by Jerry Moore
I made a point to grab Carl as soon as class was over. “Wow, you’re looking good this morning.”
He was almost blushing. “All this stuff is Allison’s idea.”
“Really? Then I guess you two must have done more than just spend the weekend writing essays.”
“Actually, the essay was easier than I thought. It was like the words just popped into my head and I knew exactly what to do with them.”
I imagined that the words did just pop into his head, courtesy of Allison. “So where are your glasses?”
“Oh, Allison bought me some contacts when we were in Dallas.”
“Wait a second, you took Allison to Dallas?”
“No she took me to Dallas. We left right after we had lunch with you on Friday. Man, is her car sweet.”
“I thought she was just going to help you with your essay. I mean, you hardly even know her.”
“I know her a lot better now.”
“You know, I didn’t see her in my History class this morning. Do you know where she is?”
“No, she dropped me off at my dorm last night and I haven’t seen her since.”
I couldn’t help but wonder what the sleeping arrangements had been in Dallas. “Well, when you see her, tell her that I was trying to get a hold of her.”
I called Jenny to let her know that I was staying on campus for a while since I had a meeting with my History professor. I wanted to grab a bite to eat, but I had already decided against asking Carl to go. I didn’t want to give Allison any reason to think that I was messing with her boy toy.
I found an empty table in the food court and started eating my burger and fries in silence. I tried to think about what Dr. Greene wanted to see me about. I bet he knew where Jeff and Allison were. I was lost in thought and never ever heard Tina walk up. All of sudden she was just there.
Tina dropped her tray softly on the table. “Hey, girl.”
I looked up, surprised to see her standing there. “Tina, hey, sit down.”
She sat down across from me. “So, I haven’t seen you since that day at the hospital.”
“Yeah, I haven’t been up there much. My aunt is being all weird about me going up there.”
“That’s okay; Brenda’s not really seeing anyone anyway. She has pretty much shut everyone out. I think the Robison family is putting a lot of pressure on her to be quiet about everything that has happened.”
“Yeah, I guess they have a lot of power in this town. Hey, did you hear about Brenda’s husband?”
“I did hear about that. I can’t say that I’m sorry. I think he had it coming after what he did to Brenda.”
“So do I, but I probably shouldn’t say that. The police have already been around to question me about it. They thought that me and my boyfriend Jeff had something to do with it.”
“Are you serious?”
“Serious as a heart attack. So anyway, that’s why I really haven’t been visiting her.”
“It probably doesn’t matter, since she’s pretty much shut everyone out. I think she just wants to take the Robison’s money and move on.”
“So, you heard about the money too?”
“Rumors about it are flying everywhere. Why else would she let that creep off the hook?”
“So what’s she going to do once she gets better and feels well enough to leave the hospital?”
“She says she wants to move. She wants to live someplace where no one cares about the Robisons or their influence.”
Tina and I tried to make idle conversation about something other than Brenda but it just seemed forced. The truth is that Brenda was the only thing we really had in common. Besides, Tina was a nice girl. She was probably too nice a girl to survive in my world of immortals, gangsters, and federal agents. As we finished lunch and promised to do it again soon, I think we both knew that there would be no next time. We would both get on with our lives and ignore each other in the future.
I arrived at Dr. Greene’s office at two o’clock sharp. I could barely contain my curiosity about where Jeff was and why he hadn’t been returning my phone calls. As soon as Dr. Greene saw me outside his office, he waved me into his office.
I walked in, closing the door behind me. “Dr. Greene, you wanted to see me?”
He stood up and motioned to a chair in front of his desk. “Please, sit down. There are some things I wanted to discuss with you.”
“I hope this doesn’t mean I’m in trouble,” I said coyly.
“Of course you aren’t. Actually, I had been meaning to speak to you ever since we were at the hospital together. Unfortunately, my cover as an aloof History professor hasn’t really helped in that regard.”
“I really wasn’t sure if you liked me. I mean after the first day of class, I sort of thought you were kind of mean.”
He chuckled. “Yes, well that is what I wanted most of my students to think. It cuts down on the questions that students ask.”
“So, if you’re not the grumpy old professor, who are you?”
“I am a simple man who enjoys solving puzzles”, he said.
“I guess it makes sense that the leader of your little group would be the sort of man who likes figuring everything out.”
“My dear, I’m not the leader of ‘our little group’, as you like to call it. Allison and I both take our instructions from Jeff.”
“But you’re a professor and you’re older than Jeff.”
“First of all, it’s not about who is older, it’s about who is the most capable leader. Secondly, Jeff is actually older than I am.”
“Wait, you certainly look like you’re a few years older than Jeff.”
“Lisa, it’s okay to say that I look a few decades older than Jeff. Not all of us were called at the same time. The process took decades and Jeff was one of the first to be selected. I was one of the last.”
“So, how does that work? You guys all look like you did when you turned immortal?”
“Well, we do, for the most part. There is what we call the chameleon affect.”
