by B. B. Hamel
21
Luke
Jason Slick takes a long drag from his cigarette and looks at me through the rearview mirror. “You sure about this, kid?”
I nod at him. “I’m sure.”
Avery turns to look at me and just smiles. I’ve been relegated to the back seat, but that’s okay with me. Avery’s been in this since the beginning, and she clearly has a better relationship with Slick than I do.
The revelation that she’s the one who paid for Slick and got me freed shouldn’t have surprised me. I can’t think of anyone else that would care enough about me to do it. I don’t fully understand why she was so afraid to tell me, but she has her reasons. I think things are worse in her house than I realize.
That shouldn’t surprise me, either. Her father is an awful man, and her mother is a fucking alcoholic. She has enough to deal with on a daily basis, but adding an investigation in on top of that… I bet it was so stressful she could barely handle it all.
I’m glad she told me, though. For a long time, five long years behind bars, I thought she abandoned me. I realize now that she never did. All the anger I had toward her, it’s all gone. She never gave up on me. She just did what she had to do to survive, and I can’t blame her for it.
We’re past that now, though. I gave her the option to back down from this, to give it all up, but she wouldn’t do it. That just made me want her even more, because I know she’s doing it for me. She knows I can never live with myself if I don’t follow this all the way to the end, I’m just not that kind of man. I have to see it through.
Slick sighs and opens his door. “All right then. Let’s go.”
Avery and I follow him out. We’re in a little neighborhood off a side street on the very far edge of town. This area is mostly the poorest of the poor around here, which means I’m intensely familiar with it. My parents grew up here and I still have family living in the area. My cousin owns a place just a couple streets away, or at least he used to. The Harper family abandoned me when I went to prison, everyone except my uncle.
We walk up to a small little bungalow house. The porch is rotting and falling apart, the shutters are dangling from their hooks, and the whole place needs a fresh coat of paint. Old, broken washing machines are sitting out front in the middle of the yard, and there’s a beat-up truck in the driveway.
Dominic lives here. Slick looked him up a while ago, confirmed it back when he was investigating, but never spoke to him. He never needed to, not after he found that hard drive and vindicated me. But now we’re taking this one step further, and we need to talk to him.
Slick knocks on the door. He’s wearing a long, brown coat, jeans, and a white button-down tucked into his pants. He looks like a PI or a college professor, I can’t tell which. The only thing that ruins the professor image is the bulge at his hip, which I’m positive is a gun.
Slick knocks a few more times, loudly.
“Yeah, fuck, hold on.” The shout comes from inside the house.
Slick glances back at me and gives me a look. Instinctively, I step in front of Avery, just in case.
The door cracks open and a bald man, probably Hispanic, gazes out at us. He matches the description I got from Ron perfectly.
“Are you Dominic? Work for the mill?”
The guy squints at us. “Yeah, that’s me.”
“My name is Jason Slick. I was hoping we could talk about a job.”
Dominic glances at me and Avery. “What sort of job?” he asks.
“It’s nothing big, we were just told that you provide certain services.” Slick flashes him a smile.
“I dunno what you heard but I’m not interested.” He goes to shut the door.
Slick shoves his foot out, blocking the door.
“Just a second,” he says.
“Hey, what the fuck,” Dominic answers. “Move, asshole.”
Slick tries a new tact. “We were sent here by Ron. I think you met him five years ago… when that boy went to jail.” Slick nods toward me.
Dominic looks at me again and recognition flashes in his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s have a conversation, okay?” Slick pushes forward, opening the door.
“What the fuck,” Dominic gets out.
“We know you were paid to bribe him,” Slick says. “Talk now and save yourself some trouble.”
Dominic stumbles back into his house, eyes wide, staring at us. I catch a glimpse of a messy living room, beer cans on the floor, a huge flat screen TV mounted on one wall. There’s a bunch of electronics all over the place, like a brand new PlayStation and a nice MacBook, but I don’t have time to think about it.
Because Dominic turns and bolts.
Slick follows him right away.
“Stay here!” I yell at Avery and take off after them.
We crash through the living room and back through a kitchen. I get a glimpse of more beer cans, dirty dishes, an overflowing trash can. Dominic hits the back door and bursts through it, Slick right on his heels. I come through a second later, running as fast as I can.
Dominic sprints across his back yard, hopping over a fence. Slick follows and I catch up to him. I glance back and spot Avery following at a distance.
“Go back!” I yell at her as we sprint off after Dominic.
He threads his way through the houses, stumbling slightly. I realize he must be drunk, because he runs into a trashcan, knocking it over. We nearly get to him, but he scrambles away.
We stay close, my breath coming in ragged and rough. My legs and arms are screaming out for me to stop, but I’m not letting this fucking bastard get away. Slick is right there, face determined and focused.
Dominic runs down a driveway and spins out into the road. I hear the screech of tires and a scream as I watch a car collide right into him. He hits the ground and skids a bit, before slowly getting to his feet, groaning.
Slick and I get there a second later. We grab him and haul him up to his feet. An older woman slowly climbs out of her car.
