by Rick Blechta
Picking up her cell phone, she speed-dialed Roy’s personal number.
“Moody.”
“Roy? It’s Shannon.”
“What’s up, gorgeous? Your girl doin’ okay in Sunnyvale?”
“Looks like it, but I’ve got a bit of a problem.”
“How can I help?”
“I need to go to New York to do some poking around, and I don’t have anyone I can spare to hold the fort here while I’m gone. You got a likely candidate?”
“Let’s see...” She could hear him rustling papers. “Yeah, I got just the guy. I’ll call my man Marvell and tell him to hustle on up there. Is tonight okay?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll hopefully be in the Big Apple by then, so maybe it would be best for me to speak with him before I leave. He can use this motel room. When can I expect his call?”
“You’ll hear from him shortly.”
“I’ll also inform Jackie. And Roy...”
“Yeah?”
“You’re charging me for all this. I want to make that clear. This is not a freebie.”
“I wouldn’t think of insulting you.”
“I’m not kidding, Roy. I expect an appropriate bill.”
He sighed. “I know better than to argue with you. But you have to let me give you the bill over dinner.”
Shannon couldn’t help smiling. She’d always suspected Roy was sweet on her. With Rob, her ex, out of the way, he probably figured he finally had a chance.
“We’ll see.”
By the time Shannon hit the road, she’d done a quick trip out to the surveillance position to leave a message bringing Jackie up to speed. There she’d received the welcome news that Goode had made contact with Olivia the previous night.
Marvell had been told what was expected of him. She’d left the map that she had annotated, showing the location of the motion detectors and the cameras she and Jackie had found – and the route to follow to avoid them. On the phone, he had seemed experienced and competent. She hoped it proved to be true. She was leaving him with a big responsibility.
As her plane lifted off, however, she felt confident she had everything in hand.
Chapter 20
Music from the speaker in the ceiling flooded Jackie’s room at half past six the next morning. If she’d had a pillow, she would have jammed it over her head and tried to continue sleeping.
“This is worse than being at some goddamn summer camp,” she mumbled as she struggled to sit up on the bare mattress. The stiffness was back in spades.
Even with several layers of clothes, she was still chilled to the bone. Maybe they’d also turned off the heat to help drive home their point.
Getting in the shower, she’d only managed to soap up her hair when the water went cold.
Pounding on the tile wall with her hands, she yelled out, “You bastards!” knowing that if anyone were listening, they’d know they were ahead on this round. She didn’t care.
Having to rinse off with ice cold water didn’t improve Jackie’s mood one iota. At breakfast, she sat with her Family, but for two very different reasons. First, she didn’t want to be too much on the radar of the people running the camp, but also, feeling so cold and groggy from lack of sleep, she needed to be able to get a decent breakfast in her stomach. Deciding that playing ball was the way to go this morning, she joined the line and let them serve all the food her plate could hold.
Randy grinned at her across the table. “Looks like somebody didn’t have a very good night.”
“Piss off.”
Mary, sitting next to Jackie, shook her head disapprovingly.
Barry wandered over and sat on the empty chair to Jackie’s left, forcing her to move over a bit. In his hand he had a metal thermal coffee cup. It looked as though it could hold about a quart. He was also wearing baggy shorts and flip-flops, completing his head counsellor ensemble. She gritted her teeth and kept on shovelling in the food.
“You seem pretty hungry this morning, Jackie. Is your appetite returning?”
She fixed him with one of “those” expressions. “My appetite never went away.”
“You probably had a pretty rough evening. Do you understand why we did what we did?”
“I have no idea how taking away my bedding and making me freeze my ass off all night is going to help me kick a drug habit I don’t think I have.”
“Jackie, Jackie. It’s all part of helping you understand that there are consequences for everything you do. Part of facing up to the problems we all have is understanding the concept of consequences.”
“Barry,” she said without looking up,“why don’t you go peddle your bullshit somewhere else and let me finish my breakfast in peace?”
Ten seconds later, two guys in brown appeared on either side of Jackie, lifted her up bodily and carried her out of the dining hall. The place went silent as they moved through the room.
Once outside, they put her down on the grass and walked back to the building, but stayed at the entrance. Clearly, they weren’t going to allow her in again.
“The things I do for my job,” she grumbled as she started down the walkway leading to the building where her room was.
Partway there, she paused, then took a walkway going off to the right, towards the building where Olivia had her room.
With her hands shoved deep in the pockets of her sweatshirt, she went along slowly, kicking at small stones and sticks in her path as if she were deep in thought and very unhappy. She was positive someone would be watching.
Thinking she might need to get into Olivia’s building unobserved, it was best to see the place in daylight to get some idea of how that might be accomplished. She was going to use this golden opportunity to try to find out all she could.
The rest of the morning was a giant snore: a one-on-one session with Barry and some woman who sat there nodding like a bobble-head doll and scribbling notes at a furious pace any time Jackie spoke. Coming up with enough BS to fill the two-hour session was surprisingly easy once she realized that even if she changed stories later on, it would just be put down to her mental or psychological state. The more erratic they thought she was, the better.
