Luck Ch. 07

Mimi got a job at the little gas station down the street, nothing spectacular mind you; no gourmet dishes, no sweet smell of gumbo in the morning, no inventive recipes, and absolutely no cooking experience required. At any given time during her shift, she was likely to be covered with grease, oil, dirt, scum and other various forms of debris, but it was perfect for her. Besides she couldn't complain, it kept her busy and her imagination under control; the unlimited amount of hours preventing her mind from conjuring up images of Jack- Aries- Smith— Stark— whatever his name is. Other than the abundance of available hours, which she was using to work herself into complete exhaustion, she had also made a new friend, her boss Beverly Beazley.

Beverly Beazley was one of the most caustically sarcastic, shit-talking, chain smoking, brass-balls sixty-five year old Mimi had ever met. Bev, as she preferred to be called, liked to do things the hard way just to learn a lesson, she took the bull by the horns, never backed down from a fight, cursed like a sailor, dressed like she worked on wall street, and always smelled like wilted roses, gasoline and fresh cloves. She was a verbal assassin who would sit as silent and unconcerned as a snake until provoked. Mimi couldn't help but love the spitfire; her honesty was so brutal that there was never any room for lies.

"You need to take tomorrow off Mimi, now I insist," she said as she ran a hand through her short and sassy, spiked silver hair.

"Tomorrow, Bev," Mimi just smiled to herself, knowing there was no way in hell she could mentally afford to take a day off.

"Hell sugar, you've been saying 'tomorrow' for three days now," Bev's bright jade eyes bulged as she shook her head. "You been going for thirteen days straight." She took a long drag from her clove cigarette before continuing, "I'm starting too really like you and as we know, I don't get on well with many folks, so I'd hate to have to scrape your dehydrated ass off my gas station floor." She looked down at Mimi through her grease smudged, designer, black rimmed glasses.

***

Lana Lutz had quickly moved her things and herself out of Aries' mansion the minute Detective Angus had dropped the news that Aries was still alive. She was in panic mode now, afraid her lies would be blowing up in her face soon. Lana had gone through his large mansion with a fine tooth comb, removing incriminating evidence and washing away any thing that proved she was there. She could not determine the difference between what could hurt her and possibly have her locked behind bars and what was just every day living debris, so she put EVERYTHING in a trash bag than burnt it out back in the incinerator. She just refused to take any chances with her life and her ability to walk up and down the street if she wanted. Prison was not for her and she just cringed at the thought, no shopping, no gourmet meals she never finished, no maids, butlers, chauffeurs, no sex and no freedom.

***

Detective Angus went to Lana Lutz's new Upper East Side apartment. He had a trusty old tactic he liked to use in dire straits; one that had never failed to make the guilty sing like untrained parakeets. He knew after a few minutes of mindless banter that his plan was indeed working on Lana, as she was almost squirming, her neon guilt scribbled all over her face.

"So, when was the last time you saw Brad Lowell?" Detective Angus questioned.

"The night I was forced to break it off with him." Lana looked down at him, trying to appear unconcerned, despite the fact that she was scared shitless. How had he found her? She thought she had hid her tracks well and never expected anyone to find her. Hell the paparazzi had not even found her yet.

"Forced?"

"Well, when Aries found out about our affair, he went wild with jealousy, demanding I end it immediately," she lied, trying for the life of her to squeeze out at least one tear.

"Aries Stark?"

"Yes," she sniffled despite the fact that she still had yet to shed a single tear. "He was so angry, he rushed over to confront Brad, and tell him to stay the hell away from me."

"And did Aries confront Brad?"

"I never knew." She was batting her eyes like a brain dead ding bat. "That was the last time I ever saw either of them again," she added.

Angus saw the charade in Lana's lying eyes; he watched her squirm and turn her head from his perceptive glare. Did she think he was some new fool who would honestly buy her act? He had been a Detective long enough to know acting when he saw it, and to see through bad acting easily. And, unfortunately for Ms. Lutz, her acting skills were limited and overly dramatic at best.

"Ms. Lutz, may I ask how you neglected to inform us of this crucial piece of evidence that is obviously more than relevant to the case," he said carefully keeping all of his rising emotions from his voice.

