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His mind was racing, trying to make sense of what she was saying. It was trying to put the pieces together. But he stilled it. This was her story to tell and he was going to trust her to tell it her way.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“When I was little I liked to hide in there. I pretended that I was a princess locked in a dungeon or a tower by the evil queen. I would stay in there for hours waiting for my prince to come and save me. I had coloring books, Legos, and Barbies, to keep me occupied. It was my favorite place in the gym to play. Sometimes I used to fall asleep playing in there.”
She took a shaky breath as she uncrossed her arms and shook her hands out. Unshed tears filled her eyes and she smiled ruefully. “Sorry, I’ve never really talked about this out loud…to someone I know.”
Seeing her getting this upset had all kinds of alarm bells ringing in his head and protective impulses raging through him. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her that she was safe and that he would never let anyone hurt her, but he knew that she needed to tell her story and he needed to hear it.
After a few more deep breaths she continued. “One day I fell asleep, I’m not sure how long I’d been in there but when I woke up, Damien was in the equipment room with a girl. They were having sex. I didn’t know that’s what they were doing then, I was only eight. But I knew it was something I wasn’t supposed to be seeing. I didn’t make a sound because I was scared that they would catch me and tell my dad.
“At first I was just scared because I didn’t want to get in trouble, but then it changed. He changed. He was laying on top of her, kissing her and then he put his hand around her throat and…” Maxi’s lip trembled. “And she started hitting him. I couldn’t see her face, but I heard her choking and her arms were flailing and…I didn’t do anything. I was scared if I did he would hurt me. She started kicking him and he…he kept choking her.” Tears were now falling down Maxi’s face.
Billy moved closer to her and ran his hand up and down her back that was trembling beneath his touch.
“He kept doing it…until she just stopped moving. Then everything got really quiet. All I could hear was his panting. Until he freaked out. He yelled fuck and pulled up his pants. Then he picked her up and ran out the back door that led to the alley.”
Billy had never liked Samuels but now he wanted to kill him.
His phone buzzed again, but he ignored it.
“I’m so sorry that you saw that, that you were so scared.” He continued rubbing her back.
She gulped. “That was the night he disappeared. I remember Lloyd being furious because he was the biggest name he had and the fight that he had coming up was going to put Gianni’s Gym on the map. But, I was relieved. I did my best to put the whole thing out of my mind and I did a good job. Every day that passed I thought about it less and less until…I just forgot about it.
“Then, he showed up again when I was twelve. Right when you started there. Flashes of that night started coming back to me when I saw him, when I smelled him. I thought about telling my dad, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d imagined the whole thing. It felt real to me, but I wasn’t sure. And Lloyd was so happy. I didn’t know what to do. I just tried to stay away from him.
“Then a couple of weeks after he came back I was up on the roof, I went up there to do homework and just think, and I heard a car screech in the alleyway. When I looked over the side of the building I saw Damien carrying an unconscious girl in his arms and the night that I thought I’d been imagining came back to me in vivid detail. I knew for sure then that it was real. It had really happened and it was happening again. The trunk was popped and he put her inside, shut it and ran to the passenger’s side of the car and jumped in and they sped off.
“I was shaking and terrified and,” she took a breath, “I doubt you remember this but you came up there as I was heading down and you saw me.”
“When I caught you smoking?” That was the only time he remembered her being up there.
“Yes, but I wasn’t smoking. You asked me what was wrong and then you noticed the butts on the ground and asked if I’d been smoking. I nodded because I thought it would explain why I looked scared.”
He pulled her into his arms and he felt his phone buzz again. He ignored it.
She melted against him as she continued, “That night the phone rang in the middle of the night, my dad answered it. It was Lloyd saying that Damien had been in a fight at some bar and he’d been arrested. He was in jail and before he made bail the guy died. My dad said that it looked like Damien was going to go away for a long time.
“I never told anyone what I saw. I was too scared the first time and then the second time he was already going to jail. But I followed his case and when I heard that he was eligible for parole I knew I had to do something. I was a scared kid when those things happened, but I’m an adult now. Damien needs to be behind bars and I knew if he got paroled and I didn’t tell the police what I’d seen, if anything happened it would be my fault. So, I went and spoke to the DA about testifying at his parole hearing.”
The hairs on Billy’s neck stood up as his phone started buzzing again. “When?”
“About two months ago.” Maxi sniffed.
“Right before these incidents started happening.” Billy said aloud what he was thinking.
She nodded against him. “But I kept calling to make sure that he was still in jail. That was the call that I took, it was the prison confirming that he hadn’t been released.”
Seconds after the buzzing stopped, it started again and Billy pulled the device out of his pocket. He’d missed several calls and texts from Nate. He’d asked him to look into Samuels when he’d seen Maxi’s reaction to his photo on the TV. It had been a hunch at the time, but now he was sure that there was a connection.
“I need to take this,” he answered the phone. “What do you have?”
The connection was breaking up and he could only hear every other word. Billy placed his hand over his ear and moved around the apartment, but it just kept going in and out.
“The best reception is out on the patio,” Maxi motioned to the sliding glass door off her living room.
“Are you going to be okay?” As important as it was for Billy to talk to Nate, Maxi’s well-being was more important.
“I’ll be fine. I’m in my Fort Knox apartment. I’m safe.”
He wanted to insist that she come out on the patio with him or for her to stay where he could see her, but he knew that wouldn’t go over well. As she moved back into the kitchen he stepped out onto the patio and Nate’s voice came through clear as day.