After that she underwent another session with the acupuncture needles.
Lunchtime found Jackie chowing down on a very good chef’s salad, the first decent meal they’d served as far as she was concerned. She made doubly sure to keep her mouth shut because she was so hungry.
Having arrived at the dining hall early, she was the first to sit down at the table in the back corner the space cadets seemed to favour. The room was beginning to fill up, but there was no sign of them.
A short, heavyset man slid right into the seat Olivia had used the evening before – and the one Jackie hoped she’d use again.
“Mind if I join you?”
Jackie wanted to snarl,“Yes! I do mind!” but didn’t know if that would get her removed again.
For the next five minutes, he tried to start up a conversation. She answered monosyllabically, not needing some jerk trying to make time with her and possibly queering the deal if Olivia showed up. That thought made her decide to take action. “Look, Mac, I don’t play your side of the field. Know what I mean? If you want to get your ya-yas, go someplace else.”
He tried to make out that wasn’t what he was after but picked up his tray and left when Jackie refused to even answer with grunts.
A minute later, the first of the cadets came to the table. Jackie kept her head down but her eye on him. The rest straggled in, Olivia being the last.
She immediately showed more interest in Jackie than previously and struck up a conversation as soon as her bum hit the chair.
“You were here yesterday evening.”
Careful not to look up, Jackie answered softly, “I was a lot of places yesterday evening.”
“You also did something bad.”
She froze. “What do you mean?”
“You annoyed your Teacher at breakfast, and they made you leave.”<
br />
“How do you know? You weren’t even here.”
“Everyone was talking about it. Patty,” Olivia indicated the guard across from her with a toss of her head, “said that you were a troublemaker, and they had their eye on you.”
Just great, Jackie thought. That’s the last thing I need.
Olivia continued. “My friend Maggie was always a troublemaker too. She got me in a lot of trouble. Maybe I shouldn’t be sitting with you.”
Jackie felt the same, now that she knew. She had to get out of the room and not outwardly show any further interest in Olivia, but she also felt she had to move her contact with Olivia along – without frightening her.
The girl began picking out every piece of red onion in her salad,carefully laying them around the rim of the plate. Taking a few more mouthfuls, Jackie thought about what she might do. Time to trust her luck again. She stumbled a bit getting up and let her empty juice cup fall off the tray. Putting it down on the seat, she knelt just as Olivia leaned over to help.
As their heads dropped below the table, Jackie said into her ear. “I enjoyed talking to you last night at the window of your room.”
“You?”
“Yup. If you don’t tell anyone about it, I’ll come over again tonight.”
Carrying her tray to the front of the hall, Jackie thought to herself, C’mon fog!
Somehow she made it through the afternoon. Jackie had always resented people trying to crawl inside her head. These people wanted to know everything, and even if she were strung out on crack and at Sunnyvale for real, she wouldn’t have poured out her guts to just anyone.
Barry seemed to sense this and kept after her to unburden herself so she “could begin to heal”. The only thing that kept her from telling him where to stick his healing was her memory of the frigid night she’d just spent.
Later, when everyone came out to do exercises, Jackie kept a watchful eye on Olivia. She’d seemed less spaced out at lunch and was now going through the stupid routines as if she meant it.
Just before dinner, Jackie checked for any messages from Shannon. There were two, but it was the second that gave her pause. She could see why a trip to New York was important, but the news left her feeling vulnerable. Putting her trust in someone she didn’t know was not comforting.
On the other hand, Shannon was also indicating her confidence in Jackie, and that wasn’t a bad thing.
That evening, one of the inmates gave a concert in the dining hall. He was a rocker who’d been with a legendary band in the late sixties but was notorious for having a big ego and a bad attitude. After one more hit about twenty years ago, he’d vanished from sight. He told the audience the concert was to help with his rehabilitation, but Jackie felt the poor slob just wanted to validate himself and show off. Strumming an acoustic guitar and singing, he wasn’t half bad, but she wouldn’t have put down good money to hear him.
Towards the end of the set, he asked if there was anyone else who might want to come up and sing something, probably hoping that one or two of the other entertainers she’d seen around Sunnyvale would lend some of their glitter to his performance.
Jackie immediately swung her eyes over to Olivia, who was down near the front. She’d had a look of concentration on her face during the performance, but Jackie couldn’t tell if she was enjoying it or hating it. From all she’d heard, Olivia could blow the guy out of the water.
Would she or wouldn’t she?
“Isn’t there anyone here who’d like to sing something with me?” the guy cajoled.
His eyes widened noticeably when Olivia stood up and said in a hesitant voice, “I’d like to sing.”
There were a few titters from around the room and more than a little sad head-shaking. Patty, the guard, pulled Olivia’s head down and said something into her ear, but Olivia shook her head and said,“No! I want to sing.”
The guy looked truly sorry he’d asked as Olivia made her way down to the front. This was obviously not what he’d had in mind.
Olivia put her head close to his, and they talked softly, with a lot of head-shaking on his part. Maybe he was trying to play dumb about knowing how to play any of the songs she’d done with the trio back in Toronto, but there was also little chance he’d know those.
