Chapter 11

Tuesday Evening …

O utside the monument, Doreen headed for one of the many benches in the area. With the animals tucked up close beside her, particularly Goliath, who didn’t want to be on the leash at all, she sat down to wait. In a few minutes she heard a woman speak beside her.

“May I?” Tammy asked.

“Yes, sure.”

Tammy sat down beside Doreen, staring at the animals. “Good God. I didn’t realize who you were, until I saw them .”

Doreen nodded. “It’s one of the reasons why I travel with them. Everybody seems to know who they are, which saves me some time when approaching people.”

“They are quite famous,” Tammy noted, and a fan-girl moment seemed to be happening here.

Doreen stared at her in the half light. “They’re friendly, if you want to pet one or two of them.”

Tammy held out a hand to Mugs, who immediately nudged her hand, looking for cuddles. Tammy gave a delighted laugh and smiled. “I do miss having pets,” she shared enviously.

“Can’t have them where you are?”

“Are you kidding? We can’t have anything where we are, especially not a life.”

“Ooh, that doesn’t sound good,” Doreen replied.

“No, once you get into trouble, it’s almost impossible to get out.”

“If you did get out, where would you go? Where would you want to go?”

“Home,” Tammy stated immediately. “I would be on the first bus home.”

“Where is that?”

“Ontario,” she replied, as a shadow of sorrow crossed her features. “I have family there, and I want to go home. Get a fresh start somewhere and get out of this nightmare, which is only half living, or maybe not living at all. Hopefully find something new to do with my life.”

“A bus ticket isn’t all that expensive, is it?”

Tammy eyed her with a haunted expression. “The ticket is not expensive, but buying your freedom is a whole different story.”

“You need to explain that,” Doreen said. “Maybe I can help.”

“No, it’s better if you don’t know.” Tammy looked around nervously, obviously jittery. “Jed’s already got enough issues right now. I don’t want to add to it. He’s a mean, mean drunk.”

“Yet he doesn’t have to be drunk to be mean, does he?”

Tammy shuddered and shook her head. “No, he lashes out first and asks questions later. Hitting people is right up his alley.”

“And he apparently has some hold over you?”

She snorted. “Not unlike the rest of the men in my life,” she muttered.

“Is he your partner?”

“Jed doesn’t have partners. He has a stable.”

At that, the tumblers fell into place. Doreen whispered, “Ah, now I understand.”

“Do you though? Or are you too high-and-mighty to understand?”

“No, definitely not that,” Doreen replied. “Whether I understand or not doesn’t have anything to do with your getting free of him.”

“He doesn’t let go of people easily,” Tammy explained. “Now, if you have a way to get him into jail and to keep him there for a while, and I can get free and clear before somebody else takes over for Jed, then that’s a possibility I could entertain.”

“That’s why you are here, isn’t it?”

Tammy hesitated. “Yeah, Jed’s out on a business thing, and I’m supposed to be working, which is where I’m going after this. However, my telling him it was a slow evening is one thing, but me sitting here talking to you is another.”

“What if he sees you?”

“I can get away with it for a little bit but not for long.”

“Okay, then talk,” Doreen urged. “Let’s not have you getting into trouble over this. Better talk fast,” she suggested.

“Unless you can pay me,” Tammy noted hesitantly.

“For your time?”

“Yes, I will do all kinds of things for money.”

Doreen nodded. “What I really need is information.”

“Exactly, so if I bring home some money, then I could potentially fob this off as just being a bad night, but not a terribly bad night. So I can give you good information.”

“I’m not even sure I have any money on me,” Doreen shared.

At that, Tammy smiled. “We’re a little more modern now,” she began, and she held out her phone, a little debit machine on her screen.

“Good Lord,” Doreen said, staring at Tammy. “You guys really are modern.” Doreen pulled out a credit card and very carefully put $50 in.

Tammy eyed her and asked, “I guess you don’t tip easily either, do you?”

“No,” she declared. “When I told you that I spent a lot of time without a home, I meant it.”

“Okay, fine,” Tammy muttered. “That’s enough to at least get Jed off my back for a few minutes. So, now what?”

“Now you answer my questions.” Doreen was still wondering at how easily she’d handed over $50. She could hardly ask Mack to reimburse her for it, when he wouldn’t have paid Tammy in the first place. Doreen sighed and began, “It would be better if you do it honestly, especially after I just paid for it.”

