Close to You (25 page)

He bought a Taylor ham-and-fried egg sandwich on a buttered roll and a cup of coffee at a deli and ate his breakfast in the car. He chewed and wondered what Eliza was going to do today.

Meat gulped his hot coffee and considered his options. If he went back to his spot and parked, the police might come sniffing around. Cruising the neighborhood would be risky. If he passed by the house, those thugs parked out front would be sure to notice. He needed to find a spot from which to view the house without the guards seeing him.

Then it occurred to him. The new mansion that was being built down the street. The construction workers wouldn't be there on Saturday. He could pull right into the garage. Even if someone saw his dusty old car, they would assume it was only a laborer's.

He turned onto Saddle Ridge Road, his tired eyes spotting the back of the gray sedan up the street ahead. Meat pulled into the dirt driveway of the uncompleted house and slipped into the garage. He got out of the car and walked up the makeshift wooden ramp that led up to what looked like it would be the new kitchen. He wandered around until he found the main staircase, went upstairs and turned in the direction of Eliza's home. In a comer bedroom, he found a spot that gave him a clear view.

He watched and waited until, finally, the payoff. Eliza shepherded her little girl into the station wagon. A little boy came out of the house across the street and got in as well. The Volvo pulled out of the driveway and the gray sedan followed behind.

Meat brushed the sawdust from his pants and sped downstairs to get to his car.

Samuel paced back and forth in the bright morning sun at the entrance of the World of Darkness. He was thrilled that Eliza had asked him if he wanted to meet her at the Bronx Zoo and spend the rest of the day there after she finished her shoot. It was so kind of her to include him. Samuel hoped Eliza wasn't just feeling sorry for him. Pity-dating was not what he had in mind.

The warmth of her mouth as she had returned his kiss last night by the swimming pool had not been rooted in sympathy, he was sure of it. There had been an urgency to it. Samuel felt he could have pushed for more. Though he desperately wanted to go further with Eliza, he didn't think it would be wise. It was too early.

He spied Eliza and two skipping children rounding the path. Three men followed, laden with camera gear. Several yards behind were two more men. The security detail, Samuel surmised. Eliza kissed Samuel lightly on the cheek.

“Good morning.” She greeted him with a smile. “I realized after you left last night that I should have told you to meet us later. I hope you won't be bored stiff while we get our work done.”

“Not at all,” Samuel protested. “I'm very interested in
seeing how the television-news world works.”

Eliza turned to the others and made introductions.

“You already know Janie, and this is her friend, James.”

Samuel bent down to shake the boy's hand.

“And this is producer Keith Chapel, cameraman B.J. D'Elia and soundman John Dolan.”

“Getlemen,” Samuel nodded. Hands were shaken all around. Samuel noticed that Eliza ignored the security men.

“What did you want to do first, Keith?” Eliza asked.

“I thought it would be good if we went inside and took a look at the exhibit while the crew sets up out here. We can ask people what they thought of the bats when they come out.”

“Fine. Let's go.” Eliza walked back to the security men and suggested they wait outside. She didn't need them hovering over them inside. It would ruin the experience for the kids.

 

This was really too good to be true.

Meat mingled among the other visitors and watched as Eliza and her retinue gathered in front of the World of Darkness. He knew the exhibit well. He had been here dozens of times before, in his quest to learn all he could about bats. The zoo offered all sorts of hands-on educational programs. It was here in the Bronx that he had first held a little brown bat in his own hands.

The juxtaposition of his two passions, right before his eyes, was unbearably exciting.

Look at Eliza! Could those jeans be any tighter?

 

Five pairs of eyes squinted, adjusting from the bright daylight to the pitch-black of night as the three adults and two children entered the World of Darkness pavilion. The sprawling room was designed to re-create a nightlike environment that would coax out of hiding various species of the animal kingdom that otherwise would never have been seen. Janie and James squeezed Eliza's hands with trepidation
at first, but within minutes they broke away, running to the glass cases that lined the walls.

“What are these, Mommy?”

