Web of Deceit (15 page)

“Sounds like a
plan. I’m glad you came on this case with me, Symphony. You’ve turned out to be
a valuable asset.”

“Thanks and good
luck. I’ll call you when she’s ready to talk.”

“Great. Be
careful,” Beth says as Symphony shuts her passenger door. Beth arrives at the
large safe house and pulls to the curb. She watches through the rearview mirror
for Symphony.

Beep. Beep.

Beth’s phone
announces she has a new text. She presses the “Enter” icon.
Five new texts
from the same person?
She checks the mirror and notices Symphony nearing
the building.
She’s not close enough yet.
She enters the most recent
text.

“hello my
beautiful beautiful girls.”

“Ugh!” Beth grumbles aloud.
I’ve been so busy I forgot about the
text creep.
“One whack job at a time” she says, exhausted and irritated.
Beth checks the mirror again.
Symphony seems close enough. I need to start
distracting the staff.
She closes her phone and grabs her purse. Clearing
her mind, she readies herself for the unannounced meeting.

*   *   *

Symphony watches
on as Beth is greeted by an unshaven male staff member with a super-sized
mid-section. He welcomes her in without asking for identification.
Men.
Symphony sneaks off toward the back of the house to find a way in.
Beth’s
either really good, or he has no business working in a place like this. I’m
glad I’m not on his watch.

She glances from
one end of the building to the other and decides on the fire escape.
Perfect.
Flipping her phone open she presses the “Pics” icon to check the room number.
Thirty-seven.
She scales the thin, rusty metal steps to the third floor.
I hope it’s
the right floor.
Symphony pries open the hall window.
That was easy. How
safe are these survivors anyway
.
You’d think security would be a little
tighter.

Symphony climbs
through the window.
Oh … that explains it.
An automatic camera is
panning from the hall to the corner, where the exit is and then to the window.
This
sucks.
She moves fast when the camera is about to point at the window. She
runs to the hall, scanning for a room she can hide in.
Gotta come up with a
plan of attack.
In the middle of the hall, she spots a bathroom.
Sweet.
Not allowed to have a camera in there.

She dashes for the
room without a second to spare. She enters the ladies’ room.
Never thought
I’d be getting paid to do this … and be legal … well, kinda.

Symphony opens the
door a crack. The surveillance camera pans towards the exit sign. She pokes her
head out to read the room number across the hall.
Thirty–nine. Are they
going lower or higher?
Symphony stretches her neck further to read the
apartment door to the left.
Great, it’s the second door from the exit.
She reaches in her coat and pulls out a small device to be ready when she gets
to the room. As the camera’s whirring motor begins moving toward the corner,
she rushes to room thirty-seven. Being discreet, she knocks on the door while
watching the camera move to the window. As it begins rotating towards the hall,
Symphony places her device in the keyhole, causing the door to open.  She
disappears inside, avoiding detection by the panning camera.

“Leave us alone!”
a frightened young woman yells as she charges at Symphony with a bat in her
hands. She swings the bat at Symphony’s head.

Symphony ducks and
jumps away. “Calm down,” Symphony scolds. “I’m here to help you. I’m a friend
of Sarah Perkins. Are you Jade?”

“Yes,” Jade
answers, nervous and clenching the wooden baseball bat in her hands prepared to
swing again. Jade rushes to the window searching for anyone suspicious lurking
below. “I told them I didn’t want to see anyone. How did you find me?” She
rushes to the door. Uneasy, she peeks through the peep-hole.

“Your newspaper
clippings didn’t tell us why you don’t want to see your mother.”

“That woman is not
my mother!” Jade rebukes Symphony, almost hysterical.

“OK, OK. Look, in
order for me to help you, you’ve gotta stay calm.” Symphony watches Jade flump
down on the bed and tremble.
Man, her fear of Mrs. Freedman couldn’t be more
obvious. Anyone else might mistake her for a common junkie, but I know true
fear when I see it. I remember my mom having that same fear in her eyes, on her
bed begging for her own nightmare to end. It was a bullet to her head from my
dad.

