April-May, 2039
Toward the end of April, Rina got this idea to have a huge birthday blowout for her two suitemates who had birthdays four days apart. She even contacted Jaime's boyfriend, Jared, and Helene's boyfriend, Alexei, about helping her set it up. Jared suggested that it be held in Evanston, as it was between Belvidere and Chicago so no one had to travel too far. Rina knew of a restaurant in town that could accomodate a big group of people, seeing that Jaime's family in particular was rather large. Alexei offered to obtain and send invitations, and keeping it a secret at the same time.
Of course, neither Jaime nor Helene had a clue as to what Rina was planning. They both realized that Rina had her secrets, and knew not to ask about them.
They would be very surprised when, on April 30th, they were Rina's big secret.
===
The invitations went out on April 2nd. Alexei had made all one hundred of them by hand, and addressed them in an elegant script. Those who received them were very impressed with the artistry involved.
Vito was one of the lucky receipents. The envelope was address as:
Mr. Vittorio d'Alessandro
Miss Carina Comeau
150 Fanueil Commons
Boston, Mass.
"These are really nice," Carrie had remarked when she opened the envelope. "The person who made these has an incredible talent!"
"Indeed," Vito had replied; "I understand from Rina that Helene's boyfriend made them. So he's apparently more than a dancer. I daresay that both Jaime and Helene will be surprised. I've never met either of them, though I've spoken to both on the phone. I'm going to see if my schedule will allow me to attend."
"I'm free on the 30th, but I won't go unless you come with me," Carrie said.
"That would be a bit awkward, would it not?"
"Just a little."
===
Before the big party, Rina called her brother and asked him a favor.
"You want me to lie to your friends about where you're going? Do I understand this correctly?" asked Vito in Italian.
"Yes," Rina said; "I think I found our grandfather, but I don't want Helene or Jaime to know that I've decided to see him. You're my cover story. Will you help me?"
"You think you've found our grandfather?" Vito asked.
"Yes," Rina said; "and the reason I want you to back me up is that I believe it's Helene's father."
"That would make your suitemate our aunt, Rina!" Vito said, shocked; "Does she even know that Charles DeWitt is related to her?"
"She does. She's known all her life," Rina said; "She seems to think that our father's last name is d'Alessandro, so the thought that we might be related has probably never crossed her mind."
"She'll be in for a shock if what you're telling me is true," Vito said.
"That's why I need your help, Vito," Rina said; "I want to be sure of my facts before I rattle her world and everything she's ever known about her family."
"I will help you, sister, but I don't like lying to people," Vito said; "Not about something as big as this."
"It will only take me a couple of days," Rina said. "I've already made an appointment to see him on Friday."
"Does he know it's you he's going to be meeting?" asked Vito.
"No. He thinks a woman named Alexandra St. Claire has an appointment with him in his office in Syracuse," Rina said.
"Alexandra St. Claire? Where did you come up with that name?"
"Yellow Pages, of course."
===
Christian looked over his appointments for the week and saw the Friday appointment with "Alexandra St. Claire" and asked his secretary,
"What does this Alexandra St. Claire want to speak with me about?"
Diana, his secretary at the office (Kathryn functioned in that capacity when he worked at home), said, "She said that she would only discuss it with you when she came in on Friday."
"Is she a new hire?"
"Not that I know of," Diana said; "I'll ask HR if someone by that name is on the new hire list."
Christian nodded and Diana left his office. He wondered who this woman was and what she wanted to talk to only him about.
I hope she's not another one of those golddiggers who is looking for Charles, he thought. In the years since Charles' death, several women had come to see Christian for "compensation" for the terrible things they said Charles did to them. The stories sounded for the most part made up, and covered everything from rape to child support.
Christian sighed. Even dead, Charles was still making trouble. He wondered how many children his younger son fathered other than the two he recently found out about. And would they expect something from his estate?
He couldn't possibly know that "Alexandra St. Claire" was someone he had already met, and she would be asking some hard questions of him about Charles.
And questions about his oldest daughter as well.
===
Rina was packing for her "trip" to Boston to spend the weekend with her brother and to get to know his fiancee, Carrie, better.
"You're going to miss that party your computer programmers club is holding on Saturday?" asked Helene; "I thought wild horses couldn't drag you away from that?"
