Chapter 6: Luca's Interrogation
The anxiety of finding Luca was making Detective Luke more tense than he imagined. The detective never had an easy childhood, always moving or changing his name and style, so it was easy to find comfort and shelter in a famous children's program - he watched every day the little Pedrito who had just moved with his parents to the farm recently inherited from his beloved grandfather without imagining that the farm was magical and full of adventures - Luke saw his life summed up in that character and many times he wished to go live on a magical farm with his family instead of the rush and danger that always seemed to know where they were. Coincidentally, Pedrito and Luke were growing up almost at the same time - not in age, but in maturity - and just as Pedrito began to feel certain desires of puberty, the redhead did too. Luke thought it was absurd that Lionel had invaded Luca's privacy and even more absurd the things he said during the interrogation, which only left him at the top of the list of suspects.
Luke's cell phone hadn't rung since he left campus. He still didn't know, and it didn't even cross his mind that another attack had happened at the same time he was leaving. Maybe the anxiety mixed with excitement was distracting him again. Remembering the mistake he had made before only made his heart beat faster. The detective swallowed hard when he saw the small building that was Pimenta's Pub appear in his field of vision. He parked across the street and checked his hair and whether he still smelled of the perfume he had used that morning. After reapplying his perfume - being careful not to overdo it - Luke got out of the car without even taking his notepad. That reminded him of what Deputy Moss said: if she thought she was a professional just because she solved cases like that, imagine if she knew what Luke did before he became a detective. The redhead went over all the questions that needed to be asked and begged his heart not to make the same mistake as in the past.
Luke stopped when he saw the “Closed” sign, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door of the establishment. Upon entering, he noticed that the entire place was empty, except for the bartender, a person leaning against the back reading a magazine and Luca, who was sitting at the bar with a glass of wine in front of him. He wore pastel-colored clothes worthy of a young KAT member with a cap of the same color. Without realizing it, Luke was smiling, but he soon resumed his serious pose and began to approach, lingering his gaze on the person sitting at the back of the pub - who was holding the magazine so that his face could not be seen and was wearing warm clothes - he noticed the black umbrella next to the table and remembered that a storm was threatening to hit at any moment. Detective Allen sat down next to Luca, who looked at him in surprise and smiled, making Luke's heart race in a way he couldn't imagine, and to the detective's surprise, it wasn't difficult to start a conversation with the 'Pedrito' he had dreamed of meeting, but not in the current circumstances - with 'Pedrito' as a possible killer.
Wosgi from ΩKB was absolutely right, it was incredibly easy to talk to Luca, you felt comfortable, perhaps because of the Tartosian accent or the friendly smile that never left his lips.
The detective could not imagine that 'Pedrito' - who was younger than him, and had more achievements than him - could murder someone.
“…You know, I don’t think he ever got over the fact that I was chosen to play Pedrito. I remember when I first arrived at the studio to record my first scene, my uncle Luigi was going to be my father and Alexandrea Cole was going to be my mother, my grandfather was a screenwriter so it was easy to feel at home. My uncle took me to my dressing room, I remember being shocked to know that I would have one exclusively for myself, I was only 7 and I thought that only adults had an exclusive dressing room, and on the way there I met August. At the time he was 8 and a little bigger than me, he looked at me with such fury that I felt intimidated. After a while he came into my dressing room and said in no uncertain terms: ‘Because of you, I’m no longer the star of this show, now I only become the star if you get hurt or sick, so I’m going to replace you’, he said it so seriously that I was scared. And during my first scene, by a 'coincidence' of fate, I fell and twisted my ankle, because August sabotaged the boot I had to wear, I remember seeing him laughing and then I told him about the threat he made to me, and he was expelled. I was never vengeful, but I was pleased to see him leave crying and screaming saying that now he would be nobody. From then on, everywhere I went, he was there, I don't know how he knew, but he was always around. My father already knew everything so that's when he started to fill me with security, my mother said it was an exaggeration, at that time she already suffered with obsessive fans and haters, and it was she who taught me to always let it go and focus on doing what I love. My father sued August's parents, and my other obsessive fans were nothing