Leary doesn’t seem to take any notice and turns to John.
“Yes, I’ve met her a few times.”
“Do you have any information on her, last name, where she came from, where she works?” Leary is making notes in his iPad.
John shakes his head. “I didn’t know her all that well, but she seemed to work a lot wherever it was she was at.”
“Did Remi have her sign a rental or lease agreement?”
His eyebrows furrow. “Remi was a big paperwork girl so I imagine so, why?”
Leary closes his iPad and looks between the two of them. “She hasn’t returned home yet and there are no personal effects in the room. We are just trying to find her to talk to her.”
Both of them nod, making eye contact.
“If Remi did have a rental agreement, it would be in her desk or filing cabinet in her room,” John volunteers.
The officer nods. “We have people looking there now.” He stands. “If either of you think of anything else, I’m just down the hall. Grady and Brown should be in to check on you in a bit.”
And with that, the door closes once more.
Rayna feels her eyes drooping as her adrenaline from all the events of the night starts to crash. Her mind is still wired, but she leans back on the couch and closes her eyes.
“How can you sleep at a time like this?” John accuses.
“I’m not sleeping,” she responds, “just resting my eyes.”
“Oh, God,” John mumbles.
Her eyes snap open. “What?”
“Remi used to say that all the time!” He puts his head in his hands, distraught.
Rayna has never been good at comforting people, and she feels really awkward sitting there not knowing what to do or say. Luckily she’s saved when the door opens once more and Grady pokes her head in.
“Rayna, I need you to come with me.”
She stands and follows the officer out of the room.
REMI
NOW
Her eyes are unaccustomed to the light, so the figure leaning over her is as indistinguishable as a shadow. She squints, trying to get her bearings.
“God, is that you?”
There’s a chuckle from somewhere in the room. Are there two of them?
She feels a foot in her side as the shadow uses his foot to try to shift her.
“Didn’t take her long to go nutso.”
“It never does.”
Remi can’t tell where the voices are coming from. She can only see the one shadow, but wasn’t there two of them?
The shadow closest to her picks up her empty water bottle collection. “Well, she drank all the juice.”
“Give her some more.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
Remi’s head hurts from the brightness of the light, so much so she starts to miss the darkness. For some reason she feels like she should be getting up to run, but for the life of her she can’t remember why she wanted to run in the first place.
“You know, she’s different than I remember.”
Remember? Has she met the shadow before?
“Toss me another water. We probably gotta feed her something soon.”
“Here’s a protein bar.”
She hears a crunching sound that, for some reason, makes her smile. She vaguely remembers being concerned about something, but now she can’t remember what. She’s still squinting through slitted eyelids as the shadow retreats. The ladder is withdrawn from the light, and it’s once again dark.
Remi realizes she’s lying on her back, but can’t find any of her former energy to get up and explore. Even rolling to her side seems like too much work.
She stretches her arms out in either direction as if she’s making a snow angel, and her fingertips brush something cool.
Water!
She shifts a tiny amount to wrap her hand around the bottle. Using all her strength, she lifts her head and chugs the water.
As she sets the bottle back down, her hand encounters something else. It’s rectangular and crinkly. Ah! The protein bar!
Her hands are shaky as she rips open the packaging. Vaguely, her subconscious reminds her she must not eat too fast. Remi wonders where that thought came from, but decides it’s better to not ignore it. She nibbles small bites of the bar. It tastes like something she can’t place, but at this point any food to calm her raging stomach is a godsend.
After finishing the bar, Remi lowers her head to the ground once again. She’ll remember what she needs to remember later, she’s sure of it…for now…what she really needs is some sleep…
REMI
BEFORE
On Wednesday morning Remi takes the train to work as normal, excited about all the new office supplies she set up at her desk yesterday. Although she was initially upset that her desk was destroyed, she has to admit getting new supplies felt great.
Walking into the office, she nods to the secretary, makes a pit stop in the break room to stow her lunch, and heads to her desk as usual. She sits down and smooths out the wrinkle that has appeared in her brand new calendar. Glancing at the day, she notes there are no appointments or meetings scheduled, which means more time to work uninterrupted. Which is a blessing in an office as big as hers.
Remi boots up her computer, glancing out of the corner of her eye as both Jared and Lyle arrive for their work days and take their respective desks. She didn’t have time to talk to Jonathon yesterday about what happened on Monday, but she intends to make a stop at his office today.
She pulls up the spreadsheet she’s currently working on, pulling the matching document from her shoulder bag. She begins the tedious process of transcribing the document into the spreadsheet, double checking to make sure all her numbers match.
Time passes quickly, and before she knows it, her stomach is growling to remind her it’s lunch time. Remi slides the document she’s working on into her desk drawer, then heads to the break room to grab her packed lunch. Jared and Lyle’s desks are already empty, and she secretly hopes they chose to go out today so she won’t have to see them in the break room.
