Race Against Time

I kept looking at the clock at the precinct. Isabella had said that she was in New York state about four hours ago. Danny walked by me, smacking me over the head.
"She'll get here when she gets here. Looking at the clock every two minutes won't make her get here faster", he said. I chuckled, shaking my head. He was right. I was driving myself crazy. My phone buzzed and I picked it up quickly, seeing if it was her. It was my sister, Sam.
"Hey, Donnie, you busy?" she asked. I hadn't talked to her in a few days. I felt guilty.
"I get off for lunch in about an hour or so", I replied.
"Wanna get lunch? I haven't talked to you lately and I miss you", she said.
"Sure. Where you wanna meet?" I asked.
"That cafe by where I work?" she asked.
"See you then", I replied. I hung up the phone.
"Lemme guess...not Isabella?" Danny joked.
"My sister. She wanted to get lunch", I replied, setting my phone on my desk. A pretty young woman walked into the precinct, looking lost. She walked up to reception, her strawberry blonde curls bouncing as she walked and asked Janet something. Janet pointed to my desk and the woman walked over to me.
"Detective Flack?" she asked.
"That's me", I replied.
"I'm Ava Morgan. I heard you were working my brother's murder case?" she said, making the last word more of a question.
"What's your brother's name?" I asked.
"Oliver. Oliver Morgan", she replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on that case. What can I help you with?" I said.
"I was wondering if you had any leads? I would've called, but my phone got stolen", she said.
"I can't discuss case details with anyone, Miss Morgan, I'm sorry", I replied. She gave me a pleading look with her big blue eyes.
"Oliver and I were very close. Is there anything you can tell me?" she asked.
"If there was anything I could tell you, I would", I replied. She frowned and turned on her heel to walk away. My phone went off. I looked down at the screen. It was Isabella. I picked it up and answered it.
"Flack", I said. I nearly kicked myself. Duh, she knew who I was.
"Glad you cleared that up", she teased.
"You in town?" I asked.
"Almost to Levi's house", she replied. I looked up at the clock. Talking to a victim's sister had killed ten minutes.
"Well, when I get off, I will do my best to get over there to see you", I said. She laughed.
"Somehow I get the feeling you're not that excited to see me", she joked.
"Oh no, I am. I just made plans with my sister for lunch, but if I can't make it over to see you before I have to go back to work, I'll see you when I get off", I replied.
"I'll see if I can sneak out", she said.

"Aw, you mean I don't get to meet your nosy sister? I was looking forward to that", I teased.
"She'll make you feel weird, lemme tell you. When it comes to her, nothing is sacred", she replied. I heard something smack.
"Ow! Stop, they're not speed-bags, Mackenzie Jane!" she snapped.
"What happened?" I asked, trying to contain my laughter.
"My sister's being ignorant", she replied.
"I hit her in the chest!" a woman's voice yelled. I heard Isabella scoff.
"I gotta go, because I'm about to make my sister walk to Soho", she said.
"Sounds like fun. See you tonight?" I said.
"Sounds good", she replied. We said goodbye and hung up. I really did miss her.
My phone rang again.
"Hey, Sam, I was just about to leave", I said.

"Actually, can we take a rain check? Something came up at work so I have to work through lunch", she said. I sighed.
"Yeah, sure. I'm off tomorrow if you wanted to get breakfast", I said.
"Sounds good, I'll see you then", she replied. We hung up. Well, now it was my lunch break.
I got up and started walking. I went to my favorite pizzeria and got a couple of slices of pizza. Out of nowhere, a tall strawberry blonde woman and a tall dark-haired guy walked in.
"Oh, Ian, this place is awesome!" the girl said in a Southern accent. I chuckled as I finished up one piece. The door flies open and there stood Isabella.

"Mackenzie, don't go running off! This ain't Wilmington!" she said, grabbing the strawberry blonde's hand. The woman huffed.
"I know, it's New York, Izzy. I'm starving, fast food is yucky to me now", she replied. I stood up to throw away my trash. I stumbled, hitting a booth on my way.
"Don?" Isabella said. I turned around and smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, Rambo", I greeted. She walked over and hugged me. The girl Isabella had called 'Mackenzie' smiled. Isabella said something warningly in Italian which made Mackenzie's smile wider.
"C'mon, Ian. We'll find somewhere else to eat", she said, tugging on the man's hand and walking out. Isabella rolled her eyes.
"See what I was protecting you from?" she said. I laughed.
"She seemed nice", I replied. She hugged me again.
"I missed you", I admitted.
"I missed you too. Those two drove me nuts", she replied. We walked outside, smiling.