“It’s okay, ma’am,” Slick says. “We got him.” He flashes her what looks like a police badge.
She’s totally bewildered and just stares as we drag Dominic off. We pull him back up past the houses and into a little wooded area. He struggles a little, but mostly just groans, clearly hurting from the accident.
Avery shows up a second later. Slick throws Dominic onto the ground, and he hits hard.
“Fuck,” he grunts.
“Okay, asshole,” Slick says. “You made us run, and you got hit by a car. I bet that was fun. But it’s time to fucking talk.”
“I don’t know shit.” He can’t meet our gaze, though.
I crouch down in front of him. “Five years of my life,” I say softly. “My son was born, did you know that? He doesn’t know me. I’m a stranger to him. How much did they pay you?”
He finally looks at me. He’s older than I would have guessed, a little gray in his mustache. He frowns and shakes his head.
“I can’t,” he says, sounding pained.
“You can,” I say back. “We know the Walkers paid you to bribe that night clerk and those witnesses. They probably had you do some other things, lots of things over the years, but we don’t care about that.”
Slick crouches down next to me. “We just care about this, Dominic. Just tell us the truth. Spare yourself the pain.”
Dominic closes his eyes. “I don’t know which of them did it,” he says finally. “Fuck, they didn’t pay me enough.”
I look at Slick and his face is grim. Avery gasps and covers her mouth.
“Say it clearly,” Slick says.
“The Walkers had me bribe them. I didn’t know… I’m not a killer. I didn’t know they’d put you in jail.” He meets my gaze and for a second, I believe that he’s genuinely sorry.
But it doesn’t matter. “Who were they covering for?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I really don’t. They never told me and I never asked
.”
Slick reaches into his pocket and clicks something. “We got what we needed.”
Dominic’s eyes go wide. “You recorded that?”
“We did. And if you’re smart, you’ll say you gave it willingly. Maybe they’ll go easy on your sentencing.” He stands up and turns away.
“You fucking… fuck,” Dominic says, groaning. He tries to get up, but he can’t.
I stand. “You deserve worse,” I say, and turn away.
The three of us walk back to the car in silence, trying to process what we just witnessed and what we just heard.
Once we’re all back in the car, Avery turns to me. “So it’s true,” she says. “But that begs the question, why would the Walkers choose you?”
“They hate me,” I say, “and it was convenient.”
“No,” Slick says quickly. “I don’t think that’s all it is.”
I look at him, frowning. “What, then?”
“The Walkers didn’t need someone to go down for that murder,” he says. “It was an unnecessary risk for them… unless they really wanted it.”
I stare at him, my mind whirling. “What are you suggesting?”
He sighs. “The only person with motive is Avery’s father.” He looks at her. “Sorry, Avery.”
“You think my dad did this?”
He nods. “Or at least he had a part in it. If I had to guess, he’s the one that convinced the Walkers to pin it on Luke. You had just gotten pregnant, right?”
“Right,” she says softly. “I told my mom a few days before that.”
Slick sighs and leans back in his seat. “Thing is about this stuff, it’s always the family. Almost always, at least.”
“Fuck,” she whispers. “I knew they might be involved, but I never thought…” She trails off.
“It makes sense,” I say suddenly, anger flaring. “They wanted to get rid of the poor trash that got their daughter pregnant.”
“Luke,” she says.
“It’s fine.” I wave her off. “Really. I get it. It’s not your fault. Just the way shit is.”
I turn and look out the window. This is the story of my life, the way my past and my name constantly catches up with me. I was never good enough for Avery, but I never realized just how much that meant to her father.
Now I can see it so clearly. When the Walkers went to cover up the accident, Avery’s father acted on the chance. He had them pin it on me, and he got lucky. It was just bad luck that I happened to be away and easily framed. It was just a bad chain of events and bad luck, and I paid for it with five years of my life.
“Let’s go home,” I say.
Slick starts the engine. He pulls out into traffic.
There’s no getting that time back. But now I have an idea of what happened to me, and we have that confession from Dominic. We can talk to the authorities and bring them down.
But we still don’t know who actually was driving that night, and I’m not stopping until he’s brought to justice.
22
Avery
I’m reeling when I get home. I go spend time with Max, trying to forget my problems for a little while, but I can’t.
It just keeps spinning through my mind, over and over again. The look on that guy’s face haunts me. I keep seeing him smashing into that car, and then admitting to what happened. He looked so sad and horrified.
But worst of all, I knew it the second he said those words that my father was involved.
I can’t imagine another reason why my brother would be talking with the Walker brothers. I don’t know why else he’d hate Luke so much. And my father not allowing me to even so much as write the father of my son a letter was always so suspicious and strange to me. I knew he hated Luke, but I never realized exactly how much.
He’s always wanted to control me. Everything I’ve done in my life has carefully been orchestrated by him, from the small things to the large things, except for Luke. My father wants me to be the person that he imagines I should be, but I’m so far from that. I don’t want to give up and just be that boring girl.
