Project Renovatio (7 page)

Chapter Eleven

Rana turned off the shower, wrapped herself in a towel, and headed to her room. Her rejected outfits from the previous night still covered the floor. She picked up a pair of denim shorts and a green top to wear for the day, got dressed, and began putting the rest of her clothes away as she tried to bury her memories of the party. Her talk with Levin had helped, but the sick feeling that insisted on occupying her stomach didn’t get the message.

In the middle of hanging a skirt, the front door slammed and footsteps raced up the stairs. Dayla came bounding in and plopped herself on Rana’s bed.

“Hey girlie. How was camp?”

“Awesome. I got to do my own experiment on anything I wanted. I did mine on roly poly bugs. I got to go swimming too. Do you know how pool water kills germs? My friend, Alicia, did that for her experiment. We shared a cabin. She’s really nice and
super
smart. Mom says I can call her to come visit. She only lives an hour from here.”

“Neat. I’m glad you made a friend. Did Mom tell you what we’re doing tonight?”

Dayla giggled. “Yeah. We’re meeting Levin’s
girl
-friend.” She put her hand over her mouth, fell back onto the bed, and laughed almost uncontrollably.

“All right, giggle bug. You probably need to take a shower. I’ll help Mom with the groceries.”

“Okay.” Dayla rose from the bed and skipped to the bathroom. Rana made her way downstairs.

“Good morning, sweetie. Do you know if Maggie likes chicken?” Liz held a package of drumsticks.

“I’m sure she does. Who doesn’t?”

“But what if she’s a vegetarian? I’d better call Levin.” She retrieved her phone from her purse.

“What’s going on?” a gruff voice asked from behind Rana. Walt cleared his throat.

Rana twisted around to face him. “Oh. We’re having Levin and his girlfriend over for dinner. We haven’t met her before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She wasn’t sure how to talk to Walt. They got along fairly well before his deployment, but conversations with him became more difficult after he returned.

“What’s her name?”

“Maggie. Do . . . you want to join us?” She’d assumed he’d stay upstairs by himself for the evening.

“I think I might.” He nodded as he climbed the stairs. A minute later, Dayla shrieked from the kids’ bathroom, likely from the sudden change in water temperature caused by Walt turning on the shower in the master bathroom. Rana laughed.

“Levin said she eats chicken. Whew.” Her mom smiled and gave her a hug.

“Wow. You’re pretty excited.”

“Of course I am. She’s the first
real
significant other to come into our house. And Levin’s getting old enough to think about settling down.”

“He’s only twenty, Mom.”

“Almost twenty-one.” She resumed emptying the grocery bags. “What did Walt want?”

“I think he wants to attend the party. Kinda strange.”

“Not really. His counselor wants him to start socializing more. Maybe I’ll give him a haircut.”

“Good idea.”

****

By that evening, everyone in the family wore presentable clothes. Even Walt cared about his appearance. He looked sharp with his new haircut, clean shave, and bright outfit.

Dayla waited impatiently by the window. Finally, she squealed, “They’re here. Wait–there’s someone else with them.”

“Huh?” Rana walked to the window to assess the situation. Levin walked hand-in-hand with a young woman, and another guy wearing a Broncos T-shirt and denim shorts followed close behind.

Levin knocked and waited on the porch, a formality he would normally skip. Dayla rushed to answer the door, smiling so widely her cheeks must have hurt.

“Hey, Dayla. Did you have fun at camp?” Levin asked before entering the house.

“Yeah. Is this Maggie?”

He laughed. “Yes. Maggie, meet my little sister–”

Dayla rushed through the door and wrapped her arms around Maggie, who laughed.

After hugging Levin, Dayla grabbed his hand and pulled him inside, dragging the smiling trio indoors and stopping in front of Rana.

Levin gestured to Rana but kept his eyes on Maggie. “This is my other sister, Rana.” The girls shook hands and exchanged ‘nice to meet you’s.

Rana was struck by Maggie’s appearance: she wore green khaki capris and a simple white blouse, and her smooth, brown hair draped over her shoulders. Rana couldn’t help herself. She looked at her brother and said simply, “Nice job.”

