Three Days in Seattle

by Debra Burroughs

  It was so picturesque that Kate reached in her purse for her camera to capture it all. Instead, poking around in her bag, she discovered it wasn’t there. It rattled her. She realized that, in her rush to leave Seattle, she had unintentionally left her camera sitting on the bed.

  “Shoot! I forgot my camera.” Kate exclaimed.

  “It’s okay.”

  “You don’t understand. I never forget my camera. Ever.”

  “Calm down. Do you remember where you left it?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes, on Whitney’s bed.”

  “It’ll still be there when you get back.”

  “I know, but I feel naked without it.”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it now. So, let’s just go in and enjoy the evening.”

  “You’re right, you’re right. I’m being silly. Let me just take a deep breath. I’ll be okay.”

  Before Ryan and Kate were out of the car, his folks were standing out on the front porch, ready to greet their son and his new friend. Ryan’s mom was a short, chubby woman with shoulder-length blonde hair. She stood next to his dad—tall, lean and dark haired, wearing rimless glasses. Their black and white border collie sat eagerly next to them.

  “Hello, you guys!” Ryan’s mom called out as she waved from the porch. “Need any help with anything?” The dog ran down the steps to meet them.

  “No, we’ve got it, Mom.” There was no real luggage to haul in, only small carry-on bags.

  “Good boy,” Ryan said to the dog, whose tail was wagging energetically. Ryan crouched down to greet him and rubbed his head. “Hey, Riley, this is Kate.” As if Riley understood the introduction, he ran over to Kate to sniff the new guest.

  “Hey there, Riley,” Kate said, as the dog jumped up and planted his paws on her abdomen.

  “Riley, come!” Ryan’s dad ordered firmly, in response to the dog’s overly enthusiastic greeting of their guest. Riley immediately obeyed and bounded up the steps to the porch.

  “Sit,” Ryan’s dad commanded.

  Then Ryan climbed the few steps up to the porch and gave his mom a hug and then his dad. He turned and revealed Kate who followed right behind him.

  “Mom, Dad, this is Kate.”

  “Kate, it’s so good to meet you. I’m Jeanie,” Ryan’s mom gave her a quick hug, which surprised Kate. “And this is Jack.”

  “Yes, it’s nice to meet you, Kate,” Ryan’s dad added, extending his hand. “Sorry about the dog. He gets so excited when anyone new comes by.”

  “No problem,” Kate shook his hand. “I love dogs.”

  “Well, let’s go inside. No need to keep standing out here,” Jeanie ordered, leading the way.

  Once inside, Kate instantly felt at home. The décor of the house was warm and inviting with dark wide-plank hardwood floors, leather furniture and rich earth-tone fabrics. There was a large stone fireplace in the great room, already stocked with cut wood and kindling, ready to start a roaring fire.

  The new-looking kitchen opened up to a comfortable living area, a granite-topped center island divided the two rooms. This was more than Kate expected from a farmhouse, and she was impressed by the beauty of it all.

  “Your home is lovely, Mrs. Wilson,” Kate said as they entered the kitchen area and stood around the island.

  “Please, Kate, call me Jeanie. Mrs. Wilson is Jack’s mother.”

  “Okay, Jeanie.”

  “You must be exhausted, dear. I’ve made up the guest room for you. And Ryan, you’ll be in your old room, of course. Unless...”

  “Unless what?” Kate asked, looking suspiciously at Ryan, feeling warmth rush to her cheeks.

  “It’s not like that, Mom,” Ryan said, glancing back at Kate.

  “Well, anyway,” Jeanie explained, “the rooms are made up and ready for you—whatever you decide.”

  “What’s for dinner?” Ryan asked, quickly changing the subject. He looked around the kitchen. “I don’t smell anything cooking.”

  “That’s because Dad and I are going out,” his mom replied.

  “Out?” Ryan asked, seemingly surprised they’d be going out when guests were coming to stay.

  “We have tickets to the BSU football game tonight. It’s a sell out,” his dad noted, “and we’re not going to miss it. They’re playing Virginia Tech tonight.”

