Minnesota

Lucky

Astounding how it wasn’t a question; at some point, Connie had decided to follow Mark. Now, she made arrangements. What she didn’t know was how much she should tell Nena. This, too, turned out to be already decided.

            “Are you sure you need to leave?” Nena played with pastry crumbs on her plate. Connie nodded.

            “Does it have something to do with the other guy?”

            Connie’s head jerked up. “How do you mean?”

            Nena shrugged. “You’ve been acting weird. Going out, mumbling some lame excuse, coming back, staring at your phone, making phone calls at midnight.” Connie winced. Nena was far more observant than Connie had given her credit.

            “I don’t want to lie to you, but at the same time, it’s best you don’t know. As far as everyone else is concerned, I’m going to New York.” Connie refilled their coffee cups. “Let’s just say that I have business to attend to. And you’re doing better, you’re working, Lars loves doting on you, so you’ll be in good hands.”

            “You know who did this to me?” Nena whispered. Connie didn’t dare look at her. She shook her head.

            “But it doesn’t matter. The guy I’m after deserves everything I can throw at him. If I’m lucky and he is the other guy, perfect. If not, the world will still be a better place.”

            “You’re going to do the same to him as Duane?” Nena asked, but not with shock in her voice. It was awe.

            Connie tapped the table. Haven’t really thought about what I’ll do to him, if anything. She hadn’t allowed herself to think past the initial plan, past the idea that she should follow him. Why else would you follow him, if not to make him pay?

            “Do you have a picture of him?” Nena swirled creamer into her coffee.

            Connie wondered if that would be a good idea.

            But Nena already had her phone out. “What’s his name?”

Connie told her.

            Connie didn’t need Nena to tell her that Mark Praeda was the guy. Seconds after Nena entered the name in the search engine, she paled, began shaking. Then she nodded. Connie put her arm around Nena’s shoulder and held her.

            “Promise you’ll check in?”

            Connie sat back. “That’s it?” She asked.

Nena nodded. “You saved me.” She said, as if it explained everything. And in a way, it did. The world we think we live in is very different from the world as it is.

Connie rubbed her forehead, realizing this might be the last opportunity she had to ask Nena. She didn’t want to cause any more pain, but she had to know.

“Nena, what can you tell me about the camera you mentioned before?”

Nena shivered, burying her head into her hands.

“I’m sorry …” Connie began.

Nena shook her head. “No, don’t be.” She sighed. “It’s actually pretty stupid.” She laughed. “I don’t know when it exactly happened, but it was well before you found me.” She rubbed her eyes, searching for words. “I have these flashes, memories, and they come unexpected. It wasn’t until last week when this one came.”

Nena laughed. “Apparently, the reason the camera, and the phones, weren’t there is because they ran out of power.” She laughed harder. “They thought of everything, except chargers and back-up power supply.

“The two men argued, the other guy yelled at Duane because he didn’t bring a charger, or a power source, so the other guy had to run home to get it charged.”

Connie exhaled. Now that weird text message on Mark’s phone makes sense.

***

Thomas, on the other hand, wasn’t as easily convinced that her departure was necessary. She met him at the Greek restaurant where they had their first date.

“I don’t understand, why do you have to leave?” To him, it was too sudden.

“I told you, I’m going to New York to see my son.” She sighed. “Nena is doing better. Seth is getting anxious because his bride is supposed to be coming soon. Except there seems to be an issue with her Visa. She’s from China. So, I want to go and see if I can help.” She shrugged.

Thomas fidgeted with his fork and Connie wondered what he was thinking. Is he glad I’m leaving? Did he think I’d move to Minneapolis for him? She suddenly realized she hadn’t defined their relationship. You slept with him a grand total of three times, and you call that a relationship?

And that’s when she realized for the first time that her internal dialogue had been in two distinct voices: the ‘I’ voice and the ‘You’ voice. She tried to remember when the split started. So, my mother did pass her Muse on to me. Connie laughed. Maybe I’m going mad. It doesn’t feel as weird as I thought it would. She laughed harder.

Thomas glared at her. And now he thinks you’re making fun of him. You really do have a way with men.

