by Diane Blake
"Yes. I'm positive he's been watching you since we came in here. Plus, I swear I saw him walking across the quad looking in our direction on our way here."
Now that her little bubble of normality burst, she figured she might as well tell Gus the truth, at least enough of it to calm him down. She decided it wouldn't be fair to let her friend worry for nothing. "He's not a stalker. He's a bodyguard."
"Bodyguard! What's going on? Are you in danger?"
"It's just a precaution. Everything is going to be fine." Off his doubtful look, she added, "Really."
Gus saw the time on his phone. "Darn it. I'm going to be late for my next class if I don't leave now. Are you sure you're OK?"
"Hey, I'm the one with the bodyguard."
"Point taken. But I want the full story later when we have more time and you feel up to it."
Jasinda smiled to reassure her friend. Gus grabbed his books and he hurried out of The Coffee Corner.
Chapter 28
Later that evening, Jasinda lost all track of time in the dungeon. That's what Jefferson University students called the lower level of the campus library. A number of reasons in addition to its physical location in the building contributed to this designation.
The poor air circulation made the old books smell slightly musty. Unlike the upper levels, foot traffic didn't exist down there. Students and faculty members mainly entered the so-called dungeon when they wanted a particular book housed down there. Of course, the library had stocked that section with the oldest and least circulated material.
The only other reasons to go down there were the strong possibility of prolonged periods of quiet and privacy. Those were Jasinda's motivations for doing her work in such an environment.
The complete lack of windows (and therefore any natural light) made it virtually impossible to estimate the time of day. Cell phone and wi-fi reception found on the upper levels were non-existent in the library dungeon. Therefore, most people didn't look at their electronic devices down there very often. Consequently they paid little attention to periodic time checks.
Jasinda only looked at her netbook which she used solely as a portable way to type assignments. She never bothered to set the clock on it. Jasinda hadn't checked her own phone either. Craig had several live media appearances scheduled to promote the Big Game and the team's participation in it so there was no chance of him calling or texting her.
All these factors combined with her intense workload contributed to Jasinda staying much later than she meant to in the dungeon. When she finally looked at her phone, she discovered it was almost two hours later than she'd imagined. She had no idea how long it had been since anyone else had come or gone from the dungeon.
Jasinda hadn't seen the bodyguard down there either. Earlier, she'd seen him unobtrusively scanning books on shelves within sight of both downstairs doorways when she'd entered one of them. She wondered, Why hasn't the bodyguard come down to check on me at least once or twice in all this time? Craig will be furious if he finds out.
Jasinda stood up from the table. The chair seat squeaked. The chair legs scraped the cracked linoleum floor until they got stuck in a rut. Was there another sound too? Her eyes darted around. She didn't see anything but rows and rows of metal shelving filled with dusty books.
She held her breath for a moment. Her ears listened carefully. Jasinda heard nothing except the quiet background buzz of the fluorescent lighting. Make that the half of the lights that weren't burnt out down there.
"You're just letting the atmosphere spook you," she told herself out loud. Voicing the words helped pull her out of her own head whenever she'd start to get paranoid that he'd make good on his promise to get to her someday. "You're doing it again, Jasinda," she chastised herself. She knew that she had to stop looking back at the past and focus on the future...the kind of future she could build with Craig if she'd allow herself to.
She packed her books, notebooks, and netbook computer into her bag. She steeled herself by saying, "Get a grip. You've got Craig Wilder on your side and a bodyguard watching over you. You've actually never been so safe."
Jasinda headed down one of the aisles. A loud noise behind her startled her so much that she couldn't even scream. She spun around in silence, simultaneously swinging her book bag at just the height to smack an attacker in the face.
The bag whipped through the air. It made a circle until it came around and hit Jasinda in her own shoulder. Nobody stood in the aisle with her.
She looked up and down the aisle as well as through spaces on the bookshelves. She finally noticed a fallen metal bookend and several books on the floor. She shook her head to laugh at her own silliness. "I must have knocked these down with the corner of my bag as I walked by."
Jasinda bent down to retrieve the books and return them to the shelf. She headed for one of the stairwells.
At the same time, the man leaned out from his hiding place behind the free standing magazine rack at the end of the aisle. "If only the klutz hadn't knocked that bookend over when I was just about to sneak up on her," he grumbled to himself in a whisper. He pulled out his phone as he bolted up the other stairway.
Chapter 29
Jasinda emerged from the dungeon stairwell onto the main floor of the library. She swiveled her head around. No sign of the bodyguard. Maybe he's just blending into the background, she thought.
She stopped at the bubbler outside the restrooms for a sip of water. She bent down and pushed her hair out of the way.
