She passes Zeki on her way out. “Don’t wait up, the private party doesn’t start until nine.” It isn’t totally a lie.
“I won’t,” he responds, not even glancing up from the TV. Wow, things have changed.
Before she can change her mind about it, Rayna leaves, locking the door behind her.
RAYNA
NOW
Rayna is led to a cement room with a table and one way mirror. Definitely some sort of interview room, she figures. She’s seated at the table across from Grady and Leary.
“Am I under arrest now?” she asks. Can’t be too careful around the police.
“No,” Detective Grady answers as she turns the file on the table toward Rayna. “We are here to talk about Zeki.”
“Did you find him?” she asks hopefully.
Grady shakes her head. “No. But can you tell me more about him?”
“I mean, I thought he was a normal guy until this morning, now I’m not sure anything he told me is true.” Rayna puts her head in her hands. She really thought she was above being fooled like this. Apparently she was wrong.
“Can you tell us where you met Zeki?”
She nods. “At a party, almost four years ago now.”
“What kind of party?” Leary interjects as he appears to take notes on his iPad.
“A house party of sorts.” Rayna cringes as she remembers her most recent house party experience. What she wouldn’t give to make that a night she can’t remember.
“Did you ever meet any of his friends?” Grady asks, glancing down at the papers on the table.
Rayna nods. “At a dinner a few times. They weren’t really my favorite but there was Katie,” she mentally grimaces at the name, “her husband Mark, then Jay and Julie.” She hasn’t seen the last two since their dinner months before, but she assumes they still talked to Zeki.
“Do you have any last names?”
She wracks her brain. “Sorry, but…no…” She’s a horrible girlfriend. She should know her boyfriend’s best friend’s last name.
“Any indication that any of them, Zeki included, were selling and/or using?” Officer Leary doesn’t even look up from his iPad, he just continues to type.
“Zeki, no. I’d never even seen him handle drugs before. I had no idea he even knew how. I don’t hang out with Jay and Julie much, but Katie and Mark…they were definitely using.”
“Using what?” Detective Grady asks.
Rayna tries to push the intruding memory away. “Cocaine. And before you ask, yes, that is exactly what Zeki was apparently selling.”
“Is Zeki his full name?”
“I think so.” Rayna actually isn’t sure. It’s becoming very apparent to her that she doesn’t know her boyfriend of three years at all. But the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that they haven’t talked, or even been intimate, in almost three months.
“You think so? And you dated how long?” Leave it to Officer Leary to be judgmental.
“You’re right, I’m dumb. I just realized I don’t actually know who Zeki is. I’ve been spending the past year so wrapped up in myself and my problems, I’ve barely talked with him.” She leaves the being intimate part out, but she’s sure the police can connect the dots.
“So what have you been wrapped up in?” Detective Grady sets down the file in her hands. Rayna catches a quick view of Zeki’s smiling face in a mug shot before she looks away. That’s another thing he never told her.
“I’ve…well…” Rayna figures now is the time to be honest with herself. “When I moved out of Remi’s place, I fell into a deep depression. I quit my job. Most days I didn’t even get off the couch.” She sets her head in her hands and closes her eyes. “Zeki tried to encourage me to get out and do things, but I didn’t make it easy.” She decides leaving out her porn stint is best for everyone.
“And how do you feel now?” Leary asks, setting his iPad down. He’s probably worried she’s going to off herself or something.
“Better,” she acknowledges, not wanting to go into the nitty-gritty details with these strangers.
“Good to hear.” Leary picks his iPad back up. “And I know I asked you earlier, but you never met Daisy, correct?”
She nods. “Correct.”
“Did your sister say anything about her? Any personal details that might help us find her?”
Rayna shakes her head. “My sister and I, well, the past few months we haven’t talked as much as before. And now I’d do anything to go back and do it over.” She fights back tears.
Neither officer says anything, they just look at each other and stand up. Rayna follows suit.
“We are going to take you back to the waiting room now. Hopefully we will find Zeki here shortly and can finally make a little leeway on the case.” Detective Grady holds open the door for Rayna, then leads her back to the waiting room. Rayna can see on the clock that it’s almost four in the morning, and her body knows it, too.
Detective Grady must read her thoughts, because she motions to the couch in the small waiting room. “You’re welcome to lie down. If we don’t find your boyfriend soon, I’ll have an officer take you home. You have to understand, we will be staking out your house until we find him, though.”
Rayna stifles a yawn. “I understand.” She makes her way to the couch and lies down. She’s just begun to drift into dreamland when the sound of the door opening brings her back to reality. She looks up to see Detective Brown leading John into the room. John nods at her and then politely takes a seat on the floor, leaning his back against the wall.
She doesn’t really feel like talking, but she decides to make polite conversation anyway. “How did your interview go?”
“Fine.” John’s eyes are closed as well. “Detective Brown is nice. I just wish I had more information to give.”
“Information?” Rayna mumbles sleepily.
“Yeah. They’re really trying to find Daisy. I described her to them but I really don’t have any personal information.”
