Chapter 20
Thirty minutes later, all three ladies were in position at the Library. As they had discussed, Liz and Stacie changed clothes, one put on a wig and the other put on a baseball cap, each donned a pair of fake eye glasses and Liz had grabbed some guy off the street to be her “date” at the library.
When Caryss walked into the reference room of the library, she barely recognized Stacie sitting at a table appearing to be a student doing some research for a paper. She didn’t even bother looking around for Liz and her “date” because she doubted she would recognize her either. Instead she focused on the task at hand and walked directly over the section of encyclopedia’s pulling the “R” volume off the shelf and opening it.
She flipped to page 247 as she had been instructed to do and she found a folded piece of paper with her name on it. She unfolded it and read it silently.
Go into the women’s bathroom.
She slipped the piece of paper into her purse and returned the encyclopedia to its spot on the shelf. Without looking around she walked towards the bathroom and opened the door. She looked inside quickly before entering, hesitating a bit, but then swallowed hard and walked in.
She stopped dead in her tracks as the door shut behind her, the person standing before her being the last person she thought would be responsible for this escapade.
“Laurie?” she asked, the shock in her voice evident. “How did you know I got the letter?”
“I was sitting in a rental car outside my condo. I knew you guys were too smart to believe whatever Trevor told you and I knew you would come to my place looking for answers. I waited, and sure enough, you guys came.”
“There were these two men looking for the letter--”
“I know, I sent them. I didn’t want to take the chance that you wouldn’t come to my place to talk to me and not find the letter. Were you guys in the condo when they came?”
“Yeah, we hid in the closet. So what’s going on? What was that letter all about?”
“What did Trevor tell you happened between us?”
“He said that you told him it wasn’t working out and that you should see other people. He said you quit because working with him would be too awkward.”
Laurie scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. “He thinks he can lie to everyone and they will believe him. What really happened was I walked in on him and another woman getting it on in his office. I asked him how long this has been going on and he said with this woman for about an hour, but there have been many others before her. He said that he had someone else lined up and that he had no more use for me. He told me to clean out my desk and be gone by the time he got back. He left and I started collecting my things from the office.”
“Oh my God Laurie, that’s horrible.” Caryss could not believe what she was hearing. She knew Trevor wasn’t telling the truth but she had no idea how ugly the truth was.
“That’s not the horrible part. Caryss, I think that you are the “someone” he’s got lined up.”
“What makes you think that? He knows I’m seeing Nick and I have never given him the impression that I’m interest in him!”
“But Trevor doesn’t look at things like that. He sees something he wants and he stops at nothing to get it. I overheard him on a phone call the day before he fired me. I don’t know who he was talking to but he said something about “not paying for your opinion only for the stuff on Caryss” or something like that. And he has your name written on his desk calendar on the day of the gala. I don’t know what he’s doing, but it’s not going to be good for you.”
Caryss blankly stared at Laurie, trying to process what she had just been told. “I don’t understand what he’s trying to do?”
“I guess you’ll find out at the gala.” Laurie looked around the bathroom nervously. “I can’t stay here any longer. Trevor told me that if I try to contact you or anyone else on the project that I would regret it and if he has someone following me they might have already told him where I am. I will do my best to find out anything else I can, I have some pretty important people on my list of friends and they are helping me. I will be in touch.” She quickly flipped the hood on her sweatshirt up over her hair and slipped a pair of sunglasses on her face.
“Here,” she said, pulling a large manila envelope out from under her sweatshirt. “I grabbed this out of Trevor’s file cabinet. It has you’re your name on it.” Before Caryss could say anything else to her she was out the door.
Caryss stood in the bathroom for a few minutes, thinking about what she was going to do with the information Laurie had told her. I can’t tell Nick, because all he’s going to do is beat the hell out of Trevor and think the problem is solved. So Trevor did hire someone to investigate me…and that must have been who sent me the text. I have to find out who it is and talk to them. And I really have to find a dress for the gala, because there is no way I’m missing it now. I can’t wait to find out what Trevor has in store.
Caryss exited the bathroom and was just walking down the front steps outside the library when her cell phone rang. “Shit, it’s Trevor,” she hissed as she flipped open her phone. “Hello,” she said into it, trying to keep her voice calm and steady.
“Caryss, hey, it’s Trevor. Listen, have you talked to Laurie at all? I’ve been looking for her. I think when she cleaned her stuff out of the office she took something of mine that’s very important to me.” Caryss looked down at the large manila envelope in her hands and immediately knew this was what Trevor was referring to.
What is in here that’s so important to him? she thought as she tried to decide what to say to him. “No Trevor, I haven’t talked to Laurie, why would I have? I highly doubt that she will contact any of us seeing as how she abandoned all of us on the project.”
“Yeah, well I suppose you’re right.” I can see you Caryss, and I saw Laurie come out of the same library five minutes ago, and I can see that you are holding that very important file in your pretty little hands. I can also see you’re going to learn the hard way that you shouldn’t lie to me. “What are you doing right now? I thought maybe we could get together and you could help me finish planning the gala? Maybe do dinner?”
Shit, what do I say? Do I want to keep him close or avoid him completely? I don’t know what to do! “Well, actually, I have plans for dinner tonight. I thought you were all done with the planning?”
“Well, I almost am, there are just a couple of things that could use a woman’s touch.” The sexual innuendo almost made Caryss throw up in her mouth.
“Sorry Trevor, but since I’m done working, I don’t really feel like doing extra work for something that’s not even my responsibility. Maybe you could ask your next date or something.”
“Yeah, I guess I could do that,” he said with a fake chuckle. Keep it up Caryss and my time with you will quickly turn from something positive to something you’re gonna wish you never experienced.
“Trevor, I’m actually really busy right now, so I’m going to let you go. I’ll see you at the gala.”
