Chapter 2
Jacklyn Wagner was still working on the project when the janitor came in to empty her trash. He just shook his head and said nothing as she leaned back to let him have the full can. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out the big bag she’d put there after lunch, and grinned when Max Rogers took it from her. The man was probably the nicest person working there, and she loved spoiling him.
“My wife makes me this perfect meal and I been taking it without a word. Do you know what you’re doing to me? I have to tell her what a wonderful sandwich it is and I ain’t bit into one of them for over six months. Not to mention you’re making me a little fat.” He sat down at the little table in her office and opened the bag. “Oh my. Roast beef and Swiss. Jack, you know this is my favorite.”
She laughed. “Max, they’re all your favorite. And you know that I love you with all my heart. I love the fact that you keep an eye on me. I’m still paying you for saving my ass last year.” He waved her off as he took a healthy bite of the sandwich and moaned. “Good, huh?”
“The best. And I didn’t do nothing you or about a million other people wouldn’t have done. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I happened to be in the right one. You have to stop spending your hard earned money on me.”
Jack thought she had spent her entire life in the wrong place and wrong time but said nothing to Max. She was just grateful that he’d been there for her. And contrary to what he thought, not many people would have come to her rescue.
She’d been going out to her car, the piece of shit that it was, when someone had grabbed her from behind. Jack had been turned so quickly that she’d dropped her bag and her keys. But she fought back. When he’d hit her in the face with something hard she’d seen stars, but she didn’t stop fighting him as he ripped her blouse open. The moment she realized she was going to be raped, Max had shouted. The man told him to get the fuck out of there.
“Ain’t no business of yours. This is between me and the bitch here.” The man slammed her head against her car and told her to shut the fuck up and she might live until he was finished, then tore her clothing off her so that she stood there in only her bra and panties. Then he snapped her arm against the car and she felt it break. Her scream had him cursing and telling her she was going to be dead if she didn’t shut the fuck up. She nearly threw up when Max tore him from her before he could make due on his threat. Jack still shivered every time she thought about what she’d seen.
“You okay?” She nodded at him and looked at the drawing in front of her. “You work too hard, you know that, don’t you? There is no job worth spending your every waking hour on. I bet they don’t even pay you a lot to be here right now. If they pay you at all for working after they close up.”
“They don’t. And you’re right. I’m on my own time on this one. And I have to work this hard if I want to have a place to lay my head at night.” Max shook his head and bit into the sandwich again. “Max, can I ask you something?”
“You know you can. But if you’re going to ask me again about that night, I’m going to tell you the same as I did before. You hit your head, child. There was no big animal there when that man tried to take what you weren’t offering.”
Jack nodded, not really believing him. She knew what she’d seen. The big gray wolf had been snapping his teeth at the would-be rapist until he left. And Max was nowhere to be found. Not, at least, until the police had arrived. She had wondered for weeks after if she’d really hit her head that hard, or had the man sitting before her all prim and proper like shifted into a big wolf.
She’d gotten fifty-three stitches and had had to wear a sling on her arm for a month from the broken wrist. Her boss had not been happy about her being on pain meds, so she’d had to suffer through it after the first day or so in order to keep her job. She looked down at the scar on her arm that was a constant reminder of how not to be a victim. Max asked her what she had wanted.
“I was wondering if you’d heard from your son lately. You said he was getting a new boss. I was wondering how that was working for him.” It wasn’t what she was going to ask him and she was pretty sure he knew it. As he told her about the new boss and his wife, she sort of zoned out until he mentioned Sommersville.
“My brother lives there.” He looked surprised. “He moved there right after Mom died. I think it was to get away from Dad, but he said things are starting to look good in the town. He has a new boss too. I have no idea what he does, however. I’ve not spoken to him in a good long time.”
“What’s his name? Maybe Dan knows him.” She smiled and told him Allen Wagner. “Well, hell yeah he knows him. Did you know that your brother works for the mayor? He’s a good boy, your brother. I met him the last time I was there visiting. I’ll have to tell him I know you the next time I go there.”
She nodded, and a few minutes later Max moved on with his cart. Jack sat staring at the campaign she’d been assigned and wondered how the hell she was supposed to make this work. How did one make adult diapers sexy? When nothing came to mind, she thought of her brother.
Allen was younger than her by only seventeen months. They’d been the best of friends when they were smaller. Then when their mom had gotten sick, he’d turned into this jerk. She supposed it had something to do with the fact that her mom had always spoiled Allen. He’d been her little boy, and she had simply been Jack. And the nonsense of little girls being loved by their daddies had never been true about her and her father. He’d been a bastard when she was little, and hadn’t changed much when she’d gotten older. But Allen had…Allen had been Allen. He’d turned to alcohol first, then drugs. By the time she’d left home, he’d been arrested more times than she’d been out, and she’d had enough.
Right after she’d been called home seven years ago to “deal with him,” she found out that their mom was sick. Cancer had taken its toll on her and she’d never said a word to anyone. By the time Jack had found out, it was much too late for the former beauty queen, and she died as quietly as she’d lived as Allen Wagner Senior’s wife. And Allen, the son, had taken it very badly.
She supposed it had not helped matters when she’d left him in jail the last time he’d called her for bail money. Jack had bailed him out so many times that she was sick of doing it. Dad had told her she should have more compassion for Allen, as he’d lost his mom, but when she explained to him it was her mom too, he’d slapped her and told her not to be disrespectful of the dead. That was the last straw, and she’d left them both to deal on their own.
Then about four years ago she’d gotten a post card from Allen telling her where he was living, and asking if she’d come to see him. The post cards kept coming…she’d read them, of course, but she never responded to them. She wasn’t going to be pulled back into that life. Not now, not ever again.
