Payback

by Jonnie Jacobs

  Todd wanted to keep a low profile. That’s why they were sticking to back roads and winding through out-of-the-way places. They figured her parents, and maybe the police, would be trying to find her. She wished she could let her mom and dad know she was okay. More than okay, really. Even though the past few days hadn’t exactly lived up to her fantasies, she was happier than she’d ever been. Being with Todd was all that mattered.

  She took care of business and got back to the car just as Todd headed for the restroom himself.

  The motels they’d stayed in were a lot like this gas station—old and tacky. They were clean enough, but not all that comfortable or inviting. It hadn’t mattered to Jamie, but Todd felt bad.

  “You deserve to be pampered,” he’d tell her every night when they stopped. “I want to treat you like the princess you are. But for now, these places are safer.”

  “We’re together,” she always said. “There’s nothing else I want.”

  Except, she’d add silently, for you to love me as much as I love you.

  In bed, she could tell that he was crazy about her. His hands and mouth were everywhere. He couldn’t get enough of her. One night the bed squeaked like crazy. An older couple in the room next to theirs had pounded on the wall and told them to keep it down. Jamie was embarrassed but Todd had laughed.

  “They’re envious,” he’d told her.

  But when they weren’t in bed, he sometimes seemed almost bored. She worried she was disappointing him somehow. He’d go for hours without speaking unless she asked him a direct question, and on a couple of occasions he’d disappeared without telling her where he was going. The first time was on the night she’d left home. He had deposited her in a motel and then taken off. She’d been afraid he might not come back. He’d been in a big hurry, explaining that he had a lot on his mind and needed to come up with a plan. Jamie hadn’t seen why they couldn’t work one out together.

  “All set?” he asked now, climbing back into the car.

  She smiled. “All set.”

  “That’s my girl.” He patted her on the knee.

  *****

  Several hours later they pulled up to a multistory condominium complex not far from the freeway. There were office buildings on one side and a Denny’s restaurant on the other.

  “This isn’t San Francisco,” Jamie noted, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice.

  When Todd had asked her where she wanted to go, Jamie said the first thing that came to mind. She knew San Francisco from iconic photographs and movies, but she’d never been there. She’d been excited when Todd agreed. But a few minutes ago, she’d seen a sign announcing they were in someplace called Emeryville.

  “San Francisco is close,” Todd said. “Just across the bay.” He pointed to the horizon where Jamie could make out the lights of a bridge and a city beyond.

  “Come on, let’s go up,” he said. “I’ll come back for our stuff later.”

  They took a glass-walled elevator to the tenth floor. Jamie held her breath in awe at the vast array of sparkling lights below them. The city looked like a magical kingdom in the distance. She thrilled at the thought of how exciting it must be to live there.

  The inside of the condo was impressive, too. All sleek and modern, with a wide expanse of windows and an even more breathtaking view.

  “Wow,” Jamie gushed. “Look at all the lights.”

  Todd hugged her. “I thought you’d like it.”

  “You’re sure your friend won’t mind?”

  “He’s out of the country for a few weeks so it works out perfectly.”

  When Todd went down to move the car and get their bags, Jamie walked through the apartment. She ran her hands over the dark green granite counter in the kitchen and admired the gleaming stainless steel appliances and built-in espresso machine. It looked like something you’d see in Architectural Digest, a magazine she knew about because Alyssa’s mother subscribed. From the kitchen, she moved onto the master bedroom with its large bed and mirrored closet doors. The bedspread was red satin—like something out of a romantic movie.

  The master bath was almost as large as the bedroom and was tiled in what looked like marble. There was a double Jacuzzi tub as well as a glassed-in multi-spray shower. The towels were red, plush, and monogrammed. Jamie had never seen a bathroom like it.

  Back in the bedroom, she noticed a phone on the bedside table. She touched it longingly, wishing she could call her parents. Alyssa, too. She wanted to share her excitement. But Todd had been emphatic. No calls, no contact. Not for a while anyway. Calls could be traced, he warned her. They’d both be in big trouble if the authorities caught up with them.