"It's not everyday that Vito has a free weekend and wants me and Carrie to get to know each other better," Rina said, closing her duffle bag. "I like that she makes Vito happy, and I do want to let her know that I approve of her relationship with Vito. Not that either of them need that from me, of course. There will be other parties."
"True," Helene said; then, "I have to run off to work now, Reen. Have a safe trip and give my regards to Vito and Carrie."
"I will, Helene," Rina said. "By the way, when will Jaime be back? Do you know?"
"She had that field trip to the veterinary school in Chicago," Helene said. "She should be home tonight. I'm taking her shift at the flower shop."
"Damn, I'll be at the airport by then," Rina said; "We'll have just missed each other."
"I'll tell her you stayed as long as you could," Helene said; "The shuttle will be here any time now. You better be ready or you'll miss your flight."
Helene left and Rina was alone.
I hate to lie to them about where I'm going, she thought, but I have to find out if this Christian DeWitt is the same man as Helene's father. Rina's search had turned up four men named Christian DeWitt, and three of them were in the same age range that her grandfather would be in.
What do I tell him about why I've been looking for him, though, Rina said to herself as she boarded the shuttle the school provided to take her to Chicago-O'Hare Airport. That I don't think my father is dead and does he know where I might find Charles DeWitt?
So many questions that needed answering. Rina wasn't completely sure that she really wanted to know the answers, but felt she had to ask.
===
God, I'm tired, Jaime thought at she dragged herself up the two flights of stairs to her suite. She had found out a lot about what it takes to continue her schooling after getting her undergraduate degree, and knew she had it in her to succeed. Veterinary school was covered, she knew. It was in Jack's will.
She opened the door, expecting to see at least Rina. Helene had just gotten home moments before, and it was she who greeted Jaime as she came in.
"Rina not here?" Jaime asked.
"She took an early flight to Boston," Helene said as she went back into the kitchen to get something for Jaime to eat; "She waited as long as she could, but the shuttle was due soon after I left for work."
"What is she going to Boston for?"
"Her brother invited her because he had a free weekend," Helene said; "Rina and Vito's fiancee Carrie are going to get to know each other better from what I understand."
"Oh," Jaime said; "then she should go. This was kinda last minute though. Rina talked about that party that her programming group was having this weekend. I guess getting to meet your future sister in law trumps that, huh?"
"Rina said something similar," Helene said as she handed Jaime a plate of sandwich fixings; "Now would you eat something, James. You look like you've not had a thing to eat all day."
"I am hungry," Jaime said, making a sandwich with what Helene brought her; "We had lunch at like 1pm, and it's almost six-thirty now."
"Don't they feed you on those day trips?"
"No," Jaime said; "I had to spend my own money. Fortunately, I remembered to put my debit card back in my wallet after paying for my summer courses."
"You're not going home for the summer before we move into the new house?" asked Helene.
"Maybe for a couple of weeks, but not until after we move out of here and into Kimber's house," Jaime said; "It's only one class, and it's in July."
"Ah," Helene said. Then, "I'm already starting to pack stuff. The end of the semester will be here before we know it. Rina's practically done with her packing. All she has left is her furniture, clothes, and the bookshelf she bought at Ikea over Christmas. Most of her computers are packed away, too. She just has her laptop and tablet available, and she took those with her to Boston."
"What does an almost 17 year old girl needs four computers for?" asked Jaime.
"When your name is Audrina Alexander," Helene said, "not even four computers are enough!"
Jaime laughed, "Oh I know that's right!"
===
The actual flight time from Chicago to Boston didn't take long at all, and Rina was soon touching down at Boston's Logan Airport. At least this part of the trip was the truth, Rina thought as she waited for the plane to empty out enough to get her computer bag from the overhead storage compartment.
Other passengers didn't pay her much mind, and that's what Rina wanted. To most everyone in the U.S., she was just another teenage girl. In Europe, it was another story. Everyone there, it seemed, knew who she was. The European press was especially bad about making up stuff about her when she refused to talk to them. Snotty, aloof, and spoiled were some of the adjectives used to describe her. The one that really got her was, "just like her mother, the spoiled recently widowed Contessa d'Alessandro".
In the United States at least, they didn't yet know who she was, and Rina wanted to keep it that way.
After going through the security check point at the gate (it always amazed Rina that she didn't have to go through Customs in every state, like she did when she visited other countries in Europe), she stepped out onto the concourse leading to the waiting areas. It was there that she would hopefully meet her brother and Carrie.
She wasn't disappointed.
