The Pastor's Daughter: Episode IV

I

As a guy who like sure things, I decided to make a last call at the office in the morning to see if there were any personal letters for me before catching the train to Ocean City. Phorbus was out, but I found Candace sorting through a stack of mails.

          Sitting on the edge of her desk, I said, “Anything for me Candace?”

“No,” she said, “You don’t have any personal letters and I believe Phorbus can handle all these. You told me  you wanted to leave early. If that’s still in your plan, shouldn’t you be on your way?”

“I have plenty of time,” I said, looking at my wrist watch.

Since my train to Atlantic city will leave by noon, I was convinced that it is not necessary to be in a haste. In any case, I often forget things each time I’m in a hurry, so why bother? I had told Candace I was going to Las Vegas and had had trouble in preventing her booking a seat for me on the Baltimore’s Penn Station-Las Vegas line.

As we sat there talking the office phone rang and she picked up the receiver.

“Middle River Times, Candace Lateef. May I know who’s speaking?” Candace said. “Mrs. who? Will you hold on a moment? Let me find out if he’s in.” She looked at me, frowning and I could see that she is definitely puzzled. “A Mrs. Reed is asking for you.”

I almost told Candace that I didn’t want to speak to her since I don’t recall knowing  who she was when the slightly familiar sounding name suddenly set off an alarm bell in my  mind. Mrs. Graham Reed! That’s the same name Brittany had said she used when renting the vacation house in Atlantic City. I can’t believe it was her calling my office. Is she that reckless?

To avoid raising any suspicion from Candace and also to hide my anger, I reached forward and took the receiver from her hand. I made sure I turned my back to Candace so she couldn’t watch my face. Then I said, “Hello. Who am I speaking to?”

“Hello Harry” I was right – it was Brittany all right. “Sorry to surprise you like this. I know you won’t like me to call your office, but I tried your apartment but I could only get your voicemail.”

Remember, this was in the 1970s, when there was no cell phones, the internet or emails. People communicate using landlines, letters and telegrams. That’s why she could only reach me with my house phone or my office phone.

Anyway, if Candace wasn’t there, I would have told her that she was crazy to call me here. And because Candace would wonder what it was all about if I hung up angrily, I decided to stay calm and talk to her.

“So, what do you need?” I said.

“Is there someone in your office?”

“Yes.”

          At that very moment, the office door jerked open and Phorbus Taylor breezed in.

“Jesus H. Christ! You still here?” he exclaimed when he saw me. “I would be on my way to Las Vegas by now if I were you.”

I waved him to silence and said into the mouthpiece, “So what can I do for you?”

“Nothing really,” she said, “Just want to make sure you are coming as we planned.”

“Sure, I will,” I replied.

“I can’t wait to see you sweetie! I’m sure you will like it down here…”

Knowing that Phorbus may be listening, I  felt that the best way to prevent her low clear voice from reaching him is to end the conversation.

“Sure. Goodbye for now” I said and hung up.

I was right: Phorbus was staring inquisitively at me.

“That was pretty abrupt,” he said. “I could have bet my life that you don’t treat your lady callers like that”.

I was aware that Candace was also staring at me, puzzled, and as I moved away from the desk, I tried as much as I could not to show them how rattled I was. In the effort to hide my confusion, I smiled to him and said, “ I guess I’ll be on my way to Las Vegas now. I just stopped by to see if there were any personal mails for me.”

“Take it easy brother,” Phorbus said. “I know you were not up to some form of mischief even though your facial expression says otherwise. Or are you?”

“Aw common Phorbus!” I said, trying to restrain the snap in my voice. “Don’t talk like that.”

“Relax my friend,” he said. “Your vacation starts today. Don’t spoil it by getting sour. I was only kidding.” And when I didn’t say anything, he went on, “Are you taking your car with you?”

“No” I replied, “I will use the train.”

“You shouldn’t take this kind of vacation alone,” he said, looking slyly at me. “If I were you, I should go with a sexy lady to keep me warm when it rains.”

“Unfortunately I will be travelling alone. You are really something Phorbus!” I said, going over to Candace.

“A guy have needs, you know that,” he said.

“Look after this crazy guy,” I said to Candace. “ Make sure he stays on the line, and don’t work too hard yourself. I will see you soon.”

“Enjoy yourself Harry,” she said. “We will be fine. So don’t worry about us.”

She wasn’t looking happy and that worries me.

“I believe you will.”

I turned to Phorbus and said, “So long and you be a good boy now, you hear?”

“I promise to stay out of trouble” he replied.

I left them and going down the elevator to the street level, I called a cab. I told the driver to take me to my apartment. There I collected my luggage and took another cab to Penn Station in downtown Baltimore City.

At the station, I bought a ticket to Atlantic City, checked that the train wasn’t in yet, and went to the newspaper stand where I bought the Baltimore Sun. All the time I was at the train station, I was keeping my eyes open for any familiar face. I just don’t want anybody I know to see me. As a newspaperman, I have many friends in the Baltimore region. So there is a high chance that someone I know might appear at any moment. And if that happens, tales might get back to Phorbus and Candace that instead of catching a morning train to Las Vegas, I was seen boarding a noon  train to Atlantic City. That may raise suspicions, and it’s the last thing I wish to happen at this point.

As I had a few minutes to wait before my train shows up, I sat down at one of the benches at the station, away in a corner, and read the newspaper. I made sure I sheltered my face behind its open pages. Those few minutes of waiting were really fidgety ones for me. Eventually my train showed up and I managed to get a seat and settled down once more behind my newspaper. So far I hadn’t run into anyone I knew, which was not bad.

I began to relax as soon as the train moved out of the station. So far all was going well, even though I kept telling myself that a girl like Brittany who fooled around with a man like Aquiles Gomez just couldn’t be my type.

