A/N: I'm baaaaaack! Delving into something new, I'm enjoying these short stories I'm writing. This one has a lot of potential.
Summary: April Mendez moved to Chicago to start her dream job, but her dreams are destroyed when she witnesses a nightmare and has to in trust her life with a capable stranger. Love, laughter & adventure lies ahead for our favorite couple...
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the usual creepy ones I create. Also, this story is rated M for language, situations and for whatever other reasons stories are rated M for ;)
Persistence
April Mendez wasn't sure how she ended up here. She moved to Chicago for a great job opportunity and now it would all be over. Writing for a big city paper was always her dream, not that she was actually doing any writing at the moment she was more of a glorified secretary. She fetched coffee for the editors and checked into background information for the 'important' writers working on pieces but it was baby steps as far as she was concerned. She would have her own paper one day, or at least be upgraded to her own cubical but now that seemed like a distant dream.
She sat across from the police detectives with her hands still stained with blood, she couldn't stop looking at it. This was just inside somebodies body and now it was seeping into her skin. She was in obvious shock. She came from a small town in New Jersey that had maybe six stores and just three schools. The nearest mall was miles away but she loved it there. She loved her family and her friends but everyone pushed her off to Chicago once she was awarded this internship. And now she was ready to pack her bags and never look back. She couldn't wait to get out of this police station, call her mom and beg her to send her money so she could fly home tonight. She had already decided she was going to leave all of her stuff behind, she didn't care about the clothes, it could all be replaced.
"Ms. Mendez." The officer coughed gently trying to get her attention.
"I really want to go home." April told him in a shaky voice. "This City isn't for me."
"I understand your fears." The officer assured her. "But the description of the man you gave us seemed familiar. A US Marshall is going to come in and show you some photos and we want to see if you recognize any of the men."
"It happened so fast." April reasoned in a pleading voice.
"You witnessed someone commit a crime and it's your civic duty to assist us." The officer reminded her.
"Please." She sighed near tears. "I want to call my parents and go home."
"The man is still out there and he knows you saw him. You said you both made direct eye contact." The officer reminded her.
"You think he'll kill me?" She gasped.
"We need to figure out who we're dealing with and protecting you is our priority." The officer told her.
"You ready for me?" A tall, handsome man asked sticking his head into the room.
"Yea." The officer said standing up. "Ms. Mendez, this US Deputy Marshall Brooks, he's going to talk to you for a bit."
April eyed the man before her. If she wasn't so terrified she'd definitely be drooling. He had on a tight white shirt, a fancy Marshall badge glued to his up, jeans and he was literally covered in tattoos. His beard was a bit much but he wore it well. April shook her head subtly to knock those thoughts out of her head.
"And once I do I could go back home?" April asked desperately.
"Ok, she's all yours." The officer told the Marshall and ignoring April's question in the process.
"Hi." The man said putting on a smile. "How are you doing?"
"I want to go home." She repeated to him nervously. "I don't belong here."
"You're not in trouble." The Marshall reminded her.
"I feel like I am. I've been in this room for hours and my hands..." She trailed off holding her palms out to look at them again.
"They didn't let you wash your hands?" The Marshall frowned standing up and walking over and pulling wet wipes from the dispenser. "Here."
"I don't know why I'm still here. I told the police everything." She told him cleaning off her hands.
"I need you to repeat this story one more time and look at a few pictures for me." The Marshall said to her.
"Fine." She said to him. "I was going into my apartment and-"
"What time?" Marshall Punk interjected.
"It was after work and the bus was late..." She trailed off trying to remember. "Probably 11:30."
"Where do you work?" He asked her.
"I work at the Tribune. I'm an intern there so I do all the grunt work which meant I had to stay late tonight to clean up after the late deadline" She said shaking her head. "I'm usually home hours earlier and I wouldn't be in this situation right now."
"But you are." The Marshall said simply. "So I'm going to need you to try really hard to remember everything."
"I was walking into my apartment and Ms. Paulson's door was open on a crack. I usually check in with her on hot days like today because she's so old." April told him and he gave her a light smile. "She never leaves her door open on a crack like that so I pushed it open and all the lights were off. I walked in further and I heard this sound." She said cringing and shutting her eyes tightly.
