A Gift of Time (The Nine Minutes Trilogy Book 3) (40 page)

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Ginny

2002,
Fort Lauderdale

I stood in
his living room and just stared at him. I’d
purposely let his calls go to voicemail and of course, he hadn’t left a
message. Neither one of us spoke, a tactic he’d taught me. Who would be the
first to break?

But I didn’t
have time for this.

“You go
first, Grizz. I have a feeling there’s a lot you want to tell me.”

“Sit down,
Kit.” He gestured to his couch.

“No.”

“Okay, then.
I’ll start by telling you the punk next door was hurting Rosa. I stopped him.”

I nodded
condescendingly, trying to exude an expression that said, “Some things never
change.” It must have worked because he immediately launched into an
explanation.

“I know it
wasn’t the smartest thing to do, especially with us being so close to leaving.”

“But?” There
was usually a “but” when it came to Grizz.

“But I
recognized his ink. I was in charge of them in prison. I just had to mention a
code word that had clout and meant he would be dealt with. It scared him off.
The last thing he’ll do is make trouble. More than likely, he’s packing.”

I didn’t say
anything, and his expression pleaded with me to understand.

“He was
hurting, Rosa, Ginny. Scaring her, and hurting her physically. There was a time
once when you used to beg me to rescue people like her.”

He was
right, and I felt an instant stab of guilt about my condescending attitude
toward him. There had been too many times to count in our past when I'd used
him to intervene on someone's behalf. I had no right to be upset that he was
now doing it on his own, without my prompting. If anything, he was showing me
that he could have compassion for someone in need. How he handled it might've
been a bit misplaced, but the fact that he was feeling it warmed my heart. I
couldn’t help but smile.
           

“Couldn’t
you have just talked him out of bothering her?” I asked, already knowing the
answer. His raised eyebrow was his only reply.

Just then,
there was a knock at the door, and we both looked at each other. He went to the
blinds and peeked out.

“It’s her
parents.”

Please, God,
don’t let them be here to make trouble. Grizz opened the front door, and I
could hear two voices talking rapidly in Spanish. I could make out a few words.
Thank you. Grateful. An angel from heaven. I doubt I heard that last one right.
Grizz had been called a lot of things, and I’d bet my right arm an angel was
never one of them. It sunk in—they weren’t here to cause trouble. They
were here to thank him. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been
holding.

Saying
goodbye, he kicked the door closed behind him.

“Dinner,”
was all he said as he carried plates of food, which had obviously been
delivered out of gratitude, into the kitchen. The aroma of skirt steak, black
beans and plantains was tantalizing, but eating wasn’t my immediate concern.

“Dinner can
wait.” I followed him. “Tell me what you’ve done or have been doing to Sarah
Jo. Tell me why she thinks Tommy’s spirit sent your ghost to haunt her?”

He laid the
plates on the counter and turned to look at me. He leaned his back against the
counter and crossed his arms.

“I haven’t
done anything to her. I’ve watched her since around Christmas, though. I’ve
kept an eye out to make sure she wasn’t doing anything to you. Maybe she
thought she saw me once or twice. I can’t say for sure.”

“What?” I
tapped my temple with my right hand and shook my head, trying to grasp what he
was telling me. “Why in the world would you think she would do something to
me?”

He glanced
over at his kitchen table, and I followed his gaze. I didn’t recognize it at
first, but when I did, I walked to it and picked it up, held it up to him.

“Is this
what I think it is?”

He nodded.

“How did you
get it? I watched Tommy throw it away, bag it up, and take it out to the
garbage cans. Were you outside our house? Were you watching my home?”

My last
comment came out in a high-pitched squeak. But he shook his head, confused.

“I don’t
know about that. Likely they were listening then and sent someone to get it.
They gave it to me the last time I met them.”

“And what
could Moe’s journal possibly have to do with Sarah Jo, Grizz?”

He grabbed
it from me and took my hand, walked me back out to the living room and insisted
I sit down. I did. He thumbed through some pages as I watched him.

When he came
to a certain page, he handed the journal back to me and said one word.

“Read.”