“What is the chameleon affect?”
“Essentially, we each have the ability to appear a few years younger or older than we were when we became immortal. We can slightly alter our skin pigmentation.”
“That is totally cool. Why didn’t anyone mention this before?”
“Well, I suppose because it seems rather minor to us. In fact, I have rarely even used that ability.”
“Speaking of minor details, do you know where Jeff is? He hasn’t been returning my calls.”
“Well, I’m afraid the incident with Mr. Robison has caused some problems.”
“When you say problems, you mean the police, right?”
“Yes, that is exactly the type of complication we try to avoid. Between this latest incident and you being told about Jeff’s gift at the hospital, Allison is on very thin ice with Jeff.”
“But Carl told me that Allison was in Dallas at the time. Isn’t Dallas over three hundred miles from here?”
“Come to the review session tonight. Jeff will be there and Allison should be as well. Perhaps she can tell all of us exactly what she did. In any event wait for the actual review session to break up and the other students to leave. Then the four of us can get down to what happened.”
“That is all fine and good, but where is Jeff right now?”
“I don’t actually know.”
“Okay, then where does he live? I can’t believe I never thought to ask that before, but where’s his place?”
“I’m quite sure Jeff always avoided telling you where he lives. That is because he doesn’t have one certain place he stays. He is always on the move.”
Jenny’s suspicion about Jeff being some sort of spook seemed right on the money. “So if I want to see him, it has to be tonight?”
“I’m afraid so. Knowing Jeff, he probably is staying fairly close to you, without you realizing it. At the same time he is probably trying to do some damage control.”
&nbs
p; “Damage control?”
“I believe he is trying to use his contacts within the government to convince the Lubbock police to back off of him, Allison, and most importantly you.”
“Well then, I guess I will have to wait until tonight for my answers.” I left Dr. Greene’s office with a lot more questions than answers.
After my meeting with Dr. Greene, I walked out of Holden Hall. I found Jenny sitting on a bench, waiting for me. It was immediately apparent, from the look on her face that she was in a foul mood. Now, Jenny had never shown me a happy personality, but today she was in a particularly dark mood. Something was up. I could feel it.
I tried to act like I didn’t notice. “So, I had a really good meeting with Dr. Greene.”
Jenny stood up. “Really, what did he want to talk about?”
We talked as we walked to the car. “Oh, he just wanted me to know how important it was for me to be at the review session tonight.”
We both got into the car. Jenny turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to life. “That’s too bad.”
“Why is that?”
“You are not going. We can’t take the chance.”
That meeting was my path back to Jeff. I had to convince her to let me go. “I’m going to that review session. It’s important for my grade that I’m there.”
She looked over at me. “You don’t understand. You’ve been withdrawn from the university. You no longer attend classes at Texas Tech.”
“You can’t do this.”
“The decision’s been made. Your profile is getting too high. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. I did manage to convince my boss to let us stay in Lubbock, at least temporarily.”
“This can’t be happening. I just now started making friends.”
“Maybe after the trial, you might be allowed to contact them.”
I dug my cell phone out of my purse and started dialing.
Jenny was staring straight ahead. Maybe she couldn’t look me in the eye. “Don’t bother, the service to that phone has been disconnected as well.”
“Well aren’t you little Miss Wicked Witch of the freaking West?”
She sighed. “That’s not fair. This wasn’t my decision.”
“Oh, and you guys are being fair with me, right? Give me a break!”
“Lisa, you need to calm down. You are only making things worse.”
“Calm down or what? You’ve already grounded me and taken my phone away. What’s next? Are you going to make me stand with my nose in the corner when we get home?”
She turned and looked at me with rage in her brown eyes. “That is enough.”
I didn’t say anything else. There was no need. I obviously wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind and I had made sure that Jenny knew I was pissed. I still hadn’t played the one card that I still had left. I could always threaten not to testify at trial. Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to play that card without knowing that Jeff could get me away from the marshals and make me disappear someplace with him.
Once we got home, I managed to make it all the way to my room and shut the door before I started to cry. I’m sure that Jenny could hear me crying but I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing it. I hated the marshals. I hated all of them, even the ones that I had never met.
Even as the tears flowed from my eyes, I was trying to form a plan. I still had to make it to Dr. Greene’s house. There was no way that Jenny and her marshal buddies were going to let Jeff get anywhere near me. It was so unfair. I had finally made it into college and I liked it. I had finally met someone that loved me for who I was on the inside.
My past was continuing to ruin my present. Even Jenny had said we were staying in Lubbock temporarily. It was clear that I’d be relocated. Would Jeff be able to find me once they moved me somewhere new? I wasn’t willing to find out. Like an echo, my past sins were coming back to spoil any chance at a happy ending. I needed the happy ending. Living without Jeff would be the same as not living at all.
