Explicit Memory

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘I don’t care what Rushe wants, I have business to take care of.’

  ‘He’s the boss around here, and when he’s with Tawny he’s not to be disturbed.’

  Flick spun on the spot to observe Lilah, who was startled by the abrupt manoeuvre. ‘He’s on the premises?’

  ‘Well yeah, but—‘

  ‘Tell me what room they’re in, or I’ll hammer down every door until I find them,’ Flick said, spreading on a saccharine-saturated smile as she stormed toward the corridor. Before Lilah could make it around the reception desk Flick was already in the hallway.

  ‘Hold up!’

  Flick knocked on one door, and then the one opposite. All of the doors had numbers, odds on the left and evens on the right.

  ‘Five! They’re in five!’

  ‘Thank you,’ Flick said to the madam hurrying after her. The doors she had knocked on began to open, but she had door number five in her sights now.

  An unexpected entrance would give her the element of surprise, and that wasn’t to be underestimated. So she was pleased that the door opened when she thrust down the handle. Pushing it aside, she saw Rushe stretched out on the double bed on the far wall of this small room with his hands behind his head.

  The laughing blonde, who lay beside him, dropped a hand onto his abdomen but stopped and cast her eyes to the door when Flick entered, at the same time Rushe sat up. Any surprise at her sudden entrance was disguised behind his usual apathetic mask.

  Though both were fully clothed, witnessing her lover lying in bed with another woman should have delivered a sucker punch to her gut. But Flick’s trust in him remained intact. In all honesty, being held prisoner by him was inconvenient and fostered anger, which outweighed any shock or insecurity she might have imagined feeling at beholding this sight in other circumstances.

  ‘Would you ask your man to step aside please?’ Flick said to her love. ‘I have things to get on with today, and I’d hate to be the cause of bloodshed on two consecutive days... Oh, and at some point we have to find the time to talk.’

  People hung behind her, transfixed by the unfolding drama, but Rushe remained fixated on her, and she had no plans to blink first.

  ‘Fuck off,’ said the blonde on the bed, who Flick assumed was Tawny. ‘This is the bitch you’re protecting? He’s off-duty when he’s with me. Nothing’s gonna happen to you here. Fuck off!’

  ‘It would be my pleasure,’ Flick said. ‘Call off your man.’

  Boosting himself up, Rushe came off the bed, and moving until he was at her side, he snatched her arm in his iron grip. Dragging her through the bodies who littered the hallway, he got them back to the room where she’d woken up and slammed the door.

  ‘Talk about what?’ he hissed through gritted teeth.

  ‘About Simone, and about what she said to me yesterday. I’ve told you it is important for us to communicate. I don’t like it when you withhold things from me. I would never want you to think that I’d withhold anything from you.’

  ‘You’re not even gonna ask me, are you?’

  ‘Ask you what?’ Flick asked.

  ‘About what you just saw.’

  ‘I don’t know if you realise how serious this is,’ Flick said, coming closer. ‘Do you know what’s going on here? What their plan is? We don’t have time for the teen angst. I know you’re not having sex with her, so I really don’t—‘

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because I do,’ Flick said. ‘Maybe you have in the past, I don’t know, you sure weren’t a virgin before we met. Maybe you care for her, and she’s important to you, or maybe you just don’t want people to know about us. I know that they don’t know about our relationship. But I won’t question your cover while we’re on a job, Rushe. This is too important... the most important job yet.’

  ‘Do you want to know?’

  ‘Rushe,’ Flick sighed. ‘When you have something to tell me, you will. Until then, I trust your judgement. Now please, I have to go out.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘I saw Liam yesterday, that’s where I was after Simone’s men dropped me off here,’ she said, curling her fingers into his pocket. ‘I asked him to look into the case. Simone didn’t give me the specifics of her statement, but I have a good idea what she said. They’re trying to frame you for this; they want you to take the rap. She’s accused you of some horrible things.’

  ‘You have to support what Simone said to the police?’

