"And Shorty?" asked George.
"He was supposed to do like I said, take Arminster out in an 'accident'. I softened Arminster up a bit, but Shorty knocked his block off with the car."
June spoke up. "What happened with Elizabeth Grayson, Manny?"
His sobs got more raw and his voice held a tremble. "I don't know. Henny needed the money from her insurance and she was going to talk about us. She needed to tell the judge why she wanted the divorce. Henny couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let that happen to him. We talked about it and I took care of it."
"You hung her?"
"She hardly knew what was happening; she was woozy and it was late. But I did what I needed to do."
There was more noise from the hallway. "Geez!" George exclaimed. "Can you get Grayson to shut up, Eddie?"
"Not without a fist to the face," Eddie told him, half-hoping George would consent.
George sighed and got up from the table, pulling the door open to yell at the cops who were allowing their prisoner to make such a ruckus. Grayson got a good look into the room, however, and stilled immediately. Mendez cried out as if in pain. It was anguish, pure and simple.
"I'm sorry, Henny!"
"What have you done?" Grayson said softly.
"They'll give you a lighter sentence," Mendez said miserably. "I told 'em I did it all."
"Manny…"
George began to close the door again, and Mendez cried out in a ragged voice. "I love you, Henny! Please believe me!"
The last words Eddie heard from Grayson before the door closed were, "God help me."
Later, Shorty Deets corroborated the story about Arminster and all the pieces had been placed in the puzzle.
Eddie and June stayed around to tell what they knew and it looked like things were back under control. Eddie would have been just as happy to hang Mendez as the other man had done to Elizabeth Grayson, but he was satisfied that the criminals would be brought to justice.
* * * * *
It was quite late when the interrogation was over. June sat quietly in the car as Eddie drove them back to her place. Once inside, June took off her hat, gloves and shoes, and wondered what would come next. Would they be part of the trial? How would Romantek swing that, as a trial would certainly not be immediate? She hoped fervently that she'd have that many more days with Eddie, but her RAVE had a definite end date, and it was nowhere near long enough away.
Eddie threw his hat on a side table and stood in the middle of the room. June's eyes caught his and they stared at one another for a long minute. June saw the fire in his amber eyes, and sensed his tension from across the room. With a sob, she ran to him and threw herself into his arms.
Squeezing as hard as she could, she held him as though he was her lifeline and she a drowning sailor.
"Shh, kitten," he murmured. After a moment, he tilted her chin up and touched his lips to hers. A kiss that started out gently soon became a raging fire. Somewhere in the back of June's mind, she knew she was tattered by the evening, that she didn't look her best, but it thrilled her that Eddie didn't seem to care. He held her and kissed her deeply. His tongue against hers was strong and yet tender. Hands drifting downward along her body, Eddie cupped her bottom and drew her closer against him. June could feel the hard bulge behind his fly and she trembled. She wanted him so bad, she could taste it.
As the kiss broke, Eddie thumbed a tear off her cheek. June had barely been conscious of crying. "Eddie…"
"I wish we could go on like this forever," he said softly. His eyes were tired, burning with need, but weary.
"I do, too."
"You know it's got to end, June."
"No!"
He nodded. "Yes. There are no choices."
"We have to try."
Pulling her in tight against him again, he stroked her hair. "All right." June could feel his heartbeat and knew when he took a deep breath. "I'm Edward—"
Quickly she pulled away, putting her fingers over his mouth to silence him. She wanted to go first. "Wait. Ladies first." Eddie's smile was tight in response. "Eddie, my love, I'm W-"
There was black for a moment, then a feeling of falling, falling, rings of light around her, like smoke rings in the darkness. Finally, there was nothing.
* * * * *
Like sunbeams broken by a dark cloud, Eddie felt June break into a thousand fragments and cease to exist in the space of a heartbeat. One moment, his arms were around her, and the next they held nothing but air. It was as though she'd never been there.
As far as Eddie was concerned, the dream was over. The rules of the RAVE said that he could wish himself out of the dream at any time. All he had to do was close his eyes and focus.
The RAVE without June was untenable. And, he realized, there would be an after-dream party on the Romantek cruise ship. Maybe he could find her there. That would never happen, however, if he didn't get there in time.
Eddie rushed into the next room and spread himself over June's bed, closing his eyes immediately. He focused all his energy on getting out of 1950 and back into his own time.
In seconds, he was in a cool room. The various monitors were still receiving signals from small devices stuck to his wrists and forehead.
Eddie opened his eyes. He was back on the Romantek ship, on the dreaming deck, in his small room. Although, no longer in the nanite gel, he could still smell it in his nostrils—grass and springtime air. His body felt heavy, and yet better and more vibrant than ever. The rejuvenation process was apparently successful. Aging had not become an issue for him as he was only thirty-one in his real life, but he had had a sports injury that made his knee ache almost all the time, and that pain was totally gone.
One thing he had been worried about before the process was losing any brain function during the rejuvenation. He did some math in his head, searched his identic memory for a variety of obscure data, and found that everything was as it should be. His patents, both future and current, were safe.
