Rachel's Folly (17 page)

Sara walked over to the bedroom where it had happened and turned on the light. Only a full-size bed sat in a corner of the room. The bed had been stripped of its sheets and she could see various stains on the bare mattress. The large, dark one in the center, she knew, must be her own blood. She closed her eyes and remembered lying there with her legs totally open. Jack had given her something to drink. It made her feel drunk and nauseous. He told her it wouldn’t hurt, but it did. She remembered Mike’s crooked, yellow teeth and his creaky, high voice telling her to just relax. She remembered that, although he had washed his hands, she could see black grime under his fingernails. She remembered that he had winked and smiled at Jack when he rammed whatever metal device he was using inside of her. She squeezed Jack’s hand as tight as she could whenever she felt those sudden, piercing jabs of pain. She searched for his eyes, but never found them. After a while, she just stared at the worn popcorn ceiling as she fell in and out of consciousness. Thinking back, she realized now how lucky she was to be alive; she could have easily bled to death.

She turned off the bedroom light and went back into the living room. She put her bag down on the shabby, brown couch and removed from it the other can of wasp spray, two rolls of duct tape, the digital recorder, an old rag and the bottle of chloroform she had taken from the vet’s office. She then went to the front of the house, where the front door stood to the left of the small kitchen. She turned on the light and looked around. There was an old, wadded-up napkin and a Styrofoam cup sitting on the laminate countertop next to a dead cockroach. The sink was dirty, with rust marks around the drain. She stood on the counter and carefully unscrewed the light bulb using her gloved hand. She threw the bulb in the trash can, jumped down and went back to the living room.

Checking her watch, she figured she had about two hours before Jack got there. She pulled the thick, brown curtains over the sliding door, blocking out any light coming into the already murky room. She took off the glove on her right hand so she could get a better handle on the wasp spray can. She was ready. All she could do now was crouch down behind the couch and wait for Jack.

She double-checked the recorder and put it back in her pocket. She was craving a cigarette, so she swallowed the old chewing gum she had in her mouth and grabbed a new piece from the front pocket of her bag. She was nervous, but incredibly excited. After Jack had vanished from her life, she had spent so much time being miserable. The abortion had weighed on her immensely and made everything worse. The only person she could ever talk freely with was Rachel, and after she died, Sara felt completely alone. Her feelings of isolation had grown with the realization that Jack was a fraud. And now when she started to feel overwhelmed, she would find herself thinking about cutting again. Rubbing her forearm, she wondered how she would hide the marks when the weather changed and long sleeves were no longer an option.

She had been sitting there for about forty minutes when she heard the garage door open. Startled, she sat up and checked her watch. It was only ten-fifty-three. She hadn’t anticipated Jack coming into the house from the side door. Now, she wouldn’t be directly in front of him when he walked in, so she wouldn’t have a direct shot at his face. Plus, since she had only unscrewed the light in the kitchen, he could easily flick the switch for the living room from the side door. She considered moving to the other side of the room to give herself a better shot at his face, but if she got up now, she risked him coming in and seeing her dart across the room. But if he turned on the light when he walked in, he would see her for sure. Trying not to make any noise, she quickly stood up on the sofa and tried to unscrew the bulb from the light fixture, but she lost her footing and fell to the floor, nearly dropping the wasp spray. She jumped back up and tried again. The bulb was screwed in tight. She could barely get it to budge. She heard the garage door closing and then saw the doorknob turn.

As soon as Sara squatted back down, Jack walked in. He was carrying a bag and tried turning on the light in the living room with his free hand. Sara froze. When it didn’t work, he flicked the switch up and down a few times. Sara crouched in the darkness about twenty feet in front of him. She held her breath, wasp spray at the ready, waiting to see what his next move would be. She was about to stand up and spray him when he suddenly turned towards the kitchen. He tried that light, too. “Shit,” he said, and turned on the stove light. The light was dim, but Sara could see him emptying some items from his bag and placing them on the counter. She watched him pull out a long string of rope. He also had small plastic bags of something she couldn’t make out. And then she saw the gun. The steel shone in the light as he put it on the counter. Sara panicked and looked at the back door. She wanted to run, but she couldn’t move.

