Twisted Intentions - Part 2

Little Adrian was sitting all alone in a corner of the park and watching Mrs. Gustavo offering the baked cookies to the boys. She noticed him and walked over.

"Hola allí, Hijo!!" Mrs. Gustavo smiled as she sat next to him on the bench "you are new here, aren’t you? Cuál es tu nombre?"

Adrian kept quiet.

She looked at him patiently, smiled and said, "So, you don’t talk much. Huh?? No problema, Acqui." She offered him the cookies, "take one."

Bitch!! He mumbled under his breath and got up without looking at her and ran away.

The next day, dressed in a beige skirt and a white blouse with a scarf around her neck, she sat next to him on the bench again.

"Hola Am back. You did not take a cookie yesterday, I guess you were not hungry . " She said smiling and looked at Adrian observing him. He was wearing blue jeans and striped shirt. There was a blank expression on his face and soon after she sat next to him he twitched nervously in his seat and looked down at his shoes.

She continued, "I was hoping you would try one today, so, I brought some for you." She opened the container and offered the cookies again. The smell of freshly baked cookies hit his senses and his mouth watered. Slowly he extended his hand and grabbed one cookie and then he ran from there. Mrs. Gustavo watched with amusement.

As time went by, he remained reclusive as if he had decided that he did not need anyone in his life. But Mrs. Gustavo was not the kind of woman who gave up easy when she saw a challenge, and a challenge he was.

One day, as usual at the park, Adrian was sitting on the bench watching the other kids play soccer. He watched as a short and chubby boy chased the ball towards the goal, he must have been a few yards away when another boy, taller and athletically built cut in and kicked the ball with all his strength. The ball flew in the air, landed a few meters away from Adrian, bounced and hit his left foot. He looked at the ball and then towards the boys who were now running towards him and then with a slight jerk of his left leg he pushed the ball behind him in another direction, it rolled a few meters away into the woods behind him. The boys approached led by the tall one that had kicked the ball He wore a blue-stripped jersey with the name “Pablo” printed on the front. He looked mean and had a scratch on his right arm suggesting rough play.

He walked over to Adrian and growled, "Why did you do that?"

Adrian kept quiet staring directly into the mean boy’s eyes.

Pablo paused a moment and then repeated himself.

Silence.

"I guess he is deaf!" he said mockingly to his teammates standing behind him. All of them roared with laughter.

Pablo stopped laughing as he noticed that this was not affecting Adrian at all. He lost his temper and moved closer to Adrian and poked at his shoulder, "You are a smart one eh? I saw you kick the ball away. You are messing with the wrong guy." With that he caught hold of Adrian’s collar and pulled him to his feet.

Adrian’s expression turned grim that instant, his eyes blazing with rage. He caught Pablo’s wrists and jerked them away with all his strength. Pablo stumbled a bit and steadied. He raised his had to punch Pablo, aiming at his nose, when through the corner of his eye he noticed Mrs. Gustavo getting out of her car. He lowered his hand and took one step backwards. Pablo did not think twice as to why Adrian drew back and used this opportunity to make his move. He quickly raised his fist and with all his might rammed it into Adrian’s nose. He writhed in pain and crumpled to the floor. His head was spinning as fast as the wheels of a car in motion.

"Get away from him, you rascals." The boys heard a voice scream at them from behind.

Adrian heard scuffling of feet as the boys ran away. He then felt a warm hand on his arm.

"Eres Fino, Hijo?"

He still felt a little disoriented and it took him a little while to realize that the voice he heard belonged to Mrs. Gustavo. With one hand over his nose, blood running down over his mouth, he looked up at her and then made an effort to stand up.

"Oh Mi Dios, you are bleeding," she exclaimed grabbing her purse. She pulled out a tissue and placed it over his nose.

"Come, Ill take you home. " With that she caught hold of his arm and gently guided him towards her car. Her house was 10 minutes away and they drove quietly all the way.

Upon entering the house, she directed him towards the kitchen and helped him onto a chair and took out a first aid box from one of the cupboards. She looked at Adrian’s nose, it was still bleeding and also turning into a weird shade of purple. She put some antiseptic lotion on a piece of cotton and cleaned the blood. Adrian flinched in pain.

"Steady," she said and continued to clean the blood of his nose. She handed him a fresh piece of cotton and asked him to hold it to his left nostril and tilted his head backwards. She then helped him off the chair, his head still tilted backwards and one hand holding up the cotton, taking him to the living room. She helped him lie down and removed the cushions so that his head stayed at the same level, to stop the bleeding and then sat on the couch facing him.

