Curious Obsession

by Elora Ramirez

  3

  I walk outside, checking my Lyft app to see if my driver is here. It’s freezing. I pull my jacket closer to guard against the wind, running right into a chest that smells of sandalwood and smoke.

  "Oh. Gosh. Sorry." I mutter, embarrassment coloring my cheeks. I avoid eye contact and move out of the way, but feel a hand wrap around my wrist. I freeze.

  "Juniper?" I hear my sister’s whispered name just as I am about to start ramming my knee into an unsuspecting crotch. Slowly, my heart starts beating normally from the rush of adrenaline when I was grabbed. For now, I appear safe. I turn and look at the face that belongs to the chest.

  Up. I look up because this guy is so damn tall.

  "No. Not Juniper. I'm her twin, Lavender." I pause. "You know her?”

  His eyes blink in confusion for a moment before he remembers his hand around my wrist. He lets go and his face grows red.

  "I'm so sorry. I thought…"

  "We're identical down to the part of our hair and the freckle on our left cheek. Trust me. It's common. Don't worry about it." I brush the hair out of my eyes.

  "You look...so much like her."

  "I mean, if we're getting technical, she looks like me. I'm two minutes older. I’m sorry. Who are you?”

  He shakes his head. "Right. It's Jasper. I'm...clearly not in my right mind. I saw Dan was here earlier and I wanted to catch him before he left. I saw you and thought I was looking at a ghost.”

  I nod in understanding. ”Unless he stopped somewhere else on his way out, I’m pretty sure he left before me." I ignore him calling Juniper a ghost.

  He twists his lip, turning his head and squinting toward the parking lot, probably looking for Dan’s car. “I saw something between Juniper and one of her students. I thought maybe — possibly — it would help in some way."

  I open the door behind us and motion for him to go first. “I guess we can check the office to see if he checked out before leaving.”

  So much for getting to his meeting on time, I think.

  “He’s probably talking with Tracey.” He turns to watch me follow him in, the look of confusion still on his face. “Weren’t you leaving?”

  "No. Not if there's something you know that can help."

  He raises an eyebrow. "Wait. Did you say your name was Lavender?"

  "Yeah. Lavender Reese. Why?”

  “And Juniper was your twin?”

  "Juniper is my twin. And yes. Our mom had a thing with names."

  He nods like that's all he needs to know, and I say nothing else.

  Jasper, I think, following him back through the hallway leading to the office. Jasper is an interesting name.

  .::.

  Dan doesn’t look happy to see us when we find him in the office, talking with Tracey. He squeezes his lips together and looks at her as if he’s trying to find a way to escape. Dan glances at me before rolling his eyes and turning his attention to Jasper. I study the two men, noticing a vibration of energy that rolls between them. There’s a familiarity here I don’t understand. Both men are avoiding the other’s gaze with laser-like precision.

  “Dan.”

  “Jasper.”

  The look that passes between them is nothing short of tension and veiled masculinity. I roll my eyes. Yeah. They obviously know each other. But I don’t have time for a pissing contest.

  “Something tells me I’m going to miss this meeting.” Dan’s eyes catch mine and I hold his gaze before he sighs and motions for us to walk into a small huddle room.

  “We ran into each other as she was walking out,” Jasper explains. “I thought she was Juniper and–”

  Dan interrupts. “I hate to be short but the district attorney doesn’t appreciate being stood up.” He takes a look at his watch. I want to ask him if this watch is new. If that’s why he loves looking at it so much. I bite the words back. He looks bored and we haven’t even said anything yet. Jasper tenses and I clear my throat.

  I flick a finger toward Jasper. “He had something he wanted to share. I wanted to be here when he told you.”

  He sighs and looks at Jasper.

  “What.”

  “I heard you were talking with teachers and you hadn’t reached out to me yet. I wanted to share something that might be useful.”

  “I hardly think you would know anything I haven’t already heard, Jasper. We questioned a lot of her coworkers, but I didn’t leave you out intentionally. I started talking with people this morning. Nothing came up. In fact, no one really knew her. She stayed to herself, never got involved, left early on occasion….”

  I shook my head. “Left early?”

  “…that’s not entirely true.” It’s Jasper’s turn to interrupt. “If by left early you mean the times she didn’t go to happy hour with the team? Yes.” He looks down and takes a breath before making sure he has Dan’s attention.

  “Look. I knew her. We were - are - friends. This isn’t like her to just disappear.” He pauses. “She was quiet because was new — and you know the teachers at the school. They’re tight. They’re not the easiest group to get acclimated with once you join staff. It took your wife how long once she got a position? I remember conversations we had where she struggled to feel as though she belonged.”

  Wait a minute.

  “Your wife works at Sacred Heart?”

  Dan sniffs and stands, putting his hands in his pockets and glancing out the window. He doesn’t even acknowledge my question. He’s so done with this conversation. With this investigation. Any second now he’s going to walk around his desk and open the door, inviting us to leave. He looks at Jasper.

  “Wait.” I hold out my hand, demanding attention. Something isn’t adding up for me.

  Dan notices my confusion and rolls his eyes.

  “Tracey is my wife.”