She saw Vito right away, and assumed that the dark haired girl with him was Carrie.
Vito turned just in time to see Rina walking toward them. "She is a pretty girl, Vito," Carrie whispered to him.
"Indeed," Vito said as he waved his arm to get his sister's attention. Rina returned his wave.
"Welcome to Beanville, sister," Vito said, to which Carrie laughed, saying, "BeanTOWN, Vito."
Rina said, "Sounds like my suitemates at school! Somehow, they've gotten used to my mangling of American English idioms. I'm Rina. It's nice to meet you, Carrie."
"Vito has said so much about you, Rina, that when he said you were coming to visit, I cleared my schedule for the entire weekend," Carrie said.
"Is that all you brought, Audrina?" asked Vito, indicating her carry-ons.
"No, I have a small checked bag," Rina said. "It wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, so I had to check it."
"Let's go get it and get you settled at the house," Vito said. "You're still going to New York tomorrow for the day, right?"
"Yes, I am. I need to speak with someone at the American Embassy for a report for a class, and thought I'd combine the two events," Rina said in keeping with the well rehearsed lie she and Vito discussed on the phone earlier in the week.
"Isn't there an Embassy in Chicago?" asked Carrie.
"There is, but they referred me to the one in New York," Rina said, "and since I was going to be here anyway, I thought I'd make a day trip out of it. Otherwise I would have just called them."
"Rina is an overachiever," Vito told Carrie; "Always has been. That's why she's so good with computers. She had to either learn everything she could, or figure it out on her own."
Carrie just nodded as the three of them headed to the baggage claims area to pick up Rina's small suitcase. Then they went out to dinner near Vito and Carrie's apartment.
Just before heading to bed that evening, Rina thought about what she was going to tell Christian DeWitt about why she was there to visit him, and decided to tell him of her suspicions that her father wasn't dead and show him her research.
After that, she had to figure out a way to tell Helene they were related without freaking her out.
It would take a life or death situation for Rina to tell her because she thought she was running out of time.
===
Jaime Summers had two things to accomplish on Friday; one was to donate her long hair to Locks of Love, which she took care of within an hour of leaving the dorm (she had asked Helene to come with her, but Helene chickened out).
The second was to find out who the hell was following her now.
As an early birthday gift, Julia had sent her daughter a new secure phone. Not just any secure phone, but one with Summers Tech Systems software in it. Julia wanted Jaime to test out how well the software worked before the company made it available to potential customers.
Jaime started having her sixth sense go haywire just after Rina left to go to Boston, and Jaime, quite frankly, was tired of being followed.
And that's what the software installed on the phone was supposed to do: identify someone following the owner of the phone.
"James, I'm going to have someone follow you on purpose, just to test out the software," Julia had told her. "It will be someone you do not know. I'll get a copy of whatever you find out at the exact moment you find it out. Does this sound like fun?"
"Mom, someone following me does NOT sound like fun," Jaime had said; "But if it's for the business, I'll play along."
"That's my girl," Julia had said; "The test will be either Friday or Saturday. Probably Friday. Just go about your business and the phone is your birthday gift from Summers Tech Systems."
"Cool," Jaime said.
Jaime was headed to a firing range that she knew about from Miri's time at Northwestern. She'd shoot a few rounds, go on an orienteering trek, then head home.
However, the phone went crazy as soon as she walked out of the salon after making her Locks of Love donation. As she headed outside, she was thinking that her hair hadn't been this short since she was a little girl...
BEEP...BEE-BEEP...BEEP
Jaime looked at the phone, annoyed. Its display stated that person or persons unknown were shadowing her. Thanks, Mom, Jaime thought while she walked to her car to head to the firing range.
When she arrived at the firing range, she saw someone who she knew didn't belong there. She knew who belonged and who didn't, even if she didn't know them by name.
With the phone's camera, she took a discrete picture of the man following her, then put a code into the phone.
IDENTIFY? Y/N
Jaime hit Y and waited for the next message.
IDENTITY OF SUBJECT BY NAME? Y/N
Jaime hit Y again and waited.
SUBJECT NAME: RYAN KENDALL
DOB: 040312
HT: 73IN
WT: 185LBS
AGE: 27
FOLLOW? Y/N
Fuck yeah I want to follow, Jaime thought. She hit Y.
TRACKING SUBJECT RYAN KENDALL...
HEADING TO PARKED CAR AT 4234 LIGHTFOOT DRIVE...
