by B. B. Hamel
“Of course you do,” Slick says.
Chance’s room is a mess. There are clothes all over the floor, empty snack bags, dirty dishes, and cigarette butts. Clearly his mother never comes in here. There’s a computer and a desk against one wall, a twin bed against another, a futon in the middle of the room, and a big TV on the last wall.
“What’s this about?” Chance asks.
Slick looks around. “Nice setup you got here.” He walks over to the computer. “This looks expensive.”
“Back off,” Chance says. “I worked for that.”
“I bet you did.” Slick smiles at him. “I want to talk to you about something.”
He eyes me again. “What do you want?” he asks.
“We’re here for the truth,” I tell him.
“I don’t know shit about it,” Chance says quickly.
Slick laughs. “You don’t even know what we want to talk about yet.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Chance says to him.
“I’m Jason Slick. I’ve been investigating the Luke Harper case. You know, the one where he was falsely accused and did hard time for a crime he didn’t commit?”
“Sure,” Chance says. “Everyone’s heard about it.”
“You did more than hear about it,” I cut in. “You were involved, weren’t you?”
“No,” he says quickly. “Of course not.”
“Chance, do you know a man named Dominic?”
Chance turns sheet white and quickly shakes his head. “No. Hell no. Never heard of him.”
“Well, that’s weird,” Slick says. “Because he definitely knows you. Chance, we talked to poor Dominic. And he told us all about the bribes.”
Chance’s eyes go wide. His knees wobble a little bit and he quickly sits down on the futon.
I give Slick a look and he grins at me.
“Tell us what happened,” I say to Chance.
“No,” he answers softly. “Dominic wouldn’t tell you.”
“He would if he got hit by a car after running away from us.” Slick crouches down in front of Chance.
“You… killed him?”
Slick shakes his head. “No. He’s alive. But he’s unhappy.”
“Why… I mean, I don’t know anything about this.”
“Chance.” I sit down next to him. “Please, listen to me. I know you were bribed to cover something up, and we’re pretty sure it’s because of Eli. I bet his parents paid you a lot of money to stay away from him and to keep quiet. But it’s time to come clean.”
“You don’t have to go down for it,” Slick adds. “There’s no reason anyone has to suspect you talked or bother you ever again. But we need to know the truth.”
Chance looks between us and finally puts his head in his hands.
“Where was he that night?” I ask him softly.
“I don’t know,” Chance says, sobbing. His body heaves violently as he cries. “I don’t know. They gave me so much money. I don’t know.”
I look at Slick and he nods. We stand up and move toward the door.
“I didn’t know somebody else would go to jail,” Chance says before we leave. “I didn’t know.”
“Doesn’t change anything, does it?” I say to him. “You’re still a fucking liar.”
We leave his room. I shut the door behind us. Slick thanks Chance’s mom on the way out and she just croaks in response. We head back into his car and we sit there in silence for a second.
“Eli Walker,” I say finally. “It was him the whole time.”
“Yeah,” he says. “Seems that way.”
“Shit. I can’t believe it.”
“I can’t say I’m too shocked. The kid’s a drug addict and a loser. He was probably so high that night he didn’t even know he did it.” Slick sighs and starts the engine.
“What now?” I ask him.
“We could go to the cops. I think we have more than enough.”
“But?”
He grins at me. “What’s the fun in that?”
We drive back toward the park, and I can’t help but feel real hope that this is almost over.
25
Luke
I’m thinking about my son when we spot Eli Walker leaving the church.
He’s wearing a dark sweatshirt and a pair of ratty jeans. He walks quickly away from the group, heading in the opposite direction of everyone else.
“That’s him,” I say, pointing.
Avery squints. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Slick starts the engine. We watch as Eli gets into a beat up-sedan, one I don’t recognize, and pulls out. Slick follows him, stays back a bit, being careful.
Over the past week, I’ve had to learn how to live with Avery and Max. I can’t pretend like it's been easy, having a four-year-old around, but it’s been a lot better than I thought it would be.
Max is a handful, but it feels good. I like taking care of him, making sure he’s comfortable and happy. I feel like a useful person when I’m watching him. I’m still working at the garage full-time, and I’m actually working on pulling in more business by courting classic car owners, since I have experience with restoration projects. My truck’s coming along too, and we might actually be able to fix it.
Best of all though, I go to sleep with Avery every night and I wake up with her. It’s like a dream, something I’ve always wanted. I can taste her when I need it, make her feel good, fuck her deep and slow. I’ve had her in every inch of my apartment, although we have to be quiet, since we have to wait for Max to go to sleep. Once he’s out though, the clothes come off, and I’m making up for lost time.
It wasn’t easy, getting to this point, but we’re here now. Slick’s been doing most of the research on his off time, although Avery helps as much as she can. I take Max for a few hours after work while she goes out with Slick. She told me about his offer, and I told her she’d be crazy to turn it down.
Eventually though, they figured out that Eli is in AA. A friend of his leaked that little piece of info, and they spent the rest of the week scouting out every AA meeting in the whole area for any sign of him.
