by J. S. Cooper
“No way. Are you serious?” My jaw dropped. “You saw a ghost?”
“Let’s just say I heard a lot of stories and had one experience that has led me to say never say never.”
“Wow.”
“But enough about me. I want to hear about you and all these strange stories? Maybe I can help.”
“I don’t think so,” I said regretfully. I didn’t want to bring anyone else into my crazy life, least of all Blake. Blake was my first friend in the history program, and everything had been great until he’d made a move on me. I just hadn’t liked him that way.
“Bianca, you know I’m here if you need to chat. I’m more than just my good looks. I’ve got a brain as well.”
“Yes, that’s true.” I stared at the Hudson River in front of me and decided to go with my gut. “I do need someone to talk to, if you’re up for that. Just trust me when I say it’s a whole heap of crazy.”
“I love crazy.” He laughed. “Napoléon is my hero.”
“And I’m guessing that’s not Napoleon Dynamite.”
“Bonaparte all the way, baby.” He laughed. “But seriously, I have a bit of a break now, if you want to meet up for a coffee.”
“I’m in Riverside Park.” I stood up and started walking. “I should really be getting home, though. I need to find a locksmith to change my locks.”
“Where in Riverside? I’m at One Hundred and Sixteenth Street. I could come meet you if you’re close.”
“What are you doing at One Hundred and Sixteenth Street?” I asked, curious.
“I had my interview at Columbia today.” He sounded excited. “They’re really thrilled about my research. I might even get a grant.”
“Wow.” I knew a hint of jealousy was in my voice. That could have been me, going to Columbia, teaching freshmen about the past, instead of writing articles about movies that got trolled by fans of actors who hated other actors.
“Who would have thought it, right? But I don’t want to get too excited. It’s not a sure thing. As the French say, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”
“The French say that?” I giggled, feeling lighthearted for the first time in a week.
“Not in front of me, but who knows what they say behind closed doors.”
“Oh, Blake, you always make me laugh.” I giggled again and started walking toward the closest entrance. “I’m coming out of the park. I’ll call you back with the cross street.”
“Great.”
After a few minutes I called Blake and said, “I’m at Ninety-Sixth Street.”
“That’s going to take me a bit.” He laughed. “But I’m on my way. I’m coming down Amsterdam and then will cross over.”
“I’ll met you halfway.” I headed out of the park, suddenly excited to see my old friend. Yes, things had ended awkwardly, but we’d always had a good relationship before that. I needed to speak to someone with no knowledge of everything that had been going on, someone who could offer me advice from a completely unbiased point of view—and I knew that person was Blake.
“So that’s about it, then.” I looked at Blake’s face to see if he thought I was crazy yet. “I don’t know who to trust or why any of this is happening or what to think, and I’m driving myself crazy.”
“You really like him, don’t you?” Blake’s brown eyes were warm and supportive as he sat across from me in Tom’s, the diner we loved to frequent on Broadway because the facade outside had been used in Seinfeld.
“What?” I sipped my coffee, perplexed at his question. “Like who? And that’s your response after everything I just told you? That’s the most important question after I just told you I was kidnapped?”
“It’s important, yes.” He nodded. “Not that your being kidnapped isn’t important, but I’ve never seen you like someone before.”
“Oh.” I blushed and looked down. Maybe this had been a mistake. Maybe he still wasn’t over me.
“I’m sorry.” He leaned over and touched my hand. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
“It’s fine.” I sighed. “I didn’t expect you to believe me anyway.”
“Oh, I believe every word you said.” He suddenly looked serious. “We need to find Larry or Steve.”
“We?” I looked up at him in surprise.
“I’m going to help you.” He grinned. “I’m a regular detective, you know. I don’t just piece together clues of the past. I piece together pieces of the future as well.”
“You’re a goof.” I grinned. “A goof I’ve missed. And to answer your earlier question, yes, I really like him.”
“Be still my beating heart.” He clutched his chest and made a face. “For once I saw your face, I knew you were destined for another. My heart was slow to catch up and now it’s hiding for cover.”
“Blake.” I rolled my eyes. “Did you pick up poetry as a side job in France?”
“No, but I did meet a nice French mademoiselle who taught me that to love and lose is the best experience one can go through in life.”
“Oh?” I frowned.
“She was dramatic.” He grinned. “She made my boring life more dramatic. She brought color and pain and poetry to my paltry life, and I’m grateful to her for it.”
“I’m glad you had that experience.”
“I guess we all have to grow up at some point.” He cocked his head and smiled. “So when do we go back to Long Island to visit Mrs. Renee?”
“What?”
“She seems like the best link to everything, right?”
“After that call, I’m not sure she wants to see me again.”
“Who cares what she wants?” He shrugged. “You want answers, right? Answers don’t wait for convenient times.”
“I guess.” Beep beep. I grabbed my phone and saw a text from Jakob.
Where are you?
What do you want?
To see you. To kiss you.
I put my phone facedown on the table and turned back to Blake. “Sorry about that.”
