“What would my father say?” Katrina slumped onto the bed and held her head in her hands.
“Lady Katrina, your father has made his intention known. You... we... need to take this opportunity with both hands! This is our big chance and the alternative is sleeping in an alleyway somewhere,” Tess was afraid that Katrina would revert back to her stubborn, pampered roots and end up getting them both fired before they even started.
“Indeed, you are right, Tess... sister. Since we have a new life now, I am now Katie and Katrina no longer exists. You will stay close by me, Tess, won’t you?!” Katrina worried.
“Just like a sister... Katie,” Tess assured the nervous Katrina.
“Do you think we can have some breakfast now, Tess? I am quite hungry,” Katie confessed.
“Sure, why not? Our new employer is paying. Let’s go... sister.”
*~*~*~*
Desapo glanced up from his papers scattered all over his table as the two ladies entered the diner. A fresh, hot cup of coffee sat steaming by his arm. “Good morning, ladies,” he politely rose to his feet.
“Good morning, sir,” Tess replied and Katrina nodded slightly as the excited ladies took a seat at a table close by, allowing Desapo to return to his paperwork.
Katrina frowned and directed an unwise provocation towards Desapo. ”Did you sleep at that table, sir?”
Desapo raised his head from his work in an attempt to reply to the black haired woman. ”I am curious to ascertain and to understand why, madam, you would make such an observation?”
“When we left the diner last night, your demeanour was as it is now. One can only deduce that you slept at the table,” Katrina smirked.
“It is a logical assumption, madam, but I can assure you my work requires more than just a passing glance to satisfy its fulfilment.”
Katrina felt like she was being drawn into the battle again with this brutish man, but decided the happiness of finding a generous employer and most likely a gentleman, would not be downplayed. “Your attempts to dampen my happy mood are in vain today, sir. We have had the good fortune recently to come upon a gentleman who knows how to encourage and lighten a lady's burden, unlike your own attempts at brutish handling of a lady's delicate person,” Katrina retorted, rising to Desapo’s bait.
“I’m pleased that you have made the acquaintance of such a man. Have you known the gentleman long?”
“In fact, we have not met the gentleman as of yet, but we are sure he is a man of fine character,” Katrina boasted.
“I’m sure he is, but if you will excuse me, I have to refocus my attention on my work. Good day, ladies,” Desapo returned to his work and smiled to himself.
*~*~*~*
Chapter 29
As another meeting concluded and the party left his office, Brett reached for the phone and with trembling fingers, dialled Becky’s mobile number once again. His heart leaped when a woman’s voice answered, but soon realised the message and the tone wasn’t Becky’s.
“I am sorry, the person you are trying to reach has their phone switched off. Please try again later.”
Deflated and with desperation’s grasp pulling him into despair, he dialled his home phone number but for the twentieth time, it rang off. The last resort was Emma and Jacob, but he doubted she would return to their company after such a violent bombshell. After one rolling tone emitted from the earpiece, Jacob's panicky voice interrupted, hoping to hear from Becky.
“Hello, Becky!”
“Jacob, it’s me, Brett. Obviously you haven’t heard from her.”
Jacob deflated like a ruptured balloon. “No, Brett. I assume you haven’t heard, either.”
After a brief discourse and words of encouragement to keep hanging on, Brett hung up the phone and glanced up at the clock... 3 pm. If he didn’t have a meeting with Les Cargill, the managing director, in minutes, he would have left the office and started searching the streets for Becky. Brett had already postponed Cargill once and thanks to Jacqui’s quick thinking, she’d managed to reschedule and save his neck. Becky had their only car, so if Brett wanted to leave the office he would have to catch a cab and had no idea where to start looking for her, anyway. Travelling around for hours in a cab would be reckless and his last hope was that Becky would arrive at 5 pm to pick him up from work as planned.
