Hurt (16 page)

“Well,” Julie said, apparently reading Nicole’s mind as she walked toward the front door. “If it’s Jamie, I’m going to kick her ass.”

Julie opened the front door as Nicole walked up behind her.

“Howdy there, neighbor.”

“Mr. Martin, is everything okay?” Nicole asked, surprised to see her neighbor standing in the doorway.

“Please, call me Bob,” the elderly man said smiling. “It is. I hate to bother you ladies so late, but I just now saw your car in the driveway. Your other…uh,” he glanced back and forth between Julie and Nicole. “…roommate…dropped this off for you the other day and asked that I give it you.” He handed Nicole a small brown box.

“Oh, well, thank you Mr. Martin—Bob,” Nicole corrected before he could.

“Anytime,” he said, and gave a small wave as he headed back across the lawn to his house.

Julie shut and locked the door and then turned to face Nicole.

“What is it?” she asked.

Nicole shrugged.

“A box.”

“I can see that it’s a box. What’s in the box?”

Nicole walked over to the couch and sat the plain cardboard box down on the coffee table. She frowned down at it, not really sure what she should do next.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “It wasn’t very heavy.”

“Hmm. I say we take it out back and set it on fire.”

“What? Julie, have you lost your mind?”

“Look, it’s from Jamie, so obviously whatever is in there is going to be some lame-ass attempt to win you back. I say we burn it.”

Nicole shook her head and gave Julie a scowl.

“We can’t set it on fire. Good grief.”

“Well, what then?”

Nicole stared at the box for a long moment and then sat on the tan leather couch. She motioned to Julie.

“You open it.”

Julie nodded and then carefully, as if she were diffusing a bomb, opened the box. She peered inside and then glanced up at Nicole.

“There’s a letter and some clear baggies in it.”

Nicole licked her lips and swallowed.

“Read the letter.”

“Okay,” Julie said. She pulled the letter out and began to stare at it.

After a minute, Nicole sighed.

“Aloud. Read the letter aloud, Julie.”

“Oh, sorry,” she grinned, taking a seat next to Nicole on the couch. “It’s from Jamie.” She cleared her throat before reading it out. “‘Nicole. I know that I’m asking a lot, but please read this entire letter before you make any rash decisions. If Julie is there with you, please don’t let her throw it away, stomp on it, set it on fire, or whatever else crazy ass thing she may come up with.’” Julie looked up from the letter. “Really? Am I that predictable?”

“Just a little,” Nicole admitted.

“Well, then,” Julie said before continuing. “‘While I know that you may not believe what I’m about to say, that’s okay. I know that I haven’t given you a lot of reason to trust anything I have said or done over the past several weeks, but I’m sorry. I can’t just walk away from what I thought we had without at least trying. The Great Bard once said that if you aren’t going to say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.’” Julie looked up from the letter. “The Great Bard? Did Shakespeare say that?”

“Are you kidding? This is Jamie. She’s talking about Johnny Cash.”

“Jesus,” Julie said, rolling her eyes. She looked back to the letter. “‘So, here it goes. Nicole, I love you. I am a complete dumbass and all I can hope is that, after hearing what I have to say, you understand and forgive me.’” Julie looked up at Nicole. “This goes on for a while. Are you sure you want me to continue?”

Nicole nodded and settled back in the cushion of the couch, trying to ignore the flutter in her stomach.

“Keep going,” she said quietly.

“‘Let me begin by saying that I know when we first got together, you said that trust was the most important thing in the world to you. I know your dad cheated on your mom, and I know how your relationship with Carol ended. I told you that first night we spent up at the cabin in the mountains that I would never do anything to hurt you—’”

“Oh, you mean like you did?” Nicole interrupted sharply.

“Hey,” Julie said, backing up on the couch. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

“I’m sorry,” Nicole apologized. “I just got caught up in the moment, I guess. I mean, my God, that just shows that she knew how I felt and did it anyway.”

Julie frowned and leveled her eyes at Nicole.

“Are sure you want to do this?”

Nicole nodded and waved a hand.

“Go on.”

