by C. L. Brees
The drive back was a quiet one. Alex spent most of the trip in deep thought and wasn’t up for socializing with Amy. On the other hand, Amy sat in the passenger seat gazing off into her own world. In her mind, all she wanted to do was keep thoughts of all the happy times she had spent during her senior year. Her thoughts focused on her friends, the ones she had gained but also the one’s she had lost. As hard as she tried, there was no way she could shake the ominous feeling about Heather’s whereabouts. Even though they had only known each other one school year, it just seemed so weird that she would just disappear so quickly after Kelli’s murder. She shook her head, snapping back to reality to find that they were only three miles from home. She gazed at Alex who was still heavily focused on the road. He was more immersed than she had ever seen him before.
“I will be so glad to finally get out of this car,” she joked as Alex turned his head slowly towards her. “You’re not kidding. I feel like we’ve been in this car forever, even though in reality it’s only been a few hours.”
“I know one thing for sure: I’m hungry. I think that should be the first order of business once we get back to your place.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more, Amy. I’m starving myself. Once we get a bite to eat, you and I can start going through the office. If I know my mother, she is hiding things in there.”
“I know I said I’d help, but I just feel so uncomfortable snooping through your mother’s things, Alex.”
“This is something I have to do. Something isn’t right here, and even though my mother filled me in on some holes in my past, she still didn’t give me the full story.”
“Yeah. Speaking of story, you never did tell me what she said.”
“For our safety, I am going to keep a bulk of our conversation to myself. I can say, though, that my father ratted out some Russian mafia guys. And according to my mother, these aren’t the type of people to piss off.”
“Russian mafia? Wait a minute…those guys from the robbery—they sounded Russian.”
“Exactly my point. When you told me that, I got a chill up my spine. We’re going to get to the bottom of this—quietly.”
“Of course. We don’t need to draw any attention to ourselves.”
It was now a quarter past eleven and they had finally arrived safely at Alex’s house. He pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. They exited, and Amy stood outside the passenger side door, waiting for Alex to begin his walk around the front of the car. She glanced up at the cloudy sky above her. The storm clouds had been growing darker and darker as they drove up U.S. 36 towards town.
The weather was quite unusual for this time of the year. Thunderstorms were not frequent in mid-May, but they also weren’t out of the question. A loud clap of thunder rumbled in the distance as Amy watched Alex fumble with his keys as he made his way towards the front door. She walked up behind him, the overhang of the gable sheltering her from the moderate rain as it continued to fall.
“I’m so over this weather. It looks like another stormy afternoon is in store for us,” she jeered as Alex swung the front door open.
“Well, given the events, this weather and mood seem fitting. At least the thunderstorms will add an element of mystery to the sleuth work we have in store,” he joked as he walked towards the alarm panel to quickly disable it.
“Yeah, it’s creepy enough with the weather; I can only imagine what we will find lurking in your mother’s files.”
As Alex rushed towards the kitchen to prepare a small meal, Amy placed her items in the living room near the couch. She looked back up and glanced around the room. Something felt off to her. Knowing that her best-friend was already paranoid about the two men in the white van from earlier that morning, she felt it best to keep this unfounded feeling to herself.
Alex walked back into the living room to find Amy starring out the window. She was in deep thought, and he didn’t want to startle her. How was he going to let her know that lunch was ready without startling her?
“Lunch is ready,” he quietly said as she jumped from the intrusion into her thoughts.
“Jesus, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry. You ready to eat?”
“Yes, I’m ready. Let me regain my composure though. You know, that was a mean thing to do to me, Alex.”
Alex laughed as the two took the short walk from the edge of the living room toward the dining room just around the corner of the wall. They sat down at the table and tore into their afternoon meal. He had prepared two turkey sandwiches on rye with Dijon mustard, a side of potato chips, and a soda. Not exactly the healthiest meal, but given how hungry they were, health didn’t seem to matter in that moment.
After finishing they placed their dirty plates in the kitchen sink and stood in the middle of the kitchen. Amy released a short sigh and looked at Alex.
“You ready to get started?” Alex asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be. We only have a little time before Brandy arrives, so let’s get at it.”
They walked from the kitchen to the long hallway that lead to the study. In all respects the house was larger than Alex and his mother actually needed. There were long hallways and rooms in each and every corner of the two story, brick house. Alex flipped on the light switch, illuminating the windowless hallway as they casually walked towards the end.
Alex wasn’t quite sure what he was hoping to find yet, but he figured there had to be something in that house. He could feel that there had to be something for someone to cause such chaos in the quaint town of Ridgewood Hills.
Alex walked into the study first. The least used room in the house sat in pristine condition: no dust, and the smell of lemon filled the air. The south wall contained three floor to ceiling bookcases which were filled to capacity with books. He strolled towards the desk which faced the bookcases.