  “The Tomlinsons invited us to tailgate with them before the kick-off. They’re grilling burgers and ribs. You remember the Tomlinsons, don’t you, Ryan?” Jeanie asked.

  “Yes, but...”

  “Honey, we do have a life, you know,” his mother reminded him. “I left some steaks and chicken in the refrigerator for you if you’d like to barbecue tonight. There are salad fixings and some leftover Ooh La La potatoes in there, too. I know how much you like those.”

  Kate smiled as she observed the interaction with interest and pleasure. It seemed Ryan, on the other hand, couldn’t believe that his mother wasn’t preparing dinner for them.

  “Oh, Ryan, you’re a big boy. You cook your own meals in Seattle, don’t you?” Then Jeanie caught herself, apparently afraid she’d said the wrong thing. “Unless Kate cooks for you.”

  “Yes, Mom, I cook my own dinners, that is, when I’m not going out or picking up take-out. And, no, Kate doesn’t cook for me. I told you it’s—never mind. I just thought—”

  “Well, you thought wrong, honey. Anyway, we didn’t know you were coming, after all. Dad and I are leaving shortly, and we’ll be back after the game. You’ll have the house all to yourselves for a while.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Kate said, “but I think I’d like to go to my room and freshen up. If someone will just give me a little direction...”

  “Sure, hon, top of the stairs, first door on the right,” Jeanie responded.

  “Thanks.”

  * * * *

  When Kate was out of earshot, Ryan’s mom and dad grilled Ryan about what was going on and why he was back in Boise with this mysterious friend.

  “I didn’t want to tell you this in front of her, but Kate’s sister is missing.”

  “Oh, how awful,” his mother said, putting a hand up to her lips.

  “What does that have to do with you? Are you dating Kate or what?” his father asked.

  “No, Dad, we’re not dating. Let me start from the beginning.” Ryan paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. “I met Kate on the plane from Boise to Seattle, just yesterday morning. We were seated across the aisle from each other. She seemed really nice and we had a good conversation. It appeared to me like we hit it off, but then I lost her before we got to baggage claim.”

  “Looks like you found her again,” his dad kidded.

  “Yes, I did.” Ryan shook his head at his father’s humor. “I ran into her outside of the police station. My friend happens to be one of the detectives helping her on the case. I had gone there to meet him about a real estate deal. That’s when she told me her sister was missing, and that was the real reason why she was in Seattle. Since she doesn’t know anyone there, I’ve been trying to help her out and be supportive.”

  “I don’t understand. Why did you bring her to Boise?” his mom asked.

  “Well, maybe you saw the story on the news about a young woman’s body being found by the Boise River,” Ryan went on to say.

  “Yes, I think I did hear something about that. Was that her sister?” his mother asked, with sympathy in her voice.

  “No, thank goodness, but that’s why Kate came to Boise. The police asked her to come and see if it was her missing sister.”

  “So why did you come?” his dad asked.

  “Just as moral support. We’ve become friends over these last days, and she needed someone to lean on, to help her get through this. She has no family left other than her sister.”

  “Poor thing,” his mother remarked.

  “So you’re just friends, huh?” his dad inquired. “She’s awfully pretty.”

  “Yes, we’re just friends, Dad.” Ryan looked down for a
moment and then raised his eyes to meet his father’s gaze. “I’d be lying if I said I haven’t begun to feel more for her than that, because I have. She’s so much more than just a pretty face, Dad.”

  Ryan stepped alongside his mother and put his arm around her shoulder. “You know, she’s smart and funny, and she’s a photographer with her own business in L.A. She’s great, Mom.”

  Then he looked his dad in the eye again. “Except, Dad, she’s in an emotionally vulnerable place right now, and I don’t want to take advantage of her.”

  “Good for you, honey. I’m glad to see we raised you right. It sounds like Kate really needs a friend she can rely on right now.”

  “Yep, that’s the right thing to do, Ryan,” his dad agreed. “Take care of that girl. She sounds like a keeper.”

  His dad glanced down at his watch, noticing it was passed the time they planned to leave.

  “Holy smokes! We’ve got to go now, Jeanie. Bob and Cathy will be wondering where we are. And I’d hate to see him burn those ribs on our account.”

