The Eyes Tell No Lies (7 page)

Arie
could see the struggle
Cris
was going through written all over his face and wanted nothing more than to help
him through it. She placed her hand in his and guided him out of the room while whispering
encouraging words to him.

“Lunch is ready
,
everybody
,
come down.” The sound of his mother’s voice drifting up the stairs quickly snapped
him out of his pity.

He didn’t want his mother to see the pain etched on his face since he knew she would
instantly know why and become sad herself. So he sucked it up and put a smile on
his face for his mother
’
s sake. He made a point to make it to his mother’s house at least three times a week
and the other days Tate and Mark went. He wanted to make sure his mother had family
around when she wasn
’
t working.

“Everyone sit down and fill your plates
,
” Daya said as she sat down and filled her own plate.

As
Arie
slowly approached the table
,
she noticed it was filled with fish, corn, and black beans. By the time she sat
down
,
everyone else was already digging in. She was nervous she didn’t know whether to
dig in like the others or what.

Cris
nudged her as Daya said, “What are you waiting for
,
dig in.”

That was all the encouragement
Arie
needed
.
S
he didn’t want to seem rude
,
especially with the host telling her to dig in. As they ate
,
they
made small talk
and got to know each other. After lunch
,
Arie
knew Daya and Chane were married at
the age of nineteen and had Cris
and
Grace
a year late
r,
and without a doubt knew their life was complete. Mark and Tate’s parents were killed
in a house fire when they were sixteen and thirteen the s
ummer they came to live with Cris
’s family.
Cris
was doing everything he could to one day earn the title of Captain. And Daya, Tate,
Mark, and
Cris
learned
Arie
had no family left after her parents were killed
,
and that she had a bachelor’s degree in criminology but wasn’t using it at the moment.

Cris
and
Arie
left for
Arie’s
home after helping Daya with the dishes and
Arie
promising to visit again soon.

The next day, Arie and Cris sat in her father’s office with Grace’s notes spread out
across the brown wood veneer desk. Arie didn’t want to disturb her father’s chair
so she sat next to Cris on the other side of her father’s desk. Every so often, when
she lifted her head up from the notes, she would see her father sitting there taking
a business call. She felt the urge to reach out quite a few times at the image of
her father. Somehow she managed to stop herself right before she lifted her hand.

They were separating the evidence into a few piles before dividing the piles amongst
themselves. Arie was looking over evidence found on the bodies and possible victim
connections. Cris was going over suspects and autopsy reports.

Arie was developing a feel of who the killer was by looking over how the bodies were
placed at the crime scene. The more she stared at them the more she felt as though
she was getting in the head of the killer. She knew she would have more insight if
she were at the different crime scenes and could have seen it with her own eyes.
The images from the crime scenes were getting too much for her so she switched over
to the possible victims
'
connection
s
. As she was scanning through the victim connection’s piles,
one started
formulating, but she didn’t want to alert Cris too soon.

Cris was wondering how Grace got her hands on all this information that wasn’t made
public since he knew he hadn’t gave it to her. While he was scanning through the
pictures taken right before the autopsy, he noticed Grace had circled something on
each of the pictures and had them enhanced. He knew he had to get his hands on the
autopsy reports and quickly. Just as he was about to take out his phone to call his
captain, he realized he was on mandatory vacation.

“Cris, I think I got something,” Arie said and turned to him when she finished writing
down her notes.

“What?” Cris asked as he looked over and read her notes but for the life of him, he
wasn’t seeing the connections she did.

“You see all these different club names that each of the girls went to two months
before they were kidnapped? They’re actually the same pool hall. The pool hall they
were at just has different themes weekly and the club name was based on the theme
that week. That is why the names are different, they must have all went there at
a different week. Plus you have to know someone with connection there to even get
in the door,” Arie said as she looked over her notes once more.

“We need to find a way to get into that pool hall and probably tonight. It is imperative
for us get ahead of the killer. Based on his timeline, he is going to strike in the
next week or so,” Cris said as he buried his head into his hands trying to decompress
from some of the mounting pressure.

Cris was putting pressure on himself to find the person who killed his sister and
the rest of the women before the killer killed someone else. He knew he would feel
even more guilt and feel like he let Grace down even more if he let someone else get
killed before he could stop it all. It was all too much, but this was a part of being
a detective—the really hard part.

“I have an in, my best friend, Kylee, her husband actually is a bouncer for them sometimes
when they need extra cash. I can call them since they have been wanting to take me
out since the surgery. I will call them now and arrange it,” Arie said as she pulled
out her phone from the pocket of her jeans and pressed three.

