Land of Entrapment

by Andi Marquette

  I was pretty tired and didn’t feel much like reading, so I called Grandpa to check in with him.

  Luke answered. He said everything was fine. We chatted a bit and then signed off. I called my folks as well. They didn’t answer so I left a message, telling them I’d call back in the next day or so. I then turned out the light and climbed into bed, staring into the dark and listening to the hum of the cooler.

  I thought about Cody and Megan, and about what might draw her to a guy like that. He was good-looking, and he was probably charming and had that

  “aw, shucks” thing that attracted people to James Dean. He was kind of a bad boy and Megan had flirted with that sort of lifestyle for a while. She was still trying to figure out who she was and Cody probably flattered the hell out of her, telling her how proud he was of her for getting off drugs and for trying to make something of herself. If he was Megan’s primary recruiter, chances were that he figured out pretty quickly what she needed to hear to draw her to him.

  I’d have to go through her e-mail files to see how they interacted. I was not looking forward to that so I thought instead about Melissa and what Chris had said about closure. I definitely could use some of that, especially since we were working together to find Megan. It struck me, suddenly, how jarring it was to go from no contact to daily contact with an ex over the course of just a few days. I put my hands behind my head and continued to stare into the dark. My eyes were adjusting to the dim light in the room and I could just make out the shapes of Megan’s dresser and shelves near her bed, which held little art objects and a few books. Photos, too, but I hadn’t really looked at them. I’d check those out in the morning.

  I did want to talk to Melissa about what had happened. I wasn’t sure why, exactly, but Chris was right, even if Melissa said things I didn’t want to hear. What had gone wrong between us? Besides the obvious? I remembered things getting tense when Megan went into rehab again, but I’d figured we’d work through it, like we had the first time. I sighed heavily, thinking about Melissa and Hillary. Usually an affair means that someone can’t communicate effectively or doesn’t want to. Sometimes it means the person having the affair wants the other person to make the first move and end the relationship. Either of those could have described what happened.

  I turned onto my side. I didn’t recall talking about much of anything with Melissa when Megan went back into rehab. I had been working so hard to finish up my dissertation that I sometimes only spent a few minutes a day talking to Melissa or Megan. I clenched my teeth. No, I hadn’t been around much. So? I didn’t have an affair. But a twinge of guilt zipped through my thoughts. I remembered how much I had loved Melissa and how right it had felt to be with her, even when her family chickens came home to roost. We had some good times and I knew she had loved me, too.

  But dammit, I just couldn’t get past Hillary.

  Fortunately, I fell asleep.

  SOMETHING GRATED AGAINST the pleasant, soothing hum and burble of the swamp cooler. A sound that didn’t fit, that worked its way into my skull and tugged me into wakefulness. My eyes shot open. Adrenaline whipped through my body but I lay perfectly still in the bed, listening to the rattle at the front door. Someone was messing with the security door, trying to get in. I sat up and reached for my cell phone, ready to call 911. Gripping my phone in my right hand, I eased out from under the covers and tried to find something I could use as a weapon. There was a broom in the kitchen. It would have to do.

  I listened again. The rattling had stopped. No, there it was again. I padded quickly into the kitchen to the corner by the table and grabbed the broom, then went back into the living room. My heart hammered my rib cage like a pro boxer and I was sure whoever was messing with the door heard it. Every nerve stood at attention, prepared to send me flying down the street either fighting or fleeing. I saw a silhouette through the shade that covered the window of the interior door. Just one person, from the looks of it. I moved quickly to the light switch on the front wall and without really thinking about what I was doing, I flipped the outside light on. The rattling stopped and I watched as the silhouette disappeared.

  I unlocked the inner door and threw it open and saw what looked like a man dressed in jeans and a dark Tshirt running at full speed down the walk toward the street. I flipped the lock on the security door and ran after him, obviously leaving my sanity and shoes inside.

  I made it to the sidewalk and started to follow but he had a head start, running toward Central, and the bottoms of my feet hurt. I started to shout after him, but clamped my mouth shut, opting not to scare the entire neighborhood. I jogged back to the house and slid my tennis shoes on. That done, I grabbed my keys and locked the inner door, leaving the security door slightly ajar.

  I’d cruise Central. Maybe I’d find him. I flipped a U-turn and headed down the street. My car clock glowed the time. Two thirty-four AM. Lovely. I worked an eight-block radius east and west on Central then cruised some of the neighborhoods nearby. I didn’t expect to find him, but you never know. At three I headed back to Megan’s and spent the next ten minutes studying the lock on the security door. If he had a key, wouldn’t he just have used it and come in? He was doing something at the front that caused the door to rattle. Was he trying to pick the lock? Or was it too dark for him to find the right key? Maybe he had a bunch of keys and he was trying to figure out which one it was. I carefully opened the security door, using my foot. Chris might be able to get a print off the handle. The interior door was still locked. If he was inside, he probably would not have locked himself in.

