Chapter 5
Brody
The car was quiet, with only the sound of the engine humming beneath us. The passing scenery outside the window was a blur, the buildings and trees blending together into a monotonous gray. The only movement was the occasional pedestrian walking toward the subway entrance as we made our way to the gym. The silence between us was heavy and filled with unspoken worries and fears seen only in Sensei's expression: the lines etched in his forehead, stern and pensive, his brow furrowed in worry. I glanced over at him and then back at the road a few times, and it never changed. I was struggling to focus, my own thoughts weighing heavily on my mind.
My fingers drummed nervously on my leg, the tension visible in the way they trembled. Sensei's hand gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white.
Each of us were deep in thought, knowing we all worried about Bella. She’d been with us since that night. We kept an eye on her, keeping her safe. I found in every moment, just knowing she was there, a feeling I would never have expected. All of a sudden,my world felt empty when she left for work but also filled with worry and anxiety.
Sensei's normally composed face was etched with worry and a hint of longing as he watched Bella leave with Drake this morning. Despite his attempts to remain professional, his eyes betrayed his true feelings. Deep inside, I wondered if he had the balls to act on it. I could see him keeping his distance and reminding himself of his own rules about dating students all along. But his feelings betrayed him like a storm brewing on the horizon, obvious in how he watched her. I could see it, even as far back as the day Jenny dragged her into the gym.
As we rounded the corner to where we parked the car in the alley, a sleek black car with tinted windows caught our attention from across the street. Its dark exterior gave it an ominous appearance, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. Sitting there like a dark predator, its menacing presence ground against us as we made our way towards the door.
Glancing wordlessly at one another, we walked without any obvious attention to the car and headed inside through the side door. Neither of us made overt moves toward watching it, which was positioned to see both entrances, but we never took our eyes off it.
If it was the guy who’d hurt her, we didn’t want to give away that we’d seen him. It could have just been someone waiting for a friend to come out of the coffee shop, but the way the guy was eyeing us made my skin prickle and only heightened my unease. Almost as if the man's gaze was physically touching me, I could feel the weight of his stare, and it was heavy and unwelcome.
Sensei's office was a flurry of movement fueled by urgency as he quickly made his way across the room to his desk. As soon as he entered, he began writing as fast as the pen would move across a pad. I strolled toward the front and snapped on the lights, keeping a watchful eye on the car. The guy inside looked right at me and then raced off. No one had come out of the coffee shop, and I could see that he was alone in the car.
But when I turned to see what Sensei had been writing and told him the car had left, I found him standing outside his office looking a little pale. His usually composed features were now strained with worry, which in and of itself made me nervous. We’d been friends all through school, and this made me feel uncomfortable.
“Jonathan, what is it?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as if I was afraid of the answer.
It was a rare occurrence for me to address him by his first name, a name that had become distant and foreign after all this time. We’d worked together for many years, and I could never recall seeing such pallor on his face. I shook him to bring him from his thoughts.
“What?”The sound of my own voice shouting cut through the thick silence and echoed across the empty mats.
He blinked a few times, then looked at me. His hand trembled slightly as he handed me the artist’s drawing from that night. I glanced at it, noting the lines on the artist's rendering, so sharp and precise, capturing every detail of the description of her attacker that Bella had given to the police, then eyed him again.
“After that night, I’d gotten the sketch in the email for the gym and printed it but forgot it on the printer. I was so wrapped up in getting her settled I figured until we opened the gym it didn’t matter.”
I looked at it again, this time noting the face more carefully. It was an exact match for the man in the car.A wave of bile rose in my throat from the very thought. “We have to tell the police,”I snarled and hurried for the phone.
He nodded and looked at his watch. It was 10:30 in the morning, half an hour before the tots class.“I need to call the detectives. You call Drake.”
I grabbed my phone from my bag and dialed. While waiting for him to pick up the phone, fears for her safety ran through my mind. I worried if she was safe at work. If he came here, would he go there?
“Hey, I can’t come to the phone right now. Leave some digits and a message.”
“Shit,”I cursed and pressed redial.“Must be on silent.”
Again, I got the voicemail, and this time, I left a message,“Hey bro, call me back ASAP.”,hung up and went looking for Graham’s number.