"What sound was it?" he asked.
"It sounds like someone cutting meat at a butcher shop I guess." She said thinking about it.
"What happened after that?" He asked urging her on.
"Her bedroom light was on so I thought she fell. I made it the doorway and froze. There was this man stabbing her." April told him in utter disbelief. "I didn't make a sound, I didn't even try to stop him I was frozen."
"She was probably dead by the time you made it in there." Marshall Brooks tried to reassure her. "She was stabbed 97 times."
"I wanted to run and help her but then I thought I should turn around and run out for help." She tried to explain. "But I couldn't move at all. I couldn't scream."
"You were in shock." The Marshall reasoned. "That's understandable."
"But then he saw him. He turned his head to the left and he looked right at me. He moved off of Ms. Paulson in a flash and I don't even remember running but I did and made it into my apartment and locked the door. I heard him kicking at it. But I yelled out that I had already called the police and then the kicking stopped."
"Did you call the police?" The Marshall questioned.
"No." April confided. "It was a matter of seconds I realized what was really happening next door and getting back into my apartment. I called as I said I did."
"That saved your life." The Marshall told her. "Very smart. Now, the description of the man you gave seemed familiar so I'm going to show you some pictures and lay them out. Tell me if one of them is him."
"I know his eyes." April told him. "They were cold and angry but that's all I really saw."
"You said he had long dark hair, light skin and a tattoo on his hand." The Marshall noted reading over her original statement
"Oh yea." April said shaking her head. "I'm sorry I'm tried and I'm confused-"
"It's fine." The Marshall said to her. "You gave us more than you even realize."
"I remember the tattoo because he was holding the knife with that hand. I don't know what the tattoo was though." April told him.
"That's fine." The Marshall said as he laid six mugshots in front of her.
"They all look similar." April said looking at the photos.
"That's the point." The Marshall said laying all the pictures out.
"What happens if I see his photo here?" She asked looking at the third photo he laid out, the one he thought she would pick out and would confirm is suspensions. Is he going to kill me or something?"
"We'll keep you safe." The Marshall told her.
"Why is a Marshall working on this?" April asked looking up at him now. "Is he like-"
"Please just pick the photo if you see the man." The Marshall pleaded. "I promise to be as honest as with you as you have been with me and I promise to help you."
"I shouldn't be here." April said with glassy eyes and a sad smile. "I'm from Hi-Nella New Jersey."
"I've never heard of it." The Marshall admitted.
"Most people haven't. It's smaller than this block I'm sure. There's only 120 homes there and we have like three cops." She explained. "I got an internship out here and I thought I'd be the one from that town that would make it big but clearly I don't belong here."
"I know you're in shock." The Marshall sympathized. "And if you want to go home after all of this is done and over with I will do everything in my power to get you back home if that's what you want. But right now I need you to concentrate because Ms Paulson died tonight and she didn't deserve to." he told her.
"I know she must have meant something to you because you went out of your way to check in on her."
"She was 83." April reasoned. "Anyone would."
"No they wouldn't." The Marshall corrected. "I know you don't want anyone else getting hurt either because I can tell just by looking at you what a good person you are. Please help me."
"Ok." April said looking him directly in the eyes and he seemed almost desperate. "The third picture." She said still looking at him without having to look back down at it again.
"Are you sure?" The Marshall asked.
"Those are his eyes." She told him quietly. "I'll never forget them."
"Thank you." The Marshall said to her collecting the pictures.
"Do you know him?" April asked.
"Not personally." The Marshall smirked. "But yea, I'm familiar with him."
"What's his name?" April questioned.
"For the night we're going to put you up in a hotel room and a Marshall is going to stay with you." Marshall Brooks told her.
"Why?" April asked. "You said you'd help me go home."
"And I will as soon as it's all over. We need to catch him then try him." The Marshall told her.
"I'll come back for any trial." April assured him. "Please don't make me stay here." She begged feeling herself start to cry. "Please." she pleaded again grabbing his hand as he stood up.
"This man has had many run-ins with us. Every time it comes to trial something happens and we have to make sure once we catch him nothing happens." The Marshall tried to explain without fully explaining it.