Tammy chuckled. “That’s okay, honey. Enough takers are in this world that sometimes you just have to give a little.”

“Or did I just get taken a little?” Doreen asked in a neutral tone.

“If you get information, is it being taken?” Tammy asked curiously.

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on what you have to offer, if you have anything that’s helpful.”

“If you did some checking into Jed, I’m sure you would find something that would take him off the streets,” she shared.

“What’s his last name?”

“Barry, Jed Barry.”

“Okay, and in what direction am I supposed to be looking, outside of prostitution?”

“Pimping and theft of course. Add a little B&E into the mix. He’s the go-to guy for pawn shops,” Tammy shared. “Not that I’ve ever seen that part of him in action.”

“Of course not. How many women are in the house with you?”

“Just me and one other.”

“What role does Frankie have in all this?”

“He’s supposed to be running errands and doing all sorts of odd jobs, but honestly Jed’s getting pretty fed up with him. If I had to guess, Frankie’s likely to get the boot real soon,” she told Doreen. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“Will that boot be permanent or just a strong invitation to get out of the house?”

“It should just be to get out of the house,” she replied, “but, if he’s done anything wrong, I can’t promise that.”

“Has Jed killed anybody?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Any girls gone missing?”

“No, at least not that I know of. He had four, and he sold two. Now there’s just the two of us.”

“How long until he sells you?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered. “It is definitely a concern.”

“Can you buy your own freedom?”

“If I had the money, sure,” she replied, with a hysterical and bitter laugh. “I did mention it at one point in time, and the price that he told me doubled the next time I brought it up.”

“So, in other words, it will likely double again.”

“Soon enough I would think so and, for sure, if I mentioned it. It’s not so much that he cares. It’s just that now, with only the two of us in his stable, we’re his source of income. We pay the rent, and he doesn’t have to work.”

“Does he do drugs?”

“He doesn’t take drugs, no,” she clarified.

“Do you?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Explain to me why, after a really good night, you couldn’t just take that money and walk to the closest bus stop and never come back.”

“I’ve thought about it,” she admitted, “a lot actually. I just haven’t gotten there yet.”

“Why not?” Doreen wasn’t sure why she was pushing this leaving on a bus angle so much when she needed to get answers for other questions, but Tammy, if she were in trouble, needed to explain in a way that Doreen could understand.

“Sometimes you don’t realize just how much of a prisoner you are,” Tammy said.

“So, Tammy, if I were to give you $400 right now, what would you do?” Tammy stared at her. “I mean, that’s all a ticket is, isn’t it? A bus ticket should take you across Canada to Ontario, taking two to three days.”

Tammy gave Doreen a sideways look. “Are you offering?”

“Not yet,” Doreen replied, “but it makes me wonder if you would even take it because you have that opportunity on a regular basis.”

Tammy gave a bitter laugh. “Now you’re judging me.”

“No, I’m trying to understand you because I was in a similar relationship,” she shared, stopping to clear her tightening throat. “I wasn’t in a similar situation per se, but I was definitely in an ugly relationship, where I was being hit and belittled and controlled all the time. Yet I only left when I was forced to do so. I’m still trying to figure out why it took me so long.”

Tammy stared at her. “You?”

“Yeah, me,” Doreen confirmed. “I get that most people look at me and don’t see a battered woman, and I work hard to remind myself where she came from. Yet, when you get an opportunity to change, you need to grab that chance and run with it.”

“So far you haven’t given me that opportunity to change,” Tammy pointed out.

“I’m not sure you would run with it.”

“I don’t know either,” Tammy admitted. “It’s scary.”

Doreen smiled at that. “Now that I understand in spades.”

“Do you though?”

“I do,” she stated. “I get it. An awful lot out there you don’t really want to deal with. An awful lot out there is ugly. Watching over your shoulder is definitely not how you would choose to live your life, but do you really think Jed would care enough to follow you back to Ontario?”

Tammy shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t.”

“Since you have family, did you ever ask them for help?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I don’t really want them to know how far I’ve fallen.”

“Do you think if you got back there on your own, you could make a new beginning?”

Tammy nodded.

“Because your family would help?”

“Yeah, they told me to just get back there, and they would be there for me.”

“Do you believe them?” Doreen asked.

“I do, very much so,” Tammy replied. “It’s just hard to think that I’m bringing all this baggage with me.”

