Saturday, June 28
The next day, Kya did some work in her office, using her computer and telephone while I lay bruised and swollen in bed. If I couldn’t get out soon, I’d have no choice but to have Mary, who would return the next day from vacation, send the cops out. Surely they’d remove me after taking just one look at my sore, battered body.
“Sweetie pie,” Kya called out in a cheery voice as she entered the bedroom. She acted as if nothing had happened. She yanked open the blinds. “It’s a beautiful day out. A little hot, but beautiful even so.”
I looked at her. She wore very short cut-offs, a tank top, and had her hair back in a little ponytail.
Slowly, my fingertips went to my puffy eyes. How I ached all over.
“Why don’t you get up and move around a bit? Lying in bed sulking never helps things.”
“Kya.”
“How about I fix us something nice to eat before I leave?”
“Kya.”
“What do you say, girl? Sound good?”
“Kya,” I said a little louder.
“Uh-huh,” she said, hearing me for the first time.
“I really need some painkillers of some kind.”
“Oh, ok,” she said casually. “I can get you something. Just come on out to the kitchen and I’ll fix you up real good.” She eagerly rubbed her palms together with a bright smile before she left the room.
I sighed deeply, then inhaled a deep breath. Slowly, but with much effort, I pulled myself up into a sitting position. I stood up shakily, then slowly hobbled out to the kitchen. How she hadn’t managed to knock any teeth out, break any bones, or even kill me was beyond my comprehension.
“Hey there, babe. I’m making us some chicken sandwiches, ok?”
I nodded as I sat at the table.
“I have to go out later this afternoon.”
“I’d like to come with you if you don’t mind. I’ve been cooped up in here for days, and I feel like I’m coming down with a case of cabin fever,” I said.
“Not today, sweets. It’d be too dangerous to take you along.”
“Good. Hopefully, you’ll get killed,” I muttered under my breath.
“What’s that?” she said, freezing to look at me.
“I said, please don’t forget the pills.”
“Oh. Oh yeah, that’s right. Here you go,” she said, handing me some aspirin.
I swallowed the pills with my lemonade. I grimaced in pain as my fingers went to gently touch the cut on my lower lip.
“How about tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow night?” I asked.
“Yes. We’ll go out tomorrow night. Maybe go on a little shopping spree of some sort,” she said with a wink and a smile. “Just remember the story if anyone asks. You got banged up in a car accident.”
“What about Mary?”
“What about her?”
“Well, she’s going to want to come and visit,” I pointed out.
“Oh,” Kya said with a thoughtful expression. “Guess we’ll just have to tell her the same thing.”
“She’ll never buy it. I said the girl was young, too nice, and too trusting. Not dumb.”
“Well, let’s not worry about it right now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, ok?”
Again with the bright, cheery smile.
It was then that I had the most wonderful idea. I couldn’t wait for her to leave!
She went into the bedroom. A few minutes later, she returned, and I could see that she had changed into a pair of sweatpants but still wore the same tank top.
“Ok, we’ll go out tomorrow, have fun eating and shopping, and leave Mary for another day,” I decided to say.
“That’s my girl,” Kya said with a grin as she gathered the damaged chain and began cuffing me to it. “Fortunately, the damage you did wasn’t nearly enough to break the chain, which is a very good thing, seeing that I probably won’t be back till after dark. Think you can behave this time?”
Before I could answer, she continued.
“I hid the hammer really well and made sure there was nothing else around that could finish the job you started, so you see, you really have no choice but to stay put. Besides, we want those nasty bruises to start healing so you can see Mary without having to dodge questions and make up elaborate stories. Understand?”
I nodded.
Then she was gone.
I waited a few moments to be sure she wasn’t going to return for something she may have forgotten. Once I was sure that she wouldn’t, I headed for the doggie door. I knelt down on my knees and stuck my head through the small opening. It was extremely hot out. The sun beat its intense heat down upon my battered face. I looked toward the house in back and then toward the side, the only two houses within my view. I saw no one. Meanwhile, if I could manage to squeeze through the little door, I’d be lucky if the chain would let me get ten feet outside of it, but at least I’d have a better chance of getting someone’s attention at some point outside of the house versus inside of it. From that location, I would be able to hear her car approaching if she returned before I sought help and squeeze myself back inside the house before she could discover what I’d been up to.
As if to assist me, Yogi came bounding up from a few hundred feet away. He barked and wagged his tail. He seemed hopeful that I had come to play with him.
“Hey, boy,” I said as I made the tight squeeze, never more grateful for being the size I was. Had I been just a few pounds heavier, I probably wouldn’t have been able to fit through the narrow opening.