“I thought they were looking for the lease?” Rayna can feel herself perking up a bit as she recalls the earlier conversation. Maybe sleep isn’t as close as she thought.
John nods. “They found it. Problem is, everything on it is fake.”
Rayna sits up. “Everything?”
“Yes. Even the name, Daisy McMullen, doesn’t exist in their database. Not to mention the social, prior address, and all the references aren’t real.”
“I thought Remi vetted her carefully?” Rayna’s fully awake now.
“I thought so, too,” he agrees. “I can’t imagine what could’ve happened to let this slip through.”
“Do you think Remi was distracted?” she questions.
John shakes his head, his eyes still closed. “She was on top of it as always.” Suddenly his eyes and nose scrunch up as if he smells something bad.
“What?”
“I just remembered. Some weird things started happening when Daisy moved in.”
“Weird things?” She sits up on the couch, staring directly at John. He opens his eyes and nods.
“Yeah, some stuff went missing.”
“Stuff where?”
“In the house. Some things were just moved first, then stuff, like dishes, were straight up missing.” They both seem to come to the same conclusion at the same time, and John jumps to his feet and heads for the door. “I’ll go tell the officers.”
Rayna watches quietly as John leaves the room. Remi never mentioned the missing things around the house, nor any doubts about the new roommate. It makes her wonder what else Remi forgot to mention…
REMI
NOW
Remi has grown quite accustomed to the strange thoughts swirling around in her subconscioud. In fact, she’s beginning to enjoy her dreams more than the reality that meets her when she wakes.
She’s right in the middle of a new dream. Well, it isn’t really a dream, more of a memory. She’s on the swings outside of her elementary school. Sh
e’s trying to swing as high as she can, but her little legs can only pump so fast.
Suddenly, she feels a pair of hands on her back. She turns around to find her sister standing there, ready to push her.
“I can help.” She smiles sweetly.
Remi doesn’t say anything back, she simply nods. With her sister’s assistance she begins to swing higher and higher.
And then she’s falling, she reaches around her to try to grasp anything she can—
Remi jolts awake. It’s still dark in the room she’s in. But something has changed.
A hand touches her face, making her jump and try to move away, but her back is already against the wall.
“Such a beautiful girl. Shame you ended up here.”
She tries to clear her head, tries to focus on where she’s heard that voice before, but it’s no use. Her head is filled with mush. Her arms and legs are lead, her lips glued together. She isn’t sure she’s even awake at all anymore. Zoza stands in the corner, a hand raised to her lips in the “shh” motion.
There are more sounds, as whoever is in the room with her stands up and begins to move away. She hears the sound of footsteps on the ladder as she drifts off, back to her same dream.
She’s on the swing, trying to get just a little bit higher…
“Why did you leave?” her sister asks her from her spot behind Remi.
“I didn’t,” she replies as she feels the warm sun on her face, “I’m right here.” Why does Rayna think she isn’t there?
“Come back, Remi.”
She turns to find her sister is no longer pushing her on the swings. Now where has she gone?
The sun is no longer in the sky, the playground cast in shadow. There are no other children around. The swing comes to a slow stop.
The playground is getting darker and darker…
Then it’s pitch black. Is she still in her dream?
REMI
BEFORE
She pushes open the door to her apartment and steps inside quietly. It’s late and she doesn’t want to wake Daisy in case she’s sleeping after a work shift.
Remi slips off her Toms and sets them in the shoe organizer by the door. Her work laptop is still in the messenger bag slung over her shoulder. John called her while she was on the train. He could tell she was upset, and suggested they meet for an early dinner before she headed home.
They met at the French restaurant down the street and ordered a Beef Wellington to share. It was delicious, though it didn’t do much to help with her stress over work.
She debated telling John about her work revelation, but decided against it at the last minute. She needs to try to figure this out on her own first.
As she starts to head down the hall toward her room, she passes the kitchen, and figures she had better set the timer on the coffee maker for the morning. Even though her career could be coming to an end, she’ll continue to show up for work until it does.
With a sigh, she flips on the kitchen light, pinching her eyes closed as the fluorescents momentarily blind her. When she opens her eyes, she zones in on the counter the coffee maker usually inhabits.
It’s empty.
That’s odd. Remi is a regular coffee-aholic, and she never puts the coffee maker in the cabinet.
Calm down, it’s not the end of the world, she thinks to herself as she leans down and opens the cabinet where she keeps all the small kitchen appliances.
It’s completely bare.
The cabinet usually holds her toaster, can-opener, and blender. None of which are there. Remi sits back in shock. Where is all her stuff disappearing to?
Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checks the time to see it’s already almost ten p.m. As much as she wants to look into this tonight, she still needs to send an email before she can go to bed.
Remi stands up and shuts off the kitchen light, shaking her head in confusion. It’s all too much, the prank calls, her stuff disappearing, the fact that her boss is stealing from the company and is now trying to fire her to cover it up. When will she ever get a break?
Passing Daisy’s room, Remi makes a split second decision and knocks on her door.
“Daisy?” She listens to see if she can hear movement from the other side of the door. “Daisy, you home?” she tries again.
