5 Highball Exit

by Phyllis Smallman

  “You already told me your parents need you.” I couldn’t look at Rob. “Ryan’s about to self-destruct.”

  “But how and when? And how many more women are going to get hurt?”

  I folded my arms across my chest and leaned forward on my knees. “You need to find Chloe.” And I needed to be alone.

  He reached down and picked up the mug. “I’ll call the police and tell them what Dusty Harrison said.”

  I nodded. “Do it quick before Dusty leaves town.”

  Rob put his hand on my shoulder and leaned towards me, earnest and concerned. “Why did Vachess pull you into his car?”

  “He’s paranoid and crazy, thinks I’m following him. He saw me coming out of here and thought it was part of a conspiracy.”

  The door was open to a small washroom, just a sink and a toilet. I stood up and went over to the sink and washed my hands and then my face. I pulled a handful of paper towels off a roll and dried my face before turning back to Rob. “He scares the shit out of me.”

  “Look, I’ll come to the police with you. I’ll tell them he was holding you in the car against your will.”

  I had something else in mind. Heaven help me, one day I’ll grow a brain and the world will be a better place.

  I pulled down on the denim skirt riding up over my ass and said, “Let me make a call first.”

  I figured I needed less orthodox help and I figured I knew where to get it. “It’ll be okay. You go ahead, I’ll be right out.”

  He went to the door to the alley, his phone already in his hand. “I’m calling the police about Chloe.”

  Hiding there in the back of the deli, while Rob called the cops, I called Dan.

  “Ryan Vachess murdered Holly,” I said as soon as he answered.

  I told Dan about being hijacked and repeated Ryan’s confession. I didn’t get the response I had expected. I thought Dan’s explosive temper would send him after Ryan. Instead Dan said, “It’s over. Holly’s death has been put down as a suicide. Leave it at that.”

  I was stunned. “Even if he killed Holly, you’re willing to let it go?”

  “You’re just guessing.”

  “I’m not just guessing. He told me. I’ll testify.”

  “Hearsay evidence, it won’t stand up in court.”

  “When did you turn into such a wimp?”

  “Since I got a life. Shelly and Hannah will be home tonight. They’re all I care about now.”

  “Well, what about this—Ryan is knowingly infecting women with HIV. That’s how Holly got the poison in her veins.”

  “You don’t know that,” Dan said.

  “I think it will be pretty easy to prove. Diseases have profiles. He had the disease when he first met Holly. He knew he was going to make her sick and he didn’t care.”

  “Intent is a hard thing to establish. He’d be in and out of custody the same day. Plus there’s no longer a victim. Holly is dead.”

  “Dusty probably has it. He’s a victim.”

  “You think Dusty Harrison is going to have his perverted sex life come out by charging Vachess? Not likely. Just drop it.”

  “You loved Holly a little. Are you going to let Ryan Vachess get away with this?”

  “You’re asking me to destroy my life. I’m not going to end my career to give Vachess a slap on the wrist. Forget about it, Sherri.”

  “What about the note?”

  “What about it?”

  “Something bothered me about that note, like a small stone in my shoe. It just kept irritating me. I got Aunt Kay to copy it out for me and her note had the same mistake in it as the one you wrote. The first word of the suicide letter wasn’t capitalized. It looked like it was the beginning of a sentence but it wasn’t. It said, ‘. . . because my Angel is gone.’ It was the middle of a line. Ryan used the second page of her letter as a suicide note.”

  “And that’s it? You think that’s enough to get a guilty verdict?”

  “It’s right there in black and white, proof.”

  “The defense will argue she was about to kill herself, not surprising if she slipped up and didn’t use a capital letter.”

  “Things like that are habits. You don’t make that kind of a mistake.”

  “It isn’t enough. Can you prove Vachess ever saw that note? Can you prove any of this shit you’re telling me?”

  “You could if you did your job.”

  “It’s going to be your word against his. Don’t get me involved.”

  “Please, Dan, for Holly’s sake.”

  “I want to forget I ever knew her,” he said, and then he hung up on me.

  A tsunami of anger swamped me and I cursed Dan. He was supposed to serve and protect, isn’t that what cops always said? But he was leaving Ryan on the street.

  All those times he said Holly had called him and he hadn’t got back to her. Had she been calling him for help, trying to get away from Dusty and Vachess?

  CHAPTER 48

  How many days had it been since I first heard the name Ryan Vachess? Three, no, it had been four days since my world imploded. And how many days would it be before I got it back again? But Ryan Vachess had to be stopped.

  The man was a walking time bomb set to go off in my direction, not only paranoid but now he’d be afraid I’d go to the police and tell them he killed Holly. He wasn’t going to let me walk around knowing that, but Dan was right, it would be my word against his. Would my word be enough?

  Cautiously, I left the deli with Rob beside me. There was no sign of Ryan. Rob walked me to my truck and stood on the sidewalk and watched with his cell phone in his hand, his face creased with concern.

  My pepper spray was on my lap and my cell was open on the seat beside me. I drove out of St. Armand’s Circle, checking the traffic around me. Not seeing a red Mustang did not make me feel safe. Ryan might have changed cars. Rob pulled out of a side street and in behind me to follow me back over the bridge to the mainland and north on Tamiami Trail.

