SACRIFICES (46 page)

              Brad takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Jenny looks away and she says.
“Are you happy?
I don’t know what you’re looking for. Is it here?” Jenny looks at Brad and grits her teeth. She slaps him in the face and starts to walk back to the house as she leaves him standing in the garage by himself.

              Brad walks over to the center of the garage and smiles when he looks at her candy apple red Trans Am. And he smiles again when he sees her Ford Explorer, that’s pearl white. He closes his eyes and starts to feel humiliated as he walks back to the house.

              He closes her door to the garage and locks it. When he opens the door to the landing he sees her leaning up against the kitchen sink with tears in her eyes. Brad walks over and hands her the keys. He starts to move closer to give her a hug. She pushes him back hard. Brad swallows and looks away. “I’m sorry.”

              Jenny looks away gritting her teeth with her eyes closed. “
You’re not forgiven
.” She walks back to the living room as he follows and she stops at the large dinning room table and points to the piece of paper next to the cordless phone. He stops and notices that next to the phone is a piece of paper with all of Brad’s numbers on it: his home, his work and his cell phone. There’s a big heart with an arrow through it drawn around the numbers. Brad looks away feeling stupid for coming here like he did and acting like this.

              Jenny looks at him with her teeth locked and heads for the door. She opens it and points. Brad stops and starts to talk and his phone rings. Jenny looks away and takes a seat on the arm of the chair while he answers the phone.

              “Jostler here.” Brad says as he opens the phone. The voice on the other end is Todd.

              “Are you in Pekin?”

              Brad softly says. “Yes.”

              Todd leans back in his chair and says. “I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour. But when you were traveling on the highway you must have been out of area or something for a while because all I got was your voice mail. Anyway I wanted to tell you that I did some more checking. It took a court order. It was what I was working on for the last two days. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure.” Brad listens as he can’t help but look at the sad look on Jenny’s face as she sits on the arm of the chair with her leg crossed sniffling and wiping tears away.

              “It turns out that she’s in the witness relocation program. They couldn‘t give me too many details because of confidentiality. But he said that she‘s been in it for a long time. Who knows the exact reason but that‘s why she has different names? They told me that they believe it has something to do with the mafia court case her dad was involved with years ago. He witnessed something or seen something I don’t know all the details but her father had threats against his life and his family during the case as well as after. They think it all derived from that case. I hope I don‘t cause her too much trouble because I did this. But it‘s legit, I‘m not sure exactly what the reason is but it‘s definitely a legal reason.” Brad exhales as he looks at her. “The only way we were able to dig this up was because I told the judge with the federal court a bullshit story about thinking this girl was being watched. He believed me and told me the story. It also didn’t hurt that I had Chief Carlin call him personally. Turns out Jason knew this guy and told him it was all legal and legitimate. I couldn’t believe she lied to you for any other reason besides something serious like this. So I rolled the dice and it came up seven.”               

              Todd sighs and says sounding depressed. “Brad...I also took the liberty of doing some more checking on the Beth Townsend story from the letter,“ Brad puts his head down and just listens feeling humiliated for acting this way toward Jenny. “I did a little more digging. Well I had a little hunch that I thought might come in handy if we decided to maybe try and contact her someday. So I used our reports as well as what she said in the letter and checked out something. I went back and checked out with the funeral home that Beth’s mother was sent to after her death. The hospital of course had the records and faxed them right over. I called them and on another hunch, I was curious as to ‘WHO’ paid the bills for the services and the burial. Well like I said it was just a hunch and they had all of the records. They checked it and I had them tell me the name. It turns out the name is Veronica Glass, she was a niece of Mrs. Townsend and she paid all the bills. Well of course I ran the name and requested the DMV to send me the picture...and I don’t what this means if anything...but...it appears that the Veronica in the picture is a spitting image of the Veronica we know from the Waterloo.“ Brad feels like he was just hit with a brick he mumbles.
‘What’
. Todd continues as he looks at the picture. “Yeah...they could be twins if their not the same person. Now I called Pete over there and ask him what her last name was. He said its Jorgenson. He was curious about why I wanted to know so I told him because you were fond of the girl and you wanted to send her some flowers. He chuckled and made the comment ‘I’d like to see them two get together because Brad’s all she talks about, night and day.‘ So of course to not make myself out to be a liar I had the local florist send her a nice arrangement. I hope you’re not mad, but I had to cover my story regardless. Cause if it’s not her then it’s just a nice friendly gesture, if it is her then she’s not suspicious as to me wanting to know her last name.“ Todd shuffles some more papers finding all of this very uneasy to think about.

              Brad sighs and doesn’t know what to think. He and Todd always planned on letting this person vanish and never looking for her. But if it is her, how could they look at her knowing what she’s done and what’s she’s capable of doing.

              Todd sighs loudly and says. “Like I said I don’t know what any of this means but I just wanted you to know what I found.“ Todd hesitates and adds. “I know you and I’m sure you’ve already drawn some of your own ideas about Jenny and well...I just know how you think. Well just put those ideas out of your head and tell that girl you love her. We can talk about the Veronica situation when you come back.“

              Brad’s still very much in shock so he just nods his head and says. “Thanks.“ Then he hangs up the phone.

              He walks toward Jenny with his head hung low, not only because of how he’s treated Jenny, but now thinking that it’s possible that the girl that committed these crimes wanted him to spend the night with her just the other night. Brad’s beginning to wonder if it was possible he might have never left her apartment alive. He looks at Jenny. “I’m sorry.”

              Jenny moves back as he tries to grab her hand. “I can’t believe you did this.”