Maggie brought her hand to her mouth and laughed.

Levin blushed. “Yeah. Thanks.” He gestured to the man standing on his other side. “This is Brent, one of my brothers from the meeting with Scott. I hope you don’t mind me inviting him; I thought you might like to meet one of your brothers.”

“Oh, um, of course. Hi, Brent. It’s nice to meet you.” She shook his hand.

“Nice to m…m…meet you, too.”

Rana nervously eyed the group and pointed to the kitchen. “Mom and Walt are on the back porch. Walt’s working the barbecue grill, if you can believe that.”

Levin’s eyes widened. “I’m not sure I can.”

“Can I get anyone a drink?” Rana asked as they walked towards the kitchen. The three guests told Rana what they wanted and walked outside while Rana and Dayla stayed behind to fix the drinks.

“What did Levin mean, ‘meet your brother’? Is he my brother too?” Dayla asked.

Oh, right. They’d kept most of the Project Renovatio information from Dayla before now. “Not exactly. I’ll tell you about it later, okay? It’s a long story.”

“Okay.” Dayla seemed satisfied. “I’m going to give Maggie her tea. Isn’t she pretty?” The girl wouldn’t stop smiling.

“Yes. She’s lovely.” Rana gave her sister a slight shove on the back and followed holding the other drinks.

The girls joined the group on the porch. Liz, Maggie, and Levin sat in a small circle of chairs, Brent stood behind them with his hands in the pockets of his shorts, and Walt manned the grill. Rana walked to the side of the house and fetched extra chairs.

“Maggie, we are so excited to meet you. Please, tell us about yourself. We’re very interested to learn what caught Levin’s eye.” Liz glanced in Levin’s direction.

“Thanks, Mom.” Levin shifted in his seat.

Rana gave Brent a chair, unfolded one for herself, and sat outside the circle.

Maggie took Levin’s hand. She sat at the front edge of her chair, as if she didn’t think they’d allow her to take up the whole thing. “It’s fine. Well, I’m a student. I’m working on my biology degree. I work at the campus library to make some extra money. I have an eighteen-year-old brother named Grayson. Um…” She glanced at Levin. “I guess that’s it.” She laughed nervously.

“Biology. Strong choice. What do you plan to do with that?” Liz asked.

“Ultimately, I hope to go to medical school and become a forensic pathologist.”

“Wow. Impressive.”

“Thank you. I’ve learned quite a bit. I’m anxious to take the next step.”

“Wonderful.” Liz smiled at Maggie for a moment before turning her attention to Brent. “And I’m pleasantly surprised to meet you, Brent, as we all are, I’m sure. Are you a friend of Levin’s?”

Rana froze. Her mother didn’t know about Levin’s meeting with his brothers. Rana braced herself for Brent’s response. Thankfully, Levin answered before Brent could.

“He’s my brother, Mom.”

“What?” Liz looked at Levin and Brent in quick succession before turning her attention to Dayla. “Go inside for a little while. We need to have an adult conversation. I’ll come get you when we’re done, okay?”

Dayla scowled and slumped her shoulders before entering the house.

“I’m ssss….sorry to s…s…surprise you like that, ma’am.”

“No, please. Don’t be sorry. Levin, would you mind filling me in?”

“Sure. I met with Scott yesterday. Well, with Scott and with our other half-brothers. Brent is one of them. He’s from Seattle.”

She looked at Brent, who nodded.

“Only five male embryos survived in the first phase of the Project. Scott, Brent, Daniel, Jeremy, and me. The rest were miscarried because something went wrong when they monkeyed with the DNA. We all have the same Greek father, so they’re Rana’s brothers too.” Levin went on to describe Scott’s involvement in the Project, what happened with Scott’s girlfriend, and what Scott told them about marrying a PR girl.

“That’s terrible. They can’t tell you how to live.” His mother stared outside the group and took a sip from her glass.

“He didn’t think so either, but he couldn’t do anything about it, as close as he is to the Project. He did suggest another option, though.”

“What option?”

