Don't Leave Me

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  * * *

  “Which one?” Tony asked her as Chase and Vic approached, both with dark glasses on, taking in the group.

  “The tall guy, silver hair, skinny. That’s him. He’s the one I saw come around the corner. Pretty sure he knew Zoe, too.” Claudia fell in behind Tony as he started across the park. It wasn’t lost on her that his gun was holstered, but his badge was tucked in his back pocket.

  Vic didn’t say a word as he inclined his head to Chase ahead, who caught up with Tony. He slid his hand around Claudia’s arm and said, “Hold up. Put this on.” He handed her a black ball cap, one she hadn’t known he was carrying. She pulled it on, catching something tender, a smile, maybe for her. She wasn’t sure. Vic was giving all of his attention to her. “You okay?” he asked, but it was different this time, as if he needed to check on where she was in all of this and what was happening. It was nice.

  “Yeah, I’m okay, just…” She didn’t know what to say, but maybe he understood, as he set his hand around the back of her neck on her shoulder and squeezed a second, something that said more than words. He had her back.

  Tony held up his badge, and she saw the worried looks of the people there. “You there, what’s your name?” He was pointing at the older guy she recognized.

  He opened his mouth, and she realized his bottom teeth were missing. “Sawyer,” he said. “Look, I haven’t done anything wrong.” He had wide eyes, and he was looking down at people sitting at the table: a plump dark-haired woman with a small boy on her lap, a guy with his head down and a ballcap on, a couple other women and men. Some older kids lingered nearby, too, and an older woman with a shopping cart and a book pulled out.

  “No one said you did. Just wanted to have a chat about yesterday, is all, the shooting over by the Waverly and the woman there by the name of Zoe Doucette.”

  “Is Zoe okay, the kids?” the man asked.

  “Well, she’s in jail, was arrested,” Tony said. Everyone was interested, giving Tony, Vic, Chase, and her all their attention.

  “Why, for what?” the man said. Another woman there was looking around and called out to one of the kids.

  “The gun from the shooting was found stuffed in the shopping cart her belongings were in. She’s in jail, charged with murder, but this lady said she saw you there.”

  Vic actually stepped in front of her, and for a minute she thought he was of the mind to take her back to the car. The old man looked over to her, and she could see he didn’t recognize her. Her hair color was different, and she’d seen him for only a few seconds. His focus had been on the kids, the woman.

  “Yeah, I heard the shooting start and came running, ’cause Zoe was over there dumpster diving. Said she’d found some good stuff, a bunch of canned goods that had been tossed out, expired, by the campus. They dump expired food, packaged, canned, in that dumpster instead of the one behind the campus so it costs less. I went to get her and saw her down by her cart of things, those kids with her, but it was too hot. I saw her freeze and reached out to her, but they didn’t come. Nah, you’re full of shit. She didn’t have a gun. Someone’s messing with you. Why would she have a gun?” He seemed confused, questioning.

  “She didn’t.” Claudia stepped around Vic, taking in the faces around the table, piecing together, from what she was seeing, a family of sorts. “I saw a cop put the gun in her cart,” she said, and this time Vic did grab her arm, pulling her back. The man paled, a woman gasped, and the man with his head down and a ball cap over his dark hair looked up. Dark eyes looked straight to her, filled with a hate she’d never seen before.

  “Damn cops. Told you it was just a matter of time before they did something, and now they have Zoe,” the man said.

  Claudia dug her heels in. “Vic, stop. What do you mean, it was just a matter of time before the cops did something? Did what?” she said, and she realized Chase and Tony seemed to want to know the same thing.

  “Wanted us gone,” said the older man who seemed to be watching over everyone. “Because we don’t have a home. We’re the homeless.”

  Chapter 16

  She couldn’t believe what she’d heard, and after a lot of talking, with Tony, Vic, and Chase all asking questions and she being the silent observer, taking in everything, she was left with more questions than answers.

