Insomniac

by P J Mann

  With that, she grabbed the book once again and continued reading, even though she knew that with that agitated state of mind that would have been too difficult of a task to achieve.

  Chapter 8.

  Justin reached Carolina Lynn’s house at dusk. The lights of the house were switched off, but besides the fact that the house was empty, there was no hint of something wrong happened to her. He shook his head and started to walk from the side of the road to the mailbox. Many thoughts were twirling in his mind, and despite his efforts, he could not grab a single one and focus on it.

  Absentmindedly, he opened the mailbox, and the only things he could find was a couple of bills she must have received that very same morning.

  However, no trace of the pendant Dr. Wright had sent her back. You came back home, Carolina, but where did you go from here? He thought.

  He remembered Carolina’s sister, Sarah, gave him a copy of the keys of her house, so he gathered the bills and decided to go inside and take a look around. She had been there already once and confirmed that nothing was out of place, but perhaps the eye of a detective would have grabbed details that she might have dismissed.

  He opened the door slowly and switched on the lights. The house was spotless like she had been there recently and cleaned it as usual.

  “Anybody home?” He called, wondering whether she might have come back and just fallen asleep after a long trip.

  Nobody answered.

  He shook his head and started to look around for anything that could give him some hint of information. He walked to her bedroom and opened all the closets. Indeed some clothes were missing, but that might have given the impression that she left for a short period, like for a holiday.

  But it seemed like wherever she was intending to go, she planned to return home.

  He took an agenda and started to write down everything that seemed to be missing, from a couple of pairs of shoes, some of the clothes, one suitcase.

  He checked the fridge, “you planned to be back. Otherwise, you would have emptied your fridge, but something happened to detain you. I just hope you are still alive.”

  He thought he could have checked with the telephone company to see when was the last time she made a phone call or answered one.

  “Yes, this is definitely something I need to add to the list,” he said, continuing to take notes. He sat on a chair in the kitchen and started to reconstruct the last few days.

  “One week ago, you left the hotel and reached home. The following day someone finds your pendant in the yard of the hotel, and presumably, it was sent to you by post the very same day. Now, the postal services might take a couple of days to deliver the pendant, this means that you should have received it three days after you left the hotel. At this point there are two options, you made it home, received the pendant and something happened to you, or you never reached home, and the pendant never reached your home…” he said as he wrote down his notes.

  “Hold on!” He said as he stood up from the chair, “What if the pendant wasn’t ever sent and some sort of accident happened while you were at the hotel?”

  He remained to think about that possibility but then shook his head. “The patients would have told me if there were something suspicious going on, and I would expect the same from the staff of the hotel.”

  He started to walk back and forth, in the kitchen trying to think of all the possibilities.

  The telephone ringing made him literally jump as he was walking immersed in his thoughts.

  “Hello,” he replied nervously.

  “Good evening Officer Sheen. This is Rhonda Long, from the Magistrate Office, I wanted just to let you know that we received your request for a warrant. We are considering it, but I am sure it will be granted, and you can expect it to arrive at your office on Monday.”

  He remained silent for a moment, this is the first time that they actually bothered to call me to inform me about a warrant request, he thought.

  “Officer Sheen are you there?” She asked in a monotonic tone of voice.

  “Oh-yes, I am here. I was just wondering about your call. Generally, you just send the warrant if it was granted or a notification when it has been denied.”

  “Indeed, but your request carried the label ‘urgent,’ so we treated your case with the due priority. As usual, we have many requests coming in daily, and we need to divide the cases that can wait from those who need a prompt response. This is also the reason why I decided to inform you about our decision.” she replied sarcastically.

  He felt a bit embarrassed, but smiled, “I am really thankful for your fast delivery and patience.”

  “It’s a pleasure, Officer Sheen. Have a good evening.”

  He looked at the clock, already nine o’clock in the evening, he thought. She called me, probably on her free time, just to let me know about the warrant, he thought, surprised.

  He looked once again at the notes he had been writing down.

  “I need to talk to each of those patients. I need to know whether they left because of some urgent matters in their professional or private life or whether there has been something they started to be afraid of. I really cannot understand why in two weeks, three of them found a good reason to get the hell out of that hotel.

  “I might be wrong, but there is a nagging little voice that won’t let me be until I have checked out that possibility.”

  That said, he decided that it would have been better to return home and continue thinking about the case. I also have a life, after all, he thought while he walked to the car.

  He reached his apartment after a while and was surprised as he found all the lights switched off.

  He wondered whether Jonas had left the house, tired of his crazy work schedule.

  He sighed and switched on the lights. A bittersweet smile appeared on his lips, as he understood that Jonas, didn’t leave; he was still there, but he fell asleep reading a book.

  Justin remained for a moment to look at his boyfriend, I do not deserve a blessing like him, he thought.

  In that same moment, Jonas’ eyes opened, and he looked around, not really understanding what was going on or where he was.