“He said we should either do what the Project wants–meaning I marry a PR girl–or we sever communication with them and try to disappear.”

Liz faced Maggie. “Scott said they threatened his girlfriend. It’s possible you’re the one in danger here. What do you want to do?”

Maggie leaned back. “Frankly, I want to stay with Levin. I’m not going to let whatever this is dictate how I live. It could turn out to be nothing at all.”

“Mom,” Levin said, “you have to stop communicating with the Project. And we need to move, at least to another city. That’s just a start.”

“Levin, it’s not that simple. I signed an agreement. If I stop communicating, I lose the money. And I seriously doubt they will leave me alone.”

He leaned forward in his chair. “That’s why we should prepare to stand our ground. Even if we move, they can easily find us. But we can’t let this organization, or whatever it is, control our lives. They have no right to make me do what they want.”

Walt surprised Rana by adding to the argument from the grill. “Liz, you know I can protect you. We have enough money between my disability and your job. You should do what Levin is asking.”

Liz glared at Walt, apparently speechless, so Rana took the opportunity to interject. “Mom, do you think the Project owns us?”

“No, of course not. That’s ridiculous.”

“Then the choice is easy. Levin should be able to choose a partner. I should be able to do what I want for a career. If they think they can control Levin like this, why would they stop there? No. You have to stop communicating with them.”

Her mother sat in silence for a moment. “You’re right. What do I do? Write a letter?”

Silence covered the group until Levin offered a solution. “Yeah, I guess. Like a resignation letter. Say you’re surrendering the money in exchange for our privacy. We’ll hope that’s enough.”

Chapter Twelve

The rest of the evening went smoothly. Rana and her family enjoyed Maggie’s company, and Brent grew so comfortable his stammer occurred less frequently, though he talked noticeably less than anyone else, including Walt. Rana made sure to exchange email addresses with Brent before he left.

The next day, Liz wrote and sent both electronic and paper copies of her resignation letter to Project Renovatio. During the following weeks, everyone stayed highly guarded: they closely watched their surroundings for strange people, made sure to keep the doors locked, and Liz took time off work to monitor her daughters. When nothing suspicious occurred, life returned to what they called normal, aside from Walt being more engaged with the family than Rana had seen before.

Rana worked many hours of overtime at the grocery store and figured she’d have enough money to buy a respectable car a few weeks before school started. She even received a promotion, which didn’t include much in the way of changing responsibilities, but she did get a raise. Her job would have been perfect except for one detail: Jason knew he could find her there. She still felt angry and embarrassed about what happened at the party, and she wasn’t interested in discussing it with him. On a late night shift, though, as she unloaded a box of canned tomatoes, she looked up and momentarily connected with a pair of familiar eyes.

Jason approached her. “Hi, Rana. I hoped you’d be working tonight.”

Her mind filled with an emotion she couldn’t name, but it felt like a cross between frustration and relief. “Oh, okay. Yep, here I am.” She put two cans on the shelf. “Can I help you find something? We close in twenty minutes.”

He laughed. Apparently, he took her question as a joke. “No. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. I haven’t been able to find you since the party.”

“I’ve worked in the back a lot the past couple weeks.”
By design
, she thought.

“Anyway, I want to tell you I’m really sorry.”

“What for?” She avoided eye contact and continued loading the shelf.

He put his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor. “Well, for how I acted. My parents thought I invited a few friends. It kinda got out of hand–friends inviting more friends, that kind of thing. Some kids I barely know brought the drinks. If it makes you feel any better, I got into huge trouble.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that helps a little.” She intentionally met his eyes for the first time, weighing her next question. “What did you tell them about the wall?”

He shifted his feet and brought his hand to the back of his neck. “I told them I wrestled with one of my friends and I fell into it. They made me fix it.”

Rana smiled. “Good.”

“You’re really strong.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Have you ever considered boxing?” He grinned.

“Um, no. Thanks for the suggestion, though.” She gestured with the cans she held.  “I need to finish stocking these shelves.”

He nodded. “Yeah, okay. Anyway, I just wanted you to know I feel terrible. It’s bothered me since it happened, and I wish I could take it back. I hope we can still hang out, if you want.”

