by BJ Hyman
Kyle grunted while reaching a difficult spot. “A couple of hours, maybe. It depends on how hard it is to get into the wiring in different rooms. Listen, what all is going on? Sabrina told me a little bit last night. Sounds crazy.”
“Yeah. Some joker thinks it’s funny to sneak into a woman’s place while she sleeps. It’s creepy. Probably some bedwetter that has mommy issues. If it doesn’t stop, I’m gonna get her to move in with me.”
Kyle glanced down at him. “Wow. Bold move. Good luck with that.”
Eli frowned. “Why do you think I need luck?”
“I don’t know. Sabrina made it sound like you and Charlie weren’t in the best place yet. She still hasn’t gotten over some old relationship or something.” He shrugged. “Not my place. I’m just talking rumor. But if it’s true, you might have a hard time talking her into moving in with you…stalker or no stalker.” He turned quickly to look down at Eli. He talked in a hush. “You aren’t doing it yourself to try to get her to change her mind, huh? Like, to encourage her that you’re the one for her?”
“No! This is terrifying her. You don’t do something like this to try to win a woman. Especially if you actually love her. That’s not going to win any one in the long run.”
Kyle turned back to his work. “It was just a thought.”
“Well, keep your ‘thoughts’ to yourself.” Eli glared at the back of Kyle’s head a moment before walking back to the bedroom.
◆◆◆
Kellie got off the phone with Charlie feeling better than when she made the call. She had handled the news better than expected. Megan and Craig had been cracking jokes at the store and made her feel better. Her frame of mind was improved as long as she wasn’t alone. Kellie knew that feeling would change as soon as Charlie was left to her own devices but was glad that she had the distraction for now.
She stuck her head in the bedroom. “Hey. I’m headed out with some plastic to get Charlie some more clothes. Our charge cards are going to be squealing by the end of this.”
Eli wiped his hands and fished his wallet from his back pocket. He examined it while walking toward Kellie. He handed her an American Express and shoved the wallet back into its usual spot that was beginning to wear through his jeans. “I’ve got it. Get her as much as you want. I’m covered and good for it. Don’t forget the extras like shoes, socks, unmentionables, pajamas…that kind of stuff. Get her a full replacement wardrobe.”
Kellie stared at him with her mouth hanging open. “Are you sure?”
He gave her a dismissive glance while wrapping the sheets from the bed in on themselves and sticking them into a trash bag. “Of course. I have the money and I care about her. It won’t make a dent in my finances. Trust me.” He gave a look around. “Grab sheets and bedding, while you’re at it. Maybe a big rug to cover this mess on the carpet until it can be fixed.”
“Just how rich are you?” Kellie put a hand on her hip while holding up the charge card.
He gave her a smirk. “You’re being crass. Get out of here.”
Sabrina turned to stare at Kellie with wide eyes. They shared shocked looks before Kellie turned on her heel and marched out the door. She put the card into the side pocket as she slung her purse over her shoulder.
When she opened the door to leave, she found Dean standing there with his hand poised to knock. Kellie was ready to strike. “YOU! What the hell are you doing here?!”
“I’m sorry?” He looked at her in confusion.
“I’ll bet you’re sorry.” She shoved him away from the door. “You’re doing this. You’re terrorizing my sister and running her out of her mind. Well, it won’t work. She has lots of people who love her and are willing to take care of her. You are not going to win. You hear me?”
She shoved him again. He put his hands up defensively. “What are you talking about? I was just coming by to leave her a letter.”
“Then why were you getting ready to knock?”
“Because I wasn’t sure if she would really be out. I was hoping so but thought I should check. What’s happening? Is that still going on? That stuff she told me about over coffee?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“Of course, I don’t know. I’m not in her life anymore. Remember?” His anger was getting kindled and he couldn’t help but start to raise his voice.
Kellie shoved him again. “Stay out of her life!”
“Why would I hurt her? I have done nothing but love her.”
“She ended it while you were broken. You’re still broken. You blame her for not being able to handle being in a relationship with a broken man.”
She began to shove him again, but he caught her hands. “She woke me up by breaking up with me. Losing her made me realize what life is about. I could have wallowed in my misery forever. It’s because of her that I got therapy. It’s helped me tremendously. Without my losses, I’d have never hit rock bottom and had to straighten up.” He pulled a crumpled envelope out of his back pocket and handed it to Kellie. “Please give this to her. It says everything that I never could before.”
She stares at the envelope like he just handed her a bag of poop. “Sure. I’ll make sure she gets it. But you have to leave. Now.”
He backs away from her with his hands up as if she were a bank robber. “Fine. Just please give her the letter.”
“Yeah.”
