The Glimpsing (24 page)

He dried his eyes and was about to walk away when he heard a rough click.
 
The painting had slipped from one of its hooks.
 
He reached up, intending to set it right, and then noticed Gabrielle’s picture directly beside it.

He stared at her, feeling inwardly confused, almost disoriented… and then, as he continued to gaze, a strange euphoria suddenly swelled within him.
 
He immediately identified it as the feeling that had overwhelmed him the night he had caressed Gabrielle’s face; the same that had made him kiss her so passionately before sending her off to Rio.
 
But this time, along with that feeling, came something completely unexpected.
 
A way out.
 
Hope.

Jack Parke pulled Gabrielle’s image from the wall and carried it with him to bed.
 
He lay there gazing at it warmly, star struck by the feeling that he’d never before seen a more beautiful woman.

Jack would not let his eyes depart Gabrielle’s face until they’d begun to drift closed in the quiet calm of sleep.
 
And as they did, the sound of the storm slowly crept back in.

The wind still howled, and the rain continued to pour, but it was clear now.
 
The worst of it had already passed.

The eyes of Jack’s face had fallen shut transfixed by Gabrielle’s beauty, but the eyes of his heart remained upon her the entire night.
 
Never once did they let her leave his side.

For the first time in three days, Jack Parke had had an uneventful night.
 
No entities visited him, either for the purposes of seduction or murder.
 
It was a quiet sleep, a peaceful sleep, one devoid of tossing and turning, dreams or nightmares.
 
It was the kind of sleep from which one awakes a new man.

He opened his eyes and peered at the clock.
 
5:30am, the time his body naturally roused him from sleep.
 
Outside, a bluish haze was beginning to soften the black of the eastern horizon, but dawn was still more than thirty minutes away.
 
He reached forward and flicked on the lamp.
 
The bedroom alit in a gentle candle-like glow.
 
He lay back, pulling his hands behind his head and gazing up at his reflection in the mirror.

He still looked rough.
 
Several days without a shave had left his face scraggly and coarse.
 
There was puffiness around his cheekbones but his eyes were clear, showing no signs of the redness that had plagued them.

He reached beneath a fold in the bedspread and found Gabrielle’s photograph.
 
He peered at it, sighing deeply, smiling.

It was welling within him again—just staring at her seemed to bring it out—that wonderful sense of bliss, the feeling that had given him hope.
 
Its power, he believed, had guarded him through the night, preventing Rose’s appearance and his certain fall into temptation.
 
Only now he knew what that feeling was.
 
In a way he’d always known.
 
It was love.
 
Somehow he’d actually fallen in love with Gabrielle.

The signs had been there all along, he supposed, although he’d been blind to them.
 
There were those insistent urges to touch Gabrielle, that odd way that she seemed to bring him comfort.
 
Even the way he had kissed her on the tarmac before sending her off to Rio, with such reckless passion, such sorrow that she was leaving his side, bore subtle testimony to what he was feeling.
 
Of course, he’d sensed that she was different for some time, but he had never been willing to admit that she was so much more, that
she was special.
 
Well, he could admit it now.
 
Gabrielle Saltair was the only truly special woman he’d ever known.

In hindsight, he had to wonder if it had been much more than mere drunken coincidence that had brought him to Gabrielle’s house that morning two months ago.
 
Maybe what happened there was much more than the first step in his sordid plan of revenge.
 
Maybe behind it all, fate was lurking.
 
Maybe destiny.
 
Or maybe it was a greater force than the two of those combined.
 
Maybe it was God.

Surely Janice would have agreed with this latter interpretation.
 
She would have assured him that this was all part of God’s unfathomable providence.
 
That all the strange things so suddenly occurring in his life: the painting, the glimpsing of Rose, the sighting of the Magnolia tree, and even his dreadful encounter with Thomas McCain, was all part of some greater plan.
 
God had allowed him to fall into Portia’s trap, allowed him to become hemmed in by his own desires, just so He could send Gabrielle to the rescue, just so he’d realize that his love for her was the only way out.

Jack turned to the phone, which still lay
uncradled
beside its base.
 
He reached forward, hung it up briefly, and then dialed Gabrielle’s cell.

She answered, “Jack?”

“Yes,” he said solemnly.

She issued a long, relieved sigh.
 
“Oh, thank God.
 
Thank God.
 
Are you okay?”

She sounded worn down, fatigued in some way.
 
That worried him.
 
“Yes, I’m fine.
 
Are you?
 
You don’t sound well.”

“I’ve been up all night, worrying, but that’s not important.
 
I’m just…”
 
She sighed once more, deeply, wearily.
 
“I’m just glad you’re safe.
 
I didn’t know what to think last night.
 
I wasn’t sure if you were sleepwalking, or if Thomas was really there, or—”

He cut her off.
 
“Don’t let it bother you.”

“Don’t let it bother me?
 
Jack, something strange is happening to you, to us.”

“It’s over now,” he gently insisted.

“But—”

“Trust me, Gabrielle.
 