I did. And
as I read, I could feel the color draining from my face as I learned about the
guilt Moe felt for unwittingly participating in my rape and almost murder. I
looked up at Grizz and he immediately sat down next to me, scooting closely so
our bodies touched. His warmth was inviting as I relived the horror of that
night.

“What does
Moe’s guilt, about helping to set that night up, have to do with Jo?” I asked
in a small voice.

“Keep
reading.”

I looked
down at the page and could feel his eyes as they watched me. He knew the second
I read the line, the recognition obvious by my expression. He pulled me close
then as I let the journal drop to the floor.

As if
sensing a shift in the air, Rocky jumped up from his dog bed and padded over to
me. I barely noticed him licking my knee or Grizz’s quiet reprimand to go back
to his bed.

“I’m not
exactly sure what this means. I get it. I mean, it’s obvious that Sarah Jo was
the Wendy that did this, but...” I wasn’t talking to Grizz. I was talking to
myself and staring at the wall. I glanced over at him. “Tommy read this
journal, Grizz. I never did. I left it up to him to tell me if there was
something I needed to know. And he never told me this.” My jaw clenched. “If he
suspected this, I’m certain he would never have had the heart to tell me Sarah
Jo had been behind it all.”

I told him
what Stan had told me about Sarah Jo’s sudden insistence that they move away.
It all seemed to make sense now. Sarah Jo’s distancing. The awkwardness between
us.

“Do you
think Tommy is the reason Jo was moving? Is it possible he figured out she was
Wendy?”

He shook his
head. “I don’t know, but you figured it out, and he knew her for years before
you did. What did she tell you when you saw her?”

“She
rambled, Grizz. She didn’t make sense at all. She admitted to doing us all
wrong, but she never said what it was.”

Something
struck me, and I felt the bile rise in my throat.

“Sarah Jo
was with Tommy when he died. Oh my God, Grizz! No, no—please don’t let
what I’m thinking be true.”

I was
certain I was going to vomit, and I stood to run to the bathroom. But he
grabbed me from behind, pulling me to him and cradling my face in his chest. My
stomach still roiled, but the acid making its way up my throat receded.

“Quiet down,
Ginny. There’s more. I have an answer for you. Carter and Bill gave me
something today after you left. It will give you your answers. Sit back down,
honey, okay?”

I was
shaking, but there were no tears as he tugged me back to sit on the couch. I
was pretty certain I’d cried enough in the last year to last me a lifetime. The
well had finally dried up.

Grizz picked
up a cassette tape player that had been sitting on one of his end tables. I
hadn’t noticed it when I’d sat down.

“Bill had to
put this on a cassette tape since I don’t know how to work the fucking CD
player that’s in this house. Besides, I don’t think we want to hear this coming
out in surround sound. It’s going to be hard to listen to, Ginny, but it will
give you some answers.” He peered at me. “Can you handle this, baby?”

I sat up
straight, determined not to lose my composure. “Yes,” I whispered.

Before he
pressed play, he looked at me.

“Carter told
me the day Tommy was shot, she watched Sarah Jo interact with you at the
hospital. She knew how close you two were, and she felt something was off with
Sarah Jo. She told me she tripped and purposely yanked Sarah Jo’s pendant off.”

I nodded,
remembering the incident. “She sent it away with Bill to have it fixed. He
returned it later that day, I think.”

“Yes, he had
it fixed. But he also did something else.”

I waited.

“He put a
bug in it. He and Carter were able to listen to everything Jo said when she was
wearing that pendant.”

I felt an
icy hand wrap itself around my heart.

“She was
wearing the pendant in the hospital room when Tommy died,” he added in a soft
voice.

“Play it.”
My voice was firm.

“Are you
sure you’re ready to hear—”

“Play it!” I
braced myself for the pain that would come with reliving that day. I had no
clue what I’d hear from Sarah Jo, but I knew I’d eventually hear my screams of
anguish and grief in the background. “Play it, please.”

Grizz
pressed the button.

