The Good Listener (11 page)

“Where was your dad?”

“He couldn’t take care of me either.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t want me.”

“Why?”

“Dig him up and ask him.”

“You didn’t kill him did you?”

“Of course not.”

“So you were in lots of foster homes?”

“For years. All over the world.”

“And you were abused?”

“For years.”

“But somehow you managed to make it through it all.  You graduated at the top of your class and from an Ivy League college. And now you have an amazing career,” I pointed out, considering the few pieces of information that I’d found on him.

Blake laughed wickedly.

“You, know, you’re not as good as a listener as you think you are. You hear me, but are you listening to me, Hannah?”

“Yes. Yes, I am listening to you.”

“Then why didn’t you remember one of the most important things that I have said to you? People and papers lie,” was all he said before getting into his car and speeding off.

People and papers lie…okay what did I miss?

So was he saying that what I saw about his college history was wrong?

But he must have some type of higher education and experience to be the head honcho of such a large and successful company.

I replayed the conversation over and over again in my head as I made my way inside of the building.

I had to get the thoughts down on paper, so I kept my appointment waiting a little while longer so that I could make a few notes in Blake’s file.

He was letting me in.

Slowly, but surely, he was letting me in.

Summer sent my patient back and informed me that Blake had called in to cancel his appointment for later.

I was really hoping to finish our conversation, but it did give me some time to put a few things together considering the things that he had revealed to me.

I finished my two sessions, minus Blake’s, and headed out on my short day.

I hadn't forgotten my concerns in regards to Summer, so I made a few much-needed calls for a little technical assistance and to set up some office equipment for me to watch her.

After all of that, I tried calling Joel to see if he wanted to do lunch but he didn’t answer.

So I was on my own.

I drove in silence just to relax, but I slammed on brakes just in time at the sudden traffic jam in front of me.

What was going on?

Thirty minutes later, I was still sitting in the same spot.

I could see that it had been an accident because I could see the truck with the messed up grill and shattered windshield.

Finally, the cars started to move, and once I got up close enough, I froze in place.

The other car was China’s.

And judging from the looks of the car and the yellow and black tape around it…

China was dead.

****************************************

Chapter FOUR

Joel coughed, and I looked at him.

The mixture of coughing and crying didn’t seem to go well, and he walked off from the burial.

With watery eyes, I glanced one last time at the coffin before it disappeared into the ground and then I hurried after my husband.

I couldn’t even begin to express what I was feeling, so I hadn't even tried.

The reports said that it was her fault.

They said that she was the one that caused the accident, but it was just so hard to believe.

China was one of the safest drivers I’d ever seen.

She always used her signals. She always drove the speed limit. She wouldn’t pull off unless you had your seat belt on.

Nevertheless, the driver of the truck wasn’t charged, and we’d just buried someone that could never be replaced.

Of course, she was Joel’s closest cousin, so he and all of his family were taking it pretty hard.

And so was I.

She had become my best friend.

And now she was gone.

We were never going to get the chance to try to mend our friendship, and I would never get the chance to forgive her for putting me in such a terrible situation.

I’ll never get to say goodbye.

I finally caught up with Joel and I rubbed his back as he choked and tried to pull himself together.

I’d been telling him for weeks to go to the doctor to figure out why he had such a bad cough that he couldn’t get rid of, but to push my buttons, he wouldn’t listen to me.

“I can’t believe she’s gone.”

I embraced him.

“I know. Me either,” I said softly as I laid my head on his shoulder.

As I comforted my husband, I stared off into the distance.

And that’s when I saw him.

Blake.

What was he doing here?

Of course, he knew about China’s death.

Joel told him when he called to take off from work.

He was just standing there, all dressed in black, looking as spine-chilling as ever.

Sneakily, I stared at him until finally, he walked away.

A part of me wished that was the last time that I would ever see him, but we had a session coming soon.

With all of my heart, if I could change my mind or my decision to start counseling him, I really would.

