Authors: J. C. Gatlin
13
Guess
Who’s Coming
To
Dinner
Kim
arrived at
Greico's
Italian restaurant promptly at
eight, looking hot in chiffon and high heels. Pausing at the hostess station,
she was surprised when the maitre d' exclaimed, “We've been expecting you!”
Taking
her coat, he
lead
Kim to a table for two.
“Your
party will be joining you shortly,” he said, watching her. Kim stared at the
table; a look of disappointment marred her face.
Where was Ross?
She
turned her head, searching the restaurant. The maitre d' leaned toward her. “Is
something wrong, ma'am?”
“No,” she
said, smiling graciously at him and sitting in the seat pushed out for her. A
hundred memories flashed through her head as she remembered the night she and
Ross had first sat at this exact table. It was eerie. “You said my party will
be joining me shortly.”
“Yes, ma'am.
He asked
that you forgive his lateness and said that he was unavoidably detained.”
“He did?”
Kim thought about that for a moment.
Unavoidably detained
, she thought
then asked, “Who made the reservations? Was his name Ross McGuire?”
The
waiter looked baffled. “I would have to check, ma'am.
If you
could be so good as to wait.”
Kim
agreed and ordered one martini and a Shock Top Belgian White on draft; she knew
what Ross drank. Glancing at her watch, then at the crowded tables around her,
Kim wondered when he would arrive. And when he did, would he be angry and loud
or quiet and pouting? Would he be apologetic and sincere and plead with her not
to shove him out of her life?
She
imagined him gasping when he laid eyes upon her, falling to one knee, and
taking her hand in his. Slipping his other into his dinner jacket, he would
remove the lost engagement ring and show it to her. With tear stained eyes, he
would place the ring on her finger before reciting another beautiful love poem.
Kim laughed
at this. Ross would never wear a dinner jacket.
Flushed,
her heart fluttering, she looked at the faces sitting at the bar toward the
back of the restaurant. There was no sign of him there.
Or anywhere.
Now she
wondered if he was even going to show.
Why was he hiding? Why was he doing
this?
Watching the people around her talk and eat and drink, Kim studied
each face, determined to find him. She watched the dark corners of the
restaurant, as if he would slip out from the shadows to greet her.
Her
drinks arrived, and she waited.
There was
a quiet music coming through the intercom system. Kim hadn't really noticed it,
until she noticed the song that was playing. The waiter passed by the table again
and she flagged him down.
“I was
waiting for you to tell me who made these reservations.”
“Why
ma'am, I'm sorry.” He looked embarrassed, and handed her an envelope. “He said
he was your grandfather.”
“My grandfather?”
Kim
wasn't expecting that and ripped the envelope open. It was another handwritten
note. She read it and shuddered.
“For my Darling Bonnie.
You will always be my angel. Love, Daddy.”
Kim
dropped the note as her stomach turned. She looked back up at the waiter. “He
said he was my grandfather? Where is he?”
“It was
an older gentleman.” The waiter looked across the crowded room and pointed. “Over
there by the bar.”
Grabbing
her purse, she scanned the room. Toward the back of the restaurant, there was a
young man.
A college student.
His
face partly hidden behind a couple laughing and sipping margaritas.
Their eyes locked. His black bangs fell into his face, and he raised a hand to
flip a strand of hair out behind his left ear.
“Michael?”
It was hard to tell. His face looked blurry in the crowded restaurant's dim
light and smoky atmosphere.
“Michael!”
she called out.
A waiter
balancing drinks moved in front of her and a group of sorority girls chattering
and squealing, insisting none of them had too much to drink, surrounded her as
they tried to make their way to the door. Kim struggled to push her way through
the crowd, struggling to keep her eyes on the blurry face.
Anxiously,
she made it to the bar. But her classmate was gone, if he was ever actually
there at all. She wasn't sure. The couple sipping margaritas looked up at her.
“Did you
see the man sitting behind you?” she asked them.
Their
heads turned and they glanced at the empty bar stool. Apologetically, they
frowned at her. Frantically searching the crowded restaurant,
then
sighing, Kim stepped away from the table and made her
way toward the entrance. She walked through the dimly lit parking lot, glancing
behind her.
There was
no one there.
* * * * *
* *
Kim came
home that night feeling dejected.
Again,
she read the handwritten note from the restaurant. It definitely was not from
her
Grampa
. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Was it
Michael all along who was calling her, reading the Pablo Neruda poetry? Did he
give her the book?
She had seen him that afternoon she
needed Mallory to pick-up Zeus at the campus. He was sitting on the bench next
to her books, where she left them for a few minutes to meet Mallory at her car.
He could have slipped the poetry book among her text books at that time.
But why?
Alone,
she looked at her dark living room. The shrink had been standing there a few
hours ago.
