The 22nd Secret (4 page)

Paula washed her face, put on a little bit of make-up, and combed her hair. She still looked frightening and desperately wanted a bath. She figured the tubs were in the guest bathrooms on the second floor. She cautiously left the restroom to join Jim by the fire.

Jim needed to report the crash to the sheriff, but wanted to ask Paula a few questions first. There really wasn’t any reason to hurry. There wouldn’t be a search effort until the weather cleared anyway.

Pam came into the room, sat at the other end of the couch facing Jim with her legs crossed Indian-style. The couch was more than deep enough for her to sit like this. She enjoyed Jim’s quick glance down her body to her tight jeans stretched between her legs.

“You look better. Still sore though, I bet.” Jim spoke, not daring to take his eyes off Paula’s face.

“Yeah, I think that’s going to last a while.”

“Ah, Paula.” Jim looked at the fire. “I have to report the crash and I, well, have a few questions.” Jim had more than one reason for wanting to know the answer to some of these questions.

“Report the crash? What do you mean?” Paula’s voice quavered.

This caught Jim off guard and he looked directly at Paula.

“Well, I have a two-way radio over there and I check in periodically with the sheriff. His name’s Bill. We’ve been friends all our lives and, well, something like this you just have to report. You know, people will be wondering what happened to you and those guys in the plane. Did you know them well? It doesn’t seem to bother you much. I mean, you know, what happened to them and all.” That was the important question Jim needed answered, that and the ring.

Pam lowered her head in sadness, and to give herself a chance to muster some tears. Like she had done with many men, Pam would use Jim’s physical attraction to her.

“Yes, I knew them. I knew one of them real well. It’s complicated, Jim. You aren’t going to understand.” She raised her head and looked into Jim’s eyes. He was overwhelmed with empathy.

“I don’t know how to even start. I guess it was impossible, but somehow I thought maybe I’d never have to explain all this to you.” She covered her face with her hands, lowered her head and waited for Jim to come over and put his arm around her. She knew he would, and a second later that’s just what he did.

“It's okay, Paula, let it out. Let it all out. It has to come out sooner or later.” He patted her back with his hands as he held her.

Pam wrapped her arms around Jim’s neck and pulled her chest hard against his, knocking him against the back of the couch. “Oh, Jim. I wish I didn’t have to tell you about this. I was hoping you’d never have to know. But I guess that isn’t going to happen. I’m so scared.”

“Know what? What is it you’re scared of?” He held her tighter, trying to comfort her. Jim held her shoulders in his hands and pushed her back. Her long legs were still folded Indian-style. She leaned against the back of the couch. Pam brushed her hair back over her head and looked at Jim with tears running down her face. Jim got up walked to the bar. He returned with a box of Kleenex. Pam set the box on her lap, took one, and began dabbing at the tears.

“Paula, just tell me. I’ll understand, it can’t be all that bad.”

“Yes, it can.” Pam turned her head to look at the fire. She didn’t want to look into Jim’s eyes
.
“The two men on the plane were Mafia.”

“What?”

“I mean, big time Mafia. I didn’t know one of them, but I knew Tino. He was one of the most powerful members of the family on the west coast, and I was his girl.” Suddenly, her voice grew hysterical. “I wish I would have died with him.” She jumped up from the couch and ran to the door, flung it open and ran out into the blizzard.

“Son of a bitch.” Jim jumped from the couch and ran after her. The sudden exposure to the biting wind and her physical exhaustion brought Pam to a stop on the porch, just before the stairs. Jim gently wrapped his arms around her from behind.

“It’s twenty below out here,” he said above the howling wind. “You’ll freeze.” He picked Paula up and carried her back inside. He set her down and closed the door. She quickly turned away and looked toward the bar. Jim tenderly placed his hand on her shoulder and she stood frozen.

“Whatever it is, it’s not worth your life. Look, we can work all this out. I’ll radio Bill.”

Paula spun around with fire darting from her eyes.

“You can’t just radio your old lifelong buddy, Bill. What the hell do you think we were doing out here? Looking for the Chinese. The damn Chinese that’s what we were doing. Tino was going to sell them some kind of military secret? You radio Bill and he’ll radio the feds and they’ll come here and arrest me. Get the picture? Oh, there’s more but that’s the short version.”

Paula looked up at Jim’s shocked expression and began sobbing. She collapsed suddenly and Jim sprang forward to catch her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed loudly into his shoulder while he picked her up and carried her to the couch. She rolled over and hid herself between the soft seat cushions and back of the couch. Jim fell back into one of the leather chairs that flanked the fireplace and stared at the fire.

“Paula,” Jim whispered.

“I wish you hadn’t found me,” she stammered. “I wish I were dead. It would have been better if you just left me out there to freeze.”

Jim walked over and sat down on the edge of the couch next to Paula. It was clear she was becoming hysterical again. “You can’t mean that.” He gently rubbed her leg. Paula turned over and pushed herself up to recline on the arm of the couch. She brushed her hair back from her face. Pam flashed her tear-filled eyes at Jim, who didn’t look away.

Everything was working so far. She spoke with anger in her voice. It was the false anger she knew would lead Jim to empathize with her.

