Bell , Book and Candle

By DocPaul

Chapter Thirteen:  Agoraphobia…

It was dark. She struggled against a weight that seemed to be holding her down. Liz peered through the darkness, but everything was black. Her head hurt.

It took a few moments for her to realize that she was tied down with her hands behind her back, lying on a sofa or bed. It was hard to say. She was disoriented. There was a blindfold across her eyes. Remaining still, she tried to hear the world around her.

“What do you mean, take care of her?” The man’s voice was loud and upset. His accent was distinctive. “I don’t do those types of things! Guerin was an exception. This is a woman! How the hell am I supposed to get rid of her?”

Phone. He was talking on the phone. Liz quelled her rising nausea and wished she could at least see. Her baby. Squeezing her eyes tightly, she cursed whatever investigating gene was in her body that made her go into Brody’s house without first telling someone what she was doing. Fool. There weren’t enough words in her vocabulary to say all the things she wanted to say to herself. If she lived, she was having a long talk to herself, about everything. About Max. About the baby.

It was time. Time for her to stop taking crap because she felt bad about the baby. She had gotten pregnant on purpose, without Max’s knowledge. It was so stupid now that she thought about it. Wanting him to make a definitive decision about their future together by forcing him into a set one, and she blackmailed him into it with the baby. Everything had been wrong since then.

Emma. Liz closed her eyes. I’m sorry, Emma. Her small baby. If anything happened to her child, she would never forgive herself. She should’ve listened to Kyle when he told her to back off. There was so much she wanted and needed to prove. To herself. To her co-workers. But especially to Max. None of that mattered anymore.

“Dammit! Don’t threaten me! You’re as involved in this as I am. She saw things. She knows. Well you decide what to do, and you call me back.” There was a pause. “How the hell am I supposed to know? Her license says Elizabeth Parker. She has press credentials. Yes, dammit! She’s a bloody reporter!”

Liz listened, but the voice seemed to be getting further and further away. No. It was her. She was going to pass out again. Liz’s last thought was lost in a sea of nothingness.

~~~

They were all at Maria and Tess’s apartment. Isabel and Alex had brought Max over. The house he shared with Liz was too much for him to handle right now. A friend offered to keep an eye out for Liz in case she appeared, but with every passing hour it was apparent that Liz wasn’t coming home.

Isabel had watched Max as he stood in the doorway of the nursery, looking at everything Liz had done. She had stenciled the walls, and painted them a fairytale pink. The crib was already assembled as was a bassinet. The room had wall to wall carpeting, the softest he had ever seen.

“When did she finish it?” He asked the quiet Isabel.

“I helped her last week.” Isabel didn’t touch Max. He seemed to need to be left alone.

“Why pink?”

“Emma. It’s a girl. Liz has picked the name Emma. She was thinking of Claudia after her grandmother, but the name Emma kept coming up. It seemed perfect.”

Max’s jaw clenched. Nothing. He had done nothing. He hadn’t even known he was having a daughter! Closing his eyes, he wondered if she would look like Liz. Smiling slightly, he could remember the first time he ever saw Liz Parker. It was in third grade. Her long brunette hair, so shiny and beautiful, and her doe-like eyes. She looked like a fairytale princess. How could he forget that? Max leaned against the door. How could he forget that he loved her?

“I’ve got to find her, Iz. I’ve got to find them.”

Isabel tentatively touched Max’s shoulder. “I know.”

Hours later, even far away from the empty house and nursery, Max was still pacing. Upset. Horrified. Isabel couldn’t take it any longer so she was in Maria’s kitchen cooking. People were eating what she made, and talking, but nothing was certain.

“Isabel, you’ve been cooking. Maybe you should eat something too?” Alex suggested. In the last twelve hours or more, he couldn’t remember seeing her eat a single bite.

“I’m fine. I’m not hungry.”

Alex took her hand and dragged her outside on a stoop. “Dammit, Isabel. Eat something! Anything. Prove to me that what I think is going on with you isn’t.”

Isabel shook his hand off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine. So what? I don’t eat much. I eat when I’m hungry! My whole life they shoved food down my throat as a sign of love. What did it give me?” Isabel was breathing hard. Her face flushed.

“You’re beautiful! How can’t you see that?”

“I’m disgusting!”

“Alex,” said Maria from the door. Her voice was soft and low. “Can I talk to Isabel for a moment?”

Alex looked at Isabel, seeing the firm set of her jaw, he nodded. This wasn’t over. Not yet. But, it wasn’t going anywhere tonight.

“He’s concerned.” Maria said simply to the young woman she just met. So many new people in her house. This young woman was an enigma. She moved among them like a waif….a ghost, with hardly a word above a peep. Yet, the scene Maria had just interrupted was passionate and loud. Who was the real Isabel Evans?

“He has no right.” Isabel said. She looked at the other woman a little shyly. Maria DeLuca. Strange to see the woman who had been able to change Michael Guerin and his outlook on life.

“Perhaps. But, any person can see he cares. Hard to throw that away.” Maria took a deep breath. “Believe me. I know.” Maria smiled. “Come with me.” Isabel hesitated. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.”

Maria led Isabel down the stoop to another door leading into her bedroom. Turning on the light, she went to her closet and perused the selections there, picking out a dress that was always long on her, and one that had no real size since the dresses ties cinched it in. “Here, try this one.”

Isabel shook her head, hugging herself with her arms. “I couldn’t possibly wear anything of yours. You’re too skinny.”

“I prefer the term thin, but really, I’m not. I have a lean frame, but my size is pretty consistent for that frame.” Maria looked at Isabel. “Really, it should fit. Trust me.” Maria indicated a changing screen in the corner of her room. Isabel reluctantly took the dress. It was lovely. A silk wraparound with ties that could tie in the front or back.

“I don’t have the right bra for this…”

“Then don’t wear anything.” Maria said as she sat on her bed. It took some time for Isabel to find the nerve to come out, and Tess came in before she did. She gave Maria a questioning look, but Maria shook her head.

Isabel stepped out and Tess’s eyebrow went up. Oh my! Beneath all that heavy clothing was….wow. She was a knock-out! Maria stood and pulled Isabel in front of the full mirror.

“I can’t believe it fits.”

“Hmm,” said Maria critically. It was almost too short, but it looked good. She undid the tie and pulled it a little tighter accentuating Isabel’s breasts.

“God! She has breasts!” Tess said. Isabel instinctually covered them.

Maria gently removed her hands. “They’re nothing to be ashamed of, Isabel. They’re perfect for your body.” Maria turned Isabel to look at herself. “Tell me, what do you see?”

Isabel stared at herself. “Me. I see me.”

“How do you look?”

Isabel stared, her eyes unblinking. “Fat. Disgusting. Ugly.”

Tess made a sound of distress, but Maria gave her a quick shake of her head. “I don’t see that, Isabel. Tess, what do you see?”

“She’s gorgeous.”

Isabel looked over at Tess in shock. Why would this stranger say that? She had no reason to lie. Isabel looked in the mirror and frowned. Fidgeting in the dress, she suddenly felt exposed. “May I change back into my own clothes now?”

Maria smiled kindly. “Of course, honey.”

Tess waited until Isabel was changing, and she whispered heatedly to Maria, “Maria, she’s not…”

“Shhh. I know.” Maria patiently waited for Isabel to come back out from behind the screen, much more comfortable in her own clothes. Maria had looked at the label on Isabel’s clothes while she had been changing into Maria’s dress.

“Isabel,” Maria said softly. “What size do you wear?”

Isabel shrugged. “I don’t know. Depends on the cut of the clothing. Usually a twelve to a fourteen. Sometimes a sixteen. Why?”

Maria shrugged. “Just wondering. That dress of mine you fit in perfectly was a size four, but it can fit up to a six.”

Isabel looked at Maria startled. “That can’t be!”

Maria handed the dress back to Isabel to read the tag. “It fit you perfectly. Like a glove.” Maria softened her voice. “Isabel, why do you think that you wear clothes twice your size?”

“They’re comfortable.”

Maria nodded. “I suspect they are. But, when I saw you in my dress, I thought you looked incredibly beautiful. Tall. Elegant. Self-assured.”

“I’m not any of those things.”

Maria came closer to the young woman. “You can be. If you really want to.” Maria pressed a card into Isabel’s hand. “This is my friend, Jake. He helps me sometimes when my anxiety overwhelms me. He can maybe help you understand why a size six woman looks at herself in the mirror and thinks she’s ugly. Why she refuses to eat, and why she hides from the world in clothes several sizes too big. He’s a good friend. He listens.”

Isabel looked at the card. “I don’t know...”

Maria smiled kindly. “Just think about it. You have the card. Maybe one day you’ll see something you want, and maybe Jake can help you feel good enough about yourself to get there. Keep it.”

Isabel nodded and took the card and quickly left the room. Maria and Tess were quiet for a moment.

“How did you know?” Tess asked.

“Her arms. The thick coarse black hair. Her nails are showing malnutrition too.”

“Who’s the doctor here?”

Maria laughed and hugged Tess tight. “I was remembering Lisa.”

Tess nodded. Their high school friend Lisa had died a long time ago from an eating disorder. Hopefully Isabel would seek out Jake before it went that far. Maria smiled at Tess and hugged her close as they walked into the other room to a place of strangers, who were fast becoming new friends.

Maria hoped that the wistful looks that Isabel gave Alex Whitman were enough to give her courage to seek out Jake. Sometimes a person needed a reason to try things that made them the most afraid. Being afraid of places was almost as difficult as fear of being in a place in one’s life. Isabel was trapped in seeing a specter of her past, and no matter how far she traveled from that plump loved child, it was all she could see.

~~~

“She has to be at Brody’s place.” Kyle said between bites. “It was what she was investigating.”

Max pushed the food away. He couldn’t eat. “You can’t know that! There is no way of telling who Brody is in business with, and where they would’ve taken her.”

Kyle gave a look of disgust. She had to be there. Where else would she be? They were wasting time arguing and discussing how to find Liz. If she was at Brody’s her car would be there. Or if they took her, it would be at the City Office. They should look for her car.

Kyle listened as long as he could. Finally he gave up. Waiting until no one was watching, he slipped out of the apartment’s outside door leading downstairs to the parking area. He was halfway down the back when a voice stopped him.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Tess. Damn. He should’ve known. “Out.”

Tess followed him all the way to his car. When he got in, she quickly slid into the other side. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

“You’re not invited!”

“Remove me! I dare you!” Tess sat there stubbornly. Kyle just cursed under his breath and started the car.

“Fine, but I don’t want to hear any of your snotty thoughts or bitching.”

“I don’t bitch. I’m a sweetheart.”

“Uh huh. Sure you are. That’s why Michael’s balls were almost useless in begetting his future children the other day.”

“He told you about that? That is totally out of context.” Tess said huffily.

“Oh, I don’t know…‘She kicked my balls up around my ears because I called her a lesbian.’ translates fine to me!”

Tess poked him in his chest. “I’m not a lesbian!”

“Hey, stop messing with the driver, and I don’t care if you are or aren’t.”

Tess’s eyes narrowed. She sat back in anger. “As long as we’re agreed on that!” She looked stonily out the window at the passing neighborhoods. “Where are we going?”

Kyle glanced at her, smiling slightly at her pout. Staring straight ahead, he took the avenue towards downtown. “To look for Liz’s car. Once we find it, we’ll have a better chance of knowing what happened to her.”

“It’s late. The downtown city buildings will be closed.”

“Her car isn’t in a building, Tess. We’ll check out parking structures and lots near the City Planning Offices.”

