Drying myself, I noticed Jonah had left a big fluffy white robe on the sink where I could reach it. Putting on the robe, I went to sit at the little table and drank the lukewarm coffee while peering out the window, the whole while I wondered how to tell him everything. After lord knew how long but long enough that both coffee cups where empty, I decided to go lay down for a while. As I lay there thinking of the possibility of losing Jonah, I cried myself to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jonah
Shane had called me as Ally had gotten into the shower and told me that Brent wanted to speak with both of us. After dressing quickly, I put Ally’s new phone on the table by the bed in plain view in case she wanted to call and check on Sam. Grabbing my keys, I went in and let Ally know I had to go out for a few hours. Setting the alarm at full power, I headed to the office to meet up with Shane before Brent got there.
As soon as I walked through the door at work, Shane waved me to come with him. I shut the door behind us as we entered his office and I started to pace. Shane took a seat at his desk and turned his computer on. While waiting for it to boot up, he took a drink of his coffee. Unlocking his file cabinet, he took out a folder with some papers in it. Grabbing a second one that was about three inches thick, I could clearly tell it was the murder investigation file. Shane sat that one to the side and logged into his computer while opening the smaller folder.
I couldn’t take the wait any longer and jumped in, “What have you found, Shane? Tell me you found something at least?”
“Well, that’s the thing. I know you were thorough with your research when you tried to investigate Ally Black. So, I went in a different direction. I went for health records, school records, accident reports. I have some contacts left, but Brent has more. I think he may have found something, but he wanted to talk to us in person. So, for now I will tell you what I did and didn’t find,” Shane said all in nearly one breath. I could tell he was excited to be investigating again. It really was his life’s passion and he was damn good at it.
“Do you realize how many Ally Blacks there are in the USA? You didn’t have a middle initial or middle name so I dug for that first,” Shane stated.
“It’s Lynn asshole,” I said heatedly.
“Well I know that now, thank you very much. If you would have included that in the file, it would have saved me at least one phone call,” Shane replied dryly.
“It’s written on the papers in the file I gave you. Can you not fucking read now?” I was pissed.
“Where, I didn’t see it dammit?” Shane questioned. He opened the folder and started going through the few pieces of papers it contained. “Well shit. Hey jerk off, it’s not on the any of the papers in here, you wrote it on the back of the fucking folder!” Shane was aggravated.
“Just fucking tell me what you found for crying out loud!” I growled.
“Ok, chill out and sit the fuck down already. Like I said, once I had her middle name I did a new search and came up with over three hundred Ally Black’s, Ally L. Black’s. and Ally Lynn Black’s even Allison Black’s. All with various spellings. The guys in IT used that program they created for people with aliases to crossmatch all databases for any matches and then near-matches with age, gender. Yes, I said gender it is two thousand seventeen, you know. Then I added females with at least one living child. IT was able to narrow it down some,” Shane said.
He took a drink of coffee and then went on, “Well, we combed through about fifty percent of those names yesterday and came up empty, Jonah.” Shane held up his hand to stave off my complaints.
“Brent called and wanted to talk to us both. He did some digging and I asked as a favor, to not go too deeply in case they really are in Witness Protection. But, something is up for him to want to talk to us in person. If he doesn’t have anything we need, then we will comb through the rest of these names and go from there. You know investigations like these can take time. I am doing my best, man,” stated Shane earnestly.
He knew I was disappointed, but he also knew that I understood too. It may be that if Brent couldn’t find anything out, that they were in fact in the WITPRO Program and we would have to leave it alone. Never would I do that, though. I cared too much. I had to get her to talk to me.
There was a knock on the door and Shane opened it welcoming Brent in. We all greeted each other being longtime friends.
“Did you find anything, Brent?” I asked with anxiety beating loudly in my chest.
“There is not even a tiny trace of an Ally Lynn Black with her description and with a child,” Brent stated solemnly.
Looking directly at me, he then said, “At least not a living one.” He let that hang there for a bit while we all absorbed it.