Trying desperately to concentrate on Cargill’s conversation, Brett’s mind kept wandering, glancing up at the clock and he found himself agreeing with something he shouldn’t have and Cargill picked him up on it. By the time Cargill breezed from his office, Brett was sweating and it was nearly 5 pm. Nervously, he pulled back the office venetians and searched the street below for the familiar grey Kia and Becky’s pregnant outline waiting for him to arrive.
But she was nowhere in sight.
*~*~*~*
Jacqui shut down her computer and when the power light blinked off, she covered the tower and keyboard with a plastic jacket for the night. She pushed her chair in and reached for her belongings but as she lifted her bag, her mobile phone started ringing. Fidgeting with the phone before the person hung up, she stabbed the receive button and placed it to her ear, having no time to check the number.
“Hello, this is Jacqui.”
“Jack, it’s me, Smiley.”
“If you insist on calling me Jack, Smiley, I’ll hang up!”
“Sorry... Jacqui! And please don’t hang up. This is very important.”
“Where have you been today, Smiley? I’ve asked the news team and nobody has seen you!”
“Jacqui... I’m on a special assignment, but that doesn’t matter for now. Is Brett still there?”
“Yes, but I think Becky is due to pick him up at any moment.”
“Hmm... can you have a look outside your window and see if she has arrived?”
“Smiley! What’s going on?!”
“Jacqui, please, just do it.”
Jacqui huffed and walked over to the window and peered out around the street. “No, it doesn’t seem like she is here yet.”
“All right, I need you to listen carefully and just do what I am about to ask you, no questions, okay?”
“You haven’t even asked me to marry you and you are already ordering me about. What if I say no?”
Smiley was flabbergasted at her comment, stammering for a moment and had to concentrate hard to refocus. “Um..I..arr... the reason is... look, Jack..Jacqui, you don’t know it yet but two people are relying on you.”
“Me?! What two people?”
“Jack..Jacqui! I’m running out of time. This is what I want you to do.”
By the time Smiley had explained his plan, Jacqui’s mouth hung open in shock. He’d stopped short of explaining his full hunch and where he was hiding out and when Jacqui hung up and checked the clock on the wall above her desk, it was now 5:30 pm. Cautiously, she walked to the window and checked outside for Becky and the Kia, but just like Smiley guessed, she hadn’t arrived. Brett’s door suddenly burst open and she quickly let go of the corner of the shade and tried to look inconspicuous.
“Jacqui, why are you still here?” Brett’s face was an obvious mass of tension.
“Oh, just catching up on a few filing jobs... Brett, are you all right?” Jacqui’s concern matched the strain on Brett’s face.
Brett sighed heavily, with his shoulders slumped under a massive emotional burden and when he answered Jacqui, his voice was flat and low and his eyes were swimming, trying to remain in control. “Becky’s gone missing,” his bottom lip trembled, giving away the strain.
Jacqui didn’t know what to say or do, but one thing was for sure... Smiley was right on the money. “Did you have a fight?” Jacqui offered and tried to cover her knowledge of Smiley’s assumption.
“Um... not in so many words, at least not with me. The shock of a discovery today may have sent her into a tailspin,” Brett whispered.
Jacqui’s tender heart was overflowing. “I’m sure she will turn up once she has sorted hers
elf out. Can I give you a ride home, or maybe I can drive you around places she may have gone and try and look for her?”
“Would you mind, Jacqui? I would be awfully grateful,” Brett managed.
*~*~*~*
The ache in her heart had appeared to erase the emotion of love, leaving betrayal and trust colliding with that awful word... ADOPTED... singling her out and painting a picture of the deepest blackness. The piece of paper that had changed her life and turned her world upside down was still sitting on the seat next to her and the underlined words screamed at her... Landon County Hospital. Tears blinded her eyes, but the arrogance of the familiar had blinded her mind. She had to know the origins of the blood running in her veins and therefore... who she was. Things were normal only hours ago, but now the shock had sent her spiralling, searching, wanting to know where she belonged and why she had been abandoned.
