Chapter 09: The Art of War

“Mother Superior,” Alexa bowed her head as the elderly woman approached her. Expecting a formal greeting bereft of emotion, Alexa was surprised when the woman wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close.

“My child. It’s so good to see you again.”

“I’ve missed you so much, Mother Mary.” Alexa encircled her, hugging her tighter and closing her eyes as she reveled in the familiar smells of mint and ginger.

“You were away for so long, I worried something terrible had happened. But, I prayed that I would see you again, and here you are.”

“This is Kasper. He’s a friend of mine,” Alexa introduced the two. “Mother Mary, I feel bad having to ask but, we have nowhere else to go.”

“This is your home, Alexa. You know you’re always welcomed here.” Mary Francis locked her arm over Alexa’s and led them towards the back room. “You haven’t been here since the upgrades. And none of it would have been possible without your generous donations.”

Alexa stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes towards the nun. Mary Francis smiled wryly and gave Alexa’s hand a pat. “What? You didn’t think I could see passed the fictitious name you used? Lauren Nicole DeLouise, all patron saints correct? Of loss of parents, family members and orphans to be precise. I may be old, Alexa, but I still have my wits about me. And it’s good to know you paid attention in class.”

“Well, I’m happy to hear the money was put to good use.”

“Oh it was. We’ve expanded the orphanage and built an entire park for the children.”

“Excuse me, uh, where’s the restroom?” 

“Right through there,” Mary pointed and Kasper followed with his eyes. “When you’re done, you can join us in the kitchen, it’s through this hall, last room on the left.” Kasper nodded and excused himself. “Come on, Alexa. We have much catching up to do.”

“I just wasn’t ready for the way I feel about him,” Alexa confessed to Mary, recounting her relationship with her latest mark. “I just wished…”

“That you were honest with him from the start?” Mary asked, setting a plate of cookies in front of her. Alexa nodded her head.

“Or that we’d met under different circumstances. Who knows? Maybe the ring he gave me would have meant more.”

“Well, is there any chance you and this Gavin could work things out?”

“I doubt it. The woman he knows, unfortunately, doesn’t exist. And if all goes as planned she’ll soon be laid to rest. He really was a great guy. I just need to get over him.”

“I’m so sorry, Sweetheart. Still, you shouldn’t give up so easily. Who knows what the future holds?” Mary smiled and Alexa leaned over onto her hands and the two fell into a comfortable silence. 

“Feel better?” Mary asked once Kasper had rejoined them. He’d been gone for quite some time. Alexa was considering going to look for him thinking he may have gotten lost.

“Much, thank you.”

“I thought you’d fallen in,” Alexa laughed.

“Hmm? Oh. No. I was…uh regrouping,” Kasper replied with an unreadable look. Before she could ask him more, Mary interrupted with her motherly tone and home baked goodies.

“Hungry?” she asked, offering a plate of chocolate chip cookies and milk. “I know it’s not exactly a well-balanced meal but, it does the trick in a jiff.” She smiled as Kasper didn’t argue and quickly grabbed a napkin and three cookies.

“Mary, do you still have that friend in the police department?”

“Detective Monroe?” Mary asked.

“Yes, that’s him.”

“I’d say he was more your friend than mine,” Mary replied, taking a sip of her tea.

“Maybe,” Alexa smiled and tapped her fingers on the countertop.

“I know that look, Alexa. What are you up to?”

“I…may need him to help me clean up a mess.”

“What are we talking about?”

“Trust me, Mother, the less you know, the better. Could you maybe call him for me?”

“Sure. Let’s drag his old rump out of bed,” Mary grinned and excused herself as she swiftly placed the call.

“In the meantime,” Kasper said, hopping up onto a stool beside Alexa. “I’d really be interested to learn how you went from Catholic school sweetheart to doing…what we do.”

“That’s…” Alexa started.

“Something I’d be interested to know myself,” Mary said hanging up the phone before she began recounting the last time she saw Alexa.

—Brooklyn Heights – 2002—Age 12

“Alexa, would you like to join the rest of us in a game of kick ball?” Sister Monica asked, tossing a spare ball to the awaiting children over her shoulder.

“No, thank you. I like watching from here.” The Sister nodded and walked away to monitor the other children and Alexa got cozier on the bench. They all smiled. They all giggled. They all seemed to really enjoy themselves living in an orphanage. All, that is, except her. 

Alexa never felt whole. She was never comfortable in the company of strangers, which they all were. There were faces she’d see daily but, no one ever stayed. Shuffled from one ‘forever’ family to the next when they were adopted or, if they were lucky enough, their real parents came to claim them.

Alexa wouldn’t have that luxury. Not anymore. Older kids had about as much chance at being adopted as an overweight, elderly dog from the pound. They weren’t cute, little puppies anymore and no parent wanted to take on the extra baggage. Not that she cared. She had no interest in being adopted and having to pretend to love her new family. That’s all it would be. A lie to make everyone around her happy. Although, she had gotten quite good at it.

Nonetheless, she sat and she watched as faces she’d become used to seeing were taken from her on a regular basis, climbing deeper and deeper into the shell she’d created for herself.

“Alexa? Sister Mary Francis is looking for you,” Sister Janet said, leaning forward to maintain eye level with her.

“Why? What did I do?” Alexa asked, hesitant to move from the spot she’d finally warmed.

“Nothing that I know of,” Sister Janet smiled as she reached her hand for the child. “Will you please come with me?”

“Ah, here she is now,” Sister Mary stood as Alexa entered the room. The woman moved towards her, pushing her closer to two people seated in front of her desk. It was a young couple, roughly early-to-mid thirties. The woman had light brown eyes and warm, brown hair nestled into a tight bun above her head. She was wearing a pair of jeans, gloves and a red overcoat which Alexa found odd given the warm weather.