  “Well that’s convenient,” I mutter. But then I bite my tongue. Because if Tracey’s married….my eyes widen and I look at Dan.

  Oh. Oh he has no idea his wife was (is?) sleeping with someone else….

  Dan, obvious to my reaction, continues.

  “We focused our attention on those who might have been in contact with her the most.” He waves his hand dismissively. “But I didn’t get much more out of the them.” He studies Jasper. “Unless you have something relevant.”

  “Did you speak with Principal Stahl?”

  There it is.

  Dan turns and looks at Jasper, his expression hard.

  “No. Why. Should I?”

  The tension in the room just elevated about 20 degrees.

  Jasper shrugs.

  “Maybe.”

  Dan squints his eyes and the vein in his neck juts out for a moment before he bites at the corner of his lip, twisting his jaw.

  “Dan, listen….”

  “Don’t, Jasper.”

  I wrinkle my nose, “don’t what?”

  Jasper looks at me and then turns his attention to Dan again.

  “You’re doing it again. You’re focusing your suspicions on everyone except Tracey.”

  “Jasper, I’m warning you.”

  “And I’m aware. But — what you’re doing is only refusing to see the reality of the situation, which makes me wonder how well you’re handling current cases. If you can’t see the pattern of your own wife cheating, what makes me think you can connect dots for your clients?”

  Oh.

  I raise my hand and both men look at me.

  “I mean, not to add fuel to the fire, but I know of rumors and I don’t even live here?”

  Dan’s face darkens and he shakes his head, as if he doesn’t want to talk about it. Jasper gets the hint and leans back in his chair.

  “Do you have anything else for me, Jasper?”

  Jasper rests his elbows on his knees and studies Dan for a moment before continuing. “I overheard a conversation a few weeks ago. It was between Juniper and a student.”

  Dan leans against the back of his chair and crosses his arms. “I would assume tea
chers speak with their students all the time. What was different about this conversation?”

  “They were talking about the capstone project due next week — him asking for an extension and Juniper refusing. They’ve had the entire year to work on this and we always get the stragglers at the end who want an exception. But then he said something I thought was strange. I walked in on the tail end of his comment so I don’t have the full context, but I wanted to share just in case.” He goes quiet for a second and turns to look at me. “He told her she couldn’t ignore him forever.”

  I frown. “That could mean anything. She constantly deleted emails from students asking for extensions because she was explicit in her policy that due dates were final. No questions asked. Why was this different?”

  “I don’t know. She ended the conversation pretty quickly after that because she saw me walk in the door.”

  Dan sighs and waves his hand in our direction, effectively dismissing us. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll keep in touch if I have any other questions.”

  Jasper slaps his thighs and leans back into his chair like he’s just getting settled in rather than preparing to leave.

  “There’s more. Before Juniper ended the conversation and walked away, I saw him slip a note into a pile of papers he gave her.” He pulls something out of his pocket and drops it on Dan’s desk. It’s a folded piece of paper. I jump from my seat and grab it before Dan can get his hands on it.

  I LIKED THE BLUE SWEATER BETTER.

  My blood runs cold before I can even understand the implications. Dan reaches for it and I move my hand away from his. “No. You don’t get this.”

  He holds out his hand. “If it’s evidence, yes, I do.”

  I take a deep breath and hesitantly pass it over, watching Dan’s reaction. He’s so stoic and I feel my face heat up with anger. I need him to react. To show an element of surprise or something — anything that lets me know he is actually invested in this case.

  I look at Jasper.

  “Did you take this?”

  He shakes his head. “She found it. We were at a coffee shop later that night working on some stuff for the gala and she pulled it out and read it — freaked out — and ran to the bathroom. The note fell when she got up, and I found it. When she came back to the table she wasn’t wearing her sweater anymore. It was just the button up underneath.”

  “Was it blue?” I ask.

  “No. It was red,” Jasper says. “I asked her about it. She brushed it off as nothing, but she couldn’t finish the meeting. Her hands were shaking the entire time, she was distracted, kept looking around like she was expecting someone. She left early.”

  Dan looked at him. “Did you tell anyone about this exchange?”

  Jasper frowned and shook his head. “I mean, it was pretty recent and even though she was really shaken up about it, it slipped my mind. She was pretty adamant that it was nothing and I took her word for it.”

  He sighs and starts picking at the lint on his pants, lost in thought. I turn to Dan.

  “This note has the same handwriting. This student was writing my sister notes. Why would he do that?”

  Dan rubs his temple. “Jasper, do you know this student?”

  He shakes his head.

  “I would know him if I saw him, but when I say I walked in on the tail end of the conversation, I mean I wasn’t really paying attention to who she was talking with — it was only after everything happened that I thought it might be important.”

  “If we could found others it might show a reasonable trace that points to a relationship or something between the two…”

  I bristle.

  “My sister wasn’t involved with a student.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Well get it out of your head. Think of other possibilities. This is the second time you’ve jumped to conclusions about my sister. Juniper is a lot of things, but not someone who would get romantically involved with a minor.”

