by J A Whiting
“That’s because he’s a rude weasel.” Luke said, and turned to Olivia. “Can I eat one of the cookies you brought?” The bandages on Luke’s hands made it awkward for him to unwrap the package, so Olivia reached for the bag and opened it so that Luke could get at the treats.
He chewed. “Delicious.” He glanced at Rob. “Too bad you weren’t attacked. You might have gotten some home baked cookies.”
“Maybe I’ll just help myself.” Rob moved to get up from his seat.
“Will you give one to him, Olivia? Otherwise he’ll get cranky.”
They chuckled and Olivia offered Rob a cookie.
Olivia hated to bring it up, but she needed to ask. “Luke, did you see the attacker?”
The mirth left Luke’s face and for a moment, his eyes clouded over as he looked across the room at nothing. His voice was soft. “There was a knock on my door. I thought it was Kayla. We were going to meet you and Melissa at the club.” He stopped, and then gathered himself to continue. “It was quick. He lunged at me. I was so shocked, the knife wounds barely registered. I fought back, but he was like a maniac. I don’t even remember going down.”
“What did he look like?” Olivia asked.
Luke turned to her. “I couldn’t see his face.”
Olivia waited.
“It was the black ski mask again. He was dressed in black. He was wearing gloves.”
“Was he big?”
Luke shook his head. “My height, slim.” He rested his head back on the pillow. “Funny, it could even have been a woman, I suppose.”
Olivia’s eyes narrowed, surprised that Luke suggested that the killer could be a woman. “Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know.” His face looked thoughtful. “I guess it wasn’t.”
Olivia asked, “The police questioned you?”
Luke nodded.
Olivia wanted to say something hopeful. “At least they have the knife as evidence. Maybe it will give them some clues.”
The three sat quietly for a minute, and then Rob said, “Let’s talk about something important. Like whether or not I can have another one of those cookies.”
They laughed. Olivia passed Rob another cookie, handed Luke a second one, and then they chatted for another forty-five minutes before a nurse came in and shooed them out so that Luke could rest.
***
When Olivia got home, Melissa was snuggled under a blanket resting on the sofa with her head on a pillow. Olivia made her toast and tea and pulled the coffee table closer to the couch so that Melissa would be able to easily reach the plate and her drink. Olivia sat across from her on the other sofa.
“I can’t shake this stupid fever,” Melissa mumbled.
“It hasn’t even been forty-eight hours.” Olivia pulled her legs up under her. “Would you like a cool cloth for your forehead?”
“Yes, please.”
Olivia went into the bathroom and put a face cloth under the tap, squeezed it out, and brought it to Melissa and placed it over her forehead. Melissa’s eyes were only half open.
“I can’t be sick. I have to go to class tomorrow.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Email your lab partner in the afternoon tomorrow. Ask her for a copy of the notes. I’ll meet her and get them for you. You need to rest,” Olivia said. “If you try to do too much too soon, it will just take longer to get well.”
Olivia’s phone buzzed and she read the text. “It’s from Ynes. She’s on the train to New York heading for a conference. She’ll be there a couple of days. She hopes you feel better. She wants us to send any updates about Luke and any news about the case.”
“There won’t be any news about the case. They won’t ever figure it out,” Melissa said. The face cloth covered her face.
Olivia stared at her phone. “Why is this thing losing its charge so fast?”
“Did you charge it?” Melissa asked.
“It never used to need charging so often. It’s so annoying.”
Melissa said, “Bring it to the phone store. Or get a new one. You’ve had that thing for ages.”
“I don’t want to go back to the store. I just had the screen replaced from when that stupid Adam Johnson knocked it out of my hand at the gym,” Olivia grumped. “Why can’t things work properly?” She placed the phone on the side table.
Melissa pushed the facecloth aside. She yawned and closed her eyes.
Olivia said, “You’re making me sleepy just looking at you.”
“Don’t look at me then,” she mumbled.
Olivia stretched out on the sofa. “Maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes. I didn’t get much sleep last night after getting back so late from the hospital.”
She dozed off quickly and she and Melissa napped for two hours.
Chapter 23
After a busy day of classes, Olivia walked down the hill to Davis Square to the phone store. It was nearly six in the evening and the sun had already set shrouding the city in darkness. Olivia wanted to pick up some more tea at the convenience store so that Melissa wouldn’t run out and she was planning to put together some broth and rice in case Melissa wanted to eat a little. Approaching the phone store, she hoped it wouldn’t take long for them to determine why her battery was draining.
Olivia tugged the door open, entered, and found a tech customer service rep to speak with about what could be causing her phone to lose its charge so fast. She really didn’t want to have to buy a new one, but her current phone needed almost constant charging now. The tech guy took Olivia to a work table in the rear of the store to take a look at the cell phone.
“It should hold the charge a lot longer than what you’re saying it’s doing. Sometimes apps are running in the background that you’re unaware of and that drains the battery.”
“I don’t have anything different on it than what I’ve always had,” Olivia said.
“Maybe you just need to replace the battery.” The guy fiddled with the phone for a few minutes. “Here. It seems to be an app that’s running. Yeah. This is it. It’s sending out info on your whereabouts. Like a constant GPS signal being transmitted. That’s what’s doing the draining.”
