Authors: Cheri Lewis
“How do you think he knew? I mean how did he get this all orchestrated so fast?”
He runs a hand through his hair then places both on his hips, “There’s a good chance this was just pure luck it happened today. I haven’t heard back from Ambrose or Alex yet. They are questioning the delivery guy, and being on the other side of the table from those two is one position I don’t ever want to be in. If he knows anything, we’ll know shortly.”
I grab a pillow and pull it into my lap as my fingers mindlessly play with the fabric of the pillowcase. “I have another question.”
“I figured you might.”
“What makes Ambrose and Alexander so special? Well, besides their size? I mean they install cameras right?”
He starts to respond when his phone chirps; he pulls it out of his pocket and checks it. “McKinsey?” my mother calls from the other room.
“Yeah?”
“Yes ma’am,” she reminds me and I roll my eyes at Tank who has a half smirk on his face, “Let’s eat, honey. I’ve got the garlic bread in the oven.”
“Okay, we’ll be there in a minute,” I yell.
He shoves his phone back into his pocket. “I’m going to go back to my house. Text me when you’re leaving so I’ll know you’re on your way.”
My eyes get wide and my heart dips a little at the thought of being here alone for supper with my parents. “Oh no, you’re not. You’re seeing this through. You’re not leaving me here alone.”
“You’re safe. Peacock is out front. I told you, you’ll have eyes on you at all times.”
“What is it with you guys and weird names? And you’re staying for dinner. You’re saving me from my mother. You can add it to my already mounting bill.”
He rubs the back of his neck and opens his mouth to object. I jump off the bed and run the few steps to him. I cover his mouth with my hand and shake my head as I say, “You work for me.” I plead with my eyes too as I say, “I need this, really… really… bad. Please.”
He pulls my hand away and he stares at me for a long time. Long enough for me to realize we are really close to one another and neither one of us seems to mind it. When he still doesn’t speak, I start to feel a little self-conscious. I can tell he’s waging some sort of internal battle and I finally decide to just let him go home when he says, “I could eat something.” But it comes out more of a questionable statement and my sarcastic side wants to ask him, “Could you? Could you eat something?” But then I’m also relieved he’s staying but I am curious to know what the big deal is about eating supper with us.
I wonder if it was her comment about fattening him up.
The troubled look on his face intensifies and I begin to feel really bad about pressuring him to stay. I reach out and touch his arm, “Hey Tank, it’s okay. Like you said, I have somebody outside. You can go on. I can handle my mother.”
“Handle me for what dear?” my mother’s impeccable timing as usual makes me jump.
Tank doesn’t miss a beat. “She just wants me here to make sure you and Mr. Morrow are okay.”
My mother smiles at me and now I feel even guiltier for making him stay, and the huge lie that Tank just told, although I was thankful for that same lie.
She totally believed him
.
“Well come on. It’s ready,” she said as she turns and walks back down the hallway.
I open my mouth but Tank has already turned to follow her. So I close it and follow him to the doomed discussion of McKinsey’s life over the dinner table. Of course with my mother it somehow morphs into my love life or lack of love life becoming the main subject but it didn’t turn out too bad. She only brings up how single I am four times and that’s really good for her.
****
The rest of my week goes without any more scares. I don’t think I could’ve handled more on top of the awkward moments. First, my parents show up at Tank’s. My mother brings groceries and plastic containers of food and the freezer is now full of different homemade microwavable dinners. And my daddy brought me a gun. I’m not sure what kind or where it came from but when I see the shimmering awe in Tank's eyes I know he’s impressed. Tank takes the gun and promises my dad he will teach me how to use it correctly and safely.
Of course I have to give my parents a tour of the basement and where I’m sleeping. I get the “I don’t believe you” evil eye when my mother asks me where Tank sleeps; I really don’t know the answer. I’ve always assumed he has a bedroom somewhere upstairs and honestly it never occurred to me to ask him but I know for a fact it isn't with me. I hadn’t been with anybody in a long while, a long while. I blow out a breath at that sad thought.
