Girl Undercover 6 & 7: Emma's Secret & The Truth

by Julia Derek

As I had thought, there was a fairly sizeable space there in which a queen-sized bed, a nightstand and a dresser fit comfortably. I soon noticed the body curled up in a fetal position on the bed. I couldn’t see the face, but it looked very much like Emma. Was she sleeping or—I swallowed back the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat—was she dead?

  Tucking my gun back into my hip holster, I walked up to the side of the bed toward which her face was turned and shook her gently.

  “Emma, wake up,” I said.

  She moaned quietly and opened her eyes. I reached for the lamp on her nightstand and switched on the light there. Only then could I see that her face was blotchy and swollen like she had been crying hard. Other than that, she seemed fine.

  Tears began streaming down her cheeks.

  I went to get the sweets I’d bought her as well as a spoon and a glass of water from the kitchen, then returned to Emma. She was still crying hard, so I headed to the bathroom where I got some tissue she could use to blow her nose. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, I handed her the tissue.

  She took it with trembling hands and dabbed at her eyes.

  “Rolf told me you’d called in sick,” I began. “Are you sick?”

  She stopped crying and rolled over on her back, staring emptily at the ceiling. Had I not known she was alive, I would have thought a corpse was lying next to me she was so still.

  I put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong, Emma? Please talk to me. Why aren’t you feeling well? What happened?”

  To my surprise, she turned to face me and opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. It was clearly a struggle for her to get out the words. But finally she succeeded. “I… I… lost the baby.”

  “Oh, no! You had a miscarriage?” I did some math in my head—she must be well into her thirteenth or even fourteenth week by now.

  Emma nodded weakly and sat up, attempting to but failing to blow her nose. She soon gave up and added, “Early this… this morning…” She burst into tears again, burying her face in the tissue in her hands. I put an arm around her and let her cry for as long as she needed, patting her back gently all the while.

  When the sobs came with less frequency and she stopped to tremble, it was time to bring up what I’d brought. Hopefully it would cheer her enough to be able to talk some more.

  “I have some chocolate and ice cream. Lots of it. Want some?”

  Emma raised her tear-stained face and shook her head no. “I have no appetite. Thanks, though. Thanks for coming. I couldn’t stand being alone any longer.”

  She leaned against the wall, wiping at her face with the heels of her hands.

  “Want more tissue?” I asked.

  “No, I’m good. I think I’ve finished crying now.”

  I handed her the water glass I’d brought and put on her nightstand. She took it and mumbled “thanks.” She had a few sips.

  “You must be pretty dehydrated,” I said as I watched her sipping the water little by little.

  “Very,” she said gravely and smiled miserably. “I can’t believe this happened to me after all the precautions I’ve been taking. And especially since I’m now in the second trimester.” She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. Then she opened them again. “I followed everything those doctors wanted me to do to the letter. To the letter . Even when I was all depressed and thought I didn’t want to be pregnant after all. Deep inside I always knew that it was just my hormones going crazy, making me feel so negative about it.” She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed heavily. “The doctors I’m working with are supposed to be the best in the country. Oh, God, I just don’t understand how it could happen. It’s not fair.”

  “I don’t think it matters if you do everything just right. Miscarriages still happen. Even in the second and third trimester, though I agree it’s more unusual.”

  “They told me the chance was as good as zero.”

  “They? You mean the doctors?”

  She looked at me with swollen, red eyes. “Yeah. Who else would I be talking about?”

  I decided to ask her about Janine and Marissa. She’d just given me the perfect opening.

  “Janine Eastwood and Marissa Reineman.” I made sure my voice sounded neutral, not accusatory or pointed. My goal was only to make her talk, tell me everything.

  Emma sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled, looking exhausted all of a sudden. “Okay, fine. I do know the senator. I trained her last August during the senate recess. When I told her how I couldn’t wait to become a mother, she offered to pay for me to become artificially inseminated.”

  “Really? Wow. That’s incredibly generous of her.” I wasn’t as surprised as I acted of course. When Emma didn’t answer, just smiled sadly, I added, “Right?”

  “I guess that depends how you see it,” she said finally.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The deal was that I had to carry a child for myself and one for her and her girlfriend. She’s only married for show. Marissa is her mistress and lives in Germany.”

  I stared at Emma, truly surprised this time. I hadn’t seen that one coming. “So you were carrying twins then?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Until I woke up this morning.”

  “Hmm. That’s…” I didn’t know what to say, still trying to wrap my head around what Emma had just told me. Was her having to carry an additional child in her womb what she had referred to when she’d thanked Marissa for letting her be “part of this endeavor?” No, carrying twins was nothing unusual, so it must be something else.

  “Whose sperm and eggs did you use?” I asked.

  “A sperm donor they picked that had all the qualities they wanted in their child. The doctors artificially fertilized one of Marissa’s eggs with his sperm and one of mine. They also did some genetic engineering on both embryos before inserting them in my uterus.”

  I sat up taller; now we were getting somewhere. “Genetic engineering?”

