It was Friday morning.
Donovan woke up early, and after he shaved, he stripped and got in the shower.
After he stepped out of the shower, he walked out of the bathroom. His iPhone rang from the bedside table.
He frowned when he saw the caller’s name. He picked up his iPhone. “Good morning, Lindsey,” he answered the call.
“Why can’t I reach you on your cell phone? I tried last night, and the call went suddenly dead,” she said from the iPhone and sounded a little pissed.
“I’m sorry, but this article has been keeping me really busy. Then I forgot to recharge my battery, and it went dead yesterday,” he lied and felt guilty; this was the first time with her.
There were a few seconds of silence from his iPhone while he waited for her response. “Are you up there with another woman?” she said and sounded serious.
Donovan immediately thought about kissing Jodi last night and felt caught. “No. I’m really up here working on an article,” he lied for the second time and waited for her response.
“Okay. Now listen, you’ve been up there long enough. Drive back home tomorrow. I’m having my parents over for dinner on Sunday night,” she replied with her usual tone of control.
Donovan hesitated for a few seconds to reply, as he really hated it when she bossed him around. “Yeah, I’ll be there,” he said, then paused for a few seconds. “I gotta go,” he said then disconnected their call.
Donovan looked a little depressed while he placed his iPhone back on the bedside table. Then the motel phone on the table rang. He picked up the receiver. “Hello.”
“It’s Jodi. I’m running about ten minutes late,” she replied.
Donovan suddenly realized he was bare-ass naked while he Jodi was on the phone. That suddenly made him feel better while he thought about her. “That’s alright. I’ll see you at eight-ten,” he said.
“See you then,” Jodi replied, then disconnected his end of the call.
Donovan walked over to the dresser with a smile and already forgot about Lindsey.
He got dressed for the day.
A little while later, Donovan waited by the front entrance of the Perkins restaurant. His thoughts flip-flopped between Lindsey and Jodi. When he thought about Lindsey, he got depressed. Then when he thought about Jodi, he cheered up. He knew that he could not spend the rest of his life with Lindsey. But how could he break off his engagement without facing her fury? He pondered this question for a little while and got depressed.
“Good morning,” Jodi’s voice came out from his right, and he immediately smiled.
“Good morning,” he replied.
“I’m starving,” she replied.
“Me too,” Donovan said then he opened up one of the front doors to the restaurant.
A little while later, Donovan and Jodi were seated at a booth and had their first cup of coffee and already ordered breakfast.
“I’m starting to believe that we’re wasting our time up here,” said Donovan while he thought about his phone call with Lindsey this morning.
Jodi took a drink of coffee while she thought about Donovan’s comment. But something in her gut made her feel that there was something wrong with the disappearance of the two teens. “I don’t know. Something tells me that there’s someone here in town that knows what really happened to Tiffany and Howie. But who and what?” she said and looked serious.
Donovan looked at Jodi’s eyes then he thought about Lindsey’s order to return home tomorrow. “If you can excuse me for a minute, I need to call my boss,” he said.
“Sure,” Jodi said with and gave him a warm smile.
Donovan got out of the booth then removed his iPhone from his pants pocket while he walked to the front doors.
He stepped outside the restaurant.
Once he got outside, he made a phone call. He paced while the call went through.
“Lindsey,” he immediately said.
“What?” Lindsey replied and sounded groggy, as Donovan woke her up and she took the call from her bed.
“I’m not coming home tomorrow. I’m staying up here in Haneyville a little while longer,” he blurted out before he chickened out.
“What?” Lindsey snapped back and hearing that woke her up.
“I’m staying up here in Haneyville a little longer.”
“What are you talking about? I told to head home tomorrow,” she said, and her voice was raised.
“You heard me. I’m not coming home. I just might stay up here another week or two or three,” he said and started to love the feeling of finally bossing her around.
“What about your job? You’ll get fired.”
“Oh that, I quit the day I left for Tennessee.”
There were a few seconds of silence from his iPhone. “You quit? Why the hell would you quit?” she yelled from his iPhone and an older couple that walked to the front entrance could hear her voice.
“Because I felt like it. And another thing, we’re through. I decided that I don’t want to marry you. The wedding is off. I can’t spend the rest of my life with you controlling it,” he said, and that really felt good.
There were a few seconds of silence while Lindsey stewed in her bed. “What is wrong with you? You can’t call off our wedding,” Lindsey screamed from his iPhone.
“I can and just did,” he snapped back then immediately disconnected their call.
Donovan had a huge grin while he turned off his iPhone then he headed back to the front doors of the restaurant.
Donovan went back inside the restaurant.
He had a spring in his step and a huge smile while he headed back to the booth.