“It’s not just the goddamned government that I’m worried about. Let me explain
my
facts of life. I was Tino’s girlfriend. Lots of men like Tino have girlfriends. It wasn’t so bad. The pay was really good. I saved a lot of money. You have to, because in a few years he would meet someone else and if you were smart enough to not know anything and had a reputation for keeping your mouth shut they might let you go or they might not. I knew girls that just disappeared.”

“You mean they got killed?”

“I’ve been with Tino four years. I knew it was time he found someone new. You think Tino would let me walk away knowing he sold the Chinese some kind of military secret? When he told me I was going to Alaska with him and what he was going to do there, I figured he was going to give me to the Chinese as some kind of a goodwill gesture or just leave me out in the middle of nowhere to freeze to death.”

“Jesus, Paula. Are you serious?”

Her voice softened. “So you see, I kind of figured on the ride here I’d been given a second chance at life. I guess that was silly, but I never thought I’d meet someone like you. Tino was dead and I thought maybe the rest of his friends would forget about me. Jim, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what else I can do. I have no life to go back to. You see now why it would have been better if I had just died today. I know you can’t do this, but please don’t tell them about me,” Paula pleaded.

As they sat there silently gazing into each other’s eyes, Jim and Pam had very different thoughts. Jim knew as long as this hung between them, Paula would never feel like romance. He also knew that she was one mixed-up young lady. She was too young and beautiful to give up on life. Pam wondered what it was about this handsome rugged man that was so irresistible. What was it about him that made her feel almost submissive, ready to let him take over her mind and body? She’d never felt this way toward another man.

Jim knew the solution to her problems would be telling the authorities the truth.

“Paula, you have a life worth living. I don’t want you to feel like you have nowhere to go. You’re welcome here until you feel you can make your own choices about what to do with your life.” Jim rubbed Paula’s leg as a gesture of sincerity, sending thoughts of passion through both of them. He fought off the sexual desires that were overtaking him. Pam felt it too. The physical attraction between them was so strong that both had to struggle to keep focused.

“You’re not going to tell them about me?” Pam was relieved. She sat up and threw her arms around Jim. Her tongue softly licked his ear lobe.

“Don’t tell them about me,” she whispered. “I’ll do anything you want if you just don’t tell them about me.” Then, as if to offer further explanation, she kissed him passionately.

Jim sensed the change in her demeanor when she stopped. She sat facing him on the couch. She was so beautiful. Her eyes sparkled and her breasts invited his caress. Jim could sense her desire to please him, to reward him for saving her life at the crash scene and from the mob.

“Let me think about this.” Jim stood and walked to the fire to add some wood. Pam suddenly felt exhausted. She lay down on the couch and closed her eyes. She wished she had met Jim under different circumstances.

Jim sat down in the leather chair next to the couch and thought to himself.
I’m not much different than her gangster boyfriend. He used her and was going to just throw her away or give her up like a slave to the Chinese. Now it was my turn to use her and give her to the authorities. Maybe they would put her in a witness protection program. Probably not. They’ll get what they want from her and let the mob deal with her.

Jim looked at Paula and noticed she was dozing off. He thought about her extraordinary beauty. He knew that if things were different he would make a play for her. And why shouldn’t he? She said she had nothing to go back to. He knew he could hide her from the authorities for a few days. That would give her a chance to relax and make everything easier. Maybe she could make a new life for herself.

“Paula, I have an idea.”

Her eyes slowly opened and she smiled. Jim was transfixed by her. It was like she knew he was about to deceive her and she accepted it. As quickly as his mind and body had been frozen it was released again.

“What idea?” Paula asked.

“I’ll radio Bill and tell him about the plane and the two dead guys. Tell him the luggage had been gone through and there were footprints leading away from the crash. Tell him I followed the footprints as long as I could but the storm and darkness made me head home. I hide you out. I got a place. The CIA or whoever comes up here. I show them the plane. They find what they want. They don’t really care about you so they leave. This thing they’re looking for, do you know what it is? Is it still on the plane?”

“I have no idea what it is, but I guess it’s still on the plane. All I know is the Chinese want whatever it is real bad. They were supposed to meet somewhere up here, somewhere called Otter Bay.” Paula sat up excited to think Jim may actually help her.

“You think it will work?”

Jim was lost in thought.

“Oh, Jim. I don’t what to go to prison. I didn’t do anything.”

“Whatever it is, it better still be on that plane, because if these guys don’t find it, they aren’t just going to go away and let us live happily ever after.”

Jim got up and went to the laundry room behind the kitchen next to the dining room and returned with a couple of blankets and pillows. He took one blanket and gently spread it out over her. When he lifted her head to slide a pillow under, she rose up just enough to give Jim a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, Jim. I’ll make it worth it for you, I promise. It’s just I’m so tired and weak right now.”

Jim kissed Paula softly on the forehead.

“Get some rest. We’ll talk tomorrow.” She rolled into the back of the couch and pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Jim put some logs on the fire and sat in one of the leather chairs next to the couch. He stuffed a pillow behind his head and pulled the blanket over him. He was tired too but had to wait until he was sure Paula was asleep before he could radio Bill. He was going to report the crash and tell him that the sole survivor was here with him.