Gold Hill (44 page)

Rodney leaned back in his
chair and looked at Colin Hargreaves. So far, they had met a few
detectives. A man came in from something called the National
Security Agency. Another man came in from another agency,
introduced himself and promptly left. Every hour or so, another set
of people shuffled in and out of the room.

He’d tried to be
patient.

He’d told himself it had
really only been a couple of hours.

But the sinking feeling in
his stomach said something was very wrong.

He’d felt this way before.
In prison, he always knew when Aaron Alvin was coming to taunt him
or when he was likely to be beaten or worse. As a child, growing up
in the cotton fields of Alabama, he always knew when his father was
going to drink their wages or when to take his mother to NeNe’s
house to hide from the old man’s rage. He had this very same
feeling the night they’d come to get him for the murder he didn’t
commit.

The sinking feeling came
with the words his father said every time he dragged Rodney to the
wood shed for a whooping:

“
You ain’t nothing. You’ll
never be nothing. You’re just a stupid pawn in another man’s
game.”

Rodney wiped his brow with
his handkerchief. His father’s voice was getting so loud he
wondered if the lawyer and the agent could hear him.

And then he
knew.

He had to get out of this
room.

He’d spent many days and
nights in solitary confinement. He knew this track to insanity.
First, the sinking feeling brought his father’s voice to remind him
that he was nothing. Then, as if they were lying right in front of
him, he saw Aaron Alvin screwing his precious Yvonne while she
screamed for his help. Then he lost his mind.

Standing from his seat, he
went to the door and found it locked. He looked at Agent
Hargreaves. He could tell by the dull look in the Agent’s eyes that
the young man was reliving some nightmare of his own. He glanced at
the lawyer. The young man looked confused and frustrated. Too young
to know what to do, the boy had become uselessly
overwhelmed.

It was up to Rodney to get
them out of this situation.

He did the only thing he
could think of. He picked up a chair and threw it at the mirrored
window. The chair glanced off the glass. The window bowed but
didn’t shatter.

“
Give me your gun,” Rodney
said.

“
It’s bullet proof,” Colin
licked his lips.

The agent was nearing full
scale panic.

“
At least now we know
there’s no one on the other side,” Rodney said. “Empty your
pockets.”

He and Colin put the
contents of their pockets on the table. There was nothing useful
there. He touched Daniel White’s shoulder.

“
Son, can I take a look at
what’s in your briefcase?” Rodney asked.

“
There’s nothing. I have
nothing. Not a damned thing.
I . . . ”

“
Let me be the judge of
that,” Rodney smiled. He looked up at Colin. “You
military?”

Colin nodded. The attorney
set his briefcase on the table and opened it.

“
Good,” Rodney said. “I
need you to think about how we’re getting out of the
building.”

“
I can’t get us out of
this room . . . ”

“
I have that covered,”
Rodney leaned over to look in the briefcase. He saw a cup of yogurt
and a plastic spoon. “You mind if I take your spoon?”

“
It’s plastic.” The
panicked attorney stated the obvious.

“
I see that.” With
practiced ease, Rodney broke the rounded end off the spoon. He held
up the shaft of the plastic spoon. Using his house key, he shaved
the spoon down so that the two outer edges of the spoon stuck out.
He held it up to the light. From the pile from Colin’s pockets, he
took out two rubber bands and wrapped them tight around the
spoon.

“
Are we going to kill
someone?” the young man whispered.

“
Am I under arrest?”
Rodney asked.

“
No,” the attorney
said.

“
Then I have a right to
come and go as I please,” Rodney said. “Is that
correct?”

“
That’s correct,” the
attorney said.

“
Did you come up with a
plan?” Rodney asked Colin.

Colin nodded.

“
Here’s what’s going to
happen,” Rodney said. “We’re getting out of this room. Once out,
I’m going to find Yvonne and you gentlemen are going to raise the
alarm. There is something ugly going on here and Yvie is smack dab
in the center of it.”

Rodney walked to the
door.

“
Get right behind me,” he
said. “There’s no way to know what’s on the other side of this
door.”

The men did what they were
told. Rodney jammed the modified spoon handle into the lock and
turned it. The knob twisted.

“
Here we go.” Rodney
pulled open the door.

Seeing no one, he took a
step out of the room. Colin followed him. Once outside the room,
the young agent seemed to regain his composure. Colin nodded to
Rodney that he was ready.

“
Is it clear?” the
attorney asked.

Rodney nodded and the
attorney left the room. As if he was escorting a prisoner, Colin
grabbed Rodney’s arm and marched him in the direction of the lobby.
The attorney followed close behind. They were almost to the lobby
when a heavy set, middle aged police Captain stepped in front of
them.

“
Colin! Rodney!” the
Captain said. “I didn’t know you were here.”

Rodney squinted at the man.
He remembered meeting him at Seth’s house. He
was . . . 

“
Oh come on, you remember
me,” the man’s voice was jovial but his eyes shot sparks. “I’m
Ferguson.”

Rodney nodded. He
did
remember the man.
The Captain put his arm around Rodney’s shoulder and launched into
a long story of the last time he’d been fishing. With Colin latched
onto his other arm, and the attorney following close behind, the
Captain maneuvered them through the station. When they reached the
loading dock, the man stopped talking.

“
Did you bring them?” Ferg
asked.

Rodney nodded.

“
Originals?”

“
Copies,” Rodney said.
“That woman Delphie told me to bring copies. I made them last night
at Kinkos. My daughter was asleep in the car, but her husband came
in with me. He can vouch for the photos.”