Jodi noticed Donovan’s smile and the spring in his step while he walked up to the booth.
“It looks like you had a good conservation with your boss,” she said while Donovan got back in the booth.
Donovan noticed that the waitress brought their breakfast while he was outside.
“Oh yeah, I quit, and I’m now a free man,” he said, then took a drink of his coffee.
Jodi looked a little surprised. “You quit your job? Why?”
“I hated being a reporter down in Florida. I want to spend some time working on my eBook novels. Now I can, and I can do it anywhere I want,” he said and looked happy while he removed his knife and fork from his rolled napkins.
Jodi looked happy as she really hoped that her time with Donovan would not end here in Haneyville.
“Anyway, back to our discussion, maybe there was some foul play, but over forty-three years had passed,” he said and started to wonder if time would be their worst enemy.
“That’s the challenging part,” she said.
Donovan took another drink of coffee while he thought about her comment for a few seconds. “Well, I guess we’ll have to learn how to become investigative reporters,” he said.
Jodi smiled. “After breakfast, I’ll show you my notes I have on my laptop,” she said then took a bite of her French toast.
“That sounds good,” he replied, then took a bite of his omelet.
It was quiet between Donovan and Jodi while they ate their breakfast and drank their coffee.
After they finished their breakfast, Donovan and Jodi headed off to her motel room.
Once they got inside her room, she immediately walked over to the small desk in her room.
She grabbed her laptop and walked over to the bed. She sat down on the bed, and Donovan sat down next to her.
She placed the laptop on her lap, then turned it on.
“I’m still having these dreams about that blonde-haired boy,” she said while she waited for her laptop to power up.
“I’m still having these dreams about that brunette girl,” he replied.
“I’m starting to believe that maybe these dreams are trying telling us something,” she said and looked like she really believed her theory.
“They could be,” he replied while they looked at each other.
“My dream last night had some guy raping me in the backseat of a car with my hands handcuffed behind my back,” she said.
“Rape?”
“Yeah, some creep raped me,” said Jodi, and she got chills thinking about that dream.
“I had a dream last night that that brunette girl and I had sex in the car. But it wasn’t rape,” he said.
“It wasn’t you in the dream,” said Jodi then she thought about Donovan’s dream, and suddenly the thought of having sex in a car became a huge turn on for her at the moment.
Donovan could not resist.
He leaned over and gave Jodi a kiss on her lips. She did not resist.
The kissing turned passionate.
“What a minute,” she said after she pulled away from his lips.
Donovan thought he overstepped his bounds and felt foolish.
“I better put the laptop away before it smashes to the floor,” she said while she got up.
Donovan felt better while he watched her walk over to the desk and set the laptop down.
The second Jodi sat back down on the bed they returned to their kissing.
Then the kissing turned into each of them, removing each other’s clothes.
They were naked within seconds, and Donovan was on top of Jodi.
After fifteen minutes of sweaty sex, Donovan and Jodi cuddled on the bed. They were exhausted, so they drifted off to sleep.
It was not long before Jodi had another dream.
In this dream, she lay in the dirt in the middle of the night where a full moon was visible up in the sky. She could see it through the dead branches of a tree.
She had her clothes ripped off, and she was scared to death. She could not move and was paralyzed for some reason.
She felt herself being lifted up by some guy.
The guy dumped Jodi naked into a hole in the ground.
She saw a shovel dumping dirt on top of her naked, lifeless body.
She opened her mouth to scream.
Back in reality, Donovan was sound asleep on his back.
“Ahhhh!” Jodi screamed out from her dream and frantically wailed her arms around like she was trying to get something off her.
Donovan bolted up scared to death.
Jodi woke up in a dazed and looked confused.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.
Jodi looked about, and it took a few seconds for her to realize she was back in her motel room and not in a hole in the ground. “I had a horrible dream.”
“About what?’”
Jodi looked at Donovan. “It was night, and I was in the woods. There was a full moon in the sky. I could see it through the dead branches of a tree. Someone ripped off my clothes, and I was in the dirt. Then some stranger picked me up and dumped me into a hole in the ground. Then a shovel started dumping dirt on top of my naked body,” she said and talking about that dream made it feel so real.
Donovan thought about her dream. “One of my dreams some guy raped then killed that brunette girl. There was also a full moon outside and a dead tree,” he said.
Donovan and Jodi looked at each other while they thought about their dreams.
“I believe that maybe Tiffany and Howie are trying to tell us something from the grave,” he said.
Jodi thought about Donovan’s theory for a few seconds. “I think you’re right,” she said and the more she thought about it, the more she believed that to be true.
“Let’s head out somewhere,” he said.
“Okay,” she replied.