Page 25 of Love Always

“That girl, Colleen? Look.” He takes out his cell phone and starts sweeping his finger over photos. The first are of Chris Proctor, gangly, unlocking his apartment door and then later, a person stands on the threshold in a coat handing him a small, square package. In the next shot, the person is going back down the outdoor stairway, and it’s clearly Colleen: short cropped hair, pink streak, and almost the same clothes as tonight. He goes back three more shots and there, in the glare of the afternoon is Colleen with her arms around Kevin Barr, in front of the wall—the restaurant—I threw him up against two days ago.

“This was taken Thursday?”

He nods. “And that’s not all. This guy also gave her the package. See?” He points to a shot and pinches it wide to enlarge. Kevin Barr is clearly slipping the small square package into Colleen’s jacket pocket.

“When did Colleen give the package to Chris Proctor?”

“Last night. Friday night.”

“You need to tell Finn and Bryce.”

“I did. I didn’t know her name then though. Mr. and Mrs. Proctor know as well, but he said it was CDs and took a drug test that came out negative. Mr. Proctor said Chris was very compliant.”

“Right? But if she knows Laurel …”

“We really need to make sure Colleen’s not distributing, so I asked her some questions.”

“Jackson, you can’t let Colleen know we’re watching Chris. She’ll tell him.”

“I just asked her about her background, what classes she was taking. How she knew Laurel.”

“Why the hell did you do that?” Now I’m irritated. I was hired to help Bryce open the new office and though Jackson had work for a year under both men, I had seniority over him. He could have blown the surveillance if he didn’t question her carefully. Chris’s parents don’t want him to know we are all keeping close watch on him.

“You like her, don’t you. Laurel, I mean.” This is a statement, not a question.

“No. I mean, I like her, but not like that.” I can tell he doesn’t believe me. Jesus, am I that transparent?

“Well, be careful then. This is the other problem.” His phone flicks on one more time. He swipes back around a dozen times and then stops, hands the phone to me and says, “Take a close look.”

There, in the darkness of the parlor, the screen lights up and there is Chris Proctor, walking across the lawn in the foreground. Jackson was clearly just documenting the kid getting out of class. Point A to point B for his parents, from campus to his apartment.

“So?”

“Look in the background. He pinches and widens the photo. Now I see what he means, why he doesn’t want to go to Finn and Bryce quite yet. In the doorway of one of the low-slung college buildings is a solid looking forty-something guy with a short- cropped beard and thick glasses. My heart thumps for a moment, as I stare at a grainy picture of a dark-haired young woman.

“Is that?”

“It’s Laurel. And he’s handing her the exact same kind of package.”

Though pixelated, I can still make it out: a small square, wrapped in brown paper. “It can’t be the same package.”

“It’s not. These are two different days. Thursday, after Colleen handed the package off to Chris Proctor, Bryce came to relieve me and, on a whim, I tailed Colleen.” He swipes one more time. “Now this guy just looks shady.”

There in the dark is a photo taken right in front of the wall I threw Kevin Barr up against. This time he’s got his arms around Colleen’s waist and her arms are around his neck. There’s a few more shots of them together, but no more packages, no more intrigue. I hand the phone over.

“You know this guy?” Jackson could see this.

“Yeah. He was roughing up Laurel Thursday.”

“No shit.”

I feel sick to my stomach. “Thanks for showing me. I’ll talk to her,” I say and when Jackson opens his mouth, I cut him off. “I said, I’ll talk to her.”

Laurel didn’t want to tell me what she was doing with Kevin Barr that afternoon. She also didn’t want her family to know he had accosted her.

What the hell was this girl involved in?

Chapter Seven