#Inveigle | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fainting-fat-cat · 1 year ago

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Inveigle

“They tell me you’re a famous author.”

“So they say.” Eva acknowledges with a shrug. She looks up at him with mild interest. He has the look of a man who used to be handsome but a little too much food stretched over a few too many years and an unfortunate mustache mask his otherwise charming good looks. “What I want to know is, who are you?”

“My name is Gary Hudson.” The man says holding out a beefy hand to shake, manners so deeply ingrained that it never even occurs to him to not. “And you are Eva McCormick.”

“Yes I am.” Eva says taking the proffered hand and shaking it. “And what can I do for you, Gary Hudson?”

“I was hoping to interview you.” Gary says pulling out a composition notebook and a pen. He looks expectantly at the author, a challenge in his eye. “I’m a journalist with World Focus.”

A slow smile pulls up one side of Eva’s mouth and she leans back in her chair, a picture of relaxation. “Sure. Why not? I’ve got nothing but time.”

The first meeting had to have been aligned in the stars, or at least that’s what Jay thinks. There’s no way to plan a meeting like that, a literal collision of worlds, so brief and yet so meaningful at the same time. Very few words are actually exchanged as they both scramble to pick up their belongings from where they lay scattered across the floor of the subway terminal and hurry off to catch their respective trains.

“Oh!” Jay exclaims pulling up short as best he can in order to stop from completely barreling over the petite rushing woman as she tries to cross the flow of traffic exiting the escalator. The people around them react faster, parting like the Red Sea to go around them and make their connections, the occasional foot scattering their fallen possessions even farther across the dirty subway floor. “Oh hell, I’m so sorry! I was- I was distracted by my phone- are you okay?”

“Shit.” The woman says scrambling to extricate herself from Jay’s grasp and go after the papers she had been carrying but which are now scattered across the terminal. “Shit.”

“Here, let me help.” Jay hurriedly shoves the phone in his pocket and bends over, beginning to collect the fallen sheets. The terminal is emptying, people dwindling out like grains of sand from an hour glass as they filter off into their respective trains and connections. Leaning down he scoops up a pile of papers and other sundry items, shoving them back into the woman’s arms. “I’m so sorry. I should have been paying better attention.”

“It’s okay.” The woman says in a tight voice, cringing at the dust that gets on her crisp black blouse from the papers. “I’m late and my pages are out of order. Shit. And your stuff- here, let me help you get your stuff-”

“No, no, go. I’ll be okay.” Jay says with a dazzling smile. His books had landed in a haphazard little pile not far from them and he knows he can gather them up easily enough and still be on time for class. “You go ahead. I’ll be fine. Don’t be late.”

For just a second the woman looks like she’s ready to argue but then she nods, utters a hurried thank you, and rushes off, barely making it onto the train before the doors slide closed and it takes off down the tunnel. Jay watches after her as the train speeds away and then goes to collect his own belongings, shoving the books into his bag without looking at them. There was no way for him to know it at the time, but that meeting – simple and short though it was – would shape the rest of his life.

~*~

It isn’t until Eva is sitting down on the train after the third stop when there’s finally an open seat that she actually gets to brush off the dust and sort through the detritus of papers and belongings in her arms. To her eternal relief her manuscript isn’t too horribly out of order and within another two stops she has it nearly back to normal. She’s just sifting through the last little bit when something considerably heavier falls out of the pages and lands with a thunk next to her feet. For one second she stares at the black square of fold-able leather in confusion but then she leans down and scoops it up, flicking it open to see an ID in photo-laminate, the earnest face of the man who had nearly knocked her over staring up at her. She flicks through the rest of the wallet with interest. There’s a small stack of bills totaling less than fifty dollars behind the slots holding what appear to be a couple of store reward cards, a debit card, a library card, and a student ID to Martinique University. She flips back to the government ID and looks it over carefully. ‘Jay Morgan. Born 27 November 1996. Address listed is only a handful of blocks from campus.’

Intriguing. She’ll have to get the wallet back to him soon. The ticker tape above the door reads her exit. Quickly she flips the wallet closed and shoves it in her purse for later before scooping up her pages and queuing up by the door. The editor at Ideo Publishing won’t appreciate it if she’s late for any reason.

~*~

“Hey man, I started to think you weren’t gonna make it. You’re lucky you got here before Professor Psalter locked the doors.” Curtis says sidling up to where Jay sits at the very back of the classroom, digging through his bag with a deeply concerted look on his face. “What happened? You’re never late for class and you didn’t answer my text.”

“I bumped into someone in the subway.” Jay tells him not looking up from digging in his bag.

