by Phil Edwards
“I have heard about them.”
“They’re total radicals.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“Charlotte must have found something. Do you know what it was?”
“You’re just looking for a story.”
“No. I’m looking for the truth.”
“I don’t know anything about them.” She sighed. “We decided to switch to them because they supported the wetlands. And that’s important. We didn’t know what they would be like.”
“But didn’t you already help a charity that did that?”
“It’s good to pass the money around.”
“It just seems a little unusual.”
“It was one decision. Charlotte was just angry about bridge.”
“Well, whoever killed her was mad about something else.”
“I’m telling you.” She stopped a little, caught her breath, and spoke more loudly. “You don’t really think they did something, do you?”
“I do. I can’t prove it yet, but I do.”
“Ech. You’re just a paranoid reporter.”
“I wish.”
“Well, we just gave them money. I don’t talk to them or anything like that.”
“I just don’t understand why you switched. And why you chose the Saving Tomorrow Initiative.”
“That’s why it’s our decision.”
They were both silent. He’d written down her answers. He looked at them—scribbled lines, shorthand without a translation. His handwriting looked as angry as he was.
“What argument did you give when the rest of the community voted for it?”
“I don’t give arguments. I tell them what we should do. They follow.”
“So you admit you made the decision yourself?”
She stopped. Then she gave in.
“Yes, I made the decision. But we all had input. We give this money out. It’s only fair to give it to more than one group.”
“You know that the Saving Tomorrow Initiative has supported some outrageous positions. They’ve said nature is more important than humans. That all development should stop.”
“I’m not responsible for that.”
“Your money couldn’t have hurt their efforts. How do you think they got the money for TV commercials?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve never even seen TV commercials for a group like that. Don’t you think that’s a little odd, Sheryl?”
“I’m not their treasurer and I’m not their leader. All we did was give them money, and I don’t see why that means Charlotte was killed. She was just mad that she couldn’t play in our bridge games.”
“You know something? These hurt.” He touched the bruises. “They’re a dangerous group.”
“Listen. We talked about this before. I guess you weren’t convinced. But I was a nurse. Now I’m just an old woman who plays bridge two days a week. I don’t spend my time getting involved in things like this.”
Sitting there, she started to look a little sadder in her pink nightgown. It folded into smooth shadows, places where the pink darkened to red. She’d peeled the lipstick off at the corners, and her lips floated crimson in the center of her face. Then she seemed to wake up again. She scowled at Jake.
“Are we done? I don’t want to waste any more of my day.”
“Sure.” He closed the notebook and put his pen in his pocket. “We’re done.”
He started walking toward the door. He stepped on a petal that she’d missed and looked back.
“I’m sorry we tricked you.”
“Did I do all this for nothing? Is Gary coming?”
“Not today. I’m really sorry. I just care about Charlotte.”
She nodded her head and stood up slowly.
“If you really think these people attacked you and hurt Charlotte, then I have a little advice.”
“What?”
“Know when to draw the line.”
“I do.”
“And be careful.”
As he closed the door, he saw her staring out at him, waiting for it to shut.
CHAPTER 35:
He was getting slower. He tapped his stopwatch as he went up the stairs to his apartment. He’d only run five miles. Charlotte Ward hadn’t left him much time for running. But he felt relaxed, calm even, until he got to the top of the stairs.
“Out for a jog?”
He thought he’d seen a lot of Kaylie before, when she wore tight t-shirts and cut off shorts. It was nothing. She was wearing her swimming suit. That was how she’d gotten her tan. Her tan lines really were lines. Her suit wasn’t any thicker than a centimeter. He collected his breath and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
“I was out for a run. I don’t jog.”
“Well well.”
She sat down in front of his door while he stood above her.
“Excuse me.”
“Do you need to get in?”
“Yes.” She didn’t move and he sat down beside her.
“Going to the beach?”
“I just got back from the pool.”
“Do you swim?”
“I sunbathe. Does that count?”
“You must work out a lot.”
“Oh really?” She tilted her head and looked at him. “How do you know I work out a lot?”
“Because you make fun of me so much. For having been a little overweight.”
“Right, that’s how you know.” She hit his shoulder.
“That hurt.”
“Did it?”
“You forget, I’m sore.”
“You’re starting to heal.”
“I think I’m almost better.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Looking at your face, you’ve got a way to go.”
“Thanks. I should probably get to work.”
He started to get up. He took his key out of his pocket and put it in the door. She sat there, letting her legs stretch.
“Tell me what you’ve been working on. Where have you been? You still owe me a drink.”
“When did we agree on that?”
“You have to agree.” She stood up beside him and pointed at the dark stain on his t-shirt.
“I sweat a lot.”
“I bet you do.”
“Right.”
“Where have you gone today?”
“I was out doing some research.”
“About what?”
