by F J messina
After a few minutes of silence on the open road, Jet finally spoke. “So, what got you about Jennipher’s story?”
Sonia took a quick breath and let it out. “Mostly the fact that she never asked about what had happened to Mariana. I mean, wouldn’t that be the first question you would ask if someone told you I was missing?”
Jet smiled. “Honey, if you were to go missing, all I would think was that you and that blue-eyed devil were hunkerin’ down in some little love nest somewhere, trying to figure out what it would take to repopulate the world with blue-eyed, Eye-talian beauties.”
Sonia rolled her eyes. “Seriously, anything else grab you?”
“Well, I’ve got to say,” Jet was serious again, “as soon as we get back to Lexington I’ll be contacting Burnett. He’s up there in New York, and I want him to try to track down this Sarah Hastings.” She checked her side view mirror. “Clearly, she was one of the horsey girls at school too. Now if something’s happened to her,” she turned momentarily to Sonia, “we’re not only onto somebody who knows who hurt Mariana, we can be pretty sure that Miss Jennipher with the ph might have had something to do with it.”
Sonia was surprised. Her own line of thinking hadn’t taken the Sarah Hastings discrepancy that far, but she had to admit that if Jennipher was saying she never communicated with Sarah Hastings at all, and then it turned out that Sarah was missing too, something was definitely up with this red-haired woman.
Jet had been hanging back as far as she could from Jennipher’s car while still keeping it in view. Fortunately, the road they were on was relatively straight for a country road. Eventually, things changed. “Okay. She’s pulling off. That must be her folks’ farm.”
Sonia sat up straighter. “Keep going past the entrance.” It was a trick she had learned from Brad.
“Yes, sir.”
As they approached the Alston farm, Sonia watched the puke-green car rumble up toward the main house, kicking up a small tail of dust. “No, wait.” She reached out and put her hand on Jet’s arm. “We’ve got to see where she goes. Maybe she never even noticed us. Just pull over here. Let’s watch what she does.”
“If you say so, captain.” Jet pulled the car onto a grassy spot by the side of the road. She got as close to the classic Kentucky horse farm fence as she could.
Sonia rolled down the passenger door window, hoping to get the best view possible. “She’s not going into the house. She’s going up the stairs to the top of that garage. She must have an apartment like mine. You know, over the garage?”
Jet was leaning forward, her head almost over the steering wheel, straining to see as well. “Yeah, I can see her. She’s inside. Now what?”
Sonia turned back to Jet and lifted her shoulders. “Honestly, I don’t know. I guess we just find a better place to park, and then we wait.”
Jet kept her eyes locked on the apartment door. “Wait for what?”
Sonia’s eyes drifted back to the apartment as well. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”
56
After Brad had left Ron Harris, he’d headed directly back to his office. Surrounded by old wood flooring, nine-foot ceilings, old-fashioned woodwork and the latest in high-tech equipment, he sat at his well-worn desk feeling off balance. He believed Harris about not killing those three women, but he found it hard to believe that Harris was right about who had. What Brad needed most at that point was to lay his eyes on Sonia─Sonia and Jet. If Harris was right, and if Brad couldn’t find that person quickly enough, then they might both be in danger.
Brad tried calling the girls─tried them both. Neither one answered. He let out an exasperated sigh, “Pick up your damn phone.” He couldn’t let it go at that. He had to try to find them. He banged his fist quietly on his desk. Maybe, just maybe, there’s something in their offices that will help me find them.
Brad ran across East Main, dodging traffic rather than waiting for the light. He scooted up the steps to the BCI offices only to find the door locked. No surprise. On the other hand, given his experience, it was also no surprise that Brad knew how to jimmy a lock, especially one that was over sixty years old. It didn’t take much effort before he was walking through the waiting area headed for Sonia’s office.