She pursed her lips. “I dunno. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

He nodded, looked away, and left the way he entered without buying anything. He’d visited only to talk to her. Maybe he meant what he said.

****

Levin remained highly guarded after his mother sent the letters to Project Renovatio, even after weeks passed and nothing came from them. He glanced over his shoulder more often at work, and he called Maggie so frequently to check on her that she told him to stop so she wouldn’t get in trouble at her job. When he wasn’t completely paranoid about the Project, however, he enjoyed settling into a normal existence.

He and Maggie continued dating as though the meeting with Scott hadn’t taken place. The weekend after he brought her to his mother’s house, she invited him to meet her parents and brother, and they all seemed to approve of him as a partner for Maggie.

Tonight, as they watched a movie together, he held her in his arms, breathed in the clean scent of her hair, and imagined having the freedom to hold her close whenever he wanted. Since the day she said she’d stay with him in the face of a threat, he’d dreamed of spending every evening with her, waking next to her every morning, and of building a life with her.

She squeezed his arms closer to her body, and in that moment, he couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else. As he leaned over to kiss her, his phone rang from the kitchen.

****

Rana peered through the passenger window and the darkness surrounding her mother’s house, then to her coworker sitting next to her. “Thanks for the ride home. I’ll return the favor when I get a car.”

Katelyn laughed. “The way you’re going, that’ll happen next week. Hey, who was that guy who came in tonight?”

“Oh. He knows me from school. I’ll fill you in later.” She left the car and waved to Katelyn.

Rana walked up the path to the front door as Katelyn drove away. Fishing her keys from her purse, Rana squinted at the doorknob. Why hadn’t her mother turned on the porch light? She turned to the front window; the interior was equally dark.

Liz had told her she’d wait up, but maybe she got too tired.

Rana put her key to the lock and froze when the door pushed into the house. Someone had left it open.

Her pulse quickened, and she reached for her phone in her pocket. As she debated who to call, she leaned towards the door and listened.

Silence.

Reaching her hand into the narrow space between the open door and the frame, Rana flipped both switches inside, turning on the porch light and the lamp in the front room. She poked her head inside, then pulled back to the porch a second later.

Whoever left the door cracked could still be here.

But it could be nothing–maybe Walt didn’t close it all the way after checking the mail.

Rana took a long breath and gently pushed the door open.

Not seeing anyone, she slowly entered the house. A spray of red on the wall in the front room drew her attention, which moved to the red spots on the carpet.

Her throat tightened, and she grabbed her phone. At the same moment she opened her recent contacts, something down the hall, lying in the kitchen doorway, stopped her.

A body. Walt’s body.

She dropped her phone on the tile, rushed to him, and shook his shoulder. “Walt.” He didn’t respond, so she put both hands on his arm and shook harder. “Walt, wake up.”

No response.

She put her fingers on his neck. The beat of his pulse pushed back, but his breathing sounded shallow. There was no blood on or around him, and he didn’t appear wounded. The blood in the front room must have come from someone else.

Oh, God.

“Mom?” she called into the silent house.

She hurried back to her phone. The screen cracked in the fall, but it still functioned. As she ran from room to room in search of her mother, she tapped the first name in her recent contact list. Her heart pounded in her ears.

****

Maggie sat up. “It’s late. Who could that be?”

Levin stood, retrieved his phone, and checked the ID. “Rana? It’s really late for her to call.” He answered. “Hey.”

“You have to come home. Quick! Something happened to Mom.”

“Wait, what? What happened?” Levin turned away from Maggie and leaned against the counter, focusing on Rana’s words.

“In the living room . . . blood on the wall . . . Mom’s gone . . . Walt won’t wake up . . .”

He paced. “Okay, Rana, stop. I need you to listen. You need to hang up now and call the police. But first, do you know where Dayla is?”

“She went to her friend’s house. Alicia.”

“Okay, I’m on my way. Call 9-1-1.” He disconnected and held his phone in his shaking hand.

Maggie put her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll drive. You can tell me what she said on the way.”

