Where the fuck was Wil? I’d been waiting on him for over an hour, and I refused to believe he was going to be a no-show. He knew what was at stake: Steph’s reputation and future. The blackmailer had called Kenya with a time and place to exchange the money for the pictures that night, but as of now, I didn’t even know if Wil had managed to get the loan from his uncle. Why the fuck wouldn’t he answer the phone? I’d called him repeatedly, but every call went straight to voice mail.
“Kyle, the girl at the front desk said I could come on back.”
I looked up to see Kenya entering my office. She appeared frazzled.
“Kenya, come in. Have a seat.” I pointed to the chair across from my desk.
“I can’t sit,” Kenya said. “I can’t sit still. I can hardly even think. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Wil. He’s supposed to drop off the money tonight.” Kenya looked both hopeful and desperate at the same time.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of him ever since you called. He was supposed to come pick up the rest of the money from me.”
“The rest? I thought Wil had all the money. What the hell are you talking about, Kyle?” She was alarmed. I saw tears forming in her eyes. “We gotta get this done. My baby…” The tears began rolling down her face. “Her life is going to be ruined.”
I handed Kenya a tissue from the box on my desk.
“Thank you,” she said as she took one and wiped away her tears. Then she held her hand out to me. I grabbed another tissue and tried to place it in her hand.
“No, not that. Give me the damn money. I know how to get the rest.”
I stared at her with a puzzled look on my face. I didn’t want to be rude and ask, but I wondered how the hell she was going to come up with that kind of money. Then I realized what she was saying. She was still thinking about turning Jay in.
“Oh, no,” I said. “I’m not about to let you—”
“Just tell me where he is, Kyle, and I’ll get the reward. It’s the least he can do for his child.”
I stood up. “Kenya, he’s on the run. I don’t know where he’s staying. And even if I did, you wouldn’t get the reward soon enough. They’re expecting that hundred thousand tonight.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? Who is going to protect my baby? Wil sure as hell can’t, and from the looks of it, neither can you.” A fresh wave of tears flowed from her eyes. “This is my daughter’s future. It will be ruined.”
I really hated to see her like this, and I definitely felt like crap that I didn’t have the full amount to put in her hands. “We’ll work this out,” I told her. “I’ll go meet the blackmailer myself and give them what I have. I’ll try to negotiate another thirty days. By then I can come up with the rest of the money.”
She stood up and wiped her tear-stained face with the back of her hand. Poor woman looked exhausted. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Kyle,” she said.
Me too, I thought, although I didn’t let her know that I was anything less than one hundred percent confident.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I said to her. “Go home and try to get some rest. I’ll call you later.” I gave her a hug and she left.
I picked up the phone and tried to reach Wil again. That money from his uncle was our best bet to resolve this whole thing quickly. I got his voice mail again, and I realized that unless he called me back soon, I really was going to have to go meet this blackmailer and hope that twenty-five thousand would be enough to buy us some more time. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized I did not want to go meet this person. My life was complicated enough lately. It was time for Jay to step up to the plate and help his kid, whether or not he was on the run.
Allen had sent me a text while he was at work yesterday, telling me that a friend wanted to meet me at our old fishing spot. I had known immediately that he was referring to Jay, because we had designated a spot near the water in Baisley Pond Park as our “in case of emergency” meeting place. I checked my watch and saw that it was almost four o’clock, only an hour from the time I was supposed to meet Jay there. I left my office, telling my secretary that I would be out of the office for the rest of the afternoon.
An hour later, I sat in Baisley Pond Park, staring at a frog on top of a giant lily pad in the pond. It was a weekday, so the place wasn’t as crowded as it was known to be on the weekends.
“Everything all right?” Jay said as he came up behind me.
Feeling paranoid, I looked around to make sure he hadn’t been followed. There was no one in sight. “Yeah, if you don’t include the fact that Wil is MIA.”
“What the fuck?” Jay said. “Isn’t he supposed to—”
“I know, I know,” I said, cutting him off. “It’s supposed to go down tonight.”
“Well, is it?” he asked.
“I have part of the money,” I said as I slid him the briefcase I had stowed under the bench. “It’s your daughter, so I think you should deliver it.”
“Only part of it?” Jay asked.
“Yeah, Jay,” I said, irritated by his attitude. “That’s my twenty-five thousand. You’re welcome. Now, I just told you Wil isn’t answering his phone, so you’re gonna have to work with what we got.”
“How the hell am I going to get those pictures without all of the money?”
He was still complaining, but I was relieved that at least he wasn’t trying to back out of meeting with the blackmailer. He was taking on that responsibility. Maybe there was hope for him as a father yet.
“I’m sure you’ll think of something. Tell him we need more time.”
Jay sat silently for a minute, I guess trying to wrap his head around this whole mess. After a while, he said, “I’m gonna need a car.”
I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope for Jay.
“More cash?” he asked as he took it.
“Yes, five hundred cash and five hundred on a prepaid credit card,” I said. “You should be able to get you a taxi or something.” I pointed at the envelope. “The address where you’re supposed to go is written on there too. It’s down the street from where my very first store used to be. You remember that alley?”
“Sure do.” Jay stood up from the bench. “I’ll see you in a few hours. Good looking out.”
“Yo,” I said to him before he left. “You keep your eyes open and be careful. I got a weird feeling about this.”
“Yeah, so do I.”