It was starting to feel like one of the biggest mistakes in my life, and whether it was now or later, I was sure that one day, my decision was going to come back and bite me in my butt.

China crossed my mind.

I hadn't spoken to her, but Joel had mentioned that China cut things off with Blake per my request.

And now China was dead.

He wouldn’t would he?

No.

He had no real reason to.

Besides, he wasn’t involved in the accident.

It was something that just happened.

Right?

The drivers of cars around the accident all agreed with the driver of the truck that it had been China who had caused the fatal wreck.

They said that she was swerving, and swerved into the trucker’s lane and crashing into him head on.

What had she been doing?

Although it all sounded strange to me, it was just an accident.

I shook my thoughts away from China and Blake and focused on my husband.

He was my primary concern.

At least for the moment.

~***~

I jumped at the sound of the alarm.

We’d had the motion detectors back in place since the incident with the angry wife, and Joel had found the time to put up the monitor so that we could see all around the house when the alarm went off.

I rushed to the monitor while Joel headed to silence the ear piercing noise.

I didn’t see anyone.

I didn’t even see a cat or a dog, so I was wondering what might have set it off.

“Nothing.”

Joel and I both headed back to bed.

“Are you going to work tomorrow?”

He coughed and curled back under the covers.

“No. I feel terrible. Are you?”

“Yes.”

“You couldn’t stay here and take care of me.”

“I can’t. I really have to go in tomorrow Joel. It’s my early day. I’ll come home by two and I can go with you to the doctor. Are you going to make the appointment?”

He smacked his lips and didn’t say another word.

Tomorrow I was scheduled to see Blake, and I wasn’t going to miss that appointment.

No way.

No how.

I tossed and turned all night and at the sight of the morning sun, seeping through the bedroom shades, I didn’t hesitate to get up and get going.

Joel stayed in the bed.

“How are you doing?” Blake asked me just as soon as he walked through the doorway a few minutes after noon.

“I’m doing better. And you?”

“Fine.”

“You’re just fine?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any feelings about China’s accident? I mean you two were dating.”

“I’m unbothered.”

Just the way that he said it was so cold and heartless.

“You don’t feel anything at all?”

“Why would I? How is he holding up?”

“Better.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Will Joel be ready to come back to work soon?”

“I think so.”

“And China was his blood cousin?”

“Yes. Why do you ask that?”

“Just asked.”

Yeah, I bet.

“Are you on your lunch breaks when you come here?”

“I’m the boss. I go where I want and if someone needs me, they know how to reach me on my cell.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“That’s what I pay you to do; to ask me questions.”

“What were you doing at China’s funeral?”

“I thought that I could at least come by. As you said, we were dating…until you convinced her that we shouldn’t,” he said sarcastically.

“How did her death make you feel?”

“I just told you. I didn’t feel anything.”

“But why not?”

“Why should I?”

“They said that it was her fault, but I don’t believe it.”

“People and papers lie. They can’t be trusted.”

“Yeah, I remember you saying that. So, that brings me to my next question. Did you do it?”

Maybe I was out of place, but I just had to ask.

“Did I do what?”

“Kill her?”

“How could I kill her? She was in a car accident. There were witnesses. The other driver was on sight.”

“People and papers lie, remember?”

“They absolutely do.”

“Was it because she broke it off with you?”

“No.”

“No what?”

“No.”

“No, that wasn’t the reason or no you didn’t kill her?”

Blake hesitated.

“No. That wasn’t the reason.

Unable to play it off, I gasped and covered my mouth with my hands.

No. No. No.

“Like I said, people and papers lie.”

“How? Why?”

“How? Everyone was paid to be where they were at that exact time. Even the cop on the scene and the EMT workers had been arranged. Why? Because I wanted to; I had an itch that needed to be scratched. Why else?”

I started to breathe heavily, and I stood up and headed towards the bathroom in my office.

I wanted to scream, but I covered my mouth instead.