Levin wrung his hands and bounced his leg during the twenty-minute ride. What would they find there? What had Rana seen?

Police cars crowded the street in front of his mother’s house. An ambulance sat double-parked, and paramedics loaded Walt into it.

Levin ran to them before they left. “Excuse me, can you tell me what happened to him?”

The young man assessed Levin before responding. “Who are you?”

“Levin. Walt’s my stepdad. What’s wrong with him?”

“We don’t know yet. It looks like someone drugged him. He has weak vital signs, but he should recover. We’re taking him to the hospital for some tests. Is the girl inside the house your sister?”

“Yeah. Is she okay?”

“You should be with her. Call the hospital later for an update on your stepdad.”

“Thanks.” Levin left the ambulance and met Maggie in the front yard. They walked to the house together, careful to avoid the responders occupying the area. They reached the doorway, where Rana stood staring into the front room at the investigators working the scene.

Rana wrapped her arms around Levin and buried her face into his shoulder. He peered over her head and into the house to assess the situation: a thin spray of blood covered the wall and part of a picture, blood drops stained the carpet, and there was no other sign of his mother.

Walt wasn’t injured in a way that would do this. His mother could be trapped somewhere, bleeding to death.

He tried to clear the lump from his throat and focused on an officer, who seemed to recognize the pleading in his eyes. The officer approached the group.

“You must be the brother. I’m Officer Wyatt. The crime scene investigators arrived shortly before you did. We need to stay out of the room until they’re through.”

Levin tried to remain as calm as possible with his crying sister in his arms. “I understand. Do you know what happened?”

“Only pieces right now. We know someone, or some people, entered after 6:00. That’s when Rana said she spoke to her mother about needing to work late at the store. We’re treating the case as a missing person. Until we have reason to believe otherwise, that’s how it will stay. We hope your stepdad can give us some information when he wakes up.”

Levin watched the people in the room collect blood from the wall and floor with cotton swabs as he tried to piece together what happened.

The Project Renovatio people must have done this. But he’d thought Maggie was the one at risk, not his mother. What had he missed? Rana squeezed him tighter, and his shoulder became wet from her tears.

“Let’s sit out front,” Maggie said.

Rana finally released Levin, and they sat at the small patio set on the porch. The officer followed them outside, went to his car, and brought back three bottles of water. Rana couldn’t open hers with her shaking hands. The officer took it and opened it for her. A young woman with long, blonde hair pulled into a ponytail came from inside the house and stood in the doorway. She held a piece of paper.

“Are you Levin?” she asked towards the group.

“I am. What’s going on?” He rose from his chair and met her at the door.

“We found this on the couch, under a pillow. It has your name on it. I can’t let you have it because it’s evidence, but I thought you should see it. Maybe you can help us figure out what it means.”

“Okay.”

She held the unfolded yellow paper towards him so he could read the ten words written on it in blue ink:

You should have listened. Tell Maggie to watch her back.

Fury coursed through his body like lightning. He pounded the side of his fist against the doorframe. Clenching his jaw, he groaned and stared at the porch while he tried to form a thought.

“Sir? Are you all right?”

“I need a minute.”

“Of course. Come find me inside.” She left him by the doorway and re-entered the house.

He left the porch and stormed into the front yard, where he paced and weighed his options.

The police could find his mother eventually, but he figured the Project people knew how to keep the authorities away from their affairs. Waiting wasn’t an option. He imagined a hypothetical scene, similar to the current one in the house, in which Maggie was the missing victim.

He froze in his tracks, looked at the night sky, and shouted in frustration.

Someone tapped the back of his arm. Rana stood next to him, and Maggie watched him from the porch.

He had to protect them. He pulled his phone from his pocket and accessed his contact list.

“Who are you calling?” Rana asked.

“Scott. He said to call him if PR caused any trouble.”

“You think PR did this?”

The note’s words replayed in his mind, and he nodded.

She squinted. “Doesn’t Scott work for PR?”

He stopped scrolling. “We have to do something, and this is all I’ve got.” He pressed the contact and held his phone to his ear.