“Yes you will. And I hope you enjoyed your visit to the library.”
“Where in the hell did you go? We have been looking all over the library for you!” yelled Liz as her and Stacie stomped down the stairs. “What’s wrong?” she asked, noticing the paleness and expression on Caryss’s face.
“He’s watching us right now, we have to go,” she hissed, not explaining herself. She took off running down the rest of the stairs and stopped at the bottom, trying to decide which way to go.
“This way,” yelled Stacie, still not understanding what was going on but knowing that they needed to get to a secluded area quickly. They ran down the sidewalk and ducked into the candle shop that one of her college roommates owned. “The owner is a friend from college, she’ll let us talk in here,” Stacie explained as she walked through the store looking for Ashley.
“It’s Trevor. The three ladies ran south on Figueroa and into a candle shop. Get me that envelope back!” Trevor threw his cell phone down on the passenger seat and slammed his fists against the steering wheel. “This is not turning out how I planned it!” he screamed, infuriated that getting Caryss now was going to be more revenge than pleasure. “Stupid bitch screwed everything up by not minding her own business!” He threw his car into drive and peeled out of his parking spot across from the library and squealed down the street a few blocks until he was in front of the candle shop. He saw Liz and Stacie running out of the alley and then he saw something he didn’t like. What is that other Backstreet idiot doing here? Anyone and I mean anyone standing in the way of me and Caryss is going to pay dearly and at the rate things are going, that stupid band is going to be short a few members pretty quickly.
“Stacie, is that you?” said a surprised voice asked from behind the counter.
“Ashley, how are you?” Stacie asked, trying to be sociable even though they were in a hurry.
“I’m good. What can I do for you?”
“Ash, listen, we need to hide out in your back room for a little while. We are being followed, long story, but we have some important stuff to talk about and we need to stay out of sight.”
Ashley stood there for minute, looking from Stacie, to Caryss, to Liz and back again. She desperately wanted to know what was going on, but from the look on her friend’s face, she knew now was not the time to ask questions. “Sure, right through here.”
The ladies walked into the back room of the candle store and Caryss threw the envelope down on the table. “I don’t know what’s in it, but Laurie stole it from Trevor’s file cabinet and he knows she did it and he just called me asking if I’ve seen her and I told him no and now he knows I have it since he saw me on the steps of the library holding it!”
“You saw Laurie?” Liz asked with shock in her voice. “Where?”
“In the bathroom at the library. There was a note in the encyclopedia to go into the bathroom and there she was. She told me what happened between her and Trevor and she told me that he’s planning something for me.” She continued to fill the ladies in on what Laurie had told her and Liz and Stacie’s eyes got bigger and bigger with each sentence.
“This is insane!” cried Stacie. “He needs to be hospitalized. Well, we have nothing else to lose; let’s look in the envelope and see what it is.” As she reached for the envelope they heard commotion coming from out in the store.
“You can’t go back there,” Ashley yelled and the ladies knew they had to get out of there fast.
“There’s an exit over here, it leads into the alley and out to the main street again,” stammered Stacie. Caryss grabbed the envelope off the table and they bolted out the exit and into the alley. Liz and Stacie were ahead of Caryss and were able to run much easier since they were in tennis shoes and Caryss was in flip flops. She felt herself stumble and she fell onto the hard, sharp pavement in the alley.
She heard footsteps coming up fast behind her and she tried to get up and keep running. She stumbled again as pain radiated from her knee. She looked down and saw blood flowing out of the open cut on her knee cap. She tried to push the pain out of her mind and keep running, but someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her back down onto the hard alley.
She kicked and squirmed, struggling to get away from the person holding her down. She got one leg up and kicked the man right in the face, sending him reeling backwards. She scrambled to her feet but the man grabbed her ankle and tripped her. As she was falling he twisted her foot and she heard her knee pop. She let out one agonizing scream before hitting the ground and everything went black.
“Where is Caryss?” AJ asked breathless as Liz and Stacie came running out of the alley and practically into him.
“She was right behind us, I don’t know!” cried Liz, shocked and relieved to him at the same time. They took off back down the alley when they heard a scream. They turned the corner and saw Caryss laying on the ground and a man struggling to his feet next to her. He grabbed the manila envelope that was clutched tightly in Caryss’s hand and ran down the alley the other way.
“Call 911,” yelled Alex as he threw his cell phone at Liz and took off after the guy down the alley. Liz dialed as fast as she could with shaking hands while Stacie crouched down next to Caryss and started talking to her.
“It’s okay sweetie. If you can hear me help is coming. Hang on.” Minutes later the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.
“He got away,” AJ said from behind them. “But I grabbed this from him before he did.” Liz and Stacie looked at the tattered manila envelope with Caryss’s name on it in AJ’s hand. Now they were finally going to find out what was in it.
Trevor heard the sirens in the distant and started to panic. He wondered what had happened in the candle shop and he wondered if his man had gotten the envelope and gotten away. He ran back to his car and grabbed his cell phone. He pressed redial and waited for someone to pick up.
“What the hell is going on? Did you get it?”
“I had it,” the man on the other end began. “But some freak with tattoos chased me and snatched it from me as I was climbing over a fence.”
“What are the sirens for?”
“When I was trying to get the envelope from that girl, she put up a fight. I fucked her up.”
“You idiot! You weren’t supposed to hurt her!”
“You didn’t say that, you just told me to get the envelope back. The bitch kicked me in the face and almost got away, what was I supposed to do?”
“And you lost the envelope anyway so a lot of good it did you!” Trevor snapped his phone shut and sat in his car, watching the ambulance turn down the narrow alley. “Everything is fucked up now! EVERYTHING!” He started his car and headed toward the one place he swore he would never go again…his old drug dealers place.
