The Set Up

by Kim Karr

“That’s enough. Just the check,” Alex snaps.

  “No, thank you,” I tell him, trying to soften Alex’s rude behavior.

  Once the waiter is gone, I stare at Alex. And wait for an answer.

  He unfolds his napkin and sets it on his lap. Peppers his egg-white omelet, then takes a bite of his turkey bacon.

  Feeling my palms turn clammy as my heart rate increases, I know better than to press. I have to wait him out. With each passing second of silence that stretches between us, I want to shout across the table for him to tell me. But I know Alex. I know his game. And that would only fuel his fire. He has to be in control. Always. So I sit here and wait. And say nothing more. Make like it’s no big deal. I even fork my ham and cheese omelet, although I have no intention of eating it. My appetite disappeared as soon as I sat down.

  Setting his fork down, he looks at me. “Her name is Tory Worth.”

  “Tom’s daughter?” I ask in shock, dropping my fork to the table with a clank.

  “One in the same. And she’s filed a petition to recover ownership, citing hardship on her father’s behalf.”

  “Does she actually have his proxy?”

  “No; that’s where it gets sticky.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It’s unprecedented but not impossible. Now that she’s taken action, her request for land recovery will go in front of the council a week from Monday. If they agree to hear her case, it will void their previous decision to put the property up for auction. If that happens, there is a good chance the land could revert to her.”

  “Can they do that?”

  He nods, and his grave expression tells me he’s not happy about it either. “They can. And with the bad press you’re getting, I’m going to have a hard time convincing them not to agree to hear her case.”

  I lean over my plate. “Alex, I need that property to build the plant.”

  “Look, I know you want it, and believe it or not I understand why you’d bring closure to that part of your life, to turn something bad into something good, but it might be time to start looking for another site because practically at every turn you’ve made so far, something happens that sabotages progress. At this pace you’ll be dead before you get this plant off the ground.”

  Sabotage. Max’s word. I look at him with nothing but utter seriousness. “I will not give up.”

  “Hey, I don’t want you to, but she has the right to petition to claim it, just like that little girlfriend of yours did too.”

  Ignoring his snide comment, I try to stay focused on the matter at hand. “Where the fuck did Tory Worth come from anyway?”

  He shrugs. “I have no fucking idea, but I have someone looking into her past. And they’re aware that I want to know everything there is to know about her. Where she’s been. What she does. Where she got the money. Who she’s fucking. Even what color panties she wears.”

  There are times when enemies are enemies, and there are times when an enemy can be your closest ally. As I look across the table at Alex, I know he’s on my side. He wants me to build that plant on that very piece of property for his own selfish reasons. He promised the people of Detroit the prosperity it would bring. So on this front, at least, I know we’re united. I draw in a breath. “What can I do to stop this?”

  He sighs, stabbing a piece of fruit with his fork. “Stay out of the news and away from Charlotte Lane. ”

  I shove my plate aside. “What is it with you and Charlotte?”

  Reaching for his wallet, he tosses two twenties on the table. “I think she has some kind of agenda with this Tory Worth and I don’t like it.”

  I pull out my own wallet and toss a twenty on the table, pushing one of his toward him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  He rolls his eyes at the money. “I don’t know anything for sure yet, so I was going to wait to share this, but my investigator has uncovered photos of Tory at the very same B&B that Lane’s aunt owned, and I’m not so certain they aren’t in on this together.”

  My world stops moving. Nausea racks my gut and I thank fuck I didn’t eat anything, because I know I’d toss it on this table if I had. “I gotta go. Keep in touch.”

  “Do what I said,” Alex calls as I move like a bat out of hell.

  Hopping in Jake’s car, I speed down the road. I’m shaking and unsure. I want to give Charlotte the benefit of the doubt. The fact that she never mentioned knowing Tory, though, is some strong evidence that she’s working against me.

