Don't Leave Me

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  She shook her head. “I’m totally clear. No misunderstandings here. Now this is starting to get really old. Am I under arrest?”

  “No.” He took her in and the way her expression showed everything and nothing at the same time.

  “Good. Then I’m going home.” She went to step around him when he held out his arm to her, and she stopped, her head down in defeat.

  “What now?” she asked as he reached for the passenger door, pulling it open.

  “Claudia, please get in and let me drive you home. You’re not under arrest. This is not a threat or intimidation. It’s just me getting you home safely.” He waited as she seemed to consider something.

  “Can you answer this?” she said. “The two detectives, the one who dropped me off and the other one, Llewellyn, do you know them?”

  Of course he did. They were cops who had been there forever, cops who had his back but at the same time did things a lot of them tended to ignore. “Yeah, I do. Why?”

  She firmed her lips. “So do you consider them good upstanding citizens?”

  What the fuck? This was starting to border on something he didn’t really want to answer. “Look, I can see you were probably handled a lot rougher than you should have been, but there’s never been a complaint that has stuck.”

  Every one of the complainants against Llewellyn had recanted, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something there. He was a cop who got things done.

  “Really? Why doesn’t that surprise me.” She made a rude noise then and went to step around him again.

  “Come on already with this dancing around bullshit,” he said. “I’ll drive you home, and then you can continue to be pissed and angry, but thank your lucky stars that you’re out and not sitting your ass in a cell. This was a tragedy tonight, a waste, a senseless gunfight, and it’s a wonder there weren’t more injured. Now get in,” he added. When she didn’t move, he had to dig deep to sound calm. “Please.”

  She seemed to consider something, looking down the darkened road and back to his car. “You’re really going to take me home, nowhere else?”

  He shook his head. “Home, I promise you, and nowhere else.”

  This time her expression was filled with a lot of things he didn’t understand, but at the same time he could see she was trying to decide whether he was sincere. Then she did something he hadn’t expected. She climbed in the passenger side, sitting stiffly, resigned and yet determined, he thought. He closed the door after her, walked around to his driver’s side, and climbed in.

  Chapter 7

  “Detective Tony Martin” was all he said, and she looked over to him as he drove. He was a big man. He filled the driver’s side, and his holstered Glock had been the first thing she noticed about him. “Thought you should know my name, considering I know yours,” he added.

  It sounded so strange, considering she was still waiting for a final threat to drive home the point and make sure she understood the way things worked, but he’d said nothing at all. No threats, no more scare tactics or intimidation.

  He slowed for the light as it turned red, and she knew it was about another ten minutes’ drive, tops, considering the lack of traffic, even though this late at night there were still a fair number of cars.

  “There’s blood on you,” he said, and she noticed the blood on her arm, her shirt, her pants, her hands, feeling how it had dried, all crispy, leaving her sticky and wanting to climb into a hot shower to scrub away every memory of this night.

  “It’s not mine,” she said, shutting her eyes when the image of the black man she’d tripped over popped into her head again, this time with all the horror of the moment she hadn’t had time to consider. Her hand slid over her chest and flattened there as she felt a chill.

  “Mind if I ask you what happened?”

  The light turned green, and he pressed the gas just as the next light a block away turned yellow. He slowed again and stopped. At this rate, she’d be here forever.

  “I’ve told the other cops what happened. Not interested in rehashing. If you recall, I was also told—”

  “Yeah, see, that’s what I’m having a little trouble with. You said you were told not to talk about what happened. Who said that to you?” he asked.

  This time she had to really look at him. Was he messing with her, or had he really not gotten the memo from the other cops? If she told him, it could be a trick, and it would be only a matter of time until he went back to the other cops and told them she’d talked.

  “Look, go ask your buddies, Llewellyn and Hargraves. The light’s green.” She pointed ahead, and he hit the gas.

  “First, let’s get this straight: They’re not my buddies. They’re just two detectives. I do want to know what happened to you. Your car is parked in front of the Waverly, and…?”

  Her heart was pounding harder as she stared at him. This was freaking her out, the way he was acting as if he didn’t have a clue. “I was going to the coffee house a few blocks over, but there was no parking. I found a spot at the front of the Waverly. Speaking of which, my friend is probably freaking out because I didn’t show, and I lost my phone, too, so she’s probably been texting, calling.” She wondered whether Tina had called her house.

  “So you weren’t going to the Waverly, visiting someone, buying something?”

  What the hell was he getting at? She stared at him, not liking what he was insinuating. “Other college kids live there, and I’m sure you’re aware of all the parties. No, I don’t really know anyone who lives there, and I already told the other detectives I wasn’t going there. Told you already I was going to the coffee house. What exactly do you think I would have been buying?” she said, but she already knew what he was getting at: whatever drug of choice was offered. Weed, pills, or something harder. “I don’t do that kind of thing.”

  She was looking straight ahead, wishing this night would end and the questions would stop. It was too much, and she didn’t want to keep talking about it. She thought more and more it would be best if she called Chase sooner rather than later.

  “So where exactly were you when the shooting started?”

