Memory Lapse: A Slater Vance Novel (28 page)

“Of
course.”

Slater never questioned
that Tuck didn’t hesitate to agree – he never had.

Slater pulled into
Tucker’s drive to find him already waiting in jeans and a sweatshirt.
 

Tucker slid into the car
and buckled his seatbelt before turning around to face Ellis and Petra.

Speaking to the little
girl, Tucker reached over as far as he could and held out his hand to her.
“Hello, Petra, my name is Tuck. I’ve heard such wonderful things about you.”

The little girl timidly
looked to her mother for guidance, and at her nod, the little girl lifted her
hand and placed it into Tucker’s.

“Hey,
Ellis, you doing okay?”
Tucker asked her quietly, not flinching at her current state.

She just nodded and
looked away. Slater was becoming increasingly more uneasy.

Turning back around in
his seat, Tucker asked Slater, “What’s the plan?”

Glancing once more in the
rearview mirror to find her still looking away, he said quietly, “I thought
we’d take them to the lake house. No one knows about it. It’d take a while for
anyone to connect it to us. But Tuck, I need you to stay with them today for a
while. I’ll come back and have Tiger relieve you later. I’ll plan to return
this evening once I’ve figured some things out. Okay?”

“I can cancel my meetings
for today, but I will need to be back before seven, if at all possible.”

“That won’t be a problem.
We’ll talk more when we get to the lake, okay?” Slater said, looking once more
in the rearview mirror. He watched Ellis’s shoulders slump in defeat. This
wasn’t good, not good at all.

It took two hours to
reach the lake house. It was the same one his parents had bought all those
years prior. While it had been a struggle at times, he and Tucker had managed
to pay the taxes and insurance and kept the house as a reminder of better days.
Slater stopped at a convenience store and bought some staples to tide them over
until he could return.

The sun had just risen
when Slater pulled in front of the glass-fronted house. The house itself was
small and sat on an acre of dense woods. The closest neighbors were about five
miles from the house.

Letting out a sigh, and
rolling his shoulders to relieve the tension stored there, Slater stepped out
of the car and opened the back door for Petra. While he could tell she was
unnerved with strangers, she slipped out and allowed him to direct her towards
Tucker. He handed Tucker the keys to the house and then went to help Ellis out.
While she could stand on her own, her legs were wobbly. He placed an arm under
her arms to help walk to the house. He didn’t want to scare her daughter any
further. Ellis seemed to understand that and smiled appreciatively at him.

When they got into the
house, Slater said, “Tucker, why don’t you show Petra and her mom where they’ll
sleep?
 
I’m sure Petra could use some
rest.”

Slater set about
switching the power on to the house and putting up the groceries and put on a
pot of coffee. When he was done, he moved to stand in front of the windows to
watch the sunrise over the lake. From this angle, he could make out the old
rice patties farther around the lake. For no other reason than to keep his mind
off of the abused woman upstairs, Slater thought about the slaves that had been
brought to South Carolina all those years ago to harvest the rice. It was odd
to think of South Carolina as being the biggest producers of rice and indigo at
one time. Idly, he wondered if life was simpler then… easier. Thinking of the
woman upstairs, he doubted it – abuse by those stronger to those they view as
weaker seemed to run rampant no matter the era.
 

By the time the coffee
was finished, both Tucker and Ellis appeared in the kitchen. It was obvious
Ellis had made efforts to repair what damage she could. Slater assumed they’d
been able to get the little girl asleep as she didn’t appear with them.

Slater sat cups of coffee
down for both of them on the old, scarred kitchen table. He allowed Ellis to
finish her coffee before he asked what he’d been dying to know since picking
her up.

Looking into her battered
face, he reached out a hand to cover one of hers and asked, “What happened?”

She bowed her head and
traced the veins on the back of his hand with the fingers from her other hand.
Her shoulders began to shake with silent sobs and she laid her forehead down on
top of his hand and cried all the tears she’d been forced to hold in for her
daughter’s sake.

Tucker slid his chair
closer to hers and wrapped an arm around her shoulders while murmuring softly
to her. Eventually she slipped her hand out from underneath Slater’s and wiped
at the tears. Sitting back in the chair, she looked into Slater’s eyes.

With trembling lips, she
simply said, “I killed him.”

Slater kept ahold of her
eyes and years of experience allowed him to maintain his poker face and not
show any emotion at her statement. Personally, he thought the son-of-a-bitch
deserved whatever happened to him, but he worried about the fallout for her and
her daughter.

“Tell me what happened
exactly.”

Swallowing and smiling
a thanks
to Tucker for the tissue he’d provided, she said,
“He was waiting for me at home when I got back from your house. I thought it
would be okay as he didn’t really say anything then. But he just waited until
Petra had gone to bed.” With a bitter laugh, she said, “At least I’ll give him
that.” She stopped and exhaled deeply and sat staring at the tissue she twirled
in between her fingers.

“He was waiting for me
when I left her room. He dragged me down the stairs to his den. He wanted to
know where I’d been… where I’d gotten the clothes… why I had to change. He
didn’t like that I wouldn’t answer him. He asked me if my daughter’s life meant
so little to me.” Glancing embarrassingly at Tucker, then out the window, she
said quietly, “He said he was going to ruin me for other men.” Tears began to
run, seemingly unnoticed by her, down her face. “When he had me pinned to the
pool table and was doing his best to keep his promise, I looked up into his
cruel face and knew it’d never end. I’d never get away. I‘d had enough. I
couldn’t take another day… Not.
Another.
Day.
I reached over and grabbed a pool ball and hit him in the
head as hard as I could… and I just kept hitting… and hitting… and hitting,”
she ended on a whisper.

