Blind Trust

by Jody Klaire

  “Aeron,” he started, lifting his hat and rubbing a hand through his receding hair. “I know you girls have helped us over the last couple of days.” He offered a small smile, replacing his hat. “You’ve been nothing short of godsends.”

  All I could do was stare at him. My ears rang with the gunshots. My head replayed it over and over.

  “Why does she have your gun?” he asked.

  I frowned. “What?”

  “Your gun,” Charlie repeated. His moustache touched the top of his lip. I got the odd thought of how much like my father he was. Maybe it was the uniform.

  “I know from Sheriff McKinley that you have some kind of military background.” He pulled off his hat and placed it on the table. A gesture my father often made. I hated interview rooms. “When did she take it?”

  Renee’s gun? Her CIG gun. He thought it was mine. It looked different to most of the law officers’ guns. My father’s gun was pretty hard-wearing, basic and clumpy. Renee’s and the other CIG officers all carried a special one. I’d fired a few on the range when forced but I had no idea about serial numbers or makes. I hated the damn things. Why had she shot him?

  “Look,” Charlie said. “Let’s start small okay?”

  I nodded. My heart and head roared like I might implode at any second. The room squeezed in and out. I put my hands on my head to try and keep it bursting apart.

  “What’s your full name?” Oh, this was too familiar. He was too much like my father.

  “Aeron . . . Aeron Lorelei.”

  He pulled out his book and wrote it down. “Where you from, Aeron?”

  “Oppidum, Missouri.” My answers fell from me automatically and I tensed. How much were these people supposed to know? Renee had told me that anything short of national security meant that I couldn’t tell them a thing.

  “What’s your friend’s full name?”

  Commander Renee Black, repeated itself over and over in my mind. “Um . . . Doctor Llys. Serena Llys.”

  Charlie noted it down. I shoved my hands in my pockets, praying he wouldn’t see them shaking and hoped I could change my personality and start lying like an expert.

  “Where did you meet?”

  “Serenity Hills Maximum Security Institution for the Criminally Insane.” I took a deep breath. It was one heck of a mouthful. When you were serving time for murder, my head taunted. “I . . . we . . . work there.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That place has some reputation. Nasty inmates.”

  He only knew that as it had made national news. He didn’t know just how bad it had been. My natural instinct was to defend my old friends. Some of the girls had issues, that I would happily admit and some, like the fury-fiends were beyond repair but they weren’t bad people. They were nothing compared to Bison and the guards.

  I knew Charlie was waiting for my answer. If I said the wrong thing, I could make it all so much worse. I could sense that he was trying to read me, which made me even more jittery.

  “Yeah . . . I guess . . .”

  “You’re a fair way from home,” he said. “Any reason?”

  Training for CIG, blared through my mind. “Uh . . . yeah.” I tried not to avert my eyes like I was lying through my teeth. “Conference.” I tried to swallow the cactus caught in my throat. Renee had told me to say conference, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she? Uh oh, I couldn’t lie for Jell-O as Nan would say.

  “Do you always carry your gun?”

  He thought I was military. Were vets allowed to keep their guns? Was I gonna end up in a cell if I told him that. Were folks allowed guns here?

  “It’s okay. My brother served for twelve years. He spent too many after it checking into rehab.” Charlie sighed, running his fingers over his hat. “Can’t stop him carrying his damn weapon though, not like he’s breaking any laws.”

  I blew out my relief through my nostrils, which made him look at me like I could pass out any second. “Yeah, I get why he feels that way.”

  “Did you realize it was missing?” he asked.

  “No . . . I mean . . .”

  He smiled. It was the kind of smile my father so often used. I hated that smile. The “I’m doing you a favor here” smile.

  “I am trying to understand what happened.” He leaned forward. “Aeron, I need to know if Serena has been acting odd lately.”

  My first instinct was to say, “hell yeah,” but I couldn’t tell him that because I didn’t know why. He’d want to know why, cops always wanted to know why.

