Chapter Twenty-Five
Harley - Present Day
I scroll through my phone book until I find the contact I need, and I click on it.
The person on the other end picks up with their usual greeting. “Little cousin, what can I do for you?”
“Hey, Lools, I need your help.”
“Well, this is a turn-up for the books. Usually it’s me coming to you. What’s going on?”
“Someone’s in trouble.”
“Someone?”
“Yes, someone. Someone I happen to care about.”
“Does my little cousin have a crush?” Her tone is playful, and I chuckle in response. She’s such a little shit stirrer.
“Behave yourself. Can you help me?”
“For you? I’ll do anything. Come on over, let’s get started.
I pull up at my cousin’s house and walk through the door of her taxidermy shop.
The bell rings, but there’s silence. Instead of animals and insects, she stuffs the cocks of predators and sells them as smutty decorations for people’s bookshelves, so you could say she’s a taxidermist with a twist. It’s one of the reasons she makes the perfect partner for Trident.
Alongside her, we have another partner, the owner of a local crematory, who comes in handy now and again.
I laugh at the sight before me, knowing that at least three of the decorations on the shelves belong to domestic abusers and paedophiles.
“Lools?”
“Hang on cuzzy, I’ll be there in a sec!” Her voice carries through from the back room.
She breezes through the black beaded curtain that separates the two rooms, made up to perfection as always.
Her waist-length neon pink hair is curled to within an inch of its life, her makeup is understated but still glamorous, and she’s dressed all in black.
A signature look for her. Black leather trousers, her combat boots and a black graphic tee.
She likes to look simple and not intimidating.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here, Loverboy? Never thought I’d see the day that my baby cousin fell in love.”
“Slow your roll. I’ve known the girl for approximately three days.”
“Three days? Time to get married then, you’ve had long enough.”
“You’re an actual psycho. Who knows they want to get married after three days of knowing someone?”
She shrugs. “Not me, that’s for sure. Love is not for me. You? You’re someone who would thrive in a relationship.”
“Are you saying I’m co-dependent?”
“Co-dependent, no. Obsessive, yes.”
“I am not obsessive!”
“Thou doth protest too much, little cousin.”
“Oh fuck off.” I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness that comes out of her mouth.
She is a ball of sarcastic sass with an answer for everything, but I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life.
She’s more like a sister than a cousin, and I’d go to the ends of the earth for her.
Well, I would if it had an edge, but considering it’s round and 3D, that’s not likely, is it?
She walks to the door and flips the sign to closed before motioning for me to take a seat in the two chairs that she has as a seating area for customers.
The entire shop is black, with little accents of gold and pink to match her physical aesthetic.
I don't know where she got the idea for a taxidermy shop-come-bookstore, but it's genius. People come from all over to buy things from her. I’m surprised she even has time for her hunting hobbies anymore.
“So, tell me everything. What’s happening?”
“I met a girl called Quinn a few nights ago. She was on a bridge behind the cemetery and very much on the brink of killing herself. I managed to talk her off the edge, and we went for a drink so she could talk. From what I observed and the little she told me, she’s very clearly been abused.
She mentioned lost memories she wanted to recover, and her demeanour was just broken. ”
“Who’s the fucking asshole?”
“See, that’s the thing. It’s not domestic violence in the typical sense. She isn’t in a relationship. It seems like it’s her parents and her brother that have caused the damage.”
“Her family did this to her?”
“That’s what it looks like. When I took her home that night, I asked her to pick a safe word, and she did. We were meant to meet up the next night, but instead I got a text with the safe word, telling me her parents had dropped her off at this private mental facility for ECT therapy.”
“ECT? Where they electrocute your brain?”
“Yeah, basically. She said she found out they somehow had manipulated a past experience into them being given power of attorney and that they’d abandoned her there. They aren’t allowed electronics, so I’ve been unable to talk to her to find out any more information, but…”
“But, what?”
“Remember my old mentor, Stephanie?”
“I’ll never forget that little cunt. I still want her head on a platter for what she did to you. What about her?”