She bit her lip and scooted closer to him. “I’m not laughing at your question.” She folded her hand into his, wondering what she should tell him. “I’m sorry that I haven’t thought about how it would affect you.” She paused. “I guess I’m surprised that it does.” She bit her lip again.

“You think I do this all the time? Pick up women?”

She shook her head. She hadn’t really thought about that, either. “No.” She said more firmly than she felt. “I think we’re together because we both needed it. And I don’t want to leave without knowing we’re okay. But I was never supposed to stay long in Minneapolis in the first place. I did because of Nena. I guess it’s up to us how we play this.” She leaned her chin on his shoulder. You’re leaving to stalk Mark Praeda and you’re wondering if you should keep in touch with Thomas, a police officer? She sighed.

Thomas leaned his head against hers. “I’m not asking you to move to Minneapolis. I guess I’m okay with you leaving. But I do want to know that we’re together.” He sighed. “I guess I had it figured that you don’t leave until I can take a vacation and accompany you to New York.” Connie raised her eyebrows. “Guess I should have run this by you first, shouldn’t I?”

She nodded.

“Doesn’t matter, even if we had planned it. Our department is short staffed, and I wouldn’t be able to leave.” She glanced at him. Is he pouting?

She kissed his cheek. “How about we do our thing, you do your job, I help my son, and we’ll talk and figure this out? I mean with technology the way it is we can see each other whenever we want. I won’t stay in New York forever and maybe I can stop by after?”

He smirked, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her. “Well, I believe this would be my first long-distance relationship.”

She laughed. “Mine, too.” Her stomach growled.

He nuzzled against her ear. “We better feed you first.” His husky voice suggested. She blushed.

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” She admitted.

Thomas glanced at her. “What have you been up to?” She shrugged and made up a vague excuse; the café, Nena, phone calls. And to deflect off herself, she returned the question.

“Getting the file ready for the FBI.”

She deflated as if he had punched her in the stomach. Luckily, the waiter rescued her when he arrived with their food. Steam rose from the plates, smelling of onions, garlic and yogurt sauce.

“Anything new?” She hungrily dipped a piece of fresh bread into the tzatziki.

“Funny thing, actually.” He leaned back, chewing, gazing at her. When he looks at me like that, I think he knows. It wasn’t the first time she thought that. And as before, it took all her willpower not to flinch under his gaze. He must have a record at getting criminals to confess with that stare. She certainly felt the urge to confess everything.

“We review the files when we get them ready for transfer. Sometimes, we get lucky and stumble across something that didn’t mean anything at the beginning, but then it falls into place.”

He wiped his fingers on the napkin. “I realized we hadn’t listened to the 911 operator tapes, the one that called it in, so I figured, give it a go.” His gaze held and Connie’s fingers began shredding a piece of bread. Thomas leisurely slid the Souvlaki off the skewer.

You forgot they record every call to 911. You didn’t really disguise your voice. No, but it had rained heavily, thunder in the distance and she hadn’t really thought about that. They have technology these days that can compare voices. Maybe he already has done yours. Connie’s fingers froze. Nonsense. There is no way anyone would even consider recording your voice, in secret, then having some backdoor office staff run a comparison.

She wanted to ask him what he found, beg him to get to it, but she was afraid her voice would fail her, give her away.

Thomas sighed. “To be honest, I doubt we would have gotten anything useful off the 911 tape anyway. But as it is, there was a thunderstorm that afternoon and it fried a lot of stuff, including the recordings for that day.” He drenched his meat with tzatziki and bit into it.

Connie forgot to breath. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?

He grinned lopsided at her. “It probably was a homeless person, calling it in, but I would have liked talking to him or her. Maybe they saw something.” He shrugged, dipping another piece of meat into the sauce. “But the storm knocked out power to most of the city, a lot of recordings, traffic cameras and calls, got lost and because back-ups are on time delays, none of it can be retrieved.” He chuckled. “And now the city of Minneapolis must answer to the Federal Government because they received millions of dollars several years ago, for the sole purpose of updating their technology, but they haven’t gotten around to it.

“I’d hate to be the one that has to explain that one.”

Constantina leaned back, a mix of emotions running amok. Lucky you. She exhaled with relief.