“Sure,” she said. “First door on your right.”
I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, she'd put two glasses of red wine and a plate of snacks on the coffee table by the sofa.
“Come, have a seat,” she said. “That's your glass there; I’ve already drunk from the other one.”
I sat down and took my glass of wine.
“Try the crackers and hummus,” she suggested. “That hummus has hardly any fat, by the way, just in case you're worried about your waistline.”
I chuckled. “Good to know, thanks.” I took a cracker and tried it with some hummus. “Mm, this is good!” I announced.
“It is, right?” she replied with a laugh. “Now try some with this Camembert. This cheese is amazing, I'm telling ya.”
I tried some and was instantly impressed. “Wow. That really is good, I have to say.”
“Have a sip of wine; it enhances the flavor.”
I took a sip and found that the wine tasted a little weird. It was good quality, I could tell that much, but something was definitely off about it.
“It's nice,” I said. “But it has a slightly weird aftertaste. Do you find that?”
She took another sip of her wine. “No,” she said. “Maybe it was the cheese. Drink some more to cleanse your palette. Maybe that’ll help.”
“Alright,” I said, and took another sip. It definitely tasted weird, and I said so.
“Well, I don't know, Vivienne. I buy this brand all the time, and it always tastes good to me.”
Then my head started to spin – not just in a mild, “I'm a bit tipsy way,” but in a “I'm going to pass out in seconds” way. I felt a powerful heaviness pressing down on me, and my limbs became weak and jelly like.
“Angie, I... what's happening... I...” I tried to say, but my words came out in an unintelligible slur.
And that is the last thing I remember before I blacked out.
***
I awoke the next day with a pounding headache, feeling as if I'd been hit by a bus, not to mention extremely confused. I looked around and couldn’t figure out where the heck I was or what was going on. When the fog cleared, I studied my surroundings and found that I was in a room I had never seen before. I tried to get up, but that’s when I learned I was bound fast, with my ankles and wrists tied to the bedposts so that I couldn't move.
“A-A-Angie?” I stammered. “Wh-what's going on?”
Then the door opened, and Angie walked in.
“Good afternoon, Vivienne,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“I'm uh... I feel pretty terrible. Afternoon? But...”
“Yeah, you've been out for 16 hours now. I was starting to worry that you were in coma... But thankfully, you're awake now.”
“Why... why have I been out for 16 hours?”
“That's because I laced your wine with some very hardcore sedatives. There was enough in there to knock a horse out.”
“But... why? Why did you do that?” I asked, very confused. “And... why am I tied to the bed?”
She laughed coldly.
“Why, so you can't go anywhere, you idiot!”
“But... why?”
“Because my business partner wants to see you.”
“Your business partner?”
“Yes. He and I are making a lovely profit. And speak of the devil, here he is now!”
Angie stepped aside, and my blood ran cold.
“Hello, Alicia,” Simon said, smiling wickedly.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Everett
I woke up with the non-alcoholic equivalent of a hangover, not having slept much at all during the night. All sorts of crazy dreams and nightmares had kept ripping me from sleep and then I had found it difficult to doze back off each time. For the first time in ages, I skipped my morning workout even though I felt guilty about doing so. I was just too mentally and physically exhausted.
The first thing I did was call Jimmy, as I needed to find out if he would be willing to help us in our planned sting operation against Mr. Mask. After talking to Scott the night before, he was willing to help us out since they already had an investigation open regarding the spike of Rocket sales.
“Everett, hey buddy, how's it going?” he said as he answered.
“It's uh, okay. Look, let me cut straight to the chase. I know you've done me a few favors recently, and I hate to say it, but I gotta ask for just one more. I'll pay you back tenfold for everything you've done for me.”
“Sure thing, man. Always happy to help out.”
“So, that drug thing I'm involved in... we're pretty damn close to busting the kingpin. He's a hardened felon who shoots anyone who messes with him, including kids, so I need a backup gun. Scott’s in, but because it’s such short notice, he said he’ll only be able to bring one other officer with him. Ben isn’t really seasoned in this sort of thing and I’d prefer to have you watching my back. You interested?”
“You had me at 'he shoots kids.' I'll gladly come out of retirement to help you take down the scumbag. Let me know where and when and I'll be there, brother.”
“Thanks, Jimmy. That means a lot to me. I'll keep you updated.”
“You do that. Speak to you soon.”
“Chat soon, Jimmy, and thanks again.”
After that, I got Jane out of bed. I did my best to put on a brave face for her. She was still too sick to be taken to daycare, but thankfully I had found a babysitter who could come over for the day. I had thought of asking Jane's mother but figured she would just find some sort of excuse not to see her.
The babysitter, a pleasant female college student who was studying at Bible college and came highly recommended by Ben’s sister, arrived right on time. I gave her a quick rundown on everything she needed to know before I left. I said goodbye to Jane, who wanted to know where Vivienne was. I didn't really know what to tell her, so I just said that she was very busy at work, and may not be able to come over for a few days. She seemed sad about it, and that broke my heart even more. I had to sort this thing out soon.