  Sawyer, as she’d learned, had been on the streets a little over two years. He was in his fifties but looked seventy. He’d moved in with his mother to take care of her after she developed cancer, and all the care she’d needed before she died had cost him his job. Then the economy had dried up, and a man his age hadn’t been able to get a decent full-time job. The medical bills piled up, and even his mother’s house had been swallowed up in the debt. Here he was, just trying to survive.

  Every one of these people, all victims of circumstance.

  Tony touched her arm, drawing her back, and he slid his hand over her shoulder. Her insides felt battered and shaken. He turned her away, looking across the park, stepping away from everyone. “Want you to get out of the open,” he said. “I was uneasy before, but now I’m not liking any of this. We’re too close to the scene, and it’s only a matter of time before someone spots you and…” He took a breath, still touching her, and she wondered so much about him.

  “You married, have a girlfriend?” she said. “Sorry,” she added when he gave her an odd look. She could feel his heat, his strength, and everything about him that had confused her before humbled her now. He cared.

  She couldn’t see his eyes through the dark glasses. He shrugged. “Nope to both,” he said. Then he was looking at her as she stared up at him, wishing she could see his eyes. It was just a moment between them that stirred something in her, and she lifted her hand and wiped at a smudge on his cheek. He didn’t pull back, and she’d have given anything then to be alone with him, to rise up and press her lips to his. It had to be the situation, being thrown together last night. That had to be the reason she was feeling something she didn’t want to. A cop, a bad idea.

  He glanced to the side, the spell now broken. “I need to go to the station. Chase is going to tag along, play the badass lawyer. Vic, can’t believe I’m saying this, but he suggested already that you go back to Oregon with him.”

  “No,” she said, and he shook his head.

  This time he touched her cheek with his thumb, leaning in closer. “You should. You need to go, be out of here and out of reach. I don’t know how long I can keep you safe. I have to go in, and I don’t want to leave you.”

  She was in trouble, as her heart did a flip, zinging, wishing she could be back at that motel room with him again, just the two of them. But they were here, and there was still this big uncertainty hanging around them like an axe just waiting to fall. Her world as she knew it would crumble.

  She could see Vic watching. Always the protector, she figured now. “That wasn’t the plan, Tony, and after what I’ve heard here from these people, there’s no way I’m leaving. What’s going to happen with you? They’re going to know you have me, if they haven’t figured it out already.”

  This time he did smile. She wasn’t sure if it was flattery or something she’d said that was funny. She didn’t know how to take it as he slid his hand down and over her shoulder again. She was so close to him, and she couldn’t stop herself then from going up on her toes and pressing a kiss to those full lips that she allowed to linger a moment. His hand slid over her, and she should have been embarrassed with her brothers there, the other people, but she wasn’t. His hand slid over the small of her back and higher as she pulled away but still so close to him. It was a moment in time that was just them until he glanced over to Chase, who nodded something back to him.

  Chase was talking with two of the other women. All of these people were homeless, and each of them had suffered some sleight of hand, just a hiccup in their paths. Tony, though, didn’t step back, and he didn’t take his hand off her. She willed him to know how much she wanted his touch.

  “Yo
u know, Tony, that could have been me and my mother living on the streets,” she said. “I just never considered before how easy it can happen. I guess I don’t understand how it can be ignored. I guess I’m as guilty as everyone, because I’ve never given anyone on the streets the time of day, thinking they’re just drunks or addicts or they’ve done something to put themselves here. So what does that make me?” Sick to her stomach, and she wanted to do more than just stand here as she watched Vic open his wallet and pull money out.

