Page 69 of Deliverance
"I'm not leaving him."
"We're just going right over there." Erin pointed to the couch.
Zell shook her head. "No."
"I think Madam is dead," Leanne stated as she came up to us.
"What do we do?" Krissy asked.
"If we call the cops, Zell will be charged with killing her," Carla stated.
"It was self-defense," Clarissa countered. "We will all say that."
The buzzer by the elevator buzzed to indicate that there was someone down in the lobby calling up. All the girls looked at each other and then at me with wide eyes.
"I'll handle it." I walked toward the monitor and pressed the button, not looking to see who it was. "I'm sorry, we're full."
"Wait!" Zell shouted. "That's Jackie."
"Who's Jackie?" Clarissa inquired.
Zell started toward me and the elevator. "My real mom."
She wasn't alone. She was with Quinn. I held down the button for Zell to speak. "Jackie? What are you doing here?"
"Zell?" It was a one-way monitor, so Jackie could only hear Zell.
"Yeah, it's me."
"What are you doing here?" Jackie questioned back.
"Uh …" She rubbed the back of her neck as she looked down at Frankie and the client, who was using a needle and thread on Frankie's wound. "We … uh, we'll let you up."
"Zell, do you know the other lady?" I asked as I sent the elevator down. How were Zell's biological mother and Quinn together? Frankie had said that Saffron had kidnapped Zell. Was that what Quinn was doing in the hotel for a month, trying to track down Zell's mother? But that couldn't be the case because Quinn had looked like shit when I’d seen her, and now she looked healthy and alert.
"No, but that's my mom. She knows why Frankie and I came back to the city. Maybe she can help us."
"The other lady is Frankie's mom," I stated.
"Really?"
"Yeah, so how is she with your mom?"
Zell shrugged. "I have no idea."
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. "What are you doing here?" Jackie asked Zell as soon as she rushed out of the elevator.
"We—"
"Frankie!" Quinn screeched, rushing to where he was lying on the floor still being worked on by the client.
I grabbed her before she could interrupt the doctor. "He's being helped, Quinn. Let the doctor finish."
"That's his mom," Jackie said to Zell.
"How is she with you?" Zell questioned.
"You weren't the only ones to pay me a visit."
