The woman looked after her for a moment longer and then went back to what she was doing.
Vanessa’s words hung in the air a little longer. “It was just a dream…” But the dream left a bad taste in her mouth and a longing feeling for her best friend. Though she understood the importance of not contacting people from her past life in order to keep the program and the people within the network safe, she wanted more than anything to pick up the phone and call her best friend. She just wanted to hear her voice and share a few laughs. The pregnancy and the journey that she was on right now would go a lot smoother, in her mind, if Arianna was there with her to hold her hand and tell her she would be okay. But it wouldn’t be some sentimental bullshit.
“Man the fuck up, V-Dot. Brickyard ain’t raise no nut-bitches. Tough cookies don’t crumble and no matter how fucked up shit gets, look at life like a good poker hand and never fold. You got this sis. And I got you. Cradle to the grave…”
Vanessa smiled as she heard those words in her head said by her best friend. “Cradle to the grave…” she said softly.
It was now going on three months since she made her great escape from Eric, and though she missed her home, family and the few friends that Eric had not completely isolated her from, she was grateful for the second chance she was given. She thanked Tremaine and his wife every morning when she woke up and every night before she went to bed. Vanessa viewed them as her guardian angels that God had sent to her to give her the courage to take the necessary steps to reclaim her life. They, along with Marcella, had given her a fresh start, a do over, and she vowed to make the best of it not only for herself, but for the sake of her unborn child.
Vanessa looked down at her stomach and touched it lovingly. “How’s about some yummy pancakes? You want some pancakes? Mmm, that sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Let’s grub!” she said to her unborn child.
Vanessa lived in a safe house for battered women that was more-so like a mini apartment complex. At the moment, she only had a room and shared a kitchen with two other ladies. While she was always polite and friendly, she mostly kept to herself. She didn’t want to get too attached to anyone in the event that she had to move again.
Luckily, most of the women were already at work and the section of the complex that she lived in was pretty much empty. She flipped through the CDs that were with the stereo in the kitchen and grabbed Usher’s Confessions album. The album’s groovy tunes put her in an upbeat mood and she began to dance around as she made her breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and turkey sausages. She jammed as she listened to Caught Up not noticing the guy standing in the doorway watching her. He grinned as he sipped his coffee while watching her bop and sing along with the song.
Vanessa turned to put her eggs in a bowl and whip them up and was startled by the man’s presence. She jumped, dropping two of the eggs on the floor.
“Oh, Miss, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he replied as he sat his mug on the counter and grabbed the roll of paper towels.
“It’s okay…” Vanessa said in a soft and nervous voice. She held her hand out to get the paper towels from the stranger, but instead he bent over and cleaned up the eggy mess from the floor. “Oh… I was going to clean that up.”
“No, that was my fault. I should’ve said something instead of standing there lurking like that. You probably think I’m a whole creep now,” he chuckled as he threw the paper towels in the trash.
Vanessa remained quiet not wanting to respond one way or another. She looked at the floor instead.
The silence became awkward so the stranger went over to the refrigerator and got her two more eggs. “Here’s your eggs,” he said to her.
“Thank you,” Vanessa replied softly. She went back to the frying pan and flipped her hot cakes before moving her sausages around with her fork.
“I’m Derek by the way…” Derek replied. He was hoping to spark up a conversation with the young lady but noticed how tentative she was to interact with him.
“Nice to meet you, Derek.” Vanessa replied in her same quiet tone. She continued to move her sausages around even though there was no need to do so.
Derek smiled, “And your name…?”
“Why?” Vanessa asked as she peered at him.
Derek felt taken aback. He paused for a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. “Why not?”
Vanessa cracked open one of the eggs and then shook her head. “My name is Carmen.”
“Nice to meet you, Carmen. So are you new here? I work at the property manager’s office and don’t recall seeing you before.”
“You ask a lot of questions,” Vanessa replied as she looked up at him suspiciously.
