“My ex was verbally abusive.”
Nikki stared.
Molly clicked the badge with her nail faster. “So talk, lady.”
Blinking rapidly, Nikki said, “I do it on purpose. I aggravate him. He builds up pressure like the old pressure cooker my mom had, you know? If I work him up, he blows faster and we get it over with and then everything’s good for a while. Sometimes for a long time.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“God. You’re not listening to me. Your ex may have been an asshole verbally, but he didn’t touch you, did he? I fight back. I hit him. For everything he does, I try to get my own in back.”
“It’s still not your fault.” Molly used to think she’d driven Rick to his meanness. His anger.
“I just said it was.”
“It’s not.” She knew it was important that it be said. “It’s not your fault.”
“Promise me you won’t tell him.”
She didn’t have to ask who Nikki was talking about. “Why?”
“Because that won’t fix anything – it’ll only make it worse. I mean it. I know what I’m talking about.”
“You have to get out.”
“That’s where the money you’ve been paying me is going.”
Raindrops hit Molly’s face, but she didn’t wipe away the moisture. “Explain, please.”
“Suellen Cotter has a room for rent. I’ve given her two hundred dollars to hold it for me, and I should be able to pay the first and last month’s rent by the end of next week, when you pay me.”
“I’ll give you the money now.”
Nikki’s response was lightning quick. “No.”
“Then I’ll give her the money.”
“Let me do this.” The tears that had been staying in place in Nikki’s eyes finally spilled over, just as the rain started in earnest. “I need to take care of myself. I thought you were the kind of person who might understand that. It doesn’t do any good if someone does it for you. You just end up right back where you were.”
Molly thought of how she’d literally taken the cell phone out of Adele’s hand when her sister had said she was calling a floor refinisher because Molly had looked too exhausted. She’d hung it up over her sister’s protestation and handed it back. The only way the café would be hers was if it was hers. Not anyone else’s. It was the difference between eating candy and protein. One made you feel great for a few minutes before you crashed and felt worse than you had before. The other made you feel good for a few hours and helped you build muscle. “I do understand that. Maybe more than you think I do.”
“You know, once my mother went to Kalamas County to report my father for hitting her.”
Lord. Molly brushed the rain off her forehead and nodded.
“They said legally she had to report it in the jurisdiction where it had occurred. They couldn’t take action. It had to be reported here. To the sheriff. Who was my dad.”
“Nikki…”
“When they sent an investigator out to check on her, to talk to Dad, he beat him up.”
“He beat up another cop?”
“He thought the investigator was lying, that he was seeing my mother. He almost killed him. But the sheriff can get away with a lot in a small county. Professional courtesy. They told him to stay out of Kalamas for a year and Dad paid the guy’s hospital bills.” Nikki paused. “She died to get away from him.”
“What?”
Nikki rubbed her eyes. “She died of natural causes. A stroke. But I swear to God, she threw that blood clot to get away from him. What am I going to do, huh? I’m younger than she was then. I’m healthy. I don’t actually want to die. I want to get out.”
“We can –”
“And when shit goes down, it happens in my brother’s jurisdiction because of where we live. I won’t put him through that.”
“That’s just stupid.” It was rude and Molly didn’t care. Something about the salt air was making her brave. “That’s fucking ridiculous.”
“I know.” Nikki turned to face Molly and took her hand. Her fingers were ice. “I promise. I’m getting out. You’re helping me, with this job.”
Molly hesitated. “You have to be honest with me.”
“I will be.”
“About everything.”
“Yes.”
“About whether you’re safe going home.”
Nikki flipped her hair back and let Molly see the bruising again. It looked even darker and more shocking under the clouds that matched them. “I’m safe for at least a month with this one.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Nikki smiled and looked out to sea again. “I think you’re wrong. It does feels nice to hear, though.”
For a long moment, Molly kept hold of Nikki’s hand. It was smaller than either of her sisters” hands. Colder.
But just as strong.
Molly gave a tight squeeze. “You want to help me fix that last window in the caboose?”
Nikki said, “Hell, yes. I do.”
“Okay.”
They walked back quickly.
Molly, soaked to the skin, barely felt the rain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
They worked hard, finishing the caboose.
Somehow, Nikki dug out of Molly that she had a date with her brother that night. “Go. You go get cleaned up. You look terrible.” Nikki had winked. “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t, which means basically don’t do fifteen shots and expect to be able to win at pool. Beyond that, you’re free to do what you want.”
The light was back in Nikki’s eyes. Molly was still worried, but she’d pocket it and look at it again later.
She had to get ready for her date.
She showered. She did her make-up so that her eyes looked smudged – thank God for the lesson the girl at the make-up counter had given her the last time she’d paused in the department store. Dark-red lips – were those still in? Eh. Molly smiled at her reflection and then felt silly.
Red lips must always be in.
Her cell rang and she dug it out of her pocket. Maybe it was Colin, confirming tonight. He’d already texted once, earlier. Can’t wait for tonight.
“Hello?”
It wasn’t Colin.
“He broke my arm.”
“Nikki? Where are you?”
