CHAPTER fifty-five
It turned out that Jay had a very protective side to him and as much as I’d dreamed of having a knight in shining armour to fight my battles for me, I had a helluva time holding him back.
"I’ll kill him," was all he said through clenched teeth when I finished my story.
"Very nice, Mr. Harmon, but I don’t think your mother’d be impressed. Besides, when we turn him over to the police and I charge him with kidnapping and assault, he’ll go to jail."
I grinned at Jay but he didn’t get it.
"He’s so pretty Jay, so perfect. They’ll love him in the Kingston penitentiary. I’m sure those convicts have had a long, cold winter and they’ll welcome him with open arms."
This at least got a laugh out of Jay, but he quickly turned serious again.
"Let’s go then," he said as he stood up.
"Where?"
"To the police."
"Hang on," I told him as I pulled his arm and made him sit down again.
"There’s more to it. There has to be. Why did he kidnap me? What’s he trying to hide? Think about it Jay. So his mother told him we were at the house and maybe he knows we figured out he’s using another name. That’s not a major crime. He’s hiding something else. I’m sure, in fact I’m convinced, that this is all tied in to Ev’s death and Rick’s death. And now Harold’s involved. What the hell is Harold doing messed up with all of this?"
"Maybe Harold doesn’t understand what he’s involved with. You didn’t let him explain what he wanted to talk to you about. Maybe Philip gave him some cock and bull story."
I snorted at this. "You didn’t hear his voice Jay. He was very concerned, very solicitous. Does this sound like the short lawyer with a big attitude who we’ve all held so near and dear to our hearts these last few years?"
"Okay," he sighed. "I’ll take your word for it. I just have trouble believing Harold’s involved. I’m feeling like the last virgin at a pool party at Hugh Hefner’s mansion."
I started to chuckle but he interrupted, "You know. You’re determined to hang on to your innocence and virginity, but in the back of your mind you know it’s all about to end. You’re thinking, do I just give in and enjoy it or do I fight to keep it? That’s how I feel about finding out Harold’s just another snake. Disgusted."
"You’re turning into a cynic Jay."
"It comes from associating with you," he joked.
"Stick with me Harmon, and you’ll become more than just a cynic."
"In the meantime, we have to do something."
"After I return Vanessa’s car."
When Vee answered the doorbell her cordless phone was tucked between her ear and shoulder. She silently motioned us in and Jay and I followed her in to the kitchen where we both sat at the counter on the barstools. The clock on the wall told me it was eleven-forty and because of the hour, I knew she could only be talking to one person - Chris Oakes.
Vee covered the mouthpiece of the phone and told us, "He’s rambling." She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and mumbled something into the phone.
"This could take a while," I whispered to Jay and placed Vee’s car keys, cell phone and money on the kitchen counter. "She’s talking to Oakes."
I slid off the stool and waved good-bye but Vee once again covered the mouthpiece and said, "Hang on. I’ll get rid of him."
"Chris," she said patiently into the phone. "Chris," she repeated in a singsong voice. "Goodbye." She pushed a button on the phone and put it on the counter.
"It’ll take him a few minutes to realize I’ve hung up and then he’ll call back," she told us.
"I thought you didn’t answer the phone at home, just in case it was him," I teased her.
"Normally I don’t, but I thought it might be you, so I’m holding you personally responsible for the crap I’ve just listened to."
"In one of his abusive modes?" I asked knowingly.
She shook her head. "No. In his morose mode. Drunk and rambling. When he’s sober I have trouble following him but when he’s drunk, it’s worse."
"Why do you put up with that garbage?" Jay interrupted.
"Because I have two mouths to feed," she quickly retorted. "And it’ll be something I can tell my grandchildren one day. How the big executive, with all the money and power in the world, goes home at night and has nothing better to do than drink, and watch Star Trek re-runs. He has no friends because he abuses anyone who gets remotely close to him. No one."
"I thought I read somewhere that he was married," Jay said.
