Authors: Iris Johansen
“I’m not trying to be funny. If Bubba got his hands on a sleazy lawyer, that’s what they’d make people think.”
Beth gave her a questioning glance. “Not people like you.”
“Of course not. It’s just…” Kendra struggled to find the words. “I told your sister I’d look after you. Eve would have loved for you to move to Georgia to be near her, but she understood that you needed your space. I thought the same thing. Now I’m thinking I didn’t do a very good job.”
“A good job looking after me? I don’t need or want to be looked after. I had that all those years I was in the institution. I wanted freedom. I always knew you were there, Kendra, just a couple hours drive away. That’s all I ever needed.” She leaned forward in her chair, her gaze holding Kendra’s. “The choice was never yours or Eve’s. I just wanted to be on my own for a while. I thought you understood that.”
“I do. When I got my sight, I didn’t want anyone hovering over me for those first few years. I
wanted
you to have space, Beth. I think I understood that better than Eve. But I know she wants to get to know you better. You were separated your entire lives until she found you.”
“And I want to get to know her. But I want to be a complete person when we come together again. Not a victim. A year ago at this time, we didn’t even know each other existed.” She shook her head. “Hell, I
didn’t
exist. I wasn’t
me
with all those drugs they forced down me. But the next time I see Eve, I’ll be complete with experiences and a personality that’s totally my own. And I won’t see her again until that happens. That’s why you mustn’t tell her about this. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.” She understood the passion and the struggle that Beth was going through better than ever before. She had thought that her own battle for independence and discovery were similar to Beth’s, but that wasn’t true. Kendra’s wild years were principally exploration. Beth was also having to go through a painful element of creation. “And I won’t call Eve into this.”
She gave a relieved sigh. “Thank you.”
“But that doesn’t mean you’re not stuck with me.”
“I don’t need you to—” She stopped as she saw Kendra’s expression. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”
“It won’t be painful if you’ll just work with me. Let’s look at the situation. You’re a guest of the Inyo County Jail. We both know I’m not going to abandon you. But it will be a real drag to have to stay here at this jail and hold your hand. I have a life, you know.”
“I believe I’ve heard rumors to that effect.”
“Then I have to satisfy your idealistic goals in order to get on with it. I promise that I’ll do that.” She looked her in the eye. “But first you have to let me bail you out.” She held up her hand as Beth opened her lips to protest. “I know. I know. But trust me. Before we leave town, I’ll find this guy—your Bubba Joe—and see what I can do for you.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. I have a few ideas, but I may have to change with the situation. That’s where the trust comes in.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Trust me,” she said again.
Beth gazed at her for long moment. “I do trust you.” She suddenly smiled impishly. “And if you don’t get me what I need from Bubba, I can always do some more damage to him and end up right back in jail.”
“Yes, that’s always an option.” She smiled. “But you’d better start thinking of him as Harley Gill and not Bubba if we have to deal with him.”
“I like my name for him better. You know, it might be fun working this out with you.”
“Another experience?” She shook her head. “Where can I find him?”
Beth tilted her head, thinking. “I have a pretty good idea…”
Highway 395
Olancha, California
AFTER A HEFTY STACK OF PAPERWORK
and the transfer of $2,500 in bail money, Beth and Kendra made their way to what passed for Main Street Olancha—a gas station, a bar, a diner, and a fresh beef jerky stand, all on the same side of a lonely stretch of two-lane highway. As Kendra stood and took in the scene, a tumbleweed literally blew across the road.
“What
ever
made you come here?” Kendra asked.
Beth shrugged. “I’ve been to lots of places like this in the past few months. Big cities still kind of freak me out. For now, I’m comfortable in places where you see the same people every day.”
“Until you move on to the next town?”
“Well, I don’t want to get too comfortable. But I’ve met a lot of nice people along the way.”
“And at least one rotten one.” Kendra nodded to the bar ahead, identified by the faded, sand-blasted sign that read
BLITZED
.
Beth suddenly slowed her pace. “Yes. But I’m not going to be a victim anymore. I can take care of myself.”
“You’ve already proved that. But part of taking care of yourself is knowing when to let people help you. It took me a while to learn that one.”
