Barrett, Julia Rachel - Anytime Darlin' (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Anytime Darlin' (20010) (lit)

  “It’s weird, the things you notice,” she said, “like his pants. His leg was bleeding. I could see a red circle spreading on his jeans like a flower, a chrysanthemum opening up. That’s what I was thinking about as he dragged me down the stairs, a flower. Stupid, isn’t it?” Devlin laughed while everyone else sat in silence. Only Shauna was able to meet her eyes.

  “I can’t…” Devlin stuttered. “I can’t…Oh God, I can’t…”

  Shauna clicked the tape recorder off as Devlin’s shoulders began to shake, her slender body racked by silent sobs. Feeling helpless and ashamed, she turned toward Jake. He opened his arms and drew her into a protective embrace. Without a second thought, Devlin buried her face in the warmth of his shoulder and cried as she hadn’t cried since she woke in the hospital the year before to find herself alive and everyone she loved dead. Jake rubbed her back, stroked her hair, and crooned nonsense in her ear as he had done that first night. Devlin didn’t know what he said, nor did she care. Like a drowning victim, she clung to the sound of his voice, her only lifeline in a stormy sea. Devlin’s sobs subsided. She felt limp as an old dishrag.

  “I can’t get it out,” she said, feeling desperate, trapped. “How can I say this? Help me. Please help me.”

  Jake looked into her eyes. Laying a hand on each of her shoulders, she knew he tried his best to reassure her. “I’m right here, Devlin. I’ll stay right here. He won’t get anywhere near you. I promised you it would be okay that first night, and I intend to keep that promise. If anyone tries to hurt you, they have to go through me first.”

  He lifted Devlin’s chin and looked directly into her eyes, adding, “No one blames you for what happened, to your aunt or to you. No one.”

  “We’re here for you, Devlin,” echoed Mike.

  “All of us,” added Shauna.

  The Social Services officer, Cherie, spoke up for the first time. “Sometimes, the best way to say something you don’t want to say is to simply spit it out. You are carrying him around inside you, everywhere you go. You take it with you, what he did to you.”

  Devlin lifted her eyes, giving Cherie her complete attention.

  “Don’t give him that kind of power, Devlin. I’m not saying it will all go away if you say the words out loud, but I don’t think it will get any worse. Don’t keep him inside you. That’s what he wants. That’s what every person like him wants, power over you. Power over you, inside and out. That’s what he did to your aunt. Don’t give him that power. Throw him out. Throw the bastard out, Devlin.”

  Devlin shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She felt her cheeks grow warm. Determination stiffened her spine, and she sat up straighter.

  “You’re right. Saying it won’t make it any worse.” Devlin paused. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name or why you’re here.”

  “I’m Cherie, a social worker. The hospital called me when they realized you’d been raped. I was here the day you came in.”

  Devlin felt Jake jump at Cherie’s words. She squeezed his arm, her touch too light for anyone else to notice. She wanted to reassure him, let him know she could handle this.

  He’d been a pillar of strength, and now it occurred to her that she wasn’t being fair to him. He was a complete stranger, and here he was, supporting her through this ordeal, asking nothing in return. She’d come to depend upon him very quickly, and she wondered what that said about her. Was she being selfish? Then she felt him shift his body just slightly, as if to shelter her. Devlin felt tears in her eyes. His generosity overwhelmed her. The kindness of all these strangers gave Devlin the strength to tell the rest of her story. Clearing her throat, she pushed herself away from Jake and leaned back on the pillows.

  “He dragged me down the stairs and threw me on the basement floor. When he let go of me, I tried to get away. I-I crawled away, but he began kicking at me, and I curled up in a ball to keep from getting hurt any worse than he was already hurting me. He started cursing at me, screaming about how my parents got everything, how my mom got everything and he got nothing. How my grandfather was a sorry old son of a bitch who should have died a long time ago. Then I saw him unbuckle his belt. At first I thought he was going to hit me with it, but he didn’t. He flipped me onto my back and sat on my chest so I couldn’t move. I tried to fight him, but he was too strong, and I couldn’t breathe. He grabbed my wrists again and wrapped his belt around them, tying them together. Then he…Then he…Then he pulled off my jeans, and he-he raped me.”