"He tells everyone that. Cynthia was a woman who lived with him for a while but she’s long gone now. She told me she woke up one day and realized that all the money in the world wasn’t going to keep her there. Cynthia was nothing more than a decoration for Chris." Vee placed her elbows on the counter and put her face in her hands. None of what she was telling Jay was news to me but he was hanging on to her every word.
"The part of that whole story that amazed me," I interjected, "was the fact that they never once slept together."
"Come off it girls," Jay said. "How could you possibly know that?"
"How many times do I have to tell you, we’re invisible," I said. "People tell secretaries anything and everything. They think we’re stupid and they say anything in front of you. Because it doesn’t get repeated, they tell you more. Before you know it, you’re a confidante. The boss thinks you’re stupid, we call it discrete. Want to know how many blow jobs Tom James’s wife gave him last year?"
"That’s disgusting. And no. I don’t want to know," Jay said.
"None," I told him anyway and Vanessa laughed. "And just for the record, Tom, the great Tower of Jell-O, didn’t tell me directly about his sex life, or lack thereof. He was lamenting with one of the directors one day. In front of me. Unbelievable."
"I agree," said Jay. "So Oakes told you Vee that he and this Cynthia never slept together?"
"Yup," she nodded. "One night, on the phone. Told me that they had separate bedrooms and that they’d never once had sex. Cynthia went up a few notches in my books after that." She looked at me and we both visibly shivered. "Yuk. Just the thought of getting into bed with that sorry excuse for a man, makes me sick."
I nodded my head in wholehearted agreement.
"So what was the great one rambling on about tonight?"
"Who knows Kate? It never makes any sense. Tonight he was crying over how much he misses Rick Cox. When he started on about that I just about hung up. He’s sick," she stated emphatically. "Sick. The whole time Rick was with us, Oakes had a vendetta against him. All he wanted to do was to get him fired. You saw those memos he had the vice-presidents write. All garbage. And then Rick goes and does something stupid and gets himself fired anyway. But then Oakes got totally incoherent. Mumbling away about how it was an accident. Just an accident. Over and over again. She was an accident he kept saying and I wanted to remind him that Rick was a he but I couldn’t bother wasting my breath. She was an accident. And then he put the dog on the phone. Say hi to Baby, Vanessa. That’s when you guys arrived and saved me."
She was an accident, he’d said. She might be a slip of the tongue once or twice with someone drunk, but to repeat it over and over again, meant only one thing to me. She was Evelyn. The son-of-a-bitch meant Evelyn.
I slowly picked up the telephone that was lying on the counter between us and punched in Oakes’ home number from memory. The phone on the other end rang three times and when it was answered I could hear a dog barking loudly in the background.
"Who’re you calling?" Jay asked me and I quieted him with an upheld hand.
"Um," was the answer I got from the other end.
"Chris," I said firmly into the phone. "Kate Monahan here."
"Uh," was the reply which I took for a hello.
"Chris," I said again. "Is that Baby I hear in the background? How is Baby?" Baby was the only living thing that could stand
to be around Chris Oakes and for that reason, he worshipped the dog. Talking about the dog always got big points.
"Baby," he slurred into the phone. "Baby’s fine. You wanna say ‘ello?"
"No. No thanks Chris. I just had a quick question." The man was clearly drunk and I knew I could go for the jugular and get a few quick answers. Knowing that I was never working for the company again gave me the bravado to be bold. "You were saying earlier that she was an accident. She was an accident," I repeated.
"Ohm," he mumbled.
I looked at Vee and Jay who were staring in disbelief at me.
"Chris," I said loudly to make sure I had his attention. "When you said she you mean Evelyn, didn’t you?" There was silence at the other end of the phone and I wasn’t sure if he’d passed out or was just ignoring my question. "Evelyn. The lady who died. Was she the accident Chris?"
I heard a sob from the other end and I felt the blood rush to my ears. He’d done it.
"You bastard," I yelled into the phone. "Evelyn. She was the accident wasn’t she, Chris? Answer me," I demanded.
"She," he hesitated. "She shouldn’t have died. It was an accident. I’m so sorry."