Code 3: Finding Safety

by V. E. Avance

  Code 3:

  Finding Safety

  By: V.E. Avance

  V.E. Avance

  Code 3: Finding Safety

  © 2015, Avance

  V.E. Avance Publishing

  veavance@gmail.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

  All persons and places described in this novel are fictitious. Any similarity to persons alive or dead is purely coincidental.

  Table of Content

  Acknowledgements

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to all my fans for continuing to read my work. Without you, this wouldn’t be possible.

  Thank you to my team for taking my dreams and helping it all come together; Shannan, Joyce, Stephanie, Angela, Warren and Autumn.

  One

  As Leanna Dickson showers, she realizes that enough is enough. Her husband, Mark Dickson, has beat on her for the last time. In their five year marriage, Leanna has been the victim of his abuse more times than she can count. She has had broken bones, bruises and stitches. She quickly finishes her shower and makes her way back to the bedroom that she and Mark share to throw some necessities into a suitcase. The room is not tranquil or serene. The room has a dingy mattress sitting on the floor with aluminum foil covering the only window in the room. Most of her beatings started in the living room but always ended in this room.

  Leanna grabs the landline and dials the only number that is worth calling. “Maryanne, can you take me to the bus station in about thirty minutes?” Leanna asks her best friend when she answers her call.

  Without hesitation, Maryanne responds. “Of course I can but running isn’t going make your situation any better. Where do you plan on going? You have no family outside of Danville. Georgia is your home. How are you going to turn your back on the only place you’ve ever called home?”

  Leanna sighs, “Maryanne, I just can’t take it anymore. I’m tired of being abused and Mark’s drinking is getting out of control. When he drinks he becomes violent. When he’s violent, I’m the victim. Honestly, I just can’t do it anymore. The longer I stay the more chances I have at becoming a murder victim. This is not living. This is surviving. I need to live and, in order to do that; I need to get away from here.”

  Leanna sighs. She’s only been surviving since her parents’ tragic passing. As the days turned to months and the months into years, Leanna felt her need to survive dwindle. If she doesn’t get out of Danville today, she knows her days are numbered. She knows that she won’t fight to survive the next time that Mark beats her—punishes her.

  “Okay, honey. I understand what you are saying and, though I don’t agree with you running, I’ll help you any way that I can. Just know that I love you and I don’t want to see you go.”

  Tears fill Leanna’s eyes. Maryanne has been her best friend since the day she moved to Danville seven years ago. Maryanne never talked about her past but Leanna knows that there’s darkness lingering there. Maryanne knows all of Leanna’s darkness and sadness and, though Leanna’s been curious as to Maryanne’s past, she’s never pushed for her to reveal anything that she didn’t want to reveal. “I love you, too, but I have to go.”

  Once the call ends, Leanna finishes gathering her belongings and grabs her purse to wait for Maryanne on the front porch. She hasn’t figured out where she’s going yet but she’s fleeing Georgia completely. She can no longer be this close to Mark. She left a note for him on the kitchen table. As she reflects on the note sitting on the table, a pang of regret hits her.

  Mark,

  What we had before marriage has long since evaporated. Nothing I do makes you happy and your drinking not only affects you, but me as well. I can no longer be your punching bag when life doesn’t go the way you expect. I will be filing for divorce and will relinquish all rights to anything we jointly own. The house, cars and properties are all yours. All I ask is that you leave me alone and don’t try to seek me out.

  Leanna

  However, Leanna did take one thing from him that she felt he owed her. She cleaned out their joint bank account of everything but one thousand dollars. Leanna will start her new life with the clothes on her back, one suitcase of necessities and thirty-five hundred dollars.

  Maryanne pulls up and Leanna tosses her case in the back seat and climbs in the front. “So, are you sure this is what you want?” Maryanne questions her. Maryanne has tried, on numerous occasions, to help Leanna out. She has taken her in, tended to the bruises and abrasions and even had her front door kicked in by Mark when he came in search of her. Since Danville is a small town, the Sheriff never filed charges on Mark that night, or any other night for that matter. Leanna knew that staying here would just make her a statistic of domestic violence when the day came that Mark finally went too far and killed her.

  “I don’t want this, Maryanne, but it’s my only choice. I’m out of options and maybe a fresh start isn’t so bad. I can run away to a large city and get lost in all the hustle and bustle of it; maybe Las Vegas or Los Angeles?”

  Maryanne laughs a hearty laugh at Leanna. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but I don’t see the City of Angels or Sin City as a place for you. You’re a Christian woman with values and dreams of having a nice house with a white picket fence and little rug rats running all over the place. Maybe Denver or Dallas might be more your style but definitely not Los Angeles or Las Vegas.”