"What happened?" she asked.

He was quiet for a moment and then spoke softly, hardly audible at first.

"As usual, I was sitting at the park watching the boys play. One boy kicked the ball towards me and then they all came over. They made fun of me and called me names. Then that big boy punched me"

"Just like that? For no reason? I know those boys. How could they just hit you without reason?" She sounded agitated.

"I don’t know" he replied.

"Hmm," she said as she took a deep breath."Well, lets forget about that, I’ll deal with the boys later," she realized that he was in pain and did not want to pursue this further. As it is he kept to himself and she saw this as an opportunity to break the ice.

Getting up from the couch, she said, "Well, you rest for a while, I will go get you some milk and cookies." And she walked away towards the kitchen.

Adrian lay on the couch, thinking about what happened at the park. He did not know what compelled him to push the ball away like that, but it felt good. Those stupid boys, I hate them! he thought to himself. Then his mind diverted to Mrs. Gustavo and how she brought him home and tended to his bleeding nose. He did not know what to make of it. No one had saved him or taken care of him like this before. He had disliked Mrs. Gustavo too. He had thought she was a pretentious bitch who tried to be too sweet with everyone, but realization dawned on him that she was naturally good at heart or she would not have brought him home and nursed his nose. He felt something mixed for her, confusion and amazement along with happiness and relief at her compassion.

She came back with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk and placed it on the table in front of him. He got up, the bleeding had stopped, placed the cotton covered with dried blood on the table and looked at Mrs. Gustavo.

And then he smiled. A smile that lit up his face and he said with all sincerity, "Gracias!"

She smiled back knowingly and offered him the cookies.


The sound of the doorbell brought Adrian back to the present. He got off the couch and walked towards the door and opened it.

"Buenos Diaz, Officer. Come in," he said stepping aside to let Officer Sanchez in.

It was noon and the temperature outside was as hot as an oven.

"Ah, gracias! This heat is going to kill me one day." he declared as he walked in and set his hat on the side table.

"I’ll get you some lemonade." Adrian offered while closing the door and walking past the officer to the kitchen.

"Bless you, Hijo" he said gratefully as he sat on the couch.

Adrian returned a little while later carrying a jug of lemonade and two glasses on a tray. He poured them and offered it to Sanchez. He gulped down the whole thing and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Any new leads?" asked Adrian.

It had been a week since the murder and there had been no progress in the investigation. Adrian was clearly getting frustrated with that.

"I think so," he said scratching his head and taking out his little notebook. "I visited Mrs. Gutierrez earlier this morning"

"And?"

"Well, she told me that she came over for lunch like everyday but on that particular day there was an unexpected visitor"

"An unexpected visitor?" Adrian looked intrigued. Finally there was some movement in the investigation.

"Si, it was the gardener, Diego. Apparently he claimed that Mrs. Gustavo did not pay him for the job he did the previous two weeks and wanted her to pay up. There was an argument that followed and Mrs. Gutierrez even mentioned that Diego almost attacked Mrs. Gustavo"

"That imbecile, I’m going to twist his arm out of its sockets!" he exclaimed in rage.Then as if realizing that what he just said sounded inappropriate he apologized.

Officer Sanchez looked at him puzzled. This outburst seemed most unusual. However he shrugged it off owing it to the fact that Adrian was prone to get hyper at times when it concerned his grandmother.

"That’s fine, Hijo. I understand your frustration but you need to stay calm and not judge anyone until we have sound evidence."

"Si, I am sorry. So, what is your next step?"

"I will pay Diego a visit. But before that what can you tell me about him."

"Well, we hired him about two months back. I did not like him much but he came highly recommended by the neighbors. Besides …"

"Why did you not like him?" Officer Sanchez interrupted

"He came across as rude and arrogant. He once came to work with a bruised eye and when I asked him how he got it, he told me to mind my own business. Later I found out from one of the other gardeners that he was drunk at a local bar downtown and had a fight with the bartender because he refused to serve him more alcohol."

"Hmm. Interesting. What is his surname?"

"I think its Mendez."

"Okay" Officer Sanchez scribbled the name in his notebook."Great. I shall see if I can get some background on him."

He closed the notebook and put it in his pocket and started to get up when he noticed a framed picture on the side table. It was of a very pretty girl and Adrian embracing each other. He had not noticed the picture earlier.

Adrian saw Officer Sanchez looking at the picture and said, "Oh, that’s my girlfriend, Nieve."

"Very pretty," he said as he picked up the picture to have a closer look. "Have not seen her around?"

