6. Char
CHAR
As if someone had let all of the air out in the room, the entire space around me changed in an instant.
Quicker than the snap of my fingers, the hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end.
My heart leapt into my throat. As I sat there, staring at the bars in front of my face, my bladder screamed for relief.
It felt like I was dying inside. Like my bladder was trying to scrape its way out just so it could have a mind of its own long enough to empty itself.
And yet, I kept my legs crossed at my ankles and my hands folded in my lap.
With my head cocked to the side, tears slid down my cheeks.
Effortless tears that threatened to drown themselves in my cleavage as they slipped down the pathways they had carved out along my neck.
The tension was palpable. Even though no one was with me, even though no one came to see me, I knew they were there. The federal agents. The people who came to take me away.
Marcie’s people finally arrived.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! We have no time to waste! It’s time to work, people!”
Even behind the closed door and cinderblock walls, I heard Marcie’s voice above the cacophony.
Footfalls stomped around and people called out each other’s names.
I heard someone call for the sheriff more than once.
And while every single part of me wanted to stand and melt my way through the bars just to take a peek outside, I forced myself to stay seated. I forced myself to stay still as stone.
Make the best out of a bad situation, princess. Sometimes it’s all you can do.
That was what my father taught me. As the words rolled around in my mind, I thought back to the scenario that once unfolded in front of me.
My father, puking over the edge of his bed with pock marks running up and down his arms. His hands, trembling.
His face, blanched and sweating. I didn’t realize until much later in life that it was my father going through withdrawals.
I walked in on him spiraling out of control due to his cravings one morning while Mom furiously made breakfast with a black eye.
And when I asked him what he was doing, that’s what he told me.
“Making the best out of a bad situation, princess.”
“Why?” I asked as he dry-heaved again.
“Sometimes,” he choked out as he rolled back onto his back in bed, “it’s all you can do.”
My mother put it another way, though. Before she died. Before he killed her in a fit of drug-addled rage, Mom once put it to me another way:
“Remember what Daddy always says?”
I nodded my head as I looked down at my skinned knee. “Uh huh.”
“What does he say?” she asked softly as she dabbed at the blood seeping from the wound.
“Ah,” I hissed as my knee jerked.
“Sh-sh-sh-sh, it’s okay,” she whispered before placing a kiss on my temple. “Come on, tell me. What does Daddy always say?”
I sniffled as I nuzzled my wet face into the crook of her neck. “It hurts, Mommy.”
“I know, sweetheart, I know. Come on, be a good girl and tell me. Do you remember?”
I sniffled. “Can you tell me? Please?”
She giggled as the burning finally went away. “Well, he doesn’t say it like this, but Daddy always says?—”
“The test of someone’s fortitude isn’t how they act when they prosper,” I whispered to myself as my mother’s voice echoed off the corners of my mind, “but how they act when they’re not.”
It wasn’t so hard staring at the wall and crying when I had my mother on my mind.
My God, what I wouldn’t have given for her to still be alive.
BOOM!
I had to admit, the crashing open of the door almost made me flinch.
My body stayed put, though. The unsettled canter of the sheriff’s footsteps as his boots clunked against the tiled floor told me he wasn’t happy in the slightest. Probably because his own precinct was overrun by people who didn’t work for him.
Maybe I could use his frustration to my advantage.
“No, no, we need that in the conference room. Yes, thank you. Uh huh. Perfect.”
A booming man’s voice followed the sheriff into my private little alcove before the heavy metal door banged closed. Footsteps rushed around, clipping and clopping about until the door completely muted the sound. Chaos, that’s what it sounded like. An absolute barrel full of fucking chaos.
I had to stay the course, though.
The only plan I had at my disposal needed to pan out.
“Have you chosen a lawyer for yourself yet, Miss Char?” Sheriff Nielson asked.
Tears continued to slide effortlessly down my cheeks as I sat there, blinking at the bars of my cell. The sheriff dipped down into my vision, but I did my best not to focus on him. Instead I tried to look through him instead of at him. Anything to make it look like I was out of my mind.
Anything to lean further into the insanity plea I was forced to try out.
“Miss Char,” Nielson said, “do you have someone representing you that can get here?”
I didn’t even so much as nod or shake my head at his question.
“Char,” he said curtly, “I really need you to answer me.”
I stayed the course, however. Even if it killed me. Even if I wanted to answer the sheriff to repay him for the kindness he had shown not just me, but the guys, too.
“Char, please let me help you,” he said, barely above a whisper.
And as I allowed another tear to rumble down my face, his knees cracked and popped as he stood.