  As soon as he noticed Justin, he smiled, “You’re late…” he said standing up from the couch.

  “I’m sorry, once again my job took me away from the most important thing in my life; you,” Justin replied.

  Jonas smiled, “That’s ok; I definitely understand you do not have a regular 9-5 job, and if there is a crime to investigate, you might disappear for some time.”

  Jonas reached Justin and rested his hands on Justin’s hips, “The most important thing is that at the end of the day, you will always come back to me.”

  “I don’t deserve you,” Justin said, “but I am glad you’re here. I can’t imagine coming home after a day like this, knowing that you are not here waiting for me.”

  Their lips met each other, fusing into a tender kiss.

  “Have you already eaten dinner?” Jonas asked.

  “No, baby; have you?”

  “No, I fell asleep waiting for you. To be honest, I wanted to prepare you something good to eat, but time slipped away from me. Should we just order a pizza?” He proposed.

  Justin smiled, “I have a better idea, why don’t we go out? You decide the place, and I buy.”

  “That’s very kind, but I feel tired,” he replied. “and as your direct supervisor, I was waiting for your report about this missing woman.”

  Justin smiled.

  He met Lieutenant Jonas Avaliani six years ago when he was transferred to Boston Police Department to fill a vacant position left from the previous Lieutenant Mike Wickström.

  Eventually, they fell in love with each other almost immediately, but it was a couple of years before they finally kissed for the first time.

  Of course, their relationship was meant to be hidden, not to risk being transferred somewhere else or, worse, being fired.

  They lived in two separate apar
tments in the same building, but they were really more like living together and keeping the other apartment vacant to keep up appearances. It wasn’t a comfortable life, but at least it wasn’t dull either.

  “Oh, sure, speaking of which, I obtained the warrant. On Monday, it should arrive at the office,” Justin said. “At that point, I will go back to the hotel to get the list of names of the other patients. I would like to know, some information about Mrs. Lynn and also the reason behind their decision to quit the therapy. I understand that for a person that works or has a family, taking a break for an entire month might be difficult, and many things can happen that might have forced them to that decision. Nevertheless, I would like to be sure that the reason wasn’t connected with something that happened during the therapy.”

  “It’s shaping up to be an interesting case, isn’t it?” Jonas asked, grabbing his phone to call for pizza delivery. “Is a pizza ok?”

  “Yes, you know my tastes,” he replied, getting a beer from the fridge. “The case starts to be not only more interesting; I’d say that it is getting complex. It might also be that we will have to investigate the disappearances of two other people.”

  As Jonas hung up with the pizza place, he sat his phone on the table and sighed. “I hope you’re wrong this time if it is true and those people have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, this means that eventually, they discovered something was happening in that hotel and had to be eliminated.”

  “In this case, the case would become easier, as in that hotel, besides the staff, there were only eight other people,” replied Justin. “I don’t think that any of the patients have anything to do with the case, but Dr. Wright and Prof. Doyle might be immediately inserted in the suspect list, along with the personnel.”

  “You forget that anyone could have reached the hotel, so the list of the suspects would still be open,” warned Jonas.

  “Open, yes, but having already compiled a list of suspects might make my job much easier,” replied Justin.

  “You are letting your imagination run away with you a bit too much. At the moment we only have one person missing; she might be kidnapped, killed, or she might have been a victim of an accident, or simply she just wanted to be left alone for a while. All the options are open still, but slowly all the pieces of the puzzle will find their way into place, and then you will have the honor to close the case. But that is not going to be all; you will also get my appreciation for having saved me from a bigger headache, so please solve it fast.”

  Justin smiled, “yes, Sir.”

  Jonas smirked, and at that same moment, the doorbell rang, “that must be our pizzas. We’ll resume this discussion tomorrow morning as we reach the precinct. Now it is time for us to enjoy our free time, not to mention our dinner.”

  “How was your day?” Justin asked casually, as they were eating.

  “I got a call from my mother this morning. She said to tell you hi.” He replied.

  “Really? Tell her hi back when you hear from her again. Is everything okay back at home?”

  “Not really, but it seems like one of my cousins, who is working at the local police department had a pretty intricated case to solve and he got a harsh scolding from his boss, after having failed in solving it. She was asking me if I could give him a call, or if he could call me for advice.

  Of course, I said that there wouldn’t be any problem, but I cannot see how I could have possibly help with that,” Jonas said.

  “Did she mentioned what kind of case it was?” Justin replied starting to feel curious about it.

  “No, she didn’t. I guess she doesn’t really know, and it is also possible that my cousin didn’t reveal it. Some cases remain confidential, regardless whether they had been solved or not.”

  Jonas sighed.

  “Are you sure that everything is OK?” Justin asked.

  Jonas shook his head, “Yes, everything is fine, I think I just feel a bit homesick. I haven’t seen my family in a long time, and I think that I might take this occasion to plan my next visit there. If I go, would you like to come with me?”