  “Yes, they wanted to give the children as many advantages as possible in life, they explained when I asked what exactly it meant. Remove any potential bad genes that could result in health issues. Make sure they’d end up taller as both Marissa and I are on the short side. More athletic. Smarter. Stuff like that. It all sounded good to me, so I agreed, even though part of me found it a little… weird. Like things could go wrong too easily.”

  “You found it to be a little too… experimental?”

  Emma lit up and nodded. “Yeah, it felt like I was part of an experiment. But I tried to think positive, even during my darkest moments. And it really did seem like everything was going fine. Until a few weeks ago.”

  “What happened then?”

  “The two fetuses started to change.”

  “Change? In a bad way you mean? Deformities?”

  Emma sniffled, then blew her nose in a tissue that I’d found in the paper bag and handed her. “No, according to the doctors they were developing fine. But it was like they didn’t get along. I could feel them fighting in my stomach even though they were both still tiny. Something was not right, but when I told the doctors, they said it was just my imagination. That it was physically impossible for such small babies to be fighting. Everything looked normal inside me.”

  “Huh.” I was mesmerized by Emma’s words. “And then what happened?”

  “I told Janine about what I was feeling and that I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue the pregnancy. This was a day or so before I bumped into you in the cafeteria and was so upset. Anyway, Janine got furious that I dared to complain after she was making motherhood possible for me at no cost to me. She also told me that an abortion was not an option. I had to carry to term no matter what happened.”

  My mouth fell open I was so outraged for Emma’s sake. “That’s crazy! You should’ve told her that’s your decision, not hers. Especially since they’re apparently using your body as an experiment to create super babies. ” As I said those last two words, I saw Ian’s face in my mind’s eye. I fel
t heavy and sick all of a sudden. I made his face go away and took Emma’s hand, continuing, “You have the right to change your mind if you feel something’s off with the children in such a case. You and you alone should make the decision whether to carry to term or not.”

  “Yes, I think so too. And I did tell her that I thought it was my decision primarily. So she slapped me and told me never again to bring up having an abortion.”

  I gasped, in shock. “She did what? Slapped you?”

  “Not that hard, but yes, she did. But getting slapped wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was how she threatened to destroy my life if I didn’t carry to term. And I know she has the power to do lots of damage to me.”

  Emma grabbed my arms and a look of destitution came over her face suddenly. “Oh, Jamie, I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared. So, so scared. I have yet to tell her about the miscarriage. She’s gonna think I caused it somehow! I swear that I didn’t. It just happened when I sat on the toilet this morning.”

  I put a hand over Emma’s, feeling terrible for her.

  “Are you sure you had a miscarriage? Maybe it was just some normal bleeding.”

  “No, it wasn’t normal. There was so much blood I thought I was going to die. The toilet bowl was full of it. Besides, I’ve already had it confirmed. At first I wasn’t sure either, so I called one of the doctors I’m working with. He came over and determined I wasn’t pregnant any longer.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know a doctor could do a house call to determine that.”

  “I guess they can these days.” She squeezed my arms. “Jamie, what am I going to do?”

  “About Janine you mean?”

  “Yes, she’ll destroy me! She’ll never accept I had a miscarriage. She’ll think I caused it!”

  I wanted to tell Emma that she’d be fine. I was a cop and I would never let Janine do anything to harm her. But it was too early to reveal my UC status; plus, I wasn’t sure whether Emma was exaggerating the danger she was in. She was clearly hysteric. We needed to talk about this when she was calmer and then figure out what to do. Surely everything would be fine.

  “Emma, don’t worry. She may say she’ll destroy your life, but she won’t. And if she tries, I have some powerful friends in the government that’ll stop her.” Well, I had a couple of powerful friends in law enforcement at least, but this was not the time to go into such detail.

  Emma gazed at me with eyes that had become big and glassy. “You do?”

  “Yeah, really powerful friends. Trust me, she can’t do anything to harm you. Hey, you should try to get some sleep and then we’ll talk more about this tomorrow.”

  I expected her to resist, tell me she couldn’t sleep. But instead she smiled, the picture of serenity all of a sudden. “You’re right. I need to sleep. Thanks for coming, Jamie. See you tomorrow.”

  She lay back and closed her eyes. I took that as a sign that she wanted me to leave, so I prepared myself to do so. It seemed all Emma had needed was getting what she’d just told me off her chest in order to finally calm down. She and I would talk more about this tomorrow for sure. I would not let anything bad happen to her.

  She would be fine.

  Chapter 8

  As I was walking home from Emma’s house, I thought of all that she’d told me. No wonder she’d looked so frightened of Janine each time their paths had crossed. If what Emma had told me was in fact the truth, she had good reason to be terrified. In addition to the threats Janine had allegedly made, she was an intimidating person overall as it was.

  Right before I’d left her apartment, I told her that I’d check in with her tomorrow to see how she was doing in case she didn’t feel well enough to come to work yet. I wasn’t sure she had actually heard me because she never responded, which was fine by me; I’d check on her either way.

