“Expressway Cleaners, how may I help you?”
“Ah, yes, this is the hotel and I have to tell you…Mr. Evans is very unhappy about your service. He’s telling me that you ruined one of his suits…”
The boy’s head popped up in surprise.
“I’m sorry, what hotel are you calling from?”
“Uh, are you serious? How many other five-star hotels do you do business with? I’m sure you can remember an order for a Mr. Evans. He had a few suits brought in and we picked them up.”
The boy sounded nervous when he spoke. His voice, still changing, hiked up an octave with the stress. I felt a little guilty, but not much.
“I remember the suits, but my mom is the one who took the suits over to you guys.”
“Yeah, well they’re very expensive suits, at least a few thousand apiece and now my guest is talking about a lawsuit.”
Jimmy raised an eyebrow.
“Listen, uh my mom isn’t here. Can I take a message?”
“Well, when will she call us back? Does she have the main number?”
I made a writing gesture with my hand and Jimmy fumbled around in his briefcase for a pen and paper.
“Yeah, I have it right here.”
I watched the boy dig in a drawer behind the counter and lift out a ticket. He held it up as he read it to me over the phone.
“The Whitmore Hotel, is that right?” He then rattled off the phone number.
“Yes that’s right,” I said and wrote the number and hotel name down.
“Skills,” Jimmy whispered with a grin.
“Listen, I don’t want to get you in trouble, I hear good things about you guys. Why don’t you hold off on calling, and I’ll try to talk to the client and calm him down, that way the family business isn’t on the hook. OK?”
“OK,” the boy said with relief.
I ended the call, and hoped I hadn’t rattled the poor family too much. Running your own business can be hard.
“You’re kind of scary, you know?” Jimmy stared at me with fascination.
“I’ve been told.”
I looked up The Whitmore with my cell phone’s online yellow pages and got the address. I showed it to Jimmy. “That’s less than a mile from here.”
“We better get over there.”
We pulled into the Whitmore’s underground garage and rode around until we spotted Parker’s sports car. I confirmed the license plate with my file. I dialed the main desk number while Jimmy parked.
We walked into the Whitmore’s lobby. It truly was a five-star place. The marble laden lobby would leave us too open. I led Jimmy to the small gift shop, and we settled in behind the wind chime display.
“What are we doing?” Jimmy leaned down and whispered in my ear. His breath on my neck was hot with excitement.
“We’re going to see what we can see,” I said cryptically. Then I pointed through the chimes to the front desk.
“Ah, a secret view.” Jimmy gazed and then nodded.
I dialed the front desk’s number, and a cheerful woman came on the line. She was standing in front of the cubby holes for mail and messages.
“Whitmore, how may I serve you today?”
“Can you please connect me with Mr. Evans’ room, please?”
“One moment,” she said and then typed on her computer. She frowned and then took me off of hold.
“There’s no Mr. Evans here, I’m sorry.”
Jimmy, listening on my cell phone, sighed.
I put my finger to my mouth. “Well, if he does get in, can you tell him to call Shane?”
“Ma’m we don’t take messages for people who are not checked in at the Whitmore.” The woman answered, but grabbed a pen from the holder on the counter. She was writing something down. I pointed for Jimmy’s benefit and felt him nod.
“OK,” I said simply and hung up.
“Nice touch with the Shane thing. That’s gonna rattle him.”
“Thanks!” I smiled broadly.
We huddled together and watched the front desk woman finish writing. She turned to her computer, typed something, and then picked up her phone again.
“She just looked up his room number.”
“So now what?”
“We wait to see if we shook something loose.”
The woman at the front desk spoke on the phone for a couple of minutes and then hung up, visibly shaken.
Jimmy looked at me; he’d seen the change in her demeanor.
Two minutes later, Parker came rushing out of the elevator and over to the front desk.
Jimmy elbowed me in the ribs gently.
“I see him.”