“‘I know what it looked like when you walked into the bedroom and saw me standing there with no clothes on, hugging Sundae.’” Julie dropped the letter. “Sundae? Her name was Sundae? What the hell kind of a name is Sundae?”

Nicole laughed and rubbed her eyes.

“God only knows.”

“Wow. Okay…‘And later, what I’m pretty sure you overheard at the restaurant with Megan. All of this has been one big shitty series of misunderstandings. I’ve been thinking of how to explain this to you so that you know what I’m saying is the truth. Finally, I decided to go about it the best way I know how—gather the evidence and lay it all out.’”

Julie stopped reading and opened up the box. She held up one of the baggies and turned it around in her hand.

“That must be what all this is,” she remarked.

Nicole snorted but didn’t say anything.

“‘People’s One—proof that I love you and that you stole my heart the first day we met.’” Julie reached into the box and pulled out the plastic bag marked ‘One’. She squinted at it and then handed the bag to Nicole.

“One of my business cards?” she inquired.

Julie shrugged and looked back to the letter. “It says to look on the back.”

Nicole turned the card over.

“Okay, it’s got my cell number written on the back. What is that supposed to show?”

“‘This is the card that you gave me when we first met’,” Julie continued reading. “‘If you will remember, Samuels and I were investigating the break-ins of homes listed for sale in North Chattanooga and one of your properties had gotten hit. You wrote your number on the back of this card and told me to call you if I ever needed anything, day or night.’”

Nicole stared at the card incredulously and then back up at Julie. It had been almost two years since that first meeting.

“She kept this?”

Julie nodded.

“It looks like you’re predictable as well,” she said. Julie continued to read the letter. “‘Yes, I kept this. When the most singularly attractive woman I’ve ever met in my life gives me her number, I don’t lose it.’”

Nicole looked at the card for a long moment and then motioned to Julie.

“Keep going.”

“‘People’s Two—additional proof that I love you.’” Julie rummaged through the box until she located the bag marked ‘Two’ and handed it to Nicole. Nicole narrowed her eyes as she inspected the contents.

“A parking ticket?” she asked, shaking her head.

“‘Notice the date. August fifteenth.’” Julie glanced up from the letter. “What is August fifteenth?”

Nicole smiled in spite of herself. She remembered what this was. Their third date. She and Jamie had gone to Coolidge Park. They’d walked along the river and eaten a picnic lunch. Nicole had accidentally walked through the water fountain on their way back to Jamie’s car and gotten soaking wet. Jamie had laughed hysterically at her and they ended up kissing like teenagers behind the carousal. They’d been late getting to the parking meter as a result, and Jamie had gotten a ticket. Nicole rubbed the plastic between her fingers.

“Our first kiss,” she finally answered quietly, not sure what to make of it. Of all the words she would have used to describe Jamie, sentimental was absolutely not one of them.

Julie looked back at her, but didn’t offer up any commentary.

“‘People’s Three’,” Julie said, clearing her throat. “‘Proof that I was not making out with Sundae that day at my house.’”

Nicole pulled the box to her and reached inside. She retrieved the ‘three’ baggy and held it up, trying to make out what it was.

“A sonogram?” She looked back at Julie.

“‘This, Miss Landers, is the reason we were hugging. I went to high school with Sundae. We ran into each other a few days before and I was meeting her at the house for a reason to be disclosed later. I turned the shower on by accident and got my clothes all wet and I was changing into a dry ones. As I walked out of the closet—’” Julie stopped reading and looked up. “Wait. Jamie has a walk-in closet?”

Nicole smiled and nodded.

“Two actually.”

“What the hell? Then why are you two always here and not a Jamie’s place? Not that your house is a dump, Nicole, but c’mon. If it’s got two walk-in closets?”

“Jamie’s house is done in early Johnny Cash, that’s why.”

“Oh.
Oh
,” Julie said. “I guess I can see that. Anyway…‘As I walked out of the closet, Sundae told me that after years of trying, she and her husband had finally gotten pregnant.’”

Nicole licked her lips and narrowed her eyes at the sonogram. The date on the picture would be in line if what Jamie was saying was true.