"What happens?" April asked
"We have issues with our witnesses-" he began and her face dropped.
"He kills them? Threatens them?" April asked standing up frantically. "He'll never find me back home!"
"Ms. Mendez, please." The Marshall pleaded. "We're going to keep you safe."
"I'd feel safer at home." April said to him. "You can't make me stay."
"You're right I can't." The Marshall said to her. "But he looked at you and knows who you are and trust me he will be looking for you. He doesn't just leave witnesses around. That's why he's still out and that's why I need you to stay in our custody."
"When you arrest him I can go home?" April asked hopefully.
"If you insist on it. But this man isn't a lone wolf." The Marshall told her. "He saw you, he knows where you live which means he knows everything about you. And a small town in New Jersey with no real cops aren't going to keep you safe. I am."
"Can I sleep on this?" April asked.
"Of course you can. But you have to sleep on it at a hotel." The Marshall told her simply. "You're doing real good here, you're going to help us lock away a man who has constantly escaped conviction. A man who deserves to rot in a prison cell."
Later that night April was set up in a simple hotel room. It wasn't anything special but it had a working air conditioner which she didn't have in her teeny tiny apartment. It also had a bed on a high up bed frame which was different from mattress and box spring she had in the corner of her apartment. She wasn't working at an internship which meant she wasn't getting paid and she had savings but she was running through it since Chicago was so expensive. She wasn't living in the best building but she made it home. She splashed paint on the walls and picked up some items to make a coffee table and found a chair in the trash that she re-covered. She made her own kitchen table using odd ball items she found in a thrift shop and the place was covered in candles and flowers. It was a shitty building but she probably had the nicest apartment.
"You should try to sleep." The unfamiliar Marshall said to her.
"I don't think I could if I tried." April said to him as she sat up on the bed and looked at the TV.
"You're in very safe hands." The Marshall assured her.
"What's your name?" April asked.
"I'm Deputy Marshall Cena." He told her and April thought he looked like a Ken doll.
"Where's Marshall Brooks?" April asked.
"He'll be by to check in." He assured her. "You don't have to be afraid. This is what we do. We protect people."
"I thought US Marshall's tracked down fugitives. Is this man a fugitive?" She asked.
"He was a few years back until we caught him." Marshall Cena told her. "But the witnesses in his case...stopped cooperating and the charges couldn't stick without it. We didn't have physical evidence just a witness."
"Didn't this witness have to testify?" April asked. "Isn't that the law?"
"It is." Cena nodded. "But old cases aren't for you to worry about."
"I need my work laptop at least and it's at my apartment. If I'm going to stay in this god forsaken City I might as well work." She told him.
"I'll have someone pick it up." Cena said pulling out his phone and typing on it. "Anything else?"
"No. I should be back tomorrow at least, right?" April asked.
"If not we can have someone pick up whatever else you need." The Marshall assured her. "So, from New Jersey?"
"Yea." April said with a soft smile.
"Chicago must be a huge culture shock." He noted and April nodded.
"The busiest Jersey malls are a huge culture shock." April teased. "But Chicago isn't for me."
"I think you need to give it more of a chance. How long have you been in town?" He asked.
"About a month and a half." She told him. "I just had all these expectations and it's just been disappointing. I'm sure Chicago is great but all I've seen is downtown because all I do is work 12 hours a day and by the time I'm out of work everything fun is closed and on my days off I'm too tired." April explained.
"I'll tell you what, once things quiet down I'll show you around." Marshall Cena offered. "There's a lot of great stuff here you're missing. I mean it is the best City in the world."
"That's New York." April corrected and he glared at her.
"No way." He laughed.
Just then there was a soft knock on the door and April froze.
"It's Marshall Brooks." Cena assured her and he peeked first and once he saw it was him he walked inside.
"Someone is going to drop the laptop off in half an hour. I was already downstairs when I got your message." He said to Cena who nodded.
"You need me to stick around?" Marshall Cena offered.
"Why would I need you to stick around?" Punk asked him narrowing his eyes at him.
"Just wondering." Cena said grabbing his keys. "I'm sure I'll see you soon, and I'll take you on that tour."