Eliza read the dimly lighted plaque at the base of the window and grimaced as she stared at the subterranean world behind the glass. “Naked mole rats.” Pale, bald, tubular creatures huddled together in masses in their tunnels. Janie and James were mesmerized as they pressed their faces to the glass.

 

Just walk in calmly with all the others.

Meat sauntered right past the security guards and the camera crew, up the ramp and into the World of Darkness.

It didn't take long for his eyes to get adjusted.

 

“Janie, James! Don't run off,” Eliza commanded. “Stay with me.”

The children had beelined to the next window.

“Ewww! Bats!” Eliza heard Janie's voice.

“Cool!” exclaimed James.

It took awhile to make them out, but Eliza, Keith and Samuel stared right along with all the other visitors at the thick clusters of dark bats that hung from the tree limbs. From time to time, one of the bats would spread its wings, revealing its distinctive, eerie silhouette.

 

It was more than Meat could take.

Eliza was standing right in front of the bats. The two guys and the little kids were with her and there were other visitors in the large, dark room, but he could contain himself no longer.

 

Eliza held back for just a minute as the others moved on, rereading the information on the mounted plaques. She felt the warmth of a hand against her neck and at first she found it surprising yet pleasing, thinking Samuel might be reaching out to her in the darkness, like a high-school kid at the
movies with a date. But as the voice whispered hotly into her ear, Eliza instinctively recoiled in fear.

“Why do you insist on dressing like a slut? Learn from these bats and be a good example for your daughter.”

“Mommy, Mommy! Come see this.” Eliza could hear Janie's voice in the split second it took for her to scream out.

In the shadowy darkness, Samuel and Keith found her and wrestled Meat to the floor.

Joe was in his backyard putting away the lawn furniture in the shed for the winter when his wife called out from the house. The office was on the phone.

Ten minutes later Connelly was driving to the Bronx precinct house. When he got there half an hour later, he immediately recognized the scruffy man in the holding cell. It was the same guy who had been camping out in front of the Broadcast Center. Only now the man had a name and a hometown. Cornelius Bacon of Moonachie, New Jersey.

The Bronx cops had already called the Moonachie Police Department. They knew the guy. He was a bartender at one of the local gin joints. He was a strange one. Kept bats in his backyard.

Bats. The letters to Eliza ran through Connelly's quick mind. “
VAMPIRE BATS SUCK BLOOD LEARN FROM THE BATS
. . . .”

Just for fun, Connelly had asked the arresting officer to call the Moonachie police again and ask if they knew whether the suspect had any nicknames. The answer came back and Joe heaved a deep sigh of relief. Thank God they had caught this guy.

Joe didn't even want to think about what had almost happened. But he had to. The security guards had been right there, yet this animal had gotten to Eliza.

And the phone lunatic was still out there somewhere.

When Eliza arrived at work Monday morning, Paige greeted her with the news that
Entertainment Tonight
had called and wanted to see if she would do an interview about the episode at the Bronx Zoo over the weekend.

“Absolutely not,” Eliza replied. “That's the last thing I need. More publicity. I don't want anyone else out there getting any crazy ideas.”

“The producer told me they are doing the story whether you talk with them or not. They know that our camera crew got pictures. They want to know if they can have a dub of those, too, and credit KEY News for their usage,” Paige said timidly.

A deep sigh heaved from Eliza's chest. This whole thing was getting to her. She noticed she had selected the most conservative suit she owned to wear this morning. She felt vulnerable and exposed.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Eliza said with determination. “And I'll be damned if I'll supply then sound bites for them.” She would go to Yelena Gregory if she had to, but the chaotic video the crew had shot outside the World of Darkness was not going to make air. Janir crying and holding on to her mother, James Feeney's solemn
little face. Hell would freeze over before Eliza would let that tape be seen. She didn't give a fig in this case about the journalistic troth or the public's right to know. Was she being a hypocrite? Perhaps. But she didn't care.

Paige scribbled a note on her pad and glanced at the call log. “Mr. Connelly has called twice this morning already.”

