Chapter Nineteen

~ Maddie ~

“Alicia, have you seen this video?” I ask. “It’s wild. Come look.”

We’ve sold out of all the sale gowns and we finally have a moment to breathe. I marvel at the way the guy in the video promoting Todd’s gym is running and jumping and vaulting and swinging from place to place. At times, he seems to be superhuman, scaling walls and jumping from object to object in a single bound without stopping, hesitating, or using any kind of assistance.

“How in the world can he do that?” Alicia asks Brianna.

“It’s a discipline called parkour. That’s Todd in the video doing that. Isn’t it cool? He’s like a world champion at it.”

“It’s so cool,” Alicia says. “It’s like that movie 'Avatar.' I mean, look at him. He looks like he can levitate and will himself to climb walls.”

Climb walls?

Or balconies?

My heart thuds as the video cuts to a scene with Todd signing autographs for a crowd. He’s lefthanded. I think about Riley’s condo. I never considered that someone might be able to avoid the security cameras by scaling a wall or climbing up balconies without a clanking ladder.

“It takes a lot of practice and discipline,” Brianna says. “You know, Todd was in the army right after he graduated from college. I think that’s where he got into it. Parkour kind of goes hand in hand with military training. I think. Or at least that’s what he said. You can ask him about it when he gets back. He offers classes for all levels, including beginners, if you’re interested.”

“So, hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to learn how to scale the walls of, say a six-story building, is that possible?”

Brianna nods reverently. “Yeah. That’s nothing. Some dudes climb skyscrapers. Of course, some die doing it, but, ya know, it’s like dying for a good cause.”

The urge to scream that dying climbing a building is not dying for a good cause is preempted by the need to call Jackson. As the pieces of the puzzle start to come together, I realize I haven’t seen Todd in a while.

My heart flat out stops when I realize I haven’t seen Jenna either.

I’m heading into a full-on panic attack. “Where are Todd and Jenna?”

“He was here not ten minutes ago.” Brianna glances around. “Well, first, he said he had to go do something. But that was a while ago. After he left, Jenna said she was going to go make some copies of our flyer because we were running out. But then Todd came back alone, and he left again without telling me where he was going.”

“Has Jenna been back with the flyers?” I ask.

Brianna shakes her head.

“How long has it been?” I ask.

“I don’t know. A while. I’ve been busy signing people up for the fund-raiser and helping them do the rock wall. I could’ve used some help, ya know. This is a lot for one person to handle.”

I try to calm myself with the possibility that they’re off walking around the festival handing out flyers together, or maybe Jenna is with Ian, who is supposed to meet her here. But after learning Todd might be the evil incarnation of Spider-Man and can scale tall buildings, my gut is telling me that’s not what’s happening.

“Where’s my phone?” I search the table where I left it, but I can’t find it. I utter a word that’s usually not in my vocabulary. “Where did it go? I left it right here.”

But it’s not there.

I check my purse, just in case I forgot to take it out, but it’s not there either.

“Alicia, can I use your phone to call Jenna?”

I’m trying to stay calm since there’s probably a logical explanation for where they are. Then Ian walks up.

“Hey, Maddie,” he says. “Is Jenna around?”

“Actually, no. I was hoping she was with you.”

Ian’s face falls. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

Alicia holds out her cell out to me, but she pulls it back. “Wait, there’s a text from her.”

She, Ian, and I read it together and the floor falls out from under me.

I know I left my phone on the table right next to the locked cash box when I helped a customer button a gown. That’s the last place I saw it.

The cash box is there, but my phone isn’t, which means there’s a very good chance that Todd read the message when it flashed on the screen.

I say a prayer that if he has gone to the shop, it’s because he wants to walk her back safely.

Somehow, I know that’s not the case.

~ Jenna ~

“You figured it out. Didn’t you?”

I’m groggy and it’s difficult to open my eyes, but when I do, I’m in a strange place. I blink a couple of times. My head hurts and my vision is blurry, but Todd is sitting at a desk across from me.

We’re in an office I’ve never seen before.

I try to lift my hands to brush my hair out of my eyes, but I can’t move them. Something is restraining them. I glance down and see that my wrists are bound with duct tape. I try to move my feet and realize they are bound to the chair legs.

“Todd? What’s going on? Help me!”

He laughs. “I can’t do that, Jenna.”

“Why not? Todd, what’s happening?”

