Discovered (3 page)

When they finally realized that they’d lost time
in their ramblings, it was almost time for Layla to leave.

“I’m so sorry,” Jay said. “I’ve wasted your
whole night.”

“No, not at all,” Layla insisted. “It was
really fun.”

“Yes, it was,” Jay said, smiling. “But about
this project…”

“We have a few weeks,” Layla said, shrugging.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?” Jay asked
then immediately shook his head. “I’m so sorry; I don’t mean to hog your whole
weekend, and you probably have plans.”

“Apart from sitting in front of Julie’s TV…not
really,” Layla admitted.

“Will she mind if I steal you again for the
night?” Jay asked with a sly grin.

“She’ll be fine with that,” Layla replied.

The conversation continued in earnest all
through the short drive to Layla’s house. When Jay pulled up in front of her driveway,
she turned to say goodbye. “Thanks for a really nice evening,” she said
sincerely.

Jay nodded and climbed out of the car. He
walked around to the passenger door and opened it, holding out his hand to help
her up.  “I had a really nice time,” he replied, looking down at her.   “Good
night, Layla. Same time tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she responded then turned to walk up the
driveway toward her house.

Layla climbed into the passenger side of James’
car. As they drove through their neighborhood, she smiled at the festive
Halloween décor adorning the landscape. Pumpkins, bats and friendly ghosts hung
in abundance from every house they passed.  That had been something she missed
growing up in an apartment. If she ever had kids, she thought, this was the
kind of neighborhood she’d want them to grow up in, a neighborhood where they
could ride their bikes in the street, assured that the neighbors would notice
if anything dangerous was happening, a neighborhood that also celebrated
holidays to the extreme for the sake of the children.  She wondered what kind
of man she’d eventually marry. And then a vivid picture of Jay flashed in her
mind, and she found herself smiling.
‘Stop being ridiculous,’
she
scolded herself inwardly. Sure, they had a good time the night before, but he
hadn’t exactly promised his undying love. Still, he did seem eager for her to
return the following night. She swooned just a little as she remembered his
perfect smile, and the way his razor-stubbled face gave him a breath-taking
manliness.

“What?” James asked, staring at her from the
side of his eyes.

“Um?” Layla breathed, turning to face him.

“What’s with the girly grin?” James asked. “Or
a better question might be: who’s the guy?”

“What do you mean?” Layla questioned. She
turned to look at him and noticed his boyish, handsome features animated. With
his short, brown hair cut stylishly, and his button-down, denim shirt worn
casually over tan khakis, he looked more like a preppy college student than a
man of science.

“Layla, I may not be the most observant guy in
the world, but I know what it means when a girl sports a smile like that. So
who is he?” he asked.

“Just a boy from school,” she replied. Oh
great, was she really that obvious?

“Good guy?” James questioned.

“I think so,” she answered. “I don’t really
know him that well, though.”

“When do we get to meet him?” he pushed.

“I don’t know if we’re at that stage, or if
we’ll ever be at that stage,” she answered.

“Alright, then,” he responded, giving her the
sideways
‘yeah right’
look.

When they arrived at the car dealership, Layla
made a bee-line for a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. “Look how cute this is,” she
gushed.

James walked around the car a few times, acting
like he actually knew what to look for. “This is the one you want?” he
questioned.

“Well, we just got here,” she answered. “I
suppose I should look around a bit.”

They spent an hour and a half looking around
the various cars for sale before James looked at Layla and raised his eyebrows.
“Well?” he asked.

“We don’t have to decide today, do we?” she
questioned.

“I was under the impression that you were
desperate for a car,” he answered.

“Yeah, but I can wait another week or two,” she
responded. “At this point, another couple of weeks will hardly make a
difference.”

“If you want the Beetle—”

“No, it’s cute, but I don’t want to jump on the
first car I see,” she explained.

“Okay,” he answered. “But in the meantime, I’ll
have my mechanic come over here and check it out, just in case you don’t find
anything else.”

“Alright,” Layla agreed.

As they walked back to James’ car, Layla’s
phone rang. “Hey, Julie,” she said, putting the phone up to her ear.

“What time am I picking you up tonight?” Julie asked.

