Fatal Fried Rice

by Vivien Chien

  “Oh, I had food poisoning the other day,” she explained. “I sent them an e-mail letting them know I wasn’t coming in because I forgot to pay my cell-phone bill and it got shut off. They just never checked the e-mail box.”

  Kimmy blew a raspberry. “Likely story.”

  Sabrina’s mouth dropped. “I’m telling the truth. I swear. My phone is turned back on, and if you really want, I can show you the e-mail I sent to the supervisor.”

  I pulled out my phone. “So, you’re telling me that if I call you right now, that your cell phone would ring.”

  She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, showing it to me. “Yeah, go ahead.”

  I found her number in my recent history and tapped the CALL icon. Sure enough, the phone in her hand began to ring.

  “Now do you believe me?” She tucked her phone back into her pocket. “Now what the heck is all of this about? Why are you acting so crazy?”

  “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you to let you know that I got a photo of us at Hooley House that day. It was sent to my work.”

  She covered her face with her hands. “Ugh, I know, I got one too.”

  “You could have told me—” I paused. “Wait, did you just say you got one too?”

  Sabrina uncovered her face. “Yeah, it was sent here to the administration office. Scared the crap out of me.”

  “Hang on,” Kimmy said, holding up her hand. “Aren’t you working with Bridget Hastings?”

  “Bridget Hastings?” Sabrina exclaimed. “Who the heck is Bridget Hastings?”

  A voice behind us interrupted our conversation. “Okay, I know I heard my name. Lana, is that you?”

  I whipped around to see that Bridget was only about three feet away from where we were standing. “Bridget, oh my god, I tried getting a hold of you earlier today. I really need to talk to you.”

  She nodded apologetically. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you, it’s been a busy day. I planned to call you later tonight.”

  Sabrina gawked at all of us. “Hey, are we done here? I need to get back to work before you-know-who lays into me.”

  My eyes drifted over to the administration office where we were being watched by Grumpy Pants herself. We made eye contact and she gave me a scowl before turning back to the paperwork she held in her hands.

  “Sure, sorry,” I said. “We can finish talking about this later. Keep your phone handy.”

  Sabrina nodded and said goodbye, rushing back into the office.

  “Lana,” Bridget said, grabbing my arm, “you look upset.” She glanced over at Kimmy and then turned her attention back to me. “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

  “I think you might be in danger,” I whispered, checking over my shoulder.

  “From who?” she asked, her eyes traveling around the room.

  Right as I was about to tell her I knew about the photos, I spotted Anthony Bianco in the distance. He’d most likely spotted his stepdaughter and was heading this way.

  I reached for her hand, and signaled to Kimmy. “Come on, we gotta get out of here. Now.”

  * * *

  I didn’t say anything else until we were outside of the school. Bridget’s face was a mixture of confusion and impatience. “What is this about, Lana?”

  “Do you still have the photos?” I asked, holding off on the explanation.

  “Photos?” Bridget asked. “What photos are you talking about?”

  “Quit the innocent act, Bridget,” Kimmy said. “We know you took the photos of your stepfather gettin’ freaky with some lady.”

  Bridget gasped, her eyes flicking up to the door. “We probably shouldn’t talk about that here.”

  “Agreed. Where should we go?” I asked.

  “Anywhere,” she replied, her voice quickening. “Just away from here. My stepfather is coming this way. I think he might know what I’ve been up to. He knows you saw him that night.”

  I felt a jolt of panic move through my body like lightning. “Come on, we can take my car. It’s this way.” I pointed to the back of the lot.

  Bridget shook her head. “My car’s parked right here. Let’s take mine instead. It’ll be quicker.”

  With limited time to think, the three of us got into the blue Chevy Cobalt, and Bridget cranked the engine, backing out of her spot so quickly that her tires squealed in protest.

  As I put my seat belt on, I glanced toward the entrance to see if I could spot Anthony Bianco coming after us, but there was no one there.

