Gary was standing guard at the door while Kaylie sat on the bed. Jake gave her the water and Gary started jerking his leg.
“My foot was falling asleep.”
He shook his leg out. Jake sat down and looked at him until he finished shaking.
“How did you know that I’d been kidnapped?”
“Because you had duct tape on your eyes and mouth.”
“No, I mean when you were outside. You knocked a couple of times. Then you said you were the police. How did you know to say that?”
“I saw your car outside when I arrived. And you’ve never been late before. I knew that something was wrong.”
“I’m impressed.”
“I could sense it, Jacob. I could smell the fear, like a sinister bacon.”
“OK. Don’t ruin it.”
They stopped and looked at Kaylie. She sulked like she felt forgotten. Jake sat beside her again.
“We need to know more. Do you know who attacked me on the beach? I don’t think it was the bearded man. It felt…different.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I told you.” She breathed in. Calmed down. “They didn’t tell me they were going to do anything. They just did it. I didn’t know that any of this was going to happen.”
“But you know that someone else was involved, right?”
“Yes.” She adjusted her body on the bed and sat up straighter. “There was someone who I never met. Normally I worked with Roderick. But whenever I made a phone call, it was another person. That’s who I interviewed with, too.”
“Male or female?”
“It was a man. He was always very formal. He just gave me directions.”
“What did he sound like?”
“I don’t remember. His voice wasn’t distinctive. Deep, I guess.”
“Nothing?”
“No.” She bit her lip. “I just remembered. When I called to tell them you were going to the beach, I spoke with him.”
“So it was him?”
“I don’t know. But he was always the person I talked to.”
He turned the page in his notebook. He’d already filled a few pages recording what she said. As he started writing again, Gary rapped his cane on the floor.
“I don’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense, what you are saying. Why would this group want Jacob to write about them and then do all these terrible things to him? Why would they threaten him?”
She looked up at him.
“I don’t know. They wanted publicity?”
“But why would they want that kind of publicity?”
She shook her head and Jake turned to Gary.
“You’re right. It just doesn’t make sense that they would do this. Why would they draw attention to themselves and to their practices?”
“Do you think they knew you discovered what happened to Charlotte?”
Kaylie tilted her head.
“Who’s Charlotte?”
Jake ignored her.
“But they killed Charlotte. Why did they just threaten me? Kidnap me? If they wanted me to stop writing about them, they could have handled it better.”
“Maybe they didn’t get a chance. They tried to kill you, but you got away.”
“But I didn’t get away. I was trapped right here. It doesn’t make sense.”
Kaylie’s face had changed from brown to red. They could see the duct tape ripple slightly because her hands were shaking.
“What are you guys talking about? Who is Charlotte?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, who is she? What is this? What happened?”
Jake put his hand on her shoulder.
“I believe the Saving Tomorrow Initiative took her life. She was a resident at Sunset Cove.”
Gary stared at Jake.
“Should you be telling her about this?”
“She didn’t know.”
She plunged her head into Jake’s shoulder. He let her. Her hair was soft and he put his arm around her. Slowly, he started to smell chocolate rising from her face. She stopped shaking after a while and lifted her face from his chest. She whispered to him.
“You smell terrible.”
“I never got to take a shower.”
“I can tell.”
She sat back up. She couldn’t wipe the tears with her hands, so she waited for them all to fall off of her face.
“That’s really all I know. I told you everything. And I didn’t know they killed somebody.”
Gary coughed.
“Jacob, we can’t let her go. She’ll tell the group.”
“And then what? They’ll want me to write another story? They aren’t going to kill me. They just want publicity.”
“But it will be bad publicity!”
“Maybe they want people to know they’re serious. It makes sense-look at their commercials. All bluster. They want to scare people into voting for them, and they don’t realize it does more harm than good.”
Kaylie sniffled.
“I promise you, I will never talk to them again.”
“Where will you go?”
“I’m staying with a friend. They kicked me out of my apartment.”
“Do you have money?”
“Enough.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure enough.”
Gary nodded and Jake got the scissors. He cut loose her ankles and pulled the tape off for her. He started slow but then decided it would be better to go fast. She breathed in quickly when he did it, but she didn’t scream. He wrapped his hands around her wrists and cut away the tape. Then he grabbed her legs and cut her knees free. She curled up as soon as he drew the scissors away.
“I’m sorry.”
“You should go.”
“No.” She stood up. “I want to help you. I don’t know much, but I can help. I want to. Please, just trust me.”
Gary crossed his arms and shrugged. Jake didn’t know what to do. She still had red eyes and was rubbing her wrists with her hands. She touched his arm.
“Will you trust me?”
She touched a bruised spot near his ear, from when he’d been attacked. He grabbed her hand and pulled it away.
“There are two things you can do.”
“What? Just let me know and I’ll do them.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you told me. Don’t tell this guy Roderick, don’t tell the woman, and don’t tell the man who you spoke to. Whoever he is.”
She nodded her head eagerly. He hadn’t seen her excited before. It wasn’t like her.
“What’s the other thing I can do? How else can I help?”
He got up off the bed and looked at her.
“You packed all your stuff?”
“It’s already moved to my friend’s place.”
“Then you can do one thing.”
“What?”
He backed away and stood next to Gary.
“You can leave.”
She put her hands on her hips and yelled back at him.
“You can’t do that. I know that you liked me. And I really liked you.”
“When you were getting paid.”
She lowered her voice.
“No, not just then. I liked you because you cared. Because you weren’t like other guys.”
“How?”
She pushed her hair behind her ears and whispered.
“You respected me.”
“How?”
“You didn’t just come on to me or take advantage of me. You respected me.”
She walked closer to him, but he looked at the floor as she came forward. Gary grabbed the back of Jake’s shirt.
“I don’t want to interfere.”
“What is it?”
“But you need somebody who respects you. Anyone who would let this happen to you is somebody you can’t trust.”
She walked closer to him and grabbed his belt by the buckle.
“I mean it. I can stay here, with you. We’ll work together.”
Gary coughed and tugged at Jake’s shirt again.
“Jacob, I know somebody who’s always worked with you. Who took risks before she got fired, not after.”
She pressed her body close to his. He put his hands around her waist and touched the skin between her t-shirt and her shorts. He looked at that pixie haircut and then in her eyes again.