Anna shook her head. “Well, he is a good looking young man.” The girls all chuckled. “But even as biased as I am, I doubt he was hired on that alone.”
“Oh, believe me, although good looks do carry weight in any corporate environment — there is no denying that — it was the whole package that got him the position. I am told that he interviews very well, is extremely articulate and thinks very quickly when challenged. That and the fact that he remembered to turn off his phone before the interview gained him a second interview before the hiring committee.”
“What?”
“I was educated today. As it turns out, there are actually people who allow their cellular phone to dominate everything in their lives, even while trying to secure employment. I was talking to my gal and she said that several people had allowed their phones to ring with all kinds of inappropriate ring tones, and that more than one individual actually answered the phone during the process. None answered while actively being interviewed mind you, but well within the process. Can you imagine?”
“I read an article the other day that said hiring managers are giving new recruits lessons on how to talk on the phone. It seems to be becoming a lost art.”
Carolyn looked amazed. “You’re kidding.”
“No. If it isn’t text or email, seems some of our younger people simply don’t know how to deal with it.”
“Speaking of the inability to deal with the basics of life, that brings us back to Barry. Shall we?”
Adeline led the way back into the den.
“Roland said he would have that information to us shortly, to the regular email account. He asked why we needed the information. I hedged and told him that we simply wanted to take a look. I didn’t want him and his people stepping on what we are trying to do. Does that sound strange? Becoming possessive of our little part of the investigation like that?”
Carolyn responded. “I don’t believe so. I think that if we give it a go and don’t get anywhere, then we should mention it, but we can’t all be doing the same things or nothing will get accomplished.”
Anna agreed. “My thoughts exactly.”
The girls had just settled into their seats when the computer indicated a new email was available. Anna took a quick look, whistled quietly under her breath, hit a few buttons and the printer came to life.
“Our little Barry was a busy boy. The email gives us the phone numbers of all his contacts, but I don’t think that will be very useful.”
“Why is that?”
“Because if the girls are intimidated enough to drop off all social media, wouldn’t they change their phone numbers first?”
“Valid point. Then why did we have Roland give us this information?”
“It’s not about what we find, it is about what we don’t find.”
“Come again?”
“We will see who on this list we can easily track down. If we can track them quickly, probably nobody we are interested in. If we can’t track them quickly, we are probably more interested.”
“Good thought. The women—”
Before she could finish the thought, Anna interrupted Adeline. “Sorry, but let’s not put blinders on.”
“Meaning?”
“We might not want to limit our search to women only. We could find a male friend that was jealous of Barry or sickened by him. We might find the brother of a woman that might know something or a business associate that was aware of the woman that he was seeing at the time.”
“People don’t like to get involved in things these days, why would any of them answer questions from us?”
“Let’s worry about that later. First we’ll go through all the different numbers and get rid of duplicates. Let’s keep track of frequency of calls. That might tell us something. Then once we have that list, we’ll see if we can find a pattern.”
Carolyn volunteered. “I’m sure there is an easier way to do this on the computer. All the sorting functions would indicate some patterns or frequencies or something.”
Anna suggested. “Tell you what. Why don’t you girls start doing it the old fashioned way – by hand – you never know when something is going to scream at you, and I’ll get all this data sorted every way I can think of, and we’ll go from there.”
They agreed on the approach and got busy.
The girls were making good progress. Adeline and Carolyn had out their favorite colored highlighters and were marking off each phone number and making tick marks on a sheet of paper for the number of times Barry had called each number.
Anna was the first to speak. “Have either of you noticed anything about this number?” She pointed at the large monitor where she had it displayed.
Adeline and Carolyn checked their notes.
“I’ve seen it several times.”
“As have I.”
“I saw it a bunch of times too, which is why I put it in the search engine, and I really don’t like the information that came up.”
“What came up?”
“I’ll print it out so you can both look at it and tell me what you think.”
Carolyn and Adeline stood and stretched—they’d all been sitting in one spot a little too long—and walked toward the printer.
“I think we will be more comfortable if we move on out to the dining room. I think we will want to lay this stuff all over the table. Why don’t you girls wait for it to print and then come on out. I’ll get us something to snack on.”
“Anna, I can help with that. It doesn’t take two people to watch a printer print.”
“Thank you, Adeline. Carolyn, you have any requests?”
“I’m fine. Nothing a heating pad, some new eyeballs and a few minutes in a room alone with that idiot couldn’t make better.”
“You getting frustrated?”
“I’m beyond frustrated. With Barry. With myself. With Suzi. This is beyond ridiculous. Just look at all of this. Barry is not, was not, and never will be anything but scum, so why did we not see that sooner? I hold myself responsible for my part in it.”
Anna smiled. “Well, then, that’s good.”