I listened
as the sounds of the hospital room brought back memories so painful I felt
lightheaded and had to will myself not to faint. Hearing the steady hiss of the
ventilator that Tommy had been hooked up to caused ice water to invade my
arteries. I remembered how I’d made a CD of some of our favorite songs and
always had them playing on a portable CD player I’d brought to his room. “Love
Can Make You Happy” by Mercy could be softly heard in the background. I froze
as the sound of my voice brought me back to the nightmare of that day.

“I’ll be
right back. Do you want something?”

Then came
Jo’s reply. “I want you to take a break and know that I won’t leave his side
until you come back, okay?”

I remembered
kissing the inside of Tommy’s palm, then walking out of the room. I left him. I
turned my back on him and walked out. I was now biting the inside of my cheek
so hard I could taste blood.

I listened
as Jo’s words floated out of the old cassette player and hung in the air. The
tone of her voice, a tone I’d never heard, sounded sickly sweet. I'd heard the
words sickly sweet used before to describe the smell associated with dead
bodies during decomposition. My stomach heaved at the thought.

“Stan and I
had just returned from Sydney and were visiting friends in Atlanta when Mimi
called me. I was doing what you said, Tommy. Pushing Stan to interview
overseas. But circumstances change, don’t they?”

I looked at
Grizz. I had my answer. So Tommy had figured out that Jo was Wendy, and he’d
told her to leave, probably with the threat that he would tell me about her
part in my attack.

“Tommy, do
you know how easy this would be for me? All I’d have to do is squeeze one of
the tubes on your ventilator and stop the air flow.” My breath caught. “Or I
could slip a syringe out of my pocket and inject insulin right into your IV.
I’d have my back to the nurses, and they wouldn’t know what I was doing. You’re
already being given a certain amount of insulin, so if they ever did an
autopsy, which I doubt they will because of the seriousness of your wounds,
they’ll never look for an insulin overdose. It would be so easy. Too easy.”

The tears
were back, and my hearing became muffled as my heartbeat quickened, causing the
blood to pound in my head. Another tune had come on the CD player. The
heartfelt love song, “Follow You, Follow Me” by Genesis, was in stark contrast
to the sinister conversation.

“But I
won’t. Do you know why? Because I’m sorry. And like I told you before, Tommy, I
love you, and I love Ginny, and I want this to stop. I want for it all to end.”

 
I heard sniffling then and thought maybe
Jo had started to cry.

“I could
never hurt you, Tommy. You were my best friend before Ginny came along.”

She
hiccupped then, and I heard what I thought was the sound of her taking a tissue
from a box.

“I wouldn’t
have told Ginny about the herbal pills you gave her. I never would’ve let her
think you caused that miscarriage. I never gave them to you to give to her with
the intent of using it against you. I just wanted to hurt Grizz. Not you and
Ginny. I never wanted to hurt you and Ginny.” She sniffled loudly. “You have to
believe me, Tommy! Seeing you here like this, so vulnerable and coming so close
to death, is ripping my heart out. It’s not supposed to be like this. I want us
to start over. I want to put all the bad memories behind us. You have to wake
up, Tommy. I need you to wake up so you can forgive me. Please wake up...”
There was a pause, and then she softly whispered, “Grunt. Please.”

She started
crying harder now, and her sobs were becoming muffled. I could picture her
leaning over the bed to hug him, the bug in her pendant pushing up against his
body and muting her cries.

My shoulders
sagged, partly from relief and partly from remembering the weight of the grief.
I bolted upright when I heard the loud and shrill hum of Tommy’s heart monitor
signaling distress. I asked Grizz to turn it off when I heard Jo’s cries for
help and her efforts to revive him.

I didn’t
need to hear any more.

“I remember
when he gave me those pills for my morning sickness. I never took them, but I
never told Tommy because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.” I stared numbly
at a piece of art hanging on the wall. It was a vivid abstract I’d not paid
much attention to, but now, the loud colors screamed at me.

“I can
forgive Sarah Jo for everything that was done to me, Grizz. The rape, the
beating, Gwinny, maybe even her attempt to cause my miscarriage. But I don’t
think I can forgive her for letting Tommy die thinking he caused it.”