"It didn't seem important at the time, Aries was always going off on a tangent, I didn't really believe he was going over to Brad's when he said it," she shrugged. "But if you will excuse me, I have personal business to attend to," she said as she nodded curtly and walked away.

Angus watched her walk away with a slight grin on his face. He was amazed at how easily she could turn her bad acting off; she had gone from trying to muster up tears for a dramatic effect to stone cold in 13 seconds flat.

***

"BRAD LOWELL!?!" Aries barked incredulously, "The actor Brad Lowell?"

"Yes," Angus said, sitting next to his partner and across from Aries.

"You're sure it was his body?" he asked his temper calming with his increasing concern.

"Yes."

"And you think I killed him?" Aries shook his head in disbelief, almost laughing. "Over Lana?"

"Ms. Lutz said that the last time she saw you, you were on your way to confront Mr. Lowell and tell him to stay away from her," Cruz read from Lana's statement.

"Did she," he answered, wondering what Lana's manipulative ass was up to now.

"Yes. Tell us about your relationship with Mr. Lowell."

"I didn't have one, I think I met him once at some movie premiere," he said. "There was some trouble with him getting in the door." He remembered the night, it was the first time he had seen the man that Hollywood was buzzing about due to the strong resemblance he had to Aries.

"Did you have any feelings of resentment towards him?" Angus asked.

"For what?"

"The man has your face, he's been trying to take over your movie career, and than you find out he's sleeping with your fiancée, it would make any man snap," Cruz said, but Aries was already shaking his head in objection.

"First of all, I could care less who does or does not look like me. Second, I left my entire life behind to get away from a movie career that I hated, a career that has brought me nothing but invasion, paranoia and stalkers hell bent on exposing every move I make. I wish Brad had of taken my fame, hell I would hand it over freely to him. Last and most important, Lana is a slut who has been fucking other men since the second night she fucked me. She's like a parasite, a leach that won't let go, she is a money hungry, fame obsessed, over rated groupie," he said with a look of pure disgust. "And she was NEVER my fiancée," he clarified.

"She has been saying the two of you were engaged at every press conference since the day of your disappearance." Cruz shrugged.

"Yea, well, she says a lot of things that aren't true."

"She says it is your baby." Angus threw the words at him just to gauge his reaction.

"It's a chance, it's also a chance it's one of the three other guys she was fucking at the time," he said casually, his words empty of any jealousy but sparked with bitter anger.

"And that never bothered you?"

"That's the only reason I stayed with her as long as I did. She cheated so much she never had the time to question me about all the other women I was sleeping with."

***

"I'm not charging him yet," Angus said to Cruz, as they watched Aries Stark walk to his car.

"I agree, I don't think he did it. He's pretty straight up. Now Lana on the other hand," he shook his head. "I don't believe a word that comes out of that woman's mouth."

"We have enough circumstantial evidence to bring Lana back in, and this time I want to bring her chauffer in too." Angus had a feeling about the chauffer, he wasn't sure what that feeling was yet, but he knew he had to talk to the chauffer.

***

One didn't become a schemer over night; it was something that poisoned the blood from birth. Lana was the best schemer she knew, and normally she would smile with pride as she worked her skill. At the moment, however, she was not smiling as she piled her suitcases into the trunk of her rental car with fear induced haste; she was getting the hell out of here as fast as she possibly could. She wasn't sure how long the little lies about Aries and Brad would last before collapsing. She was certain that once Aries denied her allegations, they would head for her without hesitation. Well, she wouldn't be there; they would not find her until she was ready to be found.

At this point she was getting trapped in her own little web, and she had to get out of dodge before it all exploded in her gorgeous face. Sure her main goal in life was to regain her fame, but not at the cost of her own freedom. She needed to produce some home-made evidence of her own, and plant it at the right place at the right time. Crafting the false evidence would be the easy part, but getting back onto any of Aries properties would be tricky.

***

Lyndsy and Luci sat across from Mimi at the funky little beatnik coffee shop. They knew their friend better than she knew herself and, above all else, were positive Mimi would use her stubbornness before she used her reason. She was hard headed and superstitious, but she was never cold, despondent or uncaring of those close to her. This was something else then just her natural stubbornness, something was wrong.

"Are you smoking?" Lyndsy looked at her as if Mimi had lost her mind.

