pages 10 and 11

Alex was confused for a second. No one had known that Eve had moved in with Alex when they got engaged.
“Who is this?” he asked.
“This is Anita Phillips, Eve’s grandmother.”
“Mrs. Phillips, why would you think Eve’s been staying with me?”
“Because she didn’t come home last night and the last place she stayed, besides her apartment, which she would definitely not stay at right now, was your house.”
“Was Eve staying with you?”
“Didn’t she tell you?”
“No.”
“Well, serves you right. After what you did. Well, do you know where she is?”
“No. Can I come over there? I need to talk to you.”
“What? Now?”
“Yes, now.”
“Well, I suppose. What is this about?”
“I’ll explain when I get there,” Alex assured her, taking down her address.
Just as Alex was heading out the door, he heard his cell phone ring and realized he’d left it in the pocket of his coat, which was hanging from the back of the chair he’d occupied at the conference table. Heading back into the room, he quickly strode across the room and flipped the phone open.
“Alex Watson,” he said.
“Hello Alex.”
“Sorry, who is this?”
“You don’t recognize my voice Alex? I’m surprised. I thought I’d made more of an impression than that.”
Alex’s stomach dropped as he recognized the grating sound of a voice changer.
“Where is she?” he ground out, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.
“She’s safe. For now.”
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” Alex asked desperately, fumbling to attach the phone to the device that would start taping the call even as he spoke.
“Hey, don’t put this on me pal. It’s your fault. If you didn’t have the unnatural compulsion to meddle in everyone else’s affairs, she wouldn’t be where she is. But you had to meddle in my affairs and turnabout is fair play, my friend.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Karma, Justice, An eye for an eye, whatever you want to call it, Alex.”
“I’m still not following you,” Alex said, his stomach sinking to his feet because he was following him and not liking where he was going.
Ignoring him, the caller continued, “Actually, scales of justice, maintaining the balance between good and evil in the universe, kind of guy you are, maybe you won’t mind so much if she dies.”
At this, Alex sank down into his chair and had to try hard to keep his mind from blocking out the man’s words in self-defense. This was killing him.
“Maybe you won’t mind because it will be even. You can at least rest assured that, if it were not her, it would be another. The loss of life is equal. Why should this be any different from any other case, right?”
At Alex’s silence, he chuckled. “I didn’t think so….Alex, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here, you bastard.”
“Why Alex, I do believe you’re looking at this from completely the wrong point of view. This is out of my hands. Cosmic design and all that.”
“Bullshit,” Alex replied, breathlessly.
“Ah, I see. You still don’t see how this is your doing. Okay, I’ll give you a chance. A chance to tip the scale in your favor. An extra point for good, if you will. I’ll let you try to find her. But when you don’t, you have to admit that this was your doing. Because of your ‘justice for all’ nature, she’s in trouble. Okay, Alex?”
Alex was silent, waiting for the caller to go on.
“Alex I can’t hear you. I said I’d give you a chance to find her in exchange for your agreement to take the blame if she doesn’t. Are we agreed?”
What was this guy talking about? “Yes,” Alex replied anyway.
“Good. You have five days.”
“Wait! Don’t hang up. How do I know you really have her? That she didn’t just go off on a case and forget to check in? She’s done that before you know.” Alex was stalling for time. Maybe he could get this guy to say something that would give him an idea where he was. He needed ten more seconds for the trace to be complete. Alex heard the man on the line sigh.