Parker extended his hand and read the note that she’d written from my call. He seemed startled and looked around the lobby. Then he said something to her and she nodded and started to type on the computer again. Parker reached into his pants pockets, then his suit pockets, and then rubbed his face with both hands frustrated. He said something to her and ran back to the elevator.
“What’s he doing?”
I grabbed Jimmy by the shirt sleeve and led him out of the lobby doors and back to the garage. I took the keys from his pocket while we scurried down the cement ramp.
“He’s checking out.”
“How do you know that?”
“He was looking for his wallet, that’s why he was digging into his pockets.”
“You think he’s going to run?”
I nodded, spotted the SUV, and clicked the key to unlock it. I climbed into the driver’s side. Once Jimmy was inside, we waited, hunkered down in our seats. I whispered my answer to Jimmy. “Parker is hiding out, and we just made it look like Shane, and by extension the motorcycle gang dude, knows where he is.”
A few minutes later, Parker barreled out of the stairwell and towards his car. He threw his luggage into the back seat and scrambled into the driver’s seat. He had to restart the car because he stalled out on his first try.
“Seems nervous.”
Parker tore out of the garage, and I had to fight the urge to peel out after him. He turned left out of the garage, and I counted out to fifteen before following.
“Can you follow him without him seeing you?”
“Well, I know Shane’s car is distinctive because Salem and I had to find it to tag it with the GPS. It’s an old Mustang, so he’ll probably be looking for that or whatever the motorcycle gang guy drives. This black SUV is pretty non-descript. But I’ll keep from crowding him just in case.”
Jimmy pointed out the window, and I spotted Parker’s bright red sports car up ahead in the next lane.
“He’s weaving in and out of traffic like a madman.”
“Yeah, let’s just hope he doesn’t get pulled over,” I said.
If Parker got pulled over or in an accident then our plan was pretty much ruined.
“Where do you think he’s going?” I asked.
Jimmy pulled a folded paper out of his pocket and unfurled it in his hands.
“What’s that?”
“It’s the phone book page with the computer archives storage companies,” he said and tilted the page for me to see.
“I hadn’t thought to bring that, Jimmy! You’re brilliant.” If I hadn’t been driving I would have kissed him.
“I have my moments.”
I tried to keep up with Parker but his erratic driving made it difficult without also calling attention to myself.
Jimmy crossed off the storage places in the opposite part of town and then the one whose exit we’d just passed. That left one more on the phone book page.
“I think he’s heading to Digi-Safe.”
“I need to fall back. If I keep this up we’ll get pulled over.” Frustrated I lowered my speed and sighed, looking at Jimmy.
“He’ll see us if we keep up, Rain. We’ll get there.” He wadded up the paper, reached out and rubbed his finger down the angle of my jaw.
“I know, it’s just…he’s been so wily up until now. I’m just afraid…”
“Maybe we should call in some witnesses.” Jimmy looked out the windshield.
“What do you mean?” I looked away from the road, startled. I nearly missed the turnoff.
“We both have a lot to gain by bringing Parker down. This can’t be just our word against his, Rain.”
“Calling the police will take things out of our hands. What if Parker’s family strong arms them into covering up what he’s doing?”
“Rain, you have to trust somebody, sometime,” Jimmy said and pulled his phone out.
“Wait,” I said suddenly and tried to grab at his phone. I swerved a little into the lane next to me and got an angry honk from the driver on my right.
“What are you doing? You’re going to get us killed, Rain!”
“Jimmy, wait OK? What if they come with their lights and sirens and then he has some sort of explanation for why he’s there at the archives? It’ll destroy any credibility we have!”
“What do you think you’ll do, instead?” Jimmy stopped dialing.
I was about to answer, but Parker’s car was at a gas station on my right. I slowed down. “What’s he doing at a gas station?”
“Maybe he needs gas?”
