Familiar Lies (19 page)

A half-hour into the trip, Liz broke the silence. “Do you think she’ll take the money and get a room?”

“How should I know?”

“You know her better than I do.”

“I don’t know her at all. Not anymore.”

“Did you? Once?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What she said back there, she didn’t sound like she was making stuff up. She sounded sincere.”

“Drop it.”

“I’m just saying—”

“Don’t. It’s none of your business.”

Liz’s face went cold. “You know what? Fuck you, Max. This
is
my business now, like it or not.”

Max turned toward her and saw the anger in her face. “You’re right.”

“Don’t shut me out. We have to be honest with each other.”

“I’m sorry.”

Liz relaxed a little. A few silent moments passed. “It’s fine.”

Max sighed. “It’s not fine. I’m sorry. Really. It’s just this whole thing is such a clusterfuck.”

“Clusterfuck is an understatement. Maybe thermonuclear grudge fuck?”

Max chuckled. “I think that sums it up nicely. You have a way with words, Elizabeth Potter.”

Liz paused, thinking. “So the stuff she said, have you given it any thought?”

Max nodded. “Yeah. Too much thought.” He looked out the passenger window. “She’s probably right.”

“You think?”

“Pride tells me no, but logic tells me yes. I’ve told myself exactly what Katie told me, but the words I use with myself come out sounding a lot nicer.”

“We go easier on ourselves. I read about it. Our brains make us blind to a lot of our own imperfections. It’s how we live with ourselves for sixty or seventy years without growing to hate who we are.”

“That’s what a spouse is for.”

Liz laughed. “Yeah. They’re a good litmus test for how incorrigible we can become.”

“We need someone to tell us the emperor has no clothes.”

Liz glanced in the rearview. She went silent, gathering her thoughts. “I don’t know how David and I grew apart. I guess we became different people. Nobody tells you when you get married that you’re going to change and that you have to plan for it. I learned the hard way that if you don’t change together, you’re going to change apart. Eventually, I woke up beside somebody I didn’t know. I suppose David felt the same way.”

Max nodded. “I wonder sometimes if maybe I just didn’t want to see what was happening. Denial, or something like that. I guess I’m the type that just disappears inside his own head. Things go bad slowly, so slowly that before you know it you’re already gone, you know?”

“I do.”

A road sign appeared on the horizon, promising gas, food, and lodging at the next exit. Max felt his stomach growl in response. “I could use a cheeseburger.”

Liz glanced at him and smiled. “You could stand to gain ten pounds, so I agree.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s eat.”

After a quick dinner, they found the address easily with the phone’s GPS. Max was old enough to remember struggling with paper maps, so he could really appreciate a soothing robot voice coaching them as they went. Besides, folding up those maps after they’d been unfurled was an undertaking akin to cracking Enigma.

They pulled up in front of an apartment complex in an area of town that looked somewhere between middle-class and ghetto. Daylight remained, but the sun had taken on an orange glow that bathed everything around them with the color of fire, promising it would be gone soon enough.

“Apartment 2C,” Liz said, looking at the writing on the back of the Peekies receipt. “Ready?”

“Of course I’m not.”

“That makes two of us.”

Max picked up the pistol he’d taken from the cabin, the revolver that had belonged to the dearly departed Detective Andrew Paul. “Maybe we should have tested this thing first,” he said, looking over the gun. “What’s the likelihood that it still works?”

“High.” Liz opened her purse and looked inside. She paused, staring. Max knew what she was looking at: the gun that she’d used to kill Smith.

“You okay?” Max asked.

Liz nodded. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ve had time to really process it yet. It’s not every day that I shoot a man in the head.”

“Are you religious?”

“It’s not hellfire and brimstone that I’m worried about, it’s looking at myself in the mirror every day and knowing what I’m capable of.”

“What do you think you did exactly?”

“You know what I did.”

“That’s not what I mean. How you say it makes a difference.”

“I killed a man, Max.”

Max shook his head. “You saved a man. You saved me.”

