Blood & Water

Chapter 15

Angel watched, bewildered by what he was seeing, as Carrie began to outline a brutal attack that turned to murder. He almost didn't recognize the woman he was looking at, he didn't think she had it in her.

"I was cleaning up," she explained. "And I heard the back door then I went down."

Heimler looked at the gash on her head. "Do you remember what he hit you with?"

"He pushed me into the sink," she explained. "I think? I guess he grabbed my head," she added. "Kevin and EZ were upstairs, and that's really all I remember until I had a fucking gun in my face."

"Jimenez heard them on the baby monitor in the office," EZ jumped in. "He went down, told me to stay back in case it was," EZ trailed off.

"Work related," Heimler knew what he was getting at.

"Yeah," EZ nodded. "Then I heard the first shot so I came down. He was already on the floor. I didn't get there in time," he said, being purposely vague but not faking his sorrow.

"How many were there?"

"I only saw two," EZ said and Carrie nodded along with him as she cried.

Heimler was trying to keep his focus, to think more like an agent than a friend, but he was struggling.

"Did you see any tattoos?" He asked. "Hear their voices?"

"No," EZ and Carrie said together.

"Then what happened?" Heimler asked distractedly.

"When I came down there was the second shot, I saw them heading back into the kitchen. I fired one off when they went for Carrie and they ran."

"Fucking cowards," Carrie added caustically, and she meant it. The word stung Angel, he could see how furious and hurt she was, how deeply she hated the person who killed Kevin.

"Did you see what way they went? What they were driving?"

"No," EZ said, seeming ashamed of his lack of information. "I was trying to help Carrie."

"I'm so sorry," Heimler said, pulling Carrie into another hug. "We're gonna find em'," he promised her.

"You don't really have to guess, do you?" Carrie asked him. "You know who this was, who it had to be."

"I think we all can safely assume it had something to do with KJ's current investigation," Heimler said vaguely.

'I already know," Angel snapped at Heimler when he said it. "Stop dancing around it."

"Let me make a call," Heimler's voice cracked as he began losing the grip on his composure.

"Wait," she sighed. "There's something else."

"What?" He asked, preparing for the worst.

"Kevin told you we split, right?"

Heimler nodded. "Yeah, he said you were separated."

"I need to be transparent here," Carrie whimpered. "Angel and I are seeing each other, Kevin knew I was dating someone but he didn't know who. We dated when I was in college and sparked again. I didn't want it to come out later and look suspicious."

Glaring at Angel now, Heimler slowly nodded. "Good to know, thank you. I have to call Bowen. We need to work the scene, we've lost too much time already."

He stepped outside, having nowhere else to go without being slapped in the face with blood and gore and the body of one of his close friends. It allowed Carrie, Angel and EZ time alone and Angel made use of it.

"What the fuck are you doing?" He asked her angrily.

"Trying to save the only family I have left," she answered him back harshly. "If I can somehow guilt them into letting EZ out of his deal I will. Without this story, Angel, suspicion would be on you two. I'm not losing anyone else."

Angel felt tears well in his eyes, guilt surging even stronger now. "This is dangerous for you, Carrie."

"I'll take my chances," she whimpered.

Carrie was protecting Angel in more ways than she even knew, but he knew and he was never more in love or more grateful.

A few minutes later an ambulance raced down the street and paramedics entered the house with less urgency than usual. They already knew Kevin was dead, Heimler told them as much, so they laid a sheet over his body and then paid their attention to Carrie.

"We're going to take you in," one said, "Just to be on the safe side. Your blood pressure is high and that wound may need a few stitches."

"I don't think," she started but Angel interrupted her.

"Car, go," he spoke softly.

"Will you come with me?" She asked him, terrified for a million different reasons.

Angel agreed instantly.

"I can take Joey," EZ offered. "He'll be safe with me in the yard, you don't have to worry."

Carrie looked at Angel and he nodded. "Better than having him in the ER with us all night."

"Okay," she sighed heavily. "I'm just... I'm really tired," she said, beginning to cry again.

"I'm sure you'll get some sleep in the hospital," the paramedic said as some attempt to comfort her.

Carrie looked at Kevin's body one last time and closed her eyes, her heart breaking once again.  She cried as the paramedics helped her into the stretcher while Angel and EZ spoke in hushed voices.

"What was that?" EZ asked Angel. "What the hell is she doing? This isn't Carrie."

Angel shook his head. "I think it is, little brother. We just never had to see it before. Desperation makes people do fucked up shit," Angel looked at EZ accusingly.

"Angel," he huffed. "It wasn't-"

"It was selfish and desperate," Angel snapped. "And now Coco knows you and cuz," he gestured to the body, "Had some shit going on."

"He knows?" EZ looked at Angel, now terrified of another risk.

"I'm gonna handle it," Angel assured EZ.

Heimler and Bowen entered the house with the coroner moments later, ignoring the Mayans in the corner until they finished their conversation.

"Sorry to interrupt," Bowen said, very obviously not sorry. "We're going to need you to wait until the crime scene investigators get here so they can process you."

"Me?" Angel wore his usual goofy costume fused expression. "I'm going with Carrie, I got here after shit went down."

"You have blood all over you," Bowen said.

"From Carrie," he explained. "She was holding him, grabbed me," Angel gestured to Heimler. "You gonna process that bloody mess?"

"I have to preserve what I can," Bowen explained.

"It's all contaminated," EZ wasn't telling Bowen, Heimler or even Angel anything they didn't already know.

"We just have to make it look good," Heimler said quietly.

"I'm going," Angel said forcefully. "I'm not leaving her alone, not after this."

Bowen and Heimler shared a look and the former then nodded. "I'll send a tech to the hospital, both you and Mrs. Jimenez will need to be processed and give DNA and print samples."

"Alright," Angel agreed.

"I'll come by for Joey when I'm done here," EZ told Angel.

Angel just nodded and left, although he was aching to know just what the three of them would be talking about in his absence.