I gave Jimmy a, ‘don’t be stupid’ look and then pulled into the parking lot next to the gas station. There was a mini coffee shop in the middle of the asphalt. The building was shaped like a giant coffee mug with a window for drive-through ordering. The flashing sign said, ‘Cuppa Joe’ in pink neon, but the window was closed and the lights were out. I pulled behind the giant mug, but kept the engine on.
Jimmy cleared his throat the way he did when he was going to say something he didn’t want to say. “Rain?”
I murmured back but didn’t take my eyes off of Parker’s car.
“Rain, look at me.”
“I kind of have to keep my eyes on the target, Jimmy.” Irritated I turned to face him.
“Rain, what is it you’re planning to do, exactly?
“What?” I looked back out at Parker’s parked car. I knew where he was going with this and didn’t like it. Not one bit. Partly because I wasn’t sure if I could give him the answer he needed.
“You don’t want the police involved for the reasons you gave, right?”
Parker came out of the gas station with a bag, jumped in his sports car, and drove back onto the main road. I started after Parker again before answering Jimmy.
“What are you asking, Jimmy?”
“I think you know what I’m asking, Rain.”
I pulled behind and to the right of Parker. He was in the fast lane and pulling ahead. I chanced a glance at Jimmy’s face, lit up by the oncoming headlights.
He looked suspicious.
“I told you why I don’t want the police involved just yet.”
He was silent for a few moments. Parker, over a mile ahead now, was lost in traffic.
I bit my lip nervously. What if we didn’t have the right place? What if we got to Digi-Safe and he wasn’t there?
“You aren’t planning some kind of confrontation, are you, Rain?” Jimmy spoke up again.
I closed my eyes momentarily and sighed. “I can’t promise that I wouldn’t be glad to cause Parker some measure of pain for all that he’s done,” I murmured.
I saw Jimmy rub his face with both hands out of the corner of my eye. When he spoke again, his voice was so strained that I looked over at him startled. “Rain, please don’t go down this road again.”
“What road?”
Jimmy turned in his seat to face me.
I avoided his eyes and instead scanned the street names for the one I needed to get to Digi-Safe.
“Rain, you have to decide what kind of person you’re going to be. I have to know.”
“What are you saying, Jimmy?” Confused I looked at him.
“I’m saying that you’re racing towards a crossroads, and I want to know what path you’re planning to take.”
“Now is not the time for this conversation, Jimmy. We’re chasing a suspect!”
“Now is exactly the time, Rain. I need to know, right now because anything you do out of anger or grief will directly affect me, too!” Jimmy said loudly.
Dread bubbled up into my chest. I tried to answer calmly but I felt control slipping. My throat ached with the words I wanted to shout at him. “Don’t make me do this, Jimmy. Not now.”
“Yes, now, Rain.”
“What do you want me to say?” I shouted. “What do you want to hear?”
“I want to hear that you won’t put your anger ahead of our future. I want to hear that you can walk away from the possibility of revenge.”
“Why…why would I do that?” I looked at Jimmy with wonder.
“Because you’ll destroy us in the process, Rain.” Jimmy reached out and caught the hem of my sweater in his fingers. He looked worried.
“Are you asking me to choose between nailing Parker and loving you?” Anger and confusion whipped through me like a cold wind.
“No. I’m asking you to choose between the hatred boiling in your veins and the grace hanging over your head.”
I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles ached. Why was Jimmy doing this? I spotted the road I needed through blurry eyes. I killed my headlights and drove slowly down the street toward the empty Digi-Safe building.
“Jimmy, don’t do this now,” I begged.
“Yes, now, Rain. You’re at such a dangerous place that you don’t even see how vulnerable you are right now. You’re this close to believing in the promises you’ve been given, this close, Rain. Don’t turn away from that.”
“Don’t talk to me about grace and promises, Jimmy. Don’t do that. Parker deserves to pay for what he’s done! Jimmy, he killed your sister!”
“I know what he did, Rain,” Jimmy murmured. “Don’t sit there and behave like I didn’t lose a piece of me.”
