The first person I see is him. Hands bound behind his back with a gag between his lips. His shirt lies crumpled a few feet away. Dark scars slither like serpents over his pectorals through his abs stopping just before they reach his navel.
"Pat him down," the waitress with the buzz says ordering a young Native American girl with flowing coal black hair and wide dark eyes. She looks to be about sixteen but she's so tiny she could pass for twelve. Hesitantly, she approaches Riley stepping over his long legs and squatting to the dirt floor. Her fingers dance nervously up and down his pant legs causing a blush to spread like wildfire over her cheeks. She checks his left pocket digging around until she pulls out a badge. The star shimmers under the single bulb.
He was on my side, I think shamefully. His caramel eyes bore into my face but I don't have the decency to meet his gaze. Instead I glance around the room looking for a way out. In the right corner is a twisting staircase that leads up to a rectangle of light. In the opposite corner, lawn gnomes are gathered together like a football team ready to break from the huddle. Green plastic water hoses are strewn across the floor wrapping themselves around an overstuffed brown couch and a red La-Z-Boy. An ancient washing machine is attached to a wall surrounded by baskets of clothes and two sleeping dogs, one a Rottweiler and the other a chocolate Lab puppy.
The girl reaches over Riley's lap keeping her hair as a curtain so he can't see her cringing face as she digs through his other pocket barely sticking her fingertips in before she shoots up and shakes her head to the waitress. "There is no more," She says her English perfectly clear with a slight French accent.
"Good," The waitress says eyeing the badge in her palm, not looking up. "You may leave, Nova." The girl nods treading up the stairs stealing glances of Riley before she disappears through the ceiling. The waitress stuffs the badge down her shirt into her bra. Riley quietly groans in disgust.
"You know what the name Nova means?" The waitress asks tucking her peach shirt into her jean shorts. She bends to retie her hiking boots then shakes her head as she decides to pull all of the laces out. She takes her left shoe in hand beginning to thread the laces through the holes. Her wrist bends skillfully with each swift movement. "It's a Native American or really a Hopi name that means chases butterflies. My name is Nukpana which means…" She looks up a sadistic smile tugging at her lips, "evil". She looks down again continuing to lace her boot. "I bet you two are wondering what this is all about… especially you, Sam." The air inside my lungs flits about nervously not sure whether to stick to my lungs or leave my body completely.
"When I was only nine years old in Arizona both my parents died in a plane crash. All of my relatives were either dead or hadn't spoken to us since my parents had gotten married twenty years before. Nevertheless, I had no where to go until our neighbor, an old woman who lived on a Hopi reservation, decided to take me in. Her name was Kuwanyauma which is translated to butterfly showing beautiful wings". She was like a second mother to me. However, not everyone accepted a white girl with strawberry blonde hair and sky blue eyes into their community. I was often teased by the much older girls who would catch me by myself in one of the fields and hold me down, burning me with their Virginia Slims and Camels. Not wanting to get them in trouble for fear of more attacks, I didn't show my second mother and kept the scars hidden for nine more years. The day I turned eighteen which was also my last day at the reservation I showed Kuwanyauma the scars. She said nothing for a good while then pulled up her sleeves showing me the scars she still bears because when she was a little girl it happened to her except instead of cigarettes it was leather horse whips".
Nukpana swallows hard her eyes shimmering from the memory. "The Indian name given to me originally was Mansi or plucked flower. After I left the reservation and began working as a chamber maid at the local motel, I decided this name was too girly and decided to go with Nukpana which was the nick name the older girls had bestowed upon me at the time of the beatings." She tugs on her newly laced left shoe then begins the same process with the right making sure the shoe string is in equal length as she threads it through each hole. "Two years later went by and the manager of the motel died. In his place was this gorgeous guy from California, a real idealist. He took that little motel and really made it something. Anyway, him and I dated on and off for six months. I'm not bragging or nothin' but I was the prettiest girl in that little hick town. He wanted to be the one to have me. But like a fool I fell for him never realizing that he was just using me like everything else. I was just a thing to him like his car or his damn money. And then he asked me to marry him".
She tugs on the boot forcefully, her eyebrows strewn together in sudden irritation. "I said yes. I had my first kiss with him and I thought that was something to be proud of. We eloped that weekend in Vegas and it was the second greatest thing that had ever happened to me." She looks at me expectantly daring me to ask what the first greatest thing was. I oblige deciding not to test her sanity.
"And the first thing was?"
"The divorce of course," She snorts with sudden laughter slapping her knee as she rises to her booted feet. The laughter soon dies down as she plops herself into the Lazy Boy drumming her fingers thoughtfully. "Six months into it he wanted to sell the business and move me to California. That's when the real trouble had started. Kuwanyauma was in the hospital for pneumonia and was close to her dying day. I didn't want to leave her to die alone out of love and respect for what she had done for me. He said he understood but clearly didn't. After she died, I became withdrawn and my personality changed dramatically. He decided that the only way for me to snap out of my depression was to completely morph me into some all American trophy wife. He even wanted me to go by my birth name and to throw away all of the gifts Kuwanyauma had given me. He pushed and pushed and pushed until I couldn't take it anymore. The night I was going to leave him was the night I found a lime green thong and used condoms in the medicine cabinet of his bathroom. He'd been sleeping with one of the interns at his office. That was the final straw so I left. Fast forward twenty five years later and here we are".
