Robert had come in to eat where she worked at least once a week, and they made friends over small talk. He started leaving her big tips and told her to store it away for a rainy day.
One day, after her father had bruised her neck with fingerprints, she found Robert’s phone number and address tucked in a folded hundred-dollar bill.
After three more days of her father’s temper, she decided to call the older man. She knew it was inappropriate for a strange old man to leave a young girl like herself his phone number, and she thought that if he wanted sex, at least he’d be gentler. Sex was supposed to feel good, and that seemed a better option than the pain her daddy’s beatings offered.
“I can help you get away if you want,” he told her. “From whatever harm is coming your way. There’s more to life than misery, Elizabeth.”
Robert never called her Lizzy. He’d talked to her like she was a woman, an equal.
“Where would I go?” she’d asked.
“Anywhere you want.”
“Could I stay with you?”
The hesitation in his voice made her regret she’d asked. Of course, he didn’t want her around. She was trouble, and he was just trying to help her get away. “Never mind. I’ll think of someplace else to go.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to take you in, Elizabeth. It’s that I didn’t think you’d want to stay with an old man like me.” He gave a little laugh, and it was the warmest sound Lizzy had heard in ages. It filled her heart with the same feeling.
“I’d be safe. You are the law, right?” If she went to him, her father wouldn’t be able to get to her.
“I’m retired, but yes, I could keep you safe. He wouldn’t have to know where you are. You’re seventeen and free to make your own choices. I can arrange things legally, Elizabeth. If that’s what you’d want.”
The man wasn’t going to abuse her or use her? She was still leery of his intentions, but she had nothing to lose. “I’d like that.”
“I’m going to let you decide when.”
After that, he gave her space, but it didn’t take long. Her rainy day came.
She could still smell the musty floorboards of the old house she lived in with her father. She didn’t call it home. Home was a place where you didn’t have to cry unless you wanted to, and those who lived there with you didn’t hurt you. Home was what she found with Robert.
The leaky roof had set her father off that last night after she’d come in tired, driving an old hand-me-down car that barely made it to work and back.
He didn’t even know who he was yelling at half the time. He’d call her by her mother’s name or her sister’s. Both were long gone, each escaping his misery in their own way.
After he’d passed out, she gathered her money stash and what few clothes she wanted and ran like hell across the sopping wet earth and practically dove into the driver’s seat. She ran like someone was coming after her, but the old bastard wasn’t going to wake up until morning, and she’d be long gone by then.
She took out the address and followed the directions Robert had left with her last tip, and she sped away down the winding roads until she found her savior’s house.
That night, they’d made a deal, and she learned the old man had passed through once a week on his way home from the doctor.
“I’m not sure how long I have,” he told her. “This old body of mine is wearing out every day. My wife’s gone, I have no children, and my only family is men on the force.”
Lizzy didn’t ask him about his ailment that night, and he didn’t offer more than saying it was going to kill him eventually. Instead, she wondered what she could do for him.
“What will you expect from me?” She walked over, sat on the arm of his chair, and rested her hand on his knee.
He patted her hand. “Just your company is enough.”
“You mean, you don’t want sex? I’m not a virgin.” She had lost her cherry to a boy from school, but after her daddy caught them down the road in his car, she never saw him again.
“I can’t exactly have sex, sweetheart. As I said, my old body has just about worn out on me.”
She found that hard to believe. He wasn’t a decrepit old man. He actually had a nice body, considering his age, and he looked stronger than he was making out. She understood, though. Whatever health issues he had rendered him impotent.
“I just thought that’s what you wanted.” She shrugged.
He shook his head. “Honey, you’re a real treat to look at, and if I was forty years younger and you were my sweetheart, I’d keep you on your back, but the best I can give you is a home and security. You take care of me, help me with my home, my bills, my medicine, and I’ll see to it that you never want anything again. I want a good life for you, the one I know you deserve. I know the hell you’ve been through.”
And he did. He knew more about her than she ever imagined he could, and that was when she realized she wanted to be a detective, too. To know things others didn’t. To see things in a way where no one’s secrets were ever their own, not when she had the power to unlock them. She needed that power.
That night with Robert, she realized what she wanted more than anything else in the world, and they sealed their bargain with a handshake and a hug.
No one else but Robert had known her deepest, darkest secrets.
A noise outside brought her head around, and then a dog began barking loudly. She heard a hiss and a vulgar cry, and she jumped up and ran to her door. The other units were empty around hers, one from an eviction, and the other because her neighbor worked out of town. She glanced down the stairs to see the cat’s arched back, its fur sticking straight up and its paw raised in defense where it had lashed out. The mongrel continued to bark and taunt the cornered feline.
Anger raged inside Lizzy. She hurried down the steps, and in one swift movement, she kicked the dog so hard it yelped. The cat lowered its back, and a moment later, it padded over and rubbed its face against her bare legs.
The cat was grey and distinguished, with white paws and a pink nose. It was a survivor. A fighter. She reached down and picked it up. It looked healthy and strong and cleaner than a stray. Most likely, it was someone’s pet that they’d abandoned or lost track of.
She tucked it under her arm and scratched its ear. “I think I’ll call you Bob.” She turned to walk back up the stairs and brought the cat inside.
17
Darek
If there was one thing Darek could say for the night before, he could say he’d gotten laid. He’d been so worked up after dinner with Lizzy that he’d gone home and put the hard moves on Megan. Thankfully, she’d delivered. She even gave him a blowjob, but only for about five minutes and only because he was eating her out. He’d even shaved for the occasion.
He looked up in his rearview mirror and ran his hand over his stubbly face. His five o’clock shadow was going to come in early, with him shaving the evening before, but he preferred the rugged look.
He avoided all the traffic gridlocks and was whistling when he walked into his office and met up with Max.