“Yeah. The day she saw me was the day after Eric had beaten me for telling his partner about what he was doing to me. Lucy saw him grab me through the window. Later, after Eric had left, I’d gone outside to get my mail and she saw the bruises. I think that’s why she didn’t go to her mom right away.”
“So she came to see you in the ER so she could talk to you?” Cain asked.
“I think she just wanted to feel me out at first. You know, decide if I was a bad guy or not. I told her she needed to stay out of it. I was terrified what would happen if she confronted Eric. I made her promise me she wouldn’t. But she kept coming back to the hospital to see me. I think…I think she needed someone to talk to.”
“Did Eric ever hurt Lucy or her mother?” Ronan asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “She said Eric mostly ignored her and the fights with her mother were loud, but he never laid a hand on her.”
“What happened that forced you to take her?” Cain asked.
The fact that he’d phrased it that way warmed something inside of me. Maybe because I hadn’t been sure these men would believe me, but Cain…I could see by the way he was looking at me that he did.
“It was late one night when I heard someone knocking at my door. It was Lucy. She was crying and shaking. I asked her what was wrong and she just…she just blurted it out,” I said softly as the memory of Lucy’s tear-stained face washed over me.
“‘He killed her, Ethan. He killed her,’” I murmured. I forced my eyesup and saw all three men watching me intently. “Lucy’s mother,” I clarified. “Lucy told me she was supposed to be spending the night at a friend’s house but that she’d gone home to get her phone. She was in her bedroom when she heard her mom and Eric fighting in the hallway outside her room. She decided to try to get the fight on video so she could finally get her mom to see how messed up their relationship was. The house they lived in was really big and the bedrooms were on the second floor. She saw Eric and her mom right in front of the bannister that overlooked the first floor. Neither of them saw her – I guess she only had her bedroom door open an inch or two. Anyway, I guess Lucy’s mom had somehow found out Eric was into men because she threatened to expose his secret and the fight got physical. He…he pushed her over the bannister.”
Ronan and Cain both stiffened as they realized the implications of what I was saying.
“I saw that story,” Ronan murmured. “He said her death was an accident…that she had a drinking problem.”
I nodded. “She was legally drunk, but I believe Lucy’s story that he pushed her.”
All three men nodded.
“Lucy stayed hidden in her room until Eric went to call 911. Then she took off. The friend she’d been spending the night with was waiting in the car. Lucy had her drive her to my house…I’d told Lucy never to call me because Eric monitored my phone calls and I’d figured he might monitor hers too.”
“What did you do?” Cain asked.
“I asked her to let me see the video, but on the way out of her house, she’d dropped the phone on the sidewalk. It wouldn’t power on anymore.”
“Did she upload the file to her cloud?”
I shook my head. “She’d turned that feature off when she found out Eric was snooping through her stuff on the cloud.” When neither man asked me additional questions, I continued on my own. “I was afraid for Lucy…what Eric would do to her if he found out she’d witnessed the murder. I knew we had to run. She didn’t have any other family and without the phone, I knew the cops wouldn’t believe her. All the cash I’d been hiding from Eric was in the safe deposit box, but I was too afraid to wait for the bank to open. On the way out of town, I stopped at an ATM and got as much cash from my debit card as I could. Some of my credit cards were designed to let me get cash from the ATM so I used those too. Since Eric knew how to track my car, I ditched it in a parking garage and we walked to the bus station and grabbed a bus headed for New York. We switched buses a few times before settling on one bound for Minneapolis. Eric found us within three days,” I said softly. I shook my head. “I still don’t know how he did it. I’d gotten rid of my phone, hadn’t used my credit cards, hadn’t called anyone or checked my email…”
“He could have used the security cameras at the bus stations to figure out your destination,” Cain said quietly. “And if you got a hotel room near the bus station, it would have just been a matter of showing your pictures around…”
Humiliation spread through my limbs. “I never thought of that,” I whispered.
“Why would you?” Ronan asked gently.
I managed a nod. “Lucy and I had been out getting her some clothes when we saw Eric outside our hotel room talking to the manager. We left everything behind and ran. Luckily, I’d kept most of the important stuff like my cash and safe deposit box key on me so I didn’t lose much. We took the bus to Kansas City, then Dallas. Even though I hadn’t known how Eric had found us, I’d decided taking the bus wasn’t safe so I bought this really cheap car for cash. We drove to New Mexico and hid out there and waited. When Eric didn’t show up, I started looking for a job, but it was tough without any kind of ID. I worked odd jobs for a little while and after a month we ditched the car and moved again…being in one place too long made us both nervous. Lucy changed her hair color and we avoided being seen together in public. Whenever I was working, she spent most of her days at the public library. A few months ago, we went to Arizona and I managed to find a job as a caretaker for a man named Arthur Stillwell. He’d had a stroke a few months earlier and needed help getting around. The position was a live-in one so Lucy and I had a place to stay.”
I shook my head as I said, “I was so stupid…I thought we were old news at that point since it had been four months since we’d run, but I was wrong. Arthur saw us on a news report and confronted me. I…I was so sure he was going to call the cops, but he didn’t. He believed me,” I murmured. I could feel tears threatening as I whispered, “He wanted to help us.”
“What happened?” Cain asked. “Why did you leave?”
“Eric found us. No idea how. He was waiting outside the library I used to take Lucy to. She liked to read a lot and I was also trying to keep up with her schooling, so she’d use the books to do assignments I’d give her. But she never checked anything out even though Arthur offered to let us use his library card.”
“Did Lucy use the computers at the library?”
I shook my head. “No. I think she would have needed a library card to use them. And she knew not to check her email.”
Ronan glanced at Phoenix. “Can you ask Lucy to come join us?” The big man nodded and then left the room.
“Did Eric find out about Arthur?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ve kept in touch with Arthur using those disposable phones that you buy and load minutes onto. I bought a few using cash in Arizona as Lucy and I were leaving. I use one to call him once a month and then I throw it away.”