When there’s no response the second time, she slides open the door and glances inside. The room is dark and the bed sits perfectly made on the other side of the room. There isn’t any sign her roommate has even been home in recent days. Remi sighs and slides the door shut.
She debates texting Daisy. After all, she does have her number. But at the same time, she’s afraid of coming off as an overbearing landlord. She can ask Daisy about her stuff the next time she sees her.
As she pushes open the door to her own room, her phone begins to vibrate in her pocket. Glancing at the screen, Remi sees the words “private caller” and rolls her eyes. She tosses the phone on her bed without answering it and heads over to her desk.
She sets up her computer in its usual spot and opens it up to begin her work. First, she makes copies of all the files she found, downloading one to a flash drive, and the other to her hard drive. After she ejects the flash drive, she signs in to her email account and begins typing.
It takes awhile to get it just right, but finally she feels it’s done. Sliding open her desk drawer, she pulls out her new hire file from when she was first hired at Johnson Finance. She turns to the back page and begins to type in all the email addresses she finds there. She has never met anyone higher up in the company than Jonathon, and she only hopes one of these people will have the authority to do something.
She takes a deep breath and presses send. Hopefully she’ll still have a job after this. Picking up the flash drive, she pulls out an envelope from her desk drawer and slides it inside. Now she just needs to think of somewhere safe to keep it. Who does she trust?
The answer comes to her instantly, and Remi seals the envelope and fills out the mailing address. She doesn’t bother putting her address in the left-hand corner. She places a postage stamp in the right-hand corner. Glancing at her phone, she notes it’s already past eleven. No matter, this has to be done.
Grabbing her phone and keys, she makes her way back down the hallway and out the front door. The mailbox isn’t far, but Remi is nervous enough to glance over her shoulder as she walks. When she reaches the mailbox, she grips the envelope tightly, lets out the breath she didn’t know she was holding, and drops it inside. Remi looks around, then quickly makes her way back to her apartment. Her phone begins to vibrate in her hand again. The screen lights up with “private caller.”
Even though she knows she shouldn’t, she lifts the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“I’m going to kill you, bitch.”
Then the line goes dead.
RAYNA
BEFORE
The house is in a nicer part of town. Not that Rayna and Zeki live in a “bad” part of town, but they definitely don’t have a gate and security guard in front of their house, either. The house isn’t a massive mansion, but it certainly isn’t small. It has the hard edges of modern homes. And the door is twice the size of a normal one, with a massive metal handle to match. It reminds Rayna somewhat of a castle.
“Name?” the security guard asks as she approaches the gate.
“Rayna Casell,” she replies, trying to steal a glimpse of the clipboard in his hands. He quickly moves it toward him and away from her view.
“Come right in.” He presses a button and the gate swings inward.
Rayna makes her way up the cobblestone walk, marveling at the incredible detailing. Whoever’s party this is, they definitely have money to spend.
She reaches the double-wide door and raises her hand to knock, but then notices it’s open a crack. She can’t help but look around to see if there are any instructions or notes or anything. There aren’t, so she pushes the door open and steps inside.
The house is just as marve
lous on the inside as it was on the exterior. The walkway has a high ceiling that’s lit by the most beautiful chandelier Rayna has ever seen. She can hear laughter coming from the kitchen, so she slips off her shoes and sets them in the pile growing by the door at the foot of the double wide staircase. Everything about this house is double what she’s seen in any other house.
Turning the corner into the kitchen, she’s met with twenty or so blank stares.
“Hi, uh, I’m Katie’s friend Rayna.”
One of the gentlemen standing by the massive island in the middle of the kitchen shifts his wine to his left hand, approaching Rayna with his right hand outstretched. “I’m Hugh, nice to meet you. Katie went to the washroom, but she should be right back.”
As soon as he finishes speaking, the conversation in the room picks up once more.
“Thanks, Hugh, this is a beautiful house you have,” Rayna says as she observes the impressive kitchen. Black granite countertops sparkle in the lighting, and the large island is filled with every sort of hors d’oeuvre imaginable.
“Thanks. You must thank my wife, Melanie, the interior was all her.” Hugh notices her eyeing the food. He picks up a small china plate and hands it to her. “Here, help yourself to whatever. Water is in the fridge, and see my bartender Jack if you want something a little stronger.” He winks at the last word, then quickly turns his attention back to the man on his other side.
Rayna looks over to the corner of the room to find a wet bar situated with a bartender behind it. She’s sure her mouth is permanently agape as she makes her way over.
She’s almost reached the bar when Katie intercepts her.
“Rayna! You made it!” Katie squeals as she embraces Rayna in a hug.
Rayna just stands there awkwardly. After all, this is only the second time they’ve met. Seems a little too soon for hugs, in Rayna’s book. She leans back and takes in Katie’s party attire. She’s smartly dressed in a black midi skirt paired with a red lace bralette that barely keeps her decent. The heels she wears are gold and sparkly, matching well with Katie’s platinum blonde hair. Rayna notices a faint smudge of white powder beneath Katie’s left nostril.
Before Now Page 12