  She looked his way again. He was watching her with curiosity. “I had just gotten out of my car and locked it. Hadn’t even put my phone or keys in my purse when I heard the first shot. I wasn’t even sure what it was, but I heard yelling, followed by chaos. It seemed as if all hell broke loose. I ran, praying I wouldn’t get shot, and I didn’t have a clue who the hell was shooting. I dropped everything. I don’t even remember when or how, and I didn’t see the man I tripped over. I think he was dead. I landed in his blood, which is now dried on me. Is that what you want to hear?” She didn’t know what to make of his face. There was nothing friendly or happy there. He was thinking.

  “So how did you find your way down to the homeless lady with the gun?” he asked, and she realized he was serious.

  Her mouth was open. She didn’t know what to say as she looked to the cop behind the wheel as he turned down her road. It wasn’t lost on her that he knew exactly where she lived and how to get there. “I crawled on my hands and knees, with shots firing. I didn’t have a clue where they were or if they were coming my way, and I just kind of landed beside her and the kids where they were hiding with their heads down. You ever ask yourself how convenient that was that a gun suddenly appeared in her shopping cart? Just a woman with two kids, guarding her stuff, yet a cop knows exactly where to look and pulls out a gun.”

  As soon as she said it, she knew she shouldn’t have opened her mouth, because two things happened: Detective Tony Martin slammed on the brakes and pulled to the side of the road two doors down from her house, and he killed the lights to his car.

  Chapter 8

  “What are you doing?” Claudia said. She was staring at him now with a look of horror, her hand resting on the door handle, ready to yank it open and run. He could see the uncertainty and something else that made him aware in that moment that she was about two-seconds from being g
one.

  He gripped the wheel, squeezing harder as he tried to take in what she’d said, staring at her. In a flash, the door flew open and she was running. Tony didn’t think. He reacted on pure instinct, all cop, as he was out his door and running after her down the darkened street.

  Damn, she was fast for a girl, but he was faster. He closed the distance just as she weaved beside a red pickup, but he had his hand around her waist, and he took her down in the grass, landing on his back, with her on top of him. His hand was over her mouth, muffling her scream.

  “Shh, don’t scream. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. He had his lips to her ear, and he could feel her shaking as he tightened his grip. She’d turned into a hellcat, all fire and fighting him, kicking out, nailing him in the chin. “Stop!” he growled and somehow managed to get up on his feet, dragging her with him.

  He took in the small house. A light was on, and he thought he saw a woman in the window, looking out into the darkness. “Did you really just say what I think you did?” he asked. He stepped back, holding her on the sidewalk behind the hedge, sliding into the darkness, seeing his car with the doors wide open. Claudia didn’t even nod. He could hear her panicked breathing and feel how stiffly she stood as he took a step back further behind a hedge on the sidewalk. “You said before someone threatened you, and it sounds to me as if you’re insinuating that the gun was planted—or am I wrong?”

  She still said nothing, but then, his hand was covering her mouth. There was nothing about tonight that he liked. None of this sat right.

  “I just want some answers, Claudia. Did you see something you’re not saying?” he asked.

  She did nothing. She didn’t nod or shake her head. She breathed in and out deeply, and then he loosened his hand from her mouth.

  “Don’t scream. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want answers. Don’t run,” he said. He hoped she wouldn’t wake everyone on the street as he lowered his hand, letting her step away. He realized in the dark he could just make out tears that she furiously blinked back. Or it could have been a trick of the light. He wasn’t sure. This young woman was tough, and it was clear she wouldn’t go down without a fight. “Answer me. Is there something about tonight that you saw that you were warned not to talk about?” He knew he was reaching and didn’t think he could be right when she nodded.

  “You don’t already know?” she asked. “Really?”

  He didn’t miss the bite of sarcasm, and he shook his head. “No, what?”

  “If I tell you, are you going to hurt me or my dad or my mom or cause us some trouble?” she said, and he couldn’t believe what she was saying.

  “Of course not. What kind of person do you think I am? I’m a cop, not some thug.”

  She didn’t seem convinced, as she covered her arms, crossing them, touching them. “Would have thought the same thing before tonight. Now I wonder what the difference is,” she said. Those weren’t the words of a woman swept up in confusion after having been detained. She said it as a fact, and that really bothered him.

  “Seriously, Claudia, what exactly are you scared of?” he asked. She had to be overreacting, maybe just a little freaked from what she’d witnessed that night. It was only expected.

  “What I’m scared of is me going down for something I didn’t do. I was sitting there huddled, hiding with that woman, trying to figure out where to go, what to do, still hearing shots, and I saw cops running. I was doing everything just to keep my head down, and then I had a gun on me. Some cop was yelling for me to get down, another had an itchy trigger finger, and I was tossed down and cuffed. As I turned my head, I watched as a cop over by that shopping cart reached in and pulled his hand out, and you know what I couldn’t get over?” she said, and she took another step back, away from him.

  “What?”

  “He’d had a gun in his hand only seconds before, yet when he pulled his hand out, no gun.” She lifted both her hands in the air, and he swallowed, wiping his face, feeling the knot in his stomach twist a little more.

