Witness Protection

by Morgan, Paris

  While I was sure the police had grilled her, I felt that one question hadn’t been asked when I was around.

  “Was Mike seeing another woman? I know you might not think so, but you mentioned there were a lot of times that he had to work ‘overtime’ what if he wasn’t really working?” I certainly hoped that I was wrong about it, and he had been at work.

  Megan grimaced at my question.

  “Anything is possible. The guys he hung out with would know more about that than I would honestly. I always just assumed he was telling me the truth, but now I do have to wonder.”

  Stone’s radio beeped and he stepped outside to answer it.

  “Quick, while he’s gone, what’s up with you and your lawyer, Mark? Is he coming to hang out with you again tonight?”

  A smile slid over her face and if I hadn’t been looking for a reaction I might have missed it.

  “For your information, he is. I think he feels like he was responsible for not convincing the judge of how dangerous Mike could be because Mike was able to get out on bail.”

  The door opened and I changed the subject so we weren’t overheard. It was bad enough that all of Megan’s personal business was no longer private, there was no need to make it worse.

  It had been a long weekend and I was ready to get my deliveries out, but I decided to check with Kevin to make sure that nothing had happened over the weekend.***

  “Hey, Kevin. How are those cameras working out for us?” I gathered the bags of laundry and went straight to the laundry room to put my stuff in the washer.

  “so far so good, Allie. How are you doing?” He answered with a chuckled, “There’s been nothing in or out, if this continues, I don’t see why you can’t come home when you’re ready to.”

  “Wonderful. That makes me feel so relieved. I’m ready to be in my own bed again. Thanks for looking out for me. I’ll catch you later.”

  My laundry soap was in the apartment so I left the clothes there and went to get it along with my stash of quarters.

  A phone call distracted me and I forgot that I hadn’t started the washer yet.

  Slapping my forehead at my forgetfulness, I raced out to get things started while I finished sorting the deliveries

  No one was in the laundry room waiting for the washer and I breathed a sigh of relief. I hated to make others wait on me.

  I lifted the lid to put the soap inside when I noticed something different on the top of my clothes. There was a red subsistence over the top.

  “What the hell?” Had someone thought it was their washer and put some strange kind of detergent in the top? Was someone playing a prank?

  Dipping a finger in it, I lifted it to my nose. Comprehension dawned on me…Fuck…this wasn’t a prank it was blood.

  Racing to the trash can, I threw up. The sink was worked and the soap helped get rid of the blood. Then I rinsed my mouth with trembling hands.

  Dialing Kevin seemed the correct thing to do.

  “Allie, we just talked. Is something wrong?”

  “Kevin,” My voice shook as I tried to keep from throwing up again, “You need to come over here. Someone put blood in my washer with my clothes.”

  “Stay on the phone with me.” He coaxed.

  I could hear keys and the sound of a closing door.

  “I’m on my way. Is anyone there with you in the laundry room?”

  “No,” The room was small enough that I could see all of it. “there’s no one here now.”

  “Good. Don’t leave and lock the door if you can.”

  I nodded but realized that he couldn’t see it. “Got it.”

  With the door closed and locked, I slid down to the floor hugging my legs as if that could protect me.

  A light rap on the door startled me as Kevin’s voice spoke gently.

  “Allie, I’m here. You can open the door.”

  Shaking my head, I pressed end on the phone and stood. It was as if I was on autopilot because I wasn’t telling my body what to do.

  Kevin took one look at me and pulled me into a comforting hug.

  “It’s going to be okay.” He held me at arm’s length and made me focus on him. “That’s it. Breathe.”

  Once he felt I was calm enough to sit on one of the two chairs in the room, he turned to look at the washer.

  “You’re right, it’s blood.” He put on a glove and lifted out a rabbit’s foot. “I’ve got to call it in. You just stay there.”

  “No, I’ll call Julie the officer that’s been helping us out.” I fumbled with the phone but finally got the number pushed in.

  “Julie, can you send someone to my apartment? There’s been an incident.”

  “Sure, I’ll be right over.” She didn’t even ask for details.

  Kevin came over and crouched in front of me.

  “There’s no way this is from your past in New York. We’re just going to work off the premise that I’m an old friend. This will all blow over and I don’t want to have to uproot you a second time.”

  I leaned over with my head in my hands trying to think things through calmly.

  “Yeah, got it. I don’t want to start over again.”

  The sound of tires screeching to a halt brought my head up.

  “She’s here.”

  I got up to meet her at the door.

  “What happened?” She asked when she saw me.

  Barely holding it together, I pointed to the washer.

  She nodded at Kevin and went to look inside.

  “Eww, he put a whole rabbit in there. Hope you weren’t attached to those clothes because they’re not good for anything now.” She joked trying to make light of the situation.

  “I guess Mike finally made a move.” I shrugged and rubbed my arms to make the goose-pimples disappear.

  “Technically, we can assume that, but without proof as to who did this to your laundry, well…” She left the sentence unfinished.

  “I’m just glad that Allie wasn’t out here when he came by.” Kevin stood over to the side and let Julie do her job.