CAR ENGINE STARTED, HEADING NORTH ON LIGHTFOOT DRIVE
MAKING LEFT ONTO SR430
CONTINUE FOLLOW? Y/N
Jaime got into her car and started following a brown coupe with Kentucky plates. This Ryan Kendall is heading back to Northwestern, she thought. Had he gone right, he'd be heading to Chicago.
SUBJECT CHANGED COURSE, HEADED EAST ON SR430
Hmm, Jaime thought, he's lost.
TURN ON VOX? Y/N
Jaime hit Y and continued to follow, then the voice, who sounded a lot like her mother's said, "SUBJECT TRYING TO LOSE TAIL. CONTINUE TO FOLLOW? SPEAK YES/NO"
"Yes!" Jaime said. Soon, she had followed him all the way into Chicago. She realized that he was heading to O'Hare. She spoke the command, "Subject taking flight out of area?"
After a few moments, the response was, "YES. SUBJECT BOARDING PLANE. DESTINATION WASHINGTON, DC."
Must have spooked him but good, Jaime thought. She dialed her mother's phone number, but got the voice mail. Jaime didn't leave a message. She turned around and headed back to Evanston. She thought it strange that her mother wouldn't have someone local to follow her.
But someone local was following her. It wasn't the man Jaime tracked to the airport, though.
===
"Oh, shit," Julia said.
"What is it, Jules?" asked Yancy Carter, the author of the software that was placed into Jaime's new secure phone.
"I just got a report from my daughter's phone," Julia said; "Someone named Ryan Kendall was identified as the person following Jaime. That's not who I sent out to follow her."
"Then who is Ryan Kendall?" Yancy asked.
"Damned if I know, but the thing that concerns me, Yance, is that Jaime is being stalked," Julia said; "Why? I don't know."
"At least we know the software works," Yancy said; "But Jaime should know someone is following her."
Julia looked at the young woman who was just a couple of years older than Miri, and said, "Jaime knows she's being stalked. Her sixth sense kicked in. It may not have if the man following her was someone I sent out to test the software, because I told her I would be doing just that. Jaime, and possibly her suitemates, are in danger."
===
Toward the end of April, Rina got this idea to have a huge birthday blowout for her two suitemates who had birthdays four days apart. She even contacted Jaime's boyfriend, Jared, and Helene's boyfriend, Alexei, about helping her set it up. Jared suggested that it be held in Evanston, as it was between Belvidere and Chicago so no one had to travel too far. Rina knew of a restaurant in town that could accomodate a big group of people, seeing that Jaime's family in particular was rather large. Alexei offered to obtain and send invitations, and keeping it a secret at the same time.
Of course, neither Jaime nor Helene had a clue as to what Rina was planning. They both realized that Rina had her secrets, and knew not to ask about them.
They would be very surprised when, on April 30th, they were Rina's big secret.
===
The invitations went out on April 2nd. Alexei had made all one hundred of them by hand, and addressed them in an elegant script. Those who received them were very impressed with the artistry involved.
Vito was one of the lucky receipents. The envelope was address as:
Mr. Vittorio d'Alessandro
Miss Carina Comeau
150 Fanueil Commons
Boston, Mass.
"These are really nice," Carrie had remarked when she opened the envelope. "The person who made these has an incredible talent!"
"Indeed," Vito had replied; "I understand from Rina that Helene's boyfriend made them. So he's apparently more than a dancer. I daresay that both Jaime and Helene will be surprised. I've never met either of them, though I've spoken to both on the phone. I'm going to see if my schedule will allow me to attend."
"I'm free on the 30th, but I won't go unless you come with me," Carrie said.
"That would be a bit awkward, would it not?"
"Just a little."
===
Before the big party, Rina called her brother and asked him a favor.
"You want me to lie to your friends about where you're going? Do I understand this correctly?" asked Vito in Italian.
"Yes," Rina said; "I think I found our grandfather, but I don't want Helene or Jaime to know that I've decided to see him. You're my cover story. Will you help me?"
"You think you've found our grandfather?" Vito asked.
"Yes," Rina said; "and the reason I want you to back me up is that I believe it's Helene's father."
"That would make your suitemate our aunt, Rina!" Vito said, shocked; "Does she even know that Charles DeWitt is related to her?"
"She does. She's known all her life," Rina said; "She seems to think that our father's last name is d'Alessandro, so the thought that we might be related has probably never crossed her mind."
