by H. B. Rae
Broken Trust
(Missing in Action Trilogy, Book 1)
H. B. Rae
Dee Baba Publications
Broken Trust
(Missing in Action Trilogy, Book 1)
Copyright 2015 H. B. Rae, Dee Baba Publications
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Thank You
Prologue
April 2nd, 2014
Everything around her was becoming disconcerting and she could not shake off this feeling of paranoia that seemed to follow her every step during this journey she called life. She leaned back in her chair, blinked back a tear and looked to her oak dining room table. Everything tonight had taken her several hours to prepare. She concentrated on the two candles in the center. She watched as the flame flickered and she wondered if one of them would go out. She heard the grandfather clock chime and one of the candles finally did burn out.
More tears were stinging at her eyes as she longingly looked at the door. She was becoming disconsolate and wanted to know what had become of her husband. Even on the most chaotic of days he had never forgotten their anniversary. He had always found a way to surprise her; he had always found a way to make her feel special. As if she was a normal woman who deserved a man as amazing as him.
She took a deep breath and leaned forward. There was this nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her something was wrong. She wanted to know if something had happened or if she was just so used to something going wrong. She finally relented and took out her phone to look at the screen. She was hoping to see a missed call; a call she had not heard for some odd reason, but there was nothing there. There were no missed calls, no e-mails, nothing. She could not help but feel sick. Allowing her mind to wander through “the worst case” scenarios as to why he could be late. She shook her head, ridding it of those awful thoughts and relented to finally make the call she had dreaded. Bringing the phone up to her ear as she held her breath waiting for his voice one the other end to rid her of this uneasiness.
One ring, two rings, and she was directed to his voice mail. “You’ve reached James Shapiro, please leave me a message and I will get back to you as quickly as I can.”
The tears she had been fighting back finally fell from her eyes and were streaming down her face. She disconnected the line and looked upward to the ceiling as if it was going to give her an answer. She knew there was only one other person she would be able to turn to for guidance. Determined, she looked through her contacts and happened upon the name she was seeking. Marissa - she was the only person she would be able to turn to.
Hesitating for a moment, she finally dialed the phone number and waited. She began fidgeting waiting for her to answer, as she listened to the phone ringing. On the third ring she heard Marissa’s voice, “Hughes” she said breathless. She sounded as though she was outside; hearing murmurs around her along with passing cars. Olivia was desperately trying to say something, but her words were trapped behind her lips.
“Hello,” Marissa said after there had not been a response for a short time.
“Mar, it’s me Olivia. Are you busy?”
“Seriously, you think I have the social capacity to be busy on a Sunday?”
Despite the circumstances Olivia smiled softly. “Maybe something has changed in the past six months.” Olivia could not help but think about how Marissa had been while they were growing up. She had been a social butterfly and was constantly on the move. Of course a lot had changed since they were younger.
“Nope, I am still single and drowning at work. What is wrong? I mean tonight is your anniversary why aren’t you with James?”
The line was silent and Marissa spoke. “Oh my goodness, is James not with you? Did he seriously forget about you?”
“That is the thing Mar, I don’t think he forgot. I feel like something is wrong.”
“You know what? I’m heading to your place. You should not be alone right now.”
There were no words to say to her and she disconnected the line. For her entire life there had only been a few people she trusted. Now only two of them were left in her life and they are James and Marissa. She trusted them with everything and they were the only ones who knew the real her. The woman she had been before she was Olivia Shapiro.
***
Marissa was looking at her phone and had this gut wrenching feeling. She knew this phone call was going to come someday and now that it had she was not sure how to proceed. There was only one thing she knew she would be able to do and that would be to be there for Olivia. She hailed a taxi and slid into the backseat.
“Where to,” asked the cabbie. He was bundled up and she could barely make out his face, but he sounded significantly older.
“Jamestown and Hemmingway please,” she said as she buckled the seat belt behind her back. If there had been one thing she had learned these past few years, it would be to not buckle yourself into a car. Sure people said it was for safety, but she knew that was not true.
As the taxi was pulling away from the curb and merging into traffic, they entered the part of town she was familiar with. Marissa was not too thrilled that it took James to disappear for Olivia to actually call her. She did not want to admit it, but she had been wanting to talk to Olivia and spend time with her. Instead she was being shunned – she was invisible; the same way she always had been throughout the past few years. But being transparent was not always a bad thing.