  ‘That’s what they want,’ Flick said. ‘But if we can find out the story they’re selling, we can start to poke holes in it. She alluded to Jansen’s statement too, so we have to know what he said. If we can find ways to back him up and to disprove—‘

  ‘It’s too dangerous for you,’ Rushe said, removing her hand from his pants to try and lead her toward the bed, but Flick snatched her hand back.

  ‘If I have to fight my way out of here, I will,’ Flick said, leaving no doubt as to her resolve. ‘Don’t work against me. I will do this. I will work to prove your innocence and ensure your freedom. Liam has information, he has my instructions. If you detain me—‘

  ‘Close,’ he snarled, lowering his face toward hers. ‘Aren’t you?’

  ‘You stay here with your adoring fans and be worshipped. The rest of us aren’t going to bury our heads in the sand while there’s work to be done.’

  Swerving around him, Flick left the room and went down the hall. A number of women had gathered in the reception, most notably around Tawny. Flick went to the shop door, and though the same man blocked her path initially, she observed him glance past her. Nothing was said, but Flick imagined Rushe had nodded his consent because the man stepped aside.

  Without doubt of her purpose, she went out onto the street and made her way back toward the library where she’d arranged to meet Liam. If she didn’t pick up the pace then she’d be late to their rendezvous, and Flick desperately wanted to know what he had found out.

  Chapter Ten

  Simone’s statement made for harrowing reading, but then all of the statements did. For the first couple of hours while they were at the library, Flick and Liam had poured over the details of the police case regarding Victor’s gang. Jansen’s version of events didn’t incriminate Rushe, but they also didn’t exonerate him either. Actually, the cop had barely mentioned Rushe at all.

  Flick knew that this was the way Rushe wanted things, because he didn’t want to be on anyone’s radar. The only questions that Jansen had answered about her lover were direct ones and in reference to the given statements of the others. None of his answers had been descriptive; in fact, they’d been rather clipped. If the responses were collated in the right way then alarmingly, the cagey answers could be construed as Jansen perhaps still being under pressure from Rushe, and still keeping the secret of the scope of his involvement.

  Getting the details of the internal investigation hadn’t been as easy for Liam, because those records weren’t as accessible for some reason.

  On the promise of lunch and the use of a telephone, Flick had agreed to go back to Liam’s place with him. The two bedroom apartment was larger than she would have imagined, bright and airy, open plan and modern. While the styles were different, the reminder of a sanctuary of private space made her think of the apartment that she’d shared with Rushe, which reminded her of their easier days.

  ‘You had a fight, didn’t you?’ Liam asked, peeking over his laptop, which was on a large desk, perpendicular to his living room window.

  ‘I don’t want to talk about Rushe,’ she said, wrapping her arms around herself to stare out over the city and the ignorant people going on with their oblivious lives.

  ‘You’ve been pissed off since you showed up this morning.’

  ‘And I told you then that I didn’t want to talk about it.’ Casting her eyes briefly toward his, Flick then turned to aim for her coffee mug on the large dining table.

  ‘Why isn’t he here? I know he doesn’t like me, but... he’s ok with you h
anging around with another man?’

  ‘He’s not going to hurt you. If you’re scared of—‘

  ‘I’m not scared,’ Liam said. ‘Sure, the guy is scary, you told me that yourself, but... why are you doing this for him if he doesn’t care enough to help himself?’

  ‘He cares,’ she said, sipping the now chilled liquid. ‘He prioritises everything and everyone else above himself. But he believes in advance planning, and I’m trying to make sure that we’re ahead of the game. We know they’re going to come for us. We have to know what they know.’

  ‘So what’s he doing right now? What’s so much more important than this?’

  ‘He’s looking after people who can’t look after themselves. He does big and scary, and information management like this is my part of the partnership. I’ll put this together for him.’

  ‘We know what they know,’ Liam said, leaving the desk and picking up the folder of police statements and notes before he approached her. ‘We can’t prove that any of it is true or false. Unless we’re going to go out there and—‘

  ‘Not us,’ she said, putting the mug back on the table. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing in the field. I lived this Liam; I’ve been to every location and seen every face.’