But they’re my family. Picturing them covering up the murder of a woman and sending an innocent man to jail is just too much for me.
I keep it pushed deep down for two days. I don’t see Luke, because he has to work and my family seems to be watching me like a hawk. My brother in particular keeps checking in on me, pretending to be casual about it, but I can tell. He must have heard about us snooping around the shed. He must know. He’s too close with the Walker brothers not to. At some point in the last five years, I think they told him the truth, and now he’s part of it. Now he wants to help cover it up, to help his friends.
He wants to help the murderers, all because they’re the same as him. And that disgusts me.
A couple days is all I can do. I’m boiling on the inside, trying to stay calm, trying to distract myself with Max, but I can only do so much.
On the third day, Thomas disappears. He goes out for a few hours with the Walkers, and I stay home to take care of Max like usual. I get Max to sleep, but I don’t go to bed. I can’t get to sleep these days, because when I do, I just dream about my family destroying the life of the man that I love.
Thomas comes back around one in the morning. I’m sitting on the couch, watching crappy TV, when he comes stumbling into the living room.
He blinks at me, surprised and clearly drunk. “Oh. It’s you.”
I give him a look. “Who did you expect?”
“Mom,” he admits. “She’s usually up late.”
“Drinking,” I say. “I wonder where you get it from.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “What’s your problem?”
“You know my problem, Thomas.”
He grins wickedly. “Yeah. That trash boyfriend of yours. He start drinking and beating you yet?”
I roll my eyes. “Not everyone is like you.”
A flash of anger, but he quickly covers it. “Come on, sis.” He walks over and sits down on the couch. “Don’t be so mad.”
I watch him for a second. He doesn’t normally talk to me like this, or at least he hasn’t for a long time.
“I have a good reason to be mad.”
“Why? Because Franklin and Julian scared you the other day?”
My eyes go a little wide. “That’s what you call it? Scaring me?”
“Sure,” he says, shrugging. “You think they’d hurt my sister? No way. They just wanted your trash boy.”
“Stop calling him that. And you weren’t there.”
“You shouldn’t have been snooping,” he points out. “Why were you there anyway?”
“Why were they following me?”
He shrugs. “I told them.”
“Told them to follow me?”
“No, just that you were leaving with Luke.”
“What’s your problem, Thomas?”
“I’m sick of you doing stupid shit.” He eyes me warily. “You’re going to get people in trouble.”
I stare at him for a second. “You know the truth. I know you do.”
He looks away from me. “You should watch yourself.”
“Who owns that black truck?” I ask him. “Which brother?”
He cocks his head. “You mean Eli’s truck? He hasn’t driven that in years.”
I take a sharp breath. I haven’t thought about Eli in all of this, not even for a single second… but it makes so much sense.
Eli is the youngest of the three Walker brothers. He lives at home, doesn’t go out much, doesn’t work as far as I can tell. I heard he had a bad drinking problem a couple of years ago, but haven’t heard anything about him since.
Maybe he’s drinking to drown his feelings. Maybe he feels guilty about ruining Luke’s life, and killing Lucinda Chavez.
I stand up, heart beating fast. “I’m going,” I say. “Tell mom for me.”
“Going where?”
“Out.” I walk toward the kitchen.
“You better not,” he
says angrily. “You can’t keep running away.”
“And you can’t keep trying to cover for them,” I say to him flatly. I turn and leave without another word. I head upstairs, scoop up Max, grab his bag with some toys, blankets, and other things he’ll need, and pack myself some clothes. When I’m done, I head out the front door and get into my car. Max doesn’t wake up as I get him into his car seat.
I sit behind the wheel for a second, staring at my house. I didn’t even know I was making this decision until I was upstairs packing. I don’t have enough stuff, but I can probably buy what I need. I have some savings now, and I still have my job.
I know I’m doing something I can’t ever come back from. If I drive away with Max now, they’ll never forgive me. I spot Thomas standing in the doorway, watching me, but not trying to stop me.
I slowly pull out of the driveway. I left this home a long, long time ago. I’ve been staying here, accepting their help, but I’m done with that. I’m done with them. I’m not their daughter anymore. I can’t be, not if I want to keep on respecting myself.
My brother covers up for them. My mother is a drunk, so who knows what she’s aware of? And my father is the man responsible for sending Luke to prison.
I won’t be a part of it. Not anymore.
I drive away and I don’t look back.
23
Luke
I stand in the kitchen, watching Max sleep. The morning sunlight pours in through the window.
He’s wrapped up in blankets on the couch in the little nest we made for him. He looks so peaceful and happy, which is so strange, considering his whole life was just changed. I doubt he even realizes it yet. I should probably wake him up, since we don’t want him sleeping too long, or else he’ll get cranky. At least, I think that’s how it works with kids. I look away, realizing that I barely know him again.
Avery appears, looking sleepy. “Hey,” she says.
“Hey.”
She walks up to me and I kiss her softly. She’s wearing one of my sweatshirts and a pair of shorts. “Is Max asleep?”