She’s a Runner Page 4

  “I matched the man's partial facial image to a man named Xander Plite, ex-con. I didn't find him on my first search but he popped up on the second, international search. Spent a full twenty years inside for aggravated assault, and assault with a weapon, and attempted murder with a motor vehicle. Victim was a young girl. Sixteen. Survived and her testimony put him away. He was released with another five year probation but disappeared two years in. No sign of him since, police record suspects him dead.”

  Silas spoke up then and I just sat back like a bystander in my own story. “Well we know different, now don’t we? I called my Ya-ya when I got home last night. She said she still had Papou’s pin, she’s sending it over for me.”

  Everyone turned to me, and I looked back wildly. “What?”

  “Is there anything you want to contribute?” Jacques asked.

  Confused, I sat back deeper into the cushions, curling in on myself, and crossed my arms. “Like what?”

  Jacques started twirling the band on his left hand, and I realized he seemed so safe because he was married. Not that all husbands were faithful, but it eased my mind a bit because it made the needle fall low on the lust-o-meter in my minds eye, when they were. Decent men did exist.

  “Like maybe, any reason these people might be after you? Have you ever run into them before? Did your attacker say anything to you? I work better the more information I have. Nothing is too small or insignificant.”

  I thought about it for a moment, for show. No way I was telling him what the man said.

  Abomination. Filth. End you.

  “Nope, nothing that would help I don’t think.”

  It didn’t look like he believed me, but I wasn’t about to tell him I might be some kind of serial killing monster, and anything I said about the conversation between me and my attacker - as short as it was - would lead there eventually. I had to rebound a bit, give him something. “Wait, I suppose there is something. He used a big knife, thing was as long as my forearm, and super sharp. It has a white handle, which now that I think about it is weird. Who puts a pristine white handle on a murder-y weapon? It almost seemed ceremonial. Oh, and I bit him, hard. I checked this morning and my tooth is chipped, so that sucka might need medical attention for his collar bone.”

  Jacques nodded and jotted down a note on his yellow legal pad. Andreas looked at me suspiciously but didn’t say anything.

  “Okay Ms. Remes. Would it be okay with you if I spoke to you alone for a moment?”

  Silas started to protest and I placed a hand on his own. Andreas caught the act, and was staring at our entwined hands.

  “It’s okay.” I reassured Silas, then turned to Andreas. “Right? He’s a stand up guy?” I asked as I pointed to Jacques.

  “I would trust him with my life.” Andreas confirmed and nodded at his friend. I turned to Silas and motioned for him to give me a minute.

  “Take Mr. Control Freak over here, and see if you can’t find him something to drink? Please.” I added. I knew they hadn’t gotten off on the best of terms but they should be able to handle a coffee together.

  Silas stood and motioned for Andreas to follow him.

  Now, I was alone with a stranger named Jacques.

  Chapter 6

  “What else can I do for you?” I asked.

  Jacques pulled his bag off his shoulder and over his head, and placed it on the table. Digging inside he brought out another folder that looked very similar to the one Andreas had last night.

  “Last night after you left his club, Mr. Drakos called in the new information you gave him.”

  My eyebrows raised in question and then I remembered I had shared my name, my real name. Why the fuck had I done that? Stupid. I was a stupid, stupid girl.

  “In the initial search, I found some social media pages that were gaining on a decade old, school records, yearbooks those kind of things. But nothing after you reached adulthood. Which peaked my interest,” he said excitedly.

  “Of course it did.” I replied dryly. He was an investigator, it was his nature to sniff out clues and piece together puzzles. A sinking feeling planted itself firmly in my stomach.

  “So, I went in search of Medoe Remes - spelling it that way, made my job a lot harder by the way - only to find she doesn't exist any more. She was declared dead when she would of been nineteen, after a disappearance that went unsolved.” He smiled at me then. Not in a creepy way, or even a threatening way. More like a boy on Christmas, or a little girl in a candy store.

  Jacques really enjoyed his work, you could see it on his face. Which made hating him for digging up my secrets like they were public domain, so much harder.

  “I had come to a dead end. So, I went back to when you were last...you. I made a connection between a prom photo and a hospital report that your date or boyfriend, or whatever he was, went through a trauma with you at sixteen. I post-it noted it to my timeline. The whole year of seventeen there was nothing. The boy never recovered, your social media had gone silent, and your grades plummeted. But nothing else.”

  I felt the push of my tears trying to surface and took a few deep breaths to calm myself. He was too close, so fucking close. Still, I was frozen in this chair, frozen in my own mind; my own memories.

  “Then, I went back to the yearbook, and took note of anyone I could find in pictures with you. Oddly enough only two people. The prom date, and another guy who was present from grades seven through twelve. So I looked him up. And you know what I found?”

  I was starting to shake. I knew, but I couldn’t stop it. I just nodded. “I do.” I was sure my eyes were glazing over, and my breathing was getting shallow, but I’d lost control.

  I hadn’t felt this for quite some time. This unnerving, scream inducing, fist clenching, fear; the panic attacks, they hadn’t bothered me for years.

  “Ms. Remes, are you okay?”

  I couldn’t answer him. I wondered why he revealed himself like this? Did Andreas know? Was he going to turn me in? Did he really even have enough to? Was being alive when you were legally dead or missing a crime? Fuck, I’d never even thought of that.

  “Mr. Drakos! Mr. Silas?” Jacques called out.

  That snapped me out of it, my instinct to survive, to remain hidden, kicking in. If they didn’t know already, they didn’t need to. I bounced up from my chair and called out. “We need another minute, hold up!”

  I leaned over the table like I had Andreas’ desk, when I wanted to put on my don’t-fuck-with-me face, and leaned in close, looking just below his eyes. “What do you plan to do with this information?” My false bravado was already shaking. I couldn’t do this…

  I felt the urge to escape. To get up, run and not stop until my lungs were ready to burst. One foot in front of the other, over and over again, I chanted in my mind like a preprogrammed reaction to my fear.

  I was mildly aware of the knife holstered to my belt, and how quickly I could end Jacques, steal the file and information, and run again.

  That would make me a whole different level of monster, I just couldn’t do that.

  Jacques looked shocked and push back, his chair almost tipping. “Well, nothing miss, I swear.” He looked terrified, and confused. “I’m just an investigator, gots nothing to do with the law, not re-really.” He didn’t know what he had done to anger me. I wasn’t sure if that pissed me off more or just confirmed his innocent passion for puzzles.

  With a shaky voice he continued. “It’s only, just… I just wanted to let you know. What I found, you know? I hasn’t told nobody else, I swear! Not even Mr. Drakos. Thought maybe it was kinda, like, personal. Didn’t seem to have nothing to do with my investigation, yeah?”

  I eased back, but just a little. He was being sincere. It was all over his face. I sat back in the cushioned chair, and crossed my arms again. “Give me the file.” I demanded.

  He passed it over without hesitation. “But, for what it’s worth miss, would you listen to a fellas wisdom, whose been around this block?”

&nb
sp; Curious I tilted my head. Deciding to trust him in this at least. I nodded. “Sure, why not.”

  “Those two men out there, they obviously care about you. Now ain’t none o‘ my business, what you guys are into..”

  I wanted to interrupt and correct him but the image of the three of us together at once popped into my mind and left me momentarily speechless.

  “...But when I see a bond like that, I just know. Don’t hide this from them. Whatever trouble you’re in, they’re in too. I can tell they ain’t going nowheres. You ain’t protecting them by hiding the facts, you’re hurtin’ em.”

  I wasn’t expecting that. Not at all. I’d expected him to tell me my passport work was shoddy, or that I’d stayed too long if I wanted to keep running. He surprised me when he started speaking of bonds.