“Oh?” Curtis perches on the edge of the desk and looks down at his friend. “Someone you know?”

“No, no.” Jay glances up distractedly. “No, I literally ran into someone when I was checking your text. Dropped my bag and a bunch of my books and completely destroyed the papers she was carrying. It was an absolute mess.”

“Oh. I get it. Was she at least cute?”

Jay doesn’t respond and instead just gives Curtis’ hip a little shove forcing the other to stand up or fall and then goes right back to digging in his bag.

“What are you looking for, buddy?” Curtis comes right back and slides his butt up on the desk again.

“My wallet, I can’t find it anywhere.” Jay says giving it up as a bad job and dumping the contents of his bag out on the desk so he can return them all one by one and make sure the wallet isn’t hiding anywhere. “I must have dropped it in the subway.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh is right.” Jay manages to get everything back in his bag and heaves a heavy sigh. “Well, shit.”

“Call your bank and cancel your card.” Curtis tells him sagely. “Last year I didn’t do that fast enough after I lost my wallet at a party and someone decided my bank account was fair game.”

“I’ll call in between English Lit and Creative Journalism.”

“Why do you have such a boring major?” Curtis asks with a wrinkled nose.

“Not all of us can be criminal justice majors.” Jay dismisses rolling his eyes and getting up so the desk tips forward with Curtis’ weight and the other man has to catch himself quickly.

“No, some people are criminal justice minors because they can’t handle it for real.” Curtis says knowing it will antagonize his friend. “Speaking of, isn’t Violent Crime and Violent Punishment next?”

“Yeah, lets go.”

~*~

“Yeah, this just isn’t going to work for us.”

“What part isn’t working?” Eva asks trying and failing not to get too discouraged. Getting published is hard, she knew that coming into this. But she’s been visiting with an editor now for several months and she’s made every change they’ve suggested so for this guy to tell her it ‘just isn’t going to work’ is about enough to blow the top off her head.

“All of it.” The editor says with a little shrug. “Listen, you’re not a bad writer, there just isn’t any real drive. Even with all the changes, the story just falls flat. There’s no pulse. No pull to keep reading because it doesn’t feel believable. I just don’t feel it. And if I don’t feel it readers won’t either. Books that don’t engage people don’t sell.”

“How can I make it more engaging then?” Eva presses through clenched teeth. She’s put years of effort into this story. How can this guy tel her it’s not engaging?

“I don’t believe the story. Maybe if you made your main character male- but even then. It just isn’t believable.” The editor tells her brutally. “Find some way to pull us into the story and make us believe it. Make us connect with everything your characters do. Make us believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know what you’re talking about here. Then and only then will we talk publishing.”

“Find a way to make you believe it.” Eva parrots thinking that over. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that she’s gonna change her main character to a male. Her fists ball at her sides. “So what? Do more research?”

“If you think that would help.” The editor says but his tone very much tells her that he doesn’t think it would. “Whatever you gotta do, do it. Until then, don’t waste any more of my time.”

~*~

“Oh thank goodness!” Jay exclaims taking the wallet from the woman. “Thank you so much! My friend Curtis kept telling me horror stories of losing his wallet and having everything he owns stolen and I couldn’t help it, my mind would not stop worrying and turning you into some identity stealing ax murderer. Boy am I glad you returned it.” He flicks it open and looks inside. Everything is right where he left it. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

Eva chuckles a little and shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks again, I really can’t thank you enough.” Jay says glad this pretty woman doesn’t seem upset by his overactive imagination or his penchant for over-talking.

“Don’t mention it.”

“Uh- can I buy you coffee or something? To say thank you, I mean.” Jay asks slipping the wallet back in his pocket and finally taking real notice of the woman for the first time. She’s short, with natural black hair and gigantic pansy eyes offset by the most luscious creamy skin and Jay thinks she’s absolutely gorgeous. A dark flush starts in his chest and creeps up his neck. “Sorry, I just realized I never even got your name.”

“It’s Eva.” Eva supplies looking around at the coffee shop Jay had chosen to meet at. “And you of course are Jay.”

“Guilty.” Jay says with a charming grin. His phone chirps in his pocket but he ignores it. It’s probably Gary anyway. “But seriously, can I get you some coffee? I really appreciate you returning my wallet.”

“No problem.” Eva says with a smile but then she sighs and looks back at the other, taking in the earnest look on his face and the flush creeping up his neck. He’s kinda cute in a lost pet, hyperactive puppy sort of way. “Unfortunately I have to get going. Thanks for the offer though. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, okay.” Disappointment he isn’t sure he wants to examine slinks low in Jay’s belly. “Well, thanks again.”