  Tony was still watching her through dark shades, but she knew he was giving her all his attention and something else. “Doesn’t make you anything. It’s not your fault, but you’re right that it isn’t as simple as that. Yes, the streets hold a lot of different people. Lost jobs, lost homes, health problems, medical bills, or just can’t afford the high cost of everything that comes with putting a roof over your head.” He cocked his head, his face close. “You’re right that it can happen to anyone. It has happened to so many. It’s just another of these things that people can’t stand to think of because it would be a nightmare they don’t want to imagine, so it’s easier for most people to pretend it isn’t a problem, that it doesn’t exist. Out of sight, out of mind.” Then he frowned as if he’d thought of something, and this time he did drop his hand and turn back to everyone. “Chase,” he called out.

  Chase was passing out his card, and he gestured to Sawyer. Here she was, nothing but a college student who couldn’t even pull it together for the business course her brother had insisted she take. It was a gift she was wasting.

  “Hey, listen,” Chase said. “Sawyer is kind of the overseer of this group. Keeps an eye on them, watches out for them. He was saying Zoe hasn’t been on the streets long.” Chase had his hand on the older man’s shoulder as if he were his best friend.

  Sawyer had big eyes, and she sensed a kind soul just by the way he talked and seemed to care. “It was Wendy over there who found her and her young uns sleeping in her car six months back. Single mom, husband died. No family around, and she couldn’t make the mortgage payments. She sold off everything before eventually losing the house, too. Sold her car but didn’t get much, and she’s been with us ever since. We kind of watch over each other. One of us finds food, and we share it. Kids first to eat. We get our names on a list for a shelter, but we have to get in there quick, and out at dawn. I still can’t believe she confessed to something like that. It makes no sense she’d do that.” The man was looking down to Claudia, and he narrowed his eyes. “I remember you now. Red hair you had.” He jabbed his finger, and she couldn’t help flushing, feeling guilty all over for nothing and everything.

  “Sawyer, tell Tony what you told me about the kid, or rather the older one.”

  Claudia watched as the old man’s eyes widened as if he’d just remembered.

  “Her oldest kid was always getting sick. Muscular dystrophy, I think, is what she said he had, or something like that. Always getting them mixed up. There’s so many of these diseases now. She’d do anything for those kids, though. You asked what it would take for her to confess to something? I’d say nothing, except those kids. What are you going to do about this? They’re your people.” Sawyer turned on Tony as if this were his fault.

  Chase still had his hand on the old man’s shoulder. “It wasn’t Detective Martin who did it. Just like you said, the cops were always harassing you, calling you a bum, a drunk.” It was as if Chase needed to remind him.

  The man lifted his hands as if he got it. “I don’t drink. Any cash I have, I need it to buy food to eat. I’d take a job if I could get one, but I have to have a place to live, an address. Don’t have that, you can’t put it on the application, and that leaves what I can pick up. The others, too. Day jobs here and there, cash only, but never enough to get us out of here. Maybe I should have seen this coming from the way the cops are always on us to get out of the park, move on, stop loitering, as if we have a place to go—as if we don’t have a right just like everyone to be here. But they’re always saying to stop bothering folks, they don’t want to see us or can’t stop here.”

  Tony appeared embarrassed. She wasn’t sure. “Out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “I missed it.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant when he shook his head as if to forget it.

  “So here’s what I’m thinking,” Chase said just as Vic approached. “Tony and I’ll go down to the station, me as Zoe’s new lawyer. Vic, you take Claudia back to Mom and Dad’s. Get them to pack and head up to your place.”

  “Yeah, I’m not leaving,” Claudia said, standing next to Tony, who was rubbing the back of his neck.

  “What about me?” Sawyer said. “Didn’t you just say you need me to tell people about seeing her? And she’s clean. Doesn’t do drugs or drink. She didn’t have a gun. I can do that, let me do that.” His eyes were wide. “And what about her kids? What’s happened to them?”

  Tony said, “Her kids would’ve been picked up by the state. Not much we can do there, but if you come forward now against a bunch of cops who have this locked up tight, I guarantee you any chance we have of clearing her name and nailing Llewellyn for planting that gun will be gone. Because if I’m right about what I think has happened, then there are some cops who will be looking for you, and the chances of you disappearing for real are very good.”