  “Okay, okay, just let me grab my purse,” she said as she came around the kitchen island to retrieve it. She stopped, reached up and put a hand on her son’s cheek. “You and Kate have a nice evening together, all right?”

  “Sure thing, Mom.”

  * * * *

  While Kate was off to Boise, Suki thought she had better check on Whitney again and feed her more sleeping pills. With the delays, it was on her to keep Whitney sequestered and asleep, which was increasingly difficult as the extra days kept piling on. Aggravated that things had not gone according to plan, she set about making yet another special peanut butter sandwich for her captive.

  The plan was supposed to be to kidnap Whitney on Saturday, then call Kate on Sunday and get her here that night or in the morning. Frustrated, she furiously ground a small handful of sleeping pills into a fine powder and mixed them into the peanut butter. Then she hastily spread it on the bread, adding a layer of blackberry jam on top to mask the bitter chemical taste and make it go down easier.

  And then Ethan was supposed to get rid of Kate on Monday, she mumbled to herself, as she rifled through the crowded utensil drawer for a knife. After that, Ethan and I would have left town and disappeared. But noooo! Here it is Wednesday, the deed’s not done and Kate’s gone off to Boise!

  Irritated and distracted, she grabbed at a knife and accidentally sliced her index finger open. “Ow!” Bright red blood oozed out of the gash. Wrapping a kitchen towel around her hand, she ran to the bathroom to put a bandage on it.

  Great! That’s all I need. One more thing going wrong. She hurriedly dressed the cut and went back to the kitchen to bag up the sandwich and leave.

  Suki took the bus downtown to the Underground Tour. Although she owned a small compact car, taking the bus was so much more economical and convenient because of the lack of parking in the downtown area. Plus, this way, she figured there would be no vehicle for anybody to notice and trace back to her.

  As the bus rolled along, she stared out the window, pondering what she and her brother were doing. If Ethan had his way, he’d just let Whitney die, Suki thought to herself. But, it wasn’t Whitney’s fault. It was Kate’s.

  Suki had a soft spot for Whitney. From the first time Suki answered her ad for a roommate, there was an easy friendliness between them. She thought Whitney was sweet and fun to be around, which made it easy for Suki to fulfill her part of the plan.

  Whitney never realized she had gone to junior high with Suki. They weren’t friends back then, although they did share some classes. Whitney was one of the popular girls, not because she had money or was a cheerleader, or anything like that, but because she was outgoing and pretty, and she was friendly to almost everyone.

  Suki, on the other hand, had been one of the quiet girls with her mousy brown hair and a few extra pounds, one of those girls who blended into the background. She only had a couple of girls she would call friends. Back then, she and her friends wished they were Whitney, but all that changed one fateful day when Suki lost her mother.

  The city bus came to an abrupt stop at Pioneer Square and the doors slid open as the air brakes let out a whoosh. Suki stepped off the bus and started for her destination. As the bus pulled away, a light rain began to fall leaving her in a cloud of nauseating exhaust fumes.

  Suki pulled a large gray scarf out of her purse, and she tied it on her head to hide her red curls and shield her from the rain.

  She hurried across the street and entered the building through the heavy wooden doors leading to the Underground Tour. She immediately turned to the right and hurried down the old, painted green steps to the Rogues Gallery souvenir shop in the lower level, hoping none of her co-workers would notice her.

  Since a tour of about thirty people had just ended, the shop was fairly full. The tour visitors going into the souvenir shop was the finale. Suki kept her head down and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as she filed through the shop and back into the underground city.

  Reaching the place where the old blue Dino’s diner sign leaned against the locked door, she pulled it away and let herself in, closing it gingerly behind her. With her flashlight in hand, she carefully trod to the back of the room where Whitney lay tied up and asleep on the dirty old bed.

  “Whitney, wake up.” Suki shook her shoulder and shined the light on her face. Whitney did not move. Suki swallowed hard as a shot of adrenaline jumped through her veins.

  “Whitney! I said, wake up!” She shook her more vigorously and yanked the tape off her mouth with a rip.