She watched him walk away and disappear into the stairwell leading down to the street. She looked down at the envelope for about ten seconds before tearing it in half and tossing it into the nearest trash can.
◆◆◆
Charlie sat in the front window watching the light patter of rain on the already damp street in front of her shop. The drops caught loose leaves in colors of gold, rust, orange, and brown and stuck them to any surface: the street, parked cars, the sidewalk, her own storefront window, even a pedestrian or two. A man had a yellow fan of a leaf flutter down while he was walking and looking at his phone. It landed smack on the right lens of his glasses. Startled, he jumped before yanking his glasses off with irritation at the inconvenience.
Charlie marveled at how life can change in a moment…the span of a breath. She had already seen it before and here it was again.
A sharp gasp at the counter brought her attention to Craig sitting at the laptop. She turned slightly to look at him. His forehead was creased in the center and his eyes were narrowed in on whatever had made him react physically. She couldn’t help but ask, “Is something wrong?”
His eyes flicked up to her and back to the screen. “It’s more on that story of the woman found dead in the woods. They’ve released a name. Donna Veselka.”
Charlie looked off to the side with her brows creased. “That sounds familiar.”
“It should. She bought some hand-lettered note cards from you just about 2 months ago. Remember? It was something to do with a garden party?”
Her eyes brightened with recollection before her frown returned. “Oh, no. I do remember her. She seemed so sweet.”
Craig tapped the screen. “It says here that odd things had begun to happen in her life before she was taken and killed.”
“Like what?”
He gave her a long look before answering. “Things going missing. Pictures she didn’t take showing up on her phone. Words being written on her walls. It doesn’t give many specifics, but those are mentioned.”
“Holy shit.”
Neither one wanted to be the first to say it out loud. Charlie looked down at the phone in her lap. With everything going on, she hadn’t really looked at her pictures for anything in a while. Usually, she took pictures daily to post on social media and their various web sites, but Craig had done most of that work in the past few weeks.
With trembling fingers, she slid her finger across the screen to open the main directory. She found the icon for her media files and tapped it open.
She was greeted by a photo of her sleeping with red paint splashed all over her. With a gasp, she dropped the p
hone to the floor. Craig came around the counter to pick it up and look at the picture. He swiped left several times. “Charlie, there’s more. Lots more.” His face flushed. “There are pictures of you naked in here too.”
She jumped up and snatched the phone from him. Sure enough, there they were. Images of her splayed out on her bed completely naked and vulnerable. Her body was posed in vulgar positions with close ups that were beyond personal. Tears began to slide down her face. “Who does this?” She shook the phone at Craig. “Who does this?”
She looked back down at the pictures and started to hit delete. “I’m getting rid of them.”
Craig grabbed the phone. “No!” Her frantic eyes searched his face as she reached to snatch it back. “It’s evidence!” Her hands stilled and fell to her sides.
He held the cell from her just in case she tried again but her face paled with defeat. Her voice hovered over a whisper and rose to an anguished shout. “I can’t have naked photos of me being downloaded by some police officer. That’s private! That’s me! I don’t want that!” She touched his arm, pleading.
“I’m sorry, but don’t you want them caught? Whoever is doing this might have accidentally got a reflection of themselves in the background. There are forensic people who might be able to find them from these.”
She sank back into her chair. The truth was painful. She had to let it be. “What do we need to do?”
Craig closed the pictures so that he couldn’t see any more and slipped the phone into his back pocket. “We call the police. What about that detective you talked to? Maybe he’ll know what to do.”
“Detective Brooks. Yeah. I’ve got his card in my purse.” When she began to move, she felt like someone had filled her with lead. The embarrassment was terrible. Shame filled her to her core as she got her purse and found the card with the red fingerprints on the corner.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Connections
When Charlie finally made it home, she felt like she had been assaulted. The pictures…so personal…so horrible… And then…the security cameras. They were all set to go.
She walked through the apartment to see where they were placed. She saw the tell-tale red lights blink on as she moved through each room morosely. No matter where she went, there was a camera eye filming her.
Knowing it was for her own safety did nothing to dissipate how violated she felt. She went about her normal routine, but constantly looked at the unblinking eyes filming her.
Her phone had been kept by the police, so Eli bought her a cheap replacement with monthly minutes to use in the meantime. She wouldn’t have to worry about any unwanted calls for the next few days. That was one bright spot. She looked at the shiny new face and tossed it on the counter in the kitchen. Who was she kidding? There was no bright spot. This whole mess was miserable and personal and terrifying. What if it was the person who killed Donna Veselka? Would they kill her too?
