CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: IT'S ALL GONNA COME TUMBLING DOWN
~TWO DAYS LATER~
I sat staring at my computer screen. I'd been online now
for at least six hours trying to find information I needed to
destroy Kaylee, get my job back and have some form of a happily
ever after with Nick. I needed a plan, a good plan.
I tapped my long nails on the wooden desk as I typed in words
after words into yahoo and some other search engines.
Brandon and Kaylee were connected, he obviously had gone after
her while we were still together because of the rape. I'd
seen Brandon that night, but in the newspaper it said that they
had arrested him as a suspect. The library had long ago
closed and would be closed all of the holiday weekend. How
could I find the information I needed to put this to rest?
"Want some tea?" Nick asked from the kitchen.
"Yes, please," I said, closing my eyes and opening them
again. They were burning from staring at the screen so
long.
I decided to go backwards and try to dig up some more articles
again from newspapers. It again, left me in a dead end.
"Nick, what am I going to do?" I asked.
Nick sat down next to me and stared at the screen.
"Didn't you say that Kaylee worked for a small newspaper
before she came to the Times?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Maybe somebody there knows something," he replied.
~THREE HOURS LATER~
Nick and I pulled up to the small office building of the Creek
County Times. It was a small newspaper with a circulation
of only three hundred. The city was like a ghost town, yet
filled with trees instead of cactus's.
Nick and I walked inside of the old run down building.
There were only three people on staff in the front area; they
sipped their coffee as they watched us walk in.
The floor squeaked underneath me as the wind blew outside.
"Can I help ya miss?" An older man behind the
counter offered.
"Yes, my name is Kaitlyn McBride, I'm from the New York
Times and I was wondering if I could ask you some
questions?"
The man nodded, they didn't get city folk up here much.
He brought us in the back and sat us down at a small table in
their break room.
"What can I do for you?" He asked.
"Do you remember a Kaylee--"
Before I could ever finish her name his eyes lit up.
"Yeah I remember that two faced bitch," he spat.
Nick smirked at me as we continued to listen.
"Do you know of anyone I can speak to about Kaylee?"
"She ain't got no friends in this town accept Rebecca, she's
head of the editing department," his face looked disgusted
at the thought of her.
"Do you mind if we speak to her?" I asked.
"Sure, go ahead," he showed us the way.
I came face to face with a deep cherry oak wooden door with a
brass plate that read <I>Rebecca Oakes</I>. I
knocked on it gently as I heard a scratchy female voice calling
me in.
Her short brown hair and deep brown eyes made her face seem even
paler than it was, her skinny body seemed tired and worn down as
she stood up to greet Nick and I.
"Hi, I'm Kaitlyn McBride from the New York Times, I was
wondering if I could ask you some questions," I looked at
her gently.
"Sure, I don't see why not," she shrugged.
"The older man tells me you knew Kaylee when she worked
here," I started. Her eyes lit up as she turned from
her paperwork to me.
"Sure I knew her, why?" She asked.
"Well, Kaylee is going through some rough times right now
and I just wanted to help her out," I said sincerely as I
bit my lip. The last thing I wanted to do was help that
bitch out.
"Well what's wrong with her?" Rebecca's face grew
concerned.
"You haven't talked to her?" I double checked my
story.
"No, not in about five years."
"Oh, well she's very ill, not doing too well," I put on
a fake frown as Nick looked around, trying not to crack up.
"Oh how unfortunate," Rebecca replied, tears forming at
her eyes.
"Do you remember when Kaylee was raped?" I asked.
Rebecca batted her eyelashes at me. For a second I thought
she was playing me for the fool instead of me playing her.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"Where is that snot-nosed cow?" Kaylee spat as
she hung up the phone.
"Calm down, she has a life, and a hot boyfriend," Mandy
smirked.
"Shut up," she yelled as she went into the kitchen and
poured herself a glass of brandy.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Mandy
challenged.
"Give Kate what she deserves, once and for all," she
gulped back the shot glass of alcohol. Mandy stared at her
blankly.
"You're not going to kill her are you?"
Kaylee laughed wickedly.
"Isn't it amazing how someone's life can just be thrown into
your own hands?" She chuckled. "And the
funniest thing is, she doesn't have a clue!"
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"Felicia, do you think we really should be here?"
Brian asked hesitantly as they approached the door.
"Yes, she's a stupid bitch and I think I owe it to myself
and to Kate to do this," she sucked up a breath of air and
put her pointer finger to the bell when she heard laughing on the
inside. She retracted her hand quickly and listened.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"You're really going to kill her?" Mandy almost
yelled.
"Would you quiet down! Well, I don't want to have to
do it, but somebody has. She's ruining my life. And
if she gets the proof that I was the reason that she lost her
position, she's going to come back to the Times, I'll be fired
and she'll print a story about me. I will not lose my job
nor my reputation," Kaylee concluded.
"So killing her is the solution? Why don't you just
threaten her so she leaves town and goes and lives with those
stupid Back-whatever Boys?"