~*~

Eva’s brain feels broken. She sits in front of her computer and stares at the word document. The words blur together and she takes another long pull from her glass in hopes the gin will help steady the characters. How the hell can that editor say her story doesn’t connect? How can he say it isn’t believable?

Even unable to read the words she knows what it says. She wrote the damn thing after all. She knows every word and line and scene and paragraph. More than that though, she knows it’s realistic. Taking another long swig of gin she lets her eyes slide out of focus and thinks it over. The book was planned as theoretical but what if she actually lived out her own story? Prove to herself and that shit-bag of an editor that it’s realistic. Yeah, maybe she should do that? Maybe if she lives her own story she’ll be able to write it in a way that connects.

She takes another big drink and smacks at the burn, making up her mind. Yes. She’ll do it.

~*~

“This is good work.” Gary praises lowering the pages so he can look at Jay. “You did great work on this.”

“Thanks, Gary.” Jay flushes with pleasure at the praise. “It’s based off what I could find in the papers obviously. It’s not ideal to work off someone else’ work but I don’t have credentials, no body’s gonna talk details with me.”

“You’ll have credentials before you know it.” Gary tells him raising the pages again and rereading the last paragraph. “You graduate in just a couple short months and then you’ll be in the job market. Any idea about where you want to work?”

“I mean, if I could pick anywhere it would be the World Focus. But they’ve already got a great crime writer.”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” Gary says lowering the pages again and smiling a little at the praise. He looks at the younger man, seeing him staring off into space, mind enveloped in worry for his future, a worry that Gary can help alleviate. “I showed the editor a few of your articles. He likes the way you write and since I’ve had a bit too heavy of a work load recently, he thought maybe you could join the World Focus team and work with me. Thank goodness for crime, I guess. Job security and all that. Anyways, you’d have a secondary position here under me. You’d have credentials and your articles would be published under your own name. Only catch is they have to go through me first before they even go to the editor. It would be a great way for you to build your name and break into crime writing for yourself.”

“Really?” Jay asks, eyes shining with all the hope of someone in their early twenties being offered the closest thing to their dream job that they can imagine. “You- you’d want me to work with you?”

“Yes.” Gary chuckles. “I wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass when I said you’re a good writer. I’d like to work with you. Just know I’m a tough edit at times.”

“Yeah, cuz I didn’t know that already.” Jay says rolling his eyes. “How many times have you completely destroyed my articles since I started interning here?”

“A few times.” Gary concedes, mustache twitching with a lopsided little grin. “But notice I haven’t had to do that so much recently.”

“Yeah, well, I paid attention.”

“So should I have them make you a new name badge?” Gary asks pointing at Jay’s badge that clearly states ‘intern’ in bold font along the bottom.

“Hell yes.” Jay grins.

~*~

If asked she wouldn’t be able to give an answer as to why but Eva has started hanging out at the coffee shop Jay had met her at when she returned the wallet. Her apartment feels like bad juju so each morning she packs up her computer and heads down to the subway, traveling all the way across town to sit at the little coffee shop just off Martinique University’s campus. If she looks up each time the doorbell jingles she just calls it being aware of her surroundings – there’s no way she’s hoping to see the tall college student again.

And then one day Jay does walk in, nose buried in his phone, an air of distraction around him. He’s carrying that heavy satchel again and looks like he’s got a lot on his mind, going directly to the counter to order before turning and scanning the seats in the care. There isn’t a single open table and Eva can actually see the disheartened slump in Jay’s shoulders at the thought of having to leave and go somewhere else for whatever it is he has to work on. Pasting what she hopes is a welcoming smile onto her face Eva raises a hand in greeting, wiggling her fingers in a gentle wave. She knows it’s effective too when a bright smile lights Jay’s face and the tall man waves back, grabs his coffee from the hand off plane, and bounces over.

“Hey! I never actually thought I’d see you again. How are you?”

Eva thinks it’s fucking adorable how Jay greets her, like they’re long lost friends or something. It makes her sharp mind move at double speed. Hmm… “Hey, yeah. This is a nice little coffee shop. I’ve been coming here to work on my book.”

“Oh, you’re a writer?” Jay asks taking a sip of his coffee and regretting it when the strong brew burns his lip. He scrunches his face up and fights the watering in his eyes, berating himself for not waiting until the drink had cooled a little more. Smooth. Real smooth.

“Something like that.” Eva says with a little smile that makes her eyes crinkle in merry little half-crescents. “You need a place to sit?”

