Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MADDOX

This cannot become a thing.

Why the hell is Hiro always bolting off?

“Hiro, do not run off without me! I’m going to tattoo this on your forehead so every time you look in the mirror you will hopefully remember!”

“I don’t generally carry a mirror when I’m on the run, though!” he stubbornly says.

“Where the hell are you two going?” Nakamura yells as he’s torn between dealing with whoever’s calling him and chasing after us. “Fuck.”

He rushes out into the street with us as I keep right on Hiro’s trail.

“Reggie said she’s on the roof of that hotel,” he says as he points.

“What do you know about the husband and wife?” I ask Nakamura.

“Not much. He’s some big CEO over here on business. That’s the extent of what I know.”

“They flew in separately?” Hiro asks.

“I have no idea.”

I hurry after Hiro. When we reach the lobby, the woman behind the counter smiles and welcomes us, but when we get to the elevator, it’s clear we need a keycard to get in.

“We need to get up to the roof. Nakamura, can you get us up to the roof?”

“I’m already in deep shit because of you two,” he growls. He pulls out his badge and says something to the woman. She nods and hurries over to swipe her badge on the keycard reader. The doors open and the three of us rush in before she hits the right button for us.

“She said the elevator doesn’t go to the roof. You have to take the stairs from the twelfth floor,” Nakamura says.

The elevator has to be the slowest elevator I’ve ever ridden on as it starts the long trek up to the top floor while Nakamura stares at Hiro like he’s an alien.

“Was that some kind of trick?” Nakamura asks.

“You think I rigged the subway station to lose electricity and then what? Scurried down, tugged your ankles a bit before running back up to wallow around on the ground when the electricity came on?” Hiro responds.

Nakamura really doesn’t seem to know.

“Hiro, the likelihood of her being armed is low, but we don’t know that she doesn’t have a knife or anything else. Will you please promise me that you’ll let me handle this?” I ask.

“Yeah, of course!”

Yeah, of course, he says , like my request was odd to even make. As though he isn’t agreeing while poised to dash out of the elevator at a moment’s notice. I feel like it’s gotten worse since I was shot. Like maybe he thinks if he runs off in advance that everything will be fixed long before I get there.

“Hiro. Your mouth is saying one thing, but your body is saying another.”

“You don’t know what my body is saying! My body is saying nothing,” he insists, but the second that elevator is open, he’s the first one through. I grab him by the neck of his shirt, which chokes him a little, but he doesn’t need to run off first!

“Hiro,” I say in a warning tone.

He grumbles but gets behind me.

“Wait… you’re supposed to be letting me deal with it,” Nakamura says, but I think he’s still too shaken up from the prior events because even though he says that, he does nothing to take the lead.

I head up the stairs and push through the door out onto the roof quietly, so as not to spook her. I don’t know if she’s just chilling up there thinking it was a job well done or thought it was a good place to hide, but when I come out, I find her leaning against the railing. She jumps slightly, startled, and looks over at us before placing a smile on her face.

“How weird to run into you three here,” she says.

“Charlotte, why don’t you come over here to talk to us?” I ask.

“About what?” she asks, like she’s not aware what happened.

“Charlotte, let’s head downstairs and talk.”

“I don’t feel like talking. I’m done talking. I’m done with everything,” she says as she grips the top of the railing and begins pulling herself up.

“No! Charlotte, please!” Hiro entreats. “Come on. Just get down. Come over here, and we’ll talk. We’ll figure out what happened. It’s okay.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened,” she says. “None of it matters anymore. None of it fucking matters.”

She starts climbing and of course Hiro is prepared to run over and do anything to help her. He doesn’t care that she could have a weapon or that she could hurt him or push him or drag him off with her. Hiro is just so damn good all the time. He’s always so good, and I love him so much for that.

But sometimes he needs to put himself first.

“Stay back!” she yells. “If you come over here, I’ll push you off the fucking roof. You hear me? Stay the fuck back.”

