“Okay,” I said.
Jameson didn’t wait for me to change my mind. “Good. Bea’s gone back to DCS, but I’ll ask if she can come talk with you after you get off. I’ll have a session at that time, though. Can you do it alone?”
“Yeah.”
He kissed me again, his hands around my back, pushing me closer until I felt I would melt into him. It was all I could do to pull myself away. We’d have to decide what to do about us soon because I wanted him as much as he wanted me, but a casual relationship was out of the question—just like alcohol and staying out too late. The girls watched our every move, and they knew me too well for me to keep secrets. Besides, what I felt for Jameson went far beyond casual.
He could break my heart.
“So how long has she been with you?” Bea wasn’t smiling after my hurried explanation about Ruth.
“Since last Thanksgiving.”
“So before Zoey and Bianca.”
I nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“Because DCS sent her back twice before, and she can’t go through that again.”
Bea frowned. “Well, it’s been six months, and her mother hasn’t reported her missing. So I’d say that woman is in a world of trouble already. She might have gotten away with it if she didn’t have that man there, but I think I can ask just the right questions to give enough doubt. I will have to contact the former caseworker on this, though. I want to see if they properly documented her abuse, and why there wasn’t adequate follow up.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re going to have to find a new place to live,” Bea said as I headed for the door. “Especially at the rate you’re finding girls.”
She didn’t know the half of it.
“Is there anything else you’re not telling me?” she asked.
“No, but I can’t wait until you meet Ruth. She has your hair.”
Friday and Saturday morning passed with no word from Bea. I came home from my Saturday morning shift at Teen Nature worried that no news was bad news. I hadn’t dared tell Ruth anything for fear I’d scare her.
I was scared enough for both of us.
I busied myself with washing our clothes at the Laundromat and getting the girls to clean the apartment. When night fell, we still had a mound of clothes on the couch, and Halla’s and Ruth’s beds were laid out in preparation for our movie fest.
Halla and Ruth volunteered to pick up our Saturday night videos. “Come with us, Elsie,” Ruth said. “It’s dark and you can wear my hat. No one will see you.”
Elsie hesitated, looking at me. “It’ll be okay,” I said. “Just use my hoodie.” She nodded with a smile that told me she was growing stir-crazy sitting inside all day.
“You guys coming?” Halla asked Zoey and Bianca.
“No, we’ll stay and help get rid of these clothes so we have somewhere to sit.” Zoey thumbed at the couch, and I felt a little rush of pride that she was thinking of me. I only hoped Jameson wasn’t bribing her with toaster tarts.
“And I’ll make popcorn,” Bianca added.
I gave Halla my credit card. “Three movies only,” I told her. “Don’t go inside for snacks.”
She grinned. “We don’t need ’em. Your friend who is a boy but not your boyfriend will bring some.” Giggling, they left the apartment.
They’d only been gone a few minutes when the doorbell rang. Bianca ran to look through the peephole, while Zoey and I froze. Bianca turned back to me. “It’s the landlord. He’s got a guy with him. Never seen him before.”
A few minutes earlier, I would have sent the girls to the roof, and now I didn’t know if it was good or bad that they were out in the street. I turned to Zoey. “If it’s someone looking for the girls, you go warn them not to come back, okay? Tell them to go to the park, to our meeting place.”
She nodded, her eyes frightened the way they’d been when I’d first found her at that same park.
“But first fold up those two beds. Quick!” I didn’t want the men thinking we had more than us sleeping here. “Dump the blankets on the other side of the couch. Then just sit and watch television or something until you can get past them.” Saffron was still home, in the bathroom, getting ready for a date, but there was no warning her now. At least she wasn’t at risk like the others, and she knew well enough to keep her mouth shut.
Pounding on the door sent my heart into overdrive. I wished Jameson was here. “I’m coming,” I called to the men. “Just wait a moment.” Glancing at Zoey and Bianca, I was relieved to see they’d already folded the chair-beds and were sitting on them, the television on.
