Thou Art With Me

by Debbie Viguié

  “Keep your eyes open tomorrow. We’ll meet again tomorrow night to talk more,” the man said.

  “Okay, but not here, please. This building always gives me the creeps after dark,” she said.

  “I don’t know why you’re always so jumpy. It’s just a storeroom.”

  “Yeah, but you weren’t in here earlier. There were noises.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, just noises. Creaking sounds I guess.”

  “It’s a building. They do that at night.”

  “Yeah, but for a minute I could swear you were here before you actually came in.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. It was like there was another presence in here.”

  “Now you’re just losing it. You’ve been watching too many episodes of that ghost hunting show on the Escape! channel.”

  “I have not.”

  “Fine. Look, I’ll figure out somewhere else we can meet tomorrow night. Now let’s go before someone catches us in here.”

  When he heard footsteps moving toward the front door, Jeremiah risked standing, trying to get a look at them. It was no use, though. It was too dark to even make out hair color or anything else significant about either of them.

  He heard the door open and close. He waited a minute then made his way to the back of the building to see if there was anything he hadn’t been able to see in that area before.

  It was fortunate that the man had been so dismissive of her concerns, particularly about feeling a presence in the building. If he’d been at all smart he would have at least done a cursory investigation before writing her and her feelings off the way he did.

  Jeremiah went through the rest of the building but didn’t find anything suspicious. When he made it back to the front he stood for a moment with his ear against the door. He couldn’t hear any sound from the outside so he slowly opened the door and slipped out, closing it behind him.

  He made his way swiftly and quietly back to the bungalow. He didn’t run into any patrolling staff members which was a relief.

  When he walked into the room Cindy got up from where she’d been sitting at the table, ran over, and hugged him tight.

  “I was so worried!”

  “I’m okay. I’m here,” he said, lightly stroking her back.

  She finally pulled away and moved to take a seat on her bed. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

  “Nothing tangible, and no sign of Malcolm, but I did overhear two staff members conspiring together.”

  “What about?”

  “That’s the thing. I’m not entirely sure.”

  He quickly filled her in on what he’d overheard. She listened intently and when he was finished she sat silent for a moment.

  “Any thoughts?” he asked.

  “Do you think they’re only targeting men?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. It’s possible they’re targeting a certain profile and it just so happens that the initial obvious candidates are men. Of course, they lumped Dorothea and Flynn together. That could have been deliberate or just them being imprecise.”

  “They have money, but I don’t know how well off Jack and Levi are in that area.”

  “It might be worth finding out. I know Mark had mentioned that Malcolm was wealthy.”

  “I would almost think that whatever they’re doing, Malcolm couldn’t have been the first,” she said.

  “Given what they said and how they said it, I came to the same conclusion.”

  “Do you think Mark can track down some of the former guests here and see if anything strange happened to them?”

  “Not without a list of who has been a guest,” Jeremiah said. “I might be able to get him one off of the computer system.”

  Cindy nodded. “Before we risk that, let’s talk to him.”

  “Agreed.”

  “So, what now?”

  “I think we should get some sleep. I have a feeling we’re going to need to be on our toes tomorrow.”

  Jeremiah and Cindy sat on pillows, legs crossed, facing each other. They were less than an arm’s length apart and the first thing Jeremiah noticed was that it promoted an immediate feeling of intimacy. It also meant that they were invading each other’s personal space. He had been closer to her before, holding her, kissing her. They had rarely been this close in public, though, except for the occasional quick hug.

  He had to remind himself that no one was looking at them. Everyone in the room was busy looking at their own partner. He still felt like they were on display, though, for all the world to see. It made him uncomfortable.

  He wasn’t ready for their relationship to be public. Once people knew that they were dating it would change so many things. It would also put incredible pressure on both of them. Disapproval was bound to come from both sides. While some couples might just have to deal with friends and family, Cindy and he had to concern themselves with the synagogue and church families that they worked for. While not families in the strictest sense of the word, they tended to act like families with all the good and the bad that came with that. He was fairly certain they wouldn’t be getting much, if any, support from the synagogue. He suspected that it would be the same for the church.

  If they both had different jobs, different lives, they could hold their breaths and wait out the storm. The problem was, they didn’t. He was the rabbi, the spiritual leader of the synagogue and expected to set an example. He could already hear what people were going to say. It didn’t help that he’d already gotten a taste of it both from Marie and from his family in Israel.

  Cindy worked for the church. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to object to paying the salary of someone who was dating outside the faith. In his mind he pretty much was sure how things would ultimately play out. The only question was, which one of them would get fired first?

  “What’s wrong?” Cindy asked, frowning as she stared at him.

  “It’s nothing. Sorry, just lost focus there for a moment,” he said.

  He was stressing out too much. He needed to just slow down and handle one problem at a time. And the problem at hand was figuring out what had happened to Malcolm.