“Okay. Get him on the phone for me, please, Paige.” Eliza walked toward her office and turned to her assistant. “And Paige? Happy Columbus Day. I'm sorry I had to make you come in to work today.”

 

“This guy Meat's fingerprints cleared. The criminal judge set a measly one-thousand-dollar bail and his mother came over and got him out. But at least the civil court judge issued a temporary restraining order against him until the case goes to court. He can't come within five hundred feet of you.”

“All this happened on a holiday weekend?” Eliza asked incredulously, pulling tensely on the telephone cord.

“Yeah. These things can be arranged when you put the pressure on.”

“How long until it comes to court?”

“Don't know for sure. It might be a couple of months.”

Eliza digested his words but felt no less worried. “And who's to say that he'll obey the restraining order?”

Connelly hesitated. “We don't know for sure. But we still have the security detail on you, Eliza.”

Neither of them said what they were thinking.

The security detail had been there at the zoo, too.

The familiar opening theme of
Entertainment Tonight
blared and the announcer teased the upcoming stories.

“KEY News anchorwoman Eliza Blake stalked at the Bronx Zoo.”

A publicity photo of Eliza filled the screen.

The story reported that thirty-two-year-old Cornelius Bacon had been arrested for harassing the network anchor-woman while she was at the zoo over the weekend with her daughter and a KEY News crew. Bacon was a bartender at the Like It Rare steakhouse in Moonachie, New Jersey. The
ET
camera was there when Bacon showed up for work on Sunday night. The suspect walked brusquely past, covering his face with his jacket.

How dare this Bacon? Eliza wasn't his. Eliza belonged to another.

The legal system didn't always take care of things the way it should. There were other ways this guy could be dealt with to make sure he didn't get to Eliza again.

Gray-haired Florence Anderson was a survivor and much of what she had been through showed in her gaunt face. Deep lines creased her forehead and the area that led downward from her nose to her mouth. Frown lines. She hadn't had much to smile about over the last five years. Yet the clear blue eyes that peered from the hollowed sockets sparkled with heated determination. Florence welcomed the KEY News crew into her home.

As Eliza and Florence shook hands, their eyes locked in mutual understanding.

“I saw
Entertainment Tonight
last night,” Florence said. “I'm so sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“I'm so glad they got that nut. But I can't understand how they let him out of jail.”

Eliza shrugged. “That's how it works, I guess. He made bond and he's out there until we go to court.”

“That sucks,” Florence spat.

Eliza almost laughed at the incongruity of the words coming from the older woman's mouth, but Florence was absolutely right. It did suck.

The crew set up in the living room, a shrine to Florence's
daughter. Pictures of Linda Anderson hung on the walls and sat in frames on the tables. Linda as a baby; Linda as a toddler; Linda as a little girl in her Brownie uniform; Linda in a bathing suit, holding a trophy; Linda in cap and gown; Linda holding a microphone, doing an interview in front of a courthouse; Linda sitting behind an anchor desk. Eliza felt a chill as she looked at the pictures that documented a life that was too close to being her own.

She wondered how Florence Anderson could stand being surrounded by all these reminders of her missing daughter each day. If anything ever happened to Janie, Eliza didn't think she could bear looking at her pictures. If anything ever happened to Janie, she would get a hose, attach it to the tailpipe of the Volvo and run it back into the car and sit there, inhaling deeply until peace came.

Don't go there!

Keith suggested that Mrs. Anderson sit on the sofa for the interview. Eliza knew he selected the spot because the pictures of Linda would hang on the walls behind her in the shot. A tiny Mack microphone was clipped to the edge of Florence's blazer.

‘Tell me about your daughter, Mrs. Anderson.”

“Linda was everything a parent would want,” Florence began. “She was a sunny little baby, had a great personality, did well in school, never gave her father—God rest his soul—and me any real trouble. That's not to say she was a goody-goody, mind you. She liked to have fun and she did the usual things in high school that kids do.” Florence smiled wryly as she remembered. “One time we had to go down to the police station and pick her up. She had been stopped with a bunch of other kids riding around in a car. They'd been drinking.”