Intaglio: Dragons All The Way Down (15 page)

“How dare you!”
she spat, breathing hard.  “You jealous bast—”

“It IS him,
isn’t it!” Cole barked, stepping closer.

His hand snaked
out, grabbing her wrist in a steely grip.  He knew he should walk away, but his
calm voice wasn't winning.  His chest was filled with the destructive power of
a storm about to break.

“No!” she
yelped, tugging away.  She could have been talking about Kip, or perhaps she
was angry about him manhandling her.  Cole didn’t know and didn’t care.

“Yes,” he
growled, “it is Kip, isn’t it?!”

“Fuck you.” 

Her eyes
narrowed dangerously, stance widening.  Cole laughed harshly, dragging her
toward him, but she twisted in his grip and freed her arm.  She’d tightened her
fists until her knuckles were white.

“I saw you
leaving the city last weekend!” Cole shouted.  “Saw you, Ava!”

He turned away
for a moment, because he was fighting the urge to slap her, and that he
wouldn’t do.

“You… You
followed me?”  she cried.  Her eyes were wide, hurt. “How DARE you!”

She took another
step backward, and the movement angered him more than was rational.  His jaw
clamped shut, the next words coming out in a hiss.

“I was out
biking along the coast and I saw you, Ava!  I fucking SAW you leaving town!” 
He laughed coldly.  “Wrong direction if you were going to the National
Gallery.”

That gave her
pause.  She glanced down, brow furrowed.  After a moment she looked up.

“I was out of
town but I
wasn’t
with Kip...”  Her voice shook, face flushed with pain
or anger.  Cole was so incensed he couldn’t tell. 

“Kip Chambers
has a place up the coast,” Cole sneered.  “I know that!” 

She took another
step away from him. 

“I had to deal
with some unexpected things.  A family emergen—”

“You’re LYING!”
he snarled.

That stopped
her.

“FUCK YOU,
Cole!” she bellowed.  “You don’t know a goddamn THING about what’s going on
with me!”

Her voice was
quaking and Cole pushed, wanting to be in her face.  Needing her to know how
much this hurt him!  But the second he moved, she turned to walk away, and
resistance was shredded under the riptide of his rage.

“No, fuck YOU,
Ava!”  His hand grabbed for her shoulder, spinning her around.  “’Cause I know
Kip Chambers has always had a thing for you and I—”

He saw her throw
the punch and he had time to deflect most of the blow, but she still grazed his
cheek.  For a moment he was caught up in the sheer horror of what was
happening: the two of them in a fight in the parking lot of her apartment.  He
stepped back, eyes widening.

“Don’t you EVER
fucking touch me again!” she screamed, her body shaking with pent-up emotion. 
Tears ran down her face, the sight of them shocking Cole into silence.  She
took a sobbing breath, pushing past him to the door of her truck.  “I had to
DEAL with things, alright!  I DON’T have to explain ANYTHING to you!”

She was inside
the cab seconds later, the door slamming shut.  Cole watched, unable to answer;
she pulled out of the lot, the tires spinning shards of gravel up behind her.

 Gone.

: : : : : : : :
: :

Cole didn’t see
her for the rest of the weekend, and he was glad.

She wasn’t in
class on Monday either.  That made it easier.

Tuesday she was
still missing.

On Wednesday
afternoon, Professor Wilkins popped by the Printmaking class to ask Cole if
he’d seen Ava.  She hadn’t been in class for a couple of days, and he wanted to
know if she was interested in applying for a  graduate curatorial program next
year.  He was so impressed by the way she considered art, he thought her unique
spin on artists’ work could be a real asset to her in a career as a curator. 
Wilkins left a flyer for Cole and asked that he get Ava to contact him. 

That night Cole
was concerned enough to go by her apartment and check, but there was no
answer.  Her truck wasn’t in the lot.  At that point, Cole went to find Chim.