Silence followed her
words for long moments. Tucker, for once, was speechless and looked to Slater
to answer her… help her… soothe her.

Slater refused to allow
the emotion of the situation blind him to what he needed to know.

“Why do you think he was
dead?”

“He was lifeless when I
left,
and there was so much blood…so much,” she said in a
voice which indicated she was back in that moment and that place.

“Did you check him for a
pulse?” he asked almost matter-of-factly.

Slowly, she shook her
head. “I couldn’t… I didn’t want… to touch him again.”

“Okay. I’m going back to
see what I can find out. I want you and Petra to stay here with Tuck until I
get back. There are no phones here, but Tuck has his and I’ll bring you a spare
from my office when I come back. Unfortunately, there’s no television either.
It’s pretty isolated so you should be safe. I’ll call as soon as I know
something,” noticing how disassociated she
appeared,
he covered her hand once again with his own and asked softly, “Will you be
okay?”

She dragged her blank
eyes to his and simply nodded.

“You didn’t have a
choice. You have the right to defend yourself and your child.”

“I know,” she said softly.

Chapter 23

Leaving Ellis and Petra
in Tucker’s capable and nurturing hands, Slater headed back to Charleston. At
seven-thirty, Slater dialed Bridge at the CPD.

“Hey, Bridge, it’s
Slater.”

“Pretty-Boy.
What the hell are you doing up this
early, dude? You work too damn hard,” Bridge said good-naturally.

“I need some help,
Bridge.
Quiet help.
I need you to find out some
information on the down-low.”

“Okay, what’s up?” Bridge
asked slowly.

“I need you to check and
see if anything has been filed regarding
Sylus
Trusworth
.”

 
“What am I supposed to be looking for on him?”

“There was a situation at
their house last night. I don’t want to go into the rest of it. I have Ellis
and her daughter stashed for safekeeping for now. Just call me if you hear
anything, okay?”

“Damn, Pretty-Boy, I wish
you would stay out of trouble for at least five minutes.”

“I’m trying, but it’s
becoming difficult. Did you see the emails I sent you about the recently
un-deceased
Nevin
Justaine
?”

“I got it. We put a BOLO
out on him. But if he’s managed to stay hidden for this long, I think we’ll
have a hard finding him.”

“Yeah, I know. Call me if
you hear anything. I’ll call if anything comes up on my end.”

◊◊◊

When Slater got to his
office, he immediately called Tiger, who, while extremely unhappy to be woken
up at eight o’clock, agreed to stop by and get a phone from his office, and
then head up the lake house.

Leaning back in his
chair, Slater rubbed a hand over his face. Man, was he tired. It’d been a long
couple of days… weeks. Closing his eyes, he wondered how
Nevin
Justaine
figured in with the
Trusworths
.
Did he work for them full-time, or on a piece by piece basis? He wondered again
if the man who’d broken into his house the first time was
Nevin
Justaine
or someone else. He just didn’t think it was
Justaine
. If he had found Ellis that first time, he
would have had no reason to break in into his offices and then his house again.
What were they looking for? Glancing at the hole in the wall where his safe
used to be. That bloody shirt was the only thing he could think of.

Rising frustrated from
his chair, he stood in front of the windows facing Charleston. The sun that had
risen so gloriously bright this morning was now shrouded in varying shades of grey
clouds. As they say in books sometimes, it fit his mood. From where he stood,
he could make out the outline of Fort Sumter out past Charleston Harbor. He’d
been to the fort hundreds of times during his life. As it always did, it made
him think of his parents.

He thought about the
history of Charleston Harbor. He’d heard it every time he went on the tour. In
1860, from that very harbor, South Carolina declared her independence from the
Union - declared
herself
free. The people of South
Carolina had decided to throw off the chains of oppression they’d felt
surrounded them. They meant to break those chains through any means – even at
the cost of human life.

Like the people back in
1860, Ellis had said,
I’m mad as hell and
I’m not taking it anymore.
 
Grimacing,
he hoped it turned out better for her than it did for the people of Charleston.

He jumped when he heard
Bennie behind him. “Hey, Slick, you want a cup of coffee?”

Glancing over his
shoulder, he was a little surprised to see the same yellow tint in her hair
that she’d had yesterday. Maybe this was a color she liked.

Giving her a small smile,
he said, “Yeah, that’d be great,” then as she turned to go and he turned back
to the window, he smirked, “nice hair color.”

“Kiss off,” she muttered,
still walking off.

He couldn’t help but
smile at the normalcy of the exchange. He hoped he had more of the same soon.

He was finishing his
coffee when Tiger arrived.

“
Yo
,
dude. What shit you got yourself in this time?”

Standing to shake Tiger’s
hand, Slater rolled his eyes. “Same old shit, just another day, unfortunately.”

“So, what’s the plan?”
Tiger said, collapsing into the chair across from the desk. He was wearing his
standard Nike blue tracksuit.

“Well, as I told you on
the phone, I have Ellis and her daughter stashed at a lake house about two
hours from here in Arcadia Lakes. I need to you drive Tucker’s car up there and
relieve him so he get back. I need you to take your gear – guns, rifle, ammo…
whatever. I don’t think anyone can find the house, but just in case. One of the
guys these people used is prior military, so just be careful. I’ll be up as
soon as I see
what’s
going on here.” Slater pulled a
spare cellphone out of his drawer with a charger. “Take this phone to Ellis.”
Pulling his wallet out, he handed Tiger a credit card. “Here’s a card for gas
and incidentals. I can’t tell you enough to be alert and careful. I need to
forewarn you, there’s no TV.”