#john kraskinski

The next morning, Elsa’s temples were throbbing. That one glass of wine had turned into a bottle and a half, plus a lot of crying. She forced herself out of bed and through a steamy, somewhat refreshing shower, then went to the medicine cabinet for some ibuprofen while the hot water brewed for her morning tea.

She was contemplating some toast when the tea and medicine seemed to help her hangover, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. The detectives who had questioned her in the hospital after the bank robbery were standing at her apartment door. Elsa pulled her robe tighter around her and welcomed them inside.

“I’m sorry for my appearance, I’ve only been up for a little while, and I wasn’t expecting company.” She told them to make themselves comfortable, then went to her room to grab her phone off the charger. “Although, I see now that you called to tell me you’d be by. I’m sorry I missed that.”

“No apology necessary, Ms. Chapman,” Detective Mullins assured. “We don’t mean to intrude, but we have some leads in the investigation.”

“Really? It’s been a while since I heard anything, I assumed it was lost in the files or something.”

Detective Rose gave her a kind smile. “We try not to let these cases go if we don’t absolutely have to. As I’m sure you’ve heard, there was another significant bank hit recently.”

Elsa nodded, remembered the surveillance video on the news and the panic attack the images had induced. “I saw the report.”

“We at first thought that one or the other robbery had been a copycat of others which have taken place -- after all, your case is the only instance in which a hostage has been taken,” Detective Mullins explained. “But our forensics team has been analyzing a lot of evidence, and it seems that the same crew hit both banks. We have some suspects we’d like you to look at.”

“I don’t understand,” Elsa frowned. “I told you, they had masks on. I couldn’t see an inch of skin.”

The detectives encouraged her to take a look anyway. They placed four pictures in front of her -- four pictures of faces that were all too familiar. One in particular. Her face must have read shock because Detective Mullins was asking if she was all right.

Elsa swallowed and pointed to the picture of Chris. “I don’t recognize any of them for the robbery, but I’ve been dating this man for several months. We ran into each other at the grocery store and he -- I was crying, having a weak moment after the robbery. He was nice to me.”

Detective Rose jotted something down on a small notepad. “The Evans family has a longstanding history with the Boston legal system. Do you know about Chris’s father?”

Her throat was too dry to speak, so she nodded. She couldn’t tear her eyes from Chris’s mugshot.

“We believe that Chris took over for his father after Robbie Evans went to jail -- not only the barber shop, but the family crime business, as well. Between forensics and piecing some other things together, Ms. Chapman, we believe that Chris Evans and his crew are responsible for the robbery at your bank, the most recent hit, and several others throughout the city.”

The detectives seemed so sure, Elsa felt sick to her stomach. She dismissed it as nerves on top of the wine she’d had the night before, but less than a minute later, she was heaving into the kitchen sink. The men sat by, awkwardly waiting for her to compose herself.

“What do you need from me?” she asked, quietly.

They rose from the table; Mullins answered her. “Right now, only your willingness to cooperate, if and when necessary. We’ll keep you up to date as much as possible. I understand you have family in New York?”

Elsa nodded.

Detective Rose pressed his lips into a thin line. “For the time being, we need you in the state -- in the city, if possible. If you feel the need to leave for any reason, if you could let us know, we would appreciate it. For your own safety.”

Elsa nodded again and showed them to the door. Detective Mullins’s business card was still stuck under a magnet on her refrigerator, so she had their contact information if she needed it.

What she needed right now were answers. Honest, clear answers. She didn’t trust Chris to answer her, let alone tell her the truth, and she didn’t know the rest of his friends well enough to contact any of them. There had to be someone she could contact, someone close to Chris who would tell her what in the hell was really going on.

“Aurelie,” Elsa said out loud, going back to the table for her phone.

The diner in Attleboro seemed busier than normal for this time of morning. Maybe it was, maybe Aurelie only felt that way because she had been hoping for some semblance of privacy. She ordered a cup of coffee and sipped at it, waiting patiently until Elsa came through the door.

“Elsa,” she called, waving.

The blonde woman gave a small wave in return. She stopped at the counter to order a tea and some toast, then dropped to the bench across from Aurelie. “Morning. Thanks for meeting me.”

“Sure. Thanks for coming out here, especially at this hour.” Aurelie sipped her coffee.

Elsa nodded, thanking the waitress for her order. She sipped her tea and took a bite of toast. “I don’t mean to put you in the middle of any drama. I want to be very clear about that, up front. I know you have -- you have a lot going on, on your own.”

Aurelie pursed her lips. “Chris told you about the baby.”

“He did. Congratulations, by the way. I know Chris is struggling with it, but I do hope you’re happy.”

“Thank you,” Aurelie replied, giving a small smile. “Speaking of Chris, that’s what you wanted to talk about?”

“Yes,” Elsa said, sipping down more tea and taking another bite of toast. She wasn’t really hungry, but it gave her a chance to gather her thoughts. “The police came to my house last night. They were asking about the people who robbed the bank -- the ones who kidnapped me.”

Aurelie frowned. “Did they find them?”

“They think maybe they did.” Elsa took another sip of tea. “They showed me pictures, even though I didn’t think I would recognize anyone.”

She stopped to gauge Aurelie’s reaction. That woman was still sipping her coffee, looking concerned, but not overly so. Elsa continued.

“The pictures they showed me were of Chris, Scott, Seb, and Scarlett. They’ve got some kind of forensic evidence from the most recent hit, they think that it’s them.”

