Luck Ch. 06

"What can I do for you detective?" Lana asked, looking down her $5000 nose at him, pursing her enhanced lips.

"I'm here to let you know that we are dropping all charges being brought against you." he said and she looked at him warily.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously, wondering what trick he was up to now. That detective was a wily old one and she didn't trust him at all.

"Aries Stark is not dead."

"What? What do you mean he's not dead? You saw the body yourself!"

"A body that is not his."

"How do you know?" she demanded.

"He told me."

"The corpse?" she asked wondering if the old man was loosing it.

"No, Aries stark, he came into my office to inform us that he was still alive and well." Angus said watching Lana struggling to achieve a surprised look of joy.

"Aries is alive?" It was than that she realized her predicament, she would be found out for the lies about their relationship, Aries would deny they were engaged; he would shed light to the fact that the baby could be one of three different men that he knew of. He would also send her packing; she had to do something and quick! "Oh thank you god! Thank you!" she exclaimed dramatically, falling to her knees like a pre-programmed robot.

What she still hadn't realized was that angus could read the truth in anyone's eyes, and miss Lana Lutz, was not the least bit happy about Aries return, Angus could see the anger right below the surface. She might not be guilty of killing Aries, but she was guilty as sin of something, the eyes never lied. Now he had to figure out what it was.

Lana waited until he was gone before she started to formulate her plan. She couldn't figure out how Aries was alive. She knew he had to have eaten the lunch she packed him or at least drank one of the sodas. What the hell had happened? She had sprinkled a libeal amount of poison on everything he had taken to eat and in every single soda he had, a whole damn case.

*** Leslie looked at the paper, her heart sliding straight to her stomach. If Aries Stark was alive, than who washed up on shore? Leslie got up and started to frantically pace, overcome with fear and worry. She knew only one person who looked enough like Aries that he could pass for his corpse. Brad looked so much like Aries; most people thought they were related.

She snatched up her cell phone, brads message still haunting her. He had said he was at Aries house, Lana's fiancée. So why was brad at the house of the man whose fiancée he was having sex with? None of it made sense, but she was determined to find out something! She had to know where brad was and wasn't, she had to know that he was alright.

"Hello?" Lana managed to answer the phone in a snobbish manner.

"Lana?"

"Who's calling?"

"Leslie Malone, I'm just calling to see if you had heard from Bradley at all, he-"

"No I have not, and don't call here anymore!" Lana snapped than slammed down the phone.

"Bitch." Leslie hissed as she hung up her phone. Well if Lana was not going to give her answers, she knew who would.

Leslie threw on her jacket; she needed to find out for herself what the hell was going on and she would start with the police station.

***

Something was amuck; Detective Angus could smell it in the air and feel it in his bones. At this point he was truly at a loss, his entire case was up in the air, filled with holes, he had no idea who the victim was; he had no case, no suspects, nothing. He had to start from scratch, he had a few of his men pulling up missing persons who fit the description as their victim, but they were finding nothing.

Something was amiss, someone was lying and there was a much more intriquit layer to the story than anyone was letting on. He knew in his gut that this case and corpse was tied into Lana Lutz and Aries Stark somehow.

***

Aries Stark had everything a man could want at his disposal; everything he had ever dreamed of owning filled his enormous place. The most expensive furniture, priceless pieces of art, fame beyond reason and money beyond measure.

Still he was more miserable than he had ever been in his life.

He sat on the massive back porch swing of his secluded beach house; it was made thick bamboo, as wide as a twin mattress, covered in thick fluffy bright colored pillows that he knew Mimi would really appreciate. He imagined what she would be doing right now if she were here with him. He pictured her lying on the swing with him, dazzling him with that sensual smile, peeling off her clothes than making love to him as the porch swing swung them into bliss.

But Mimi was not here. She hated his guts.

This was his beach house, the one and only place in the world he ever felt comfortable, and the one and only place he ran to when he wanted to be alone. Now it seemed empty and cold, every room he entered was filled with a stiffling void, there was no life with in the walls and he had never felt so isolated and alone.

He missed her so bad, he could barely stand it.

He needed her now more than ever; he came back to paparazzi frenzy worse than when he had left. The eye of the world was on him, and that was exactly what he had been trying to eliminate from his life. Everyone wanted a piece of him and he knew it was just a matter of time before the paparazzi found his little hideaway.

Rip and detective Angus were the only ones that knew where he was and they were taking it to their graves. Rip came by a lot, always bringing Aries things he needed and the latest news.

Rip said they were offering Aries obscene amounts of money just for an interview he was being offered hundreds of millions of dollars from top directors, thousands of scripts, everything.

He was bigger than any other celebrity had ever been and he hated it. All he wanted was anonymity and Nomi Larue.

***

Nomi was existing on her denial alone; she refused to think about Aries, she refused to let him even enter her mind. She had to cut all emotional ties to him no matter how much it was tearing her heart apart. Since it was impossible to turn back time and never meet Jack, she would live her life as if he had never laid eyes on the man.

She refused to turn on the television since he was the main topic on each channel, the mysterious disappearance than reappearance of Aries Stark had the world at attention and dying for more. She refused to even look at his real face, the face she remembered was a parlor trick, costume make up and since she was hell bent on forcing herself to forget that face, there was no way in hell she wanted his real face in her head.

Even just the mention of his name brought a deep sadness and feeling of loss to her and stopping and thinking about him brought her to a very dark, bleak place that she would never allow herslef to enter again.

She was a mess and she didn't know what to do. Even if she felt any type of remorse from her reaction to the news of his true identity, there was nothing she could do about it now, he was long gone.