My fingers flew across the numbers as I dialed it. I was ready to punch a wall by the time I heard a voice.“This is Graham.”
“Oh, thank God,”I said, nearly shouting.
His voice shifted, and he said,“Can you hold a moment?”
“What?”
“Sure, let me go check,”he replied.
“What the hell? I need to speak to you. Where’s Drake?”
“Absolutely, his promoter is actually right here. Let me grab the file, and you can speak to him.”
I was confused but heard some shuffling and muted conversation, Graham was excusing himself and asking Drake to come with him.
“I’m sorry, Brody,” Graham said.
“What’s going on?”
“Drake is right here. Let me get to my office.”
I waited, and then Drake came on the line.“Brody, what’s up?”
“Dammit, don’t you answer your phone? I’ve been trying to call you!”
I could hear Graham asking what was wrong, Drake explained that Bella was standing right there, and it had been quite a morning. He was worried that she would get even more upset if it were something to worry about.
I could understand that and was instantly grateful that he had the forethought to excuse himself that way.
“Listen Drake, the dude?”
“What about him? Hold on,”he said.
I could hear him ask Graham to put it on speaker.“Hi Brody, we can both hear you. Is this about the attacker whohurt Scarlett?”
“Yeah, he was just posted up outside the gym. We noticed him watching the place when we pulled in.”
“Shit,” Drake said. “Is everything okay there?”
“Yeah, but we were worried about her at work. Sensei is calling the detectives now.”
“No need to worry about that,”Drake said. Graham chuckled a small laugh in the background as he went on.“This place is like Fort Knox. Has the agent shown up yet for the gym?”
“Not yet; she is supposed to come and sign up sometime this morning after we open.”
“Scarlett is safe here. They’ve locked this place down. Christian is at the station, but Rory and Stewart are here, and so is Samuel, the FBI agent. He is touring for his new position.”
Graham chimed in.“I’ll have Walter make something up to keep him here.”
“Watch over her,”I warned.
They promised they would, and we ended the call. As I paced around the studio, my eyes couldn't help but glance nervously towards the office door where Sensei was talking on the phone. I could see the worry etched on his face as he listened intently to the person on the other end. He came out of his office while I was unlocking and setting up for the toddler class with a grave look on his face.
“What is it?”I asked.
“They got a hit in their database on who this guy might be. He’s been like a ghost but is responsible for multiple murders.”
“We knew that, the DNA they got from the saliva already confirmed it. They just couldn’t link it to a person.”
“Well, apparently, they’ve never had a survivor before. She not only survived but survived him twice. He’s the same guy that hurt her before. Dear Scarlett managed to avoid him because she changed departments and was so devastated she changed everything about herself and fell off the radar. The detective told me there was no news about it when it happened the first time. He probably thought she was dead because she disappeared without a trace.”
I swallowed hard, the palms of my hands sweating.“What are they going to do?”
“Christian is calling his partners right now, and she will not leave their sight even for a moment. He will have them let April know that she is to stick to her like glue. Even go to the ladies’ room with her. He said they were all coming over tonight and would also look at security at the house. He sent some uniforms to check on it and stay there. What did Drake say?”
“That place is like Fort Knox, and besides him and Graham, the other two detectives are there. The FBI plant they hired to take Felicia’s place this morning will also hang around. There is no way into her office, and absolutely no one will be allowed onto the mezzanine, so as long as she is there, we can relax some.”
The bell chimed, its sound sharp and piercing as it echoed through the front door. My muscles tensed and my body froze, the arrival of the first child causing a ripple of anxiety through the room. I looked at the image in front of me, committing every detail to memory - the sharp lines of his face, the intensity in his eyes, the way his hair fell across his forehead. I vowed to myself that if he showed up again, I would not hesitate. I cursed and promised under my breath to rip his throat out.
I looked back as I left the office to see that Jonathan's hands trembled as he held the sheet of paper with the sketch of the person who had harmed Bella. His face was filled with anger and determination, his eyes focused and intense, his body almost vibrating with energy as he prepared to take action.
I snorted. If that guy might think I was a threat, he’d find himself in a tough spot. I was sure he’d never been up against anyone like Sensei before. I almost pitied the man if he got to him first… Almost.