Eyewitness (Thriller/Legal Thriller - #5 The Witness Series) (The Witness Series #5) (29 page)

Three times she used the blade. Turning her arms out, she watched the blood seep from the wounds. It was warm and it dripped onto the glass top that covered the table. She felt better. The anger wasn't there. The fear was gone. The pain was nonexistent. All that was left was the resolve to do what she must.

Hannah tossed the razor blades back in the box and picked up the scissors. She raised her hands and looked at the blood staining her wrist. It was time to be done with this.

***

Josie woke in Archer's arms: warm, blessed, and damn scared. Her eyes darted around the room, but there was nothing there. Gently, she moved Archer's hand and slid out of bed. He turned, murmuring something in his sleep as she left. In the living room Josie looked around, half expecting something to materialize. There was nothing in the apartment but familiar things. Josie ran her fingers down the rosary beads that hung around a beer bottle Archer had put on the bookshelf. The light from the coffee maker in the kitchen glowed. She opened the door to the deck and walked to the railing. Hermosa slept, so there was no one to see the tall, naked woman on the deck of the old apartment building.

Josie raised her face. Raindrops fell on her shoulders, and lips, and chest. Her breasts pricked with the cold, her muscles tightened, but she paid no mind. She was trying to grasp that elusive, insistent feeling that had disturbed her. It was so familiar.

What was it? What?

Then she knew what it was and the knowledge was more terrifying than she could have imagined. Backing away, wrapping her arms around her nakedness, Josie Bates sank to the floor of the deck and faced the thing square on.

This was the same feeling that had awakened her long ago in Texas when she was just a girl. It made her leave her bed and go to her mother’s bedroom door. That feeling caused such fear that Josie could not, would not, open that door.

Huddled on the deck, Josie was suddenly no older and no wiser. She was thirteen again. Her head fell back. Tears fell from her eyes and mixed with the raindrops. All alone, she cried in the black night.

Someone was leaving her again, and she couldn’t open the door to stop them.

2013

The American boy had been with the Peace Corps for one year and seven months. There were still five more months before he went home. As much as he had come to love Albania, he would never be Shqip
tare. No Shqiptare would run for the sheer pleasure of running, climb the pill boxes that littered the countryside willy-nilly, jump across streams when he could step over them, or chase cows that were perfectly happy not to be chased. Old women waved their fingers at him as he passed, old men looked at him with faded eyes, children stopped playing, mothers stopped hanging their wash to watch him go by, and always he called out to ask if they were well, waving his hand, giving them a great big American smile.

He stopped to speak to the old woman who knit while she watched her sheep, the one who said she had seven daughters, and two were not married, and one would be happy to go to America to marry to him. He laughed and said he did not need a wife. The toothless woman laughed back and assured him he would change his mind when he saw her daughters. Then the American volunteer asked after Gjergy Isai, but the woman did not know him. So he asked after the Zogaj family and the woman smiled her toothless smile. She pointed him toward the mountain and a trail he knew a little. She warned him to be careful where he stepped because he was a good boy, and her daughter needed a husband. She did not want him to walk on the mines that were still buried under the earth.

He went off, calling his thanks for her warning, and wishing her the blessings of God. Then he did as he had been told. He stepped carefully across the rock and stones so that he didn't get blown to smithereens before he found the Zogaj family.

2013

Hannah parked the VW in the small lot on the west side of Torrance Memorial Hospital. There were only six spaces because this was used only to discharge patients. It was raining pretty hard, so she put up the hood on her slicker, got out, and dashed toward the wide awning. The automatic doors opened. The guard had taken shelter inside. She smiled at him.

"Back in a minute. Late discharge."

He mumbled something and made no move to stop her. She took the elevator to the second floor. It felt like the twilight zone in the hospital. Patients had been fed, bathed, medicated, wounds redressed, charts noted. The shift had changed. The lights were low. There was silence, as if everyone had bedded down by a campfire and dozed off. Hannah measured her steps, not wanting to bring too much attention to herself. The young nurse behind the desk smiled at her. Hannah smiled back but kept her hood in place.

“It’s raining again, huh?”

“Yep,” Hannah answered.

She walked on. At the far end of the hall, a man was mopping the floor. To her left were a couple of shower rooms. There was a wheelchair outside one of them. Hannah didn’t hesitate. She wheeled the chair into room 217 where Billy slept.

"Billy?" she put her hand on his shoulder. "Billy. You've got to wake up."

His eyes opened. He smiled at her. She slipped the hood off her head and, as she did so, a look of awe crossed his face.

"Hannah, what did you do to yourself?"

Hannah put her hand to her head and felt the prickly stubble. It was all that was left of her hair. She had taken out her nose ring and washed her face clean. She wore shapeless scrubs and tennis shoes. Anyone in that hospital could look at her and swear she was not the same girl who had been sitting by Billy Zuni’s bedside all these days.

"It doesn’t matter. You've got to get up."

"But why did you cut off all your hair?"

Billy struggled to sit up and Hannah helped him.

“Are you on any drugs?” she asked.

He shook his head, “I don’t think so. Why?”

