Plausibility (18 page)

Fuck
, I don’t know how to get in, Julius. Nothing she tried worked. She needed on that laptop. She knew there was a  journal that he kept on there that would lead her to him. How the hell was she supposed to find him without it?  2-16-22-8-13-13-1 what the hell does that mean? That was the password hint to log on. She tried the numbers, she tried to change the numbers to the number before and the number after. Nothing, fuck.

Now what? She closed the laptop when she heard the tap on the door.

“Come in.”

“Hey,” Reese spoke, sitting on the other twin bed.

“You don’t have to be nice to me. It’s okay, I don’t plan on being here very long.”

“Where you gonna go?” Reese asked, ignoring the nice comment. She didn’t have any intentions of being nice to her. She was just messing everything up.

“I’m not sure yet. I have to locate someone before I know that, but don’t worry. I’ll try to stay out of your way.”

“Is it your boyfriend?”

Nosey bitch. What the hell? How was she supposed to explain Julius? She would never understand, no one would. “Yeah, sort of,” she replied.

“Is he cute?”

Aquilla smiled. “Yes, very.”

“Do you have any pictures?”

Aquilla thought about it before she showed her Julius’s picture. She could flip to the back of the photo album and show her the one with him and her at her graduation party. She took the album from her duffle bag and turned to the back page, the very last pictures that were taken of her with her family.

“Holy crap.
He is cute, but he’s kind of old for you, isn’t he?”

“He’s older than me, but only seven years. That’s not too
bad, I don’t care about that anyway.”

“Can I see the rest of them?”

Aquilla started to protest when Liz stepped in. “You girls doing okay?” she asked, sitting beside Aquilla. Aquilla wanted to pull away when she moved her hair to the back of her shoulders. She didn’t want to be touched by her.

“What’s that?” she asked, looking at the photo album that Quill held with a death grip.

“Just some photos of me,” Aquilla nonchalantly explained, hoping she didn’t want to see them. They were her private family photos. She had wanted to remove the ones of her father and Julius before giving them to her.

Aquilla moved her hand when her mother reached for the book.

“Are you sick?” Aquilla asked when her mother flipped opened the book. It was her baby girl at the age she was taken. She couldn’t breathe and could feel the wheeze creep tightly into her chest. She breathed in the medicine.

“Just a bit of asthma
, I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine, she was pissed. She was infuriated that she was watching her baby girl grow up in photos that somebody else had taken. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair.

“Hey, isn’t that your sort of boyfriend?” Reese asked, pointing to a photo of Julius when he was just a boy.

Stupid girl, shut the hell up. “Yeah, sort of.”

“Was he like your brother or something?” Gross.

“Yeah, can we do this later? I’m kind of tired. You can take the book if you want,” Aquilla offered. They needed to get out. She had to get on that laptop so that she could get the hell out of there.

“Sure sweetie
, is there something specific that I can make you for supper? I’m not really sure what you like. You’re gonna have to help me out,” Liz smiled.

“No
you don’t have to make anything special for me. I’m fine with just vegetables and rice.”

“Chicken?
Do you eat chicken?”

Yuck. “No, I reall
y only eat seafood as far as meat goes, but really, you don’t have to make anything special for me.”

“I’ll send your dad out for some fish, how’s that sound?”

My dad is dead, they killed him. “Sure,” Aquilla replied. Whatever, just get out.

Seri couldn’t believe what she was seeing
, that son of a bitch. “Turn it up,” she requested from Manny as she sat on the edge of the sofa. It was agent Dick Face, right there in front of the cameras, taking every last bit of glory from Aquilla’s rescue.

“That lying son of a bitch,” she said aloud. “Sorry,” she offered to Manny.

“No worries. Why do you say he is lying?”

“He’s making it sound like he has been investigating her case all along. We were investigating a drug cartel. We just happen
ed to find Aquilla in the middle of it.” Agent Malone was the one to call in the press. He was retiring. He wanted to go out with a bang, stupid fucker. He didn’t care about how hard this was for Quill or her feelings one iota. 

Seri walked over to the window to see the massive amount of press still lurking.

“How long do you think this will last?” Manny asked.

“I’m not sure. I can’t say that I’ve ever been in this situation before. I would imagine they won’t give up until they talk to her or you guys,” she explained.

“Sarah?”

“Uh?” she said stupidly. She hadn’t even noticed Liz walk downstairs.

“Can we talk?” she repeated the question, holding the photo album.

“Yeah, sure,” Seri replied, following her to the dining room.

“I need to know what Shelby’s relationship with Julius was like. I’m worried that she’s a little, um, I don’t know. I just need to understand what went on in that house. I’m kind of creeped out about the two of them being raised as brother and sister and how it became more.”

