Cory remained glued to the bed for a while longer after Adrian left, daydreaming again. She was thinking about their life together. How much she loved him and how much he loved her. She had no idea where she would have been without him in her life but she felt definitely blessed to have him there.
“Okay, Cory. It’s time to get back to work,” she scolded herself out loud. She got off the bed and searched around for her clothes. It was amazing how fast it would always come off when Adrian was around. That was when she noticed it. Her laptop lay on the floor, half hidden under the bed. Horror immediately flashed across her face.
Please tell me nothing’s wrong with it, played in Cory’s mind over and over like a broken record. Please, please, please, she begged. It was probably knocked over during their just concluded, rather adventurous lovemaking session. But neither of them had been bothered by this possibility whilst getting busy a short while ago.
Cory picked up the laptop off the floor and screamed. “Oh, no!” Tears were already welling in her eyes. The top of it was busted and had one long crack running along its entire surface. She immediately opened it and pressed the power button. Nothing happened. It wasn’t powering up. It wasn’t working. Panic finally set in.
How the hell was she going to finish her presentation now? Think Cory, think. She decided to call Adrian. He would know what to do. After all, he was the IT major in college. A fact she only found out last night for that matter. But a fact she more than appreciated at this moment, however.
Cory dialed Adrian’s number. After only two rings, he answered, “Hey, gorgeous. Missing me, already?”
“Yes, I am,” Cory hastily answered. “Unfortunately, that’s not the reason why I’m calling you.”
“What is it, baby? Everything okay?” Adrian’s tone immediately changed from one of flirting to one of concern.
“No, everything is not okay. Adrian, my laptop is broken,” Cory cried into the phone. “It fell from the bed to the floor. And now it’s all cracked up and not coming on when I tried the power button. It isn’t getting any power, Adrian. And I have to finish this presentation today. What am I going to do?”
“Baby, calm down,” Adrian demanded. “Look, if the screen is cracked you wouldn’t be able to see anything, anyway. Were you able to save any of your work?”
“Yes, my flash is still connected.”
“Well, okay. At least you have something. All you need is a new machine, then. Why don’t you use my laptop?”
“That’s a great idea.” Cory prayed her flash wasn’t damaged from the fall, too; otherwise she would have to start from scratch and redo the entire thing and all her hard work would have been but in vain. “What would I ever do without you, baby?”
“Don’t know. Now get cracking. You have work to do,” Adrian commanded.
“Oh and by the way lieutenant, you owe me a new laptop.”
“So it’s my entire fault now, is that it?” Adrian joked.
“Yes. You’re the one who wanted to make love when I had work to do,” Cory retorted.
“Like you didn’t … besides, I didn’t hear you complaining, baby,” Adrian laughed.
“Bye, baby,” Cory laughed and ended the call.
She went into the second bedroom Adrian had converted into his study and opened up his laptop. When the screen came up, it demanded a password code to be entered.
“Dammit,” Cory cursed. She didn’t know Adrian’s password for his laptop because she’d never used it before now. She would just have to call him again.
“Adrian, sorry to bother you again but I need to get your password please.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It’s Marine One. With a capital M and capital O.”
“Marine One? Why am I not surprised?” Cory typed in the password. “Great, it worked. Thanks, baby.”
“Talk to ya later,” Adrian said and hung up.
Now, she was way behind but she wasn’t going to stop until she finished the damn thing this time. Cory inserted her flash drive into Adrian’s laptop. She breathed a sigh of relief when it was recognized. She was able to download all of the presentation she had completed so far onto his laptop so she could work from there. And she worked nonstop for the next three hours until she was finished, finally.
She checked and double-checked the PowerPoint. She checked for grammar and spelling. She vetted it for easy navigability and pleasing use of graphics. She ensured the colors she used were easy on the eyes. When she was finally satisfied that everything was okay with her presentation, she e-mailed it to Javier and Danielle. They would have it to look over as soon as they got in on Monday morning to prep themselves before the meeting started.
“Finally,” Cory shrieked elatedly. Now, she could concentrate on relaxing for the rest of the weekend. Take a long soak in the tub, pour herself a glass of wine, or even look at a movie.