  “No, not that I know of . . . I mean . . . from a working point of view.”

  He looked at me from under his brow. “So you don’t socialize outside work?”

  Now I was in trouble. How did I answer that? Renee was always working, that was her, there were no rest days for the CIG, not really. “I . . .”

  “You seem pretty close,” he said. “Closer than colleagues.”

  “I guess . . .” I had to find a way of getting away from this subject. There was no way I could answer that without revealing the fact Renee was charged with keeping my useless butt safe. “Is she okay?”

  Charlie sat back and studied me for a moment. “She’s not talking. I won’t lie to you, Aeron, this looks really bad for her.” He looked down at his notes. “She shot an innocent man in broad daylight. Even counting the fact she helped you save my life and a few others.” He shook his head. “It’s not looking good.”

  “But she wouldn’t just shoot nobody for no good reason,” I protested. I wanted to put my hand in my mouth to shut myself up.

  “Is there ever a good reason to shoot a man on a crowded street?”

  I chewed on my lip and picked at my fingers, I couldn’t answer that one and we both knew it. “So what will happen now?”

  “Well. First we are going to try and get Serena to talk to us.” He sighed. “Then, when the road is clear, we’ll get a district attorney up here and start the process.” He tapped his pen on the desk and he leaned forward once more. “You got your license?”

  Uh oh. “No.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Do you have one?”

  “No.”

  “What unit were you in?” he asked, his brow furrowing deeper.

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” fell from my lips before I knew I’d said it. I sounded like Franken-Frei did. Somewhere in my head that gave me a sense of pride. Maybe I had learned something.

  “You told the sheriff it was medical, that you were involved in handling disasters.”

  “I said that I did as part of my duties, yes.” I had no idea where the answers were coming from but I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. “I can’t tell you nothin’ more.”

  “Explains the gun,” he said more to himself than me. “And I’m guessing that when I ask if anyone knows who you are, I’ll get a denial.”

  “I’m not at liberty to say,” came my answer. Heck, I felt like Franken-Frei had just floated in and taken me over.

  “Is Doctor Llys a part of that?”

  I said nothing. I hoped that he would take that as, “Yes, she’s a CIG agent. If she just shot some guy in the street, there’s no way that he is innocent.”

  “What if I could prove she had just cause?” I asked. Now I sounded like my stepmother had. Where the heck had that come from?

  “To shoot a man on a crowded street?” He folded his arms. “You’d be the best damn lawyer I’ve ever met.”

  “Give me the chance?”

  Charlie got to his feet and limped to the door. He was the guy who had clung onto Zack for hours and saved his life and right now, he had the power to stop Renee getting hauled into the judicial system.

  “Give me a minute.”

  He left the room and I gripped my head with my hands. Even if he said yes, how was I going to prove Renee, who was meant to be a psychiatrist, who wasn’t meant to have a military spec gun, had the right and the justification to pull the gun, which was meant to be mine and shoot a complete stranger?

  How?
/>
  What if I contacted CIG? Would they help? I rubbed my temples harder. If I knew how to contact them, then I knew from the training I’d been on so far that no way would they help Renee out. They’d see her serve a sentence before they uttered a word. Did Colorado have capital punishment?

  My heart started hammering so fast that the room got dark. I had to get her out. How did I get her out? And even if I did, they knew my name, I’d be on the run and there was no way would I be able to explain that one away.

  What if they got hold of my record? Were the articles about my own conviction and trial still available? I felt the sweat dribbling down from my forehead. This was why Renee lied, how could I explain any of it?

  By the time Charlie came back into the room, I was about ready to cry. I never cry, at least not all that often but I didn’t know what to do and there was no way Nan could help me out of this one.

  “Does she have her phone?”

  Charlie nodded. “Not that it’s much use up here with the cell tower out.”

  “Do you think I could have it?”

  He smiled. “Of course.” He perched on the edge of the desk. “Sheriff thinks it’s fine if you try and prove her innocence.” He shrugged. “Neither of us is convinced you stand a chance but you have helped us out enough to earn that much.”