Jasinda had no way of knowing that, by coincidence, she touched her neck in exactly the same spot as the blade had sliced the bodyguard's neck. In fact, she also had no way of knowing that the dead bodyguard lay in a pool of blood - inside a stall several feet away from her, just on the other side of the men's room wall.
The lack of the bodyguard making his presence known brought Jasinda growing unease. She looked over her shoulder several times as she hurried towards the spacious front lobby.
"Jasinda! Over here! Hey, gorgeous!" Gus called out from across the open space just as a bulb in the chandelier hanging high above them burnt out.
"Hello, Gus!" Jasinda responded as she walked by the circulation desk. The library assistant with the blue streak in his otherwise dark hair looked up from the book he'd been reading. He made a show of jamming a bookmark between the pages and slamming the hardcovers shut.
As she approached Gus, she looked back over her shoulder and stifled a giggle. "I guess we were talking too loudly for him."
"We're so naughty!" Gus joked. "So, fancy meeting you here!"
"I told you in class that I was going to be here working on the paper tonight," Jasinda replied.
"Oh, that's right. Totally forgot. No wonder my mother used to say I had noodles for brains sometimes. So, are you coming or going?"
"Going."
"Cool, me too."
"I'm surprised I didn't see you in the stacks since we have such similar topics for our papers."
Gus answered, "I've been here quite a while. I had some other homework to finish; I had already done my Western Civ stuff earlier."
They walked through the security system contraption on each side of the exit. She tapped it on her way out. "Who would want to steal anything from a library?"
"I know, right?"
The cool night air against their skin perked them right up. Gus adjusted his scarf against it.
They passed by the ornate Greek columns and descended the library steps towards the mostly deserted campus quad. Jasinda looked over her shoulder at the building. "Seems fitting to do a research paper about Greece with that architecture, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but I'd still rather be comfortable in the dorm using my laptop."
Jasinda huffed a sound of agreement. "I know. Stupid old fart professor. In this day and age, who says that all sources for a paper must come from the campus library, physical resources only? Idiot!"
Gus mocked their professor's voice including the old man's strange habit of br
eaking up words and putting pauses where they didn't belong. "Appearan-ces can be de-ceiving. You can't rely on website in-formation. People say whatever they want online with no ramifi-cations if it isn't true."
Jasinda bust out laughing. "You nailed him perfectly with that impression! Accent, inflections and all. You should become an actor!"
Gus shrugged. "What kind of roles would I get? Sassy gay friend?"
They both laughed.
No longer distracted by her friend's mini-show, Jasinda scanned the area. "From the look of the campus, we're practically the last people around tonight," she observed.
Gus peered into the shadows by the bushes. "And where's that big bodyguard of yours?"
"Good question."
The alarm sounded in his voice. "You mean you don't know. He disappeared?"
"Apparently."
"That's weird. Maybe he had some sort of emergency or something."
Jasinda nodded. "Maybe, but why would he take off without telling me?"
"That's pretty irresponsible. You should fire his ass."
"Except that I didn't hire him. Craig did. Or the Tigers did. I don't know exactly."
"Really? I didn't know you guys had gotten that close."
Jasinda smiled at the thought. "Yeah, I'll fill you in on the whole story soon, I promise. In the meantime, I don't know where that bodyguard is and I better get out of here. The campus being so deserted like this is giving me the creeps big time."
Gus checked the time on his phone. "Ironically, the dorms are hitting their stride right about now. But yeah, the academic buildings and commuter parking lots are basically empty by this time." They reached the point on the walking path where Gus needed to veer off to go back to the dorms.
"Well, goodnight, Gus. See you in class next week."
"Let me walk you back to your car. You shouldn't be walking out here alone. Especially if you parked in the outer rim," he said referring to the nickname the students had given to the commuter parking lot farthest away from the center of campus.
"Actually, I did. But if you come with me, then you'll have to walk twice as far by yourself on the way back."
Gus made a funny sound with his mouth. "Yeah, that would suck. I know, you could give me a ride back to the dorm, then neither of us has to go alone."
"Perfect. Deal," Jasinda agreed.
Jasinda was glad for the company to take her mind off everything. She and Gus walked along giggling and laughing some more at the professor's demeanor and crazy ideas. Thanks to the large pine trees' shadows, the van parked in the dirt off the side of the road failed to catch their attention.
"That is sad," Gus remarked when they hit the vast outer rim commuter parking lot. Jasinda's car sat in the middle of the otherwise empty cement lot like a forgotten toy on a deserted playground.
