Katarina

by Alona Jarden

  "Ready?" he opened the cabin door and stood there with half his body inside and the other half outside.

  Ready" I nodded.

  "Answer quickly. Give me the first thing that comes to mind."

  "All right," I nodded again, breathing deeply and preparing myself for the quick succession of questions.

  His eyes fixed on mine and glittered as he smiled and began immediately.

  "First question, what's your name?"

  "Kate Briggs, but I already know that I was once called Katarina."

  "Where were you born?"

  "In Costa Rica."

  "What's your favorite color?"

  "Green."

  "What do you like best to draw?"

  "Things I dream about at night."

  "At what age were you happiest?"

  "At the age of three," I smiled.

  "Why do you speak Spanish?"

  "That was the spoken language at my parents' home."

  "Who am I?"

  "You're still Andrew, the psycho."

  "Tell me about a good memory you have?"

  "My third birthday party."

  "And a bad one?"

  "The day I truly remembered my third birthday party," I had to admit.

  "Who's the woman who comes back to you in your dreams?"

  "My mother." My quick answer confused me and, at that moment, I understood why he hadn’t feared he would return from Starbucks to an empty cabin.

  He didn’t have to tie me to the bed in order to keep me close to him, for he managed to prove time after time that I knew nothing about my life.

  "That she is" he smiled "I left something in your room, Kate, and I leave you with a task."

  "What's the mission?" My heart started racing with excitement.

  "I want you to combine two of the answers you gave me and see what comes out."

  "Which of the answers?"

  "You'll know once you go back into the room." For a moment it seemed to me that he wanted to lean over and kiss me goodbye, but instead, he said, "Um... I'll be back in a few hours, I'll bring dinner for us."

  "I can cook."

  "Please don’t. Just let yourself do what you love to do and stop thinking it's a waste of time," he sighed and left.

  I stood by the open door for a few minutes, watching him enter his car and disappear into the forest, before I went back into my room.

  On my bed were several sheets of paper and plenty of colors, pencils and brushes. He hadn’t needed to make an effort to keep me his hostage anymore since by that point, I’d already felt more like his best friend.

  Chapter 16

  Mr. Briggs

  Though it had felt like the seconds refused to pass, I nonetheless opened my eyes on the third morning of Kate's absence, refusing to believe it could really have been so long, and yet such a short time.

  I got up in silence, showered, got dressed, and sat on the balcony to sip my coffee. Without her beside me, I felt no joy.

  I wasn’t at all surprised that three knocks on my door were enough to derail the course of events from that day onward to such depths I could hardly get out of.

  "Mr. Briggs, may I have a word with you?" Officer Swenson asked as soon as her eyes met mine.

  "Sure." I gestured, as if inviting her to come in.

  I was smiling on the outside, but was actually filled with great fear for the well-being of my only daughter.

  "Are you here to tell me that you found Kate?" My heart was beating faster than my doctor's recommendations, and immediately tears started to run down my face.

  "No, Mr. Briggs," she answered rather indifferently as she sat down on one of the couches in my living room. "We haven’t found Kate yet."

  "Damn it… I saw you and… I didn’t know what to think so I…" I tried to calm down, but went on mumbling hysterical sentences anyway. "You looked so serious, and… And… I thought that maybe, just maybe…"

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Briggs," she saved me from myself. "You're right. I am serious this morning, as I am coming here under different circumstances."

  "Okay," she got my undivided attention.

  "I went over the documents you provided us with and I have some follow-up questions for you." She opened her notebook and was ready to document each word I said.

  Soon enough, I was once again under her attack. To some of her queries I answered without any problems, others required a thorough thought. But some of her wonderings left me stuttering in a loss of words.

  "I'm on your side, Mr. Briggs." Somehow it didn’t feel like she was. "Help me understand. It sounds like there's only you and Kate in your world. Do you have any friends or family?"

  "There's no one, Officer Swenson. I mean... it's not that there really is no one, it's that I never needed anyone else but Kate."

  "So you have some family and friends?"

  "I do, but not much."

  "Are they aware of what you are going through? Have you shared with them Kate's disappearance?"

  "Not yet." I looked down and continued to lie to her. "I'm not interested in sharing. I don’t want anyone to know."

  "Why is that?"

  "It's stupid."

  "Try me."

  "I'm afraid that as soon as I say she's gone aloud, the situation will become real and tangible."

  "But it is real. She really is missing."

  "Not yet!" I looked up at her. "I still believe that this will prove to be nothing. A misunderstanding, perhaps. In any case, I can’t find the words to explain this situation to anyone else. Not yet."

  "Surely you need some support. Everyone needs at least one important person in their life."

  "I had one. She disappeared three days ago."

  "I understand." She buried her gaze in her notebook and wrote a few words without showing any interest in what I had just said.

  "Officer Swenson, would it be too rude if I asked what exactly did you understand?" I decided to do some exploring of my own.

  "I understand that you, Mr. Briggs, are what we on the police force call 'a loner'. A person who tries to keep his life as private as possible. It's a profile that by its nature attracts suspicion."

  "But I'm not a loner, Officer Swenson. I share my life with my daughter, Kate."

