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"Why don’t you leave him? Get away, go somewhere, start a new life for yourself."
"Sure. Just like that."
"Leave New York.
"I have, a few times, but he always finds me. Brings me back," she said matter of factly. "Or he gives me a reason to come back."
"How does he do that?"
"He hurts the things that are important to me."
"Chésará and Jake."
"Once I thought it was over. I went to Kansas City. I didn’t tell anybody where I was going. I got a job as a teller in a bank. They were even talking about promoting me to customer service. You know, sit at a desk, open accounts, that kinda stuff. I had been there for six months when he found me. I told him I was happy and I wasn’t coming back. Usually he — yells, he grabs, shakes me, hits me. But I was ready for that. He was going to have to kill me. But he said okay and left. But it wasn’t over."
"I didn’t think so."
"The next day Chéz called me crying. She said Chilly brought Jake to her apartment and he had a gun to Jake’s head. He told her that if I didn’t say I was coming back right now, he was going to kill both of them while I listened. I said no. Then I heard the gun go off. Then Chéz screamed and said he’d shot Jake in the leg. I was back the next day."
I didn’t know what to say.
"You want more? I got more stories just like that one. That was just one of his masterworks. That’s why you have to get proof that will stand up in court. I’ve seen him go to jail and come right back."
"Now you’re talking like you think Jake is dead."
"I don’t like to think about it. I know it’s possible. The longer he’s gone, the more I think about it." Her smile was gone. I thought I saw a tear run down her cheek, but she wiped it away quickly. "So, you tell me your story, Nick?"
"Well, there’s not much to me. Ex-army, we’ve been doin’ this for about a year now."
"We?"
"I have two partners."
"They have names I’m sure." Her smile had returned as quickly as it left.
"Monika and Jett."
"Monika? A lady private detective, huh. That’s something that you don’t hear of very often," Mrs. Childers smiled and gave me a wide-eyed innocent look. "I used to read Nancy Drew when I was a little girl."
"I used to read Mickey Spilane mysteries."
"You have any family?"
"Yeah."
"It doesn’t sound like you guys are one big happy family."
"Not them, me."
r /> "I see." She finished her drink and signaled for the bartender. "Looks like there are some things you don’t like talking about either."
"You’re right, there are some things about me that I don’t like talkin’ about. But I think everybody does."
"That’s true. Everybody has secrets. Something only they or maybe one other person know. I know I have some secrets that will die with me."
I smiled to myself knowing that not only did I know one of her secrets, but it was also the reason I was here. "Tell me one," I said.
"No, then it wouldn’t be a secret any more. You tell me one of your secrets."