Bane of His Existence
Chapter Sixteen
Tilly arrived in the darker side of town after talking with a number of past contacts and others living on the streets for information that would hopefully lead her, and therefore Detective Weaver, to the men he believed was responsible for kidnapping Rogers. So far, she didn't have much luck despite sharing the brothers' descriptions with as many people as she could. Either people on the streets really haven't seen these two brutes with quite the reputation for being thieves according to the senior detective, or they just didn't care to help her. Tilly understood well enough about living among them to know it was more because they weren't interested in sharing information, especially if it led to saving the life of a cop.
The young woman once from Wonderland and other places, was trying to talk with a homeless vet and his son when a woman Tilly knew right away to be a prostitute called out to her and motioned for her to come talk with her. When the vet and his son refused to talk anymore to her, Tilly turned towards the other woman and reluctantly walked towards her until she was standing a few feet away.
"Hello, sweetheart," the prostitute stated while she continued leaning back against the brick wall where she was standing as she looked into Tilly's eyes. "Around this part of the neighborhood, people call me Maggie. I've heard rumors about a young woman going around looking for a couple of thugs. I take it that's you."
"I'm looking for them because I believe they're responsible for the disappearance of a friend of mine," Tilly answered sternly, continuing to keep her distance.
Maggie nodded and then replied, "There've been a lot of people going missing from these streets. For a long time now. I take it whoever you're looking for is really important to you? Do you have a picture of her… or him?"
The teenager shook her head, then responded, "No… I don't. And he's not from the streets. But I'm actually looking for information about the men who might have abducted him earlier this evening. They're brothers. One wears an eyepatch and the other has a scar along his cheek. They're big guys. Please… if there's anything you might know…"
"I don't typically get involved in people's problems because I find the less you do, the longer your life tends to last among these streets," the witch answered coldly as she rose away from the wall of the building behind her, then wrapped her arm around the young girl's shoulders before offering Tilly a cigarette, which Tilly quickly turned down. "It's dangerous out here and I can tell that you know that as well as I do. However, I also know what it feels like to lose someone you care about when there's no one else who cares whether you live or die. However, it turns out I happen to know exactly who you're talking about. I slept with both brothers on more than one occasion. If telling you where you might be able to find them makes it so that they're arrested for kidnapping or anything else… then I would be more than happy to help you. I hope you have someone who can help you against those pieces of scum should you find them, and therefore your friend?"
"I do," Tilly eagerly replied as Maggie pulled out a napkin from the purse she wore over her shoulder, then took a pen from one of the other women standing around them and finally began to jot down an address before handing it over to the teenager. "Thank you. I'm afraid I have nothing I can give you in return for your help, but…"
Maggie grinned smugly and then responded, "Like I said, I'd be happy to see those two brutes go to prison. Then they won't be back here again to bother me. If you can see to that, it's all the thanks I need. Good luck finding your friend."
Tilly finally walked away and started back towards Roni's across town while she pulled the phone Weaver had given her, then quickly hit his name within the few contacts programmed in it to dial his number and when he picked up after the second ring, she spoke to him curtly saying, "I might have just figured out where the brothers are hiding out. If you're not still at Roni's place, get back there now. I'll be there as soon as I can."
She didn't wait for him to say anything more except that he would meet her there before she hung up on him, then she continued walking away from the women who sold themselves to men for money and sexual pleasure each night. Once she was gone, Maggie smiled again and then took out her own phone to call her sister witches, to let them know Weaver would be arriving at the address she had given to the teenager very soon.
A short time later, Tilly returned to Roni's where the bar's owner, the red haired woman she had seen there earlier, and Weaver were waiting for her. Regina didn't miss how the young woman who was Rogers' daughter was looking at Zelena strangely and realized that Tilly wasn't sure she could trust the other woman well enough to talk freely.
"This is Kelly… my sister," Roni immediately said as she laid a hand gently on Zelena's shoulder to indicate who she meant. "It's okay. You can talk in front of her. She's a friend to Rogers too like we all are."
"It wasn't easy finding anyone willing to talk," Tilly then began while she looked around the room between them. "I finally spoke with a prostitute who claimed she's been with both these Stabbington brothers more than once. She doesn't hold a high regard for either one of them. She gave me an address to an apartment where she said they might be hiding out. She's hoping her information will lead to you finding and arresting them so that they spend the rest of their lives in prison."
When she handed the napkin over to the senior detective, Weaver stared at it for a few seconds until he looked back over at Tilly and answered, "You've done good. Let's hope this leads to us finding Detective Rogers too. Tell me, did the woman who gave this to you… Did she go by the name Maggie by any chance?"
The teenager looked at him strangely as she uttered, "Yes. I believe she did. Does it really matter?"
"No, I don't suppose so," he replied. "You should get going. It's late and you're here in a bar, which you really shouldn't be. I'll investigate this information you brought for me."
