Chapter 9 #2
She cried out, stepping back and wiping at her face.
The bodyguard behind Jack shook him so roughly that he thought he might get whiplash.
The bodyguard in front of him struck out with his fist again, landing a solid hit to Jack’s nose.
Blood gushed down the back of his throat as his vision blurred.
Pain unlike anything Jack had ever felt before radiated out from the space between his eyes and down the length of his face.
He coughed and spluttered, trying to fall forward but the man behind him kept him on his feet.
“You lowlife, drug dealing scum! Look what you did to me!”
Jack couldn’t look, because he still couldn’t get his eyes to work correctly. Even if his vision was clear, he wouldn’t have obeyed. This woman had no control over his life.
“Call the police!” Mrs. Scanlon shouted. “I’ve been assaulted!”
Jack stiffened. For all this town thought of him and his family, he’d never been in trouble with the law.
“Mrs. Scanlon,” one of the bodyguards tried to protest. Maybe he was smart enough to realize that if Mrs. Scanlon could press charges against Jack, he could also press them against her bodyguards.
“I don’t care!” Mrs. Scanlon shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“He kidnapped my daughter, sexually assaulted her, and has now assaulted me! I want him arrested and the key dropped to the lowest part of the sea!” As she pulled what looked like a cordless phone with a long black antenna from her purse, she instructed her guard, “Hit him again. Just look at what he did to my Christian Dior dress!”
Down the steps, Jenna ran. Her legs took her immediately to the front desk, but there was no sign of Mrs. Faulkner or Becky.
Not that she thought Becky could do much, but she at least could witness what she saw.
Perception was everything to her mom. She would not let anyone see her as anything less than perfect in public.
She had to call someone! Who?
Her eyes landed on the payphone immediately to the left of the front door. She was halfway to it before she picked up on the Out of Order sign above it. Jenna cursed. She needed people. Her mom would not say or do anything offensive with an audience. Where was Mrs. Faulkner?!
Jenna burst outside, the sock of Jack’s life savings still clutched in her hand.
No wonder the thing was tearing; it was heavy!
She barely registered the cold as she made her way down the steep stairs to the landing.
Her head whipped left and right, trying to decide which staircase to take.
It was barely eight-thirty on a Saturday morning.
A cold, freshly snowed morning. There was no one about!
If she went left, she would be heading towards town, and if she went right, she would head towards residences.
She was wasting precious seconds. She knew her mom. While she wouldn’t hurt Jack, her tongue could cut just as easily. Her mom’s view on people like Jack—people with less means—was low enough that Jenna didn’t know what her mom might say. Jack should not be subjected to that!
Not for a moment did Jenna believe that her mom could actually talk Jack out of being with Jenna. There was nothing her mom could offer Jack that would make him leave her. Jenna was beyond certain of that.
Jenna bolted down the left set of stairs to the sidewalk. She nearly slid on the slick concrete but managed not to fall or twist her ankle. She spotted a payphone at the corner of the strip. Her heart hammered in her chest as she struggled to reach it quickly.
Who to call? Her dad? No, he would side with his wife. On this, their views would be aligned. Carolyn had tried to warn her about this just last night. So much for keeping Jack a secret from them for as long as possible.
Reaching the phone, Jenna dug into her pocket for some change.
Her mom would be so disappointed if she knew her daughter carried loose change around to jingle in her pockets, but Jenna liked to play a game with Lilly.
She would help her with her counting by giving her different piles of coins.
If she counted them correctly, she got to keep the money.
Jack wasn’t too thrilled when he’d discovered their game, and Jenna knew he only bit his tongue for the sake of his sister’s happiness at her winnings.
In fact, Jack had said he would pick up an old piggy bank for Lilly to collect her prize money in next time they were at the thrift store.
Jenna put a dime in the slot and dialed her sister’s private number. It rang and rang. “Come on, Carolyn,” Jenna begged into the receiver. But it just continued to ring.
Jenna slammed the earpiece down on the stopper. Her dime clattered into the change dispenser. Tears fell from her eyes as her body shook. Visible puffs of air escaped her mouth as she tried to think of who to call next.