“I’m inquisitive,” Derek told her. They stared at each other for a moment. Vanessa felt like he was studying her and it made her uncomfortable. She was not ready to interact with men on any level and really wanted this Derek character to let her cook and eat her breakfast in peace.
“I’m sorry… I’m not being rude I’m just not much of a people person. I guess I’m a bit of an introvert,” she replied as she began to whip her eggs.
“I can respect that. I’ve always been an extrovert. I like meeting new people. Especially beautiful ones.” Derek cracked a charming smile but Vanessa was unmoved. When he saw that he was getting nowhere with her, Derek retrieved his mug of coffee from off of the counter. “Well it was nice meeting you, Carmen. Enjoy your breakfast.”
“Thank you,” Vanessa replied softly. She sprinkled salt and pepper into her bowl of egg yolk and whipped it a little more with her fork. She peered up to see if Derek was gone and then let out a sigh of relief.
“You’ve got to chill, girly. He seemed like a really nice and friendly young man,” the voice in her head said to her.
“Yeah, Eric was a nice and friendly man too, at first. But everybody ain’t what they seem,” Vanessa mumbled.
“Not every man is out to hurt you. And you keep thinking that way and you’ll be alone for the rest of your life,” the voice said in return.
“Rather be alone than beaten and broken…” Vanessa shook her head becoming angry at herself. More and more she was finding herself answering the voice in her head. She was thankful that she only did it when she was alone but she was beginning to think she was going crazy; talking to herself and answering voices in her head. Having conversations with herself.
“Sometimes the best conversations are the ones we have with ourselves. Helps us to think more clearly…” she heard the voice in her head again. But this time, it sounded more like Arianna. She shook her head again and finished fixing her breakfast.
As she was eating, a young lady tapped her on the shoulder. “Are you Carmen?” she asked politely.
“Yes,” Vanessa replied.
“Vera needs to see you in her office when you’re finished your food. She said it’s urgent,” the young lady said to her.
Vanessa swallowed down some of her food. “Okay…” She began to think that she was in trouble and out of habit, after everything she had been through with Eric, she began to obsess over everything she had done, wondering if she had broken a rule or left a mess behind somewhere. She hurried up and finished her food and washed the dishes she used before putting them away. She then made her way over to Vera’s office. Vanessa knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Vera replied as she looked through some of her documents.
“Hi, Miss Vera. I was told that you wanted to see me,” Vanessa said timidly as she came into the office.
“You must be Carmen?” Vera replied as she looked Vanessa over.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Close the door and have a seat.”
Vanessa shut the door behind her and then sat across from Vera.
“I received a phone call from a very upset Marcella this morning. It appears some time ago before you came here, you reached out to someone using your transporter’s cell phone. Is that true?” Vera asked as she peered at Vanessa over the rim of her e
ye glasses.
Vanessa bit her bottom lip and looked down at her hands. “Yes ma’am,” she said as she nodded her head.
Vera removed her glasses and folded her hands on her desk. She waited a moment before saying anything. “I understand that this journey is difficult and because of your current circumstances, it’s even more difficult for you. But there are reasons we forbid any communication with people from your past life. Such communications could jeopardize our entire network. It could not only put you in danger, but your baby and the lives of all of the people who’ve helped you to get to where you are now should your abuser decide to come looking for you. Do you understand the severity of what you did?”
Vanessa’s lip trembled. Being with Eric had made her incredibly sensitive. At that moment, she felt like a five year old being scolded for scribbling on the wall. Vanessa felt small, weak, submissive and even worse, stupid. Her eyes stung from the tears that threatened to fall. She quickly wiped them away.
“I’m sorry, Miss Vera. I didn’t intend to cause any trouble. I just wanted to let my best friend know that I was okay. And I wanted her to let my mother know I was okay because I was sure they both were worried sick about me. And I was scared and just needed to hear a familiar voice…” Vanessa rambled. Vera put her hand up to silence her.
