Staged |Jack Avery|

Forty Two - Chaos and Closure

"He... He killed my mom"  

The boys all stop in their tracks and look at me, you can see their eyes fill with disbelief, fear, anger and sadness, Zach's especially.

"Miss, What do you mean?" The officer asks, looking at me concerned 

"Officer?" Cindy asks from behind us, her voice shaking 

"Yes, Ma'am. Who are you?" He questions as he stands up

"My name is Cindy, I'm her step mother. Well, i'm not sure if that's the word she would describe.... but i was married to her father and what she's saying is true. I was cleaning the house, because if i didn't then all hell would break loose and i found a safe i'd never seen before hidden in the upper shelf of the closet. The code wasn't hard to guess, it was Nikki's birthday. I opened it and found that envelope, some pill bottles and bags full of lord knows what, and some guns." She stutters through her words as she wipes the tears from her cheeks 

"Is it all still in the case?" The officer asks as he looks to another officer, as though he were telling him something 

"The drugs and guns are, i took the envelope to read in hopes of knowing what i found was. There's around 30 papers inside, and all of them are some sort of, i don't know? Bargain? Deal? Like contracts. All of them having to do with women, women like Nikkis mom." She sighs as she tries to hold back her tears

"Is there more we should know about?" The second office asks and Cindy just looks to me

"All those women you guys have found in that alley through the years, all the women who have OD on one thing or another, they were all in those papers. Nancy Paige, Suzan Walter, Jasmine Donnie, My mom, they all had a contract to go with. But they weren't the ones who signed, the names on the paper are members of their own family. Their husbands traded their wives for god knows what...." I stand up and try to explain, while doing so one of the Female officers walks in the room with the paper

"There's some that aren't signed.... do you know these people?" She asks as she hands me 3 papers

"See, it says here that 'If the woman being traded alerts anyone of authority, she will be removed', these women were forced into drugs and alcohol, and when they tried to get away.... they were killed. And these three were next..." I trail off as i finally read the last three names

"These... these are for Cindy, Rachel and... me?" I question as i look down 

"Rachel? Who's that?" The officer asks

"... My last step mom. Dad said she didn't like it here, that she left." I stand there dumbfounded by what i'm looking at

Why does he have one of these for me? What could i have done...? Who was he giving me too? This shouldn't make sense, but sadly it does. 

"I'm sorry but this makes absolutely no sense." Cindy says through her tears

"How does it not? He's the ring leader of some sort of... i don't know what to call it. Drug ring? Sex trafficking? I don't know but he clearly made all the shots. That's how he always has so much money... that makes so much more sense. I should have known someone working in landscaping didn't make this much money..." I trail off as i start to out bits and pieces of it together in my head

"The papers, give me them." I ask as i reach for them but the officer pulls them away

"Ma'am this is evidence. You can't touch it."

"No you don't understand, the women in those letters, i know them. I'd have to. I always watch who comes in and out, and if their names haven't come up in the news as an over dose victim then they're still alive and they're still with whoever's name is on that sheet." I try to explain but they don't listen, they instead shoo me off into the ambulance to be examined