  I’m in front of her place in less than ten minutes and pounding on her door in less than two. No one answers. I pound again. And again. And again.

  Where the fuck did she go?

  I head down to the super’s apartment and give him some bullshit excuse that I locked my keys in my girlfriend’s place. After our talk last night, I’m pretty certain he’ll do anything I ask. Sure enough, he’s unlocking her door for me in no time flat.

  “Charlotte!” I yell, anger welling so deep my voice cracks.

  She’s not here, but her suitcases are right next to the door.

  What the hell is she up to?

  Pacing, I circle the table. Walk the hallway. Move about the small space like a caged tiger. Maybe the kitten really is a lion after all.

  Fuck me!

  Keys rattle from the behind the door and I wipe my palms on my pants.

  Charlotte unlocks the door and steps inside, dressed in jeans and a tank top, with her hair pulled back.

  I’m at the sink and don’t move. I don’t want to get too close. I wait for her to close the door and then menacingly say, “Charlotte, you’re home.”

  She screams when she sees me. “Jasper, what are you doing here?”

  I don’t apologize for scaring her. Instead, I just stare at her for a beat with narrowed eyes and then point to the suitcases. “The super let me in. Going somewhere?”

  To say she isn’t flustered would be a lie. “I . . . I think it’s best if I leave town.”

  To say I’m not pissed as fuck would be an understatement. “What? You got what you came here for and now it’s time to leave? What about all your righteous bullshit about setting the record straight? Proving your father’s innocence? Was that just the hook you used to lure me in?”

  She drops her keys to the ground and her entire body begins to tremble. “What are you talking about?”

  I take a step closer. Suddenly the space that seems so small feels like the great divide. “You and Tory Worth,” I spit out.

  Her knees seem to buckle and she reaches for the counter. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Jasper, but your tone is scaring me.”

  I grab her upper arms. “Alex’s investigator uncovered a photo of Tory at your aunt’s bed-and-breakfast.”

  She freezes, and her eyes are doe-like wide innocence. “If she was there, she never told me who she was. I haven’t talked to Tory Worth in twenty years.”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me!” I yell.

  “I’m not. I swear, Jasper. I have no idea what she even looks like.”

  I shake her. “Don’t lie, Charlotte.”

  “I’m not,” she cries, staring into my eyes.

  This time I allow my gaze to meet hers and as I look into her pale blue eyes, I know she’s not lying. She’s telling me the truth. She never could lie to me without shifting her eyes or looking away. Now, my knees buckle beneath me and I stumble to the couch to sit down. What the fuck is going on? If the photo is real, why would Tory go see Charlotte and not tell her who she is?

  Tears stream down Charlotte’s face as she sits on the couch beside me. “Jasper, I’m leaving because I just thought it would be best for you if I wasn’t around while you are trying to clear your name. Everyone in this town already hates me, and I can’t stand for them to transfer those feelings and hate you too.”

  Feeling my stomach twist yet again, I just stare at her. That hole inside me miraculously shrank over the days since she entered my life, but now it feels bigger
than ever.

  Somehow she refrains from blasting me for my behavior. “You don’t look good. Let me get you a glass of water.”

  I can barely even nod. The storm in my chest is raging and there’s no respite anywhere. Yet, despite how I feel, I watch her. Watch the way she moves. The way she reaches for the cup. The crash of the glass against the stainless-steel sink snaps me out of my daze and I rush toward her. Blood oozes from a cut on the tip of her finger. “Let me get you a Band-Aid.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Ignoring her, I hurry into the bathroom and find one in the medicine cabinet. When I come back out, blood is streaming down her hand. “Give it to me.”

  She does.

  Gently I clean it and then wrap it. When I’m done, I ask, “Where did you go just now?”

  Her face is pale, the life in it gone. Even so, she looks at me. “Next door to get my paycheck. I need the money to buy a bus ticket.”