“Again, I understand. We’ve all been through this. It’s very difficult to just pick up and leave everything and everyone behind. But all it takes is a ten second phone call and everything could be compromised. Who did you call?”
“Her name is Arianna. But I swear, she would never tell a soul or give the number to anyone.”
“Well according to Marcella, someone got the number and they called your transporter last night looking for you. They didn’t give a name, but she said it was a man and he asked for you specifically,” Vera replied.
Vanessa froze. She thought back to the dream that she had with Arianna holding the baby and kissing her on the forehead. Did Eric get to her? She knew Arianna would never tell him where she was. More importantly, she never told Arianna where she was. And she knew that Arianna would protect her with her last breath…
“Carmen?” Vera said, snapping Vanessa out of her thoughts. Vanessa shook her head as though she was clearing it and looked at Vera.
“You said it was a man?” she asked.
“Yes,” Vera told her. Vanessa became quiet again. “Your transporter’s phone has already been dumped and hopefully, the call was not traced. Hopefully, whoever that was won’t try to locate you.”
“It was Eric…” Vanessa said. “I’m positive. Oh my God, I hope he didn’t do anything to her. Please let Arianna be okay,” Vanessa said. She suddenly felt overwhelmed with guilt and sorrow. “If he got that number from her, he didn’t get it willingly.”
“Eric is your abuser?” Vera asked.
“Yes!” Vanessa replied before bursting into tears. Vera handed her a tissue. “I only wanted her to know that I was okay.”
“I understand, Carmen. Just calm down. Everything is going to work out fine. We just need you to understand that things like this cannot happen. Is that understood?” Vera asked as she came around the desk and put her arm around Vanessa. Vanessa nodded her head as she sniffed.
“I know that I’m not allowed to reach out to anyone from my past. But if Eric got the number I called Arianna from, my gut is telling me he didn’t get it in a peaceful manner, you know? They hated each other. Arianna pulled a knife on him once to protect me,” Vanessa rambled.
“Sounds like a very good friend,” Vera replied.
“She is. Arianna has always been there for me through so much.” Vanessa hesitated, almost afraid to make her request. “If it’s not too much trouble, is it possible that someone can make sure she is okay. I need to know he didn’t hurt her.” Vanessa looked up at Vera with tear drenched eyes. “Please,” she pleaded.
“Well, just because he got the phone number that you called her from doesn’t mean that he interacted with her in order to get it. It’s quite possible that he put a tap on her and anyone else he thought you might make contact with and got it that way,” Vera suggested.
Vanessa shook her head. “Trust me, Eric thrives off of physical contact. And considering she pulled a knife on him, if he could pay her back for that while getting information on my whereabouts, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill those two birds with one stone. I hear what you’re saying and I wish I could believe that he didn’t make contact with her in order to get that number, but my gut is telling me otherwise.”
Vera sighed and gave in. “Okay. But only this one time. I have a friend who is a private detective. Give me her full name, last known address and date of birth and I’ll get back to you with whatever turns up.”
“Thank you so much,” Vanessa said gratefully as Vera slid a piece of paper and a pen over to her. She hurriedly scribbled down Arianna’s information and gave it back to Vera.
“That’s all for now. But in the event that you are feeling home-sick, or lonely and need someone to talk to, stop by my office. If I can’t get a session arranged for you, my door is always open and my ears are always listening. You can talk to me anytime. Understand?”
“Yes, Miss Vera. I understand.” Vera gave her a friendly smile before Vanessa excused herself from her office. She walked down the hallway with her mind racing and thinking the absolute worst. She always knew in the back of her mind that Eric was not going to let her walk away that easily. She only hoped that nothing happened to Arianna, but the abuse she suffered for almost two years had caused her to be a paranoid pessimist and thinking otherwise.