While I was driving, I put my phone on speaker and tried to call Vivienne, but it seemed that her phone was off or she was just ignoring my calls. I drove past her daycare and saw that her car wasn't there, and there was only one person out front greeting the parents and letting the kids in. That was strange. I was starting to get a little worried. Still, there wasn't too much I could do at the moment.
I got to the school and made my way to my office and started to get things in order for the day. Obviously, one of the first orders of business was getting Panetti on board to help us out with catching Mr. Mask. I had my papers and all things relating to him and the Rocket crisis pinned up on a board on my wall. I needed to keep things visual and organized to be able to deal with them effectively. Now that I was also concerned about Vivienne's whereabouts, I made a little section on the board for her as well so that I would be able to narrow down the places she might be.
After I had everything squared away and ready for Panetti’s arrival, I searched Facebook for women in our town named Angie. It took a fair bit of scrolling through profiles, but eventually, I saw a profile picture that was definitely the woman I'd seen in the car with Vivienne the night before. I wrote down a few things and printed out her picture – at the sight of which my heart felt like it was being ripped into pieces – and then printed the picture of Simon I’d found. I hoped that he wasn't involved in her disappearance, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it, and I had to keep it in the realm of possibility.
I called Ben into my office and he sat down.
“So, Ev, did you find out if your buddy is willing to help us out?”
“He's in,” I replied.
Ben smiled. “Excellent. Now we have a really good chance of actually being able to take this sucker down.”
“That we do, Ben, that we do. We just need to get the guy in a position so that we can ambush him.”
“And that's where Panetti is gonna come
in.”
“That’s the plan. I sure hope this kid is gonna cooperate. He's pretty crucial to this whole strategy.”
“He sure is,” remarked Ben. “But we've got a lot of dirt on him, and he knows that. That's why he agreed to be our informant in the first place. I don’t think he’ll chicken out now; he can't afford to.”
“I guess not. But still, we're asking him to do something pretty big, and quite frankly, pretty dangerous. And I wouldn't want to put any of our students in danger, even a bad egg like Panetti. We're going to have to plan this thing carefully.”
“Don't worry; I don't want to put him in any danger either... even though that little bastard did try to stab me.”
Ben chuckled.“I know it's no laughing matter,” he remarked. “But you sure have been through a heck of a lot in your mission to stop this Rocket plague. They tried to stab you, they shot you... and yet still you kept on going after them.”
I grinned. “Persistence, Ben, persistence – with enough of it, nobody can stop you, and you can achieve pretty much anything.”
“Alright, well, when are we gonna talk to Panetti?” asked Ben.
“Let me go over my strategy for a while first,” I replied. “Maybe fourth period, or fifth, we'll get him in here.”
“Sounds good, Everett. See you in a few hours then.”
***
We called Panetti into my office during the final period of the day. He came in looking nervous and took a seat across from me and Ben. Both of us were seated behind my desk.
“Alright, Panetti,” I began, “I'm gonna cut straight to the chase. I'm guessing you've already heard about what happened to poor Kendrick Green, right?”
“Yeah, I heard he got capped. But he's gonna be alright, though, right?”
“He will be. He was lucky. The bullet didn't hit anything major.”
“That's good,” he mumbled.
“And I think you also know we've spoken to William Stevens and Leon Brownell who were present at the shooting. They've agreed to testify in court against Mr. Mask. We've got enough evidence to put him away for a long time.”
“Alright, so what do you need me for?” Panetti asked.
“We need you to help us catch him. That's the last step – we just need to find out who he is and where he is. Then we can set up a sting, with your help hopefully, and swoop in. Once we've got him, it's game over. Like I said, the evidence stacked against him is watertight. Even if he hires the best lawyer in the country, he won't be able to stay out of prison. He's going away; he's going away for a long, long time.”
Panetti looked at me with a confused expression on his face. “You, uh, you don't know who he is?”
“Why does that surprise you?” I asked, a little staggered at his reaction.
“Because you've got his picture on your board over there. And the picture of the girl who runs the operation with him.”
I almost fell out of my chair trying to turn around.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vivienne
“Simon... you... you bastard!” I shouted, my fear overtaken by a suddenly boiling and savage rage.
Simon simply laughed.
“It's nice to see you again too, lover,” he said, sneering. “I have missed you. But now, finally... we're together again, and everything is as it should be.”
“We're not together, and we never, ever will be!” I snapped in response.
“You know, considering that you're the one who's tied up here and unable to escape, and I'm the one in control … the one with the weapon,” he said, lifting his shirt and revealing a pistol tucked into a holster on his belt, “Don't you think that you should perhaps be a little more respectful? Maybe try being a bit nicer to me, huh? After all, I wouldn't want to have to reprimand you into compliance. But rest assured, if you push me too far, I will do some damage. I don't want to hurt you... but I will if you make me.”
I turned to Angie, desperately hoping that I could find some sympathy in her, that somehow, I could reach out to her and get some help from her.
“Angie,” I said. “We're friends! Why are you doing this? Please, stop this now; it's not funny anymore... Just let me go, please.”