“Quill led a very sheltered life. She never got to go to school like normal kids. She never had friends. She spent a considerable amount of time with Julius. I don’t think it became intimate until the last few months. Monica will be here Tuesday to talk to her. I’m sure she will dig deeper into that. Quill hasn’t really disclosed much of that to me.”

“But you know for sure that he actually did things with her?”

“Yes, Liz. I am sure of that.” Of course she was sure. She did things with her too. Oh, God.

Liz breathed in a puff of her lifeline. “Manny, will you go to the store and pick up some fish? Shelby doesn’t really eat any meat but seafood. Why is that, Sarah?” she asked, turning back to her.

Seri shrugged her shoulders. “I guess that’s what she grew up on. It’s what she’s used to. I think you should try to accommodate that as much as possible. She has never really eaten processed foods. I also think you really need to call her Quill. I know you don’t like it, and I know that it bothers you to call her something that he named her. She doesn’t understand that. She needs to feel some sense of who she is.”

“You have no idea how hard this is. I guess I didn’t expect her to be so distant.”

“She’ll come around
, Liz, give her time. Remember that as hard as this is for you, it’s ten times harder for her. I also think you should let Reese go to her friends. Quill isn’t going to warm up and be the big sister that you’re expecting overnight. This has got to be hard for Reese too.”

Liz took a deep breath. “Okay, maybe you’re right. You can drop her off at Lil’s, Manny.”

“Do you mind if I ride along, Emmanuel? I need to pick up a few things myself.”

“Sure, not at all
, and you can call me Manny.”

“Great
, let me run up and tell Quill.”

<>

Quill quickly closed the stupid laptop that she couldn’t get anywhere on. She wasn’t sure why she closed it. Seri thought that it was her laptop, but still.

“Hey, I’m going to run into town with your dad. What can I pick up for you that you’ll eat without complaining?” Seri asked, teasing.

“I never complained, and maybe we should just make a run to Jamelia Lea and get some crab legs or lobster or something. I know this amazing little market that only sells the freshest, best seafood in the world.”

“Nice try
, do you want some fruit?”

“Sure
, bananas would be okay.”

“Anything else?”

“You can’t get me what I want in this stupid little town.”

“Julius?”

“No, I hate him.”

Seri snickered and tousled the top of her hair. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Aquilla checked her cellphone for messages from Julius or even Talin. Maybe she knew something. Maybe she should text her and see if Julius contacted her. Maybe she could find something out about his whereabouts from her father. Fuck, it didn’t work anymore. Her only communication to her prior life had been shut off. Did Julius do it? Did the feds do it? Shit, she needed on that laptop.

<>

“Call me in the morning and I will pick you up,” Manny told Reese as she exited the car.

“I will, and thanks for talking my mom into letting me go
, Sarah,” she added with a smile. She so didn’t want to stay home and deal with the drama unfolding between the walls of that house.

“You’re welcome.”

“How long are you staying?” Manny asked as they drove the short distance to town.

“How well
can you drive?” she asked, evading the question as she watched the reporter through the passenger side mirror.

“What?” he asked, not
understanding.

“We’re being followed. Have you ever ran from the cops, raced a car, or anything?”

“Um, no, and I don’t think it’s a good idea now. I don’t drive faster than my guardian angel can fly.”

“Push your seat back and let me drive. Just slide from under me when I move over
, okay?”

“You’re serious?”

“Unless you want to be bombarded in the grocery store, than yes.”

“Have you ever run from the cops?”

“I am sort of the cops, I have had the training and I have led a few high-speed chases in my time.”

“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed, pushing the seat back.

Shit, maybe sliding across Manny’s crotch wasn’t such a good idea. He just had to go and hold her hips as he slid from beneath her.

“Hang on,” she warned as she hit the gas pedal.

Manny held onto the door like he was going to be ejected from the car at any second. Seri darted in and out of back roads, sliding the rear-end of the car sideways every time. Seri lost the van within five minutes.

“FUCK!” Manny exclaimed. “Sorry,” he said correcting his language.

Seri smiled over at him. “You okay?”

“I’m not
sure, I may need to change my pants after that. You’re going to have to teach me how you made those turns like that.”

“It’s called drifting. You learn a lot with my profession.”

“How did you get into your profession?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday,” she replied. She wasn’t going there. She didn’t talk about her life or how she ended up working for the FBI. It wasn’t a pretty picture and she avoided the feelings that went along with the memories at all cost
s. “Tell me about Liz. She seems to be dealing with this a lot worse than you and Reese.”

“Liz had a misconception of all of this. I think she was expecting to get three year old Shelby back, not some grown girl with a different name. She’s so
pretty, I can’t get over how much she looks like Liz when she was younger.”