“Yeah, actually.” Jay pulls out the chair opposite Evan when she waves an offering hand at it. “I’ve got a few emails to check and the internet’s been out at my apartment for the last week. No idea when it’s getting fixed or even if it’s getting fixed. So I come here. Got a little worried when I saw all the tables taken.”

“Well make yourself comfortable. No point in you going somewhere else when we can easily share the table.”

“Thanks.” He pulls out his computer and sets it up, glancing over the screen at Eva. She’s obviously older than him but probably only by a few years. Definitely not school age anymore but not so much older that Jay wouldn’t have a chance. With effort he focuses, clicking into his email as soon as the computer finishes booting up. Just as he’d hoped there’s an email from Gary there waiting for him as well as an official one from the editor outlining the job offer. He scans both of them, going back to the one from Gary after he’s sure the job offer is satisfactory. It’s the details of a case that came across Gary’s desk just this morning that the journalist wants Jay to write an article for. Nothing too wild, just a standard armed robbery. But Gary wants to see what Jay can do when he’s presented with nothing but the facts and few witness statements. He rubs one finger along his lower lip in thought. “Hmm.”

“Bad news?” Eva asks not even bothering to mask the fact that she’s been watching Jay and not at all focusing on her story.

“Naw, more like a challenge.” Jay says looking up and grinning. “Just trying to think of how I’ll go about it.”

“A challenge?” She knows she’s being nosy but she doesn’t care. “What kind of challenge?”

Jay chuckles and flashes her a winning smile. “A mentor of mine is a crime writer for the World Focus. He sent me a case and wants to see what kind of story I come up with. That’s my major. Writing I mean. I hope to eventually have my own crime column.”

“Really?” Eva says leaning back in her chair and assessing the student. This guy is just too perfect.

“Yeah.” Jay rubs a shy hand on the back of his neck, flushing under Eva’s undivided attention. “I’m minoring in criminal justice and majoring in journalism. I figured it would be a good start to getting a foot in the door. And it’s helped. I know how to read between the lines of police reports. My mentor even offered me a position writing under him for the Focus after I graduate later this spring.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Eva tells him with a sincere smile. “Good for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Say,” Eva begins, an idea coming to her already half formed, “I write crime novels. Nothing too crazy. But my editor says I could be a little more realistic. Would you mind if I picked your brain? Just to see if my plot would hold up in real life. No cop is gonna talk to me, writer or no, they’re not gonna tell me if I’ve plotted out the perfect crime or not, you know what I mean?”

Jay laughs along with her. “Yeah, I can’t see them being too keen to help you on that.” He gives Eva a mock probing look. “Promise it’s just for the book? I’m not helping a criminal mastermind get away with murder or something, am I?”

Evan laughs, lips pulling back to reveal a disarmingly playful gummy smile. “Just the book.”

“Then I’ll do it.” Jay agrees with a grin of his own. “It’ll be fun.”

“Awesome!” Eva gives a little nod and leans in, pulling up her story on her computer. Suddenly she feels far more motivated than she has in weeks. “Thank you.”

~*~

One would think after literally planning the perfect crime for her book Eva would have an easy time adapting it to real life but she’s having trouble ironing out a few of the details. It makes her feel incredibly sour to realize that this is exactly what the editor had been talking about. Every time she comes to a sticky part that just doesn’t feel right she thinks about the conversation with Jay and the possession of the college student’s phone number sits like a phantom weight in her wallet. She has to actually force herself not to pull it out and dial him so she can pick his brain for hours. But if she wants this to go perfectly then she needs to plan out as much as she can by herself. She can’t share too much of her plan with anyone else, not even Jay.

Getting up she pads to the kitchen and pulls out the half full bottle of gin, pouring herself a glass and adding a couple ice cubes. She’ll set up camp in front of her computer and drink herself blind. That seems to be her biggest inspiration lately. And then in the morning when she’s sober again she’ll make sure drunk-Eva isn’t completely stupid. If she can pull this off she’ll be a best selling author in no time. With that thought firmly in the back of her mind she takes a big gulp of whiskey and sits back down. Time to work.

~*~

“There’s no red on this.” Jay says accepting the printed out version of the article he had written for Gary’s challenge and staring at it in dumbfound wonder.

“I’m not your teacher, Jay.” Gary reminds him voice in a dry voice but his mustache gives a little tell tale twitch all the same..

“Yeah, but for all intents and purposes you are my editor.” Jay says trying to play it cool and failing. There really isn’t a single correction on the page. He can hardly believe it. “There wasn’t even a period or a comma I did wrong?”

“Nope.” Gary pops the ‘p.’ He leans back in his chair and rests his hands on top of his lightly rounded pot belly. “That’s a darn good article. So good the actual editor would like to put it in tomorrow’s paper. If that is acceptable to you.”