"She'll be in for a shock if what you're telling me is true," Vito said.
"That's why I need your help, Vito," Rina said; "I want to be sure of my facts before I rattle her world and everything she's ever known about her family."
"I will help you, sister, but I don't like lying to people," Vito said; "Not about something as big as this."
"It will only take me a couple of days," Rina said. "I've already made an appointment to see him on Friday."
"Does he know it's you he's going to be meeting?" asked Vito.
"No. He thinks a woman named Alexandra St. Claire has an appointment with him in his office in Syracuse," Rina said.
"Alexandra St. Claire? Where did you come up with that name?"
"Yellow Pages, of course."
===
Christian looked over his appointments for the week and saw the Friday appointment with "Alexandra St. Claire" and asked his secretary,
"What does this Alexandra St. Claire want to speak with me about?"
Diana, his secretary at the office (Kathryn functioned in that capacity when he worked at home), said, "She said that she would only discuss it with you when she came in on Friday."
"Is she a new hire?"
"Not that I know of," Diana said; "I'll ask HR if someone by that name is on the new hire list."
Christian nodded and Diana left his office. He wondered who this woman was and what she wanted to talk to only him about.
I hope she's not another one of those golddiggers who is looking for Charles, he thought. In the years since Charles' death, several women had come to see Christian for "compensation" for the terrible things they said Charles did to them. The stories sounded for the most part made up, and covered everything from rape to child support.
Christian sighed. Even dead, Charles was still making trouble. He wondered how many children his younger son fathered other than the two he recently found out about. And would they expect something from his estate?
He couldn't possibly know that "Alexandra St. Claire" was someone he had already met, and she would be asking some hard questions of him about Charles.
And questions about his oldest daughter as well.
===
Rina was packing for her "trip" to Boston to spend the weekend with her brother and to get to know his fiancee, Carrie, better.
"You're going to miss that party your computer programmers club is holding on Saturday?" asked Helene; "I thought wild horses couldn't drag you away from that?"
"It's not everyday that Vito has a free weekend and wants me and Carrie to get to know each other better," Rina said, closing her duffle bag. "I like that she makes Vito happy, and I do want to let her know that I approve of her relationship with Vito. Not that either of them need that from me, of course. There will be other parties."
"True," Helene said; then, "I have to run off to work now, Reen. Have a safe trip and give my regards to Vito and Carrie."
"I will, Helene," Rina said. "By the way, when will Jaime be back? Do you know?"
"She had that field trip to the veterinary school in Chicago," Helene said. "She should be home tonight. I'm taking her shift at the flower shop."
"Damn, I'll be at the airport by then," Rina said; "We'll have just missed each other."
"I'll tell her you stayed as long as you could," Helene said; "The shuttle will be here any time now. You better be ready or you'll miss your flight."
Helene left and Rina was alone.
I hate to lie to them about where I'm going, she thought, but I have to find out if this Christian DeWitt is the same man as Helene's father. Rina's search had turned up four men named Christian DeWitt, and three of them were in the same age range that her grandfather would be in.
What do I tell him about why I've been looking for him, though, Rina said to herself as she boarded the shuttle the school provided to take her to Chicago-O'Hare Airport. That I don't think my father is dead and does he know where I might find Charles DeWitt?
So many questions that needed answering. Rina wasn't completely sure that she really wanted to know the answers, but felt she had to ask.
===
God, I'm tired, Jaime thought at she dragged herself up the two flights of stairs to her suite. She had found out a lot about what it takes to continue her schooling after getting her undergraduate degree, and knew she had it in her to succeed. Veterinary school was covered, she knew. It was in Jack's will.
She opened the door, expecting to see at least Rina. Helene had just gotten home moments before, and it was she who greeted Jaime as she came in.
"Rina not here?" Jaime asked.
"She took an early flight to Boston," Helene said as she went back into the kitchen to get something for Jaime to eat; "She waited as long as she could, but the shuttle was due soon after I left for work."
"What is she going to Boston for?"
"Her brother invited her because he had a free weekend," Helene said; "Rina and Vito's fiancee Carrie are going to get to know each other better from what I understand."
"Oh," Jaime said; "then she should go. This was kinda last minute though. Rina talked about that party that her programming group was having this weekend. I guess getting to meet your future sister in law trumps that, huh?"
"Rina said something similar," Helene said as she handed Jaime a plate of sandwich fixings; "Now would you eat something, James. You look like you've not had a thing to eat all day."