They had strolled halfway to the car when Jasinda cried, "What the hell?" as she looked over her shoulder.
The previously unseen van roared into the parking lot.
Gus didn't seem concerned. "Teenagers like to blow off steam down here. Do figure eights. Skids. Slides. Donuts. Harmless crap."
The annoyance crept into Jasinda's tone. "Still, they could at least wait until we're gone and the parking lot's completely empty. Pretty rude to do that while my car, not to mention the two of us, are still here."
But the van didn't do any tricks. Instead, the engine roared as it headed straight for them.
Chapter 30
"Look out!" Jasinda screamed. "The van's going to hit us."
Jasinda and Gus dove out of the way. They found the cement unforgiving against their bodies, but still preferable to the front grill of a moving van.
"I don't th-think that was an ac-accident," Gus stammered as he scrambled to his feet. He held out his hand for Jasinda and pulled her up too.
"Come on, run for my car," she ordered. "Damn, this body wasn't built for running," she complained on the way across the huge parking lot.
The van circled back around. It aimed for them again.
"Come on, Jasinda, we're almost there," yelled Gus whose longer stride and more in shape body propelled him several steps ahead.
While running in her panicked state, Jasinda's hands fumbled in her pocket, trying to locate the key fob. She had to get those car doors unlocked before she and Gus reached the door handles.
The driver of the van gripped the steering wheel. His eyes darted around, instantly taking stock of the situation and making calculations. He had a target and he wasn't going to miss it. Failure was not an option.
His right foot floored the gas. His left foot rested on the brake pedal without putting any actual pressure on it. The actions required strict precision. The time differential between having a foot on each pedal and moving one foot between both pedals was too much to risk.
Despite knowing both by sight and sound that the van gained on them with each passing microsecond, Jasinda believed they would make it to her car. Her arms and legs pumped like they never had before. Her heart raced and she sucked in deep, painful bursts of air.
The van's brakes screeched. Its wheels locked...
Jasinda felt like she witnessed a magic trick. At first, she was just steps away from her car. She had a clear view of it. She could almost touch it. Escape!
Then, in less time than the blink of an eye, the van appeared. It instantly blocked both her view and her path to safety. Trapped!
The vehicle had slid to a stop right between Jasinda's car and the two people running for their lives.
Jasinda and Gus found inertia and the side of the van to be as unforgiving as the cement had been a few moments earlier.
"Ouch!" Jasinda screamed as she slammed into the van's side doors. Gus simply let out a high pitched wail.
They both backed away from the van. More accurately, they bounced off it and stumbled backwards.
The van's side door swung open. Two masked men jumped out.
One of them grabbed Gus first.
"Jasinda, help!" Gus coughed as the attacker twisted the young man's scarf around his neck, strangling him with it.
Jasinda was in no position to help her friend. The other masked man grabbed her arms. She pushed and pulled trying to wrench herself free. She stomped on his foot and jabbed her elbow into the assailant's stomach.
In their struggle, he ripped her pocketbook strap off her shoulder. The purse fell to the ground and contents spilled out. Her cell phone slid across the cement face down.
His tight grip and superior strength outmatched her every attempt to free herself. As he forced her into the van, he whispered in her ear. "You're a feisty one."
The other masked man threw Gus's limp body into the van. It rolled along the floor.
"Gus!" Jasinda yelled. She never got an answer. The last thing she remembered was reaching out towards her friend. Then the foul-smelling rag covered her face.
Chapter 31
Craig Wilder wasn't the type of guy to panic. However, he began to worry when he didn't get any response to his calls and texts to Jasinda after he finished his media appearances. Maybe she turned off the cell phone again to study or maybe the battery died, he told himself.
He moved on to extremely anxious when contacts to her bodyguard went unanswered as well. Maybe they're in a bad reception area, he told himself.
Craig crossed the line to panic when he got back to her apartment and found it empty with no sign that she'd been there since the morning. Maybe she...he started to tell himself and simply ran out of disbelief in the idea that there could be a benign explanation for her disappearance.
Normally, someone would have to be missing at least a day before the Jefferson police would open a missing persons investigation. Craig persuaded the police chief to make an exception considering Jasinda's recent brushes with danger.
Marty, the Tigers lawyer, also put pressure on the Jefferson police. The Tigers organization wanted Jasinda found as soon as possible. The last thing they wanted thirty-six hours away from
the Big Game was their star quarterback's mind on a missing girlfriend instead of on football.
With Kandi Chambers missing as well, the entire Tigers organization experienced upheaval at the worst possible time.
Marty also used his influence to get the police to share what little information they'd gathered. Of course, they had many more questions than answers at that point.