by PJ Fernor
It was a woman’s voice.
She appeared next to Ben.
Tall, skinny, a flannel shirt with auburn hair and amber eyes.
A stunning woman that made me do a double take.
“Uh, yeah,” Ben said. “This is… this is Detective Allie Down.”
“Oh, your partner?” the woman asked.
“Uh, Allie, this is Sandra,” Ben said.
“So nice to meet you,” Sandra said. “This guy never stops talking about you.”
Ben chuckled nervously. “Okay then. Hey, Sandra, I was just talking to Allie about a case…”
“Oh, right,” Sandra said. She touched her lips. “Sorry. I didn’t hear anything. Let me get out of your hair. I’ll go check on the other Ben. Okay?”
“Perfect,” Ben said.
They smiled at each other.
My jaw started to drop.
Sandra then moved to her toes and planted a kiss to Ben’s lips.
That’s when my jaw hit the floor. Or, the porch.
Ben kissed Sandra back with purpose.
Then she walked away through the house.
My heart exploded like it was glass and someone threw it against a wall.
Ben stepped toward me and shut the front door.
“Allie…”
He grabbed for my hand but I pulled it away.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I mean, of course it’s fine. Not that… wait. I came over to talk about the case.”
“Allie, let me tell you-”
“I came to apologize,” I said. “I did that. I wanted you to know that I want to pursue everything. Okay? That includes Trevor. I’m not going to treat anyone differently. No matter how messed up it is.”
My eyes looked to the door.
Sandra? Who was that? How long have they been together? She just freely walks around the house? She knows Ben’s father that well?
“I think Trevor is innocent,” Ben said. “I told you that. I also told you he’s hiding something. It might be something big. Might be something little.”
“Right. I get the same vibe too. I want to go after Preens though. And his crappy police report. The way he talked about Nikki…”
My voice trailed off.
The pieces of my heart rattled around in the pit of stomach.
“What about it?” Ben asked.
I blinked fast. “Oh. Nothing. Just… let’s talk tomorrow, okay? I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened when you were questioning Trevor.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Ben said. “And you didn’t have to drive all the way over here to tell me that. I’m sorry that-”
“Have a good night,” I said.
I turned and hurried off his porch.
“Allie!” Ben yelled.
I waved a hand and kept going.
I reached into my pocket and took out my phone as though someone was calling or texting.
When I got into my car, I looked to the porch and Ben was already back inside.
Not watching me.
Not chasing me down.
I took a deep breath and made a split second decision to do something.
Before I realized it, I heard Dr. Jerry’s voice on the other end of the call I had made.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Jerry,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Dr. Jerry… it’s Allie. Allie Down.”
“The great detective!” he said. “Is Lo okay?”
“Yes. Oh. Shoot. Sorry. Lo is okay. She’s home.”
I mean, she’s not okay, but…
“Okay then,” Dr. Jerry said. “What can I do for you?”
“This may sound crazy, but I want to take you up on your offer.”
“Offer?”
“A drink…?”
“Oh. That. Of course. Yes. I can be ready in ten minutes.”
My heart was suddenly back together, fluttering.
“Uh, I can’t tonight,” I said. “But soon?”
“Sure,” Dr. Jerry said. “I’m really glad you called, Allie.”
I looked at Ben’s house again and frowned.
I swallowed hard.
“Yeah… me too.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Other Place
There are two new girls now.
It’s like they just magically appear.
She isn’t even sure how it really happens.
She has an idea though.
She’s heard the others talk from time to time. But who knows what’s truth or fiction in this house, right?
One second Mr. G is in a good mood, the next second he’s yelling and throwing glass against some wall just to hear it break.
All she knows is what he tells her. And what he shows her.
So when the other girls talk about life and it seems different, the lines of truth get blurred easily.
She exits the kitchen with two bottles of water.
One in each hand.
Carefully, she sneaks a can of soda in the waist of her jeans.
She’s not sure what Mr. G will do to her if he finds her sneaking soda to Hailey.
But, come on, Hailey deserves it.
Hailey contained herself from crying ever since Tess left.
That’s what Mr. G always said too.
Left.
It was taken. It wasn’t ripped from the cage and thrown into a SUV and then given to…
She catches her breath.
She has to be tough now.
Tougher than ever.
There’s two new girls here.
N.
And J.
They don’t get names in the beginning.
Just letters.
If they speak their names, the punishment is severe.
They have to earn their names.
Most of the time Mr. G lets the girls keep their names.
Which is nice.
Sometimes he changes the name.
Like, for example, if a girl was named Lea, that wouldn’t work. Mr. G refuses to have two girls with the same name.
And then take the name Tess.
Sure, Tess is gone, but it’s way too soon to have another Tess.