  Devlin wrapped her arms around herself again.

  “He was angry because it was so hard for him to-to…get in. It hurt. He…he…I can’t…I can’t say any more about it.”

  “Go ahead and tell me what happened afterwards,” instructed Shauna.

  “He rolled off me, stood up, and zipped his pants. I tried to roll away from him, but he stepped on me, on my leg, and he said that if I told anyone what he’d done, he’d kill my aunt. He said I could lie there and think about that. Then he said that he and I were starting a new chapter and I’d better get used to it. That I’d better get used to him. He went up the stairs and bolted the door behind him.”

  Chapter Five

  As he listened to Devlin’s words, Jake had to stop himself from shaking with rage. He wanted to hunt down William Franz and rip him apart, make him suffer the way he’d made Devlin and her aunt suffer. He wasn’t sure how much more he could hear before he’d have to punch something, or someone. He’d been taking care of accident victims for two years now. He’d seen his fair share of assaults, and his unit had been at a couple of murder scenes, but he’d always been able to put his work face on. Not this time.

  Jake remembered the first time he saw a dead man. He was training with the sheriff’s department search and rescue, and they’d gotten a call about some ice climbers stuck on a snowfield near Glacier. By the time they arrived, one of the climbers was still alive and barely holding on with a single ice axe and his crampons. The other had fallen several hundred feet to his death. If they’d been roped together, they’d both have died. While the ’copter plucked the climber from the side of the mountain, Jake went in below with the recovery unit. The guy had been smashed to a pulp on the rocks. Jake had always prided himself on his cast-iron stomach, but he spent the first few minutes on scene vomiting in a bush. It had hit him hard, just how fragile the human body is. He was young, twenty-one years old, and he’d never thought about death before, at least not that kind of death.

  Jake had grown up on a ranch, and he knew things died. Cattle, horses, chickens. It was part of life. He and his dad had hunted when he was younger, and he knew how to kill and butcher a deer or an elk. They never killed for sport. It was meat, and around the ranch, nothing went to waste. Once he’d tagged along with Fish and Game on a hunt to kill a rogue grizzly that was going after newborn calves. He was sorry for the necessity of it, but the cattle were their livelihood. He was glad it only had to happen once.

  But until he saw that man’s broken body lying at the bottom of a crevasse, he’d never thought about how frail a human being is. It was a punch in the gut. That’s how Jake felt listening to Devlin tell her story, like he’d been punched in the gut. Human beings weren’t supposed to treat each other this way. Intellectually, Jake knew they did, but that didn’t make her words any easier to hear. After that first time, puking in the snow at the base of the cliff, Jake had made sure it was never personal. Well, now it was, whether he liked it or not. And there wasn’t a single thing he could do to make it better.

  Killing William Franz would make it better. Hunting him down like that rogue grizzly would make it a whole lot better. Jake hadn’t enjoyed watching the bear die, but it was necessary. It had been the bear or his father’s cattle. William Franz was something else altogether. He preyed upon helpless women. He was a monster and deserved whatever he got. Jake hoped the authorities in Thailand managed to track him down soon. Otherwise Devlin would be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. Jake wondered who else he m
ight hurt, who else he might have involved, like this Betsy or Betty person. Was she another one of his victims?

  Shauna’s voice interrupted Jake’s thoughts. “What did you do then?”

  “I-I laid there. Just laid there. I couldn’t think, couldn’t move. After a while, I heard the front door slam and his car drive away. That noise sort of shook me, kind of brought me back to myself, I guess. The belt was still around my wrists, and I had to get it off. He’d been pulling it tight, but when he let go and got off me, it loosened up. I was able to use my teeth to get it off. I put my clothes back on and crawled up the stairs. The door was bolted, but I wanted to find out if my aunt was all right. I called to her, and she answered right away. I think she was sitting on the other side, on the kitchen floor. I asked if she could let me out, but she said he’d taken the key, and she didn’t have another.”