I opened the door to the landlord, a short, thin man about my own age with a blond scruff of a goatee that made him look five years younger. Rumors had it he was the son of the owner, and I suspected it was true because he lacked the ability to fix anything. No one would ever hire a non-relative so inept.
“Sorry,” I said with false brightness. “I’m in the middle of laundry, as you can see, and I don’t let my girls open the door in this neighborhood.” I gave the landlord a bland smile at my not-so-subtle dig. “May I help you?”
The man with the landlord craned his neck to see past me, obviously not content with his limited view of the girls. “She’s got to be here. That guy downstairs swears she is.”
“What are you talking about?” But I knew, because the stranger looked like Elsie. He had the same dark curly hair and soulful brown eyes—he was gorgeous in every sense of the word. But his unsmiling mouth had a cruel, demanding twist that was missing in Elsie’s sweet face.
The landlord said, “Mr. Reynolds here is looking for his daughter. Her name is Elsie. Do you mind if we come in?”
“We were just about ready to go out for some videos. Is there a problem?”
“We need to search your apartment,” Mr. Reynolds said, his voice staccato and sharp. “I know you’re hiding her!”
“What? Are you crazy? Maybe I should call the police.”
“Maybe you should,” he retorted. “Because I’m not leaving until I find her.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about. There’s no one here but us.” I glanced back at Zoey and Bianca, who stared at me with wide, frightened eyes.
“I’ll see for myself.” Mr. Reynolds pushed past me, forcing his way into the apartment.
“You can’t do this!” I shouted. “Look, you’re scaring my girls.”
“She’s right, sir,” said the landlord, who stayed nervously in the hall. “You need a warrant.”
“I don’t need anything. She’s my daughter!”
“I’m calling the police.” I ran for my phone in my purse on the kitchen counter, but Elsie’s father was already heading down the hallway to the bedroom. I watched helplessly as he opened the door. The three beds there could be for Zoey, Bianca, and me, but would he see anything he recognized as Elsie’s? Had she taken her pink backpack with her? She’d worn it everywhere at first, but she didn’t anymore.
Pushing open the door, Reynolds stared inside while my heart panicked so much that I couldn’t drag in a breath. My head began to buzz.
He turned back to me, coming fast down the hall, and my laboring heart couldn’t even feel relief that he hadn’t found anything. “Where is she?” he demanded. I had the sense that if the landlord hadn’t come hesitantly into the apartment, Elsie’s father would have shoved me up against the wall.
“There’s no one here but us,” I repeated. “You’ve got the wrong apartment.”
At that moment, a sound came from the bathroom. Triumph filling his face, Reynolds reached for the door, just as Saffron opened it. “What is going on out here?” She looked from me to Elsie’s father and back again.
I started to talk, but Elsie’s father beat me to it. “I’m looking for Elsie.”
Saffron shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name. I’m just here visiting my friend.” She gestured to Zoey, who had come to stand by me. Why was s
he still here instead of warning Elsie?
“Girl,” Saffron added, “if this is what goes on here, next time we should hang out at my house.”
“So you don’t know my daughter?” Reynolds shoved a picture under her nose.
“Sorry. Cute kid, though.”
“Can I see that?” I took the picture from his unwilling hand. Sure enough, it was a younger Elsie, smiling sadly at the camera. My heart ached for her. “Sorry,” I said.
“You’re sure?” Reynolds was backing down now. Finally. “Show it to her.” He pointed at Zoey.
Zoey pretended to study it. “No. And I don’t recognize her from school either. If it was that guy downstairs who said she was here, well, he’s a perv. He’s always staring at my little sister. She has dark hair too. He probably just wants a reward.” To me, her voice sounded strained, but Elsie’s father couldn’t know that. He wasn’t blind, though. With her darker skin, anyone could see Bianca didn’t resemble Elsie in the least. No way could the neighbor be confused.