Stepping
upstairs to the bedroom loft, she let Zeus out of the bathroom. He greeted her
as she moved to the bed and turned down the sheets. She slipped out of the
chiffon dress. It dropped to the floor in a heap of fabric around her feet. Kim
stepped out of it and left it there on the floor.
Ignoring
Zeus, she found the poetry book lying on the night stand. She picked it up and
read the inscription.
“For my Darling Bonnie.
You will always be my angel. Love, Daddy.”
Staring at the cursive
handwriting, something else caught her eye. She turned her head.
On the
night stand, sitting where the book had lain just a moment ago, where Dr. Alec
Whitman had been intrusively standing just a few hours ago, was something
shiny.
Very small.
Very bright.
Kim
leaned closer, peering at it. She blinked, not believing what she saw.
The
Solitaire diamond ring with the two-tone band
lay
on
top the nightstand. The little diamond actually sparkled, reflecting moonlight
shining down from the overhead skylight.
Startled,
she stepped back. She didn’t breath. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.
Was
she really seeing what she thought she was seeing? Was her engagement ring
really sitting there?
She had to be dreaming.
The phone
rang downstairs, bringing her out of the trance.
It rang
again.
She
bolted down the spiral steps. Zeus followed. Looking behind her toward the
recliner and the end table it rested on, she watched the ringing phone,
wondering if she really wanted to answer it.
She
started to reach for it,
then
drew back.
It rang
again.
She
picked up the receiver and slowly brought it to her ear. “Hello…”
Static
crackled on the other end,
then
a man whispered her
name. Kim sat up, almost dropping the phone.
Clearly,
it wasn’t Ross’ voice.
Why had she thought it was all this time?
Perhaps
she had simply chosen to ignore her better judgment, to fool herself into
believing Ross was reaching out to her, like he had done time and time again in
the past. But this voice sounded nothing like Ross’ voice.
The
caller continued, quietly reading ‘If You Forget Me.’ When he finished, Kim’s
eyes dropped to the floor.
“Who is
this?” Her voice trembled. He remained on the line, static filling their
momentary silence. “Who are you?” she asked again.
There was
no answer.
“Did you
have my engagement ring?”
Silence.
“How did
you get in my house?”
There was
a breath of reply, but no words. Static crackled in her ear again,
then
the voice was an articulate vigor.
“
If you forget me
There is something I want you to
know.”
The line
clicked. The caller was gone. Kim hung up the phone, questioning it all.
Questioning
herself
.
Fear and
anger knotted inside her as she picked the phone back up. She wanted to call
Mallory, but remembered that she was still out with the baseball player.
Her hands
trembling, she dialed 911.
It took
20 minutes for the police officer to knock on her door. Holding Zeus back, she
told him what happened.
“So no
one broke in,” he confirmed. His voice was deep and comforting, but he made it
clear that he was irritated to have to fill out another report.
“No,” Kim
replied. “It wasn’t a break in.”
“So
nothing was stolen? You checked.”
“Well,
no. Nothing is out of place but the engagement ring, you see...”
He cut
her off before she could finish. “So you found an engagement ring you lost five
weeks ago?”
Frustrated,
Kim asked him to listen. She told him about Ross’ disappearance and the
mysterious notes, about the phone calls and the dinner engagement at
Greico’s
Italian Restaurant. And the odd boy with wavy
black hair from her literature class who was watching her there and often
stared at her in class. Then she told him about Addison spying on her neighbor
and possibly having a key to her home, and the shrink with a bad dye job and
cases of unstable patients who repeatedly caused him to stand her up over the
last couple of weeks.
If the
officer wrote any of this down, Kim couldn't tell. His pen didn’t move across
his notepad as much as she would’ve liked. Still he offered to check the
windows, peek into the small bedroom closet and look under the bed. Zeus
followed him around the townhouse with his ears perked up, checking each nook
and cranny immediately after the officer.
When he
finished, the officer sighed and hesitated at the front door.
“So you found an engagement ring you
lost five weeks ago.” His voice was courteous but patronizing. “You should keep
your doors locked.”
14
Death
Comes Calling
Saturday,
January 15, 2000
8:12 AM
“Missy, I
wanted you to change the locks the minute Ross ran out of here,” the landlord
said later that morning, trying to be heard over Zeus' incessant barking. Kim
grabbed him by the collar and held him back.
“I'm
serious about that no pets clause,” he said, his face partially hidden beneath
his weathered straw hat. He was wearing the same old overalls he always wore,
day in and day out. Zeus snapped at him and Kim apologized, gripping her dog.
“Let me
just get him out of here,” she said. “I'll take him over to Mallory's.”
Moving
past him and out the door, she pulled Zeus onto the front porch and toward the
sidewalk.
He barked
and howled, struggling against his leash to turn and look at the landlord
kneeling at the front door behind them. Kim wondered what the neighbors must
think.
