He didn’t.
Of course, he didn’t.
Disappointed, I step back from the door and study the trim. I can’t find a single imperfection. I run my hand up and down the wood just to be sure. It’s completely smooth.
Could I have imagined the scratches? Did the pain meds cause me to see things that weren’t there?
Even now, floaties and bright lights dot my vision. I squeeze the fingernail in my pocket and let the edges dig into my palm. I didn’t imagine it.
Why would Jeb add a new lock unless he has something to hide?
I need to get into that damn basement.
My heart palpitates in a crazy rhythm. I reach above the trim for the key, but again, Jeb doesn’t hide it where I do. I shove the oriental runner out of the way, but the keys not under there either. My hands start shaking uncontrollably.
Jeb left only a short while ago, but I feel panicked, like he’ll come walking through the door any minute and I’ll be caught and locked away in my room forever.
The key’s got to be here somewhere.
I spin to the opposite wall, and I’m taken by surprise. There’s a picture of Jeb and I at the Mexican restaurant on our first unofficial, kind of official, I guess it was official date. I forgot he asked the waiter to take a picture with his phone. I stare at the snapshot. We’re both smiling ear to ear and really, who wouldn’t be with a plate full of nachos and giant margaritas? Mine half empty, Jeb’s almost full.
He must have hung it across from the basement door, so he can see the two of us whenever he comes up the stairs. Maybe he has a gym down there. An elliptical or a treadmill. Definitely some weights because he’s still in great shape even though he hasn’t biked or ran since my accident.
He’s got to hate working out in the dreary, damp basement. He loves the fresh air as much as I do.
Poor Jeb. He sacrifices so much for me. He spends all his free time taking care of me. He always has my best interest in mind. Unlike Drew and Cassie who dropped me the moment I slowed them down.
He must give me those pills so I can rest and get better. I let my inner demons get the better of me. I will never doubt Jeb again.
But the gym doesn’t answer the mystery of Cassie’s fingernail. I wonder if something happened between them. Maybe that’s why I haven’t heard from her. Leave it to Cassie to develop a conscience after she sleeps with someone.
But that would mean Jeb cheated on me. Jeb, my savior, my everything, cheated on me.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Brie, grapes, champagne, and other exotic delicacies cover the table. I should be happy that Jeb went to all this trouble for me, but I feel nothing but sadness. Nothing but heartache. He cheated on me with my best friend.
“Is everything alright, Angel?” he asks interrupting the betrayal that twists and tears my heart.
I nod and continue to eat. The food has no flavor. The wine has no taste.
“Did I do something to upset you?”
A lone tear betrays me.
“Angel, you look as if the weight of the world crushes you.”
“How could you?” I whisper.
“What Angel?”
“How could you?”
Jeb wipes his face with his napkin. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about sweetheart?”
“You cheated on me. You cheated on me with Cassie.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Angel, you’re the only one I think about. The only one I care about. How could you accuse me of such a heinous crime?”
I withdraw the evidence. The man I trusted. The man I believed in. The man who swore he’d never hurt me. His reaction the damning proof. “Where did you get that?”
“Here, in your house.”
His eyes skirt away from mine.
“Jeb, why was Cassie in your house?”
He kneels beside me and takes my hands in his. “Angel, I can explain.” I try to rid myself of the warmth his hands provide, but his grip holds firm.
“That Sunday…,” he pauses as if gathering his thoughts, “after she left your place, she came over to the shop. She accused me of breaking you and Drew up.” I shake my head and try to pull away from him, but he won’t release me. “She said you were confused and you didn’t know what you were doing the night before. She said that you loved Drew more than anything and would never break up with him, and then she…, and then she threw herself at me.”
His body shutters. “I told her I wasn’t interested. I told her ‘no’ over and over. I even closed early so I could leave, but she followed me home and forced her way in. I threatened to call the police. Then she went crazy. “
His chest rises and falls as he takes a deep breath. “Remember those scratches on my face?”