  ‘Not every face,’ Liam said. ‘It’s dangerous, and going out there alone would be insane.’

  ‘I don’t plan to go alone.’

  Right on cue, there was a knock on the front door. Liam glanced over his shoulder then back at her. ‘You called someone?’

  ‘I told you I needed the telephone.’

  Flick went past the computer-pro and went to the door, opening it as though she had full rights in this place to do so.

  ‘Your boyfriend better be dead, or he’ll kill me for meeting you alone.’

  ‘We’re not alone, Eric.’

  She smiled at the man whom she had last seen only a couple of weeks ago. Odd that despite dispelling with the trouble, he looked more harassed now than he had then. Eric was broad, built solid, and intrigued by her statement. So he sailed past to seek out the other party, while Liam just stared at this new entrant.

  ‘Eric, Liam, Liam, Eric,’ Flick said by way of introduction, and closed the front door before she headed for the kitchen. ‘Coffee?’

  ‘This is the guy that...’ Liam said.

  ‘Yes,’ Flick said.

  ‘Think you know something?’ Eric asked with menace, causing Flick to groan.

  ‘We’re all friends here, and here for the greater good.’

  ‘Which is what exactly?’ Eric asked, marching past Liam to join her in the kitchen as she went through the process of making fresh coffee. ‘Where’s Rushe?’

  ‘Around.’

  ‘Oh great, now you’ve got cryptic down too, does he give classes? Talk about technique in bed?’

  One corner of her lips crept up. ‘There isn’t much room for talk of that nature, and don’t ask about my boyfriend’s sexual proclivities, it’s rude.’

  ‘You do understand how he feels about you?’ Eric asked, dropping a hand onto the countertop to block her route toward the sink, thus stalling her actions.

  ‘You’re asking me if I know how Rushe feels about me? I don’t understand what—‘

  ‘He’s gonna kill that guy, whoever the fuck he is,’ Eric said, with a backward nod in Liam’s direction. ‘He’s probably gonna kill me too. What are you doing knocking around in private apartments with other dudes?’

  Flick glanced down, making a pronounced show of checking her apparel. ‘I am fully clothed. Not everything is about sex... we’re actually here to help Rushe, because he won’t help himself.’

  ‘Oh,’ Eric said, relaxing a little. ‘Ok, then.’

  ‘Ok, then,’ she muttered, when Eric turned to stride away, taking off his jacket in the process. ‘Did you think I invited you here for a sex party? I’ll try not to be disappointed that you’re happy I didn’t.’

  ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘Where’s Scott?’ she asked, while finishing up with the coffee machine.

  ‘Not in the country,’ Eric said, and Flick caught his gaze flitting toward Liam. ‘And not a topic of conversation for public ears.’

  ‘Liam is the one who kept the recordings for us and forwarded them to you, did they get to their intended destination?’

  ‘Yes,’ Eric said. ‘You trust him?’

  ‘Yes. What happened...?’ she asked, referencing their last case. ‘With the two of them, did...?’

  ‘One will never see again and the other can’t count beyond six using only his hands.’

  ‘But I thought—‘

  ‘Rushe has the details, he didn’t tell you?’

  ‘I didn’t ask,’ she admitted, because it was true.

  She had thought that those men would never get out of the situation she and Rushe had left them in, not alive anyway. But Flick knew now that some things were worse than death.

  ‘You want to tell me what this is about?’ Eric asked.

  ‘Yes, come,’ Flick said, gesturing them both to the dining table. ‘We’ve got to get ready for a fight.’

  ‘What makes you think she’ll remember,’ Eric said, after Flick had laid everything out again, just as she’d had to do for Liam.

  Eric had a lot of questions, but she hadn’t answered them all. If Liam and Eric needed the details then they got them, but she wouldn’t share all of her memories just to satisfy their curiosity.

  ‘She’ll remember,’ Flick said, looking to the faces of the two men who sat with her at the dining table in Liam’s apartment. ‘Rushe phoned you from that motel. We spent the night there. That must have been where he called you from to set up the apartment.’