“You’ve already helped me, Kendra. You and Eve both. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t—” She stopped dead in her tracks. “That’s him.”
Kendra looked ahead to see a beefy man wearing a Transformers T-shirt that didn’t quite cover his bandaged torso. A black extension sling held his arm at an awkward angle before him, and he had a massive bruise over his right eye that resembled a patch. He stood next to the bar’s front door, smoking a cigarette.
Kendra squinted. “Did you give him that black eye, too?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.”
“Jeez, Beth. You
are
The Terminator.”
The man’s sunburned face practically turned white when he saw Beth. He dropped his cigarette and stepped back. “Stay away from me.”
Kendra smiled. “We’re just taking a walk, Harley. Care to join us?”
His gaze was still on Beth. “No.”
“Too bad,” Kendra said. “Nice day.”
Beth nodded. “Beautiful.”
Harley glared at Beth. “I’m pressing charges against you, bitch.”
“Oh?” Beth said. “And I thought I spent the night in jail for the turndown service and exquisite cuisine.”
“Just keep sassin’ me. You’ll see where that’ll get you.”
Beth stepped toward him, and he instinctively recoiled so quickly that he nearly stumbled. He winced in pain.
“I’d be less worried about her and more concerned about yourself,” Kendra said.
“Why’s that?”
“Because you lied to a police officer. And your friends did, too. And if this goes to trial, are you willing to perjure yourselves?”
“Oh, it’s going to trial. And it’s her word against all of ours.”
“Not just her word,” Kendra said.
“What do you mean?”
She pointed to the roofline of a defunct, graffiti-ridden Laundromat next to the bar. A small security camera was aimed toward the sidewalk. “These days there are eyes everywhere.”
“What…” He took a few tentative steps toward the camera, as if it were a bomb that could go off at any moment.
“Yeah, I talked to the building owner this morning,” Kendra said. “I guess he got tired of vandals, so he put this camera up a few weeks ago.” She reached into the pocket of her jeans and produced a USB flash drive. “I got video of the whole thing. You attacking that college girl and Beth here kicking your ass all over the sidewalk. Once your friends know we have this, do you really think they’ll stick to their stories?”
Harley stared at the flash drive in her outstretched hand. He moved toward it, but Beth menacingly blocked his path. Kendra fought the urge to either laugh or shake her head in amazement at this slender young woman getting away with threatening a man who easily had a hundred pounds on her.
Harley glared at Kendra. “And who in the hell are you? Her lawyer?”
“Never mind who I am. All that matters is that I’m holding an HD video file that makes you look pretty damn ridiculous. We all know this woman didn’t sneak up from behind you with a pole sign. She came right up into your face with nothing but her bare hands. Not only will your buddies run for the hills when this surfaces, they’ll know that this sweet young thing mopped up the sidewalk with you. Is that really something you want them to see?”
Harley looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
Kendra rolled the tiny USB stick across her open palm. “And it’s not just your buddies who are going to be laughing their asses off. I’ve already uploaded this to my YouTube account, and I set it to go live in a little less than two hours from now. Then the whole world will see what happened out here last night. But if you’re cool with that…”
“You
bitch
.”
She ignored him. “It’s just the kind of thing that could go viral, don’t you think? A big, beefy bully getting pounded into the sidewalk by a cute little woman. I’m sure that every evening news program in the country will pick it up to show right before the last commercial break. You’ll be famous, but not the kind of fame you’ll like.”
His face was now the color of a radish. He gathered himself as if he was about to lunge at Kendra.
But Beth wagged her finger at him. “Careful, Harley.” She pointed back at the camera. “You have an audience.”
“Shit.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “What do you want?”
“I want to get the hell out of here and never lay eyes on you again,” Kendra said. “And that’s what Beth feels, too. So we’re going to hit the road.” She checked her watch. “But in the next hour and forty-nine minutes. I want to hear that you called the Inyo Country Sheriff’s Department and told them that you had too much to drink last night and were confused and Beth Avery is completely innocent. You’ll tell them that you’re not pressing charges and would like to put this behind you. You want it so badly that you’re going to furnish them with a signed written statement to that effect and drop it off with Sergeant Filardi. If I get that call from the Sheriff’s Department, I’ll take the file off my YouTube account before a single person sees it.”
