by Maggie Thom
"Okay, I didn't ask any questions all the way here." Guy sat up and looked around.
"Huh?" Bailey pulled her unfocused gaze from the slow moving traffic in front of her.
"Where are we?"
"Edmonton." They had driven in silence the whole way. Her mind busy with what she needed to do.
"And we're here because?"
Frowning, she glanced at him. What the hell was he talking about? "I'm tired. I need some answers. I figured this was the best place to get them."
"Oh, what's here?"
My past. "A library. One, that can hopefully show me some old footage of a baby being stolen from a hospital in Quebec, twenty-nine years ago." She glanced in her right hand mirror, then zipped into the other lane. "Right now we're going to find a hotel. One that is nice, warm and has no smells." She arched her eyebrows at him.
"Hey, I was just trying to find us an out of the way place. I never thought to ask the guy if they fumigated." He slouched down in his seat and crossed his arms.
Ignoring him, she headed downtown. Once there, she drove into a parking garage, parked and got out. "Let's go get a room." She raised her hands over her head and arched her back, groaning as she did so. And as she did everything else, when she was ready she went.
He scrambled out of the truck, slammed the door, his footsteps echoing in the garage, as he raced to catch up to her. Glaring at her, he fell into step with her. When they walked into the lobby of one of the most expensive hotels in the city she wished she'd had a camera.
"What in the hell are we doing here?"
"We're staying here. And you're paying for the room." Walking up to the counter, she smiled at the person eager to take her information.
"May I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like a room with two double beds."
"We are not staying here," Guy said harshly into her ear.
Tugging her arm out of his grasp, she smiled at the desk person and whispered out the side of her mouth, "Oh yes we are. You've dragged me all over the place. You've uprooted my life. You tell me someone wants me back after all this time. Well, someone's gonna pay. And it ain't gonna be me."
"We have two rooms available both with two queen size beds. One has a Jacuzzi and one doesn't."
"Jacuzzi."
"No Jacuzzi."
The desk person kept her professionally tolerant face on while looking at them indulgently.
"Get out your wallet."
"I'm not?"
Bailey smiled openly at the woman and winked, like it was a girls' problem. "Give us a moment." She grabbed Guy's hand and pulled him a few feet away. "You owe me. My life was fine until you entered it." She ignored his dismissal of her claim. "You are going to continue to screw up my life until we figure out what happened when I was a baby." She patted his cheek. "So be a good boy and get out your damn credit card. I'm sleeping here after I soak in the hot tub."
"Wait. It can't be in our names."
"Why not?"
"Because, in case you've forgotten, we have a friend or two following us. Do you want them to find us?"
She knew her cheeks went pasty white, which must have scared him because he wrapped his arm around her and escorted her to a plush leather chair. He fanned her face with his hands.
"Then what?"
"Give me five. I have a friend who can get us in here under assumed names."
She didn't even have the energy to question him or really even care how he was going to do it. She watched as he walked a short distance away and made a phone call. If his hand ripping through his hair was a sign of how the call was going, it didn't look good. He walked back over to her while clicking off his phone.
"Sit tight for ten minutes and we're in."
She hadn't moved from her slumped position. She didn't have the energy to even give a damn anymore, as to what was happening. Exhaustion rolled over like a steam truck, leaving her limp and drained.
His phone rang almost exactly ten minutes later. He didn't answer or look at it, he just tapped the screen and that stopped it from making noise. He reached out his hand. She shifted her coat to her left arm and let him pull her up. Within minutes they were being escorted to the elevator. Bailey wondered if they did this for all their guests or if they were getting special treatment because they had no luggage or because all of a sudden they had a reservation, which they'd forgotten they'd made. Acting had been something she'd been very good at over the years. To try and make some semblance of normalcy to the woman she'd whispered to her that she couldn't tell her husband that she'd booked a Jacuzzi room, he'd never have gone for it. But by embarrassing him he couldn't back out of paying for it. The woman behind the counter had bought it but still looked at them strange. It hadn't really dawned on her until that point how they must look. Then Guy told the woman they had no bags. The fact that she gave them a list of all the shops downtown and even a few coupons for discounts, hinted to Bailey that maybe they weren't looking their best. Bailey let her believe it was on purpose, so he'd have to buy her new clothes.
The woman's mouth was sure to be chatting about this strange couple for a long time. Bailey just hoped she'd never have to see her again, which was probably mutual.
