Charlie
R eina Ellis glanced at the time on the screen of her phone for the third time in less than five minutes. The usually loud, busy room was quiet. The lone child sat at the desk and colored quietly. Reina’s heart broke for the little girl, whose mother was late again to pick her up. The last of the other children were all picked up twenty minutes before. Reina knew what it was like to be the last child picked up, as she was often forgotten by a mother who was too drunk or too high to remember that her child waited. Reina suspected little Lilly’s mom fell into the same category, even though she was a nurse. She was just better at hiding it than Reina’s mom had been.
Kay Meadows re-entered the room. Kay was the four-year-old full-day preschool teacher who Reina assisted. “I got a hold of her mom. She’s on her way. Said she was tied up with an emergency at work again,” Kay whispered. Then she raised her voice and called over to the child. “Lilly, your mom will be here in a few minutes. She was late leaving work. Your mommy works so hard, and her job is important. Let’s help her out. How about you put the crayons and coloring book away and we’ll get your coat on and meet her in the parking lot?”
Lilly did as she was asked. She was always an obedient child. This was another trait Reina recognized from her young childhood years. It was later, in junior high and high school, that she became what many would term a delinquent or a troublemaker. She never considered herself a troublemaker, but trouble did always seem to find her in her teen years, and she never ran from it. Of course, by then she was in her fifth shitty foster home and knew better than to get too comfortable, as it was always temporary.
“You can go home,” Kay said, breaking in on Reina’s thoughts. “No sense, both of us waiting.”
“Okay, thanks,” Reina replied. Then she went over to Lilly and helped her put the last crayons in the bin. “See you tomorrow, sweetie. Have a good night.” She gave Lilly a hug.
Reina was quick to don her heavy winter coat and gloves. She noticed how still the air was as she exited the building. The sun had dipped below the horizon and there was no moonlight, as the sky was cloudy. The parking lot was vacant and darkened. Out of habit, her senses all became alert and focused. The temperatures had been above average during the day. It had been sunny and felt warm for January when they’d brought the children out for both outdoor play times. But now, with night settling in, there was a chill that instantly invaded her, or perhaps that was just dread.
“Stop it,” she said aloud to herself. She knew that she was safe here. Her past was just that, her past. But it hadn’t been even a full year since she left that past life and became Reina Ellis. She was a respectable and upstanding citizen, preschool class helper, clean and sober. She always chuckled to herself when she thought of herself that way.
Just as she relaxed, a black car raced into the parking lot. Tires screeching, it braked hard and stopped, taking up two parking spaces in front of Reina. Reina had taken a few steps back towards the door into the building the second it had appeared. In her pocket, her hand tightened around the taser she kept there. Her heart pounded hard against her chest.
The door of the car flew open, and Lilly’s mom sprung out. “I am so sorry I’m late again,” she said as she rushed around her car, heading for Reina and the door.
“Kay is getting her coat on and will bring her out. You don’t need to rush now that you’re here,” Reina said. She carefully looked over Ashley Carona, Lilly’s mom, to judge if she seemed impaired. She seemed harried, which would be a normal response when you are nearly a half-hour late getting your child.
“Again, I am so sorry,” she repeated, slowing her pace as she reached Reina near the door. “I can’t leave until my relief nurse arrives and I perform a turnover of the patients to her and she’s having a hard time being on time.”
“I get it. We can’t leave work either until all the kids are picked up,” Reina said, trying to not sound too harsh.
“Look, I’m doing my best,” Ashley Carona said defensively.
Just then, the door opened, and Kay Meadows walked out with Lilly. Both of them were bundled up in their winter coats, wearing gloves and winter hats.
Reina forced a smile and nodded to Ashley Carona. “Have a good night.” She walked past her, inhaling deeply. She didn’t detect the smell of booze or smoke, which proved nothing.
Reina’s car was parked at the far end of the parking lot beside Kay’s and the facility’s director, Kimberly Cargill, who was still in her office. Reina saw her through the office window. She watched the interaction between Kay and Ashley as she buckled in and turned the car over. She wondered if Kay was telling Ashley a late pickup fee had been assessed.
She also wondered if Kay ever suspected Ashley was impaired. And if she did, what would she do about it? Yes, they were mandated reporters of abuse and neglect and were supposed to notify the authorities if they suspected a child was in danger. And getting picked up and driven around by an impaired parent would put a child in danger. But Reina knew first-hand that wasn’t always the worst situation a child could be in.
Reina shook off her concern and shifted the car to drive. She tried to put Lilly Carona out of her thoughts as she drove home. Home was a tiny, nine hundred square foot, two-bedroom house she had been provided to live in as part of her relocation agreement with the U.S. Marshals. The house was in the Wellington Heights neighborhood on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
It wasn’t much, but she was safe there. And it was hers, free and clear. All she had to do was pay the property taxes and the utilities. The first was pretty cheap, fifteen hundred a year. The utilities were a different story. Because the house had old windows and was poorly insulated, the heating and cooling costs were ridiculous. Similar homes were listed for around seventy thousand dollars but were selling slowly. She knew the government had picked it up cheap, as a foreclosure nearly a decade earlier.
It was a short drive home. Reina’s headlights swept across the front of her white house as she turned into her driveway. The one-car garage sat back from the house, taking up much of the small backyard. She hit the button on the garage door opener, which was clipped to the visor. It rolled open. She parked and closed the door by tapping the close button mounted near the door on the side wall and then exited the garage there, turning the lock and pulling the door closed. It was only a few steps to her back door from there.
Reina’s key stuck in the lock, which happened when the air was cold and damp. She jiggled it to unlock it, glancing around the quiet and vacant back yard, another habit from her past life that wouldn’t leave. It didn’t take long to get the key to work. She relocked the door immediately as she stepped into the kitchen after she’d flipped the light on.
She hadn’t even removed her coat when there was a tap on the back door, startling her. She peeked out through the peep hole, not surprised to see her persistent and annoying neighbor, Bruce. Where had he come from? Just moments earlier, not a soul was to be seen at the back of the house.
“Damn,” she cursed aloud. She wasn’t in the mood for him. She unlocked and swung open the door. “Were you hiding behind my garage or in the bushes?” she greeted him curtly, staring straight into his brown eyes.
He laughed it off. “I just wanted to be sure you got in okay. There were a couple of random dudes at your front door a few hours ago.”
“What guys? Describe them,” she prompted without stepping back to invite him inside.
“Just two guys, a Hispanic guy in a leather jacket with short hair and a dude wearing one of those North Face fleece zip ups with long blonde hair. They caught my eye as they were hanging out at your front door. They didn’t go together, if you know what I mean.”
Whenever Reina heard leather jacket or long hair when someone described a guy, her suspicion spiked. “I’ll have to check my front door to see if they left a card or a note,” she said, trying to sound unconcerned about it.
“They didn’t. I already checked for you,” Bruce said, eyeing the inside of her house. He readjusted his tan Carhartt hat, which matched the jacket he wore. His face was clean shaven today, a rarity. He’d made an effort to look good for Reina. If she’d only give him a chance, she’d see he could be good for her.
“Thank you for watching out for my place,” she forced herself to say. “I have to go.” She nodded and then closed the door, relocking it immediately.
The fact that two men had visited while she was away unnerved her. The fact that Bruce skulked around her yard, and she hadn’t seen him when she arrived home, bothered her more. Bruce was harmless, just annoying. And since he watched over her place, that did make him helpful. She made a mental note to be a little nicer to him.
***
Wilson flipped his palm up to view his watch, the face worn on the inside of his wrist. He and Garcia were just finishing dinner at the steakhouse and tavern just outside of Cedar Rapids. “It’s past nineteen thirty. She should be home by now.”
Garcia took the last drink of his red wine and then forked the last bite of his steak into his mouth. “How come today is the first I’m hearing you’ve stayed in touch with her?”
Wilson grinned. “Because I wanted no flak over it, from you or anyone else.”
Garcia pinned him with a pained expression on his face. “I won’t point out you broke protocol.”
“I think her new name and location are safe with me. She’s needed a confidant she can talk to. You, of all people, have to know how lonely it is assuming a new identity, separating yourself from everyone and everything you ever knew, and starting over.”
“A preschool teacher, huh?” Garcia said doubtfully. “I can’t see it.”
Wilson chuckled. “They gave her a makeover, and she says she’s clean and sober for the first time since she was in her teens.”
“I hope she makes it,” Garcia said, signaling their server for the check. “She’s one of the few women from that time that I didn’t sleep with.”
Wilson was taken aback by Garcia’s declaration and the unasked question in it. “And I haven’t either.”
Garcia raised an eyebrow and shrugged. When they had finished talking with Cameron Woods and Wilson requested the side trip to Cedar Rapids, Garcia was surprised. Rae Ella Easton was someone he hadn’t thought about since they’d left her with the U.S. Marshals when they returned from the Op in Norfolk the year before that she helped them with. Admittedly, finding her in that bar, tangled in the case, had shocked the shit out of him. He’d truly thought she’d gotten out years before. He truly hoped she was completely and permanently out now.
“And thanks for agreeing to this little side trip. I know we’d nearly be home if we hadn’t detoured.”
“It’s fine,” Garcia said. “I’ll be home before Sienna and Little T wake in the morning. And I’m home for the next week.”
Wilson nodded. He’d be deploying the following morning on the next PGP install. It was supposed to be an easy one and his team should be able to complete it in two or three days if they busted ass. Then he’d have a few days off before the next PGP Install. He had his entire schedule through the end of February. He’d have little time off until March.
“Your wife is a saint,” Wilson said.
“She is,” Garcia agreed. “And a hell of a mom. Sometimes I just sit back and watch her with Little T and am blown away by how good she is with him. And I do remember how lonely it is when you take on a new identity. I’m glad you’ve been there for Rae. She’s a good person and has seen too much of the bad shit in life. It’s harder for girls thrown into the system.”
“Yeah,” Wilson agreed. He knew that Garcia meant the Foster Care system, which Garcia too was a victim of. “We’ve talked about that some. She was shuffled to five different homes before she ran away as a teen. She’s in a good place now. I think she’s happy not relying on a guy. She’s told me about how she’s decorated her house. She’s really proud she has her own place.”
“She was never a club whore like a lot of the women who hung around, but she was always shacked up with one of the guys for protection,” Garcia said. “Keep your relationship with her as friends. She needs to know people can be there for her without the expectation that she takes her clothes off and spreads her legs.”
Wilson wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He merely nodded when Garcia again made eye contact with him. As they drove back to the neighborhood they’d visited around eighteen hundred, Wilson’s anticipation of seeing Rae increased. Though he knew he had to start thinking of her as Reina Ellis now. Addressing her as Rae Ella would never happen, and Rae or Rei was no problem and wouldn’t give her away if anyone heard.
Reina sat reclined on the couch in her small TV room, mindlessly watching something streaming on the television. Her hand stroked the soft tabby that was cuddled up with her. She’d never had a pet before and she’d waited nearly six months after settling in before she took in the stray that hung around her house since the day she’d moved in. She wanted to be sure she was settled, and she could offer the affectionate kitty a true home before she brought him inside.
The glow of headlights swept over the front window in a way it only did when someone turned into her driveway. Immediately, she hopped up and stepped over to the window. She peered out, scrutinizing the black SUV that was now parked not even fifteen feet away. This couldn’t be good.
A smile pulled at her lips when she saw the passenger emerge from the car. In a black North Face fleece, with blonde hair loosely falling on its shoulders, was Jimmy Wilson, a man who had become her friend and a confidant. She unlatched the locks and threw the door wide as the second man exited the vehicle. Razor, or rather Garcia, who she now knew was a federal agent who’d been on an assignment, under cover as a gang member when she’d met him. He wore a very expensive leather jacket, not a biker jacket, as she’d assumed Bruce meant when he described her visitors.
“Holy crap!” she exclaimed with a smile as she stepped out onto the stoop. “What are you doing here?” She doubted their presence signaled that she was in danger. If there was a threat, it would be the Marshals who came to collect her.
“Hi Rae,” Wilson greeted with a smile and outstretched arms. He pulled her in for a long embrace when he reached her. “We were in the area for work. I couldn’t be this close by and not stop in to say hi.”
“Hi to you!” she replied, holding him tightly, her emotions surging with the contact. “This is such a nice surprise.”
When Wilson broke the embrace and stepped back, Garcia filled the void and engulfed her in a hug as well. “It’s nice to see you,” he whispered in her ear. His squeeze lasted half the amount of time as Wilson’s.
“You too,” she said with a smile. She stepped back through her door. “Come in, please.”
Both men came inside, instantly making her living room feel small.
“Nice place,” Wilson said, glancing around.
“It’s small, but it’s mine,” she said.
“It looks like you,” Wilson said. He pointed to a series of three posters of carousels that hung on the wall above the television. The roof and the horses were all painted in calming pastel colors. “Your artwork especially.”
She was impressed that he’d remembered that she loved carousels. “Thanks.”
“You look good, Rae,” Garcia said. Her hair was a light brown color with golden highlights, not the usual dark mane with random bold hues haphazardly colored in. And she had wispy bangs framing her face, which added to the softness her new look gave her. Her eyes were bright, clear, and focused. And even her complexion looked healthy.
“Thanks, Razor, er, Garcia.” She paused and grinned. “I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that you turned out to be a fed.”
Garcia frowned. “Yeah, we’ll keep that secret between us.”
“Of course. Well, for the record, you look good too, all cleaned up.”
“How’s the shoulder?” Garcia asked, nodding to where she’d been shot during their last meeting.
“It’s fine.”
Wilson thought her answer was a bit dismissive. He vividly remembered driving her to the hospital while Garcia hovered over her, trying to stop the bleeding. And he remembered sitting beside her on the Lear on the flight back, her shoulder bandaged and sore. She’d been dismissive about the injury at that time too, insisting it was fine. He remembered being impressed by her and thinking she was one badass chick.
“Where’s my manners? Please sit.” She motioned to her couch and the easy chair that crowded the room. “And can I get you anything to drink?”
Both men sat, Garcia on the chair, Wilson on one end of the couch. They both declined a drink. She sat herself where she’d been. Teddy, her cat, was no longer in the room.
“We stopped by earlier,” Wilson said. “It was close to six.”
“Yes, one of my neighbors told me two men had been here.” She paused and smiled; her gaze mostly fixed on Wilson. “I would never have guessed it was you, though. I got stuck at work. We can’t leave until all the kids are picked up and one little girl’s mom was a half-hour late again. She’s a nurse and said she can’t leave until her relief nurse is there.”
“You sound like you don’t believe her,” Wilson said.
Reina shrugged. “I don’t like thinking so badly of her, but I wonder if she’s using, not that I’d report her. From what it looks like, the little girl is loved and well cared for.”
“You’d know if someone was using,” Garcia said.
“Yeah, a user can always recognize another person doing the same thing,” Reina said.
“You’re still clean, aren’t you?” Wilson asked.
“Yep, sure am,” Reina replied, her pride evident.
“I’m proud of you,” Wilson said.
Reina’s smile grew bigger. “Thanks, Jimmy. I’m proud of me too.”
“I’m glad you’re doing so well,” Garcia said. He wouldn’t mention that her once heavy Texas accent was gone.
A loud thud came from the short hallway that led to two bedrooms and the bathroom. Both men immediately stood and drew their weapons. Reina recoiled, pressing her back harder to the couch, seeing their weapons suddenly on display.
“Shit,” she cursed.
“Who’s back there?” Wilson whispered, his adrenalin spiking, ready to take on the threat.
“No one, my cat,” she replied in a normal speaking volume.
She watched in disbelief as the two men, with weapons grasped in their hands, proceeded down the hall. She saw them duck into each of the three rooms. In her past life, she hung out with men who were always armed, and for good reason. Afterall, they had to carry weapons as they were carrying drugs and cash. But it had been a lifetime ago since that was the norm she lived with. Now she found it disturbing.
When they re-entered the living room, Jimmy cradled Teddy in his arms and stroked his fur. His handgun was no longer in his grip. “You didn’t tell me you had a cat,” he said.
Reina shrugged again. She didn’t tell him everything, even though she would like to. Confiding in him was easy. He was a good listener, and he gave good advice. “His name is Teddy, and he adopted me.”
“He has good taste,” Wilson said with a grin. He re-took his seat beside her on the couch, still holding and petting the cat.
The remainder of their visit was comfortable and uneventful. About an hour later, Garcia gave Wilson the nod, indicating it was time to go. It was still a four-hour drive home, which would get them in after midnight. Wilson gave the cat a final pat and then set him on the couch.
“You have to go now, don’t you?” Reina asked.
“Yeah, unfortunately, we have to drive back to our HQ yet this evening,” Wilson said, coming to his feet.
“Yes, of course,” Reina said as she too stood. She was disappointed they had to go already. She’d enjoyed the visit. “It was great to see you,” she said, staring into Jimmy’s bright blue eyes. She awkwardly shifted her gaze to Garcia after a few seconds. “Both of you.”
“You too, Rae, Reina,” Garcia said.
“Rae is fine. It’s an acceptable nickname for Reina. I wanted a cool new name like Willow, Brook, or Sage, but the Marshals insisted it be close to my real name so I wouldn’t screw up and accidentally divulge my old name.”
Both men chuckled. “I like Reina. It fits,” Wilson said. “And I can still call you Rae.”
“You’ll always be Rae to me,” Garcia added. “We’ll never forget the help you gave us in Norfolk. If you ever need anything, you know how to reach us.”
She nodded.
“I’ll stay in touch,” Wilson added. “It really is good to see you’re doing so well.” He took a step closer to her and embraced her while brushing a kiss across her cheek.
“Thanks, Jimmy,” she murmured. She motioned to the door.
With another quick hug and a, “Bye,” Wilson exited into the dark, cool evening air.
“Take care of yourself, Reina,” Garcia said, also pressing a kiss to her cheek while briefly squeezing her before he followed Wilson out.
She watched them get into their SUV and back out of her driveway before she closed and locked the door. She leaned against the inside of the door and thought about the visit and the two men for a few minutes. She was surprised, as for some reason, she felt emotional watching them leave.