Lighthouse
Chapter 6
Kate had been told that someone came to check on Rick, to find out why he wasn't talking to anyone on his radio. She had also learned that he'd given them their combined list. Now she was coming down the stairs with the intent to get breakfast started. She had designs on making a casserole for both of them. That was when she saw him sitting on the sofa, patting the space next to him as soon as he saw her.
"Shit!" She had been hoping that he would either wait a while or maybe if she was really lucky, forget to ask her altogether. However her luck – mostly bad – was holding and he apparently wanted answers.
She sat down next to him and hung her head.
"Let's hear it. I know of no ship that uses women as crew so we can start there. Why were you on that ship?" Rick was ready for answers.
She really didn't want to go through this. He was going to hate her even if he couldn't get her off the island now, their peaceful coexistence could come to an end after this.
"Start from the beginning, Kim."
She took a deep breath and needed to start somewhere. Maybe if she was lucky he would feel her pain and not hate her. "I met a man who was really nice and treated me with kindness. We'd been together for about six months when he asked me to marry him.
"My best friend, who had moved far away with her husband, advised me to either delay or say no. I said yes instead. Three weeks later we were married in a tiny ceremony that was just us and the officiant. Over the next month I started to learn just what kind of man I'd married.
"He didn't hit me at any point, however that didn't mean he didn't exercise complete control over my life. I was forced to quit my job and spend my time tending to the house and cooking his meals. When I did something he didn't like he had methods to enforce his rules." She paused and let him think about that but he didn't say anything. He just sat there and waited for her to continue.
"One day he came home and found me doing some clothing design on paper. I took a lot of classes in college to get really good at it, or at least I thought I was good at it. He blew his top and that was the first time he actually hit me. He made me burn everything I had done or had hidden away." She paused for a moment, her lower lip quivering. "He started searching the house for everything important to me. He had me burn my life away." That had been one of the final straws. He hadn't burned it away, he had forced her to burn it away.
"Then one night he came home really late and he was drunk this time. Dinner was ruined and I had eaten some of it without him before it all went into the trash. That was when we had a fight. I was terrified about what he might do to me. So I grabbed a knife and he stumbled into it because he was drunk. He fell and didn't move. The knife was no longer in my hand and his blood was all over it." She took a long shuddering breath then continued.
"I was scared out of my mind, so afraid that I'd killed him. I ran to the only friend I had in town. She helped me to calm down, gave me some clothes and all the money she had, and drove me to the bus station. She's really nice and a very good friend.
"I bought a bus ticket to a far away town located on the edge of the lake. Then I saw him stopping buses to try and find me. He didn't stop my bus so I got away. That was when I knew I hadn't killed him like I thought maybe I had even if I hadn't meant to." She paused again but Rick just sat there and looked at her.
"I borrowed a small boat with a small motor, went across the bay, and snuck onboard a freighter that was already loaded with grain. I found a place to hide. I stole sandwiches, peed into buckets or even pans until I found a bathroom that had a toilet.
"Everything was fine until I woke up and didn't hear the engines running any longer. All the lights were off and didn't work. Then a wall of water came thundering down the hallway and I woke up here. That's about it." A number of days had been condensed down to bare bones. She looked at him nervously, waiting for him to say something.
Rick was full of questions but at least he now understood why she had been on that ship.
"Why didn't you go to the police? That's what they're there for." If he had hit her there should be marks on her body.
"I couldn't! He is the police. He's a homicide detective. It's his job to find people." Going to the police was out of the question. It would be his word against hers and he was a cop. He won instantly.
"Shit!" Rick cursed since a cop was after her that made everything more difficult. "And when he finds you?" What did she think would happen to her.
"He'll beat me, lock me up, chain me in place, and never let me out of the house again. Maybe even kill me." She knew her life was never going to be her own again. She would be a locked up slave if she managed to live.
"So what was the plan?" If she even had one.
"We decided my best chance to get away was to get out of Canada but Sylvia didn't have that kind of money. That freighter would have taken me into a different lake and into the States. From there I didn't really know. I didn't have much money. I hoped that he couldn't reach me if I was out of the country." Except she didn't make it. She was still technically in Canada.
She waited for him to say something. He didn't look angry but he was a man and she didn't know what he was going to do. She prayed he would help her, but she didn't know that for sure.
"What's his name and what's your name?" Her name was obviously not Kim.
"Josh Davidson. I'm Kate Davidson. My maiden name was Beckett."
Rick didn't recognize either of those names, not that that told him a whole lot. Just that he hadn't heard of either of them before.
Then suddenly he got up and started walking toward the door. "Where are you going?"