I pull Hiro back as I get a better look at her and when I do, I see a cut on the side of her face. There was blood on the wall of the elevator, but was it his blood or hers?

My first impression of the woman when she began talking to Hiro on the plane was that she was rather annoying. I’ve never been fond of strangers striking up a conversation, but Hiro has a lot more patience for strangers than I do. Yet one thing that stood out to me about the interaction was the way she’d looked at Hiro’s arms after she’d seen he was hurt. While it wouldn’t have been odd to have shown concern over Hiro’s arms, most people wouldn’t have immediately questioned whether someone at home had done it.

“When someone is continually hurting you, it’s hard to believe there’s a better path out there,” I say, knowing I could be very wrong, but there’s a good chance I’m right. What happened between her and her husband wasn’t a premeditated murder… or at least my gut is telling me it wasn’t. It was too sloppy. Too many risks with the cameras or the chance someone was waiting on the platform. There was also a chance that there was a sensor to notice something falling onto the tracks.

I also feel like she wouldn’t have run if it was planned. If she wasn’t guilty, why would she have run? If her husband had truly fallen onto the tracks, she would have run for help, hit the emergency button, or done something reckless like trying to help him.

Instead, she ran.

Charlotte’s hand is shaking as she hovers over the top of the railing. At this point, if she chose to jump, there’s absolutely nothing we could do to reach her in time. The only way she’s coming down alive is by her own choice.

“He likes to degrade you anyway he can, doesn’t he?” I ask. “He booked your ticket in economy to remind you that the money is his.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says.

“He’s ruled your life up to this point; why would you let him still rule it now?” I ask.

“You don’t understand.”

“Don’t you have a daughter?” Hiro asks. “My mom and dad died when I was ten… and… I can’t tell you how fucking much it hurt losing them. How much it still hurts.”

“Maybe she’ll finally be fucking happy! She won’t even speak to me anymore! She hates me. I don’t fucking blame her! She should have had a better mother. Someone who was strong enough to keep her safe. To keep her away.”

“Why can’t you be the mother she needs now?” Hiro asks. “You have a chance to make sure it’s not too late to fix things.”

Charlotte shakes her head. “I’m going to rot in prison.”

“You don’t know what will happen,” I say. “But if you jump off, you’ll never know.”

Her hands tighten on the bar. She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “No. You don’t understand. I can’t even blame him. Maybe he hit me or yelled at me or threw shit at me, but I’m the one who choked him. I’m the one who threw him in front of a fucking train. It was me. I did it. I made that choice. I made it… FUCK.”

“And you can make the choice to come off the ledge,” I say soothingly. “Explain to the police what he did to you. Give them the proof they need because right now… if you jump off that edge then he wins even in death. He will become the victim.”

Hiro takes a slow step toward her and her body tenses.

An idea hits me that I’m not sure I’d have ever come up with if it weren’t for the influence Hiro has had on me. Before him, I understood very little of the tie between child and parent, but Hiro has proven again and again those bonds could move mountains. “Charlotte, can I call your daughter so you can at least tell her you’re sorry for not getting her away from that? Can I do that?”

She shakes her head. “No. I’ve disappointed her enough.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Hiro says. “I’m sure she will be so happy to hear from you.”

Charlotte shakes her head again, but I can tell she’s not fully against the idea. “No! I can’t fuck up her life even more. I’ve already fucked it up.”

“If you’re going to die no matter what, then do this one thing. Let her understand,” I coax.

“Don’t get any closer. I’ll… I’ll give you the phone. I don’t want you… tricking me or using it to grab me,” she says.

“I understand,” I reply. When she tosses the phone, I catch it, but the first thing I see is a message from an unknown number that says, “You’re finally free.” I’ll have to ask Nakamura to look into that.

I go to her favorites before looking up at her when I realize there’s only one name in her favorites. “Is her name Janie? Let’s give her a call.” I press it and put it on speaker. The phone rings a bit before a woman answers with a “Hello?”