She wasn’t at
the studio – hadn’t been all week, it turned out – and Chim’s anxiety caused
Cole’s fear to skyrocket.  Suddenly he was admitting to the whole argument and
his accusations.  Marcus listened, hand on Cole’s shoulder, assuring him she
was probably okay, then immediately suggesting they start calling their friends
while they checked out Ava’s usual haunts.  Suzanne was the first one who
showed up to help them search.  They were an hour into the process when they
got their first lead. 

Talking to the
Crown’s bartender, a heavy-set man named Mike, the trio discovered that Ava had
been at bar yesterday afternoon.  She’d been drinking heavily, refusing to
talk.  Mike gestured to one of the waitresses doing rounds.  In minutes, the
young woman was describing the incident, while the three of them stood
listening.  The waitress had just gotten to the part where Ava told her to put
the bill onto her tab, when Cole’s phone began to ring.  He stepped to the
side, glancing down at the number.  It was the police station.

Cole took the
call, his voice abnormally calm when he said hello.

“Hi there...” a
chipper young woman said.  Not Ava then.  “Is this Cole Thomas?”

For a moment, a
horrible image of Ava dead somewhere flashed into Cole’s mind.  It was the
image from his dream, her eyes wide and black. Body broken.

“Yes...” he
managed to force out.  He couldn’t go any further.  At the table, Chim
straightened up as he caught Cole’s tone.

“Cole,” the
caller said, tone businesslike and practical, “this is Lieutenant Elizabeth
Alvarez calling from the fourteenth precinct police station.  I’m contacting
you in regards to Miss Ava Brooks...”

The three of
them drove down to the police station in Suzanne’s older-model Mazda
hatchback.  The small vehicle was overloaded with their combined weight and she
scraped it heavily on a cement block as she parked. 

“Nice job,” Chim
said, winking at her.  “Think we only lost half the bumper on that one, Suze. 
Want me to drive next time?”

“Better yet,”
Suzanne said cheerily, “you could get your lead ass out of my car, and then we
wouldn’t be over the weight restriction.”

“Nice,” Chim
said, laughing, “very, very nice…”

The two of them
continued joking while Cole stared forward blindly, waiting to bolt.  Suzanne
and Marcus seemed content that Ava had been found but Cole had none of their
comfort.  Once Chim climbed out of the car, releasing the seat so Cole could
get out, he pushed past, heading  straight into the building, not waiting for
either of them. 

Inside the main
foyer, he gave his name and ID at the front desk, shuffling nervously as he
waited to be called to the back.  Cole had no idea what was going on other than
Ava was alive, but stress now fought with relief and the residual effects of
jealousy. 

‘Goddamn Kip
Chambers!’
his mind repeated 

He was almost
entirely sure that Kip and Ava had been caught tagging tonight… and since it
hadn’t been Ava who’d called him, he didn’t know how she would react to him
being here.  His chest ached with a confusing mess of conflicted emotion.  He
needed to know she was okay, but he wasn’t done being angry about the affair
with Kip.  The door opened, and Chim and Suzanne crossed the floor to his side.

“Any word on
Ava?”  Marcus asked.

Cole shook his
head.

“Still waiting
to be called in.”

At the desk, the
receptionist glanced up, motioning to the chairs behind them.

“Lieutenant
Alvarez will be out as soon as she can.  Feel free to grab a seat.”

Cole didn’t move
until Chim took hold of his arm, steering him to the waiting area.

“C’mon, man,” he
said quietly.  “You’re not getting called any sooner by standing here lurking.”

Cole nodded,
allowing himself to be led.  Suzanne sat on one side of him, Chim on the other,
leaving Cole feeling like a child.  Angela and his father had used the same
tactic when he misbehaved.  For a brief moment, he wondered what kind of
parents Chim and Suzanne would be someday... good, he’d guess. 

“Here,” Suzanne
said briskly, handing him a magazine.  “Keep yourself busy.”

