Chapter 7

 
As soon as she closed the door to her home, a hard pain came to the back of her head, sending her sprawling to the floor. Turning over and blinking to catch the dizzying room, Marvin stood over her with his fist bawled up. Lynne was holding him back, ordering him to give Nicole time to explain herself.
"What?" Nicole asked innocently.
"Where the fuck were you?" he bellowed.
Her heart raced as she tried to get up, but the room was still spinning. "I was at work."
He kicked her in the thigh with his steel toe boots. "You fucking liar." He pushed Lynne away and grabbed Nicole by her hair to drag her in the kitchen. Nicole screamed and held on his arm to decrease the pain in her head. He practically tossed her against the kitchen wall, and then before she could pull herself up, he grabbed her collar and swung her around until she was thrown over the kitchen table and landed on the floor. He came around the table and pinned her down.
Nicole tried to block the blows to her face and chest, but the several that got through hurt so bad that she almost gave up in her effort to protect herself.
Lynne shoved him away, screaming at him to stop. "You're going to kill her asshole!"
Marvin angrily backhanded her to silence. "If you think she's going to go around and be a fucking tramp like her Mamma, then she's got another thing coming. I'll fucking kill her and you if I catch any man between her legs."
"So you can fuck her for yourself," Lynne sneered. "I wouldn't put it past you Marvin since you fucked your sister."
Marvin raised his fist to slap her again, but Lynne took a glass bowl and knocked him over his head. He fell to the ground out cold.
Nicole crawled to a corner, still trying to protect herself, as Lynne walked over to her and just stared down at her. "I'm surprised he hasn't raped you already," she sneered and walked out of the house, grabbing Marvin's keys off the dining room table.

Awakening the next morning in her bed, Nicole groaned in pain as she sat up, feeling the muscles in her body scream at being moved. She tried the door to her room, but the door was locked. Covering her swollen face with her swollen hands, she sobbed in frustration, wondering if and when he would let her out. Once he did, where would she go? Who could she run to? No one cared.
What about Nanna? Looking about the room, she saw a first aid kit, some cat food and a bucket.
Moving back to the bed, she covered herself up and cried even more.

After three days, he went to the Laundromat confident she would give him a positive response. He'd brought a load of clothes to throw everyone off, but when he saw a different girl up at the window with Cleo, he left. Had Nicole exchanged shifts with someone to avoid him?
When a week passed and she didn't show up for work, he staked out the house. His lawyer informed him that Lynne's lawyer wanted to meet for negotiations at the end of the second week. That time came very slow and he was at his wits end. As far as he knew from questioning the nurses that went in and out of the house, no one had seen Nicole.
Entering Bynum and Bernstein Law Office, followed by Lorenzo, Ethan’s lawyer out of Chicago, he wanted to grab Lynne by her neck and demand she tell him where Nicole was. But when he saw Lynne, she looked aloof and stressed herself. Obviously Mr. Bynum, her lawyer, had informed her that whatever assets of hers would be used to pay the proceedings and she knew there was nothing she could do. The sooner she got the proceedings over with, the less money she would have to pay. She had demanded the proceedings be over with as soon as possible.
When the tremors of the divorce came up and the court-appointed negotiator asked Lynne did she have any objections to not taking anything from Ethan, Lynne looked at Ethan long and hard, then shook her head.
"I don't want anything."
"What a surprise," he sneered.
She narrowed her eyes, knowing he was aiming for a verbal fight. "I won't give you what you want, Ethan. The sooner you're out the picture, the sooner I can get on with my life. I've got prospects and you are just in my way."
"Was your daughter in your way too? Is that why you got rid of her."
Lynne stood up and started to leave. He jumped up and moved around to block her path. "Get out of my way, Ethan. What I do with my child is none of your business!"
"It is when she disappears in thin air. Did you kill her, Lynne? Was she that much in your way to get your hands on your mother's money?"
Lynne slapped him with rage running through every fiber of her being. But that didn't daunt his cold expression, nor did it stop his hand from going around her neck and holding her tightly. Lorenzo jumped from his seat and moved to stop Ethan.
"Whatever she's done is not worth it. We'll get the law involved, Ethan. But hurting her will not be worth it."
Ethan held on for one more moment, then released her and walked out the room, knowing Renaldo would handle the proceedings from here on with his client's best interest in mind. He knew if he spent another moment in that room with that bitch, he would kill her.