My parents leave after they hug me at least sixty times and my mother hugs Tank right before she walks out the door. Of course she is fine with it, that’s my mom the hugger, but Tank looks so shocked and uncomfortable I wince for him.
The next day after work I walk into Tank’s office to be introduced to a woman who just stopped by to “check on Tank,” and she immediately gives me the bitch stare down. But what she doesn’t realize is my best friend is the king of the bitch stare down and he has taught me well. I instantly hate her. She has this annoying, cute only to her, baby voice and fake giggle that drives me insane. She wears thick cherry-red shiny lip gloss which doesn’t match her skin tone at all; it is like she drank red Kool-Aid and then smeared Vaseline on top. She twirls her fake brunette hair extensions as she leans over the corner of Tank's desk, trying her hardest to get him to notice her dime store purchased boobs. Yeah, it’s safe to say I don’t like her at all. I can smell trouble on her a mile away. There’s just something about her. Tank doesn’t need her. He definitely deserves better.
I hesitate when I see them together, though I have a funny rush of mixed feelings come across me.
Maybe this is his girlfriend
. A twinge of jealously hits my heart.
Maybe I should leave
. “Hey, I just stopped in to tell you I was here, I’ll let you visit with your, err, company.” I say quickly.
Tank looks up from the file he has been studying. “McKinsey don’t leave.” I try hard to smother the smug smile when the look of surprise rolls across Super Slut's face. “I need to talk to you about your case real quick. Chrissy was about to leave.”
“Oh… okay.” I feel a little sick on my stomach,
Yep totally a hooker. Okay what in the hell is wrong with me? He can have a girlfriend or a hooker or whatever he wants, but why her? Ugh.
Super Slut closes the distance between herself and Tank and gives him a hug. It shocks me when she “accidently” rubs side boob on his head when she hugs him.
How do you accidently side boob somebody?
I frown when her baby voice speaks again, “Okay Tatum, if you need anything you know my number. Hey, how about calling mom and dad sometime soon? They’d love to hear from you.”
Mom and dad? Is this his sister? What kind of screwed up mess is that? Surely not, no wait he said his dad left him this place when he died…
Tank clears his throat and looks up at her and I see that look again, the look of a broken man.
Who was this girl?
He nods without saying a word. She leans in and kisses his cheek leaving a blob of goo where her lips touch him. I immediately open my purse and pull out my hand sanitizer and a Kleenex and offer it to Tank. “It will wipe the lip gloss easier,” I say as I point to my cheek showing him where he needs to wipe.
“Bitch,” she whispers under her breath as she walks out of the office.
Ha! Takes one to know one.
Surprisingly, Tank doesn’t seem to notice our territorial standoff.
I knew he wasn’t mine but that girl needs to sink her claws into someone else.
After he’s done he hands me back the hand sanitizer and I can’t stand it any longer I have to know. “Who was that?”
“Christine.”
I roll my eyes at his short answer that doesn’t explain anything. “Is she your sister?” I ask even though I know it can’t be but I’m fishing for answers.
“No, I’m an only child.”
“Oh, okay, the whole 'call mom and dad' is why I asked.” I lie.
He looks back down at the file and quietly states with sadness, “She’s my sister-in-law… well… she was.”
“Oh,” is the only thing I can think to say. I mean how do I respond to that? But I do know this whoever she is, or was, I still don’t like her, at all.
He stares at me a second then looks back down after he asks, “Hey, do you know a Julian Boker?”
Ugh this is when Jessie would come in handy he never forgets a face or a name.
“No. Should I?”
He closes the file then folds his hands on top of it. “They found somebody had hacked into your computer, Facebook, email, cell phone. All of it, even your work computer has been compromised. This means he’s had access to your credit card information but he hasn’t done anything with the information. So it was strictly to gain knowledge about you.”