  “Ouch! What, what’s going on?” Whitney snapped blearily out of it.

  Suki exhaled forcefully. “Sit up, Whitney,” Suki ordered, as she untied her feet. Whitney was too out of it. “I brought you something to eat, but you need to sit up.”

  “What? What’s happening?” Whitney slurred.

  “You need to eat something. Please sit up.” Suki knew she had to get the sleeping pills into Whitney once more, one way or the other. It wasn’t Whitney’s fault she was in this place, but Suki had to do what had to be done. She had no intention of either her or Ethan going to jail.

  “Leave me...alone. I’m tired. Jus’ wanna...sleep,” Whitney stammered.

  “Here, let me help you sit up.”

  “No. I jus’ wanna sleep.” Her words were slow and garbled.

  Whitney just wasn’t cooperating and Suki was getting desperate. She took the sandwich out of her purse and pulled the slices of bread apart to expose the peanut butter. She threw the jam side on the ground. Then she scraped the drug-filled peanut butter off the bread with her finger. She pried open Whitney’s mouth and shoved the peanut butter inside, holding her mouth closed so she would swallow it all.

  Whitney coughed and sputtered, attempting to shake her head away, but Suki held tight. Suki’s bandage worked loose from her finger as she struggled to hold Whitney’s mouth shut. The gash reopened and began to bleed again, smearing some blood on Whitney’s face and dropping on her sweater.

  Finally, Whitney gave in and swallowed the peanut butter, gasping for air as it stuck in her throat.

  “Drink this!” Suki gave her a sip of water from the partial bottle she had brought, pouring the rest on her fingers to wash off the blood.

  Once Whitney was breathing okay, she put more tape over her mouth and laid her back down to sleep, retying her feet to the bed. Pulling a couple of tissues out of the packet in her purse, she wound them around her finger to contain the bleeding. She left the way she came in and slipped out of the souvenir shop undetected.

  Catching the city bus across the street from Pioneer Square, she rode it home, deep in thought, wondering if she and her brother were doing the right thing. It wasn’t fair Whitney had to suffer for Kate’s sins, Suki told herself, but Ethan didn’t see it that way. He only saw Whitney as a means to his end.

  When she stepped off the bus at her stop, she saw Ethan waiting for her by the entrance to her apartment
building. She dug into her oversized purse and pulled out her set of keys.

  “Hi, Ethan,” she said as she pushed the key into the lock and opened the building’s front door.

  “Hey,” he replied, looking up and down the street, before following her through the foyer and into the elevator.

  “What’s that on your finger?” he asked, noticing the tissue wrapped around it.

  “Oh, I cut myself earlier and it started bleeding again,” she explained.

  “Is it bad?”

  “No, not too.”

  Once inside the loft, Suki hung her purse on one of the coat hooks by the door and shrugged out of her trench coat, hooking it on the coat rack, as well.

  Ethan settled into an overstuffed chair in the living area and removed his ball cap, exposing his unruly brown hair. He stuck his feet up on the small, well-worn coffee table to relax and leaned his head back.

  “I’m going to go and put another bandage on my finger. I’ll be right back,” she called as she walked down the hallway to the bathroom.

  “Did you check on Whitney?” he hollered.

  “Yes,” Suki replied as she walked into the room.

  “Do you think anyone saw you there?” He scratched his head and ran his hand through his thick, wavy hair.

  “No, I was very careful,” she assured him.

  “How was she? Still breathing?”

  “Yes, she’s still breathing. She’s pretty out of it. I had to force-feed the sleeping pills to her today, but I got them down her. I thought you didn’t care about her.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Then why all the questions?”

  “If she has to die for me to get to Kate, so be it. On the other hand, if something gets messed up, we can use her as leverage. So, it’s to our advantage to keep her alive as long as we need her. After that, who freakin’ cares?”

  Suki was taken aback by how cold Ethan had become. He was so far from the funny and sweet brother she had grown up with years ago. Since the tragedy that shattered their family, she had watched her brother change as he spiraled down into depression, and addiction to drugs and alcohol. Aside from looking to score his next fix, his whole life was now focused on getting his revenge.