“We need to get out of here,” he said.
Anna nodded. “But what about the other girl? The one that was brought here with me?”
“We’ll find her. Hopefully she really is just in one of the cars parked outside.” Noah grabbed her hand and reached for the door handle. “When we get out there, I’m going to have to act like you’re my… uh… like you’re my—”
“Slave.”
“Yeah, right. That. I’ll try to be as gentle as I can without it being obvious, okay?”
“Do whatever you have to do, just get me the fuck out of here.”
The crowd had recovered from the slight shock of Noah’s high bid, and now the bidding had already started on the next item for sale. Anna stopped dead in her tracks, horrified and nauseous, when she saw that it was in fact a child standing in the glass cage.
Noah, who had been walking in front with his head down, holding Anna’s forearm, was jerked back with her sudden halt. When he tried to gently pull her along, she held still and nodded to the platform where the cage sat.
“Oh my god,” said Noah.
“We have to—”
“We have to go,” Noah grumbled. He jerked her arm and spoke more aggressively. “No dallying. Let’s go.” A couple people had taken notice of the two of them and Anna knew he was just playing the part.
She forced her feet to keep moving and got close enough to Noah to whisper.
“We have to help that kid.”
“I know,” he said. “My guys are arranging back up and they are going to bust the whole market.” He glanced to his right, towards the bar, as they made their way to the door. “Looks like our bear friend is still at the bar, which means Sal’s daughter is still stowed away in some car nearby. Now, if only I could find Sue—”
A gunshot rang through the crowd.
The crowd went berserk. People were screaming, pushing, and some launched right into fist fights with their closest neighbor. Noah grabbed Anna and pulled her to the ground.
A second bullet was fired and panic turned to silent fear as the crowd froze and stared in the direction of the sound. Sue was standing at the foot of the stairs, gun held high in the air, the barrel pointed across the room where the auctioneer stood on her stage, no longer carrying the grace and confidence she had been before. She had her hands up in the air and her eyes were wet with fear.
“Listen up,” said Sue. “All of you have a choice to make. You can either leave in handcuffs, or you can leave pumped with metal and on your way to the emergency room, where, incidentally, you will also be handcuffed. We have the place surrounded, there is no getting away.”
One brave, stupid, soul stood up and started talking back to Sue.
“You bitch, you don’t know who you are messing with—”
Sue brought her aim away from the auctioneer and fired three shots into the man’s chest. He clutched his wounds as blood seeped into his shirt and dripped down his legs. He collapsed to the ground and groaned, but nobody moved to help him.
“I’m not fucking around,” she said. “Anyone else want to test me?” She waited a few seconds before continuing. “Now, I need to know two things. Whoever can tell me these two things will receive a notice of good behavior in their file which could help them avoid jail time. First up, who is willing to tell me who exactly is in charge of this illegal market?”
She glanced around the room, an eager look on her face.
Out of the corner of her eye, Anna saw someone near the back draw his weapon and aim, but before he could pull the trigger, a bullet went through his skull.
Sue looked over her shoulder where another one of Noah’s men was sitting crouched on one of the steps, holding a sniper, poised and ready for some else to make a move.
“You guys really don’t learn do you. I’m going to ask again,” said Sue. “Who is in charge around here?”
“It’s Maria!” A voice from the crowd yelled. It belonged to an old, stout woman wearing a gaudy ruby necklace and big black sunglasses. She pointed to the auctioneer. “She facilitates everything.”
“Alright then.” Sue smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” At her signal, the sniper aimed his gun right at the auctioneer who was still frozen in place. “On to my second question, which I’m hoping you, Maria, might be able to help me with. Where can I find the rest of the people up for sale today? Including the girl who was sold just before this one?” She motioned with her free hand to Anna.
Maria slowly put her hands down and folded them across her chest. “Why would I just hand over my only bargaining chip. If I tell you where they are, you have no reason to keep me alive.”
Sue shot Maria in the shin. The woman’s leg buckled and she fell to the stage floor, screaming.
“Tell me or I will shoot the other one.”
“Okay! Okay!” Maria yelled. “They are in the basement. You’ll find a secret hatch under a rug in the back room.”
Sue nodded and made a whistling sound. Five more armed men marched down the steps and went straight towards the back room.
“Everyone else,” said Sue. “Get on your knees and put your hands up.”
It must’ve only just then clicked for most of the people in the bar that they were about to be arrested because when Sue gave the orders, panic ensued yet again and everyone was shoving their way towards the exit.
Noah tried to get Anna to her feet before she was trampled, but she stepped on the hem of his oversized coat while getting up and tripped. Immediately, the heel of someone’s boot went into the small of her back, keeping her down and making it hard to breath. Several more people were stepping on her while Noah was pushing people out of the way and trying to get his arms underneath Anna’s and pull her to safety.
She heard a terrible crack and then a shooting pain went coursing through her ankle and up her leg. Somebody had stepped on the joint and bent it until it snapped. The combination of the pain in her foot and the lack of oxygen in her lungs made Anna’s head swim, but she fought through it and managed to find a break in the crowd where she could get to her knees.
Noah was right there, already taking her in his arms, and getting her out of the way of the stampede.
The Woman with Stormy Eyes
The following two weeks or so were the busiest Idle Waters police department had ever seen. Anna and Sheriff Wells had to interview countless individuals from the bust at the market, seeing who knew Sam, who had any contact with him. So far, the only person who was willing to talk about anything was the same woman who had ratted out Maria as the organizer of the markets. Anna hadn’t spoken to her personally yet, seeing as she was still in the hospital when Sheriff Wells had done the initial interview with her. Anna’s ankle was healing fine, despite the fact that she had been consistently ignoring her doctor’s orders to take it easy and to use her crutches instead of hopping around on one leg like a kid playing a never ending game of hopscotch.
It was just such a pain, having to grab her crutches every time she wanted to stand up from her desk and grab a file from the cabinet or a refill on coffee. She preferred the challenge of getting herself up onto her good leg and making her way around unaided. It helped dull the embarrassment she felt for getting hurt in the first place.
After Noah had pulled her to safety, Anna passed out from the pain, and from not having eaten in so long. She woke up sometime later in the hospital, hooked up to an IV, and with a nurse leaning over her taking notes on her clipboard. Anna insisted she felt fine and ended up leaving the hospital without being officially discharged by the doctor, which of course Noah, Stella, and Sheriff Wells were not happy to hear, but they got over it fairly quickly once they saw that Anna was in fact perfectly healthy, besides the broken ankle.
Sheriff Wells had suggested that she not work such long hours the first few weeks back, however, despite the enormous amount of work they had to do. She agreed to work a regular work week instead of putting in the 60 hours or so that she’d been doing before the injury, which meant that after
she spoke to this woman it would be nearing five and Wells would force her to clock out and go home.
She wasn’t going home that night, however. Instead, she was going to Noah’s apartment where he was cooking her dinner. She was excited, and a little nervous, but mostly she was just glad that things were starting to get back to normal. Her first week back in Idle Waters, everyone had been treating her like a traumatized child. Nobody asked her any questions about what happened and everyone was careful to watch what they said around her, in case it ended up being triggering. Anna tried to explain to them that she was fine, that the whole experience wasn’t that bad, that she was saved before anything truly upsetting happened to her, but they weren’t buying it. Stella especially. She started doing research online about the mental and emotional effects that come with going through trauma such as these, and what she found had convinced her that Anna was going to break down any day now. And she was ready for when Anna did. She was always checking in on her, asking her if she needed anything or if she wanted to talk.
That morning Anna had even joked that she thought Stella was disappointed that Anna wasn’t more damaged, which made Stella pretty upset, but it also got her off Anna’s back for a while so she didn’t take it back.
“Deputy,” Sheriff Wells said. Anna turned in her seat to look at him. “Ursela Jones is here.”
The short, round woman from the bar was standing next to him, wearing the same sunglasses she had been the day Anna first saw her.
“Great.” Anna stood up and offered Ms. Jones her seat. “You can sit here if you’d like. I’ll grab a fold out chair from the back.”
The old woman nodded and took her time lowering herself into the chair. Anna ran to the back room of the station, which was really more like a closet, and snagged one of the fold out chairs. Back at her desk, she situated her seat facing Ursula, grabbed a pen and paper, and started her interview.
“Okay, Ms. Jones—”
“Call me Ursula.”
“Okay, Ursula, what can you tell me about Maria and about the illegal markets in general?”
The woman leaned back in her seat. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, everything, I guess, but let’s start with what you were doing there? Do you go to these markets often? Have you ever purchased anything at these markets?”
“That was the first one I’d ever been to,” said Ursula. “And if you’re asking me whether or not I have ever purchased another human being the answer is no.” She sounded very offended by Anna’s line of questioning.
“You have to understand why we find that hard to believe,” Anna explained. “Since we did find you at a market where people were being sold.”
“I was only there to try and help.”
Anna frowned and made a note.
“Trying to help?” she asked. “Help who?”
“Help the young woman who was abducted.”
“You mean me?” asked Anna. “But I don’t know you—”
“Not you!” said the old woman. “The other girl from Idle Waters. Sal’s girl.”
“Wait a minute, you know Sal?”
The woman took a deep breath and rubbed her hands together nervously. “I’ve said too much. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Well tough,” said Anna. “Because you don’t have a choice. You either tell me what you know, or you go to jail. Do you want to go to jail?” Anna raised her voice a little, causing Stella to glance over from the front desk.
“It’s not me I’m worried about!” said the woman. “You can put me in jail, I don’t care. I won’t answer any more of your questions.”
Anna sighed and put her note taking tools down. She leaned over onto her knees and tried to look passed the woman’s sunglasses and into her eyes. This woman was the key that would blow this case wide open, Anna could feel it, she just had to find a way to break her.
“Listen,” she said, her voice soft and kind. “I’m going to be honest with you Ursula. Six people have been murdered in this town. We have good reason to believe that some of the individuals involved in these crimes also sell and buy at these markets. I know you are trying to protect someone, and I understand how scary this must be, but if you don’t tell me what you know, when this murder strikes again, and he will, that person’s blood will be on your hands.”