“I don’t have an app like that. Why would I need to send out my location constantly?”
The guy tapped on Olivia’s phone, his face intent on whatever he was seeing on the screen. “Well, that’s what it is. You’ve got the app downloaded.”
“Can you get rid of it?”
“There’s a way to disable it. But we’re short-handed today. You’ll need to leave it here for a couple of hours. One of us can disable it in between customers. It doesn’t take that long, but we should check the phone for anything else that might be contributing to the battery running down.”
Olivia scowled. “I can’t leave it today. My friend’s sick. I want her to be able to contact me. I’ll bring the phone in when she’s feeling better.”
“Does your friend have some need to track you?”
“What do you mean?”
“It could be that someone downloaded this app to keep track of you.”
A chill ran across Olivia’s skin. “There are ways to do that? Without my permission?”
The tech guy nodded. “Someone must have gotten at your phone and put the app on there without you knowing.”
“Well, hell.” Olivia’s heartbeat speeded up. “But there’s no icon on the screen for the app.”
“There are ways to delete the icon. So you don’t know you’re being tracked.”
Olivia’s eyes were wide. “How long would it take for someone to do that to my phone?”
“Not long. A couple of minutes. Not even.”
“How is that even legal?” Olivia rubbed her temple. “How is that possible?” Her mind was racing, trying to imagine who would do this.
“Maybe one of your friend’s did it as a joke.”
She looked at the tech guy. “It’s not funny. I’ll try to come back tomorrow. I want this thing off my phone
.” She dropped the phone into the front pocket of her backpack. “What’s the name of the app? In case you’re not here when I come back. ”
The tech guy said, “Stalker.”
The blood drained out of Olivia’s head.
Jason, from the formal.
***
Olivia stormed out of the phone store and tore up College Ave heading for her apartment. She hoped that Melissa was awake and not too groggy so that she could release the rant that was building inside her with every step she took. She was so distracted by the app on her phone that she forgot all about stopping at the grocery store. How dare he put an app on my phone? How dare he track my movements? She stopped walking and dug into her backpack for her phone. She decided to send Jason a scathing text blasting him for his actions and invading her privacy. While scrolling through her contacts for Jason’s number, a text came in. It was from Kayla.
Can you meet me at the café? It’s important. I know something about the case. You need to hear it. Bring Melissa.
Olivia’s hands shook with excitement hoping that this might be a break in the case.
Melissa’s sick. When should I meet you?
Kayla’s reply was almost immediate: Come now.
Olivia tossed the phone in her backpack and wheeled around to retrace her steps back to Davis Square where she could pick up the “T” to take her to the café in Kendall Square.
***
Olivia opened the glass door of the Cream and Roses Cafe, looked around at the tables and chairs, and not seeing Kayla, walked up to the counter and ordered a tea.
“Has Kayla been in?” she asked the guy taking orders.
“Kayla? I don’t know. I just got here.”
“I’m supposed to meet her. I’ll wait,” Olivia said. She carried her tea to one of the tables near the window so she could look out at the people passing by in the darkness. Possible ideas about the case flashed through her mind. What does Kayla know? How did she find something out? Will it lead to the killer?
A woman barista came out of the back room and spoke to the guy working the counter who nodded in Olivia’s direction. The woman waved at Olivia to call her over.
“You’re looking for Kayla? She was here earlier but she left. She was with Eric.”
“When did she leave?” Olivia asked.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She glanced up to the wall clock as she added whipped cream to the top of a coffee drink. “Maybe, a little less than an hour ago.”
“Did she say where they were headed?’
“I heard them say something about stopping by Eric’s place. He wanted to show her something.”
“Thanks,” Olivia said. “They must be coming back. Kayla asked me to meet her.” She returned to her table and sat sipping her tea. Olivia wondered if Eric had used his computer skills to find out something about the killings. She thought he must want to show Kayla what he’d discovered. She glanced out the window, hoping they would return soon.
She tried browsing the internet on her phone to distract her, but her mind was so antsy waiting to hear Kayla’s news that she couldn’t concentrate on anything. She put the phone on the table next to her tea cup. Olivia thought over details of the case attempting to find something that she missed. Her fingers drummed the table top absent-mindedly as she wondered what was taking so long for them to come back. After a few minutes, she lifted her phone and sent a text to Kayla asking when she would return to the café. Olivia drained her tea. She stared at her phone. No reply from Kayla.
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her ankles under the table, questioning herself as to why she could be such an impatient person. She tried some things she had learned in a yoga class. Olivia relaxed her muscles, and slowed her breathing rate. An alarm buzzed in her brain and she sat up in her chair. At the hospital after the attack on Luke, Kayla had told Olivia that she had never been to Eric’s apartment. Why would he ask her to go there tonight? Her heart rate picked up. She stood up so fast that her chair almost tipped over. She approached the counter to speak to the barista again.
“You said Kayla and Eric were headed to his place?”
The barista nodded and reached for a cup.
