Sail With Me

by Heights, Chelsea

  “Bingo!” exclaimed Jake. The sound of the laser printer started and she stood behind him looking over his shoulder. A man of Asian descent appeared on the screen and she asked who it was. “It’s our dead doctor. I found this on the American Medical Board Association’s licensing site.” Clicking on different tabs, Dr. Wu’s personal information started popping up. Jake printed out his bibliography and started reading out the important facts. “Born on October 1, 1970 to a single mother in Manchester, Vermont. Has fraternal twin brother, Joseph.”

  Covering her mouth with her hand, she took the printed and looked closer. “We have to watch these DVDs now.”

  Together they settled on her couch and played the first DVD from the hospital. The grainy video was black and white without sound. The date of filming was displayed in the lower right hand corner, along with the time in minutes and seconds. There were a total of four DVDs to watch.

  She listened to Jake eating popcorn as her head rested on his lap. After the third DVD she started nodding off, and Jake poked her in the ribs to wake her up. Sitting up now, she opened the last Diet Coke and they shared it. There was something so intimate about drinking from the same can as him and she felt silly for feeling that way. Snuggling into each other they saw Dr. Wu at the same time and jolted awake. It wasn’t the clearest shot but it was definitely him. As he walked through the hospital exit, his employee identification was hanging in clear shot of the hidden camera, Dr. John Wu, Neonatologist, University Hospital. A large black bag was hanging from his right shoulder and the bulkiness of it indicated it wasn’t empty.

  Jake grabbed his legal pad and wrote down the section of the DVD Dr. Wu was first seen. They continued watching but once Dr. Wu walked through the doors he was no longer visible on the screen. Some random people walked by but nothing unusual. The DVD continued and exactly two minutes and forty-four seconds later he reappeared but was empty handed. Jake and Delaney looked at each other and were speechless. By their expression, they knew they were both thinking the same thing. There wasn’t enough of a time lapse for Dr. Wu to walk to the employee parking lot and back, even if he ran. He must have had an accomplice helping him.

  It was after two in the morning now, but the new discovery and the possibilities it brought had them both too wired for sleep. Jake went upstairs to look for an extra toothbrush while Delaney straightened up and placed the DVDs back into their cases. Walking around the downstairs she checked to make sure the doors were all locked. Climbing the steps to her bedroom she could hear the water running. Quietly she opened the bathroom door and undressed without him noticing her. Opening the shower curtain she could see his soapy body. Not being able to help herself she smacked his ass and scared him to death. A moment later she had his full attention.

  In the morning they ran together. Obviously he could have gone faster but he didn’t; he ran at her side the entire time. About three miles into their run Mike and Cecily passed them. Delaney could see them both looking and read their lips, “Who the hell is that?” Jake didn’t seem to notice and she enjoyed the sudden curiosity into her life. Running by the General Store she saw William raising the “We’re Open” flag and propping open the door in preparation for bringing in the morning newspapers. Delaney caught William watching them as they jogged, side by side. She knew it would only be a matter of hours before the entire town knew she was sleeping with Special Agent Jake Thrasher, hottest man on the planet.

  As usual she slowed her pace as they turned the corner onto her street. As they walked up her driveway hand in hand, Mike and Cecily were on her porch waiting. Delaney shouted, “Can’t a girl get any privacy around here? I am a cop you know, I could have you arrested for trespassing.”

  With a wide grin on his face, Mike said “We just happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to see what you were up to.” Cecily was pulling on his arm to leave, obviously embarrassed over the obnoxious behavior of her fiancé.

  “It’s okay, Cecily, this is my friend Jake Thrasher from the FBI. He’s helping me work on a case.” Delaney just stood there with a blank look on her face as the three of them looked at each other then her. Jake was wearing his adorable crooked smile, Mike the smile of a belligerent teenager, and Cecily a look of I know what you’ve been doing.

  They all started laughing and Mike told her she was a horrible liar. Everyone in town had noticed the red pickup in her driveway and were wondering what was going on. Delaney felt like crawling under a rock. Suddenly Mike punched Jake with his right arm and shouted, “Jar Head, you got a good woman there.”

  “How did you know?” Jake asked with a slight tilt of his head.

  “Your boat.”

  They all turned at the same time to look at the boat and on the back written in large black letters was SEMPER FIsh.

  It took Delaney a second to figure it out but when she did she blurted out “Semper Fi? I didn’t know you’re a Marine.” She had a sinking feeling of embarrassment; I’m sleeping with this man and I don’t even know the most basic things about him. As if reading her mind Jake put his arm around her and pulled her in closely, placing a quick kiss on the top of her head.

  “Former Marine. I did my four years, went to Iraq twice and got out. Now I’m with the FBI. How about you?”