I feel a lump form in my throat, and my heart aches with fear. “Do you think it’s him? The black rose guy?”
He shrugs. “Possibly.”
That means they know who the killer is and can go arrest him, I smile a hopeful smile as I say, “So this means you can get him, go find him now?”
He nods. “I can do you one better. We’ve already got him.”
I wonder if I’d recognize him. “Can I see him? I mean do you have a picture in case I’ve seen him around?”
Tank rubs his hand over his chin several times, like he’s playing with the beard that used to be there. He then nods, stands from his desk, and jerks his head indicating for me to follow. We go further down the hallway to a set of stairs I’ve never seen before. I follow behind him and when we reach the top and step into a long hallway with doors on both sides and I say, “This must be the office building part of your dad's business.”
“Yeah, at one time he was the leading contractor in the tri-state area,” he beams with pride.
I don’t have time to respond as he stops abruptly at the next to the last door on the left. He turns around to face me. “He won’t be able to see you through the glass.”
“He’s here!?” I yell too loud in shock.
“Yes, I told you he’s being questioned.”
“Why isn’t he at the police station?”
He sighs. “If it’s him, he’ll be there shortly. We just need to make sure.”
I nod my head in understanding even though I don’t understand, and nothing could’ve prepared me for what I was about to see.
Tank opens the door directly to our left and walks inside. It’s a smaller room that is dimly lit. There is a large window that is blacked out. A small table sits in the middle of the room with two metal chairs pushed up underneath it. There are open soda cans and protein bar wrappers on the table.
Tank walks to the blacked out window and pushes a button on the wall. The window turns transparent and there sits a wormy young kid with glasses at a table just like the one in the room I’m in and he looks terrified. His navy blue t-shirt has a sweat ring around his neck, and it’s apparent he’s been crying. I walk closer to the window; I don’t recognize him at all, not a thread of familiarity. I thought maybe I might know his brother or sister but I don’t. I jump when Alexander appears in front of the window, his back is toward us. He slaps a pad of paper on the table with a loud whack! I look up at Tank. “Why— why are the walls padded?”
“It also serves as a holding room; do you recognize him?”
I can’t take my eyes away from the boy sitting in the room. “No, I don’t know him. He can’t be more than fifteen, he’s a child.”
“He’s nineteen. And are you sure you don’t know him?”
“No I don’t know him. He’s terrified.”
Tank clicks the button and the window goes black in front of my face, I reach out to hit the button. Tank gently grabs my hand. “McKinsey, we’re not going to hurt him, but he knows something. He was the one who accessed your information. It might have gone to the highest bidder but he has a way of tracking where the payment money came from and who lies on the other end of that transaction.”
I pull my hand away. “All I asked was to see a picture of him. Not somebody being scared to death.”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I didn’t have a picture of him.”
“Alexander could have taken a picture and sent it to you on your phone,” I say as I turn and walk back out into the hallway and I don’t stop until I make it all the way downstairs to the basement then sit on the bottom step of the stairway.
I know Tank is behind me without even looking. “Why do you have a torture chamber like that anyway at an old construction company office? It makes no sense.”
He comes and sits beside me. “That room serves multiple purposes.”
“You know what, never mind. You said he wasn’t going to hurt the kid and he’ll find out what he knows. I don’t want to know anymore.”
Tank’s phone chimes. He leans back to pull it from his pocket. “I need to get back upstairs. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m peachy,” I say with a little too much sarcasm.
He stands and then reaches his hand out to me. I don’t take it, I look down at the worn carpet in front of me. He squats down and we are face to face. “Look McKinsey, I know that was a bit of a shock back there but you came to me to do a job. I know it feels like it’s gotten out of hand but I swear to you, we are going to solve this and you’re going to go back to your life of hanging out with your friend and getting your nails done and fighting with your mother, okay? You just have to let us do our job the way we know how.”