  I pulled the security door closed. I’d definitely get that lock changed tomorrow. Chris was on duty at nine, so I’d see if she had time to swing by beforehand. I picked the broom up from the living room floor, but decided I might need it after all so I didn’t return it to the kitchen. I pulled the comforter off Megan’s bed and stretched out on the couch in the living room, my cell phone on the coffee table. I positioned my head so I was facing the door. I didn’t think the guy would come back, but that didn’t ease my frame of mind and I didn’t sleep much after that.

  CHRIS FINISHED WORKING on the security door and looked up at me. “Give me your prints so I can rule you out.”

  “Melissa’s will be on there, too.”

  “If I don’t get a hit on anybody else, I’ll check and see if she’s on file and rule her out.” She stood regarding me, looking extremely professional in her pressed khaki trousers and white button-down shirt.

  Her badge was clipped to her belt. “What else?”

  I shook my head. “Not a hell of a lot. I’m pretty sure he was male. It was dark and all I saw was his back but his body shape was male and he was at least six feet tall. Short hair. Jeans and a black tee. I don’t know if I actually thought to look at his shoes.”

  “That’s all right. Hopefully I’ll get something from the prints on the door.” She followed me into the house and I waited as she peeled an inking strip open.

  I pressed all my fingers onto the ink. Chris then slipped it into a small paper envelope on which she had written my name. She put the envelope in her kit.

  She gathered her gear and looked at me again. A grim expression crossed her face. “What the hell is going on?”“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s random. Maybe it has something to do with Megan. Could have been Cody. Same height, roughly.”

  “Yeah. I’m not discounting that.” Chris noticed the comforter on the couch and the broom on the floor. “Why don’t you stay at my place tonight?”

  I considered her offer but decided against it. “I think it’s a better idea for me to stay here. He might come back.”

  Chris looked at me as if monkeys had suddenly flown out of my butt. “Exactly. I would prefer that you’re safe with me than fighting some crazy racist in a small space like this.”

  “I’m getting the locks changed today. And if he comes back, I can find out who he is and maybe even get some info about Megan.”

  “So you’re going
to ask some perp breaking in whether he’s seen your ex-girlfriend’s younger sister?

  How is that conversation going to go down?” Chris grimaced at me, frustrated. “And will that be before or after you smack him with the broom?”

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Chris, see it my way for a minute. I think he has a key, which means he knows Megan. And he might have been coming here to get something for her. So if he comes back, it’s because he thinks he’s still able to get in.”

  “You are psycho.” Chris was glaring down at me.

  She’s about five-eight and can be really intimidating.

  I’m maybe two inches shorter, but when Chris gets her cop look, I feel about two inches tall, period.

  “That is a bullshit plan,” she said in a tone of voice that left little room for argument, but I tried anyway.

  “C’mon, Chris. What if Megan comes back with him? For all we know, she’s been stopping by her place for clothes.” Shit. Why didn’t I think of that? I’d have Melissa check Megan’s closet to see what might be missing.

  Chris relaxed, but only slightly. Her eyes glinted steel. In cop mode, she could scare the crap out of most people. “Here’s the deal. I’m going to work. I’m taking a day off tomorrow. I’m going to stay with you here tonight and I don’t want to hear anything from you about it. I’ll drive my own car and I’ll park it up the street. And if this cabrón comes back to fuck with you...”

  I leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

  “You’re really hot when you talk dirty like that,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

  Her jaw tensed and then she laughed softly.

  “Promise me you’ll get the locks changed.”

  “I’m calling Melissa as soon as you leave.”

  “All right. I’ll see you tonight.” She smiled, though I saw the concern in her eyes before she headed out the door.

  “Hey, Chris—”

  She turned, halfway down the walk.

  “Thanks.”

  “Kase, I love you. I care about you. And if anything happens to you, I and the wrath of my ancestors will find whoever messed with you.” She threw a wave with her free hand and returned to her unmarked car, its front end just visible on the street. I let out a sigh and shut the security door, then called Melissa. Fortunately, she answered and I told her what had happened.

  “What? Someone tried to break in?” She was obviously upset.

  “I don’t know if that’s what he was doing. I get the feeling that he had a key and he was trying to open the door that way.”

  “Well, who the hell would do that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Cody? Maybe one of his friends? When you stop by, have a look in Megan’s closet and see if you notice anything that’s gone missing since she left.”

  “Jesus. I—”

  She was thinking she had put me needlessly in danger. I headed her off. “It’s okay. I chased him off and Chris already came by. She might have gotten a print she can use. If he’s got a prior, we’ll be able to find out who it is.”

  “Dammit!” Melissa seemed to be struggling with words. “I’ll put you up in a hotel—”

  “Look, all we need to do is get the locks changed.”

  She hesitated before responding. “Call Heights Lock and Key. Give them the address. The landlord is on file. He’s a friend of mine—Rob Tanner—and we have an arrangement when things need to get done.

  I’ll let him know about it. Just make a couple of extra copies of the new key.”

  “Will do.”

  “Oh, and save the receipt for me so I can give it to him.” She sounded frustrated.

  “Yep.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go to a hotel?

  What if he comes back and tries to break in through a window?”

  “I don’t think he will because he knows someone’s here now and he won’t want to risk drawing attention to himself.”