  It didn’t matter how it turned out, I wanted Ryan’s crimes on record, wanted to stand up and say what he’d done. Someone else would decide if they believed me and if he was going to jail for what he’d done to Holly. That wasn’t my responsibility. My only part in this was to tell what I knew and try to get justice for Holly.

  With Rob following me I headed for the Sarasota police headquarters on Adams Lane, north of Payne Park. I’d been there once before, in my life with Jimmy, when I was still running to his rescue and still believing he would change.

  The Sarasota police headquarters looks like a blue plastic storage box that someone cut window slits in and topped with a sheet of glass.

  Rob went to put in a report on Chloe while I waited in a tiny room to talk to an investigator in the Crimes Against Persons Unit. It took some time before a detective named Benning came to talk to me. She was very polite and listened to my story without interruption but gave absolutely no indication if she believed me or not. “And the brother, Cal Vachess, conspired in Holly’s murder. I think he destroyed the journals and cleaned up after his brother fed her the pills.”

  Benning’s eyes got big when I told her about being at Dusty’s house. My account seemed impossible even to my own ears. “Rob McCabe will back up my story of Ryan Vachess holding me in the car.” I handed over Rob’s card and she took it without comment. “He’s here in the building making a report on his sister Chloe.”

  By the time I was done I thought it was going nowhere, that she would put me down as one more crazy woman with an ax to grind. After she’d heard the whole story she politely asked me to wait and went away.

  The adrenaline and the telling had dulled the sharpness of my fury. Now, exhausted, I just wanted to go back to Brian’s and sleep until Clay came home to hold me.

 
I waited. People going by the cell-like interview room peered in the open door and took a good look at me for future reference. I ignored them and slumped down in the chair, trying to get comfortable, and then I folded my arms on the desk and put my head down. I was drifting in and out of sleep when Officer Benning came back into the room.

  Her attitude had changed. Before she even sat down across from me she said, “Are you willing to bring charges against Ryan Vachess for your illegal confinement?”

  So they weren’t going to arrest him for murder or spreading a disease. I took a deep breath. “Yes, I’ll swear out a complaint for kidnapping me.”

  “Good.” Her smile brightened the room. “What about Dan Raines?”

  “Oh, don’t worry; we’ll take care of Officer Raines.”

  I nodded. Dan should have shown a little more compassion for Holly.

  It took some more time to swear out a complaint. I knew it would only slow Ryan down for about half a second but it might give the police leverage.

  When it was done she said, “I’ll call you as soon as we pick Ryan Vachess up.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you now.”

  I wished I could be as hopeful as she was that my problems were over.

  When I turned on my cell outside the station there were two calls from Ryan Vachess. He’d heard from Dusty. Both of the calls used words that were neither nice nor complimentary. He did not leave a number nor did he suggest I call him back. That was fine with me. I had all the friends I could handle. And, since I was sure that what he suggested was physically impossible, and might injure me if I tried, I decided to ignore his advice.

  One thing was clear. Ryan made no mention of being worried about contracting the virus—that didn’t come up in all the vile things he said in his messages—so he already knew Holly had HIV and didn’t need me or Dusty to tell him. I didn’t erase the calls. I saved them to play for the police. But not now. I was well and truly done. I had one more stop and then I was going back to Brian’s to crash.

  There was no sign of Rob but his car was still right beside my pickup. I figured I’d catch up with him later. I hit the freeway and headed south, back to Jacaranda.

  At the hospital Aunt Kay was in a real room with real walls instead of curtains. It even had a window. She was sitting up in bed and she’d lost that dead fish look.

  She brushed my questions about her health aside and said, “Where’s Angel?”

  I told her that Angel was now called Lily and I told her about Lily’s wonderful home.

  Her lips trembled. “Thank you, Sherri.”

  “You’re welcome.” I pulled a chair up to the bed. “I met Dusty Harrison. It was most interesting.”

  “Interesting?” She settled her arms across the mound of her tummy. “Don’t leave anything out.”

  But I was going to leave something out. She didn’t need to hear anything about my time with Ryan or about my talk with the Crimes Against Persons officer. It could wait until she was stronger and could handle the shock of Holly’s murder. I was going to keep it as light as possible.

  I pulled the visitor’s chair up closer to the bed and told her about the call from Dan and about my visit to Dusty. “It will take old Dusty a while to walk upright. Then he’ll be running out to get an HIV test.”

  “My guess is you’ve ended the friendship between Ryan and Dusty.” She frowned. “Ryan is going to be very unhappy with you.”

  “Ryan is a weird one. No guessing what he’ll do. I’m staying far away from him.”

  “If Dusty didn’t know Holly was HIV-positive, and she didn’t have the virus when Angel was born, is Ryan the one who infected Holly?” Her eyes widened. “Did Ryan knowingly infect Holly?”

  She’d come to exactly the place I had. “Maybe.”

  “Do you think Ryan meant to infect Dusty through Holly or did he just not give a damn?”

  “It’s all too cruel to contemplate.”