A shimmer of
liquid forms in the corner of Symphony’s eye but not enough to spill onto her
cheek.
I watched him do it. After the gun went off, he threw it. The snub
nose slid across the floor and hit the closet where I was hiding. I jumped back,
too scared to scream. He might have heard me anyway; I don’t know, but he
looked at the closet and ran. I never saw him again. It’s been a long time
since I’ve thought about that night.

Jade calms down.
Is that a tear I see her pushing back? This girl is for real. Maybe I can trust
her.

“Is your daughter
here?” Symphony asks.

“Yes.” Jade points
to the closet.

“You can come out,
Vicky,” Symphony says, assuring her. “I’m here to help you.”

A frightened young
girl opens the closet door a crack and peers out, before running to cling to
her mother.

“Will you talk to
my employer?” Symphony asks. “She can help you.”

“No, just leave us
alone. She hasn’t found us. Just do your homework and you’ll figure it out.”

“My friend Sarah
was taken today. Do you think it had anything to do with Sarah talking to you?”
“Yes.” Jade fidgets with her hands. “You have no idea what that woman is
capable of.” The phone in Jade’s room rings, interrupting Jade. She answers.
“Hello.”

“Jade, it’s
Maggie,” She says, shaken.

“Are you OK?” Jade
senses the fear in Maggie’s voice.

“Yeah, but I was
attacked.”

“I’m sorry. What
happened?” Jade says, fearing the worse.

“I think it was
the people that are after you. They stole your files, which means they know
where you are. I don’t have time to set up an exit for you. So you better start
runnin’. They knocked me out, and I don’t know how much time has gone by. They
could be there anytime; you’ve gotta hurry.”

“Yes, I will …”
How
did they find Maggie?
Jade hangs up the phone. She grabs the duffel bag
hanging from the closet door knob.

“Mom, what’s
wrong?” Vicky asks.

“Get your
backpack, Vicky. We gotta go.” Jade starts to scramble about the room throwing
clothes and essentials into her bag. “I’m sorry, I can’t help, but that was
Maggie. She’s been attacked and they’ve stolen my files. They’re on their way.
Search the clippings. You’ll find what you need.”

“Come with us. We’ll
protect you,” Symphony says, trying to reason with Jade. “Besides, you won’t
get far on foot.”

“Do you really
think your employer can help us?” Jade throws her duffel bag over her shoulder.

“Yes.”

Jade grabs the bat
in one hand and Vicky in the other. “’K, com’on we gotta go.”

Symphony opens her
phone and calls Beth. “Beth, they’re in trouble and we’re leaving. Where can we
meet?”

“Oh, Mom. Maybe
you lost your keys bringing in the groceries through the back door last night.
I’ll come over and help you find them. I’m on my way. OK, I love you. Bye,”
Beth says, hiding her conversation with Symphony from her new overweight and
over-interested friend.

“Yeah, see ya out
back.” Symphony presses the
End
key.

*   *   *

Beth pulls into
the empty parking lot behind the safe house, scanning for Symphony, a stranger,
and a young girl. After a minute, Symphony appears from the shadows leading
Jade and Vicky toward Beth’s Jeep Cherokee. Three passenger doors open
simultaneously, as if cued by a conductor.

“They beat up
Maggie, and they’re on their way,” Symphony says.

Without
hesitating, Beth floors the Jeep and speeds off down the dark street into the
cold January night without a plan. “How did they know where to search?” Beth
asks, driving north back toward the silhouette of the Boston skyline.

“I don’t know,”
Symphony replies. “Maggie runs a tight ship. She’s the only one with access to
survivors’ files.”

“They must have
gotten to your friend Sarah,” Jade says.

“Sarah’s in the
hospital, and even if they did, she wouldn’t say anything.” Symphony defends
Sarah.

“They have their
ways. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into.” Jade warns them.

Beth presses speed
dial number one on her phone, calling Elliot.

“Hey, this is
Elliot. Leave a message.”

That’s odd.
She calls Elizabeth’s number.

“I’m sorry your
party can not come to the phone right …”

Beth hangs up.
“What’s going on?!”

“Try Sarah’s
number,” Symphony says.

Beth calls Sarah.

“Hello?” a voice
answers before the first ring.

“Who is this?”
Beth questions, not recognizing the voice.