Finally, they hit on this place, and here we are. They spotted him just a few days ago, and the wait’s been excruciating. I’m out of patience. I want this fucking case to be over. But Slick was adamant: we have to wait, or else we’ll spook him.
“What do we do now?” I ask.
“Now we follow and see what he does.”
“What if he just goes home?” Avery asks.
“Then he just goes home. We’ll try again next meeting.”
“Fuck,” I say. “I can’t keep waiting.”
“Patience, Luke. We can’t rush this. We have to do it right.”
I grumble to myself and Avery gives me a smile. I go back to staring out the window, and although I’m stressed that Eli’s just going to go right back to the Walker house, my fears are quickly alleviated.
Instead of going home, he drives in the opposite direction. We follow him to this ramshackle bar, a place I’ve never heard of. It’s called The Suite Inn, although I’m pretty sure there aren’t any rooms for rent. Eli parks outside and goes in.
Slick stops the car across the street.
“Do we follow?” I ask.
“Avery can’t,” he says. “Eli will recognize her.”
“He’ll recognize Luke, too,” she points out. “He’s more famous than I am.”
“Okay then. We wait.”
“You could go in,” I point out.
“We don’t do things alone now,” Slick says. “As much as I’m not worried about that punk kid, it’s better to play it by the book.”
“Buddy system,” I say. “Got it.”
He gives me a look and turns to Avery. “There’s a reason cops have partners. Having someone to watch your back is indispensable in this business. Unfortunately, as a PI, you work alone most of the time. So you have to find little workarounds for certain things.”
“Like what?”
He shrugs. “I’ll show you sometime.”
We fall into silence again, watching, and I’m bored as hell. Slick launches into another one of his little speeches about detective work, and how it’s mostly waiting around for something to happen. He says being a PI isn’t glamorous or fun, and it’s actually mostly boring. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to talk Avery out of it, but she doesn’t seem deterred.
I lean back in the seat and watch the bar. The guy that really killed Lucinda Chavez is probably in there, drinking away, free as you can be. He even has a family that supports him and gives him money. Sure, the kid has his fucking problems, and it’s pretty messed up that he’s going to AA meetings and then heading right out to a bar, but fuck him. I don’t care if he’s off the wagon and ruining his life.
He got five years of freedom, five years that he doesn’t deserve. I want those years back, but doing this is going to have to suffice.
A couple hours pass. It’s just like Slick said, boring as fuck, but we hang in there. We listen to the radio, but we don’t talk all that much. I can tell everyone’s on edge.
The front door of the bar opens. Every time someone comes or goes, we all perk up. This time, it’s a group of three guys, and the guy in the middle is definitely Eli Walker.
“That’s him,” I say.
“Where are they going?” Avery asks.
The three guys head around toward the back of the bar. They disappear down a little alley.
“Come on,” Slick says. “With me.”
We all get out of the car. We hurry across the street and toward the bar. Slick motions for us to hang back as he steps down the alley a little bit.
“Come on,” he says to us.
Avery and I follow him. We walk down the alley slowly. It’s dark and cramped with garbage and random detritus. Wooden pallets are stacked up against one wall and the ground is damp.
Ahead, I spot the three guys. They’re huddled around something, and suddenly I catch the flick of a lighter.
“Eli Walker?” Slick calls out in his best cop voice.
The three guys instantly freeze and stare at us.
“Who the fuck’s that?” one of them asks.
“Eli Walker, my name’s Jason Slick. We need to talk.”
“The fuck you want?” The three men turn toward us. Eli hangs back a bit, looking nervous. He’s holding a little pipe in his hand, and I immediately realize that they’re smoking crack.
Slick flashes his badge again, which isn’t a police badge. It’s a nifty trick, making people think he's a cop. “You two can go. We just need Slick.”
The two guys, both of them, fucking high on crack, give Eli one look before they abandon him. They hurry past us, back down the alley as fast as they can.
Eli’s tweaking out. He backs up against the wall. “Who are you?” he asks. “I didn’t do shit.” He realizes he’s holding the crack pipe and drops it.
“Eli Walker,” I say, stepping up to him. “Do you know me?”
He stares at me for a second before his eyes go wide. “Are you real?”
“I’m real,” I say softly. “I see your sobriety hasn’t been going well. Why is that, Eli?”
“What?” he asks.
“I know you go to AA meetings. Maybe it’s just to make your folks happy. I don’t care about the reasons you go, though. I just want to know why you lied.”
He stares at me. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You lied, Eli. All those years ago. Now you’re drowning yourself in crack and booze, trying to forget. Is that right?”
His eyes go wide. “No,” he says.
“Yes, it is,” I say softly. I can feel Avery and Slick watching me, but this is my moment. This is what I worked for. “We know everything. We talked to Chance, to Dominic. We know what your family did for you.”
“No,” he says more weakly. “Chance?”
“He told us you weren’t with him that night. You were drunk, weren’t you?”