She turned back to watch him again. There he was, after all this time, after all they had been through, and he was there to kill her. She looked at the dark doorway of the room of her abortion and remembered how Jack had soothed her with the promise of things going back to the way they were before the pregnancy. But after he dropped her off that night, he stopped calling. He dumped her at her grandmother’s and never once checked to see how she was. Because he was lying. Because he was married. Because he slept with Rachel and probably killed her! Sara stood up, raised the can and called out his name.

“Hey, Jack.”

As soon as he raised his head, looking towards the voice from the darkness, she pushed her index finger down as hard as she could. A strong, narrow stream of wasp spray shot directly into his eyes. He immediately brought his hands up to protect his face from the torrent of chemicals, but he was too late. The spray had done its job. He cried out and fell to his knees. He held one hand over his eyes and tried to grab the gun with the other. Sara ran over and knocked the pistol off the counter and out of his reach.

“Who’s there? What is this?” he screamed in agony.

Sara put the wasp spray down, and grabbed the bottle of chloroform and the rag. She felt adrenaline rushing through her body like a supercharged energy drink. She struggled to open the bottle and poured almost half of it onto the rag in her hand. She then maneuvered to get behind him. He tried swinging at her and fell forward. Quickly, she put the rag over his nose and mouth. He tried to grab her by reaching his right hand behind him while trying to pull the rag off of his face with his left. They both fell to the floor, but Sara didn’t let go. Jack grunted and bit her through the material. She felt his teeth bear down on her fingers and she screamed. It felt like he was going to break them. Suddenly, Jack released the pressure in his bite. His body went limp.

Sara cried out as she pulled her hand back. She left the rag in Jack’s mouth, jumped up and rushed to the stove area where there was more light. She inspected her fingers. There were deep bite marks imprinted on the side of her ring finger. It was already swelling up and showing signs of bruising, but she could bend it a little, so she figured it wasn’t broken.

Shaking her wounded hand, she looked at Jack’s weary body on the floor. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time before he regained consciousness, so she ignored her throbbing hand and fetched the duct tape. She brought his hands behind his back, wrapping his wrists together with several layers of tape. She wrapped his ankles, then his knees. She checked the digital recorder and put it back into her jacket pocket. She inspected her wounded hand again before painfully slipping her black gloves back on.

After a few minutes, Jack started to moan and move. She grabbed his gun off the floor. She was surprised at how heavy it was, like an electric drill. She looked more closely at the bags on the counter: one containing drugs, the others, pipes and needles. “Huh,” she wondered to herself. She bent down to remove the rag from Jack’s face, then sat against the wall about two feet in front of him. She pointed her flashlight at his eyes and saw how red and swollen they’d become. They were shut tightly, with dark, runny slits at their centers. She placed the flashlight beside her and waited for him to wake up. She slowly turned the gun in her hand. She liked the feeling of holding it. After a moment or two, she took a deep breath, got up and moved close to his bound body. “Wake up,” she said as she slapped his cheek.

Gradually, he started moving and moaning louder. She could tell he was trying to free his arms and legs. He swung his legs forward and almost kicked her. She moved out of his reach, then went back to the wall and sat down in front of him.

Jack coughed forcefully and struggled to breathe. “What … what did you spray in my eyes?”

“Wasp spray.”

“
Jesus
! Sara?” His voice fell. “Why? Why would you do this to me?”

Sara shook her head. “Well, let’s see. Where should I begin?”

* * *

Sara reached into her pocket and switched on the recorder. “I think you have some explaining to do,
Jack
,” she said.

“I’m not having this conversation. I can’t talk to you like this. Untie me now, damn it. My eyes are killing me,” he shouted as spit flew from his mouth.

“But you did come here to kill me, right?” she asked.

“What? No! I brought you your goddamn money.”

“Hm, well … I see some drugs. I see a gun. I see some rope, but there’s no money here. Nope, it looks like you had other plans for me,” she said.

He was silent, then sighed deeply. “It’s not what it looks like, okay? Really … What do you want from me?”