A nurse in scrubs came in and fussed over him for a few minutes, removing the transceivers and turning off the equipment. Although he was a bit disoriented, it was not an issue to get dressed and make his way back to his stateroom.
Once inside, he commed a few people, a little cynical about how times had changed. He'd never have a rotary phone again. And the smells in his time were so much more crisp, less a mélange of scents never filtered through processors. He'd grown used to the odors of the twentieth century, and the world seemed a little less interesting without them.
The party was underway, and he needed to get down to the Palace deck where it was taking place. He hoped, prayed to all the gods he could think of, that June was there in a form he would recognize. In a RAVE, all your features could be changed if you wanted them to be. It took some technical mojo and some heavy meditation before being put into the dream state, but it was possible. And maybe she’d been too beautiful to be real. It didn’t matter what she looked like, so long as he could find her.
Eddie changed into his tux and hurried down to the party.
* * * * *
Willow stood in the large ballroom, staring at the dinner tables, with a drink in her hand. She was desperately hoping Eddie would be there. She had no way to know when his dream would end, or if he'd really want to continue their association.
Dressed in a gold lame gown, she drew eyes, but even confidence in her attractiveness did nothing for her anxiety over what Eddie really thought. It was ridiculous. He'd clearly shown his interest. He had been ready to reveal his identity, even knowing his RAVE would be over and all the money he’d invested in the dream would be lost. She tried to keep that in mind as she moved around the room, searching for those familiar amber eyes.
At one point, she thought she saw him, and was hurrying over to him when her comm chimed. Rather than dig it out of her tiny purse, she continued through the room, hoping it was him. As she got closer, she realized that it had been wishful thinking; it was not Eddie. The man was much more
classically handsome than Eddie and his rugged face, though they were of the same strong build. Plus, the man’s mannerisms were all wrong. No, it wasn’t Eddie.
Sighing, she pulled her comm out and checked for a message. There was a video waiting for her. Willow moved to an unoccupied corner of the room and looked at it, setting the volume to "closed captioned" so that any confidential information would not be heard by passersby.
It was her company CFO. Before Willow left for her RAVE, they'd been working on a merger deal for one of Willow's smaller companies. It was not expected to get too deeply into negotiations before Willow's vacation was over, but apparently it moved more quickly than they anticipated. She was needed back in Toronto immediately.
Willow sent a text message to her CFO and stole one more long look around the room. Eddie was not there. She had to go, but she left her heart behind.
* * * * *
The office was quiet, sun streaming in through the Plexiglas windows, the sky a clear, cloudless blue. Eddie got up from behind his desk and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling view and looked out. San Francisco was busy, despite it being a Sunday. People the size of Ping-Pong balls moved around sixty stories below. Toy-like autos moved with a sedate pace as the automatic driving computers carefully navigated through the streets.
Sighing, he headed past the leather seating arrangement toward a bookcase. He had hundreds of books, collected from all corners of the world. They were antiques he loved. Everyone thought he was crazy because he didn't read everything on his tablet, but some things weren't available electronically, despite online scans of antiquated texts. It was those precious books that he collected.
He went right to the section on love poetry and paused. It was maudlin of him to thumb through those books, pining for June and wondering what the "W" had meant when she'd been about to tell him her name. Was she "Willa," "Wendy," "Winona?" What did it stand for? It was a clue to how he could find her.
But it had been weeks. Eddie realized he should get over her, leave the RAVE and all it meant to him behind. She'd called him "my love." And he could have called her the same. He was deeply in love with "W" and deeply depressed that he had no way to find her.
He'd been talking to private investigators ever since he returned to his own time. They uniformly pointed out that Romantek kept all that information in confidence. No one was going to find out who another RAVE dreamer might be in real life if they didn’t meet at the after party. No one.
Even his own chief of security had told him how hopeless it was. But Eddie had to keep trying. His work was suffering; his world was dull and lifeless. Friends were beginning to express worry over the state of his emotions. Anger and frustration sat very close to the surface for him as each day passed with no success in his quest.
Before he could dive into another ancient poetry book and sink into despair once again, he pulled out his comm and dialed his chief of security. Eddie was being a pest, especially on a Sunday, but he had to do something, anything to find the woman he was in love with.
Gregg Grimm answered immediately, knowing who was calling. His video image showed a man who was a little sweaty, his face slightly red.
"Hey, boss," he said. "Something wrong?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt you. Were you gardening?"
"Yeah. The wife wanted petunias this year. Always something. What can I do for you?"
"It's about 'W'…"
Gregg sighed, though he was respectful when he responded. "You know, boss, I've been thinking about this between petunias. Have you considered putting an ad online in the major English language newspapers? Maybe you could find her that way."
Eddie paused, thinking about it. He might end up looking like a fool socially and in his business dealings if he placed an ad. But it had great potential for success. Of course, there would be a number of respondents who would be screwy, but he only needed one to be the right one. His chances were pretty slim, but the idea gave him hope.
"Great idea, Gregg! I'll take care of it myself."
"I can help you compose something that doesn't reveal your identity, boss."
"I don't want to take you away from your family, and I must do this immediately. So, I'll be careful, but I'll do it on my own."
