A Dark Mind (17 page)

Lizzy was trying to busy herself around the house, but Hayley could tell she was all ears. She was acting weird, making Hayley think she had a problem with Hayley taking a boy into her room, but that was too bad.

The moment Tommy stepped inside her bedroom, Hayley locked the door and then turned on some music just in case Lizzy decided to try to listen in on their conversation.

“Did you bring it with you?”

One corner of his mouth turned upward, a cross between a smirk and a smile, as he pulled a black plastic strap out of his pant pocket.

“We can’t possibly do this with Jared upstairs,” Hayley said. “That’s Lizzy’s boyfriend and he works for the FBI.”

“Awesome.”

“No, not awesome. If the alarm goes off, he’ll find out what we’re up to.”

“Chill. My little brother could do this blindfolded.”

“Can you come back tomorrow?”

“I can’t. I would if I could,” he assured her, “but I’m leaving town for a few days.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

Hayley’s arms dropped to her sides.
Screw it
. There was no way she had the patience to wait any longer. “OK, then, let’s just do this.” She took a seat on the edge of the bed and pulled up her jeans so he could get the monitor off her ankle.

He looked around the room.

“What do you need?”

“My tools. I left my backpack by the stool in the kitchen.”

Great. Just great.
Hayley pulled her pant leg down, and then stood. “Stay right there,” she said before she headed out the door.

Lizzy was folding laundry on the couch.

Jared had reappeared and was in the kitchen, fixing a sandwich.

Hayley picked up Tommy’s backpack and headed for her room.

“What are you two doing in there?” Jared asked.

God, I really hate living with the guy
. Hayley lifted the backpack. “He made me a CD and we’re going to listen to it. Lizzy’s the one who forced the guy on me. She likes to play matchmaker, so if you have any questions about Tommy, ask her.”

“Go,” Jared said. “Have fun.”

Hayley returned to her room and locked the door behind her. Tommy must have figured out her password, because he was sitting at her desk, playing on her computer. Hayley took a seat on her bed with her back resting against the headboard. She pulled up her pant leg again. “Let’s hurry up and do this before June and Ward Cleaver decide to kick you out of here.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Let’s just say they’re not very trusting.”

“Lizzy likes me,” he said.

“But her boyfriend doesn’t.”

“Is that why you want this thing off? Are you going to run away?”

“I’m not going to run away. I simply need to visit a few people, that’s all.”

He laid out his tools on her bed next to her foot. “We could have used a thirty-dollar plastic box to jam the GPS, but that would have been chaos: air-traffic controllers would be peering at malfunctioning monitors, emergency pagers would stop working, people would find that they had no signal on their cell phones, and ATMs could even stop giving out cash. The feds would be on to us within a few days, especially with your FBI friend upstairs. Instead, we’re going to do this a little differently. It’ll still be easy, just not as fun.”

“Yes, please, let’s keep the military and the feds out of this.”

He didn’t waste any time getting to work. Using pliers and another tool she didn’t recognize, he had the bracelet off her ankle in less than two minutes. She stretched her leg and wiggled her ankle. “Excellent.”

He held up a hand to stop her from saying anything more.

“Stay right where you are and don’t move. We’ve got to work fast. I have no idea how often the GPS tracks the coordinates.”

She remained silent after that and watched him examine the box and reconnect the band he’d just taken off. Then he placed the new and improved fake band around her ankle and used metal rivets he’d brought with him to connect it. It looked identical.

Impressive.

Once he was done with her leg, he carried the original ankle bracelet to the computer and began to click away on her keyboard.

“What are you doing now?”

“I still need to assign your monitor an IP address.” He pulled a device out of his backpack. “This Ethernet switch supports IP multicast. The switch will use the IP addresses and the IGMP for controlling of the multicast routing but will use the MAC addresses for the actual routing.”

“Oh,” Hayley said, although not one word of what he’d said made much sense. And she had a feeling he knew that.

He continued to work as he talked. “If they had used checksums in lieu of faster routing, we might have had a few problems. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but there are so many issues of reliability that I could talk about it all day.”