Once outside on the little deck, I stood up and looked around me. The air was still, heavy, and hot. Yogi lost interest in what I was trying to do and took off around the other side of the house. A roadrunner could be seen off in the distance toward my right, while a cute little ground squirrel was visible to my left. It looked at me quizzically before darting into a hole. Once I saw that no one was in sight, I turned my attention to the stuff that was scattered in clumps around the edges of the deck.
Then I saw it! I blinked my eyes to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Nope. They were really there.
Metal cutters!
My heart jumped with excitement. “Oh, yes, I can finish what I started.”
I lunged toward them, only to be cut short by a foot. The chain had run out of slack. I backed up a step or two and looked at the stuff closest to where I stood. With my free hand, I grabbed an old mop and used that to knock the cutters off the box they sat upon and pull them toward me. Once I got hold of them, I reached for the damaged part of the chain a few feet from where I was cuffed and began my cutting attempts. At first, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be strong enough to cut through the metal links, but my fierce determination gave me the extra strength I needed, though it took me a while. I was unable, however, to cut the handcuffs off, for those were made of a special kind of metal that simply couldn’t be cut with metal cutters. Besides, I couldn’t very easily cut away cuffs while wearing them anyway.
Finally, the imprisoning link I had been cutting at snapped, and the chain fell to the deck with a clatter.
Now what? I thought to myself. Well, you didn’t get very far with the old couple next door, so that leaves whoever’s in back.
I ventured out into the blistering sun with a few feet of the chain still cuffed to my left wrist, listening carefully for rattlesnakes and approaching vehicles. The house in back was about four hundred and fifty feet away, yet the intense heat I had to trek through made it seem much further. I ran as fast as I could through the powdery dirt and brush till I came upon the fence that was a couple of hundred feet from the side of the house and climbed over it. It was an older and smaller house, set back about fifty feet from the road. The horse was behind a tree that blocked it from view from Kya’s house. Once I got within a hundred feet of the house, I could see it clearly as it munched on some hay. It lifted its head to glance at me, then resumed eating, uninterested in my presence.
I rounded the house’s corner and climbed the wooden steps to the front door. Its inner door was propped open. I peered through the screen door but saw no one inside. I heard the hum of a loud fan, which I assumed was part of an evaporative cooling system, as I let my eyes adjust to the dimmer interior of the house. Squinting, I could see into the kitchen that was past the living room in front. The place seemed a bit cluttered and disorganized, yet homey.
The sun burned my bare shoulders, stinging my skin. I was now sweating rather profusely.
“Hello?” I called out. “Is anybody home?”
I strained to listen but didn’t hear a sound.
“Hello?”
Silence.
“Hello?” I called a little louder.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps. A woman emerged from a hallway that was sandwiched between the living room and kitchen. The closer she got, the more I could see that she was rather attractive. Not as good-looking as Kya, but pretty close. She was of average height and weight with dark eyes and straight black hair, which fell below her waist. I thought she looked like a Native American of some kind, something quite common in the southwest. I could see a note of concern in her eyes once she saw the condition I was in.
“Can I help you?”
She reached to open the screen door.
“I sure hope so,” I said, lifting the dangling cuff and chain.
The woman opened the door wide, stepping aside to let me in. She observed my many bruises as I walked past her and into the house. I stood in the living room and took in my surroundings. The furniture was old and worn, but comfortable-looking. The TV and stereo looked a lot nicer and newer. On the table closest to me was a picture of the woman with her arm around another woman with blond hair and blue eyes, who was as feminine and curvy as I was. The way they embraced suggested they could be lovers. However, there didn’t seem to be anyone else in the house.
I turned back to the woman before me. She was four or five inches shorter than Kya and her shape was similar. She wore jeans and a simple T-shirt. I gazed into her compassionate dark eyes.
“What happened to you?” she asked with concern as she motioned me straight back into the kitchen.
“Kya, the woman in the blue house to the side of you. She’s the one who did this to me,” I answered nervously.
“Let’s get you cooled off first. Would you like some lemonade, soda, or water?”
“Water would be fine, thank you,” I said as I sat down in one of the two padded wooden chairs by a small round wooden table.
“My name’s Raven. What’s yours?”
“Sativa,” I said, still out of breath.
“Do you think you need medical attention?” she asked.
“No,” I responded as I took the glass of water she handed me.
“Would you at least like any Band-Aids or pain relievers?”
“No thanks.”
She reached for a set of keys that sat on her countertop. “Lift up,” she said, motioning to my cuffed wrist.
Surprised, I did as she said. She inserted the key into the cuffs, and in seconds, I was free of them.
“Wow! Thank you so very, very much. How did you happen to have the tools to rescue me so quickly?”
