The Journal: Fault Line (The Journal Book 5) (18 page)

“I did, actually, which surprises me. I
almost never sleep the whole night.”

“Good morning, ladies,” Trevor said when he
reached the bottom of the stairs. His hair was wet from the shower
and he was dressed in fresh clothes. “I’ve just about got breakfast
ready upstairs.”

“Pancakes and sausage?” Janis exclaimed. “You
must be rich, Trevor. No one can afford this kind of food
anymore.”

“Of course they can. Anyone can buy food now
that shipping has started up again. Although, we stocked up early.
The pancakes are from a mix and the sausage was in the freezer,”
Trevor said cautiously, casting a glance at Christine.

“No,” Janis said around a bite of syrup
covered pancake. “The group at the park has talked about it.
Someone said that even T’N’M’s is gouging people on everything they
have now.”

“That’s just not true!” Christine said. “Have
you been there and shopped?” She knew the young woman hadn’t been
there or they would have seen her.

“No. I have very little money left, and all
the accounts are in my parents’ names, and since I don’t know where
they are, or if they’re even alive, I don’t have access to the
money.” She frowned and stabbed a piece of meat.

“Janis, maybe it’s T’N’M that’s being gouged
and they have no choice but to pass the price increase on to the
customers,” Trevor said calmly. He stared at his plate, his
appetite fading.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” the
young girl said, mopping up the last of the precious syrup. “Is
there anymore?”

“I’m afraid not,” Christine said quickly.
“We’re running low. Trevor used the last to make us this special
breakfast.” She kept her eyes solely on Janis. “If you’re done, we
can take you home now.” She stood and put her unfinished plate down
for Holly.

***

“Trevor, don’t feel down, and please don’t be
angry,” Christine rubbed his shoulders. “You’re doing what you need
to do. You offer a service that everyone needs and depends on.
Please don’t forget that.”

“That girl, who doesn’t even shop at my
store, thinks I’m a bad person and gouging everyone. Is that what
people think of me?” He stood and paced. “I’m going to the store
and open up for a few hours today, maybe even see if I can trim
some prices.”

“No! Don’t you dare change the prices, not
one cent, Trevor Monroe! If you do that, people will be sure you
were charging too much to begin with,” Christine said. “It’s a
small group that might have that opinion. Please don’t let them run
the store for you. You still have a lot of friends in town, people
who benefitted from your generosity.”

“You’re right,” he said, standing. “I’m still
going to the store early, and take an inventory, maybe even put in
another order. I should call the bakery too,” he mumbled, getting
lost in his business thoughts. Christine smiled, knowing she got
him back on track.

“I think I’m going to the park as usual, and
see how the others fared the storm,” Christine said. “I’ll come by
the store after.” As she started walking out of the room, she
stopped and turned back. “You know, Trevor, I’m really glad we
stacked all those boxes of food in the corner. With it dark like it
was, Janis never saw them. I don’t like this feeling, but now I
don’t trust her.”

***

At noon, Christine walked Holly to the park
to find Janis already there and deep in conversation with Seth.

“Where’s Trevor?” Janis asked, looking behind
Christine.

“He has to work today,” she answered simply,
and quickly changed the subject. “How did you fare during the
storm, Seth?”

“It was quite the blow, wasn’t it?” he
chuckled. “We were fine, Christine. Janis was just telling me about
how well prepared you and Trevor were for the storm. You had plenty
of food, water, games, even a lantern when the lights went
out.”

“Some of that is because my dad likes to
camp; it’s really his stuff, and everyone has games to play.”
Christine thought on how to downplay what they had. “And I think
Janis is exaggerating a bit. All we had was a pizza from the
freezer, our last one by the way, and Trevor made pancakes from a
box mix for breakfast this morning. That’s all. Have you seen
anything on the news about the storm?” she said, switching subjects
again.