"For a walk. I need to think about this, Kate Davidson." Rick went out the door and didn't see her get up and rush to the door to stop him. But she let him go once he was outside.
"Please, Rick," she whispered. If he didn't help her, her life was over.
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Rick found himself in the maintenance building which shouldn't have been a big surprise. He spent a lot of his time there. It was actually where he felt the most comfortable, surrounded by all the machines that he knew so well. He sat on his stool and began mindlessly moving around the stuff that was on his work bench while he tried to think.
She was married and he had told himself to never get involved with a married woman. It was just that he was learning to really like her. If they weren't living here together he might consider asking her for a date, but they did, and they were.
"A cop." Rick hit his work bench. If he had so much control over her he really doubted if he would just let her go. She was his wife and it sounded like his slave. If she was telling him the truth. But was what was the truth and what was a lie? She had been lying to him ever since she had arrived so was she telling him the truth now or was she still lying? His best way to get answers was lying on the ground just outside that wall and wasn't going to be replaced for weeks, if not months.
Still someone might come to at least see how he was doing, provided that the weather cooperated and they could dock their boat. "The guys promised to come up with a plan, so maybe in a few days. …Maybe."
He had a name, provided that wasn't another lie, but what he needed was a town. If this Josh Davidson actually existed there would be a record of him, especially if he was a police officer. "Homicide detective."
Well, he had a few friends that might be able to help if or when he could ever get in contact with them. For now at least it sounded like he was stuck with her and her story.
"Fine, she can stay for now and I'll keep my mouth shut. At least until I can verify some of this." It was just his luck that a lovely woman would drop right in his lap and turn out to be married. Not just married but on the run, if she really was.
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Josh shared the space with other investigators and patrol cops. He was presently going over all his interview notes in an effort to find her. Problem was they didn't give him any solid leads. Angry and frustrated, he wadded up a piece of scrap paper and threw it toward someone's waste basket.
"You okay over there?" the one with the chosen waste basket inquired.
"Yeah, job just got a little harder is all." It also had him up out of his seat. He didn't have what he needed so it was back out to find it. He chose to start with the bus station yet again. It was the only real way out of this town when you didn't own a car and he had their one and only car.
He had turned the house inside out over the last few days searching it for anything she was trying to hide from him. He had actually found a few things but they didn't help him at finding her. At least not yet. They were pieces to a puzzle that was turning out to be a big puzzle.
He was soon down at the bus station and in line to get a ticket but he didn't have the patience to wait so he moved to the front of the line and showed the guy his badge.
"Hey buddy, wait your turn." He didn't like being cut in front of.
Josh turned on him, ready to beat the crap out of him. Instead he showed him his badge and put his hand on his gun. "It is my turn unless you would like a turn in my jail," Josh all but spat at him and watched him raise his hands and back up a step.
Satisfied that he had gotten his way as always he turned back to the guy who sold the tickets. "Have you seen this woman." He showed him a picture of her. "THINK, man. Have you seen her? Maybe a different hair color?" A lot of people thought that if you just changed your hair color you would disappear. He knew better.
"Like I told you before, no, I ain't seen her." He wasn't intimidated by the tall cop.
Josh hissed as he turned away and started heading for the row of the buses. He went one by one and questioned each and every bus driver, asking them the same questions.
"It kinda looks like her, but her hair was really short and blonde, almost white. I remember mostly because of the hair color. It was like she had tried to dye it but screwed it all up. Pretty, though." He ratted out Kate since the man asking about her was a cop.
"Where did you take her? Where did you drive to that day?" Josh clenched his fist. He finally had a lead.
"Lots of places. There are eight stops on that route." That didn't even count the farms that he stopped at to pick up people that flagged him down which happened more than most people knew.
Josh cursed a blue streak. His lead meant he had more work ahead of him. "Write them all down." He handed him a note pad and a pen. "And write so I can read it. I won't have to come back here. …Will I?" It was a threat and the bus driver knew it.
"N-no, s-s-sir!" the terrified driver stammered.
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Josh was back at his desk as he started to look up each and every stop. Most of them were just that, places to stop. Granted someone could have gotten on or even off, but if she had gotten off there really wasn't anywhere else to go. This was the only bus route that stopped there.
The last stop was a town on the edge of Lake Superior. "Thunder Bay!" He knew where she had gone, he just knew it. Now where would she go next and how was she planning on getting there? Or did she stay there thinking that it was far enough away from him? That he couldn't or wouldn't hunt her down.
He was most definitely hunting her down and he was going to make sure she paid for this betrayal. He had given her everything and this was how she repaid him.
