Duskwood: Love's Beginning

45 - Jayna

I watched Jake do a set of complicated procedures just to log into his laptop. It was even worse than the rare times I had to use VPN to log in remotely to the clinic computers. When he was finally in, he pulled up a bunch of programs on his screen that reminded me of when we were looking at the pictures of Michael Hanson's house. I smiled at the memory and leaned my chin on his shoulder. He paused his typing, reaching up a hand to cup my face. I glanced over and saw he was also smiling. I kissed his cheek, knowing he was remembering that day as well.

Then he got to work, his fingers moving like lightning across the keyboard. Things flashed by so quickly across the screen that I couldn't follow them. Finally, after numerous windows opened, Jake stopped typing. "Here we are." He pointed with his cursor to a phone number on a call list. It was saved to the name "Agent Carnes."

"Motherfucker!" I yelled, and Jake winced because I was right next to his ear. "Sorry, sorry. When was the first time he contacted him?" Jake showed me the date, and I thought backward in my head. "That's the day after he came to my apartment," I told Jake, my anger growing. "I can't believe he did this to you!"

"It appears he did," Jake commented, looking angry himself. "Even worse, he put you into the FBI's crosshairs. That is unacceptable. However, I will put those feelings aside for the moment. I have more to show you."

He pulled up a different page. I gasped in shock; it was a newspaper article with a picture at the Duskwood Library with a bunch of children, and a caption listing their names. One of the faces belonged to a much younger version of my ex-boyfriend. "Marcus used to live in Duskwood. How did I not know that?"

"He left when he was ten years old. His parents divorced, and he moved with his mother to Portland." He showed me the custody agreement with the address.

"Holy crap, his mom still lives at that address," I commented. "So he really knows Richy, then?"

Jake looked at me. "Would you like to see their email conversation?" I nodded without hesitation. "Are you certain? There may be upsetting components for you."

"I need to know, Jake. I trusted Richy. I thought he was my friend, and I have to understand why this happened."

Jake sighed. "Alright. But I would like you to sit here with me, please. So we can more easily read together." He moved the laptop aside and patted the spot between his legs.

I sat down where he indicated, cautiously leaning against his chest. "Is this OK for your back?" I asked him. It was comfortable sitting here.

"I am fine," he reassured me. He brought the laptop back over and placed it on my legs. With a few taps of his mousepad, he brought up an email thread and maximized the window. Then he moved his arms to rest around my waist, allowing me control of his computer. I thought, this is a big honor, then focused on the screen.

The emails were a lot of back and forth over a period of months. They started shortly after I broke up with Marcus; apparently Richy already knew about me before then. Marcus mentioned that I left him, but didn't go into details. He said he was upset about losing me and I wouldn't talk to him, but didn't mention the cheating or anything else. I wasn't even sure if Marcus knew what happened to me later because of him.

He wound Richy up, telling him a bunch of lies about me being suicidal and that he needed help "looking after me." He tried to convince Richy to friend me on social media, which of course didn't work, because my accounts were private and I hadn't posted to any of them since I had broken up with Marcus.

Marcus kept pressing Richy to help him. He continued with the guilt trip. Richy put him off for a while, but eventually, he gave in. He was vague about what was happening but Richy said he had something he needed my help with and asked for my number.