“Please don’t. My head would explode.”

He hit a couple of keys and then signed off. The screen went blank. “It’s simple,” he went on as he collected his tools. “The IP has two functions. Addressing hosts and—”

She tossed a pillow at his head. “OK, well, now you’ve asked for it.” He stood.

She pointed a finger at him. “Stay away from me.”

He picked up the pillow and tossed it back at her, but she was too quick. She rolled over and the pillow missed her completely and knocked over a picture frame instead.

She laughed. “Lizzy is not going to be happy with you if you break her lamp.”

He was staring at her.

“What are you looking at?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh before.”

She looked away from him and slid off the bed. “Yeah, well, it’s been known to happen.”

He scratched his head.

That they were experiencing an awkward moment would be putting it mildly.

He began to pack up his tools.

Once he was done with that, she followed him out of the room, glad to see that Lizzy and Jared had disappeared upstairs.

Shutting the door behind her, she followed Tommy to the curb and watched him climb on his motorcycle.

The perky neighbor, Charlee, was watering her flowers and she waved.

Hayley waved back.

“So, it’s all taken care of?” she asked Tommy.

“Well, you do owe me a ride on the back of my motorcycle.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll do that later, but what about my monitor? Am I free to roam?”

“The bracelet with the packet needs to stay in your room at all times. It’s in your top drawer. I suggest you hide it somewhere.”

She nodded. “I can go anywhere I want without any alarms going off?”

“I guess you’ll find out.”

“You’re not sure?”

His laugh was a low rumble under his breath.

She shook her head at him. “Have fun on your trip,” she said as she headed for the front door. “And thanks for the CD,” she shouted in case anyone in the house was listening.

Sacramento

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The house where Hayley’s mom lived was one of the smallest homes Jessica had ever seen. It was literally a pinkish stucco box with tiny square windows. She’d been sitting there staring for ten minutes now and she had to force herself to get moving.

There were no cars parked in the driveway or at the curb. No neighbors were out walking their dogs or enjoying the fresh air. It had been raining for most of the day, but at the moment, it was more of a light drizzle. It was by far the gloomiest springtime Jessica could ever remember experiencing. Where were all the May flowers and sunshine?

With a sigh, she climbed out of the car and shut the door behind her. As she headed up the cracked walkway, she tried to imagine growing up in the neighborhood. The thought of all that Hayley had been through saddened her. She peeked through the garage window. The place was filled to the brim with boxes and plastic bags. There were rusty old bike parts, a twin-sized mattress with the stuffing coming out, a stack of tires, and a broken chair. An endless assortment of crap stuffed into every crevice.

She pulled away from the window and inhaled.

Standing before the front door, she counted to three, collected herself, and then knocked.
Get this over with and get out of here.

As she waited for someone to answer the door, she took inventory of the mess. It was hard to miss. There were beer cans scattered around the walkway and a zillion cigarette butts. A dark sheet was hung from the inside, covering the front window, preventing her from seeing through to the main part of the house.

Jessica shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she prayed Hayley’s mom would answer the door soon, because she was quickly losing her nerve. But nobody came to the door, not even after Jessica’s third attempt at knocking as hard as she could.

Damn
.

She tried opening the door, but it was locked. She looked around for the decorative rabbit Hayley had mentioned. For a brief moment, she thought luck was with her because there was no rabbit to be found. But then she spotted it—its grayish concrete ears peeking out from behind a clump of high weeds. The rabbit wasn’t exactly ornamental. She headed that way and tried her best to avoid disturbing all of the gigantic, intricately made spiderwebs. She squealed when a lizard raced out from under the rabbit and found a new hiding spot beneath the house.

“Please don’t be there,” she said aloud. But the key was there, just as Hayley said it would be.
Damnation.

Jessica knew she should call the police regardless of Hayley’s instructions, but she also knew she could never do that to Hayley. Obviously, Hayley was worried about what the police might find if they entered the house—some sort of illegal substance, no doubt.