"I am hungry," Jaime said, making a sandwich with what Helene brought her; "We had lunch at like 1pm, and it's almost six-thirty now."
"Don't they feed you on those day trips?"
"No," Jaime said; "I had to spend my own money. Fortunately, I remembered to put my debit card back in my wallet after paying for my summer courses."
"You're not going home for the summer before we move into the new house?" asked Helene.
"Maybe for a couple of weeks, but not until after we move out of here and into Kimber's house," Jaime said; "It's only one class, and it's in July."
"Ah," Helene said. Then, "I'm already starting to pack stuff. The end of the semester will be here before we know it. Rina's practically done with her packing. All she has left is her furniture, clothes, and the bookshelf she bought at Ikea over Christmas. Most of her computers are packed away, too. She just has her laptop and tablet available, and she took those with her to Boston."
"What does an almost 17 year old girl needs four computers for?" asked Jaime.
"When your name is Audrina Alexander," Helene said, "not even four computers are enough!"
Jaime laughed, "Oh I know that's right!"
===
The actual flight time from Chicago to Boston didn't take long at all, and Rina was soon touching down at Boston's Logan Airport. At least this part of the trip was the truth, Rina thought as she waited for the plane to empty out enough to get her computer bag from the overhead storage compartment.
Other passengers didn't pay her much mind, and that's what Rina wanted. To most everyone in the U.S., she was just another teenage girl. In Europe, it was another story. Everyone there, it seemed, knew who she was. The European press was especially bad about making up stuff about her when she refused to talk to them. Snotty, aloof, and spoiled were some of the adjectives used to describe her. The one that really got her was, "just like her mother, the spoiled recently widowed Contessa d'Alessandro".
In the United States at least, they didn't yet know who she was, and Rina wanted to keep it that way.
After going through the security check point at the gate (it always amazed Rina that she didn't have to go through Customs in every state, like she did when she visited other countries in Europe), she stepped out onto the concourse leading to the waiting areas. It was there that she would hopefully meet her brother and Carrie.
She wasn't disappointed.
She saw Vito right away, and assumed that the dark haired girl with him was Carrie.
Vito turned just in time to see Rina walking toward them. "She is a pretty girl, Vito," Carrie whispered to him.
"Indeed," Vito said as he waved his arm to get his sister's attention. Rina returned his wave.
"Welcome to Beanville, sister," Vito said, to which Carrie laughed, saying, "BeanTOWN, Vito."
Rina said, "Sounds like my suitemates at school! Somehow, they've gotten used to my mangling of American English idioms. I'm Rina. It's nice to meet you, Carrie."
"Vito has said so much about you, Rina, that when he said you were coming to visit, I cleared my schedule for the entire weekend," Carrie said.
"Is that all you brought, Audrina?" asked Vito, indicating her carry-ons.
"No, I have a small checked bag," Rina said. "It wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, so I had to check it."
"Let's go get it and get you settled at the house," Vito said. "You're still going to New York tomorrow for the day, right?"
"Yes, I am. I need to speak with someone at the American Embassy for a report for a class, and thought I'd combine the two events," Rina said in keeping with the well rehearsed lie she and Vito discussed on the phone earlier in the week.
"Isn't there an Embassy in Chicago?" asked Carrie.
"There is, but they referred me to the one in New York," Rina said, "and since I was going to be here anyway, I thought I'd make a day trip out of it. Otherwise I would have just called them."
"Rina is an overachiever," Vito told Carrie; "Always has been. That's why she's so good with computers. She had to either learn everything she could, or figure it out on her own."
Carrie just nodded as the three of them headed to the baggage claims area to pick up Rina's small suitcase. Then they went out to dinner near Vito and Carrie's apartment.
Just before heading to bed that evening, Rina thought about what she was going to tell Christian DeWitt about why she was there to visit him, and decided to tell him of her suspicions that her father wasn't dead and show him her research.
After that, she had to figure out a way to tell Helene they were related without freaking her out.
It would take a life or death situation for Rina to tell her because she thought she was running out of time.
===
Jaime Summers had two things to accomplish on Friday; one was to donate her long hair to Locks of Love, which she took care of within an hour of leaving the dorm (she had asked Helene to come with her, but Helene chickened out).
The second was to find out who the hell was following her now.
