Big Daddy Sinatra: Carly's Cry (14 page)

“I’m out,” Donald said as he began
heading for the front door.

“It’s only seven a.m.,” Carly said.
 
She and Donald didn’t get along on their best
day.
 
But she needed him by her side this
day.
 
“Where are you going this early?”

“I have Gilda’s ride.
 
I have to drop her off at work before I head
to the Inn.”

Gilda was Donald’s biker chick
girlfriend.
 
“You don’t know how to ride
a motorcycle,” Carly reminded him.

“Gill taught me, for your
information,” Donald said.
 
“I’m out.” He
said his goodbyes to Trevor, and left Carly without hesitation.

“Your roommate?” Trevor asked in a
voice that belied something more.

“My roommate?” Carly asked as if the
mere idea was disagreeable.
 
“No.”
 
Then she motioned for him to have a seat on
the sofa.

“After you,” Trevor said, and Carly
sat down first.
 
Trevor unbuttoned his
suit coat, and took a seat too.
 

“So, Mr. Reese,” Carly said with a
nervous smile, “what in the world brings you to Jericho?
 
I didn’t think you had any clients this far
north.”

“Actually, I do,” Trevor
responded.
 
“I’m on my way to
Montreal.
 
But I wanted to drop by and
see you first.”

Carly’s heart began to pound.
 
She used to dream of him dropping by her
house, to see her, to visit with her.
 
But it never happened.
 
“Why would
you want to see me?”

Trevor stared at Carly.
 
She was accustomed to his stares, as he
always seemed to study her rather than look at her.
 
But this stare seemed laced with something
unfamiliar.
 
Something she had never seen
before.
 
“I would think it is obvious,
Carly,” he said.

Carly didn’t understand what he
meant.
 
“Obvious, sir?
 
How so?”

Trevor continued to stare at her.

“Sir?” she asked.

“If he’s not your roommate,” Trevor
asked, “then who is he?”

Carly was at first thrown.
 
Why was he still harping on Donald?
 
“He’s my brother,” she said.

“Oh,” Trevor said in a voice that was
flat, and didn’t reveal any relief.
 
“I see.”

Her relationship with Donald,
however, was the last thing on Carly’s mind.
 
“But why is your visit here obvious, sir?” she asked.

Trevor realized he had veered off
course.
 
“You left my employ so
abruptly,” he said.

“Abruptly?” Carly responded too quickly,
and in a voice she knew was too defensive.
 
“I gave two weeks’ notice.
 
Now
was that abrupt, sir?”

“The timing, my dear, was then and is
still now quite curious to me.
 
I felt as
if something more was going on.”

Carly summoned all of her gifts of
persuasion to counter what she was beginning to believe was his
suspiciousness.
 
“I don’t know what you
mean.
 
My family was having difficulties,
so I decided to move back home.
 
The only
thing that was going on, as you call it, was my desire to be with my family.
 
I don’t understand where you’re going with
this?”

Trevor smiled.
 
“You know where I’m going,” he said.
 
“You just don’t like that I’m going there.”

The sound of footsteps on the stairs
saved Carly’s reaction.
 
Instead of displaying
the shock that was deep within her, she turned toward the sound.
 
When her parents came around the archway, she
didn’t feel totally out of the woods, but she at least felt a temporary rescue.
  
“Mom, Dad, hi.”

Trevor immediately rose to his feet.
 
The two people, well-dressed in their
business suits, were hardly what he expected when he envisioned Carly’s
parents.
 
The woman was a beautiful black
woman, just as attractive as Carly herself, and Carly, to Trevor, was most
attractive.
 
But beyond beauty, they had
nothing in common.
 
Not even a little
bit.
 
And as to the muscular white man
that she just so cavalierly referred to as her father, it wasn’t even close.
 
They didn’t look at all alike.
 
But races intermingled so much now, that it
was hard to tell who was who anymore.
 
“I’m Trevor Reese,” he said, as he extended his hand.
 
“It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Very nice to meet you, too,” Jenay
said as she shook his hand.

Charles shook his hand, too, but he
was a little more hesitant.
 
“Trevor
Reese,” he said.
 
“That name sounds
familiar.”

Carly swallowed hard.
 
Jenay could see the strain on her face.
 
“He’s my former boss, Dad.”

Charles and Jenay both looked at
their daughter.
 
“Your former boss?”
Charles asked.

“Yes,” Trevor interjected.
 
“While she lived in the Commonwealth, she ran
my PR department.
 
Ran it quite well,
actually.”

Jenay was beginning to smell a
rat.
 
Charles too.
 
“And you’re here why exactly?” he asked.

“I was worried about your
daughter.
 
I wanted to make sure she was
okay.”

Both Charles and Jenay knew something
wasn’t right when they saw this attractive man sitting in their living
room.
 
Carly had turned down more men
than they could count since her return to Jericho.
 
They assumed, after what happened in Boston,
it was still too soon.
 
But now that they
knew Trevor was her former boss, their curiosity turned into downright concern.

“Perhaps I’m missing something,”
Charles said, “but why would you be worried about my daughter?
 
Why wouldn’t she be okay?”