Adeline looked annoyed. “Good?”
“Yep. Carolyn said she would hold herself responsible for her part in it. She had no part in it, so she can’t very well hold herself responsible for any of it.”
Adeline smiled. “Anna, you are so quick of mind. Are you sure I can’t hire you?”
“For what?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Nor can you afford me.”
Adeline and Anna laughed all the way to the kitchen. Carolyn allowed the tears to fall as soon as they left the room.
This was all becoming more and more difficult to bear.
It was obvious by the phone calls that Barry was seeing other women while he was seeing her granddaughter. She recognized Suzi’s number as soon as it started showing up on the billing documents.
There were all kinds of late night calls after that, to several numbers Carolyn didn’t recognize. Even giving Barry the benefit of the doubt, who calls in the middle of the night, repeatedly, for any purpose other than trolling the waters?
Long before Suzi had married him, Barry had already betrayed her, and continued to do so until the very end.
Carolyn got herself back together before joining the girls for a snack. It was obvious that she had been crying. It was equally obvious that she didn’t want to talk about it.
Instead of forcing the issue, Adeline and Anna did what good friends do. They respected Carolyn’s wishes to let it go. At least for now.
Anna had been up half the night. She found herself in the kitchen rummaging through cupboards trying to find something good to munch on. She couldn’t decide if she wanted something salty or sweet.
Adeline walked into the kitchen making just enough noise to announce her presence but not enough to startle Anna.
“Adeline, I’m so sorry, did I wake you?”
“Not at all. All of the information we were going over to
day just keeps running through my head. I know there is something there we can use. I was just on my way to the den to peruse it once again when I saw the light on.”
“That’s about where I am at. I just know there is something we can do for that little girl, but I can’t seem to find it. I have faith. I know we will. I just want it to happen a little faster, I guess.”
“It seems to me that you were on to something when we were talking before Carolyn left.”
“What was that?”
“You said that we aren’t going to come onto this directly. That just vibrates with truth. I was thinking about the young women Barry seemed to call over and over again and something came to mind.”
“What’s that?”
“I wonder if we would be able to find out where they lived and perhaps we—”
“I hate to interrupt you here Adeline, but I have a small confession to make.”
“What would that be?”
“When Roland sent us the phone records, there was more to it than I handed over to you and Carolyn.”
“Oh?”
“He sent me a copy of texts. All the texts that Barry sent in that time frame.”
“How in the world?”
“Our modern age. Nothing is lost.”
“What happened to privacy and propriety?”
“In this case, I’m glad it’s gone.”
“There is that. Why did you not tell Carolyn?”
“I looked at a couple of the texts. They are…disturbing.”
“In what way?”
“Barry is a freak and the women he was dealing with are equally disturbed. They are violent. They are sexually angry. I’m not a prude. Have a very live-and-let-live kind of attitude toward these things. You want to dress up and act like a fool, that is your choice, but this, this is not healthy, and I just didn’t want Carolyn to see it because I don’t know where it will go or if her granddaughter is involved in it.”
“Then I suggest we get busy. Perhaps we can read through all of the messages and come to some sort of conclusion as to where we go from here. If it seems like a valid part of our little investigation, we can explain it to Carolyn in the most gentle terms possible. If it seems like something that, while disturbing, has no bearing on the outcome, then we can document our conclusions and set them aside unless and until they become relevant.”
“That sounds like a good approach. I’ll go print it all out. I must tell you, it seems as if there are volumes.”
“Anna, I appreciate that you understand that it is just easier for me to do things on paper. I’ve not yet become accustomed to doing things on the computer the way you do, although each day I am more impressed with your abilities.”
“If you want to be impressed you should see some of the things my little grandnephew Jordan can do on a computer.”
Adeline smiled.
“Oh, and Adeline, I just want to thank you again for finding a job for my Joey.”
“Has he contacted you?”
“Not yet. I’m sure he is busy.”
“I think that I might have become aware of his employment before he did. I’m sure he will be in touch.”
“I hope you know what this means to me and mine.”
“I really only handed off his resume, Anna. Everything else is a tribute to your Joey. He is a lovely, smart, good young man.”
“He is that.”
The girls walked into the den. Anna tapped some keys and the computer came to life and the laser printer started up, sounding more like a jet engine than Adeline had noticed before. The printer was able to print page after page at an impressive rate. After several pages were spat out, Adeline seemed to become more and more aware of the challenge of the task that lay ahead.
“I’m going to go make myself a cup of tea. Would you like one, Anna?”
“Please.”
In such a short time they had become so comfortable together. Adeline was beginning to dread the moment the house renovations were complete and she would be moving back into that huge house alone. The loft wouldn’t be so bad, it was small by comparison and she thought she might be comfortable there, although she really hadn’t had it long enough to know for sure.
