Dorian Mystery - Art of Murder

Chapter XI

Dominic and I went to the Café where we met last time. We made sure she entered first and took her usual spot to make sure she won't run away. We made our entrance and took our seats.

Carmen was surprised of this unusual encounter.

'I thought you will be coming alone. Hi, I am Carmen. Pleasure to meet you.' She said and lend her hand to make acquaintance with Dominic.

'I am Dom. And I think we need to talk about something, Mrs. Carmen. Or shall I call you Mrs. Denise?' He said and shook her hand holding it in a pleasant romantic way, but it could've been seen that he was holding it tight to not let her go. This guy was smart.

'I am sorry, but I don't know any Denise.' She smiled at me and tried to pull back her hand, but it was too late. He already got her in the trap.

'Let's not play this game, girl. I know you and if you don't talk, I'll make you talk and oh, baby, it will be so funny doing it.' He said in a romantic way to her.

Now I understood perfectly why he's the Boss there. He can make threats without rising any suspicions, can get a hostage in front of everyone and trap in people without even people noticing.

'Please let me go.' She asked him trying to release her hand.

'I want you to talk first and give me what you took from me, honey.'

'Or what?'

Her tone of voice shown a big inflection. It wasn't her voice anymore. It belonged to someone much older than she looks like. He approached her and whispered something in her ear. I could not hear exactly, but seems that she was getting panicked.

'Well what should it be? Are you gonna do it or...' He continued after putting himself back to the original position.

In the end she sighed and gave up. She moved the other hand to her purse and tried to get something, but never took it on the table.

'Let me go or I will shoot you.' She smiled at Dominic and I could hear the gun getting triggered under the table.

Dominic encouraged her to shoot and to see how she will be turned into a sieve by the people in here. She looked around and that's when I've noticed that the so called staff was actually replaced by his grunts passing by here and there. I looked at the customers and was able to recognize other grunts. I was amazed of this plot twist. He managed to catch her into an impossible trap.

'Smart.' She admitted and put the gun back in her purse and handed him a photo with a little girl.

'Thank you.' Dominic told her gratefully and put the photo in his pocket.

'Ok, so what's going on here?' I interfered.

'Seems that you were right, Detective. We caught on the right person. I will tell you the information that you need real quick. Now, Denise, tell us more about this Artist you're working with.'

'I am sorry, but I can't.' She whispered.

Denise was looking at him scared, but seems the thought of saying anything about the Artist was scarier for her than Dominic. She pulled the gun real quick and shot one of the personnel grunts and that's when the fires started.

Everything was chaotic as everyone was shooting at her direction until Dominic said to stop the fire. I was hiding under the table to avoid being shot. When the fires stopped all of a sudden it was too late. She was already long gone. And no, not gone for good. She was able to run away and seems that Dominic was shot in the shoulder to let her go.

I took Dominic and the guy that was shot to the hospital. Fortunately we got there in time, we managed to save the life of that grunt. Shrevenport came right away as he was informed right away I was involved into this and looked disappointed when he connected the dots and realized I was involved with the mobs.

'I am sorry, Shrevenport, but thanks to Dominic I was able to get closer to the Artist. Now I know who is working with him and we will get her.'

'This is my final warning, Dorian. Don't do this ever again.'

I understood his message right away.

I checked on the grunt whose name was Marcelo. He was already feeling better. Dominic came near me. The doctors were able to treat his wound and now it was well patched and good to go.

'Thank you, Dorian.' Dominic said again watching Marcelo resting.

'For?'

'Instead of calling the police or ambulance, you took us in your car and lead us as fast as you could to save him. That's something I will never forget.'

'Well, let me know one thing.' I replied to him.

'You want to know why is that photo so important?' He whispered.

I approved by nodding my head and Dominic told me that that photo belonged to his daughter that went missing 15 years ago. That was the reason he joined the Mafia, because only through underground connections he can get the information he needs. The police was not able to find any clues and the case was moved to cold cases.

'This picture helps me remembering her face and gives me hope that one day I will find her and the one who took her will pay for this.'

I told him not to give up on his dream of finding her and I was ready to leave when he grabbed my hand.

'You're playing a dangerous game, Detective.'He whispered to me.

I was just waiting for him to finish to leave, but what followed then was much worse than what I was expecting.

'The Artist has connections everywhere. He's a genius when it comes of everything. The Underground Mafia has only stories about him, but not information. They say he is able to play with your mind to the point you are going crazy. Some say he is planning ahead for the next 20 years, others say that he is a hacker and knows exactly what are you doing or saying. No one knows his identity, but you need to be careful. This one is a nasty one.'

So underground rumors say that he is planning ahead for the next 20 years? Does that mean that he killed Junior's parents only just as a part of his plan? But why he spared Junior? Was it because he was to play a good role in his game?

I left the hospital and called Shrevenport on my way to Junior's house. He was a little bit confused on why I wanted to know about Junior's school, high-school and university life, but he will be working on it. Arriving home, I checked through everywhere to see if I can find any photo albums or something that can lead me to the place he studied. The only thing I was able to find were photos of his family, but no school photos or anything else.

Few hours later I received via email Junior's file. He grew up at St. Honor Orphanage where he studied everything too until he turned 18 when he was recruited by Secret Services based on his application. Seems that his application was a very commended one and people needed someone like him, but question is how he found out that Secret Services were looking for someone new right at that moment?

I needed to talk with someone from the Orphanage who was there when this happened.