"Cloves, they're pretty good," Mimi answered, taking a small drag from the aromatic cigarette. Both girls looked at their friend strangely. If they had ever been worried about her before, they were almost panicked now. She was not snapping out of this one. With each strange tragedy she had changed a little, come up with a new superstition, but now she was just like someone else, someone they did not even know.

"Did you read the paper?' Lyndsy said, dropping it on the brightly colored table and sliding it in front of Mimi.

Mimi looked down at the picture of Aries Stark; it was the first time she had ever seen him out of disguise. He looked so different, so foreign, yet so very familiar. Even though the eyes looked different, they were his eyes; she could recognize them even though the color was off. To bad it was the only thing she could recognize. Mimi pushed the paper away and turned her head to the beautiful chocolate skinned goddess, in a gorgeous floor length gown made of rags, who stood on the generically lit stage, gently forcing her melodic poem on the ears of the unappreciative coffee shop patrons.

"Why come to poetry hour and not listen?" Mimi said to herself, taking a healthy sip of her caramel latté. "No one listens anymore, but than why should they." She took a long pull from her clove cigarette. "No one ever tells the truth."

"He may go to prison, Nomi," Lyndsy said seriously, trying to get through to her friend.

"For murder," Luci added with a concern visible in the frown on her face.

"That's not my business," she said although it killed her. "Besides, maybe he did it; he was running away from something and living under an alias." She shook her head taking another long drag, "sounds suspicious to me."

"Nomi, you know better than that," Lyndsy scolded, looking very disappointed.

"How do I know better?" Mimi asked, getting a little irritated that they would not drop the subject.

"Jacks not capable of that." Luci shook her head.

"How do we know what he is and isn't capable of when we don't even know who he is? And his name is not Jack, Luci."

"Sorry." Luci frowned in shock; Mimi had NEVER spoken to her like that before.

"I'm sorry Luci, I didn't mean to snap." Mimi immediately apologized seeing the hurt all over Luci's face. Mimi shook her head, what was wrong with herself? Why was she treating everyone so terribly?

"It's alright." Luci said in sadness, Mimi was treating everyone around her like suspicious strangers. She was also treating everyone like shit, but no one more than her own self.

"No it's not, I shouldn't be taking anything out on you two." She hung her head in shame.

"Alright, so devils advocate all the way, but he really does love you—" Lyndsy interjected, wanting to change that particular subject.

"It's so obvious," Luci added.

"And this is murder Mimi, this is serious, he needs you right now," Lyndsy pleaded.

"I'm sure his pregnant fiancée is all he needs," she responded, with more pain and concern than bitterness.

"She's the one who set him up," Luci argued.

"The papers say Aries was never engaged to her." She wouldn't add that the papers were all united in defense of Aries Stark. To the worlds utter belief they were working together helping to solve the case and prove him innocent.

"I don't want to talk about it," Mimi said, and took a sip of her caramel latté.

"You need to stop being so stubborn Mimi,"

"You should at least call him; Marz he isn't doing well," Luci said.

"It's not my business," she said softly, in a way that left nothing open for discussion.

***

Angus and Cruz stood in the door way looking at Lana's living room, bright crimson spots of blood stained her ivory couch, a bloody handprint was on the wall and the initial 'A' on the white carpet, but there was no body and Ms. Lana Lutz was no where to be found.

"Something's not right," Angus said, his senses on overload.

"It's to tidy," Cruz observed, looking at the blood on the ceiling. "Way too obvious," he added.

"This crime is a sham," Angus concluded, his eyes sweeping over the room again.

"I was thinking the same thing," Cruz assented.

"We're going to handle this like we would any other high profile homicide case." Angus turned to Baxter, his blood splatter expert, "what do you see?"

"I see a lot of chaos, the layout of the blood seems more deliberate." He looked at the ceiling than began to take pictures of the blood streaks.

"I need a lot of pictures," Angus said.

"You see something don't you," Cruz stated, knowing his partner well.

"Maybe."

***

"Where were you last night Aries?" Angus asked him.

"At home."

"Was anyone with you?" Cruz asked.

"No."

"You were alone the entire night?" Angus questioned.

"Yes."

"Did you happen to see Ms Lana Lutz last night?" he asked.

"No." Aries looked at Angus, his irritation getting to him "What is this about?"

