Page 130 of More Than Pen Pals

“You’re not going home tonight,” my brother says. “You’re staying with me, where you’re not close enough to Dad to kill him. Because if you do that, I won’t be able to resist helping you, and I won’t do well in prison.”

“I have to go home. What if Leslie tries to call me?”

“Does she have your number?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t …” I trail off, remembering Wendy had to call Randall to give me Leslie’s number, and I never gave her mine in return. “No, she doesn’t. But we can leave a message on her answering machine, and we can also call Wendy and give my number to her, in case Leslie checks in. In fact, we need to call Wendy to see if she knows where Leslie is.”

“We’ll call Wendy to see what she knows, but we’ll tell her to have Leslie call my place if she hears from her. You’re not going home, and you will not argue with me about that.”

“Fine.” I’m not in the mood to argue with him, anyway.

We enter the lobby of Randall’s building, and I stop in my tracks. Randall turns back to me with a quizzical look.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” I didn’t realize I’m angry with her, too, until I laid eyes on her.

She stands from her seat on the lobby couch. “I came to see if you found Leslie.”

“Why would you care?”

My brother whirls on me. “Ash—”

“Randall,” Mom cuts in, “it’s fine. He has a right to be upset with me. Let’s go upstairs and talk.”

We’re all silent on the elevator ride. When we reach the apartment, I say to my brother, “Call Wendy and see if she’s heard from Leslie, while Mom explains how she let this happen.”

Mom takes a seat at the dining table as I pace along the other side.

She twirls her necklace around and says, “I was getting ready to leave the house for dinner when your father arrived home.”

“I thought he was out of town,” I say.

“I thought so, too. He asked where I was going, and I told him I was headed out to dinner—though not who with—and he insisted on accompanying me. The man wouldn’t take no for an answer. You know how he can be.”

I nod.

“Please sit down, Ashley. You’re making me even more jittery than I already am.”

I don’t want to sit, but I do as she says. My mother is never jittery.

She continues, “It was too late to call and warn Randall, but I was hoping for the best, because I didn’t think there was any way your dad could know anything about Leslie. I was wrong, and I still don’t know how he knew any of it. He didn’t hear it from me.”

Randall takes the seat next to Mom. “I think I know.”

“What did Wendy say?” I ask, without acknowledging his statement.

“She hasn’t heard a word from Leslie tonight, but she’ll let us know if she does. She said to tell you not to worry. Shannon will take good care of her, wherever they are. There’s no way they’re not together.”

Wendy is right. Shannon would’ve arrived home before Leslie did. But that doesn’t help much when all I want to do is see Leslie, hold her, and tell her I love her and want to be with her until the end of time, no matter what my father might say or do.

“So how do you think Dad knew about Leslie and the Sanchez thing?” I ask Randall.

“Jay.”

I close my eyes.

“Who’s Jay?” Mom asks.

“He’s a new lawyer on the team. He’s a pretentious, backstabbing, misogynistic, jack…,” my brother’s mouth snaps shut when he remembers who he’s speaking to, “…hole who wants nothing more than to be like Dad. Actually, he’s already like Dad. I bet Dad had him spy on us. Jay knew about the pen pal thing because he was there at lunch when we first saw Leslie. And I’ve caught him lurking outside my office and Ash’s several times, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. He must have overheard us talking about Sanchez and tonight’s dinner plans.”

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