“Really?” Jay’s face lights up like the fireworks.

“Yes really.” Gary shakes his head. He won’t say it but he’s proud as all hell of Jay. When he had first come to him a year ago for a class project he had grit his teeth and allowed the kid to interview him simply because his editor insisted. Then when he had asked if he could intern under him he had accepted with only slightly less reticence. Now though, well, he’s a talented writer and he feels honored that he would be so excited to write with him. “Don’t cut yourself short. You did good work. You should be rewarded for it.”

“I mean, I’m just surprised is all.” Jay says trying to explain. “I didn’t think I’d be publishable until after graduation.”

“We’ll publish you as a guest journalist.”

“Oh.” Jay supposes that should have been obvious. “Well then yeah, of course I want my article in the paper.”

“Good.”

~*~

“Thanks for meeting with me.” Eva says when she and Jay have their coffees and are settled at a little table in the back of the coffee shop. She pulls out her computer and sets it up, pulling up the word document she prepared with all the questions she wants to ask the student. “I really appreciate you taking time to help me.”

“Oh gosh, no worries.” Jay says easily settling down opposite her and setting his phone down on the table. He feels like his whole life is lining up right now and he couldn’t be happier. If he plays his cards right he’s pretty sure he’ll have a good chance with Eva, the idea exciting him to no end. “It’s the least I can do after literally bowling you over in the subway.”

“I have to take a little credit for not paying attention to where I was going.” Eva says but she’s pleased with the shyly appreciative glances Jay keeps sending her way.

“So what questions did you want to ask?” Jay says when the silence stretches and becomes just a little too warm.

“You said your minor was criminal justice, right?”

“Yeah,” Jay confirms with a little nod, “Criminal justice minor and a journalism major.”

“So you’ve got a pretty good grasp of what would and wouldn’t fly in for a criminal who may or may not want to be caught.”

It isn’t a question but Jay nods all the same and cracks a smile, waiting for the other to continue.

“So you’ve got a pretty good idea of what does and doesn’t get people caught.” Eva presses on as delicately as possible. She’s fishing a little here. If at any point Jay starts getting weirded out by her questions she’ll drop the whole thing and go back to the drawing board.

“Yeah, I mean most of what I see with the journalism is people who get caught, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about what goes into the perfect crime.” Jay gives a little shrug and a self-depreciating chuckle. “It’s a pretty common pass time, I think. Especially for people who spend a lot of time in this kind of thing. I see so many people being idiots and getting caught, I can’t help but think about how I’d do it only better.”

Eva smiles then and it’s the most genuinely heartwarming gesture with her gums showing and eyes crinkled in happy little half-crescents. “I totally understand. I mean, I’m a writer. A mystery crime writer. I spend all my time thinking of stuff like that.”

“So you get it.” Jay relaxes and takes another sip of coffee. “It’s not that I want to commit a crime, I just like knowing if I decided to I could do it better than these idiots who get caught.”

“Exactly.” Eva agrees. She leans forward and lets her brows furrow as she confides in the other. “Problem is, my editor says my story doesn’t connect. That it isn’t realistic enough. Here I thought I had planned the perfect crime and he says it doesn’t connect with the readers. I just wanna make sure I’ve got the logistics of the crime figured out right.”

“Sure.” Jay nods because that makes sense. “So what kind of crime are we talking about?”

“Kidnapping and murder.”

~*~

“Did you get lost on your way here?” Gary asks when Jay breezes into the office five minutes to close, sliding his phone into his pocket as he walks. They hadn’t had a set time but it’s not like Jay to cut it so close. He takes in the flush high on Jay’s cheeks and the slightly disheveled look of his hair and immediately puts two and two together. “You met someone.”

Jay chuckles a little breathlessly. He’s spent the better part of a year working closely with Gary and he feels comfortable responding in the affirmative. “I did. You remember that author I told you about?”

“Yeah, the cute one with big eyes that you tried to squish in the subway?” Gary asks with a paternal grin. He’s happy for Jay, his life is falling neatly into place. “Did she actually call about her book?”

“Yeah, she did.” Jay doesn’t wait for Gary to invite him to sit, he just settles into the chair like he lives there. “She’s got a sick brain but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was kinda intriguing and maybe even a little hot.” He flushes a little at his own candor. “She’s got the perfect crime planned out.”

Gary laughs and shakes his head. “You would get excited about something like that.”

“I mean, it’s not like she plans to act on it.” Jay says with a shrug. “It would be creepy is she did because she’s writing a murder mystery. But yeah, if she ever did decide to commit a crime, she’d get away with it.”

