Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (24 page)

“It is interesting to note that cities where Cain has been employed show a sudden spike and a sudden decrease of drug activity that corresponds with his arrival and departure; see file twenty-seven.

“All of Mister Lamentson’s employers describe him as reckless, antisocial, anti-authority, and short-tempered.”

Stella stood and clicked the recorder off. “My assessment goes on for another twenty-three minutes. Do I need to go on?”

Cain shook his head “Maybe I would like to have a lawyer present.”

Stella shrugged. “I have no need to question you with a lawyer present. We will just hold you until—”

“You can’t do that!” Cain seethed.

Stella smiled widely. “Johnson versus City Hall. There is a precedent, and though my superiors don’t have enough evidence to convict you, they have ample suspicion to hold you for questioning for a long time. Hell, protective custody can even play a part in all this, but how we define protective custody can mean a lot of things.” She shook her head as if the idea were distasteful. “I don’t want that, though. You probably don’t want that either.” Stella sat down and rubbed her hands together.

“Okay, fine,” Cain said quietly.

“Now, tell me about Holly Archer.”

“Holly was Charlie’s girlfriend for about a year and a half when we worked together in Virginia Beach.” Cain shifted uncomfortably as he spoke. He knew what Stella wanted to hear; that she looked so much like Holly made it all the worse.

“You see, Charlie and I have been through everything together. But there was something different about Holly. She loved him, and I…” Cain forced his fingernails deep into his palm. “Well, I didn’t want him to stay behind. But I knew he would have been better off with her instead of me. So I told him to stay in Virginia Beach.”

“Why didn’t he stay?”

“Charlie thinks he owes me his life. He has this crazy fixation about his own sense of honor.”

“And what happened after he decided to go with you? What happened between him and Holly?”

“Holly didn’t want him to go, and made quite a scene on the jobsite.” Cain ran his hand through his hair and made a fist. “She was killed—T-boned on an intersection that a car ran a red light on.”

“The traffic report says differently.”

Anger surged within him. Why did people like her always take the other’s side? With no questioning, as if those charged with authority were above weakness, failure, or judgment. “Yeah, well, the traffic report conflicts with the five witnesses that were there.” Cain looked up with a harsh glare. “The person who ran the light was a
cop
.”

“Go on, tell me everything.”

Cain sighed and tried to look away. But the way Stella kept her pale blue eyes upon him was like a harsh judgment, a ghost haunting from the past, representing the worst moment of Charlie’s life. Cain’s own guilt rose to the surface of that day—guilt from the relief he took from her death. Relief in knowing Charlie wasn’t going to leave him. Though Charlie refused to stay with Holly at first, Cain knew Charlie well enough to be certain he was going to change his mind.

But the decision was made for the both of them; Holly was killed.

“Everything?” Cain started to tremble from the stress and hunger. He probably had about five hours of sleep in the last thirty-five. And the food he had only awakened his hunger even more so, causing his stomach to hurt as if he’d been punched. “You probably know more than me,” Cain said wearily, staring into blue eyes that dragged him into the past against his will.

“Anytime you’re ready.”

“Dammit, Holly, I already told—”

Holly shook her head slowly. “Tell me again, Cain. I need to know everything. What I said, what you said, everything.”

“What do you want me to say? I tried, okay? I was even ready to cut Charlie completely loose! I was just about to leave him behind, you know?”

Holly sighed. “Sometimes I wonder about you, Cain. You strike me as one who is filled with guilt.”

“Holly,” Cain whispered, “I’m sorry. I was so wrapped up in my own world, I didn’t care to think about Charlie’s, about yours.” He shook his head. “Charlie was never the same afterward. He loved you, and I didn’t see it.”

“Tell me about the last time we spoke, I have forgotten,” Holly murmured.

Cain nodded and continued to talk. He leaned back into the uncomfortable metal folding chair. God, he was so tired; that last concrete job was a clusterfuck for sure, with three people calling out sick.

Sick, my ass! They just wanted to go down to the beach! The damn whiners just can’t hold their own in the heat!

Holly sighed, bringing Cain’s mind back to her request. So many details came flooding back. He remembered that day Holly had come to him. She sat across from him; there was little pretense to be had, as the job assignment was three days away from being finished. He and Charlie had already accepted another job three hundred miles north.

“God, Cain, thank you for coming. I know things aren’t going well between you and Cynthia, but I needed to talk to you without her and Charlie around.”

“I know what you want, Holly, but I don’t think I can help you.”

Holly shook her head.
“Cain, Charlie will stay if you tell him to. He follows you because of whatever it was that happened in your past. Please, tell him to stay.”

“Who the hell are you to tell me to ask my best friend of nine years to take a hike?”

“Cain, I know I am asking much. I know I cannot compare to the friendship you have with Charlie.”
She wiped her eyes and grasped his hands in a begging gesture. “But I know you. I know you to be an honorable man, and an even greater friend.” She gasped for a few moments. “And we both know that Charlie would be better off with me.”

“Girlfriend of my best friend or not, you tell me one good reason to back that up, or I’ll slap you silly!”