Her prayers are answered as she walks into the break room and finds it empty. At least she can eat her lunch in peace. Remi opens the fridge and shifts around the myriad of lunches, looking for the brown bag with her name on it. She shifts some more but doesn’t see her lunch bag. Has someone moved it off of the second shelf? Remi quickly searches through the top shelf and the bottom shelf, but she still can’t find her lunch.
Something is wrong. Remi always packs her lunch, and she distinctly remembers setting it on the second shelf this morning. She packed a Tupperware of leftover lasagna from last night. She wouldn’t forget about lasagna.
Remi stands up and closes the fridge, before opening it again and searching once more. It’s no use, her lunch isn’t there.
She begins to look around the employee break room. There’s a coffee maker on a counter, with cabinets filled with supplies. She opens every single one but finds nothing more than the usual cups, plates, and plastic utensils. She opens the freezer above the fridge, but finds it barren except for a tray of ice cubes, which she’s sure hasn’t been used in decades. The center of the room is occupied by a long table surrounded by a dozen chairs. Remi surveys them all but finds nothing sitting on or under any of them.
All that’s left is the corner by the door, which is filled with a water cooler and large trash can. Remi walks over to the trash can and peers inside.
She’s obviously late for lunch, as the trash is already filled with various stinky remnants of food, but there, peeking out from behind a half eaten quesadilla, is a brown paper bag, and Remi can just make out the large RE printed on the front. She doesn’t have to dig in the trash to know that’s her lunch. Someone threw it away.
Remi groans and sits down at the table in frustration. Why can’t Jared and Lyle just leave her alone? The prank calls she can handle, but destroying her desk and her lunch? Now they’re going too fa
r.
Blinking back tears, Remi hurries over to Jonathon’s office, keeping her head down in case anyone were to see the angry flush in her cheeks. She doesn’t want people to know she let Jared and Lyle get to her over some lasagna.
The door to Jonathon’s office is closed, and Remi knocks lightly twice and then listens for him to tell her to come in.
There’s no sound from the other side of the door. Feeling like an idiot, Remi crouches down and looks through the half inch of space between the door and the carpet. She can’t see much, but she can tell the office is completely dark. Jonathon isn’t in.
With a sigh, Remi turns and begins to head back to her desk, but as she does, something catches her attention.
It’s Jared and Lyle, they’re by the secretary’s desk and they’re laughing at something that must be really funny. As Jared leans over to catch his breath from laughing so hard, Remi notices there’s a third man standing right behind him.
It’s Jonathon. And he’s also laughing, obviously in on the joke.
Feeling like she’s been utterly betrayed, Remi rushes back to her desk, slamming her documents in her shoulder bag as fast as she can while simultaneously powering down her computer. She needs to get out of here, and now.
As she turns to leave her desk, she notices Lyle and Jared returning to theirs. Remi keeps her head down and walks out without acknowledging either of them. Bypassing the elevator, lest she run into someone else she would rather not see, Remi darts down the two flights of stairs to the floor HR operates out of. She pushes the door inwards to a quiet hallway. She glances each way to verify no one is coming, then she slides down to the floor to catch her breath.
She probably sits there for about five minutes, just breathing deeply, when she hears a door slam down the hallway. Remi quickly stands and brushes off her clothes, slipping her messenger bag strap over her shoulder once more. She begins to walk down the hall towards the HR office.
As she approaches the office, she notices the door is open a crack and she can hear voices from within. Remi stands with her back up against the wall, waiting patiently for whoever is talking to finish.
She doesn’t mean to listen in, but suddenly she realizes she recognizes one of the voices. It’s Jonathon.
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with her lately, but she’s leaving the office early often and it’s starting to affect her team.”
Wait. Is Jonathon talking about her? Remi feels her breath stop.
“I understand, Jonathon. I’ll try to call her in here to talk, but you have to understand, leaving early a couple times is not a fireable offense. In fact, in her contract, as long as the work is done and she’s in here five days a week, there are no stipulated hours that she has to occupy that desk,” answers a female voice belonging to the HR director.
“I hired her, and now I’m telling you this isn’t working,” Jonathon replies angrily.
“And I’m telling you Jonathon, her record is squeaky clean. I can discuss her performance with her and issue her a warning, but you can’t fire her over this.”
Remi can’t believe what she’s hearing. Jonathon is trying to fire her? Why?
Suddenly, everything clicks. Remi went to him when she found someone stealing money. He insisted he would take care of it. She hasn’t heard anything since, and now, now he’s trying to get rid of her. Jonathon is the one stealing from the company.
As the realization hits her, she knows she has to get out of there, and now. As quickly and as quietly as she can, she rushes back to the stairwell door and slides inside. She’s on the eighth floor, but she doesn’t care, she runs the entire way down the stairs and rushes through the main lobby. Once she’s outside she doesn’t stop, she practically runs all the way to the train station.
She doesn’t relax until she’s seated on the train in the furthermost available corner seat.
What is she going to do? Her manager is stealing from Johnson Finance. Who can she even tell?
RAYNA
BEFORE
It’s been nearly three weeks since her revelation. And Rayna has yet to find a job.
