The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien (2 page)

“If it’s yours, you’d know the answer to that question.”

Alexa let out an unrelenting sob. “The only reason I don’t know is ‘cause—” She let out another sob to sell it. “My mother died and she left this for me.” She wiped a fake tear that rolled down her right cheek. “It’s all I have left of her. I need to know. Here’s my ID, just in case you were worried.”

“Okay. Stay here and I’ll go find out.” He didn’t look like he wanted to wait for her to start wailing.

“Thank you so much.” She quickly restrained a smile she felt coming up.

“I thought you didn’t think it was from your mother.”

She flashed a smile to Matt. “I don’t. I deserve an Oscar, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. That was good. I don’t know if I should be scared or proud,” Matt said in all honesty.

“You should be very afraid.” She replied with a grin.

She quickly returned the heartbroken expression to her face when she spotted John returning. He held a portfolio in his arm that he hadn’t had earlier on.

“Miss LeGardien, what I found out was the key opens a safety deposit box in a bank across town, about thirty minutes away. Grand Guardian’s Insurance bank.”

“Thanks.” She pulled Matt’s hand, and they hurried to the exit. “Thank you so much,” she called out as she left the premises.

—             —             —

M
ATT
watched Alexa from the driver’s seat as they drove to their next destination—the Grand Guardian’s Insurance bank. From what he’d found online, the ‘bank’ wasn’t really a bank, per se. But that was their only clue left. Hopefully finding the bank was the hardest step, and everything after would smooth sailing. He had hoped her day out of the correctional centre would be a smooth breeze—especially given that it was her birthday today—but unfortunately, it wasn’t looking like it was going to be one.

He couldn’t completely pry his attention away from her presence, so he observed her from the slight corner of his eye, making sure to keep the other half of his attention on his road. Her hair was flowing in the wind smoothly, almost performing its own slow dance. It was shorter somehow. She must have cut it since the last time he saw her, he reasoned. and the sun hit her face at just the right angle that it looked almost as if she were glowing.

“Hey, eyes on the road,” Alexa said when she caught him staring. “I just got out. How ironic would it be if I died on the day of my freedom?” She used her hand to push his face back so that the view in front of him was the road.

“And on your birthday,” he added.

“Exactly. And on my birthday. How many more minutes?”

“There’s traffic up ahead, so probably in ten.”

She pulled the letter out of pocket and read it over and over again. The more she read it, the more her facial expression softened. Matt took a quick glance at her and noticed.

He took her left hand in his, keeping his other hand on the steering wheel. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah,” she replied; although, not sounding it.

“How ‘bout we take a break? There’s a bar close by.”

“Sounds good.”

After a few more minutes on the road, he pulled up to an uptight looking bar.

Alexa and Matt could already feel the thump of the Techno pop music spewing from inside the building as they approached it.

Alexa shot up two fingers. “Two shots of whatever,” she called out to the bartender.

“It’s your birthday, so the drink’s on me.”

“A whole six bucks. You’re spoiling me.” She reeked of sarcasm. Matt flashed his teeth her way.

She quickly gulped the drinks from the two shot glasses and headed to the restroom. She tapped Matt on his shoulder. “I’ll be right back, ‘kay?”

“Uh . . . okay.”

Alexa pushed the restroom doors open and fidgeted for her wallet. She slid out a picture with a couple; a man a woman. The woman in the picture was pregnant and looked like she was about to pop. She looked at their face and they looked happy, purely happy. Something she’d never felt. She flipped the picture to the back and on it was handwritten, MOM & DAD ’97.

1997, the year she was born. She brushed her fingers through her hair in an aggravated manner. Her breathing escalated and she wavered along the restroom, checking under the doors to make sure she was alone. She pulled out the handwritten letter and placed it right beside the picture which was still turned to its back. The handwriting was similar, so similar in fact that they could have, in fact, been written by the same person.