Kylee had set up Arie’s phone when her parents died. So all she had to do was press
a button for the person she needed without misdialing something, which she did many
times.

“Hey, Kylee, I wanted to know if you and Jordan were free tonight?” Arie asked.

“Yes, are you finally going to let us take you out?” Kylee asked with a light squeal
in her voice.

“Sure, I was thinking about going to the Nameless pool hall after hearing so much
about it from you. I want to know what it is like,” Arie answered, trying to be as
discreet as she could about it.

“Sure, Jordan and I will pick you up since you don’t have your license,” Kylee answered,
she didn’t care where they went just as long as Arie was finally going out with her.

“That
isn’t necessary, a friend of mine is driving. Let’s say we meet there at eight-thirty,”
Arie said.

“Sure, who is this friend you are talking about?” Kylee asked in a confused voice
since she knew she was Arie’s only friend.

“You will see in an hour and a half,” Arie said with a laugh.

“Don’t forget to wear the red dress I bought you for your birthday. It’s in your
closet.” Kylee thought she should throw that in.

“Goodbye, Kylee,” Arie said right before hanging up the phone.

“We’re all set now,” Arie said as she turned toward Cris and placed her phone back
in her pocket.

“So I am going to get dressed now. I should be ready by the time you get back from
your house,” Arie said as she placed the evidence back into the files and walked over
to her father’s safe.

“I have clothes in my car. Is it okay for me to get ready here?” Cris asked as he
watched Arie take down a photo from the wall.

“Sure, there is a bathroom with a shower in it downstairs by the dining room,” Arie
said as she stuck her thumb onto the safe and breathed into a secret compartment.

Her father had the safe custom-made, only opening if either Arie or her father stuck
their thumb in the right place and blew their DNA into the secret hidden compartment.

“Thanks,” Cris said as he stood and headed to his car to get the clothes that he kept
in the trunk. As he walked to his car, he wondered what kind of safe that was that
Arie put the files into. He had never seen anything like it in all his years on the
force. It was like something
well
above his pay grade. Out of habit, he looked around Arie’s neighborhood as he opened
the trunk and pulled his bag out the car. From what he could tell, nothing was out
of the ordinary so he headed back into the house and headed straight for the downstairs
shower.

Arie walked into her room and locked it behind her, a habit she had developed over
the years so her mother wouldn’t just barge in. She pulled from her closet the red
halter, knee length dress with a tiny slit on the right side that Kylee had given
her. As she walked out of the closet, she snatched up the boots with a small heel
Kylee had gotten her last Christmas.

The wall behind her bed had stained oak wood attached to it and the rest of the walls
were an off white. She had an oval
-
shaped king sized bed with red satin sheets, her favorite color.
The
wood of her dresser matched her wall and had a huge mirror above it.

Arie jumped into a hot steamy shower and quickly washed with her favorite kiwi-strawberry
soap. She loved the smell of the kiwis and strawberries combined that she even got
the matching shampoo. As she washed her hair, she contemplated a hairstyle that would
go with her dress. By the time she got out of the shower, she had planned her hairstyle
and makeup. If it weren’t for playing dress up when she was older with Kylee, she
wouldn’t have been able to apply her makeup.

She plugged up the Instyler since you could use it even while your hair was damp since
she didn’t have time to dry her hair and style it. After she wrapped the towel around
her body, she pulled out her makeup kit Kylee had bought her when she told her about
the surgery. Kylee was more than a friend to her, she was like the older sister she
never had.

After placing the makeup kit into the sink and opening it, she dried her hair with
the towel before picking up the Instyler and quickly going over her hair. Arie made
sure to turn them when she got to the edge of her hair so it could slightly curl when
she pinned it up. Thirty minutes later, she was pinning up her hair where the curls
hung down without touching her back. She applied light foundation to her face, just
enough to even out her skin tone. Arie leaned forward as she carefully put on black
eye shadow with a red accent.

“There,” she said as she checked over her hair and face before going to slip on her
dress, then walked to her full-length mirror attached to her closet. She sighed as
she looked in the mirror, the dress was hot and fit her like a glove, but she hated
her body. Arie felt as though she had too many curves in all the wrong places. Kylee
told her all the time that she was smokin’ hot and had a body to die for, but she
didn’t believe it. Her body was one of the reasons she didn’t think she had a chance
in hell with Detective Crow. She was five foot seven and a hundred and sixty pounds,
from her oversized breasts, to her narrow waist, and she didn’t like how she had the
roundness to her curvy hips. It didn’t help her confidence when she had a jealous
mother who wanted the body she had. So she taunted Arie and made her feel bad about
herself, causing her to see what her mother led her to believe she saw and not what
everyone else saw.