She sat down across from me and smiled. “Because I’m a cop, too.”
“Oh no,” I said, suddenly wary.
“Don’t worry,” said Raven with a reassuring smile. “I’m with the tribal police on the Navajo Indian reservation that’s about ten minutes away from here.” She took a sip from her own glass.
“The woman’s a private detective, isn’t she?”
I nodded. “She said you two once met.”
“Yes, we did. That was when she was putting up her fences. How’d you meet?”
“I got tossed in jail for a month for egging a truck in which the owner was also a cop. I guess you could say I’m not very lucky when it comes to cops,” I chuckled.
She smiled.
“Anyway, Kya was a guard there, and well, we kind of liked each other, if you know what I mean.”
Raven nodded with understanding.
I went on to tell her the rest of it as she looked at me empathetically. “Everything was fine at first. I was never happier. Then she became more and more possessive, jealous, and eventually violent with each passing day. I even found papers pertaining to restraining orders that a few other women had filed on her. Calling the cops was utterly useless, and so was hiding out in my best friend Mary’s guesthouse. She just came and got me one evening when she knew my friend and her family were off vacationing. Speaking of which, I’ve got to contact her and let her know what’s going on. Can I please use your phone?”
Raven shook her head.
I gazed at her with confusion.
“This is one of the first places Kya’s going to check, and so are the phone records of people she knows you know. You can contact your friend to let her know you’re alive and safe, but it has to be done from a public phone. If you want to live, your old life must cease to exist as of now. I hate to say it, but I know these kinds of people. They never change, and they’ll stop at nothing. Never again can you associate with anyone you once knew. You can’t go to them, and they can’t come to you. She’s going to have as many people as possible keep a watch on them with the hopes of them leading her to wherever you’re hiding. Trust me, I know what I’m saying. My own girlfriend had the same problem with her ex-girlfriend till she ended up in prison for attempted murder.”
I looked around me, almost expecting this girlfriend to make an entrance and introduce herself. When I looked back at Raven, however, the sad look in her eyes told me that she wasn’t going to show herself.
Sensing my confusion and curiosity, she said, “She died of cancer last year.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“So was I. I still am, and probably always will be, but one must carry on as best they can. I know she would’ve wanted it that way.”
I sipped my water.
“But right now we’ve got to deal with you.”
“I don’t know what in the world to do.”
“Well,” she said, “I can’t hide you out on the reservation because she may very well look for you there. This woman may be vicious, but she’s smart, persistent, and very determined. That’s your biggest problem right there. If you think she’ll just get bored and tired of hunting you down after a while, think again. She won’t give up, and if you go back to her, she’ll kill you. At some point, she’ll definitely kill you.”
“So what do we do? She should be back any second now,” I said, tears of desperation threatening to spill over my eyelids. I felt trapped with no way out.
“We need to get out of here.” Raven stood up and peered out the window, looking over to where Kya parked her car. “The sun’s starting to set, but I can clearly see that she isn’t back yet.” She turned to face me. “As soon as she does return, she’s going to see you’ve escaped and check the nearest houses first.”
“All you have to do is say you haven’t seen me, or better yet, can’t you just ignore the door if she comes knocking? Maybe she’ll just assume no one’s home.”
“No, honey, I don’t think so. My car’s parked out there, so ignoring the door may make her suspicious. I’ll answer the door and tell her I saw you get into a car somewhere between our properties, then I’ll contact my dad so he can come out and take care of Stardust while we go up to my cabin.”
My head was suddenly spinning. “Cabin? What cabin? And who’s Stardust, your horse?”
“Yes, that’s the horse. The cabin’s in northern Arizona. It’s about a two-hour drive from here. It’s cooler there. You’ll like it, especially at this time of year. I spend most of July and August up there to escape the blazing heat and to just cool off and relax in the nice, refreshing lake. There are more people around than there are here, but it’s still a very peaceful place to be.”
“When do we leave?”
“First thing in the morning. Do you know anyone with an old truck?”
I shook my head.
“Then I’ll say I saw you picked up in an old truck. Meanwhile, these old walls are pretty thin, so as soon as we know she’s back, we’ve got to whisper. It’s very important. Unfortunately, I don’t have a dog to warn of any trespassers.”
I finished the last of my water as she flicked off the kitchen light. The sun was setting quickly.
“Why don’t you go make yourself comfortable in the back bedroom.”
“Ok,” I said as I rose from my chair.
“Just stay away from the window and keep the light off in there.” She turned back to peer through the kitchen’s lace curtains. “Oh, here we go. I see a car pulling in right now.”
My heartbeat sped up.
She turned to look at me as she quickly reached for something from a drawer. “She’s here now, so just go on back there and stay put. In fact, if you do hear a knock on the door, get in the closet.”