“Max…”

“You also saved yourself. Let’s say Smith attacked you in a parking garage and you put a bullet in him. No jury in the world would charge you with anything. If he’d broken into your house, then castle law would exonerate you. It’s self-defense, Liz, plain and simple.”

“Can we just do this? I’m not trying to be a bitch or anything, but if I keep talking about this I’m going to chicken out.”

“Sure.” Max stuffed the pistol in his waistband and opened the passenger door. They met in front of the car. Max looked up at the second floor of the complex, wondering just what they’d find there. He had a feeling that things would get worse before they got better—if they ever did.

He took a deep breath and looked at Liz. “Let’s do this.”

She nodded and they headed toward the complex together.

* * *

Liz arrived at the door first, followed by Max. 2C in silver letters and numbers had been tacked onto the door, like all the other doors around it. Max glanced at Liz and she nodded. He reached out and knocked on the door three times. The sound of feet shuffling came from behind the closed door. The footsteps sounded light, like those made by a woman, or so Max thought.

A moment later a female’s voice came through the door, confirming Max’s suspicions. “Who is it?”

“Brandi sent us,” Max said, glancing toward Liz and shrugging. “She gave us this address. We’d like to talk if that’s possible.”

A few silent seconds passed with no response. Max and Liz looked at each other in thick anticipation.

“Brandi?” the woman asked.

“Yes,” Max replied.

“Just a minute,” the woman replied. She unlocked at least three deadbolts before removing a chain lock and opening the door.

“Come in,” the woman said.

Max entered first, followed by Liz. The apartment was spartan, with a cheap couch placed in the center of the living room and an old tube television placed upon an equally ancient stand. No pictures adorned the walls. The carpet was a nondescript and boring tan, just dark enough to hide the average stain. Colors only a landlord could love.

Max heard the door close behind him, followed by a man’s voice. “Stay right where you are, assholes.”

The owner of the voice cocked the hammer back on a pistol. “Hands up.”

Max raised his hands. He felt the barrel of a pistol on the back of his neck.

The man with the gun reached around Max’s waist and took his pistol. Next, he took Liz’s purse. Then he patted them both down from top to bottom. “You two better start talking,” the man with the gun said. “Who are you and who really sent you?”

Max looked at the woman standing before them. She looked away, toward the floor. She was slight, naturally blonde and very pretty.

“How did you get this address?” the unseen man asked. “Why are you here?”

“Slow down,” Max said. “That’s a lot of questions all at once. Which one do you want answered first?”

The man behind them paused, thinking. “Who sent you?”

“A woman named Brandi gave us this address. She didn’t necessarily send us, we came on our own.”

“How do you know Brandi?”

“We questioned her,” Liz said.

“You cops?”

“No.”

“Then what the fuck are you questioning people for?”

“We’re more like private investigators,” Max said. “In a sense.”

“Why are you here?”

“Brandi gave us the address. She didn’t tell us anything about who lived here. We’re following up, that’s all.”

“Then why are you packing heat?” the man asked.

“There are people who want us dead. We don’t want to be dead.”

“Yeah? Well, we don’t either.”

“Then that makes two of us.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Max Williamson. This is Liz Potter.”

“Williamson?” the blonde asked.

“Yes.”

The woman looked at Max as if she’d seen a ghost. “You’re Josh’s dad, aren’t you?”

Max nodded. “Yeah. Who are you?”

The blonde woman paused before looking Max in the eye. “I’m Julie.”

* * *

The four of them sat around a meager kitchen table, barely large enough to hold them all. Max sat beside Liz in a rickety chair, opposite Julie and the gun-toting man who turned out to be named Randy. He also turned out to be Julie’s boyfriend. The tabletop had large worn spots where the faux wood had been rubbed off over years of use. These two clearly had very little in terms of money, that much was obvious to Max from the furnishings.

After introducing themselves, Julie offered Max and Liz a drink. Liz took her up on an ice water. Max considered the whiskey he was offered but decided against it. After the amount he’d consumed a few days back he had no taste for the stuff.

Max and Liz told Julie as much as they knew. Max again left out the details of the demise of Detective Smith.

