Renegade

by Jeanne McDonald

  Lucy Diamond: Thinking of you. Can’t wait ‘til you get home tomorrow.

  As expected, there were no little dots indicating he was responding. I closed the chat window, refusing to let it bring me down. I knew he had his own way of communicating. One I highly approved of, which meant there was no reason for me to be down. Well, almost no reason. The thread in the other chat window really had me feeling conflicted. Over the last few days, I’d done as promised. I kept an open line of communication with Jude. We rarely spoke beyond text, but he blew up my phone constantly throughout the day.

  At first, I cringed every single time his name popped up on my phone, and while he was still evasive about his life, I found I really enjoyed talking to him again. He had a charming, yet somewhat crass, view of the world. Before long, we were talking halfway through the night.

  It always annoyed him when I would disappear from texting for about an hour or so. That was the time in which Ian would call. He never missed a chance to wish me goodnight. I practically swooned every single time the phone would ring. The only other person who ever called me was Michael.

  Jude Wallace: Good morning, Luce. Today’s Friday!

  Crap! Was it Friday already? I’d been dreading this. With as easy as it had been to talk with Jude, I feared what it might be like in close proximity to him. Before, at the diner, I didn’t feel comfortable with him like I did now. This did not bode well for me.

  Lucy Diamond: Yep. I’ll meet you after work. Where?

  We turned into the parking zone of Strawberry Fields. From the outside, the facility looked like your average hospital, but on the inside, it was all the things nightmares are made of. I dreaded entering that place again. I’d only been in there once, right after the shooting to ensure Jane Asher was settled in. After that, I vowed never to go back.

  So much for that promise.

  Sarah parked the car and got out, not saying a word. I followed suit. We marched up to the front of the building where the typical hospital style began to diminish. Armed guards and keycard gates blocked our entrance.

  Sarah and I placed our badges on the counter along with our firearms.

  “All weapons must remain outside the facility,” a guard stated, typing our information into the system. “As well as cellphones, keys, and any other personal affects you don’t wish to be stolen.”

  Another guard appeared with two plastic bins in her hand. “You may place your belongings in here. Your weapons will be held in our gun safe until you return.”

  “Understood,” Sarah and I stated in unison, accepting our badges back.

  Before I placed my phone in the bin, I read Jude’s reply.

  Jude Wallace: Yellow Submarine. 9pm. See you there.

  That’ll make Sarah happy. She still believed that’s the snake’s den.

  I tossed my phone in the bin and tried not to jump when the loud buzzer sounded at the release of the lock on the doors.

  The smell of urine, tears, and terrible food filled my nostrils, making me want to gag. The thought of working in an environment like that day-in and day-out made my already churning stomach twist and turn more. It took a strong person to do this job. Then again, most people believed that about mine.

  We followed a nurse through the corridors toward an area of offices. The stench wasn’t quite so pungent in this section of the hospital. We were directed toward an office near the end of the hall. On the door, the name Dr. Alistair Taylor, M.D..

  The nurse nodded toward the door and disappeared.

  “Why do I feel like I’m about to enter the office of the Great and Powerful Oz?” I quipped.

  Sarah refrained from laughing, shaking her head. “I’d turn back if I were you.”

  “Noted.” I pretended like I was about to dart away but Sarah grabbed me by my collar.

  “That was a joke, Diamond.”

  “So was my running, Canady.”

  Sarah tapped on the door with her knuckles. “Dr. Taylor?”

  The door opened of its own accord, revealing an older man with white hair and wild eyes sitting behind a large desk.

  “Dr. Taylor,” Sarah repeated.

  Dr. Taylor looked up at us and gave a faint smile. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, sir,” Sarah responded, taking the lead. “I’m Detective Sarah Canady. We spoke on the phone earlier about Jane Asher.” She nodded in my direction. “This is my partner, Officer Lucy Diamond.”

  Dr. Taylor pushed himself up from his chair and waddled toward us. “Pleasure to meet you both. Let’s go see Jane. She’s waiting for you.”

