Silent Scream (20 page)

“Not, really.”  Gabriel gripped the door handle and pulled, ignoring the protesting squeal as it opened.  "I think Sam has probably sent a few cops out here on a regular basis to keep an eye on things.  But just in case, let me go first.”   He pulled the Glock from its holster and stepped inside.  “Stay close.”

“Don’t worry.”  She came up behind him in such short proximity she bumped into his back.

He looked over his shoulder and offered a half-smile.  “Not that close.”

Blushing, Maddie peered foolishly at the ground and took a small step back.  “Sorry.”

“Not a problem.”  Together, they maneuvered through a marble-tiled foyer, carefully avoiding an over-turned palm-like plant lying across the floor surrounded by a scattering of potting soil and dead leaves.

Maddie bent and started to right the plant when Gabriel took her arm.  “Hey, let’s just search the house, and then we’ll get to putting things back together, okay?”

“Yeah.”  She stood, and they stepped into the living room.  Maddie gasped as she saw the curtains had been slashed.  Both the entertainment center and the television had been toppled.  The brown Ethan Allen sofa cushions spewed stuffing from zigzag gouges.  Knife cuts had destroyed both Monet reprints hanging on the wall, and one frame barely dangled by a corner.  Glass sparkled in the carpet, shattered from the huge bay window to their left, and cold air freely blew through the house.  In fact, melted snow stained the wall below the window, where it had dripped into the carpet.

“Oh, God.”  Maddie froze, undone by the sight of her home dismantled and destroyed.

Gabriel turned back and caught sight of Maddie’s wide eyes and horrified expression.  He frowned at the pallor now lining her cheeks and wondered if she were going to faint.  Was she hyperventilating?  “It’s just stuff, Maddie.  Maybe it’s frightening to see your personal effects destroyed like this, but it could be worse.  At least he didn’t get you.   You’re safe.  And he’s dead, where he can’t ever touch you or anything that belongs to you again.  Isn’t that what really matters?”  Touching her shoulder, he nodded toward the hallway.  “Let’s get through this and make sure nobody else is here before we try to pick up the pieces.  It’s just stuff, okay?”  He smiled at her softly.  “Just remember that.”

Squeezing her neck, he waited as her breathing slowly calmed and then nudged her forward as she reluctantly nodded.

 “Okay.”

Gabriel led the way as they went from room to room.  More disarray and damage greeted them at every turn, but the house was, as Gabriel had predicted, vacant.   Maddie’s bedroom was probably the area most damaged, as blue spray paint shouted the word “Bitch” across an otherwise white wall.  The vandals had also slashed her mattress and sheets, completely ruining them.  More broken windows and a shattered vanity mirror had sprayed the floor with glass.  All the clothing in her dresser had been dumped on the floor.

Gabriel stood in the doorway, surveying the damages, and turned back to find Maddie’s shell-shocked expression–wide eyes, pale cheeks, trembling hands.  “It’s just stuff,” he repeated.  “And stuff can be fixed or replaced.”

Folding her arms across her chest, Maddie nodded woodenly.  Her lips pursed tightly as though she were afraid of what might actually come out if she spoke.  She kept blinking, trying to ward away the fresh tears, and her whole body trembled violently.

“Look at it this way.  Now you have a great reason to redecorate and make this place your dream house.”  Although he had hoped to distract her, she kept staring at the wreckage that had once been her life.  “Sorry about that.  It was a bad joke.”

She slipped past him and knelt to pick up the intimate garments which had been dumped from her drawers into a pile at the foot of the bed.  A pale pink teddie had slashes going through it as well.

“I’ll see what I can salvage in the living room.”

As he turned to leave, she said, “You don’t have to do this.  I’m sure the last thing you want to do is babysit—and  this isn’t even your mess to clean up.”

Gabriel frowned and peered at her glistening blue eyes.  “You think this is about pity or responsibility or maybe something else I can’t even venture a guess at.  But really it’s about not being able to walk away and leave you like this.  That’s it.”  He tapped his hand against the door molding.  “So do me a favor and let me feel good about helping you instead of like shit because I didn’t.”

