The Suicide Princess (13 page)

Stephanie finished her dinner, and she got ready for bed. Jacob was still on the living room couch when he heard Stephanie close the door to the spare bedroom. Stephanie had moved most of her things to the spare room, and she had stopped sleeping with Jacob. Their relationship had eroded from a marriage to being mere roommates. Stephanie was the love of Jacob's life, and as he watched what was happening, his heart crushed. For the first time in Jacob's adult life, he cried. Jacob had no clue where to turn next, and he decided to begin taking steps to protect himself. Jacob was ready to follow Mark's advice.

***

When the following Tuesday morning finally arrived, Jacob stayed in bed while he listened to Stephanie leaving for work. Once he was certain she was gone, he got out of bed and prepared his day. He drove his car towards a local shopping center as he dialed his cell phone.

“Hello, this is Jacob Bradford. I'm scheduled to fly flight 513, scheduled for a four o'clock departure, this afternoon.” There was a short pause, as the person on the other end spoke, before Jacob continued, “I'm feeling terrible today, and it won't be safe for me to fly tonight. I'm going to need to stay home sick.”

Jacob arrived at the store and began walking aisle to aisle, and he placed a list of items into his shopping cart. Jacob selected binoculars, a baseball cap, sunglasses, a digital voice recorder, a note pad, paper towels and glass cleaner. Jacob then went to the electronics department and began browsing video camcorders.

“Is there anything I can help you with, sir?” a young sales associate asked.

“Are you familiar with the video recorders?” Jacob asked in reply.

“I know them pretty well. What are you looking for?”

Jacob said, “I need one that has a very powerful zoom. I need to be able to see really excellent detail from a pretty good distance.”

“I know exactly what you're looking for. It's right over here,” the salesman said while pointing to the cameras on the other side of the display. “This one right here has the best zoom, and the video quality, even at full zoom, is pretty awesome.”

“This is over a thousand dollars!”

“If you want the best one we have, it's not going to be cheap. We have other digital camcorders for under a few hundred, but the quality isn't going to be there.”

“No, this is the one I need. If I get this, can you ring up everything here?”

“I sure can,” said the salesman.

Jacob left the store, and he made a beeline for the airport where he was originally scheduled to depart that afternoon. He followed the signs for long-term parking, and he drove through the parking garage until he found a spot. Jacob left his car and walked nearly a mile, along the busy airport roadway, to the car rental section of the airport. Jacob rented a very plain, run-of-the-mill sedan that would easily blend in with other cars.

Jacob sat in the rental car before leaving the lot, and he used his phone to look for a car shop that did window tinting. Jacob went to the shop and got the cheapest tint available. The window tint technician tried, without success, to get Jacob to upgrade to a higher quality tint.

“You know, the cheapest tint isn't going to last very long. The edges are going to peel, and the tinting will actually fade over time,” the technician explained.

Jacob asked, “Will it last until tomorrow?”

Confused, the employee answered, “Yeah, it will last until tomorrow.”

“Then that's all I need,” Jacob answered. “I just need it for tonight,
then I'm peeling it off.”

The employee asked, “Is this your car?” as he glanced at Jacob's rental.

“If I wanted someone to give me a hard time, I'd just go call my wife. So, how about you just put the tint on the car like I'm paying you to do.”

Slightly intimidated by the situation, the employee agreed and applied the darkest tint the shop offered. An hour later, Jacob was impressed with the job when he saw that he couldn't see inside the vehicle at all.

Jacob drove to the parking garage in Boston where he knew Stephanie parked every day. He drove through the garage until he found her car. Knowing for certain her car was in the garage, Jacob exited the garage and found street parking where he could see the exit from the garage, and he just waited. At four o'clock, Jacob sent Stephanie a text message,

“I know we're fighting, but we're getting ready to take off, and I do love you.”

As Jacob finished the text and hit send, he looked up and saw Stephanie walk directly past his rental. Between the tinted windows and the unfamiliar vehicle, Stephanie didn't notice a thing. Stephanie pulled her phone from her purse and glanced at it, but she quickly returned the phone without sending a reply. Jacob knew she just saw his text and couldn't even be bothered to say anything back to him. With that single act, Jacob's hurt was beginning to turn to anger.

Stephanie walked into the pedestrian entrance to the garage, and a few minutes later, her car pulled out of the exit. Jacob followed her while being cautious to not get too close. He stayed behind her until she parked along the north side of Boston Common, Boston's largest public park. Jacob continued to drive until he found another open parking spot, but by the time he had, he lost Stephanie.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Jacob yelled while desperately swiveling his head trying to find where Stephanie went.

Jacob was parked with Boston Common to his left and a coffee shop directly to his right. He continued to look around, starting to think he blew it, when he suddenly saw Stephanie walking by his car again, and she entered the coffee shop directly next to him.
Here we go,
Jacob thought.

Jacob prepared the video recorder, and began recording the door to the coffee shop. He had no idea how long Stephanie would be in the shop, but he didn't want to risk missing the chance to record her with whoever she was there to meet. Jacob didn't need to wait long, and within a few moments, Stephanie emerged, hand-and-hand with Derrick. Jacob fought every urge in his body to confront the two, and he knew he needed to be fully prepared before he ended his marriage. This was only the first step, and Jacob continued to record Stephanie a
nd Derrick as they walked to Derrick's apartment building and through the front door. Jacob saw Stephanie was carrying her purse as well as an overnight bag, and he prepared himself for the thought that Stephanie may be spending the night with this man.

