Sublime Karma

by Peyton Garver

  Jake blocked the door again, then signed. “No, hardhead we not!”

  “Piss off,” Greg signed in slang. “She’s yours now.”

  “I said Ari my friend, not my girlfriend!” Jake signed back.

  “Bullshit! I saw you. I’m finished with her. She a B.” Greg brought the b-handshape next to his chin.

  Clenching his fist, Jake shifted, drawing back, but heard his Jeep door open and Teagan yelling, “Trevor, come back here!” He spun around as Trevor charged up the walkway.

  “No!” Jake yelled, snapping his first two fingers onto his thumb. He grabbed for the boy, catching him just as he lunged at Greg with a savage scream. Jake twisted the flailing child away.

  “What da fock! What’s wrong with him?” Greg growled, still signing.

  “My sister not bitch!” Trevor signed, still panting from his angry charge.

  Not completely fluent in sign and still gripping Trevor with his left hand, Jake only signed some of what he said next. “What’s wrong with him? You call his sister a bitch. What you think!” Jake released Trevor. “Stay,” he signed to Trevor.

  Focusing back on Greg, Jake signed. “I came here because I want you to know before everyone else.” This time, Jake fingerspelled as he spoke. “Ari, O-D.”

  “What!” Greg’s annoyance turned to panic as Jake’s words registered. “She—O-K?”

  “No—I don’t know!” Jake signed then took Trevor’s hand, dragging him back to the Jeep. Midway down the walk, he stopped. Turning back to a stunned Greg, he shouted, “If you even care, she at hospital.” Not sure Greg could hear him, he signed. “I go,” then not knowing the correct sign, fingerspelled. “H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L.” He threw up his hands, waving Greg off.

  “Wait! Can I go with you? Gimme one minute,” he called over his shoulder and ran back into his house.

  “One minute,” Jake mumbled, “and then I’m gone.” He picked Trevor up and fastened him back into his seat next to Teagan. “Greg come with us,” he signed to Trevor. “O-K?”

  Trevor glared at Jake, and then conceded with an angry, sloppy “O-K” fingerspell.

  Jake hoisted himself up into the driver’s seat just as Greg trotted back out of the house with his jacket and climbed up into the waiting Jeep.

  Chapter 32

  Jake looked up from his breakfast when he felt his dad’s hand on his shoulder. “No school for you today, son.”

  “You want me to ditch?” Jake finished the last bite of his omelet.

  “Gia asked if we could keep Trevor until tonight.” His dad looked across the table at Trevor who was picking out the marshmallows from his bowl of Lucky Charms and eating them one-by-one. “I think it’d probably be best for him if you were here with him. She’s not sending him to school today, and she wants to be with Ari. Jake,” he squeezed Jake’s shoulder. “You did good, son. She’s alive because of you.”

  “But, she’s still unconscious. What if she’s . . . if she’s—brain dead?”

  “Don’t think like that, Jake. She was breathing on her own last night. She’s going to be okay. You have to believe that. You were there when they said treatment in the first few hours after an overdose is crucial. You did everything right in the first hour.”

  Jake glanced at Trevor and nodded.

  “Can I stay home too, Dad?” Teagan piped up, carrying the breakfast dishes into the kitchen.

  “No. It’s school for you.”

  “What he say?” Trevor signed to Jake, pointing.

  Teagan answered instead. “You and J-A-K-E . . . no . . . S-C-H-O-O-L . . . today,” she signed, slowly and deliberately, not nearly as fluid as Jake, fingerspelling Jake and school. She turned back to her dad. “Can Trevor spend the night again?”

  “Maybe, we’ll see. Actually, that might not be a bad idea.”

  “I stay with you?” Trevor signed, looking next to him at Jake.

  Jake ruffled Trevor’s bedhead and nodded with his fist the sign for yes. “Dad, can I go see her? If you don’t want me to take Trevor, I can go tonight, after you get home from work.”

  “Yeah, if she comes around, it’ll be good to have you there.”