“He was trying to kill me. It was different this time. He tried to strangle me, and then he forced my arm back and it broke, I think, and I got away –” Nikki’s voice was so thin and her words so fast it was hard to understand her.
“Where are you?”
“I took a cab to Kalamas General.”
“Nikki! A whole hour away?”
“I want to – oh, God. My brother can’t be involved in this. It’ll break his heart, and I’m afraid he’d go after Todd and then get in trouble with his job.” She broke off in a sob. “Can you come?”
“I’m on my way.”
So Molly helped Nikki lie.
Nikki told the doctor the fight had occurred in Kalamas County in Todd’s car, behind the Broken Wagon.
“You’d been drinking there?” The doctor held an iPad, his finger poised to fill in a box. But who knew how much the local sheriff’s department would investigate? Would they go into the Broken Wagon to verify Nikki and Todd had, in fact, been there?
Molly spoke before Nikki could answer. “You said you’d just gotten there, right?”
He shot her a look. “Let her answer, please.”
Molly sat up straighter and tried to pretend she wasn’t intimidated by his grey eyebrows, which flapped like bat wings, and his starched white coat.
“We hadn’t gone in yet,” said Nikki.
The deputy arrived, ducking in apologetically through the hospital curtain. “I’m Deputy Todd Viejo. Sorry it took a while, ma’am. Problem with my patrol car starting.”
“Todd?”
“My mother calls me Toddy, but she’s the only one who can get away with that.”
“Of
course,” said Nikki faintly.
The officer looked at some notes scribbled on his pad. “Ah. Your boyfriend’s name is Todd Meyers, did dispatch get that right?”
Nikki nodded.
“Well, then.” The officer pulled himself a little taller. His badge was so new it sparkled, and his boots didn’t have a scuff. He was thin but handsome in a puppy-dog way. “Let’s call him Bad Todd. You can call me Good Todd. Oh. That’s not very professional, is it?” He paused. “Screw it, let’s do it anyway. Tell me the story.”
If Good Todd doubted any part of the story, he didn’t push it too hard. He took careful notes as Nikki spoke, and only interrupted her for clarification. “Okay, almost done. Just a few more things, just so I have it right. You were in Bad Todd’s car when this happened.”
“Yes.”
“How did you get to the hospital?”
“A cab.”
“Okay. And your last name is McMurtry? Any relation to the sheriff in Darling County?”
“My brother.”
Another pause. Molly, sitting in a hard plastic chair next to the bed, crossed her fingers.
“Okay, so your dad was…You might know this already, but since it happened here in Kalamas, we have jurisdiction to make the arrest. Not your brother.”
“Good.”
“But we could ask for his help, if that would make you feel better.”
“Please. Don’t. Leave him out of this. Please?”
“Okay.”
“Please don’t tell him. He’ll be so disappointed. Promise me?”
Good Todd shuffled his feet back and forth. “I can promise I won’t tell him, if that makes you feel any better. But everyone knows each other in this business, you probably know that already. I can’t guarantee he won’t find out eventually.”
“Do you…have to arrest Todd?” Nikki’s voice, normally so strong, quailed. “Can’t you just make a report? I thought you could get me a restraining order or something.”
Molly shook her head at the deputy. Todd had to be arrested. That was the whole point, wasn’t it? Was Nikki scared now?
Good Todd just said, “We’re going to do both of those things with you, yes, but we have to arrest him, also.”
“What if I don’t want to press charges?”
Molly leaned forward. “Nikki! You have to!”
“But I’ve changed my mind. He didn’t mean to and –”
Good Todd interrupted her. “California doesn’t let you make that decision. Not anymore. Any physical sign of injury in a domestic violence case requires an arrest by the state. You’re not the one pressing the charges, the state is. There’s nothing you can do to drop them, either. Takes the blame off the victim.” He shot her a look. “That’s you. Just so we’re clear. I have to ask you, though, is it possible you left any mark behind on him?”
“I didn’t touch him.”
“Good. Because that requirement of arrest on domestic violence doesn’t protect anyone based on gender.”
Molly sat forward. “Wait a minute. If she fought back and scratched his face, say –”
“But I didn’t.”
“You’re saying if she put up a fight at all and left anything physical behind, you’d arrest her, too?”
Good Todd seemed relieved to be looking away from the gorgeous Nikki. “We would have to. State law. Penal code 273.5. It ties our hands. Which is why I’m glad Nikki didn’t leave a mark.”
Nikki looked at her hands. “But I have in the past.”
“Truthfully?” Good Todd glanced at Nikki and then down at his paperwork again. “I’m glad you did in the past. Fuck that guy.”
Molly couldn’t help her small snort.
“And fuck him if he thinks he can keep getting away with it. He can’t. And you won’t let him.”
Nikki kept her gaze on her hands.
“Right, Nik?” Molly kept her voice soft, but touched with one finger a bruise that was fading on her forearm, just the size of a thumb. “You won’t let him?”