Rolling her eyes, Aurelie pushed her coffee mug to the side. “Elsa, you’re getting caught in the middle of some bad shit. Chris’s dad is in prison -- I know you know about that. He was in some deep stuff, but Chris isn’t. Seb, Scotty, Scar -- none of them are involved with any of it. When Robbie went to prison, Chris went legitimate, with everything. It’s the barber shop, smart investments. My brother is a good businessman. He’s a good man.”

“I don’t understand. Then why are they trying to pin this on them?”

“Those hits were big hits. They can’t let them go unsolved. Chris and them are an easy pin, because of the bad choices Robbie made. His fucking mistakes are going to haunt our family the rest of forever.” The waitress came and dropped the checks on the table; Aurelie took both of them and laid out a few bills. “Chris loves you, Elsa, and from what I can tell, I think you love him, too. Loving my brother, dating him -- it unfortunately comes with some baggage.”

Elsa took a deep breath as she processed everything Aurelie was saying. It all made sense, except for one thing. “If Chris and the others are legitimate, why do you distance yourself?”

“For their sake,” Aurelie answered, without missing a beat. “I started losing my hearing when I was fairly young, and it went slowly. For a while, hearing aids did the trick. My right ear isn’t the worst, if I can look at the person and they’re speaking clearly and looking at me. The left one was always worse than the right. Sometime in middle school, I mouthed off to Robbie, and he popped me on the side of the head. I deserved it, but my left ear dropped out almost completely after that. A year or so later, I got the cochlear. Robbie always blamed himself for that, but it wasn’t his fault. His daughters think that when everything went down, I turned Robbie in out of spite or revenge. They stopped talking to me, my mother stopped speaking to me. Scotty was always on the fence. So, for their sake, to make things easier, I stayed away. I stay away.”

Elsa nodded and finished her tea. It made sense. It all made sense. It was nothing she ever wanted to be a part of, but here she was. She loved Chris. He had stood her up, but that was something she hoped they could work through.

“I’ve got to get home and get some sleep,” Aurelie sighed, pushing out of the booth. “Give Chris the benefit of the doubt, Elsa. He deserves it.”

Elsa nodded and waved as Aurelie pulled on a jacket and left the diner. She finished her toast, had another cup of tea, and then went home to get some rest. She thought about calling Chris, but decided to wait it out. He would talk to her when he was ready, she hoped.

After a long night of no sleep, Chris was finally heading home. He had let Scotty know that he and Seb weren’t going to be in until the afternoon, so at least he could catch a few hours of sleep before he needed to go to the shop.

He stopped at the corner store for a small coffee, just to keep him from sleeping all day. When he spotted John Krasinski already at the coffee station, he sighed. He wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit this morning.

“Morning,” John greeted.

“Morning,” Chris returned, selecting a cup from the stack and choosing his brew. He pushed the button on the machine to fill the cup, waiting for John to say something else. But, the other man said nothing, only finished doctoring his own coffee and went to the register to pay.

Chris frowned. He wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation, but he had expected more than a one-word greeting to be exchanged between the two of them. He secured the lid on his coffee, paid, and hurried out of the corner store.

“John!” he called to the other man, jogging to catch up with him down the sidewalk. The other man stopped and turned but didn’t look any more keen on the idea of speaking to Chris than Chris had been to speak with John only a few minutes ago. “Hey, have you talked to Aurelie?”

“Oh, you mean since you crashed her whole world last night?” John snorted. “Yeah. She’s -- she’s not fine, but she’s safe. How could you keep that from her? Do you have any idea how much she trusted you?”

Chris licked his lips and let out a deep breath. “I know. I know she did, and I know we may never get that back. I’m stuck, man. I don’t know what’s going on in my life and now all this shit is coming to light. I don’t want Aurelie to get caught in the middle of me working my shit out.”

John shook his head and scoffed. “It’s too late for that. Don’t you get it? She got caught in the middle of your shit the moment you decided to lie for your father about how her father died. She’s your sister, Chris. Blood, step, whatever. She looks at you as her brother -- her only brother. Her mother won’t even talk to her, but she always had you. Now she doesn’t even have that.”

Shaking his head, Chris held both hands up before letting his free hand slap back down against his leg. “I don’t know what to say to that. You’re right, she’s always been in the middle of it. When she decided to distance, I should have left her alone, too. I had to come clean, I guess.”

“Right,” John said, looking down at his coffee before looking back to Chris. “Speaking of coming clean, you know where she was up until about ten minutes ago? As much as she hates you and maybe never wants to see you again, she was at the diner in Attleboro with Elsa. She’s lying for you so that Elsa doesn’t believe what the cops told her about you and the rest of them being responsible for the bank hits and the kidnapping. Aurelie is still protecting you, as hurt and angry as she is.”

“That’s all I wanted,” Chris sighed, shaking his head, “for Aurelie to be protected. Guess I ruined that. Now she won’t speak to me and she’s got no one. And that’s on me.”

John tilted his head side to side. “You’re partially right. She won’t speak to you, and you’re the one who did that. But she does have someone -- she has me. I’m gonna protect her, I’m gonna take care of her. And our baby.” Shrugging, he took a drink of his coffee. “Family feud bullshit aside -- I’m telling you this man to man. Get your shit together, Chris, before it ruins anyone else.”

John took off towards his bar then, leaving Chris to walk the long mile home. Chris let what John had said sink in; the other man was right, of course. There were a lot of things Chris had messed up recently. The ripple effect of his decisions and actions was only beginning to show.

Chris decided then and there, he had to stop this before it went any further.