Fuck! We all knew what that didn’t mean. They were not in the Witness Protection Program. In some ways, her being in WITPRO would have been easier. True, had she been in it and they discovered we were on to her, they would move her soon as possible. But with her not being in the program, that meant a whole host of legal consequences I wasn’t prepared to deal with or have her deal with. Now, this meant she had a stolen identity of a living Ally Black or one of a dead Ally Black. I asked Brent the next question carefully, because depending on the answer, everything that was in play could change. “Which Ally Black is she, Brent?” Brent looked from Shane to me and then said.
“A very old and dead Ally Black from the 1920’s, Jonah. And I know I don’t have to tell you how I prayed that this wasn’t the case. This person pretending to be Ally Lynn Black, is most likely a criminal of some kind and paid a lot of money for this new identity. And her son? Samuel,” Brent shook his head again, “is the identity of a stillborn baby from the 1940’s.” Brent’s voice was filled with anger.
“WITPRO is one thing, Jonah, but these are near masterpieces of stolen identities. And to steal one from a dead baby? That shit pisses me off,” Brent said with disgust. After his last, statement we all just sat there. Trying to absorb the new information.
“None of this makes any sense, Brent. You have not even met them. If you had you would know that Ally is anything but a criminal. I know it in my gut; I know it in my heart,” I said emphatically.
“Jonah, I’m sorry but I have a duty to investigate her and to find out exactly who she is. And why she has assumed this identity. I promise to treat her with respect but what will you do if it turns out that she is a criminal? I can’t just look the other way, I’m sorry.” Brent looked truly torn.
“I know Brent, you are a good man and a good cop. I trust you to do your job but you must know this a head of time. I will protect Ally and her son to my fullest extent. And know that my extent has a wide reach. In no way, do I believe for a single second that she is a criminal. Would you at least give me a few weeks to see if I can get her to tell me what’s really going on? Can you at least do that?” I almost demanded.
Brent stared at me for a minute and finally said, “Jonah, this is my job. The best I can do is give you a few days, a week tops. I’m sorry, brother. If she is a criminal and discovers you are on to her, she could run. That would not help anyone at this point and time.”
“Fair enough, thank you,” I replied as Brent got up to leave. Shaking hands, we said our goodbyes. I headed back to my house determined to get the answers we needed desperately.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ally
Raising my arms above my head and stretching when I woke up made me realize how many sore muscles I had from last night. So worth every, single pain too. Rolling over and hugging a pillow to my chest, I screamed.
“When the hell did you get here?” I demanded as my pulse raced.
“I have been here for over an hour watching you sleep, Freckles. You snore something awful, you know that, right?” he said with a smirk.
What the hell? He had been watching me sleep instead of joining me in bed. That was not a good sign. A feeling of dread washed over me, as I sat up and grabbed the crutches to head to the bathroom.
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“Are you hungry?” he asked as he watched me hobble to the bathroom.
“No thanks. I will be back in a minute.” I closed the door and went about my business taking my time to wash my hands, procrastinating the inevitable. I stared at myself in the mirror, giving myself a quick pep talk.
Ally, you can do this. Tell him everything. Let him in. You love him and you will lose him if you keep lying to him. Turning, I opened the bedroom door and sat in the chair opposite Jonah. My heart pounded so hard that it was trying to come through my chest. Ok, here went nothing.
“We really need to talk, Ally. I have put this off so many times trying to give you the room you need to feel safe and to trust me. I will never betray or hurt you. This I swear to you. You can count on me to protect you and Sam, no matter what. There is nothing you could tell me that would make me change my mind. I am here. I am in this with you if you will let me,” he said in a confident and passionate plea.
“My name is not Ally Black. But Ally is who I am now. I am a much stronger person because of who I was and what I have gone through. But that woman went through hell, so I put her to rest and left her behind in my past, along with my mistakes. My married name was Sarah Lane. My son was given the name Jacob at birth, but has now embraced his new name and life as Samuel,” I released the flood of information quickly.
