Death and Deceit (15 page)

She stretched her arms in front of her, fingers splayed, and felt a warm sensation
in her upper body. Her mind drifted, remembering Liz chasing after her, when she’d bolted from the restaurant. But she would have none of Liz’s apology, and she’d left Liz standing on the sidewalk, her mouth in the shape of a wide yawn.

The music changed, the next song was faster. She changed her weight from her
heels to her toes and went on to bend her knees one at a time, kicking behind her with a jab more fiercely than necessary. Two ladies ducked out for water then returned but dropped their pace saying they couldn’t keep up. For the next twenty minutes, Jessie’s heart pounded as the tempo and her mind reached a crescendo.

At quitting time, looking straight ahead, her mind elsewhere in spite of the rugged workout, Jessie didn’t see the janitor pushing a bucket of water on wheels until he crossed her path in the hallway. She apologized for bumping him but he wasn’t accepting. Instead he lectured her and grumbled about spilling water when he was already late. Jessie knew she could have been seriously hurt under the right conditions. All she could think of was,
Could he be the one?
She was now suspecting everyone she met. Trusting no one, except maybe Rick.

Running frantically, she didn’t slow her pace until the apartment building was in
sight. And once inside she gazed almost transfixed at the computer screen, which loomed
like a strange enemy ready to take her down.

In desperation she grabbed her purse and shook the contents on the coffee table.
Seizing Rick’s card she punched the numbers into the phone with a shaking finger.

Ricardo Alvarez. Leave a number where I can reach you.
Click.
Jessie breathed heavily. “Rick? It’s me, Jessie. Please call me as soon as you
can. It’s...important.”

She paced the living room wishing she hadn’t called. What would she tell him?
A janitor had spooked her? He’d laugh at her. Like Liz had. She was losing it. The harassment thing was breaking her sanity.

Her pace halted when she heard a loud knock on her door. “Who’s there?” she
cried out, unable to move from her spot.

“Ricardo Alvarez,” a voice shot back.

She raced to the door and flung it open. Rick was standing behind a large pizza
box wearing a smile that soothed her immediately.

“To your rescue, fair maiden,” he said. “And I even brought supper.”

Jessie opened the door to its full extent, welcoming Ricardo into her apartment.

CHAPTER SIX

Liz frantically walked the floor. Since Jessie had given her the cold shoulder, she wondered if she’d ever see Alan again. She had counted on Jessie’s friendship to work as an advantage for her. Would Jessie now throw cold water on their relationship? If there ever was a relationship beginning between Alan and her, but she’d felt something — even though the circumstances of their meeting had been sombre at the time.

She stopped walking and lifted the phone receiver. Maybe Kent had been in touch with Jessie.

****

Kent felt completely out of touch. The episode with the cop had been humiliating to say the least. He’d made Kent
feel
like a stalker, so what was Jessie supposed to think? Could he blame her for being suspicious of him? Especially after he’d gone so far as to grab her arm and maybe he’d even hurt her a little. His temper had gotten him in trouble again. It had been that way all of his life — until he was seventeen. A teacher had suggested he find some way to get rid of his frustrations. So Kent had taken up karate.

He stood now in a diagonal straddle leg stance. Proper posture, balance and focus
were important. And a little kata wouldn’t hurt right now. Kata was
form
, a set of movements used for practice. He was feeling slightly out of control, and he needed to
balance his mind. He did some punches to the right then the left, followed by some elbow strikes. A combination of kicking and hand techniques, a spinning punch and a counterattack warmed him both physically and mentally. The enemy at the moment was himself, his temper. With acute concentration and a positive determination he could overcome the adversary. He remembered an old oriental maxim.
The willow does not break under the load of snow.
He ended with the reciting of Showa in Japanese:
Showa,ware ware karate-doh oh. Shugyo surumonowa tsuneni bushidoh seishin oh waserezyu. Wa to nin oh motte nashi. Soshi te tsutomereba kanarzu tasu!
He thought of it in English: We who study karate-doh, should never forget the spirit of the warrior’s way. With peace, perseverance, and hard work, we will reach our goals.

Kent’s main goal now was to gain Jessie’s trust once and for all. He knew she was confused, and maybe she had been right to go to the police, but how was he going to get back in her good graces? The cop was keeping him at bay, and Jessie was hiding behind the cop. He’d have to get her alone. The phone interrupted his plans.

It was Liz. “Have you seen Jessie tonight?”

Her voice sounded strained to Kent. “Jessie wants nothing to do with me,” he confirmed flatly.

“That’s not true, Kent,” Liz argued. “You have to get her alone, away from that Ricardo Alvarez and find out the true reason she’s avoiding you. She’s scared, Kent, and that makes her suspicious of everyone. Except that cop. He’s taken a personal interest in her plight, and Jessie’s lapping up the attention. If you don’t do something soon, you might lose her to him.”

Kent had to agree with every word Liz had spoken. It had been his train of thought exactly. “I know all about that guy,” Kent said. “What’s going on with that stalking business? Did Jessie get anymore of those messages or threats?”

“That’s the big problem, Kent. I’m afraid I’ve convinced her that you’re the
stalker.”

“What?”

“God, I’m sorry. I was so wrong. I was trying to help her and now I’ve done great damage.”

“You’re sorry? You think that’s all it takes? Good Christ, how could you even think that about me?”

Kent’s voice rose in angry tones and Liz shrank into herself. She was glad she
was on the phone and not near him. She had planned to tell him the whole thing, but from the tone of his voice she changed her mind. She knew she deserved his wrath, and she was unable to explain why she’d accused him. She was speechless.