  “Thank you,” I managed, trying to hide the tears which were now dangerously close to bursting free.

  “You got until we can get the road open again,” he said. “Maybe a couple of days at most.”

  “Can I talk to her?” I asked. “At least get her point of view?”

  “You can,” he said. “But she isn’t talking.”

  “She might talk to me.”

  He sighed. “I mean that she isn’t talking at all.” He motioned for me to get up. “There’s no one in there. Nothing.”

  CHARLIE WASN’T WRONG. Renee sat mute in the cell, staring at the opposite brick wall. I tried to ignore the memory that once she had been the one watching me stare into nothing. Her aura was silent, her energy dormant and I knew full well just from that, it would take some going to get her back.

  “Can I go in?” I asked Charlie but he shook his head.

  “Maybe tomorrow,” he said. “Give her time to come round.”

  I couldn’t argue with him. I couldn’t explain that if I touched her, I could tell him everything he wanted to know. At a loss of what to do, I leaned my head on the bars.

  “I’ll get you out,” I told her. “I swear.”

  Without so much as a flicker from her, I headed out of the station. If Renee and I weren’t big news before, we sure were now. Curious eyes watched me as I headed down the steps. Hal was wandering around with his notebook, trying to jot down the cacophony from witnesses saying their piece.

  I wasn’t a cop. I couldn’t just demand that the folks tell me everything. I wasn’t a local so I couldn’t know who would give me a clear answer anyhow. Without much of a thought in my head, I found myself outside the cabin where Martha, Earl, and Zack were waiting.

  “You have a key,” I told them. I wasn’t sure why, it just seemed like something to say.

  “Oh, Aeron,” Martha said in the tone that only mothers seemed to use. The one that said how much of a mess you had made, simply by saying your name. “Is she alright?”

  Now, over the course of my twenty-seven years, I had learned two things about small town folk. One, they were pretty hardy people, the kind who picked up the pieces and rebuilt even when mother nature had torn their homes and lives apart. The second, was that they loved to gossip and judge so Martha’s simple question left me staring at her dumb . . . again.

  “Is she hurt?” she asked. “Did he hurt her in some way?”

  “Don’t think so,” I answered, still gawping at her. “She doesn’t seem to be injured.”

  Martha led me up the steps as Earl took Zack around to the garage to show him man stuff—his exact words. I would have laughed if I could have remembered how.

  “You need this,” Martha said a couple of minutes later, sticking a drink in front of me. I was so thirsty I didn’t think to look down at the glass and drank deeply. A second later I was gripping my throat and coughing.

  “Not so quick,” she said as she fussed around. “It’s strong stuff.”

  I looked down at the clear liquid in the glass. “Alcohol?” My head already knew the answer as I felt fuzzy. “Don’t drink.”

  Martha tutted. “It’s medicinal.”

  “Don’t drink,” I said again, feeling warm all over.

  “So she isn’t injured?” Martha asked.

  I watched her flit about the kitchen and it reminded me of how Renee did the same thing.

  “She’s lost it,” I said. “Unless I figure out a way of getting her back, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “The doctor is sure that the man will pull through,” she said, her busy energy flickering about her. “So maybe it won’t be as bad.”

  “She shot a man in broad daylight.” I felt woozy already. Not good. “All I got was her phone.” Feeling the tears trickling down my cheeks, I stared at Blob who had come to see what all the fuss was about. “It’s hopeless.”

  Martha draped a blanket over me as I sat there next to a crackling fire I hadn’t noticed her start, but then I hadn’t remembered sitting down. Last thing I’d noticed we had been in the kitchen.

  “You get some rest,” she told me. “Earl and I will take Zack for the night.”

  I didn’t hear much as I was already starting to doze and with all the shock and worry mixed with alcohol that would only ever mean one thing: Visions.