"Um, well she was in Barcelona for a year studying Architecture. She is back now and has been a little busy."

"Aah! Brilliant. Beautiful and intellectual. Very good." Officer Sanchez smiled and patted Adrian on the back.

"You must introduce her to me." He continued as he walked towards the door and picked up his hat.

"Si." Adrian replied and opened the door to let the officer out.

"Hasta Luego Adrian"

Adios.


Diego got out of his car and slammed the door. He was a well built and muscular man in his early twenties and was dressed in a pair of worn out jeans and a black shirt that was soaked in sweat and stuck to his body like a plastic wrap clings to any surface. His shoes were covered with mud and blades of grass indicating that he had just got back from a job. His left arm was tattooed in the design of an angry serpent, its forked tongue colored in blazing red. He walked over to the back of the car and took out his gardening tools from the trunk and then disappeared into the building.

Officer Sanchez watched him walk into the three floor, worn down apartment building. It had taken him over two hours to find this building in downtown Santa Ana, 4 miles from the posh locality in which he lived. It was surrounded with similar looking apartment buildings on both sides of the street, worn down by the intense heat that beats down relentlessly throughout the year. Paint was worn off and cracks on the buildings suggested poor or maybe no maintenance at all. There was graffiti on the walls. Abuses and profanity in Spanish splattered all over. Officer Sanchez never had the need to come here earlier, however he had heard from other officers about gang wars and murders from this area. This was clearly an unsafe neighborhood to be in. But he was here to do his job. Back at the station, Sanchez did a background check and found that Diego had a past one wouldn’t be proud of. He had been behind bars on account of Petty theft, small time fights after getting drunk and gang wars. Sanchez was sure that Diego had something to do with Mrs., Gustavo’s murder. All he needed now was proof to put him behind bars for all eternity.

Inside the building, Diego got into his one room apartment, dropped his tool bag and walked over to the refrigerator and took out a can of San Miguel. He took a big gulp and walked over to the TV and switched it on.

Just as he sat down, the doorbell rang.

He uttered a curse and went to open the door.

"What do you want?" he growled at Officer Sanchez.

"Diego Mendez?" Sanchez asked flashing his badge.

Diego grumbled again and with a flick of his head gestured him to enter.

"What did I do this time?" he asked sarcastically

Sanchez ignored his tone and said, "That’s what I am here to find out."

Sanchez walked over to the closest chair he could find. He looked around the room and noticed that hygiene was not one of Diego’s favorite words. The room was scarcely furnished. There was a open kitchen to the left and a living room to the right. Right across the main door was the bedroom and across the kitchen was a bathroom. The living room was in a mess, as if it hadn’t be cleaned in months. Clothes strewn all over on a old and worn out couch. Cans of beer everywhere. Boxes of take out food lay by the sink. There was an odd smell in the air, something like a concoction of dead rodents, rotten vegetables and beer. Diego seemed oblivious to the smell.

He found a chair that looked cleaner than the rest, to his right and sat on it.

Diego followed behind him and walked over to the couch, pushing the clothes aside and sat down.

"Do you know Mrs. Gustavo?"

"Yeah, that old bag ,she refused to give me my dinero. What about her?"

"She was murdered a week ago."

"Really? That’s bad. What does that have to do with me?" He said flatly.

"Well, you were the last one to see her alive the day she was murdered. And according to Mrs. Gutierrez, her neighbor, you and Mrs., Gustavo had an argument where you almost attacked her."

"Hah!" Diego smirked."What nonsense. Both the old hags are crazy! I was merely asking her for what was rightly mine. That old bitch owed me money for two weeks of work I did. The first time I went to her she said she would give it to me the next week, as she was low on cash and then she conveniently forgot about it."

"So? You raised your hand to hit her?" he asked accusingly

"Are you loco? The old hag looked like she’d fall if you just poked her with a finger" He guffawed at his own joke.

Officer Sanchez stared at Diego with a grim expression, not finding anything amusing in what he just said.

"Where were you the evening of September 5th, after your little confrontation with Mrs. Gustavo?"

"At work, where else. I had one more lawn to mow after my meeting with the old hag and then I went out drinking with friends." He said casually.

"How do I know you are telling me the truth? You don’t exactly have a reputation of a saint!"

Diego looked at him with disgust.