  “We talked for a few minutes, and for once, she was clear, really clear, on what I needed to do. We both were. She said she would turn off the alarm system and shut off the motion sensors, you know, those automatic lights. If I could get out a window, no one would see me. I begged her to leave him, to come with me and go to the police, but she refused. She thought she could keep him from coming after me for a few days, stall him, and give me a chance to get away from him. I told her it was too risky. He’d be furious and hurt her. I wanted to kill him.” Devlin paused, as if considering her words. “What I mean is, I wanted her to let me back in the house so I could get his Smith and Wesson, and when he came home, I’d shoot him. I’m a good shot. I wouldn’t miss. But she refused. She wouldn’t let me back in.”

  “Where did he keep his gun?” asked Shauna.

  “He had two, one in his office, in the top right-hand drawer of his desk. He kept the other in the nightstand on his side of the bed, in the top drawer. They were always loaded.”

  “How did you know about the guns?”

  Devlin shrugged. “He bragged about what a good shot he was, and he talked about his favorite pistols. I looked for them. He didn’t try to hide them. Like I said, he wasn’t home much. I wanted to know where they were in case I needed to use one. But I-I waited too long. I should have killed him before…before it got so bad. I thought, I hoped…stupid of me, I guess, but I was hoping that when I turned eighteen I could leave. But when I found out about the money, I knew he’d never let me go. I found out about the money that night, leaning against the basement door. That’s when my aunt told me. Until that moment, I had no idea. She hadn’t said a word.”

  “How did you get out?”

  “I used a broom to break the window above the washing machine. I poked out as much of the glass as I could. Then I grabbed a towel from a pile on the dryer. I threw it over the broken pieces on the bottom of the sill so I wouldn’t get cut. Even standing on the dryer, it was kind of hard to pull myself up. There wasn’t a stool. The window was pretty high. Even for me, it was a tight squeeze, but I didn’t have much choice. I found an old Denver Broncos sweatshirt in the dryer, so I threw that out first, because I didn’t have a coat. I knew it would get pretty cold. I was lucky there wasn’t any fresh snow. He could have followed me, at least for a ways, if there was snow. This way, he didn’t know which direction I went. I cut through the woods in case he came back home. I didn’t want to take a chance that he might see me on the road.”

  “What did you do for three days, Devlin?” asked Cherie.

  “I got as far away as I could. I didn’t want to be anywhere he might spot me. I don’t really remember exactly, but I kept away from my school. I walked all night, to get across town and to keep warm. I didn’t have any money, so I didn’t eat. I stopped at McDonalds to use the bathroom, get a drink. Then I sat in the alley behind Kmart, where they throw the empty cardboard boxes, waiting for a chance to get inside.”

  “Devlin, earlier you said, if you hadn’t gotten sick, you’d have killed your uncle. Is that why you didn’t leave Denver?” asked Shauna. “You could have hitched a ride out of town.”

  Devlin sighed. “That was my plan. I just needed some food, some warm clothes, and a few hours of sleep. That’s why I snuck into the Kmart. I had to wait four days, because I wasn’t sure my aunt would let me back in the house, but the gardener would. He came by every Thursday morning. He had a house key since he took care of the plants inside the house too. Every Thursday my uncle left for racquetball at seven in the morning. The gardener was always nice to me. All I had to do was tell him that I’d lost my key. He’d let me in.

  “I knew my uncle wouldn’t change his schedule, just like I knew he wouldn’t call the police to report me missing. He couldn’t take the chance. He’d just hope I’d taken his threats seriously, the threat that he would kill my aunt, that he would kill me, and that I’d keep my mouth shut. Every day he didn’t hear from me, every day the police didn’t come by or call, would make him feel more confident. So he’d go play racquetball, like always. I planned to watch from the woods to make sure. Once I got in the house, I’d get one of the guns and wait for him. I’d aim for his chest. It’s a bigger target than the head.”

  “How could you be certain he wouldn’t move the guns? Just in case you came back?” Shauna asked.

  Devlin laughed. Jake heard a touch of hysteria in her voice. “You’re kidding, right? My uncle thinks highly of himself. He’d never even consider the possibility that someone might get the better of him. He wouldn’t move the guns.”

  “Why didn’t you come to us?”