  “Don’t go.” The words slip from my mouth. “I need you. You make everything wrong inside me right. I don’t give a shit what the press says or what anyone believes. What I care about is you and me. JJ and Charlie.”

  Tears stream down her face and she’s shaking her head no. “I can’t do that to you. I saw what being the black sheep did to my father. I couldn’t bear if something like that happened to you.”

  I put my hand on her heart. “I’m stronger than him, Charlotte. And I have you to help me be strong if I feel weak. Don’t you see?”

  “See what?”

  “That you’re not the needy one, I am.”

  She puts her hands on my face and gives a little laugh. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

  “Then stay with me—prove me wrong.”

  Her head tilts to the side in contemplation. “Jasper,” she breathes.

  I’m close to convincing her. “Besides, you have to stay, if not because Will is expecting you to start work on Monday, then because I had that piece-of-shit car of yours towed to my mother’s and I told her I’d be there tomorrow to work on it. And I’m not going alone.”

  That smile that lights me up from the inside is on her face. “Okay, I’ll stay, but only because you begged.”

  “I didn’t beg.”

  She raises a brow.

  “Okay, maybe I begged just a little,” I admit.

  DID SOMEONE SAY PIZZA?

  Charlotte

  THE COFFEE TABLE is pushed to the side. The credenza and TV too. A dozen or so white pieces of paper scattered on the ground separate Jasper and myself—sex, lies, deceit, and murder written on each one.

  After two hours of the two of us writing down everything we knew or could think of surrounding the events of the past week, and at times confessing to each other and sharing things for the first time, we’re now trying to figure out how the pieces fit together.

  The room is hot; there is no breeze coming in the window this Saturday afternoon. I’m standing near the wall in a tank top and panties. Jasper is sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch in his black boxer briefs.

  As homage to Eve, I raise my eyes to the heavens, letting her know that his type of preferred underwear has been discovered. Because beneath it all she didn’t deserve to die.

  The word sabotage is written on the first piece of paper taped to the wall. It’s the only item in that row. Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening something through obstruction, disruption, subversion, or destruction. It seems to be the basis for everything. The problem is why?

  In the next row we’ve started the timeline. The first square is Jasper’s accident from three years ago, and the word delay appears in the space below it.

  Moving to the right, we have Eve’s murder. Beneath it the word delay appears again, but this time we’ve included a square with the word motive. In pyramid fashion, in the row beneath the word motive is a piece of paper that states sex, and below that square is another with Cole’s name on it. Jasper flipped a little when I told him about the email that I had deleted from Cole’s account because of the picture, and then deduced the moment I did it that the photo would still be in Eve’s Sent box. The problem with naming Cole as the murderer is that we can’t link the abandoned plant site to him in any way, and trying to link Jasper’s accident from three years ago to Cole makes absolutely no sense.

  Going back up to the second row and moving to the right is my apartment break-in. The words key and motive appear, followed by a question mark, in the row below. Jasper deduced that my keys could have been copied while at the valet the night of Eve’s murder, which again would rule out Cole, because what in the world would he want from my apartment that he couldn’t have just asked me for?

  “Hang on,” Jasper says just as I’m taping the next piece of paper to the wall.

  I look down at the square he’s pointing to with the words Photo of Eve tied up written on it.

  “Put that one under Eve’s murder.”

  “As a motive?” I ask.

  Jasper ponders this for a moment. “Yeah, for now.”

  Once I finish securing that square, I add a few more to their proper positions and move on to the Tory pile of papers on the floor, which leads to adding intent, Uncle Tom, Mom, and again, motive.

  Crawling out of my own brain while I do this to keep from going insane, I secure the Uncle Tom square under her name, where another giant question mark appears.

  “Why would Tory want an abandoned piece of land that could be nothing but useless to her?” Jasper asks.

  Scowling at her name, I look at the jumble of facts and theories we have left on the floor and think this is absolutely hopeless.

  “Charlotte,” Jasper says softly with concern in his voice.

