by Jana DeLeon
“Do you have a roommate?”
“Darla, but she had her tonsils out this week and won’t be back until next week at the earliest.” Tara sucked in a breath. “What if he gets me, too? It could be days before anyone found me. Ethan’s roommate is around a lot and someone still managed to get Ethan. I have to go to class. I have to stay in the dorm.”
Tara picked up pace with every word she said and Shaye could tell she was starting to hyperventilate.
“Okay, I need you to calm down,” Shaye said. “Take a deep breath in and blow it out slowly.”
Shaye heard Tara take in a breath and then release the air.
“That’s better,” Shaye said. “Where are you now?”
“I’m in my dorm room. I had a guy who works security give me a ride here from Ethan’s building.”
“Give me your address. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes. In the meantime, can you find someone to talk to so that you’re not alone?”
“There’s a couple of people watching television in the rec room. I can go there.”
“Good. I’ll call when I’m there so you can let me in. Get yourself a bottle of cold water if you have it and remember to take long deep breaths and keep an eye on your pulse.”
“Thirty minutes? Swear?”
The fear in Tara’s voice broke Shaye’s heart. “I promise.”
Shaye tossed her phone on the bed and yanked a pair of sweatpants and bra out of her bag. They were just as wrinkled as the shorts and tee, but she was fairly certain Tara wouldn’t care. The girl was freaked out and Shaye didn’t blame her in the least. The situation was frightening and it appeared to be escalating.
“Do you want me to heat up some steak?” Corrine poked her head into Shaye’s room and frowned. “Are you going out again? I thought you were in for the night.”
“Change of plans,” Shaye said, and gave Corrine a brief rundown on Tara. “I need to make sure she’s okay. Her family all live out of state and her parents are missionaries in South Africa. She doesn’t have another adult around to help her.”
“That poor girl. Is there anything I can do?”
Shaye headed to the door and kissed Corrine on her cheek. “Don’t wait up, and don’t worry.”
“I can handle the first. You can forget about the second.”
“I figured as much.”
Shaye headed out to the garage and hopped into her SUV. So far she’d gotten lucky and no news van had been out front when she’d left that morning or returned that night, but she knew that wouldn’t last long. She inched up to the gate without turning her headlights on and checked the street.
Clear.
She pressed the remote to open the gate and turned out onto the street. She just needed to make a quick stop for hardware and then she’d head straight to Tara’s dorm. She hoped the people Tara mentioned were still watching television. Shaye didn’t want to imagine the girl scared and alone in her dorm room. She was safer with other people around.
10
Brenda crept down the hall and stopped before she reached the living room. The television was on, playing the news. She could see the top of her mother’s head over the couch. She crept closer and heard a faint snore. She smiled. The brownies always worked. Her mother couldn’t resist them and the overdose of sugar put her out like a light. Or maybe it was the cold medicine Brenda had slipped into her mother’s milk. Regardless, she could count on a good two hours of her mother snoring on the couch before she headed down the hall for bed.
She’d check on Brenda before she went to bed, but that could be managed as well.
Brenda went down the hall and into her bedroom, then stuck her body pillow in her bed and retrieved the mannequin head from the back of her closet where she kept it hidden in a boot box. She put the head on the pillow, slipped a wig and a set of headphones on it, then she pulled the covers up so that only the hair and the headphones were visible. She turned her stereo on so that the lights were on and turned the volume to zero.
When everything was set, she put on her tennis shoes and pushed open her bedroom window. Her mother had an alarm installed on the house the previous year, but Brenda had quickly figured out how to disable the connections on her window. With the alarm armed and the figure of Brenda in the bed sleeping, her mother would go straight to bed without another thought, and Brenda would have an entire night to herself.
She’d done it enough times to know.
She swung one leg over the windowsill and stepped into the flower bed. She reached back to close the window, then set out down the sidewalk. It was a two-mile walk to the French Quarter but she’d done it a million times. The fall air was a little chilly, and she was glad she’d worn her sweatshirt. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Zack, telling him to meet her at Club 21. Her fake ID wasn’t great, but they never looked closely there.
A few seconds later, Zach texted back okay, and she smiled. Her mother could try all she wanted to keep Brenda down, but one day she’d understand it was a losing battle. You couldn’t lock up a free spirit. It simply didn’t work.
At the end of the block, she turned the corner and headed toward the French Quarter. Another thirty minutes and she’d be sipping a beer and putting the moves on the sexiest guy on the swim team. She’d been admiring his body from a distance for months now. It was time to take that admiration up close and very personal.
She never knew he was behind her until something cold and hard struck the back of her head. Then everything went black.
Tara sat in the rec room with three other girls, staring at the television but not seeing or hearing a single thing. In fact, if someone had asked her what they were watching, she wouldn’t be able to answer. Every time the volume ticked up she had to force herself to keep from jumping and screaming. Then she reminded herself to breathe, and she calmed down enough to check her phone and see that all of two minutes had passed since the last time she’d almost freaked out. She sighed. At least her pulse rate had continued to drop. It still wasn’t back to normal, but then she couldn’t expect her pulse to be normal when her stress level was still through the roof.
