While Riley’s words had touched me, they obviously hadn’t done a thing for Jay, because on the ride home, he’d told me that since he was so tired, he’d wait and leave in the morning. His not leaving at all had never even come up, and I’d found myself wishing morning would never come.
It had been a night of tossing and turning. I had lain awake for most of the night, watching the red digital numbers inch closer to 8 a.m. I knew that was the time Jay usually woke up. And this morning would be the last time he woke up in our home.
The thought tied my stomach in knots.
I was so full of regrets. Granted, I’d never be able to reconcile Jay cheating on me, but just like he’d driven me to cheat with Ivan, had I driven him to do the same with Vonda?
And did it even matter now?
I pulled myself out of bed, catching sight of my reflection in the full-length mirror. My hand immediately went to my stomach. I hadn’t wanted to wait a few more years for a child. That had been the whole reason for my change in attitude. Now, who knew how long I’d have to wait. And unless I was willing to have a baby out of wedlock, my biological clock would be all ticked out by the time I found another man, fell in love, and got married.
I shook off that thought. I wasn’t trying to marry another man. I wanted the man I was already married to. That hard reality slapped me fully awake.
“Then tell him that,” I mumbled to myself.
“Are you in here talking to yourself?” Jay said, startling me.
I glanced up at my husband. He was wearing his running gear. I frowned. He only ran when he was stressed, when he needed to clear his head. We were out of the woods. So what was he so stressed about now?
“You went running?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Yeah, you know I’m dealing with a lot and, um, just needed some fresh air. Figured I would go for a run, then, ah, you know, come back, and, um, get my stuff together.”
We stood in awkward silence for a minute; then Jay said, “Well, I’m going to go ahead and get to moving my stuff. I need to go grab the suitcases.”
I didn’t reply as our eyes met.
“Umm.” Jay shifted uncomfortably. “I shouldn’t be too long.” He turned to leave and my heart began to race.
“Jay,” I said, stopping him.
He slowly turned to face me. “Yeah?”
Just tell him, tell him you want to try to make it work! “I, ummm, I… do you need any help?” I asked.
He looked at me like he’d been hoping I was about to say something different. “No. I’m good. I think I can manage.”
“Okay” was all I replied.
He looked like he wanted to say something more, but turned and walked out the door instead.
I went into my closet to throw on my running clothes. I needed to get out of there, go clear my head. The way I was feeling right now, I’d have an emotional breakdown watching him pack his stuff, then walk away from the home, the life, that we had built.
I took off running down the street and around the corner. I inhaled the brisk D.C. air as my feet connected with the pavement. I had just passed the neighborhood newsstand when a newspaper caught my eye. I stopped in horror as I read the headline. “Senator Bradley Bell Bombshell!”
An angry-looking picture of Senator Bradley Bell was front and center. It had obviously been taken as he walked into his congressional office. I read a few lines of the story, quickly paid for the paper, then raced back home. I must’ve made record time as I went barreling through the front door.
“Jayyy!” I screamed.
Jay came racing downstairs, his eyes wide like he was bracing for the worst. “What is it?”
“Look at this,” I said, thrusting the paper toward him.
Jay looked at the newspaper. “What is this?”
“What does it look like? It’s an article on the senator,” I said, my voice laced with panic. “He’s being questioned on the land deals in New Orleans.”
Jay quickly scanned the story. “How did the newspaper get this information? Do you think Nicole said anything?”
“We haven’t given Nicole any details. Besides, she wouldn’t do anything without talking to me first. And she dang sure wouldn’t give this information to the newspaper. She’d be doing a special report herself.”
Jay shook his head in stunned disbelief. “Then where did they get the story?”
“I have no idea,” I said, my heart racing. “It didn’t come from us, but I guarantee you, Senator Bell is going to think it did. This man is dangerous. This puts us right back in danger.” I actually found myself shaking in fear. “I thought this nightmare was over.”
Jay continued reading the article, his mouth open in shock. “We didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“You know that and I know that, but he’s not going to believe it,” I cried.
Jay stomped over to the bar and snatched up his cell phone off the counter. “Well, we just need to tell him we didn’t have anything to do with it. I don’t want him sending any of his goons over here to mess with us.” Jay spoke into the phone, “Siri, call Senator Bradley Bell’s office.” After a brief pause, the phone connected and Jay said, “Yes, I need to speak with the senator…. I understand that, but can you please patch me through to his cell or something? Tell him it’s Jay Lovejoy. He’ll want to take my call.”
I watched my husband pace back and forth across the living room as he waited. Finally, he said, “Senator Bell, thank God you took my call. Look, I’m sure you’ve seen… No, I just wanted to call and assure you that neither my wife nor I had anything to do with that information being leaked…. Maybe Vonda told someone else.” Jay stopped talking and pulled the phone away from his ear. “He hung up.”
Fear filled me. Were we being thrust back in the middle of this mess? Were we going to have to go on the run again? No way could I continue to live like that. “We have to convince him that we had nothing to do with this.”