  He didn’t like what he was hearing. She had to be confused, not seeing clearly. “And who was this cop?”

  She lifted her hands and touched her lip. For a minute, he didn’t think she’d answer, but when she lowered her fisted hands, he could see the determination. This young woman was far from a pushover. She lifted her chin and said, “Detective Llewellyn.”

  Chapter 9

  He said nothing, and she didn’t know what to make of his silence other than that it appeared he didn’t believe a word she’d said. Yet there was no threat coming back at her. There was no twisting of facts or telling her what had happened. There was no fear that she was completely powerless.

  The silence, though, had her head going to dark places, seeing a concrete room she couldn’t get out of. She’d never realized how she’d taken her freedom for granted. He was watching her now, and she imagined by his expression that he was trying to decide what to say.

  She took in her house, just past her dad’s pickup—ten, twenty steps away. She saw herself running inside and locking the door, locking out the very same law that was supposed to protect her. She wanted to move again, get away from Detective Martin, but she was worried about what he’d do. Would he grab her again? She was tired of being manhandled.

  “Are you sure about what you saw?” he said. “Are you absolutely one hundred percent sure you saw what you did? Because I’ve got to tell you, Detective Llewellyn has been a cop longer than I have, and even though he’s far from my favorite person, far from being above reproach, I can’t see this from him, from—” She was so done. Maybe that was what he saw, as he lifted his hands. “Okay, so start again at the beginning.”

  Headlights flashed. A car in the distance was slowly approaching, and she just stared. Tony turned his head as it slowed, the window now down, and she took in the cop, a man whose face would be burned forever in her mind.

  “Everything all right here, Tony?”

  The way he said it had Claudia’s blood chilling, and she stood ramrod straight, fighting to take a breath and hoping he didn’t hear her, but his glance shot her that same warning. She was aware that Tony hadn’t missed any of it.

  “Fine,” he said. “Just gave Ms. McCabe a ride home. What are you doing here?” He didn’t move, and she noted the way he glanced to her and back to Llewellyn. It was unnerving, as she was worried about what would come out of his mouth.

  “She making any trouble?” Llewellyn said.

  She got the threat, and maybe Tony did as well.

  “Not sure what you’re talking about,” he replied. “Why would she?”

  She still waited.

  “You almost done here? Just wanted to let you know it looks like we were right. The Doucette woman fired the shot. Got a confession out of her. As I thought, it’s just life on the streets, looking for drugs. Don’t know who’s worse, the homeless scum who bring the real estate value down or the dope dealers selling to them. Maybe we should let them kill each other off, save us the work of cleaning up the streets.”

  She wasn’t sure if the strangled sound she made had Tony glancing her way, but she was frozen, taking in everything he was saying.

  “Seriously, Llewellyn, you’re such an asshole sometimes,” Tony said.

  The cop laughed before looking over to her, his arm extended, jabbing his finger her way. “You okay there, kid?” he asked. She didn’t miss the dark look, the warning.

  “Fine,” she said.

  The cop didn’t smile as he nodded. “Next time, might be prudent to run the other way. It really was fortunate for you that you weren’t shot. Sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time is how you end up with a bullet in your head. Let’s hope our paths don’t cross again.” Then he flicked his gaze back to her house. “Say hi to your dad for me.” He rolled up his window, lifted his hand, and pulled away.

  Claudia felt her stomach surge, bile rising. She stumbled a step to the hedge, bent over, and vomited. She felt Tony’s h
ands in her hair, which had come loose, pulling it back and lifting it while she puked. It splashed onto her toes.

  “Easy now,” he said as she spat. “Don’t have a handkerchief or even a Kleenex, or I’d offer you one.”

  She stood up, taking in something in his expression that confused her. “Thank you,” she said, nodding, then pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

  “So, um, I think we need to have a talk,” Tony said.

  For a moment, she thought she was going to be sick again. “Look, I got it. I just want to go home,” she said, pressing her hand to her forehead.

  “Well, that’s the thing,” he said. “You can’t go home, because that there was a threat, and I think you need to tell me why and how Llewellyn knows your dad.”

  Chapter 10

  The water was hot, and it stung her face and her toe, which she’d somehow scraped and stubbed in the chaos of the shooting. Her face was a mess, with a scrape on her cheek that looked nasty. The one on her chin was turning colors, and her eye makeup had smudged everywhere. That was just from the glimpse she’d had in the motel mirror. She was at the Red Herd Inn in a part of Henderson she’d never been. It was a cheap place with two double beds that both looked as if they’d seen better days, and even with the shower on, she could hear the TV in the other room.

  Tony Martin, the hot detective, was outside the bathroom, likely sitting on one of the two beds. He’d paid for the room after telling her she couldn’t go home. Llewellyn’s threat was still all she could think of.

  What scared her, confused her, and had her completely freaked out was that Tony seemed sincere. That honestly made her think he didn’t know anything about what had happened. Could he seriously be worried about her? Could he honestly be the good guy here? She didn’t know what to think, and at the same time she had to remind herself not to trust anyone.