It was a big question. Sara could’ve kept him there for days, explaining. “For starters, I want to know why you never called me after you made me have the abortion. You remember that, don’t you?” she said as she got up and walked around him.

He turned his head to follow her voice. “That’s why you blinded me?” Sara didn’t answer. “Jesus. I don’t know what you want me to say, Sara. Obviously, you know now that I’m married. I made a mistake. You’re young. You’ll have lots of boyfriends.”

“No. That’s not what I asked. I want to know why you never called me and why you made it so I couldn’t contact you
.
”

“Look, I hate to break it to you, but you’re not the first girl to get dumped. That’s life. It happens. Better learn it now: life is full of disappointments.”

“Wrong answer.” She kicked him in his ribs as hard as she could. He groaned in pain and rolled to the side. “Do you know what happened to me after I left here that day?” She leaned right over him. “Oh no, that’s right, you couldn’t have. Let me fill you in. The next day, I started bleeding a lot and felt sick. I had to drive myself to Planned Parenthood. And guess what? Because of that little procedure your disgusting, dickhead friend gave me, I will never be able to have a baby.
Ever
.” She felt the rage swell inside her. She was about to kick him again, but stopped herself so that he could respond.

“Shit. I didn’t know … I’m sorry, really I am. I didn’t know.” Jack sounded sincere. “Please, Sara, untie me so I can get something for my eyes.”

“Oh, you’re sorry? Really?

“Let me go!” he shouted.

“Not until you tell me everything. I want to hear you admit that you slept with Rachel Richards.” She moved away from him, leaned back against the wall, and lowered herself to the floor. She held the gun with both hands and pointed it at him.

“You’re wrong. You need to untie me now, or you’re going to be very sorry,
little girl
.”

Sara aimed the gun at Jack’s knee. She held her breath and pulled the trigger. The jolt of the gun going off made her hand jerk up and to the right. She shot into the wall behind him.

“Holy shit! You almost shot me!” he hollered. She slowly took aim again and, holding her arm more firmly than before, fired the gun once more. His jeans spat out a circle of blood, with more expanding from the hole in his outer thigh.

“Fuck!” he screamed. “You’re fucking crazy!”

“Admit it,” she said.

“Jesus! Fuck. I slept with Rachel. Goddamnit, my leg!” he groaned on. “I’m sorry, okay? Are you happy now?”

“Why did you run Ben off the road?”

“I didn’t do anything to Ben!”

“Liar. I know you ran him off the road, James. Excuse me … Jack. I was there when you told him, behind the door in the hospital, when you admitted it to him yourself.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said between small moans.

She brought up the gun again and pulled the trigger. She hit the wall a second time.

“Wait! Wait! Okay, stop, just stop … Look, he knew about you. He figured out Rachel was going to tell Elena about you, about
us
. And ….” His voice cracked.

“Did you kill Rachel?”

“No! I went up to get something from the condo and she was there. We got in a fight, and it got physical and she fell off the balcony, but—I swear I didn’t kill her.”

“Why didn’t you tell the police that?”

“I don’t know. I panicked.”

“So you just let everyone think she committed suicide? You almost killed Ben because he found out about me. And now you’re here to what, pay me off to keep quiet?”

He let out a heavy sigh. “Yes, okay? I messed up. Look, Elena’s family has a lot of money. I can get it. We can leave here and go off together, somewhere else,” he said, and then he began to weep.

“You’re so pathetic.”

“I’m not happy, Sara. I think about you all the time. I miss you. We can start over,” he said.

She aimed for his shoulder. The bullet entered his bicep.

“Goddamn it!” he screamed.

Sara saw the blood staining his shirtsleeve. “Are you sorry?” she asked again.

“Yes! Oh God, yes. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” He breathed heavily. “I never meant for any of this to happen. You don’t understand—I was about to get married! I’ve struggled all my life.
All
my life! I was finally going to be part of a family with some real power. Finally….” He shook his head. “Rachel was going to ruin everything. None of this would have happened if she just kept her stupid mouth shut … I never meant to hurt her.”