  We followed the good doctor through a maze. While we walked, Sarah talked to him about Jane’s condition and what brought about her sudden ability to talk. According to Dr. Taylor, it all happened after she watched a news reel that morning about the rise in auto theft in the DC area. He claimed something about that particular story snapped her out of her traumatized state.

  “She instantly demanded to speak with Officer Diamond,” he noted. “At first, I thought she was experiencing some sort of an emotional outburst. When I asked her how she knew Officer Diamond, she proclaimed that she was the officer that killed her brother and saved her life.”

  What a heartbreaking way to be remembered. I hated myself for taking her brother away from her. Even if it was to save her life. Too bad I couldn’t have saved George’s life, too.

  “Did she say anything else?” Sarah asked.

  “Only that she would speak with Officer Diamond about what happened to her. No one else.”

  Sarah licked her lips, turning her gaze on me. “You got this?”

  Nervous was not the word for it. But I’d been trained to handle a witness. I could do this. I gave her a firm nod. Dr. Taylor directed us into a large common room where several patients sat watching television, working puzzles, and enjoying other various activities. Near the back of the room, sitting on a windowsill, staring outside the barred window was Jane Asher. She looked so different than she did the night I met her. Her pale face was still gaunt, but fear no longer marred her features. Her body seemed a little fuller, and her hair was combed back into a ponytail. She wore hospital issued scrubs, but if I didn’t know she was a patient, I could’ve easily assumed she was a nurse.

  As we approached her, she turned away from the window to face us.

  “Jane,” Dr. Taylor directed, “this is Detective Canady and Officer…”

  “Diamond,” Jane finished. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Nice? Really? The last time she saw me, we were pulling her away from her brother’s limp body with her screaming. How could she find anything nice about my appearance?

  “You, too,” I stated, striving to keep myself in check. It wasn’t easy, though. Just seeing this woman again made me feel small and weak. That darkness that I tried so hard to overcome barreled through like a fog over the harbor. Everything inside me wanted to cry or hide. She looked like I felt, and it reminded me that she had shared many of the same experiences as I had. That thought alone squashed the fear and weakness in me. I straightened my back and took a seat beside Jane on the windowsill. “I hear you want to talk to me.”

  Jane linked her fingers together, staring at her hands. Her legs began to bounce with a nervous twitch. I noticed scars up and down the length of her arms. They were small and round, like that of cigarette burns.

  “I have a few of those, myself.”

  “Hmm?”

  I nodded toward her arms. She looked at her scars, and pink flooded her face. I tugged at the collar of my shirt, showing her my battle scars. “A man by the name of Reed gave these to me. He was my foster dad when I was fifteen.” That man’s name burned my throat just by speaking it. It’d been ten years since I’d said that name aloud.

  “Frank,” she muttered. “Because Neil always stopped him from doing worse.”

  I clenched my jaw and inhaled deep at the sound of Neil’s name. There was good in him at one time. Her comment proved it.

  “
If Neil protected you before, why did he attack you that night?”

  Jane rubbed her hand over the scars. “He was in trouble, and it was all my fault.”

  “How so?”

  “Because I got him involved with that man.”

  Tears began to pour down Jane’s face. She didn’t try to wipe them away. For her, she deserved to feel every single one of them.

  I looked up at Sarah and Dr. Taylor. Sarah gave me an approving look, letting me know I was doing okay.

  “What man?” I asked.

  “Stuart Sutcliffe.”

  An inaudible gasp fell from my lips. I could almost hear Sarah’s thoughts to probe further.

  “How do you know Mr. Sutcliffe?”

  Jane looked up at me, her nose and eyes swollen from crying. “This is a bad idea. I can’t.” She began to scoot away, shaking her head frantically. “I can’t do this.”

  I placed my hand gently over hers. “You can. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  Fear crept across her face, darkening her features to match the night of George’s murder. “You can’t. No one can. Once I talk to you, he’ll kill me. Neil was right. He’ll kill me.”

