Another chapter up!
Matt approached the woman and she turned to face him.
"Who are you," she asked, taking a drag from her cigarette.
She looked older than her probable age, with dark blonde hair and sun tanned skin. Matt thought she looked at him cynically enough and wasn't worth lying to about his identity.
"I'm an investigator out of L.A.," he said, "I ran into some women from this town who said a lot of bad things were happening here."
Her eyes darkened and the cigarette shook in her hand.
"Maybe they're right…"
"What do you know about it?"
She tilted her head, took out her cigarette and dropped it on the ground, then stamping it out with her boot.
"I was there," she said, "I was at the big ranch house at that party when it caught fire."
Matt's eyes widened.
"Some women escaped."
She nodded, with a sigh.
"But not me," she said, "I tried but one of the deputies caught me and took me back to the detention center but they had to let me go a couple days later."
"What's your name?"
She smiled slightly but her eyes remained sharp.
"Babs…that's what I go by and the only name I'll answer to anyone."
Matt smiled.
"Okay…Babs, what can you tell me about that day?"
She folded her arms.
"What can you do for me?"
"I'm here to shut down what they were doing at that ranch," he said, "You see a close friend of mine was caught up on it after they abducted her."
"That happened to quite a few women," she said, "Though some just got into trouble on their own. It happens."
"What about you?"
She shrugged.
"A little of both."
C.J. had left the bar to head off to Chad's place, not looking forward to what lay ahead one bit. Not that she planned to do anything with him except find a way to divert his attention so that she could search his place for anything that might help her. Finding a copy of that surveillance tape would be nice and would bring an end to her nightmare. She came out into the alley and then she saw him.
Matt standing there talking with Babs, a woman who had hung out at the jail with Fran. Not one of her favorite people having had been targeted by Fran and her while they had all been locked up. What was going on here, she asked herself as she pulled herself in the shadows until they had passed.
She had fought a couple of times in jail with Babs who had been most often seen with Fran smoking cigarettes out in the yard. Whenever they could buy off the guards.
The fights hadn't lasted very long between them because C.J. had great fighting skills that she had learned somewhere and could disable one or both of them quickly enough.
Once she had gotten the better of them, everyone else had pretty much left her alone. But she had no desire to find herself back in jail, say on murder charges awaiting an even longer stint in prison on trumped up charges. If she could find the surveillance video which some anonymous person had taunted her with, then she could put all of this behind her and then focus on figuring out who she was and what she would do with her life.
She knew she wanted to go back to L.A. with Matt who had said he would help her find the missing pieces still stuck in her mind somewhere. And if not, that he would help her shape a new life, as good or better than the one she had lost.
The earnestness of his voice and body language not to mention some deeper instinct made her believe him.
"So are you going to help me bring them down," Matt asked Babs.
She shrugged.
"Like I said, are you going to make it worth my while?"
"What about Fran," he said, "Don't you care about her?"
She stood silently, her eyes fixed on him.
"Maybe I do…maybe I don't," she said, "What business is it of yours anyway?"
"Because I know where she's been and she's been helping me bring these creeps down and put them out of business forever."
That caught her attention.
"Oh I don't know about that," she said, "sure they might be getting some heat now but when the media and cops go away, they'll be back in business."
Matt had already considered that but had decided that no way would it happen while he had anything to say about it.
"If you could help me…"
She chuckled derisively.
"You'd end it," she said, "How could you do that? I haven't even been able to go home, haven't seen my kid in over a year because I've been trapped her."
His face softened.
"What if we could change that?"
She looked hopeful, but very wary as well. He guessed that most of the men in her life at the very least had failed her. But he needed her help.
"I just want to go home again."
C.J. heard the wistfulness in her voice and she understood what she meant. Home sounded so good right now, if far away. She sighed as she watched them but decided it was time to move on so she slid quietly out of the cover she had taken and walked in the other direction, away from Matt who had his back turned and his attention focused on Babs.
He nodded.
"Okay that can happen if you help us," he said, "What do you know, who knew what was going on?"
She hesitated.
"There's a deputy who hung out here," she said, "One of the worst ones. His name's Chad and I checked to see if he were inside drinking but he'd left for home."
Matt stroked his jaw.
"Does he have an address," he said, "I could go talk with him."
Babs pursed her lips and then finally gave it to him.
"He's got a mean streak and he's pretty strong," she said, "I know, he grabbed me and threw me in the paddy truck while I was just out walking."