compared to August's hatred, he lived to see me fall, he wanted to ruin me and when he couldn't, he started to ruin my relationships. He would pretend to be my friend in places so he could go into private places and bother me, because he was always a great actor too. And one of my friends, from when I was a child actor, Cendrillo Charming, said that August would do better if he went into the adult entertainment industry because he had a habit of offering himself to my exes, and I had to agree for a moment. I confess that I was a little scared when I got to UBrite and so was he, I joined KAT, and so did he. And I know he just wanted a reason to try to attack me, until my cousin Ric was very blunt and said: 'If you keep stalking my cousin, you won't end well', and… now he's dead, right after attacking me one last time, I can confirm that it wasn't my cousin, even though I was with Don Ward in his room and a while later, with cute Wosgi, they can confirm, I just know, that my cousin would never do something like that. I wanted to spend the night with Wosgi, but my cousin sent me a message alerting me to what happened, and so I left and we went back to KAT's mansion. I could barely sleep that night, but nothing was better than the sleep serum my uncle created. Since we, Gatti and Maglioni, were raised in such a way that the whole world saw us growing up, they know that we would never dirty our hands with murder. And I don't say this because of my image, but it's obvious, every child, teenager and young person wants to be one of us, so it's up to us, Gatti and Maglioni, to be an example for these people. You can question anyone on this campus, at Disney Studios or any other where I've worked, they'll all say the same thing: I'm a polite, friendly and exemplary young man that my family taught me to be…”
A new theory appeared in Luke's mind with every word the actor said, and it was difficult to focus when his mind distracted him with things he struggled not to feel at the moment. And Luke again remembered the mistake he had made in the past, it was supposed to be a quick and simple mission, but everything changed when his partner was taken hostage and the whole mission went down the drain because Luke put his feelings above the mission.
The redhead blinked his eyes hard, trying to focus on the interrogation, he might be daydreaming a little, but his mind captured every word the Tartosian actor spoke.
The interrogation went on - so comfortably that it didn't even seem like an interrogation - until Luke noticed the person who was sitting in the back leave through the back door. With a glance, the redhead saw that the person was wearing a hood and had just set up his umbrella and was looking back before leaving - the person was wearing a black scarf that barely showed his face - but the way he left reminded him of someone familiar.
After the Italian actor paused to take a sip from his glass of wine, Luke decided to change the subject - if it was indeed who he thought it was, who had just left he needed to be more subtle and careful - and the bartender also seemed to be paying more attention to the conversation than to his work.
It wasn't long before the bartender - who noticed that the subject had been changed on purpose, as had the mood between the two - announced that it was time to close for good, so the detective and the actor went to continue their conversation outside.
The street was already deserted, and Luke's agile eyes roamed the entire street looking for any hooded figures who might be following him.
Sitting on a bench near the pub - the sexual tension between them was almost reaching its peak - the detective saw the hooded man a few meters away, he kept his gaze fixed on him, until the hooded man turned his back and walked in the opposite direction. Noting that it would be dangerous for the Tartosian actor to go back alone, he offered to accompany him - the hooded man was no longer in sight of the detective.
They walked down the sidewalk in the same direction the hooded man had gone, talking about how busy Luca's life had been with duties, recordings, the pressure of the media and the recent breakup with a famous person and for a moment, Luke realized how similar they were. The kiss that had been postponed minutes ago was about to happen, until a black car honked behind them, making both of their hearts almost stop.
That message made Luke's blood boil; it really was who he imagined was sitting in the pub. Furious, he put his cell phone on silent at the same time that the Stranger called him. He returned to his car, happy that Pedrito had a life similar to his in real life and that they were compatible; the last moment before the car arrived had given him hope. The redhead knew that it wasn't healthy for him and that he shouldn't be allowing himself to live like that; his mother had always told him when he was a child: "Don't make the same mistakes, Luke! You might get away with it the first time, but maybe not the second time." And the detective remembered very well that he hadn't gotten away with it the first time and he didn't want to get hurt any more the second time.
Credits: Vinny @jakisimmer