Oh crap! She’d forgotten to call Julie to tell
her the change of plans.

“I rented some movies,” Julie added, “and got
rid of my mom and dad for a while. They’re going out to a party at their
friend’s house.”

Layla did a little super-fast thinking. “Would
you mind if I don’t come over until around nine?” she questioned.

“Yeah, no that’s fine,” Julie answered. “I’ll
get you at nine.”

“I have to stop over Jay’s house for an hour or
two, so I’ll ask him to drop me off,” Layla explained.

“So I’m being blown off for Jay Logan?” Julie
said playfully.

“Just for a little while,” Layla responded,
hoping that would appease her friend.

When they arrived home, Layla gave her mother a
full run-down of her experience at the car dealership over a cup of coffee then
ran upstairs to gather her laundry and to complete her math homework before
getting ready to see Jay again.

His text came at five minutes past seven to
tell her he was waiting outside her house. She ran out and smiled, noticing
that he already had the passenger-side door open. She climbed into the car and
adjusted her seat belt.

“How did it go today?” he asked as he turned
the key in the ignition. “Any luck?”

“The only car I saw that I liked was a yellow
Volkswagen Beetle,” she explained.

“You would look cute driving a Beetle,” Jay
replied.

Layla giggled. “I don’t know about that.
Anyway, I decided to wait a while and look around more. Julie says she likes
driving me to school every morning. She claims it gives us time to talk before
first period, so I don’t think I’m putting her out of the way too much.”

“Has James given you a price limit?” Jay
questioned.

Layla was impressed by the way Jay remembered
James’ name. She assumed that meant that he’d actually absorbed most of their
conversation the previous night. Sometimes boys could be lame in that regard,
but obviously not this one. “No, but he really can’t even if he wanted to,”
Layla answered. “Half of his company belonged to my dad, so that part is rightfully
mine and mom’s.”

“Ah, right,” Jay responded, nodding. “Listen,
Layla, anytime Julie can’t drive you to school, I’d be more than happy to.
Don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”

“Thank you,” she answered. “Oh, that reminds
me,” she said, turning to face him. “I forgot to tell Julie that I was going to
your house tonight, and she went ahead and rented movies and stuff for us, kind
of made a big deal of me sleeping over.”

Jay raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Do you think you could drop me off at her
house around nine?” she questioned.

“Absolutely,” he answered.

When Layla walked into his living room, she
spotted a pile of books sitting on the coffee table.

“I thought I’d get the ball rolling,” Jay
explained.

Layla sat on the floor and began to scan the
pile. He had at least two dozen books set out, one on top of the other, ranging
from David Copperfield, Ulysses, War and Peace, The Three Musketeers and many
others, but nothing that grabbed Layla’s attention. “No female authors?” she questioned,
looking up at him.

“On the bottom,” he answered with a smirk.

Layla grabbed the very last book off the coffee
table. “Harry Potter!” she said with a giggle.

“I thought I’d try to slip that in there,” he
answered, laughing. “It’s written by a female, isn’t it?”

Layla was mesmerized by his smile for a second.
She shook her head to compose herself.

“What?” Jay questioned, looking down at her.

“Nothing, just thinking about this pile of
books,” she lied.

He sat on the floor next to her as they debated
the possibilities, the conversation straying to different subjects from time to
time until they coaxed it back to the job at hand. Within what seemed like only
moments, it was eight forty-five and Layla had to leave.

As Jay pulled out of his driveway, he shot her
a sideways glance. “I think it was a mistake for Schultz to put us together for
this project,” he said with a grin.

“Why?” she asked.

“I’m having too much fun with you to
concentrate on the stupid thing,” he answered.

Layla laughed, delighted by the compliment.

“So when should we get together again?” he
questioned.

“Well, tomorrow is Halloween, and I have to
hand out candy,” she responded.

“Cute,” Jay mumbled. “I envy those lucky little
kids in your neighborhood.”

She shot him a questioning look.

“They get to have a pretty girl like you
handing them treats.”

Layla replayed every word of their conversation
to Julie, who sat patiently, listening to her friend prattle on excitedly.

“Wow, I’d say someone’s been bitten by the
love-bug,” Julie blurted out.