He jabbed his finger at the spot on the map. He had some work to do first before he went on a road trip to Thunder Bay. But that would take time. If she was still there, he suddenly thought of a way that she could be there waiting for him.
He began working on it and then sent it. Her picture with Wanted for Murder below it went out to the police in Thunder Bay. If they saw her they would pick her up and hold her for him. They would even contact him to tell him that they had her.
Then he decided that just in case she got off and decided to either stay or try and find other transportation he would send it to all of the other stops on that route as well. There were now eight areas trying to find and pick up a murderer.
"You're not getting away, Kate, not now, not ever." Josh's smile grew. It was an evil smile that didn't bode well for anyone who got in his way. Especially for Kate.
However, he started to wonder how she had gotten the money for the bus ride. His wallet was missing and he'd had to go get another drivers license which had only pissed him off even more. It was just that he didn't have enough money to buy that ticket in his wallet, so where had she gotten the money?
He pounded his desk in mounting anger. "You okay, Davidson?" Gabe asked.
"I'm FINE! Just work your own cases and let me work mine!" Josh bellowed.
"Sheesh! You don't have to yell. I'm not deaf. Asshole!" he added which only pissed off Josh even more. He was good at making women afraid of him. Male cops that weren't afraid of anything in the first place, not so much.
Eyes slitted in anger, Josh thundered, "Just leave me alone and let me work," then watched the other cop turn back to his work. Satisfied that he had him off his back he went back to how Kate had gotten the money.
He rummaged through the stuff he had found at the house until he found it. He thought he'd seen it but it was just a piece of the puzzle that didn't fit. "Sylvia." He had a first name, now he just needed a last name. There couldn't be that many Sylvias in this town and he would visit each and everyone until he found the right one.
He was a cop and she was going to talk!
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Kate was worried; Rick had been gone for two long horrible hours. She lived or died based on his decision or at least that was how she saw it.
She jumped as the door finally opened and he entered the house. "I need a drink." There was a little alcohol in the kitchen and it was all the hard stuff. There wasn't any beer anywhere. Anxiously Kate followed him but she kept her distance. She watched as he pulled out one of the bottles that she had found earlier. It was amazingly the only one they had. A glass came next and soon Rick had down the tiny amount he had poured followed by pouring a tiny amount again. Only this time he put the bottle away.
Then she watched him turn to face her and start sipping his drink. His silence was killing her. She was dying for him to say something. Anything.
"You lied to me. The very first thing you ever told me was a lie." He still wasn't sure she wasn't lying now.
Kate opened her mouth to counter his claim but he was right, she had. She was trying to defend herself. "I'm sorry. I was afraid to trust you. My life was at stake." It actually still was as far as she was concerned.
"What I don't know is if you're still lying to me," Rick said flatly and Kate felt tears starting. She had learned that Rick was a kind soul and what she was doing was hurting him. She was still trying to tell herself that what she needed came first.
"So two things are going to happen and these things are going to happen or when the next ship shows up you're getting off this island. Are we clear?" Rick wasn't going to listen to her try to broker a different deal.
Kate could feel her heart pounding. Everything was telling her to run but there was no where to run to. She was trapped on an island. If anyone else found her they would tell her husband after they finally found out who she was; her life would be over.
She nodded as the first of her tears fell down her cheeks.
"First you're going to spend all the time between now and when the next supply ship shows up which is about three or so weeks from now telling me everything. You're going to tell me everything about your daily life. Everything your husband has ever done from the day you met him to the day you ran away. Especially why you thought you had killed him," Rick said.
Kate bit her lower lip. He wanted her to spill her guts about what her life had been like. Even when she didn't really want to remember let alone tell someone else. At least it gave her three weeks to change his mind about turning her over to her husband.
"Second, since you have lied to me and I don't know if you are still lying to me." Kate began frantically shaking her head. She wasn't lying, he had to believe her. He had to. "I know a few people and I'm going to have them find out what they can about this Josh Davidson. If they come back that you are lying to me…" Rick left off what he was going to do since that sounded rather obvious.
Now Kate was even more frightened. If her husband found out they would send him right here. Trembling, she shook her head in absolute fear.
"None of them likely live where you did. It's just a background check. In addition you're going to give me your complete address. There isn't going to be anymore lying. Got it?" If she didn't agree she could go and what happened to her happened.
Kate instantly nodded her head. She would tell him everything, anything, he needed to like her again. Her life was in his hands. She started wiping at her tears.
She watched him finish his drink, set the glass down, then walk up to her. "No more lies, Kate." He meant it, too.
Kate changed to shaking her head. Then she felt him wrap his arms around her and she couldn't help but cry into his shoulder. He was giving her a chance. She was never going to lie to him again. Not ever!