  “But, of course, I would love to. The only worry I have is the LGBT situation there in Georgia; is there any reason for us to be concerned?” Justin replied.

  “Yes and no. I mean it is not illegal anymore to be homosexual, and the government is working hard to prevent crimes and prejudices against the LGBT community, but this doesn’t mean that people are ready for that cultural change. My family doesn't have any problem with it, but when we are in public, we might want to be cautious of not being totally open about our sexual orientation.

  Since I came to the US, to study when I was a teenager, I’ve only returned back to Tbilisi a couple of times. During my studies, I didn’t have money to buy a plane ticket, then when I could afford a ticket; I had no time to do it. Certainly, I keep in touch with my family, but sometimes I feel the need to be back at home.”

  Justin smiled holding his hand, “I want to know something more about you and your background, it has only been two years since we started dating, and although we’ve shared many things, I still have a lot to discover about you.”

  “You know you just needed to ask, I am not holding anything back about my life, but I’m not the kind of person that goes around telling everything about me. I prefer to tell my story to whoever is really interested in it,” Jonas replied gesturing with his fork.

  “I can understand that I personally do not like people who go around telling about themselves when I might not be interested in it at all,” Justin said. “But why did you decide to come here?”

  “It was a practical decision; I got just lucky that my uncle has lived here for a long time and could help me get my student visa. My real name is Iona, but I decided to change it into a more American Jonas. Concerning my surname, I didn’t want to change or to modify it, when I got finally naturalized.” Jonas explained. “I was living in New York, at the time, and I could enroll at the University to study criminal justice. That opened the doors to the Police Department, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

  “I didn’t know you changed your name, I think that Iona is a lovely name and fits you perfectly,” Justin replied. “Have you ever thought to return back home?”

  “Yes, but the political and economic situation back home wasn’t really favorable, so I decided to stay here. Moreover, being gay would have caused me too many problems and I would rather avoid that whole situation.”

  Justin smiled, “I am glad you decided to stay here.” He looked at Jonas and could not stop thinking about how sexy he looked when he was immersed in his thoughts. Since the first moment he saw him, he started to fantasize about kissing his plump lips, touching him. His mere presence was intoxicating him, and every time the door of his office closed behind him, it felt like he’d lost something precious.

  For four years he just lived dreaming about him, literally dying every time Jonas walked by him, or he talked to him. It was at a party for New Year’s Eve that, thanks to the alcohol he’d been drinking, he was able to talk to him finally opening his heart.

  The funny part was that generally, Justin didn’t like to go to those parties; he knew that it would have been only about getting drunk. Nevertheless, that year it was different, he overheard that Jonas would have come to the party. He could not miss that perfect opportunity of being close to Jonas in a casual setting.

  “What are you thinking?” Jonas asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  “I was thinking about you…”

  Jonas stood up from the chair and walked around to the other side of the table, where Justin was still seated. He grabbed him and gently pulled him to stand up. “You don’t need to fantasize about me; I am real, and I’m right here. Why don’t we enjoy this reality, in your bedroom? I have been waiting for you the whole afternoon, and I’m not going back to my apartment until I get a good night kiss…” he said kissing his lips.

  “It seems like you want more than my lips,” said Just
in as they walked to the bedroom, trying not to stop kissing.

  “I want all of you I can get, babe.”

  Laura woke up in the dead of night in a cold sweat. She knew she was dreaming about something terrible, but she could not remember any of it. She felt the obscurity of that room like something tangible, something alive, just waiting for her to fall asleep again before it springs.

  She switched on the light and looked around herself, trying to get a grip on her emotions, and particularly trying to remember what the dream was about.

  “I have no idea what I was dreaming about, but certainly it wasn’t anything pleasant, considering the way I feel now. I am almost afraid of switching off the lights,” she said feeling like a fool for being scared by a dream like a little child.

  She grabbed the box with the pills she had been taking scrupulously every evening, “this cannot be the reason for my state of mind, the dose had been recalibrated according to new tests and analyses,” she said turning the little box over in her hand.

  She sighed, “there is less than a couple of weeks left to the end of the study, and I can’t wait for the time when I will be back home. I am thrilled to discover whether this therapy worked or not. I am also starting to miss my job and my friends.”

  Her mind went to Carolina, she wondered whether the dream she had was somehow connected to her disappearance.

  “Could it be that just like with Jonathan’s paranoia I am letting my imagination run wild? It wouldn’t be the first time,” she considered standing up from the bed. “but for sure the fact that she is missing, together with the pendant Sabina found in the yard, gives me a lot of thoughts. The biggest question is how it could be that she didn’t realize immediately about the pendant being missing?”

  Carelessly, she went to open the window, and almost forgetting about the happenings of the previous nights, she went out onto the balcony, hoping that a bit of fresh air would have swept away the ghosts that haunted her soul and cursed her dreams.