  For this first large group session Arnold was in charge and he was walking around the perimeter of the room as everyone got settled, urging different couples to sit closer together. By chance the closest couple to them was Dorothea and Flynn. Other familiar faces weren’t that far away. Whether or not that was by accident or design, he wasn’t sure.

  Cindy was wearing another new looking outfit. She was wearing a turquoise silk tank top and white shorts that were very short by her standards. With her legs crossed it made the shorts seem even shorter. He’d certainly never seen as much of her legs as he was staring at now.

  She wasn’t the only woman in the room in shorts. It was a pretty warm day for February. On top of that the buildings were temperature controlled which meant that it was very comfortable inside.

  “Alright, everyone, we’re going to start by spending an entire minute staring into your spouse’s eyes. Don’t say anything, just look. Don’t break the eye contact. It might be intimidating, but trust me the shared vulnerability is a good thing. I will tell you when you can stop, and it will seem like longer than a minute has passed, but I assure you it won’t have. Alright, look each other in the eyes beginning now.”

  Jeremiah stared into Cindy’s eyes. She was smiling back at him for the first several seconds. Color began to creep into her cheeks slowly and it made her look a bit more agitated. He could relate. He didn’t often allow himself the luxury of staring at her this intently. When he did it always brought so many emotions to the surface.

  Cindy was biting her bottom lip now. He wondered what she was thinking about.

  After what seemed like an eternity Arnold spoke up. “Okay your minute is over. Now I noticed some of you followed directions while others seemed to be having a hard time with simple instructions. Don’t worry, you get
another shot at doing this right. This time I want you to picture the person across from you as they were when you first met and fell in love with them. Don’t think of everything that has happened since. Ignore the wrinkles, the gray, the fights you seem to repeat over and over. Just look at them and see the person you first connected with. Ready, go.”

  It was hard to look at Cindy now and think of how she had been when they met. She had been so timid, so afraid back then. Since then, though, she’d been evolving into a tigress. As to when or how he’d fallen in love with her, he couldn’t say. It had just happened. A thousand tiny moments had come together to build something strong and powerful.

  He had helped change Cindy. He knew that. But she had done just as much to change him. Because of her he had friends that were like family. He belonged. And he was willing to risk getting hurt by being close to her.

  “Okay, very good, now say the first thing that comes to mind,” Arnold said, his voice interrupting the spell.

  “I love you.” Cindy, Jeremiah, Flynn, and Dorothea had all said it at the same time. With his sharp hearing Jeremiah could also make out a few other similar sentiments around the room. Some of the other things spoken, though, surprised him.

  “You blinked first. I win.”

  “Did you remember to turn the stove off?”

  “Well, that was awkward.”

  “I think you’re getting gray hairs in your eyebrows. Can you dye those?”

  “Dang, you’ve gained a lot of weight.”

  “I told you this was going to be stupid.”

  It was a mixture of male and female voices that had less than romantic things to say to their significant other. It was bewildering. Although he thought for a moment he caught Cindy smirking at a couple of them.

  “Remember, this is not a competition. Not between each other and not with the other couples,” Arnold chided gently.

  “If it was, we’d totally be winning,” Cindy whispered.

  Jeremiah barely held back a laugh. He’d just been thinking the same thing.

  “Actually, I think you’ll find we’re winning,” Flynn whispered next to Jeremiah.

  Jeremiah turned and regarded the older man who had an impish look on his face.

  “No way!” Cindy whispered, barely keeping her voice down.

  “Care to bet on it?” Flynn asked.

  “Okay, that’s enough. Please don’t bet him. He likes to bet on everything and he usually wins,” Dorothea said. “Honestly, it still amazes me sometimes that on our first trip here I didn’t lose him to the casino.”

  “Okay, settle down everyone,” Arnold said. “It’s not social time, it’s work time.”

  Dorothea actually giggled like a schoolgirl and Flynn whispered, “I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.”

  Without warning a piercing wail filled the building.

  12

  Cindy jumped, startled, as the alarm ripped through the air, shredding whatever sense of calm and tranquility had been present. She glanced up at Arnold who looked completely startled. She watched him quickly pull himself together.

  Arnold clapped his hands together twice. “Alright everyone, this is a fire drill. Please move quickly and safely to your nearest exit and meet me outside under the large palm tree.”

  Jeremiah was on his feet in a flash, and, after giving Cindy a hand up, he turned and helped Dorothea and Flynn up as well. Together they exited through one of the sliding glass doors and moved to the palm tree where they were the first to arrive.

  “In all the years we’ve been coming here we’ve never had to do a fire drill,” Dorothea said.

  “Maybe it’s a new policy,” Cindy said, not wanting to worry the other woman.

  One thing was clear to her. Arnold had been just as startled as everyone else in that room when the alarm went off.

  Is it a false alarm or is there actually a fire somewhere on the property? she wondered.

