Coming Under Fire

I get up bright and early the next day. After showering and getting dressed, I sit on the edge of my couch with my coffee and call Frank.
"Yeah?" He answers.
"Whats the word on Dom?"
"He's in transport."
"To jail? Already? Last night he was still in and out of consiousness."
"I guess he came around over night."
"When can he have visitors?" I ask.
"I'll get back to you." He says, then hangs up.
I finish my coffee, then grab my purse and a black zip up hooded sweatshirt, and head out for the day. My first stop is the bakery, where I pick up a coffee cake and a bag of donuts. I take the food to my parents house and walk in the front door, calling out as I enter.
"Hello!"
My dad isnt in his usual spot in front of the tv, which means he's probably out hanging with his cronies at their social club.
I step into the kitchen. My mother is standing in front of the stove, stirring something in a pot. I walk over and kiss her cheek.
"I brought pastries."
"Sit." I do as she tells me and watch as she pulls two small plates out of the cupboard and sets them out on the table. We each select a donut and eat in silence for a minute.
"Your brother has gotten himself in quite a mess this time." She finally says.
"Yeah."
"Have they found John yet?"
"No."
"Have you heard from him?" I sigh.
"No." She pats my hand.
"You will. He's a good man, no matter what he's accused of." I raise an eyebrow.
"I never thought I'd hear you admit you liked John."
"He treats my only daughter good. For that, he earns my respect."
"Frank-" I start,
"Frank is a police officer, Isabelle. He has a job to do. It's not about what he believes."
"I feel bad for him sometimes when he has to deal with Dom."
"Frank and Dominic made their choices. They live such different lives but are bonded by blood. It will always be difficult."
"Yeah."
"So," she says as if moving on from the conversation, "Are you coming for dinner tonight? I'm making minestrone."
"Maybe. I'll call you."
"Ok, honey, run along then. If you go to see Dominic, give him my love. He understands why I can't go myself."
After I leave my parents place, I do a drive-by of John's house. The first thing I notice is his dog isnt chained to his doghouse in the front yard. Although John does bring the dog in the house when it gets cold, it seems to early. I pull in the driveway and walk up the two front steps and knock on the door. No dog barking inside. I'm just getting my key out of my purse when I hear gravel crunching behind me. I turn and see a uniformed cop getting out of his car.
"Ma'am, this residence is under police surveilance. You can't be here." He calls. I walk towards him and almost smirk as his hand instinctively falls onto his gun.
"This is my ex boyfriends house. I need to get in to get some of my stuff out."
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't let you go in there. I'm under orders. No one can go in." I try one more time.
"My brother is Frank Parelli. You might have heard of him. He worked homicide in Lawrence for years."
"I'm buddies with Parelli, and I know you're his kid sister, but I still can't let you in." Damn.
"Ok then. Sorry." He escorts me to my car and watches me back out before pulling out himself.
I didnt think in a million years John would be home. He's too smart and would have figured on surveilance. But I still want inside the house.
My cell phone rings inside my purse. I dig it out.
"Hello?"
"I heard you're already sticking your nose where it doesnt belong." Frank.
"I just stopped by John's place to see if the dog was being taken care of. Your little deputy got his panties in a bunch." He snorts.
"He's barely a deputy."
"I'm surprised he didnt frisk me."
"Probably knew I'd kick his ass if he touched you."
"Aw, you care."
"Yeah, listen, Dom is settled in and can have visitors starting five minutes ago. Thought you'd want to know."
"I'm on my way." I say, hanging up.
The Lawrence police department is a sorry, squat little gray building right in the middle of town. When I get there, Frank is leaned against the cement brick wall, talking on his phone. I walk up as he ends his call and tucks his phone into his pocket.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Boston full time?"
"Boston sent me here. They have special interest in this case. Don't ask me why."
"In John?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Just tell me if Boston is looking for John too."
"Yeah, they are."
"Shit. Ok, take me to Dom." I say.
He leads the way through the lobby into a room with a bunch of desks in the middle, a couple offices to the left and some doors in the back. Frank leads me to on of the back doors into an interrigation room. The room is dimly lit and bare bones with a card table and two chairs. Frank pulls out a chair for me and I take a seat. He opens another door at the right side of the room and says something to someone I can't see, then closes the door and turns to me.
"He'll be right in. I'll be around when you're done." He says. I nod.
I wait about two minutes when the side door opens and Dom comes in wearing a orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. He walks with a noticable limp as he crosses the room. My heart leaps when I see him and I rush out of my chair and hug him. We sit down after moment and he takes my hands in his.
"How is your leg?" I ask.
"It hurts like a bitch. Sympathy is a radical concept for Lawrence's finest though. I get pain meds once in the morning and thats it."
"Dom, what the hell happened?"
"Joe Scully hired me to do a job. Scully and me are pretty tight. He's been having issues with some of his guys, so he hired me because I'm an independent operator. It was a two man job. He told me to get someone I trusted."
"Why John?"
"I was in a jam. Scully was specific he wanted someone independant who could keep his mouth shut. I called John because I knew he wasnt going to let anything get out."
"Tell me about the job." He sighs.
"Iz... I can't..."
"Fucking tell me!" I yell. He doesnt flinch at my outburst, but his eyes look surprised.
"It was a shipment. I had the contents in a truck. John met me at the peir. All we had to do was put the contents from the truck onto a boat that was waiting."
"What kind of shipment?" He leans forward and lowers his voice.
"It was a money shipment. A million dollars. The money was shipped among all of these crates of fruit. It was supposed to go to a business in Canada that Scully owns to be laundered." I sigh.
"So what happened?"
"Everything was going real good. Normal. We got the last crate loaded and we got off the boat and these guys came out of nowhere and start shooting. John and I took cover and returned fire. At some point we thought it was over and tried to run to the truck. Thats when I got shot."
"Do you know who the guys were?"
"Not at first glance, but I wasnt really looking at their faces."
"I guess you killed them all."
"We got away with our fucking lives, Iz. If we hadnt killed them, John and I would have been the ones they found dead on that peir." I don't say anything.
"Once we got away, I was freaking. I knew we had to get the fuck outta dodge. But John wanted to take me to the hospital. I was losing a shit ton of blood. I felt like shit, but I knew I couldnt go to the hospital because they would have to call the cops,"
"The last thing I remember is John throwing me over his shoulder and dumping me into a wheelchair. Next thing I woke up after surgery."

