The Light at the End of the Tunnel (25 page)

Cassandra didn’t know where she was heading.
She didn’t know what to say. She felt her face getting hot, and a
funny feeling began in her stomach.

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go,
honey, just get in back with my friend’s daughter. She’s thirteen.
You’ll like her.

The girl in back slid the side door open. The
girl didn’t smile, and didn’t look happy. Cassandra hesitated. For
some reason she didn’t understand she felt uncomfortable climbing
in with these people, even if they were women. The woman driver…she
didn’t know…the woman’s eyes looked empty, like there was no
feeling in them, something she was accustomed to seeing with the
Family Services people, but—

“Get in, honey!” the woman said, not even
friendly at all that time, “We have to get moving or we’ll be
late!”

Then Cassandra made the most important
decision—her very first decision made by herself that affected
her—she had ever made in her young life, “No!” She turned and ran
into the ditch, tripped and almost fell, and heard—

“Get her, Mandy, or I’ll tan your little
ass!”

She began clawing to get up the other side of
the ditch. It was deeper than she had thought, and wet, her hands
were getting muddy. She held onto a growth of grass, and almost
reached the top when she felt her ankle grabbed, then she lost her
hold and slid back down into the ditch.

The other girl grabbed both her arms, “Just
cooperate, little girl, then she won’t hurt you,” she said, “My
name’s Mandy. I’ll help you if I can, now come on back. You’re too
young to be out on the road like this. You’ll be safer with us.
Believe me.”

She accepted what Mandy said and allowed the
older girl to hold onto her left arm as they returned to the
minivan.

The woman behind the wheel scowled as she
climbed in, “Don’t you dare get mud on the upholstery.”

The woman in the passenger seat glanced back,
“Get buckled in, girls.”

Mandy crawled in and shut the door. They
started out and soon got up to the speed limit. Mandy pointed
toward the woman in the passenger seat and said quietly, “That’s my
mom.”

Cassandra nodded to Mandy, and wondered about
the group she was with. The driver would be mean, she was pretty
sure. Mandy’s mom, probably not, and she felt a safety vibe toward
Mandy’s mom, and toward Mandy, and she wondered where they were
going, that the driver worried about being late.

Finally the driver glanced back, the same
feeling-less look in her eyes, “You got all muddy, little girl. You
shouldn’t have tried to get away. You won’t have to work tonight,
but you will go with us and watch, and learn.”

“What kind of work? I know how to work, I can
clean, and cook, and my last—my mother, showed me how to sew.”

The woman’s face changed. On a normal woman
it would probably be called a smile, but Cassandra saw something
entirely different from a smile. She didn’t know what she saw, then
the woman turned back to the road, “Tell her what we do, Mandy,”
the woman driver said, “And find out her name.”

“I’m Cassandra!” She surprised even herself
with her outburst, but she did not like this woman and wanted her
to know she wasn’t afraid of her…at least that’s what went through
her childish mind, that she would stand up to this woman. At least
for a few seconds she actually thought she could, yet she feared
her too, more than either of her last foster parents. Her last
foster parents hadn’t really been mean to her, but the man, she was
pretty sure, wanted her to do stuff…stuff she was sure she wouldn’t
like doing.

She even began to wonder if she had done
right by running away. Yes, she had, that man, Franny—not even the
woman’s husband—would have reaped her if she hadn’t. He had come to
her room every night and just stood in the doorway, looking at her,
and sometimes moved his hand on his front by his zipper, like that
boy who had reaped her at that other foster home.

But Franny never actually came into her room,
he would just stand there staring, until his girlfriend called him,
then he would give a
‘Humfpt,’
as if telling her his
girlfriend had saved her, that he wouldn’t bother her
that
night. But the night came when his girlfriend wasn’t there, and
wouldn’t be, not for a long while, and she could hear there was
another man in the house, and Franny came to her room before she
had even undressed for bed, and he actually came into her room and
told her
‘Get undressed!’

That’s when she became pretty sure what he
wanted and knew she had to leave. So she had picked up her purse
and dolly, and slowly walked toward him. She knew he was drunk but
felt she could get past him but he grabbed her dress when she ran.
Unconsciously, she touched her dress where her shoulder was
ripped.