"Because the satisfaction of seeing her suffer like I have
all these years is what I long to see," she gulped down yet
another shot glass.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"Ohmygod," Felicia gasped as Brian covered her mouth
quickly.
"Shhh," Brian looked at her.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"So when will this take place, I wanna be there?"
Mandy asked excitedly.
"Shut up, did you hear something?"
"No."
"Someone's outside the door," she walked over to it and
yanked it open quickly. No one was there. She peered
up and down both corridors of the apartment complex and saw no
one.
"Must be hearing things," she slammed the door behind
her.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
Brian and Felicia huddled behind the <I>Coca-Cola</I>
machine as Brian held her mouth shut.
When he let go Felicia's mouth dangled open.
"Brian, we've got to tell Kate and Nick," they both
walked quickly to the elevators and left.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"So is that what you really think Ms. McBride?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"That Kaylee was raped?"
I looked at Nick curiously and then back at Rebecca.
"She was, in college, I was there after it happened," I
replied.
"She fooled a lot of people, including you," she
coughed a bit, it seemed like she smoked way too many cigarettes.
"You mean Kaylee was never raped by Brandon
Ridgeway?" I asked, my eyes were huge at this point as
I studied Rebecca's every move.
"Ha, no, the little minx wanted everyone to think
that. Truth was she wanted that Brandon character, but he
wanted some other young lady. And then he died in some
accident with some girl and Kaylee was torn apart."
"But why was she torn apart, why did she want
him?" I asked.
"She confronted him that night in the landscape outside the
library, where she said she got raped. She told him how she
felt and he told her that he didn't have feelings for her, that
he was in love with another girl. She told him she would
pay him back for that and so the next day she cried rape.
There was no evidence to hold Brandon and he and his family
settled privately in court with her family and life went
on. He died a few months later and Kaylee was insane over
it because she convinced herself that if she would have made him
fall in love with her that one night, then he would have been
with her instead of that other girl and then he would have never
died," Rebecca explained.
I turned around and looked at Nick who looked as shocked as I
did.
"That explains why her and Victor tried to get together
against me. Because they both blamed me," I leaned
over and muttered to Nick. Suddenly the pieces were falling
into place. Kaylee was about to come tumbling down and it
was all on account of her actions.
"Thank you so much Rebecca, I'll be keeping in touch,"
I said as I handed her my card and Nick and I left.
~IN THE CAR~
"I can't believe this," I sat in disbelief as Nick
drove my car down the highway back to civilization.
"She filed a false police report, took Brandon to court for
all his parents' money, ruined my life and God knows how many
others and she's still walking around like a perfect angel,"
I threw my arms up in the air. "Nick we have to find a
way to prove that what happened last year with the tape recorder
in Orlando was fake. I need my job back if I'm going to
bring her down," I insisted.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
"It says he's out of range or something. He must have
no reception on his phone," Brian tossed his cell phone
down.
He and Felicia were heading to Kate's apartment and tried calling
Nick's cell phone on the way.
~TEN MINUTES LATER~
"Finally," Nick sighed as he saw his reception come
back on his cell phone.
"I'm going to make some calls, see what I can do," Nick
replied as he dialed some numbers on his cell phone.
~AT THE SAME TIME~
Kevin had just retreated from the shower, a loose towel wrapped
around his waist as he heard the phone ring. He half
mindedly wanted the answering machine to get it, but he decided
to answer it. After all, he didn't stay in his New York
condo more than twice a year, so if someone was calling him all
the way up here, it had to be important.
"Hello?"
"Kevin, it's Nick, man what's up?" Nick asked.
"Nothing, what's going on Nicky?"
"I need your help, call the other guys and meet me at Kate's
apartment in an twenty."
Kevin agreed as they hung up.
~FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER~
Felicia and Brian took the elevator up to Kate's apartment and
rang the bell. There was no answer.
"Let's wait here a few minutes," Felicia said as she
plopped against the wall and thought about what Kaylee had said.
"Whattcha thinkin'?" Brian asked as he sat down
next to her.
"That I was wrong to get involved with Kaylee, she wants to
kill Kate, that's so horrible. I mean what happens if she
wanted to kill you or me or anyone else? What if this
doesn't stop at Kate? I don't think I can ever forgive
myself for fueling her fire," she sighed.
"It's okay, you're here now and we're going to help Kate,
okay?" Brian insisted.
Felicia nodded just as she saw Nick and Kate coming off the
elevator.
"Felicia, Brian, what a nice surprise, what's
up?" I asked as they both embraced me.
"We need to talk," Brian said sternly.
"We need to talk to you guys too," I replied as I
opened the door with my key.
Suddenly the elevator dinged and off walked Kevin, A.J. and
Howie.
Brian looked around confused.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"We were wondering the same thing," Howie chimed in.
"We've got a lot to talk about and a lot of work to do guys,
come on in," I directed them in and shut the door, hoping
that within these walls we could find a way to finally bring the
peace that was well deserved.
Chapter 43