was actually a big deal in Rome. He was invited over hundred television shows till this date. And Capria Herrera, the police officer, was not so famous or noticeable. She was an ordinary ranked officer in Rho. They had no connection whatsoever, but the bodies were found together, deserted on the shore of Canale Villoresi, wrapped in a plastic bag.’
That sounded familiar, ‘So they were released in the canal after the murder.’
He took me to a van and revealed the dead bodies, ‘You tell me.’
I was horrified by the scene. It would be funny for me to be horrified to see a dead body, as I was a homicide detective before. But this, this was fate laughing at me.
The dead bodies were pale, there were several kiss marks all over the body, lips were missing from both the bodies, and missing lower halves. This was the same murders like Illinois. My nightmare climbed back at me.
Detective Leone looked at me, ‘And surprisingly one of the bodies had a piece of paper inside. Do you want to read it? Nah, let me.’
He quoted the line, ‘Don’t worry, Lazarus. Just remember, we will become two.’
I wasn’t hearing anything Leone was saying. I was lost. I was terrified. I leaned to the bodies, and started sniffing.
Bosco grabbed me from behind, ‘Mr. Ephron, you are under arrest, anything you say can and will…’
I wasn’t listening. I needed to sniff. I needed the smell. I needed the smell of rose seeds.
- Writer