“Yes, I saw the reports this morning,” Seth
replied. “It seems we were very lucky. The tornado went by about
ten miles to the south of here and never touched down.”

“I guess I should go home and watch some news
myself. I’m really curious about what happened… and what
is
happening outside of Greenwood,” Christine said, finding this a
good opportunity to leave early. “Besides, I need to get to work
myself. See you all later!”

***

Christine let herself in the back door of the
Main Street store. Holly nudged past her to greet Trevor and find
the blanket he had set behind the counter just for her. The past
few months had been traumatic for the dog losing not one but two
masters, although Holly adjusted well, feeling the love from these
new humans.

“How was the park?” Trevor asked
tentatively.

“As we feared, when I got there, Janis was
busy regaling Seth with our vast amounts of supplies, which I tried
to downplay as much as I could,” Christine told him. “What are we
going to do about her, Trevor?”

“I was thinking about that while doing the
inventory. I think we should contact Doc Adams and see if he can
find out anything about her parents. He’s about the only one that
has any clout at the hospital. I’m not sure what good it will do
her either way, but it’s worth a try.”

“It may give her enough focus and get her
attention away from
us
,” Christine said. “And if her parents
succumbed to the flu, she at least would have some money to support
herself. Though thinking about it, I find it rather strange that at
her age, she doesn’t have a job of her own.”

“Speaking of money, while I was paying some
bills online earlier, I noticed that my insurance company had
deposited the claim money into the store accounts.”

“That’s great, Trevor. It should make it
easier for you keep the store open.”

“Yes, with the building claim, I can finally
get that site razed and cleaned up. There’s also the inventory
loss, my personal possessions loss, and the vehicle, so we’re
sitting pretty good right now.” He smiled, knowing he wanted to set
aside some of those funds for a honeymoon.

“Have you come up with an order for the
store?” she asked, wanting to get away from the subject of money,
something she had always felt uncomfortable discussing.

“I have. Anything you would add to this?” he
asked, handing her the clipboard with the order form attached.

Christine carefully read his notations,
flipping through the pages. “What about some comfort foods? Like
chips and frozen pizzas?” she suggested. “And I don’t see alcohol
on this list.”

“I called about beer this morning. The state
was quick to take control of all alcohol. It’s not available to us
little guys anymore.”

“Then I guess we should really ration what we
have left and save it for special reasons.”

“Yeah, that would make sense,” Trevor said.
“I added chips to the list, but the frozen items come from a
different supplier and I haven’t been able to reach them yet. At
least there isn’t that expense of running the freezers yet. I think
my electric bills for the stores could cover a dozen families!”

***

“Good to see you open, Trevor,” Chief Mallory
said, pushing open the front door.

“It was time, Marty,” Trevor replied. “That
storm kept us in for two days. Was there any damage in town?”

“Just the power outage. Because of the
hospital we came back up quickly. Small towns without medical
facilities are the last served, unfortunately.”

Christine’s thoughts went to her father
somewhere in the middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and she
wondered how he was doing and if he was affected by any power
outages.

“That reminds me, I need a favor. We have a
neighbor whose parents went to the hospital with the flu a couple
of weeks ago,” Trevor told him. “She hasn’t heard from them and the
hospital guards won’t her in, so she has no way of finding out
their condition. Is there any way to get that information to
her?”

“Between me and Doc I’m sure we can find out
something. I must warn you though, if it’s been several weeks, it
probably isn’t good news,” Marty said, jotting down Janis’ name and
address.

“That’s okay too, at least she can move on if
they’ve died,” Christine added.

***

“
The damage potential was there with the
EF-2 status of the tornado,”
the newscaster said.

“
Yes, once the winds hit 113 mph, it was
officially an EF-2. The final clocking of the wind speed set it at
120 mph,”
Matt Zika said.

“
What made it veer off to the south,
Matt?”
the anchor asked the meteorologist.

