Brian Freeman - The Cold Nowhere

‘Good. I’ll take you to see him. Okay?’

Cat nodded. ‘Yeah, okay.’

Stride took a swallow from a can of Coke. He was a self-acknowledged Coke addict. Capital C. ‘What happened to you tonight, Cat? Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?’

The girl glanced at the dining room windows, as if she expected to see the face of her stalker framed behind the glass. She was like a deer, alert and swift. ‘I was at a party on the big ore boat in Canal Park. Some bigwig rented it out.’

‘Do you know who?’

‘No. It was a bunch of car dealers.’

Stride frowned. It took clout and money to get a private party on the Frederick . ‘Why were you there?’

‘They needed girls.’ She chewed a fingernail and looked guilty. ‘It was me and a few others. We were the entertainment.’

‘What kind of entertainment?’

She shrugged. ‘You know.’

‘How old are you, Cat?’ he asked.

Her pretty lower lip bulged. ‘Eighteen.’

Her eyes looked like a kid’s eyes again, trying to get away with a lie. ‘I’m not going to arrest you for anything,’ he said. ‘I want to help you, but I need you to trust me, and I need you to tell me the truth.’

He knew he was asking a lot. For girls like Cat, trust was a foreign thing.

‘Okay, I’m sixteen,’ she said. ‘I tell them I’m older. Nobody asks questions. I’m pretty, that’s all they care about. The sex stuff … it’s just a way to get money, you know? The guy tonight, I didn’t even do it with him. I–I hit him. Hard.’

‘Did you hurt him?’ Stride asked.

‘He was bleeding, but he was okay.’

‘Why did you hit him? Did he assault you?’

‘He wanted me to do things I don’t do. Not anymore. I mean, I’ll sleep with guys, fine. What’s the big deal, it’s only sex. But not other stuff. I won’t do that again.’

‘Stuff?’

The girl explained. Stride hid his disgust.

‘The man you hit, is he the one who tried to kill you?’ he asked.

‘No, after I hit him, I left. I just wanted to get out of there. This man was waiting for me outside the ship and he chased me back inside. The only way I could get away from him was to jump in the harbor.’

Stride leaned forward. ‘You jumped from the deck of the boat?’

‘Yeah. It was so cold. My dress tore off. I swam to the Canal Park side, and I ran. I figured he’d try to come after me, so I just kept running.’

‘It’s more than three miles. You made it all this way? In the snow?’

‘I stole a blanket out of a car on the street,’ she said. ‘That helped.’

Stride liked the spark of life he saw in this girl, regardless of the things she’d done. Cat was young and small, but she had courage. Serena would have said he had a weakness for women who needed rescue. ‘This man who came after you, do you know who he is?’

‘No.’

‘What did he look like?’

‘I never saw his face.’

‘Why do you think he’s trying to kill you?’

‘It’s not the first time. He’s been after me for a while.’

‘He has? Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, it started about three weeks ago. I was back home for a while. I’m in and out of there, you know? I slipped out my window one night, and when I came out of the woods, somebody ran after me. That was the first time. I was lucky, because a bus came by, so I hopped on. I could see him down the block behind me.’

‘But you didn’t recognize him.’

‘No, it was too dark. I’ve been bouncing around since then. I stayed with my aunt for a few days. She rents a place at the Seaway, but you know what it’s like there. They’ll rat you out for a Snickers bar. I thought someone was watching me again, so I bolted. Then last week, I was hanging out at the shelter on First Street. I took a walk in the middle of night. I do that sometimes. It was Sunday, nobody was around, but a car took off after me. He almost ran me down as I crossed near Sammy’s.’

‘Did you see what kind of car it was?’

‘No, all I saw was the lights. The engine sounded like a sports car. Anyway, I’ve been running since then. I thought maybe I’d lost him, because I didn’t see anybody all week. Until tonight.’

Stride thought about what Cat was saying and what he saw in her face. She was scared, but he had no way of knowing if any of it was real. When you came and went on the streets, sometimes bad people found you. When you drank or did drugs, sometimes your brain took detours and got lost. It was easy to get paranoid. A string of odd incidents, even if they were all true, didn’t add up to a conspiracy.

Cat was smart. ‘You think I’m crazy,’ she said.

‘No, but I do have to ask, have you been using anything? Maybe synthetics like bath salts? Those drugs can cause severe reactions, including paranoia and hallucinations.’

‘I’m not using,’ Cat insisted.

‘Never?’

‘I didn’t say never. I’ve tried things. I didn’t like what they did to me, so I quit. That’s the truth. I haven’t taken any of that stuff in months. It all happened, just like I said. This guy is trying to kill me.’

‘Do you have any idea why someone would want to hurt you?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not a clue.’

‘Has anything out of the ordinary happened to you recently? Did you witness anything bad? Were you with someone who might not want the relationship exposed?’

‘I don’t think so. I mean, I can’t think of anything like that.’

He gave her a reassuring smile. ‘We’ll figure it out. We’re going to have to sit down and go through everything you’ve done and everyone you’ve been with recently. Are you okay with that? You’ll need to be honest. You can’t hold back.’

‘You may not like some of it,’ she said.

‘Don’t worry about that. It’s pretty hard to shock a cop. Anyway, I want you to get some sleep first. You’ve had a tough night. Get some rest and then we’ll go see Steve at the clinic.’

‘Thank you, Mr. Stride.’ He saw her smile for the first time, and he was right. It was as sweet and warm as the sun coming out from the clouds.

‘Can I ask you something, Cat?’ he said.

‘Sure.’

‘Why did you come here tonight? How did you find me?’

The girl played with the gold chain on her neck. Her eyes got misty. ‘I looked up your address a while ago. My mother told me that if there was ever a time in my life when I needed protection, and no one was around for me, I should go to you. Find Mr. Stride, she told me. She said you’d help me.’

‘Your mother?’

‘She died. You were there.’

Stride was confused. He looked at Cat and saw a teenager, like any other girl. A stranger. Then he looked at her again and saw a familiar child hiding in her face. He knew her. Ten years ago, she’d been a six-year-old chasing butterflies between soaring evergreens. A six-year-old with messy hands and pumpkin pie on her mouth.

A six-year-old cowering under the porch behind her house, her face frozen in terror.

Cat.

‘You’re Catalina ,’ he murmured, as he realized who she was. ‘Catalina Mateo. Michaela was your mother.’

‘You remember her,’ she said. ‘I knew you would.’

Stride pushed back his chair and got up with a start. The reality struck him like a blow to the chest. He went into the living room, where it was dark and cool, and he took a loud breath, which felt ragged in his lungs. His face taunted him in the antique mirror. Short, messy black hair, swept with gray. A day of rough stubble on his chin and cheeks. The brown, brooding eyes, feeling everything, showing everything. He could feel the furrows in his weathered forehead deepen. Not wrinkles anymore — furrows. A storm washed over him. He felt his age. He sat down in the red leather armchair in the shadows, and he saw her face again. Michaela.