“Let me put it to you this way, then,” he said as his voice grew sharp, “either you talk to me so I can help you out of this mess, or I get a doctor. Because if you’re not going to talk with me, you’re going to have to speak with one.
I’m starting to get worried about you, and you know I’ll have to tell the guys if that happens.
Do you really want to do this to them? Do you really want to add to their plate? ”
In any other circumstance—in any other world—that argument would have worked. It broke my heart that I couldn’t allow it to work, though. I knew what I was about to do to them. To everyone, really. I knew the fear I was about to instill. The worry I was about to play around with.
I just hoped that someone saw it was an act.
“Char, I’m serious,” Nielson said as he stepped closer to the bars, “my next phone call is a doctor if you don’t open your mouth and say something.”
Good, because I’m going to need one.
CRASH!
Sheriff Nielson flinched as the holding cell door crashed open yet again, but I didn’t budge. I was getting good at things. Too good really. But it didn’t take a genius to know who joined us.
“Wait a second,” the harsh voice of a man said as he paused in front of me in a suit that was too big for his body, “where are the two guys we were coming to see?”
Marcie smiled as she nodded toward me. “This is the surprise that I was talking about.”
The man, who I could only assume was her boss, raised his eyebrows. “A girl.”
“Not just any girl,” Marcie said as she held her finger up, “but the girl they’re all in love with.”
Her boss blinked. “I’m not following.”
Marcie pointed at me. “This is her. All of those men we’re chasing? The ones that turned Murphy? This is the woman they’re falling all over themselves for. This is our in to those guys. She is how we lure them out.”
Over my dead motherfucking body, you bitch.
Marcie turned her attention to me and immediately lightened her voice like she was talking to a goddamn infant or something.
“Miss Char?” she asked as she dipped down slightly into my field of vision. “This is my boss, Commander Robert Hadley.”
I didn’t move. I didn’t even focus on her. I just kept staring over her shoulder at the same place on the wall that held my attention for the last two or three hours.
Jesus, I was bored stiff.
“Aren’t you going to say hi?” Marcie asked.
I’m not your fucking child.
Marcie sighed as she straightened her back. “Sheriff?”
“Yep?”
“How long has she been like this?”
“All night.”
“And she hasn’t said a word?” Commander Hadley asked.
“Not one,” Nielson said.
“You got a doctor on staff?” the commander asked.
“Oh, there won’t be any need for that,” Marcie said as she stared me down.
“There is if you want this case to go any further,” the commander said.
Nielson nodded. “I’ll get our local doctor on the phone.”
Marcie shook her head, though. “She’s faking.”
“How do you know?” the commander asked.
Marcie held her arm out toward me. “She was fine when?—”
Her boss slipped in front of her, effectively blockading her away from me. “You got anything to back that up?”
“What?” Marcie asked.
“Proof,” he practically barked before he settled his voice. “Do you have any proof that she was fine before?”
He didn’t sound happy with her, and that was yet another benefit to my game. If they were here and already pissed off with her, it wouldn’t take much to show them just how fucked up this situation had become. God, it was so juicy that I nearly cracked a smile.
Nearly, anyway.
“Call your doctor,” Commander Hadley said as he looked over at Nielson, “and quickly. We can’t move any further until we know the only witness that we’ve got is fit for testimony. Sheriff Nielson?”
“Yes, Commander?”
“You mind showing me the break room? I could use some coffee after that awful flight.”
“Right this way. We’ve got some fresh donuts as well. We refresh them halfway through the day.”
The commander clapped Nielson on the back. “Now you’re talkin’ my language. Let’s go.”
Oh this shit was going to be a breeze.
Especially when Marcie stood in front of me with a shade of red hot anger I’d never once seen on someone’s face.
“An insanity plea won’t woooooork,” she sing-songed as she placed her face against the bars of my cell, “you’re in much too deep with them.”
Now.
To say that relief cascaded through me is the understatement of the century.
If she thought for one fucking second that I wasn’t completely dedicated to making her look like an absolute moron in front of her boss, then she had another thing coming.
I released my bladder as a rush of adrenaline surged through my veins.
I clenched my muscles, willing my body to stay put even though it wanted to shiver with satisfaction.
My stomach felt as if it were deflating.
Suddenly, my pants no longer felt as if they were a size and a half too small.
And as my urine drenched my legs, the rancid smell filled the air around me.
Marcie’s nose wrinkled.
“Disgusting bitch,” she hissed as she moved her hand to her face and took a few steps back, “no wonder the dogs like you.”
To say I felt triumphant as she bolted for the door was an understatement.
“I need a fucking janitor in here!” Marcie bellowed as she ripped the metal door open. “And I need Sheriff Nielson’s cell keys! Now!”