Blake killed China!

And it still hurt like hell.

How?

I splashed cold water on my face and forced myself to go back into my office and face him.

I needed answers, and he was the only one that could give them to me.

“I was kidding.”

What?

“I didn’t kill her.”

I didn’t believe him.

“Really, I didn’t lay a finger on her. I wanted to see your reaction. And I wanted to show you how easily something like that could have happened. No one, not a single soul, can ever be trusted. Words, confessions, witness, don’t mean anything.”

“You’re lying.”

“No. I’m not. Consider that as a mind exercise.”

No teaching the teacher!

I didn’t need him to give me any kind of mind exercise. He was the one that needed me.

Not the other way around.

My mental state was just fine.

“I wanted to show you how important it is to look past the obvious and see what isn’t there. I wanted you to see how important it is to see what people don’t want you to see. Something else is always there. Most of the time the obvious is never the truth, and the truth is never all that obvious. You have to see what could be there if you looked at it from a different angle. From a new set of eyes. There is always something more to see Hannah.”

Who was this guy?

“And like I said, I didn’t do anything to her.”

I was finding it hard to speak, so Blake took advantage of my silence to continue explaining his little exercise.

“I didn’t do it. But if I had, that’s exactly how I would have done it. If I wasn’t so hands on of course. I would have paid someone to hit her and then paid witnesses. I’m very acquainted with a few crooked cops so I would have paid them and the EMT workers. You wouldn’t even imagine some of the things that people would do for money. You said that everything isn’t about money, but trust me, it is. Money is power. Money is respect. Money is getting someone to go against their morals for a paycheck. Money is trouble.”

I was still trying to figure him out, but I was just becoming more and more confused as the minutes went by.

“And all because of the love of money, just like that, if I had done it, I would have gotten away with murder. That’s how easy murder can actually be. But of course, you wouldn’t know that because you don’t think like a killer. You think like a therapist.”

“And nothing is wrong with that. If it were, you wouldn’t be here.”

“Or would I? I chose you to help me. Maybe you are going to have to think like a killer instead of what you have programmed yourself to be.”

I had an attitude, and it showed.

“Everything that people, papers, internet and TV said about you, were false. They were all wrong.”

“How? I am good at what I do.”

“Maybe. But I’m better.”

“At my job?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think so. You came to me for help.”

“And have you helped me?”

“Yes. Whoever she is still alive isn’t she?”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.”

“Or would I?”

He had my mind all messed up.

I was the one supposed to be picking his brain, yet it seemed as though he was constantly trying to pick mine.

“Is it your biological mother? That you want to kill?”

“My mother is dead…remember?”

“Remember I can’t trust what you say, so I thought to ask you again.”

He smiled at me as though he found humor in my remark.

“My mother overdosed. But if she hadn't done it, believe me, I was already working on it.”

He eyed me to see if I caught on to his last statement.

“And you are sure killed your mother?”

“No. She killed herself. She bought it and I heard her tell him to give her all that he had because she was going to need it and that it was her last time. She asked for powder, heroin, she asked for it all. We were struggling back then and I’d always been curious as to how she’d managed to come up with the money to get it. I didn’t know whether she was going to sniff it, smoke it, and shoot it up or what have you. She overdosed on her own.”

“And how old were you?”

“Seven.”

“You were thinking about killing at seven years old?”

“Yes.”

“And then you found her?”

“She sang to me. She made sure that I was bathed. And then she put me in my pajamas and even prayed with me. She told me that she loved me a hundred times, but I didn’t believe her. For months she hadn't shown me, love, she’d only shown me hate. And if she loved me, leaving me behind would have never even crossed her mind. Then she put me to bed. I remember hearing the radio come on, and I figured that she didn’t want me to hear her. But I wasn’t trying to. I rolled over and slept like a baby. I woke up the next morning and found her dead. I fixed myself a big bowl of cereal and dressed before I even called 911.”