It’s finished.”

There was a short silence.
 
“What makes you say that?
 
What’s happened?”

“I’ll tell you all about it as soon as you’re back in town.”

Another short silence.
 
“No.
 
No, Jack.
 
Something is happening.
 
I can’t explain it, but I feel it.
 
There’s
a darkness
… an evil.
 
It won’t go away.”

“It will go away once I explain everything,” he said.
 
“Now listen, I want you to take the next few days and try to relax.
 
I know I put you through a lot.
 
 
I’ll call Alderman and have him delay the shoot a few days.
 
He won’t like it, but I’ll get it worked out.
 
In the meantime I want you to take it easy.
 
Go down to the beach, site-see, but please, I want you to relax.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Jack.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m no longer in Rio.”

“What?”

“After you told me Thomas was in the house and that you were going to kill him, I was worried sick.
 
I kept trying to call you back but the line rang busy.
 
I didn’t know what was going on, and just sitting there was unbearable.
 
I had to know that you were okay, and the only way I could do that was to leave.
 
So I called the pilots and told them I had an emergency.
 
It took a few hours to get the plane ready but…
well,
I’ve been in the air for almost two hours.”

“Gabrielle, everything is fine.
 
You need to turn around right now and fly back to Rio.”

“No,” she replied in calm defiance.

“Gabrielle, that’s an important shoot.
 
You do understand that skipping out on Alderman like this could jeopardize your career.”

“I don’t care, Jack.
 
You’re more important to me than either Alderman or my career.”

Jack found himself moved by the comment. “Okay fine, I’ll take care of Alderman.
 
What time do you land?”

“I’m due in at 1:15pm.”

“Good.”

“Are you going in to the studio?”

“I have a 9:00am with Mark and a prospect.”

“Will you be free around 2:30pm?”

“I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but what do you have in mind?”

“I want you to meet me at Mark Joseph’s at 2:30.”

“The restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“How about we have dinner instead.”

“No.
 
I don’t want to wait.”

“Why not?
 
We’re only talking a few hours difference.”

“No, Jack.”
 
She sounded flustered.
 
“I… it’s just… I need to tell you something.”

“And it can’t wait?”

“No, it can’t.”

Jack paused, musing.
 
“What is it, Gabrielle?
 
What’s wrong?”

There was a long lull, another sigh.
 
“I don’t know.
 
It just…”

“You can tell me.
 
What is it?”

“It’s just that… last night, I had this crushing sensation… I felt like…”

“What?”

“Like… I wasn’t ever going to see you again.”

That surprised Jack.
 
He said nothing.

“It upset me so badly that I promised myself that if I ever got the chance, I’d make sure you knew everything I…” She trailed off.

“What?
 
Everything you what?”

“Nothing.
 
I’ll tell you at Mark Joseph’s.”

“Listen to me, Gabrielle.
 
Nothing is going to happen to me.
 
I promise you that.
 
Things are… different now.
 
You’ll see what I mean when you get here.”

She sounded on the verge of tears.
 
“I want so badly to believe that, Jack, but… I just can’t.
 
This feeling I have.
 
It won’t leave me alone.”

“Listen, I know there have been some strange things going on: I had some hallucinations, some bouts with sleepwalking.
 
But you’ll have to trust me.
 
It really is over.”

Silence.

“Can you do that for me?
 
Can you trust me?”

She paused again.
 
“Yes,” she finally said.

“Good,” Jack said.
 
“Then I’ll see you at Mark Joseph’s, 2:30 sharp.”

“Okay,” she said, trying to right herself.

“I’m going to go now.
 
Remember what I said.
 
Just trust me.”

“I do.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Jack.”

He was placing the receiver on its base when he heard Gabrielle exclaim: “Jack!”
 
She’d said it with such desperation that he immediately yanked the phone back to his ear.

“Yes, what’s wrong?”

“I…”

Jack strained the phone to his ear.
 
“Yes?”

“I want to tell you something.
 
It’s important. I don’t think it can wait.”

“Okay.”

She hesitated,
then
sighed.
 
“I’m sorry,” she said despondently.
 
“I’ll just wait until I see you at Mark Joseph’s.
 
Goodbye, Jack.”

“Goodbye.”

Jack slowly cradled the receiver, frowning slightly as he did so.
 
He mused for a moment, stroking his chin, and then spoke aloud what he was thinking.
 
“Well, I’ll be damned.
 
I think she’s in love with me too.”

In Jack’s mind there was little doubt that this was what she intended to tell him at Mark Joseph’s.
 
But she didn’t sound very confident about doing so.
 
And why should she?
 
Why should she expect anything but the worst type of response from him?
 
Gabrielle was a smart girl, and as such she had to know that an admission of this sort would very likely drive him away.
 
But what she didn’t know was that when those precious words fell from her lips, when she finally summoned the courage to say “I’m in love with you,”
 
he
himself would reach forward, cradle her hands in his own, and say: “Then I guess that makes this a perfect day.
 
Because I’m in love with you too.”