“You wouldn’t care.”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t care.” She tilted her head. “Would I?”
“I guess not.”
“Good. You understand. Were you with your girlfriend?”
He’d been with Gary’s girlfriend.
“I don’t have one yet.”
“Yet?”
“Yet.”
“Then tell me why we can’t have a drink? You can finally tell me about your story.”
She leaned in close. He started to lean back, but he caught himself.
“You did go to the beach. Not the pool.”
“What?”
“I can smell it on your hair. I can smell the water.”
“Oh.” She backed away and crossed her arms. “It’s the same thing as the pool, really. I take a five second dip to cool off. Then I go back and lie down. I could be on the roof and take a shower. It would be the same thing.”
“I see.”
He opened the lock and she moved aside. Then she followed him in and shut the door. Her swimsuit looked darker. She smiled.
“Do you like it?”
“What’s that?”
“This.” She took a strap and pulled it up. She snapped it.
“I guess that’s a bikini, isn’t it?”
“I guess it is.”
“It’s good for this weather.”
She nodded her head and slid over to his desk. He had pages from his notebook arranged side by side. She looked down at them.
“What’s all this?”
He ran over and stood between her and
the desk. There wasn’t much space between her and the desk. Now there was even less between her body and his.
“You’re a little nosy.”
“Am I?”
“You are.”
“I’m sorry, Jake.”
She sat back on the bed and stretched her arm out toward him.
“Come here.”
He sat down beside her and she flexed her arm.
“I’ve been lifting weights. Do I seem strong to you?”
He felt it. Soft skin over her muscle. The rope of her tricep.
“You’re doing OK.”
“Good.”
They both stared ahead and he remembered to let go of her arm. She pointed to the TV.
“Have you seen any other commercials like that one? The crazy one?”
“No. Not recently.”
“I saw one the other night.” She laid back on the bed. She looked comfortable. “They were screaming the whole time. Chanting, almost.”
“Wow.”
“You should write about them.”
“We’ll see,” he said and started to get up. “I should get showered.”
“Can I take a shower too?”
“What?”
“You said I smelled like the beach.”
He sat back on the bed.
“You’re very strange.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say.”
“Did you get a job?”
“That’s not very nice either. Now, young man, why don’t you try being nice?”
She leaned in and took his face in her hands. She rested her fingers on the naked bruises. He felt her warm breath on his face and they got closer. He broke away.
“I don’t understand. Why do you come on so strong?”
“Is it so hard to believe that I like you?”
“Yes,” he said. “It is.”
“You’re an attractive man. You’re used to the way people treated the old you. But you’re a new man now. You should act like it.”
“I don’t know if I want to act like that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is there someone else?”
He stopped. He wondered how pale her skin was where the tan stopped. Then he looked at his desk. He did have work to do.
“I just think it’s all so sudden.”
“I’m not apologizing. I don’t like to wait around.”
She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. He could smell the seawater in her hair. A little salty. A little sour. He brushed it with his free hand.
“There you go,” she whispered. “Now, you said my arms are getting stronger. Let me get another opinion. I’ve been running a lot recently.”
She lifted her leg and stretched it out, her toes pointing at the wall. She waited and looked at him.
“Come on. It’s fitness.”
The room was dark because the blinds were closed. They hadn’t turned on the lights, so only thin yellow bands drew through. It looked like the running had worked out well. Why not? He was better now. He’d just run. This was why he did it all, wasn’t it? To do things like this. To be this person. He was supposed to be aggressive.
While she waited, she turned her head and started to kiss his neck. He should let it happen. He deserved to let it happen. He started to turn his head and move his hand toward her outstretched leg.
The desk vibrated.
“What’s that?”
“My phone.”
He got up quick and shook his head side to side. He felt like he was waking up. He smelled the sweat stain on his t-shirt and the beach on her. She reached for his hand but he twisted his fingers out.
“Just give me a second.”
It was Mel. Perfect timing, as always. He motioned to Kaylie to be quiet and answered the phone.
“Jake. I’m so glad you answered.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“You have to hurry. Charlotte’s daughter just called. I tried to stop her, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t…”
“What? You couldn’t stop her from what?”
“She changed her schedule. She’s coming today to get the keys and see Charlotte’s apartment.”
“Today? When?”
“She said she’d be at my office in fifteen minutes. I can stall her a bit.”
“And you have to give her the keys?”
“I can’t get out of it. This is your only opportunity to see inside.”
“All right, I’ll hurry.”
“I don’t know if you’ll have time.”
“I’ll have to try. Stall if you can.”
He closed the phone and grabbed his keys from the desk. He shoved the keys, his wallet, and his phone in the back pocket of his running shorts. Kaylie looked up.
“Your bulge is in the wrong place.”
“I don’t have time for this.
“What is it?”