“That still doesn’t explain why she was there in first place. Why was she at her house meeting ‘Sundae’ after she told me she would be at the station?” Nicole asked.

“I don’t know,” Julie said. She glanced back at the letter. “‘People’s Four—proof that I was not professing my love to Megan Riley.’” Nicole reached in the box and pulled out a piece of paper with the number four stamped across the top.

“Really, Jamie? An affidavit?” she muttered, shaking her head at the type-written letter. Nicole noticed it was signed and notarized at the bottom of the page.

“‘If you will read the affidavit, you will see that Megan verifies that we were, in fact, discussing you. I asked her to meet me so that I could, more or less, practice what I was going to say to you at lunch the next day. You, unfortunately, chose that exact moment to walk in and assumed the worst.’”

Nicole ran a hand through her hair and blew out a breath.

“What do you think?” she asked Julie. Nicole leaned back against the couch cushion, trying to absorb everything in the letter. She really wanted to believe it was all true, but at the same time, as much as she loved Jamie, she’d been betrayed and lied to by someone she’d trusted before.

Julie shrugged.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m bought in just yet.”

“How much more is there to go?” Nicole asked.

“About a page,” Julie answered, flipping the letter over. “You want me to skip to the end?”

“No, just keep going.”

“Okay. ‘People’s Five—proof that…’” Julie’s voice trailed off as Nicole’s phone began to ring. She and Nicole looked at one another and then over the kitchen counter where the phone sat. Nicole quickly rose from the couch and sprinted into the kitchen. She picked the phone up from the counter and frowned at it.

“It’s Golden Meadows,” she said to Julie, arching one eyebrow. Nicole swiped the screen. “Hello?”

“Miss Landers?” a soft voice said.

“Yes.” Nicole said tentatively, trying to think why the retirement home would be calling.

“This is Brenda, from Golden Meadows. There has been an…incident with your grandmother. We need for you to come down here, if that’s possible.”

Nicole felt her breath catch in throat.

“Incident, what do you mean? What’s happened? Is my grandmother okay?”

There was brief silence.

“It’s a little involved to explain over the phone.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Frances Parker stood by the tiny window looking out from her room at the Golden Meadows Retirement Village. Frances—Nana—as people liked to call her—bit on her bottom lip as she pried at the small but effective lock keeping the window securely shut with the flat edge of a spoon. She’d been working on the lock ever since those bitch nurses had it put on the window twenty-seven days ago, and felt that she was finally close to figuring out how to disable the intricate mechanism. Once she was able to break the lock, the rest would be a piece of cake. She’d finally be free of the prison her doctors had stuck her in.

“Whatcha doing there, Nana?” a low voice said from behind her.

Nana spun around—making sure to hide the spoon behind her back—to face the owner of the voice. She narrowed her eyes at the tall, red-headed woman standing in the doorway of the room. The woman looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place her.

“Oh, just this and that,” she replied in as sweet a voice as she could muster. Nana stepped away from the window. “Do I know you, honey?”

The woman smiled down at her and stepped into the room.

“You do, Nana. Remember? I’m Jamie,” the woman said.

Nana frowned and shook her head.

“I don’t think I know anyone named Jamie.” Nana moved closer to the small bed that sat in the center of the room and pretended to fluff the pillow as she slid the spoon underneath the sheet. Later, when she was alone, she would hide it back under the bed’s rock-hard mattress so as not to alert the staff what she was up to.

“You do too, Nana,” the giant woman said. “I’m a friend of your granddaughter.”

“Nicole?” Nana asked, pursing her lips. “No, honey, I don’t think Nicole has ever mentioned anyone named Jamie.”

And where was Nicole
? Nana thought. Her granddaughter rarely went more than a day or two without stopping by, and it had been three days since she’d last seen her.

“There’s nobody at the nurses station.” A fat man with thinning gray hair walked into the room and addressed the tall woman. Nana squinted at the man and sucked in on her bottom lip. She was certain that she’d never seen him before, but she didn’t like the looks of him at all. He carried himself like a cop.

“You won’t find any of them there this time of night,” Nana said, edging away from the bed to get a closer look at him. “It’s medicine time, so they’re all out and about.”