She Will Be Mine

Chapter 4: Charlie

I was waiting in the front lobby of the forensics office when the results came back. I grabbed the large folder and was up at Murphy's office before the clock had even moved one minute. "I have the results," I told him as I entered without knocking.
"Open the thing already," he gestured towards the chair before his desk.
"Chief, you do it." I threw it onto his desk before he could object. Without another word, the envelope was ripped open and the results lay on the table.
Negative after negative after negative. Not one worker matched with the DNA of the glove. "Damnit!" I shouted. I paced up and down the length of the room.
"Hold on Charlie." The Chief looked up at me. "I found a match, but it ain't good."
As I looked at the sheet, one positive result glared up at me. Green letters lined up next to a name that was my last choice. Danny Streisand, positive match. "Chief, this cannot be right. Danny?" Murphy's eyes were as grim as mine. "Why?"
"We may never know why Charlie. But we know who is doing this to Desiree. I am a lost as you as to why Danny would do this to her. The four of you were like a band of musketeers, the unbeatable quartet. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Danny had a mean bone in his body. But results don't lie. We need to do something with this information," reality began to sink into me as I thought about what Murphy was saying. He was right; I just didn't want to think that he was. Danny had always been like a brother to me, and it was a betrayal that cut right to my heart.
My phone buzzed and pulled me out of my trance. The number was blocked and when I opened the text I had received my blood rang cold.
"Chief," the words would barely come out of my mouth. "Look at this," anger blazed in his eyes. ​
The text was compiled of a picture and a short sentence. It was a picture of Desiree, tied to a bed, blood running down her wrists and her ankles. She had a black eye and a bloody lip. Her shoulder looked contorted and swollen. Underneath the picture were words that made me hate the man that called himself Danny Streisand.

If you want to see your Desiree alive again, then you will listen and wait for my call in 1 hour. Be alone Charlie or Des will pay.
Danny
* * *
Danny glowered over Desiree as he sent the text message. Phase one is complete, he thought to himself as he gathered his supplies. He had a gun, rope, bullets, black clothing, handcuffs, and a special device that he had been working on for months. A homemade bomb lay in the folds of cloth in the box, and when his plan went successfully, he would let it detonate. The thing could incinerate anything in a 5 mile radius, and it would do what he needed it to do. His training as a Private Investigator had made him ready for his final mission. He would execute the phases perfectly, and when the thing was over, Desiree would be his forever.​
* * *
My hands were shaking as I waited for that call. I wanted Des to be safe, but I didn't know how to protect her when she was with that monster of a friend. I had trusted Danny with my life on many occasions, and he had saved it. I had saved his life over the years, and we had been family together. What could he possibly have against all of us to put us through this kind of hell? What had we ever done to him to deserve this? I had to get Desiree back. I had to. She was the one person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and yet I was too cowardly to tell her how I felt. When this is all over, I am going to tell her. Life is too short to not say anything. Thoughts flickered through me as I waited for the phone to ring.
The chief had left me in the interrogation room so I would be alone like Danny had stated. Cameras and recorders would hear the entire conversation, and while the call was taking place, satellites would narrow down on the location of the phone transmitter. Even if we were only on the phone for 1 minute, we would still have the location of Danny, and hopefully Des would be with him.
* * *
Danny walked out to the porch deck, Bourbon in one hand, gun in the other. He planned to let Charlie sweat and wait for the call for a little while longer. It was more fun this way. He sat down on his chair and relaxed, enjoying the simplicity of the whole thing. They would never see it coming. Even when they caught him unawares, he still had the upper hand. And they call themselves the Private Investigators of New York. Danny laughed to himself and closed his eyes. They will never see it coming. As he relaxed into the chair and dozed off, he smiled as he imagined the victory that would come tomorrow.