She
headed over to Mallory's next door, when she noticed the BMW parked near the
garbage bin. It was running, facing their building. There was someone inside,
watching.
“Addison,”
she said. Her eyes focused on the man behind the steering wheel. Dragging Zeus
by his leash, she stepped off the sidewalk toward the BMW.
It rolled
forward,
then
moved through the parking lot. Kim
screamed and ran after it. Startled by the sudden yank, Zeus turned and ran
with her.
“Addison,”
she yelled. “Addison, stop.”
The
freshly-waxed car with tinted windows inched forward. Its engine revved then it
rolled to the security gates. When they opened, it raced out and down the
street. Kim ran to the gates as they closed and watched the car disappear.
Pausing,
she was certain it was Addison's BMW. He had been watching them, again. Then
she turned and dragged Zeus back to the curb. A moment later, she was pounding
on Mallory's door.
Her front
door opened and Mallory poked her head outside. Her hair was a tangle of red,
and a blue blanket wrapped loosely around her bare shoulders.
“What is
it?” she asked.
“We need
to talk.” Kim pushed the door open and entered the living room. Clothes were
strewn across the floor, and she noticed a black and white striped baseball
jersey draped across the couch. A pair of cleats lay at the bottom of the
spiral staircase.
She
looked at Mallory.
Mallory
pushed Kim back toward the doorway. “Do you ever stop to think about what’s
happening to others before you come barging in?”
“Mal,
listen to me…” Kim pushed back against her friend. Mallory struggled to hold up
the blanket as she leaned into Kim, forcing her to take another step back. Kim
held up her arms, blocking her. “Would you listen to me? Just listen.”
Mallory
shook her head and grabbed Kim’s arm. “Now isn’t a good time for your drama. I
have company.”
“Mal,
listen. Does Addison have a key to your townhome?”
“Of course not.
Why?”
Kim
leaned forward. “Do you have my spare key?”
“What?”
“Where’s
my spare key?” She raised her hand, pointed a finger. “You have a key. Where is
it?”
Mallory
gestured toward the door,
then
paused. The key hook
was empty. “They're... It's gone.”
“What?”
“My spare key ring.
It's gone.”
“So
Addison has it.”
“I don't
know. Why would he…”
Kim interrupted
her. “If Addison has a key to your house, then he has a key to my house.”
“What are
you getting at?”
Kim
paused, collecting her thoughts, then continued. “Addison is watching you.” she
said, breaking free of Mallory’s vice grip on her arm. “Addison is watching us.”
“What?”
Mallory sounded curt, evidence that she was not amused. “He's out of town.”
“No, he’s
not.” Kim glanced at the jersey again. “I just saw him outside sitting in his
BMW.”
“You’re
being paranoid.” Mallory turned her back, dismissing her. Kim started to
protest but Mallory seemed bent on changing the subject.
“Besides,
I’ve got something to show you.” Gushing, Mallory ran over to the couch. She
picked up a baseball bat and held it up to show Kim. He had autographed it in
black marker. “Look what
Gunz
gave me!”
“Mal,
you're not listening to me.”
“It's the
bat from his home run the other day,” Mallory continued. “And let me tell you,
Kim. This bat
here,
isn't the biggest bat he's got.”
Kim
grabbed the bat from her hands and threw it on the floor. “You’re not listening
to me, Mal. Addison was just here, and I think he may have been at
Greico's
when I was waiting for Ross. The waiter said my
grandfather was there.”
“What
exactly are you trying to say?” Mallory crossed her arms as the corner of her
mouth twisted with exasperation. “And say it quietly so that
you
don’t
wake-up the
Gunz
.
We had a late night last night.”
“What I’m
saying,
exactly
, is that Addison is spying on us. Something is wrong,
really wrong and I called the police...”
“You
called the police?” Mallory shot a throaty laugh, clearly to cover her
annoyance.
“Would
you listen to yourself? What I hear you saying is that Addison cares about me.”
“Then why
is he spying on me? Why was he at the restaurant last night and why did he tell
the waiter that he was my grandfather?”
“You're
getting all melodramatic again.”
Mallory's
chiding tone angered her, and Kim cut her off.
“The shrink,
er
, the doctor, Alec Whitman, he
said that Addison has a past of stalking some ex-girlfriend. He genuinely made
her life a living hell.”
“What's
your point?”
“My point
is that everything that's going on, everything that I thought was Ross, I think
Addison is involved,” Kim insisted, moving her hands to further illustrate the
point. “If he was at the restaurant like the waiter...”
“I can't
believe we're having this conversation again.”
The expression
on Mallory's face bordered on mockery.
“Strange phone calls.
Strange notes.
Exploding garbage
disposals.
It doesn't end with you, and now you're trying to draw my
Pudd'n
Toes into the middle of it.”