“What happened to your dress?” Mandy
asked.

Mandy’s eyes got a little bigger. She felt
Mandy cared, and did want to know, but she couldn’t just blurt it
out. She wouldn’t care if Mandy’s mom heard but she didn’t want the
other woman to hear. She didn’t want to talk to the other woman, or
anything. The more she thought of the other woman the more she
feared her, “I was hiding in the brush when a big truck went by,
and I caught my dress on a branch.”

She felt strange lying. She had never lied
before, not once, but suddenly felt she might have to lie again,
and again, just to stay safe. She remembered running through the
hall and seeing that other man, but that man had been sitting down,
but when Franny yelled he got up quick and also grabbed at her but
she got away from him too and ran down the street, and another
street, and onto the highway, and then hid in some bushes until she
was sure Franny and the other man wasn’t following her. Then she
had just started walking on the highway.

“Okay, Cassandra,” Mandy said, “I’ll try to
explain what we do.”

She tried listening, but as Mandy talked on
the words began to sound too much like the something bad that had
happened to her before.

Chapter 41
Nicole’s Confrontation

The second stop Nicole made after leaving
Family Services was the same foster home where they had met
Cassandra before.

Remembering how unkempt the couple had been,
in appearance at least, especially the man, she was ready for
blood, and felt pretty sure why the young girl had ran away. She
felt the girl would have eventually run even if they hadn’t started
trying to farm her out. She felt so helpless, and felt glad the
chaplain wasn’t along. The phone call had been Riley Stokes with a
job he felt the chaplain was perfect for and could they come right
away? And they would have, but the chaplain said, “I can fly out
right away, Riley, but is it imperative that Nicole come?” Then he
listened for a few seconds, then closed, “Fine. I’ll see you
shortly.” Then he hung up and turned to her, “Honey, how would you
feel about approaching those two alone?”

“Don’t worry, my dear, I could kick both
their asses, and at the same time!”

She remembered feeling a little strange after
that assertion. Yes, she had done fine in training, but that was
with a man who wasn’t really trying to hurt her. Things could go
differently in real life, yet she had felt confidant and must have
pulled it off, because her man just smiled and agreed. So they
first had gone to the local airport and dropped the chaplain off.
Luckily there was a nearly-immediate local flight. And maybe just
as well, because she felt the chaplain had appeared ready for blood
even more than herself.

She stopped in front of the house. The street
looked unkempt too, and all the houses. No children were playing
anywhere. That seemed strange too. Maybe there weren’t any even
living nearby. Was that part of it too, that Cassandra didn’t even
have a friend her own age? She left the minivan and walked to the
house.

The woman appeared in the doorway even before
she knocked. She appeared to be wearing the same stained sweatshirt
and the same baggy sweatpants of questionable color. The only thing
different, the questionable color of the sweatpants was even more
questionable.

This time there was no look of belligerence
on the woman’s face. She looked kind of meek. Her face appeared to
lose even more color when she spoke, “What do you want now?” No
class in her question. The woman obviously wasn’t capable of class.
How on earth had those two ever gotten a foster child?

“I’m looking for Cassandra,” Nicole said.

“She’s not here.”

“I know that. But I had just hoped you could
give me some idea where she might go.”

The woman laughed, “As if we even
knew
that girl, and I even taught her how to sew!—and no! I have no idea
where she would go. Now you can leave—“

“Why do you feel you didn’t know her?” Nicole
asked, “How long was she with you?”

“About four months, and that girl just stayed
in her room—I don’t think she even wanted to get to know us—“
I
don’t blame her
. “—She did go to school though, for a bit—“

“Where’s your husband?” Nicole cut in.

“That loser is not my husband.”

“Fine. Where is that man that lives here with
you?”

The woman turned and called into the house,
“Franny! Get your butt out here! This detective wants’ta talk at
ya.”