I blink a few times trying to focus my vision. The last thing I remember is standing at the copy machine trying to figure out how to change the toner. Did Todd hit me? Is that why my head hurts? He must’ve gotten inside the shop and knocked me unconscious.

“You’re a smart woman, Jenna. I should’ve known you’d figure it out.”

“Figure out what?”

Then it all floods back—Todd talking to Ear Gauge, giving him money. I thought Ear Gauge was the one to be afraid of.

“Todd, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I feign, but obviously not good enough.

Todd holds up a phone with a familiar flowered case. It’s my mom’s phone. My cell is on the desk, too. He starts reading aloud the text message I sent to Mom and Alicia. The air whooshes out of my lungs. If he has her phone, she might not have gotten the message. I hope Alicia did. But they think I’m at the shop.

“How did you get that phone?”

He shakes his head in a mocking way. “Maddie was careless and left her phone lying around.”

Obviously, I misjudged the Todd-Ear Gauge dynamic. Todd didn’t realize I thought Ear Gauge was the monster.

“Todd, did you kill Riley?”

“See, I knew you figured it out. You’re too smart for your own good.”

Todd stands up and points a gun at me that I didn’t realize he was holding in his lap. I desperately wish I could make my brain work and think of a way to get out of this mess. But my head is throbbing.

“You know what, Jenna? It’s too bad it all had to go down like this. Because I like you. And I know you like me because of the way you flirt with me. You and I might’ve had something. We could’ve been real good together.”

I shiver. How in the world could I have been so wrong about a guy? If I scream, will someone hear me and call the police? If I scream, he will probably shoot me.

What am I going to do?

I need to keep him talking. “Todd, it’s not too late. I really like you. I think we’d be good together.”

“No. Too late for that.” His voice is loud. His eyes are wild and his nostrils flare.

I glance around the room, trying to figure out where we are. Several sets of hand weights and some brochures for gym equipment and meal supplements that promise to add muscle and not fat are within sight. We’re in the windowless office of his gym.

Where had Charles Buxston said it was located? I close my eyes and try to recall the announcement about the fund-raiser he’d made at the reception after Riley’s memorial.

Collins Avenue.

Okay. Unless I telegraph the information with my mind, it doesn’t do me a lot of good. I know it’s one of the more industrial areas of Hemlock, which means no one will hear me scream. It’s a good thing I didn’t do it.

“What are you going to do with me, Todd? I can’t see how holding me here can help anything.”

“You’re my insurance policy, Jenna.”

“What do you mean?”

“Riley Buxston owed me a lot of money, and right before his wedding not only did I find out he tried to cheat me out of repaying what he owed, but I learned he was planning on skipping town.”

“That really stinks. It’s not fair that he tried to do that to you.”

Todd looks down, licks his lips, and looks back at me as if he’s touched by my siding with him.

“No, it wasn’t fair. I didn’t mean to kill him. He was worth more to me alive than dead. But things happened. He wouldn’t cooperate. That’s why I need you to cooperate, Jenna.”

Todd holds up the gun and I hold my breath until I realize he’s not pointing it at me, but simply studying it.

“Let Riley be a lesson to you. Don’t fight me and maybe you’ll survive. Though I can’t guarantee it. All I need is a way to get out of town. I think you’re my ticket, though I have to figure out how I’m going to do this. I hadn’t planned on this happening tonight. There’s still some things I need to do before I leave. You’re going to help me.”

He places the gun on the desk and rakes his hands over his face. Then our gazes lock. I won’t let myself look away.

“I’ll help you get the money back, Todd.” I’ll say anything to help my case.

He starts looking around the room nodding his head. Murmuring, “Yeah. Mm-hm. That could work.”

“What could work, Todd?”

“I’m going to demand the money that Buxston owes me as ransom for your life. Yeah. Actually, I think you’re going to be extremely valuable to me. After I get the money, I can do a Riley and buy a one-way ticket to nowhere and disappear. Just like he was going to do me. Do you want to be my Grace Marie?”

I shudder at the thought, but I have to keep him talking. If he’s talking, it buys me time.

“I’d love to be your Grace Marie. But what about your gym, Todd? Everything you’ve worked so hard for is right here. How can we leave it all behind?”

“Don’t be an idiot. If I stay here, my gym will go down the tubes while I rot in jail. At least if I get out of town, I’ll have my freedom. And I’m telling you way too much.” He makes a face. “I guess that means I’ll have to kill you after I get my money.”

He must see the look of horror on my face because he adds, “The last thing I need is excess baggage to slow me down.”