“He found
my engagement ring.” Kim removed the diamond ring from her pocket. She held it
up.
“What?”
Mallory's eyes widened and she reached for it. Kim drew back.
“He set
it on the nightstand next to my bed,” Kim said, “like a display or something.”
“Your ring?”
Mallory
couldn't take her eyes off it.
“But why?”
“Because he’s lying to us.”
Kim closed her fist, hiding the ring. She returned it to
her pocket.
“He’s not stable. You need
to cut him out of your life.
Out of our lives.”
“You
can’t tell me who to see and not to see.” Mallory stepped closer to Kim, her
whole demeanor was growing in severity.
“Especially after I
tried for years to get you to cut Ross out of your life.
“But
you’re dating a man that is affecting us both. A true friend would not put her
best friend in jeopardy over a man.”
“Don’t
tell me how to be friend.” Sudden anger lit her eyes. “I’ve been a friend
through this whole circus you call a life. I’m the only friend you’ve got.”
“You are
not the only friend I’ve got, Mallory
Astin
. In fact,
I’ve lost a lot of people lately, and you're making it very easy right now to
cut one more person out of my life.”
“Oh that
does it!” Her temper flared and Mallory leaned in
toward's
Kim's face. She spat out the words contemptuously. “Get out of my house!”
Mallory
pushed Kim backwards toward the door. Kim resisted as Zeus barked and snapped
at her.
Struggling
to keep the blanket wrapped around her midsection, Mallory screamed at the dog,
igniting him into a spasm of barks. Kim gripped his collar and held him back as
she stepped backwards out onto the porch.
“Fine.”
Kim shot
her a hostile glare.
Mallory
slammed the door shut.
She
stared at it a moment, then looked down at Zeus. He cocked his head, watching
her. Kim looked back at the door as her gray eyes darkened like angry
thunderclouds. Curses fell from her mouth. Tugging on his leash, she marched
Zeus back to the sidewalk and around to her home next door.
The
landlord was still installing the locks and he looked puzzled when Kim and Zeus
raged inside.
She
grabbed the edge of the front door, knocking his tools out the way and slammed
it shut.
Zeus
whimpered and then ran up the spiral staircase. She watched the dog disappear
upstairs then turned to the landlord. He looked puzzled, not sure what to say.
She frowned at him, leaning against the door.
“Did you
and Mallory have words?” he asked, picking up a yellow and black powered drill
from the floor. There were several parts and pieces of locks scattered around
the threshold. Kim noticed this, ignoring his question, and instead focused on
the door.
“How many
locks are you installing?” she asked him. The landlord had cut five holes in
the door and installed three deadbolts, with two more to go.
“You
can’t be too safe around here,” he said to her, holding up the drill. Removing
his straw hat, he wiped the sweat from his brow. He then replaced the hat and
smiled at her. “Mallory’s a hot head. I’m sure you’ll make up.”
Kim shook
her head.
“Not this
time.” She folded her arms across her chest and turned away. “Mallory thinks of
no one but herself. She is the most selfish, self-indulgent, egotistical…”
A knock
at the door interrupted her. Startled, Kim jumped. Zeus barked and scrambled
out the bedroom loft and down the spiral staircase. Kim saw him and grabbed him
by the collar as he rushed past.
“If
that’s Mallory, I don’t want to talk to her,” she said, holding back her dog.
She glared at the landlord beside the door. “You tell her I’m not accepting her
apology so she can just turn herself right back around.”
As if
getting a chuckle out of her theatrics, and like any true southern gentleman
would, he approached the front door and opened it. Surprised, he stepped back
and opened the door wider.
Kim was
about to tell Mallory a few choice words but hesitated when she saw who was at
the door. Staring at two uniformed police officers standing on her front porch,
Kim took a couple hesitant steps forward. Zeus barked at them.
“Excuse,
Miss Bradford?” the taller one said.
Kim
froze. Her heart pounded in her chest. “Yes?”
“Are you
Kimberly Bradford?” the taller officer asked. Kim glanced at the landlord.
“Yes.
What can we do for you, officer?” she asked, stepping forward. She held her dog
back.
“Miss
Bradford,” he said, looking directly at Kim. “I'm afraid we have some bad news.”
“What is
it?”
“It's
Ross McGuire. A patrol car found his body.”
Kim was
speechless. “What?”
“Ross
McGuire is dead,” the officer clarified.
“And
we're going to need you to identify the body.”
“Ross?”
The word stuck in her throat. Her heart stopped. She wasn’t sure if she was
hearing them correctly.
“Five
weeks, five days and five hours.” Her voice caught in her throat. Her head spun
round. She thought she was going to be sick. She looked back at the police
officer. “Five weeks, five days and five hours.”
"Miss
Bradford,” the officer said again. "We need you to come with us.”