 “No, I haven’t,” Layla answered. “I’m just
telling you what happened. You
did
ask.”

“Layla, my friend, you’re practically bouncing
out of your skin!”

Was she?

She sat silently, watching Julie put a disk in
the DVD player, the latest romantic comedy, happily-ever-after mush-fest that
Layla secretly loved. She knew that real life wasn’t really like that, that the
handsome boy next door was never going to turn out to be a prince in disguise,
eager to sweep the girl off her feet and take her to his far away castle. But
it was ninety minutes of easy escapism. In real life, things like that just
didn’t happen. Those over-the-top love stories just weren’t real. She was too
sensible to believe otherwise, which was why Julie was wrong; she was not
bouncing out of her skin. She had everything fully under control.

During the next week of school, Layla and Jay
fell into a comfortable pattern of friendship. They sat together in English
every day, and he was eager to join her and Julie in the cafeteria during
lunch. On a couple of occasions, he even met her outside certain rooms to walk
her to her next class. The fact that the aloof Jay Logan was now getting very
friendly with Layla did not go unnoticed by some of the other students,
especially the so-called popular girls. She witnessed many heads turning to
stare after her and Jay as they walked the halls laughing and carrying-on. It
seemed that his personality change caused a sudden interest in befriending Jay,
especially among the female students. Layla noticed, on more than one occasion,
certain girls hanging around Jay at his locker, waiting to get an opportunity
to talk to him.  If she was to admit the truth, it bothered her slightly, but
she and Jay were only friends, and she had no right to feel possessive. At
least that’s what she tried to convince herself until the morning that she
noticed Rachael Newman leaning up against the locker besides Jay’s as he
rummaged around inside for a certain book. Rachael was the epitome of a
Barbie-doll. With her blonde highlights, manicured acrylic-tipped nails,
abundance of self-confidence, and the tightest of outfits, she had most of the
males eating out of her hand.

Layla couldn’t hear what Rachael was saying from
a distance, but she could read the body language loud and clear, and she
wondered how many times Rachael could flick her hair without giving herself
whiplash.

Trying to squelch the immature knot in her
stomach, Layla decided to walk by as quickly as possible without looking in
their direction. She looked straight ahead and walked with determination, as
though deep in thought, until she felt a hand grab her wrist.

“You don’t say hello?” Jay asked when Layla
turned to face him.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” she lied.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he
questioned while Rachael stood by, looking disgruntled.

“Science lab,” Layla responded.

“I’ll walk you,” Jay muttered. “Bye Rachael,”
he called out without looking back, giving Layla a childish sense of
self-satisfaction.

When Layla walked into the cafeteria at
lunchtime, yours truly was sitting in her usual seat facing Jay. Understanding
that the jealousy she felt was uncalled for, she walked across the room slowly,
trying to bury the unpleasant sensation coursing through her.

Jay looked up and smiled, tapping the seat next
to him.

“Hi,” Layla muttered, walking around him to sit
down.

Jay turned his seat around to face her. “Hi,”
he answered. “Would you do me a favor and check out my math homework? I’m not
sure if I’ve gotten the formula right.” He pulled out a notebook and placed it
on Layla’s lap then bent his head over so that their foreheads were nearly
touching.

“Did I take your seat?” Rachael asked falsely
in an attempt to remind them that she was still sitting there.

Layla fought the urge to roll her eyes and just
smiled over at Rachael.

“It’s okay,” Jay answered before Layla had a
chance to.

Layla looked over Jay’s homework thoroughly. “This
looks perfect,” she stated, glancing up at him.

“Thanks,” he replied. “So what’s new?”

Before Layla could answer, Rachael jumped up.
“I’ll see you later, Jay,” she said. “I have a few things to do.” She walked
away but glanced back with a sour look on her face.

“I didn’t know you and Rachael were friends,”
Layla said as casually as she could manage.

“I wouldn’t exactly call us friends, but she’s
been very chatty lately.”

Layla smiled. “She seems like a nice girl.”

“Um, she’s okay,” Jay answered. “She kind of
reminds me of Hartley, though.”

“In what way?” Layla asked.

