Off The Grid (8 page)

Chapter 14

Luke hadn’t seen Rachel in more than 15 months and he’d been planning this since March. They’d arranged to meet at a boutique hotel downtown. The fact that he was sneaking around just to see his fiancée, was utterly ridiculous. But Lunsford was adamant that he was to stay away from Rachel for the duration of his time at Millennium Optics and
MassEnergy. He hadn’t wavered from the agreement until today.

“You never know what those people are doing, watching you,” he said. “They don’t know you. They don’t trust you. You were sleeping with the enemy just a few months ago for God’s sake.”

So, he followed Lunsford’s rules, for the most part.

Rachel had rented the room and left a key for him at the front desk under the name Blaine
Kirkhorn, one of Luke’s favorite professors at Stanford. It grossed him out that he was about to secretly rendezvous with “old professor” in a hotel room, but that wasn’t on his mind as he walked down the hallway and reached the door to the hotel room.

The two had made contact just twice since their supposed break-up. Luke had sent her a letter, thanking her for forwarding a letter from Gina, which itself had been forwarded from Luke’s old apartment to Rachel’s condo then eventually down to him in California. If Rachel had not sent Gina’s letter down to Luke, he would never have met his niece. The mail was infuriatingly slow, but Lunsford had once said it was the most secure form of communications, so that’s what they used.

Luke’s letter briefly described his activities at Millennium Optics and told Rachel about Tilly and Gina in Mill Creek. He didn’t want to go into too much detail, but he also didn’t want to leave anything out. He also told her that no matter what, he was planning to be in Seattle the following Fourth of July and that she should stay in town.

In just the past week Luke had sent her a private message through a dummy account on a social networking site – as Blaine
Kirkhorn – with instructions for where and when to meet.

All these hoops, just to be together for a few hours. He would have done much more if he needed to. He had longed to see her since the day he left, cursing himself for being so stupid for practically throwing away his perfect relationship with a great girl to progress his career further inside
StuTech.

Would she want to stay with him after he abandoned her for so long? There was only one way to find out. He inserted his key into the door, waited for the green light to appear and stepped in.

***

Warren Evans, dressed in a dark black Armani suit and green tie, sat in a high back chair facing the door.

“I thought you’d never come,” he said.

Luke scanned the room. No sign of Rachel. His stomach sank and his mouth went dry. He felt like a toddler caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Something wasn’t right. He removed his backpack, but held onto it next to his side. Evans’ eyes never left him.

“Have a seat,” Evans said, motioning him toward the desk.

The room was dark except for a bright lamp behind Evans. It gave him an eerie silhouette that Luke had to squint through to see him. It was obviously an intentional move. Evans wanted Luke off guard.

Luke slowly walked over to the only other chair in the room and sat down. The two had only formally met once before at a Thanksgiving dinner two years earlier. The man had offered a rare invitation to Rachel to have the meal at his estate. She was hesitant to attend, but the draw of her father making an effort at a relationship was too hard to resist. She brought along Luke to help buffer the icy relationship between father and daughter. Luke had sat mostly silent as the pair chatted about inconsequential business subjects and ignored him entirely. It was fascinating how such a brilliant man couldn’t hold a polite conversation with his own flesh and blood. But then again, he had nothing to gain from his daughter, so why bother?

Time had not been kind to Evans, who seemed to have aged a great deal in the last few years. His eyes were alert, but sunken in their sockets. The loose skin of his neck draped his white shirt collar as he spoke. 

“I’m sure you want to know why I’m here and not my daughter. Well, let’s get that out of the way first, shall we?”

He took great pains to cross one leg over the other before continuing.

“Quite simply, she’s moved on.”

“What do you mean? She rented the room,” Luke said, fumbling to get the words out. “She was going to meet me here-”

“No, she wasn’t. She never got your letter – cute, by the way, all that stuff about your niece. And she never agreed to meet you. It’s time that you face facts, son. You don’t belong in this world of ours. People like you and her aren’t supposed to be together. She’s realized that and moved on.”

Luke tried to take stock of his emotions before blurting out what a bastard Evans was to say such lies.

“So, you prevented her from coming here today.”

“No, she has had every opportunity to see you, and chose not to. Otherwise, she’d be here right now, don’t you think?”

His mind was spinning, but it all made sense. She could have contacted him anytime. A call. A text. She could have told him she wasn’t coming. They had agreed to meet on this weekend. Hadn’t they?

Luke thought that she understood why he took the job. Why he left.

Then it finally dawned on him.

“You set me up.”

“Well now, look whose head is finally in the game,” Evans said with a smirk. “Thanks for joining the party.”

Luke knew he wasn’t a rising star at
StuTech. He’d repeatedly applied to work in Advanced Analytics, the area of the company that knew the details and refined the process that actually made wireless work. He submitted plans that he thought would interest the team. Mathematical models and formulas that would extend the reach of wireless - maybe even enough to reach Mill Creek. But his application was denied each and every time. When Lunsford’s offer came in to branch out and work at MassEnergy, he snatched it up, hoping it would further his efforts to get into Advanced Analytics. Apparently he’d been dead wrong.

“So, spying on
MassEnergy’s projects, that was all bull?” he asked.

“Not at all. We still need that information and you’re the right kid to do it too. Smart enough to get in the door and uncover the dirt. Unfortunately it’s your ambition that has blinded you. What sort of well-respected girl wants her future mate to go radio-silent for months, even years at a time?
A faux break-up? How can you put a girl through that? Come on. You saw the brass ring and couldn’t grab it fast enough. A paltry raise and new job is dangled in front of you and you were hooked.”

Evans crossed his legs again, using his hands to lift his left over his right.