Olivia asked the barista another question. “I was wondering if there was a way to find out if Eric was working a certain night. A couple of weeks ago.” Olivia persisted. “It was a Saturday night. October 12. Is there any way somebody could check to see who worked that night?” Olivia remembered that Luke’s friend Rob mentioned that he didn’t see Eric at the MIT party the night that Christian and Luke were killed. Maybe Eric came into work that night?
The woman gave Olivia an annoyed stare, and then she rolled her eyes and glanced at the guy working the register. “Harry. Will you go look at the shift schedule? Find out who was working the night of October 12.” She snapped a plastic cover over a drink cup and slid it onto the counter. Harry went into the back room.
“Thanks,” Olivia said as she checked her phone again. Still no answer from Kayla.
A few minutes later, Harry came out. “It was Josie and Karen.” He took up his post at the register.
The barista lifted her eyes to Olivia to be sure she had heard what Harry said.
“So Eric wasn’t working that night?” Olivia asked.
“Guess not.”
“Could the schedule be wrong?”
“No. That’s how they calculate the payroll for the week. Everyone’s careful to log any changes.”
“Thanks.” Olivia went back to her table. Her mind was racing. Eric says he went to the MIT department party that night. Luke’s friend said that he didn’t remember seeing Eric there. He said he didn’t remember Eric ever going to any department events. Did Eric follow Kayla to Christian and Gary’s? Why did he take Kayla to his place tonight?
Olivia stared off into space. A cold chill trickled from the back of her throat down into her stomach. Could they…? Oh, no.
Olivia bolted from her seat, and approached the barista again. “Can you tell me Eric’s address?”
The barista’s brow furrowed and she gave Olivia a look that could kill. Before she could reply, Olivia lied, “Eric asked me to come to his house tonight. Said it was important. I lost his address and he isn’t answering his phone. It must be dead.”
“Why don’t you try Kayla? They left together.”
“I did. She hasn’t answered.”
The cash register guy was listening. Olivia smiled at him. “It’s kind of important.”
The guy left the cash register and returned to the back room for a second time. He came out with a piece of paper in his hand. He gave it to Olivia. “We’re not supposed to give out addresses, but its only Eric. Don’t tell anyone I gave it to you.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.” Olivia wanted to hug the guy. She read the address, and as she exited the café, she pulled up a map of Cambridge on her phone.
She hurried along the dark sidewalk, dodging around people who were heading out for the night. Olivia broke into a jog.
Turning off Mass Ave onto a side street, Olivia tried calling Kayla as she ran, but no one picked up. A wave of anxiety washed through her veins. A gust of wind whipped Olivia’s hair into her eyes and she shivered, but she was sure it wasn’t the breeze that was chilling her. She sprinted for a few more blocks, headed down another side street, and searched the numbers on the buildings as she passed. She halted in front of Eric’s apartment building. Olivia stood on the sidewalk staring at it. Blood was pounding in her head. She couldn’t ignore the warning signals her body was sending her.
Sometimes deep in your heart you know something, you’ve probably known it all along, but your head just doesn’t process it.
Olivia’s brain buzzed. She couldn’t deny it.
She knew who killed Christian. And Gary. And Jack.
Chapter 24
Olivia sucked in a breath and hurried up the stone steps to the landing of Eric’s building. She scanned the intercom buttons for Eric’s n
ame and pushed the corresponding button to announce her arrival. She stood shivering on the landing, waiting.
“Yes?” A male voice questioned over the intercom.
“I’m a friend of Eric and Kayla’s. Can I come up?”
The door buzzed and Olivia opened it and entered the building. She walked up the stairs to the second floor landing, found the right number, and knocked. A young guy in a flannel shirt opened the door.
He said, “Hey. I don’t think they’re here anymore. I heard them talking earlier. I think they left.”
Olivia’s heart sank. “Oh.”
“The intercom is broken. I can hear you, but it doesn’t transmit from up here down to the lobby. That’s why I buzzed you in.”
“Thanks,” Olivia said. She had an idea. “Can I knock on Eric’s door? Maybe they’re watching a movie or something? They said they would leave something of mine in his room,” she lied. “Could I just check it out?”
“He usually keeps his door locked but you can see if they’re in there or if they left it open for you.”
“Why does he keep his bedroom door locked? Doesn’t he trust you?” She smiled to make the guy think she was joking.
“Actually, I don’t think he does,” Eric’s roommate said. “I never gave him cause not to trust me, but Eric’s kind of quirky. He’s quiet, neat in the common areas, but he seems a little paranoid. Stays to himself a lot. I don’t have much interaction with him.”
Olivia followed the roommate down the hallway to Eric’s bedroom.
“This is his.” He knocked. It was quiet. He tried the door to see if it was unlocked. It didn’t budge. “Guess he locked it when they left. No surprise.”
“Do you have a key? I really need to pick up my thing.”
The roommate chuckled. “Eric wouldn’t give anyone a key.”
“Oh,” Olivia said. She had to get into the bedroom. “Are there any extra apartment keys lying around? I wonder if there’s a duplicate for Eric’s room.”
“There are some keys in the kitchen cabinet. I don’t know what they open though.”
Olivia was impatient. “Could we try them?” She needed to get rid of the roommate for a minute.