Walk Through the Valley

by Debbie Viguié

  Cindy was now curious to meet Lisa’s parents. The information about her mom not liking Kyle combined with her father’s observation that they were strange made her very curious indeed.

  “Cindy, if you don’t mind, I’m really tired and I’d like to sleep for a while.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Cindy said, standing up. “Just let me know if you need anything.”

  “Thank you,” Lisa said, before turning her head away.

  Cindy realized it was nearly lunchtime as she walked back into the room where her parents were. “Anyone hungry?” she asked.

  Her dad stirred and looked at her. “Will be in a little bit. Would you mind doing me a favor?”

  “Sure, what do you need?”

  “We left your mother’s pill case on the bathroom sink. Could you run back to the hotel and get it? I figure we’ll be ready to eat in about an hour and she’ll need it then.”

  “Not a problem. I’ll go get it now,” Cindy said, eager not to have to sit and wait in that room any longer.

  She exited the hospital and was hyper aware of her surroundings as she crossed the street to the hotel. She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she was safely in the room. She grabbed her mom’s pill case which was right where her dad had said it would be.

  She tucked it into her purse and wondered how much time she could take on her walk back. As much as she didn’t want to sit in that room, though, she realized she wanted to be alone and vulnerable less.

  Her phone started ringing. She checked it and saw that Jeremiah was calling. Her battery was nearly dead. She’d have to see if her parents had a charger. Otherwise she should be able to find one in the gift shop. She answered the phone. “Hi, could you call me on my room phone? My battery is going.”

  “Sure, what’s the number?”

  She walked over to the phone and gave him the number of the hotel. “I’m in Room 1412.”

  “Okay, bye.”

  The call ended. Seconds later her room phone rang. She answered and heard a series of odd clicking noises.

  “Jeremiah?” she said.

  “Get off the phone. Leave your cell in the room. Go find a payphone and call me,” he said, his voice tense. Then he hung up.

  Cindy slowly put down the receiver, wondering what on earth that was all about. She left her cell on the nightstand and left the room. Down in the lobby she stopped and asked one of the bell staff who pointed her in the direction of a pay phone. Fortunately it was in a glassed-in booth with a chair so she was able to sit and close the door which cut out most of the noise from the casino.

  She put several coins in the phone and then dialed Jeremiah who answered on the first ring.

  “Hello?” he said, voice still tense.

  “Hey, it’s me.”

  “Are you on a payphone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is there anyone nearby who can hear you?”

  She looked through the glass doors of the phone booth. She could see people walking by, but they were all several feet away and none seemed intent on stopping.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  “Good.”

  “Jeremiah, what’s going on?”

  “I recognized the clicking sounds when you answered the phone in your room.”

  “I heard those sounds, what do they mean?”

  “It means someone has bugged your phone.”

  11

  Jeremiah grit his teeth in frustration. He should be there with Cindy, looking out for her, taking care of her. If someone had tapped her phone then they had big problems.

  “You mean, someone is listening in on the phone upstairs?” she asked, sounding bewildered.

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” he said.

  “But why? Who?”

  “I don’t know. What’s happened there since we talked last night?”

  “Well, for starters, a thief grabbed my purse right after I got off the phone with you last night.”

  “What?” he asked, emotions roiling within him at the thought.

  “It’s okay. I got my purse back. Martin came into the lobby and I was able to shout to him for help. He tackled the guy.”

  “Who is Martin?”

  “He’s a salesman here at a convention. He was sitting next to me on the plane.”

  Alarm bells went off in Jeremiah’s head. “And he just happens to be staying at your hotel?”

  “Yes, it’s the one across from the hospital. It’s a medical convention and all the attendees are at this hotel.”

  While that seemed reasonable, he still didn’t like it. It just felt too coincidental to him.

  “But that’s not the weirdest part,” Cindy said.

  “It gets worse?” he asked.

  As she explained to him about her trip to the police station that morning he found himself tensing more and more.

  “I don’t like any of this,” he said when she had finished.

  “I’m not exactly loving it either.”

  “I should come out there.”

  He could hear her sigh on the other end of the line. “As much as I would like that, I’m still not ready to cope with having my parents and you in the same place. My dad was already under the impression from things Kyle had said that you and I are dating. I had to tell him that we’re just friends.”

  Just friends. Suddenly he hated those two words with a passion. “Did he believe you?” he forced himself to ask.

  “I’m not sure. If you came out here, though, it would certainly complicate things. Given the state my mom’s in at the moment, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I’m not sure leaving you alone is a good idea, especially given what’s happened already.”

  “I’m not alone. My folks are here.”

  “I should say it’s not good to leave you unprotected.”

  “I’ll be fine, and I’ll call if anything else weird happens.”

  A year ago she would have been happy for him to go there and keep watch over her. She had grown, changed a lot since they first met. Was the independence she was displaying a sign of her own growth or a way of proving that she didn’t need him anymore?