  Chapter 17

  Vic was behind the wheel of Chase’s BMW, driving Claudia to their parents’ house. Chase had climbed in with Tony. Sawyer, the homeless guy, had been with them, but where they were taking him, she didn’t have a clue.

  “You’re quiet over there,” Vic said—as if he was chatty. Far from it, she thought as she took in her handsome dark-haired brother.

  “How’re Fiona, John, Rosalee?”

  He smiled. It filled his expression how he loved his family. His son was her age, and his daughter was just over a year old. “They’re good. Rosalee is into everything, running everywhere. John’s in school. They miss you, though. They’ll be glad to see you,” he added, glancing her way. She realized now, as he was with her, that he was so much older and acted more like a father than a brother, as if he felt responsible for her.

  “You never told me what it is about Dad that the cops know. Why would they say he knows some pretty bad people? Just an FYI, I saw whatever that was that passed between you and Chase when I told you what they said. You know, both of you, and whatever it is, you need to tell me,” she said.

  Vic slowed for the light, which had just turned red. He said nothing but stared straight ahead as if that light held all the answers. It was frustrating.

  “Silence isn’t going to cut it, either,” she added, bringing a smile again that briefly touched his lips.

  “Dad was a gambler, is a gambler. Got himself into a lot of trouble years ago.”

  She was waiting and watching Vic, his face giving nothing away. “I know all that. Mom sat me down when she dropped her little bomb about the family she used to have that I knew nothing about. She told me why she left, why she walked out. So, again, why are the cops talking as if it’s present tense? Because that was the impression I got,” she added as he hit the gas. She tried to figure out what he was thinking as he glanced again over to her.

  “It isn’t present tense, although I’m sure the cops would like to say it is. Dad got himself in so deep that he owed some pretty bad people. I got him out of it. The debt was paid. But the kind of people he owed, the ones he gambled with, were the kind known by the cops, and not in the friendly neighborhood booky kind of way. These were thugs, dangerous people that were always on the cops’ radar, so yeah, the cops would have known of Dad, I have no doubt. But, again, Dad pulled himself together before you came back, and when this all went down, it was years ago. I got him out. It’s just that sometimes it doesn’t matter with cops whether it was yesterday or twenty years ago. Understand?” he said, and there was something about the way he said it that she knew there had to be more.

  “Can I ask how you got him
out of it, what you had to do?”

  He actually let out a rough low laugh, not a happy one. Again, he didn’t answer, and at the same time he stiffened as he turned the corner to their street. She saw a cab, and when the door opened, Aaron stepped out. He was wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and dark glasses, and he was totally ripped. He lifted out a black bag.

  “Aaron’s here,” he said.

  “And you didn’t answer me,” she replied as he pulled up just as the cab drove away.

  Her brother, the fighter, lifted off his shades, and there was swelling under his eye and a cut to his cheekbone. Of course he’d just come from a fight.

  “It was a long time ago, Claudia, another life for me, one I’m not proud of. Did I have to break the law? Yeah.” He turned off the car, and she was looking at him as he gestured with his chin to Aaron, who must have been wondering what they were doing. “It got me into something that could have ruined my life, and it set in motion something that nearly destroyed someone I love.” Whatever it was that he tried to hide in that single moment in his expression, it was raw still. That was all she could think, as she realized it was something that had shaped him into who he was today.

  Then Vic opened the door and stepped out of the car. Aaron pulled open her door, his hand resting on the frame, his eyes a different shade from all of them as he leveled her with a hard gaze that was filled with caring.

  He took her in, then winked before smiling. “Good to see you, kid.”

  Chapter 18

  The detention centre was filled to capacity, Tony had been told. It was a building of locks and gates and people and so much concrete, a part of his life he’d never given a second thought to. They were in a cell with a table only because Chase had advised that he was Zoe Doucette’s lawyer. No one questioned why Tony was also there.