Finally he nodded reluctantly. Olivia hummed something while he hunted for the notes, then he nodded again and turned to the mike. “My friend and I will be singing ‘Summertime’.”
He played a few chords, and Olivia didn’t come in. After a few more he stopped. At the back of the hall somebody guffawed. Jackie was pretty sure it was Randy.
Everyone else looked uncomfortable. Olivia turned to the guy and said loud enough for most to hear, “Too fast.”
He said something back, and she shook her head violently, snapping her fingers to show him the tempo she wanted.
His face looked pretty ugly for a brief moment, then he got control of himself, shrugged and started again. The strumming was a little more jazzy and a lot slower.
Olivia opened her mouth – and the world just fell away. Even though the song was unrehearsed and a bit ragged around the edges, her performance was absolutely stunning. The opening verse she sang very low and throaty, almost as if she was humming to herself. In fact, the first note started out from a sustained hum.
The second verse she sang up the octave in a soprano that sounded cool and clear as a stream on a sweaty hot day.
Where there might have been a solo in the middle of the song, Olivia leaned into the mike and hummed, first high where she’d just been, then down low as in the beginning, playing with the melody, brilliantly teasing out some notes and rushing over others.
Repeating the first verse, Mr. Music pushed her off to the side and foolishly took over. The audience visibly sagged, even though he did a decent enough job. Olivia began accompanying him with a bit of vocalizing, no words, just delicate little flutters of melody around the man’s voice.
While no musician herself, Jackie could still tell complete mastery when she heard it. They hadn’t been kidding about this strange woman’s talent.
The song ended, and for a moment no one made a sound. Then everyone remembered to breathe at the same moment, and erupted in applause, with several people leaping to their feet.
Olivia looked like a frightened animal as she looked out at them, then she ducked her head and started moving toward the exit.
“Sing something else!” someone called out, but she didn’t stop, even though the applause hadn’t finished.
Mr. Music didn’t ask if anyone else wanted to sing.
***
After raking me over the coals for at least five hours, the damn cops hadn’t even offered to drive me home. As a matter of fact, Palmer had told me disgustedly,“Get out of here, Curran.You’re lucky I don’t lock your sorry ass up.”
At least the weather was nice. Needing to clear my head, I decided to walk home.
Cutting through Cabbagetown so I could use the footbridge that crossed the Don Valley Parkway, connecting the east and west sides of Riverdale Park, I tried to enjoy the end of a beautiful spring day, but I couldn’t get past what I’d just been through.
Detective Palmer had known everything Shannon had discovered about Maggie and Olivia, and he hadn’t gotten the info from her, because he’d cursed her out soundly several times during my ordeal. Someone had ratted us out.
What made me sad was that from the beginning, I knew it had to have been someone in the trio, because only Dom and Ronald could have known.
It had taken a long time to go through everything, then Palmer and his fellow detectives went over and over what I’d said, trying to trip me up. I suppose I could have demanded the lawyer I’d been using, but I had the feeling they’d lock me up overnight and start fresh in the morning if I insisted. That would have done me in with Sandra.
Immediately after getting out of the police station, I’d gone to a pay phone, having forgotten to grab my cell that morning, and called Shannon’s
office.
“She’s somewhere in transit between Reno and New York,” Janet said. “I can’t get hold of her at the moment. The cops were waiting when I got here this morning, but they wouldn’t tell me why they wanted her. What’s going on?”
“Tell Shannon that Palmer knows pretty well everything about Olivia and Maggie. I’m guessing it was one of the guys in my trio who ratted us out. She should speak to me as soon as she can. I’m on my way home now and don’t have my cell, but she can try me after five. I’ll be home all evening.”
“Boy, we’ve sure landed in the soup this time.”
“You can say that again.”
I made it home by quarter after four and used the time to take a shower and get something into my stomach. Thank heaven for frozen dinners. With the plastic tray pushed away and a second cup of coffee in front of me, I sat staring at my cell phone.
I was about to pick it up when it rang.
“Andy?” Dom asked.“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling you all day.”
“I know. I didn’t have my cell with me, but I noticed you rang a bunch of times.”
“So what’s up?”
“Why did you do it, Dom? Do you have any idea how you’ve fucked things up?”
He was silent for too long before he said, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m pretty sure I know why you did it. You were hoping that by putting the cops on the scent, we’d be able to get Olivia back sooner. That is it. Right?”
He sighed. “Yeah.”
“I thought it was Ronald at first, especially after he acted so weird last night, but the detectives knew things that I’d only told you.”
“Are things really that bad?”
“I don’t know. I can’t reach the PI who’s handling the case. If nothing else, you’ve got the cops really steamed at her, because she’d promised to share anything she came up with, and she hasn’t. That is definitely not a good thing.”
“I’m really sorry, but—”
“No, no. The reason we didn’t say anything is that we were afraid of putting Olivia in danger. There’s something very wrong with all that’s happened to her, and we wanted to find out what that was before we laid everything we’ve discovered on the cops. Now that’s totally blown.”