Tess nodded, unwilling to admit his plan wasn’t that bad. So maybe he wasn’t totally stupid. Tess glanced at him quickly. He was kind of interesting when he took on a ‘take charge’ look, and stopped whining.

~~~

They checked all possible places for Liz’s car. No luck. There was one other place to look before they ran out of options. Brody Davis’s home.

Tess ran into Kyle’s back. “How are we going to get in?” She looked around the area expecting security to show up at any moment. “Maybe you better let me pick the lock.”

Kyle turned whispering loudly. “Pick the lock? What does Ms. Purebred, hoity-toity medical student know about locks? I’m the criminal, remember?”

“Okay then you pick it!”

“I don’t know how!” Kyle hated her.

“Then let me do it. For your information, I come from a family of cops. After criminals, no one knows more about picking locks than cops.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Great. I feel so protected.” He pushed Tess against the wall. “Just watch out for the guard. I’ll take care of the lock.”

“How?”

Kyle dangled a pair of keys in front of Tess. “Michael’s keys. I lifted them off him.”

“Ummm, you’re going to be in so much trouble!” Tess’s singsong voice irritating him more.

“Only if you snitch!” Kyle quickly unlocked the door. “How else are we going to get Brody’s unlisted address? I know Michael has to have it in his files or his Rolodex.”

“This will be strike two on you for breaking and entering.”

“I’ve got a key. Are you going to keep a lookout or what?”

“Fine.”

They broke into Michael’s offices, and found Brody’s address in Kathleen’s files on her desk. Kyle took the time to stop when a few papers caught his eye. Financial reports. Valenti’s had taken a decrease in profit over the last quarter to compensate for lost jobs, and to pay its workers. Kyle frowned. Something else he would have to atone for in the future. Damn his conscience. It had been so much easier when he was younger and so selfish that he didn’t care.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” Kyle ripped off the paper from the notepad where he wrote the address. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”

The ride to Brody’s was strangely quiet. For once, Tess didn’t have a running commentary or criticism. She was silent and sitting on the edge of the seat. Excited. In a warped insane fashion, this was a real adventure. Once they made it to Brody’s home, Kyle parked across from the main gate leading to the house.

“I don’t see a car.” Tess said. “How do you know what her car looks like?”

Kyle shrugged. “She’s had the same one since high school. Max is too cheap to buy her a new one, and she can’t afford one herself. In high school, I used to…creatively borrow her car from time to time.”

“Is that another way of euphemistically saying you stole it?”

Kyle frowned at the quiet road. Liz had to be there. “Euphemistically? Careful, those polysyllabic words are beyond my uneducated brain. Try using smaller ones for the unwashed masses.”

“Pig. Is that single syllable enough for you?” Tess frowned when Kyle started to get out of the car. “Where are you going?”

“To look for Liz’s car. If she went inside, she wouldn’t leave her car parked on the street. Not in this neighborhood. The cops would’ve stopped and investigated it. She would have hid her car somewhere…not so public.” Kyle reached across Tess and looked in the glove compartment taking out a flashlight. It worked, but it was weak. Shaking it, he looked at the light. It would have to do. “Stay here.”

“No way!” Tess scrambled out of the car to follow Kyle. “You’ll probably get in trouble. I better stay with you.”

“Suit yourself, but I want you to stay quiet. No bitching.”

“I don’t bitch! I suggest forcefully.”

“Whatever. Swallow it. I’m in charge.”

Tess’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded anyway and followed him. “You know someone will probably see the light and call security.”

“Shhhh! Not a peep!” Kyle said threateningly.

They searched for almost half an hour before they found Liz’s car in the side access road. She had pulled it off onto the side among heavy shrubbery and brush.

“Is it hers?”

“Yeah.” Kyle tried the doors. Locked. Handing Tess the flashlight, he scrambled on the ground and slid partially under the car.

“What are you doing?”

“Liz has a hide-a-key. Told you. I used to borrow it from her in high school.” Kyle got off the ground and brushed the dirt from his clothes. “One thing about Liz Parker. She’s predictable and constant. She’s worn her hair the same way since she was a girl. She wears the same style of clothing. Same colors. She’s hardly what you call daring, and in this case, thank you Liz Parker!” Kyle showed Tess the key.

“So your bad boy past comes to some use.” Tess said, admitting a slight admiration for him.

“Nothing past about my bad boy attitude. I do things, lady, that would make you blush, so hold that light still while I search her car.” Kyle opened the door and slid into the car. Finding Liz’s phone immediately, he passed it to Tess. He found a file full of research. Damn. She had done a lot in one day. Tess leaned over Kyle with the light, and the two of them quickly read through some of the papers and articles that Liz had copied.

“Oh! This doesn’t look good.” Tess pointed to some figures. “I think those are kickbacks. That usually means that members of a governing body are skewing the results.”

“So?” Kyle had seen people do strange things for money. Obviously Tess wasn’t familiar with the American tradition of cheating. Happened all the time in his world of gambling.

“So that means people of power, in powerful places, will do anything and everything to retain their positions and reputations.”

“So this isn’t a mob thing?”

Tess sneered. “What is this, bad TV? No, more like City government corruption. Probably a few aldermen or something. Happens all the time.”

“So, I don’t get it. This is implying that Brody was broke and going bankrupt, and a third party of these ‘officials’ stepped in as silent partners to help his company out, but they couldn’t be publicly associated, because that constitutes a…”

“Breach of ethics. They’re compromised.”

“So what was with the bidding?”

Tess leaned against the car. “It had to be Michael. His company offered such a low bid in comparison, that even with ringers on the Committee, it was impossible to skew things away from Valenti’s to Davis Construction. Michael was a problem. Most bids would be about the same range, and the corrupt members could talk the rest of the members to select their company, but not when a bid was so much lower than the competition.”

“So why didn’t they just bid lower?”

Tess snorted. “Get real! You’re a gambler. Money! Cash is King!”

Kyle took the file and handed it to Tess. “Okay, enough. Liz is definitely in trouble. And she was here, even if she isn’t anymore. We may not find her, but maybe we can find clues to where she is.” Kyle handed Tess his keys. “You take this file, and all the information to Michael and the others.”

“Where are you going?” Tess bit her lip. She was not going to like this one bit.

“To find Liz. I got her into this. I’m getting her out.”

“You can’t! Don’t be an idiot. Then they’ll have two of you to rescue, and…”

Kyle grabbed Tess and gave her a little shake. “Listen to me! She’s pregnant. She can’t wait.”

Tess bit her lip harder. Looking at the file, and at Kyle. “I’m going with you!”

“No! I told you. Take the file and…”

“No way. You’ll get into trouble without me.” Tess put the file back on the seat of Liz’s car, locked the door and shut it. “No choice.” She pocketed the key. “Either we both go find the others, or I go with you.”

“This is stupid.”

“No. Splitting up is. Haven’t you ever watched slasher movies?” Tess took out Liz’s phone and dialed. “If we can’t go to Mohammed, then Mohammed will have to come to us.”