Poking around on Sonia’s desk, Brad found nothing that would help. He let the words come softly out of his mouth. “Damn, she keeps a neat desk. How the hell does she ever find anything?” He turned and started to leave Sonia’s office, heading for Jet’s. As he passed through the doorway, however, something struck him. Stepping back, he looked at the whiteboard that he had never noticed on the wall before. She must have just put that up. Looking more closely at it, he saw a list of names. All but one was crossed out. The one that appeared to still be in play was that of a woman identified as Jennipher Alston. Next to it was the word, “Danville”.
It was just a hunch, but Brad had to follow it. Walking out of the BCI offices, and down those wooden steps, he scurried across the street, climbed into his ‘Vette, and took off for Danville. In his mind, the balance between his concern for Sonia and Jet and the observation of posted speed limits leaned heavily on the former.
Jet had backed up a short way along the mostly empty country road and found a place where no one from the Alston farm could see her Camry. Sonia slipped out of the car, walking a few steps through the grass to yet another piece of horse farm fencing. She leaned her elbows on the top of the fence, looking through a pair of small but high-powered binoculars.
Jet joined her. “Where the hell did you get those?”
“Oh, they were a gift from Brad,” Sonia said while she used the binoculars to scan the farm. “He gave them to me when we’d worked out the business arrangements between the two firms, remember?”
“Of course I remember the business arrangements.” Jet furrowed her brow. “But why did he give you the binoculars?”
“He said that if we were going to be partners, even just occasionally, I should have professional equipment.” Sonia lowered the binoculars and gave Jet a sweet smile. “I think he did it just to be nice.”
Jet stood close to Sonia, straining to see the garage apartment into which Jennipher had disappeared. “Can you see anything?”
Sonia lifted the binoculars again. “Well, yes and no. With these things, I can see if there are any fingerprints on the doorknob. On the other hand, as long as that door stays shut, there’s nothing worth seeing.”
They stood quietly for the next few minutes, Jet taking a turn with the binoculars. “Hey, wait a minute.” Her voice climbed. “Looks like Jennipher is leaving again, either that or going to her folk’s house.” She kept the binoculars to her eyes. A moment later she spoke again. “Oh, and here come her parents.” She waited, watching silently as things transpired on the farm. “Yeah, they’re all getting into the parent’s pick-up. They must be leaving.” She lowered the binoculars and nodded toward the farm. “What do we do now?”
Sonia turned and walked quickly back to the car. “First, we get the hell out of here.” She spoke fast, full of energy. “Get in and get us past the entrance to that farm before they get there. We can’t let them see us.”
Jet jumped into the Camry, fired it up, and took off, the sound of small stones pinging off its fenders. Before the parent’s bright red Ford F-150 made it back to the main road, Jet had pushed the Camry past the entrance. Just beyond a bend, she pulled the car to the side of the road again. “As long as they head back to town, looks like we’re in the clear.”
Sonia watched in the side view mirror. “And there they go.” She let out a big sigh. “Whew, that was close.” Neither of them spoke for a moment, then Sonia tapped the dashboard twice. “Okay, let’s get this thing turned around and get back to the farm.” She checked the time on her iPhone. “I’m guessing there’s no one left there, at least for a little while, and I’d love to get into that apartment to see what we can find.”
Jet made the difficult U-turn on the small country road, then headed ba
ck toward the farm. Pulling off to her right, she parked, tucked up close to a tall water maple tree that was surrounded by high brush. “Okay, genius, exactly how are we going to get into that apartment?”
Sonia reached down between her feet and picked up her purse. She rustled through it for a moment, retrieving a small, black, leather pouch. “First, being a farm, there’s a good chance that the apartment is not even locked. Second, if it is, I believe these will help.” She lifted the soft leather flap on the pouch, revealing a set of lock picks.
Jet stared at the pouch and its contents. “And I guess those come from Brad as well?”
Sonia had a smug look on her face. “You don’t think Brad and I spend all those evenings just sitting around gazing into each other’s eyes, do you? The same night he gave me those binoculars he also gave me these lock picks.” She gently touched the tip of each of the different tools, one of which was very sharp. “He’s been teaching me how to use them.” She turned to Jet and grinned. “And I’ve gotten pretty darn good at it if I don’t say so myself. Let’s go.”