“He was livid. He’s not trying to hear anything we have to say.” Jay picked up the paper again. It was a short article, without many details, but it definitely contained enough to cause trouble for the senator. “This says the newspaper received an anonymous call that the senator was involved in some shady land deals in New Orleans. But they keep saying it’s unconfirmed.”
“Well, why would they report it if it’s unconfirmed?”
“Because the D.C. Dispatch is a tabloid paper whose publishers don’t care about the facts. They report rumors all the time.”
“But now that the story is out there, the legitimate press is going to jump all over it.” I shook my head as the severity of the article sank in.
“Exactly, and that’s probably what whoever gave the Dispatch that tip wanted.”
“The question again: who would do that?”
“I have no idea, but I think I know who does.”
We looked at each other as if we were thinking the same thing.
“Keri,” we said in unison.
“I told you there was something shifty about her,” I said. “I bet she did this.”
Jay grabbed his keys. “Come on. Let’s go talk to her and find out what the hell is going on.”
It took less than twenty minutes before we were back in front of Keri’s apartment. But as we pulled up, I saw a carpet-cleaning truck backed up to the stairwell. Hoses were running into the apartment and the door was wide open.
Jay knocked on the door, but the man cleaning the carpet obviously couldn’t hear over the whir of the steamer, so Jay eased into the room and tapped him on the shoulder.
The man jumped, then removed his headphones and cut off the machine.
“Sorry, dude, I was in a world of my own,” he said.
We looked around the empty apartment.
“We’re looking for Keri, the woman who lives here.”
The man shrugged. “Obviously, she doesn’t live here anymore.”
“Do you know where she went?”
He put his headphones back on. “Nope. I just got the order to come and clean the carpet. You might want to check at the front office.” He turned the steam cleaner back on and resumed cleaning.
“This is definitely not a good sign,” I mumbled, as we turned and headed to the building’s leasing office.
Jay led the way into the small office. “Excuse me, we’re looking for Keri, from apartment 1112,” he said to the man sitting behind a big desk looking frazzled as he reviewed some papers.
“Yeah, you and everybody else,” the man said without looking up.
“Do you have any idea where she is?” Jay asked.
The man released an irritated sigh and looked up at us. “If I did, I’d have my money. She just bailed. And she owes me two months’ rent. Just left in the middle of the night. So if you find her, do me a favor and let me know. She left the apartment in shambles.” He went back to sifting through his papers.
It was obvious the leasing agent couldn’t help us, so we thanked him, then made our way back to the SUV. Inside, we sat contemplating our next move.
“Let me try to call Keri again,” Jay said, tapping the screen of his cell phone. “Her number’s still here from the other day,” he said when he caught me side-eyeing him.
I threw my hands up. “I didn’t say a word.”
Jay groaned and hung the phone up. “The number’s disconnected.” He paused. “What if something happened to her too?”
“Nothing happened to her or she wouldn’t have packed,” I responded. “She took off, that’s what happened to her.”
Jay looked like he was really thinking. “Why would she leave in such a hurry?”
“Keri is on the run.” That’s the only answer that made sense.
“On the run from what, though?” Jay asked.
“Probably because she’s in a whole lot deeper than she’s letting on, and now she’s spooked and decided to take off.”
“How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere, and I feel like she’s the only hope we have of getting answers,” Jay moaned.
I sat deep in thought, racking my brain. Something was on the edge of my mind, something that I felt could lead us to Keri.
“She didn’t go too far,” I said, as it dawned on me what that something was.
“How do you know?”
“Remember the letter I was reading when we were there? From the nursing home about her grandmother?”
“So? Maybe she doesn’t have a relationship with her grandmother.”
“No, there was a picture on Keri’s mantel of her and this old lady holding a birthday cake next to the woman’s bed. I bet that’s her grandmother. Maybe she knows how we can find Keri.”
“So you think her grandmother is in a nursing home?”
I tried to recall the name I had seen on the notice. “Westhaven,” I said, snapping my fingers as the name came to me. “Her grandmother is in Westhaven Nursing Home. That’s the name that came up on the phone’s caller ID and that was printed on that past-due bill. And her name is Eloise Walker. I think that we should go pay Ms. Walker a visit; maybe she knows how to get in touch with Keri.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Jay said, shrugging.
“And at this point,” I said, “it’s all we have.”
I didn’t know what we were going to do if we found Keri, but I knew we had to do something—even if that meant dragging Keri to the senator’s office ourselves so she could tell him what she knew. The bottom line was, I refused to spend my life worried about Senator Bradley Bell and his thugs, and if Keri was the only way to clear this up, we couldn’t rest until we found her.
Jay was just about to back out of the parking lot when he turned to me.
“What?” I said, confused as to why he was staring at me.
“We make a pretty good team,” he said with a smile.
My first instinct was to respond with sarcasm, but instead, I returned his smile. “We do, don’t we?”