Sitting down in the oversized executive black leather chair behind the desk, he slowly began opening drawers to the antique bureau. Rifling through the drawers, he found loose papers, files, office supplies—but everything looked in order. He opened the bottom drawer where each of the file folders were labeled: Cable, IRS, Electric—it was everything you’d expect to find in an office drawer.
Amy called out from across the large room, “You finding anything, Alex?”
“Honestly, no. All of this looks like my mother’s day to day stuff. Can you do me a favor and start looking behind pictures on the wall and under the rugs?”
“Why?”
“Well, if I know my mother, and I’m almost certain that I do, there has to be a hidden safe in here somewhere.”
“Really, Alex? A safe? What is she, some sort of secret agent?”
“Funny. She’s just a private person—a secret agent, oh you make me laugh.”
“You never know, Alex. She could be.”
“Doubtful. I think that is something I would know. Can we just get back to the task at hand here?”
“Alrighty.”
She did as she was asked and began walking around the room. Peeling back the pictures that hung on the wall, she searched behind each and every one of them in hopes of finding the safe that Alex truly believed existed. Sadly, she wasn’t having much luck.
Meanwhile, Alex was pulling files out of the desk drawers. A plain file folder labeled PRIVATE caught his attention. His right eyebrow raised as he pulled it out and set it down on the desk. Intrigued, he began flipping through the folder. Inside there were several newspaper clippings and letters from Russia included in it. He looked up and scanned the room looking for Amy. “Amy, come look at this.”
“Did you find something of interest?”
“Look at these newspaper clippings. They all talk about my father’s murder and the trial, and then there are these letters written in Russian.”
“What the hell?”
“Yeah, all of this information was right here the whole time. We could have saved a lot of time and just stayed here all morning and snooped around. I ca
n’t believe I never thought to go through her desk in the first place.”
“Here, this is the newspaper article we’ve already seen. We should focus on these handwritten letters though. Do you know Russian?” Amy inquired.
“I don’t speak or read Russian, Amy; however, John has taken Russian the last four years. Maybe we can get his ass out of class and over here to interpret these.”
“Well, thanks to the wonderful advancements made, I’ll just send him a text message and get him over here.”
“Oh, I just love text messaging! I don’t know how we survived without it before.”
“I’ll be right back, Alex.”
Amy stepped out of the study and into the hallway.
Alex continued to hunt through the file folder when he came across an envelope which contained a letter inside. Written on the front of the envelope was a message in Russian:
Для Denise Stahl
He shook his head in frustration—what was he reading? Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. Denise Stahl—his mother. He flipped the paper flap on the back of the envelope and pulled out a letter that was stuffed inside. The letter was typed in Russian, but as he flipped the paper over he saw it had been translated into English. He paid special attention to the date of the letter: just last week. The letter read:
У вас есть то,что мы хотим,и мы не будем препятствовать вам ни минуты покоя в мире,пока мы не получим его обратно.Для вашего ради и сыновей ваших,и я предлагаю вам сотрудничать с нами или это дело может закончиться плохо для вас.
Flipping the paper over, he decided to not strain himself with the Russian and went straight for the English translation.
You have something we want and we won’t let you rest a moment in peace until we get it back. For your sake and your son’s, I suggest you cooperate with us or this matter could end poorly for you.
Alex’s eyes widened as he slouched back in the chair. What did his mother still have that would make these people threaten her life, not to mention his and his friends’ as well? And worst, what did his father steal from these guys in the first place?
Amy walked back into the room after both texting and calling John on his cell. She noticed Alex sitting in the chair, holding a letter in his hand. His face was ghost white. She ran towards the desk and kneeled down on the floor next to him.
“Alex, what is it?”
Without saying a word to her he handed the letter over. She took the paper from his hand and looked at the front of the letter.
“I can’t read this. I told you, I don’t read Russian.”
“Flip it over for the English.”
She flipped the paper over and re-read the paragraph that Alex had already read. However, the letter continued on past the first paragraph. The ending was even more dramatic than the beginning. Her eyes widened as she read the final passage:
We know where you are and we are watching your every move. Don’t think you can run and hide from us this time. We are everywhere. We might be your neighbors, your co-workers, and we might even be your closest friends. Just give us back what we want and your quiet life can go back to normal.
Don’t make me send this warning again.
Amy lowered the letter to her side and eyeballed Alex who was still sitting at the desk in shock. “Uh, this letter is pretty disturbing, Alex.”
“Just the letter is disturbing? This whole mess is disturbing!”
“I think you had better get on the phone with Mike—like now. I think we are in some serious danger here.”
Alex stood from the desk and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and dialed Mike. The phone rang three times before he answered.