  Sarah stepped forward. “Ms. Asher, we’ll make sure no one hurts you. Do you understand?” There was so much authority in Sarah’s voice that even I believed her.

  Jane nodded. Moments passed like years before Jane spoke again. I waited. There was no need to push her. She’d talk when she was ready. She needed time to find the courage within her. She deserved the chance to tell her story.

  “He recruited me,” she began, “when I ran away from Frank.”

  Sarah nudged, indicating for me to dig deeper. I hated this. This woman had been through enough in her life, and I was sitting here making her relive those terrible moments. “What did he recruit you for?”

  Jane tugged at the hem of her shirt. “My official title was hostess. I would talk to all of the men he brought in for business meetings. Keep them company. Serve them drinks.”

  “And…”

  “While he never stated it, I was expected to have sex with them as well.”

  I could hear the balloon in Sarah deflate. This was circumstantial evidence at best.

  “You said Neil was in trouble,” I continued.

  “Yeah. He started working for Sutcliffe not too long after I did. Sutcliffe put him in charge of his fleet.”

  “Sounds like a pretty cushy gig to me,” Sarah stated, trying to build a rapport with Jane.

  “It was. We were paid well beyond what we could ever have imagined. You saw our home, Officer Diamond. We bought that. Together.”

  I nodded, agreeing she had a beautiful home.

  “After a while, Sutcliffe began giving Neil bigger jobs, until finally, he was stealing cars for the boss.” Jane grabbed my wrist, starring me in the eye. “He was the best at what he did, but Sutcliffe wasn’t happy with the rate in which he worked. So, he brought someone else in. Someone who did the job just as well and quicker.”

  Sarah pulled out a notepad. “Do you have this person’s name?”

  Jane shook her head. “No. All I know is that they called him Diamond.” Jane directed her attention to me. “That’s why I remembered your name so easily.”

  I smiled and patted her hand. She released my wrist and placed her hands back in her lap, appearing almost depleted of life.

  “Do you happen to know what Diamond looked like?” Sarah questioned further.

  “No, ma’am,” Jane replied. “All I know is the night Neil attacked me, he said that he’d lost everything because of Diamond. That Sutcliffe no longer trusted him and that we needed to leave town immediately. I refused. I had a good thing going. It wasn’t my fault he messed up. And that’s when Neil snapped. He couldn’t believe I was choosing Sutcliffe over him.” She turned her gaze on me, pleading eyes meeting mine. “I wasn’t choosing Sutcliffe over him. I was choosing life. I knew if we left, Sutcliffe would hunt us down. But I should’ve gone with him. None of this would’ve happened if I’d only said yes.”

  I forced a smile to my face. “You did the right thing, Jane.”

  Jane nodded. “So did you.”

  Stunned, I sat unmoving. “I’m sorry?”

  Jane picked at some lint on her shirt. “Shooting my brother. You did the right thing. You saved my life that night. In more ways than one.”

  I couldn’t speak. The words sat lodged in my throat. Almost if seeing sunlight for the first time after being blind for years, her words cut through my darkness. “I’m so sorry.”

  “As am I. Had I left with Neil your former partner would still be alive.”

  The strangest thing occurred in that moment. I could physically see the darkness that I battled everyday manifested in Jane’s face. She knew the darkness like I did, and I was certain that was why she couldn’t speak for so long after the shooting. It had consumed her like it wanted to consume me. But she was clawing her way back. And so was I.

  After Sarah asked a few more questions of Jane, we left Strawberry Fields and headed back to the precinct.

  I didn’t even check my cellphone after retrieving our belongings from the front desk. I was beyond drained. All I wanted to do was sleep. Every time I came face to face with someone like Jane, I counted myself lucky for having been taken in by Michael and to have had a friend like George. Things may have gone so differently had they not been in my life.

  “That was interesting,” Sarah noted as she drove along the interstate.

  “But it’s not enough.” Melancholy coated my tone.