  “Yes, at least it was only the laundry. This time.” She snapped a few pictures, “I’ll have the crime techs come to collect it and check for prints, but we both know that Mike is too smart to leave anything behind.”

  “Guess, I should go pack a few more clothes.”

  Kevin stepped up, “I’ll go with her.”

  “And just who are you?” Julie eyed him with suspicion.

  “He’s a friend and I called him in panic. He’ll keep me safe.”

  “Uh, huh.” Julie nodded but kept checking on me.

  Pasting a smile on to keep up the brave front, I moved toward the door. “We’ll be okay.”

  Inside my apartment, Kevin stood at the door as I threw any and everything that I could think of into a few bags. I didn’t want to come back alone and was thankful that he was there.

  “I think that’s everything for now.” I did a quick scan and couldn’t see anything else that I needed. It was too early to go back to the hotel, but I could always spend a couple of hours in the hospital room with Megan and Sally. I wanted to have more protection right now.

  Mike had left us a disturbing message that he was watching us. He hadn’t forgotten about his family and was simply waiting for the next opportunity to do something much worse than put some rabbit parts in my washer to scare me.

  Somewhere outside of town

  Unknown person-

  A truck began to travel down a dirt treelined road raising a cloud of dust in its wake. There hadn’t been much rain this spring, but that didn’t stop the man from driving the truck forward when the road appeared to end.

  Two tire tracks were the only path leading to his destination as the trees closed in obscuring the sun and leaving shadows. Before the path became impassible, he pulled the truck up to a cabin.

  “Mike, I’m here.” He called out cautiously as he got out of the truck. “Don’t shoot!”

  Collecting a few bags of groceries and a c
ase of beer from the truck bed, he approached slowly to make sure that Mike could see he was bringing supplies.

  The growing dusk gave off the shadow of a figure in the doorway. The cabin had no electricity which made it hard to find and completely off the grid. It was the safest place for Mike to hide out while the entire county looked for him.

  “Did they like my gift?” Mike asked moving to stand on the edge of the porch.

  He chuckled, “Yep, they sure did. You should’ve seen how scared she was. I’ll bet they’re looking over their shoulders constantly now.”

  “Oh, I got those pictures you asked for. I was afraid I wouldn’t get to take them with all the police surveillance on them, but I managed.” Nervous, he ran his fingers through his hair unsure of what Mike would have done if he’d failed.

  “That Allie, the woman, left the hospital this morning and started moving around the town. It was easy to follow her and take a few pictures. She put her clothes in the washer and forgot to start them so that’s when I left your gift for her. There weren’t any screams which were disappointing really. Then she called some guy and they waited for the police to get there together.”

  “Did they wonder how I got away with it?” Mike grabbed the beer from me and started putting things into an old icebox hooked up to a generator.

  “Well, they have everything staked out and if you’d have gone anywhere near the apartment, it would have set off alarms. I was able to put a tracker on her car so we can find her easily.”

  He looked to Mike hoping for a sign of approval.

  “Were you able to see Sally? Was she with her?” He spat out the words in disgust.

  “No, Mike.” He fidgeted while trying to explain, “Look man, I’m sorry. When she left the hospital, there was no sign of Sally. I listened in at the briefing, but it didn’t sound like they were going to let her go back to school until this was resolved. Honestly, I don’t know what they think you’d do to your own daughter, but they aren’t taking any chances.”

  “I mean if Megan hadn’t tried to escape what she had coming to her, then you wouldn’t be in this mess.” He was rambling on, but Mike had tuned him out.

  “The local and state police are just too incompetent to deal with someone who has real-life police training. Ever since my visit to Megan’s hospital room, they’ve been chasing their tails trying to find me.”

  “Is there anything you want me to do tomorrow? I could plant a bomb in the woman’s car, so she’s out of the way and can’t meddle anymore.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the idea.

  “Not yet, dude.” Mike hurried to reassure him. “You’ve done a great job. I don’t want you to get caught or you might have to hide out here with me.”

  “You know, if we do too much too soon, the police will figure out what we’re up to, and then it will all be over. I don’t want you to get in trouble for me.” Mike began walking out to the truck and his friend followed.

  “You head on home. Otherwise, your wife will be wondering where you are. I know that you’ve been getting lots of overtime with all the searching, but we don’t want her to have a reason to check up on you, okay?”

  With a mumble, he reluctantly climbed into his truck.

  “I’ll text you if anything new develops.”

  Mike seemed relieved as his friend left. His plan to punish Megan was working.

  “If Megan won’t come back home, then my only choice is to take Sally from her. Not that I really want to take care of a kid for the rest of my life, but it might be worth the devastation it would cause Megan might make up for it. I can always leave Sally with friends somewhere later if she gets to be too much trouble. There are always places for a maa with my kind of connections to go off the grid.”

  “I don’t want that horrible woman I married to have my daughter any longer than necessary. As for that bitch who’s helping my wife, I have special plans for her. It will take some planning to get her away from all the police protection, but I can make that happen.” He threw the partial can of beer against the wall in frustration.

  “I’ll stalk and terrorize them. It’ll keep Megan and the cops chasing their tails, looking for me on cameras. The last laugh will be on all of you because I’ve only been living ten miles away.”