***
Olivia was anxiously waiting by the window. Her fingers were playing with the locket she’d had in her possession since she was fifteen. That was the last year she had had a normal life. She felt by hanging onto this piece of jewelry, life would somehow return back to normal; but nothing would ever be normal again. She knew that and yet she still clung to it. She saw someone pulling up to the driveway and a bit of light revealed that it was Marissa. She was coming up the front stairs.
Approaching the door, she flung it open and quickly ushered Marissa in from the cold. It had only taken her twenty minutes and yet she appeared flustered. Her cheeks and nose were red and she knew it was most likely due to the heavy wind outside. They still had not adjusted to this city. Olivia doubted that she ever would be able to do so, but this place was better than where they had started.
Embracing her tightly, she could not help but feel as if some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. They took a step back from one another, Marissa looked around thoughtfully. Olivia knew she had only been here a few times before, but they had been remodeling so it no longer looked as shabby as it had been.
“He has not attempted to call you, has he?”
“No, and when I tried to call him it just went to his voice mail. This brings back such memories,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know where to start. Maybe I’m just overreacting.”
“Olivia, you and I both know that feeling. It is a feeling of certainty and you just know something is wrong. We’ve been through it enough times together. I know you don’t want to believe this is the same. We know what happened and we took precautions. We were both very careful people.”
“What should we do? I mean who can we trust?”
“Right now we should wait until James either shows up or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, we know what we need to do, but if he does we know everything is going to be just fine. You are strong Olivia and we know what we are doing. It is not as if we haven’t done this before.”
Looking into Marissa’s sea green eyes, it was hard to believe that she was three years younger than she was, and yet she always remained more composed. She had always had a good head on her shoulders and she knew Marissa was right. They have seen a lot throughout the years and now they were going to have to proceed with caution. There was no way this was related to what had happened, and that was something Olivia had to keep telling herself.
>
Chapter 1
December 13th, 2013
He was pacing around his office and he was content, but not really. If anyone really knew him they would be able to tell he was anxious. He had been working extremely hard over the past year and everything was running smoothly. That was the thing everyone wanted from their business, for it to be lucrative and he definitely was. He was by far more successful than he thought he would’ve been. Yet he was still frustrated and wasn’t too sure how to handle “this”. Hell, he didn’t even know who he could turn to in order to talk about it! Everything around him appeared perfect, but it was just a façade. Everyone viewed him as successful, but that was only if you looked at his bank account. Money did not define success though, and that was something he was realizing quickly.
He finally forced himself to stop pacing. Standing in front of his large office windows he could see out over the rest of downtown. Being on the fourteenth floor of the Lowdown Building had its benefits and he felt as if he was on top of the world. From where he stood he could see the neighboring buildings, but they definitely were not as large as this one. In the distance he could make out the glistening lake and see the boats in their slips at the dock. The sun was shining brightly through an overcast sky. Despite the fact that it appeared inviting, he knew the brisk chill in the air most likely had not left.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he did not know what else to do with them. Whenever he was irritable he wanted to run around and act crazy; he wanted to distract himself and get this feeling of pent up energy out of his system. Eighteen months ago he had been optimistic. He saw a bright future, but everything seemed to be going downhill. A majority of the cases he had been working on as of late were prosaic compared to what he had anticipated and he did not see a change on the horizon.
Taking a seat in his desk chair, he saw the landline telephone he had on his desk. People called him a Luddite due to the fact that he did not like technology; but with the knowledge he had, he was not willing to have all of his information open to the public. Even if he was supposedly protected with these various systems, anyone was able to get in through a backdoor. That was how he was able to do his job as well as he had been. Everyone had a way of leaving something behind, something traceable, and that was how they got caught in the act. People were not as careful as they thought they were.
John took in a deep breath and couldn’t help but feel exhausted now. He disliked going from one extreme to another. Maybe he was experiencing a burnout. He had just finished three cases that had been brought to him. He’d been working nonstop on all three of them at once. Now he only had one case left that remained open and he had just started it the day before, well Sheila, his assistant, opened up the case and handed it to him to review and see if he would accept it.
Opening the manila folder that his assistant has placed next to the phone, he saw a name printed across the top. It was a name he knew personally and it spiked his interest immediately. He eagerly began reading through the report:
Client’s Name: Sasha Link-Hawkins
D.O.B.: December 17th, 1984
Reason: Mrs. Link-Hawkins wanted to utilize our services because she suspects her husband, Mr. Martin Hawkins, of having an affair. Her husband has been exhibiting strange behaviors and one of the most occurring behaviors is his outburst of violence towards her.