  He was being crazy and he knew it. He heard the sound of her putting more change in the phone.

  “That’s the last of my coins,” she said.

  “I want you to check in with me twice a day, more if anything happens,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  “You can use the payphone, but go ahead and call collect.”

  “Okay. Should I do anything about the phone upstairs?”

  “No, just avoid using it. Same goes for your cell. Only use it when necessary and never give sensitive information out over it.”

  “Oh, did you find out anything new about the Henry White case?”

  “Yes, Lydia, the dead girl, was stalking him and I’m pretty sure that she was killed over something she took a picture of. We can’t find a phone or a camera at the crime scene or in her car.”

  “Wow, okay, I’ve got to go. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  He hung up feeling worse than he had at the start of the call. He didn’t like the fact that someone had tapped her phone, especially when he had no way of knowing who or why.

  You could find out who.

  The thought came to him and he squeezed his phone tightly in his hand. It was true. There were calls he could make and he could probably even get some answers. Once he opened that door, though, there’d be no shutting it. He wasn’t prepared for that. Neither was she.

  Cindy sat in the phone booth for a moment, trying to digest what Jeremiah had just told her. Who on earth would want to bug her phone? She certainly didn’t know anyone in the city and it wasn’t like this was a planned trip and someone could have known where she would be in advance. The room wasn’t even registered to her.

  But it was registered to her parents. If someone had tried to hurt or kill Kyle it would explain their interest in his family. With Kyle under
such close surveillance by doctors and family at the hospital it would probably be easier to eavesdrop than to get near him there. Maybe she was right and the theft of her purse hadn’t been a random act. Maybe they were targeting her because she was Kyle’s sister.

  She still didn’t know what someone would want with her purse, though. Unless there was something Kyle had that they wanted and they thought one of his family members might be in possession of it now that he was in the hospital. If that was true, though, why wouldn’t the attackers have stopped even for thirty seconds at the scene and searched him while he was in the car? She should get the key to his hotel room at the Excalibur and see if it looked like anyone had ransacked his room searching for something. Maybe they would have assumed that he had left the item there and when they couldn’t find it they had then figured he’d had it on him. She’d also ask her father about that.

  The only other thing someone connected to the attack on Kyle could have wanted with her purse was to plant some sort of listening device like they had on the phone in the room. Jeremiah was clearly suspicious of that since he’d told her to not give out sensitive information over her cell.

  Her head was beginning to ache. She had some aspirin in her purse. The thought of it reminded her that she needed to get back to her parents with her mother’s medication. She stood up, clutched her purse tight to her body, and headed out.

  She felt like she was being paranoid as she walked to the hospital, but reminded herself that it wasn’t paranoia if people really were out to get her. She’d seen a bumper sticker that said something like that once. Maybe she’d have to track it down and hang it up in her house as a reminder.

  She breathed a little easier when she entered the hospital. She quickly made her way to the elevators. She was nearly there when out of the corner of her eye she saw someone coming right at her.

  She tensed every muscle. Her hands wrapped more tightly around her purse and she could feel the tension thrumming through her arm muscles. Her leg muscles coiled, readying to run. She forced herself to take a deep breath and then she spun to confront the person.

  A couple feet from her a pretty blond haired woman came to a stop, clearly caught off guard by Cindy’s quick movements. There was something vaguely familiar about her though Cindy was sure they had never met.

  “Can I help you?” Cindy snapped.

  “Um, I hope so,” the other woman said, her brow furrowing in confusion. “You are Cindy, Kyle’s sister, right?”

  Cindy paused. The woman knew her name and she did look vaguely familiar, but she had no idea who she was. It was possible she was just one of Kyle’s many fans. Given everything that was going on, though, Cindy was suspicious.

  Before she could say anything the other woman nodded. “Yes, you have to be. I recognize you from the footage of the cattle drive trip.”

  Cindy blinked in surprise. “That show hasn’t come out yet.” She had always suspected, hoped actually, that it never would come out.

  “Of course it hasn’t. I saw some of it while Kyle and I were in the editing room at the studio going over shots for one of the new commercials the channel is going to air.”

  As Cindy realized that the woman must work with Kyle her face finally clicked. “You’re Bunni, from that show Bunni’s Best.”

  “Yes, Bunni Sinclair,” the other woman said with a bright smile.

  Cindy had caught a few snatches of the show on the Escape! Channel while flipping through. She relaxed slightly. “What are you doing here?”

  “We heard about Kyle on the news,” Bunni said, a shadow crossing her face. “We were shooting on location in Canada when we heard. A few of us piled in the car and we drove all night to get here. Everyone else is crashed out at a hotel, but I couldn’t sleep without seeing him first.”

  “I understand.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately, they’re not letting anyone near his room who isn’t family,” Bunni said with a scowl. Tears started to fill her eyes and she put a hand on Cindy’s arm. “Is it as bad as they’re saying?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Cindy said softly. It was clear that the other woman was truly worried and upset. She was an actress, but from what Cindy had seen of her show, she wasn’t sure the woman was capable of faking emotion with this much realism.