“I heard about Josh,” Julie said, sipping on a Jack and Coke that Randy had prepared for her. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Max nodded. “Thank you.”

“I don’t know how much I can tell you,” Julie continued. “It’s not that I won’t, but he didn’t share much with me.”

“Anything you can tell me might help. I’m just trying to get answers. We both are.” Max handed Julie the letter he’d found in Josh’s room, explaining the circumstances around its discovery.

She read the letter carefully before handing it back to Max. “I suspected all along he had something going on with that woman, but he denied it to my face. I guess he decided to admit to it finally.”

“You mean Vanessa?”

Julie nodded. “I wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t want her dead.”

“We met Caldwell,” Liz said. “He wasn’t too thrilled that we’re asking questions. We think he’s involved.”

“With Josh’s death?”

“Yeah,” Max replied. “And maybe whatever happened to Liz’s daughter.”

Julie paused, thinking. “I met Josh through the club. Ruby introduced us.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe Ruby’s dead. She had a good heart. I always thought she’d get out of that place.”

“She cared about you,” Max said. “For what it’s worth.”

“Josh and I dated for a while. Did Ruby tell you that?”

“She said she didn’t know much about Josh. Gabe had a different story.”

Julie smiled. “Ruby was covering for me. I was seeing Josh on the side. Gabe found out and wasn’t too happy about it, as you can imagine.” Her eyes narrowed. “I wish I could say that I’m sad Gabe is dead.”

“Did you keep the baby?”

“You know about that?”

“Gabe told me.” Max paused. “It it Josh’s?”

“I don’t know. But I couldn’t give him up. Not for anything.”

Randy spoke up. “I’m the father now.”

Julie smiled. “Randy’s been a saint.” The smile faded. “Things have been rough for me. I couldn’t have done this without him.” She reached out and placed a hand on Randy’s hand, squeezing it lightly. “Josh got involved in some business deal with Gabe. That’s what he called it at least.”

“You don’t know what they were doing?” Max asked.

Julie shook her head. “He never told me. Neither of them did. But something went wrong with it.”

“When Gabe found out about you and Josh?”

“No, before that. They had some sort of falling out. Gabe was pissed at Josh, big time.”

“You don’t know what the falling out was over?”

“No. But Josh wasn’t allowed back at The Hustle after it happened.” Julie glanced at the folded up letter still lying on the worn table top. “Josh said in that letter that Gabe lied to Caldwell about him.”

“Do you think it’s true?”

“Maybe.”

“Caldwell claimed he didn’t kill Josh.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Not necessarily. Is that why you disappeared? Were you afraid of Caldwell?”

“I never met him. I mean, I knew he owned the club and I saw him from time to time, but I never spoke with him.”

“Then who were you afraid of? Gabe?”

Julie looked at Max for a long time. She seemed to be considering very carefully what to say next.

Eventually, she spoke.

“Josh,” she finally said. “I was afraid of Josh.”

“Josh?” Max asked.

“You never noticed it?” Julie asked.

“Noticed what?”

Julie looked down at her drink. She tipped it back and put the rest of it down in a large gulp. “Josh scared me.”

“How so?”

“Are you sure you want to hear?”

Max nodded. “Yeah.”

“Josh changed. He started out so nice, so kind. But something happened. I don’t know if it was because of Gabe or what, but he became somebody else. Or maybe that’s who he always was and I just didn’t see it at first.”

“What did he do?”

“He got mean. He started saying things to me, hurtful things.” She glanced at Randy and held up her glass. “Can you get me another? I’m going to need it.”

Randy nodded and went to refresh her drink.

Julie looked back at Max. “It got physical.”

“Physical?” Max asked.

“He hit me. More than once. After I found out I was pregnant I knew I had to get away. I told him one night that I was going to leave him.” She paused, gathering her thoughts. “He told me he’d kill me if I ever left.”

Max felt the words hit him in the gut like a sucker punch. His own son, involved in who knew what and now he was threatening to kill people? Could it be true? He looked into Julie’s eyes, examining them, searching. They were sincere. She was telling the truth. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he knew it all the same.

“You probably didn’t know any of these things, did you?” Julie asked.