Jacob checked his phone frequently over the next several hours, hoping Stephanie would respond to his earlier text, but he received nothing. Just after eleven-thirty, and about seven hours after she had gone into the apartment building, Jacob saw Stephanie emerge with Derrick. Jacob fumbled to get the video recorder, and he pressed the red record button just in time to capture Derrick and Stephanie holding one another while they kissed goodnight. Jacob zoomed in to capture the detail of the embrace between his wife and this other man, and his stomach churned with pain as he recorded each second.

The lovers parted ways, with Stephanie walking towards her car and Derrick going back inside. Jacob noticed Stephanie was no longer wearing her work attire, and she was now wearing tight, black yoga pants, a cute T-shirt, and sneakers. His imagination wandered relentlessly as he struggled to avoid thinking of what she could have been doing in the apartment.

Jacob saw Stephanie's car drive by his rental, and he was preparing to follow her to see where she went next. Jacob waited for a few moments before pulling out of his parking spot to avoid being directly behind her. As Jacob was preparing to drive, he saw Derrick emerge from the building and walking toward the coffee shop.

“Where's he going?” Jacob wondered, as his plan suddenly shifted.

Jacob exited the vehicle and began following Derrick on foot. Jacob worked to stay close enough to Derrick to keep constant view of him but far enough to avoid detection. Fortunately for Jacob, Derrick's journey was short, and he entered a nearby bar.

Jacob stood by the entrance to the bar, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to maintain his composure. Having no idea what he was going to do next, Jacob pulled open the door to the bar and walked in. He saw Derrick sitting at the bar, and Jacob sat on the only remaining empty stool, right next to Derrick.

As Jacob sat at the bar, Derrick being Derrick looked to him and said, “Listen buddy, you keep your hands to yourself, I'll keep my hands to myself, and we'll get along just fine.”

“What?” Jacob, thinking he was caught, nervously asked.

“I'm kidding, brother,” said Derrick. “I'm just kidding.”

“Oh,” Jacob nervously continued, “It's okay.”

“I'm sorry, man. Let me get you a drink,” Derrick offered while having no idea why he made the man he was talking to so nervous. “What do you want?”

Jacob, realizing he was being faced with the best opportunity he could ask for, said, “No, I'm sorry. I've just had a tough day. I'd love a vodka-cranberry.”

“Vodka-cranberry?”
Derrick asked. He jokingly continued, “That's what my grandmother drinks, but to each his own. Bartender, a vodka-cranberry for my new friend, and whiskey neat for me.”

“You got it, guys,” the bartender replied as Derrick stuck his hand out to Jacob.

“I'm Anthony,” said Derrick, giving a fake name out of suspicion of the stranger sitting next to him.

Jacob, having no idea that Stephanie knew this man as “Derrick,” saw nothing unusual and shook his hand. Jacob was uncertain how much Derrick actually knew of him, and he had to give a false name.

“I'm Steve,” said Jacob.

“Cool to meet
you, buddy,” Derrick said.

With the exception of the complete change of names, the two had an otherwise normal conversation. Derrick rarely sat alone for long before making a new friend, and this was no exception. The only difference this time being that Derrick's new friend was faking every smile, and he was actually fighting the enormous temptation to kill Derrick.

“What are you doing here, tonight?” Derrick asked.

Jacob waved his left hand, showing his wedding band, and said, “Wife's pissing me off, so I needed to get out for a little bit.”

Derrick laughed and said, “Out looking for a little strange, huh?”

“A little strange?”
Jacob asked.

“Some strange ass,” Derrick said. He explained further, “Looking for a girl.”

“No, I'm not looking,” Jacob answered.

“But if the opportunity knocked, you wouldn't answer?”

Jacob forced a fake laugh and said, “Now, I never said that! But what about you, you married?”

“No way, brother.
You were crazy enough to make that mistake, not me.”

“You're telling me, man. No girlfriend or anything?” Jacob asked.

“I wouldn't call them girlfriends, but I have my fingers in a few little honeypots, if you know what I mean.”

“No shit? You can’t leave it
at that; I need to vicariously live through you for a minute,” said Jacob.

“I just have two stringing along right now. One is a little blonde that I've been tapping for a while, and she's starting to get a little on the boring side - kind of reached my end with her. But my most recent one, is a tight little brunette that's a shit ton of fun.”

“Man, I wish I wasn't married,” Jacob announced.

“What difference does it make? This brunette is married, and she doesn't seem to give a shit. Why should you?”

“One of your girls is married?” Jacob asked.

“Actually, they're both married. But the blonde, I've already run through her, and it's getting old. I'm just getting this new one broken-in, and that's the fun part,” Derrick told Jacob.

Jacob squeezed his glass tight, and he could feel his face getting red as anger and hatred consumed his body. Jacob’s discipline prevailed, however, and he replied, “Broken in? Now this you have to explain to me,” with yet another forced laugh.

“Yeah, breaking her in.
She's that good-girl type that's really a little freak dying to break out. She just needed someone to get her inner freak to come out and play, and brother, I was more than happy to oblige.”

“I need to get myself something like that,” Jacob said to maintain the facade. “What kind of stuff do you have this girl doing?”

“Name it, man - damn near anything you can think of. This one is straight up down for anything. I just had her over at my place earlier tonight, and I had her doing some fucked up shit. I'm telling you, bro, she eats this shit up. I could probably tell her I wanted to piss on her, and her only reaction would be begging me for more.”

“How the hell do you get them to turn like that?” Jacob questioned Derrick.

“I have some tricks, brother, but basically just treat a slut like a lady and treat a lady like a slut, and they'll love it. If she's a nice girl, the kind that always does the right thing, treat her like a whore and she'll love it. Don't ask me why, just is what it is.”

“And that's all there is to it?” asked Jacob.

“Well, not always. With this new one, the brunette, I have a secret weapon. I have something that gives me…I'll just say an unfair advantage,” Derrick said. He continued, “And on that, it's time for me to roll, Steve.”