***

Leslie stood looking down at the unrecognizable body. She didn't need to see his features to know, she could feel it.

"Is there a scar on the back of the right leg?" Leslie asked, her voice shaky as she stood there looking down at the body.

"Yes, a crescent shaped scar." Cruz answered.

"Are you sure?" she asked, her voice was weak.

"Yes." Angus answered. Even after years of seeing unfortunate family members have to identify their dead loved ones, he had never gotten immune to it. Every time it broke his heart just like the first time. It was part of what drove him, that deep compassion he felt from the family and loved ones. It wasn't hard to put himself in their position.

Leslie's bottom lips started to quiver just as the tears began to run from her eyes.

"He left me, he was having an affair." she cried, her emotions over whelming her, "I still loved him, I still believed he would-" she tried to gain control of the grief over whelming her, "come back, to me." she cried, the damn bursting and she broke down in deep grief filled sobs, slumping over on him. Detective Angus wrapped his arms around her in a fatherly fashion, thinking of his own daughter.

He knew people well and he could see through the most well planned out lies and any thought he had of this girl killing him in a jealous rage, left his mind as he closely watched her reaction.

No way in hell could she have committed this crime, her sorrow was too real, too raw and to hopeless.

"It was her, I'm telling you. Brad was mad about something, he was sared-"

"Who?" Angus asked

"That evil bitch he left me for, Lana Lutz." she cried. Angus and Cruz looked at each other as she tore her old cell phone out of her Versace purse, "Here listen to this!" she handed it to Detective Angus.

"What is this?"

"He left me a message, but he left it on my old cell phone, so I didn't listen to it in time." she cried harder, her entire body jerking with her sobs. He handed her another tissue. "Maybe if I had listened to it in time, I could have saved him?" she asked looking into his eyes and he saw all the 'what if's' and 'if only I had of's' already forming in her grieving mind.

"No, there was nothing you could have done except endanger yourself and I am sure he would have been upset if you had put yourself in harms way." he tried to comfort her.

"I guess." she sniffled shaking her head, "I have to get out of here-"

"I understand." he turned to Cruz, "could you walk her to her car?" he asked and Cruz nodded.

"No, please, I just need to be by myself right now, but thank you." she rushed out of the room speeding through the police department and straight to the doors that would take her out of this morbid god-forsaken place. She leaned against the doors taking a deep breath of the fresh air, before she went down to her knees.

"Why Bradley?" she cried, "Why?" she let out a little of her misery, than as quickly as she had began, she stopped. She rose to her full height and managed to compose herself. Now was not the time to be sad and weak, she would grieve later, right now, she needed to find out who murdered Bradley.

***

Angus and Cruz waited until she was completely out of the station before they listened to the message.

"Les, I need your help." Brad's voice whispered through the cell phone speaker, "I'm at Aries Starks mansion, I think ive been drugged, I need you to come get me, Leslie please, im sorry for everything, just come get me now, please, she's pregnant I think he's gonna.. Kill... me-"

"It keeps coming back to Lana." Angus stated. Some thing was a muck and Angus could feel it in his bones. At this point the entire case was up in the air and filled with holes.

***

Mimi would not answer her phone and Aries was getting desperate. He was so worried about her he couldn't think straight so he called Marz.

"About time you called me man." Marz said. Aries smiled ear to ear hearing those words.

"I wasn't sure-"

"Yo, you'll always be my homie no matter what. Besides I don't blame you, I wouldn't have told them who I was either, are you kidding me?" he chuckled, "everyone would have known you were here by sunset." he joked and for the first time since Aries had left there, he actually laughed. It was only a phone call, but he felt a little bit of that feeling he felt when he was there. It felt good to be a part of that world, now that he was back in his previous old, cold world. He wished he was there right now, with Mimi in his lap, or at the table watching her as she cooked. He missed watching her cook.

"So how is everything?"

"Man, it's been panic time since you left. Mimi locked herself in her room for 3 days, Luci and Lyndsy refused to leave her there alone. She is in the foulest mood I've ever seen her in and she refuses to work at the restaurant."

"She quit?"

"Quit, refuses to go in or even talk about it or you. So I had to take over the management duties until you or her come back."

"Thanks." he said, instantly worrying about Mimi.

"I got a stack of money for you."

"Give it to Mimi."

"She won't take it."

"Make her take it."

"I keep trying, but you know how stubborn she is Ja- Aries." he stumbled on the name.

"Yea," he said with a side grin thinking about that stubborn streak of hers.

"Luci has been trying to get her to take it since you left, but Mimi won't budge."

"Keep trying." he said wishing he was there.

"I will."

"Thanks."

"Don't worry Jack, she'll come around, she just needs a little time." Marz said, wishing there was something he could do for him. He honestly understood why he had withheld his true identity, Aries stark is too big of a name to live anonymously. They would have caught him along time ago. Marz probably would have done the exact same thing if he were in Aries shoes. there is no way in hell he would be able to Luci the truth, that big mouth would have it spread across ton by sunset.

***

Mimi had been swimming for hour and now her body was exhausted and cramped. No matter how hard or long she swam, nothing could take away the vicously beautiful memories that were plauging her with despair. She layed back on the grass, looking up at the pale moon light allowing her mind to escape back to that place when she remebered feeling utter bliss and deeply loved.

Just for tonight she would forget her unlucky life and the misery that would try to take her to her back down to her knees the minute she woke up. Tonight she would forget that Luck was dead and she would experience the love of the lucky, even if it was only while she slept.