Instead of responding, Maddie picked up one of the drawers and began filling it with her clothing.  Gabriel watched her trembling hands folding and sorting, and he wondered if Maddie could pull through this.  Could Jessie have, had she survived?  Always before, Gabriel had assumed life was always better than the alternative, no matter how painful it seemed, but seeing Maddie and not just the shadows which the physical assault had left but also the fear and pain that now clouded her so completely made him wonder if living like this truly was better.  How would Jessie have dealt with this?  And how would he have fared knowing that her life had been so violently changed in a way he could never have minimized or erased?

There’s no point in “what ifs” or “if onlys,”
he thought, clenching his teeth and striding back to the front door to check the lock.  A cursory inspection confirmed what he had suspected: both the knob and lock needed to be replaced.  The chain, higher on the door, had been cut, ensuring Maddie could never be safe.  The SOB had gone all out with every intimidation tactic he could possibly think of.

Gabriel pulled out his cell and punched the numbers to his brother’s office.  On the third ring, Sam responded.

“I need a favor,” Gabriel said.

“Already?” His brother groaned.  “Hell, didn’t you just leave a few hours ago?  All right.  What is it?  So long as it doesn’t involve that damned dog, it shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“I’m at Maddie’s place, helping pick up the mess.  Right now, she’s got a door that won’t lock and no deadbolt or chain.”  He knelt and began picking up glass.  “I don’t want to leave her by herself—”

”So would I get a doorknob and new chain set, right?” Sam finished for him.

“It’s like you just read my mind,” Gabriel replied.

“How is she handling the damage?”

Gabriel set the fragments on the coffee table.  “She’s stronger than I would have thought possible.  Even when she’s shaken, she doesn’t give up.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.  I’ll stop by there in an hour or so.  Okay?”

“Sounds great.”  Gabriel plucked a large fragment from the carpet and marveled at the way the jagged edge had pointed up, just waiting to sink into somebody’s foot.  “I know Maddie will be grateful to have a door that locks.”

  A moment later, Gabriel said goodbye to his brother and shoved the phone back into his jean pocket.  Eyeing the mounting pile of glass fragments, he stepped into the kitchen and found the trashcan–it had been overturned and its contents, mostly paper, had been scattered across the floor.

He bent and righted it and then adjusted the bag before redepositing the trash and carrying it into the living room, where he collected the fragments and threw them away.  Time passed quickly as he deposited enough trash not only to fill one bag but also two and then three.  Carrying them to the curb, he watched as his brother’s cruiser pulled into the driveway.  He dropped the bag at the edge of the yard and sauntered up the drive, watching white flakes silently spill from the slate sky.

Sam climbed out of the car, carrying a new doorknob and chain set.  “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“I practice.”

“I believe it.”  The brothers ambled up the walk and onto the porch.  Sam pulled open the screen and eyed the knob.  “I’d say you’re right.  Those two boys destroyed this lock and scratched up a bit of this door.  You want me to install the new one while you help pick things up?”

“Yeah, thanks.”  Gabriel pushed the front door open and ambled back into the living room.  He began resettling furniture, taking down ripped curtains, and straightening the lopsided frames still hanging on the walls.

Once Sam had finished his installation, he strolled into the living room and handed the new keys to Gabriel.  “Give these to Maddie.”

Nodding, Gabriel replied, “Thanks.”

Sam pointed to another full bag of trash waiting by the door.  “You want me to take that out as I go?”

“If you don’t mind.”

Sam picked up the bag and hefted it to the curb before he sat behind the wheel and drove away.

Once his brother had gone, Gabriel walked back to Maddie’s bedroom.  Although she had picked all the clothes up from the floor, the room was still a disaster.  Compact discs lay scattered around the room as if the floor were a canvas for surrealistic art.  Her jewelry–mostly necklaces, bracelets, and anklets–lay mixed with all the other stuff on the carpet.  Gabriel poked his head inside the room and found Maddie quietly sitting Indian-style on the bed, clutching a picture frame in her hand.

Although Gabriel couldn’t see the photo, judging by the somber expression on Maddie’s face, it was of something important to her.  Her head tilted toward the floor, and the color had vanished from her cheeks, making her fair complexion all the more pale.  Long strands of dark silk spilled over her shoulders toward her face and cascaded to touch her breasts.

“Maddie?”  Gabriel stepped softly into the room, holding the keys in an outstretched palm.  “Sam replaced the door knob and chain set on your front door.  These are the keys to the new lock.”