Chapter Twelve
I had a plan. Okay, so it wasn’t much of a plan really. It was more like a desperate attempt to escape. I didn’t think it had much of a chance. The problem was that there was a lot more than just Jenny to contend with. Assuming that I could get past her, and that was a huge assumption, there would be at least a couple more marshals watching the house. I had no idea where they would be stationed. So even if I did manage to make it outside, I would likely have to physically get past one of them to escape.
I got up from my bed, where I had been crying my eyes out, and looked for anything that I might be able to use. I was still looking when I heard a knock at my bedroom door. I didn’t answer it. Maybe Jenny would just go away. There was about as much a chance of that happening as there was of pigs learning to fly.
Instead of her leaving, the opposite happened. She opened my door and let herself in. She wasn’t alone. Bart Tucker was with her. I immediately noticed that both of them were wearing their sidearm in a belt holster. Any pretense that they were anything other than federal marshals was gone.
I cut my eyes at him. “Well, if it isn’t Marshal Tucker. Don’t you have some books to shelve down at the library or something?”
“I never did think that you bought my cover as your boss at the library,” Bart said.
“Whether you like what is going on or not, we still need your cooperation,” Jenny said.
“You’ve been holding out on us,” Bart said. It wasn’t a question. He said it like it was a fact.
My mind was racing. The only information that I had held back was information about Jeff, Allison, and Dr. Greene. Did they already know about them? I tried to sound confident. “I don’t know what the two of you are talking about.”
“Apparently there is some sort of hard and irrefutable evidence against the Demarco family. It was supposedly given to you. Perhaps it was given to you without your realizing it”, Jenny said.
I didn’t know anything about any evidence. “You can search my room if you think it’s here.”
“Marshal Mull has already searched this room at least twenty times. We need that evidence,” Bart said.
I felt like a fool. I finally understood what was going on. “Was I ever going to testify at the trial?”
Jenny’s eyes got wide. “What do you mean?”
“This was never about me, was it? The government was never after my testimony. You’ve been chasing this evidence all along. That’s what you really wanted.”
Burt gave me a cold stare. “Do you really think the government wants to put its star witness on the stand and have the defense attorney tear her to shreds while showing the jury what a tramp she is. I’m curious, just how many of the defendants did you sleep with?”
Jenny gave Bart a dirty look. “That’s not fair. Everyone makes a few mistakes. I certainly wouldn’t want to be judged solely on what I did between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. If Lisa is all the government has, I’m sure they will want her to testify.”
Bart dismissed Jenny with a wave of his hand. “Whatever, I don’t have time for all this touchy, feely, let’s all feel good about ourselves crap. What I want to know is this: Where is the evidence?”
I couldn’t tell if they were both on the level or just playing good cop/bad cop with me. “You can ask as often as you want, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
The two marshals finally gave up and left my bedroom. I thought Jenny probably believed me about not knowing anything about the evidence. Bart acted like he didn’t think talking to me any further would do any good. I didn’t even want to think about how far he might be willing to go to get that information if Jenny wasn’t here to stop him. Of course, they could be playing me and trying to make me think that.
Either way, I was now more convinced than ever that my best option was to make a run for it. I just didn’t have anything to lose. I looked out my bedroom window at the backyard. The sun was still up; it wouldn’
t be dark for a few more hours. I knew I had no chance of escaping as long as it was light outside. I decided I would make a break for it as soon as it got completely dark.
In the meantime, I continued my search for things I could use. I dumped my purse out on the bed, but there wasn’t much I thought I could use. I found some body spray that I thought might come in handy. I put everything else back in my purse and looked through all the drawers in my dresser and my night stand. I found a can of black shoe polish that I had bought to touch up my dress shoes that I hadn’t any reason to wear since I’d gotten to Texas.
I put the shoe polish and the body spray in the pockets of my black Texas Tech hoody that I had picked up to show my school spirit. I left the hoody in the closet and tried to act as normal as possible. I looked over at my laptop and wondered why I hadn’t thought of that before. I could email Dr. Greene and he could get word to Jeff. I was saved.
I popped open my laptop and waited for it to load. Naturally, the internet connection had been disabled. My connection with the outside world was completely severed. I was a prisoner whether anyone called it that or not. Sure, I wasn’t officially under arrest. I had no illusions that I would be arrested if I tried to leave. They would have some legal term for it like protective custody or something like that.
So I pretended to read a book while I kept an eye on the sun as it continued to sink into the western sky. I knew that the marshals probably expected me to try something. I knew that it probably wouldn’t work. I didn’t care. I was going for broke. I wasn’t dumb enough to think that the marshals were just going to trust me to stay in my room. They would make a point of checking on me. I needed to delay any discovery that I had left.
The first thing I did was turn my radio on and tune in the heavy metal station. Hopefully, this would mask any noise I would make later. Just before sunset, I decided it was time to make an appearance in the kitchen. I walked through the living room on my way to the kitchen. Bart glanced up at me from where he was sitting on the couch. His attention quickly returned to the football game he was watching on TV.