She still has the money from her last video, but it’s dwindling, and fast, mostly because she lied to Zeki and told him she got her job back at the restaurant, when in fact she didn’t.
The harassing messages from Daryl have only increased. When she first discussed this with him, he insisted she could leave at any time, just do one video and be done. Now his tone has completely changed and he’s insisting she owes him another video.
Rayna does the dishes as she promised she would, planning what she’s going to make for dinner. She’s told Zeki that things aren’t good at the restaurant these days so she isn’t making much. He believes that, at least.
Rayna just hates lying. She hates that she has to pretend to leave for work every night, then go sit in the Starbucks down the street until it closes at ten. Then she slowly makes her way home and thinks of stories to tell her boyfriend about how work was.
The truth is, she has tried to get her job back, but they told her it’s too slow right now, and to come back in a few months. But Rayna knows she can’t afford to wait that long.
As she loads the dishwasher and presses start, she tries to think of a way she can ‘quit’ her fake job again. But nothing is coming to her.
How did she get this far?
It all started when you stopped living with Remi, her mind nags her.
Rayna wants to disagree, but she can’t. If she were living with Remi, her sister would never let her go down this path.
Is that why you stopped talking to her?
Rayna pushes the pesky thought away.
Her phone buzzes from its spot on the island. Rayna dries her hands and picks it up—fully expecting it to be another text from Daryl.
Instead, she’s surprised to see an unknown number instead. She clicks on the message:
312-555-8556: Hey it’s Katie, Mark’s gf. We really enjoyed dinner the other night.
Something is off, Rayna can feel it, but regardless, she saves the new number as a contact in her phone and types out a reply.
Rayna: Hi Katie. What’s up?
Katie’s reply comes through so fast that Rayna knows she must’ve already had it typed out.
Katie: I want you to come to a party with me tonight.
Rayna looks at the message. She hasn’t been to a party in awhile, and that would be a nice change rather than sitting at the Starbucks all night… Oh crap, Katie probably wants Zeki to come! That would ruin everything.
Rayna begins to type out a polite declining message, when another message pops up on her screen, interrupting her typing.
Katie: Just you. No Zeki. Remember you owe me.
That’s weird. She doesn’t want Zeki to join. Maybe this is a girl’s party? The thought makes Rayna’s heart pick up in pace. She always loved parties back in the day, and she really does need to get out… Before she can change her mind she quickly types her reply.
Rayna: Sure. Just tell me when and where to meet you.
Katie texts back an address with ‘9pm’ tacked on the end. Rayna tells her she’ll see her there, then closes the texting app on her phone. She’ll still have to lie to Zeki about why she’ll be home late.
Rayna quickly pulls up her banking app and checks to see how much money is left. There’s still almost a thousand dollars. She can just tell Zeki she’s supposed to work a private party and that she’ll be home late. As long as she comes home with a couple hundred dollars, she’s sure he won’t question it.
She heads upstairs, excited to pick out what she’s going to wear tonight. It’s been so long since her last party, she doesn’t even know where her party clothes are stashed. Rayna flips through everything hanging in the master closet, and doesn’t see anything there. Thinking back, she hasn’t been to a party since before she moved in—meaning she probably never unpacked them.
Quickly she rushes back down the stairs and out to the garage,
to the stack of boxes in the corner with her name on them. She quickly opens each box until she finally finds the one filled with her mini skirts, skimpy halter shirts, and cute crop tops. Oh, how she has missed these outfits.
After heading back upstairs with an outfit tucked under her arm, she tries it on and models it for the mirror. She’s gained some weight in the last few months, but she has to admit she still looks good.
Glancing at the clock, she realizes it’s almost four in the afternoon, and Zeki will be home at any minute. She quickly slips her black button-up server shirt over her top and takes off the skirt—tucking it in her purse for later—and slides on her black slacks. Then she heads into the bathroom to put on makeup.
That’s where Zeki finds her when he arrives home an hour later.
“Your makeup looks nice,” he says as he walks in, giving her a peck on the cheek.
“Thanks.” She smiles and continues to line her eyes with her black eyeliner.
“Seems a little overboard for waiting tables, if you ask me.” He starts unbuttoning his work shirt.
“I’m working a private party tonight. I won’t be home until late.” She’s shocked at how easily the lie slides out.
“That’s good. You’ll make extra money for it right?”
“Of course,” Rayna replies as she finishes the eye liner and starts applying her mascara. She’s almost done.
Zeki doesn’t say anything else as he slides on his basketball shorts and heads back downstairs. Rayna figures she’ll find him in front of the TV.
With a sigh, she begins to pack up her makeup bag, realizing she doesn’t have time to cook dinner as she originally planned. Her fake work shifts start at six p.m.
She quickly sticks a few makeup touch-up items into her purse and zips it closed. She then realizes she can’t leave wearing the sparkly gold pumps she wants to wear to the party, so she grabs a larger purse and transfers her essentials, piling them on top of her heels. Then she slides on her work loafers and heads for the door.
Before Now Page 11