12
Tony was being questioned by the police officers. Because he did not anticipate Eric’s ill intentions, he did not do a complete surveillance of the area Arianna traveled in while coming home from work. A camera at a nearby coffee shop caught the altercation on film. And while Eric’s face was not shown on the footage, Tony’s license plate was in plain view giving the police probable cause to question him.
They were wearing Tony down with their questions. His guilt over his participation in the events that led to Arianna’s murder was already eating away at him. But he knew the consequences of snitching, and while he may have been granted a lighter sentence or even walked away from this with no jail time, he knew the likelihood of him staying alive if he gave up Eric was slim. Tony was not prepared to go to prison for something he didn’t do, though. He was trying hard to think up a story before he requested his lawyer. He prayed that there was a way for him to get out of this situation without implicating Eric, but if he had to, he knew he’d better run for his life afterwards.
They played the footage of the altercation between him, Arianna and Eric. Tony watched with a straight face not wanting to give them the impression that he was scared shitless. But seeing the way Eric hit Arianna with that right-hand-cross made him reflect back to the deadly blow inside of the house. He looked away from the TV screen not wanting to see Eric drag Arianna to his car as the guilt washed over him.
The first officer paused the footage just as Tony’s car was swerving around Arianna’s.
“So Mr. Vasquez, you want to explain to me exactly what happened on that video?”
Tony looked over at him with a straight face. “You just watched the same video I watched. I think you have a pretty good idea what you just saw.”
The officer chuckled. “You really don’t want to leave this up to my interpretation, wise guy. Right now, you’re an accessory to murder. We can add kidnapping charges in there, assault…”
“Right now, the lab is running tests on the blood found under Ms. Stone’s finger nails. It’s already been established that you have a prior record. All we have to do is match your DNA with the evidence under her nails and we can bust your ass for murder,” the second officer said coldly.
Reflex almost caused Tony to place his hand on the part of his neck that Arianna scratched when they struggled inside of the house, but he intertwined his fi
ngers instead.
“I think I better wait for my lawyer to come before I answer any more of these questions,” Tony replied nervously.
The first cop smirked and shook his head at Tony in disgust. He knew in his heart that Tony was guilty of Arianna’s murder and he was not going to stop until he got to the bottom of it all.
They left Tony alone in the interrogation room to wait for his attorney. His mind was racing everywhere. One thing he did decide on was that he was not going to jail for something he didn’t do. He was not going to take the fall for something Eric did. It was bad enough that the guilt was eating away at him.
For some reason, Tony began to think back to the young woman Regina that Eric hired him to look for. He still remembered the news segment on television that showed her wrapped in a sheet on the side of Belfield Avenue by the park. “An unidentified woman was found earlier today near Belfield Avenue. She had been raped, beaten and strangled to death. No suspects…” Tony folded his arms on the metal table and rested his head on top of them.
“Hey, Tony my man. How’s everything?” Eric said when Tony answered the phone.
“Hey, Eric. Everything is fine on this end. What’s going on?” Tony replied.
“Listen, I’ve got a job for you bro. I need you to locate someone for me. I think she might be in trouble…”
Eric proceeded to tell Tony about a young lady he had been helping out of a rough patch. Her name was Regina and she had fallen down on hard times. Eric was letting her stay with him until she found a job and had gotten back on her feet. He told Tony that he was worried that she might have done something to hurt herself and insisted that if he was able to locate her, instead of approaching her, to just give him her location and he would try to reason with her.
And so Tony did as he was hired to do without asking any questions. If the money was there, he did not care and to him, the story sounded legit. Regina wasn’t that hard to find either because she was still using her credit card to stay at a motel. The first red flag was she walked around in sun glasses with a scarf on her head even at night. She appeared paranoid, constantly looking over her shoulder as though she suspected someone was either following her or looking for her. If only Tony had gone with his gut feeling and listened to the little voice inside telling him something was not quite right with what Eric told him…
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