"Do you know where John is now?" I ask.

"No. I have no idea."

"No clues on where he would have gone?"

"My first guess would have been your place, but I guess since you're asking, he's not."

"No, I haven't seen or heard from him." He sighs and runs his hands through his unruly black hair.

"Listen, this could be a really bad situation. I havn't figured out who those guys were. Scully is working on it, but John could be in real danger. Along with the people he cares about."

"His daughter, Lily."

"And you."

"You think someone would come after me?" I ask.

"It's not outside the realm of possibility."

"What about you?"

"I'm safe here. I have my protection on my family, including you, but depending on who is coming after us, that only goes so far."

"Your protection would be?"

"My name." He says, simply.

"Right."

"It carries some weight, unfortunately not enough sometimes."

"People respect you."

"They fear me. Another form of respect."

"This conversation is making my stomach hurt." I say, pulling away from the table.

"Sorry."

"Have you talked to Frank about this at all?"

"No. Frank has his own agenda in all of this. Remember that when you're talking to him." he says.

"He's our brother."

"But he's also a cop, and that is number one for him. Don't think he ever turns that off." I know this to be true, but I'm idealistic when it comes to Frank's job.

"I gotta go. I have some shit to do." He stands up and walks over to me, throwing his handcuffed arms over my head to hug me.

"I love you." I tell him.

"Love you too. Be careful out there."

"You be careful in there too."

"Oh yeah. This isn't my first rodeo behind bars."

"The fear and respect thing goes in here too?" I ask.

"Even more so."

