Risk It All

XIV

Alissa ran into the office to meet the eyes of the team filled with ever-growing panic. She met them in the middle of the room, preparing herself for the information she was going to get. She knew that Shane had kept it low-key over the phone, but she knew that whatever was happening was connected right to Andrei and Brianna Petrovitch.

"Okay, what's going on? How bad is it, what are we looking at?"

"We each got these unmarked envelopes. Yours is on your desk, I got mine on my car windshield. Vicki got hers in her locker at her training gym. Scarlet found hers on her doorstep."

"What's in them? Who did they come from? Why didn't Matt get one?"

"It's all different. We have no idea, there's no handwriting or anything. Matt didn't get one, presumably because they think he's dead. They've all been x-rayed and there isn't anything dangerous in them, so they're safe to open."

Alissa pushed her office door open to reveal a large ran envelope sitting on her desk. She picked it up and brought it out to the center and carefully opened it in front of the team, not sure if she could bear to open it up alone. She reached in and pulled out a few documents, crime scene photos and the portrait of her CI that was killed by the Irish mafia. Alissa's hands shook as she brought them to her mouth to stifle a gasp.

"Alissa, what is it?" Shane asked.

"It's Carly Davis. She was my CI when I was on the Boston force. The mafia found out that she was my informant and killed her." Alissa answered. "What does this all mean?"

"I don't know. I got a bloody knife in my envelope. It's the knife Vanessa used to stab Matt. We confirmed it."

"Why would they do that? That's incriminating evidence."

"They're taking responsibility for the hit. They also think he's dead, so it was probably a taunt to me, laughing at our loss."

"I got a flash drive in mine. We ran it through our secure system, and it's a code I had to break first. Then, it was a bunch of pictures of me, ranging from my wedding day to my most recent fights."

"Scarlet got poker chips in hers. We're still trying to figure that one out. She's in her office on the phone, not telling us anything for now."

"Wait, look, there's more in mine." Alissa spoke, finding pictures in between the pages of the case file as she spread them out on the table next to the contents of everyone else's envelope. One was old, on a Polaroid, one was new.

"What are those?" Shane asked, leaning in and trying to look at the photos at the same time as Alissa.

"Well, one is Vanessa and Matt in his bed, the other is of Matt and someone I don't recognize." Alissa answered, confused, her hands shaking still.

"I do. That's Kelly, his partner back in Brooklyn. I think the Mafia is trying to tell us they know about us, our weakest moments, and they can get to us." Shane answered. 

"Did Matt ever say how Kelly died?" Alissa asked.

"No, I just knew that she had passed. Matt never talked about it. He would seize up every time he heard her name or something."

"Okay. Matt said she died unexpectedly. I'll be back." Alissa said, putting the picture in her pocket and driving back home. Alissa gripped the steering wheel out of nervousness the whole ride home.

The streets were quiet and she was able to get home to Matt quickly, and the one time she wished for traffic, to be slowed down, she didn't get it. Matt heard her car pull up in the driveway and he greeted her on the doorstep in the dim cast of the porch light.