  She wandered back into the kitchen. Todd was taking a long time. She opened the fridge and found an old chunk of cheese. She cut away the crusty outside and took a bite. Then she went into the bathroom again, filled the tub with water and turned on the jets. When she was younger her parents had taken her to Disney World. They’d stayed in a motel with a Jacuzzi but they hadn’t let her use it. Now she was grown up and could make her own decisions. She undressed and climbed in.

  The warm water bubbled around her. She leaned back, feeling like a celebrity. When she heard Todd return, she called to him. “I’m in the tub. It’s wonderful.”

  A few minutes later, he showed up carrying two glasses of champagne. He handed her one. “Good riddance to cheap motels,” he said. “This is the life you deserve.”

  “They weren’t so bad.”

  “Not good, either.” He looked at her and smiled. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?”

  Jamie felt herself blush. “I am not.”

  “Yes, you are.” He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo. “A moment to be remembered.” Then he set his glass down, undressed, and got into the tub with her.

  Jamie had tasted beer before but never champagne. It was wonderful, sweet and sparkly in a way that beer wasn’t. The warm water, Todd’s hands on her body, the bubbles floating through her system—she’d never felt so good.

  Todd helped her from the tub and dried her off. Jamie realized she’d drunk a lot and was having trouble standing on her own. She must have made it to the bed somehow because she woke once in the middle of the night to find Todd’s body pressed against hers. She smiled and drifted back to sleep.

  When she woke again, it was morning. Light filtered through the window shades and she was alone.

  Chapter 33

  Day six and still no news of Jamie. The waiting and worrying were unbearable, especially with Carol’s death now considered suspicious. Marta was a nervous wreck, unable to sleep or sit or eat. She knew Gordon felt the same.

  What little news coverage there had been had died off after the first few days, and the police had no leads. They had tried repeatedly to reach J.D. Conrad, the attorney, but he never returned the calls. No luck reaching Todd, either. His phone rang and rang, not even rolling into voice mail. Texts disappeared into the black hole of cyberspace.

  Marta called Alyssa again, and Harmony. Neither had heard a word from Jamie.

  Where was she? Was she with Todd? Was she okay?

  Would they ever know?

  Gordon taught his classes, but all work on his paper was suspended. He couldn’t concentrate, he said. Couldn’t focus on anything but Jamie. And, Marta added silently, the bitter resentment he felt toward her.

  She tried to keep up with pressing deadlines at work, which were thankfully few. She, too, could think of nothing but Jamie and the state of her marriage. She tried to console herself by clinging to the hope that Jamie was happy, still bewitched by Todd and visions of love. That nothing bad had happened—yet. But it was hard to hold onto such fragile optimism. More often, her mind raced with dark thoughts. Jamie held prisoner, locked in some dark, dank space with barely room to stand. Jamie tortured. Jamie dead.

  All to punish Marta.

  The phone rang while she was in the kitchen, going through the motions of fixing what passed these days for
dinner. It was their second night in a row of frozen pizza.

  Her heart leapt, as always, at the sound. Please let it be Jamie.

  “Just checking with you about Las Vegas,” Cassie said. “Do you think you’ll be able to get away? It would really be fun.”

  With all that had happened, the trip had skipped Marta’s mind. “I’m afraid not,” she said.

  “Oh phooey. Because of Jamie? Are you really worried Gordon won’t keep an eye on her?”

  “It’s worse than that.” Marta had mixed feelings about sharing her troubles with Cassie, who had problems enough of her own. But she could hardly keep Jamie’s disappearance from her own sister.

  “Jamie’s gone,” Marta said. “She ran away.”

  “Ran away? Where’d she go?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “When?”

  “Last Friday.”

  “And you didn’t call me right away? What kind of sister are you?”