  My eyes meet his. “I’m okay,” I tell him, and shrug my feelings off before redirecting my attention to the wall. Straightening my spine, I point to the square I just posted. “The same holds true of Uncle Tom, for that matter.”

  “Just add the next one,” Jasper says.

  With tape, I secure the square Paying off the taxes to try to resume ownership beneath Uncle Tom’s name and add a big, fat question mark beside it. My hand shakes as I hold the remaining square. When I look at it, I find myself bubbling up with anger. Crinkling up the piece of paper where Mom is written, I throw it across the room. “This is useless. We’re not detectives. There was a reason I didn’t go into investigative journalism and this is it. We’re never going to be able to figure this out.”

  “Hey.” He curls his finger, motioning me to come to him.

  Slowly, I walk toward him and when I reach him, I bump his bent knees with mine. He takes my hands in his and looks up at me. “I know this is hard for you, but you have to stay strong. Whoever or whatever is behind this will be found out. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  He sways our hands back and forth. “I have to, because I know I didn’t kill Eve and right now things don’t look good for me. So believing whatever the reason was for her murder will come out is the only way I can get through this.”

  My jaw clenches when I think about him having to prove his innocence.

  Jasper drops one of my hands and points to our pyramid. “There is a real possibility we’re reaching here thinking anything at all is connected, because more than likely it isn’t. However, the one single truth that can’t be disputed is that someone killed Eve and buried her body at the site, and that someone wasn’t me.”

  I give him a nod, wishing I had something profound to say. “Maybe we’ve done enough detective work for now.”

  With a nod, he stands. “I think so too.”

  I started to clean up.

  “I’m starving,” he tells me flopping down and stretching out on his side on my small sofa with his feet hanging off. “What do you say we head out to get some food?”

  A look at the clock on the stove tells me it’s almost three, and suddenly I feel very hungry too. I set everything down next to him. “How a
bout a frozen pizza instead?”

  An arm hooks my waist and draws me down. “You still like frozen pizza?”

  I twist to look at him. “Ummm . . . Yes. I do believe it’s the fifth food group.”

  In a fit of much needed laughter, his hard body presses close to mine. “A woman after my own heart.”

  Silence falls between us as our eyes lock. Sex, lies, deceit, and murder might be all around us, but when he looks at me the way he does now, it all falls away. All that’s left in this room is him. The way he smells of sex and a hint of my lavender body wash. The way the slight rise and fall of his chest against my back alerts me to just how close we are. The way he knows just what to say to me at just the right time.

  And to think I almost threw it all away. If he hadn’t come back this morning I’d be on a bus right now and not sitting next to him. Jasper wanting me to stay in Detroit, wanting me by his side, turns me into that kind of schoolgirl I never was. Giddy, bubbly, and happy. Still, I have to wonder if anything as good as this can last. Vacillating between the dream world I wish we lived in and the real one, I can only hope the answer is that it can.

  Popping up, I turn to face him, to say something that might make sense out of everything, but the burn in his stare momentarily stuns me, and the words are lost to the moment.

  His gaze slides achingly slow down my body, from head to toe, and I feel it as if it were his hands touching me.

  Ripples of desire move through me, shooting tingles between my legs. “I should put the pizza in the oven.”

  Taking hold of my wrist, he yanks me back down. “I have a better idea.”

  My body is a little achy from all the sex we’ve been having, but I don’t care—I want more. More. More. More. “I bet you do.”

  His sly grin is almost too much. “What do you say you pack a bag, grab that pizza, and we go to my place?”

  I blink in surprise; because that was not what I expected him to say after the way his eyes had just devoured me. “What about the press camped outside your building?”

  “We can park in the garage and go up through the tunnel. The reporters won’t even know I’m back.”

  I look at the pyramid of reality on my wall and think a little time away and a change of pace wouldn’t be so bad. “Good idea. Give me a few minutes to take a shower.”