Officer Sanchez was sitting by the poolside at Café de Las Indias opposite the Santa Justa station on the eastern edge of the Seville city. It was around six in the evening and a cool breeze blew starting to cool down the city after a really hot afternoon. Sanchez sat quietly sipping his latte and watching people around him intently. He noticed a family of four sitting at the table opposite him. A man, woman and two small kids, one was about a year old and the other one was a baby. The mother was trying her best to keep the restless little fellow seated quietly. He would kept running towards the pool and she would chase after him, pick him up and make him sit on the chair. After a few moments, obviously restless and when his mother’s attention got drawn towards her husband and the baby, he would quickly slide off the chair and run towards the pool again screaming in delight at the thought of fooling his mum. He did this a couple of times. After a few frustrated attempts at taming him, she grabbed him and plonked him on the table wagging a finger in anger. After a while the family left. Around him waiters moved about, but Sanchez’s thoughts kept drifting back to the investigation. It had been two weeks without any considerable progress. Diego’s alibi had turned in his favor. Now he had no suspect. Back to square one. He did not know how to proceed further.

His thoughts got distracted by the sound of chairs being dragged to seat a woman at the table in front of him which had been occupied earlier by the family of four. It was a couple in their early twenties. The woman was dressed in a pair of low waist jeans and a red top fitting snugly and revealing a flattering figure. She looked vaguely familiar and Sanchez searched his mind to find where he had seen her. The man with her was tall and very good-looking. They had pulled the chairs together so that they could sit close. They looked like newly weds and Sanchez noticed a big diamond ring on her finger, which confirmed that assumption.

Sanchez started to get a little restless as he watched them. He was certain now that he had seen her somewhere. Just then his phone rang. It was Adrian. And then it struck him. That was Nieve, Adrian’s girlfriend. He picked up the phone and spoke with Adrian for a while without telling him about Nieve and the guy she was with. The tables were closely placed and he could hear them speaking. They were talking excitedly about their honeymoon! Something did not seem right here.

He picked up his hat and left the cafe. Once he was out on the street, he dialed Adrian’s number. It rang three times.

"Hola"

"Its me again."

"Ah si, tell me Officer."

Sanchez spoke very casually, "The appointment I had, has been cancelled and I don’t have much to do this evening and I was wondering if we could meet up for drinks. You could ask Nieve to join us as well."

There was a long pause then Adrian spoke, "Aah, yes. Umm why not that’s a great idea. Nieve has been telling me how eager she is to meet you."

"Great then, I’ll be over ay 8. Am looking forward to meeting her"

With that he ended the call. Sanchez was certain that there was something fishy. Adrian spoke as if everything was fine. The couple he saw looked very much in love and were newly wed.

Adrian put the phone down and stood there for a moment thinking. After what seemed like a really long time, he decided that this was the only option left. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. He listened patiently as the phone rang. Once. Twice. Thrice. Then a click and…

"Nieve " he asked in a hushed tone

Yes, Adrian." She recognized him instantly "Why are you calling me?"

"I know you have asked me never to call you, but I was wondering if you could help me out. Just one last time. For old times sake?" He pleaded.

Nieve sighed and then spoke, "Listen Adrian, I am a married woman now. It is inappropriate of you to call me. And after what you’ve done I do not want to be associated with you I have told you many times before just leave me alone." Her tone got agitated. "Don’t ever call back" And with that she banged down the phone.

Adrian stood there listening to the silence on the phone. Anger rising in him like a wave rising in the ocean during a storm. With a quick sweep of his hand he threw the phone across the room. It traveled across the room and hit the lamp enroute and crashed on the floor.

Officer Sanchez arrived at 8 pm sharp. He entered the house and handed over his hat to Adrian. As he walked to the living room he noticed the broken lamp kept carelessly against the wall and knew something was odd. He had felt it the moment he walked in and also from the way Adrian greeted him. He had seemed preoccupied with something. There was an odd tension around like when one walks into a room after a terrible argument has died down.

"I’m really looking forward to meeting Nieve" he said casually, trying not to sound like he sensed something was wrong.

At the mention of Nieve, Adrian seemed to snap out of whatever was occupying his mind and he tried to sound casual, "Uhh. oh yes, Nieve.. Ummm. well, she had to be somewhere else.. Uhh.. a friend of her’s is having a bachelorette party.. I guess I forgot about that when I told you that she would be coming." His tone betrayed him and he sounded nervous when he said that.

Officer Sanchez knew he was lying.But why won’t he admit it that she is married? Why does he still behave as though she is still a part of his life?

Just then Officer Sanchez’s cellphone rang. Adrian watched as he spoke and scribbled something in his notebook, then thanked the caller and disconnected the phone.

Then he turned towards Adrian and said calmly, "Adrian, Hijo. I have good news. The result of the semen test is finally out. I think we may have found your grandmother’s killer!"

To be continued...