Jack reached into her bottom drawer and pulled out the small shoe box. Inside it was every one of the cards he’d sent her over the years in the order that she’d received them, including the first one that she’d had to dig out of the trash. She took the last one she’d gotten two days ago and read it again.
I’m doing well and have a new boss. He’s really nice and seems to be trustworthy. I’ve yet to tell him about my arrest a few years back. I’m just hoping he will not fire me. Christmas is in a few weeks and I’m hoping you’ll make your way to come out to see me. I miss you. Allen.
There were times when she missed him as well. Putting the card back into the little box, she closed it and got back to work. Thinking over what might have been was not going to keep her in a job.
It was nearly five in the morning when she had done all she could with the advertisement. She wasn’t happy with it and doubted that her boss would be either. Why he’d take on such a small client was beyond her, and especially one that was going to get sued soon when someone saw the packaging he was using. The thing looked just like the national brand all the way down to the color of it. Jack was even sure the name was stretching it a bit. The only difference was the s on the end had an apostrophe.
As she rushed home to get a change of clothes, she thought of all the things she had to do this weekend…laundry, dusting, and catching up on some much needed sleep. But as she neared her apartment she began to worry. There were a great many cops on her street, as well as a lot of her neighbors standing outside of their homes in their robes and slippers. Plus there were news crews everywhere. And then she saw the smoke.
Parking her car in the middle of the street, she got out and rushed to the building. She had to see if she could save something. Everything she had, everything she’d ever owned, was in that burning building.
No one tried to stop her as she moved into the smoking inferno, and she had started up to the third flight of stairs when she nearly fell over the body of one of the firemen on the stairs. He was lying there unconscious, with blood on his shirt. Jack looked up the stairs where her things were and back at the man. She shook her head, grabbed him by the shoulders, and pulled him down the stairs as best she could. The man had to weigh a ton, she thought. But she pulled and pulled until she got him to the bottom set of stairs.
Her body was hurting by the time she got to the last landing. She tried her best to cover her face from the smoke, but it was getting the better of her. As she started down the last few steps to fresh air, she started to feel dizzy. Sitting down, she tried to think how to get out without leaving him behind. Then there was a shadowy figure coming up the stairs.
“I think he fell.” The big fireman had on a mask and goggles so she couldn’t see his face, but he nodded and asked her something, which she could hardly hear over the roaring in her head. When she asked him to repeat himself, she felt herself being lifted up and thrown over his massive shoulder. The fireman that she’d been pulling was left behind. Jack started to struggle against the man holding her.
“You have to go back and get him.” He said something else, and Jack kicked him. He dropped her and she sat there stunned for several seconds as the air came back into her lungs. It didn’t help. It was hot and painful. Her lungs felt on fire from it and all the smoke. The fireman reached for her again, and she crawled to the fallen man.
“You can pull me and I’ll hold onto him. I’m not going to leave him here to burn up.” He said something else, and she grabbed the fireman that she’d named Carl. “You just help me drag him out and then I’ll go with you.”
He finally took the man by the shoulders and lifted him up. When he had him over his shoulder as he’d been carrying her, she held onto his belt when he pointed to it. Jack had to try three times before she could get it into her hand. The thought of just simply lying down was making her sick. When the fireman turned to take them to safety, Jack held on as best she could, but lost her grip and fell. It was the last thing she remembered as her head hit something hard.
~~~
Allen was on hold with the police station. He hated the chief of police more than he did anyone. But the mayor needed some answers, and Allen said he’d get them for him. And if Luke wanted it, he’d damn well get it.
The other line was ringing and Allen was almost afraid to put this one on hold to take it. But when it was answered he turned to look at the door behind him. Luke Emerson was one of the best bosses he’d ever had. Not only did he treat him like a person, but he also listened to his opinions, something no one had ever done before. When the woman he’d been talking to came back on the line, she told him that Chief Granger was too busy to come to the phone, and that he should perhaps call in the morning. He was ready to tell her that this was the fourth time he’d called when Luke came out of his office. He looked…Allen hung up on the woman.
“There’s been an accident.” Allen stood up then sat down. “Do you have a sister named Jacklyn Wagner?”
“Yes. I call her Jack, but that’s her name. Jacklyn Maggie Wagner. She never liked her first name after Dad told her he named her for a dog he’d had as a kid. She said that if anyone called her that again, she’d make the dog look like a kitten.” Allen shut his mouth, just realizing that he was babbling. “Is she…is she dead?”
“No. But she’s hurt badly. They’ve got her in the burn unit at Mercy General in her town. Her apartment building was on fire and they found her in the hall with one of the firefighters. She was apparently trying to rescue him.”
“That would be my sister. She would leap where no others would when she thought someone needed her. She did for me enough. Up until I fucked up so badly that she washed her hands of me. Not that I blame her, but I wished she’d just talk to me.” He closed his mouth again and Luke sat on the edge of his desk. Allen felt as if someone had put a vise on his chest and he couldn’t breathe right.
“They have you as next of kin, and they were asking for you to come to see her. They think the sooner you get there, the better.”
Allen stood up and got his coat. He was just going to the door when he heard Luke say his name. Allen felt the last five years of his life come crashing down on him.
“I have no idea what to do. I can’t help her. I can’t even get to her. I can’t drive. I don’t have a car. I could go on my bike, but I don’t know how I’d get her back here. I suppose she could ride on the handle bars like she used to ride me when we were kids, but that might not work now that she’s bigger. But she hates me. She won’t even return my cards I send her. I think I really fucked up with her. I know I did. She should hate me for all the shit I did to her. I don’t—” He felt his teeth rattle as Luke shook him.