“It’s Joanna. Is
this Beth?”

“Yeah. Where’s
Sarah?”

“I don’t know. I
was with Dale Sutton doing the procedure on Chip,” Joanna says. “When I was
done, I came looking for Elliot, and all I found was security asking questions
and checking all over the hospital for Sarah. Apparently, she went for an
unscheduled walk with an unauthorized nurse. I went downstairs to check the
parking lot and Elliot’s car was still there. When I went back into the room, I
did some checking around and found Sarah’s phone. I kept it, hoping someone
would call. It’s been two hours.”

“What are the
police doing?”

“We’re on it. We
didn’t wait, since she was already abducted. We’ve got no leads because
everyone involved either disappears or dies, except Chip. It wasn’t five
minutes before the BOLO went out.”

“Who would want to
take Sarah?”

“Mrs. Freedman
would,” Jade interrupts, listening to half the conversation and guessing.

“I don’t know, but
we’re going to find out,” Joanna answers.

“I’ve gotta go,”
Beth says. “Call me the minute you hear anything.”

After ending the
call, Beth glances into the mirror to catch Jade’s eye. “Could you hear what
was being said on the other end of the phone?”

“No, but I know
what Mrs. Freedman is capable of. And that’s why she is after us.”

“A waitress named
Kelly was abducted from Odell’s coffeehouse yesterday morning. It seems like
whoever took Sarah is behind Kelly’s abduction as well.”

“I know her. She
used to play with Vicky when we lived with Mrs. Freedman. We were supposed to
get together last weekend, but I didn’t dare talk to her or anyone else who
might be linked to Mrs. Freedman.”

“What happened?”
Symphony asks.

“It was five years
ago,” Jade says. “My husband and I came over from Ireland. Fresh off the boat
is what you’d call us. Anyways, he was a hard-working man. Desperate, he was
forced to take a job he wasn’t proud of. It was good money, or at least until
he got busted. Those guys were bad news. He wanted us someplace safe while he
was in jail. That’s when I met Maggie. Nate became a believer when he was in
jail and gave his life to God. It changed his whole attitude on life. He became
a loving and caring man. Not just to me and Vicky, but to everyone.

“After six months
he got out and needed work. He ran into a guy named Grant that he had met on
the boat over from Ireland. Grant told him about Mrs. Freedman and how
wonderful she was, that she liked to help people in our situation. ‘Better
people, better the world,’ was her motto. Grant said that Nate and I would like
her because she believed in God too. She said, ‘If more people followed the
rules of the Bible there would be less problems.’ ”

Jade continues,
“Anyways, she offered to help Nate get a job and let us stay with her until we
got on our feet, so to speak. All we had to do was help out with chores and
follow her rules. Man! That was an understatement! The first week was tough,
but expected—new place and all. We arrived on Monday and that Friday, when I
went up to my room to change for dinner, all my clothes were gone. She had
replaced them with ‘more appropriate attire.’ It’s how she put it. I was ready
to leave then, but Nate said Mrs. Freedman was only focusing on the rules of
the Bible and that the others that were staying there needed to see God’s love.
Nate believed that’s why we were there. As the weeks went on, the nightmares
started, and I began to wonder if more was going on than helping in the garden
or with the meals. If I disappointed Mrs. Freedman by not cleaning or cooking
in the exact way I was instructed, I would receive extra chores followed by
horrible nightmares. It happened too often to be a coincidence.” Jade pauses to
draw closer to her daughter.

“Man, I knew there
was something wrong with Mrs. Freedman, but I had no clue she was that
twisted,” Symphony says.

“It’s a little
much to take in, don’t you think?” Beth says, doubting Jade.

“That’s not even
close to what was really going on,” Jade continues her story. “One night I was
going downstairs to make a warm cup of milk. We weren’t supposed to wander
around at night. But I figured no one would notice at eleven. If they were all
following the rules, I should have been golden.

“I was walking
past Grant’s room, and the door was ajar. So, out of curiosity I peeked in, and
I saw Mrs. Freedman was injecting something into his arm. Then she started
telling him stuff. I don’t know all of what she said because I got scared and
ran back to my room. I woke up Nate and told him what happened.