“
It’s almost impossible to say, Cynthia,
but based on an educated guess, I would have to say it followed
I-70 through Terre Haute and when it hit the higher elevation at
Cataract Falls, that caused it to lift, and veer off to the south…
lucky for us.”

“
Absolutely, Matt, the new direction put
it in open fields. Only one barn was damaged and there was no loss
of life, thankfully! And now, on to sports...”

Trevor muted the sound on the TV when he
heard knocking on the front door.

“Marty, what a pleasant surprise,” Trevor
greeted his friend. “What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw the scowl
on Marty’s face.

“You know that couple you asked me to check
on at the hospital? I found them. They did die from the flu.”

“That won’t be good news to Janis,” Christine
said sadly.

“There’s a problem.” Marty took off his cap.
“You don’t happen to have a beer, do you?”

Trevor moved to the kitchen without a word
and retrieved one of the chilled brews from the refrigerator.

Marty popped the cap and took a long swallow
before continuing. “The Jones couple was in their late eighties.
This Janis can’t be their daughter.”

“Granddaughter?” Christine ventured.

Marty shook his head. “Their only child died
as an infant. Whoever this young woman is, she’s an imposter, and
from what I’ve seen lately, most imposters are dangerous.”

Trevor and Christine looked to the other and
Trevor nodded. “Let us tell you about our recent experience with
Janis.” Between the two of them, they laid out the past three days
to the police chief, and their fears.

“It’s sounding like Janis is an opportunist.
Keep in mind the hospital was being overwhelmed and it was a
chaotic time. The scant records indicate the couple came into the
emergency room with a young girl helping them, who left shortly
after, and that only Mr. Jones had any ID on him.”

“Do you think Janis stole Mrs. Jones’ purse?”
Christine asked.

“Let me toss out my theory,” Marty said,
taking another swallow of beer. “Janis hung out by the emergency
room, waiting for the right target: a sick elderly person or
couple. Acting like a hospital helper, she assisted them, gaining
their trust by putting the weaker of the two in a wheelchair, and
helping to get them checked in. During this distraction, she takes
the purse. She now has a new name, an address, and likely some
cash. Keeping the story as true as possible in case anyone checked,
she set herself up in their house as a close relative.

“I’m going to bet when we pay her a visit,
the house will have very few things left, that she’s pawned the
valuables. I’m also guessing you two were her next target.”

Christine was stunned into momentary silence.
“We trusted her,” she said quietly.

“Don’t blame yourself, Christine,” Marty
said. “A good con artist is very believable, and it’s likely much
of her story was true. She probably really
is
afraid of
storms for some reason, and maybe she didn’t view the two of you as
susceptible until you invited her in, and then she was ready to
take advantage.” He paused. “On the other hand, I could be all
wrong. I won’t know until I confront her with a deputy or two.
These types of people make all kinds of accusations when there are
no witnesses to contradict them.”

Police Chief Mallory
knocked on the door of the house deeded to Bert and Aida Jones, not
prepared for Doc Adams to be already inside.

“Doc, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Chief, I’m glad to see you. When I got
Trevor’s message about the hospitalization of the Jones’, I looked
into it immediately. They were patients and friends of mine, and I
came to check on Janis,” Doc Adams replied.

“You know this Janis?”

“She’s one of my patients, too. I think we
should talk outside.”

***

“Janis does live here, legally,” Doc Adams
told the chief when they were outside. “The Jones’ were her foster
parents and have been for over ten years. Janis just turned
twenty-six. When she was fifteen, she was in a head on car accident
with her parents during a severe storm. Both parents were killed,
and Janis was trapped in the back seat with all the windows broken
out. The lightning, thunder, and heavy rain pounded her for over
two hours until the wreck was found and the crews were able to free
her,” Doc said. “She might not have had any noticeable physical
injuries, however, she did suffer a severe brain trauma injury.
Over the following weeks, a team of specialists discovered the blow
to her head had halted her mental growth. Janus will forever be
fifteen years old.”