Was she a product of rape?
Maybe she was too ugly as a baby for her mother to keep?
Who is my mother and what sort of a woman gives up her child for another to raise?
Why didn’t she want me?!
Her tears flowed again.
As the hollow questions chased each other around in her mind, frustration skyrocketed and she bellowed at the roof of the car, “What have I done to deserve this?!" she angrily shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at God. "Am I not worthy of the truth, of a family and a mother?!”
Emma’s face crept deceptively into her mind and the anger exploded. “What else have you lied about?!”
A new round of tears ran down her face and her nose added to the river of despair.
“Whose child am I?!”
Without warning, an orange cautionary light blinked on in the dash’s instrument panel and diverted the painful ranting, demanding action be taken before the illuminated symbol unleashed its dire prediction. She glanced to the point of the speedometer needle indicating her speed at 65 MPH and studied the fuel-bowser-shaped glow.
Concentrating on the ominous warning light, the car lurched violently from the guidance of her hand and veered viciously across to the wrong side of the road, tearing sideways and cannoning down the deserted highway, half in the gravel and half on the bitumen. Ripping tyres complained bitterly, anguished by the sideways trajectory and vehemently holding the road surface in a bid to prevent the speeding vehicle from barrel rolling. Among the tragic chorus, a desperate scream added to the melee until the slow motion nightmare jostled to an exhausted end.
By the time the numbing cacophony—rubber on asphalt—had come to a bone-chilling finale, dust and smoke gathered around the car, blanketing the scene and accentuating the dash lights after the engine had quit. Trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, the lone woman quaked as she listened for signs of danger, knowing full well she’d just cheated death; but the prolonged silence assured her she was safe. Shaking violently, she released the seat belt and opened the car door to see what damage had taken place. Unsure whether she could stand or if her knees would agree to support her weight, she cautiously lowered her feet to the road and coaxed her unsteady legs to perform.
Picking her way precariously around the insulted vehicle and using the car’s body to support her, she glanced back at the road surface and the thick black marks that lay testament to the dire event. Somehow the car had stopped, leaving the vehicle’s front end pointing spastically across the country highway. With the wind making a swishing noise in the tall roadside grass and the car exhaust tink, tink, tinking as it cooled in the extreme quiet, she listened intently, struggling to hear any sounds.
After the near tragedy, the ominous and lonely country surrounds had fallen deathly silent, shocked by the chilling event; but the friendly afternoon sun had warmed her shaking frame slightly and given her the presence of mind to examine the fallout. Satisfied the damage was only to the depth of the tyre tread, the lone woman entered the car again and decided to attempt a start. Reaching for a bunch of keys hanging lazily from the ignition, she managed to twist the bundle, throwing in the starter. The engine hesitated and then after a few more groans fired, but the troublesome light that had caused the latest fiasco was still illuminated and she was desperately low on fuel.
Pointing the car onto the correct side of the road and pushing the accelerator down, the car picked up speed quickly, changing smoothly up the automatic transmission. The last road sign had warned Larsson Flats was 90 miles away, but she couldn’t remember how long ago that was. Constantly studying the fuel gauge and wondering how much fuel she still had left, every bump and noise made her tense, hoping the car wouldn’t leave her stranded miles from anywhere.
Just up ahead, a shape appeared on the side of the road, forcing her to squint trying to recognise the outline, but as it grew nearer a sign materialized, flooding relief across her anxious mind. Glimpsing the distance sign as it came into view and then disappeared behind her just as quickly, it declared Larsson Flat 20 miles. Counting each mile, watching the odometer and listening for signs of changes in the vehicle’s performance, she coaxed the vehicle on by sheer will, hoping it wouldn’t run out of fuel. By the time the lonely outpost of Larsson Flat appeared on a rise, she was tense with nerves and her neck ached from stress, urging the car to keep going.