With a trembling hand, she reached out and took them.  “Will you tell him  I said thanks?”

“Sure.  There’s still a problem with securing the back door, though.”

She set both the keys and the frame on the bed.  “What do you mean?”  Her hand pulled the strands of hair from her face.  She shivered slightly.

“The glass in the sliding doors has been shattered out.  Several windows throughout the house have been destroyed as well. That explains part of why it’s so cold.”  He peered around the room.  “Looks like you’re making good progress in here.”

Maddie’s gaze followed his.  “Some, I guess.  It’s going to take a year to clean up this mess, maybe longer.”

“Nah.”  Gabriel shook his head.  “It’ll just feel like it.” He noticed Maddie still shivered and saw her coat setting on the dresser.  He grabbed it and handed it to her.  “You should put this on before your lips turn blue.”

“Thanks.”  She slid her arms in the sleeves and pulled it close to her.

“You don’t have to do this alone, Maddie.  I’ve taken a few days off.  I’ll help you get all the trash out of here, fix the back door, and replace the windows so at least you’ll be secure.  And if there’s anything else I can do, I will.”  Noticing Maddie’s gaze had traveled back to the frame, he hedged backward toward the hall.  “I’ll keep working on the living room.”

She nodded absently and turned the picture right-side-up so she could see it.  Her expression darkened, and she touched the frame gingerly, stroking the picture itself.

“You all right?”  Gabriel shoved his hands into his jeans pockets to keep them occupied as he leaned against the doorway.

“That’s kind of relative right now.”  She looked at the picture.  “I don’t even know what it means anymore.”

“It means you’re doing the best you can considering the hell you’re going through.”  His gaze happened back to the picture.  “Is there anything I can do for you before I head back to the living room?”

Maddie shook her head and kept staring at the picture, wishing her mother were still alive to talk to about this.  What would she have said?  Her mother had always been scientific, as if everything could be reduced to simple facts, numbers, or proofs.  Maddie herself had once believed in that simplicity as well.  It had somehow gotten her through until now.

Now nothing was safe.  Nothing was simple.

Gabriel, sensing Maddie didn’t wish to be disturbed, slowly backed away and headed down the hall toward the living room to give her the space she needed.

* * *

As the afternoon’s light waned, slowly merging into the twilight darkness of evening, Gabriel looked outside at the inch of snow coating the entire landscape.  The temperature had dropped, and the wind had picked up a bit, chilling his face as it blew into the paneless window.  In his left hand he held the tape poised upon one of the window frames where he measured both the length and the height for a replacement.  Then he jammed the tape measure into his jacket pocket and slowly and painfully scribbled his findings on a scrap receipt he’d plucked from his wallet.  The cold seemed to bite into his hand.  It nibbled on his ears as he gazed at the list.  Besides this measurement, about nine others stacked up above it, including the dimensions of the glass doors which needed to be replaced.  He stuffed the list into his pocket, wishing he’d brought gloves.

All things considered, he knew no matter how stubborn Maddie could be, even with a new lock and chain, this house lacked basic security.  Besides that, with all the broken windows, there was no way to warm the place.  He peered at his hands, at the red fingers.  He shoved them into his pockets.  She couldn’t stay here.  Besides, the mattress and couch had been slashed. Where could she sleep even if freezing air weren’t blowing in?  Tomorrow he could get somebody out here to replace both the windows and the door, just not tonight.

He flipped out his cell and punched Yolanda’s phone number.  “Hey, Yolanda, this is Gabriel.”  He paused for a moment to acknowledge her greeting.  “Yeah, she’s fine.  We’re still out at her house, trying to get things put back together, but she can’t stay here.”  He paused again, “Oh, no, it’s not because she’s upset, not per se.  She is upset, of course, but most of the windows have been shattered as well as the back sliding doors.  It’s freezing in here.”  He paused again.  “I’ll bring her by in a few minutes.  Thanks.”  He closed the phone and shoved it in his pocket.

He walked back to the bedroom and found Maddie had cleared the floor pretty well.  As most of the room had taken on some semblance of order and reason, the glaring word painted on the wall seemed even more violent and dangerous, even though the danger had passed.  “You should probably bunk with Yolanda tonight, and until we can get those windows and that back door replaced, it’s going to be too cold to sleep here.  Besides, you look like you could use some dinner since we skipped lunch.”