The next afternoon as he was staking out Nanna's home, he saw the long brown coat come out the door. He nearly dropped his coffee trying to sit up from his crotched down position. Pulling the car into Drive, he followed the figure all the way to the Laundromat, and then drove to his site to look for David, who lived across the street from the site he was working on. He had to wait until the boy got out of school before he could talk to him. Then his mother made him wait an extra hour after that before David could come outside in the cold weather.
He sent David around to the Laundromat, instructing him to give a message to Nicole. If she wasn't there, he instructed him not to reveal who sent him and to just leave. David came back after half an hour, looking a bit shook up.
"What happened?"
"She wasn't there and a mean old lady, who looked like her, said she's gone to school away from home. She asked me who sent me and I lied and said my daddy wanted to know about some clothes he dropped off. But it was like she knew I was lying and she tried to grab me, but I ran out." David gave him the ten dollars back. "I don't want to go around there no more until she comes back, mister."
"When will you know if she comes back?"
"My sister works at the corner store near there. I could tell her to look in for her."
"Thanks David."
Ethan decided to go next door and knock on Cleo's door. One of his foremen told him that he had talked to the older woman about the noise early in the morning, and Ethan didn't mind adjusting the workman's schedule so she could get some sleep.
Cleo looked very wary when she opened the door to him, but left her security door closed. "Don't I know you?" she asked.
"I use the Laundromat up the street. I wanted to ask you about Nicole."
"There's nothing to ask." She started to close the door. "She don't get involved with customers."
"Please," he beseeched.
The tone of his voice made her stop. "What do you want?"
"I want to know where she is."
"The owner said she's staying at the hospital with her grandmother as far as I know."
The cold bit at his ears. He only put on his sheepskin to speak to David and it was freezing cold outside. "That's not true. I know it's not true, but I can't explain how I know. Can I come in, because I think she might be in trouble?"
Cleo looked worried, and then confused. Finally, she unlocked the security door and let him in. He put out the cigarette he'd been smoking and came in. The home was clean, but it had that familiar poverty smell. She offered him a seat on the couch, and he welcomed it. He knew not to refuse any generosity because she would think it as an insult.
"When she didn't come in a couple of weeks ago and Marvin started working her shift, I got a little suspicious. But he told me to shut my mouth. Well, one of the customers didn't like how his orders were always late, so he demanded to know where she was. I happened to be there early trying to help with the Christmas orders, and Marvin told him that Nanna got rushed to the hospital and Nicole was doing some vigil by her side. This sounded like Nicki because I know her grandmother means everything to her."
"I know that's not true because I've been watching for her. Nanna's still in the house on bed rest. I spoke to one of the nurses just the other day. They say she's getting worse, but there hasn't been any sign of Nicole. Do you think she might have run away?"
Cleo shook her head. "She wouldn't leave Nanna. I don't care how bad Marvin beats her."
"He beats her?"
"Hell yeah, but nothing lately. The last time he hit her was when she demanded to know why there was so much money missing from the accounts. He dragged her in the back and slapped her around a couple of times. But that was about a month or so ago. She told me about it. As far as I know, he only hits her when she stands up for herself, or when she does something he doesn't like."
"Could this be one of those times? Could he have hit her and hurt her?"
"Maybe, but...he'd never kill her. I think Marvin likes her a lot. I've seen how he looks at her sometimes. That's why he made me work nights ‘cause I made a comment one time that if he kept looking at her that way, he might as well fuck her. But, I was just teasing. He got so pissed at me though, and that's when he started looking for reasons to fire me."
The thought of the uncle wanting to do something like that to his niece repulsed him, yet maybe Marvin could have done so.
He passed her his business card. "If you find out anything, can you give me a call?"
She nodded, taking the card. "Why are you so interested in her?" she asked suspiciously. "Do you like her or something?"
"Or something. She was real nice to me and I feel bad for treating her the way I did. I want to apologize and well, I know she's a student and I thought I'd do something nice for her."
"Like what? She's smart. You could give her a nice job at your company. She's sweet, too. If you really knew her, you'd like her. She wouldn't hurt anyone and she works real hard."
"Are you two good friends?"
Cleo flushed. "I don't think Marvin lets her have any friends, but we talked a lot. I got her to open up about stuff and I taught her a lot of stuff. Marvin never lets her interact with boys. I thought I'd die when I found out she was a twenty-year old virgin. She'd asked me a lot about sex and I'd tell her." She looked him over, wondering if she could work her wiles on him.
He stood up stiffly. "If you find anything, can you call me? I've been staying next door, but I don't know any more if I'll be moving in on the property any time soon."
"Yeah, sure. And if you get lonely next door and you want to talk about Nick, I've always got my door open."
Ethan had to wonder what else she would have opened if he accepted her offer. "Thanks, Happy Holidays." Once he left, he went next door and called the investigator on what he had found out. He knew this was enough evidence to get them out there to check on Nicole.