  Under other circumstances, Marta might have asked Cassie the same thing. But she should have called. She realized that now, although it hadn’t even crossed her mind earlier.

  “Sorry. I’ve been kind of overwhelmed here.”

  “You never think about me, do you?”

  “This isn’t about you, Cassie.”

  There was a burst of static. “So what happened? Why did she leave?”

  “We’re pretty sure she’s with the guy she’s been seeing,” Marta explained. “Turns out he’s not the boy I was telling you about. He’s someone older.”

  “No wonder she was being secretive. Do you know much about him?”

  “We know he’s up to no good,” Marta hedged. “He has no business being involved with a naive seventeen-year-old.”

  “That’s for damn sure. It’s downright—” Cassie stopped short. “Wait a minute, how old is he?”

  “Mid-thirties. Maybe a bit older.”

  “How did she meet him?”

  Marta was too embarrassed to admit the truth. “He’s someone Gordon met in the neighborhood.”

  “Oh.” Cassie sounded relieved. “A neighbor.”

  “No, he was interested in buying a house that’s for sale down the street.” Marta recognized that she was spinning a web of untruths, but she wanted to keep the focus on Jamie, not the sordid details of how Todd came into their lives.

  “You’ve contacted the police?”

  “Of course. For all the good it’s done. They don’t seem to think a runaway seventeen-year-old is a priority.”

  “Is there any way I can help? Do you want me to come there?”

  “Thanks, but there’s not really anything for you to do.” Marta had worries enough without adding Cassie to the mix. “How about you? Is the job still going well?”

  “So far. That’s how I’m going to be in Vegas. There’s a convention or something. I’m sorry you can’t come.”

  “And the AA meetings?” Marta asked.

  “They’re dumb.”

  “Does that mean you’ve stopped going?”

  “I’m not a drunk or a druggie, okay? I’ve messed up a few times but that’s only human.”

  Marta sighed. “It’s your life.”

  “Yes. It is.”

  Marta’s phone chirped, indicating a new text message. “I gotta go,” she said, happy to bring the conversation to a close.

  “Let me know if you need me,” Cassie said.

  The text was from an unfamiliar number.

  Hey, guys. Having a great time.

  Love, Jamie

  There was a photo attached. Marta eagerly tapped the screen to bring it up. Her breath caught.

  It was a picture of Jamie—without a stitch on. She appeared to be soaking in a whirlpool bath. She was grinning and did, indeed, seem to be having a good time.

  Chapter 34

  Todd was gone again, and Jamie was going stir-crazy.

  They’d finally made it across the bay to San Francisco a couple of days ago, and she’d had a wonderful time. They rode the cable car, ate crab cocktail on Fisherman’s Wharf, laughed at the harbor seals, and took a boat to Alcatraz.

  Todd insisted on buying her an ice cream cone, telling her, “I’ve always wanted to buy a girl an ice cream cone.”

  “I can’t be the first girl for that.”

  He’d laughed. “But you are. You’re like no one else, Jamie.”

  He had been playful and sweet, and when Jamie told him it was one of the best days in her life, he’d teased her about leading a boring life.

  But Jamie had been pretty much alone since. Todd would leave early in the morning, sometimes when she was still asleep, not returning until late afternoon. And he never wanted to go out again in the evening. He said they’d taken a risk being seen together, and now they needed to keep a low profile for a bit.

  Fine for him to say, but Jamie was tired of being cooped up in the apartment with nothing to do but watch TV or prowl around the rooms, snooping into the private life of their host. She missed her friends and her parents. She wanted to call them but Todd said it was still too soon.

  She’d tried their host’s computer, thinking the Internet might help her pass the time, as well as giving her a way to communicate with her friends. But it was locked with a password she hadn’t been able to figure out.

  Next to her, the apartment phone rang, as it did several times a day. She knew the answering machine message by heart. Hi, this is Charley Brooks. Sorry I’m not available. Leave a message if you want and I’ll get back to you when I can.