~~~

Max was sitting there listening to the others as they argued, or rather, discussed loudly about what to do. Kyle and Tess had been discovered missing over a half an hour ago, and Tess hadn’t taken her cell phone. The phone next to him rang.

Maria stopped poking Michael in the chest long enough to look at her phone. The group was quiet, then suddenly they all came to life. “Answer it! It might be Tess!”

Max looked at the phone, and he sat up straighter. “It’s Liz’s number!” Max quickly answered the phone as the other approached, anxious. “Liz? Honey?” Max’s voice was hopeful, but his face suddenly went blank. “Tess, how…”

He stopped and listened for a few more moments. Looking around frantically, he gestured to Maria for a piece of paper and a pen. The group watched as he took down notes.

“What’s going on?” Michael’s patience was at the breaking point.

Max moved his mouth from the phone. “They found Liz’s car, her cell phone, and files. They’re outside Brody Davis’s house!”

Maria looked uneasily at Isabel. “Tell them not to go in! No matter what!”

Max nodded. “Tess, tell Kyle that both of you are to wait until we get there. We have to have enough for probable cause, to get someone out there.” Max listened. “No! We said to wait! Put him on the phone right now!”

Michael looked at Max. “What?”

“Kyle said he’s going in right away!”

“Dammit, give me that damn phone!” Michael took it from Max. “Tess!” Michael waited. “Tess! Put Kyle on! Kyle!” Michael took the phone away from his ear. “They hung up on me!”