I saw that she had reached for a pistol, which she placed in her waistband underneath her shirt just as I left the room. With my heart hammering in my chest, I entered the bedroom where a twin-size bed stood with an old quilt on it. Next to it was a small nightstand. Across the room was a bookcase filled with paperbacks. I sat on the bed. My hand fluttered to my chest, trying to calm my frantic heart. I took slow, deep breaths, willing myself to stay calm. I studied the quilt’s floral patterns as I waited fearfully. Hours seemed to pass, yet it had actually been less than ten minutes when that inevitable knock finally came.
“Hi,” I heard Kya say in a cheery voice as I stood up and weaseled my way into the jam-packed closet, careful not to make too much noise. I strained to hear over the loud thumping of my heart.
“Hi,” said Raven. “What can I do for you?”
“Have you seen a short girl with long dark hair at any point during the day? She’s been living with me, and, well, she sometimes goes exploring, and I’m afraid she might’ve gotten lost.”
“I did see a girl fitting that description get picked up just a little way down the road.”
“You did?” Kya said with surprise in her voice.
“Yes, it was a very old truck. Too old to really make out its color because it was rather faded.”
“Oh, I see. Do you have a guess as to what make and color it was?”
“Don’t know the make, but it must’ve been thirty or forty years old, maybe white, tan, or yellow,” I heard Raven say.
“Did it look like she was forced into the truck?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Oh, well, you see, my dog’s trained to track scents, and he’s been pawing at the fence back here that separates our properties, so that’s why I wondered if you might’ve seen her. Besides, there are also footprints suggesting she came down this way.”
“Perhaps she did head this way, though the only time I saw her was when she got into the truck, and that was only for a split second. I’m sorry I can’t be of any more assistance. I do hope you find her and that everything turns out ok.”
“You’re with the tribal police, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
Silence suddenly filled the house. My heart felt like it was ready to jump out of my chest. There was something very unnerving about the silence. The silence was worse than actually hearing Kya’s voice.
“Ok then,” I finally heard Kya say.
“If I see anything, I’ll notify you,” Raven said.
“Thank you. I’d appreciate it.”
The door shut, but I dared not move. When Raven came and opened the closet door I had left slightly cracked open, I let out the breath I didn’t even know I had been holding.
“Sh-she gone?”
“Hush,” said Raven as she put a finger to her lips. “For now.”
I took Raven’s extended hand and let her pull me up on shaky legs.
“For now?” I asked in a whisper.
“She didn’t seem to believe me.”
“You think she knows you know something?”
“I don’t know. She looked at me rather skeptically, but as a fellow cop, I can tell you that that’s what we normally do anyway. We look at just about everyone with suspicion, even if we don’t think there’s any need for it.”
“What do we do now?”
“I go make some phone calls, then we get a good night’s sleep and get out of here in the morning. For now, do not turn on any lights, got it?”
I nodded.
“If you get thirsty during the night and need a drink or need to use the bathroom, that’s fine. Go help yourself, but don’t turn on any lights,” she instructed.
“Ok, Raven.”
“And I’m sure I don’t have to remind you to stay away from windows, and especially not to open any. That dog she’s got could be a problem.”
“This is my life we’re talking about. I’ll stay put.”
Raven made her calls and made us Hamburger Helper for dinner while I showered. Then it was her turn to take a quick shower while I lay in bed in the dark, suspicious of the slightest sound I heard that I didn’t think Raven had made. I knew the horse made shuffling sounds every now and then, which wasn’t far from the window in the room I was in. I kept telling myself that that was all I was hearing.
Finally, I heard Raven exit the bathroom and go into the next room. We both left our doors slightly ajar.
I was afraid I’d never get to sleep that night. I lay on my back staring up toward the dark ceiling. The moon was full and bright. I could see shadows moving along the ceiling, cast by the big Palo Verde tree as it stirred in the warm gentle breeze. I had no idea what time it was as I shifted restlessly onto my side. How I wished morning would hurry up and arrive!
I thought about Mary and wondered if she tried calling earlier. If she did, I doubted Kya would’ve answered, hoping she’d think we were out somewhere.
I sighed, trying to will myself to relax. However, thoughts of Kya crashing her way into the old rickety house kept me awake, tense and alert. The house creaked as it settled, tightening my nerves as one would tighten the strings of a guitar. I pictured Kya crouched under the windows, lurking in the shadows with Yogi innocently pointing out my scent in eagerness, not knowing he was feeding me to the monster his owner truly was. Instead, he’d bark with delight at having found me, basking in Kya’s proud praise and gratefulness…
ns216.73.216.45da2
and then Add to home screen.