I hope to God Alicia saw the message and she and Mom have gotten in touch with Jackson.

“Why did Riley owe you so much money?”

Todd shakes his head. “The guy had a gambling problem and, sadly, it got the best of him. He really should’ve gotten help. But he was in denial.”

“Did you guys gamble together? Or did you lend him money? How did he rack up all that debt?”

“Those poker games everyone was talking about at the Hideaway. They’re mine. They were my baby. I started out in the office at the Hideaway, but the owner was starting to become too much of a liability. He was too greedy, wanting bigger and bigger cuts. So, I moved the games here, in the locker room after closing. It just made too much sense. Cut out the middleman, Kevin Carter, the guy with the tattoos—or, what did you call him? Ear Gauge? He’s the grandson of the guy who owns the Hideaway. He wasn’t very happy about losing his cut. Too bad so sad. He said he was going to rat me out if I didn’t pay up. But he won’t be spending money anymore.”

Oh, my gosh. “Did you kill him?”

Todd flashes a chilling smile. “That’s what happens when people get in my way. But I digress. We were talking about Riley. Sadly, the idiot wasn’t any better at poker than he was at life. He kept wanting to play double or nothing and he kept losing, which meant he kept digging himself in deeper and deeper. I was going to let it ride, because, I mean what an investment? That was a pretty good return on my money. And I know his family has more money than God. Since he was getting married and was back in their good graces, I figured I’d get what he owed me soon enough. But then he tried to cheat me by bringing in bogus cards from the outside. Can you believe it? As good a friend as I have been to him and he tried to cheat me out of what he owes me. Not very smart.”

Todd cracks his knuckles and then makes a fist with his left hand and plows it into his open right hand.

Jackson was right, the killer is lefthanded.

“Todd, a minute ago you said you didn’t mean to kill Riley. What happened?”

He snorts. “I found out he planned on using his honeymoon to skip town and blow off the money he owed me. You don’t do that to me. You don’t try to cheat me twice. What’s that saying? Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me? Yeah. Shame on Riley Buxston. Even so, I was going to be a good guy. Since it was clear I wasn’t going to get the money from him, I decided to shake down his parents. I was going to kidnap him and make his parents pay. Once I got the money, I was going to get out of town.

“Kidnapping was a good plan. So, that’s what I’m going to do with you, my love. Sorry I’m not being more original, but why invent the wheel twice? Only, with you, I hope you will learn a lesson from Riley and not fight me. It didn’t have to end with him dead. If he would’ve just cooperated, I was going to kidnap him the night before his wedding and, of course, his parents would’ve paid up. Then I would’ve set him free and skipped town. Just think, right now, I could be on an island sipping piña coladas. It would’ve been a win-win situation.”

“So, this scholarship thing you were planning? What’s that all about? Were you going to pocket the money?”

“Are you kidding? That event wouldn’t even make a dent in the five million Buxston owed me.”

I gasp.

“I know, right? When you start messing with double or nothing the zeros add up fast.”

Todd laughs and it is the most maniacal sound I’ve ever heard. It sends chills down my spine. I’m dealing with a madman and if I don’t figure out a way to get this duct tape off my wrists so I can at least try to escape, he is going to kill me. I can’t wait for the police. I need to help myself.

“No, the scholarship gig was simply a means to an end. It was a way to endear myself to the Buxstons. With Riley gone, there was a chance that maybe they’d embrace me as an adopted son.”

My mouth falls open.

“I’m kidding,” he says. “See, I’ve got a good sense of humor. I figured if I kept them close, endeared myself, there might be opportunities to recoup my losses. Like the way Marco took that watch. Too bad he had to be so stupid and get caught. But that also meant the watch was still up for grabs along with a lot of other expensive Buxston tchotchkes. Things that are meaningless to them. Isn’t that the way it always is with rich people? They have so much and others have nothing. I figured, if I took a piece of artwork here, a bauble of jewelry there, it might take longer, but eventually I would get what was mine. I should’ve never agreed to participate in this stupid Christmas festival. Charles’s idea, not mine. It was almost my downfall. But maybe it will end up being the launching pad that will get me out of this godforsaken place. Thanks for your help, gorgeous girl.”

Suddenly, Todd stands up. “Not be crude, but nature calls. Don’t go away, baby. I’ll be right back. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He laughs and then walks out of the room.

I can’t believe it, but he leaves the gun in the middle of his desk.