  She shrugs as they pull into the bus depot. She looks around at the run down place and shakes her head. How the hell had her life come to this? All she wanted was the happily ever after that every girl dreams of; to be a wife, mother and homemaker was all she’d ever wanted. Now, she’s about to purchase a ticket to anywhere but here with no higher education or support. Can she really do this? She has to if she expects to have any sort of life at all.

  “Well, I guess I’ll figure out where I’ll be heading once I see the bus schedule. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep where I’m going a secret until I feel that Mark is no longer a threat to you. I’ll call you when I get settled so my location can’t be traced,” she says as she gives Maryanne a hug.

  “I don’t like this,” Maryanne says as she releases her from a hug. “I don’t like not knowing where you’re headed. What if something happens to you? How would I know where to look for you?” Tears mist over Maryanne’s eyes.

  Leanna hates seeing Maryanne like this but it instills in her that someone—anyone, loves her. After her parents passed away, Leanna never felt love until Maryanne. Maryanne has shown her unconditional love that was missing in her life for so long.

  “I’m sorry,” she wipes away a tear that has esc
aped from Maryanne’s eye. “Something will happen to me if I stay here. I have to leave but I will stay in contact with you as much as I can.”

  Leanna reaches in the back seat and grabs her suitcase. “I love you, Maryanne,” she says as she exits the car and enters the bus depot. She struggles not to look back at her best friend, her only friend.

  She walks in and looks at all the outgoing buses—Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles… There are many choices. She points her finger and sings a song in her head that she learned in grade school. Eenie, meanie, minie, moe, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let ‘em go. Eenie, meanie, minie, moe.

  At the end of the rhyme, Leanna has her destination picked out. She requests the ticket and pays the cashier before taking in a deep breath. You’re getting a fresh start, girl. Don’t fuck it up this time, she chants to herself before settling on the bus that’s going to take her away from her nightmares.

  The ticket in her hand cost her $120 and will take her to Austin, Texas. Texas isn’t as far west as she would like to be but it’s a good start. If she watches her behavior and doesn’t tell anyone in Danville where she is, she’s sure she could be safe in Austin. Leanna closes her eyes to get some rest since she has a sixteen hour bus ride from Danville to Austin.

  Two

  James McMullen comes home after another twelve hour shift at the Austin Police Department. The house is too big for him and harbors too many memories of the only woman he ever loved. Rebecca had been his wife for six years before his career and her needs drove a wedge between them. His career is one that is full of danger and stress. Most nights, he would head to the bar with a few other officers to unwind before returning home. While he was so focused on himself, his wife’s needs were being attended to by another man. He will never forget that cool October night when he walked in and found his wife’s gorgeous body straddling another man, her hips moving in rhythm to his strokes in and out of her core. In all his twenty-seven years, that night was the worst night of his life and he’s seen some gruesome stuff in his career.

  James shakes the image from his head and moves into the kitchen. “Hey boy, are you hungry?” he asks his Border Collie. “Ok, ok Patches. Don’t knock me over or I won’t be able to get you your dinner.” As Patches eats his kibble from the dish on the floor, James pops a chicken dinner in the microwave and nukes it. This is his life. No more home cooked meals, like that ever happened, or someone to talk to after work. Yep, this is his life and he wishes, every day, that he never walked into the bedroom that night. He wishes he had gone to the bar with his brothers in blue instead. Then he could have been oblivious to what, or who, his wife was doing while he was away.

  “Officer McMullen,” James says as he puts the phone to his ear without checking the caller ID. “Damn it, why are you calling me Rebecca? I told you, we’re done. The marriage is over and you got half my shit in the process. What more do you fucking want?” His face turns red and he opens and closes his fist at his side as he hears her demands for more of what he worked his ass off for while she fucked every Tom, Dick and Harry in his bed. He put a roof over her head, food in her belly and allowed her to be the house wife she wanted because she was too lazy to get a job and how did she thank him?

  “If you don’t like what you were granted in the divorce, then maybe you need to take it up with Judge Wallace. He’s the one that decided who got what and how much. Now, this conversation is over. I have a ball game to watch and I’m sure you have another dick to fall on.”

  His ex-wife always seems to cause him anger. He loved her more than life itself and she broke his heart. The guys at the precinct are always harping on him to get back on the horse and find another woman, but it’s understandable that James isn’t interested in starting any type of relationship with any woman. “Well Patches, I think it’s time to call it an early night. Let’s go to bed.” James walks up the creaky old stairs, not even caring about the ball game that he, just moments ago, had been excited to watch.

  Three

  The bus pulls into Austin’s bus depot a little after six in the morning. Leanna is hungry, tired and smells a little ripe. Her first plan of action is to find a motel room so she can shower before grabbing a bite to eat. She exits the bus and locates her suitcase that has been offloaded already.