* * * * * * * * * * *
Eve was lying on the cot with tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She’d yelled until she was horse, but no one could hear her. What was she going to do? Her hands hurt from banging on the door. She was tired, but she didn’t want to face the darkness that was sleep. Not tonight. So she lay awake, not really thinking, but letting her mind flow openly wherever it would take her. She thought of the case she was working on right now and wondered if anyone had noticed she was gone yet. She cursed herself for all the times she’d gone off on an investigation and left the world behind without contacting the station for days at a time. The irony of being something like the boy who cried wolf did not escape her. From there, her thoughts turned to Nana and whether she was worried or not. She guessed she was alarmed, but not actually worried. Nana would assume she’d stayed at a friend’s house or with Alex. A wave of pain still hit her at the thought of Alex. Nana was the only person she’d told when she moved in with him. She had been so happy; she couldn’t keep it to herself. She’d had to tell someone, so she’d told Nana. What a fool her grandmother must have thought her when she came home, not three months later to stay with her.
What had happened? Angie. Eve still felt pain at the thought of her. They’d been friends. She’d actually met Alex through Angie. Well, she’d known who he was because they worked in the same department, but she’d started seeing him when Angie had set them up on a blind double date. She’d never gotten around to thanking her. She’d always planned to have her be a bridesmaid at their wedding. And she’d always been a little jealous. Sometimes Alex and Angie would go out to dinner without her. Alex said they were just great friends, but Eve knew it went deeper than that. Alex and Angie had been pretty serious once, but Angie had broken it off. Alex had sworn that there was nothing between them anymore, but she’d never quite believed him. But she wasn’t one of those jealous, possessive girlfriends and had tried to trust Alex. She loved him. If she’d found out something was going on she would have had to leave him and it would have nearly killed her. So she hadn’t looked too closely. Then Angie had been killed. Alex had broken their engagement two weeks later. When he’d told her, it hadn’t hurt that much. Her heart was already too bruised. Every day since Angie died, she’d seen the pain tearing Alex up and it had hurt her. Every time she saw his pain a picture Alex had on his desk would flash through her mind. It had been taken two years ago when Angie and Alex were dating. They were standing in a park somewhere. Alex had his arms wrapped around Angie’s waist. He looked good in his black running shorts and gray muscle tee. Her arms were wrapped around his neck as she smiled up at him. Her blonde hair gleamed where the bright sunlight filtered through the trees to reflect off of it. Her petite figure pressed against him, all flawless skin and stylish spandex. They both looked in love.
By the time Alex had sat down and told her he wanted to cancel their engagement, she had every detail of that picture branded into her brain. Every time she saw it, it chipped away another piece of her heart. She’d agreed to end their relationship and moved back to her apartment.
Eve squeezed her eyes shut as tears began to coarse more rapidly down her cheeks.
Suddenly, a loud nock came at the door and Eve quickly sat up, wiping the corners of her eyes with the back of her hands. The slot in the door slid open and Eve shot towards the door. Banging and screaming through the slot, she tried to see out it. Suddenly, the green-eyed, ski-masked face appeared in the slot.
“Scream for me, Eve,” he said, holding a cell phone close to the door.
“Help me!” she cried. “Someone please help me!” Her voice broke and she tried again, but he slammed the slot shut again.
She sank to her knees on the floor and cried softly. What was she going to do?

* * * * * * * * * *
“If you hurt her, I swear…I’ll kill you,” Alex said, breathing heavily. The sound of Eve’s terror had propelled him out of his seat and he was pacing up and down the length of the room like a caged animal, all of his attention and anger focused on whoever was on the other end of the line.
“There’s your proof, Alex. It’s not a nightmare. It’s worse than that. It’s reality,” the caller said, coming back on the line. “Remember, five days, staring…NOW!” he said and hung up. Two seconds too soon for a trace to locate him.

* * * * * * * * * *
Twenty minutes later, Alex was pulling his green, unmarked car into the driveway of a medium-sized, two-story, Victorian-style house situated in one of the better subdivisions on the outskirts of the city. After turning the car off, he took a moment to scan his surroundings. In the fading light, he could see that the house was a light blue in color. The paint was relatively new. The grass was a little on the long side. A four-foot tall hedge separated the lawn from the houses on either side of it. Finally, he noticed that the mailbox was smashed and hadn’t been picked up out of the yard. It almost looked like someone had rammed their car into it, maybe the neighbors had backed into it, he thought.
Stepping from the car, he couldn’t help running a hand through his hair as he climbed the steps to the lighted front porch. Taking a deep breath, he rang the doorbell. Waiting, he tried to figure out exactly where Eve’s grandmother might fit into her life. He wondered how close the two women where. He knew how much of an influence the opinions of relatives could have on someone, hence the hand through the hair. Instinctively, he wanted Eve’s grandmother to like him. When no one came to the door, he waited sixty seconds and rang again, wondering if maybe she’d given him bad directions.
Finally, he heard someone at the door. The deadbolt hammer slid back with a loud crack and then the door swung open with a loud groan. Alex had to look down to take in the five-foot woman standing before him. They stood like that a moment, each quietly appraising the other. She was of slight build with short, curly, silvery-white hair. An elegant black silk robe hung open over a flowing pair of Japanese-print silk pants accompanied by a white tank top. It was impossible to determine her age. Her face was lined, but her body was lean and the energy she emitted would have made a thirty year old proud.
Finally, she met his eyes, after starting her assessment at his feet, “Come on in, I guess,” she said.
Alex followed her down a spacious hallway lined with pictures and into a large kitchen. The walls were painted yellow and the room was warm and fragrant.
“Sorry about the wait at the door,” she said. “My cookies were going to burn. Coffee?”
“Sure,” Alex replied, feeling awkward standing in the middle of the kitchen as his hostess moved with precise motion from the cookies to the coffee.
“Black?”
“Yeah.”
At length, she settled herself into one of the four wooden chairs surrounding an old, oak, circular table with her coffee after setting a large plate of cookies in the middle and his coffee in front of a second chair.
“Sit,” she commanded.
He did as she instructed.