As an early birthday gift, Julia had sent her daughter a new secure phone. Not just any secure phone, but one with Summers Tech Systems software in it. Julia wanted Jaime to test out how well the software worked before the company made it available to potential customers.
Jaime started having her sixth sense go haywire just after Rina left to go to Boston, and Jaime, quite frankly, was tired of being followed.
And that's what the software installed on the phone was supposed to do: identify someone following the owner of the phone.
"James, I'm going to have someone follow you on purpose, just to test out the software," Julia had told her. "It will be someone you do not know. I'll get a copy of whatever you find out at the exact moment you find it out. Does this sound like fun?"
"Mom, someone following me does NOT sound like fun," Jaime had said; "But if it's for the business, I'll play along."
"That's my girl," Julia had said; "The test will be either Friday or Saturday. Probably Friday. Just go about your business and the phone is your birthday gift from Summers Tech Systems."
"Cool," Jaime said.
Jaime was headed to a firing range that she knew about from Miri's time at Northwestern. She'd shoot a few rounds, go on an orienteering trek, then head home.
However, the phone went crazy as soon as she walked out of the salon after making her Locks of Love donation. As she headed outside, she was thinking that her hair hadn't been this short since she was a little girl...
BEEP...BEE-BEEP...BEEP
Jaime looked at the phone, annoyed. Its display stated that person or persons unknown were shadowing her. Thanks, Mom, Jaime thought while she walked to her car to head to the firing range.
When she arrived at the firing range, she saw someone who she knew didn't belong there. She knew who belonged and who didn't, even if she didn't know them by name.
With the phone's camera, she took a discrete picture of the man following her, then put a code into the phone.
IDENTIFY? Y/N
Jaime hit Y and waited for the next message.
IDENTITY OF SUBJECT BY NAME? Y/N
Jaime hit Y again and waited.
SUBJECT NAME: RYAN KENDALL
DOB: 040312
HT: 73IN
WT: 185LBS
AGE: 27
FOLLOW? Y/N
Fuck yeah I want to follow, Jaime thought. She hit Y.
TRACKING SUBJECT RYAN KENDALL...
HEADING TO PARKED CAR AT 4234 LIGHTFOOT DRIVE...
CAR ENGINE STARTED, HEADING NORTH ON LIGHTFOOT DRIVE
MAKING LEFT ONTO SR430
CONTINUE FOLLOW? Y/N
Jaime got into her car and started following a brown coupe with Kentucky plates. This Ryan Kendall is heading back to Northwestern, she thought. Had he gone right, he'd be heading to Chicago.
SUBJECT CHANGED COURSE, HEADED EAST ON SR430
Hmm, Jaime thought, he's lost.
TURN ON VOX? Y/N
Jaime hit Y and continued to follow, then the voice, who sounded a lot like her mother's said, "SUBJECT TRYING TO LOSE TAIL. CONTINUE TO FOLLOW? SPEAK YES/NO"
"Yes!" Jaime said. Soon, she had followed him all the way into Chicago. She realized that he was heading to O'Hare. She spoke the command, "Subject taking flight out of area?"
After a few moments, the response was, "YES. SUBJECT BOARDING PLANE. DESTINATION WASHINGTON, DC."
Must have spooked him but good, Jaime thought. She dialed her mother's phone number, but got the voice mail. Jaime didn't leave a message. She turned around and headed back to Evanston. She thought it strange that her mother wouldn't have someone local to follow her.
But someone local was following her. It wasn't the man Jaime tracked to the airport, though.
===
"Oh, shit," Julia said.
"What is it, Jules?" asked Yancy Carter, the author of the software that was placed into Jaime's new secure phone.
"I just got a report from my daughter's phone," Julia said; "Someone named Ryan Kendall was identified as the person following Jaime. That's not who I sent out to follow her."
"Then who is Ryan Kendall?" Yancy asked.
"Damned if I know, but the thing that concerns me, Yance, is that Jaime is being stalked," Julia said; "Why? I don't know."
"At least we know the software works," Yancy said; "But Jaime should know someone is following her."
Julia looked at the young woman who was just a couple of years older than Miri, and said, "Jaime knows she's being stalked. Her sixth sense kicked in. It may not have if the man following her was someone I sent out to test the software, because I told her I would be doing just that. Jaime, and possibly her suitemates, are in danger."
===
Wow, what a chapter! I can't wait to see how Christian reacts when he sees that who he's really seeing. I'm on pins and needles still.
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