Maybe the police? But that seemed so extreme.
It would certainly make her mom stop whatever vile things she was saying to Jack, but what if it got Jack into trouble?
He hadn’t done anything wrong, but she hadn’t missed her mom’s accusation that Jack was a drug dealer.
Could the police take his money? She vaguely recalled from her Civics class last year that there was a law about asset forfeiture.
If the police thought something was related to a crime, they could take it.
This was Jack’s life savings. She couldn’t risk it being taken by the police any more than she could risk it falling into her mom’s clutches. It wasn’t as if her mom needed the money. It would be a purely spiteful seizure.
Plus, it wasn’t like Jack had signed his name to the bills. Unlike a check, cash could only be claimed by the current possessor. If Jenna wanted to, she could claim the money was hers and no one would have proof otherwise.
Maybe that was what she should do. Claim the money was hers and not Jack’s.
But her mom could still take it from her just as easily.
She needed help that wasn’t from her dad. Since Carolyn wasn’t picking up her phone, Jenna desperately reached for the phone book. She prayed the Zarins were listed.
Flipping through the White Pages, she finally came to the Zs. Her finger frantically traced down the flimsy page until she came across Zarin, Arnold and Daphne. She didn’t know what either of their first names were, but the address next to their phone number confirmed that she had the right couple.
She grabbed her dime and dialed again. In the distance, she heard the whirl of a siren but was so focused on the phone ringing in her ear to really pay attention to it.
“Hello?”
Relief made Jenna sag as she recognized Mrs. Zarin’s voice. “Mrs. Zarin, it’s Jenna! Jack needs you at the library! It’s my mom! She found us! She thinks Jack’s a drug dealer! She’s trying to take his money!”
“Arnie!” Mrs. Zarin shouted loudly. “Get to the library, now!”
Jenna heard something else in the background before there was clearly a door slamming. Then Mrs. Zarin’s voice asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine but—” Three police cars went speeding past her. Her eyes widened in terror as they all skidded to a stop in front of the snow covered library.
“Is that sirens?”
Jenna nodded mutely as she watched a sea of policemen run up the library’s two flights of outdoor stairs. When they rushed inside, Jenna shook herself from her shock. “I have to go!”
“Jenna, wait!”
But she didn’t wait. Jenna hung up the phone, barely registering the metallic sound of the coin dropping into the collection receiver.
Clutching the sock to her chest, Jenna ran back across the street.
The motors of the cop cars were still running, clouds of exhaust smoke filled her path to the sidewalk. She rushed back up the slick stairs.
Then paused on the landing.
She looked down at her chest. She couldn’t go running in there with Jack’s money. It defeated the purpose of her running away with the money in the first place.
Jenna spun in a circle. There was nothing around her.
Not even a trash can she might be able to store it in.
The stack of cash was too thick for her to hide on her person.
Jack hadn’t been able to do it either. As soon as he took off his jacket earlier, she’d known there was something under his shirt.
Could the police search her person if her mom gave them permission? Because her mom would know exactly what she was hiding under her sweater and she was vindictive enough to allow the police to search her daughter if it meant Jack losing his ‘drug’ money.
Going over to the banister, Jenna looked down.
A thick layer of snow covered the hill the library sat on and the bushes that outlined the rising steps.
But…her eyes narrowed. There was a small gap in the corner.
If she looked directly down, she could see it.
Moving to the left or the right, she lost sight of it. The snow covered bush blocked it.
Perhaps stupid and impulsive, Jenna lined the money up with the corner of the stairs and the landing. Then let the sock fall. Down, down, it went until it hit the ground with a muffled plop. Not a snowflake out of place, it slipped past the bush into that small gap.
Confident his money was safe, Jenna turned on her heel and ran up the final flight of stairs. The glass doors of the library were fogged with condensation from the cold outside versus the heat inside.
As soon as she went through the doors, she heard her mother’s loud cries.
Not just words either, but tears too. The only other time Jenna had heard that sound was during her grandfather’s funeral.
But the moment they were behind closed doors, her mom’s large crocodile tears had ceased like someone had turned off a water valve.