“Wow, we don’t talk for three weeks and now I’ve talked to you already three times in one day. This is a good sign.”
“Well I just can’t stay away from you. First, why haven’t I heard back from you about Amy and me being followed this morning? Secondly, we have an even more serious problem than that here.”
“Slow down, Alex. You’re so hyper. I’ve been in and out of cell service all morning and I haven’t seen a text from you come through about you being followed. And what could be a larger issue than that? Are you hurt? Did something happen to Amy? Tell me what’s going on before I freak out here.”
“Please don’t freak out. That’s my job. And yes, we were followed by a white van with two scuzzy looking guys in it all morning, but that’s not the worst part. Amy and I were snooping through my mom’s desk, and we just found a threatening letter in the drawer. Are you still down in Denver?”
“I am; I’ll be here until around three o’clock today. So, spit it out, don’t keep me in suspense here. What did the letter say? Do you need me to send someone else by to check on you two?”
“I’d prefer to talk about this in person, and I only want to deal with you regarding this. At this point, I’m not sure who I can trust or if this phone line is even secure or not. Do you think you can come straight here after you get back?”
“Alex, you’re scaring me now. I give you my word though that you’ll be the first stop once I get back into town. Can I make a suggestion though?”
“What’s your suggestion?”
“I’m suggesting that you stop digging into the past, go back to school tomorrow, start studying for your finals, and just let me do my job and keep you guys safe. Stop snooping through your mother’s things. What do you think she’s going to do when she finds out you did that?”
“I’m sorry Mike, but I can’t do that. I’m in this too deep now to just give up. I have to get to the truth of what’s going on here—not for my friends, not my mother, but for me. My whole life has been turned upside down in two days, and now my own boyfriend is sitting here telling me to just give up! You’re supposed to support my decision to do this.”
“Well, as your boyfriend and a law enforcement official, I’m telling you to back off Alex,” he demanded.
“Not going to happen, Mike. We’ll talk about this when I see you in a few hours. For now, go find out what you can about this gang, and I’m going to find out what my father has to do with any of this.”
Alex angrily flipped his phone closed and ended the call. He shoved the cell phone back in his pocket, composed himself, and sat back down at the desk. He sat there and just kept repeating the same thing over and over: Give us what we want. What was it that they were referring to? And what’s more, did his mother even know what they were referring to?
While Alex was on the phone with Mike, Amy continued to search through the drawers for more letters. Referencing back to the hours of movies she had watched, she pulled the drawer out and looked underneath. Two more letters were taped to the bottom of the drawer, along with a coin envelope. She waited for Alex to hang up and called out to him.
“Alex, you might want to come take a look at this.”
Walking towards her he could see that she had pulled the drawer out, “What are you doing? My mother is going to lose her mind if we ransack her office. Aw, screw it. What did you find?”
“Look, more letters and a coin envelope. Should we open them?”
“You bet your ass we should. If it’s hidden, it’s probably important.”
The two sat at the desk, reading the two unsigned letters. They contained nothing more than idle threats with a repeated pattern in each letter. He reached over for the coin envelope that lay on the desk. When he opened it, a long, thin key fell out into his hand. “I wonder what this goes to?” he asked.
“I’ve seen those before. My dad has one. It’s the key they gave him at the bank for a safe deposit box.”
“So maybe whatever it could be is locked up at a bank?”
“Well, you know damn well we aren’t going to get into it. But let’s keep this hidden just for safe keeping.”
Al
ex stood up from the chair and sauntered towards the window. The rain was falling at a much steadier pace now. With the day almost half over, Alex felt that they weren’t having any luck digging up more on his father. Sure, he realized that his mother wasn’t telling the entire truth about the past. And sure, he now knew that he really was in danger. There was not much more to go on than that.
Alex taped the two letters back where he found them. He kept the key in his pocket and taped the coin envelope back in its rightful place. Meanwhile, Amy had gathered together all of the items that they had strewn across the desk while Alex slid the drawer back into the track. “We have to make it look like we were never in here,” he noted.
“Absolutely. I’ve never seen your mother angry, but I have a feeling that it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.”
“You got that right,” Alex uttered under his breath as they both walked towards the door of the study.
The time was closing in on 1:00 in the afternoon, and Alex sat on the couch watching Amy watch her newfound addiction: afternoon soap operas. He tried his best to not pay any attention to what she was doing, instead focusing his attention on studying so that when he returned to school the following morning he would be ready for anything.
The steady rain outside had dwindled into a fine mist that fell from the grey afternoon sky.
Alex thought to himself, so much for a BBQ. It looks like we’ll be going out to dinner tonight.
He anticipated the visit from Brandy, who was scheduled to pull up in about an hour or so. It had been at least a year since the two had seen each other.