II

My train arrived at Atlantic City Rail Terminal  about ten minutes late. It took me another five minutes to work my way past the barrier and out into the station approach where a line of cabs waited to be hired because the train was pretty crowded. I thought that Brittany would be waiting somewhere around the corner for me by now. But as I stood in the sunshine holding my bag there was no sign of her. I put down my bag, waved away an eager cab driver who wanted to conduct me to his cab,  and lit a cigarette.

From the way Brittany sounded on the phone, I was surprised she wasn’t there to meet me by now. I leaned against the station wall and waited, thinking that since my train was late, she might have gone to look at the shops to pass time. Soon the crowd pouring out of the station slowly disappeared. Some of them hired cabs, some walked away while some were met by friends. I began to get impatient when, after perhaps twenty minutes had passed, there was still no sign of Brittany and I was the only one left.

She may be sitting in one of the restaurants around this area, I thought. I took my bag to the left luggage office, where I dumped it. Since I am now relieved of its weight, I wondered down the street looking for Brittany. I checked a car park around the corner but couldn’t see any car that could be Brittany’s. I went into one of the restaurants in that area, sat down at a table and ordered a tuna sandwich and ice tea. From my table I can see all the cars and peoples that approach or leave the station.

I looked at my watch. The time is almost four-thirty. I finished my sandwich, drank my iced tea, and then, bored with waiting, I asked the waiter if I could use their telephone. Using the telephone directory at the restaurant, I called the number of the vacation house in South New York Avenue. The phone rang but no one answered.

This was a complete disappointment.

My mind told me that Brittany may have forgotten the arrival time of my train and perhaps had only just left the vacation house to pick me up at the station. All I need to do is to exercise some patience and wait for her. So I sat down again and waited. But the more time I spent waiting the more irritated and uneasy I  became.  After waiting for about forty minutes, I decided to walk towards the vacation house in the hope that I would meet her as she drove down. From the address and explanations she gave me about the location of the house, I believe it should be a few miles down the road from here. Besides, there was no chance of missing her since there was only one road to the house. So, without much qualm I set off on the long walk towards the vacation house.

At that time, there were very few houses in the neighborhoods closest to the boardwalk. After walking for about two miles along this road, I arrived at a side road that would take me off the main road and down  the road to South New York Avenue where the vacation house is located. Soon I arrived at the vacation house at around six-thirty, and there was still no sign of Brittany.

The vacation house was as lovely and exciting as Brittany said it was. It was a two-storeyd building. However, since my one thought then was to find Brittany, I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate beauty. One thing I did notice was that the vacation house stood in its own grounds with no other house within sight. Behind the house is the waters, which I guess is the Ocean. I pushed open the wooden gates and walked up the broad drive, bordered on either side by beautiful flowers. Following the drive I came up to a fancy tarmac on which stood Brittany’s Mercedes convertible. I noticed that the ground around the building itself was made with reinforced concrete. Anyway, I heaved a sigh of relief. At least I didn’t miss her while coming up the road, I thought, as soon as I saw her car.

The front door of the vacation house was ajar so I pushed it open.

“Brittany! I’m home!”

The silence that greeted me had a depressing effect on me. I walked gently into a large hall with marbled floor. I wished I had brought my bag with me.

“Brittany! Where are you?”

Again, there was silence.

To be fair, the vacation house was really modern and nice. If Brittany had been there to greet me, I would have been thrilled with it because it  is an ideal place for a vacation. It is well furnished and has a large lounge with a dining-room alcove, a kitchen and a big patio that overlooked the ocean. I decided to go upstairs to look for her, even though my mind kept telling me that she may not be there. But where else could she be? As no answer came to my repeated calls for her, I became more worried as I climbed the stairs. I went all the way to the second floor.

I did not see her in the first rooms I entered on getting upstairs. I decided I wasn’t going to sit around in the house in the hope that she would turn up. I might as well go back to the train station to at least get my bag.  I was convinced that I couldn’t have missed her on the walk down here from the train station. There was a chance she had gone for a walk along the path that led upwards to the top of the a small hill that rose above the vacation house. She definitely must have forgotten the arrival time of my train. The best thing to do at this point is to leave a note in case she is somewhere around the neighborhood and I had somehow missed her. The worst that can happen is that she will see the note and rush to the train station to pick me up.

I scribbled a brief note on some headed notepaper I found in one of the drawers in the room upstairs. I left the note on the table and decided to look out of the window. I discovered that there was another vacation house built in the hill face. I couldn’t understand why anyone would decide to build a vacation house in such an inaccessible place. From the way the house looked, I came to the conclusion that the only practical way of reaching it was by the Ocean.

As I was about to go downstairs I saw something that get me more confused: lying by the entrance door of the room was Brittany’s Cine Camera case. I can’t believe I missed it when I entered the room.  I, however, recognized it immediately and, for a long moment, I stared at it. I had no doubt in my mind that it was hers for when I picked it up, I noticed that her initials on the cover flap in gold. I became concerned when I discovered that the case was empty.

Holding the case on my hand, I rushed back to the window. Brittany has to be somewhere around here! On getting to the window I looked down the ground. That was when I discovered that the backyard of the building was also constructed and designed with fancy rocks, forming  a very beautiful but hard surface.  As I looked down  hard my heart skipped a bit as I saw a body of a woman lying sprawled on the rocky and hard ground motionless. Did she fell down from the window or what? I kept looking at her motionless body, transfixed and with my heart thudding. Blood was showing all over her face.

I found it unnecessary to make wild   guesses: the dead woman down there was no other person than Brittany. Oh my God!

END OF EPISODE IV

P.S. Episode Five will be published here next Monday.