Knowing that they would have to move through trees and some low brush in order to avoid being seen by anyone who might still be in the house, the women left their purses in the car and locked it. Swinging wide around the driveway and traveling along the tree line, Sonia and Jet were able to make it to the garage apartment pretty much hidden from view. The stairs that led up to the apartment ran diagonally along the side of the garage that faced the road, touching the ground right at the corner of the building. When they got to those steps, Sonia stopped.
Jet leaned close to her from behind. “Now what?”
Sonia stood frozen. She didn’t reply.
“Seriously, now what?” Jet put her hand on Sonia’s shoulder. “Are we going up those stairs or not?”
“Shhh. Listen. Is that music? You think somebody’s up there?”
Jet leaned closer to the steps, her ear cupped with her hand. “I don’t know, but that’s definitely music. Either she left the music on or there’s someone up there listening to it.”
There was another moment of silence as Sonia wondered about their best strategy. Then her hand shot out and touched Jet’s arm. “Listen. The music. It stopped, right?”
Again, Jet leaned over Sonia’s shoulder, straining to hear. “Yeah,” she whispered, “I don’t hear it anymore. I guess somebody’s up there, but who?”
“Well, there’s only one─”
Both their heads popped upward as the sound of a door opening floated down to them. Ducking backward, around the corner of the building, they stood frozen, their backs pressed against the short side of the building. Soon, it became obvious that whoever had stepped out of the apartment was hurrying down the steps. Sonia’s eyes scanned the surrounding trees, her mind scrambling. Should we run? Before she even had time to make up her mind, she heard the sound of footsteps on gravel.
Sonia’s head turned toward the sound. Her heart skipped a beat.
57
In a flash, Sonia had seen a face and then it was gone─scrambling back up the steps, a blur of blue jeans and a white shirt. It was the face that had been sitting in a frame on her desk for the last few weeks.
Sonia started running up the stairs, following. “Wait! Wait! It’s okay. We’re here to help!”
Jet, being the more athletic of the girls, scooted past Sonia on the steps and was standing next to the woman before she could use her keys to open the door. The woman spun on Jet, the look of a trapped and panicked animal on her face─one of her keys protruding from between her fisted fingers like a weapon.
A second later, Sonia was on the large landing outside the door as well, talking fast. “Mariana. We’re here to help you. My name is Sonia. This is Jet. Your father sent us. Your father, Paco? He’s so worried about you. He asked us to find you. Are you okay, Mariana?”
Mariana continued to back away until her body was trapped by the wooden railing that surrounded the landing. The look on her face made it obvious to Sonia that she was still processing everything. She was still frightened.
Sonia consciously kept her hands at her side. She spoke slowly, carefully, her brown eyes sending messages of reassurance. “It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re going to be okay.”
Mariana stood frozen, dark eyes staring out of a pretty but anxious face, her trim, well-conditioned body taut and ready for battle.
Jet spoke softly as well. “Sweetheart. We’ve all been looking for you. Me, Sonia, your cousin Gabriela. Everyone just wanted to know where you were, that you were okay.”
Sonia tried again, reaching out to Mariana tentatively. “Really. We’re here to help.” Her voice rose a tick. “Ask us anything you want. We’re just so happy to have found you, to know that you’re . . . . She paused, nothing but the warm sun and the gentle sounds of a few birds filling the space between them.
Finally, Sonia stepped forward slowly, very slowly, eventually able to close the distance between them. She cautiously wrapped her arms around the young woman. Mariana stood motionless, a statue. After a few moments, her fear began to crumble, to fall away. She buried her face into Sonia’s shoulder. Sonia could feel the wetness of Mariana’s tears as they slid out of her eyes and down Sonia’s neck. Finally, dissolving into a sobbing, shaking pool of pent-up emotion, Mariana began rocking back and forth in Sonia’s arms.
