Chapter 12
“Where are you?”, Lee asks but before Veronica can answer something happens. Something loud, so loud that even I can hear it through the receiver.
“Veronica!”, Lee yells into the phone, his voice rushed and panicked
There’s a loud thump on the back, and some voices. I can’t understand what they are saying, the language is foreign and the voices aggressive.
And then there’s just the regular blipping of the cut line, its sound so piercing I have to cover my ears.
I shiver, the summer’s hot but I feel cold from the inside, the lump in my throat is so tight it hurts. I can’t cry and I can’t speak, and I stare at Lee who stares at the wall, holding the phone in his hand with a dumbstruck expression.
I can’t measure the time, but at some point I pull myself together.
“Did you see the number she was calling from?”, I ask
“No…”, Lee tells me as he punches some buttons on the phone
“Wait, yes…but where is this number from?”, he says showing me the display
“Can we google it up?”, I say
The computer is right next to phone, and Lee presses the on button. The PC seems to take forever to start, Lee nibbles at his lips anxiously.
“Come on buddy!”, he says thumping his fingers on the table, exasperated
Thoughts race in my head. Find where she was calling from. Find out and…
Find out and reach her.
The question is how. What were they doing to her when the line fell? She can’t be dead, not now. No, not now. But if someone took her, kidnapped her again, how do I find her?
“Ah finally!”, Lee exclaims when he manages to open the search engine
He types in the number.
“Bingo!”, he says, “Amsterdam?”, I say
“Seems like that’s it”, he says, his voice regaining life
“I need to buy a ticket”, I realize at the same time I’m telling Lee
He looks at me for a moment and I see what he’s thinking.
“Let me go first, you can’t come with me now”, I tell him, and I don’t know why I say so
But why is what he asks.
“Because you can’t afford hanging out there without an income”, I say, not really knowing if this is the real reason
“Can you?”, he asks
As a student I received funding that is still there for the most part because I never had to pay for my living. My adoptive parents have been generous with me, I give them that. They’ve loved me only for themselves, I know, but still.
“Yes”, I say
I have enough to survive for a while, certainly till the start of the job in Barcelona. Will I ever even get to Barcelona though? I have no clue about where this lead will bring me.
Lee frowns, he’s thinking, planning.
“I need to do this alone, you understand?”, I continue
“I do. But we need to Veronica alive”, Lee insists
“Yes, but if we go there together and they get us both then we blow up our chances. Let me go there first. I promise I’ll reach out for help if I need it, and if I stop contacting you all of a sudden then you’ll know I’m in trouble”, I tell him
Lee thinks this over for a moment.
“Ok”, he agrees at last
I smile, trying to look as if everything were under control, as if I weren’t the mess it is.
“So we’re buying your ticket?”, Lee asks, bringing me back on track
“Right”, I say, pulling out my credit card
“When do you want to leave?”, he asks
“Tomorrow?”, I say, echoing back his question
“Tomorrow?”, he repeats, eyebrows arched
“I suppose so”
Lee doesn’t look too convinced.
“We don’t have time”, I insist
“It’s about you going there alone…”, he starts
Patience is not one of my key qualities, and being exhausted doesn’t make things any better. I take the mouse off his hand and start browsing.
Deciding you want to fly out somewhere the evening before you’re on the plane generally won’t buy you a cheap seat, and when I enter my credit card info and accept the purchase I figure I have eaten away a good slice of my savings in no more than 5 minutes.
Lee hasn’t spoken a word since I grabbed the mouse off his hand. It is only when I complete the purchase and lean against the wall, exhausted, that he tells me, “If you take off at 3 pm tomorrow I can give you a ride to the airport around noon”.
I have a night and a morning to pack up my life and go.