Shakertown, PA
Jake grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Voloshin’s number. He felt a darkness come over him, a sheer malevolence he’d never felt in his life. He was about to talk to the man who had terrified Ryan. The man who could drive his son crazy, even to suicide. Jake felt in his heart, for the first time ever, that he was capable of committing murder. If he were ever in the same room with Voloshin again, the little man wouldn’t get out alive.
“Jake?” Voloshin answered, his tone surprised, but Jake didn’t let him get out another word.
“Who the hell do you think you are, scaring my son? I’ll kill you for that. Do you hear me? You leave my boy alone!”
“You weren’t taking me seriously.” Voloshin seemed to recover. “I had to show you that I—”
“We made a deal. You’ll get your money. It’ll be there by eleven, and you better send me the copies of that video and photos. The deal is between me and you. You leave my family out of this or you’ll get nothing. Nothing!”
“Oh, I don’t know about that—”
“Don’t test me. It’s killing my kid to keep this secret, so if it’s not going to help him, I’ll blow it wide open. I’ll go to the police myself. We both will. I’d rather have my son sane and in jail than crazy and outside of it.” Jake heard himself yelling and realized that what he was saying was true. “So don’t press me. Don’t test me. You don’t know me.”
“Now who’s the tough guy?”
“I am,” Jake growled, and this time he meant it. He could feel it, a bile and fury inside, bubbling. “If you ever, ever contact my son again, I’ll come after you. I know where you live. I have your phone number. I know where you work. You’ll never get away from me. I’ll find you wherever you go.” Jake heard himself threatening Voloshin, an eerie echo of the very texts that Voloshin had sent to Ryan. Suddenly Jake started to wonder about something. He’d just learned that Voloshin knew Kathleen, so maybe the way Voloshin had gotten the photos of the hit-and-run wasn’t because he lived or worked close by, at all. “Wait. You live on Meadowbrook Lane, but that isn’t anywhere near Pike Road. GreenTech isn’t in the corporate center, either. It’s in Shakertown, three towns over. You didn’t happen upon the accident scene and take that video. You didn’t see it from a neighboring office or an apartment complex. I’m onto you. I have your number. You were on Pike Road yourself. You were there already. You were stalking her.”
“What? No, that’s—”
“Don’t bullshit me. It all makes sense. Kathleen was a young, beautiful girl who works in your office. Her mother gets her a summer job there. You’re a lonely, single nerd, the dweeby IT guy who codes all day.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m friends with her mother. Kathleen was the daughter of my good friend, that’s all.”
“Oh, please. You started out friends with the mother, but you’re not blind. A beautiful young high-school girl comes into your world, and you fall head over heels. You think about her all the time.” Jake sensed he was right, even as he said it. “You took those pictures and that video, no one else. That’s how you got the pictures. That’s why you were so close. That’s how you got such a great video, even in the fog. You found out where she runs, where the track team runs. What were you doing? Hiding in the bushes? In the woods? Waiting for her to run by? Did you know her running schedule? Her route?”
“We were just friends. She was my friend’s daughter. I was a friend of the family—”
“Give me a break!” Jake burst into laughter, but it wasn’t mirthful, just a release of pressure. “You were friends? A man your age is friends with a gorgeous sixteen-year-old girl? Who’re you kidding? Did you hit on her or just fantasize? You’re a sick freak! You’re a predator!”
“It’s not true—”
“If you were such good friends, then why are you capitalizing on her death?” Jake realized it was true the moment he said it. “You’re such great friends with her that when she gets killed by a car, which you witness, you don’t go to the police? You don’t say to them, these people killed my friend? You don’t even give your other good friend—her mother—the information?” Jake could hear Voloshin had gone silent. “Instead, you sneak around and try to blackmail my son, who had an accident? You try and make money from the girl’s death, the daughter of your very good friend? You disgust me!”
“I don’t need to listen to this.”
“Neither do I,” Jake shot back. He pressed END, hanging up. Suddenly he heard some noise downstairs, the slamming of the front door, then someone coming upstairs.
“Jake! Ryan!” It was Pam, and she sounded furious.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“I’m up in my office!” Jake got off the computer, erased his Internet history, and got up just as his door flew open.
“Jake, we have a problem.” Pam stood frowning in the doorway, still with her trenchcoat over her suit. She hadn’t even kicked off her black pumps. “Where’s Ryan?”
“In his room, resting.”
“Resting! Very good!” Pam spun around on her heel and stalked down the hall toward Ryan’s room, her coat billowing behind her. “I’m getting to the bottom of this, once and for all.”
Oh no. Jake hustled after her. “What’s going on?”
“Wait until you hear this,” Pam called over her shoulder.
“Why are you home so early?”
“Because no meeting is as important as this.” Pam flung open Ryan’s door and entered his bedroom, which was empty except for Moose. The golden retriever stood up in the bed unsteadily, wagging his tail, but Pam crossed the room and knocked on the bathroom door. “Ryan? Ryan, come out of the bathroom.”
“Mom?” Ryan called from inside the bathroom. “I’ll be out in a little bit. I’m about to take a shower.”
“Honey, give him a break.” Jake tried to calm the waters. “I already discussed it with him. He wasn’t feeling well, and that’s why he didn’t go to class. He made it to practice though.”
“Ryan!” Pam tried the doorknob, but it was locked, then she banged on the door. “Come out of the bathroom, right this instant!”
“Honey, relax.” Jake had never seen her this upset. He started to worry about what she knew, or what she thought she knew.
“Don’t tell me to relax! I was right, all along. I knew it. I knew something was going on.” Pam banged on the door again, and from inside the bathroom came the sound of a toilet flushing.
“Mom, chill.” Ryan opened the door and came out of the bathroom, looking more put together than before, with his hair combed back and his hood off his head.
“Don’t you tell me to chill!” Pam grabbed his arm, pulled him toward the bed, and made him sit down. Moose licked Ryan’s face and wagged his tail harder, thinking this was some new game. “Where were you during Western Civ?”
Jake stepped in. “Pam, I already discussed this with him. You don’t have to—”
“The hell I don’t!” Pam put her hands on her hips. “Ryan, I asked you a fact question, as the lawyers say. Where were you during Western Civ?”
“I didn’t feel well—”
“I didn’t ask you how you felt. I asked you where you were.”
“I was with Caleb,” Ryan answered, not meeting his mother’s eye. “I didn’t feel well, and he had a study hall, so we hung out.”
“And what did you do?”
Jake couldn’t take seeing Ryan twist in the wind. “Honey, don’t yell at him. He doesn’t deserve to be yelled at.”
“Yes, he does.” Pam ignored him, still glaring at Ryan. “He deserves that and more. You don’t know what he’s done.”