Except that Bianca was no longer in the apartment for Elsie’s father to compare.
“Well, call me if you hear anything.” No apology or “please.” Grabbing his picture from Zoey, Reynolds fished a flyer from his pocket and thrust it in my direction. It was identical to the one Payden had given me.
“How long has she been missing?” I made myself ask.
“A couple weeks.” He didn’t look at me as he told the lie, but started for the door.
“Sorry about this,” the landlord said in an undertone as Elsie’s father exited the apartment. “I didn’t expect him to go all ballistic like that. And I didn’t think it would hurt to ask if you’d seen her since you seem to have a lot of girls running in and out all the time.”
I dredged up a smile. “Zoey and Bianca have a lot of girlfriends, that’s all.”
He stepped outside, and I shut the door with relief.
What now?
Obviously, our downstairs neighbor had recognized Elsie from the flyers and had called the number. I was grateful Mr. Reynolds had come here himself and not with the police because they would have probably been more thorough, maybe even holding me here until they received a warrant to search through our things, including my phone with the pictures I’d taken of the girls. I needed to remove the photos, maybe ask Jameson to store them on his computer. Because I knew it was only a matter of time until Elsie’s father returned, this time with the police. The downstairs neighbor wouldn’t be the only tenant here who would remember seeing Elsie. The police could also search the camera feeds at the nearby convenience stores or traffic lights, and no matter how careful we’d been in the past few weeks, they’d identify Elsie and connect her to us.
I had to take her somewhere safe.
“Bianca?” I asked Zoey.
“I told her to meet the girls. He looked like he might start hitting you.” Zoey wasn’t much for physical affection, but she hugged me now. “I couldn’t leave.”
I understood. Of course she couldn’t. Just like she hadn’t been able to leave Bianca with her uncle.
“Interesting that he only started searching for Elsie a few weeks ago,” Saffron said. “After all the bruising would be gone. I bet he knows how long they take to fade.”
Which meant the last time he’d beaten Elsie hadn’t been the first. No wonder she was so frightened.
“We have to get out of here!” Zoey said.
“Not all of us.” My mind raced. “You two and Bianca can stay here with Makay. I’ll go to Tessa’s with the others. Just temporarily. We’ll figure it out.”
“What about tonight?” Zoey looked ready to cry, and I knew it wasn’t because of the DVDs. She was scared for Elsie, because of what she herself had endured.
“Let’s all go to Tessa’s. We’ll talk about it there.”
“Uh, I still have my date with Russ,” Saffron said. “But he’s taking me to start service on my phone, now that I can pay for it, and I’ll call you and give you the number so you can tell me what you’ve decided. Meanwhile, I can stay here with Makay to watch the apartment. I’m not scared.”
It was the start of a plan. Impulsively, I leaned over to hug Saffron. “Thanks for keeping it cool there. You did great.” I reached to pull Zoey into our embrace. “Both of you.”
“That’s what family’s for,” Saffron said. “And you guys are mine.” Zoey nodded forcefully.
“Which reminds me,” Saffron added, “Makay and I’ve been working on something with Russ for Halla’s dad. I think I’m almost ready to show you.”
My mind could only hold one trauma at a time, but I trusted Makay to make sure Saffron abided by my stipulations. “Okay, good. But help me gather up some stuff for the girls tonight. Just a couple things in some of my big handbags. In case they’re watching.”
14
Tessa’s two roommates were out, so no one objected to our arrival. Tessa, who’d canceled a date, met us at the door. “I’m sorry to make you stay in on one of your only nights off from the factory,” I said.
She waved my words aside. “That’s okay. Come on in.”
“We brought videos.”
“Great.”
My phone buzzed. I knew it was Jameson again. He’d already texted three times when I canceled the movie night, and he was still waiting for an explanation. His concern made me feel slightly weepy.
Tessa saw my face. “Is that the mysterious boyfriend I still haven’t met?”