  “I don’t want you there by yourself tonight,” she pressed.

  “Not to worry. Chris is staying over after she gets off duty.”

  Long pause. Melissa knew that Chris and I’d had more than a friendship sometimes, though she also knew that Chris and I never slept together when one or both of us was seeing someone. I knew that Melissa wanted to ask about present circumstances between Chris and me, but on the other hand, she really didn’t want details. I heard an almost imperceptible sigh.

  “All right. Call me if you need anything. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Will do. Bye.” I hung up and put my phone in my pocket, glad for Megan’s little neat streak. She kept her phone books stacked on the shelves in her living room. I called Heights and explained my situation. No problem, the man said, after they looked up the address in their system. They’d be there in about an hour. That was actually pretty good for Albuquerque, so I set to brewing coffee and toasting a bagel.

  As the coffee finished brewing, I heard a male voice at the security door. It had only been ten minutes, so it couldn’t be the locksmith.

  “Hello? Anybody home?”

  I stuck my head out of the kitchen. A guy about my height stood outside. He looked to be in his mid-twenties.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hi. I’m Jeff, from the front house.”

  “Oh, yeah. Melissa told me. Come on in. It’s open.

  You want some coffee?”

  He pulled the door open and stepped in. “That’d be nice, thanks.”

  I returned to the kitchen and poured coffee into my cup and got another one out of the cabinet near the sink. “You want some cream?”

  “No, thanks. Black is fine.”

  I handed him the cup. “I’m K.C., an—” I stopped, then continued, “an old friend of Melissa’s.”

  “Cool. Melissa said you’d be hangin’ here for a while.” He blew on his coffee and took a sip. I studied him. Straight black hair and stocky build. He wore tattered black shorts and a plain gray tee. Flip-flops graced his feet. He looked like the quintessential young college student type. I got a good vibe from him.“So. A cop?” He looked at me, not wanting to pry but clearly needing to know what an officer of the law was doing near his house early in the morning.

  Chris’s unmarked squad car still screamed “police.”

  “Oh, Chris. She’s a friend of mine and stopped by on her way to work. Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to freak you out.”

  He smiled. “I’m actually glad. I haven’t told Melissa this, but there’s been some weird stuff happening around here since Megan’s been gone.”

  I looked at him, gauging what I could and could not tell him and it occurred to me that I was still in my boxers and thin white tee without a bra. I set my coffee down on the counter and crossed my arms over my chest. “Like what?”

  He took a tentative sip from his cup, maybe debating what to say. “Well, last week some guy was messing around back here. It was late—like, eleven or something—and he went back to Megan’s and tried the door handle. We were up watching a movie and I was in the kitchen getting something to drink and I just happened to look through the back door and saw him. I shouted at him and he bailed, but it was weird.”

  “Did you get a look at him?”

  “Not really. About all I could tell was he was wearing jeans and a dark shirt. I didn’t see his face.”

  “Was it Cody?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Cody was coming around a lot the last few months and he always said hi to me or Sage if he saw us. Though Sage never said hi back.”

  Jeff smiled and shook his head.

  I sipped my coffee. “Huh. Weird. Well, thanks for letting me know. I’ll tell Chris and she’ll swing by a little more.”

  “That’d be great.” He smiled again. “Good coffee.”

  “Thanks. So what else have you noticed?”

  “Sage saw a couple of creepy dudes hanging out by the curb a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Creepy how?”

  “I didn’t see them. I
was at work. But Sage’ll tell you. She said they were wearing jeans and white tees and they had scary tattoos on their arms and necks.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Sage says the tats were swastikas and shit like that. Couple of skinheads, sounds like.”

  “That is creepy.” I took another sip of my coffee and changed the subject. Sort of. “So what do you think about Cody?”

  Jeff shrugged. “He seems nice. He’s always polite and Megan seems to really like him. Sage hates him, though.”

  “How come?” This Sage already sounded like a damn smart cookie and I should probably have a chat with her.

  “She says he’s a racist, but I haven’t seen or heard anything like that from him. But Sage is pretty good at reading people, so if she says he is, he probably is.

  Still, he’s always polite to me.”

  “Have you seen him recently?” I tried to keep my tone conversational.

  “No. I figured he’s just waiting for Megan to finish the summer term she’s doing and then they’ll just pick up where they left off.”

  “Huh. Well, maybe I’ll get to meet him.”

  “Maybe.” Jeff finished his coffee and reached to put his cup on the counter.

  “You want more?”

  “No, thanks. Hey, why don’t you stop by later?

  We’re having some friends over and we’ll be grilling out tonight.”

  “Sounds good. I might do that. Thanks for the invite.”

  “Sure. Gotta stick together in the ’hood,” he said, slipping into a strong New Mexico cholo accent. I laughed as I followed him to the door.

  “Take it easy,” I said as he left. He waved and loped to the steps of the main house’s back porch. I returned to the kitchen and ate my bagel, which was cool but still yummy after I slathered cream cheese all over it. I finished and cleaned up and poured myself another cup of coffee and was just about to take a drink when I heard another knock at the door. Damn.