“Let me guess, that was Jakob, also known as Mattias Bradley?”
“You do catch on quickly.” I nodded my head admiringly. “How did you know?”
“You looked happy when you looked at the screen.” He licked his lips. “So obviously that means you like him, but don’t want to like him.”
“How can I like him in these circumstances?” I sighed. “Rosie thinks I’m crazy.”
“Eh.” He made a face, and I knew what he was thinking: Don’t listen to that jealous bitch. Blake had never cared for Rosie.
“She thinks that I should trust David more than Jakob and see if I can talk to him to get some more answers.”
“And what do you think?” Blake leaned back, his serious face set off by his tight, black curls. I stared at him, handsome and nerdy, and wondered why I’d never given him a chance romantically. He was the sort of guy I should have been with. I would feel safe with him. The problem was, I’d never had that chemistry with Blake.
“I think David is less trustworthy than Jakob.” I made a face. “Though, I don’t really know why.”
“That’s the problem. We don’t have many concrete facts, do we?” Blake pulled out a pen and paper from his notepad. “Let’s note down the facts that we do have.”
“Primary research.” I grinned.
“Nothing better, right?” He wrote facts in bold letters at the top of the page. “We know for a fact that your father died. We know for a fact that he used to work at Bradley Inc., we know for a fact that your mother died in a car crash, we don’t know if that was an accident or not, we know that there were people that benefited from your mother’s death, but we do not have an exhaustive list of those people.”
“Well, we know Jeremiah Bradley was the number one beneficiary,” I burst out.
“No, we don’t know that for a fact.” He shook his head. “Distance your emotions from the facts, Bianca. Don’t forget you’re a historian first.”
“This is my family, Blake.”
>
He gave me a sympathetic glance and continued, “We know for a fact that David and Jakob are brothers. We know for a fact that Larry Renee was your father’s lawyer and also a lawyer for Bradley Inc. We know for a fact that you were kidnapped. We know for a fact that a third man, named Steve, was on the island with you and Jakob. We know for a fact that Steve and Larry have disappeared. What else do we know for a fact?”
“We know that Jakob is Mattias. And we know that he kidnapped me for revenge, and we know that he wanted to stop me from preventing the merger from going through.”
“Actually, no. Emotions don’t make good facts. And neither do assumptions. There is no substantiated proof that makes any of these things fact.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “He all but told me that he kidnapped me for revenge.”
“Yes, and he also told you that he and David were in on it together, yet they both seem to hate each other. And then there is the matter of Steve. What happened to him and why did he turn rogue? These are questions we must think about before we can even claim to know the answers as fact.”
“You’re not helping, Blake.” I shook my head.
“Let’s think of all the reasons why David and Jakob would want to kidnap you and then fall out.”
“Maybe David got mad because Jakob released me earlier than he was supposed to.”
“Perhaps.” Blake nodded. “That would make sense on a very base level.”
“Are you calling me stupid?”
“No.” He grinned and leaned forward. “I’m saying that this is a much more complex subject.”
Beep beep.
Forget the kisses then. Can I see you?
No.
Please?
No.
Where are you?
Don’t you already know?
No.
I’m with a friend. A male friend. I knew as soon as I wrote the words that I was being catty, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I see. Good-bye.
“Sorry about that. It was Jakob again.”
“He really wants to see you.” Blake looked thoughtful.
“He just wants to get some.” My face reddened as I realized what I’d said. “Or maybe wants to tell me some more lies.”
“Maybe he likes you as well.” Blake scribbled something on his pad. “That could be a major clue.”
“What could be a clue?”
“Maybe that’s part of the reason he and David fell out. Maybe he strayed from the plan because he likes you.”
“I doubt it very much.” I made a face, but my stomach jumped in joy at the possibility. “I like him and I wish it was true and I can’t stop thinking about him, but that’s part of why I’m so paranoid about him.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. It’s only natural to be confused. I’d be confused as well. When I went out with Astrid, I had no idea if I was coming or going.”
“Astrid?” I smiled widely.
“Yes, Astrid.”
“Unique name.”
“Enough about me and Astrid, let’s focus on you and your daytime-TV love triangle.” He shook his head. “But first, let’s go and get a locksmith for your door. And do me a favor—don’t give anyone a copy.”
“I’ll give one to Rosie. We share keys in case we get locked out.”
“For now, don’t do that.” He looked serious. “Rosie is a suspect.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. “No way. Rosie is not a suspect.”
“You can give her a key when we rule her out for sure.”
“Blake, Rosie is not a suspect!”
“Everyone is a suspect right now, Bianca.”
“You’re not.”
“Well, that’s because you know you can trust me.” He grinned and I smiled back at him weakly. How many people were going to tell me that I could trust them? Those words meant absolutely nothing to me.
“Yeah.”
“Also, I have an idea.”
“An idea?” I leaned forward. “What’s that?”
“I’m going to see what I can find out about this elusive Steve.”
“Oh?”
“He’s the biggest clue we have right now.” Blake nodded to himself. “I think if we figure out who this Steve is and what his motivations were, we can start to crack this code.”