Cole flipped
through the pages.  It was a celebrity gossip magazine and the pictures flashed
by in a rush of saturated smiles, his mind lost elsewhere.   They were
essentially sitting in the same position Cole had been in when he was here
earlier this year, when he’d come to pick up Ava the first time. At that time,
Cole thought bitterly, he’d been excited to have her back.  Happy that she was
okay.  By that time his temper had already cooled when she’d been making her
final report to Lieutenant Alvarez.

He wasn’t
settled like that tonight.

Deep inside him,
like jagged rocks under dark water, sharp edges of jealousy fought with his
relief that Ava was okay.  Cole knew she’d been doing something when she
cancelled plans two weekends in a row.  He knew he’d seen her driving out of
town and down the coast and he thought he’d known where she was going... but
then again maybe he hadn’t.  His chest tightened as guilt began filtering its
way into his relief.  Tonight, and the sudden terror that Ava might have been
hurt, had left him unmoored.  Cole frowned as a young couple walked out
hand-in-hand, and with their passing, a memory floated forward. 

This image was
of Kip and Raya.  They’d argued on their way out that long ago morning.  Cole
remembered Simpson’s face seething with envy and then Kip’s face when she’d
accused him.  He’d been shocked and incredulous. 

“She’s no
goddamn ‘kid’! And don’t think I haven’t seen the looks you give her.  God, I’m
so fucking mad at you I could just—”

 “You’re
jealous...”

“And you’re an
asshole!”

Guilt rose up in
a wave inside him. 
‘Perhaps,’
  Cole’s mind prompted,
‘it’s nothing
to do with Kip at all…’
 The thought left him squirming.  Uncomfortable, he
shoved it underneath his impatience and went back to flipping the pages of the
magazine.

The phone beeped
at the desk and the young man glanced up.

“Cole Thomas,”
he said, motioning him forward.  “Lieutenant Alvarez will see you now.”

Chim put a heavy
hand on Cole’s shoulder.

“Look Cole, I
know Ava,” Marcus said quietly.  “Something’s gotta be up, but if you want my
honest opinion – and I think you should listen here, man, – I really don’t
think she’d cheat on you.  Ava’s a lot of things, but she’s not that.”

Cole nodded as
Suzanne added in her two cents.

“Let her do the
talking, okay?  She’ll be pissed that they’d even called you.”

Cole nodded
again, feeling like he’d sudden had two parents watching his every move.

“Thanks guys,”
he muttered, heading up to the desk, acutely aware of the eyes following him.

: : : : : : : :
: :

Cole sat in the
uncomfortable hard chair while Lieutenant Alvarez closed the door to her office
and sat down.

“Thanks for
coming, Cole,” she said with a grin, shaking his hand.

Cole nodded,
wondering how old she was.  She had ponytailed hair, a thick fringe of bangs,
and a happy smile.  Maybe her early twenties at most, though the paperwork he
just had to fill out, certainly suggested thoroughness.

“Can I ask
what’s going on?” Cole asked.  He was irritated.  No one had told him anything
yet, though he’d had to provide plenty of documentation of who he was in the
meantime.

“Of course,” she
said, opening a drawer in her desk and pulling out a pen and photocopied
papers.  “A squad car picked up Ava walking out in the river bottom tonight,”
she said glancing up at Cole.  “There’s no law against being out... but public
drunkenness is an offence.  She was pretty intoxicated.”

Cole wrinkled
his nose, feeling the prickle of annoyance.  ‘Drunk, too…’

“Ava had a pack
on, but she obviously wasn’t out on a nature hike, not in her state.”  She
chuckled.  “Not with what she was carrying.”

“Fuck!” Cole
snapped, his temper flaring.  He knew she’d been out spray-painting.

“Please watch
your language, Mr. Thomas.  Do I need to remind you where you are?”  The
woman’s tone was sharp; she suddenly looked more than old enough to be a police
officer.

“Sorry,” Cole
mumbled contritely.

“Now, if you’d
just hear me out,” Lieutenant Alvarez said, pulling out a manila folder and
closing her desk drawer with a metallic bang. “I’ve had some time to look
through Ava’s file, and have decided not to press charges.”