  "Who disappeared mysteriously without any explanation or a ransom demand for her release, Mr. Briggs." She stared at me and seemed to be waiting for a response, which I didn’t provide.

  My throat was dry, my heart was beating fast and I was panicking, but I managed to hide it. At least, I thought I had.

  Her eyes left no place for confusion. Once again, I was suspected of kidnapping Kate and that meant that even three days after her disappearance, they had no clue where to look for her.

  "I want to show you something Officer Swenson," I got up in the middle of yet another one of her questions, went to the balcony and came back with the photo album. "Here," I placed it on her lap. "I'm not a loner. Look at my life with my daughter."

  "Thank you very much." She put her notebook on the coffee table, opened the heavy album and flipped through the many pictures, lingering for a moment on one and then on another, before placing her finger on a group of people standing in the background. "Who are these people?" I regretted not taking that picture out of the album before showing it to her.

  "These are our neighbors."

  "Neighbors? That's great, Mr. Briggs! Can you give me their contact information?"

  "Oh, no... They... These are our neighbors from our former place of residence."

  "Oh… That's too bad. On the other hand, that's great news."

  "How is that?"

  "Well, if you could create such good relationships with your neighbors at that place of residence, I assume you are in contact with your current ones as well."

  "Of course."

  "Can you tell me the name of the tenant living on the first floor, right under your apartment?"

  "His name is Mark," I answered immediately.

  "Great. On
my way down, I'll ask Mark what your name is. Tell me, Mr. Briggs, will he be able to answer me?"

  "Um..." There was no point in lying to her. "I'm not sure about that. Kate is the friendly one of the two of us."

  "I understand." Again with her understanding…

  She took her notebook and added a few additional words in it before getting on with our exhausting conversation.

  "Tell me, Mr. Briggs, how long have you been living in this apartment?"

  "Wow, I can’t remember the exact date."

  "Give or take," she urged me to answer.

  "Well, we've been here since Kate was five or so..." I tried to figure out the exact answer that would satisfy her, but she was no longer interested in it.

  "That's okay, Mr. Briggs. I can check that out in our database. Can you please tell me, where did you live before? Where was this picture taken?"

  "I don’t understand how this is relevant to finding her."

  "You don’t need you to understand, Mr. Briggs. I am the one who needs to understand and, I have to say, I do not."

  All those 'I understand' and yet she didn’t?

  "What are you hoping to find in such questions?"

  "I'm looking for answers, but all I’ve found from the research I have done are more questions."

  "You're not the only one with questions, you know?" I crossed my arms in anger. "I can also throw some of those at you."

  "And I'll be glad to answer them, Mr. Briggs. How can I help you?"

  "Am I one of your main suspects in her abduction?"

  "At the moment, yes."

  "Then why don’t you arrest me?"

  "Because in the meantime, the evidence is not yet strong enough to bring you in for questioning."

  "So, you're saying that I can simply ask you to leave my house?"

  "Certainly, Mr. Briggs. You have every right to do that, but I suggest that you don’t. I suggest that you answer my questions and cooperate with me, since the nature of every lie is for it to eventually be revealed." She stared right into my eyes. "You may think otherwise, but the lies you have told me so far are so obvious and clear."

  I had to hand it to her, she was good. Not only did I not ask her to leave after that, I actually sat there for an additional half an hour while Officer Swenson shared the question marks left in her mind from the half-truths I had told her.

  I knew that if I wanted her to look for Kate in more efficient directions, I had no other choice but to tell her the truth or, at least, a small part of it, in order to calm her concerns about me.

  "I want to go back to the picture you showed me earlier, Mr. Briggs. You never said where it was taken."

  "I did. It was at our former place of residence."

  "And that one?" she pointed at another photo.

  "Yes, that too is from there."

  "And this? And that? And that?" She was smart enough to point out only the pictures taken in Costa Rica, then paused, waiting for my response just before the first photo taken in the United States.

  "Yes, Officer Swenson. All of these were taken in our previous apartment."

  "I can see that, Mr. Briggs." She cleared her throat. "Now I'll ask you a very important question, and before you answer it, please remember that I can find out bits of information on my own. Please keep in mind that I may have already done so before I came here."

  "Okay..." I swallowed apprehensively.

  "Was your previous apartment in the United States?"

  "No." I let go of the reality I had created for the first time in years.

  "Where did you live before you arrived here?"

  "In Costa Rica."

  "If I'm not mistaken, you showed me documents from border control confirming that you came here with your daughter when she was about six months old."

  "Um..."

  "Am I wrong, Mr. Briggs?"

  "No."

  "So we're talking about forging documents? Right?"

  "Yes," I lowered my gaze and released a submissive exhale.

  "Did you really adopt your daughter when she was six months old from an orphanage in Costa Rica?"

  "No." I opened my mouth and for the first time in my life, shared the real age Kate came to be in my possession with someone other than my reflection in the mirror.

  I told Officer Swenson almost everything. I told her Kate had been a little over five when we got here. I told her about the pretense I had taken upon myself and the lies I forced on my beloved daughter. I claimed I was helping Kate settle into her new life so she could grow up with the feeling that she had always had a strong and stable home.

