Saving Mr. Player

8. Promise Me That

Amy huffed, entering inside the monitoring room, while Arturo and Fred trailed behind her.

“What’s going on?” She asked, sparing a glance at the damsel who was still lying almost unconscious in the interrogation room.

“Aurora is pregnant.”

Lance’s words seemed irrelevant at that moment, as a suspect being pregnant could be the least of their concerns.

“She and Paul met a month ago, the tabloids confirm…” he showed them the pictures he found on his laptop screen, “… and three weeks later, she visited a gynecologist, one of the guys from my team matched her form a surveillance footage in a clinic. I ran the database of the clinic and found her profile. She is pregnant and that’s why she wanted to meet him and tell him.”

Amy shut her eyes close, a feeling of sorrow washing over her, “So Paul died without knowing she was pregnant.”

“He was an ass, he hooked with some French model and dumped her, even refusing to meet her, when she went…”

“…To his hotel!” Fred completed Lance’s sentence, finally understanding the whole situation. He earned a glare from Arturo who was disappointed in him for wasting their time.

Amy remained silent, looking through the double-sided glass, seeing the helpless condition of the woman, chained to the table and almost feeling the same sense as her.

Something finally clicked her brain.

“We need to get Jess Dean.” She informed Arturo.

“He could be anywhere…” He retorted with his assumptions, “We just can’t find him. Amy he is out there and as they are behind Alessandro Ricci, we need to make this matter a grieve one and we need to let the security and ministry know that we need high level security in this matter.”

“This is not just a case of simple security.” She looked at Arturo. “We finally have a lose end in Carmen Roman’s cartel all thanks to his son’s gambling addiction that made him desperate to attack publicly, hence showing his roots to mafia and murder, for which we then get to now issue a warrant to the European Interpole that would get us Jess Dean, as we have solid evidence against him, who could let us to Gerald Roman, which would eventually and finally lead us to Carmen Roman, the biggest Italian Mafia Lord.”

Amy repeated her point in front of the room, filled with suited high-stake executive and ministers, all seated across the large rectangular table, spread horizontally across the room. The room was darkened and the only light coming was from the projector behind Amy.

The minister of Defense and Interior, and their secretariats were all lined up on the table. The old lady that had grey streaked hair and wrinkled face sat in the middle of those men and kept her expressions affirm, still not buying Amy’s idea. She was Minister of Defense Suarez, a woman who never came to the security offices herself but in such a solemn matter, she showed up herself.

“And how do you suggest, we capture Jess Dean. How long before you think the interpole would get him?” she asked with a stern scowl covering her face.

Amy nodded her head and began scrambling through the projector.

“Grime, the assassin, he was contacted by an outsource, but once he failed his job, Jess got so desperate he contacted him by his own number, showing that as long as Grime is out there, Gerald’s inner circle would be desperate to reach him and hence, we use Grime as a bait. We don’t show his arrest and instead put him in a safe house, where he could be traced and once Jess comes to attack him, we get him, and he could be our key to Gerald.” Amy finished.

Suarez nodded her head, “Okay, so we don’t show we have Grime. What else we do? What do we tell the media that is over our head? And what about the security of those football players. They were just attacked and what makes your think that the players won’t be attacked again?”

Amy nodded with a breathless expression, “They will be attacked again but not all the players. We would get in touch with the interpole and transport all the team to our safe house in Morocco and Dubai.” She suggested to which Suarez also nodded as it was a safe option, hence Amy continued, “But we show that they are out for vacation or gone to their countries while we keep one player with us…”

With that she changed the picture on the projector screen, revealing Alessandro Ricci.

“He is Gerald’s prime target as he is the winning jackpot of the team and obviously one of the…”

 “Best football players in the world.” Suarez completed her sentence, smiling with pride and everyone began whispering, telling stories of Ricci’s great skills in soccer.

“Yes, Lance, my prime tech guy…” Amy diverted the conversation, in order, to keep it serious, “He found out that Ricci was anonymously approached by a manager six months ago, before the beginning of The Champion’s Cup. He traced the source of the manager and found out that he was in contact with Jess, which again shows that it was Gerald’s doing. In other terms, Gerald’s new obsession in terms of gambling is soccer and he would do anything to win at it and the only thing standing his way is Alessandro. I say we keep him in Madrid under our protection and wait for Gerald to get desperate and attack and once he does, we capture him.”

“So, you are suggesting we use everyone as a bait.” Suarez questioned and Amy nodded.

“Okay but we need to keep Alessandro Ricci under strict and high security, we cannot risk him. He is a national treasure.”

Everyone began slowly whispering, wondering if their beloved soccer players would be in danger and no one could risk it, given to the football fever the entire country had.

Amy rolled her eyes, “I will be assigned a special task force, that would keep Alessandro Ricci in a safe place by keeping his guard 24/7. And using that we would lure Gerald into our trap and save Ricci. This is for his own protection as his life is in danger as well.”

“Yes! Ricci’s life is important than anything.” Suarez admitted, to which Amy c****d. She immediately read through Amy’s expressions and cleared her throat, “… and also that we are going to arrest a mafia boss who has been selling drugs and illegal weapons across the Europe.”

“But we must protect Ricci is every situation.” Arturo who sat closer to where Amy stood emphasized.

Amy agreed, nodding her head.