He looked at her before leaving.
"Thanks."
She nodded wearily and he went to drop in on Chad.
C.J. approached Chad's place and stopped suddenly, having second thoughts. Actually more than that because she had been asking herself during the entire trip over there whether what she was doing was wise.
She decided, maybe not but it wasn't like her list of choices was very extensive. Without evidence to clear her name of murder, she would always be running. And she just wanted to stop, so by the time she neared Chad's residence, she had resolved her inner dialogue filled with second guessing. He lived in a small place on a dusty street highlighted now by street lights which lined it. Halos of light with plenty of darkness between.
She saw his residence and started up the footpath, mentally preparing a list of steps inside her head of how to proceed. She kept her plan flexible because she didn't know what would happen and she had to be prepared for anything until she left there hopefully with something that set her free.
The house appeared quiet with a single light that shone through a half-drawn window shade. She paused suddenly hearing activity inside and then a single gunshot broke the air. It sounded like it came closer to an alley which faced the backyards of the homes on the street. Suddenly, she saw a dark figure sprinting away from the back to the front and she looked up startled as it approached her.
The figure stopped briefly to stare at her and she braced herself for the gunshot she expected to come to silence her as a witness. But the figure turned tail and headed down the street.
Matt saw a figure running down the street and looked to see where this person ran from. Something must have happened for his frantic sprinting to break the quiet of the residential street. He looked all around and then another figure came running in his direction.
This one, more familiar to him even as she looked up at him as she approached then shifted enough to avoid hitting him.
"C.J…"
She didn't even stop so he ran after her down the street.
C.J. had been shocked to see Matt standing in front of her in her path. She almost stopped but another part of her dug at her to keep running. She hadn't even investigated to see if Chad had been the target of the gunshot, she just knew it. And she didn't want to stick around while people who heard the noise came out and discovered a dead deputy.
Matt neared her and she couldn't run any faster. She mentally prepared herself for when he grabbed her arm and jerked her back, nearly causing her to fall on the ground with him.
"C.J. it's me…"
She looked at him in resignation.
"I know," she said, "Just let me go."
He held onto her tightly.
"I can't do that," he said, "I told you I'd help you no matter what and I meant it."
She sighed in his embrace.
"I can't drag you into this any further."
"Well I can't let you try to handle this all alone," he countered, "and I'm more stubborn than you are so you might as well stop worrying about what's best for me and let me in."
She shook her head.
"It's too dangerous," she said, "and I…I killed someone…he …called me Bunny…"
"The man in the parking lot."
"He wouldn't let me go," she said, "I'm never going to get out of this."
He tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes.
"Yes you will," he said, "We'll get you out of this and back home."
She really wanted to believe him but didn't know if she could dare to hope that soon this nightmare would be behind her.
"Why were you here," he asked her.
She took a deep breath calming herself.
"I met up with a deputy named Chad in the bar and he invited me to his place," she said, "and I accepted."
"Why?"
"Because I thought I could get his guard down and then search the place for evidence," she said, "I thought he might even have a copy of that video."
"Did you get inside?"
"No, I heard a gunshot before I even got to the door."
"See anyone?"
"Just someone running, but I couldn't make out the face."
"I ran into Babs and she told me to drop by Chad's to see what I could find out."
"Babs from the jail," she said, "Okay so she made it out…This Chad guy, he killed some of the women Houston…before they were buried in the desert."
"I figured the deputies pulled the triggers."
She nodded then looked in the direction of the house.
"I needed to get inside it to search for evidence," she said.
"That's not going to happen tonight. The place will be filled with cops in a few minutes."
"What we need to clear us could be in there."
He heard the frustration in her voice and it matched his own feelings but there had to be a way to find whatever Chad had been stashing.
"Why don't we try tomorrow morning," he said, "We can at least see if they've cleared the scene and try then."
She thought about it and nodded.
"Where are Rhonda and Fran?"
"They hid out why the police canvassed the motel," he said, "but they should be back there."
"Is it safe for them?"
"I think so," he said, "That might be the last place police would expect to find them now."
"You could be right," she said, "Well I found a place to stay from this nice waitress so I'll be heading back there."
He nodded.
"Want some company?"
She bit her lip, nodding.
"You can walk me back there anyway," she said, "I'd rather go there than back to the motel."
He understood her hesitation at going back close to where she had killed the man in the parking lot. So he put his arm around her and they headed back to the apartment.