“Because I’m going to get you out of here and if you need meds I’d have to figure out how to get them.” She looked around the room. “Archer said he left clothes here.”

“In the closet,” Billy directed. “Does Josie know you’re here?”

“No. We can’t call Josie. You’ve got to get dressed now. We don’t have much time.”

Hannah found a pair of jeans and started to shimmy him into them, but he pushed her away.

“No. Stop. This isn’t right. I want to call Josie,” he hissed.

Hannah glared at him. She wasn’t angry with Billy as much as she was afraid for him. She thought he would just go with her. She never thought she would have to tell him why.

“Just do what I say, please. We’ll work it all out, I promise.”

“I wouldn’t go without Rosa. I won’t go without talking to Josie.”

“Well, you’re going to have to,” Hannah snapped. “And if Josie knew about this, she’d get in trouble because she’s your attorney.”

Billy grabbed hold of her shoulders so fast Hannah lost her balance and fell back onto her heels.

“Hannah. I’m not doing anything just because you tell me to. That’s what I did with Rosa. I did what she told me, too, and look what happened. I wasn’t there to protect her. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Hannah blinked at this strange person, a man so unlike the boy who dogged her footsteps, who smiled even when the kids at school made fun of him, who took in stride his mother’s orders to stay out of his own house. Here, in this room, he looked as if he had aged. He was not going to weather the storm, he wanted to face it. But Hannah knew better. It was a trick of the light that made him seem as if he could stand on his own. They had to do this together.

“You can’t help Rosa where you’re going,” Hannah got on her knees again. “Josie’s coming tomorrow to tell you they’re going to put you into the psyche ward. They can keep you as long as they want, Billy. They think you’re crazy.”

“I’m not crazy, Hannah.”

“I know,” she whispered.

She put her hands on Billy’s legs once more and pushed his jeans up, nudging his hips right and then left until they were on. She stood up and eased the button-front shirt over his cast and around his shoulders. She spoke quietly, quickly.

“Get in the wheelchair. We have to hurry.”

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere safe. No one will think to look where I’m taking you.”

Billy made a move. Hannah helped him off the bed.

"Okay, but first there’s something I have to do."

“There’s no time.”

“Then I don’t go.”

“Okay.” She put his backpack in his lap and covered him with the blanket from the bed. Hannah got behind the chair, grasped the handles and asked: “Where to?”

“You know where,” Billy answered.

****

“Oh God, Hannah.”

Billy’s knees buckled but he stayed upright and put his hand on his sister’s hair. He touched her swollen face and lifted her bandaged hands. He cried silently, his sorrow so deep he could not give voice to it. Hannah lowered her eyes for a moment. When she looked again she saw a miracle. Rosa Zuni’s eyelids fluttered. Like a blind person, she moved her hand but missed the connection with Billy. He grasped it and guided it to his chest. That’s when Rosa Zuni opened her eyes.

“
Besnik,” Rosa whispered.
“A jeni mirë?”

Billy sobbed. His gut pulled together so that he could hardly speak. Finally, he managed.

“I’m good, Rosafa.”

Her eyes closed to show she understood and they stayed closed as she drew on the last of her strength.

“Unë të dua, Besnik,”
she whispered.
“Drejtuar.”

“No, Rosa. No,” Billy sobbed.

Hannah drew along side.

“What does she say?”

“She said she loves me.” His gaze lingered on his sister and then he swung his head toward Hannah. “She said to run.”

2013

The American who had come to Albania to make peace found the house in which the Zogaj family lived. The father had gone off to work, and the mother was tending to a garden in front of her house. There was a girl who saw the young man first. The mother came to the front of the property near the fence and watched him come. He hailed her with all the polite greetings of a respectful person. She greeted him back, asking how he felt and whether things were good.

He replied that he was good. Yes, indeed, he was very good. So he asked after her and when they finally agreed that all was well with them, the young man who came to teach the children English but now was on a mission for the furgon driver asked the woman:

“A e dini
Besnik Zogaj? A e dini Gergy Isai apo zotin Oi?”

“Do you know
Besnik Zogaj. And do you know Gergy Isai and Mr. Oi?”

The color drained from the woman’s face and she fell at the young man’s feet. The girl screamed and ran to her mother. And the young man did not know what was happening and, when the mother was revived, he wished that she had never told him.

2013

“Okay. Yes. You’re sure? Yeah. Okay. I’ll meet you there. Half an hour?”

Josie was starting to dress before the call from Montoya was even disconnected. Archer was out of bed, buttoning his shirt even though it was still early.

“What’s up?”

“Billy’s gone. The nurse went in to check on him when the shift changed, and he wasn’t there. His backpack is gone, his gown was there.”

“Let me guess. Hannah’s not answering her phone,” Archer said.

“I’m going home to see if I can find anything there, then I’ll meet Montoya at the hospital.”

Josie zipped her jeans and pulled on her sweater and stepped into her boots. When she looked up, she saw Archer staring at her. He knew she hadn’t told him everything. There was no sense keeping it from him.

“Rosa Zuni died last night.”

Archer pulled his lips together. “Anybody see Billy or Hannah around her room?”