Charlotte lets out a sob and shakes her head, and I hope this isn’t a mistake. I don’t need to traumatize the daughter by having her on the phone if Charlotte chooses to jump. But she needs to find a reason not to jump and the three of us aren’t that reason. Her daughter is.

“Hello? Mom?”

“Janie, this is Maddox, an… acquaintance of your mother’s. I think she needs to hear your voice for a moment.”

“Did something happen? I fucking told her something’s going to happen. I told her to get away from that asshole. I told her. She never fucking listens. She never listens!”

“I’m sorry,” Charlotte says shakily. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know how to listen. I didn’t know how to get away. I didn’t know how to be a mother to you. You’ll never be able to forgive me.”

“Don’t… pick my words for me,” Janie retorts. “Don’t decide my own thoughts for me. You’ve always wanted to decide how I feel about you. I don’t hate you, Mom. I hate Dad. I hate him so much and I just can’t fucking fathom how you don’t. How can you devote your life to him? How can you pick him instead of me? I’m right here, Mom. I’m right fucking here but still you go to him.”

“No, I love you more than I’ve ever loved him.”

“Then show me that! Then tell me that! Stop revolving your life around him. Everything you do is for him. Please.”

Charlotte looks down off the edge, almost like she’s realizing that she’s choosing him again, even after he’s dead. Even after he can’t haunt her anymore. She pushes from the ledge and Hiro grabs her, drawing her to the middle of the roof where she sinks down on her knees. “I won’t. I’m so sorry. I want to choose you. I want to choose you. I’m so sorry. I’ve fucked up. I’ve made a mistake. I’ve fucked up.”

The door slowly opens, and I realize that Nakamura must have called backup at some point. Maybe they’d had the door cracked enough to be able to tell when it was safe for them to come out, as they definitely didn’t want to drive her off the edge.

A woman comes and takes over Hiro’s position. The man who’d seemed irritated with Nakamura says something to him before Nakamura comes over to us.

“Well, he’s not too pissed, at least. I will surely be reprimanded for not sending an on-duty officer after her and for not staying out of it. But ah well. Sometimes we have to look the other way if it means there are fewer dead at the end.”

“Good. I hated the idea of you getting in hot water because of us,” Hiro says.

I nod, hoping he doesn’t run into too much trouble. “When she’s questioned, have the interviewer ask her about her phone. She had a message from an unknown number that said something like ‘You’re finally free,’ telling me that she was at least in contact with someone about these events.”

“I’ll definitely have them ask her about that and look into it. Thank you both. And thank you for dealing with my skepticism. I still have no damn idea what I think about all of this ghost stuff, but I suppose that either you really can see the dead or you’re really damn lucky.”

“Maybe a bit of both,” Hiro says.

“Hmm… You guys headed to Tokyo in the morning?”

“That’s our plan,” I reply.

Hiro hesitates before saying, “The issue is that I feel really guilty leaving you when the ghosts are still fixated on you.”

Nakamura shrugs. “I’m fine.”

“The thing is, if I’d seen Charlotte’s husband before he died… I can’t help but wonder if I’d have also seen ghosts crowding around him,” Hiro says, implying that the ghosts following Nakamura are there because someone is after his life.

Nakamura is quiet for a moment. “How about I make a few changes to see if that keeps me safer? When you’re back from Tokyo, I’ll buy you a coffee and you can tell me my fate then.”

“What if it’s too late?” Hiro asks.

“I’ll be fine,” he assures us. “I’ll go stay with one of the other officers if that makes you feel better.”

“Alright,” Hiro says. “Just… don’t go anywhere alone and please be careful of everyone.”

“Will do.”

“Text me every day to tell me you’re still alive.”

“You’re starting to sound like you’re flirting with me when your other half is right there,” Nakamura says as he nods toward me.

“Then you can text me ,” I say dryly.

That makes him grin. “Oh? Now you’re both flirting? Never knew I’d be so lucky,” he teases as he pulls out a cigarette and gives us a wink before heading off.

“That’s a man who is so cocky he’s going to get himself killed,” I decide.

“Right?” Hiro asks.