              “I’m sorry.” Brad moves closer as he sighs and runs his hands through his hair.

              “You grabbed my arms and squeezed real hard and then you yelled at me,” Jenny starts to cry. “You scared me and then you start accusing me of things that are unbelievable and you want to see my garage.” Jenny starts to wipe away the tears as Brad moves closer.

              Brad tries to take a hold of her hand. She slaps his hand away and yells.
“GET OUT OF HERE!”

              He continues to move closer. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you...or any of this.” Brad looks away feeling about two inches tall for scaring her and acting this way.

              Jenny wipes away the tears and says. “I don’t know why you’re here?” She sniffles and wipes her eyes appearing incredibly confused by the way Brad‘s been acting.

              Brad turns around and walks to the couch and sits down. He leans forward and smiles. “The truth of the matter is Todd started to look for you after you didn’t call me. He saw how upset I was and he was just trying to help. When he did his research he found out about your name on your license through the car rental place and the fact that you didn’t live in Peoria. And well he got a little suspicious about this. So I just grabbed the information he found and drove straight down here.” Brad looks toward her fireplace away from her.

              Jenny clears her throat and asks as she wipes the corner of her eye. “Why were you so upset?”

              Brad leans back and sighs. “I was upset because I didn’t get a chance to tell you some things before you left. I thought after I read your letter that you were leaving me for good and that was that.” He feels so embarrassed at this moment he doesn’t know what to say to her to make up for what he‘s done and the manner in which he‘s acted.

              Jenny walks over and sits down next to him on the couch and asks while she rubs her eyes sniffling. “You’re here now. Tell me what you didn’t get a chance to tell me.” She wipes away some more tears.

              Brad closes his eyes and tries to get the courage. “I just wanted to say,” He looks toward the floor and then up at the ceiling. “I just wanted to tell you that you really meant a lot to me and, and,” He stands up and moves toward the fireplace and leans his arm against the mantle while she remains on the couch. “…and I was afraid that I was never going to be able to tell you that...” He pauses as he turns to face her. “...I’m in love with you.”

              Jenny looks toward the floor and doesn’t respond. She stands up and starts to pace.

              Brad glances over still feeling nervous about telling her. He walks toward her and says. “I do love you and when you left the way you did I never thought I’d be able to tell you how I felt.” Brad moves closer.

              Jenny sighs and explains. “I was really going to call you tonight. I really was Brad. I love you too; I love you so much that’s why I got scared. I was afraid of falling in love with you and never being able to have you, I fell in love with you so fast that I got scared, that‘s why I needed time to think.”

              Brad takes her in his arms and smiles. “I’m in love with you so much. I wanted to tell you before you left, I came home early and I was going to tell you. I was so scared I’d never see you again.”

              Jenny leans her face against his chest. “I was looking for a place to stay in Chicago; I already found a job at Chicago Memorial. Come here and look.” Jenny leads him to the card table in the dinning room that shows a Chicago Tribune with a bunch of apartment addresses and numbers circled.

              Brad smiles and hits himself on the forehead with his fist softly and says. “I wish I had told you how I felt. I love you so much.”

              Jenny smiles and holds him tight. “The real reason I use different names...” Brad interrupts.

              “Let’s not talk about that now. We’ll have time to talk about that later.” He pulls her close as she smiles.

              “I don’t want to spend one more day of my life without you in it Jenny. I don’t know if I could.” Brad smiles while they hold each other in the middle of the living room.

              Jenny walks over to the couch and sits down. “I found this nice place about two blocks from you. It’s very nice.”

              Brad grins and says. “I don’t think you need to look for any place to stay. If you’d like to,” He shies away. “I’d love it if you’d stay with me.”

              Jenny smiles and turns her head. “What about your son? What’s he going to think?”

              Brad smiles again as he thinks about his son. “I think after he finds out how much I care about you he’ll love the idea.”

              Jenny and Brad sit down on the couch and hold each other like there’s no tomorrow. They hug, kiss and cuddle for about a half an hour and talk and talk some more. They tell each other repeatedly how much they love each other. Brad feels so stupid for what he thought and the way he acted and Jenny keeps telling him how she wished she had called him.

30 MINUTES LATER
             

              Jenny stands up and asks as she walks to the kitchen. “What exactly did you think I did? You scared me when you came in talking about me killing and raping and all of this stuff. What on earth were you thinking?” Jenny turns and smiles.

              Brad looks away and tells her. “That’s not important.”

              Jenny returns and stands there with her hands in her pockets. “Sure it is. I’m very curious. When I saw you standing at my front door...it felt so good. I thought my Chicago detective hunted me down to walk into my life and sweep me off my feet. Instead you come walking in yelling and making crazy accusations and I don’t know it didn’t make sense to me.” She sits down beside him with her hands still in her pockets.

              Brad smiles and sits down his drink on the coffee table. “Do you want to know the truth?” Jenny smiles and shakes her head. “Alright but I hope you don’t get mad. I came down here to find you to see why you had a different name and why you lied to me.
At first,
then as I drove the four plus hours I thought about how much I loved you and how much I just had to tell you,” Jenny smiles as she listens. “It just so happens when I was thinking about the time you left and the case. We got a letter from the person that was killing these guys, they were saying goodbye. It seemed strange to me that you left at the same time and then I started to remember a person who was a nurse driving a black Camry around the sight of one of the murders and one of the attacks,” Brad smiles and looks away. “It’s just crazy. I’m even sorry I’m telling you this because it was just nonsense. Call it an overactive imagination brought on from so many years of being paid to be suspicious.” He smiles and leans back.