“We didn’t get that far.” Josie strode across the room and pulled her jacket from under the bed. “I think we can probably assume that’s where Carl Newton is going to go with this. He’ll argue that Billy finished the job with his sister and took off.”

Archer grabbed his keys. “How is he going to explain Hannah?”

“I doubt there’s any explanation needed given the way she’s been acting. Love sick teenager, doing anything for Billy,” Josie took her purse off the hall table.

“That’s easy to discount.” Archer opened the front door.

“Not in front of a jury,” Josie said. “No need to worry about it now.”

“You go on to the hospital,” Archer said. “I’ll get to your place and see what I can put together.”

Josie kissed him. There was nothing more to say. Both of them knew Billy Zuni was in very big trouble.

***

Mike Montoya kissed his wife good-bye. She murmured to be careful but the warning came out scattered with pops and clicks as she tried desperately to get her vocal chords to work properly. Beneath his lips her head shook on a neck that could barely hold it up any longer.

“You wait for Sarah before you try to get out of bed,” Mike said and then whispered, “I love you.”

Even with the dark, even though the rest of her being trembled uncontrollably, her smile was steady and beautiful.

“Get the bad guys,” she said.

“Always.”

Mike smoothed her hair and left the house wondering if he was ever going to find out who the bad guys were.

***

The sky had opened up and Archer dashed through a sheet of rain to unlock the door to Josie’s house. He held it wide so Max could go out, but one look outside and the old dog decided to stay where he was. Archer didn’t push it. Above him, the tarp billowed and he made a mental note to finish the skylight before the wedding. He wanted a picture there with Josie in her wedding dress, Hannah, and Max. The light would be beautiful – if it ever stopped raining.

Pocketing his key, he gave the living room a once over, poked his head into the kitchen, and then headed to Hannah’s room. The door was closed. He walked in and flipped open the plantation shutters. The bed was made perfectly and that was unusual for Hannah. Her paints were still there. That was worrisome.

Archer opened the closet. One section of the hanging garments had been pushed aside. Hannah had left what Archer considered her ‘fancy’ clothes: diaphanous, embellished, and embroidered blouses and dresses. On the floor, her high heels, extreme wedges, and thigh-high boots were still there. Gone were her jeans, sweaters, hoodies, t-shirts. Not all of them, but enough for Archer to know that Hannah wasn’t planning on going clubbing.

The question was what had she planned? More than likely, she hadn’t planned at all. Archer hoped she had been impulsive because people would remember a girl without a plan. They would especially remember a girl like Hannah.

At the dressing table, Archer sat on the small chair and planted his feet solidly on the floor with his hands on his knees. He didn’t like what he saw. Blood had dropped on the glass top. Hannah had tried to clean it up but she had been in a hurry because Archer could still see a telltale trail. Then he saw something else: a scattering of hair. They were just little bits but they had clung to the glass. He pushed back the chair and bent down to follow the trail of hair to the trashcan. He picked out paper: homework assignments, drawings that had been discarded, receipts. At the bottom of the can Archer found a nest of beautiful, black hair.

“Damn, Hannah,” Archer breathed.

He was about to dial Josie when he saw the little lacquer box, the gold handled scissors and the bloodied razor blades. And there was one thing Archer didn’t see. He dialed Josie. She answered. He said:

“She took the keys, babe.”

***

Mike Montoya parked in a red zone outside the hospital, got out of the car and buttoned his coat as he passed through the big doors, and then something made him turn around and pause. Sam Lumina and Gjergy Isai were coming toward him. Lumina’s head was down but it kept swinging left and right. Isai walked straight on, his step quick.

“Hello.” Mike greeted them. Gjergy Isai registered no surprise, but Sam Lumina stopped dead in his tracks.

“Good morning,” Gjergy said.

“I’m surprised to see you here? Who called you?”

“Nobody called us. We just came to see Billy,” Sam said. “We just, you know, wanted to see him. My uncle insisted.”

“Then you don’t know what happened?”

The two men shook their heads. “Come on then, I’ll tell you on our way upstairs. Ms. Bates should be waiting for us.”

***

Wendy Sterling got into work just before the rain started and just after the morning mail was distributed. She ran through it before she took her coat off. Still standing at her desk, she found what she had hoped for but hadn’t really expected.

She sat down, opened the envelope, read through the contents and then read through them again.

“My, my,” she whispered as she dialed Mike. She waited and when he answered Wendy Sterling said: “Mike, it’s me. I just got the prints back on the gun.”

***

Mike Montoya noted the placement of everyone on the second floor. Josie Bates was standing in the doorway of what had been Billy Zuni’s room. She was talking to a nurse. There were three people behind the long desk. A patient was being wheeled out of a room at the far end of the hall and one of the hospital’s religious volunteers was going into another room. Gjergy Isai and Sam Lumina stood with their backs to the wall, waiting.

Mike Montoya walked past Josie Bates. She must have sensed something, because she looked up and then stepped into the hallway to watch him. He walked past the nursing station and up to the two men. Gjergy Isai met his gaze but Mike ignored him. It was Sam he wanted to talk to.

“Sam Lumina? You are under arrest for the murders of Jac Duka and Greg Oi. You have the right to remain silent. . .”