She checked herself in the mirror to make sure she didn’t appear insane. Everything seemed fine. She put both the letter and the picture in her wallet and left the bathroom in a hurry.

There were two possible explanations that spun around in Alexa’s head. One: it was really from her mother, or two: the prankster responsible for this was a really good forger. For the sake of her sanity, Alexa chose to go with the second option. At least for now.

“Break time’s over, we gotta go.”

Matt appeared confused. “Huh?”

“We should go see what it opens.”

“What happened in the last three minutes to make you curious?”

“Nothing.” Alexa hesitated. “Let’s just go.” She headed straight out of the bar to the car

Matt slapped a twenty by the bar. “Keep the change.” He hurriedly put on his coat without turning back and quickly followed Alexa back to the Mustang.

“H
OLD
up!” Matt screamed from behind. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

Alexa slid into the backseat and slammed the door shut. “It’s nothing.”

He got in the driver’s seat and inserted the car key into the ignition but didn’t turn it. “I’m not driving anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Matt looked directly at her through her reflection on the rear view mirror. “I am.”

“Fine.” She pulled out the letter and the picture from where she’d kept it in earlier and threw it in his direction. “There.”

“What is this?” He referred to the picture of the couple.

She hesitated for a second. “It’s a picture of my parents.”

Matt’s look was one of disbelief. He gaped at the picture for a long time before glancing back at Alexa. “I thought you had no clue who your parents were, much less what they looked like.”

“Yeah well, I didn’t want you looking at me like
that
. That stupid I’m-so-sorry look.”

He quickly turned away from her to face the front. “Okay,” he said, avoiding interrogating her any further. “What’s so significant about it?”

“Look at the back of the picture and the letter. Tell me what you see.”

He stared at both objects for a while before it finally hit him. “Shit. Does this mean it’s actually from her?” He said, ‘her’ referring to her mother.

“I don’t know. That’s why we have to go.”

He turned the keys in the ignition and the Mustang roared to life. “This is going to be an adventure.” He smiled to her via the mirror. She tried smiling back but her facial expression eventually fell flat.

“Cheer up. It’s gonna be okay,” he said, trying to console her.

“This day just got a whole lot more confusing.”

—             —             —

“H
AVE
you thought about what you’d do if the letter was
actually
from your mother?” Matt asked.

“Luckily, I don’t have to, because it wasn’t. And what’s with the mysteriousness of it all. I can bet you a twenty that it’s just a dumb prank.”

He caught her sad reflection from the rear-view mirror again. “If you really believe it’s not from her, why are you so bummed?”

She didn’t reply and he didn’t try to push the topic any further.

Matt took an empty space in a parking lot and looked up at the Victorian era looking building. “This is it.”

“This place gives me the creeps.” Alexa stepped out from the backseat. “Does this look like a bank to you?”

“No.”

“Me neither.” Alexa’s face was riveted with retreat and Matt spotted it.

There was something about the atmosphere that made her want to turn back and disappear into a dark corner.

Matt took out the keys from the ignition and went around the car to offer his hand to her as a sign of comfort but she blandly ignored it. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah, I know.” Alexa quickly backfired. The last thing she wanted was to be perceived as weak. She exhaled some air from her mouth that she didn’t even know had been there and took another look at the building. “Looks more like a washed-up cathedral to me.”

She cleared her throat. “Let’s do this.”

As they approached the building, its sight aloe made Alexa’s body to tingle. After making it across the pathway, they finally had the door of the building in view. The surroundings had this mystifying quality to it that Alexa couldn’t quite understand.

As if things couldn’t get any weirder, the door knob was the shape of a lion’s head, not a friendly one. She was about to knock on the door when it immediately swung open, almost as if her presence was expected.

A tall man stood by the entrance. His facial expression was hardened and blank. Alexa was almost too scared to ask him anything.

“Miss Alexandra LeGardien, we’ve been expecting your arrival. You’re late.” His voice alone was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

Alexa and Matt exchanged confused glances as the man shut the door behind them. If they weren’t scared then, they were definitely scared now.