  I considered calling Ian and telling him what I had found out, but soon thought better of it. He’d only start blabbing about that this was further proof of the conspiracy and how they were planning on taking over the world. In my head, I could hear him say how the reason the babies had been fighting was because one was good and one was evil, something nutty like that. Sadly, that part of the story I was fairly convinced had just been Emma’s brain fabricating feelings. How could fetuses that were ten weeks old fight each other—that’s how old they must have been if this happened around the time Emma was so down—not to mention, if they actually had been fighting, how could the expecting mother feel it? It didn’t seem realistic to me. No, it simply had to be Emma’s hormones raging again, creating these kinds of fantasies in her mind.

  It was only when I entered my apartment that I thought of Ariel. In the midst of all that Emma had been telling me, I had completely forgotten about the murdered trainer and how Janine clearly had had a problem with her as well.

  I will ask Emma about Ariel when I talk to her tomorrow, I thought as I walked into the bathroom to take a long, hot shower before creeping under the covers for some much-needed sleep. Surely she’d know why the senator had been rough with Ariel.

  My alarm clock didn’t wake me up the following morning, but the ringing sound that announced an incoming email into my phone. I had forgotten to turn off the sound, a habit I had recently tried to develop as I couldn’t afford to be woken more than necessary. As much as I worked and ran around during the days, I desperately needed several hours of quality shuteye in order to function at full capacity.

  Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I reached for my smartphone that was charging on the nightstand beside my bed.

  It was from Captain Brady.

  Instantly awake, I sat up in bed and clicked the email open.

  Dear Gabi,

  I hope this email finds you well. I have some good news at last. We have arrested two men who we have strong reasons to suspect are behind Nick’s murder. We will cross-examine them this afternoon. I will get you more details after we’re done. I will do the cross myself, so you can rest assured it’ll be thorough. Until then, be well.

  Yours,

  Brady

  I read it three times back-to-back just to be sure it wasn’t my sleepy brain playing tricks with my vision, making me see things in the message that weren’t really there.

  Shit, I thought when I finally felt certain what I had initially read was in fact real. “Strong reasons to suspect,” he’d written. My captain wasn’t a man with a penchant to exaggerate, which meant this must be something to be taken seriously. Very seriously. At least part of me should be happy about this development, but all I felt was despair. Realizing this made me disgusted with myself.

  Gabi, what does it matter who catches Nick’s killers? This isn’t about you, never was, never will be. The only thing you should care about is that this case is solved and that your husband’s murderers are brought to justice, for God’s sake!

  But reaming myself out in my head didn’t make a difference; the thought of Nick’s killers having been in Los Angeles this entire time while I had been in NYC for months, looking for them, still made me miserable. I ran my palms over my face.

  Oh, God, why can’t I be happy at all?

  This had become much too personal. If it turned out that these two suspects were in fact Nick’s killers, I needed to see a shrink and find out when I had become this narcissist. Hell, even if they didn’t turn out to be his killers, I should see a shrink. I didn’t want this to be about me first and foremost; feeling this way could only mean that. I should be able to accept the fact that I had been wrong in thinking that the answer could be found only in New York.

  Well, maybe I would feel differently later, I thought. After Brady had done the cross and I had learned what these two suspects were all about. Yes, surely I would. I couldn’t be this selfish.

  I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and checked the time. It wasn’t even seven thirty yet, meaning it was three hours earlier in California, barely four thirty. Brady had always been an early riser, but this was unusual even for someone like him. H
e must be excited about the cross, I mused glumly, instantly annoyed with myself again. I shook my head, huffing. Maybe a shower would sweeten me up, wash the childishness off me once and for all. I could only hope.

  I was feeling a little better when I walked into Nikkei an hour later, about to train my first client of the day, a female college graduate who’d recently signed up for twenty sessions. My young client had already arrived, so we started a couple minutes early. After her, I had three more clients back-to-back, and then it was time for my floor shift. I only had one of those left now, having picked up so many clients so quickly. Rolf and the company were very pleased with me.

  I would go have some lunch, then use some of my time on the floors to look for Emma. Hopefully, she was back working today. I had yet to spot her somewhere.

  Four hours later my floor shift was over and I had still not seen Emma anywhere. After clocking out, I headed for Rolf’s office. Opening his door, I stuck my head inside his small space.

  “Hey, Rolf, is Emma still out sick?”

  He looked up from the documents he was scribbling something on. “Yes, I think so.”

  His head went back down to the papers in his hand, so I left, a little confused.

  It wasn’t like Rolf to be so curt. Plus, what kind of answer was “Yes, I think so.” ? The only thing that had been clear to me was that my boss had not wanted to discuss Emma’s condition any further. If I wanted to know how she was doing, I would have to call her to find out for myself.

  Walking downstairs to the cafeteria, I dialed Emma’s number. Ring after ring went through in my ear, finally ending with Emma’s sweet voice, asking the caller to leave a message.

  “Hey, Emma, it’s Jamie. I’m just calling to see how you’re doing. Didn’t see you at the club today. Are you okay? Please call me so I can find out.”

  I checked the time. It was a little before five. My next client wasn’t until six, so I had some time to kill. I should use it to check on Emma. She didn’t live that far from the club, only a couple of subway stations away. I didn’t think I would be able to relax until I knew that she was okay.