  She could tell Jeremiah was wondering the same thing. She reached out and took his hand. He closed his around hers and it made her feel safe and secure. Warmth flooded through her as it always did at his touch.

  “Mark, you okay?”

  A hand descended on Mark’s shoulder and he jumped. He looked up and saw Liam standing over him, an amused look on his face. “Diaper duty last night?” Liam asked.

  “How can you tell?” Mark asked with a yawn.

  “Well, you’re usually not in the habit of falling asleep at your desk for one thing.”

  “The twins kept tag teaming all night. You know, I swear sometimes they do it on purpose, but just when it’s my night to deal with it. They never do that to Traci on her nights.”

  Liam chuckled. “You think they’re plotting against you now, wait another year or two. Then you’ll be in real trouble.”

  “Thank you so much for that,” Mark said sarcastically.

  “Is that paper on your desk that didn’t manage to hold your attention urgent?”

  Mark glanced down. “No, it’s a department memo. You’ve probably got a copy on your desk. You know that tech guy up in northern California who killed his wife last year, and it was all in the news for weeks?”

  “Jason Todd? What about him?”

  “Apparently they can’t put together a jury pool up there because there was too much press.”

  “And everyone already thinks he’s guilty?”

  “Exactly. Looks like they’re going to move the trial down here.”

  “When?”

  “End of next month.”

  “And why are we getting a memo about it?”

  “The department’s been advised by our colleagues up north that there’s a high likelihood that there are going to be demonstrators.”

  “Lovely,” Liam said with a frown.

  “Yeah, I guess they can’t move this guy two feet without people getting wind of it and showing up. There’s also already been two assassination attempts against him.”

  “So now it gets to be our problem.”

  “Exactly. So, apparently a plan is being worked up to handle things once he gets down here. They’ll keep us informed as we get closer, etc., etc.”

  “Sounds like a good time to take vacation.”

  “It would be, but the captain’s already put his foot down on that one. No one’s going anywhere.”

  “Thank you northern California for that,” Liam said, rolling his eyes. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

  “Is it a bad thing if I tell you that I can’t honestly remember?”

  “Yes, come on, let’s get out of here for a while.”

  Mark followed Liam outside. In the parking lot he yawned again.

  “I think I should drive,” Liam said.

  “Good idea,” Mark told him as he handed over the keys.

  Ten minutes later they were sitting down in a coffee shop. As soon as they’d ordered Liam leaned forward.

  “So, what did you find yesterday?” he asked.

  “Quite a lot,” Mark admitted. “Unfortunately all of it just led to more questions and no answers.”

  Liam nodded slowly, frowning as he did so.

  “What is it?” Mark asked.

  “You figured out a while back who Paul really was, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I got his birth name and a rough idea of what his life was like before he assumed the other kid’s identity.”

  “So, here’s what I don’t understand. What are you looking for now? You got the answers you set out to find after his death.”

  “Traci has asked me the same thing.”

  “Then what’s the deal?”

  “I guess I just don’t feel like the case is closed, at least, not for me.”

  “Maybe what you really mean is that you haven’t personally found closure. That’s not the same thing.”

  “I know that,” Mark said, feeling defensive. “And you’re right, I haven’t, but there’s more to it than that.”

  “Then tell me what it is,” Li
am urged.

  Mark sighed. “I think Paul’s real father is still out there somewhere. The man needs to be brought to justice for his crimes.”

  “Agreed, but how do you plan on pulling that off? You’re not with the F.B.I., you’re a Pine Springs cop. You don’t have the resources to track this man across the country if he still even exists. And the trail is so cold at this point that there’s very little use in trying.”

  “I know that, but it still keeps me up at night sometimes. Then, yesterday, something happened. His widow came to me with a coded piece of paper and a key that a lawyer had delivered to her after Paul didn’t show up for his annual meeting. After months of having no clue what to do with them, she gave them to me.”

  Liam frowned. “So, he had an annual meeting with this lawyer and had given him instructions to pass these things on if something happened to him and he failed to attend one of those meetings?”

  “Apparently so.”

  “That sounds like the threat people are always making in movies. ‘If anything happens to me, this all goes public’ sort of thing.”

  “I know.”

  “So, what did the message say?”

  “I don’t know. I’m going to need some time to figure out how to decode it. I’m hoping it will give me some clue about the key, because I haven’t the foggiest notion where to start on figuring out what it goes to.”

  “And the evidence you were worried about yesterday that could have been destroyed?”

  “I’m not sure it wasn’t. It turns out the attorney who gave her those things was killed in a car accident. When I started asking questions one of the partners at the firm began shredding documents and fired the guy’s assistant.”

  “Would she be the one I tracked down yesterday?”

  “Yes, thank you. She led me to where the attorney kept files he didn’t want others to see. One of them had a picture of Paul in it and pages of writing in that same code. Apparently they were friends since college.”