  Mike, standing tall and proud, said, “I was a career Marine. Or at least I thought I was until I retrieved a live grenade that had been thrown into my tank. I guess I wasn’t fast enough,” and he held up his prosthetic arm. “Now I’m an ice cream man. And this is my fiancée Cecily, she’s a teacher at the school and an artist.” Delaney had always wondered how Mike lost his arm but never had the courage to ask him. The small group talked for a few minutes and made plans to go sailing that evening after work. She didn’t know what is was about Cecily but she felt so comfortable around her, like she had already known her a long time. She missed having a close friend and secretly hoped Cecily felt the same about her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jake used her kitchen table as a temporary desk and booted up his MacBook. After connecting to the wireless Internet service, he began his search on Dr. Wu’s twin brother, Joseph. It didn’t take him long before he got several hits for a person matching the name in the area. He scrolled down the screen and selected the most probable choice. After opening the link, he was taken to a newspaper article of recent arrests. He found out that Joseph had been arrested for a string of small-time burglaries and possession of marijuana under one hundred grams. Apparently Joseph had been supporting his drug habit by breaking into vacant construction sites during the night and cutting out the copper plumbing. He would then sell it to a local junkyard for cash. From what Jake could gather, he made the mistake of always using the same junkyard and when the employee became suspicious he contacted the police. According to the article he had spent two nights in the county prison before being released on bail. The article did not provide an address. He exited out of the article and shut down the computer.

  Jake went through his briefcase and opened a small container which held a cable, an egg timer, and an encryption reading device. He plugged the cable into the USB adapter on the side of his laptop then connected it to the device. The egg timer was placed next to the keyboard. He powered on his laptop and did a search for the county prison. Opening the site he clicked on the tab for employees. When he was prompted for his login name he right double clicked and activated the device. Within seconds a login name appeared on the screen. Next he right double clicked on the entry for password. Within seconds he had hacked into the site. He set the egg timer for five minutes.

  He typed in “Joseph Wu” and clicked on search. Immediately he had two hits with thumbnail pictures. Maximizing the pictures it was easy to identify Joseph, the only other choice was a Caucasian man. He printed out his address, cell phone number, next of kin information, and his parole officer’s name and number. Then he printed out his mug shot. Jake stopped the timer and had one minute and twenty-five seconds to spare before the prison IT depa
rtment would be notified of the security breach. He promptly logged off, disconnected the encryption device, and packed everything neatly into his briefcase.

  “Big red truck or little Cooper?” he asked as the keys dangled from his hand and over her head.

  “Why, where are we going?” she asked.

  “I found our man Joseph Wu. He’s living in a halfway house an hour from here. Here’s his most recent picture. Not bad for a criminal.” Delaney looked at the picture and cringed. His hair looked greasy and he had a goatee. She took a minute to think about Jake in the Cooper, then replied, “I can’t imagine you scrunched up in the Cooper for an hour. You’ll never be able to stand upright again. The big red truck it is.” She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and slipped on comfortable shoes.

  Jake drove and Delaney navigated. They headed west on the Atlantic City Expressway towards Philadelphia. Bumping along in the old truck with the windows down and Bruce Springsteen blaring from the radio, Delaney slid her hand across the bench seat and placed it on Jake’s thigh. She felt his thigh muscle tighten, and watched as the swelling in his pants grew. “Babe, don’t start something you can’t finish,” he said with a dirty smile.

  “Oh I’ll finish it. You just have to wait till tonight,” she said as she leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek.

  He had EZ Pass and they were able to cruise through the toll booths. Rush hour was already over and they made good time. Forty minutes after leaving her house they were getting off at exit number forty-four and entering Sicklerville, home of the halfway house Joseph Wu was living in. Three blocks later Jake slowly passed the residence and carefully observed who was hanging out front and smoking. Nobody resembled their suspect. The neighborhood was made of seedy-looking row homes scattered with shady businesses. An adult bookstore was across the street and next to it a prostitution house disguised as a massage parlor. On the corner stood a tavern which had graffiti sprayed all over the cinder block walls. Broken bottles and trash littered the parking lot. A vacant store had boarded up windows with a “FOR RENT” sign nailed into the wood. They saw a drug deal go down and a man solicit a hooker. Jake drove the big truck around the corner and parked it. He got out and took a brick from the bed of the truck and placed it under the back tire to prevent it from rolling backwards down the hill. Delaney was at his side in seconds and gave him and the brick a strange look.

  Walking to the halfway house they could feel stares from all around. It was obvious they were not from this neighborhood in their too nice clothes and her Coach bag slung over her shoulder. As they approached the house he held up the mug shot of Joseph and asked the men and women if they had seen him. Nobody said yes, but nobody said no either. Jake knocked and an older heavy set woman answered the door. She had graying hair wrapped around pink curlers and long hairs growing from her chin. Her pale blue eyes looked hazy and her crusty right eye had yellow drainage weeping from it. “What do you want?” she managed to choke out during a coughing spasm. When she finished hacking up her lungs she lit a cigarette and purposefully blew the thick smoke into Delaney’s face. She instantly felt nauseated by the smell and wondered what kind of germs were just blown her way she but didn’t turn away.

