A CRIME OF SHAME
1090 Words
She put the gun in her purse, ascended the stairs, and went back out to the truck.
It was all Romeo Estella’s fault.
The sleazy bastard was going to pay.
As Jade drove downtown, she visualized the scene. You killed my father, she would say, ramming the gun into his chest. No, under his neck. Into his Adam’s apple. She would make him beg for his own life, get down on his knees and blubber like a baby. She would make him regret the day he was born. She would make him tell her where the counterfeit money had come from. When she was satisfied that she had completely broken him, she would call the police and hold him there until they arrived.
It was just getting dark when she pulled up to the main entrance of the office building where the Next Superstar Modeling Agency was located.
She parked and got out, not bothering to lock the door.
When she stepped into the lobby, the security guard stood up and said, “You’re not allowed to park there, miss...”
She was already heading towards the elevator.
“Hey, wait! You can’t just... ”
She stepped onto the elevator and pressed three.
“Hold it!” the guard said, but before he could get there, the doors closed.
When the lift reached the third floor, she stepped off the elevator, her heartbeat thumping in her ears, yet sounding far, far away. She reached the agency’s front door and twisted the handle.
It was locked. Then she noticed that the office lights weren’t on.
Jade frowned - it wasn’t even six o’clock yet. Where the hell were they all?
The stairway doors burst open and the security guard trotted towards her. “What do you think you’re d...?”
He stopped, glanced at the door, then back at Jade. “They’re gone."
“What do you mean?” Jade said.
“Gone. Packed up their tent and moved away."
Jade peered through the window into the darkened offices. All the desks were still there, the file cabinets, chairs... but there was trash scattered around on the floor.
“They didn’t leave a forwarding address, nothing,” the guard said. “Skipped out on the last sixth months of their lease." He looked at her sympathetically. “Did they owe you money, too?”
Jade was dumbfounded. They had left, they had all left! Romeo Estella must have known that her father had been arrested.
She turned and walked back down the corridor in a daze.
* * *
Jade was able to stay on at the Sherriad Academy For Girls.
Ms. Precious arranged for a full scholarship, which included room and board on campus. All the students grieved over the death of her father, and showed nothing but kindness towards Jade.
She buried herself in her studies, hiding herself from her pain. She could not escape the deep seated hatred that welled inside her for Romeo Estella, or whatever the man’s real name was. It grew inside her like a cancer.
One day, in the 11th grade, she and her best friend, Kat, were in the guidance counselor’s office, filling out their careers forms. Jade noticed a magazine with an article titled Careers in the Secret Service. She read the part about the anti counterfeiting Division.
She decided then and there that she was going to become a Secret Service agent, and that she was going to track down Romeo Estella and punish him for what he had done.
The article said that to qualify for the Secret Service, you needed a college degree and that competition was fierce. It also said that if you were fluent in a foreign language and/or had some special education relevant to currency production, such as in intaglio printing, your chances of becoming an agent were much higher.
Intaglio printing, Jade thought. She had no idea what that was, but she had always liked art and graphic design.
She didn’t mention her plans to Kat, or to anyone else. It was her secret.
In her senior year, Jade applied to all the top colleges in the Northeastern U.S. that had strong graphic design departments and mentioned intaglio printing in their course catalogs. Ms. Precious and her teachers wrote her glowing letters of recommendation.
Jade was thrilled to be accepted at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and Architecture, with a full scholarship.
Kat was accepted at Northwestern University in Chicago, also with a full scholarship. She planned to study economics.
When they both graduated from Sherriad, they had a teary goodbye, and they promised to stay in touch.
* * *
BRENDA'S POV - III
After twelve hours we were finally done. The patients were stabilized, settled down for the night or in the air to Germany. We were released back to our tents for much needed showers. I was returning from my cleansing and debating hanging with the guys. In my heart I knew they’d laugh off the day and do whatever they could to ignore the horrors we’d seen. I just couldn’t face it. So I turned to my tent - and there she was, standing at the flap of my door with her hands behind her back, in a fresh flight suit, smiling. The suit hugged her curves like a second skin. She was damned lovely. I had to be dreaming. My n*****s hardened, and I was thankful for the sports bra that covered them.
“Hey. Remember me?” Her voice was low, a sexy rumble I really liked.
“Hey yourself." I smiled the first genuine smile since the nightmare began. The towel hung around my neck, and I tugged on it to hide my shyness. “You’re not easy to forget." My cheeks heated with embarrassment.
She blushed, and I had a moment of uncertainty. We both knew what could happen from her being at my tent in the first place. Officer and enlisted unprofessional relationships were forbidden and grounds for dismissal from the service, never mind the thoughts that were running around in my head.
“How did you find me?”
She chuckled. “I’m a flight surgeon. All I had to do was chit-chat with my people here, and ask the right kind of questions."
“Ahh" was all I could think to say.
She cleared her throat and smiled. “The name’s Dawn Dawson." She held up a few mini bar bottles of Jack. “I thought you could use a stiff one."
- Writer