He pointed to the USB stick in her hand. “What about that video?”
“We keep the video.” Kendra smiled. “Maybe we’ll pull it out once in a while on girl’s night out when we’re looking for a good laugh after a few glasses of wine. But other than that, no one will see it.”
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
Beth shook her head. “I have no special desire to be known all over the world as ‘that girl who beat up the redneck dumbass.’ Why would I? It would just get in my way. Sure I’d do anything I had to do to show you that you can’t get away with this kind of bullying. But if I win the battle, all I’ll want to do is turn my back on you.”
Kendra shrugged. “I’d actually love to see
The Today Show
gang giggling over it some morning next week, but the ball’s in your court.” She glanced at Harley, who was glowering at them. “Personally, I hope that Harley is stupid enough to fumble around and blow it.” She tapped her watch as she and Beth turned and headed back to her car. “Tick-tock, Harley.”
* * *
KENDRA AND BETH HAD JUST RETRIEVED
Beth’s car, a silver Mercedes SLS AMG roadster, from the impound lot when a call came to Beth’s mobile phone from Sergeant Filardi at the Sheriff’s Department. Beth put the caller on speaker.
“Harley Gill is dropping all charges. He just came by with a written statement,” the officer said. “Mind telling me what you said to him?”
“Nothing much,” Beth said. “Just a little commonsense wisdom.”
“Ma’am, I’ve known Harley most of his life, and ‘common sense’ and ‘wisdom’ are two things that aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence as that guy.”
“Well, in the cold light of day, I think he realized it wouldn’t be too good for his rep for people to know that he’d been beaten up by a woman half his size.”
“That I can believe. In any event, the case is now closed. Have a good day, ma’am.”
Beth cut the connection.
“You didn’t mention the video,” Kendra said.
Beth’s eyes narrowed on her. “Well, I didn’t think it was a good idea to lie to a cop. Which is what I would have been doing, right?”
Kendra smiled. “Would you?”
“I may not have your powers of observation, Kendra … But I’m pretty sure that camera wasn’t there last night.”
Kendra feigned a look of total innocence. “Really? Hmm. I guess you were too busy pounding that guy’s face into the ground to notice.”
“Kendra…”
“Fine.” Kendra shrugged. “I might have dug an old webcam out of my closet before I left home in case I needed it. And I might have stuck it under the roofline with some double-sided tape.”
“When?”
“Just a little while ago, on my way to the jail to see you. I wanted to take a look at the scene before I got your story.”
“You did more than take a look.”
“I know you. I knew you weren’t guilty. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared if push came to shove.” She made a face. “No big deal. If it wasn’t necessary, all I’d have lost was an old camera that hadn’t worked in years.”
“Well, I’d say it worked pretty well just now.”
“I guess it did. Most bullies don’t like to broadcast it when they get pummeled by one of their victims.”
Beth pointed to Kendra’s pocket, where the USB stick still bulged. “And what was on the memory stick?”
“Data for my music-therapy study. Good thing I didn’t have to show it to him. I might have bored the guy to death.”
Beth threw back her head and laughed. “Good thing.”
“You won’t have to worry about him anymore. As long as you leave town, I think he’ll be happy to forget about the whole thing.”
“That makes two of us.” She paused. “After you tell me how you managed to play Bubba so cleverly. I was watching you and you were able to meet his every response almost before he made it.”
She glanced away. “You described him. He wasn’t hard to analyze.”
“Kendra.”
“He was the easiest mark imaginable.” She looked back at Beth. “Nicholas Marlin would have considered him totally unworthy of using him.”
“Mark?” Beth’s eyes were suddenly eager. “And who’s Nicholas Marlin?”
“Someone I knew from my unsavory past. A friend of a friend.” She sighed. “He was a con artist. He was fairly despicable, but I learned a lot by watching him. He was truly amazing. He could read things about his marks that were totally incredible just by observing body language and facial expression.”