I felt something icy hit my back.
"The hell?" I said, looking around. A kid ran off down the block. Isabella frowned, scooping up a ball of snow and pitched it, hitting the kid in the head. He stumbled and fell down.
"Hell of a shot", I complimented her. She smiled.
"I was a curious little kid when I was young. I wanted to try everything, so I did sports. Baseball, basketball, volleyball, all sorts of stuff", she replied. The kid got back up and ran off. She tossed her head back and laughed. God, I missed her.
"I don't think he's coming back", I chuckled. She nodded in agreement.

"So how's the glamorous life of the Wilmington Crime Lab treating you?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.
"I don't want to get into that. Let's just say, having my father as the Chief of Police is worse than it sounds", she replied. She had mentioned something about that.
"A buddy of mine works there now. Says women get the short end of the stick", I said. She rolled her eyes.
"Simpkins? Yeah, the guy's a jerk. He and his new buddies nearly sexually harass me and Aria at work", she replied. That pissed me off.
"Oh well. I shrug it off anyways. Aria and I are the only women at the entire precinct, so we're bound to get leering looks and comments. I'm used to it", she added, shrugging.
"That's disconcerting", I said, frowning. She shrugged again.
"They get too out of control, I hook 'em in the jaw. They scuttle back into their corners", she replied. I laughed at the mental image.
"Why doesn't your dad step up? He's supposed to keep them under control, not you", I said.
"Nepotism. My dad nearly knocked them down with his cane and they played the family card", she replied.

"Sounds like a fun guy", I chuckled. She giggled.
"And on top of it all, when I get off vacation, my boss is sending me off to Jersey to work with their crime lab because several bodies in their morgue are from Wilmington. There's a suspected ring going on", she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, Mac said something about sending some of our guys over there", I replied. The head of the Jersey crime lab was on shaky graces with Mac, so it was surprising that he wanted the N.Y.P.D. to help.
"Killers need to stop crossing state lines. I hope the Jersey crime lab won't let the FBI get involved", she said. I laughed, remembering her animosity with the bureau.
"Nah, Lewis is too stubborn", I replied.
"I wonder who Mac's gonna choose to go over", Isabella said. Her accent appeared strongly in that sentence. 'Ah wundr hew Mac's gunna chewz to go oh-vur' was how it sounded.
"I know he was considering Danny and Lindsay", I replied. She shrugged.
"I'll worry about the assignment when it comes", she said.

"Yeah, it's your vacation. Lucky", I teased. She laughed.
"So what have you been up to lately?" she asked.
"Recent homicide. The vic's sister came in and I had to turn her away because I couldn't talk about leads", I replied. Isabella frowned.
"Yeah, that's one of the toughest parts about being a cop", she said.
"Or when you have to tell the victim's family that they're dead", I added.
"Or having to tell the family the victim might not be the man or woman that they thought they were", she said.
"This is depressing", I said. She laughed again.
"You can say that again", she agreed.
"This is depressing", I said again. She smacked my arm.
"Not literally, jackass", she teased. We were passing Levi's house and the man I had seen earlier in the pizzeria was sitting on the steps, seemingly lonely. Isabella walked up to him and hugged him.

"Everything okay, Ian?" she asked. So this was Ian, her twin brother. They looked startlingly alike. Both had the same unusual minty green eyes and the same thick jet-black hair. Ian shrugged.
"Mariah ran away from me", he said finally. Deep scars were all over one side of his face. If Mariah hadn't seen him, they would surprise her. They must have been from the accident he was in.
"She hasn't seen you in a while", Isabella replied. Ian looked up at me and stood up, a bit embarrassed.
"I'm Ian", he said. I shook his hand.
"Don Flack", I replied. Isabella was watching me carefully. I had to pretend a lot in my job, so it was almost second nature to ignore the scars on Ian's face.
"Isabella's told me good things about you. Thanks for looking after her while she was here, I can imagine it wasn't easy", he said. I smiled.