  “No, but it’s a great lead.”

  I jerked my head in Sarah’s direction. “How so? We have no evidence and no clue who this Diamond guy is. It’s like Sutcliffe is untouchable.”

  Sarah stared out at the road; a tiny smirk curled the corners of her mouth. “This is closer than I’ve ever been to catching Sutcliffe, and I’ve been chasing him for years. Believe me, today gave us a lot to go on.”

  There was that feeling again. The one that said Sarah knew something I didn’t. The same one that came when I knew Jude was evading telling me anything personal about himself. I was sick of all the secrets, but it was pointless to say anything to either of them. They would either evade further or deny, deny, deny.

  “If you say so.”

  “I do.”

  And there it was. Sarah’s definitive. I pushed back into my seat, crossing my arms over my chest. There was nothing left to say, and I wasn’t going to force it.

  Lucy slid into the booth next to me. “Sorry I’m late.”

  She looked exhausted. Like she hadn’t slept in months. But that didn’t take away from her beauty at all.

  Nothing could.

  She was even more beautiful now than she’d been when we were kids. Her hair was much longer now, but she kept it tied back. I assumed that was because of the day job. She rarely wore makeup and even the small amount she did wear only accentuated her full lips and colorful eyes. She was a goddess and didn’t even know it.

  I popped back a shot and smacked the glass down on the table, letting out a satisfied gasp. I tried to not overthink the situation. For all I knew she’d been with that British prick. That asshole needed to go. He interrupted my conversations with her every night, and I watched as she left work with a vase full of expensive flowers a few days earlier.

  Rich bastards with all their toys. I hated to think Lucy would be another one of his. She deserved better than that. But she made it very clear to me that she liked him and was pursuing this thing with him whether I liked it or not.

  “Work was a bitch today,” Lucy continued, “so I thought I’d take a quick nap before hanging out tonight. What was supposed to be a thirty-minute nap turned into a three hour one.”

  Ah, honesty. My Achilles’ heel. If only I could tell her everything. That wasn’t possible. It never would be.

  “Still working that secretive case you can’t talk about?” I teased, waving two fingers in
the air, calling their waitress over to us. Tonight was a night to celebrate, even though Lucy couldn’t know why. At any moment, Klaus would walk through the door, having delivered the Ferrari to the docks. Only one more car was left on the list, and I’d have fulfilled my agreement with Sutcliffe. And not a moment too soon. Lucy was sniffing around me way too much. Hanging out with her was like playing with fire. I had to be careful or I’d get burned.

  “Still going to lie about working at an auto shop?” she popped off.

  She’d been pushing me all week to tell her what I did for a living. I told her I worked for an auto parts store in Maryland. She called me on my shit. Damn her for having the ability to check up on me.

  The waitress appeared at the table and Lucy ordered a beer, sighing once the waitress scampered off. She seemed so tense and exhausted. I would give just about anything to take the stress of life off of her, but that required me to do something I couldn’t. I wasn’t an idiot. I figured out she was working on taking down Sutcliffe. More power to her. No one could. Not even the president himself could reach that man.

  Lucy shook her head, slipping her phone into her pocket before leaning back into the booth. She rubbed the balls of her hands into her eyes, letting out a tired yawn.

  We sat in silence, neither knowing how to break the tension between us. “Look,” Lucy finally said, “I’m sorry. I feel like I’m being lied to by everyone in my life, and it’s driving me insane.”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you feel that way.”

  Before Lucy could respond, the waitress appeared, delivering Lucy’s beer and a few more shots for me. I grabbed the pack of cigarettes off the table and began to tap one out of the package. Lucy side-eyed me.

  “You know you can’t smoke in here.”

  I placed the cigarette to my lips and lit up. “But I am,” I said, the cigarette bouncing between my lips as I spoke around it. I took a long, hard pull and blew the smoke into the air. Lucy rolled her eyes, shaking her head, but said nothing more on the topic. She reached for her beer and took a swig.