She was about to shut down when she decided to send her presentation to Adrian’s recycle bin first. It was quite a large file and she didn’t want it taking up too much memory on his laptop. He was working on his computer game, which probably took up a whole lot of memory in itself. Cory deleted the presentation from the documents window and clicked on the recycle bin to empty it from there, too.
As she was about to delete it, something caught her attention. There was another file in the recycle bin. It read: Report - Confidential. Cory held her hand. Her mind started racing. She thought about it for a moment. What could Adrian possibly have in this confidential file? And what was it doing in his recycle bin?
Probably his work stuff, Cory decided. Adrian’s job entailed a lot of challenges and Lord knows what else Cory knew. But he always spared her the details, never speaking about it. Maybe this file might give her some clues as to what he really did on the job. Curiosity got the better of her. Cory wanted to know what was in that file. She restored the file, double-clicked on the folder to open it up and saw one single item in it.
A word document named Report opened up. It was in a letter format addressed to the Commissioner and carbon copied to the Brigadier and Minister. It was dated two years ago. The caption read: Report on Shooting Incident and the date. The 3rd of March? Why was that date so familiar to her? Cory read the document:
Dear Sirs,
As instructed by you, I, Second Lieutenant Adrian Mendez, hereby truthfully give my account of the events leading up to the shooting deaths of Patrick Morris, Anthony Powell, Marlon Williams and Collin Phillips on the night of March 3.
Cory froze. Her eyes remained glued to the screen. Collin Phillips? Maybe she didn’t see correctly. She read it over. Good, she wasn’t delusional. It was indeed Collin Phillips she saw. The date was also correct, but that was the date Collin was killed. What was Adrian doing with this document? He didn’t know about Collin or how he was killed. She had only told him about this the night he had dinner over at her house.
She continued reading the second paragraph. It stated the names and ranks of seven other soldiers and officers who were in the company of Adrian on patrol in the city that night. The third paragraph gave details of the APB they received but it was when Cory reached the fourth paragraph that she stopped. That part read:
After all rounds stopped firing and all went quiet, I proceeded to firstly check on the driver of the vehicle as he was the one closest to my position. He was slumped behind the wheel. I checked for a pulse on his neck. There was none. It was then I realized he was already dead on the scene. This was later confirmed by homicide officers who immediately arrived. The driver of the vehicle was later identified as Collin Phillips. He wasn’t a known felon to the police. He wasn’t armed.
Her body trembled. There was a pain in her chest, constricting her heart’s ability to pump her blood. Panic gripped her. Fear shot through her. A muffled sound caught in her throat but it sounded too weird to be a scream. Between the blinding hot tears, Cory read the part over. Could this really be her Collin? The names, the date, the time, and the events were all familiar to her. This couldn’t be possible, still? How could Adrian have been there? He wouldn’t know about something like this and keep it from her, would he?
Cory glided off the chair and sank to the floor, clutching her chest. It all began coming at her at once. Adrian’s job. He killed for a living. He never wanted to speak to her about how many people he had actually killed. His unexpected marriage proposal on the fort that day. Their wedding in Tobago. His undivided attention to all her needs these past three months. How happy she was. His IT degree and other dark secrets he probably kept from her. Her father’s reaction to his career choice. And now this.
“Oh, God!” Cory thought of her father now. He had been so right after all. Why hadn’t she listened to him? How could she ever face him again? He would never forgive her for this.
Cory instantly remembered the days just after Collin’s death. She was still trying to come to terms with her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis. Then, her mother went soon after Collin. Everyone had said it was because of the grief. She had just given up and didn’t care to live anymore.
This had been the most dreadful time in her life. Many times she just wanted to die herself. Then her emotional breakdown quickly followed brought on by the post traumatic stress of their deaths. She couldn’t eat or sleep. She had to be treated by medication to get over this. If she hadn’t been treated, she may have very well been admitted to a psychiatric ward by now. Then during all this came the break-up with Preston.