  We were well down the road before I realized that I’d never told Bridget I’d seen Anthony the night of Margo’s murder.

  A second later, it occurred to me that Kimmy and I should have never gotten into the car.

  CHAPTER 33

  At the present moment in time, I was the only one who knew that Bridget had slipped up. I didn’t have a way to tell Kimmy, who was lounging comfortably in the back seat completely unaware of what might happen next.

  Bridget appeared to be calm, and I wanted her to stay that way until we could get out of this car. I didn’t know how to get her in a position to tell the truth without harming one of us in the process.

  She continued on down York Road heading north, and hadn’t said a word since we’d left the learning center’s parking lot. I didn’t know what to say and had to be careful with my choice of words.

  Kimmy was the first to break the silence. “We need to get those photos, and then you have to come clean to the police about your creep stepfather having an affair. We know what went down, Bridget.”

  “I knew you’d figure it out,” Bridget replied.

  “You really threw us off for a little while there. I thought you were some kind of loon, the way you were following Lana around like a lost puppy dog.” Kimmy laughed.

  Bridget chuckled in return. “Imagine that.”

  To me, her laugh sounded fake and borderline evil. Goose bumps ran down my back as the sound filled the otherwise quiet car. Couldn’t she at least turn the radio on?

  A few minutes later, we were turning right onto Big Creek Parkway, a branch of the Cleveland Metroparks that looped through the city.

  Kimmy sat up straight in the back seat. “Hey, where are we going? Is this where you live or something?”

  Bridget did not respond.

  I had to say something, but I felt like I’d lost the ability to form words. “Bridget…” I started. “I know it was probably difficult to find your stepfather cheating on your mother like that. But just think, now we can get justice for her and get him out of both of your lives. We’ll just take the photos to the police and explain—”

  “Oh drop it, Lana,” Bridget said, watching me from the corner of her eye. “We both know I messed up. You can stop pretending like you didn’t catch it. I could see it in your face when we left the school.”

  Kimmy leaned forward, putting her hand on the headrest of my seat. “Lana, what the heck is she talking about?”

  We came up to Big Creek Reservation and she made another right, pulling into the picnic area that was well known for having a piece of land the locals had dubbed “Monkey Island.” She proceeded around the winding bend, and parked the car near a small pavilion tucked all the way in the back of the property. There was no one else around despite the particularly sunny weather, and my only hope was that I could scream for help at a jogger who might be passing by.

  “Lana,” Kimmy repeated with agitation. “What is going on? And why are we at the Metroparks? Shouldn’t we be taking these photos to the police?”

  Even though Bridget had parked the car, she hadn’t shut it off. She shifted in her seat, and pulled a butterfly knife out of her back pocket. “Good thing I carry this around for protection.” Opening the knife, I saw the blade was double-edged and serrated. She glanced over her shoulder at Kimmy and then at me. “Do you want to tell her? I mean you’re the great detective, aren’t you?”

  I adjusted in my seat so I didn’t have my back to Kimmy, but also kept
an eye on the knife. I didn’t know how much damage a butterfly knife like that could do, but I wasn’t about to find out the hard way. “When we left the school, Bridget said that her stepfather knew I recognized him from the night Margo was killed.”

  Kimmy scrunched up her face. “Yeah, so?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I never told Bridget that I saw her stepfather that night.”

  My confused friend took a moment to comprehend what I was telling her. I saw it register on her face and then moved to grab for the door handle. But it didn’t budge.

  Bridget smiled, shaking the knife at Kimmy, “Childproof locks. Plus, if you did get out, I’d just run you down with my car anyways. I hate to break it to you, but I can’t just let you guys leave now. I’m not throwing my life away for this.”

  I turned to her, trying to find some sensibility buried in her eyes, but I couldn’t see any. All I could see was fear and anger. “Do you understand that you gave yourself away? I was prepared to go to the police to testify against your stepfather.”