  “Joseph Wu, we know he’s staying here. We need to ask him a few questions about his brother,” Delaney said.

  The woman’s eyes tracked from her to Jake then back to her. She took another drag from her cigarette but this time turned to exhale. “What’s in it for me?” she croaked out.

  “I’ll tell you what, tell us what you know and we won’t raid the place for suspected drug trafficking,” Delaney said. The woman hesitated and thought it over. “Haven’t seen him for two days. Probably getting high in an alley somewhere.” She reached to shut the door but Jake wedged his foot into the doorway.

  “When he turns up give him this card and tell him the FBI is looking for him. I’ll be getting in contact with his parole officer too.” Then Jake handed her the card and watched her examine it. Without a word she slammed the door and her hacking was audible through the walls. Jake and Delaney had no idea Joseph Wu was on the other side of those walls, listening to everything they said while loading his gun.

  From birth there is a big twin and a small twin. A strong one and a weak one. Joseph was the latter. While his brother John excelled at everything, Joseph was an epic failure. He walked late, he talked late, he was labeled globally delayed. John attended classes for the gifted and talented while he went to the tart cart. His physical and learning disabilities made his single mother’s life harder, and he felt her embarrassment for having a defective son. She had immigrated to the United States with her family when she was sixteen years old, speaking only Chinese. Her English tutor was an older married man in his forties. He liked her eagerness to please and took advantage of the naïve girl. Five months later when she started to show, her humiliated parents threw her out on the street with one hundred dollars to start her life. He felt he had been cursed from conception while his twin brother John won the genetic lottery.

  He learned early on he would never be good enough and lived in the shadow of his brother. John succeeded at everything, he played classical piano and was in the chess club. He was class president and voted most likely to succeed. Upon the suggestion of a teacher, their mother had John’s IQ tested by the school psychologist. He was a genius. They didn’t bother to test him, they didn’t need a test to tell them he was years behind academically.

  While John attended college on a full scholarship, he washed dishes and sold newspapers. This was it for him and he knew it. It was the most he could ever hope for. Every Friday he gave half of his meager wages to his mom and used the rest to by booze and cheap women. He became friends with the wrong people and started smoking pot and popping pills. Before he knew it he was breaking into cars and passing counterfeit checks. He seldom got caught, and even then it was just a slap on the wrist. He’d sit in jail for a few nights, John would post his bail and that was it. Maybe do a few hours of community service and make the judge happy. The prisons were overpopulated, filled with real criminals, murderers and rapists. He knew the system saw him as more of a nuisance than a threat to society. That was fine with him, he was petrified of being sent to the state prison anyway. He knew what would happen to a little Asian guy in a place like that and it gave him the creeps.

  He was secretly elated years later when John confided in him that he was dying from a brain tumor. The thing which had elevated John to a king in his mother’s eyes would now kill him. Joseph felt his luck was changing. He sat with a smile in his heart as he listened to John cry a river. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to leave his beloved mother. John knew Joseph was a loser and would never be capable of caring for their mother. Most of all, he didn’t want her to be alone. He told Joseph his plan.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Delaney and Cecily made sandwiches while Jake and Mike went to get wine. It was nice having another woman to converse with and she quickly learned Cecily was so opposite of her. She had attended art school in New York City where she basically partied and slept with lots of men for four years. She had wild stories of passionate lovers and one-night stands. Delaney couldn’t believe it. She had a vague sense that she had missed out on something. Cecily was such a free spirit.

  “How did you and Mike ever meet?”

  “Fate. After graduation I took an internship teaching art therapy at a rehabilitation hospital in upstate New York. I worked with new amputees returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Mike was one of my clients and it was horrible.”

  Delaney stopped making sandwiches and looked up, “What do you mean horrible, was it depressing?”

  “No quite the opposite. From the second we met there was a chemistry between us. I was trying to help him with fine motor skills and all I kept thinking was I wonder what he’s like in bed. The sexual tension was unbelievable, and three days later he asked me out. When I picked him up that night he saw my car and nearly d
ied laughing. He said he never met a woman who was so confident she would drive around with “If you’re gonna ride my ass at least pull hair” stamped to her bumper. From that moment on we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. He took me right there in my backseat and again after dinner. The man has the stamina of an Olympic athlete. When he moved back down here to be close to family he asked me to marry him and the rest is history.”

  “Wow, that’s some love story, it’s so spontaneous.” Delaney thought for a minute then blurted out, “I slept with Jake the first week we met. And it was wonderful. I feel like I barely know the man but I keep going back for more, he’s addicting.” She studied Cecily’s face to see if she thought any less of her for being so easy.

  Cecily started laughing. “That’s great! He’s got a hot body and I bet he knows how to use it.”

  “So, I’m wonderfully addicting with a hot body? Go on, I want to hear more.”