  Few callers did, and most of those were recorded telemarketing solicitations. There had only been a couple of personal calls, but that was enough for Jamie to make a game of piecing together a picture of Charley Brooks. He was a serious guy, probably around forty. From the clothes in his closet, she decided he was a businessman with a fondness for dark gray.

  Jamie heard a door shut in the outside hallway. She went to the peephole and peered out. It was the girl, a bit older than Jamie, who lived two doors down. Jamie had seen her coming home a couple of times. Now, she set her bag of laundry on the floor and used both hands to lock her apartment door, then grabbed the laundry and started toward the elevator.

  Jamie couldn’t stand the isolation a minute longer. She stepped into the hallway and said, “Hi.”

  The girl was focused on her cell phone screen, but she looked up when she heard Jamie. “Are you moving in?” the girl asked.

  “Just visiting.”

  “I thought Mr. Brooks was out of town.”

  “He is. But he’s letting my boyfriend and me stay here for a bit.”

  “That’s nice.” The girl gave Jamie a fake smile, turned her attention back to her phone, and continued on to the elevator.

  Well that went well, Jamie thought. Kids here were as unfriendly as the ones at home. She’d been hoping they’d be different.

  The apartment phone was ringing once again when Jamie stepped back inside. On a whim, she answered. She could take a message as easily as the machine, and she was starved for conversation.

  “Brooks household,” Jamie announced.

  A moment’s silence followed by, “Who the hell are you?”

  “My name is Jamie. Mr. Brooks is out of town and I’m housesitting for him.”

  “The hell you are! That’s my house and I’ve never heard of you.”

  She quickly explained. “I’m a friend of Todd’s. He’s out at the moment.”

  “Todd?”

  “Wilson. Your friend.” Jamie was beginning to get an uneasy feeling about this. Maybe it was the word housesitting that had thrown things off. “You told him he could use your place while you were away.”

  “I don’t know any Todd Wilson, and I never told anyone they could use my place.” His voice was growing loud and sharp. “How did you get in anyway?”

  “Todd has a key.”

  “What the fuck! I call to pick up my messages and some stranger answers my phone. I don’t know what kind of scam
you’re pulling, lady. I’m calling the cops,” he said and hung up.

  Jamie had a sick feeling in her stomach. She didn’t understand what was going on—probably some simple misunderstanding—but she knew she was in no position to sort it out.

  If only she had Todd’s new cell number. A disposable phone was safer for right now, he said. So she was stuck here alone and she had no way to get in touch with him.

  Should she hide? Run? At least come up with a good explanation to offer the police?

  Before she could come up with a plan, she heard the chime of the elevator in the hallway.

  Were the police here already? She glanced at the balcony and thought fleetingly about climbing out on the ledge that ran around the side of the building.

  Before she could move, the door opened and Todd stepped through.

  “Thank God you’re home.” She threw her arms around his neck.

  Todd pushed her away. “What’s wrong?”

  “The man who lives here … Charley Brooks … he called.”

  “What do you mean, he called? You didn’t answer the phone, did you?”

  “I was going to take a message. But he got mad and said he was calling the cops. He didn’t know about any housesitting arrangement.”

  “Why the fuck did you answer the phone?” Todd grabbed her arm roughly, glowering at her.

  “Because I’m bored. We never go anywhere, and you won’t let me go out on my own. I haven’t talked to anyone but you for days.”

  “Damn it, Jamie. Do you ever use your brain?”

  “I’m sorry.” She tried to pull her arm free but he gripped it tighter. “Let go, Todd. You’re hurting me.”

  “Whine, whine.” But he let her go.

  She’d expected he might be unhappy about what had happened, but she hadn’t imagined he’d be so angry. Stung, she said, “What’s going on? Why didn’t he know you were here?”

  Todd ran his hands through his hair and cursed under his breath. “It’s his wife who’s a friend of mine. I made the arrangements with her. She must not have told him.”