The door was unlocked now, leaving Jessica no choice but to head inside. As she stepped over the threshold, she pinched her nose because of the horrible stench. She gave the room a quick once-over before she shut the door quietly behind her. The filth and the smell were nearly unbearable as she tiptoed her way through dirty clothes and what looked like rotting garbage. She wanted to cry at the notion that Hayley had once lived here. No wonder Hayley had chosen to live on the streets. Jessica had never in her life seen anything like it. The television screen was cracked. The kitchen didn’t look any better than the living room, the counters
covered with junk and the sink overfilled with dirty dishes and God knows what else.

The dark sheets over the windows made for a poorly lit trip down the narrow hallway.

Stay calm
, she told herself. She would check each room, make sure nobody was there. If, God forbid, she found a dead body, she would call the police immediately.

The first room to the left wasn’t nearly as unkempt as the rest of the house. The bed looked like somebody had even attempted to make it.
Thank God. A sign of life
.

For the first time since she’d arrived, she felt as if she could breathe normally. This had to be the master bedroom since there was a connected bathroom. Judging by the damp towel and the makeup scattered across the tile counter between the two sinks, the bathroom had been used recently…by a woman.

She had one more room to check and then she could leave, but before she stepped out of the bathroom, she heard the front door open. Her body tensed.
Shit.

It took her only a few seconds to figure out what she needed to do. She needed to walk out there and introduce herself—tell Hayley’s mom the truth about why she was here. She made it past the bed and was about to step out of the bedroom, when she heard a man’s voice.

“I told you to lock the fucking door.”

“I did lock it.”

The door slammed shut.

“Brian! No!”

There was a horrible cracking sound right before Hayley’s mom cried out in pain.

“Look at this place!” he shouted. “All these months away, and the house still looks like shit.”

Jessica’s heart lodged in her throat. Eyes wide and unblinking, she looked for a place to hide. She quickly headed back to the bathroom. Footsteps sounded, loud footsteps pounding across worn carpet. He passed the master bedroom and went to the room at the end of the hall.

Jessica moved the shower curtain aside, climbed in and sank down inside the bathtub, and then tried to think. As she pulled out her cell phone from her pant pocket, somebody entered the bathroom. She didn’t dare breathe.

The water faucet came on.

And then Jessica’s phone vibrated.

The shower curtain came open and Jessica found herself staring up into familiar-looking eyes. Beneath the bruises and the bloodied lip, the woman looked exactly like Hayley.

“My name is Jessica,” she whispered. “I’m Hayley’s friend. She—”

Hayley’s mom put a finger over her mouth, telling Jessica to remain silent, and then gestured at her phone, letting Jessica know now would be a good time to turn it off. She shut the curtain, but before Hayley’s mom could leave the bathroom, Brian returned.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Just fixing my face.”

“You’re lucky nothing was stolen. Why are you so fucking stupid?”

“I’m trying to change.”

“Yeah, whatever. Come on. I got my shit. Let’s blow.”

As they headed out of the room and their voices grew quieter, Jessica could hear Brian telling Hayley’s mom what to say if anybody asked about the bruises on her face.

Jessica shivered.

She heard the door close. She needed to get the hell out of there, but her body refused to budge.

Sacramento

Monday, May 21, 2012

Lily’s Flower Shop was on the corner of 11th and T Street. Dried yellow leaves covered the ground. There was a tea shop across the street. A biker zipped past her and she could see two women a few blocks down pointing at something in a shop window. Overall the street was quiet. No rain today, but the gusty winds were stirring up pollen and making for itchy and watery eyes. Sacramento tended to be like a giant bowl with a lot of pollen sources.

Lizzy entered the shop and was greeted by tinkling bells and the sweet scent of daylilies and tuberoses. She’d never seen a flower shop like it before. A small winding walkway lined with every color and size of flower imaginable led her to an antique desk where customers could pay. Behind the desk with the old-fashioned cashbox, there was a refrigerator with a glass door filled with premade bouquets.