She chuckled humorlessly and took out a gun that had been hidden behind her back, and she pointed it at me.
“Oh, Alicia,” she said. “How blind and ignorant you are. Just like all the pretty girls. You pretended that we were friends in high school. As if! You don't remember how it actually was, do you? You had your little clique of pretty friends, and you were all cheerleaders and dancers, and you were all so popular, and everyone loved you. Whereas girls like me, we were just invisible. I guess you don't remember how I looked back then. No, of course you don't, you self-absorbed bitch. I wasn't pretty like you back then. No. I was a nerd. Yeah, one of those girls your pretty friends used to make fun of, used to call names, used to write things about on the walls of the bathroom stalls!”
“Angie, I … I never did anything like that! I was never, ever mean to you in high school!”
“Well, all your bitchy friends were! Yeah, it was so easy for people like you. You didn't have severe acne; you didn't have to wear braces for the last three years of high school; you didn't have to wear freakin' glasses just to see the teacher's writing on the board!”
“Look, Angie, I'm so sorry that you had a rough time in high school, but those days are long gone now, and—”
“Oh, oh, so they're gone and done, and I should just forget about it, huh? That's really easy for someone like you to say.”
“I haven't had everything as easy as you think I have.”
“Yeah, well, you still don't know what it was like being a girl like me.”
“Ladies, ladies,” Simon interrupted. “Let's not argue now. Come now, Angie, at least one good thing happened in high school.”
“And what exactly was that, huh?” she snapped, still fired up from her outpouring of anger and resentment.
“Well, your nerdiness meant that you were very focused on your studies. And the skills in chemistry that you developed in those days led to our little partnership. Once our product spreads across the country, which it soon will, we'll be billionaires.”
“You two are sick,” I muttered. “Why don't you just date each other! Let me go, damn it, let me go!”
“I'm a lesbian, you moron,” Angie snapped. “You were just so self-absorbed you couldn't even tell I was faking my straightness.”
“And I only have eyes for you, my love,” Simon added, tracing a slimy finger along my cheek. “I don't want anyone else. You and me, we're supposed to be together. It's fate. You've been resisting the design of the universe all this time. And further proof of that is how fate led you into Angie's life. You went through all this trouble to change your name, move across the state, start a new life... and then you walk through a bar one night and bump into my business partner. Doesn't that just scream 'fate' right at you? How else could such a coincidence happen? Of all the towns in this state that Angie and I could have set things up in, we chose the very one you live in. Isn't that amazing?”
“It's not amazing. It's horrible. It's the most-rotten luck ever. I prayed every day that I would never have to see you again... Every. Single. Fucking. Day. But somehow you found me.”
“It's fate,” he hissed. “Fate! Can't you see that; can't you understand that?”
“It's not fate,” I countered. “If it is, fate hates me.”
He laughed. “Hates you, maybe... loves me.”
“Alright, Simon, you've had your chat with her,” Angie said. “Don't you think it's time to give her more sedatives so we can get her out of town to your cabin in the mountains?”
Panic started to gush through my veins. Cabin in the mountains?
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying my best to disguise the fear in my voice.
“You and I are going to have that wonderful life together we talked about. We will live happily together, as it is s
upposed to be,” Simon replied. “But I know you'll ... make a lot of noise about it until you get used to the idea, and I don't want you to attract the attention of, well, you know... the police. So, I have a nice little cabin in a very remote area of the mountains about three hours from here waiting for us. You’re going love it. The nearest neighbor is ten miles away, so nobody will hear you scream. Nobody besides me, and Angie, will know that you're there. And the place is about as secure as Fort Knox, Alicia. There will be no escaping. And after a while, you'll realize, as I did many years ago, that you and I are just meant to be together. And when you realize this, you won't even want to escape anymore. Then we'll be happy, you and I, together forever.”
“No,” I said. “No, I won't. This is crazy, Simon, it's crazy! Just, just let me go now, alright, and I won't even tell the cops about this. Okay? Please, Simon, come on, don't do this, don't do this...”
I could no longer hide the fear in my voice, and Simon could see it. A malicious smile crept across his lips.
“No amount of begging or pleading is going to get you out of this,” he said, his voice low and cold. “You'd do well to just accept it.”
“No, no, I'll never accept it! Never! Let me go, let me go!” I screamed.
“You're starting to get hysterical now, Alicia,” he said. “And I don't like that. Now, I won’t touch your lovely face, and as I told you before, I don't want to damage that beautiful body of yours, but if you make me angry ... I will. Now calm down. Angie, go get the 'special' wine. Alicia needs to go to sleep again so that we can get her out of here and move her to the cabin.”
“Perfect,” Angie replied as she walked out of the room. “I'm sick of hearing her whining.”
“Now, Alicia,” Simon said after Angie had left the room, “I need you to stop being hysterical. You need to accept that you and I are back together. Mm, I can't wait until we're in that cabin alone together. I've hungered for your body for so, so long... I can't wait to get those clothes off you, and to see you naked again, and to put my hands all over you...”
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