  “Yeah, well I’m not sure what you thought you saw, but there isn’t anything between us three. I’ve only been acquainted with Mr. Drakos for a matter of days, and Silas only sees me on random trips to, or through, the city. Hell, like you mentioned, they didn’t even know my name until last night.”

  Jacques let out a low, slow whistle. “You can’t see it. That’s okay, I do. Gots an eye for these things,” he started twisting his ring again. “For truth though, you gotta tell em. Like I said, if you’re in trouble, they’ve already unknowingly invited it in for tea.”

  Jacques looked between the bookshelves at the two standing at the counter on the cafe side, and my line of sight followed his.

  Silas was in his element, surrounded by beans from all walks of life, and the buzz of the machines he used to make them into heavenly goodness. A smile spread across his face as he worked.

  Andreas sat on one of the overstuffed stools sipping from a large, demi-globed, red mug. He held it with both hands as he took another mouthful. I could see the moan of pleasure he was holding back.

  I’d been a devoted disciple of the teachings of Silas’ coffee. The other spots along my journey couldn’t compare. His java was the fountain of youth, the nectar of the gods; it was all that was good and right in this world.

  Maybe that’s why I was drawn back here time and time again. I was addicted to his brand of jump start.

  Of course, that’s why, sure. It totally had to be.

  Still, Jacques was right. These two were stuck to me like 1000 mile an hour airplane tape, as my aunt Vicky used to call it. The rest of the world used duct tape, but her name for it was way cooler. The image it painted turned regular tape into a superhero. Just like those two seemed determined to be.

  The boys were bound to end up in my messy troubles at some point. They’d be better prepared to not die in the crossfire, if I told them the truth.

  “Okay, fine. Call them back. But you’re doing all the explaining buddy. I’ll just field questions afterwards.”

  And so it was. Andreas and Silas came back to join us at our table, and Jacques explained everything he could about my timeline.

  Andreas looked confused, but sat quietly. Silas on the other hand looked torn, beaten, and lost. He kept twitching forward as if he was going to interrupt, but then caught himself.

  When Jacques started explaining that the trauma I’d lived through at sixteen, happened a second time, I could see poor empathetic Silas’s heart break in two.

  I broke the awkward silence after Jacques was finished. “Okay so now you guys know. I’m on the run, my name is Medoe, any questions?” I asked.

  They turned to me then, and it was as if their minds were exploding through their eyes.

  Silas was the first to speak, which didn’t surprise me, Andreas seemed very stoic when he wasn’t in control of a situation.

  “Why did you run? If you had nothing to do with their malfunctioning bodies, there was nothing to be afraid of.”

  “Yeah? Tell that to an eighteen year old girl scared out of her mind, who had been severely depressed for three years with no treatment, or help, after her best friend of six years goes through a body shut down like her prom date did.” I shot back defensively.

  I knew I had had something to do with their ‘malfunction’ as Silas had so delicately put it. No matter how honest I was being with these two, I couldn’t be honest about that.

  “I am sorry for the child you were, that you had to go through that,” he said apologetically.

  “I came back stronger.” I retorted.

  “You sure did Minx,” Andreas started. “So if you’re on the run because it’s all you’ve known since you were young, how do you survive? What do you do for work?”

  I stared at him blankly. A man who owned nightclubs, and three whole levels of a hotel, wore Armani while brushing shoulders with gangsters, racers, and the corporate mob - I was sure - knew the tricks of my trade. “However I can.”

  Andreas nodded. “Is it possible that man was after you because of those however-you-cans?”

  I thought about it for a moment before I dismissed the notion. I couldn’t remember pulling any cons, or picking any pockets of men covered in leather and burning tree buttons, but I could have, I supposed.

  “I… I don’t think so. I’ve never seen that leather uniform before, or that insignia, but I’ve been on the run for eight years. Mind you, I didn’t start my however-I-can philosophy until I was twenty, so six years of people who may hold a grudge against me.”

