Truth and Lies: Chapter 14

Time to get some answers, and I hope Miriam is more receptive when I go back upstairs. Sending Candy with a meal may soften her up a little, but I’m guessing at this point in time.

As I walk out of my office, Silver walks towards me, ‘Pres, my street guy told me he’d seen a man with a girl that sounds like it could be the one missing from Rogue Legion MC. Do ya want me to go check it out?’

‘Yes, see if we can’t get some fuckin’ answers. If we can find the girl, then maybe this whole thing will get unraveled and Silver, if we find that the woman upstairs was railroaded, we’re gonna talk to our Judge, get him to earn his fuckin’ pay for once.’ I respond, starting to walk away once more, only to hear the phone ringing in my office.

Silver is my guy in contact with all our street guys. Anything we need to know on the street, he can find out. He’s six feet of solid muscle; he loves the gym and working out in general.

Damn and blast it, I think to myself, always fuckin’ somethin’ stopping me getting things done. Dashing back to my desk, I grab the telephone and snap out, ‘What?’

‘Is this a bad time, Axel? It’s Sharp just checkin’ in to see if you’ve found anythin’?’

‘We just had news that we could have a sighting of the young girl you’re looking for. One of mine has gone out to see what they can find. If it’s her, I’ll let you know.’ and I slam the phone down before he can ask anything else.

The last thing I want is his club coming here demanding they take Miriam. No fucking way on my watch is that happening. They let her down once; they’re fucking not doing it again.

Trying again to go upstairs to get answers, I am once more waylaid by Specs, ‘Pres, can I talk to you a minute?’

‘Yea, what’s up, man?’ I say as I follow him into his office.

Specs closes the door behind me and points for me to sit. Stepping behind his desk, he lifts a piece of paper which I can see has his scrawling, spidery writing on.

‘Okay, Pres, Sting was talking to his sister who works in the homeless food shop. He asked if she’d seen anyone, and she said she saw a homeless man she knew that had a young girl with him. They ate breakfast and then left.’ Passing me the piece of paper, ‘His name is Peter, and she knows he’s called Peter Faulke, but he is also called ‘Target’ because he was a Green Beret, and they say he never missed his target.

‘Is this following the information we know so far, Pres? I think it is, anyway, looking up Peter Faulke. He indeed was a Green Beret. He was injured during his last tour when his team was killed, all but one other.

‘He was awarded the Purple Heart and a Silver Star. I don’t think for a minute this guy will hurt the girl. In fact, God help anyone that tries while she’s with him.

‘He’s twenty-four, no family, seems he’s been protecting some of the homeless around here.’

‘Good work Specs, this at least puts our mind at rest a little. We now need to find him because finding him will find her.’ I stand and turn to the door, looking back over my shoulder, ‘Any more information about Miriam, her time in prison, or the run-up to her incarceration?’

‘No, sorry Pres, as of yet no more than we knew.’ Specs states then sits back behind his computer screen.

Before anyone can waylay me again, I head straight for the stairs and run up two steps at a time. Sitting outside Miriam’s door on guard is Hammer, legs stretched well across the hallway, arms folded and looking well and truly bummed, I can’t help it, but the look on his face has me smirking.

‘Go grab a drink, Hammer. I’ll wait here until you get back. I’m gonna see if I can get our guest talking.’ I state, turning the key, and opening the door.

Walking in, I note that her head is laid on the glass window, and her eyes are closed. Looking down, I can see she ate the meal. I’m pleased as she’s been here a long time now to have had nothing.

Picking up the tray, I open the door and place it on the floor so someone can pick it up and take it down. Then turn and re-enter the bedroom.

I sit on the end of the bed facing the window and notice that Miriam now has her eyes open, looking directly at me.

‘Did you enjoy the meal? If you need anything, you can knock on the door and ask Hammer who’s outside.’ I state, then fold my arms, stretch out my legs and let her see I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.

As she has been since we put her in this room, still saying nothing. She turns and looks back out of the window.

‘Miriam, you’ll be in here until you answer my questions. I don’t want to hurt you in any way. I just want to know the truth. This case bugged me right back when it happened, and it’s still bugging me.

‘Your old MC is looking for you. Is it Gunner that you were involved with at the time? Well, he’s lookin’ and not in any good way.

‘His daughter Zara has gone missing. They think she ran off to try and find you as she just heard you were released from prison.’ I notice she swallows, and her shoulders drop slightly on the last part, so she has feelings for this girl even after all this.

‘Sharp has been in touch with me. He wants to know if we find you. So far, I’ve told him nothin’, and I’ll keep doin’ that until I’m happy that they won’t be tryin’ to hurt you at all.

‘Zara is with a man who’s livin’ on the streets, but he’s a good guy from what we’ve found out, but we have to find her before anything bad happens. If somethin’ happens to her, you know you’ll get blamed for that too, even though you’ve had nothin’ to do with it.’

Miriam turns on the window sill and looks directly at me, she places her hands in her lap, and I can see her knuckles are white where she’s fisting her hands so tightly.

‘My name is now Mia. I don’t and won’t answer to Miriam,’ she says quietly, none of the aggression she had when she was first brought here.

‘I didn’t hurt Zara. Ever. She was like a daughter to me. Now, I’m moving away, the furthest from here I can get, and MCs are not something I want to be involved with ever again.’ she keeps her head down, looking at her hands.

‘Why did they think you hurt her?’ I ask.

