Framed [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8

Dad is cooking an egg as I enter the kitchen.
"Morning, Isabelle's teaching at a summer school today." Dad smiles.

"Okay." I look at his clothes. "Did you go running?"

"Five miles."

I nod and pour a bowl of cereal.

"Do you want to do something today?" He asks.

"Like what?"

"Lunch?"

"Sure."

"How about the diner?" I nod with a smile.

I clean out the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. We talk about what's been happening since I came to my aunts. I leave out the lake and Jake.

Dad's phone rings. It's Detective Dame. He shoos me away and I move my feet on the bottom step to pretend I'm going up stairs.
All I hear is no sir, yes sir. Such a helpful conversation. Then he says something helpful.
"No, I assure you Olivia does not know anything about the gang." Gang? "Uh, the tattoo is by the ear."

Jake?

"That is correct." What's correct?

The conversation changes to baseball, so I sneak up stairs.

I pace around my room.
1.) robbery, almost accused.
2.) Jake claims he was trying to stop the robbery
3.) Jake admits to stalking me
4.) Jake frames me during a drug bust
5.) dad always on duty when I'm arrested
6.) gang & tattoos

I really hope Casey gets those results to me soon.

I text Charlotte and Alex what dad discussed. They agree that Jake is involved in a gang. Maybe.

I only need to run into him 'on accident' again ask him about the tattoo.

Dad jolts me out of my thoughts around noon. Lunch, maybe I could squeeze some information out of him.
•••
The waitress places my salad in front of me. It's just one of days you get a craving for salad... or maybe that's just me...

"Dad, remember when you did some undercover work with Detective Dame?"
He nods.

"Could you tell me about that again?"

"Why?"

"I don't know. I just feel like hearing that story." It is a good story.

"Okay. Well as you know, you were only seven. Mike needed some help with a case. Since I was new to the town, the gang Mike was investigating knows every officer, detective, and forensic like the palm of their hand. So I went in."

"What was the gang again?"

"Salvation. Which is ironic, because they will kill anyone who interferes."

I sip my pop and he continues.

"My first day, I met up with the leader, SM. He let me hang around the gang for the day. My cover was that I just left a gang the other side of town, their rival. And I wanted revenge. The first day, nobody paid attention. They asked me about what the rival gang was planning, etc."

"What was the rival gang?"

"Dead Mercy."

The waitress places a plate with a basic turkey sandwich in front of dad and a hamburger in front of me.

"So, after a week, SM let me join. I went through a full initiation." He points to a scar on him hand. "Then they got to work and we planned the next hit. But SM was suspicious of me and didn't give me the full details."

I pick up my hamburger and everything falls off. We both laugh. Dad took the opportunity to change the subject. I know the rest of the story by heart. I look around the diner. No sign of Jake.

Two old women knitting at a booth diagonal, a man in a suit reading a newspaper, and a mom with two children.

"Two questions. What did the gang wear? Like their symbol and stuff. And what did SM do when he found out you never were part of Dead Mercy?" I know dad almost got killed, but what did Dead Mercy do once they found out dad was a cop? So I ask that question too.

"Dead Mercy had a tattoo behind the ear, but it's changed since I was undercover. Salvation, had a tattoo on the shoulder, but easily covered by a tank top. Dead Mercy and Salvation secretly met up one day and discussed how to get rid of me. But luckily that day I was with Dame when we put the clues together. The Dead Mercy gang got out, but Salvation was all arrested."

I nod and put my burger back together, then bite in.

"Olivia, two things I've learned from it was: sometimes you'll hear or see things you wish not to know. Another is sometimes you have to do drastic things you'd never actually dream of doing."

That stuck with me.

Dad looks at the man entering the diner as if he's a good friend. But I've never seen him before. I'd ask but somethings telling me not to.