Picking up the file, John got to his feet and started walking to the door. As he opened it he saw the waiting area was empty except for his assistant, Sheila, sitting behind her desk. She was wearing only one ear-bud from the pair so that she was able to hear him coming. She quickly yanked the ear-bud out and appeared guilty. From the eighteen months of working with one another he had hoped that she would not insist on doing that. She knew she wouldn’t get in trouble for it, and yet she continued acting like listening to music was a crime.
“Yes boss,” she asked. Her tablet was out and she was unlocking it. She was one of those people who kept everything on her tablet and he felt it was silly, but she was able to do her job so his views on her technological use was irrelevant.
“You spoke with a Mrs. Link-Hawkins the other day and the reason you have on file is because she believes her husband is cheating.”
“Yes, along with the abuse she is receiving. His behavior is abnormal and she isn’t sure if he is cheating on her, or if there is something else going on entirely.”
“Please give her a call and have her come over here. I would like to speak with her.”
Sheila nodded and quickly pulled up the client’s information on the screen. Turning away from her, he started walking back into his office. He was curious to know what had gone wrong in their relationship. Closing his door behind him, he walked over to the shelf to where there was a picture of him and his friends from three years ago. John was on the far left, next to him was Rodney, beside Rodney was his sister, Sasha, and she was on Martin’s arm. As he remembered Sasha and Martin had been together since their junior year of high school and the Martin he knew was not a cheater.
Taking in a deep breath, he knew this case was going to be much different than the others he had worked, but this was still not the type of case he wanted. There was supposed to be something more to this, there just had to be, but there wasn’t. After this case, he wasn’t sure if he would continue being this person or if he was going to be something else. Regardless of what was going to happen down the line, he knew he had to focus on what was happening now.
***
Sasha arrived two hours later. Her strawberry blonde hair was braided back neatly and she dressed conservatively, as always. Despite not having seen her in several years she looked different. She was much thinner, an almost sickly thin. Her brown eyes were sad and as she walked towards him he could see a slight swelling on her right eye. There was no amount of make-up that could hide what was there and she seemed to realize that he was watching.
“Sasha,” John began. “Please come in and take a seat for me.”
She moved into the office and he gently shut the door behind her. He then strode to his own chair and he too took a seat. He realized she was uncomfortable. He wondered why. “So,” he said as he picked up the file. “You told Sheila that you suspect that Martin is cheating on you.”
“Yes,” she said avoiding eye contact. She was clasping her hands on her lap and she would not square her shoulders to him.
“Why do you suspect Martin of cheating?”
“His behavior is different and it seems as if that spark has gone out between us. I have been with him since I was sixteen! I have loved him and I have been there for him through it all.”
“When did the two of you start having issues?”
“Two years ago was when we started to have issues,” she said softly. “We were trying to have a baby and I will never be able to. It took a toll on both of us and since he learned that I cannot have children, we started drifting apart.”
John was at
a loss for words. How do you comfort someone in this situation? Usually it was alright to be cold and distant because he didn’t know his clients personally, and now he felt as if he should say something. He took a sip of coffee and finally found his words.
“Did he come forward and tell you it was a deal breaker?”
“No. Why would he? I mean, I understand what you are asking me, but no, he never made mention of it. But I know him. We both talked about wanting children and now it is not a possibility. We could adopt, sure, but it would not be the same for him.”
“Does Martin drink?”
“Not the way he did in college,” she said. “After we started our careers he changed some of his habits, but after his mother passed away at the beginning of the year, he has resorted to drinking. I mean he is a psychologist and he should know what he is doing is not good by any means. But he refuses to talk to me.”
“Is there anything else going on in his life?”
“Not that he has disclosed to me. He is a lot more elusive and when I ask him something, anything, he gets easily angry.”
“There seems to be something else on your mind,” John said. He did not like this approach but he needed her to tell him everything. It made his job much easier when people told him everything. He needed every detail and he knew it would be difficult to get out of her. Her answer was not what he expected.
“I followed him one night, and I know it sounds crazy, but I needed to know. So I followed his car from work and he went to a strip club. Of course I was upset, but I could not say anything about it. If he knew I had followed him it would just make matters worse.”
John nodded. He remembered how Martin was and for him to go to a strip club was peculiar. As John recalled, Martin had always told him and Rodney that Sasha was the only girl for him and he never wanted to see another woman. Of course, as college students, they teased him about it. He would never have suspected Martin changing his views.