“But what about the media?” Suarez asked, looking at Amy who sighed.

“About that….”

---------------------------------------------------

The large metal door closed loudly, creating a loud noise, to which Amy scrunched, not expecting it to create such a loud noise. The noise echoed across the interrogation room, disturbing an unconscious Aurora out of her sleep.

Her eyes were puffed, due to restlessness and excessive crying and her blurred vision once came to be clear as she looked at Amy, who stood holding two blue mugs with SIF perpendicular logo on them which was an animated lightning torch, as a label of integrity and honesty.

“I am sorry, I didn’t know it would close that loud.” Amy scrunched stepping ahead and passing the mug towards Aurora, who still had her hand tied. “Ops!”

Looking at that, Amy leaned across the table and opened her cuffs.

Aurora was just confused but hungry and tired too and the hot soup in the mug seemed her only solace, so she began sipping on it.

Grabbing the metal chair, Amy sat on it and looked at the innocent beauty. She a had a pretty face which was messed at the moment, but Amy could guess that she was indeed a beauty with a short stature.

“They only had this flavor.” She began to strike a conversation, but Aurora’s head remained dug inside the soup.

“And I didn’t get a coffee given that… you are pregnant.”

This made Aurora look up at Amy with shock. Amy simply looked at her un-brewed coffee and took a sip of the black bitter liquid.

“It’s Paul, isn’t it?” Amy asked subtly still focusing on her coffee.

A small whimper escaped Aurora’s lips and Amy took that as her signal.

“That’s what you wanted to tell him as well.”

Aurora simply nodded her head, keeping her eyes focused on the cup of soup.

“I am sorry.” Amy sighed. “I am sorry, he couldn’t know about his child.”

Aurora continued weeping silently, without saying another word, until she felt her heart was contained with sadness, she sniffed her cries, swiping her tears away.

Sensing the deadly silence in the room, Amy spoke up.

“Paul was killed accidently.”

Aurora’s entire body shook up with the impact of those words. Silent tears crept down her cheeks and Amy searched into her jean’s pocket and picked out a crumpled-up tissue paper, which she hoped was clean and passed it to Aurora.

Amy straightened ahead, keeping her coffee aside and hands on the table.

“We caught the killer…” Amy took in deep breath, preparing to say what she was actually here for, “… he works for a mafia that actually wanted Alessandro Ricci to die but during the game, Paul was running close to Ricci and that’s why he got killed.”

Aurora’s silent cries turned into louder ones, as she realized what had happened to the love of her life. Even though, things were complicated for her and Paul had left her high and dry, but she was still carrying his blood inside her.

“In order to protect Ricci and also to catch the real people behind Paul’s death, we need to project a lie to the media that it was in fact you who killed Paul.”

Aurora’s breath got caught inside her throat, as the color of her face drained listening to Amy’s words. Her lips quivered; fear took over her entire body.

“But…” she fumbled with words, unable to fathom her thoughts.

“I know… I am sorry but I am asking for your help. I will not force you to do this but I need you to help us.”

“How can I help you by becoming the criminal?” Aurora’s voice pitched high and the tension inside Amy’s body grew suddenly. At the same time Richard and Antonio gave a skeptical look to each other.

“For only three to four months. The mafia that we are projecting to catch, I have been working on it for a while and I can assure you in jail, I will make sure they put in protection and custody and once you and your child are safe and we have caught on the criminals who are responsible for Paul’s death, not only will you be released with pride, you will get good compensation from the government, the real story would be revealed and we would make sure that you get your name cleared in front of the whole world and I will make sure that this child gets every civil priority it could.”

Aurora was left silent with Amy’s offer which was more of a plea.

“But my family…”

“This is a high-end operation, I am sorry, but you won’t be able to share anything with anyone not even your family. The reason why we are putting this angle to the story is so that the criminals would know that we don’t know about them and it would make them week to lure them.”

Sensing Aurora’s complete silence, Amy decided to play her card.

“If Paul would’ve known about this child, I am pretty sure the child’s future would have been different, but I promise you to get you the right amount of compensation in terms of money and facilities. We are just doing it to make sure that there are no more causalities, so that Ricci is safe, and we trap the real criminals.”

“I get your point.” Aurora said softly, so that Amy would stop talking for once and she did.

She noticed Aurora’s expressions that stated that she was in deep thoughts and giving Amy’s offer a chance.

Richard and Antonio who were on their toes the entire time in the monitoring room, felt even more anxious.

“What if I say no?” Aurora asked with a serious tone, looking at Amy’s face.

Amy knew she had to gain her confidence, “Then I don’t have a choice and to let you walk free, besides you are guilt-free and have every right to walk out freely.”

Aurora sat back for a moment, making her decision, her own mind was conflicted between being selfish and making the right decision.

Aurora sighed in exhaustion, looking around the entire empty room, her eyes landing on the double-sided mirror, where she could see her own reflection, while Antonio and Richard felt as if she was looking right at them.

“You know…” she spoke, looking at Amy, “… if Paul had known that it was Ricci they want to hurt, he would’ve still died saving him. He worshipped that man like anything, you save Ricci’s life. He is important to the entire world and you catch my child’s father’s murderers. Promise me that.”

A smile of pride settled on Amy’s lip. She extended her hand and gently held Aurora’s, “I promise you. I will bring those to justice who are responsible for Paul’s death.”

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