“Too puffed up on herself to get the message,” he
said with a smirk, echoing Layla’s description of Kevin.

At that moment, his phone beeped. He picked it
up off the table and looked at the front then a wide smile spread over his
face. He tapped the front a few times, answering the text. “My friend, Ben,
just arrived in town,” he explained.

“Is he from here?” she questioned.

“No, he came down to visit me.”

“Where’s he staying?” she asked.

“He’s at my house already. Ben has his own set
of keys. He’s like family.”

Layla found herself smiling along with him. After
over two months of seeing him alone all the time, she was glad that he actually
had a close friend. On more than one occasion, she’d felt pity for him. Not
only did he appear to be a loner, his parents took off for an extended stay in
Europe, leaving him all by himself. Even the most independent and solitude of
people had to get lonely at times under those conditions, hadn’t they?

 “I’ve been wondering how your projects are
coming along,” Mr. Schultz said the following day in English class.

Layla looked over at Jay and rolled her eyes.

“Anyone care to tell me what they’ve decided to
do it on?”

Laura Jenkins, a quiet girl who usually sat up
front, raised her hand. “Claire and I have decided to do ours on
Animal Farm
,”
she explained. “
I plan to show how inexperience and apathy to
certain situations within new political structures could lead to all kinds of
cruel and unjust situations if an even changeover, one that is beneficial to
the basic rights of the people, is not achieved. Claire, on the other hand,
believes that the story is too stereotyped and reflects a political standard
that doesn’t apply to our modern world, therefore, rendering the novel irrelevant.”

“Good,” Mr. Schultz praised. “I
look forward to reading that.”

Layla looked at Jay and raised
her eyebrows. “We’re screwed,” she mouthed, causing him to snicker.

When the bell rang, he picked her
backpack off the ground and carried it along with his own. “I think we really
need to get our heads down on this,” he said. “Are you free tonight?”

“Sure,” she answered, feeling the
all too familiar butterflies flutter in her stomach. “But I thought your friend
was in town. Won’t you be spending time with him?”

“He’s going out to see that new 3D
superhero movie,” Jay replied.

“Alone?” Layla asked. “Don’t you
want to go with him?”

“He’s big enough to go to the
movies alone,” Jay said sarcastically. “And he’ll be here for a while, so we
have plenty of time to hang out.”

“Okay, then,” she answered.

“Good. I’ll get you before
seven,” he promised.

Later that afternoon, Layla said good-bye to
Julie and made her way toward her house, noticing a strange car parked further
up her driveway.

Once inside, she heard voices beyond the dining
room and slowed down her march to the kitchen. It appeared that James had an
associate over, and they seemed to be discussing something
important.

“That’s why I rushed over here,” an unfamiliar
male voice said from the kitchen. “There’s a possibility he’s in this very area.”

  “I know when I moved here that he kept a home
somewhere nearby, but never really expected that he used it much. It was one of
those
‘off-chance’
decisions on my part,” James replied. “How do you
know this? Has someone seen him?”

“Manuel claims he saw that upstart, Orton, this
morning,” the unknown man replied. “And you know wherever Orton is,
he
is usually not far behind.”

“That’s really interesting,” James answered. “I
would love to get my hands on Orton. I can’t tell you how many ways I’ve
envisioned killing that guy over the years.”

 “Do you think you could?” Layla heard the man
reply.

“There are ways, or so I’ve been led to
believe. But I didn’t mean that literally,” James replied with a chuckle.
“Besides, I’d never get my hands on the stuff that way.”

‘Well, that’s good to know,’
Layla
thought, rolling her eyes.

“Does Manuel know where to find Orton?” James
asked.

“He literally just saw him in Target, of all
places,” the man answered.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, that could have been
anyone,” James said, exasperated.

“Manuel was more than certain that it was him,”
the man responded. “At any rate, he’s keeping an eye out for him.”

“If I managed to get my hands on Orton, I could
use him as a bargaining chip,” James said in a wistful voice.

“Should I tell Manuel to grab him if he sees
him again?” the man questioned.

“Absolutely,” James answered. “But warn him
that Orton will more than likely be armed at this point.”