“And you find that attractive.”

“God help me, I do.” Jay admits not minding the playful judgment from his mentor in the least.

“Your hair’s messed up, does that mean she gave you a practical ‘thank you’ for helping her?” Gary’s eyes sparkle and he leans back in her chair, mustache twitching with suppressed mirth.

“Maybe.” Jay grins.

“Are you seeing her again?”

“Maybe.”

Gary chuckles. “Good for you. So tell me about her plan. I wanna know if I agree with you or not.”

~*~

Door’s open, let yourself in.

Eva checks the text and then does as she’s instructed, walking with purpose towards the little apartment just off campus where Jay had told her to come. She’s nervous, palms sweating but she just gives herself a little pep-talk and opens the door. “Anybody home?”

“Hi.” Jay pokes his head aroudn a little divider that appears to separate the entryway-combination-living room from the kitchen.

“Hi.” Eva smiles in response to the shy warmth in Jay’s handsome face. She holds up a bottle of wine. “I brought wine, I hope it goes with dinner.”

“I’m making spaghetti, it’ll go perfectly.” Jay says smiling beatifically. “Slip your shoes off and get in here so I can say hi and thank you properly.”

Eva’s eyebrows raise but she does as she’s told, anticipation curling in her stomach. She couldn’t be more pleased with how the night is shaping up and she can’t wait to see how it continues to unfold. With that in mind she toes off her shoes and pads into the kitchen, handing over the wine before tipping her head back and accepting the kiss Jay gives her.

~*~

It isn’t like Jay to be late. Gary glances at the clock and then goes back to rifling through his things trying to find his work badge. Where could it have gone? His mind flicks back and forth between the task at hand and Jay’s tardiness. It’s only five minutes. If he still isn’t here in another twenty then he’ll try calling. But the time passes and Jay never shows.

“Hey Jay, just wondering where you are.” He says into the phone’s speaker when Jay’s voicemail picks up. He’s given up looking for the name badge, unable to find it anywhere. “Did you forget we had an appointment today? Call me when you get this!”

He hangs up and goes back to her work. A new case comes across his desk then and he gets immersed in sussing out the wether-to’s and why-for’s of it. It isn’t until the office is closing up that he finally surfaces from the proverbial avalanche of work he’s been digging through and realizes he never heard back from Jay and he never found his name badge. Worry lowers his bushy brows as he checks his phone just in case Jay called and he didn’t notice.

Nothing.

Frowning at his phone he stands up and grabs his coat. Maybe he should swing by Jay’s place, just to check on him. They’re relationship has blurred from mentor to friend and with concern mixed curiosity coursing through him he thinks this is probably the best course of action. No doubt the giant oaf is in bed with his new amour and he’s about to embarrass the crap out of all of them, but he’d rather be safe and embarrassed than sorry.

But the trip across town is for nothing. He knocks at the door and receives no answer. Very real concern lights in his belly and he pulls out her phone again, calling Jay while peeking through the thin little window by the door. He can see the coffee table, Jay’s phone buzzing away on the polished wood surface so loud he can hear it through the closed door.

His concern grows and turns into outright worry. Sick and hot in the pit of his stomach. There’s no way Jay can’t hear that from the bedroom or any other part of the apartment for that matter. When it goes to voice mail he hangs up and dials again.

Then he does it again.

And again.

No way Jay would ignore his phone like this. Worry amps right up and panic claws it’s way down his throat. Something is very wrong.

He looks at his phone again, this time dialing in another number. Impatiently he scratches at a spot behind his ear and waits for the other end to pick up, wishing he could just break down the door and make sure his friend is okay. Dispatch picks up after only one ring. “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“I think my friend might be hurt.” Gary says thinking quickly how to concisely state what he believes has happened. He knows to the casual observer it’s gonna look like he’s going from zero to one hundred too quickly but his instincts are screaming at him that something about this whole thing stinks. “I’m at his apartment. He’s not answering his phone. He missed an appointment earlier today. None of this is like him.”

“When was the last time you saw your friend?” Dispatch asks, the sound of a computer clicking away in the background.

“Day before yesterday.”

~*~

Ray purses his lips and listens to Gary’s explanation of the events leading up to the police entering Jay’s apartment. “Is it possible your friend is simply at the apartment of his new love interest?”

“No.” Gary shakes his head and rubs the back of his neck. “No, you don’t understand. Jay’s one of those young kid’s who’s attached to his phone. It’s his biggest flaw. He doesn’t go anywhere without damn the thing. There’s no way he’d go out without it.”