  “I can vouch for her too,” Jasper says. “The conversation might have been awkward and weird, but it was not romantic. Looking back on it, Juniper was obviously uncomfortable and relieved when I walked through her door.”

  Dan studies him.

  Jasper shrugs. “I just don’t think we’re looking at a sordid relationship here. She has a boyfriend.”

  “Had,” I correct. Jasper looks at me in surprise. I offer a small smile. “They broke up again right before she disappeared.”

  He nods in understanding.

  “Oh,” I whisper, something else clicking into place.

  I stand up and reach for my bag resting against the chair. Dan takes another look at the two notes side by side and places both back in the file on his desk. He looks up when I stand up suddenly and widens his eyes, expectant.

  “I think I know the first place to look,” I say.

  Jasper folds his hands in front of him and leans back in his chair to see me.

  “It’s 11am. Juniper has a planning period now. And my sister has a whiteboard full of notes. If the mystery student left her another note, it would be there.” I start walking out the door. “You can come if you want, but I’m headed to her classroom. There’s about 100 notes to look through and I’m betting this kid left something.”

  .::.

  They both decide to come. Dan reschedules his meeting with the district attorney. I try to refrain from making any jokes about him being the sponsor for a game of strategy.

  It doesn’t take long to find what we’re looking for - within minutes I hear Dan mutter under his breath, trying to get to a note in behind two others sprayed with some kind of pink glitter.

  “This is going to be all over me by the time we leave, isn’t it?” he asks, wiping his hands on his jacket.

  I laugh and mimic an explosion with my hands. “You look like a glitter bomb exploded all over you.” I scan my finger up and down, pointing at his suit now covered in sparkling remnants of glitter. “You definitely look like you’ve had a hell of a night.”

  He scowls and reaches again for the gloves waiting for him on the desk, and then the note that caught his attention. Jasper and I lean in, trying to get a good look at what it says.

  “It was the only one I saw in all caps. Made me think of the other ones.” He pulls it off the wall with his plastic gloves and lowers it for us to see.

  IF ONLY THEY KNEW.

  I suck in a breath.

  “Damn,” Jasper whispers.

  Dan slaps the note against his hand a few times, thinking. He’s obviously concerned, and this makes me relieved.

  Finally.

  “Maybe she felt threatened and left without a trace to get away from whoever is pursuing her. Maybe she just needed to get away temporarily and with the stress, forgot to tell someone.”

  He pauses and looks at the notes again.

  “I’ll get my guys to look into this as soon as possible. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.” He dismisses us. Turns away and walks out the door, already on the phone, the note in a plastic evidence bag he brought in case we found anything.

  I close my eyes in relief. Something substantial. I don’t even know if it’s worth anything, if it’s truly a lead, but it’s something. I open my eyes and look at the clock on the wall. It’s almost 12:15. Nothing makes sense. My brain tries to grasp at the clues that we do have and nothing happens — just a blank space where the answers should be. I feel an exhaustion settle in my bones and find myself collapsing into one of the desks, resting my head on my arm.

  No one warns you about the crazy-making urgency of looking for a loved one who has disappeared. It’s only been a few days and still I am convinced Juniper will walk around the corner any moment, frustrated that we’re in her space and questioning why we’re freaking out about her brief vacation.

  “I told you I was leaving.” She would look at me in that way of hers, where suddenly I wonder if we really did share the same space — the same everything — for nearly 22 years. />
  “Oh.” I would remember a conversation with clarity and then flush with embarrassment. “You’re right. I forgot.” I’d wave my hand, a can you believe me? type of gesture, and laugh it off.

  That’s just a twisted sort of fantasy though, a way my heart is handling this separation that feels more like an amputation. A make-believe world filled with stories of pretend. I don’t know how to exist in this world without my sister taking up space next to me, and so I am creating one where she is still here. Still present. Still bossing the hell out of everyone around her and making me feel less like her identical twin and more like the forgotten and annoying little sister.

  I rest my hands on my hips and roll my shoulders, feeling the knots constrict and separate. My stomach growls, a low murmur that grows exponentially. I grimace, realizing I haven’t had anything to eat since the banana I grabbed from my kitchen yesterday afternoon.

  I open my eyes and notice Jasper watching me from his perch against one of the desks.

  “You okay?”

  I blush a little, embarrassed by his concern.

  “I’m fine. Don’t you have classes or something?”

  “I took a long weekend to prep for the gala. It was an agreement between Juniper and me. I would take today off and then she would take next Monday off to wrap everything up.”

  “Oh. Is it really that big of a deal?”

  He laughs and rolls his eyes. “Like you wouldn’t believe. Think prom times ten.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” He rubs his face. “There’s way too much money floating around here.”

  He pushes off the desk and stretches his arms above his head, his shirt lifting just enough for me to get a peek of his stomach. I bounce my eyes away quickly.

  “I’m starving.”

  “I don’t think I’ve eaten in over 24 hours,” I respond. I’m running my fingernail against a notch in the desk, avoiding looking in his direction. The air seems to have shifted in the last few minutes, and I can’t place it. It’s not attraction. I don’t even know this person. Maybe it’s just chemistry. But whatever it is, I’m not doing it. I shut down, waiting for him to leave.