  She glared at me. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through this past week? Do you think I meant to kill Margo Han? It just happened, okay? I’ve been a nervous wreck this entire time. Lying to everyone … you, my mother, that wretched man she calls a husband. It’s exhausting.”

  “What did happen?” I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense. I was so sure that your stepfather killed Margo to keep her quiet. I mean, he was there that night, in what would have been minutes before everything happened.”

  “I lost it. That’s what happened,” Bridget replied, sounding disgusted with herself. “After I sent the photos to my stepdad, I thought for sure he’d tone things down. Maybe he’d think twice knowing that someone out there knew exactly what he was doing behind my mother’s back. I followed him the next day, and he still met up with that stupid home-wrecker. That slutty woman in our class,” she said, pointing to her chest. “The one with the trashy tattoo.”

  “Aha!” Kimmy said from the back seat. “I knew she was a hussy.”

  Bridget paused to gawk at Kimmy, then continued with her story. “Anyways, he was still going at it. I didn’t know what else to do. But I knew that Margo Han had seen what I had. I just didn’t know that she was involved with him too.”

  “She had stopped seeing him,” I said. “Months ago.”

  She rolled her eyes. “As if that matters.”

  “So why did you leave her the pictures?”

  “At the time, I thought maybe she would help me if she knew that she’d been caught on camera. So, I got into the administration faculty room with some story that I needed to leave a note from my mom for my stepdad. I didn’t know I’d put the photos in the wrong locker. Good thing I’d had the mind to follow you from the beginning. It wasn’t until you met up with that intern that I fully understood what was going on. When Margo told me she didn’t know what I was talking about, I assumed she was lying to me.”

  “And that’s why you stabbed her?” I asked. Half of my brain was searching the car for a way to get out without her stopping us or stabbing me in the process. I didn’t know what she had in mind, but I knew she wasn’t going to just let us go.

  “No, I stabbed her”—Bridget’s breathing started to quicken, and tears began to form in her eyes—“I stabbed her because she wouldn’t listen to me. She actually felt bad for my stepdad, he couldn’t help himself, she’d said. Yeah, well what about my mom? What about her feelings?”

  “I’m guessing she wouldn’t turn him in?” My eyes traveled past her to the driver’s console on the armrest of her door. If I could knock the knife out of her hand and push her back, I could unlock the childproof option from the back doors, and Kimmy would at least be able to get out and use her cell phone to call for help. Since I was in closer proximity, it might be more difficult for me to get out without her catching me.

  “No,” Bridget whined. “No, she wouldn’t turn him in because she still loved him. She didn’t want him to lose his job. Can you imagine? Then she asked me to leave. That cheatin’ bitch didn’t even have the courtesy to look me in the eye.” Tears started to stream down her face. “I panicked. I totally lost it. I saw the knife on the counter, and I reached for it, just to threaten her. Something had to get through to this woman. But before I knew what happened, I’d stabbed her in the back. And I just ran. I went in the bathroom and threw up. Then I heard your scream.”

  “You were in the bathroom that whole time?”

  “I had to sit in there all night,” she admitted. “Once I heard the police leave, I was afraid to come out. I didn’t know if I would set off some kind of alarm, so I stayed in the stall all night, not knowing what to do. I killed someone, Lana. You don’t know what that does to a person.”

  A part of me felt bad for her. It was apparent that she hadn’t meant to do Margo any harm, but got lost in the heat of the moment. “Let me help you,” I offered. “We can go to the police together.”

  She snorted. “You’re such a champion of justice, aren’t you? Do you really think anyone would believe my story? Besides, either way, I’m going to prison, and I just can’t. Who will my mother have then?”

  Kimmy interjected. “You should have thought about that before you totally lost your brain. You can’t blame anyone for what you did. So what, your dad is a skeevy guy. Doesn’t give you the right to act the way you did.”

  Bridget lunged toward the back seat, holding the knife near Kimmy’s face. “Stepfather, you mouthy bitch, stepfather.”