“A girl like Rachel has had money-chasing boys like you following her around like a little lost puppy her whole life. I feel somewhat sorry for her about that. You showed your true colors son, and went for the cash at first sight.”

Luke took the opportunity to get deeper into
StuTech. The cash was just a bonus. He also wanted to show himself worthy of Rachel and be his own man when they got married.

“I took the job to show her I could make something of myself and show you I could deliver for the company. What you’re saying is twisting around what I did.”

“Like I said, those are the facts. I’ve never been able to tell that girl what to do and she’s made her decision.”

“I think I should hear this from her, not you.”

“Not going to happen. And good luck tracking her down too. She wasn’t waiting around for her dime-store boyfriend to make his valiant return. She’s out of the country, been gone quite some time now. Some humanitarian mission in a jungle I think.” 

Rachel had always talked about going to third-world countries to help destitute villages receive medical services and vaccines. She wrote her master’s thesis on the subject. No surprise her father didn’t know about it. 

“So you’re firing me?”

“Not exactly,” Evans said.

“Then I quit,” Luke said, standing up.

“Not so fast. You haven’t told me where the body is.”

“Come again?”

“I did some digging on you. Any father in my position would. Do you really think I’d allow her to marry a murderer? You’re not going anywhere.”

Luke always wondered when that night 10 years earlier would come back to haunt him. But this wasn’t what he’d pictured.

“I can still use you,” Evans said. “And unless you want the California State Police to get a rather detailed tip about what happened to your sister’s neighbor, you’re going to do exactly what I say.”

Chapter 15

Mill Creek, California

10 years ago

Eighteen-year-old Luke used a flashlight to walk the dark streets of Mill Creek, passing one abandoned house after another. His hometown had been in the blackout for three months now. His parents had been gone for just as long.

The walk home was familiar, but no less safe. He was counting down the days until he could leave this town. A soccer scholarship still awaited him at Stanford. Today was graduation day. He would finally be able to get out.

Today was the first time in months that he and his remaining classmates had been able to celebrate. It seemed like the whole town was in the city park drinking and laughing until the early hours of the morning. They needed something to celebrate. They needed something good to happen. Cutting ties with this town was that thing for Luke.

After saying goodbye to his friends, Luke started the dark walk home. The house was quiet when he stumbled through the door, a little hazy from the alcohol. He knew he shouldn’t be drinking, but it helped him forget his life, if for only a few brief hours. Gina had left the party early. He assumed she was asleep in her room.

Still fully clothed, he flopped into bed to sleep it off. He didn’t know how much time had passed before he heard Gina scream.

“No! Leave me alone!” she yelled. She said something else but her cries were muffled. She wasn’t talking in her sleep. Something was very wrong.

Luke grabbed a baseball bat from underneath his bed and sprinted to his sister’s room. It was empty. He frantically searched the house, looking for her. Then he noticed the back door was open. Then he remembered, when the house was too hot she slept on the back porch in the cool air.

When he reached the back porch he saw a massive man with his pants around his thighs perched on top of his sister. When the man turned toward him, Luke recognized him immediately. It was Elliot Cosgrove, their closest neighbor.

“Get outta here kid,” he said, waving a meaty hand at Luke.

Gina was pushing him away in what seemed like slow motion. There was blood on her lip. He must have hit her to shut her up. It only took her a moment to regain her senses and start fighting back. She shifted her weight to the side and Elliot, who was resting on his knees on the sofa swing, lost his balance and fell to the porch.

He grabbed at his pants. Luke thought he was going to pull them up and leave, but instead he unsheathed a four-inch blade from his belt holster. He pointed it at Luke while holding Gina down on the swing with his other hand.

“Kid, you go back inside that house,” his eyes were glossy and his words were slurred. “Your sister and I have a little catching up to do. Got it?”

He grabbed at Gina’s cotton shorts, nearly ripping them off her with one pull.

“No!” she yelled, shoving him away as best she could.

Luke was not a violent person. In his entire life he’d never even been in a fight, but because of his athletic training he was fit and strong. But this was not a fight and he wasn’t calculating his odds against the bigger man. This was his sister and he was the only man of the house.

He didn’t hesitate. Instinctively he jumped on Elliot’s back, completely forgetting that he’d carried a weapon with him to the porch. Elliot stumbled backwards smashing through the railing of the porch and into the garden several feet below. Luke absorbed Elliot’s fall, knocking the wind out of him and giving Elliot time to zip up his pants.

Elliot’s rage was now set on Luke. He plunged at him with the knife, but Luke managed to roll under the porch and crawl out of the way. As Elliot leaned down to look under the porch, Luke kicked him in the face, dazing him momentarily. Luke crawled out the other side of the porch only to see Gina holding the bat above her head in a standoff with Elliot and his knife.

Luke couldn’t think. He tripped over a piece of twine strung over two metal stakes used to mark the edge of the garden. He pulled one of the sharp stakes out of the ground as Elliot jabbed his knife wildly at Gina. Luke rushed at Elliot from the side and in one fluid motion, stabbed him in the neck. Elliot dropped the knife and grabbed at the stake with both hands, but it was wedged in too far. He fell to the ground, shook for a few seconds and then lay motionless.

Luke stood like a statue in the moonlight and cool summer breeze. He had just killed their neighbor in the backyard.

A look of calm came over Gina’s face as she took Luke’s hand and pulled him into the house. She covered herself up with a blanket and sat across from him at the kitchen table.

“You need to leave tonight,” she said.

“What do you mean? We have to call the police.”

“There are no more police here Luke. Not since the blackout. You know that. If you get caught up in this, even though you did nothing wrong, they will revoke your scholarship and you’ll never get out of this town. I’ll take care of this.”

In the darkness just before dawn, Luke packed everything he could carry and left Mill Creek.