Chapter Eight #2
“She knows,” Camille said. “She told me she’s never met a detective before that’s gotten under her skin like you have. From the way you’re pushing me, I’m guessing she’s under yours too.”
She was perceptive. A trait she picked up from Maurelle, no doubt. “Why does she use your name for her property holdings?”
“They may be under my name, but they are hers,” she replied. “Do you know much of her upbringing?”
“Not a lot, just bits that she mentioned while she had me strapped to a board in her basement.”
Camille smirked a little before she hid it. “She didn’t kill you, that means she probably never will. She’s never developed feelings for someone before. I put it down to what her mother did to her.”
“She loves you because she was never loved by her own mother.”
Camille nodded. “Yes, she tried not to, but I suppose maternal instinct dictates who you love and who you don’t.”
“Not always,” I replied. “I’ve seen many women use their children for their own gain.”
“Do you have children, Detective?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”
“My mother was born into a compound. Her own mother was a sex slave from the age of twelve, or something around that, it’s not like there are documents on ages.
In fact, my mother doesn’t really know how old she is.
She was raised by the men who sold her mother over and over again, so she’ll never truly know who her father was.
When she was twelve, she was sold to her first customer. ”
I knew it was bad but to hear it was something completely different is that much worse. She’d known no love at such a formative age. I dreaded to think of someone being able to do that to their own child.
“She couldn’t have been too badly damaged if you grew up to be this successful and loving.”
“She didn’t raise me,” Camille said in response. “I was adopted as a baby to a charming family who raised me.”
“How did you find her then?”
“She kept an eye on me to make sure I was safe. She knew who I was and I knew who she was, even though we never really said it to each other. We have stayed in touch since I was fourteen.”
“And you knew who she was…all this time?”
“She wasn’t always this way, you know,” she said.
“She really wanted to love her first husband. He was an absolute asshole. He used her for his own pleasures whenever he wanted to. He would beat her senseless and make her clean up her own mess when she would vomit or bleed. He was the only accident I think, he fell down the stairs. She was only twenty years old, she hadn’t been educated in anything other than the art of seduction, so she had no idea what she was supposed to do. ”
“Is that when it started?”
“No,” she replied. “She told me that when she met Carmine, her second husband, that she was fully committed to him, as well. He was sweet, caring and loving. She loved him but unfortunately, he loved girls.”
“When you say girls-”
“I mean underage girls,” Camille told me.
“My mother has always appeared younger than she is, and he thought he was marrying a girl. When she refused to dress like a little girl for him, he became violent and evil. It was when he brought home a schoolgirl to play with that she knew she had to do something. It was when he died that she discovered he was part of the same sex ring that she had been raised in. In fact, he had been a treasurer of sorts and had lists of member’s names.
Can you guess where she found the names of her last four husbands? ”
I knew it shouldn’t affect me like this but it did. She was doing a fucking public service to this world, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that on that list were some fucking big ass names that could swallow her whole.
She’d never have a day in court. She’d be locked up and murdered to keep her quiet.
“Tell her to stop. They won’t stop looking for her now, not after what she did to me, but she has the resources to go into hiding.”
“You’re alive, Detective,” Camille replied. “What could she possibly have done to you?”
“Camille, her case is on my Captain’s table. He answers to men who would have no problem taking her out and burying her death. Please, tell her to stop. Let the case go cold.”
“Why the change of heart?” she asked me. “You came here wanting to know where she was and now, because you know her story, you want to protect her?”
“I can’t put my finger on it, Camille, but I know she needs to be saved. I can’t do that if she keeps killing and dropping bodies all over my jurisdiction.”
“I’m sorry, Detective, I can’t help you,” she told me.
I saw the sadness in her eyes. It wasn’t a matter of not wanting to help me, it was because she knew she couldn’t.
“She won’t listen to me, she won’t listen to anyone.
She won’t stop until she’s caught and then…
we both know she won’t let herself be taken. ”
I stood up. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Delaponte.”
She stood too, holding her hand out for me to shake. “And you. I trust your trip was insightful and please, feel free to call me Camille.”