  Kimmy leaned back against the sheet, holding up her hands. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

  My heart was racing, and I didn’t know how to handle this with Kimmy being in the car, especially if she was going to run her mouth and aggravate Bridget further. “Okay, well if you won’t let me help you, then what are you going to do? Kidnapping us isn’t going to help anything. My boyfriend is a detective and he’ll have the entire city looking for me in a matter of hours. You’re better off letting us go.”

  She sniffed back some tears and wiped her nose, readjusting herself in the driver’s seat. “No, that won’t work. I have to turn you guys in. I have the photo of you and that Sabrina girl. And I got a few photos of that Robert Larkin guy talking with her too. It might be a little farfetched at first, but I can convince them that you guys caught me following you and you kidnapped me.”

  “No offense,” Kimmy said, “but that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

  Bridget narrowed her eyes and twisted in her seat to threaten Kimmy again. Her arm was at a strange angle and I thought it might be a good weak point. I decided to make my move, and with all the force I could muster, I grabbed her wrist and bent it backward.

  “Ow!” she yelled. “Let go of me.”

  I used my grip on her wrist to hoist myself forward and reach for the console, which proved to be a struggle because my arm wasn’t long enough. I tried to push off with my right foot to lean even farther forward, but my shoe kept slipping.

  “Owww!! Let go of my hair, you crazy b—”

  “Call me that one more time, and you’re going to have a bald spot, you psycho,” Kimmy returned.

  It bought me enough time to move myself forward, and I hit UNLOCK on the console and yelled, “Kimmy, get out now! Get help!”

  I heard the door open and slam shut while I still struggled to keep Bridget from moving out of the awkward angle I’d managed her into. Her head was almost flush with the floor partition in the back seat. I saw her hand waving around to the right, trying to blindly find her knife, which I couldn’t let her do. I pulled her back up and was going to attempt punching her in the face, but she shoved me, and I smacked the back of my head onto the passenger side window.

  I shielded my face with the fear she was going to hit me, but when I opened my eyes, she’d turned the car on and threw it into reverse. “Where’d Kimmy go? She moves pretty quick for a heavier girl.” Bridget put the car in drive as I searched the small road for signs of Kimm
y.

  I spotted her running around the bend, checking over her shoulder. Down a little ways farther there would surely be people that Kimmy could ask for help. I could see her holding the cell phone up to her head. Hopefully she was talking to a dispatcher and they were already sending someone out. But what would happen in the meantime? I started to panic wondering if I’d just inadvertently put myself in a high-speed chase.

  “Stop the car, Bridget!” I yelled. “This isn’t going to work.”

  “Shut up. If you would have just minded your own damn business like you said you would, we wouldn’t be here.”

  When she turned to look at me, I saw in her eyes that she had come completely undone, and any hope of rationalizing with her was gone.

  I took a deep breath, holding back tears. I couldn’t let her get away or try to take me with her should she attempt some type of escape. Without allowing time to talk myself out of it, I grabbed firm hold of the steering wheel, and jerked it to the left, forcing the car off the tiny road right into large oak tree.

  I remember seeing the look of shock on her face, hearing the airbags deploy, and feeling the extreme pain in my head. As I closed my eyes, I watched Bridget do the same.

  CHAPTER 34

  I woke up in University Hospital of Parma, feeling like my head was separate from my body. It hurt to open my eyes, and when I tried to move my neck, I cried out in pain. Adam came into view and put a gentle hand on my arm. “Don’t try to move yet, babe. You’re pretty banged up.”

  “Is Kimmy okay?” I struggled to say.

  He squeezed my hand. “Yeah, Kimmy’s fine. Don’t you worry.”

  I closed my eyes again and drifted back to sleep.

  The next morning, I woke up with the sun streaming into my room and both of my parents standing over me.

  “It’s about time you woke up, sleepy head,” my dad said playfully. “I was going to rename you Rip Van Winkle.”