  Silas shook his head. “So why then, are these people after you?” He asked, not so much expecting me to answer, as to himself.

  “I don’t know.” I answered anyways.

  “Jacques will continue to dig into these guys. Don’t worry,” Andreas said trying to comfort me.

  “I’m here for you,” Silas added. “We’ll figure it out.”

  The more and more my situation got mapped out before me, the more I couldn’t stop myself from worrying. I hadn’t wanted to be a monster, I never asked for this. I didn’t want those boys to die. I mean, their hearts still beat in their chests; the hospitals still considered them patients. I knew, however, their spirit, mind and soul were gone.

  I’d torn them from their bodies with a glance.

  There was no doctor alive that could explain in any terms, or that would make me change my mind about those boys: they were dead. Their lives were over, and hopefully their souls had moved on, and not been dried out, and shriveled up like my nightmares suggested.

  “Can we just do something not related to this case you guys are building? I need a distraction,” I said in response. The thoughts in my head now weren’t for sharing.

  Silas stood, and took his jacket off the back of his chair. “Come on, Em… Medoe, lets go pack your stuff up. Gotta get you moved in upstairs.”

  Before I could rise out of my seat Andreas stood, and agreed. “That’s a great idea. Hey, Mr. Coffee, three of whatever you made me earlier, to go please.” He took his sunglasses from the neck of his shirt, and slid them to rest on his nose. I couldn’t see through them but I could feel his gaze staring a hole into me.

  Silas scoffed and put his jacket on, adjusting the shoulders to fit over their board width. God why was I even noticing his thick shoulders now? Calm yourself down there, I thought to my wannabe man eater.

  “Ask the barista,” he said. “These ones aren’t free, either. Pay up cheap ass.” He tossed the last part over his shoulder as he walked across the room and waited at the door for me to follow.

  I couldn’t hide the smile that spread across my face. Andreas’ face took on an expression of shock, with a thread of, maybe, shame? Or, embarrassment. Either way, it only lasted a moment and then his confidence covered it quickly.

  “Of course, and I won’t be having any free drinks. I’ll be paying in full,” he said as if he had something to prove. He winked at me, and half a smile broke out in his face. “I never leave things one sided.”

  I just shook my head and followed after Silas, Andreas and his silver-tongued innuendo would catch up.

  The weather outside was in complete contrast with my emotions. I was a whirlw
ind. Where as the air hung light and fresh around me, not a breeze to be felt. My mind was chaotic, but the cogs of the world were spinning in perfect order all around me.

  I doubted packing and moving was going to help. That was just manual labour. I needed to let this chaos out. I needed out. I felt caged being forced to stay in one place, but this really was my best chance to figure out what was going on.

  “Silas, when I’m done packing and moving it into the apartment, I’m going dancing. If I don’t let off some steam, I’m just going to fall into habit and run again.”

  He nodded, and a hum fell from his lips. “A good sense of self awareness is an asset.”

  I felt there was a story in those words. I didn’t push. He didn’t offer to come with me. I had a feeling he would, though.

  A bell rang a short distance away, and I could almost instantly feel Andreas’ eyes searching me out. Like, I literally felt him looking at me. How the Hades had I known it was him, when I was facing the other way?

  My skin prickled with heat when his eyes touched it, even through my clothes.

  Silas fell back to wait for him like the well mannered man he was, but I just trudged on thinking about what this new development meant. How did you feel someone looking at you?

  Just one more odd thing to add to the list of things about myself I couldn’t explain.

  Chapter 7

  I didn’t bother to gauge their reactions when they entered my room. I knew the shambles it was in. There were still piles of things on my bed, a pile of dirty laundry on the floor, cold water still in the tub, my robe was thrown across the rug chaotically, the door was still splintered, and my map was still taped to the wall.

  I’d really, really fallen behind.

  I made my way to the sofa where my duffel of weapons were. My long range, and larger assortment were stored in a small town outside the city, waiting for pick up when I took off.