“I have to go, now. Hurry.”
“Why?”
“My whole story’s going to fall apart if I don’t go now. Just move.”
She got up and walked toward the door.
“Will you be coming back?”
“Sure, just go.”
She walked out the door and he locked it and ran past her.
“What just happened?”
“This is more important,” he shouted back. He was running again, bounding down the stairs. He didn’t have time for pleasantries. This was his last chance to discover what Charlotte Ward had found.
CHAPTER 36:
Everything in the room was in order. Dust floated idly and the air was stale and forgotten. But everything was there, except for Charlotte Ward. And somewhere in the room, he’d find what she had discovered about the Saving Tomorrow Initiative. He just didn’t know where. He shoved the key deep in his pocket. He didn’t have enough time to look things over any longer. He’d left his notebook in the car—he wasn’t there to observe, he was there to act.
He rushed to a secretary and pushed a row of pictures aside. Everything had to look the same when he left. He opened a drawer and looked through it while he got out his phone to call Gary.
“Hello?”
“I don’t have much time. I’m in Charlotte’s place.”
He waited.
“Is this a telemarketer?”
“Please. It’s Jake.”
“From the newspaper?”
“Yes, I don’t have time—”
“Jacob, hello! How are you?”
“Now listen—I’m going back to my place right after this. I want you to meet me there. We have to figure out what we’ll do next.”
“What have you found?”
“Nothing. Yet. I have to get to work.”
He clicked the phone shut and shoved his hand into another drawer. Letters. They could be something. He read the light blue cursive on the first one. A letter from Patrick to Charlotte. Dated 1954. He wanted to read it. But there wasn’t time. He put them all back into the drawer and went on to the next one.
Then he noticed the windows. The blinds were closed. He pulled one up and saw the window met the sill. Closed. Either Charlotte had closed the windows when he and Gary left, or someone else had. Maybe to muffle noise. To silence a scream. He lifted his finger off the window sill and blew away the collected dust.
He looked around the apartment. He had to cover the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. He’d never searched a room before. He didn’t know how to look. And he didn’t know how resourceful Charlotte was. He hadn’t brought tools or even a flashlight, but he couldn’t see Charlotte lifting furniture or unscrewing a ventilator shaft in order to hide her findings. Not because of her personality, but because of her disability. That might be the best way for him to narrow down the places to look. Charlotte couldn’t go too high or work too hard. Whatever she’d found was hidden somewhere in the middle, if someone else hadn’t gotten to it first.
He was looking through a drawer of bills wh
en he jumped. His phone was vibrating again. It was Mel. She whispered once he picked up.
“Are you there?”
“I’m inside. I haven’t found anything yet.”
“Her daughter and son in law are looking around the community right now. They hadn’t visited. Typical. But I can only make them sign so much paperwork before I go and show them her residence.”
“How much time do I have?”
“Not much.”
“Can you warn me?”
“I’ll try.”
“How should we do it?”
Right after he asked her, he heard the phone click off. They must have come back inside the office. He was on his own for now, and he didn’t know how long he had. The sweat stain on his t-shirt had dried, but now it was turning dark again. He had more rooms to search.
He hurried into the bedroom and turned on the light. Purple covers and purple curtains—the woman liked to match. He found an electric blanket under the bed and a TV on the dresser, nothing else. Then he spotted the drawers and stopped for a moment. When she’d come up to him that first day on the path, had she known that he’d be doing this? Searching through her life? Trying to collect a solution through the things she used to own? He started to feel a little sick. He was thirsty after a long run, without anything to drink.
He opened the first drawer and it slipped off the rollers and fell to the floor. Blouses and folded dresses poured out. He ran through them quickly and felt the different textures rub against his hands, the soft scratch of denim and the cool splash of silk. He only went through enough to make sure that there weren’t any documents hidden inside, then he refolded them and picked the drawer up off the floor. He might be going through her possessions, but he still wanted to maintain the woman’s dignity. And make sure he wasn’t caught.
The second drawer was filled with cotton shirts, the third stacked with pants. The fourth had everything else. He sighed and shuffled through the nightgowns and underwear. Then he found something. An envelope. It was thick and labeled “Private” on the front in neat cursive loops. This could be it. He turned away from the drawer and looked inside.
“Good God!” he shouted out loud.
Abram hadn’t been lying about the tasteful nudes. Charlotte didn’t always need her walker. And Abram never took off his red-brimmed hat.
He left the room and slammed the door. There had been nothing inside, but if there was more, he didn’t want to see it. He said “Good God” another time. Once wasn’t enough. He did a quick look through the bathroom. Just toiletries and her medication. He wanted to write the medication down but he didn’t have his notebook—or time. He did see everything she used to track her doses. All the timers and holders made it clear that she didn’t make mistakes. Mistakes had been made for her.