“Do you know the name of the lady he had the date with so we can follow up with her?” Ray asks making another couple notes in a small green flip notebook.

“Eva McCormick.” Gary chews on the inside of his cheek and tries to decide if he should tell the investigator the rest. He has no desire to mess with this Eva lady’s life but he’d be lying if the knowledge of what Jay had shared with him about Eva’s book hadn’t left him with a bad taste in his mouth following his friend’s disappearance. He waits so long trying to decide that Ray gets up and tucks his little notebook in his pocket along with his badge.

“I’ll be in touch.” Ray says in a distracted voice, already moving for the door.

“Wait!” Gary says quickly, swallowing hard when Ray pauses and looks at her in question. He’s a hardened journalist in his fifties for crying out loud but under this cop’s no nonsense stare he feels like a kid in trouble all over again. He’s not sure if he’s doing the right thing but if Eva did something he’s got to make sure the cops know he had the wherewithal to pull it off. “There’s something else.”

~*~

Eva flicks a glance between Ray and the handcuffs he’s holding. “You’re arresting me because I was the last person seen with him? That’s ridiculous. Check his phone. Check his apartment. I was there from a little before six on Friday evenign until just past three in the morning. We had dinner. He made spaghetti and we split a bottle of wine. After we had very satisfactory sex and I left. No doubt my DNA is all over the apartment but there are witnesses who saw me leave. Three of Jay’s neighbors were out on the porch smoking when I left. You can check with them.”

“See, we did.” Ray says giving Eva a hard look. “They also said that Jay wasn’t seen again after your visit. So for now you’re coming in for questioning and we’ll go from there, okay?”

“You cuff everybody you bring in for questioning?” Eva asks with an arrogant quirk of her eyebrows but she turns around and puts her hands on the small of her back all the same.

“Only the ones I really don’t like.” Ray answers clipping the cuffs around Eva’s thin wrists. “C’mon. We’ll continue this conversation downtown.”

~*~

“So eventually they indicted you.” Gary says wishing he could get a read on this lady. She’s charming despite the ugly orange jump suit. But oddly arrogant too, something about her just rubs him the wrong way and he has to grit his teeth to keep from making a snide comment. His mind keeps going over the plan that Jay shared with him all those months ago and he can’t help but wonder – did this woman do something to him?

“Yeah, they decided there was enough physical evidence at Jay’s apartment to try me for murder.” Eva says with another little shrug as if she can’t believe the audacity of the legal system. She paints a sad look on her face that’s just this side of too much. “It’s sad really, he’s a good guy. I’ve no idea what happened to him but I hope he’s okay. They never found a body- I’ve got to believe he’s alright.”

“Your book has been published since you’ve been in prison.” Gary says fighting the urge to tell this lady that Jay would never just disappear without talking to somebody. The only way he’d disappear like this is if he were being held somewhere against his will or if he was dead.

“Yeah, I mean, I had time to sit down and edit, you know?” Eva says with yet another shrug. “Spending time with real murderers must have helped the writing process because my editor said ti felt much more connected this time.”

“In your book the main character uses drugged wine to kidnap the victim. There are some who speculate that you could have done that with Jay.”

Eva gives him a calculating look. “Why would I? Listen, I liked the guy. We went on a couple of dates and I bounced story ideas off him. If I was going to – what? Drug and murder him, why would I tell him how I’d do it first? That just doesn’t make any sense. Besides, the cops tested the wine I brought. There was nothing in it but wine.”

“Maybe.” Gary concedes staring hard at Eva and trying to read beneath the phony facade she puts forward.

“I had no motivation to kill him.” Eva tells him steadily.

“They say you’re writing another book.” Gary presses. Something tickles the back of his mind. Were there ways to drug someone without leaving a trace? How could Eva have gotten Jay out of the apartment without being seen? She’s such a tiny little person he has trouble imagining her taking care of a body. He has no answers but instinctively he knows that there’s truth in the last little bit that was said. She had no motivation to kill him. Maybe Jay isn’t dead after all. “I’m told it’s about a kidnapping this time.”

“You are very well informed for a newspaper journalist.” Eva tells him with a mild look but then she shrugs and quirks an eyebrow. “But the cops and lawyers have asked all these questions. What makes you think you’re gonna get a different answer?”

“We all have our own roles.” Gary tells her dismissively. “I have to ask so I can write the article.”

“For the World Focus.” Eva confirms, look knowing, a small smirk playing around her mouth.

“Yes.” Gary’s sharp mind moves fast. Is there some way this Eva chick knew about him? Is he being played? The questions swarm his mind and he tries desperately to discern some kind of answer form the look in Eva’s eyes.