  “All the same,” Aunt Kay said, “if Ryan doesn’t know Holly was ill, he should.”

  “I thought you’d given up interfering.”

  “Well, yes, but as you pointed out yourself, if we do nothing, bad things can happen as well. Then we’re responsible for those.”

  “We can’t win at this blame game, can we?”

  “Not as long as we’re still breathing.”

  “But volunteering can be good for the soul.” I pulled out the check and handed it to Aunt Kay. “Wasn’t it nice of Dusty to pay for Holly’s funeral?”

  Her monitor went crazy and I was asked to leave.

  CHAPTER 49

  I settled my sunglasses over my eyes and was hunting for my keys when my cell rang. Another call from Ryan? Or maybe it was the police saying that Ryan had been picked up and I could sleep without worries for one night at least. It was Cal Vachess.

  Good news or bad, I had to know. “What?” I looked out the door of the hospital, searching for danger as I waited for his answer.

  “My brother . . .” He didn’t go on.

  “What about Ryan?” My voice was stuck high in my throat. “He’s out of control. He doesn’t know where the boundaries areanymore.”

  “No kidding!” I scanned the parking lot. There were no red Mustangs. “Are you just discovering that? And then there’s his health to worry about.”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Holly was HIV-positive, and we both know she got it from Ryan.”

  “You can’t prove a thing.”

  “I’ve been doing lots of reading online. Diseases have markers. Each strain is unique. If the police go looking they’ll find out that Holly’s strain matches Ryan’s. He infected Holly. He should be in jail where he won’t hurt any more women.” I jogged to the truck.

  “They’ll never arrest him for that. It’s too hard to prove intent.

  The most they could charge him with is assault and in this case there’s no victim to press charges. They won’t even hold him.”

  I stopped dead halfway into the truck. “You’ve already gotten legal advice, haven’t you? Probably have the lawyer on speed dial, primed and ready to go. You’re as guilty as he is.” I screamed, “Why didn’t you stop him?”

  “You really think I haven’t tried?”

  “So he just goes on ruining lives?”

  “He’ll stop.”

  “Yeah, when he overdoses or drives his car into a concrete barrier because he’s high. And in the meantime he’s out partying. How many more people are going to get sick?”

  “Those idiots have to look out for themselves. They know the risks as well as you do. That’s not my problem.”

  “Holly was never an escort, was she?”

  He took his time answering. “She only went out once. That was months ago and it was a disaster. She ran out of the room and left the guy standing there.”

  I started the engine and cranked up the air. “And then what happened?”

  He sighed. It took some time before he said, “She was Ryan’s private property for a while and then he sold her to Dusty.”

  “But you said she called you.”

  “Ryan did. When Dusty threw her out she went to Ryan for help. He called and said she needed a job, said I should put her to work. He put the pictures he took of her up on the website but I never sent her out. I made her get tested, even took her to the clinic myself. That’s how she found out she had the virus.”

  “She called you and told you that?”

  “Nah, she told Ryan. He called and yelled at me for making her get checked.”

  “You wanted her to know. That’s why you made her get tested.”

  “If she had it, she had to get treated, but I make sure all the girlsget screened before they work.”

  “Ryan k
new she had it and he was going to send her out there to infect other people. He wanted that to happen.”

  “That’s ridiculous. I don’t think he really thought it through.”

  “And I think you’re just lying to yourself. Your brother is evil.”

  “He’s angry that this happened to him . . . he blames people for things, and doesn’t care who he takes it out on.”

  “He left me some sick messages. How much trouble is he going to give me?”

  “His obsessions don’t last. Just stay away from Ryan and give him a chance to forget about you. That’s what I wanted to say. Go away for a while.”

  “How long do you think that might take?” He laughed. “A day or two.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Take a holiday.”

  “You knew who I was when I came into your office. You saw my picture, probably heard everything Holly had to say about me. More than that, you knew Ryan killed Holly, gave her pills and watched her die.

  “I bet he told you about it and you went over to clean up after him. Someone tidied up even before the cops got there. I think it was you. You’re the careful one. You went through her things, maybe even took her journals and laptop. For sure you got rid of any evidence on her phone. And then you left that message on her cell, trying to get hold of her, in case the police connected Ryan to her. You wanted the cops to think she was just another sex worker. And all that bullshit that you were protecting me . . . you just didn’t want Ryan to do another stupid thing and kill me because that would really screw things up for you. You’re the brains, you’re the one who does the organizing, probably delivering women all over the state. Well, your little empire is coming down. You better call that lawyer you have ready because I told the cops about you and you’re going to be charged as an accessory to murder.”

  He hung up without answering. It was my day for having men hang up on me.

  Ryan’s messages were still on my phone. I could drive back up to Sarasota and take them to the police, but would they pick him up sooner if they heard what he’d said, heard his threats? And how long would Ryan be in jail after he was arrested? I knew the answer to that. Ryan would probably be out so quick he wouldn’t even have to come down from his latest high, and unless Ryan was charged for murder, Cal would walk as well. What the cops knew and what they could prove in court were two very different things. I hadn’t accomplished anything except to give Ryan a bigger reason to come after me.