“Maybe not,” Doreen countered. “Maybe you can’t bring it with you. Maybe you’ll just walk away and leave it here. Then you can start fresh.”

“Is that even possible?”

“I think it is,” Doreen noted, “but it takes time and effort and maybe some counseling on the other end.”

“I would do anything I could,” Tammy declared, “but first I have to get clear of this guy. Jed is not one to mess with.”

“Meaning, you do think he’ll come after you.”

“Meaning, I would spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder, not knowing how far his reach goes.”

“ Right ,” Doreen muttered. “So tell me more about Jed Barry.”

“I don’t know if that’s his real name,” she began. “He wound up down here at some point. As far I know, he was homeless for a couple winters, then hooked up with some characters ,” she said, with emphasis. “I don’t know who they are, but he somehow ended up with one girl, and, with her, he ended up getting enough money to get them both into a place so she had a bedroom where she could bring her johns back to. As the story goes, from that Jed slowly built up.”

Tammy took a second and looked around them. The park was empty, and only a few people were in sight, with no one near them. “Jed’s not a big player at all. He’s a two-bit player really, but the fact that he’s a player at all means that nobody is safe because he deals in fear and anger.”

“Of course,” Doreen agreed. “That’s how they manage people, isn’t it?” Tammy nodded slowly. “Because you’re petrified to do anything wrong, and, no matter what happens, he gets away with it.”

“Nothing quite like a fist to keep you in line.”

Doreen winced, reminded of her own injuries. “That part I know all too well.”

Tammy studied Doreen in the shadows. “Would you really help me?”

“Yes,” Doreen stated. “To what extent, I’m not sure. I guess it depends on whether you’re serious or whether you’ll take my money and just put it into booze and be back out on the streets again. Worse yet would you be supporting this Jed guy with my money, instead of working toward a better future for yourself.”

“That’s really not my intention, but I can see why you might be doubtful.”

“Okay, so we’ll have to see how best to proceed with that. What can you tell me about Frankie?”

“Frankie is Jed’s lap dog. Frankie’s a loser. He cheats on his friends and does anything for a buck. Anything goes with that one. He can’t seem to keep a real job, which is how Jed likes it—I think because it keeps Frankie dependent on Jed. The fact that Frankie will be on the streets really quick will be bad news for him. He’s not that well equipped for it.”

“Why? What’ll he do if that happens?”

“In his case, it won’t be pretty, but he’ll probably end up rummaging through garbage cans again, looking for meals, sleeping under porches to get out of the wind, and eventually he’ll start stealing and doing anything he can to get some money. That’s my best guess.”

“So, he’ll sink right back down to that level again.”

“Exactly. In that way Jed’s been good for Frankie because he’s cleaned up his act a bit.”

“Did Frankie ever screw over Jed?”

“If he hasn’t, he will,” Tammy declared. “That’s just who Frankie is.”

“ Nice ,” Doreen muttered.

“Not nice at all, but I’m not a fool, and I do recognize Frankie for who he is.”

“I got that same feeling too,” Doreen replied, pondering it. “How much longer do you have with me out here?”

“Not much,” she said, looking all nervous again. “I need to go. Fifty bucks doesn’t get you much time in this world.” She looked over at Doreen, gave her a half a smile, and added, “Unless you want to kick in another fifty bucks.”

Doreen shook her head. “Nope, I’ve already hit my limit, but you’ve got my number. So anytime you’re serious about getting out, and you want to head back to Ontario and leave this all behind, text me.”

Tammy hesitated.

Doreen studied her. “If I gave you bus ticket money and found out you stayed here, found out you took my money and used it instead of taking on a john, as much as I’ll understand, it won’t make me happy. And you might find yourself in trouble with the police for doing this kind of work.”

“We do a lot to ensure that doesn’t happen,” she replied.

“Does Jed pay anybody to keep you guys out of trouble?”

She shrugged. “Not that I know of, but we’re constantly on the move. You do know there are bigger organizations, bigger stables in town,” she pointed out. “So, as long as we stay out of trouble, the cops generally leave us alone. No one pays us any mind at all.”

“It’s hard to believe this has been going on here all the time. I’ve never caught wind of it.”

“Are you kidding? It’s in every town, everywhere. Those are just the facts of life, and, if you think differently, you’re wrong.” With that, Tammy got up and left as quickly as she could.

Doreen sat here and watched Tammy disappear around the corner, thinking how her animals had all easily accepted Tammy. Maybe Doreen could too.