“It’s just…” Her voice broke. “He’s the only family I have left.”
“Who is?”
Ursula tucked her chin down into her chest and reached her fingers underneath her sunglasses to wipe away the tears. For a break second, Anna got a glimpse of the woman’s eyes, but it was enough. Like two storm clouds, heavy with the promise of a rainy day, they were a dark and haunting shade of gray.
“Do you know Ellie Oliver?”
The woman pushed her sunglasses back on and frowned. “No. I don’t.”
Anna slammed her fist down on the desk. “Don’t lie to me!”
“I’m not,” said the woman, putting her hands up in defense. “I swear, I don’t know anybody by that name.”
“Then why is it that the only thing Ellie Oliver remembers from the night her sister was murdered is your eyes?”
“What are you talking about?” asked the woman.
“Gray eyes,” said Anna. “That’s all the poor little girl can remember. So unless you’re going to try and convince me that it’s a coincidence you also have gray eyes, I think it’s time you fess the hell up.”
“Oh,” said the woman. “I see.” She sighed and took her sunglasses off. “I can see why you would think I had something to do with that. Now I’m going to tell you what I know but I need you to promise me something before I do.”
“What?” said Anna.
“I need you to promise you’re going to listen to my whole story and that you are going to do everything in your power to help my nephew when the time comes that he faces a judge. None of this was his fault, he didn’t want to be a part of any of it, he was just trying to help the poor victims of that vicious wolf gang.”
“Your nephew? Who is your nephew?”
“Promise me.”
Anna picked up her pad and pen. “I will promise you this, if what you tell me is true, if your nephew is truly innocent in all this, I will do whatever I possibly can to make sure he is shown mercy in the courts.” What Anna didn’t say was that she really didn’t have much power when it came to the legal side of things. She was only a deputy after all. But she meant what she said, she would do whatever she possibly could to help, even though it probably wouldn’t matter in the end.
“My nephew, you may know him, he works at Sal’s diner. His name is Vee. Well this all started a few months back, some of the young guys in town started messing with him, calling him all sorts of nasty things and threatening him. He called me real upset one night and I told him what he had to do; he had to use his God given abilities to make them stop.”
“God given abilities…?” Anna wrote the three words down, and even though Ursula hadn’t said what she meant outright, Anna was pretty sure she knew where the old lady was going.
“You have them too,” said Ursula. “I can tell.”
Anna chewed on the end of her pen. “But yours, and your nephew’s abilities are not like mine. You two are far more powerful than me.”
The woman nodded once.
“We are,” she said. “Yes.”
“You can control minds.”
The phone on Stella’s desk rang, giving all three women sitting in the room a start. It had gotten very quiet in the room ever since Ursula started explaining and it wasn’t until that silence was broken that Anna realized Stella had stopped making copies and was listening in.
Stella answered the phone. “Idle Water’s Sheriff Department, how may I help you?”
“Go on,” said Anna.
Ursula eyed Stella suspiciously, but continued with her story nonetheless. “We can’t control minds,” she said, speaking in a much softer tone now. “We can mani
pulate them, but only so much, and it works best on people with… simple minds. Like children.”
“And idiots like Sam Cottons.”
She nodded. “Vee didn’t want to do it at first, he doesn’t like messing with people’s minds unless it’s dire, but then Sam and Pauly attacked him physically and he decided it was time to do something. He just implanted a memory. I don’t know the details, but he gave them a memory of him that made them a little scared of him. They still messed with him, but after that it was all talk.”
“And what about Ellie Oliver?”
“A few weeks after he messed with his mind, Sam came pounding on Vee’s door. He had a gun and he told Vee that he knew Vee’d done something to his brain.”
“Guess Sam isn’t as stupid as I thought.”
“Guess not,” said Ursula. “Vee wouldn’t tell him anything, and I guess Sam was still a little scared of him from the implanted memory, and Vee said he seemed distracted, so he just left after yelling and flipping over Vee’s coffee table. Two days later, Vee got a call while he was working the dinner shift at Sal’s. Sam told him he needed to come meet him at the Oliver mansion or he would tell the whole town what Vee really is. Sam used the term ‘mind vampire’ but we call ourselves manipulators.”
“What else did Sam say?”
“Just that it was really important Vee hurry, which he did. When Vee told me about it on the phone the next day, he said Sam sounded really scared and like he’d been crying.”
Anna was scribbling as fast as she could. “Then what happened?”
“When he got to the mansion, the two youngest Oliver siblings were sitting on the porch with Sam. They were both crying and Sam was trying to calm them down. He told Vee that something terrible had happened to the kids’ older sister and that they had seen everything. They were traumatized. Sam wouldn’t give any details about the murder, and when Vee tried to ask the kids what happened, they both just started screaming and wailing. Sam convinced Vee that these kids were going to be messed up for the rest of their lives if Vee didn’t alter their memories. Vee loves kids and he had a really tumultuous childhood himself so he knew how that can affect a person. He agreed to alter their memories and… that was that.”
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