Plain Jane (16 page)

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Authors: Fern Michaels

BOOK: Plain Jane
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Tears rolled down Jane's cheeks. “Of course I don't mind. I told you from the beginning I didn't want your money. Dad left me well-off, and I've saved my own money over the years. The truth is, I never
have
to work again. If you're asking for my blessing, you have it. Are you going to breed the dogs, too?”
“The whole ball of wax. Want to come aboard? You know, when and if you ever get out of the business.”
Jane didn't stop to think about her answer. “Hell, yes, I do. I would love doing something like that.”
“What about your practice and the radio show?”
“I was planning on looking into it all after the first of the year. My contract with the radio show expires January 3. I could sell my practice, and Mike could take over the show. He's a natural. Hey, we could think about doing a show on dogs. Wow! How did this happen in the middle of the night, Trixie?”
“Pure dumb luck! You were up, I came over. I guess the timing was right,” Trixie laughed.
“Are you going to give up writing completely?”
“Not just yet. We have two more books under contract. I didn't say anything before because Fred and I weren't sure it would go through, but our agent just sold our last fifteen books in a package deal to a film company in Hollywood. Fred got the call that it's a done deal around six o' clock. Five million bucks, Janie. Course the feds are going to take their cut, plus the state and our agent, but there will be enough left to fund the K-9 project. The trusts will kick in if things go awry or prices go up. Emergency money so to speak.”
“Congratulations, Trixie! I am so proud of you, I could just bust. You don't think I'm a quitter, do you?”
“You, a quitter? Never!”
“Do you think Mike will think I'm a quitter when I tell him my plans?”
“If he does, he's not the man for you. Ah, here comes my partner. Time to saddle up and move out,” Trixie said, getting out of the car. Jane got out, too.
“Wowee! Look, Janie. Flash did it again! Good boy!” Trixie held up a plastic bag filled with tissue and foreign matter. “Two ten-dollar bills! This dog is a whiz at sniffing out money as well as dope. In the car, Officer Flash! We're done for tonight.” Flash barked and jumped in. “This dog is the marvel in marvelous.” Olive stood patiently as she waited to be rewarded, too. “Two Oreo cookies coming up. Bob Henry told me he always gave Flash an Oreo when the shift was over. He also used to take him to Burger King on Thursday nights.”
“Treats are good. I give them to Olive all the time. She loves veggie burgers.” Jane bent down to pet Olive's head. “It's going to be light out soon. I'm glad you stopped by, Trix. I feel like the weight of the world suddenly left my shoulders. So then it's okay about Betty Vance?”
“Send her over. What time are you going to Baton Rouge?” Trixie belted Flash into the backseat, closed the door, then went around to the driver's side and climbed in behind the wheel.
“As soon as I shower and get ready. I'll call Betty on my way.”
“Okay, then. See you. Have a good trip,” Trixie said. She switched on the flashing light, turned the key in the ignition, and peeled out across the open field toward her house.
With a smile on her face, Jane watched the flashing lights until the police cruiser was out of sight.
“Olive,” she said, looking down, “technically speaking, I just quit my job! I feel so light, I think I could fly if I tried. C'mon, let's get some breakfast. Then we're going to my alma mater to see what we can find out about my ex-patient. We might even go on to Slidell.”
“Woof.”
 
