Page 16 of Protecting Silver
Amos reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded plastic bag with the words ‘evidence’ printed in black, on a red strip across it. There were two of them. “Is this what you wrote?” He handed the bags to Silver, and she frowned at them, then looked up with a nod.
“Yes.”
“Please, tell me what they are. I need to hear it directly from you.”
“Eddie Freedman was the man that attacked me. He’s my ex-boyfriend. We dated for a year and a half, and lived together for a year. Then, the demands started, and I blew them off. Other things occurred also, and I thought I was losing my mind, until I realized it was Eddie doing them.”
“Please, describe what they were.”
“I’d store money in the freezer.” Silver held up her hands and looked at the others with a shake of her head. “Sorry, but my grandmother did the same thing, and I always did it too, but then the money I stored there would disappear. I thought Eddie would give it back to me, but he kept it. It was my rainy-day money. When we first started dating, it was perfect, then about six weeks to three months after moving into Eddie’s place, he changed. No more going out to restaurants, and he became more controlling and demanding.”
“Can you tell me in what ways? What were some of the things he would demand of you?”
“First, that was when the mental and verbal abuse started. He would demean me, my choice of clothes, even my name compared to my looks. Some of his demands were that I had to have his supper on the table at 6:04 every night—not a minute too soon, nor a minute too late. This was after I’d worked a full day. Some days I didn’t get out of the office until six, so it was impossible. Though he never hit me, he made my life miserable with the verbal abuse on those nights. When I was able to have his dinner on the table in time, while he ate, I was to scrub down the kitchen from top to bottom, so the odors from my cooking wouldn’t permeate the woodwork.” Silver looked around and saw shock on everyone’s face. When she chanced a look at Patch, she saw a combination of anger and disgust. As she tried to pull her hand from his, he placed a finger on her chin, turned her head and looked at her.
“My anger and disgust isn’t aimed at you, it’s at him. Even though you said he never hit you, he did physically abuse you, by forcing you to do something you didn’t want to do. All that you’re seeing in me is directed at him.”
“Oh,” Silver said, then squeezed his hand. Turning back to Amos, she nodded as she continued. “This went on for months. There were times when I would purposely stay late at the office, so I wouldn’t have to cook his supper. He’d give me the cold shoulder, thinking he was punishing me, but I relished in his silence. That meant he wasn’t berating me. After several months, he got a dog. He said it was for his job, but he’s a cop, and worked in vice. There was no way they would allow him to go undercover in the underbelly of society with a dog. He trained her to guard me. When Eddie was in one of his silent moods, the dog was to guard me, so I was restrained to only one room for the rest of the night, which was usually the living room. Eddie would only allow me out of that room to use the bathroom. This went on for a few more months.
“During all this time, I was talking to my parents, who happened to live in NYC. I did all this while at work,” Silver explained, but held up her hand to ward off any questions. “No, I did not tell them about my situation. I was of the mindset that I went into this relationship with my eyes wide open, I was going to get myself out of it, but I needed their help first.”
“How?” Amos frowned down at her.
“When I was five, my parents and I were in a car accident. We were struck by a drunk driver that ran a red light.” She reached beneath the blankets, and began fiddling with something, then she tossed them back, and lifted her hospital gown to reveal a scar about an inch wide, and at least twelve inches long. As the others studied it, she continued. “My parents are lawyers, and instead of suing just the drunk driver, who survived with only a scratch on his forehead that didn’t even require stitches, but they also sued the car manufacturer, because of a safety issue. Instead of getting a lump sum of cash, they got it in what you’d call a cash settlement. They received a certain amount every month until I was eighteen, then it reverted back to me.”
When everyone had stopped staring at her scar, she covered it back up, and smiled at Patch as he fixed the blankets. “I never told anyone about that monthly check. It was like my secret rainy-day money, and I certainly didn’t tell Eddie about it, but I had called my parents wanting to know how I could cash in the monthly payments for one lump sum. I kept seeing those commercials on television. They said that they would handle it. In my mind, once I received that check, I was gone.”