I bite my lip staring at him. I so desperately want to believe him. “Those were from her. That must be where the nail came from. I’m sorry Tiffani. I am so sorry.” He kisses my hands over and over. “My love for you is as pure as the day I laid eyes on you. I love you more than life itself. You must believe me. Tell me you believe me.”
The grandfather clock strikes one, two, three…Jeb stares up at me. Tears stain both our faces…seven, eight, nine. I nod.
He stands up and sweeps me into his arms. I accept his lips willingly. I don’t know why or how I could have doubted Jeb, the man of my dreams.
Chapter Sixty-Six
I begged Jeb to stay, to stay and be with me, but again he refused. He promised me soon, but soon feels like another word for never.
I wish he stayed. I would have dreamt about Jeb and sunsets. Cassie haunted my dreams instead. Her dress torn. Her makeup smudged. She dragged her bare fingers down the sides of my face. She begged me to find her and save her.
I remembered one crucial detail that blows Jeb’s story to pieces. Cassie couldn’t have followed him home. She didn’t have a car.
I need to know what he does upstairs. I need to know why his footsteps sound light and airy when he climbs the stairs. I need to know what makes him so happy, so willing to leave me. I need know what secrets he keeps hidden.
When his jeep rumbles down the driveway, I jump out of bed. I hurry across the room, gritting my teeth as I go, but I don’t stop. Pain is momentary. Pain is fleeting.
Hamlet weaves in and out of my legs. He whimpers, sensing that I have something in mind that might anger Jeb. He fears him. He cowers in the corner whenever Jeb’s in the room. Jeb’s never hit or kicked Hamlet in my presence, but Hamlets fear is unmistakable. Fischer didn’t like Jeb either.
Without a second to waste, I sit down on the bottom step of the mahogany staircase and scoot myself up the stairs one step at a time. My broken leg drags behind, bumping the edge of each step as I go. All the while, I listen for any noise, any indication that Jeb turned around and came home instead of going to town.
I steady my breath. I can’t panic. I must keep calm. If Jeb returns, I will tell him I was bored and decided to explore the house. Then I must throw myself at him, make him forget his anger, his need for punishment.
At the top of the stairs, I find a long hallway. Several doors lead in either direction. All I need is a game show host to say, “and behind door number one is…”
I can tell as soon as I walk into the first room that it sat empty for a long time. Must and mildew hangs heavy in the air.
Someone took the time to cover all the furniture with sheets. The chair and stools remind me of mini ghosts. Thick cobwebs drape between them. A black and white photograph of a young married couple sits on the edge of the nightstand, as if the person who slept in the bed wanted the couple to be the first thing she saw in the morning and the last thing she saw at night. I wonder if it’s the old woman who once owned this house, the one Jeb persuaded to move.
I trace my finger along the thick dust of the dresser. I try to imagine the room when the old woman lived here. She probably dusted every day, in honor of her promise ’til death do us part.’
I don�
�t know if I’ll ever marry. Drew promised marriage once he made it to the Show. The promise ring, a token of his love, disappeared just as easily as his promise.
The grandfather clock begins to strike. I need to hurry.
The second door pulls me up short. Through all my time at Jeb’s, I never thought about where he slept. It always seemed as if he didn’t sleep. I assumed his room was down the hall from me. Why didn’t he tell me his room was on the second floor?
A massive mahogany four poster bed, the king of my queen, sits against the far wall with matching nightstands on either side. Curious, I limp over and rest on the bed while I look at the pictures on his nightstands. My senior class picture from high school smiles back at me. Directly behind it is my Slippery Rock graduation picture. A bead of sweat drips down my back. I grab a picture of Jeb and I sitting at the dining room table downstairs. I don’t even remember him having a camera. There’s another picture of Jeb and I kissing outside—our first kiss at the gazebo captured on film. It’s grainy and out of focus, but definitely us.