Once they entered the luxurious room they both went to the window to look out at the view - from twenty floors up they could see some of the river valley and the Hotel McDonald.
"Okay, shower and get out."
Guy turned to look at her and spluttered, "W-what?"
"I'm getting in that hot tub." At his look of interest, she qualified, "Alone. You'll go shopping for some clothes and then I'll go. Hmmm. I guess you'll have to come along since you'll be paying for those too. Now go." She made a pinching motion at the end of her nose.
"Are you suggesting I smell?"
Her eyelids opened and closed as she twisted her head away as though there was a horrid stench.
He tossed a pillow at her. "I wouldn't be talking too loud there, missy. Phew, Phew, Phew."
She chucked the pillow back at him. "Go, dammit."
"Bossy woman. I happen to be paying for this place," he grumbled but headed into the bathroom.
She waited for him to get in the shower before she put a few inches of water in the hot tub. Stripping off her shirt, she washed quickly, aware that at any moment he could come out. Finishing up, she drained the tub and sat on the bed flipping through TV stations. She was watching the shopping channel when he came out twenty minutes later.
He was rubbing his hair with a towel. He eyed the show with disgust. "How long do I have to be gone?"
"An hour and a half. Two, if you want to be a gentleman." He pulled on his t-shirt grimacing as he did. She tried not to notice how it stretched taught over his well muscled, slightly hairy chest. She stared hard at the television.
"I'll meet you right here. Right?"
"Of course." She shoved him out of the room, leaving him in the hallway. She checked her watch and waited five minutes then opened the door and peeked out, checking both directions. No one was there. She quickly made her way to the elevator. Once on the ground, her steps quickened as she left the hotel, keeping an eye out for where Guy might have gone. Running across the street, she entered the building that should hold some answers for her.
The library was large and spread out. What she needed was situated in the far back corner. Sitting down at a computer, she glanced around before plugging in the flash drive. Sorting through folders, she had no idea what she was looking for and she knew her time was limited. Associates - she clicked on it. All the files were listed by initials. It didn't look right so she got out of there. Aperture - no idea what that even meant. Cabin - opening that file, she glanced at all the subfolders. None of the initials made sense. Choosing at random, she started to open them. It wasn't until she noticed that there were two folders that were similar - D. Z. and Do. Z. that she got a funny feeling. Clicking on D.Z., she started opening files.
Doug Zajic
- Paying $12,000.00 per month - cabin fees.
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That was all it said, except for the number 345 in the top right corner. Not having a clue what any of it meant, she closed it and opened the other file - Do. Z.
Donna Zajic
- Pay out $8,000.00 per month - cabin fees
There was nothing else. People renting the place? A little pricey. Closing out those files, she saw one labeled, My Legacy. She clicked on it. There were several subfolders in there. All listed with initials. She clicked on the D. Z. file - it came up as weird letters and shapes. She tried the Do. Z. file - same thing. It looked like they were ruined or something. She wondered if carrying them around in her pocket had done that. Crap!
She clicked on other files at random, most opened up with weird shapes or had one line she could read that had an amount and a cabin fee. Lund had done well off with that little place in northern B.C. But it was all very confusing. Why did I need to get this, Mom? Is this one of our tail chases?
At the age of twelve, that's what she'd dubbed their sudden moves - tail chases. There had never seemed any rhyme or reason to when or why they'd relocated. They just up and left, sometimes ending back where they'd started, like a dog chasing his tail, going round and round but not really going anywhere.
Banging on the desk as she found another scrambled file, she flopped forward in the chair.
Her fingers dug into the sides of her head as she tried to make sense of it all.
A cabin, where her mom had hid a picture and her favorite stuffed toy. Was that the only reason she had needed to go there. It just kept playing over and over in her head, that she might not be who she thought she was all those years. That she may not have even belonged to the woman who raised her. That somewhere she may have relatives. People who were looking for her, wanted her.
Her nostrils flared as she struggled to stop the sob that threatened to rip through her chest. Closing her eyes tightly, squeezing her ribs firmly with her arms and taking several deep breaths was enough to stop the flood this time. She felt like she was being split in two. When will it make sense?
Frustrated at not finding what she wanted, she closed all the files and folders. Maybe the internet would give her some answers. Having no idea how to find what she was looking for, she typed into the search engine - newspapers from twenty-nine years ago.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT