by E. C. Towers
“What the hell is going on?”
He parked the bike on the gravel driveway, moving casually as if he was just stopping by to visit a friend.
“I want to go to my yacht, Jacob. What is this? What are we doing here!?”
“This house has a balcony in the back, overlooking the bay.”
“So?”
“It’s also the only house here that has a second-floor balcony.”
“Are you ever going to get to the point?”
“The second-floor balcony looks right at the back of your boat,” he said a matter-of-factly. “A great spot to take pictures.”
She looked up at the abandoned looking house with it’s old brown paint peeling and curling old roof.
“How do you know this?” she asked.
“It's Tim’s house,” Jacob answered. “I know he’s supposedly moved but after all of this,” he paused and looked at her with regret in his eyes, “Maybe he was here. Maybe we can find something inside. Come on, I’ll show you the balcony.”
Linda expected him to walk around to the backyard, but instead Jacob strolled right up to the front door.
“We’re going in?”
“Yeah,” he answered, running his fingers across the underside of a planter box that was perched on the front window, pulling out a small brass key a moment later.
“But what if he’s in there right now?” she whispered as Jacob opened the door quietly.
The air inside the house was stale and smelled a bit like burnt oil. Linda doubted anyone had been in the house in months.
“Don't worry,” he whispered back at her, opening up his jacket so she could get a peek of the gun he had tucked into his belt.
Linda had so many questions but bit her lip and followed Jacob inside, curious to see the inside of Tim’s house. He walked ahead of her past the empty living room and kitchen to a set of stairs that led to the second floor. Jacob opened a door near the stairs.
“I've been here before,” Jacob said as he led the way to what she assumed was Tim’s room. “Actually, I've been here a lot. If he’s been here recently, I know of two places he would go. First place would be the basement.”
He motioned Linda to follow him as he walked down a set of narrow steps into the darkness.
She followed him downstairs, where it was cold as a cave, but when Jacob clicked on the lights, she was surprised to see a fully furnished basement, complete with a large television and sectional couch facing it from the middle of the room. As she looked around, she noticed a small closet with the door open slightly ajar towards the back of the room. Jacob walked straight to it and opened the door.
“He’s been here.”
“How do you know?”
Jacob moved out of the way and opened the door wider so she could see. As she walked closer, she saw that the closet was wallpapered with her face.
“My God,” Linda gasped as she saw pictures that were taken just outside her house when she was cleaning the blood off the window.
“These are from...”
She felt her blood grow cold at the thought that Tim had been so near her house, watching her movements this whole time.
“These are recent.”
Linda was relieved when Jacob eventually shut the door.
“Let’s go to his room, see what else we can find.”
She started to protest that they should get out of the house as soon as possible, but Jacob was already bounding up the steps two at a time. Linda felt something was off about the house, amplified by the discovery of the makeshift shrine in the closet. Scared to be left alone in the basement, she quickly followed him up the steps and onto the second floor of the house.
“His room is right back here.”
Jacob walked down a short hallway then stopped at Tim’s bedroom door. He quietly opened it and peered inside.
“All clear,” he whispered and turned back to pull the door open wide for her. “Ladies first.”
Intrigued, Linda walked past him into a small dark room that was pretty unremarkable, except that the entire back wall was a giant window that opened out to the balcony that Jacob had told her of. There was a spectacular view of the bay through the glass and Linda thought she caught a glimpse her ship as she looked out into the horizon. Linda still couldn’t shake the sense of unease that raised the hairs on her neck, even though Jacob had given her the all-clear. Her instincts warned her that something was here, and she was filled with anxiety, as if something was waiting to pounce on her. Linda tried to shake it off and reluctantly began to walk towards the balcony, stopping almost immediately when she felt a crunch underneath her feet.
Linda looked down and saw that the floor of the room was littered with pictures, realizing that she had stepped on a photograph. She looked closer and noticed they were copies of the same image, strewn all over the floor. It was a picture of a man. A handsome colleague who had been one of the few that had been invited to her yacht parties. It was a grainy picture of his face, eyes closed, head thrown back in ecstasy with a beautiful girl sucking on his dick.
“What the hell? These are more pictures from my boat.”
She looked closer at the image and recognized who it was. Puzzled she turned to ask Jacob, “Why did Tim take pictures of Anthony Garner?”
“So, you know him?”
Jacob’s tone of voice suddenly became ice cold, and he stared her down waiting for an answer.
* * *
Dalila pulled up to the giant black yacht and knew without hesitation that it was Linda’s. She could picture the woman in her all-white bikini, laying out on the top deck, a gorgeous contrast to her pitch black vessel. Dalila parked the car and looked around for Linda and Jacob, checking the parking spots around the area, but there was no sign of Jacob’s bike.
She proceeded down the ramp to the dock gate, entered with the one of the keys attached to Linda's key ring, and looked around the yacht dock where she found nothing unusual. There were no signs of the alleged pictures anywhere near the boat. Did she have the wrong yacht? She pulled out her cell phone to confirm with Linda, but before she could press the call button, the phone rang in her hand.
It was Susie again.
“Susie, listen I have to call you back. There’s a lot of shit going on with Linda right now. I’ll let you know more la….”
“No. Wait. Don’t hang up. Listen to me! ” Susie raised her voice to get Dalila’s attention. “I tracked down Tim.”
“Sue, it’s been like 10 minutes, how is that possible?”
That drowned body Ricardo found? We identified it. It’s Tim. He’s dead.”
“Wait. Susie, what are you saying?” Dalila opened the car door and fell back into the driver’s seat, completely dumbfounded by the news.
“And the cause of death isn’t drowning. He was murdered. Asphyxiation,” Susie continued.
17
Full Discovery
Confused by his reaction, Linda didn't answer Jacob’s question at once.
“Is that Anthony in the picture!?” Jacob yelled.
Linda remained silent, frightened at the sudden change in his demeanor. Jacob walked inside the room and shut the door behind him.
“So Tim was right.”
“Tim was right about what? Jacob? What’s the matter? What’s wrong? What has Tim said to you?”
The hairs on the back of Linda’s neck stood straight up. The energy in the room had changed with Jacob’s mood, and there was malice in the air. Jacob, who only minutes ago she would have trusted with her life, had suddenly become a threat to it. She didn’t know how or why. All she knew was her mind was screaming for her to get out as fast as she could.
She stepped backward as Jacob moved toward her into the room. He now had his hand near the side of his jacket where he had shown her the gun.
“When I saw Tim, he told me my dad was a regular at your parties,” he said quietly. “I thought maybe he was just fucking with me so I would help him find where you were.”
“Do you know what my last name is, Linda?”
Garner. Jacob’s last name was Garner.
“Wait. I don’t understand. Anthony was your dad?”
“Tim kept teasing me about it,” Jacob continued, ignoring her. “Kept teasing me that I was so hung up on you that I wasn’t willing to hear the truth about who you really were. Tim told me that my dad met my stepmoth…” he paused, as if he tasted something awful, then corrected himself, “the woman he left my mom for during one of your parties. And he was right.”
Jacob rubbed at his eyes in a manic fashion, as if he were just waking up from a long sleep.
“I defended you. Hell, I killed him for you!”
He hissed the confession through his teeth and took another step towards her, trying to close the gap between them. Linda held her breath and stood her ground, afraid that any slight movement would make him lunge after her.
“You killed him?” she whispered.
“He wouldn’t shut up about it. He kept telling me he had evidence, pictures under the floorboard of his house to prove it,” Jacob answered, his voice becoming frantic, shaky and full of anger as he recalled his argument with Tim. “But I wouldn’t be convinced, Linda. I was so fucking loyal to you.”
Suddenly, Jacob’s face broke down into tears, and he crumpled to the floor on his knees, sobbing.
“Tim told me I was a shit son for not trying to get revenge. For not joining up with him to get back at you. He said I might as well have killed my mom myself.”
He wiped his tears and looked past Linda, out to the balcony and to her yacht on the horizon.
“That’s when I had to shut him up.”
“Jacob, what did you do?”
“I choked the motherfucker. Squeezed his little neck until he stopped yapping. I didn’t mean to kill him, I just…” he trailed off and looked at Linda with dull, dead eyes. “I came back to Driftwood to let you know that you didn’t have to be afraid of him anymore, but curiosity got the best of me. I had to look.”
Linda followed his eyes as he looked to the far corner of the room where there was a missing floorboard. “And it turns out, he wasn’t lying. I found the pictures.”
“Jacob, I never knew your dad was Anthony. I didn’t even know he was married. He didn’t have a ring; he said he was single and…” she stopped herself, realizing that no matter what she said now wouldn’t convince Jacob.
Tim had gotten into Jacob's head, and he wasn’t about to hear her explanations.
“So the blood, the flowers, messing with my security system...that was all you?”
“Don’t sit on your high horse and judge me, Linda. You’re the one to blame for all of this. Tim knew it and tried to tell me.”
He shook his head in regret, wrestling with the flood of pain that had driven him to this decision.
“If my dad hadn’t been to one of your parties, if hadn’t met that slut he left us for, my mom would never have killed herself. I certainly wouldn’t have had to kill Tim,” he muttered, his hand slipped inside his jacket, “and I wouldn’t have to kill you.”
* * *
“Shit! Shit! Shit!”
“What, D, what's the matter?”
She could hear Susie clacking away on her laptop trying to find more information.
“I lost her. I don't know where she is.”
Dalila couldn't believe she had let them go alone. She should have started up the car and had Linda ride with her instead.
“Stupid! How could I be so dense?” she yelled and hit the steering wheel in frustration.
“You lost her? D, tell me what’s going on?”
Embarrassed, she explained to Susie what had happened just moments before.
“This Jacob guy told you about incriminating pictures being littered all over the docks?”
“Yes. He said he saw them plastered on and around her yacht, but...” she looked at Linda’s massive vessel, otherwise undisturbed, “...I don't see anything.”