  “Hmm, I’m sure Greg hasn’t left there. He’s on a guilt trip.” Jake started to take a swig of his orange juice, but stopped just before the glass touched his lips. “Oh, no!”

  “What? Did we forget something?”

  “No, we didn’t. I did. Jeez, I’m an idiot. Do you think you can stay with Trevor for a few minutes? I need to run over to Brie’s. I can’t find my phone. I never went over last night, and I didn’t call her. I need to talk to her.”

  “I’ll call your phone,” Teagan offered.

  “Won’t work. It’s dead. I already tried that.”

  “Can you be back in twenty minutes?” His dad checked his watch. “I want to stop by the hospital myself, to see how Gia’s holding up. And, make sure you get your equipment bag aired out sometime today. You left it in the foyer.”

  “Yeah, promise!” Jake grabbed his keys, waved to get Trevor’s attention, then signed. “I back twenty minutes. O-K?”

  “O-K,” he signed back.

  Jake waited on Brie’s porch after he rang the doorbell.

  “Yeah?”

  He rolled his eyes at Leif’s voice coming across the intercom, then spoke into it himself. “Hey, I’m here for Brie.”

  The door opened. “You just missed her. She left five minutes ago. What’s goin’ on?”

  “I was supposed to come over last night, but something came up, and I lost my phone.”

  “Yeah? She wondered why you didn’t come by—or call.”

  “Can you let her know I came by?”

  “You won’t see her at school?”

  “Not going, I’m needed at home.”

  “Something you can’t talk about, I take it.” Leif folded his arms.

  “Something like that, yeah.” He shifted, uncomfortable.

  “And, you still can’t find your phone?”

  “If I found it, I would’ve called her.” Jake turned to leave, but paused.

  Leif narrowed his eyes at Jake. “There something else?”

  “Yeah, but not about last night. About that flash drive. I’m gonna tell her.”

  “Like hell you are!” Leif grabbed the arm of Jake’s jacket. “You and I are gonna have a problem if you say anything about that to her.”

  Jake wrenched himself free. “Well, it looks like we have a problem then. I’m not gonna let her think everything is great while some psychotic lunatic is out looking for her.”

  “You don’t get to decide that.”

  “I disagree.”

  Leif glared at Jake as he walked away.

  Jake turned, walking backward. “And, what about those other girls? You say they knew what they were doing? You don’t know that. That girl, Beth? In the pictures? That could have been Brie. What would you have done then?”

  Jake shot another look back at Leif before he hopped into his Jeep. Leif’s glare had turned to a contemplative stare.

  Brie sat in her first period class unable to concentrate on anything. Her thoughts drifted from Jake, to her father and her fragmented dream of their lake house in Deep Creek. She checked her phone again. Text from Leif? Jake stopped by looking for you. He said he had a family emergency and lost his phone last night. Conveniently? Oh btw he won’t be in school today either.

  Conveniently? What’s with him? I thought he liked Jake. She made it through first period before the numbness seeped in, and she knew she had to confront her issue.

  Approaching Jake’s locker, she noticed the goon squad, but she didn’t slow down. They were his friends, and she wasn’t quite sure where she fit in with them.

  “Hey, Li’
l Lindstrom! Did you wear down my man Gordon?” Marcus heckled her. “He’s a no-show today.”

  Giving him a smug grin to save face, she suddenly stopped. He hasn’t heard from Jake, either? Maybe he did lose his phone. “Hey, Marcus.” She surveyed the group, but looked back directly at Marcus ignoring the others. “I have somewhere I need to go. Do you know how I can get out of here without getting nabbed?”

  Marcus looked around in question at the other guys, all of whom gave him a nod. He pushed off the wall. “Do I? Yeah, I can get you out. But, you’ll get on the call list. C’mon,” he said motioning her to follow.

  “What’s the call list?”

  He laughed. “You’re kidding right? Think o’ this place like jail. Class attendance is all done through the computer. If you’re in school and you no show for a class, your parents will automatically get a call, that is if you don’t sign out through the office.”