“Don’t you think we should be focusing on the Bradleys? I feel like David and Jakob will have the biggest clues.”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “The most obvious suspects are usually the least likely culprits.”
“Or the most likely.”
“They are definitely involved, but I don’t see either of them as being the kingpin or the don, so to speak.”
“The don?” I sipped my coffee again. “Interesting you use that term. I met a guy recently who mentioned the Mafia to me.”
“You think the Mafia is involved?” Blake’s eyes lit up.
“No.” I shook my head. “I sincerely doubt it.”
“Yeah, me too. Kidnapping you and taking you to an exotic island is not their style. More like kidnapping and locking you in a black cellar with rats scuttling around your feet as the stench of rotting bodies nauseates you, while they whip you for information.”
“Really, Blake?”
“Sorry.” He made a face. “Hey, that’s a good thing though, right?”
“What? That I’m not in a damp cellar with rats nibbling on my toes?”
“No, that we have another fact.” He scribbled on his notepad. “Not kidnapped by the Mafia.”
“Yeah, that’s really helpful.” I shook my head.
“I told you.” He grabbed his pad and jumped up. “Let’s go and take care of your lock, then I’m going to head to the library to do some research.”
“Library?” I dropped a $5 note on the table.
“Yeah, I don’t want anyone tracking my IP address. Who knows what sites I’m going to have to hack into to get information on Steve?”
“Blake, I don’t want you to get into any trouble.”
“It’s no trouble.” He looked around him. “This will be fun.”
“I’m glad you think so.” I made a face at him as we walked to the subway station.
“Hey.” He grabbed my shoulders and stopped walking. “I don’t think this is fun fun. It’s scary as shit, but I don’t want you to focus on that. Focusing on all the psychos in the world isn’t going to help us solve this.”
“I know.” I reached over and hugged him. “I’m glad you called me. I don’t think I could have asked for anyone better to help me.”
“You’re not going to start ignoring my calls again, are you?”
“I wasn’t ignoring your calls,” I lied.
He rubbed the top of my head. “It’s okay, Bianca.” He whispered in my ear, “I’m the last person you need to be worried about right now.”
“Go to the library now.” I smiled at him widely, feeling positive and strong. “I’ll be okay. I can deal with the lock. You go now and start researching.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive.” I nodded. “I got this.”
The letter was waiting on my doormat when I arrived home. It looked like the first letters I’d received. My heart didn’t even skip a beat as I opened the envelope. I read the letter quickly, trying not to read too much into the words.
It’s time for you to know the truth. It’s time for me to lay all my cards on the table. It’s time for me to make you mine once and for all.
Mattias
I walked into the apartment and went directly to my bedroom. I collapsed onto the bed, laying my head back on the pillows that had supported me and Jakob just a couple of days ago. So he had decided to come clean. I can’t say that I was shocked, but I was surprised. Why had he decided that now he wanted to tell the truth? Did he think he owed it to me? Did he feel guilty that he had taken me once again? Did he feel my pain knowing that my parents weren’t as squeaky-clean as I’d thought?
Or
was he doing this because I told him I was with another man? I couldn’t believe that I was playing games with him. Not when so much was going on, but I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking about him. I was glad that Blake had contacted me. I wondered what he would find on Steve. I was annoyed that I hadn’t thought to research Steve myself. I just wasn’t thinking logically, but I knew that was due to the absolute confusion in my life. I’d tried to be light with Blake, but I was still pretty shattered about everything.
I wasn’t sure what devastated me more: knowing that Jakob had betrayed my trust or knowing that my parents weren’t who I’d thought they were. All those years, I’d believed that my father was a broken man because of my mother’s death. I’d thought he was heartbroken because he’d lost her. Now I didn’t know what to believe. I didn’t want to believe that my father was responsible for my mother’s death. I didn’t want to believe that my mother had had an affair. However, I wanted to hear what Jakob had to say. I wanted to know why he’d lied about who he was. I wanted to know if what we had experienced together had been real in any way.
Then I remembered something my father had told me when I was a teenager with my first crush. What was it he’d said? “Be careful who you give your heart to, Bianca. You never know who will rip your heart out so completely that you’ll never be able to get over it.” At the time, I’d just put it down to his still being depressed by my mother’s death, but now that I thought back to it, it could have had so many other meanings. Maybe she had cheated on him. Maybe my mother wasn’t the saint I’d grown up thinking she was. Did she ruin Jakob’s parents’ relationship? Had she had another child? Did I have a sibling? If so, where was the person? And did that person know about me?
I shivered as I realized that someone who knew I was a relative could be walking around the city while I knew nothing. It saddened me to know that everything I thought about true and eternal love might be false. My poor dad! How he’d suffered. I tried to banish my thoughts of self-pity—they were useless to me. I needed to remember what Blake had said. I needed to think about everything objectively, without letting my emotions get the better of me. I couldn’t look at Jakob as my lover or my enemy. I had to look at him as a man with an agenda. An agenda I needed to get to the bottom of.