“It took almost six months, but I finally received the check. It was on a day that was a day from hell at work. The boss had come in on a rampage, and anyone who got in her way was fired. As I was cleaning out my desk, I received a package from a messenger. As soon as I opened it, my shitty day just became full of rainbows. The people who had been fired, my boss demanded everyone to leave at once. I had to pick up the slack of them leaving. When I got home I caught up on my laundry, and did some housecleaning. Eddie arrived home in a foul mood. I was dishing up his supper, and it wasn’t on the table as he sat down, though I was walking from the stove to the table, he jumped to his feet, and backhanded me. Because of the comparisons in our sizes, I ended up flying into the living room. Eddie demanded the dog attack me, and when he went to hit me again, the dog bit his arm, and growled at him. Eddie backed off, but the only thing I saw was my laundry basket of clothes I hadn’t put away yet, and my purse. This time, Eddie was screaming that I was worthless, and that no man would ever put up with my attitude. I rose to my feet, walked over, got in his face, and told him that if all men were like him, then I was going to bat for the other team. Then, I told him he was nothing but a piss-poor man, and that he needed to live in the twenty-first century. I picked up my basket of clothes, grabbed my purse, and walked out the door. I never looked back.”
Her conclusion of her ordeal left everyone speechless, and the only sounds in the room were the steady beeps of the heart monitor she was still hooked up to. Amos was the first one to speak.
“What did you mean by that comment of the twenty-first century?”
“Eddie Freedman is a man that believes a woman needs to stay home and clean all day. His ideal woman was what June Cleaver portrayed in the TV showLeave It To Beaver.He was forever trying to tell me that was how I should act while I was in his home. That was when we first started living together. I laughed at him, but weeks later, then months later, I came to realize that he really thought a woman should clean the house in heels and pearls, and anticipate her man’s every need before he even knew what he wanted. I didn’t fit the bill. The last thing I told him before I walked out was that we were done, and he could burn whatever I had left in the apartment. That was four years ago. I have no clue why he hunted me down and did this.” She pointed to her face to draw attention to her broken jaw, and her healing bruises.
“What do you mean hunt you down?” Amber asked. “Is he from around here?”
“No, last time I saw him, he was a Vice cop for the city of Chicago, and he worked undercover in both the mob scene and drug world. Most of the time he’d be home every night, but there were a few times when he’d be on a case and couldn’t get away for a few days. I loved those days.” She sighed and slumped back against the pillows.
“What’s this?” Amos pointed to the numbers beneath Eddie’s name on the paper she’d written on.
“This was his cell phone number when I lived with him. His personal one, not his work one. He had three of those, and I was never privy to their numbers. The next number is his social security number. This last number is his badge number.”
Amos stared at her in silence for several minutes, then he shook his head, cleared his throat, and took the envelope back. He closed his notebook and nodded. “Thank you. I’ll get started on this, and if you get any messages, or see him again, let me know immediately. Do you think your life is in danger, and you’ll need police protection?”
“No, if Eddie threw me in that dumpster, then that was his way of saying he took out the trash. I was probably unfinished business to him. He once told me that no one broke up with him, no one. He always ended things. I ended it between us, not him. So, I was his unfinished business. But, if anything happens, you’ll be the first one I call.”
“Thank you,” Amos said, and started to turn away, but quickly turned back. “I hope you have a speedy recovery.”
“Thank you.” Everyone watched as Amos left, and his departure left a silence, but Silver quickly filled it. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I was luckier than most. I got out, and I live my life the way I want to. I survived Eddie Freedman once, and I’ll do it again.”
All the women gave her a hug, then within the next half hour were gone. The only one left was Patch, and he acted more doctor than friend. Once he left, Silver lay there thinking as to why Patch had been in the room to begin with. It wasn’t like he was her doctor, or a friend. She knew him through Ronnie, but that was only through Lorna. Confused, she slumped down in the bed, and closed her eyes, not realizing how wiped out she was after telling Amos about her past with Eddie. In minutes she was asleep.
Chapter 9
Patch had beenoff work for only fifteen minutes when he’d gotten the call from Amos that he was on the way to the hospital to interview Silver. Because Patch was interested in her, not as a patient, but as a female, Patch invited himself into the interview. He hadn’t realized that the other ladies were going to be there. After hearing Silver tell her tale of the time she’d spent with Eddie Freedman, it took every ounce of discipline Patch possessed not to get angry. He had no one to direct that anger to but Eddie Fucking Freedman.
Patch had stood there and listened to Silver recount her relationship with her asshole of an ex, and the entire time he was there, he ground his back teeth, and it took everything he had not to demand of Silver where the asshat lived. All he wanted to do was hunt him down and beat him the same way he’d beaten Silver, but he knew that wouldn’t do Silver any good, and he really didn’t want to go to jail for attempted murder.