Jet inched forward and put her arms around both of them. A moment later she whispered into Mariana’s dark, wavy hair. “C’mon, let’s get you back inside. Give me those keys and I’ll open the door.”
It took a moment for Mariana to respond, to let go of Sonia. Eventually, she released herself enough to be able to hand Jet the keys. Jet unlocked the door and they all stepped inside.
Sonia looked around, seeing a pleasant but small apartment, not at all unlike her own. With lots of wood and light-yellow curtains, this apartment had dark brown walls and an area rug that spilled reds, oranges, tans, and yellows on the floor. There were two major differences, however, between this place and Sonia’s. First, unlike Sonia’s, this one looked out on the beauty of a Kentucky farm; the green freshness of spring filled the entire view from a window that overlooked the small gravel parking area next to the garage. Second, the folded-up bedding at the end of the couch made it obvious that this tiny apartment was designed for one person but had been housing two.
Sonia led Mariana to the couch. “C’mon, Mariana.” Her voice was almost a whisper. “Sit. Sit here. Can I get you some water?” Sonia waited for a reply, but all she got were eyes that seemed to be pleading for something. She nodded. “Yeah, let’s get you some water.”
Jet stepped toward the little kitchen area. She waved her hand. “I’ve got it.”
Sonia kneeled down next to Mariana and tossed a, “Thank you,” to Jet.
In less than a minute Jet was back with the water, handing it to Sonia, who then handed it to Mariana. Jet took a seat in the only other chair in the “living room.”
After Mariana had taken a long drink, Sonia took hold of one of her hands. “Are you okay?” Her eyes searched the girl’s. “Do you believe that we’re here to help you?”
A long moment passed. Then, in the thinnest voice, with almost no hint of Hispanic heritage, Mariana answered. “Yes. Yes. Thank you for coming.”
Sonia got up from the floor and sat sideways on the couch next to Mariana, her leg tucked under her body. She and Jet sat quietly, patiently, waiting a solid minute before Mariana could get enough control of herself to speak.
Finally, Mariana broke the silence, her voice wavering. “So, it was my dad who sent you?”
Sonia was quick to answer. “Yes.” She reached out her hand, placing it reassuringly on Mariana’s knee. “I don’t know if you really heard me before. My name is Sonia,” she turned and looked at her partner, a quick smile on her face, “and this is Jet.” Her eyes returned to Mariana. “We’re private investigators. The police had kind of run out of options in their search for you, so your fat
her came to us. He’s been so worried. Your whole family has.”
The nearly empty glass in Mariana’s hand was shaking. “They’re okay? My mom and dad.” Her eyebrows rose. “They’re okay?”
“Yes, sweetheart. They’re fine. And they’re going to be so relieved when they know we’ve found you.”
Mariana took another sip. She gazed down into her lap. “Good.”
Sonia let the silence hang in the air for a long time.
Finally, Jet’s impatience got the best of her. “So, you going tell us why you’re hiding out here? Can you tell us what’s going on?”
Mariana looked first at Jet, then back to Sonia. She started softly. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be bad.” The pitch of her voice started to rise. “It was supposed to be a good thing, a great thing.” Her eyes filled with light. “We were going to change things forever. The horses, they were going to be stronger, better, healthier than ever before.”
Mariana looked back and forth between Sonia and Jet. “It was our dream. All of us. We worked together on it. But not for our sakes. It was for the horses.”
Sonia glanced over at Jet, who returned the look. Neither one spoke.
“It was our dream, but it got all twisted. It’s so stupid.” Her voice trailed away as her eyes fell again. “We let it become all about the money.”
Mariana paused for a long time. “Listen, sweetheart,” Sonia reached up and pushed a strand of tear-soaked hair out of Mariana’s face, “you can trust us. We’re here to help you. But we can’t help if we don’t know why you ran away, why you’re hiding.” She needed more information, critical information─who would kill the other two girls, and why. She knew she would just have to be patient and let the story come out of Mariana at its own pace. She hated it.