She’d left her dorm room right after she hung up with Shaye and had been in the rec room for twenty-five minutes now. Shaye should be here any minute. Assuming she actually made it in thirty minutes. Her apartment wasn’t far away from the campus, but from the layers of dust on the furniture and the floor, Tara had gotten the impression Shaye hadn’t stayed there in a while. Which meant she was probably at her mother’s place in the Garden District.
Everyone knew where Corrine Archer lived. Her house had been featured in every home-and-garden magazine in the city. Corrine’s house wasn’t too far away, either, but there was always construction or a stoplight that was out or drunks blocking the street. Anything could put her a little behind. It was way too soon to panic. If forty minutes passed and Shaye hadn’t turned up, then Tara would call her.
Fifteen more minutes.
She had to sit here and pretend she was normal for at least fifteen minutes. She checked her phone again. One more minute passed. This was never going to work. She got up from the couch and walked down the hall but didn’t round the corner to the front door. With the double doors to the rec room open, the girls in there could see her in the hallway. No one would bother her if there were witnesses. At least, that’s what she hoped.
At the end of the hall, she turned around and walked back toward the rec room. When she reached the doorway, one of the girls looked up at her.
“Are you all right?” the girl asked.
“Leg cramp,” Tara said. “I jogged earlier. Probably should have started slower.”
The girl nodded. “I did that when I first started. Take some potassium. It will help with the cramps.”
“Thanks.” She turned around and paced the length of the hall again. She hadn’t been lying when she’d complained of cramps. Her calves had knotted into two stones inside her skin, but she wasn’t about
to go in search of potassium. Besides, it would probably take a truckload of the stuff to fix her.
She was on her fifth pass down the hall when she got a text message. Shaye was there. Tara hurried to the front door, peering out one of the glass panes, waiting for Shaye to arrive. When she saw the PI appear from between two parked cars, relief coursed through her. She waited until Shaye was right at the door before unlocking it and pulling it open.
Shaye hurried inside and Tara quickly closed the door behind her.
“Are you all right?” Shaye asked, looking at her bandaged hand.
“It’s fine,” Tara said. “My knee got the worst of it. I should be able to take this off tomorrow.”
“Good. Can you show me your room? I stopped for reinforcements.” Shaye held up a bag that read Murphy’s Hardware.
“Sure. It’s on the second floor. I usually take the stairs but if you don’t mind, I’d rather take the elevator. It’s slow as Christmas but my calves are killing me.”
Shaye nodded and followed her into the elevator. “Your muscles knotted up from the sprinting.”
“Big time. When this is over, I’m going to slowly introduce some running into my routine—with my doctor’s permission, of course. You don’t realize how hard it is until you need to do it.”
“That’s true,” Shaye said. “My goal is five miles three times a week. Sometimes things interfere, but when I go too long without getting the five in, I feel it.”
Tara shook her head. “And you really need to be in shape, with your job and all. I don’t know how you do this every day…chasing bad guys. The entire time I was running, all I could think about was how he would kill me if he caught me. When I fell, I almost passed out from fear alone. I’ve been in the rec room forcing myself to sit still, and every time the volume on the television changed, I almost came out of my skin.”
“I’d love to tell you that you get to a point where you feel indestructible, but I’d be lying. However, you can build up your confidence in your ability to defend yourself or flee a dangerous situation. You should take a self-defense course, at the very least. You might even find that you enjoy it and continue with a martial arts class.”
Tara nodded as they exited the elevator and walked down the hall to her dorm room. “They offer self-defense courses free at the university. I keep meaning to sign up and never do. I bet I’ll be first in line when they start up again.”
Tara pulled out her key and unlocked the door to her room. She pushed it open and stepped inside. “Please excuse the mess. I’ve been studying a lot and it’s gotten kinda bad.”
Shaye smiled as she stepped inside, then closed and locked the door behind them. “I was in Ethan’s room, remember? Brett’s side gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘pigsty.’”
Tara forced a smile. “That’s true. It drives Ethan crazy. Do you want to see the text?”
She’d been dreading this part, somehow afraid that Shaye would look at the text and decide there was no hope. That Tara’s memories of Ethan were all she had from this point forward. She knew it was crazy thinking but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to force her mind back to rational.
“Not yet.” Shaye put her hand on Tara’s arm and gave it a light squeeze. “First, I want to help you feel safe here. Then you can tell me everything.”
“I don’t want to keep you. I mean, I do but it’s not fair. You have a life and all.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You said your roommate won’t be back for a week, right?”
Tara nodded.
“Then would you mind if I stayed the night?”
The energy drained out of Tara’s body and she flopped down onto the bed as her knees buckled. The tears she’d been holding in spilled out, and she swiped at them with her hand. The relief of having someone she trusted stay the night with her—the kindness of a woman who was essentially a stranger—had completely done her in.
“Thank you,” Tara managed to get out between sobs.