They all had offered to stay with her that night, but she wanted to wallow in her misery alone. She didn’t think anything would take her mind off the stupid blinking lights of the cameras constantly watching her, the police officers examining naked pictures of her with her legs all splayed out, or the person who somehow kept sneaking into her private space. There just isn’t enough talk or booze in the world to make those things go away.
She walked into her bedroom to survey the repairs that Sabrina and Eli did for her. It didn’t look bad. The furniture was new. Whoever made the choices picked things that she would normally like, but something about it unnerved her. It was like staying at a favorite hotel. It wasn’t hers.
They had used a bohemian color scheme to replicate what she had used in her decor before the paint incident. There were a couple of large, colorful area rugs covering the carpet. Carpet is a longer-term fix. But the solution was something she liked very much. She looked down and saw a very small patch of paint showing at the edge of where the nearest rug ended. It looked like someone had died in a very bloody way and Eli and Sabrina had covered it up. She wrapped her arms around her body and rubbed her arms against a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.
She opened drawers and pulled out clothes. Nothing was hers. All of the clothes still had tags on them, in case they didn’t fit. Kellie had picked perfectly but it was still not Charlie’s. Tears welled up in her eyes as she went looked in her closet. Her hand lingered on the newly painted wall next to the door. It was still slightly tacky, and it was unpleasant to pull her hand from the surface. It was unmarked, but she felt like she’d left a piece of herself behind nonetheless.
Inside the newly painted closet, there were tons of clothes that any woman would be happy to wear. It was full to the brim. Kellie had obviously had fun playing personal shopper. Her fingers skimmed the fabrics and pulled random items forward for inspection. None of the clothes had the memories that she had fought so hard to keep at bay. Her time with Dean was in some of those clothes and it pained her to admit that part of her sorrow was the loss of those.
She changed in her closet--the one place there wasn’t an electronic eye recording her every move. Changing in the tiny space caused her to have a cramp in her hip that dropped her to the floor. She looked up at the unfamiliar clothes above her and tried not to cry while rubbing out the pain. When dressed, she climbed out of the floor and walked through the apartment again.
She jumped out of her skin when the unfamiliar ring of her new phone shouted out in the quiet room. Eli’s face was on the screen with a devilish grin that meant no good. He had taken over the task of putting her important contacts in the new phone and had taken the time to take a selfie contact picture. With a smile, she answered. “You shouldn’t have spent this much money on me.”
The sound quality on the cheaper phone wasn’t nearly as good as her expensive one that was currently being inspected by who knows how many police officers and forensics specialists. The thought made her shudder. “You’re worth it. So, how did we do? Is it acceptable?”
She sat on the bed with a flop before scanning the room again with anguished eyes. “You did great.”
“It doesn’t sound like we did great.”
She took a deep breath to keep from crying. “It’s not mine.”
“Yes, it is. It’s now yours. I know what you mean…it’s not what you had and it’s not what you picked…but it is now yours. If you don’t like something, just let me know and we’ll return it. I’ll take you on a shopping trip on your next day off, so you can pick anything you want.”
“I have no memories with anything in this room now. It might as well be someone else’s.”
“We’ll make new memories in that room. Let me come over and we can start tonight. I’ll make you forget all of this for a while.”
The suggestion was tempting but she felt wrong taking him up on it considering what was going through her mind while looking in the closet. Would she really be wanting him or just someone to comfort her? Since she couldn’t honestly answer, she could only say, “Eli, that’s a wonderful thought but I want to be alone tonight. Is that okay?”
“Of course! Whatever you need, Charlie. I’m here for you. I hope you know that by now.”
She rubbed her toes in the colorful new rug. “I do. And it means more than I could say.”
“You wanna talk for a while or should I let you go?”
“I think I’m just gonna go. I need some time. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. I love you.”
She always hesitated before saying it back. Tonight, it was no different. “I love you too.” When she ended the call, she had that same sinking feeling that frequented her saying those words.
Kyle had left a detailed instruction sheet on how to manage the cameras with the system and Charlie decided to make sure she was well versed on how it all worked. She grabbed a glass of milk with some Oreo cookies, her favorite comfort food, and curled up on the sofa to read it over until it stuck.
Once she finished her snack and felt pr
etty confident about how her cameras worked, she checked all the windows, doors, locks, security system, and cameras to make sure it was all working and secure. She felt like a well-kept prisoner. When she crawled into bed, she cried for a long time. She figured she’d go to sleep like that, but sleep was elusive.
She looked at her phone. Eli neglected to put a particular contact into this one, but she knew it by heart. She began to text.
It’s Charlie. You awake?
She waited until the cell made an unfamiliar ping.
Did you get a new phone?
Temporary one. Don’t ask.