“Just before she resigned,” Trevor
said, “one of our biggest clients, Ethan Campbell, went missing.
 
He remains missing to this day.
 
I didn’t want the same fate to befall her.”

All three Sinatras began to
experience varying degrees of anxiety.
 
The idea that he would mention Ethan, and the fact that he was missing,
set it off.

“I don’t understand,” Charles
said.
 
“That kind of reasoning makes no
sense to me.
 
I’m sorry to hear about
your client’s fate, but why would you even suggest that Carly could have
suffered the same?”

“Just the way I think,” said
Trevor.
 
“I think circularly.
 
I think there are no such things as
coincidences and if my client goes missing and my best employee suddenly has a
family emergency where she has to give notice and resign from her job, I make
sure all is kosher.”

“It’s been nearly two months since
she left your employ,” Jenay said.

“I would have come sooner, but
dealing with the disappearance of one of my biggest clients has been a
twenty-four hour job.
 
Especially since
my PR department still has not recovered from Carly’s absence.
 
Yes, she was
that
good.
 
And then I had
other emergencies with other clients that prevented any inquiries.
 
When I knew I was heading to Canada where one
of my clients finds himself in a bit of a mess, I decided to do a spot check on
my former employee.
 
It’s as simple as
that.”

Jenay didn’t believe him.
 
There was much more at work here.
 
But she knew the best way to handle it, was
to minimize it.
 
“Well, we certainly
appreciate your interest, Mr. Reese.
 
It’s very thoughtful of you to drop by.”

Trevor smiled.
 
“No problem at all.
 
I’m just glad to see that all is well.”
 
Then he looked at Carly.
 
“And I take it you’re enjoying your new life
here, and your teaching job?”

Carly fought hard against exposing
her anxiety.
 
“Yes,” she said with a
smile.
 
“Very much so.”

“Good.”
 
His big, violet eyes looked her up and
down.
 
Assessing her again.
 
“Well.
 
I won’t keep you.
 
As I said, I
was headed to Canada and I need to get on with it.
 
Have a good day.”

Carly smiled.
 
“Thank you,” she said.

Trevor said his goodbyes to Charles
and Jenay, and left.

After they saw him drive away, in a
limousine of all vehicles, Charles and Jenay looked at Carly.
 
“He knows,” she said.

“Or maybe he just likes you,” Charles
said.

But Carly would have none of
that.
 
“No. No way.
 
He never showed any interest in me whatsoever
when we were within feet of each other every single day.
 
But he’s interested now?
 
I don’t buy it.”

“Neither do I,” Jenay said.

“Besides,” Carly added, “he knew I
was a teacher.”

Charles and Jenay looked at her.
 
“So?” Jenay asked.

“I never told him what I was doing,
Ma.
 
I never told him I was working at
Saint Cat’s.
 
Why would he know that?”

Jenay already had her
suspicions.
 
That info just sealed
it.
 
But she didn’t want to worry
Carly.
 
“He could have asked,” she said.

“It’s possible,” Charles
responded.
 
“But I’m with Car.
 
He didn’t drop by here for the hell of
it.
 
She no longer works for him.
 
Why should he care how she’s doing?
 
That man is up to something.”
 
Charles pulled out his cell phone.

“You think his presence here is
related to the shooting at the Inn?” Jenay asked.

“I don’t know,” Charles said.
 
“But I’m going to find out.”

Brent was at the kitchen table with
his wife Makayla when his cell phone rang.
 
Brent looked at the Caller ID.

“Who is it?” Makayla asked.

“Dad,” Brent said and answered.
 
“Good morning.”

“Any news on Abe Norris or whatever
the hell his name is?”

“Not a word,” Brent responded.
 
“And we still don’t know his real name.”

“Listen, Brent,” Charles said.
 
“I want you to check Boston.
 
See if you can find a connection between a
guy who goes by Abe Norris’s name, and Trevor Reese.”

Brent frowned.
 
“Who’s Trevor Reese?”

“Carly’s former boss who just so
happens to have dropped by the house this morning.
 
He claims to be worried about her.”

Brent’s heartbeat began to
quicken.
 
“You don’t think?”

“I don’t know,” Charles said.
 
“But it smells.
 
Check him out.
 
See if there’s a connection.”

Brent nodded.
 
“Will do,” he said.

“Call me when you find something,” Charles
said, and ended the call.

Makayla was the district attorney for
Jericho County.
 
She was a voluptuous
black woman, smart and well-respected for her no-nonsense approach to her
job.
 
But Brent, who did not keep secrets
from his wife, had told her about what happened with Ethan Campbell.
 
She, too, knew about that unfortunate
night.
 
“What is it?” she asked as she
stood and began to clear the table.

Brent looked at her.
 
“Boston,” he said.
 

Makayla stopped all activity.
 
She knew exactly what he was talking about.

But Brent explained.
 
She was his sounding board.
 
“Carly’s former boss,” he said, “decided, out
of the blue, to drop by and check on her.”

“Were they close like that?”

“Dad didn’t say, but it didn’t sound
like it.
 
He wants me to see if there’s a
connection between that protestor and her boss.”