Candid shots of me smiling—shots I never posed for but he must have taken and framed like portraits. Pictures of me in my apartment. In my bedroom. In my bathroom. In my kitchen.
Cassie’s words come rushing back to me, “I think Jeb is developing an unhealthy obsession with you.”
I drop the heavy metal frame of me writing at my dining room table. It lands on the nightstand hitting a giant remote, before crashing to the floor. The wardrobe doors slide open to reveal a large screen t.v. and several smaller ones. With shaky fingers, I press the power button.
My room downstairs pops up on the main screen as the center frame. In the smaller frames, I notice my bathroom here, the changing area behind the privacy screen, and the gazebo outside. On the other t.v.s, I recognize my apartment bedroom, my kitchen, my bathroom. My entire life on film.
In the distance, I hear tires rolling across gravel. My heart stops. As fast as my crutches will take me, I enter back into the hallway. I eye the stairs knowing full well I won’t make it to my room before Jeb finds me. I should at least try, but I need to know what’s in the other rooms—what other secrets does Jeb hide behind closed doors.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
I thought I had seen it all in Jeb’s room—the pictures, the t.v. set to the Tiffani network, but nothing could have prepared me for this room of full-on fucking crazy. This room takes psycho stalker to a whole new level.
Newspaper clippings and hand-written letters cover two entire walls. Snapshots and portraits of me plaster the other two.
My face is everywhere. I couldn’t escape myself if I tried.
Cassie and I laughing on the carousal at the Bloomsburg fair. Me riding the elephant. Me eating popcorn. Me riding the roller coaster. Me at a track meet. Me at the baseball house at Slippery Rock. Me at Taco Bell. Me at Pizza Joes. Me at Camelot. Me at graduation. Me at the Diner. Me running. Me hiking. Me sleeping. Me. Me. Me.
The newspaper headlines really scare the shit out of me.
“Family’s Home Explodes. Child Survives.” A little boy covered with soot clutches a teddy bear to his chest.
“Couple dies in Freak Boating Accident.”
“Boy Breaks Neck Jumping from Second Story Window.”
“Couple Dies from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.”
“15-year-old Boy Falls in Ice and Drowns.”
No. It can’t be, but I know it is. I memorized the shape of the article. I committed every word to memory. Why is Cody’s drowning on Jeb’s wall? Tears stream down my face.
“Five Female College Students missing from Grove City and Slippery Rock Area.”
I heard about those missing girls. The police suspected it was the work of a serial killer, but they never found the bodies. The girls disappeared never to be seen or heard from again.
“Hotel Bartender Breaks Neck Falling Down Stairs.”
Oh god. Jeb killed Isaac.
“Popular Pizza Hangout Burns Down.”
Drew almost died in that fire when we were freshmen at Slippery Rock. We were home for Thanksgiving break. He was meeting a bunch of baseball buddies from high school. I remember grabbing a coffee from Beans. I was on my way to meet Cassie and a few other girls.
Flames shot out of Mama Leone Pizzeria windows. Smoke spiraled into the air. I sprinted toward the fire, toward Drew. I screamed for him. An explosion rocked main street, but still I ran. Still I kept running toward the blaze. I remember him stumbling out of the building with Mama Leone, the eighty-five year old owner, in his arms. It was the scariest moment of my life. I don’t know what I’d do if Drew died in that fire.
And then it hits me.
Drew’s silence. I choke back a sob. A wave of bile rushes up my throat. He couldn’t have. He couldn’t have killed Drew. Drew is far away playing baseball. Drew is safe. He has to be.
“Three Females Disappear from the Williamsport Penn State Branch Campus.”
“Nurse Goes Missing.”
Red Dagger. My nurse from the hospital. Jeb killed her too.
The floor creaks behind me. There’s nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. It doesn’t matter. He’d find me anyway. His pictures prove that.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
I turn to face him. I’m not afraid, although I should be terrified. Shock paralyzes me. “What have you done?”