“Maybe. I’ve got to call him.”
“You should invite him over. No reason not to.”
I took my arm from Elsie, who hadn’t said a word since I’d picked her up at the park but had cried silent tears. “Honey, I’m going to talk to Jameson, okay? My sister will stay right with you. Don’t worry. You’re safe here.” I wasn’t really sure how long that would be true.
Elsie didn’t respond, but she let Tessa take her hand and lead her into their family room.
I called Jameson. “Sorry,” I said. “It’s been crazy.” Despite my attempt at control, my voice broke on the last word.
“What happened?”
I started a rundown, but he stopped me as I described how Elsie’s father had pushed inside the apartment and screamed at us. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. Just scared us all. Elsie was with the girls getting videos, and it’s not that far—I was afraid she’d come home when he was still there. If she’d been home when he’d come, I’d have sent her to the roof. He was like a madman. I don’t know what to do.”
“Where are you now? Not still at the park, I hope.”
“No, we’re at my sister’s.”
“Well, that’s good. They won’t know that address, at least until they figure out you’re related.”
My heart plummeted. “I put Tessa’s address on my employee papers for Teen Remake. I didn’t trust that Bea would figure out things for Zoey and Bianca.”
“Then we’ll have to tell Bea. She’s the only one who’ll be able to do anything. Elsie’s father is sure to go to the police, and they’ll identify Elsie and find you. There’s no way they won’t. If we come forward and show Bea those pictures you took when you found her, we’ll at least have a chance.” He paused before adding, “And some follow-up on her case, if it doesn’t work out.”
I remembered how on the roof Elsie had said she’d rather die than go back. I was failing her, and I didn’t know how to turn it around.
“I can call her if you want,” he said. “But either way, you should stay there through the weekend.”
“Okay.”
“Can I come over?”
“Please.”
“Text me the address. I’ll be right there.”
I’d no sooner rejoined the girls than Saffron called my cell phone. “Okay,” she announced. “This is my new number. I’m official. I can’t believe I finally have a phone again.”
“Congratulations.”
“It gets better,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s
going to work, but Makay, Russ, and I are fighting Halla’s dad right this minute online—with some other people too. Hurry and go look at his Go Fund Me. And before you ask, none of the posts can be traced back to me. For the past few weeks we’ve been using Russ’s old laptop at a restaurant with free Wi-Fi to talk to a group of people who fight abuse. There’s a lot of girls in the group, former victims. Anyway, Makay helped us track down some of that information Jameson gave you, and we turned it over to them—all anonymously, of course—and they checked it out. So now they’re posting about it. You’ve got to see it!”
I ran for my laptop that was in one of my bags, motioning for the girls to gather around. “I’m putting you on speaker,” I told Saffron. “What was that URL?”
When the Go Fund Me site came up, there were hundreds of comments, all of them negative about Halla’s father. “You gave your daughter only broccoli and water for two weeks after she refused to eat her broccoli,” Ruth read. “I think a sixteen-year-old should decide if she wants carrots instead of broccoli.”
I skimmed ahead, reading snippets to myself. “. . . made her miss school for a month after a boy called the house . . . heard about the donation you gave to your priest . . . is that why he didn’t tell the police your daughter went to him? School officials have repeatedly visited your house . . . sixteen is old enough for emancipation . . . she’s taken care of herself for almost seven months without you . . . leave her alone . . . won’t let her use the phone . . . threw out all her clothes . . . told your wife not to talk to the neighbors . . . living on bread and water . . . weighed only ninety pounds after you handcuffed her to the bed for six months . . . finally jumped from the window to kill herself to end the pain . . . broke her arm . . . ran away from the hospital when they said she had to go home . . . living on the street better than locked away . . . shame on you for abusing that poor girl . . . you are abusive and insane . . . scamming money from good people.”
House Without Lies (Lily’s House Book 1) Page 15