Holly wiped her eyes again. “Cain, you and Charlie both could be anything! Anyone! You both had the grades and the SAT scores for any college you wanted!” She looked up to him, her eyes filled with desperation and fear. “But you don’t want to; you don’t care to! Charlie does! But we both know he stays with you because of his loyalty. Why can’t you want what is best for him, and not just yourself?” Her breaths dissolved into a half sob, and she stuttered the last word he heard her speak.

“P-p-please.”

“Okay, for Charlie.”

She was right; she was always right, and they both knew it. And when Charlie refused, Cain was about to end their friendship over his refusal. But before he could say anything, Holly’s car was smashed; she was gone. From then on, Charlie was more purpose driven, more ambitious.

Cain was glad to see the change in his friend. His gladness, though, was marred by guilt and envy. His guilt was to not see Charlie wind up with Holly, and his envy was over Charlie finally seizing the wheel of his own life.

And as desperate as Cain was to have what Charlie had for himself, he never spoke about his feelings or his final conversation with Holly. If Cain was certain of anything, he was certain that he had no right to ever speak of it.

But above his envy, desperation, or guilt was a harsh sense of doom. Cain knew in his heart he would very likely end up an old man before his time on the construction site. But for him it was more than an inability, or some mental block. He just didn’t care to reach out for more in this world. As much as he wanted to, as much as he wanted to escape such a fate, Cain didn’t know if he could.

***

Once out of the police station, Cain found himself eating at a small diner not too far away when his full stomach brought the realization of being manipulated, and it hit him like a freight train. That detective…what was her name? She looked just like Holly and used it against him! She…she…

She what? She got to know the story behind Holly’s death, but why would she want to know about that? What was she after? Cain sighed and continued to wolf down his third serving of food.

A nostalgic blur of color caught his eye; a blonde girl with her boyfriend walked out laughing, not a care in the world. Cain watched them go and for the first time felt a painful remorse over the pain and suffering his life indirectly caused. He wondered if Holly and that detective were related. He wondered where Al’bah was. He—

Cain took in a deep breath.
Where are all these thoughts coming from? What’s happened to me?

The door of the diner opened and the detective walked through, looking at Cain with a remorseful expression.

Cain felt a ball of molten steel erupt within his chest, but like a glass cup slips through the fingers of a distracted person, so did his anger.

“Cain, I take it you’re feeling better now?”

“Yeah, I am, Stella, or should I still call you Holly?”

Stella looked ashamed. “I want to apologize about earlier. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that. It was wrong of me.”

Cain dropped his eyes; the last place where he and Holly had spoken was in a diner, and even though his belly was full and his stress was a lot less, he still felt the ghost of Holly’s presence in Stella.

“Um, thanks.”

Stella got up. “I have some things to take care of. I will be at your place in about five hours.”

“Might I ask one thing?”

She gestured with her hand. “Go ahead.”

“Why did you want to know about Holly?”

“Holly’s parents are the most outspoken presences in Richmond against drugs. I wanted to either confirm or clear my suspicions that you had something to do with her death.”

“And that’s all?”

“Yes.”

She was lying. Cain could see her eyes change the same way Holly’s eyes would, whenever she would try to be less than honest. Cain opened his mouth to ask another question when Stella continued.

“For the record, Mister Lamentson, I think there is something wrong with you. There are too many oddities about your behavior and your past that preclude the possibility of bad luck.” She lowered her eyes. “But I don’t think you are a drug dealer, or a killer.”

“Why?”

Stella smiled for the first time. “Honestly, I don’t know. I just have a feeling.”

Five hours.
No doubt they’ll have someone tailing me until then,
Cain thought as soon as he was out of the diner. He looked at the card Walter gave him, with just his contact number and an address, nothing more. Thank God he did not have to be at work today. He checked his cell phone. No voicemail but three texts, including two from his boss. One text was of him wondering what was going on, and another that he was relieved that Cain was “detained for protection,” reminding him to be at work the next day.

And a third from Charlie.
“Didja get it? Didja drop the soap, Cain-sama?”

“I’m out, and I am on my way!”
he texted back to Charlie and looked up to get his bearings.

Cain was currently at the intersection of Main and Fifth. Good. It was a quick walk to the address of the Stratton Law Firm that was on his card; Cain hardly had any idea on what he was going to do once he got there, but he knew that at the very least he could scope out this place, maybe get a few license plate numbers.

Cain read the card again: “You have an appointment at five o’ clock.”

Early or not, he was going to do something.

Hat Trick

“Considering the chances of you being a repeat offender, I see no reason to call an ambulance for you. You lived like a dog, at least try to die like a man.”

—Shane Harper

Once Stella returned to the examination room, she
 retrieved several plastic bags and gloves from her briefcase. With a satisfied smirk, she bagged up the utensils, the nearly full glass of spoiled milk, and anything else that might have samples of Cain Lamentson’s DNA.

The door opened and Shane Harper walked in. “You get anything from the boy?” he said, scratching his russet brown hair.

“Nothing significant” Stella said, returning to labeling the bags. “I just hope the extra-crispy bacon and the burnt toast abraded his mouth enough to get a DNA sample in the milk.” She turned to Shane, who was now adjusting his rancher’s hat in the one-way mirror. “Is there something wrong, Agent Harper?”