He shoves his hands into his shorts. His shoulders round in on themselves. “You’re not supposed to be here,” he whispers again. His head twitches in tiny little spasms, as he avoids my gaze.
I remember Cody. And Drew. And Cassie. The people I loved most in the world. Are they gone? Are they dead? Did Jeb kill them?
Anger stirs within me. “What have you done?”
He steps toward me. “I told you to stay in your room. I told you the upstairs wasn’t safe.”
I back into the wall covered with newspaper clippings. “What. Have. You. Done?”
He spends a long time studying the newspapers and the pictures before turning back to me. “I thought about showing you this room many times—my life’s work collected on four walls, but I worried you wouldn’t understand. Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Chuck didn’t.”
He steps toward me. He raises his hands as if he wants to wrap them around my neck and squeeze. The veins in my neck tense. I cower away from him.
He stops and stares at his hands, then looks up at me. “When you love someone, you keep them safe. That’s why Cody had to go.”
He grabs my arm. I jerk away from him, but he tightens his hold on my wrist. He doesn’t want to lose me. Not now. Not after all this time. “He caught me at your window.” I yank my arm, but his grip is unyielding. “I wasn’t doing anything. I was just making sure you were okay. I always made sure you were okay.”
“What does that have to do with Cody?” My lip quivers.
He licks his as if he’s tempted to kiss me and try to make me forget this room. He stares at me a long time as if undecided what he wants to do with me. Then his jaw sets. He’s determined to make me understand his crazy fucked up side. “He knew what I did—he did it too. He came to your window all the time.”
I try to wrench away from him, but he won’t let me go. “He brought me ice pops. He was my friend.” A stray tear runs down my cheek.
He reaches out and catches it. He brings it to his lips.
I grimace.
“Tiffani, we’ve come too far for formalities,” he says.
“What did you do to Cody?” I hiss. I fight back tears. He won’t take another one, if I can help it.
“He made me swear I wouldn’t come over anymore. He told me if I swore, he wouldn’t tell anyone. I told him all about my mom and dad and aunt and uncle and how everyone I loved died, and I was just lonely and needed a friend. For a week we were friends and I didn’t come over to your house, but then I did. I couldn’t stay away.”
Flashes of a short boy with brown hair and big ear
s come rushing back to me. I remember a shadow following Cody, but then he disappeared, and I never saw him again. His name was…
“Josiah…Josiah Krolingbach.”
His lips curl into a twisted smile. “Yes, that’s it… Now you remember.”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
“Do you remember when I came down to the frozen lake and asked you if you were okay? You ignored me. All you cared about was Cody’s cold dead body.”
My shoulders droop. Tears spill down my cheeks, coating my throat. “He was your friend. He watched out for you.”
“Watched out for me? He didn’t watch out for me!”
I recoil away from him and toward the open door, but it’s too late, much too late.
“He stole your first kiss, the kiss that was supposed to be mine. That’s why he had to die.”
I stop retreating.
“I waited until he left your room—I had to watch him kiss you and touch you as if you were his. He tasted your sweet kisses. He couldn’t live another minute. You were an angel, my Angel. I had to do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
Barely above a whisper, I say, “Jeb, I was safe. Cody would never hurt me. Never.”
Jeb stares up at the framed newspaper article, “15-year-old Boy Falls in Lake and Drowns.” “The paper copy won’t yellow like the original newspaper clipping. I probably shouldn’t have left the article on my desk—too obvious, but I was proud, Cody was not only the first person I killed that wasn’t related to me, but the first person I sacrificed for you.”
“It was so easy to get him out on the ice. I ran out to the middle, skirting the hole I made the night before. He yelled at me to stop, worried I would fall in, but I kept going. I knew he’d come after me.”
And Then He: A Rogue Mountain Billionaire Novel Page 17