After the first section of a nerve-racking drive, the grey Kia pulled back out onto the main highway, completing a comfort stop, much needed refuelling and a quick bite to eat. The attendant warned her there wasn’t much between Larsson Flat and Tripoli Waters and it would be well after sundown by the time she made the halfway mark to Landon.
*~*~*~*
Chapter 30
Parked on the roadside and just before the fuel station, Smiley’s little car had a bird’s eye view of the traffic entering and leaving. But after a sleep-deprived forty hours, Smiley’s eyes were growing heavy in the warm afternoon sun. A country traffic cop pulled up behind him, asking to see his licence and enquiring about his business there and when Smiley offered, “I’m travelling through and waiting to catch up with a friend, Officer,” the cop ran his licence through the police computer and after he’d satisfied himself Smiley had no felonious intent, he left him be. After the anxious interlude with the officer, Smiley’s eyes grew even heavier and eventually, they closed.
By the time he jolted awake again, the sun had disappeared, turning the horizon into a canvas of flaming black-red. Smiley chided himself for falling asleep and hoped he hadn’t missed his subject, possibly slipping through without him noticing. Rubbing the sleep from his bloodshot eyes, he tried to think what to do and in a moment of decision, resolved to wait and if she didn’t show after a few more hours and had already passed through, he would forget about Tripoli Waters and catch up with her further up the deserted country highway. The dusk light made identifying traffic difficult, but thankfully, the town seemed to close up after the sun went down and now traffic was negligible. With the fuel station attendant’s voice vehemently ringing in his ears advising they closed at 8 pm sharp, Smiley flicked on the ignition and peered over at the radio clock... 6:30 pm.
Smiley had just settled his head back against the door arch and was staring up at the sky when a set of car lights reflected in his rear view mirror. The lights were still a long way off and a white haze of high beam lit up the country road behind him, silhouetting the shapes of the bush at night. As the vehicle eventually approached and indicated their intention to turn into the fuel station, he settled back down into his seat as the car drove past him, hoping not to be recognised. The orange flashing indicator light hurt Smiley’s tired eyes but he continued to study the car and as they slowed down to make the turn and finally drove under the floodlit fuel station canopy, a slightly built woman, but obviously pregnant, exited the grey Kia.
“Bingo!” Smiley sung and then reached down, cranking the small car into life and deliberately pulled up behind the Kia. The woman had just paid for her fuel and was walking back to the car when Smiley stepped out.
“Becky?!?
??
The small woman stopped dead in her tracks and stared in disbelief at the figure, frightened for a moment until she recognised the man. “Smiley! How... did you find me?!” Becky expression had crumpled with another shock and her eyes testified to what Smiley had been expecting.
“Let’s just say I understand and in fact, I did the same thing when I eventually found out.”
*~*~*~*
The sounds of gentle waves running up on the pebbly beach made a swishing noise, adding a calming peace into Becky’s deeply troubled heart. Becky and Smiley sat silently on a large wooden table in a gazebo on the grounds of the Tripoli Motel, facing the dark water of Tripoli Inlet. Flying insects buzzed around the small light above their heads, their wings fluttering and bumping against the light tube while the balmy night offered a gentle warm breeze to tease Rebecca’s anxious face. The day had started out like any other, but had finished like no other, scarring her perfectly ordered world into a spiralling gasp of despair. It had been horrible, as her life and security tumbled like a line of dominoes and now, she was unsure of everything.
Smiley broke the silence. “It was that name of the hospital on the adoption certificate that gave me the clue of where to find you.”
Amazed, Becky turned to face Smiley, realising he’d obviously had some connection with the announcement. “So, you were adopted, too. Did you ever find your birth mum?”
Smiley shook his head. “I spent years barking up the wrong trees and expending so much emotional energy. I tracked down the hospital where I was born and broke into the records department and stole my own file, only to be confronted with the term, mother’s information confidential. That means she didn’t want to be found. I started the quest to find out where I belonged when I was twenty-five and gave up at forty. I’m now forty-two.”