Nikki nodded. “I won’t let him. Wait. That’s too easy to say. You don’t understand what he’s like. He can be so wonderful.” She stretched out her fingers, as if seeing them for the first time. She turned them over and looked carefully at her palms. Then she touched the bruise on her forearm.
“He hurts you,” said Good Todd.
“Fuck that guy.” Nikki’s voice was soft and her words slow, but there was conviction underneath it.
“Good girl,” said Molly. And in those words, she heard her father’s voice, the tone he used when he really meant it. When she’d done something scary, when he was proud of her.
The father Nikki’d had probably hadn’t said much like it to her when he was still around.
So Molly said it again. “Good girl.”
Nikki mouthed it to herself, as if practicing it. “Good girl.”
“Good woman,” corrected Deputy Todd.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
There was no way in the world Molly could go on the date that night.
Maybe if Nikki had just told her about it. He hurt me, I made a report. He’ll get arrested soon. Maybe if Molly’d had no involvement at all, she could have kept it a secret from Colin.
But even then, she doubted it.
Colin would look at her with those dark eyes that seemed to see right inside her to who she really was. He’d hold her gaze. Then she’d open her mouth and say, “Your sister got hurt.”
Molly had always been a bad liar.
So as Nikki finished up inside the sheriff’s office, as the female officer gave her a stack of pamphlets, Molly texted him.
I’m sorry, something came up.
Disappointment burned like stomach acid.
The reply was almost instant. Can I help with something?
He would ask that. Of course. No. Just a private matter. I’m sorry. Raincheck?
Sure. Take care.
Such small words. Innocuous.
And how they cut at her as she drove back to Darling Bay with Nikki. Take care. It was what you told the cashier at the grocery store when she handed you the receipt. It was what you said to co-workers you didn’t really like as they embarked on a journey to new climes. It wasn’t what the man you had just realized you’d fallen for said, if he felt the same way at all.
No, God, she was reading too much into it. She was the one breaking the date, after all. His feelings were probably hurt, if only a little bit. That was okay. That would be natural.
Nikki stayed silent for almost the whole ride into Darling Bay.
“You okay?” Molly asked. Stupid. Of course she wasn’t.
A nod, seen in a passing headlamp. Darkness had dropped while they were still in the station, and the lights of town blinked dully at them as they came over the final rise. The far half of town was shrouded in a bank of fog that appeared to be devouring houses and shops. The pier was invisible. If Molly wound down her window, she’d hear the foghorn blaring every nine seconds. But it was cold out.
“What street again?”
“Stonecrest.” Nikki had had a bit of buoyancy when she’d asked Molly to drive back. I just want to rest and think. Her tone had been hopeful even though her head had been down.
Now that tone was as dull as the fog-draped lights in front of them.
Molly turned carefully onto the street, and counted houses until they got to the fourth one from the second stop sign. There was an old, fat, miserable palm tree in the front lawn, shielding the house, just as the female deputy had told them. No numbers on the outside of the house, so don’t bother looking for them. Just look for the diseased palm tree. The siding was worn, and the whole place looked shabby.
She braked. “I still can’t believe we don’t have a women’s shelter in town.”
“Veronica puts people up when they need help. She said I could stay for at least a week.”
“Then what?”
“No clue.” Nikki pulled up her purse and dug out a piece of chewing gu
m, which she chomped viciously. “Thanks for the ride.”
“We can go get your car tomorrow, if you want. If your arm doesn’t hurt too much.”
“It’s fine. Veronica asked me not to park in the neighborhood anyway.”
“You want me to come inside with you?”
“No.” Nikki paused with her hand on the door handle. “I’m sorry that I dragged you into this.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Yeah, it is. I know that. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Call me? I’ll see you at work, right?” Molly tried to put a smile into her voice. Nikki wasn’t looking at her but maybe she’d hear it. “The grand opening’s in five days. You’re not going to leave me high and dry?”
“I thought…”
“You thought what?”
“That you wouldn’t want me at the café. At least until he’s arrested. Just in case. Maybe longer.”
“Nikki!”
“And you’re too nice to tell me to my face.”
“You thought I would just text you later to fire you?”
Nikki shrugged. “It’s fine. I get it.”
Molly wanted to grab her by the hand, to take her arm, but thought better of it just in time. The last thing Nikki probably wanted was to be manhandled in any way. “You’re my friend.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a nice person. Sometimes those two things get confused.”
“I need you.”
“Oh.” Nikki looked at her lap, but there was a tiny smile on her face. “Don’t tell my brother. Please?”
“Why is it so important?” Molly still didn’t understand.
“Because I’m worried he’ll react like Dad did. Something terrible will happen and it’ll be all my fault. This is the first step, I swear I’m taking it.”
Molly’s head hurt. “I’ll respect your wishes. But promise I’ll see you tomorrow at work?”
“Yes.” Nikki paused. “Thank you.” Then she was out and hurrying up the walkway to the house.
As Molly lit the wood stove to test-fire it one more time, she wondered again if she could have gotten away with not cancelling on him. The kindling she’d found on the hill behind the hotel was still a little wet from the last rain, and it smoked on top of the newspaper she’d balled up underneath.
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