  “It’s not fair. Kyle is such a good guy. I mean, he’s got that wild and crazy reputation but under it all he’s just really sweet and caring. Once when most of us were on location shooting a number of specials overseas, I got food poisoning. I’ve never been so sick in my life. Kyle stayed up with me, took care of me. He even drove me to the hospital and stayed until I was released.”

  “You must be really good friends,” Cindy said, watching helplessly as the other woman began to break down.

  “He was there for me, and I just wish I could be there for him.”

  “He needs everyone he can get in his corner pulling for him. At least his fiancée is doing alright.”

  “Fiancée?” Bunni gave her a stricken look. “He proposed to Lisa?”

  Cindy bit her lip as she nodded. In a moment of insight Cindy realized that Bunni cared about her brother, really cared about him. She felt a great surge of pity for her. She was sure that Bunni was in love with him, and he was marrying someone else. That had to be a terrible position to be in.

  A sudden image of Jeremiah marrying a nice Jewish girl filled her mind and she felt like she was going to be physically ill.

  “Are you okay?” Bunni asked. “You’re looking really pale all of a sudden.”

  “I’m fine,” Cindy said, lying through her clenched teeth.

  “Okay. Listen, can I give you my number? As soon as you have news, I’d like to know,” Bunni said.

  “You know what, I can do better than that,” Cindy said, her heart really going out to the other woman. She reached out and took Bunni’s arm, and pulled her with her over to the elevator. “Come with me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  A minute later they were walking back into the observation room. “This is Bunni, she’s one of Kyle’s coworkers. She and some others drove all night from their shoot in Canada to be here,” she said.

  “He speaks very highly of you,” her mother said.

  Cindy blinked in surprise. That was the most communicative her mom had been. Her dad came forward and shook Bunni’s hand. “He told us about one particularly exciting adventure you shared in an overseas hospital,” he said with the ghost of a smile.

  Cindy was pleased that Bunni had been telling the truth about that. She was even more pleased that her parents seemed to be accepting of her. She pulled the medication for her mother out of her purse and handed it to her dad. “Everyone ready for some food?” she asked.

  “I’m not hungry,” her mom intoned.

  “You have to eat something,” her dad urged.

  She just shook her head.

  “Okay, but I’m bringing you back a sandwich and you will eat it and take your medication then,” he said.

  “I’ll stay here with her, if that’s okay,” Bunni said. She had already moved to stand next to Cindy’s mom at the window and had one hand pressed to the glass and the other one pressed to her heart.

  “That will be fine,” her dad said. He turned to Cindy, “Let’s go.”

  They made their way back down to the cafeteria. Cindy decided to gamble on the macaroni and cheese this time. They sat down at the table they’d had the night before and slowly began to eat.

  “What were you up to this morning?” he asked.

  Cindy shrugged, “I just had a couple of things to take care of.”

  “So you said. Everything okay?”

  “Yes,” she said, forcing a quick smile. She really didn’t want to tell her parents about the purse snatching. There was no need for them to worry about it. At least, hopefully there wasn’t.

  Her dad looked at her oddly, but then dropped it. They ate for another couple minutes in silence. The macaroni and
cheese was actually pretty good and she was pleased with her choice. Her mind, though, was on the things that she needed to do. One of them was check out Kyle and Lisa’s rooms at their hotel. She didn’t relish the idea of doing that alone, particularly if she had been targeted the day before. However, she didn’t see that she had much of a choice in that.

  “We were thinking of taking a trip out your way in the next year or so. See you, visit Disneyland and that theme park that’s right near you.”

  “The Zone.”

  “Yeah, that one. Could be fun.”

  Cindy nodded. “Sure. There’s lots to see and do.”

  “I know Kyle said that the Escape! Channel has been considering doing a series of shows in the area, particularly at The Zone. I think he said that Bunni’s sister works there.”

  “Small world,” Cindy said. “Where does she work?”

  “He didn’t say. Bunni seems really nice, though.”

  “Yes, she does.”

  The small talk was killing her, especially given all the things that were going on and what was at stake.

  She took a sip of soda and put the glass down.

  “Dad, do you know what happened to the things Kyle had on him when he was brought here?” she asked. “You know, like his wallet and stuff?”

  Her dad nodded. “I’m pretty sure there’s a bag of his stuff in the closet in the room he’s in. That’s how this sort of thing usually works.”

  “Ah, but we’re not allowed in there to get it,” Cindy noted.

  “Why?” her dad asked with a frown.

  She debated whether or not to tell him what she was thinking. She didn’t want to worry him or her mom more than they already were, but if someone was really after Kyle they deserved to know the truth so they could be on the lookout for anything suspicious and protect themselves.

  “I was going to see if I could get his and Lisa’s room keys and drop by the Excalibur and grab a few things from their rooms.”

  “Does Lisa need some of her things?”