“Then what are you saying, Jimmy? You want me to trust that the police, who’ve already messed up this investigation, will do the right thing in the face of all that money and influence? You want me to promise to go against everything in me that screams for Parker to suffer the way he made Summer suffer? I can’t do that, Jimmy. I can’t do that!”
I pulled to a stop a block away from the building and shut the engine off. I stared out the window and panted against the sobs choking my breath away.
“I’m saying that when we lost the baby, when you were nearly killed in the car crash, you were so hopeless and lost,” Jimmy said and reached for my hand. “Rain, I was afraid you’d never come back from that. When you pulled away from me, from everything and everyone who was trying to help you…”
I sat up in my seat. Anger raged through my body, and I shook with the heat of it. I whirled on Jimmy. “I turned?” I shouted. “I turned away?”
“Rain, that’s not…”
“You moved me out of your life and into an anonymous apartment to hide the shame of me from your family! Don’t talk to me about turning away, Jimmy. I needed you, and you just faded away from me!” I shouted despite my fear of Parker hearing. I shouted because I couldn’t stop the pain from pouring out of me after all of these years.
“I tried to be there for you, but you pushed me away. You didn’t want to talk, you wouldn’t eat. I was terrified you were going to die in that bed. I did everything I could think…”
“You…left me,” I sobbed. “You turned to God when He was….He was the one who…” I couldn’t finish. I couldn’t breathe.
Jimmy reached for me.
I fumbled with the keys. They wouldn’t come out of the stupid ignition. I ripped them out, punched the button for the back hatch, and scrambled out of the SUV, desperate to get away.
“Rain,” Jimmy called after me.
I could hear him getting out of his seat. I grabbed my camera with the infrared lens and light.
Jimmy rounded the corner of the SUV and his hand whipped out, catching my arm.
I ripped from his grasp and stal
ked toward the Digi-Safe building.
“Stop walking, Rain,” Jimmy whispered hoarsely. “Stop.”
I turned and strode back to meet him, my fury so barely contained I wouldn’t have been surprised if things caught fire around me. I walked up on Jimmy and poked him in the chest.
“How could you turn to Him? How could you do that when God did nothing when I was trapped in that car and writhing in pain? He was silent when I was so broken that all I could do was lie in that hospital bed and cry for what I’d lost! He took you from me when I needed you most! How do you expect me to trust in Him again? How could you trust him? He punished us for doing everything we weren’t supposed to do. He punished us!”
Jimmy looked at me sadly.
I buried my face in my hands. I was ashamed because all of my fear and pain and anger had spilled out and now Jimmy could see what a hot mess I’d become.
Jimmy tugged on my sweater softly, urging me to look at him, but I couldn’t. Agony broke his voice when he spoke again. “Rain, God didn’t punish us. It was an accident. That’s all; a tragic thing that happens in a fallen world. It wasn’t a punishment. It wasn’t anything but a tragedy.”
“But you went against everything you believed when we started dating. How could you not believe that it would catch up with us?”
Jimmy pulled me close and buried his face in my hair. I could feel his hot breath in my ear.
I didn’t understand. I’d never understood why his faith had grown stronger in the face of so much misery.
“Rain, God puts those rules in place to protect us because as a Father, he doesn’t want us to go through the very kinds of problems we went through. When you were so close to death and the doctors told me that you’d lost the baby…I fell apart.”
“But I never saw…” I looked up at Jimmy astonished.
“You were unconscious for days after the accident. Summer and Parker were in Europe on vacation and Mona was with them…I was alone. I just sat by your bed and held your hand and prayed. I begged for your life. I begged for you to make it despite what the doctors told me.”
I hadn’t known I was that bad. No one had ever said the doctors were telling Jimmy to let go. I took a step away from Jimmy. “Why have you never told me this?”
“Rain, you almost died. Your liver was torn and they were debating on whether or not you’d survive another surgery. I’d already lost…”
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