“
And the
originals?”

“
Safe,” Rodney
said.

“
And Yvonne’s
books?”

“
More than safe,” Rodney
said.

The big man took a digital
recorder from his pocket.

“
I just came on shift,”
Ferg said. “I heard about your . . . situation in my
shift change. My team and other cops, agents, good men, have been
trying to get to you all morning. I was coming to get
you.”

“
Thanks,” Rodney
said.

“
You all right, Colin?”
Ferg asked.

“
Froze up,” Colin said.
“Hasn’t happened in years but in that room . . . the
hopelessness . . . We have a new baby
and . . . ”

“
It happens to all of us,”
Rodney said. “Next time, it might be me.”

Colin nodded.

“
I’m going to interview
you here,” Ferg said. “Is that all right?”

Rodney nodded. Captain
Ferguson turned on the digital recorder. He stated his name, the
date, and who he was speaking with.

“
Where did you get these
photos?”

“
Assistant District
Attorney Aaron Alvin came to see me once a month the first few
years I was in Canon City,” Rodney said.

“
Why did Mr. Alvin visit
you?”

“
He wanted to let me know
he was having sex with my wife,” Rodney said. “He described what he
did in vivid details and brought these photos to prove what he said
was true. I was in solitary confinement. They would cuff me,
shackle me, and march me up to see him. He would tell me his sick
stories and give me the images as something to think about. I went
back to solitary.”

“
With the
images?”

“
Yes,” Rodney said. “I sat
in that cell all by myself with his pictures to look
at.”

Colin made a sympathetic
sound and Rodney’s head jerked to look at him.

“
Why didn’t you refuse to
see him?” Ferg asked.

“
Because if I saw him, I
got a phone call and my letters,” Rodney said. “Yvonne wrote to me
every day. Sent pictures she drew of her life, of our
daughter.”

“
But you couldn’t have
them in your cell.”

“
No sir,” Rodney said.
“Just the pictures he gave me. But I could hear her voice for a few
minutes and read her letters. It was worth it to me.”

“
You refused to see him
after your call to her mother. Is that correct?”

Rodney gave the Captain a
long look. Only a handful of people knew he called his
mother-in-law to save Tanesha. The Captain nodded toward the
tape.

“
He gave me a photo of him
with my daughter,” Rodney said. “He wanted me to hurt. I hurt. He
wanted me to be angry. I was angry. He wanted me to be helpless. I
was helpless. He’d even stopped Yvie from writing to me, no phone
call either. He wanted to defeat me, but as long as I draw breath,
I will not be defeated by that man. I used my last call to speak to
my mother-in-law. She spoke to my friend Dr. Bumpy Wilson. He
arranged for a friend of his to keep an eye out for Yvie and my
baby. His friend was able to get my wife and daughter away from
Alvin. But . . . my daughter, Tanesha, she wasn’t
safe from him and Yvie, she . . . made some
arrangement to keep Tanesha safe. She sacrificed herself to keep my
baby away from that man.”

“
But your
wife?”

“
She remained trapped in
his web,” he said. “She told me this morning that she focused every
single day on survival. She knew in her heart we’d be together
again; she’d be happy again. So she survived one day and then the
next, adding one day onto another until the years
passed.”

Rodney wiped his
eyes.

“
She’s much braver,
stronger, than I,” he said.

“
Did you ever have any
indication that you were charged with the murder and rape of the
young girl because Mr. Alvin wanted . . . your
wife?”

“
Yes sir,” Rodney said.
“He told me so every time he came to see me.”

“
Told you
what?”

“
That he rigged the trial,
paid off a couple of jurors to get the guilty verdict so that I
would go to prison for . . . what happened to that
poor girl,” Rodney said. “The warden kept copies of the tapes of
our interactions. Held them in case Alvin came after him. I got a
letter, a year or so after I was out, from the warden; he’s retired
now. He still has ‘em.”

The Captain turned off the
recorder.

“
Thank you,” the Captain
said. “You didn’t have to come. You didn’t have to do this. It’s
going to help.”

“
What’s happening?” Colin
asked.

“
Alvin has already signed
for immunity against the charges stemming from his prostitution
business. He gave up the man who killed the women who lived in his
building. The killer is in custody,” the Captain said.

“
The killer he hired,”
Colin said.

“
He doesn’t tell it that
way, nor does the suspect,” the Captain said. “The suspect says he
had a beef with one of the girls and took it out on
everyone.”

Not sure of what to say,
Rodney shook his head.

“
Gives you an idea of what
you’re dealing with,” the Captain said. “Alvin’s being moved into
witness protection right now. Some of his people have intercepted
Yvonne. They hoped to keep you here long enough to move
her.”

Rodney felt a wave of
futility overcome him.

“
Don’t worry,” Captain
Ferguson said. “She’s in good hands. You were the one who was the
hostage today. They’re going to talk about your escape for a long
time to come. And this information?”

Captain Ferguson gave him a
big smile.

“
He didn’t get immunity
from fixing a trial so he could get another man’s wife,” Captain
Ferguson said. “You’d be surprised at how much evidence has turned
up. Since he’s in Witness Protection, he may never go to trial. But
he’s not going to live happily ever after either.”

“
And Yvonne?”

“
He’ll never see her
again.”

“
You’re sure?”

“
I’m sure,” Captain
Ferguson said. “You ready to lead the charge?”

Captain Ferguson nodded
toward Colin.

“
You remember how to get
to the meet up?”

Colin nodded.

“
Better get going,”
Captain Ferguson said.