“She runs the hospital.”
“Oh. Fuck.”
“Yep. That night I made up a folder of notes as we’ve done before. I was going to challenge the power of attorney ruling, but I decided to go by her house and talk to her family first and get a feel of things.”
“And how did that go?”
“It ended with me threatening her brother and telling her mother about herself.”
“So, really well, then.” She laughs.
“There was a part of me that I suppose hoped that she was exaggerating, but her brother quite literally said she needed to be put down like a dog. And the relationship between him and his mother is, quite honestly, creepy as fuck.”
“Have you got their names?” She reaches for her laptop, opening it up and typing in her password. Trident gives us access to certain systems that most civilians wouldn’t have access to, which can be beneficial. I’m kicking myself because I hadn’t thought about that until now.
“Yeah. The mother is called Andrea, the father is Kirk, and the brother is Eric. Surname is Burrows.”
“With a name like Eric, it’s no wonder he’s a cunt.”
“Cuz! You can’t tar all Erics with the same brush. What about Eric Northman from True Blood?”
“You just proved my point because he’s a cunt as well. He tried to steal Sookie Stackhouse from Bill, and I’ll never forgive him for that. FUCK THE ERICS OF THIS WORLD!” She holds her arms above her head like she’s running into battle. She’s absolutely fucked.
“So, what’s your goal?”
“The goal is to get her out of that facility and back to mine.”
“Oooooo, kinky. I like your style.”
“Stop being a little hoe. I meant to the annex so she can heal and recover. She said she hears voices and feels like she’s losing her mind.
But, after meeting her mother and brother, I can’t help but feel there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that I will never find out without getting her into therapy.
I don’t think traditional therapy will be as beneficial for her as it would for others, but ketamine therapy could help her massively. ”
“Is this purely professional, or is there another reason you want to help? No judgement, but I need the full story, you know this.”
“Honestly? There’s something about her that totally eclipses my world. Like she’s the sun and I’m a measly planet orbiting around her.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re an absolute cheeseball?”
“Yeah, you.”
“Ahh, well, it must be true if I’ve said it then.” She cackles to herself like she’s a stand-up comedian who just delivered the punchline to the audience.
She types for a few minutes. “I’m worried that I’ll be too late and she’ll have already had the ECT therapy. I looked into this place online, and the reviews were less than flattering.”
“Cuz, if that’s the case, then she will have the perfect support system around her to help her get better when she gets out. We can’t worry about the what-ifs; we need to focus on what we can do now.”
The laptop beeps, signalling the search is complete. “Fuck.” Her face drops.
“What?”
“Eric owns a garage. He has two employees listed here. One who is clean, the other who has multiple incidents of violence against women, and Eric has a restraining order against him from an ex-girlfriend. From the looks of his secret social media account, he’s in a relationship with someone called Millie… ”
“Wait, Millie?”
“Yeah, do you know her?”
“No, but Quinn mentioned her. She said she was the only friend she had had and that things had become distant recently.”
“Well, that makes sense. Best friend falls in love with narcissistic evil brother. I can only imagine the things he’s told her to contort her vision of Quinn and their friendship.”
“What about her mum and dad?”
“Her dad is clean. Seems like a hard-working guy who just wants to provide for his family. Works away a lot.”
“Which would explain how they’ve managed to abuse Quinn without him really observing it.”
“And her mother is a walking red flag. Debt up to her ears. Member of multiple groups on social media about narcissistic families, reports to social services about her parenting that were either never followed up on or she talked herself out of it. Previous instances of the police responding to noise complaints and an incident of attempted suicide where she tried to take the brother with her.”
“I’m sorry, what? And she didn’t go to prison?”
“No, looks like they put it down to untreated depression.”
“Typical. Untrained people making decisions about what people with depression do. It’s a joke. Plenty of parents have depression and don’t try to kill their kids.”
“Unfortunately for Quinn, it looks like she fell through the cracks of more than one agency. So there’s only one thing for it, Little Cousin.”
“What’s that?”
“Let’s go get your girl.”