He stares at me, and suddenly his face contorts into a mask of pure pain. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It’s like the true Eli suddenly comes out from beneath his skin for a moment, a demon that’s locked deep inside of him. He shoves his hands in his face and lets out a strangled sob.
“You were so drunk you smashed into that woman’s car. You killed her, and you drove away after. Didn’t even know you killed her, I bet.”
“No,” he says through his sobs.
“Then your daddy stepped up. He got your truck fixed in a hurry. He bribed your friends, bribed some witnesses. Avery’s father convinced him to pin it all on me, get me to go down for it. You didn’t have anything to do with that, I know.”
“Please,” is all he can say.
“You didn’t send me to jail, Eli. But you did kill that woman.”
“Oh, god.” His sobs get deeper.
I glance back at Slick and he nods. I turn back to Eli and speak softer.
“This is your chance. To atone for what you did. You killed her and lied, and now it’s eating you up, destroying you.”
“I can’t,” he says. “I can’t, please.”
“You can. Admit the truth. You killed her and your family covered it up.”
“Oh god,” he says, and looks up at me, tears streaming down his face. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Say it,” I whisper to him.
“I killed her.”
I look back at Slick and he nods again. “We got it.” He turns off the recorder he has in his jacket.
“Okay, Eli,” I say. “Okay. Good.”
His eyes are wide. “Did you record that?”
“Of course,” I say. “You and your family are going down.”
His face changes in an instant. One second he’s pathetic, and the next he’s filled with rage.
But I see it coming. He lashes out at me, but I shove him back against the wall, crack his head against the brick. He grunts and tries to punch me again, but I duck it and punch him in the jaw. He drops to the ground, a pathetic mess.
He starts sobbing again and I just walk away.
“Come on,” I say.
Avery and Slick follow behind me. My hand aches from where I hit Eli.
I thought this would feel better, but it doesn’t. We get back into Slick’s car and we’re totally silent. Finally, he speaks.
“I can go to the cops with all this now,” he says softly. “Are you sure you want that?”
“Yes,” I say. “I’m sure.”
“Okay. Good.”
Avery looks back at me. “Are you okay?”
I meet her gaze. “I thought this would feel better. I thought… I would feel happy.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. But it’s over now.”
Slick drives us back to my place. The whole time I’m trying to figure out what the fuck went wrong, why I feel this way. Avery goes up and relieves the babysitter, a woman that Slick recommended. We pay her, Avery checks in on Max, and I stand by the window, looking out at the parking lot.
“You okay?” Avery asks me, coming up from behind.
“I’m okay,” I say. “It just feels… strange.”
“I know. I don’t understand it, either.”
I turn to her and look her in the eyes. I pull her close against me and kiss her slowly and deeply.
Just then, it occurs to me. It hits me all at once.
Getting Eli locked up, ruining his family, that won’t give me my time back. None of it will help. And the truth is, that’s not what I’ve really needed.
“This is what I need,” I whisper to her, pulling her tight against me. “I love you, Avery. That’s all I’ve needed. I didn’t see it until now, but you and Max are what I wanted, not revenge.”
“I love you too,” she whispers. “I’ve been dying to hear those words.”
“I love you more than you can guess. Every single day I thought about you.”
“Every day,” she says. “I
thought about you, too.”
“We don’t have to be apart anymore. We can be a family. A real family.”
“That’s all I want,” she says. “All I’ve ever wanted.”
I have my son. I have my girl. I have what I’ve always dreamt of. I found my revenge, but it nearly cost me everything. I was so focused on solving this case and clearing my name completely that I forgot to just live in the moment with the people that I want to live with. I forgot what’s truly important to me, the things that matter the most.
It’s love and family. It always has been. That was stolen from me, but I got it back. I don’t need hate anymore. I have love, I have Avery, I have Max.
I kiss her again, and finally, I feel like I’m home.
26
Avery
Two Years Later
I tip the watering can forward and watch the brown soil turn black. I smile to myself and glance up as Max laughs and throws a tennis ball for our black lab Larry.
“Careful,” I say to him.
“It’s okay,” Max says. Larry grabs the ball, brings it back to Max, and he throws it again.
I smile to myself and go back to watering the flowers. We have a nice little bed in the back, mostly thanks to Luke. I don’t have all that much time these days for planting and gardening, though I suspect I’m going to be back home a lot more often sooner rather than later. I put my hand on the swell of my stomach and my smile gets bigger.
“Watch, Mom!” Max gets the ball from Larry and throws it as far as he can. I laugh as Larry goes chasing it.
“Good throw, bud,” I say.
He grins at me and I put my watering can down. My phone starts ringing and I grab it from my pocket.
“Hello?”
“Look at you, answering right away on your day off.”
“Hi, Slick,” I say, grinning to myself.
“You busy?”
“Not really.”
“Good.” He laughs and I can see him sitting in his office, smoking a cigarette, looking at case files. It’s Saturday, but he never takes a day off. Jason Slick has no other life, but I don’t think he’d want it any other way.
“You talk to Mrs. Moraine yet?” I ask him.