‘I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.’ Mia turns to the window and places her forehead on the glass.

‘Sharp will want to talk to you. I can’t put him off forever. I can give you some time, but you’ll have to face him soon.’ I state, but she doesn’t show any sign of hearing me.

I stand and leave the room, locking it behind me, then turning to Hammer, ‘If she needs anythin’ like a drink or whatever, let her have it, just get one of the club girls to sort it, you stay here.’

Hammer nods, then settles back in his seat, ‘Do ya think she hurt that girl Pres?’

‘Not for a single minute,’ I respond, then head back down to my office.

Zara

Target speaks to a few of his friends; they all look like they live on the street. They’re friendly and talk to me even though I’m a kid.

While Target is still talking, I see a bench and walk over, sitting down and leaning back, just resting a minute. I don’t think my legs have ever walked so much.

I think about my dad, and maybe he’ll miss me, but then he might not even notice I’ve gone, and I know Cara won’t care. All she wanted was a way to get back to dad and into the clubhouse.

I know she talks to someone called Snap. She calls him when dad’s not around and whispers when she’s talking to him. She looks through dad’s kutte pockets when he’s asleep or in the bathroom, I’ve seen her, but she doesn’t want dad to see her.

Target sits next to me, pulls me into his side, and I put my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around his middle. We take a minute to rest in the sunshine.

‘We have a long walk back into town, Zara. Tomorrow we need to go to the next town over, that’s where we’ll find the MC that may know where she is, but we can find out why they want to talk to her.’ Target says.

‘Can we get a motel tonight? I have enough money. We can have a shower, change our clothes or buy some new ones. Then we can eat and sleep.’ I look up at Target with my most hopeful look.

‘Are you too tired to walk back?’ he asks me with a half-grin.

‘Yes, my legs are tired out,’ I whine a bit, I’m not a baby usually, but I think I could cry.

‘Okay, let’s call at the bank first, let me get some cash, then we’ll go to the motel. If we go to the one on the way back, they have a store, snack shop, and suites. We could have a good meal and rest,’ Target says, then pulls me up off the bench, and we start walking again.

As we get to within a few minutes of the motel, a man walks over and speaks to Target, ‘Hey man, someone’s been asking about you. Two MCs, they seem to know your name, so someone’s talked.’

I look up at Target to see if he looks worried, but he hasn’t changed his expression at all.

‘It’s okay, Brock, if they find me, they do, but I’m ready. This is Zara, she’s a friend, and I’m watching out for her. Let it be known people need to keep it quiet, or I won’t be happy.’ Target tells this man called Brock.

Brock walks away after giving Target a nod, and we start walking again, heading for the bank, which is just ahead thankfully as I need to stop soon, my legs feel like they will drop off.

Target leads me into the bank, and I take a seat while he walks to the counter. I look around and see people giving Target odd looks and trying not to walk past him, no idea why as he’s nice, and though he does look a bit dirty, he’s been kind to me.

My head is dropping a bit as I’m tired, and I can feel my eyelids starting to close. I jerk my head up and make my eyes open again. I hope Target hurries up.

Someone is shaking my shoulder gently, and I hear, ‘Come on, little girl, let’s go to the motel, get a room and some rest.’

I stand up but am a bit wobbly on my legs. Target picks up my backpack and throws it over his shoulder, then wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me out of the bank. We head straight for the motel and a long rest, I hope.

Target gets us a suite, and we go straight to it. I take my backpack into the bathroom and have a shower, then throw myself onto the twin bed and fall asleep.

The smell of something good wakes me, and I sit up, rubbing my eyes. Looking up, Target is watching TV and has a pile of food on the coffee table in front of him.

He must have wrapped me up when I fell asleep as I’m tucked into bed tightly and have to fight to get my arms out of the covers.

Once out of bed, I walk over to Target and sit on the floor behind the coffee table. I pick up a piece of pizza and eat it fast.

‘You okay, Zara? Feel any better for that sleep?’ Target asks, and when I look up, I have to blink as he’s had a shower and has new, clean clothes on, even had a shave, he looks so different.

‘Wow, Target, you look so different.’ I burst out, ‘I hardly knew who you were.’ and then I grinned at him.

‘Sassy little girl.’ Target replies but is smirking at me.

‘I feel better for that sleep. I was tired. I’ve never walked so far.’ I tell him, smiling.

‘You slept a long time. I’ve been shopping, got some new clothes, had a shower, and got food, all while you’ve been snoring,’ he says, pointing his piece of pizza at me.

‘I don’t snore.’ I gasp out.

‘You sure do, loud ones. They were knocking on the wall next door telling you to shut up,’ he says, and I’m not sure if he’s joking until I see the small crinkles at the side of his eyes which tells me he’s laughing at me.

I can’t help it. I giggle as he is funny when he’s teasing me.

‘Tomorrow we’re going to visit the next town, watch what’s going on at the MC. See what is happening before we go speak to them.’ Target looks serious now, so I nod, ‘We’ll watch and listen. Only when we know it’s okay will we speak to them.

‘Let’s get settled, get some sleep, and be rested for tomorrow. Can you sleep some more?’

‘Yes, I’ll rest if I don’t sleep. I won’t wake you up.’ I say and quickly visit the bathroom, wash and clean my teeth, then jump back into bed. ‘Night Target.’

‘Night, little girl.’ Target replies, then tucks me in tight once more.