  ‘I know where the motel is, but you’re expecting a desk clerk to remember one couple from months ago.’

  ‘She’ll remember,’ Flick said. ‘I was covered in bruises, she noticed and I made a comment about Rushe paying extra for bruises and if there was blood I’d get a new pair of Manalos. She was so shocked that she couldn’t speak, and Rushe scolded me afterward.’

  ‘He scolded you?’ Liam asked, sounding almost offended by the notion.

  ‘Because my comments made us memorable,’ Flick said. ‘That was the night the police picked up Simone, the same night Victor died, and Skeeve and all the others. Rushe and I weren’t running from the law, and I certainly wasn’t under duress. That desk clerk can testify to the fact that Rushe and I were together and happy, he didn’t spend the night raping me. He actually took that call with you in the reception, which left me alone. I could’ve run if I’d wanted to.’

  ‘Or he could’ve tied you down,’ Eric said.

  ‘He didn’t,’ she said, though the possibility Eric presented wasn’t unheard of. ‘I don’t want anyone to ever think that Rushe forced himself on me. I want us to gather all the evidence that we can to refute that.’

  ‘You can tell the police yourself if you’re ever forced to give a statement,’ Liam said.

  ‘There’s a chance I won’t be around to say these things at all. Look at where Jansen is for not playing along. We have to plan for every eventuality. If we stir up enough doubt, get the evidence that we need to prove the truth, then that’s valuable progress. But we have to get the cops on board,’ Flick said, and looked to Liam. ‘You have to get the details on that internal investigation so we know who, if anyone, we can trust.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Liam said. ‘I’m doing my best, but not everything is digitised.’

  ‘I’ll talk to whatever lowlife you want me to,’ Eric said. ‘But I ain’t going near the cops.’

  Flick levelled her attention on him. ‘Do you want me to go to Rushe and tell him that you upset me?’

  ‘No,’ Eric said, without so much as pausing for breath.

  ‘You’ll do what I need you to do,’ Flick said. ‘Rushe almost lost his life for the case you were so determined to recruit him for. If he had died, I’d have gotten to you and your buddy...’<
br />
  ‘You said you walked off a street and into Rushe’s life,’ Eric said, letting his admiration shine. ‘What the hell kinda street did you come from?’

  ‘You have nothing to worry about,’ Flick said, snubbing his question and avoiding eye contact with Liam who had to be shocked by what he was hearing. ‘There’s too much heat around you, your business is illegal, and I wouldn’t trust you not to roll over on us anyway.’

  ‘Then why am I here?’

  ‘Because two are more effective than one,’ she said, as Rushe once had. ‘You do the thug stuff. I’m not scary... so I’ll deal with it from the other side.’

  ‘Other side?’ Eric asked.

  ‘The side that requires diplomacy and charm,’ Flick said. ‘We’re going over every detail of this again, and then I have a phone call to make. I want both of you clear on the game plan. I reiterate again, this is confidential. Rushe would warn me against trusting either of you, if you prove him right...’

  ‘We get you,’ Eric said. ‘That covers us, but do you know what he’s gonna do to you when he finds out what we’re doing? Lying to him—‘

  ‘I’m not allowed to lie to him, not directly,’ Flick said. ‘I can handle Rushe.’

  ‘You better hope so,’ Eric said. ‘’Cause if you can’t and he gets past you—‘

  ‘Are you scared?’

  Eric clasped his hands together and rested his weight to his forearms. ‘I’m not talking about you or me, I’m talking about this.’ He tipped his head toward the paperwork. ‘Everything Scott did in that room was on instruction of your boyfriend. I’ve never seen anything like it. You let your boy off the leash, or he gets away from you... I don’t know Silver, or Mercier, but I’ll tell you that they’re serious guys. This could start a war, and someone will get hurt.’

  ‘You think Rushe will get hurt?’

  ‘I think you’re starting something,’ Eric said. ‘And you better be willing to see it all the way through.’

  ‘Let’s go over this again,’ she said, keeping her eyes trained to Eric’s while she reached for the timeline she’d sketched.