Mr. G would wait probably six months or so before allowing another Tess.
She gets to the door and opens it fast.
“Time for water,” she announces. “No talking. No saying anything that will get you into trouble. Got it?”
Both N and J are just crying.
Which is fine.
It’s their first day.
That’s allowed.
She puts a bottle of water in each cage.
J is in Tess’s cage.
That hurts to see.
She turns and shows Hailey the can of soda.
“Drink it fast,” she whispers. “He’ll be…”
There’s a slam.
So hard the house shakes.
Dust rattles loose and falls like messy snow.
“Hide that can,” she says to Hailey.
All she can do then is stand and wait for Mr. G to show up.
When he does, he fills the door and looks like a monster.
“I was just getting them water,” she says.
“Floors,” he says. “They need to be cleaned. Now.”
He kicks the cages where N and J are.
She cringes.
The metal rattling. Them crying.
Mr. G ready to explode.
He opens the cages and orders them out.
They listen.
They know better than to not listen. And they know better than to try and run.
Mr. G tells her to open Hailey’s cage.
She does.
Mr. G takes the two new girls first and she grabs Hailey’s hand and holds it tight.
They walk through the house downstairs.
The house has a lot of escapes but Mr. G is smarter than everyone.
Some doors are real. Some aren’t. All are locked.
Escaping m
eans nothing if you don’t know where to go.
And if you get lost, Mr. G will find you.
And he will hurt you.
In the beginning, he promises you a way out. If you just listen.
That’s why the girls always listen.
Then they get broken down.
And then they get taken away.
She knows this.
She’s seen it.
She knows that Hailey won’t be around for much longer.
Which means she’ll end up friends with N and J. As long as they listen and don’t get themselves killed.
Mr. G makes N and J mop the kitchen floor.
They cry as they clean.
He sits on the counter.
He looks sad.
A big frown on his face.
She knows she can ask him about it. But not in front of the other girls.
After a short while, the floors are clean.
The kitchen smells like chemicals and lemon.
Mr. G jumps from the counter.
“Is it clean enough?”
He asks the new girls and they nod.
“Are you sure?”
They keep nodding.
They’re shaking.
J has a wet spot on her pants.
The poor thing messed herself.
Which was common.
“We’re going to find out,” Mr. G says. He looks at Hailey. “Lick the floor.”
“What?” Hailey asks.
“I said to lick the floor!” Mr. G yells.
The new girls start to cry.
She cringes.
Hailey looks scared.
She gently pushes at Hailey’s back.
There’s no choice here.
“Come over here and lick the floor,” Mr. G says.
Hailey steps forward and begins to shake.
Slowly, Hailey falls to her knees.
Hailey puts her hands on the floor and leans down.
Then Hailey’s tongue… touches the floor.
Mr. G makes her lick the floor for a good minute.
“Does it taste clean?” Mr. G asks.
“Yes,” Hailey says.
“Good. Back to your cages!”
She then hurries to gather up the girls and take them back to their cages.
Hailey climbs into the cage and turns.
She and Hailey make eye contact.
Hailey touches her stomach. “What if I get sick and die?”
“Drink your soda,” she says. “You’ll be fine.”
Hailey isn’t fine.
A few minutes later, the sound of Hailey vomiting echoes as she leaves the room.
She puts her back to the wall and promises not to cry.
Mr. G is in a bad mood.
And she knows it’s because of the other empty cage and the bedroom that’s been prepared.
He’s on the hunt.
For himself.
Someone is about to suffer in a way they never knew possible.
Chapter Thirty
The next morning I got the cold shoulder from Lo.
I was expecting that though, so I called in a favor to help cheer her up a little.
After she poured herself a coffee and took a few sips, I casually blocked her path from the kitchen.
She looked at me and frowned. “Don’t.”
“I won’t,” I said.
“Then move.”
“I can’t.”
“You can’t?”
“I need to know that you talked to Steph and that you’re semi okay.”
“Fine,” she said. “I talked to Steph. I’m semi okay. Okay?”
I shook my head. “I want you to know I really am sorry about all of this.”
“You’re always sorry, Allie.”
“I am. I can’t help it. It’s been a tough road.”
“Maybe some people are just cursed.”
“Do you think you’re cursed, Lo?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just want to drink my coffee and get-”
“Good morning!” Miss Kesslier’s voice called out from across the apartment. “I heard someone wanted my famous cinnamon rolls for breakfast.”
I smiled at Lo.
“You did this?” Lo asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. And she got up early to cook them for you.”
“Why?”
“First, because we love and care about you. We want you to know you have people in your corner. No matter what happens. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Now, the second reason?” I asked.
“Sure…”
“Those cinnamon rolls are just too damn good,” I said.
That at least got Lo to smile for a second.
