He pounds on the door to Sonny’s place for close to five minutes before he gets an answer. He had been about ten seconds away from kicking or shooting the door in to get his answers, but luckily he doesn’t have to resort to that.
“God damn it, Jason. What the hell do you want?” Sonny growls at him.
Jason takes a few seconds to convince his mind to say the words. “Spinelli’s dead. Maxie told me he was here earlier.”
Sonny doesn’t seem at all disturbed by the news of the hacker’s death. “Yeah, yeah. Your freak boy was here. He was rambling on about something or the other, one of his cases or something. As a general rule, I don’t listen when he talks.”
His fists curl into Sonny’s shirt with an entirely new level of wrath. “Did you hear me? Spinelli is dead. Missing and most likely dead. I don’t fucking care about whatever unfounded grudges you have against him, I need to know what he was talking about.”
Sonny shoves back at him, looking surprised by Jason’s uncharacteristic outburst. “I told you, I don’t know.”
Just for good measure, he punches Sonny in the face before he leaves.
0338
Spinelli’s computer – left behind – is useless to Jason, who can’t even figure out the password to get into it.
He’s at the PI office flipping through McCall & Jackal case files when Sam calls him. She’s heard the news.
“God, Jason.” She says, “He tried to tell me about it, but I told him he was being paranoid! Being ridiculous!”
“About what?” Jason demands of her.
“A… a case we were working on. He thought the woman we were investigating had ties to Franco or something, back in Paris.”
He hangs up without another word and digs through files until he finds one with Spinelli’s scrawled handwriting – Franco? – It reads, but that’s it.
0555
He’s at the dock where Spinelli was supposedly slain. Police tape is up, and a uniformed officer is standing by, but Jason can see all he needs to see from behind the yellow ‘Do Not Cross’ line.
Blood, an alarming amount of it, spread across the concrete. Spinelli’s.
Is anyone not at fault for this heinous act? Sam, for not believing him, Sonny for not listening to him, Maxie for ignoring him, and Jason himself for not being there when he was needed most.
0620
Franco’s loft is abandoned. The pictures of him, the paintings, all the signs of his obsession all seem to be gone. Only the stock furniture remains, and Jason takes care to search all of it, just in case. And, god, it’s freezing in here.
It’s in a trunk in the corner that he finds Spinelli. He’s beaten up and bloody, with a deep, deep gash in his stomach. He’s blue, whether from the chilled room or the blood loss, but Jason can see a barely discernable rise and fall of his chest, can feel the slowest beat possible under his fingers when he presses them against Spinelli’s neck.
He calls 911 and tells them to hurry. He doesn’t tell them that the second he sees Franco again, he’s going to kill him, no matter the circumstances, because that doesn’t matter.
DeadAlive Pt 2
He pounds on the door to Sonny’s place for close to five minutes before he gets an answer. He had been about ten seconds away from kicking or shooting the door in to get his answers, but luckily he doesn’t have to resort to that.
“God damn it, Jason. What the hell do you want?” Sonny growls at him.
Jason takes a few seconds to convince his mind to say the words. “Spinelli’s dead. Maxie told me he was here earlier.”
Sonny doesn’t seem at all disturbed by the news of the hacker’s death. “Yeah, yeah. Your freak boy was here. He was rambling on about something or the other, one of his cases or something. As a general rule, I don’t listen when he talks.”
His fists curl into Sonny’s shirt with an entirely new level of wrath. “Did you hear me? Spinelli is dead. Missing and most likely dead. I don’t fucking care about whatever unfounded grudges you have against him, I need to know what he was talking about.”
Sonny shoves back at him, looking surprised by Jason’s uncharacteristic outburst. “I told you, I don’t know.”
Just for good measure, he punches Sonny in the face before he leaves.
0338
Spinelli’s computer – left behind – is useless to Jason, who can’t even figure out the password to get into it.
He’s at the PI office flipping through McCall & Jackal case files when Sam calls him. She’s heard the news.
“God, Jason.” She says, “He tried to tell me about it, but I told him he was being paranoid! Being ridiculous!”
“About what?” Jason demands of her.
“A… a case we were working on. He thought the woman we were investigating had ties to Franco or something, back in Paris.”
He hangs up without another word and digs through files until he finds one with Spinelli’s scrawled handwriting – Franco? – It reads, but that’s it.
0555
He’s at the dock where Spinelli was supposedly slain. Police tape is up, and a uniformed officer is standing by, but Jason can see all he needs to see from behind the yellow ‘Do Not Cross’ line.
Blood, an alarming amount of it, spread across the concrete. Spinelli’s.
Is anyone not at fault for this heinous act? Sam, for not believing him, Sonny for not listening to him, Maxie for ignoring him, and Jason himself for not being there when he was needed most.
0620
Franco’s loft is abandoned. The pictures of him, the paintings, all the signs of his obsession all seem to be gone. Only the stock furniture remains, and Jason takes care to search all of it, just in case. And, god, it’s freezing in here.
It’s in a trunk in the corner that he finds Spinelli. He’s beaten up and bloody, with a deep, deep gash in his stomach. He’s blue, whether from the chilled room or the blood loss, but Jason can see a barely discernable rise and fall of his chest, can feel the slowest beat possible under his fingers when he presses them against Spinelli’s neck.
He calls 911 and tells them to hurry. He doesn’t tell them that the second he sees Franco again, he’s going to kill him, no matter the circumstances, because that doesn’t matter.
0627
Damian Spinelli is alive.