I duck out from his embrace and grab my purse. He waves at me as I leave the room. I find Frank sitting at his old desk, talking on the phone. I stand next to the desk and watch as he jots down notes in his indescernable handwriting. He hangs up a moment later and stands up.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"You find anything out?" he asks. I remember what Dom just told me.

"If you're asking if Dom told me where John is hiding, the answer is no."

"Would you tell me if he had?"

"Frank, I'm not playing fucking games here. I'm just as caught up in this as you are. Don't patronize me."

"I'm not playing games either, Isabelle. If I have to put a fucking tail on you, I will." My eyebrows shoot up into my hairline.

"You wouldn't."

"Don't push me." he says. I turn around and stomp out of the station to my car. Once I get there, I make a few phone calls and find out exactly where John's ex, Erin, lives with their daughter, Lily.

John and Erin were together years ago and their break up was a big deal. John finally moved on to a friend of mine, Kelly, and they were together for a couple years and were engaged to be married. A few weeks before the wedding, John suddenly left Kelly for Erin, and a few weeks later it came out that she was pregnant, and John became the slime of Lawrence. A lot of people never forgave him for it, because Kelly was such a sweet girl and was so torn up after it all happened that she left the state and moved out somewhere in the midwest, never to be heard from again. John has never really divulged a lot of information to me about that time, but I've come to forgive him for it, even though every now and then I do feel a pang of jealousy whenever he mentions Erin, and even Lily. I don't know much about their life. I've only met Lily a handful of times, which is also a slight thorn in our relationship because I feel like he's trying to keep us seperate for some reason.

I drive a few miles away from the police station, keeping an eye out for a tail, and pull onto the street where Erin lives. I drive slowly past the house, checking it out. No garbage cans at the road, no cars in the driveway, no sign of life. I turn around at the end of the road and pull into the driveway. I hoof it up the driveway and knock on the door. No answer. I peek into the window in the door and see darkness. The lady next door sticks her head out of her door.

"If you're looking for Erin, she's gone." she calls. I step off of Erin's porch and cross the yard to the front of the neighbors house, so she doesn't have to yell.

"Do you know where she went? I've been trying to get ahold of her, but she won't answer her phone."

"I don't know where she was going, but she left at the same time she always does to pick Lily up from school, but she had a bunch of bags with her, like they were going on a trip after she got her."

"Does she have family nearby?" I ask.

"Her parents live in Rhode Island, sometimes Erin takes Lily there on vacation in the summer." I nod, thinking to myself.

"OK, thanks for the info. I'll probably catch up with her when she gets back."

"No problem, dear." she closes her screen door and watches as I cross the yards back to my car.

I think about calling John's mother. We've met a few times and I know she would tell me if anything was going on, but my instincts are telling me that John wouldn't involve her, not wanting her to lie to the police. I grab my phone and dial Frank instead. He answers with a sigh.

"Hello?" I ask.

"What?"

"Have you talked to John's mother?"

"Yeah, it was a dead end. She dosen't know where he is. Why?"

"Just wondered." I say, backing out of Erin's driveway.

"Where are you?" he asks.

"Home, heading out to the courthouse to fill out some paperwork for my boss."

"Do you have your gun on you?"

"Not currently. Why?"

"I think you should start carrying it." he says.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"You're a crabby pants today." he hangs up on me. I shrug and head home.

Once I'm home, I start to hatch a plan on how to get inside John's house without being stalled by Deputy Stupid. I just know there will be some kind of clue there. And I want to get John's laptop, if the cops haven't already beaten me to it. I just have to wait until late.

Standing at my kitchen counter, I eat a Little Debbie chocolate cupcake. Once I'm done with that, I have a peanut butter and potato chip sandwich, then I wash it all down with a bottle of water. Then I go into my bedroom and take a cat nap, setting my alarm for eight o'clock, that way I have plenty of time to get ready for my mission and get rid of a tail if I spot one.

I'm a little bit smarter than Frank, Dom and John have me pegged for, and I'm getting impatient waiting around for all of them to do something about this situation. It's time for me to take control.