  “My parents?” she scoffed.

  He laughed at that. “You a badass, Lindstrom.”

  He pulled his hoodie off over his head and held it out to her. “Come on,” he said, leading the way to the gymnasium. “But, you gotta go through the guys’ locker room. Hold up in the girls’ locker room until five minutes after the second bell, and it clears out for PE. Then, put my hoodie on, and meet me in the guys’ locker room. Leave your purse in your gym locker. Only bring what you need, and put it in the pocket of my hoodie.”

  “The guys’ locker room? Really?” she asked. “Are you crazy?”

  “No,” Marcus piped up, now in front of the hallway entrance to the locker rooms. “I’m serious. Don’t worry it’ll be empty in five minutes.”

  She chewed her lip, hesitating.

  “If you don’t move now, it ain’t happenin’,” Marcus said, looking down the emptying hall.

  She snatched the hoodie from him and headed to the girls’ locker room.

  “I forgot something in my gym locker,” she told the two girls in her locker aisle who were dressing for their gym class. She took her time opening her locker and fumbled around in it until they were gone, then she dumped in her books and purse and put her wallet and keys into the pocket of the hoodie she had just pulled on.

  Following Marcus’s directions, she waited for five minutes after the second bell sounded, then with the hood pulled up, she slipped into the boys’ locker room where Marcus waited.

  “Come on,” he prompted her, opening another door.

  “What is this place?” she asked, stepping over the bottoms of a stack of hurdles.

  “This room’s where they keep all the sports equipment. You know, football-training sleds, lacrosse goals, wrestling mats, all that crap. It’s the only exit in the building that don’t have a camera. Okay, you’re good to go.” He pushed open the door. “Just don’t forget.”

  Brie stopped. “What?”

  “You’ll be out, but they’ll call your parents and then give you a detention.”

  “Whatever,” she said walking away, smiling to herself when she heard Marcus’s high-pitched laugh just before the door slammed shut.

  “Leif,” Maria whispered from the den door.

  He looked up from Brie’s laptop. “Yeah?” he asked.

  “Es la escuela de Brie.”

  “Her school? What’s up with her school?”

  “They calling me. She not there.”

  “What do you mean she’s not there? Are they still on the phone?”

  “Si.” Maria held out the phone.

  Leif took the phone. “Hello? . . . No, I’m not Mr. Lehman . . . What do you mean you can’t talk to me? I’m her brother. . . . Emergency card? Rick Lehman is on the emergency card? Well, you can take him off. She’s not to go anywhere with him. . . . No, you listen to me! . . . No, her mother isn’t home . . . She should be in school. That’s where she went this morning. You just let your students walk out? Did someone pick her up? . . . What time did she leave? . . . Yes, you can talk to me! I’m her brother—”

  Leif ended the call, pulled out his phone, and pressed his tracking app. Not moving. She’s in school? Or, she doesn’t have her phone with her. Dammit, Brie!

  He looked back at her laptop and navigated to her search history. He skimmed the list then clicked on the map page she’d visited yesterday. The lake house? He printed it. How’d she find out the address? That’s gotta be where she’s going.

  He looked at his watch, and snatched the paper off the printer. “Maria, I’m going to the lake house. If I don’t call back in three hours, call the police, and give them this address.” He handed her the paper. “She’s on her way there.” He checked his watch again.

  “Si, three hours, I call police. Be careful, Leif.” Maria called after him as he bounded down the basement steps to the garage.

  Scout Lane, Oakland, Maryland. Two and a half hours, great. Maybe I can catch her before she gets there. In the meantime . . . Speeding west on Route 70, Leif pulled out his personal phone. He called Jake. All right, Dream Guy, give me some good news, so I can turn around. No answer. Still can’t find that phone?