 
Jane parked the car in Visitor Parking. She sat quietly, Olive next to her, as she surveyed the campus spread out before her. “I used to live here, Olive. I spent four long years of my life studying and walking these grounds. I think I was happy right up until that awful night. I don't know, maybe I wasn't and just thought I was. Come on, girl, we're going to walk that same route, then you're going to wait for me while I go to the library.”
It was a quiet morning with few students strolling the grounds. Saturdays were for sleeping in after partying all night long. There were a few of the more serious students out and about, students like she'd once been. How young they looked. Had she ever been that young? Of course. Right now she felt vulnerable—so vulnerable she wanted to run back to the car and burrow into the backseat. Her guilt was threatening to choke off her air supply. She took great gulping breaths of air.
Somehow she managed to get herself to the Quad. There, before her, stood the four-story Troy H. Middleton Library. She stared at the bicycles chained to the crepe myrtles. Long ago she'd chained her own bicycle to some of the same crepe myrtles. She continued to stare at them as though seeing the setting for the first time, then turned and started down the path she'd walked that night with Connie Bryan. The only difference between then and now was the time of year. It had been warm that spring night and the azaleas and the sweet olives had been in full bloom. The bubble-gum scent of the sweet olives had been almost overwhelming. She longed to sit down on one of the benches, but there was no time. Maybe later she'd walk over to the parade ground and work her way back to the Quad and sit for a while. From time to time she looked upward to see if the lights were still there and intact. They were. She stopped and looked around to get her bearings. As far as the eye could see were the European red-tile roofs. Those very rooftops were one of the reasons she'd enrolled at LSU. Her ears perked when the clock in the magnificent bell tower chimed. It chimed every fifteen minutes. Jane looked at her watch. To the second.
Keep walking, Jane. Do what you told Betty Vance to do. Relive the experience,
she reminded herself.
No matter how painful, relive it. Maybe you'll remember something.
The first thing she remembered was that she'd felt inadequate compared to Connie—pretty, popular Connie, the Homecoming Queen. She'd asked Jane if she was seeing anyone special.
“No, I'm not seeing anyone special or otherwise,”
Jane had replied.
“You just haven't found the right guy yet. But you will in time. The moment you look into someone's eyes and know that person is your destiny, it's like no other feeling in the world. Todd and I are going to have such a wonderful life. We have our house all picked out, the furniture, even the kitchen dishes and place mats. We want four children and neither one of us cares if they're boys or girls as long as they're healthy. We even picked out names. I'm going to bake and decorate for the holidays. Todd and I both just love Christmas. We met during Christmas break our first year here at LSU. . . .”
“You're very lucky, Connie. I wish you all the happiness in the world,”
Jane had told her.
Instinctively, Jane stopped at the exact spot where she and Connie had stopped that night. She felt momentary panic as her mind jumped forward.
“Hey!”
a voice shrilled in her head.
Jane sucked in her breath and turned to where she remembered the sound had come from. She could picture them standing there, five dark images right behind her and one standing back away from the group. All of them were tall and broad, like football players. Fear and anger knotted inside her.
“Well, lookee here, boys. We snagged us a real little beauty. The school beauty to be exact.”
Jane began to shake as the fearful images of what was coming built in her mind. She could hear Connie ask them what they wanted, then she saw three of the boys pull her away into the bushes.
“Come on, you guys, cut it out,”
she'd cried.
“This isn't funny—”
She heard a thump and remembered she'd dropped her books.
“It's not supposed to be funny, so shut up. We have plans for Little Miss Homecoming Queen, don't we, guys?”
The memories were so real, Jane could feel one of the boy's arms surround her, hold her so tight she couldn't breathe. She remembered struggling, tugging and pushing at his arms, but he was too strong.
She flinched and took a step backwards as she relived the moment one of them punched her in the stomach. Her legs buckled beneath her, and she sat down on the ground. The dark silhouette of the sixth boy, the odd man out, loomed in front of her now as it did then. He was broader and taller than the others. She remembered his leaving, running, and her thinking that maybe he wasn't one of them, that he was going for help.
Like scenes in a movie, the memories came at her, one on top of another. The three boys who had taken Connie into the bushes came back, slapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves. They'd raped the Homecoming Queen. Yea!
Tears filled Jane's eyes just as they had that awful night. She could feel her anger build. She remembered rising and lunging at the boy closest to her, knocking him down.
“This goddamn beached whale needs a lesson,”
one of the others had said.
“Which one of you wants Miss Piggy? No takers?”
A scream rose in her throat, only to be stifled by a beefy hand. Bite him! her mind screamed. Bite him!
Jane took deep breaths, trying to calm herself.
A bite like that was bound to leave a bad scar,
she thought as she gathered Olive close to her. For long minutes she sat staring off into space, thinking, cataloging, and analyzing.
“Back to the car, Olive. I'm going into the library to see who was on the wrestling and football teams that year.” Jane opened the car door and got Olive settled with a chewy. “Don't you dare open this car door! I won't be long.”
It was noon when Jane returned to the car. Behind her, she heard the tram grind to a stop. She turned to relive another old memory. She'd taken the tram on a daily basis to get from one end of the huge campus to the other. Suddenly it seemed like a lifetime ago.
Olive yipped her pleasure at her mistress's return.
Jane climbed into the car and grabbed the apple she'd snagged off the kitchen counter on her way out the door earlier in the morning.
“No. This is my apple, Olive. I gave you a chewy, remember?
“Shhh, I want to look at all this stuff I printed out.” Olive sat quietly, looking out the window. “Look at this, Olive, I don't believe it. Brian Ramsey was a year behind me in school. He was a halfback on the football team. The rest of the first string graduated with me. I've got the profiles on the entire team, but I'm not going to read them until we get home. They were all solid-looking guys, but none of them were as
beefy
as Ramsey. I'll bet none of them had hands like his either. I got all the players' addresses from the alumni book—all the wrestling guys, the first- and second-string football team as well. They all live here in Louisiana. I have my work cut out for me, Olive, but I'm going to follow through. I still have
the bag.
I must have been meant to keep it. Thank God I never threw it away. One quick walk, and then we're off to Slidell.”
Olive walked sedately alongside her mistress as Jane made her way to the Student Union and the parade grounds. She walked down the center, her eyes going right and left. There was David Boyd Hall, Charles E. Coates Hall, James W. Nicholson Hall. The fountain across from Thomas W. Atkinson Hall was the same, and still spouting water. How many times she'd sat on the benches, pondering the world. She continued walking, stopping every few feet so Olive could either sniff or squat. There was the red sign saying Disco Tim's was still in business.
She walked toward the Quad to admire the magnificent tree in the middle. She probably had fifty pictures of the tree taken during her four years at LSU. She wondered where they were. Probably packed away in some box in the garage. “See that stuff growing around the tree, Olive? It's called aspidistra, which means cast-iron plants. You can't kill them. They live on forever and ever. I think we've seen enough. Time to leave.”
 
 
Mike Sorenson raced up the steps, fished out his key, and let himself into Jane's house. The house was too quiet. Olive should have greeted him by now. “Jane! Where are you?” he singsonged. “I brought some fresh sugar donuts!” When there was no response he ran up to the second floor. He frowned at the neatly made bed. It was a little early in the morning for a made bed. Jane didn't usually make the bed until she was ready to leave for work. He checked the towels in the bathroom. They were damp, the shower still wet.
Damn. She didn't say anything about going out early this morning.
Mike headed for the kitchen on the first floor. From there he could check the back of the house to see if Jane's car was gone. He saw the note propped up against the cookie jar the moment he entered the kitchen.
 
Mike,
I decided to drive up to Baton Rouge to check on some things. I'm not sure if I'll be back today or not. I may decide to drive on to Slidell. If I do, I won't be back till tomorrow. I thought you were going to call me last night. I missed talking to you. I have Olive with me. Leave your cell phone on today. If I get a chance, I'll call you. I made some serious decisions last night. I want to talk to you about them.
 
Jane

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