Nodding, I cleared my throat, unable to say anything else. I could see the pain on her face at the knowledge that she probably wouldn’t see her mother again. My heart hurt for her.
I knew, all too well, the pain of losing a mother too soon.
Moving to the door, I felt as if my chest were crushing in on itself as I willed my legs to carry me to the exit. The second I was through the last glass door of the building, I sucked in a deep breath of oxygen, moving out of sight of others and trying to calm myself down.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Maurelle
Camille wasn’t home yet as I waited in her darkened living area. Her room was filled with memories of her adoptive family as well as photos of me and her through the years. She was so unlike me, always keeping mementos and memories around her.
She lived through the joy of this world.
A luxury I never got to experience.
Seeing the way she lived now proved I was right when I gave her up. I was wrong to involve myself in her life back then, she was happy, in a happy family and on the right track.
Then I had to let my emotions get in the way.
That’s why I never felt anything anymore. I couldn’t risk the attachment to this life. I was no fool. I knew my life would end and it would end soon, before the cruel and corrupt world could condemn me.
The sound of a car’s engine cutting off told me she was home.
Finally.
It was well past nine o’clock. No wonder she hadn’t found herself a family yet. She worked too damn hard.
The door opened and she threw her keys into the bowl on the bureau, dropping her bag on her recliner and kicking her heels off.
She looked exhausted.
Picking up her phone, she walked toward the light switch and flicked it on. A scream let out when she saw me, before her hand flew to her chest.
“Are you crazy?”
“Not certifiably, no,” I replied. “Never mind that, little lady, you work too hard. Why are you only coming home now?”
“I could say the same about you,” she told me. Camille put her phone down on the end of the table and came to sit down with me. I poured her a glass of wine and pushed the glass over to her.
She sipped at it, her eyes closing for a moment to relish the taste before she put the glass down on the table.
“What is it?” I asked her, sensing she wanted to tell me something.
“I had a visitor at work today,” she told me.
“Oh?”
“Detective Kane Garrick,” she replied and the wine I’d already consumed began to burn in my belly. Just his name could render me nauseous. He could, quite possibly, best me if I allowed it. I’d never had to go this underground before.
“What?”
“He seems to genuinely care about you,” she said, leading me to scoff in response.
“He would see me in chains with a needle in my arm.”
Camille sipped at her wine again. “I don’t think so. He asked me to get you to stop.”
“Why would he come to you?” I asked her, my mind whirling with anger. “Doesn’t he understand you have nothing to do with this?”
I stood up, pacing the living area, trying to walk off my anger.
“He’s doing his job,” Camille said, finishing her wine and heading into her kitchen. “He’s put it together that I was your daughter and came to see me. I don’t know why you’re in such a bother about it.”
“He pushed a boundary with me.”
“And you didn’t with him when you tried to burn him alive?”
“That was…different.”
Camille rolled her eyes. “Admit it, you like him. He’s actually gotten under your skin, and you don’t know what to do about it.”
I didn’t like that she could read me so easily. It was true. I had let Kane in somehow and I was struggling to understand why. No one had made me feel this way, and I was worried it would impact what I still had to do.
“Why don’t you stop … even if it’s just for a while? Get him off your case. He said if you stop, they could rule it a cold case.”
Camille was always trying to get me to stop, but it was my mission now. I couldn’t stop…not until I got to him.
I needed to get to my original tormentor, the one who sold me to every man, and after they were done, he’d beat me and use my body for his own pleasure, upset that I was giving attention to other men, even if it was he who had given me to them.
He was the head of the ring, I was sure of it, and until I got to him…I wouldn’t stop.
“I can’t do that,” I told her. “I’m sorry for being such a disappointing mother, but you had a great mom who raised you, and she did an amazing job.”
“I may love her for raising me, and yes she is my mom, but so are you. You’ve taught me a lot about this world and continue to teach me every day. I am proud of what you’re doing, even if it’s not legal, it’s what is right. I just don’t want to lose you.”
A silent tear rolled down her sweet face that looked so much like my own when I was her age. I moved over to her, wiping her tears from her face with my thumb.