Shaye sat on the bed next to her and put her arm around Tara’s shoulders. “It’s good to let it out. Holding in the tears doesn’t make pain or fear go away.”
Tara sniffed and rubbed her nose with her fingers. “What does?”
“Facing it head-on.”
Tara knew Shaye was right. Jesus, the woman was the poster girl for survival and recovery. If Shaye could go through everything she had and still come out sane, then Tara should be able to deal. She owed it to Ethan and to herself.
“I want to do that,” Tara said. “I just don’t know where to start.”
“Let me be clear. You don’t have to remain here to face your fear. If you can leave school until this is over, no one is going to fault you for that.”
Tara bit her lip. The thought of running off to her aunt’s house in Idaho had crossed her mind a million times while she was waiting on Shaye, but no matter how tempting it was, she didn’t consider it a viable option.
“I can’t,” Tara said finally. “I have midterms coming up and if I miss them, I’ll fail my classes and lose my scholarship. That’s why Ethan was tutoring me in calculus. I have to keep my grades up.”
“Okay. Then you’ll stay here and I’ll help you figure out how to deal.”
“Thanks,” Tara said, grateful for any advice Shaye could provide. “What’s in the bag?”
Shaye pulled out a dead bolt. “I’m sure the university would frown on my changing the locks, but they can’t complain about a dead bolt. When you’re inside, you make sure this is latched. Unless someone kicks the door down, they’re not getting past this.”
Some of her fear began to dissipate and Tara felt something she hadn’t in days. Hope.
“Do you have any night classes?” Shaye asked.
“Not this semester.”
“Good. During the day, make sure you’re around other people. No shortcuts through alleys or in between buildings. Even if it means your sore calves and pitiful knee have to walk twice as far to get where you need to go. Main pathways with people on them only. At night, you lock yourself up in here.”
Tara nodded. She could do this. It would be easy enough to make sure people were around during the day and at night, she could hole up in her room, and that dead bolt meant she’d be able to get the sleep she needed to keep going.
“Just give me a couple minutes to get this installed,” Shaye said and headed to the door with the dead bolt and a screwdriver. “Then you can tell me everything that happened. Do you have something to drink? Have you taken an aspirin or something for the pain?”
“I took a Tylenol earlier, and I have some water in the fridge. Would you like one?”
“Thanks, but not right now.”
“Okay, then I think I’ll go to the bathroom and rewrap my knee. The bandage is loosening some.”
“Would you like for me to come with you?”
“No. It’s just down the hall and I can scream pretty loud.” Tara gathered up her first aid kit and a washcloth and headed down the hall to the bathroom. Just having Shaye there and knowing she’d stay the night had already relieved so much of her stress. At least the part associated with being killed while she slept. The dead bolt would help her sleep after Shaye was gone.
She removed the old bandage from her knee and gave it a once-over. The bleeding had stopped, so she cleaned it again, reapplied antibacterial cream, and bandaged it up. Her knee was already slightly swollen, and Tara expected she’d be walking a little stiff the next day. But she was still in far better shape than she could have been.
Don’t think about it.
She shook her head. It did no good to imagine what that psycho might have done to her. She needed to focus on helping Shaye find Ethan. He was the one in real danger. She packed up her supplies and headed back to her room, surprised to see that Shaye had finished with the install.
“That was fast,” Tara said.
“I’ve had some experience.”
“Right. Sorry, I keep forgetting a
bout all of that, uh, stuff. You’re so together and I can’t imagine being that way if those things had happened to me.”
“You’d be surprised what a hard head and a great psychiatrist can do for you.”
Tara smiled. “I love that you’re serious but still have a sense of humor. When I’m an adult, I want to be like that.”
“Then I’m sure you will be. Are you ready to tell me what happened?”
“Yeah.” Tara put her bathroom supplies in the closet and sat cross-legged on her bed. Shaye kicked off her tennis shoes and mimicked her position on her roommate’s bed. Tara started her recount with bumping into Brenda, pausing only long enough to pass Shaye her phone with the forwarded text message, and continued all the way until her mad dash into Ethan’s dorm. Shaye listened in absolute silence.
When Tara finished, Shaye shook her head. “That’s really scary. I’m sorry you had to experience it.”
“Me too.”
Shaye looked at the phone. “This definitely looks like Ethan, and it fits with the strange message Ethan received and the subsequent death.”
“So you think the text was about Amber?”
“Seeing this, it’s difficult to find a reason why it wouldn’t have been. Tell me about Brenda. How well did Ethan know her?”
“I don’t think he knew her at all. Neither did I. I saw her at a party recently but that’s it. Until this evening, we’ve never even spoken.”
Shaye frowned. “No apparent connection between Ethan and either girl, but there has to be something because the same person has targeted them all. Do you know anything about Brenda?”
“Nothing at all. I don’t even know her last name. God, that was stupid! Why didn’t I ask?”
“Don’t worry about that. I can trace her cell phone number and get a name.”
“And then what?”
“I need to find out everything I can about Amber and Brenda. There is a connection to Ethan. We just don’t know what it is.”
“How does finding that out help?”