"Thanks." April smiled and waved as he left.
"Is this room ok?" Punk asked as placed his keys on the side table.
"Yea it's fine." April said to him as she watched him sit at the nearby table and open a file. "What's his name?"
"Who?" Punk asked looking up from his file.
"The man who killed Ms. Paulson." She said to him.
"Jeremy Sawyer." Punk told her honestly.
"Marshall Cena said the witnesses in his last case stopped cooperating but what he meant was that he killed this witness right? No personally obviously which means he has friends-" She began to ramble.
"Marshall Cena shouldn't have scared you." Punk said closing his file.
"He didn't scare me anymore than I already am." April laughed sarcastically.
"Jeremy Sawyer has a very wealthy and very connected father. He's been bought up on Rico charges but-" Punk began.
"Rico? He's in the mafia?" April asked.
"Organized crime." Punk corrected. "But yes, his father has those kind of connections. Jeremy is a straight textbook sociopath. He kills for pleasure and does it alone. Elderly women seem to be a kind he likes."
"Oh god." April said disgusted sitting on the edge of her bed. She could feel her stomach begin to grumble.
"If you're going to be sick-" Punk began.
"I don't think I have anything left in my stomach. Pretty sure I hurled it all in my apartment right after." She confided. "I don't know how I ended up in this situation." she said to herself in a whisper.
"You're going to be ok." Punk told her sternly.
"Then why do I feel like I'm going to end up in a bottom of some river?" She asked him. "That's what mob guys do, right?"
"Not really anymore." Punk said with half a smile. "What goes wrong in these cases a lot is the witnesses tend to over think and get scared. They refuse our help because they're so scared and end up running right into danger. You seem like a smart kid who knows better than to do that."
"I'm not a kid." April corrected. "I'm 25."
"Yea, you're a kid." Punk smirked.
"Although I am not a kid." She said annoyed. "I don't want to die yet. I've barely lived-"
"You're not going to die so you can stop writing your will." Punk said to her. "Stick with me and you're going to be fine. You're going to testify once we catch him then you can go back to New Jersey or stay here or do whatever the hell you want. If you want to write anything write your dream to do list because you're going to get it all done because you have your whole life ahead of you."
"Ok." April said quietly and watched as he opened his file back up.
"What are you reading?" She asked. "Is that about Jeremy?"
"No." Punk said looking over to her. "You don't believe in comfortable silence, do you?"
"Normally comfortable silence is my thing but I'm nervous and when I'm nervous I ramble-" She began to ramble.
"Do you have any siblings?" Punk asked cutting her off as he closed his file again.
"What?" April asked.
"You're nervous and don't like silence and I can't talk about the case anymore or about the case I'm reading about so I'll ask about you." Punk said to her.
"I have a brother." She told him then stopped herself. "Had." She corrected.
"I'm sorry." Punk said eyeing her.
"It was a long time ago but thank you." She said to him.
"And you intern at the Tribune, do you like it?" He asked.
"No." She said honestly. "I didn't even want to do journalism. I wanted to write books but this was the only internship that would take me and was the closest to writing and I do everything there but writing."
"Grunt work. When I started in the Marshall office I wasn't even allowed out on calls or stings. It took almost a year before everyone else even learned my name." Punk told her. "You just have to be persistent."
"I just don't think any of this is for me." April told him. "I belong back home."
"If that's how you feel." He shrugged and then opened his file. "I suggest putting on a comedy movie or TV show to try to lighten your mood or you'll never be able to sleep. I'd love to talk more but I do have work to do."
"Ok." April said grabbing the remote. "Is Marshall Cena coming back?"
"I bet he loved chatting you up." Punk smirked as he kept his eyes on the file. "But yea I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow. There will be rotating Marshall's. My team specifically."
"Your team?" She asked.
"I'm the supervisor. I Deputy Marshall Cena and one other man and a woman. You'll be in good hands." Punk told her.
"So you went from no one knowing your name to having your team?" April asked and he looked up slightly annoyed.
"Persistence." He repeated firmly and she just nodded.
"Sorry, go back to reading." She said to him and he just looked back at his file.