  “Because he would have just killed her sooner. I hoped, by waiting, I’d have a chance to kill him first.”

  Scott spoke up. “Do you remember anything else? Anything at all about the woman you heard your uncle mention?”

  “No. Just that her name began with a B. I’m pretty sure it was Betty or Betsy.”

  “Do you have any idea why he might have panicked?”

  “No, I don’t. Maybe the school called? Honestly, I don’t know.”

  Devlin closed her eyes, leaning heavily against Jake.

  “I’m sorry.” Her voice sounded hoarse. “I’m too tired to answer any more questions.”

  Shauna shut off the tape recorder. Laying a hand on Devlin’s arm, she said, “I’m sorry this happened. I wish we had known.”

  “Thank you.”

  Shauna and Scott left the room, but Cherie hung back. She approached the bed, speaking directly to Devlin. “In a couple of days, we need to talk about your future. I wish I could say this is the last you’ll see of me, but I’m afraid it’s not. For now, you get some rest. I’ll see you later.” She followed after Shauna and Scott.

  Jake realized that Devlin couldn’t stay awake much longer. He lowered the head of her bed, piling some pillows behind her. She smiled a brief, exhausted smile at him as he laid her down. She was asleep in a heartbeat.

  Jake stood up from the bed, running a tired hand through his hair. He felt as exhausted as Devlin. Mike laid a hand on his shoulder. As Jake glanced up, Mike tipped his head toward the door. Jake followed him out of Devlin’s room. They stopped at the desk to let Dr. Walters know Devlin was asleep. He reported that Mary had taken her mother home. They’d be back first thing in the morning. Amy stood nearby, drawing up a syringe of medication for another patient. She promised to keep a close eye on Devlin.

  “I need some fresh air,” commented Mike.

  Jake agreed. They caught the elevator and headed down in silence.

  “Pretty rough,” said Mike when they got outside. “Really tore me up listening to her. How you doing?”

  “I’m not sure I know how to answer that.”

  Mike rubbed his jaw. “Son of a bitch needs a good killing.”

  “How’d he get out of the country so quickly?” asked Jake.

  “Hopped a flight to San Francisco before we even knew who we were looking for. He had maybe a twenty-four-hour head start. Caught a flight to Hong Kong before we could trace him, then disappeared. His name showed up on the passenger manifest of a Cathay Pacific
airliner that landed in Bangkok, but there was no warrant. Nobody knew to stop him. The FBI and the State Department are involved now. There’s more to it than Devlin and her aunt.”

  “What more?”

  “The title company. He was using his clients’ money. Illegal borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, I guess you’d say. Using the escrow money to make his own investments. He was living way beyond his means. He needed Devlin’s money.”

  “You mean he needed her grandfather’s money,” corrected Jake. “You heard what she said. You saw her face. She put it together tonight. I think up until now, she was too busy surviving to even wonder about the cause of the accident. Will Shauna follow up?”

  “I’m guessing yes,” Mike replied. “But suspecting that he tampered with the van is one thing. Proving it is another, especially since I read in the report that the vehicle was totaled. I’m betting that, once the guys in Nebraska or Iowa or wherever it was finished with it, it ended up as scrap. As far as they were concerned, it was a hit-and-run. Just a tragic accident.”

  “The sedan never turned up?” asked Jake.

  “Not so far. According to the report, nothing in the metropolitan area was reported stolen. There were no damaged rentals. Nothing found abandoned. There were only a few witnesses who were pretty far back. All of them stopped at the scene. Everyone said pretty much the same thing. The van was speeding. I guess they had to make up time after trying to get the station wagon started. The brown car looked like it was passing the van, then turned right into it. One witness claimed the driver slowed down for a split second and got out of the way when the van swerved, but took off. Nobody followed because the accident was just too bad. One of the witnesses drove to the closest pay phone to dial 911. Devlin’s little brother was thrown from the car too. He was dead at the scene. I don’t think Devlin knows.”

  Jake blew out an angry breath, and a cloud of frost wreathed his head. “That goddamn motherfucking son of a bitch!” He headed to his pickup, Mike trailing behind.