The man beside her had darker hair, the same color as Alexa’s. His cool blue eyes stared back at her, examining her face as if committing it to memory. He was dressed similarly in a heavy jacket and he kept touching his right inside pocket. When he spoke, he had a deep, husky tone that was almost grating. Alexa replied to his greeting with a quiet hello but stayed her ground when they asked her closer.

“We won’t bite,” the woman smiled, displaying a pair of shiny, white teeth. And although she appeared pleasant, Alexa was just not in a mood to entertain the couples’ whim.

“You’re looking for a daughter?” she asked and sighed when they responded with an enthusiastic ‘yes.’ “I’m sorry that you’ve come all this way to see me and I do thank you for the trouble but, you don’t want me. I’m not like the other kids here. Unlike them, I have parents; two nice and loving people who I’ll always love in return. And it’s because of that I can’t and won’t ever call you Mom or Dad. I’m not what you want in a daughter. You would be better off with another child here. Jamila’s a really smart girl. And Tammy wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Either one of them would appreciate the chance much more than I would.”

“Alexa! What has gotten into you?” Mary gasped behind her. “I’m truly sorry for her outburst. She’s not usually this moody.”

“It’s ok,” the woman again smiled. “She’s quite smart for her age, isn’t she? How old are you sweetheart?”

“12.”

“12? Wow. I would have guessed a little older. How did you end up here? What happened to your parents?”

“They died,” Alexa said. Mary eyed the couple when they exchanged a look and she inched closer to where Alexa stood.

“And were you born here in Brooklyn Heights?” the man asked, following the woman’s lead.

“No. I was born…”

“All of Alexa’s information is in her folder which I will gladly provide for you,” Mary cut her off, offering a smile to the annoyed couple. “Alexa, dear, why don’t you be a sweetheart and see if Sister Janet needs help in the kitchen while Mr. and Mrs. Russo and myself have a nice conversation.”

“Yes, Sister Mary.” Alexa turned and exited the room and Sister Mary folded her arms in front of her. 

“Now then, why don’t I get you her information and we can see about starting the adoption…that is if you were still interested in Alexa?”

“Yes, we are very much,” Mrs. Russo replied with a large smile. “She’s exactly who we were looking for.”

“Great. Well just one moment and I’ll fetch that folder.” Mary quickly exited the room, following after Alexa but instead of heading into the file room as she’d said, she walked over to the desk near the door and placed a call to a friend. 

“Sergeant Monroe speaking.”

“Curt, it’s Sister Mary from Saint Peter’s. I’m calling because I need your help. It’s a rather urgent matter. If you could please get here as soon as possible.” The officer asked for more details which Sister Mary gladly supplied. It took him less than ten minutes to arrive with backup and even less time for the couple Russo to reveal their true intentions. Armed with several small firearms, handcuffs, and a vial of chloroform the two hired thugs confessed to the reason they’d visited the church.

“Hey there, Trouble,” Sergeant Curt Monroe waved before taking a seat beside Alexa on the bench. “Up to no good again, I see.”

“Who me?” she smiled at him hearing her nickname and clasped her hands in her lap, batting her lashes in an innocent, childlike manner. But her demeanor quickly changed when the flashing lights of a squad car passed behind the fence, moving away from the orphanage. “It’s not safe here for me anymore, is it?”

“Why do you ask that, Sweetheart?”

“Those people they were bad. They came to find me.”

Curt sighed and leaned forward as he thought over his response. It wasn’t her first time being moved because danger came knocking. Nine different homes in three different years, she could sense quickly when the party had ended. “Alexa, you’re a smart girl. You see things and understand much more than the other children here so I won’t sugarcoat it. Yes, they were bad people. We anticipated that what happened with your family would eventually find its way to you especially after the District Attorney announced that there was a witness to the murders.”

“So I’m right. You are here to take me away again,” she sighed and kicked her feet as she stared blankly at the kids running through the courtyard laughing.

“No. I came to make sure you were ok.”

“That’s not how it works, Sergeant Monroe. Those people know where I am now. They’ll keep coming until they get what they want…even if they have to hurt someone else to do it.”

“Come on, Alexa, you have me and Sister Mary looking after you. And I think we’re doing a pretty good job of it,” he smiled and she could see it reflected in his light blue eyes but, it did very little to ease her sense of apprehension.

“Thanks, Sergeant Monroe,” she smiled in return. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

—Brooklyn Heights – Present—

“The next morning when I came to get her for Sunday Mass, she was gone,” Mother Mary recalled of Alexa’s last night at the convent.

“I’d left a note telling Mary not to worry and then slipped out through the garden doors when everyone had fallen asleep. You and Detective Monroe meant well but, I couldn’t rest knowing more people would come looking for me and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”

“So that was it?” Kasper asked, finishing the last of the cookies Mary had offered. “You just took off at what? 11? 12? And never looked back?”

“I was almost 13 and yes.”

“Well, that’s not entirely true, is it, Alexa?” Mary smiled, clearing the plate from the kitchen counter. “As I recall Detective Monroe and myself would get the occasional phone call regarding your misdeeds.”

“Oh right. I was first learning my ‘trade,’” she winked at Kasper. “It took a bit to get it down but I eventually got there.”

“And it was then that I recited to you the words of Confucius. Do you remember?”

Alexa nodded and repeated the idiom to Kasper. “‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.’”

“I do hope you heeded those words,” Mary said with a knowing look.

“I’ve lived to the best of my ability, Mother,” Alexa replied in as much of an evasive statement as she could. She grinned and started for the door as a knock drew her forward.

“Well now, would you look at that? Hey, Trouble. Up to no good again?”

“Who me?” Alexa replied with a smile. “Hello, Detective Monroe. It’s nice to see you again.”

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