"Ms. Lutz is missing."

"Missing?"

"Yes and since there was a significant amount of blood at the crime scene-"

"Blood? No," he shook his head, "this isn't right, this is a set up-"

"Until we find Ms. Lutz we have to handle this as a possible homicide, since Ms. Lutz is currently in the center of another high profile homicide case we are treating this very carefully."

"So any information you have could be very beneficial to us and you," Cruz finished.

"I don't have any information; I haven't talked to her since I left," Aries assured.

"Anything, even if it seems insignificant may be very useful."

***

Angus looked at the pictures spread out before him, it was a woman with a strong resemblance to Lana Lutz, but the face was so covered in blood it was impossible to know the truth. But what Angus did know for a fact was the body was definitely in Lana's apartment. The note that was sent was blunt and to the point; it directly accused Aries Stark as Lana Lutz murderer. The person who wrote the note was very careful not to reveal their identity, but did let it be known that they had been hiding in Lana's closet while the murder was being committed. He looked over at the bloody hammer and the bloody knife already marked as evidence, on top of his desk.

"It's just too obvious." Cruz said shaking his head, stalking from one side of the office to the other. Angus was silently studying the evidence before him. His gut told him it was wrong, that the evidence lied. "Aries is not a stupid man, why would he leave 2 different murder weapons from 2 different homicide cases just lying around his house? And why the hell would he take pictures? It's just way too obvious!" Cruz shook his head pacing back and forth venting his frustration.

"I have no choice but to arrest him. The knife is covered in Lana's blood and the hammer is covered in Brad Lowell's blood" "It's not fair; we know he didn't do it!" Cruz stomped his foot like an angry child. This was the one part of his job that he hated. He hated malicious interference, he hated knowing some one was obviously being set up and the evidence said differently. He was young for his field, but he knew a lot, he had a good eye for this, he loved his work. It was the reason Cruz had never been married, never had time for a relationship. He was hell bent on solving crimes since the day he had watched his mother's brutal murder. He had been young and defenseless and lucky to be alive, but he was still plagued with the 'what ifs'. "The truth is always fair, unfortunately it is sometimes disguised so well it's unrecognizable as the truth." he answered vaguely but Cruz, knowing the old man well, knew exactly what he meant.

"So the lie becomes the truth."

"Exactly."

***

Aries sat on a stained mattress, on the bottom bunk bed, staring absently at the stone wall in front of him, wondering how the hell he had sunk to this point in his life. Just a few months ago he had the world in his hand and the moon in his pocket, he had finally found the love of his life, he had a job he actually liked and he was happier than he had ever been since his childhood. Now today he was sitting in a jail cell accused of murder.

"I got a plan." It was Rip on the other side of the jail cell, leaning against the bars. Aries had been lost in his own head since his arrest. He had cut himself off from everyone, but he still allowed Rip to come, even though Aries was past the point of talking.

Aries had always had an over active survival mode embedded deep inside him; even when times got unbearable, he was able to keep himself together until that fight inside of him finally reared its head. But some time during his confinement, he had just given up. It was not his intention, and it wasn't premeditated, but it had happened. He was sick of thinking, sick of caring, sick of worrying, sick of being in love, sick of it all! HE WAS DONE!

"I brought you this, you took the second roll of film, but I still had a role from the first time I saw you at the restaurant," he said, wishing he could do something; he laid the picture on the floor and slid it under the bars. He stood up, putting his hat back on his head. "I'll be back to see you tomorrow." Rip said looking at Aries wishing he would at least respond. He put his hat back on his head than forced himself to walk away from the cell. He left the police station with a mission and a strict agenda. "Just hold on Aries," Rip said as he got into his car and pulled out his thick case file. "I'm going to get you out of there, buddy."

Aries turned his head to look at the picture on the floor than he slowly rose to his feet for the first time in days, and walked over to it. He stood looking down at the two figures embracing. He could make out her long dark waves. He bent down and picked it up, remembering the day that he had her up against the side of the restaurant, kissing her. His heart fell to the pit of his stomach as he looked at them together, wanting desperately to hold her again, to taste her lips. He dropped the picture with an unbearable sadness, unable to look any longer. The pain of their separation and her hatred for him was too painful, and he found himself overwhelmed with it. It hurt worse than being accused of murder.