  The bus depot is on the rough side of town. She quickly makes her way through the depot and to the curb where she hails a cab. “Take me to the nearest motel,” she instructs the cabbie as she buckles herself into the seat. She doesn’t trust cab drivers. She has always wondered where they got their license from; a Cracker Jack box, maybe?

  She pays the cab fare, grabs her suitcase and makes her way to the motel office. Sleep Tight Motel is off of I-35. Leanna checks in and pays $35 for a one night stay. “Check-in is at 2, but seeing as you just arrived and we aren’t full, I’ll go ahead and allow you to check-in early,” the clerk behind the desk says to her.

  Leanna grabs her room key and receipt. “Thank you,” she says as she heads to room 8.

  “Yeah, whatever. Check out is noon. You either pay for another night before then or get out,” the clerk grunts as he returns to his television program.

  She inserts the key and turns the knob. Once the door is opened she is transported to the seventies. The room has brown, shag carpet with brown and orange floral wallpaper. A musky smell tickles her nostrils as she takes her first step into the room. “Ugh, this room is definitely a one night stay. I need to find another motel tomorrow,” she says aloud to herself.

  She places her suitcase against the wall nearest the dresser as she makes her way to the nightstand for a phone book. She thumbs through until she finds a pizza parlor and places an order for a medium pepperoni pizza, cheese sticks and a bottle of Dr. Pepper for delivery before heading to the bathroom for a quick shower.

  As the hot water stings her sensitive skin Leanna begins to think of her parents. They were a wonderful family. Her mama was a homemaker while her dad was a long-haul truck driver. Daddy was gone more than he was home but they never took for granted the time they had together. It’s times like this that Leanna longs for her parents. They were killed on their way home one night in September, eight years ago when she was only fifteen years old. Since then, she was bounced between family members until she met Mark when she was eighteen and married him six months later. Would she have settled down with Mark if her parents were alive? What she knew for certain was that she would not be in a dingy motel room in Texas if they were still alive. Her daddy would have put a bullet between Mark’s eyes the first time his fist connected with her nose.

  Leanna gently cries. Before her parents’ passing, she had the whole world at her fingertips. Her parents were saving money to send her to college and get her out of Danville. Her daddy wanted the best for her. She slinks down the wall and draws her knees to her chest. She wanted to be an elementary school teacher. She wanted to educate the future while raising a family of her own. The memory is overwhelming. Thinking of all that she lost because of the untimely passing of her mom and dad opens the wound in her heart that she’s been trying to heal all these years.

  Steam circles around the room as she exits her shower. She dries and dresses quickly and pulls her mid-length, brown hair into a pony tail. She doesn’t have time to put on her make-up to cover the latest of Mark’s abuse before she hears a knock at the door. Yes, pizza’s here, she thinks as she grabs her wallet and heads to the only door in the room.

  “That was quicker than I expected,” Leanna says as she opens the door. Before she can look up, the door to her room is being pushed open and a masked man is pushing his way in. “Don’t say a fucking word or I’ll slit your throat,” the masked man says as he brandishes a knife in her face. Leanna’s heart is racing as her mind thinks up all the possible outcomes of this situation.

  “P-please don’t hurt me. Y-you can take whatever you want,” Leanna stutters as her eyes fixate on the shiny blade pointed at her throat. “I-I don’t have much,
but what I have is all yours.” Before another word can come out, Leanna feels stinging and burning on the left side of her face and she falls to the floor. The masked person grabs her wallet and takes off running toward the main street in front of the motel and is gone before Leanna processes the whole situation and calls authorities.

  Four

  Officer James McMullen has just purchased his morning coffee and climbed in behind the wheel of his patrol car when a call comes over the radio. Officer McMullen hears Sandra, the dispatcher for the Austin Police Department; notify him of an armed robbery at the Sleep Tight Motel off of MLK Blvd. “It’s probably a prostitute who just robbed her John again,” James says to no one in particular as he turns the ignition and points the car toward the crime scene.

  Officer McMullen notices the ambulance as he pulls in the parking lot of the Sleep Tight Motel. He sees a young woman being treated in the back of the rig. No way can she be a prostitute. He makes his way towards her. “Good morning, ma’am. I’m Officer McMullen. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” James says as he looks at the woman before him. She’s nothing special that would make you look twice at her, but she is pretty, even battered and bruised. He takes notice that she has a fresh bruise beginning to form on her face amongst older bruises that have already begun to turn a, not so appealing, shade of yellow.

  “Sure,” she says as the paramedics finish cleaning her face and assessing the damage. She was lucky that nothing appeared to be broken.

  “Miss, can we start with your name?” Officer McMullen asks.

  “My name is Leanna. Leanna Dickson.”

  “Thank you, Leanna. Can you tell me what happened?”

  James finds Leanna having a difficult time explaining to him what happened. She tells him everything that happened during this event, but he can’t help but notice that she has older bruises, bruises that have already begun to heal.