"I don't think so," Tilly retorted more firmly. "I'm coming with you. Detective Rogers is my friend. I could have gone to that address without you, but you told me we were going to work together to find him. I want to continue to help you find him. Please, Weaver. I promise, I won't get in your way, nor will I risk my life trying to fight against these brutes if they're there. But I can take care of myself. I have been for a long time. I just don't want to be asked to stay behind while I wait for any news."
Weaver let out a sigh of frustration while he looked into her eyes and saw her determination, then he turned to Regina as she responded, "Tilly's right, Weaver. She has every right to help us all the way until we find him. She's as much Rogers' friend as we are. We can look after her. I am going with you. Kelly will watch the bar for me and call me if she comes across any information. And if the brutes are at this address when we arrive, and they attempt to attack us, you can shoot them."
He finally relented as he then answered, "Very well. But Tilly, you are to do exactly as I say and I want to hear no arguments from you. It's as I said before, Rogers wouldn't want to see you get hurt. Now… let's go."
Once they pulled up outside of the fleabag motel that belonged to the address given to them, Gold, Regina, and Tilly all walked inside the lobby where a sleazy looking man in his fifties was sitting behind the receptionist desk until he looked up to see a man he immediately recognized as a cop by his reputation and stood to greet them.
"Welcome, officer," he stated smugly as he looked over at Roni and smiled, making Regina feel sick to her stomach more than she had from the look of the interior, as the room was dirty with scum and trash all over. "And Ma'am. What can I do for you tonight?"
"You can give us the room number belonging to these two men," Gold sternly replied when he slammed a paper showing the Stabbington brothers' mugshot photos, in order to turn the man's attention away Regina. "I don't doubt that they're here, or at least keep a room here as I understand they're here quite often with hookers and perhaps other women. I suggest you cooperate, or I will call my men at the police station and have them come down to tear this place apart looking for all kinds of illegal activity I don't doubt goes on here."
The manager quickly grabbed a room key from off the wall behind him and handed it over to the detective, then uttered, "It's room fifty-five. Second floor, down the hall. But I don't think you'll find them up there right now. I saw them leave again not that long ago. They came in here with a friend of theirs and two women. They went up, then they came back down a short time later, all except for their friend who was being dragged between them. They said he was passed out drunk and drugged up. I didn't ask anymore questions, but I'm guessing their friend's in the room right now sleeping off whatever he's on."
Regina quickly grabbed the key from Weaver's hands and started up the stairs as he and Tilly both followed after her. When they came to the door, she paused a moment while she looked over at her friend and then finally unlocked it to walk inside. Once she did so, she and Tilly both let out a sudden gasp in shock upon finding Rogers inside as he was trussed up with thick leather straps around his wrists and hung from the ceiling fan directly above him, his bare feet not even touching the ground. Thankfully he was wearing his shirt and jeans he had been wearing the last time they had seen him, but his clothes were disheveled like his hair, and the three of them could see cuts and bruises all along his face, neck, wrist, and his only hand.
Gold was the first to rush over to help his partner, followed quickly by Roni as he forcefully ordered, "Tilly, I need you to leave now. Go back to my car and wait for us there. We will out as soon as we can. Go, now!"
As much as she wanted to, she didn't argue with Weaver and she ran from the room in horror at the sight she had just seen, while the two heroes carefully worked to lower their friend down from the ceiling, then gently laid the unconscious man down on the floor so they could look him over for anymore wounds aside from the obvious they couldn't see.
"We need to get him to the hospital," Regina said worryingly as she laid two of her fingers to Rogers' neck to feel for a pulse and felt that it was there and steady, while the senior detective first worked to continue to untie his wrists. "He's burning up."
"We won't be able to protect him from Gothel and the other witches as well as we could if we were someplace of our own, where we can care for him ourselves," Gold retorted in frustration. "On top of that, if we were to bring him to the hospital to be treated, I would be obligated to place Rogers under arrest, seeing as we still haven't found a way to prove his innocence in the doctor's murder. At least by not making it known to everyone that we've found him, we can go on pretending he is still missing."
When Roni finally lifted up Rogers' shirt to get a look at his chest and stomach, their eyes darkened upon seeing a small knife wound in the left side of his stomach just above his pants line, as well as sickly black striations barely beginning to grow which they both knew very well, and the detective spoke again coldly saying, "Besides… we both know that the dreamshade flowing through him now cannot be treated by normal medicines anyways. It appears that Gothel's managed to gather herself a souvenir from your adventure together in Neverland before she came back."
All of a sudden, Gothel appeared in the doorway as both Regina and Gold spun around to see her standing before them when she responded, "They may not be able to heal Detective Rogers, but I can. All I ask is that you give into my demands. I don't doubt that you will. If you care for him as much as you claim."