Layla’s eyes bulged. What on earth were these
men talking about? So murder was off limits, but kidnapping…just dandy.
Whatever it was, she knew she didn’t like the sound of it, and more than that,
it was giving her an insight into James that she wasn’t very comfortable with.

She banged her book bag down on the dining room
table roughly to alert the kidnapping conspirators of her presence. She didn’t
want to hear anything else that was unfit for her ears. Then, with heavy steps,
she plodded toward the kitchen. The message had been received loud and clear
because the conversation stopped in its tracks.

“Oh, hey, James,” she said as nonchalantly as
she could manage.

“Hey, Layla,” James replied with a warm smile.
“This is Robert. He’s giving me an estimate on how much it would be to remodel the
kitchen,” he added awkwardly.

‘Yeah, right,’
she thought. “Hi, Robert,
It’s nice to meet you,” she said with what warmth she could muster.

She grabbed a diet coke from the fridge and
made her way to her bedroom as quickly as possible, replaying the strange
conversation over and over in her mind. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she
tried to figure out what
‘It was one of those ‘off-chance’ decisions on my
part’
could possibly mean. Was it possible that James had moved there for
another motive than the one he’d told them about initially? His reasoning
always did seem a little bit flimsy to Layla. If he sold his loft in Manhattan,
he told them at the time, they could move into a beautiful big house in a
clean, quiet and virtually crime-free neighborhood with a great school system.
Considering that his company was on Long Island, Layla wondered why they just
didn’t move out there. Nassau and Suffolk counties had many neighborhoods that
fit the same description. Obviously they would’ve had to settle for a smaller
house, but they barely used all the rooms they had as it was. At least James
would have been a lot closer to his work, instead of having to run up to New
York every month to check on the business. It was all too much for her to
consider; the fact that James had moved states in the hopes of bumping into
someone, someone he didn’t sound all that thrilled about, yet wanted something
from, something he was prepared to commit a kidnapping for, or at least order
others to kidnap for. And there was no way she could ask him to elaborate since
he seemed eager to make up a lie to explain Roberts reasons for being there.
Plus, she reckoned that if someone was involved in something that may be
illegal, they would more than likely get a little antsy when a teenage girl
starts asking questions.

She played the conversation around in her head
again to see if there was any possible way it could have pertained to something
completely legal, but then realized it was unlikely that she would know the
difference anyway. Perhaps this Orton guy was a criminal, and James was doing a
service to society.

She was relieved to finally hear her mother’s voice
floating up the stairs. She jumped up and went downstairs to say hello.

James and Robert headed for the front door.
“I’ll be home in an hour or two,” James yelled out.

“Where are you going?” Cheryl called after him.

“I have some business to attend to,” James
replied before disappearing behind the door.

“Who was that man?” Layla asked when Robert’s
car pulled out of the driveway.

“He’s an acquaintance of James’. I think James
said he was giving him an estimate on how much it would cost to remodel the
kitchen.”

“Since when does James want to remodel the
kitchen?” Layla asked suspiciously.

Cheryl shrugged her shoulders. “I know,” she
said. “It’s news to me also. Why do you ask? You look like you have something
on your mind.”

“If I told you that I just overheard them
talking about kidnapping someone, would you believe me?” Layla asked.

“Probably not,” Cheryl replied, yet she had an
anxious look on her face. “Tell me everything.”

When Layla finished relaying what she’d heard,
Cheryl looked thunderstruck. “Say nothing about this, Layla,” she warned. “I’m
sure it’s nothing, but let me see what I can uncover quietly.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Layla asked.

“I’ll see if I can find anything in James’
study with the name
Orton
on it, but I have to confess, I think you’re
probably making a bigger deal out of this than necessary. I’ve known James as
long as I knew your father, and he is not the type to commit a crime of any
sort. I’m more than positive that you took the conversation up wrong, or that
there’s a logical explanation.”

Layla nodded. “Maybe,” she agreed.

When James returned, they sat down together for
dinner, both Layla and Cheryl doing their best to appear as casual as possible.
Surprisingly, by the time dinner was over, Layla had done a fine job of burying
the whole incident completely.

She ran to her room to change. She brushed her
hair into a ponytail and applied a tiny bit of mascara and a little pail
lipstick, her usual routine.