And all of this was because of Adrian? If it wasn’t for him, her brother and mother would still be alive today. How could Adrian do this to her, after he claimed to love her? It was all a lie. Everything was a lie from the beginning. The life she had now was a lie.
Was this all a big game for him? How long did he think he could fool her for? For her entire life? Till she was dead, too? No wonder she found this report in his recycle bin. Adrian had no intention of her ever finding out about it. But how could he have been so careless as to leave it there without deleting it forever? That was his big mistake.
“You’re such a fool, Cory!” she screamed at herself. “To think this man could really love you.”
She didn’t know how long she remained sobbing on the floor. She only got up because her throat was all dried out. She passed the bathroom on her way to the kitchen. When she looked in the mirror, she jumped at the scary reflection staring back at her. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, puffy and swollen in her tear-stained face. Her hair didn’t make things any better either, falling in a mess about her troubled facial features.
In the kitchen, she needed that drink of wine now but there was none anywhere. She couldn’t believe she was out of wine. She needed something strong and water wasn’t an option this time. Cory frantically searched through the kitchen cupboards for something. Anything. All she eventually found was a bottle of scotch. She didn’t drink scotch, but scotch would have to do today. She cracked the new seal on the bottle and poured a half glass of the amber-colored liquid.
She took a deep breath and downed the entire thing in one go. The fiery liquid stung her throat and pained her as it went down. She coughed and beat against her chest to ease the initial discomfort. That wasn’t too bad. At least it was better than this ridiculous predicament she was in now. Two more half glasses of scotch later and her anger was at a boiling point, steaming through her entire body. Cory needed to know how and why Adrian could do such a thing to her.
She dialed his cell phone for the third time for the day.
• • •
“Hi, baby. Can I call you back in a minute?” Adrian immediately answered.
“No, you may not.”
“Cory? What’s wrong?”
“Are you still at the base?” she asked quietly. Coldly.
“Yes. We’re getting ready to move out in a little bit. What’s wrong? Why’re you sounding like that? You sound so distant.”
“I need you to come home.”
“What? When?”
“Now!” Cory shouted at him.
“Cory, but I can’t. C’mon, you know I can’t do that now, baby,” Adrian pleaded with her. “Cory, are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?”
“No, I’m not okay,” Cory screamed.
“Well, then tell me what’s wrong, Cory,” Adrian found his own voice rising from the anticipation he was starting to feel.
“Everything.”
“God, Cory! Just talk to me.” There was another long silence. “Cory … just stay where you are. I’ll be there shortly.”
Adrian turned his attention back to the man with the expectant look on his face sitting across from him in his office. They were going over the last-minute details of the search together. Since his return to base that afternoon, they were either in meetings, preparing for the exercise, or loading their weapons, food, and camping gear into the vehicles.
“Major, I need to be excused, sir. There’s an emergency at my home that I need to investigate now.”
“Mendez, can’t anybody else look into that for you?” Major Benjamin asked him.
“No,” Adrian simply replied. “It’s my wife, sir.”
“Well, we’re moving out at 1800 hours. And you have to lead this exercise. Half an hour is all you have and that’s it, Mendez.”
“Roger that, major.”
“Allyuh young men need to learn how to handle your women when duty calls.”
Obviously, Major Benjamin didn’t know his woman. Cory was one firecracker he did not want to mess with. When he left his office, Adrian immediately summoned two of his armed soldiers to accompany him to his apartment. He didn’t know what to expect there.
All he knew was that he didn’t like the way Cory was sounding over the phone. She wasn’t exactly talking to him either. Or could she even talk? Adrian’s mind began to race. Was there somebody else with her? Was she under some sort of threat? Was she being coerced? If anyone dare hurt his wife and he found them, make no mistake, he knew what he’d do to them.
“Step on it, man,” Adrian ordered the soldier who was driving. “I only have half hour.”
“Jus’ say the word, LT.” The soldier really stepped on it because he pulled up at Adrian’s apartment building only a few minutes later. Adrian practically flew out and bounded toward the elevator. The front door was locked as usual. There wasn’t anybody suspiciously lurking around the corridor. Everything looked in order to him. Adrian drew the gun strapped on his leg just in case.