“Why else would he lie or create that sense of urgency if not to rush you out of the way?” Susie mumbled on the phone to herself. “D, where were the pictures taken from?”
“He said he thought it was from Tim’s house, but who knows if he was telling the truth?”
Panic had set in. Linda was in danger, and Dalila had no idea where she was.
“Calm down. It's okay. I have Tim’s address from the DNA match in the files. We can at least start there, okay?"
Susie’s voice was stable in her usual calm work mode, which made her feel a little bit better.
“It’s not far from you, D. Just a few minutes.”
She punched the address into the car’s GPS and raced the Tesla's engine back up the street towards the highway.
18
Choices
Her heart was beating furiously in her ears as Jacob stood up from the floor and moved towards her, pulling the gun out from his pocket.
“You don't want to do this Jacob,” she pleaded. “I know deep down, this isn't what you want. This is what Tim wanted you to do. He did this on purpose, led you to make the connection with your father, all to make you furious with me. He only wanted someone to finish the job he was too cowardly to do himself.”
“Don’t act like you know me because you don't,” he said flatly, suddenly devoid of emotion. “You just wanted me for my dick, remember? If you weren't so self-centered, you might have known I was attending a technical college, and that it was me who hacked into your security system to erase the footage.”
Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment because he was right, she hadn't even known he was enrolled in school, let alone what classes he took.
“I'm sorry, Jacob. I'm sorry if I was distant with you. I'm sorry about your dad ...and your mom.”
She glanced anxiously at his gun, now pointed straight at her.
“But you have to know that whatever happened between your mother and your father, and their relationship, had nothing to do with me. Can't you see that? Tim fed you all those things so you would get angry and misdirect it. He’s USING you to get back at me.”
She knew that no matter how many ways she explained Tim’s obvious plan, she'd be better off talking to a brick wall. He had already made up his mind that he had to kill her to avenge the woman.
“He’s dead, Linda. Tim’s not using me for shit. My mom is dead,” he broke, tears welling in his eyes, “and it’s because of my dad ...and you.” He rushed towards her and shoved the barrel of the gun to her head.
“I can’t kill that bastard, but I sure as hell can kill you!”
Even with the muzzle of his gun shoved into her temple, Linda remained calm. She had heard the hesitation in his voice, and his refusal to look her in the eye now was the remaining door left to talk some sense into him. She knew deep down inside, past the bullshit that Tim had fed him, Jacob was one of the good guys.
She slowly brought her hand to his face, fully expecting him to flinch or turn away but instead he softened to her touch and let her turn his head slowly so the they were eye to eye.
“Jacob, killing me won't bring you the peace you're after. Let me help you.”
He stared at her with his deep soulful eyes, still brimming with tears.
“I should have helped her. I should have been there.”
Linda felt the pressure of the gun against her temple release a little as tears rolled down his cheeks.
“It'll be alright, just put the gun down and let me help you. I want to help you, and I know that I can.”
“How can you help me?” he whispered. “You can't bring her back to life. You can't undo what's already been done.”
His tears stopped flowing, and the darkness crept back into his eyes. “You and my dad made her look like a FOOL!”
He gritted his teeth and pressed the gun so hard against her head that Linda stumbled. He took advantage of her momentum to push her into the wall.
“I'm going to humiliate you as much as you humiliated her,” he sounded like a child in the midst of throwing a tantrum, only this child had a very adult gun in his hand.
“I'm going to fuck you and kill you, and when they arrest me, I'm going to expose you to the world.”
Jacob pressed his hard cock against her, putting his free hand up her shirt to grab at her breasts.
“Put the gun down, Jacob, and let her go.”
The creak of the floor boards and Dalila’s stern voice cut through the silence. Jacob spun around, grabbing Linda by the waist and hid behind her to shield himself from Dalila, all the while his gun never leaving her temple.
“You just need to stay out of this!”
“Jacob, this doesn't need to escalate any more than it has. Put the gun down, let her go and we will all just walk away from this. I haven't called the cops, but if you don't let Linda go, I'll have to.”
Dalila held up her cell phone to show him that she was serious.
“I can kill you right now, bitch,” Jacob took the gun away from Linda’s head and pointed it at Dalila.
Despite the adrenaline coursing through her body, Dalila tried her best to keep her voice steady and calm, to exude a confidence that would make Jacob doubt his ability to pull the trigger first.
“I know you don't want to die,” she told him. “You and I both know that you're in over your head right now.”
“You don't KNOW! ME! BITCH!” he spat out the last three words in a half wail.
Jacob was crying and laughing at the same time. His sudden erratic behavior visibly shook both Dalila and Linda. He no longer sounded like a man on the edge, but rather like one who had already leaped off of it.
As if in slow motion, Linda felt him pull her in closer to his chest and saw the muscles of his forearm tighten around her throat. He was preparing to pull the trigger, and she immediately pushed against Jacob, throwing him off balance as the bullet released from the chamber only an inch beside Dalila’s head, tearing up the door jamb in a dozen splintery pieces.