She hurried around me to the table where Miss Kesslier had put the tray of fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls down.
Lo lowered her coffee cup to the table and hugged Miss Kesslier.
I wasn’t too afraid to admit I felt jealous watching Lo hug Miss Kesslier.
This was part of parenting.
I would always be the bad guy in some way.
Miss Kesslier looked at me and winked.
“You better eat,” she said to Lo. “You don’t want to be late.”
And that was how the morning went.
It wasn’t the worst morning in the world either.
I had to hurry to get to work.
No matter my personal life issues, there was still a murder investigation to work on. And I still wanted to clear Trevor’s name.
“Thank you for doing that,” I said to Miss Kesslier as I poured a coffee to go.
“Always,” she said. “It’s never a problem.”
I looked at her. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“It’s that bad?”
“Right now, yes.”
She touched her chin. “I can’t picture it. The boy is only sixteen.”
“I know,” I said. “But I’ve seen it before.”
“I trust you, Allie,” Miss Kesslier said. “No matter what happens. Now go. Please, just find the truth behind this.”
It was a reassuring feeling to have Miss Kesslier say what she said and stick around to make sure Lo was going to get to school on time.
On my drive to the station I wanted to call Ben and talk.
Each time I reached for my phone I stopped. I pictured him sitting at the kitchen table with Sandra. Each drinking coffee, eating a small breakfast, bedroom eyes flirting with one another, remembering last night. They were probably both barefoot too. And she was probably rubbing her feet on his…
The imagery almost killed me.
Not that Ben did anything wrong.
Why would he wait around for me to figure out what I wanted, right?
He deserved to be happy and be with someone.
It was as simple as that.
When I got to the station, I hurried into my office.
Just as I tried to shut the door, I heard a thud.
I turned and Ben was there.
“Coffee and a bagel?” he offered.
“Uh…” I showed him my coffee.
“Come on, Allie. Homemade coffee compared to this?”
Ben showed me the coffee he got. It was the good stuff from over at Becky’s. Meaning he took a special trip to get it for me.
“True,” I said.
What about Sandra? Did you have coffee and bagels with her already?
“I…”
I suddenly didn’t know how to talk to Ben.
My phone rang and I grabbed for it.
It was Johnny Barby.
“I have to take this,” I said. “It’s Johnny. Will you excuse me?”
Ben frowned. “Yeah. Sure.”
He slipped out of my office and shut the door.
My heart was jealous and hurt.
I answered Johnny’s call.
“Morning, Johnny,” I said.
“Sunshine!” he yelled.
“Sure,” I said. “To what do I
owe this call?”
“How’s your morning?”
“You tell me.”
“I talked to your buddy, Preens. I went after him hard.”
“What did you do?”
“I got information,” Johnny said. “He’s a tough one. Cold as a block of ice. But I knew how to chop him down a little.”
“Okay,” I said. “He was kind of short on the phone with me. He was going into court.”
“Yeah, forget about that,” Johnny said. “I’m looking over everything he gave me. I guess he has a bunch of these girls he deals with a lot.”
“Yeah,” I said. “He called them regulars. He said he took Nikki in because he was annoyed with her. He wanted to teach her a lesson. He said they all hang around the bridge on Depot.”
“That’s right,” Johnny said. “Maybe I didn’t need to call you then.”
“To think I almost escaped a phone call from you,” I said.
“Your day would have been ruined,” he said with a laugh.
I looked over at Ben’s office.
The coffee and bagels were on his desk.
Ben was nowhere to be found.
“That’s a messy area down there,” Johnny said. “The Girls… that’s what some call them.”
“Preens called them the Broken Girls. Or something like that. He also called Nikki Poor Nikki.”
“Right,” Johnny said. “She had a tough go it seems. Always bumping into the law. Never enough to arrest her on something good. Too bad she couldn’t have gotten some help either. That’s the worst part. So many who need it don’t want it.”
“What else do you have for me, Johnny?”
“Ah, maybe the other police report from that night.”
“What?”
“Well, he took them both in. Nikki and her friend. They were both caught stealing. Preens was fed up. So he wanted to make a statement and teach them a lesson.”
“You have the other police report,” I said.
“In my hand as we are talking,” he said. “Another one of The Girls. Same story. So far her ending is much different than Nikki’s.”
“She’s alive,” I said.
“That’s right. She’s alive. And I checked into it. She’s still hanging around the bridge on Depot. Or that general area, I should say.”
“Got a picture you can send me?”
“Allie, I’m holding the police report,” Johnny said. “I have everything.”
“Send it my way right now.”
“You’re sure you want to go this route?” Johnny asked. “It’s going to be a lot of heartache, bad endings, and even more dead ends.”
“If it points me in the direction of who killed Nikki, then I have no choice. Send it over now.”