Shirtless, but wearing underwear with
shoulder straps the man appeared. Still unshaven and whiter even
than the woman he lived with. She wondered if either ever spent any
time outdoors, and again wondered how they could ever have gotten a
foster child, “What do you know about Cassandra?”

The man’s eyes enlarged, “Nuthin’!”

Without even thinking first, she took one
step forward, “I think you
do
know. What did you
do
to her?”

“
Nuthin’!”
He looked at his woman and
grabbed her arm, “Baby, I didn’t
touch
that girl!”

“But you wanted too, correct?” Nicole took
another step forward. Franny dropped his woman’s arm and took two
steps back, and tripped on the step, which sat him down.

That brought a change to the man’s eyes. She
knew she had struck a nerve, “What happened, Franny? And don’t
worry, if you didn’t—as you say—
touch
her, I won’t go to the
police.”

“Awright! I was considerin’ it.” He looked at
his woman, who now was staring at him, obviously also learning
something about the man she allowed to live with her, “I’d…been
goin’ to her room after she was in bed. I’d…just stare at’er. I
knew it bothered’er, but I kept doin’ it. I couldn’t help it, just
for a few minutes each time, but the night you had to work,
baby—“

“The same night the girl ran away!” the woman
cried, “You bastard!”

“I told ya! I didn’t touch’er! She wasn’t in
bed yet, so I told her to get’ta bed, and then….”

“Yes?” Nicole prodded.

The man looked at her, then back at his
woman, then back to Nicole, “I had my pal there in the kitchen. He
had already gave me fifty bucks—“

“What?” the woman cried, “You were goin’ to
sell
her?”

“Dang it! I tole ya I was invitin’ Mac over!
What’d ya think it’d be for?”

“You bastard…!” The woman cried.

“Anyway, Cassie must of suspected somethin’
because she ran. She grabbed her purse and her doll, though. I
grabbed at her but just got her dress, which tore a little.”

“And then?”

“She ran outside, down the street, in the
direction of the highway. I ran after her for a bit, and Mac did,
but we both ran out of wind.”

Nicole took another step forward.

The man stood up and took another step back,
but then his face changed as he glanced toward her minivan, “And
where’s yer man, sweetie?” An expression entered his face then that
stirred a memory. Nicole dug in her brain for the meaning, and
found it. A smirk, like Les Paul as a baby did. A smirk must be the
favorite expression of all such men. He stopped backing up. His
eyes took on an expression Nicole had never seen. Her confidence
slipped, but she had to face him, beat him if necessary, if for no
other reason than the fact Cassandra might get returned—even
temporarily—to the care of this woman and him.

She felt her body tense from head to toe. But
she felt ready.

”I didn’t do nuthin’!” Franny cried, but the
sound no longer was wimpy, as it had been when the chaplain was
with her.

The woman, between them and a little to the
side, grinned, “Are you thinkin’ you want a piece of my man,
sweetie?” Then, but hardly noticeable, the woman began moving to
Nicole’s left. Her skin started crawling. She knew she was going to
have to defend herself.
‘Know where your opponents are.’
Her
trainer’s words came to her. In the beginning Sheldon had somewhat
frightened her, but his training was without equal.

The woman had moved to just beyond her
peripheral vision, but then stopped. Nicole knew she stopped, and
knew she shouldn’t have…

And that quickly the world went into
slow-motion. She saw Franny begin a lunge toward her and knew the
woman if she hadn’t yet done something she would, so took her out
first with a high left side straight-out kick—Nicole felt her foot
stop and brought it back to the ground to stabilize herself for a
turning side kick which nailed Franny dead on—both Nicole’s feet
hit the ground enabling her to make a fast side movement and bring
her fighting stance back into play…but it was not necessary, as
both Franny and his woman were on the ground.

It was over. Neither looked like they wanted
to play any longer.

Nicole back-stepped to her minivan.
‘When
it’s over, it’s over. Leave.’
More of Sheldon’s words came back
to her. Yes, she didn’t need to crush them, just beat them, and she
had. She reached her minivan and crawled in. If Cassandra didn’t
stay in town, and likely she had not, then she was out on that
highway and maybe already picked up…by God knows who, or what.