The look on his face encouraged me to continue. “My first mistake was that I married right out of high school and had no idea what I was doing. He was charming, handsome and a police officer. An all-around great guy as far as everyone was concerned. He bought me lots of pretty things and catered to me in ways that I had never experienced before. I thought I was in love. I thought he loved me. But I had no idea what love was. But you couldn’t have told me that then.”
Another deep breath. “Grams had just passed away and now looking back, maybe it was the grief that blinded me to the monster before me. I was lonely. Alone. And he knew it. He groomed me, Jonah and I didn’t even realize it was happening. He changed quickly after we were married. Started making me stay home all the time, not allowing me to work, choosing the clothing that I wore, telling me how much money I could even spend on groceries. He managed me in every way possible.” I told Jonah as I thought back on those terrible days.
Turning my head to stare out the window I continued, “He started coming home later and later each night it seemed. He went out on his days off. He could go out whenever he pleased, but I had to stay in the house. I was alone all the time. I didn’t have any family or friends anymore. One evening, he was over four hours late, dinner was cold and I became worried, so I called the station to check on him. He wasn’t there. I was angry. And damn tired of being cooped up all the time. I just needed to get out for a little while. I called an old friend from high school. We met at a local twenty-four-hour pancake restaurant to catch up and chat about the good old days. It felt so good to be out and talking to someone. It had been so long. That was my second mistake. One that will forever be etched in my memory.” I took a shaky breath and looked over at Jonah, tilting my head to look deeply into his eyes. They brought me comfort and gave me the courage to go on.
“My friend and I got carried away. You know, talking and eating and when I realized what time it was, I panicked. I remember thinking to myself thinking Oh well. If he can do what he wants, I can too. Big mistake. Huge. When I walked in the door that night he was waiting for me on the couch that he had turned to face the door. I just stood there for a minute trying to shore up my courage to walk past him to the bedroom.”
Jonah just let me keep talking, barely breathing himself. “As I tried to walk past him, he asked where the hell I had gone. I told him. I gave him the truth and told him I would be doing as I pleased from now on, that he didn’t own me. Heading for the bedroom again, he grabbed me by the arm and flung me against the wall. He threw me so hard my head bounced off leaving an actual dent where I had hit. I was stunned, dizzy and shocked. I didn’t understand what he was doing to me or why he was doing it. I still don’t, Jonah.” My eyes stung as I said it and I heard him growl and try to get up. I waved my hand at him to stop. I needed to sit there and collect myself to tell him the rest. Distance was crucial to me getting the rest out.
“He grabbed me by the hair, telling me I was a worthless whore and that I needed to learn who was in charge. I wasn’t just going to sit there and take it. Hell no. My grams taught me to not ever let someone get away with hurting me. I swung at him with all I had, but he caught me just in time and laughed at me maniacally. He punched me in the stomach knocking me to the ground. I thought for sure he broke my rib. Dragging me by my hair all the way down the hallway and to our bedroom, he picked me up and threw me on the bed. I scrambled to try and get away. He hit me square in the face that time and blood came shooting out of my nose spraying both of us. I remember thinking that this couldn’t be happening just before I lost consciousness.” I drew in the deepest of breaths and steeled my spine to prepare myself for telling the rest of my horrid tale.
“He threw water in my face to wake me up. I didn’t know what was happening, until I tried to move. I couldn’t move my arms or legs, Jonah. I pulled and pulled, tried to twist my body. All that did was make me look up and see that I was tied to the bedframe, naked and spread eagle. A wave of panic hit me and I started screaming. That’s when I felt a pain so harsh and deep, that it scarred my soul,” I finished on a sob.
Jonah did get up then and wrapped me in his arms, just letting me cry for a bit. He rocked me back and forth whispering words of love and reassurance to me. When I finally pulled back and looked at him it was with the realization that no one in my life had ever heard my story in complete detail, until now. Some people guessed, I think, but no one cared and no one helped. “Please, go sit back down, Jonah. I need to finish this. All of it. I need you to know all of it,” I softly pleaded with him. With reluctance he did as I asked.
