Page 5 of Protecting Silver
Just then, a waitress came around and they ordered another round of drinks, even for Amber and Silver. The band took a break then, all the dancers came off the floor. Lorna looked around, and frowned. “Is it always this busy on a Wednesday night?”
“No clue, I don’t come out by myself anymore,” Ronnie answered, and saw that it was at least six deep to get to the bar. “I hope the girls can make their way through that throng of people.”
* * *
“Hey,I’m going to wait for you outside in the hall. It sounds like the bands on a break, so people will be wanting to get in here,” Silver called out to Amber.
“Okay, I’ll be right out,” Amber answered her.
Silver stepped out and was almost mobbed before she could get two steps from the doorway. She was jostled, and pushed, and ended up in the opposite direction she had headed. Deciding to lean against the wall to gather her breath before she attempted to go through the crush of bodies to get back to her table, she leaned her shoulder against the wall and waited. With her mind on her earlier conversation, she wasn’t as diligent as she should have been. Several men came out of the men’s room from behind her, and the next thing she knew someone wrapped a strong arm around her, covered her mouth, and dragged her backward, and out the exit door at the end of the hall. As she was dragged over the threshold, her shoe came off. Silver fought for her life, and the voice in her ear froze the blood in her veins to ice, as well as all her muscles. She couldn’t move. That was the biggest mistake she had ever made.
“Hello, Silver,” Eddie Freedman said. He kept one hand over her mouth, shoved her against the wall hard enough to knock the air out of her, then faced her, but he took his other hand and placed it around her neck. Silver knew from past experience that if she tried to fight him, he’d only get angry and hurt her worse.
“What do you want?” She tried to be defiant, but it was hard when she couldn’t breathe.
“Now that I’ve finally found you, it’s time you learned your lesson, that nobody defies Eddie Freedman.”
“Yeah, well, it took you long enough, I’ve been gone for four years. I couldn’t have been that important to you. Besides, you had those other skanks you hooked up with. Why not go bother one of them.” She stared down her nose at him, then screamed when he took the hand that had been over her mouth, and backhanded her. Because of his hold on her throat, she couldn’t cry out loud enough for anyone to hear her above the noise from inside the club. He didn’t let up punching her until she slumped in his hold. Though she was barely conscious, she shivered at what he said next. “I’m going to put you where you belong, in the trash.” Then he lifted her, carried her down the alleyway, and Silver sensed it was far away from the door, then he picked her up and tossed her in the dumpster at the end of the alley. Silver didn’t remember anything after that.
* * *
“Where’s Silver?”Amber asked when she returned to the table half an hour later.
“Where have you been? You left over an hour ago,” Tymber frowned at her daughter.
“We got to the bathroom just before the rush. Silver said she’d meet me in the hall, to give the other women waiting in line a chance to use it. It’s only two stalls. I told her I’d be right out. I had a problem with my belt. When I came out, it was a madhouse, I couldn’t find her, so I made my way back here. It took me this long to fight my way through the crowd.”
Lorna picked up her phone to call Silver, but then saw the other phone lying on the table. She grabbed it, stuffed it in Silver’s small bag, then stuffed that in her larger purse. She stood up, and said, “Follow me, form a single line behind me, and I’ll get us through.”
“What are you talking about?” Tymberly asked as she stood, and put her purse crossway over her body, keeping the bulk of it in front of her.
“I learnt a long time ago, that women in these clubs don’t like to see a wide load coming, I’ll blaze a trail for us. Amber, which way is the ladies’ room?”
Amber pointed, and Ronnie looked at Lorna as she stood. “If I didn’t agree with you, I’d kick your ass, right here, right now.”
“Why?”
“Because you are not, nor have you ever been, fat. You’re curvy and healthy.”
“Whatever, we need to find Silver.” All the ladies nodded, then true to her word, Lorna started forward and the sea of bodies parted for her. It took almost ten minutes, but they finally made it to the hallway where the bathrooms were located. They looked around and didn’t see Silver anywhere.
“Does the exit door open?” Tymber asked at one point. “Do you think she might have slipped out to get some air and it locked behind her?”
“Let’s see,” Ronnie said, and started forward. She stopped so suddenly that the others ran into her. After pulling her phone, she accessed the flashlight, then shined it down at the ground. “Is that Silver’s shoe?” When Amber reached to push open the door, Ronnie stopped her. “Use your elbow, if something happened, we’re going to want to tell the police to dust the door for fingerprints.”
“Oh,” Amber said, and looked at her mother fearfully. Tymber took her daughter’s hand and they all followed Ronnie this time. She seemed like the only one that had her head screwed on straight. All the women had their phones out then, and began shining the flashlight around. Toward the back of the alley, they caught the reflection of something shiny and rushed forward.
“No,” Lorna said as she saw the matching shoe in front of the dumpster.
“Lift me up,” Ronnie said, and the other three women were able to lift her. She sat on the edge of the dumpster and swore a blue streak. Lorna was used to it, but her language shocked the other two. Ronnie pulled her phone and dialed.
“Hello, my name is Ronnie Parker, I’m at Club Nitro, in the back alley. I found a body in the dumpster behind the club. We need the police, and the ambulance.” She paused and frowned. “No, I don’t know if they’re breathing. Okay.” She handed her phone to the others. “They want me to check to see if she’s breathing.” She tried to reach in, but it was too far down. After she handed her purse over, she eased down into the dumpster, and slowly made her way to Silver’s body. She didn’t see any signs of being raped, but when she caught sight of her face, she sucked in her breath. It was so bruised and swollen, Ronnie didn’t recognize Silver. She only knew it was her, because of the clothes she had on.
Taking a deep breath, she bent down and put her fingers on Silver’s neck, and sighed in relief when she felt a pulse. Ronnie knew she couldn’t get out of the dumpster without help, so she called out to Lorna. “Tell them she has a pulse. It’s weak, but there. Also tell them to get Amos Bronson here.” She heard Lorna relay the information, then sat down and took Silver’s hand in hers, and started talking softly to her.
“I’m here, Silver. It’s Ronnie. We got you. We won’t leave you. We’re here for you, and you can bet that we will find the fucker that did this to you. I won’t rest until we find him. I promise you that.” As she studied the injured woman, Ronnie noted the damage was only from the throat up. “Son of a bitch,” Ronnie ground out.
“What?” Amber called up to her. “Lorna and Mom went to the other end of the alley to wait for the cops and ambulance. What can you tell me?”