  "But I'm not a part of her kidnapping, Officer Swenson, I swear it."

  "I'm not sure I believe anything you say, Mr. Briggs." She got up and started walking toward the door.

  "Believe this," I stared at her. "I'll do everything to protect my daughter. If I'm your main suspect, you're making a terrible mistake and the cost may be my daughter's life!"

  "I hear you, Mr. Briggs." Officer Swenson turned to me, just before I closed the door behind her, "Yet if you really wanted to help us find her, you'd tell us the whole truth."

  "I did!" frustration got the best of me. "I finally did, just now."

  "No, Mr. Briggs." She shook her head and wasn’t afraid to go on with a direct look into my eyes. "No matter how many details you've chosen to share with me, I always leave you with the feeling that there are bits of information you're still keeping to yourself."

  "Well, the last time I checked, I have the right to keep a small part of my life to myself, don’t I?"

  "For now, Mr. Briggs. That's right for now, but when I officially invite you to the station as a suspect, you'll have to answer all my questions. And you should know I still have many un-asked questions."

  "Jesus Christ, do you really have more to ask?" I rolled my eyes at her with contempt. "What more could you possibly need to know?"

  "Mr. Briggs, would you like to share with me how you came to be in possession of pictures of Kate from such young ages, pictures you are in as well if I’m not mistaken, if you claim you only adopted her when she was a little over five?"

  "Um... That's... I..." I stammered. Damn her. She’d surprised me.

  "That's all right, Mr. Briggs. You have a little more thinking time to come up with another lie about it, but the clock is ticking."

  "No, no. I can explain everything right now."

  "Thank you," she waved her hand and started to walk away from me. "You’ve lied to me enough for one day. We'll continue this unpleasant game of yours the next time we meet and, please..."

  "I know, I know," I interrupted her. "You don’t want me to leave town."

  Chapter 17

  Andrew

  Leaving her that morning had been almost impossible, but I knew I had to report into work. All I’d wanted to do was sit next to her and guide her in how to safely recall her nightmares, although she hadn’t been haunted by them the night before.

  I knew, sooner or later, the investigation into her disappearance would come to me, and I was determined to do everything in my power to delay that inevitable moment.

  It's not like I had planned to get away with it. The final stage of my plan included my extradition to the cops, but it was based on the idea that, by then, Katarina would explain how she hadn’t been kidnapped and that she had stayed with me of her own free will. But, I was afraid we weren’t there yet.

  Her questions and beautiful eyes had made me forget my tight schedule. Our breakfast had taken longer than I’d planned, and I was disappointed in myself for risking being late to work. I just couldn’t help it. Her addictive look made me lose my mind, time and again.

  I drove along the winding road until the trees started to get replaced by the mountainous landscape, and those turned into an urban area. All I had to do was imagine her finding the sheets of paper and drawing equipment I had placed on her bed and a smile of happiness almost immediately spread on my face.

  I didn’t rea
lly understand how she’d stopped drawing in the first place, as it was her one and only passions growing up.

  "Are you Mr. Costa?" two police officers were waiting for me at the Starbucks entrance when I arrived.

  "Yes, I am. Is everything okay?" I pretended not to know why they were there.

  "Everything is fine. Can we sit and talk to you for a few minutes?"

  "Sure. Can I ask what this is about?"

  "We'll explain everything inside," a grim-faced policeman answered, opened the door and led me inside.

  All the employees stared at us as we made our way to Katarina's regular table and I hoped none of them could hear the intense beating of my heart.

  "You're not an easy man to find, Mr. Costa," the policewoman opened with a puzzling remark.

  "I didn’t know someone was looking for me."

  "I'm Officer Swenson and that's Officer Grimes."

  "Nice to meet you, Andrew Costa." I held out my hand and gave the most embarrassed smile I could. Each of them, in turn, returned the gesture and shook my hand.

  "Mr. Costa, do you know why we're here?"

  "No."

  "Do you have an idea or a guess?"

  "Hmm..." I looked around and remembered to roll my eyes, as one usually does when trying to remember or guess something, and then replied, "No."

  "Do you know all the customers who pass through the branch?"

  "Of course not, but I try to get to know the regulars pretty well."

  "Do you know a young woman named Kate Briggs?"

  "I know a Kate, but I'm not sure what her last name is."

  "Is this the girl you're talking about?" Officer Swenson placed a not particularly flattering photo of Katarina in front of me.

  "Yes, of course I know her. That's Kate."

  "What can you tell us about her?"

  "Not much. She is in medical school, comes here every morning at exactly the same time and sits at this table."

  "At this table?" Officer Swenson tried to look surprised, but actually revealed that she knew exactly why she had wanted us to sit at that specific table.

  "Yes," I played along. "She always orders the same coffee and then sits down to sip it here until her boyfriend, Aidan, arrives."

  "Her friend or boyfriend?"

  "Her boyfriend," I replied, as if it was obvious. "Why do you ask?" I didn’t get an answer from her and waited patiently until she finished writing several things in her notebook.