Arie grabbed her purse and sighed one more time to herself; her body would look spectacular
on someone else. Not only did her mother make it a point to criticize her body shape,
she also made Arie believe her face wasn’t pretty.

*
***

Cris was in awe as Arie walked down the stairs in the hot red dress she wore that
it made him hard as his eyes roamed her sizzling body in the curve-fitting dress.
He couldn’t help it, he whistled as she descended the last stair.

“Looks like I am going to have to fight the whole pool hall to keep the guys away
from you,” Cris said as he noticed how the dress hugged her nice round ass.

Arie just rolled her eyes since she didn’t believe him. “Jordan is going to get us
in through the back so we can bring our guns in, and no I didn’t tell him we had any,”
she said when she noticed the look on his face. Arie also wanted to draw the attention
away from herself.

She mistook the look for worry, but in all actuality, he was tongue-tied as his eyes
were drawn to her lips. He just wanted to pull her close to him and kiss her until
she melted against his body. Cris settled for wrapping his hands around her shoulders
and guiding her out the door, he just had to touch her. He knew it was a mistake
as soon as he took in her scent.
Damn, if she doesn’t smell good,
Cris thought as he tried discreetly to adjust himself without Arie noticing. It didn’t
help that there was a breeze blowing her scent to him as they walked to the car.
He felt tornado Arie wreak havoc on his body. Her sent was like the aftershock of
an earthquake, shaking him to the core at the most unexpected times leaving him dazed
and confused. He never had this problem with anyone else. Just her scent, smile,
the sound of her voice, the way she got that look in her eyes when she was focusing
on something, sent him over the edge. Cris had never experienced this before, yes,
he had been attracted to other women but not like this, all he saw was their bodies.
With Arie, he saw who she was as a person and was intrigued by her. Something about
her captured all his senses, and not just the sexual ones. He had dreams of her since
the day he met her a few months back. Some were hot sensual dreams while others were
of them on their wedding day. He had chalked up the wedding dreams to him helping
Derrick with his wedding but now he didn’t know whether that was true o
r
not.

Arie didn’t know what to make out of how Cris kept looking at her when he thought
she wasn’t looking. She could clearly see the imprint his cock was making in his
black jeans and how he was walking funny. His eyes had turned darker and looked as
though they were filled with lust, greed, and hunger. She didn’t know if it was for
her, well, she couldn’t believe it was for her because who would want her when they
could have one of those stick figure models.
Stop thinking like that and focus on what you are trying to do.
A
killer
is
out there who needs to be caught.

Cris opened the car door for Arie as she slid past him. He got a whiff of her s
c
ent and it drove him crazy. He couldn’t help it
,
he had to kiss her even if it was on the cheek. He leaned down into the car, kissed
her on the cheek, and quickly retreated before he pulled her face toward him and kissed
her without a care in the world. He shut her door and made his way to the driver
side.

A fire started at her cheek from where
he
kissed her and descended to parts no one else seemed to be able to stoke. She had
never felt anything like it before and it was driving her mad, so mad that she wanted
to reach across the seat and kiss him senseless. Her ex-boyfriend she had throughout
college didn’t even stir these feelings in her.
He
was waking her body up from a deep sleep that no one else could. She wanted to feel
his hands caress her body
as
his mouth follow
ed
them
. She shook her head trying to clear it from the thoughts that were making her panties
damp with anticipation. She quickly thought about something that would take her mind
of
f
Cris and what she wanted him to do to her and thought about her ex-boyfriend, Xavier.

Xavier was everything she thought she wanted in a man. He accepted her for who she
was and was her first everything. Her first boyfriend, her first kiss, and he took
her virginity after a year and a half of dating. She thought if she held out for
a long time and he stayed with her
,
then he was the one
. How wrong she had been.
After the first time they had sex, he became possessive and thought because he took
her virginity he owned her mind and body. Xavier wanted to know where she was at
all times of the day and whom she was with, even if it was her mother and father.
It all went downhill one night a few weeks before their graduation when she forgot
to answer her phone. He showed up at her house the next morning when her parents
left. She thought he may have been watching her house because as soon as her mother
and father pulled away, he was at her door. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged
her into the living room as soon as she answered the door. What
Xavier
didn’t know was her father had her continue her boxing, Aikido, and Krav Maga. She
quickly found his weakness from her enhanced hearing and took him down. Her father
walked in just as she flipped Xavier over, causing him to land on their glass table.

“Now you see why I thought she needed some kind of defense training, even if she is
blind,” her father turned to her shocked mother then sai
d before grabbing Xavier
by the arm and dragging him out of their house.