“The pain was from different sized electric cords. The first time he whipped me with them, it nearly broke me. The pain was so intense, one lash after another and with each whip, he condemned me with words that reverberated through my mind. Nothing made sense. When he stopped after the first few lashes, realizing my screaming would draw attention, he gagged me and sat down on the bed ranting to himself. Once my mind cleared a bit, I could make out his words. He said to me, ‘Why don’t you do what you’re told? You must behave. You’re a fucking whore and need to learn a lesson. You are nothing but a piece of white trash. You should be grateful that I married you! No one wanted your lazy fat ass. But I took you, didn’t I, bitch? Didn’t I?’ Tom demanded in the voice that could have only come from the devil himself.”
I wrung my hands as I continued, “He grabbed my hair to pull my head back and demanded that I answer him, but I couldn’t with the gag, Jonah. That angered him even more and he whipped me several more times. ‘You were out fucking around with some guy, weren’t you bitch? You’re a fucking whore. You want to be fucked? Yeah! You do. I will show you what it’s liked to be totally fucked.’ Tom yelled into my ear. I heard him unzipping his pants and I started begging the best that I could from around the gag. It didn’t help.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Jonah as I kept talking. “He was possessed. A fucking animal. He raped me. Sodomized me over and over again that night. I thought I was going to die, Jonah. I knew I was going to die. At that point, I had no more tears to cry. I just lay there in my own blood and his filth left inside of me. I prayed for death,” I screamed to the universe.
Looking up, I saw my story shook Jonah to his core. I could see it in his eyes. Something had changed in him and would not change back. It was pure vengeance I saw there. The look confused me at first. Maybe he felt betrayed by my previous lies and lack of information. Then he grabbed my hand and slowly brought it to his mouth, closing his eyes, he kissed it with such gentleness that it started to heal what was broken in me. He was a good man. A real man. A man of honor and courage. A
true hero.
“Sometime later, Tom untied me and told me to get my nasty self into the shower and clean up. I could barely walk. I had to hold onto the walls and furniture to stay upright. I thought he was done with me but I was so wrong. I smelled something burning and didn’t recognize it at first. Then it dawned me. He was smoking a joint. He was fucking high.”
“Jonah, in his stoned-out mind, he proceeded to threaten me. He said, ‘If you ever tell anyone about this, cunt, what happened tonight will just be the beginning. I will fucking torture you, every single day, if I want to. I dare you to call the police too. They are mine, bitch, and will not help you. I will make sure you are watched 24/7 from now on. You won’t fucking be able to breathe wrong without me knowing about it. Do you fucking understand me?’ I did understand, but I was in so much pain just trying to remain standing, that I couldn’t respond quickly enough for him. So, he grabbed me, threw me to the floor and started putting the lit joint to one of the slices along my back. When I tried to scream, he shoved my face into the carpet and started on my inner arms with the burning joint.”
Jonah clenched his fist in his lap and the vein in his forehead throbbed in rhythm to each new piece of information I divulged. “I honestly do not know how I survived that night. Barely able to shower, the pain from the water alone was excruciating on my skin. I don’t think there was a part of me that didn’t hurt in some way. I passed out on the bathroom floor. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in my bed that had clean sheets and I was laying on my stomach. Someone had dressed me and cleaned the open wounds and burns.”
Jonah looked at me in confusion. My next revelation would clarify his confusion, “Tom came in and said, ‘Sarah, I hope you learned a valuable lesson. Know this, if it happens again, I will kill you. Do you understand me?’ I nodded yes. He continued in a calm voice, ‘Good, now I have to go to work and I expect dinner to be on the table hot and ready, on time tonight and be sure to clean the entire house. Every inch of it.’ He leaned in and kissed me, biting my lip hard enough to reopen a split in my lip that I didn’t realize was even there. He just laughed all the way out the door.”
TRUE HERO: A Romantic Suspense Novel (True Hearts Series Book 1) Page 14