Gregg looked skeptical but he nodded. "All right."
They rung off and Eddie hurried to his desk, busily making mental notes about what he wanted to say and where he wanted to place the ads.
Finally, after more than an hour working on the text of the ad alone, he came up with something that he thought would work.
"June, June, not July or August. My 'W'… I'm searching for you. Please let me know you're there. Eddie Strong." He closed with a new correspondence address and started searching for all the major papers online. There weren't too many as so many had folded during the big newspaper collapse of 2092. Things had never come back from that. Nonetheless, there were enough that it kept him busy for quite a while.
Finally, ads were placed in all the major papers worldwide that he could find reference to online, and now all he could do was wait. The search would start tomorrow with the publication of the dailies. He leaned back in his chair and daydreamed.
* * * * *
After weeks of stress and frustration, Willow was beat. She needed to rest, but sleep was elusive. All she could think about was Eddie. She wondered where he was, how he was faring, if he was happy. Did he miss her? Surely not as much as she missed him.
It killed her that she didn't know his name. "Edward" was nothing to go on. She couldn't even be sure he lived in North America, though his interest in classic American film noire was a clue. Still, there must be millions of people who had at least a passing interest in the genre.
It was a cloudy, gloomy day in Toronto. Rain threatened and as rumbles started in the sky, Willow hurried out to her limo and told the computer to take her home. She'd had enough for the day, even though it was still only mid-afternoon. Dreaming about Eddie would shatter her sleep again, but she had to try.
Once in her penthouse, narrowly missing a downpour, Willow changed into a robe and slippers and flashed herself a cup of tea. The auto-cook was as efficient as usual, giving her the brew she wanted at the temperature she preferred.
She sat down with her tablet to read for a while. Although she was tired, Willow was too troubled to fall right into bed. She needed to wind down and try to relax.
A novel didn't hold her attention for long. Who wanted to read about knights in shining armor when her own white knight was missing? Magazines had piled up on her virtual bookshelf, but even the fashion trends weren't enough to distract her. Turning to newspapers, she hoped she might find some uplifting, feel-good articles to lift her spirits.
As she read about puppies being rescued and little children winning science fair prizes, she happened upon an advertisement in the Toronto Star. She read it over and over, wondering if it could be true. And yet, there it was in bold color. Eddie. Eddie wanted her to contact him.
It didn't even require a second thought. Willow hurried to her home office and plunked down behind her desk. She pressed a few buttons and her desktop registered her correspondence app. She spoke Eddie's address and then her message. The computer would translate it to text and send it upon her command.
"Eddie," she said. "Eddie Strong. I am June from your dream. Hopefully, still in your dreams as you have been in mine. We must meet. 1950 was not enough; I want today, too. Perhaps I'm greedy. Contact me here. With love, Willow." After reading it over several times, Willow said "send" and her fate was sealed. If that really was Eddie Strong, they'd found each other.
Nothing else mattered.
* * * * *
Eddie read every letter that came across his tablet, the moment it came in. There were quite a few, mostly from unhappy women who were willing to be anyone in order to assuage their loneliness. Although he had pity for these women, it cluttered up his list and made it difficult to sort through.
"Eddie. Eddie St
rong," read the letter that spiked his blood pressure. " I am June from your dream." It went on, and with each word, each character, he was sure that they'd found each other. This was his June. The "W" stood for Willow. What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman. He wrote her back immediately, hoping that he wouldn't once again be disappointed.
"Willow," he wrote. "Yes, we must meet. I'm not satisfied with 1950 either. Can we vid? I want to reassure you that I'm the man you think I am. Comm me." He gave his comm number and signed the letter, "Eddie Reston, San Francisco."
Ten minutes later, his comm chimed and hit the buttons that would send the vid call to his tablet. He finger-combed his hair and answered.
"June?"
Her beautiful face broke into a smile. It swept his heart away on a tide of longing. "Eddie, my love," she replied. "I've been looking for you. You've been very elusive."
"So have you," he said with a heartfelt grin. "I've looked everywhere. I suppose we should be grateful that Romantek protects our identities, but damn, that was tough."
"Very. You're in San Francisco? I'm in Toronto."
"We can meet somewhere neutral, if you like. Maybe Miami?"
She nodded, red hair streaming over her shoulders. Willow was exactly the woman he remembered. He could hardly wait to see her.
"Miami is nice this time of year. Okay. Let's meet there."
"I'll pick up the transportation costs and the hotel," he said.
"Nonsense. I can afford it."
"You're sure? Because it's no big deal to me."
She laughed and a shiver of pleasure coursed over Eddie. "I'm Willow Camber, of Camber Enterprises," she told him. "I have a private heli-jet, and I've never been so glad to have it. I can be in Miami in two hours."
"I don't have a private heli, so give me a few more hours. I'll jump on the first transport I can get a ticket for."
“I can pick you up.”
“No. I’ll be fine. Be patient.”
"I feel anything but patient, Eddie, but all right."
They made further meeting arrangements and then the conversation wound down. Eddie was loathe to let her go, because maybe he was hallucinating, dreaming. If so, he never wanted to wake up.
Eddie, My Love Page 13