—             —             —

“I
T’S
Alexa or Alex,
punk
,” she said to the much taller looking man. He didn’t flinch a muscle, but by the way he looked at them, anyone could tell that he didn’t exactly have a space in his heart for teenagers, much less rowdy ones.

Alexa continued speaking at a much lower volume. “So, I’ve got this key. Know what it opens?”

They still received no reply, but the man gestured for them to enter, something that Alexa thought probably wasn’t the best idea but, without another option in sight, she and Matt entered anyway.

“What is this place?” Alexa asked curiously. From the outside it looked nothing like an insurance bank and from the outside it looked even less like one. She was amazed by its detail to design. It looked more like a building you’d find in France not in the United States. “Because it looks more like a century old gentlemen’s club than a bank to me. No offence.”

The man by the door still wore his straight face. He hadn’t said anything since his chilling invite. Alexa began to wonder if he was a programmed robot. That would make more sense to her.

“Okay, then. I can take a hint.” She finally decided silence was probably the best way to go about this. Whatever ‘this’ was.

“So, where do we go?” Matt asked. “For the safety deposit box.” He added to be more specific.

The unnamed man turned to Matt and looked like he was irritated by the mere sight of him. He used his fingers to flick away a lint that had made a home on the shoulder of his expensive looking suit.

“Mr. Henderson will escort you.”
Hallelujah
, Alexa thought. The doorman had finally spoken once again.

“Who’s Mr. Henderson?” Alexa turned to him and asked, but quickly looked away. His facial expression was the definition of death. Like if death were a person, it would be him. Really it would.

She came face to face with another man who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She literally had to put her hands over her mouth to stop herself from shrieking. “Mr. Henderson?”
Didn’t anyone here wear a name tag or have a facial expression other than ‘blank’?

Mr. Henderson looked at both Alexa and Matt. He had a less hardened facial appearance than the door man but nonetheless, dead. His complexion was as pale as fresh snow on the Canadian Rockies in the middle of December. Yup, he was that pale.

He turned to lead the way without a mere blimp of expression to note their presence. “Follow me,” he commanded in a voice as deep as a lion’s roar.

“So...” Alexa tried her best not to sound as uncomfortable as she felt. “Nice place you got here. I just want to say, if this is some sort of a kidnapping thing, I know Kung Fu.”

Mr. Henderson turned to her with a face void of humour.

“She was kidding,” Matt said immediately Mr. Henderson looked at Alexa.

Alexa and Matt looked at each other both worriedly and curiously. Their expressions did all the talking.
You know Kung Fu
? –
No
–
But it’s in our best interest that they believe that ...whoever they are
.

After walking down a straight corridor for several minutes, Mr. Henderson opened one of five doors within their sights. It looked to be made of several layers of metal. He used a pass code and entered it in such a way that neither Alexa nor Matt could see what is was. After entering the code, a hatch opened up and he placed his index finger on it followed by his thumb.

He held the door open and waited for them to pass through. This was home to thousands of safety deposit boxes, all placed in several rows and columns. Alexa found herself speechless and overwhelmed. Many boxes meant many numbers, and that meant it was going to take longer than the ten minutes she initially thought it would take.

“Find the lock,” Mr. Henderson said before quickly shutting the door shut, leaving them both alone in a sealed room coated from head to toe with metal.

“Hey! What do you mean by
find the lock
? I don’t know if you noticed this but there must be thousands of boxes here!!!” She shouted from the locked room.

—             —             —

“T
HE
numbers are on the boxes.” Matt noticed when he approached the one closest to him. “This one reads S1200.” He pointed and rubbed his fingers on it. The numbers had been indented on the small metal cover.

Alexa approached another across the other end of the room. “Yeah, you’re right. This one reads “S01. I guess they must be numerical, because this one by its right reads S02.”

She looked around the number of boxes and that only succeeded in making her depressed. “Quick. Help me find S thirty-seven.”