"Why does any of that have to do with me?" I ask my mind churning with questions.
"I am the former wife of Dan Ames, Samantha. The mother of his son Austin Ames," She says smiling coolly. I stare in horror trying to picture this horrendous creature as Austin's mother.
"No, that can't be. Austin's mother is dead," I state trying to mentally match her facial features with Austin's. They do have the same eyes. I shudder inwardly refusing to believe.
"So you would think. Austin was only a couple of months when I decided to give him up for adoption. His father soon found out and adopted him threatening to sue me for everything I was worth. Instead he made me promise never to come in contact with either him or Austin ever again. I would have kept that promise if…" A door slams shut upstairs making the gnomes shiver in dismay. Nukpana looks around sniffing the air keenly. She quietly rises from the La-Z-Boy traipsing up the twisting stair case. She pauses briefly glancing at me then disappears. A little door seals the top of the stairs making the rectangle of light vanish. The single bulb above Riley and I swings back and forth making the shadows dance and leap into new spots. I give Riley a hard look and mouth I'm sorry. He looks away quickly but from here I can tell from the downcast look of his eyes that they are burning with anger and something so much more.
000 000 000
An hour later I try to shift positions. I've been in kneeling for what seems like days. As I bring my tied feet around a pain so sharp flies up and down my calves like a pinball surrounded by needles. I lie on my side trying not to cry out as I bite my tongue enduring the anguish. Riley attempts to hobble on his knees to get to me. I shake my head fervently, "Don't. She may get angry". He leans far to his right falling to the ground. Then he straightens his bent legs wincing from the charley horse. The pain subsides and suddenly he focuses on me and rolls like a dog towards me stopping abruptly before our faces collide. We lie next to each other never averting our gaze from the other. His face is a perfect canvas of calm and bravery. I close my eyes and tilt my head.
His lips catch mine and for twenty seconds I am encompassed in heart throttling passion. The sweat beads from his forehead collide with my own perspiration but not even the heat from the basement can compare to the outlet of hidden feelings. My teeth catch the gag as I pull it down over his chin. He kisses my nose and cheek and then suddenly pulls away. "I can't do this. Your Austin's not mine." I nod ignoring the welling guilt that fills the potholes in my heart.
"Tell me what happened, Riley. What's going on?"
"According to the latest investigation and Nukpana's unofficial testimony she just gave, she's the one behind Austin and Lynn's leaving you... among other things. We have reason to believe that she may be in cahoots with others who are helping her complete her mission in destroying Mr. Ames's life. Someone put Mr. Ames in the hospital for slipping the common date rape drug Rohypnol in his morning coffee. His coworkers at his car washing business saw him coming out of his office and suddenly faint losing consciousness. He's been in the hospital for a week now".
"So what are you doing here?"
"Well Austin said his friend Kyle Marino called and told him that Lynn left because you apparently alerted the dean about her relationship with her professor. Austin knew you would never do that and figured something was up. My supervisor heading the case asked Mr. Ames if he had any enemies. Nukpana was his number one choice. Well after Austin learned that Lynn had left he became worried for your safety and hired me to watch your back." Riley chews the inside of his cheek shamefully with a sigh. "Anyway, I looked up some research on Nukpana and found that she was residing here in New Jersey. That's when I knew that we may have a lead".
"Why does she want to get back at Austin's Dad so badly?"
"Mr. Ames told us that Austin was neglected as a baby because the adoption agency had noticed bed sores on Austin's back and how dehydrated he was when she first turned him in. When Mr. Ames proceeded to sue Nukpana she had told him he'd already destroyed her life enough so he just looked the other way until Nukpana tried to come in contact with Austin when he was ten. He ordered a restraining order against her and ever since she's kept quiet. Other than having a huge grudge against the man, I'm not exactly sure why she'd try to get back at him now. Plus, I also think she's doing human trafficking."
I cock my eyebrows in surprise, "What makes you say that?"
He motions to the stairs with a tilt of his head. "See the shoes at the bottom of the stairs?"
"Yeah…"
"There's three of them all different sizes. I can tell by studying each length."
"How does that tie into human trafficking?"
"Did you get a load of Nova's accent?"
"Sounds French, why?" I ask wondering what he was getting at.
"Exactly. The drug Rohypnol is legal in Europe and Mexico not the U.S. Don't you find it a little odd that a Native American had lived in Europe long enough to develop an accent? Especially one connected with Nukpana who's lived in the U.S. all her life".
"Yeah and you'd think the law would prohibit her from having any kind of child in her home because she abused Austin".
"Well you'd think. But remember his father never actually sued her and I'm sure he paid off the adoption agency to keep quiet about it, too. I think it was just the shame of cheating on her and leaving her with pretty much nothing after the divorce".
"Doesn't matter. She abused an infant. His Dad is superficial but I didn't think he was spineless too".
The door above the stairs creaks open. Riley and I are paralyzed by fear as Nukpana's voice wafts down the basement, "My, my look at them. Lovebirds? Oh Austin will just love this". A flash washes over Riley and I followed by the mechanical murmurings of a digital camera.