  He navigated to recent calls on his other phone, to make the next call. “Hey, Barry. We have a potential situation . . . Are you still following him? . . . No? Well, was he hanging around, or did he . . . oh. That’s even better . . . On his truck? Do you think he’ll find it? . . . Awesome. So where is he? . . . Oakland? Dammit . . . We own a lake house there. He probably thought he could hole up there. I think Brie’s on her way there now. I’m not sure when she left. I’m headed that way . . . About five minutes ago . . . Yeah, meet me there . . . About two and a half hours from Frederick. It’s at the end of Scout Lane, lakefront side . . . Yeah. I haven’t been there in years, but unless they’ve been building in the area, it’ll be at the end . . . Okay. That tracker device will probably take you right there . . . Yeah, later.” He pressed the accelerator on his Maserati.

  Chapter 33

  Leif pulled the car to the edge of the copse. The thicket at the end of the drive looked overgrown, enough so that if he left his car there, it couldn’t be seen from the house or the lake pier. Instead of heading up the driveway, he walked farther up the road and stalked through the woods, toward the boathouse at the edge of the lake. Rick’s truck was behind the boathouse. He is here, that scum. Scanning the property, he looked for Brie’s car. Where is she? Maybe he moved her car into the garage.

  Leif checked his watch and then pulled out his phone. “Hey, you almost here? . . . You are? . . . Yeah, just leave it there behind my car. He won’t be able to see it from the house . . . I’m in the woods on the other side, behind the boathouse, opposite the pier—wait! On second thought, he doesn’t know who you are. He never actually saw your face, did he? He thought you were me . . . Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Just pull right up and knock on the door . . . I don’t know . . . Oh, I got it. Just tell him you’re a real estate agent . . . Okay. That’ll work. I’ll go in the back way . . . Yeah, all right, and leave your phone on, so I can hear . . . Yeah, put it in your shirt pocket.”

  Taking cover behind the boathouse, Leif waited, straining to hear the conversation on his phone. He heard the knock on the door and then Barry’s voice. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re home. I’m Thomas Watson, the real estate agent from McKinney Realty. I have an appointment to show this property in about fifteen minutes. My clients are meeting me here. There was supposed to be a lockbox on the front door.”

  Leif grinned.

  “A lockbox? Who did you say you are? This property’s not for sale. You have the wrong address.”

  “Mmmm. No, I don’t think so. This is definitely the right address. It’s been on the market for two weeks now. This is the property of Ava Lindstrom, isn’t it?”

  “What? What agency did you say you’re with?”

  “McKinney Realty
. I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”

  Leif could imagine Barry extending his hand. Go ahead, asshole. Tell him your name.

  “Leif Lindstrom, my mother owns this property. She hadn’t told me she was planning to sell it.”

  What the hell? Leif wondered if Barry flinched, probably not. He was good at what he did. He heard Rick continue.

  “Do you have any other properties to show around here? Maybe you can come back after I straighten up, give me a half hour?”

  “Hmm. There is one other property. Let me see if I can contact my clients and come back here after we see that one. You said a half hour?”

  Leif heard a faint crashing sound and a thud.

  “Everything okay in there?” Barry asked.

  “Yeah,” Rick answered, too fast. “It’s just my wife, she’s . . . trying to carry some boxes up from the basement. I gotta go help. Give us a half hour to clean the place up.”

  “Will do,” Barry responded, pulling his phone from his shirt pocket and hurrying off the portico down the sidewalk. “You hear that?” he asked Leif.

  “Yeah, that fucker. Get back in your car, park behind me, and meet me back here.”

  Leif ended the call and pocketed his phone, waiting and watching. Crap, forgot to call Maria. She’s probably alrea— Startled by a high-pitched scream, he looked toward the house. The back door flung open.

  It’s her. She sprinted out the door with Rick in pursuit. Grabbing a fistful of her long blond hair, he jerked her backward.

  Leif hesitated, not sure if Rick had a gun. Leif scanned the property and dock. I can’t let them leave. He watched as Rick dragged her screaming to the boat docked at the end of the pier. A hand on his shoulder gave him a start. He whirled around.

  “What are we waiting for?” Barry asked.

  Leif shook his head. “He might be armed. I can’t take that chance, he’d kill her.”