  Chapter 17

  THE SUN SETS, bathing the snow, turning it into pools of deepening color. Alone in a dark wilderness of midnight blue the silver glints bathe her face with its radiance. The stars, like eyes, bear witness to a transcendent sonata as her hands create sweeping motions of pinks and reds.

  The mists begin to swirl, dropping like snowdrops upon the barren landscape. Grey to brown, to blue, to green, eyes so distant beckon forth the heavens until outstretched fingers touch the glimmering audience above.

  Hurt had robbed the music, ears agonized for the loss of such beauty. Swirling, the mist had covered the land with dirty brown greys, the sun no more than a spotlight covered by the dust of chaos.

  No path in sight, no way to find, nothing but murky smudges and inaudible sounds. Whispers sniping, demanding, taunting.

  “Aimed for me,” the voice of deceit bays.

  “Who do you think you are?” a swirl of emerald declares.

  “Would have seen . . .” Doubt from the golden star.

  “I didn’t see,” the fish leaps from an endless lake. “I didn’t see,” it pleads. “I didn’t see!”

  Malice lurks beneath dormant waters, teeth bared and eyes like flame. The vulture circles and swoops, beak like razors, the sky but a charcoal storm cloud. “Always alone!”

  The heart beats and beats faster and faster, the rolling symphony declaring war upon the enemies’ ranks. A pebbled stone in palm, nine two three bursts into yellow-white shimmers, so blinding, so bright—

  The floor broke me from my vision as the soaring pain ripped right through my side. I spluttered and placed my hand flat against the smooth wood as I sucked in my breaths and tried to calm my pounding pulse. The cool surface anchored me as I tried to regain my senses.

  “You are a very strange creature,” Blob commented as he sat on the foot of my bed.

  “Yeah, well . . . you try seeing what I see.” I tried to lift my head, testing that it was still attached. “Man, I’m glad I am not my mother.”

  “Why, does she throw herself on the floor?”

  I grunted, getting to my feet. The room swayed at first but it cleared after a few breaths. “I don’t know. Why don’t you go find her and haunt her instead?”

  Blob ignored me and I heard snoring again. Maybe ghosts slept more the longer they hung around. I guessed there wasn’t a lot e
lse to do.

  Thinking of ghosts.

  “Nan?” I called out, hoping she would have some nugget of wisdom that would help me.

  “You hollered, Shorty?” Nan swept in, making the wind chimes that hung from one of the rafters jingle like it was singing.

  “You know what happened,” I said. “How am I gonna get Renee out of this?”

  “Honey,” Nan said. “Sometimes things happen that you can’t fix.”

  “Nuh uh.” I wagged my finger at her. “No way am I giving up on her.”

  “Why’s that?”

  I folded my arms and stared in the direction that I could feel her loitering. “Because, it’s Renee.”

  “That ain’t an answer.”

  I narrowed my eyes. We weren’t going there. “Yeah, it is.”

  “No, it ain’t, Shortstop,” Nan said and I felt a swish as she moved to my side. “She’s someplace deep . . . someplace scary. You really think you want to go back there . . . after everything?”

  “Yes.”

  My certainty made Nan pause but I could feel her so I knew she hadn’t vanished on me. It terrified me that Renee was somewhere fighting a battle and I couldn’t get to help her on the inside until I’d freed her on the outside. The longer I took, the less chance I had at doing either.

  “Aeron,” Nan said. I’d never once heard her say my name, so it captured my attention pretty good. “You are gonna have to use all those gifts that you hate.”

  The sweat broke out on the back of my neck and I shivered.

  “You’re gonna have to do all the things you hate doing so bad,” she said. “You always say that you hate messing with people’s lives.”

  “It’s for Renee,” I said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  I took out the necklace that I always wore. It had been Nan’s, then Lilia’s before me. The inscription of Ephesians was inscribed on the back. The letters, a comforting feeling against the pad of my thumb. The armor that kept me safe from all the darkness lurking ready to strike. I knew what Nan was saying, the more I used my burdens, the more of a target I placed on my head.

  “It’s for Renee,” I repeated.

  Thud.