Comfort.
A word she would not have used to describe any part of her life or those who were in it, not for a very long time.
She made the tea, put the cups and sweetener on a pretty little tray that Anna kept wedged between the counter and the refrigerator and put some cookies on a plate and carried their snack into the den turned office.
“Okay, here’s the first part of it. I printed from the beginning of what we have. That was about six months before Barry and Suzi became an item. I printed right up until Suzi’s phone number was used on Barry’s phone the first time. I figure if this turns out to be immaterial, I don’t want to snoop into Suzi’s business any more than I have to.”
“I appreciate your decorum.”
Adeline sat down on the small sofa and tucked her feet beneath her. She reached forward, took her cup of tea, settled in and started to read.
By the time her tea had cooled to medium warm – untouched — she had a very different perception of Barry and the vast difference between his public persona and his true self.
She allowed herself a moment to ruminate. She asked herself just how far was the truth of the woman she was inside from the woman she presented to the world, and just when had that dramaturgy begun? When a friend she’d lost contact with long ago told her she was a chameleon, perhaps it wasn’t the compliment she had taken it to be. Had she lost herself, her true self, somewhere on the road of life?
“Is it that bad?”
Anna had startled her. Adeline recovered her composure instantly. “I’m sorry?”
“I didn’t mean to unsettle you, you seemed to have come to a stopping place and I thought maybe something had fallen into place. I keep getting the feeling we are going to come upon that one detail that causes all the pieces to fit together.”
“That would be wonderful, but at least in my life, I find nothing is that neat and orderly.”
“My life has been that way too. I think that is why I try so hard to stay organized all the time. I figure if there is no chaos in the normal parts of my life, then when things get complicated, everything else is in order and it’s just easier to deal with.”
“As always, Anna, that makes perfect sense.”
“Did you come across anything that I should know about?”
“Not really. Some of these young women have degraded themselves to the point that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we never find them. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if their issues were deep enough that they have, in essence, self-destructed.”
“I hate to hear that.”
“I hate to say it, but some of the things in these texts are alarming.”
“I know. It’s a ramification of our own stupidity. We are so busy trying to make sure every single person in the country has no limits placed on them that we create a vacuum and suck common sense and decency right into the black hole of humanity. If you got no boundaries placed on you as a kid, by your family or society or whoever, then what you gonna do as an adult. You are going to push every limit and nothing and nobody pushes back. So you keep pushing. And pretty soon you’ve pushed yourself so far into the land of stupidity that no one and nothing can save you.”
“I agree. I think that is exactly what happened with my older children. They were always told that they had no limits. There was no end to the supply of money or what that idiot father of theirs referred to as unconditional love but what would more aptly be called a total lack of parenting. Parents need to set limits. They are abusing their children if they do not. If that man were still alive, I wonder if they would turn on him the way they have come after me.”
“I doubt it.”
Adeline looked hurt. “Am I that inadequate as a mother? As a person?”
Anna shook her head, “Adeline I don’t mean t
o be hurtful, but I would think that once your kids got to a certain point, it just wasn’t about you any more. If your ex had lived then I think the kids wouldn’t have turned on him simply because he never would have wised up. He’d still be feeding the beast.”
“You are right. Of course you are. What are we going to do about these poor women in the text messages? How do we track them down? How do we find these lost souls?”
“I don’t think we can. Maybe Roland and his people can, but think about it, if you were going to be that nasty on a phone, would you keep the phone for very long or would you get rid of it and start again every so often. Because I gotta believe that making those choices would lead you down a path to some very scary individuals.”
“While I agree, I question our assumptions. If I were this…” Adeline searched for a word. “… unconventional, I would not see myself as depraved, I would assume the rest of the world was the problem and therefore I would not feel any obligation to try to fit in with them.”
“True. I was thinking more that everything is going along fine and I’m in my little leather outfit with my whips and chains and whatever else they must be talking about, and some person – and I don’t think it has to be a male, there are plenty of messed up females out there – this person comes after me. I’m gonna want some sort of buffer between me and them.”
“Good point. But if that is the case, how would I keep in contact with like-minded persons?”
“I guess you could grab the Sim-card from the phone with your contacts on it or something, but I think that would be the whole point. You wouldn’t want to stay in contact. This lifestyle, it would seem to me, is more transient than that. It’s not about making life long partners. It’s about ‘hit it and git’.”
The look on Anna’s face made Adeline laugh. Which in turn made Anna laugh. Which in turn made the whole thought of young people out in the dark alleys of life waiting for the Barrys of the world to come do what they do a little more tolerable.
“What would have to happen in your brain to want this? That’s all I’m asking.”
Hawaii Can Wait (The Girls Series) Page 11