“She is a very pretty girl. Am I safe to say that the two of you divorced
, because of the strain that it put on your relationship?”

“I would say that is exactly what happened, although Liz doesn’t think so. She blames herself for taking her eyes off of her. It was like she literally disappeared into thin air. Nobody saw anything
, nothing. I still don’t understand how he got her out of the country. I mean she was all over every television station across the country. Why didn’t someone see her at the airport?”

“I’m working on that. I’ve got someone going through flights from that time. It might take some time though
, it was 14 years ago. And the chance of ever really finding out, are slim to none. When did Liz move to Connecticut?”

“Re
ese was only a year old when Shelby was taken. Liz’s parents came and stayed for two weeks and took care of her while Liz stayed locked in her room sleeping from the valium.  I had to hire someone to come in and take care of Reese once they had to return to their lives. Liz wouldn’t bathe her, feed her, cook, clean, or go to work. Nothing, she just stopped existing. Three months later, I came home from work and she was waiting in our room with her bags packed. She informed me that she was going home to Connecticut. I thought it was a good idea and it might help until she told me that she wasn’t taking Reese and she wasn’t coming back.”

“Wow
, I can’t imagine going through something like that,” Seri admitted. “When did she come and get Reese?”

“Reese was almost four.”

“Three years?” Really? How could you leave your child for three years?

“Yes
, she stayed with her parents and did nothing. I mean nothing, she didn’t even get dressed. I brought Reese here on weekends and her parents kept her some, trying to get her to wake up and realize that she still had a responsibility to Reese. Nothing worked, she just couldn’t cope. It was really sort of crazy. I thought she was crazy. She showed up one evening in a new car, had a new job, and looked the best that I had seen her in three years. She took Reese that night and has been doing okay ever since.”

“And you didn’t try to work things out?”

“Not really, I had just gotten my business off the ground. I wasn’t moving back here. She had just gotten her teaching job, and it just didn’t work out. I tried to come here when I could. I was putting in a lot of hours, and that didn’t go over well with her. We fought, a lot, it got pretty nasty and we got a divorce that year.”

<>

Aquilla didn’t mean to eavesdrop. She only wanted a drink of water.

“Hey, beautiful
, how are things going?” Connor answered, just as the last bell rang.

“She hates me, and she hasn’t been here a full day yet,” Liz assured him, sliding to the chair at the small table in the kitchen.

“She doesn’t hate you, Liz. Give her some time. She’s just been ripped from the only home she’s ever remembered. You, of all people, know how hard this must be for her.”

“I just wanted it to be a happy family reunion. I know I am expecting too much from her, but I can’t help it. I want to do so much with her, and I don’t think she’s going to want to do anything with me. She doesn’t even like Reese.”

“I don’t think you are expecting too much. I think you are expecting too much too fast. Give her some time, sweetie.”

“I need to see you
, Connor.”

“Well, that’s good to know. How do you presume we do that? Don’t you have some FBI agent staying with you?”

“Yeah, and my ex-husband.”

“Wait…Manny is STAYING there?”

“Not by my choice, I can’t tell him no, he has a right to be here.”

“I guess you’re right
, just don’t kiss him, okay?”

Liz snickered. “No worries.”

“I love you, Liz.” Connor quietly said.

“Don’t do that Connor. I can’t handle anymore right now.”

“You can’t handle me loving you and letting me be here for you. Let your guard down, Liz. You deserve to be happy.”

“How can you say that? I let my daughter get kidnapped. I have no idea what kind of life she has lived and she won’t talk to me. I don’t deserve to be happy.”

Hearing Liz say that made Aquilla feel sad and guilty. She didn’t mean for her to feel that way. She just didn’t belong there. Not now, maybe when she was three, but not now that she was an adult, well almost anyway. In her mind, she was an adult. She was eighteen, not seventeen.

“Can you get away for a little bit tonight?” Connor asked.

“No, I better just stay here. I don’t want to leave just in case she wants to talk to me or something.” Fat chance of that happening, she wouldn’t even come out of her room.

“You can go,” Aquilla said
, interrupting. She wanted her to know that she didn’t need to stay there on her account. She wasn’t going to talk to her, she had nothing to say to her.

“Let me call you back, Conner,” Liz said, seeing Aquilla enter the kitchen.

“Okay, but try to get away for a couple hours. You can wait until everyone’s in bed. We’ll just go over to the Goose and drink a beer and talk.”

“I’ll let you know.”

“I’m right here if you need me, Elizabeth.”

“I
know, thanks.”

“Hi,” Liz said to Quill. Hi.
Really? How stupid did that sound?

“Hey, I just wanted a drink of water. Where can I find a glass?”

“Right above the coffee pot. Do you want something to eat? You didn’t eat much.”

“No
, thanks, I’m good.”