“Well,” Eva blinks and the moment is lost. “I look forward to reading it when I get out.”

“When you get out?” Gary asks, confused. “The jury has not reached a verdict yet.”

“Jury reads tomorrow.” Eva tells her steadily. “All things considered, it’s looking like I’ll be found innocent. Without a body – no evidence, no crime, right? Hopefully they’ll find something so they can bring whoever hurt Jay to justice. Such a fine young man, just goes to show crime is indiscriminate about who it targets.

~*~

Gary sits in his car and watches the front gate of the prison open up, two guards walking out flanking a smaller figure. Eva. That bitch is going free. Shaking his head in disgust Gary sinks a little lower in his seat and pulls his baseball cap low on his head, watching.

He watches as Eva is picked up by a taxi, sliding into the backseat as if it’s a five star limo. There’s a brief moment as she talks with the driver but then the car pulls out into traffic and Gary eases out behind them, several cars behind so he can follow at a discrete distance. They make their way across town to a neighborhood of tall nondescript apartment buildings, pulling up outside one with several rusted out balcony’s that look like real hazards.

Carefully Gary eases his car in behind a dumpster and settles in to watch. Eva pays the taxi driver and exits the cab, going directly to the front door of the building. The address matches the one Gary had found as belonging to Eva. He knows the author paid for the place through her internment in prison and he wonders at it. The place isn’t anything special. It’s just a standard apartment building in a less than okay neighborhood close enough to the subway to walk to it. Why would he stay here when he’s suddenly very wealthy?

Knowing he could be here for a while Gary pulls out Eva’s book and flips through the pages. He doesn’t know why but he just feels there’s got to be a clue in here. Eva seems like the arrogant type who’d leave a clue – who’d want there to be a chance someone could figure it out but who’d trust that no one would. He reads over the kidnapping scene again and then goes to the murder. Where did she do it in the book? In the book the main character had chosen a place significant to how they met.

Gary thinks that over. How had Jay and Eva met? Literally running into each other at the subway. His brows furrow as eh thinks that over. Which connection would it have been? A sudden brainwave strikes him and he tosses the book into the passenger seat, putting the car in gear so he can ease away from the curb and speed off down the street, so focused on driving he doesn’t notice the lone figure six stories up watching him from the balcony.

How?

His breath rips from his chest and his heart pounds painfully against his ribs. There’s no fucking way.

It takes less than five minutes for him to reach his office, parking his car and nearly sprinting past the elevator to the subway connection below. He comes out on a landing, halfway down where there are two nondescript service doors. He test the first. It’s locked. Then the second. To his surprise and growing dread, it swings forward. Steeling himself he steps forward. It must have been this connection where Jay and Eva had first met. He and Jay had had a meeting earlier that day and Eva must have used the connection to get go wherever it was she was going that day since it’s the closest connection to the apartment building.

The room he steps into is dark and he fishes out his cellphone, pulling up the flashlight feature so he can see. It casts long shadows all around but for the life of him all he sees is a dark boiler room. He’s just about given up when he catches sight of something darker than the rest of the shadow in the far back corner behind one of the big metal machines. With slow steps he eases forward, heart amping higher and higher with every clank and whir of the surrounding machinery. Bracing himself he rounds the final machine. There he finds a recess inside the wall, nearly completely hidden in shadow and utterly imperceptible from the door.

He sucks in a steadying breath and tries to steel himself for the worst as he aims his light into the opening because he’s pretty sure he’s about to find Jay’s body. But what he finds is even worse than a body. It’s a pool of blood, several hairs the exact color as Jays, and worst of all – his own office badge, smeared with more of that same blood. What in the hell?

And then it hits him. Everything points right to him. His interest in the case. Him being the person to report Jay missing. His mentorship and playful rivalry with the kid. Visiting Eva in prison. His avid following of the trail. And now this. His missing name badge here, smeared no doubt with his friend’s blood. He thinks it over. The jury had gotten stuck on Eva’s stature, believing her too small to have manipulated a body the size of Jay’s and although Gary has no idea how she did it, he knows she had to have done it. She had to have! His stomach drops and he’s pretty sure he’s gonna throw up. If he hides this then he’s an accomplice. If he reports it – there’s no doubt in his mind the conclusion the cops will come to and then in turn the conclusion a jury would come to. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place and all the evidence points in one very clear direction.

He’s been framed.

#prose #Short Story #Inveigle #D.B. Armstrong #Original prose #original work #original fiction #mystery #short #writer #student #This is an old story I wrote #Just throwing it out there #god I hope someone reads this

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