  Satisfied, Mike sat back on the porch as he opened another beer to clear his head. He needed the perfect plan to get back what was rightfully his.

  Chapter 9

  Allie

  I hadn’t been at the hospital long when the doctor came in to check on Megan’s progress.

  “Well, we certainly have a crowd in here today, don’t we?” He glanced at the room full of people, “Let’s see how you’re doing. I’m going to need you to talk so I can hear your vocal cords.”

  “I’m starting to feel a little bit better. The nurses helped me shower this morning and being clean always helps.” Megan moved a little as she was getting antsy being in bed all the time.

  “Wonderful. Your voice is sounding much better. The bruises are starting to fade from around your throat. I think we might be able to release you later this afternoon.” He turned to see Sally’s expression, “What do you think, young lady?”

  “Mommy can come and live with me again?” Sally crossed the room in just seconds to give the doctor a fierce hug. “Oh, goodie.”

  “She’ll have to take it easy.” He smiled at Sally’s enthusiasm before turning to Megan again, “You’ll need to come to see me on Monday for a checkup, but unless something happens you should be good to go. I think Sally will take good care of you during your recovery.”

  I walked over to join them. “I think this means we should head back and do a little shopping so we can all relax when your mom comes. She’s going to need some comfortable clothes to wear.”

  “Yay, shopping.” Sally squealed making me want to cover my ears. “Can we shop ‘til we drop? I’ve been just dying to do that my whole life. Please?”

  “Hehe, I’m not sure we have that much shopping to do, but we’ll see what we can do.” I couldn’t help being amused.

  Julie stepped up, “I’ll get started on a way to get you smuggled out of here while these two go get the stuff you’ll need.”

  “Thank you. All of you for everything.” Megan swiped at the tears. “You have no idea what all of this means to me.”

  I just squeezed her hand, “We’ve got you.”

  At the store, Sally was like a crazy child trying to buy everything for Megan.

  “Here, Mommy needs these.” She held up a Minnie Mouse set of PJs and then pointed to a set with Tinkerbell on them. “She’ll love them. I just know it.”

  Amused, I threw a look at Karen, who was trying not to giggle at the idea of Megan wearing those PJs to recover in.

  “How about we do some soft T-shirts and a few pairs of sleep shorts since it’s getting hot around here?” Karen suggested walking toward the women’s clothing section.

  “Oh, okay,” Sally let out a long sigh, “but can I at least pick out the design on the shirts?”

  “As long as it’s appropriate.” I cautioned knowing that if I didn’t add that in, I might be stuck buying something horrible.

  We made short work of getting a few things that would be easy to slip on and off with a hurt arm for Megan.

  “I think we might have enough stuff for now. We’re going to need to clean up the room and get it ready so your mom can rest when she gets there. It will be tiring for her to move to where we’re staying.” Karen suggested moving toward the registers.

  “Have you missed having your mom to hang out with?”

  Sally thought about it for a minute.

  “I used to be with her all the time until Daddy hurt her. Now, maybe we can be happy together.” She nodded as if it made sense, “He can’t find us, can he?”

  “Not right now anyway.” I didn’t want to make a promise, but it seemed like the best way to reassure her for today.

  The room didn’t need a whole lot of cl
eaning, but it was a good way to keep Sally busy until Megan arrived.

  “We can let Megan sleep in here with Sally in the other bed. Then you and I can take the beds in the other room.” It seemed to make the most sense and that way they could feel more like a family without us bothering them.

  “I agree. We’ll be able to hear if they need something and we can block the door in their room so that if someone wants to get in their room it will make enough noise to wake us up.” Karen eyed the door with an experienced look.

  “Sounds like a slumber party in the making.”

  Sally heard me and began to bounce up and down.

  “Now, a slumber party means we get to eat popcorn and watch movies, okay?” I didn’t want her to think that we were going to be wild and crazy.

  “That’s fine with me.” She lowered her voice, “Mommy always falls asleep when we have a movie night. I don’t wake her up because then she makes me go to bed.”

  “Don’t worry, if she falls asleep, she’ll already be in bed. I’ll make sure you get to finish the movie.” I promised in a whisper.

  “Why don’t you work on the puzzle until she gets here?”

  I was relieved when Sally skipped over to the table out of earshot.

  “Both departments are going to keep searching for Mike. The hospital will stay on lock-down, so he’ll think she’s still there. It should give us an added layer of protection to keep him from finding out she’s been discharged.” Karen kept her voice even as she updated me on the procedures.

  “Aren’t these precautions a little excessive since we’ve covered our tracks?” I wasn’t sure, but it felt like Mike was making everyone paranoid.

  “Considering that he knows all of our procedures and is smart, he is going to be able to stay one step ahead of us for a while. We’re just going to have to hope that he’ll mess up so we can catch him.” She shrugged, “It’s not the best plan, but for now it’s all we’ve got.”

  “I just hope that no one else gets hurt because he can’t find them.”

  “Maybe we can wrap this up soon for everyone’s sake. Hopefully, without any more injuries.” Karen took a few items into the other room ending the discussion.