Kent wasn’t however. “So that’s what’s spooked Jessie? How could she believe that of me? You have to straighten this out, Liz. You started it.”

Kent heard a faint click on the line and knew Liz had hung up on him. He slammed down his own receiver and turned and slammed his fist against the living room wall. So much for getting centred. His mind was out of control again. Elizabeth Barrow was one big troublemaker. Whatever possessed her to turn Jessie against him like that? He had even dated her once, and up until he’d met and fallen for Jessie, he had really liked Liz and had thought of asking her out for a second time.

He rubbed his knuckles and thought of calling Jessie, but decided he had to face her in person. She would have to look him in the eyes and tell him she suspected him of
causing her harm. If she could do that, then they didn’t have much going for them anyway.

Kent left his apartment and drove towards Willow Street. But just before reaching his destination he had second thoughts. He was too angry to confront her right then. His disappointment was showing through and it might come across as seeming
violent to her, and that would only frighten her more, causing her to believe her earlier fears that he was dangerous.

Kent switched direction and returned to his apartment to calm down and think things through.

****

Jessie helped herself to another slice of Rick’s pizza. Rick sat beside her on
the sofa holding a slice of pizza and making her feel extremely safe. Their conversation had slipped since the initial explanation by Jessie about the encounter with the janitor. Rick had suggested it was her imagination and anxiety that had created her to suspect everyone in her path.

They were on the last of the pizza and Jessie wondered what to do next. Just
yesterday the man in her apartment was a stranger, and tonight he was sitting on her sofa joking with her like an old friend. It had been a strange month since she first bought her computer and all the bazaar stuff had begun. With Rick sitting so near she lost some of the fear that had plagued her for so long. She wondered boldly what would happen if she should return to the chat line and see what Gary Burke was up to. Maybe Rick could see something from his writing that she might have missed, since he was a professional at that stuff. And maybe he could connect Gary Burke to the messages on her e mail.

“I’m afraid I haven’t told you everything concerning the e mail harassment,” she
said.
Rick closed up the pizza box and stacked their glasses but he didn’t answer.
Jessie continued, “When I first got the computer, I made a connection on a chat line with a guy named Gary Burke. At first he just called himself Zorro, but later he gave me his real name. I talked to him for a few nights but then he started getting kind of weird, and I got scared and didn’t talk to him again. I was thinking he might be the stalker until I suspected Kent. Now I don’t know who to blame it on.”

Rick sat back and put his arms behind his head. He crossed his legs with one ankle resting on the other knee. “Why did
you talk to him for days if you thought he was weird?”

Jessie felt a blush creep over her face. She wondered if it was because she felt foolish telling him the story, or was it the amount of wine she’d consumed in her anxiety. “I...found him interesting, I guess. He was funny at first and...sort of romantic.”
Rick uncrossed his legs, lowered his arms and slid closer. Jessie moved back and
continued, “I guess I have poor judgement when it comes to men. I get in trouble because of it.”

Rick moved towards her again and this time slid his arm around her shoulder. “I’m off duty tomorrow,” he said in a low voice, almost in her ear. “I’ll be around to protect you.”
She looked in his dark and brooding eyes and he kept talking.
“You need a little R and R. Why don’t we take a drive to Wakefield tomorrow,
and I’ll show you where I used to live. I haven’t been there in ages.”

Jessie hesitated, feeling the weight of his arm on her shoulder. She wasn’t sure she was ready to visit Wakefield right now. “I don’t think so, Rick. I only buried my
mother a few days ago. I need to keep some distance. What I was wondering was, do you think it might be a good idea to go on the chat line and try to pick up Gary Burke?
If we got him talking maybe we could...you could figure out if he might be the one. I really am finding it hard to keep thinking it was Kent.”

Rick moved his arm and seemed agitated. “No. It’s not a good idea to get back on that chat line. Besides the boyfriend is the logical suspect, even if your friend, Liz, has changed her mind. It’s typical I told you. Jealous boyfriend getting his revenge.”

“He had no need to be jealous. The messages came while we were still together.
I’m telling you I don’t buy this anymore. I’m going to call Kent and have him come over tomorrow. We’re going to figure this out together.”

“That’s a piss poor idea, Jessica. Stay away from him!”

Jessie pulled back. Rick’s voice and mood were frightening her. Then he changed. Smiling now he returned his arm around her shoulder. “You’re exhausted, Jessica. You need to relax a little. And don’t you think a visit to your mother’s grave might make you feel better? I’ll be there with you...to protect you. You can call Kent when we return, if you still feel you must. But take a break and think things over, okay?”

He was smiling so sweetly that Jessie’s fear melted. “Maybe you’re right,” she
said. Then she remembered something. “Oh, but I can’t go. I have to work tomorrow.
I missed a few days work and I’m taking another instructor’s class in the morning.”

“So, we’ll leave after that,” he said, still smiling at her.

The wine Jessie shared with Rick was beginning to wear off a little, and she felt
strangely alarmed over his sudden intimacy. She stood quickly looking down on him. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m really ready to visit Wakefield just yet. And all that wine has sort of made me sleepy.” She stretched and yawned hoping he’d take the hint and leave. It hadn’t been a good idea to get so friendly with the policeman. She had a bad habit of being too friendly too soon, first with Gary Burke, then going to bed with Kent Morgan, and now a too-quick relationship with a cop she’d just met.

But the police officer didn’t seem to take the hint, so Jessie decided to be blunt.
“I’d like you to leave now, Rick. I need to get some rest. Aerobics is strenuous. I want to be in top shape for my class.”

Rick’s lip curled. “Are you kicking me out?”

“Yes, you could say that,” Jessie replied, smiling nervously.