The Scent of the Blueberry -- 13

The weak Winter sun tried its hardest to stream though the passenger window as Evelyn struggled back from the scent. She tried to reach the throbbing part of her head but, when she lifted her right hand to touch the spot, her left hand came with it. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was sitting in the passenger seat of the Corolla – metal cuffs on her wrists connected by a 6-inch chain which was itself connected to an 18-inch chain that fastened her ankles. The seat belt and shoulder harness completed the restraint. “Oh,” she moaned.

“Sorry about the restraints,” Michel said from the driver’s seat. You obviously didn’t believe the explanation that I gave you back at the apartment. It was all true – I swear that it’s all true – but I couldn’t take the chance that you might do something. . . do something stupid while I’m driving. You understand, don’t you?”

“I understand that my head hurts like hell.” She was back to full croak mode.

Michel smiled. “You can’t blame me for that one. That was entirely your doing, slipping and falling on the ice like that.” Evelyn closed her eyes. “Maybe I wouldn’t have believed me either,” he admitted. “I guess I can’t blame you for trying to run away – so we’re back to the manacles for now.”

“For how long?”

“We’ll see. I think that the ones on your wrists can come off when we stop. The ones on your ankles may have to stay for a while. It’s just that you can’t seem to trust me, and I can’t seem to trust you to trust me.”

“My head hurts. Don’t make everything so complicated.”

Right, he thought. I wish this whole situation were as simple as it was supposed to be.

“Where are we, Michel?’

“You’ve been out cold for about an hour. We’re out of the city.” Evelyn really looked out her window for the first time – bare trees, with mountains in the background. She looked around – not a lot of other cars.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see. I hope you feel up for a hike – we can’t drive all the way.”

The drive passed quickly. Evelyn seemed to perk up a bit as time went on – her head probably felt better, and the immediate cognitive effects of the blueberry scent were wearing off. And she didn’t make any further attempts to escape. For his part, Michel took care to obey the speed limit. He did not want to risk the opportunity of explaining his chained companion to a state trooper.

Finally she said, “Michel, do you have any money?”

“Why?”

“Well, I didn’t have the chance to get to the ATM yesterday. You can’t usually get very far without money.”

Michel looked at her. “That’s funny. I don’t remember seeing an ATM card in your apartment.”

“It was most certainly there. If I didn’t have people pawing all through my things, I might be able to find them. It wasn’t like it was there for you to see anyway.”

“Okay, point taken. Sorry. Don’t worry about money.”

They were both quiet for a few minutes. Finally Evelyn said, “So how far are we from a rest room.”

“A rest room?”

“Yes, a rest room. I have to go.”

“We’ll be stopping in a few more minutes.”

And, true to his word, they did. Michel hit the right-hand directional signal – who he was signaling to was anyone’s guess, Evelyn thought, since she hadn’t seem another car for at least 20 minutes, and headed down a dirt road for about half a mile into the woods. The road dead-ended in a meadow.

Michel turned to at her and handed her roll of toilet paper. “You have your choice of about 50 million trees to kill.”

“Thanks a lot.” She unbuckled the seat belt, opened the door and shuffled to the nearest tree.

When she had finished, she shuffled back to the car. “I suspect that there isn’t anyone around for at least what? Maybe 30 miles?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe,” she echoed. “Makes a girl feel pretty safe, you know? Makes her feel that she might not need so much protection – at least, not from a guy who tells her how he isn’t going to hurt her, then knocks her out twice, ties her to a bed, then throws her in a car, shackled hand and foot, and drives her off into the woods. I mean, with that kind of protection, a girl gets to thinking that maybe she’d be safer,” she turned to him, “in a tank full of pirhana.”

“Yeah, okay. I know, I know. But aren’t you leaving out one important detail?”

“And that would be?”

“Allen.”

Evelyn shuddered. “Yes, Allen. But who is Allen? Or, at least, what is Allen’s connection to me? This enemy of yours – of yours, not mine – uses me as a pretext to find Allen’s address in your pocket – then goes to kill him. I mean, I am sorry about your friend, Michel but, even if all of this is true, exactly how does any of this affect me? Seems to me that the only way I’m in danger is if this enemy of yours finds me next to you.” Evelyn lifted her hands to rattle the chains demonstrably. “And if he finds me like this, I really will be up shit creek without a paddle.”

Michel took a deep breath. “Evelyn, do you really suppose that it was a coincidence that we met in the bar that night, or that I moved into an apartment upstairs from yours, or even that we modeled together that night?

“No,” she said (croaked) evenly. “I don’t think that it was a coincidence at all. You’ve been stalking me.”

Michel shook his head. “We can’t stay here all day and hash this out. I’ll try to explain it to you on the way.”

Evelyn looked around. “On the way where? This is a dead-end.”

“From here we walk.”

Evelyn objected that the hike would be easier without the shackles. Michel reasoned that there was little that she could do to hurt him, but that she might waste valuable time by trying to run away again. So he removed everything but the ankle restraints – deciding that they would enable her to hike, but not to run. Of course, she objected – saying that, if she were truly in danger, she might find herself in the position where she might have to run from the “bad guys” ( a term you used with more than a slight trace of sarcasm), but Michel knew better.

“So you know all about me.” Evelyn had been walking in front of Michel for about 10 minutes.

“No. Not all about you.”

“Have you been following me?”

“No.”

“Did you read the letters from my sister, Karen? The ones that were in the drawer?”

“Yes,” he admitted. He had read them before she had, of course, but didn’t see the need to offer that tidbit of information.

“And you know what I told you in the bar.”

“Yes.” So where was this going?

“So you know all this stuff about me. Not very attractive, is it? So I’m in danger. I need to be protected. I didn’t hire you – you’re not a cop. I don’t think you’re my guardian angel. So why would you care?”

“It’s my job.”

“Come again?” she said quickly.

“It’s my job.”

“Explain.”

Michel didn’t say anything.

“Explain. In what way am I your job? Are you saying that someone hired you to do this to me? That all of this is about somebody paying you money to do this to me?”

“No,” he sighed. “It isn’t like that at all.

“It isn’t like that at all,” she echoed. “Well, then. Exactly what is it like?” You heard me – what is it like?” Silence. “Dammit, mister, you owe me some answers!”

“Okay, okay. It’s just that you haven’t believed a single word that I’ve said to you so far. I can give you answers – all the answers you want – but I don’t really think that you’re going to believe them anymore than you’ve believed anything so far. So what’s the point?”

Silence. “Okay, that’s true enough. Maybe I wouldn’t believe you. Or maybe I’d believe you if you said something believable.”

Silence. “Michel?”

“What?”

“You know all this stuff about me. All this stuff. What about you? You said that this is your job – that you were hired to do this. I don’t think this has anything to do about modeling. What exactly do you do?”

“At this point, I provide security.”

“So you’re like a security guard?”

“No, it’s like security in the broad sense. A long time ago I was in the military, but there seems to be more of an opportunity to get involved with things on a case-by-case basis, as opposed to full-fledged wars.” Michel paused. “Sometimes it involves working as a bodyguard – which is pretty much what I’m doing here.”

“The protection thing.”

“Yes, the protection thing. And sometimes it involves training, or providing advice, or interfacing with other members of a given team.”

“Like Allen?”

“Like Allen.”

“Had you known Allen for a long time?”

“Oh, yes – in a sense.” Silence. “A while back, you asked me if I was religious.”

“Did I?”

“Yes, you did. I think you could say that I am. One thing that I don’t know about you – are you religious?

“What do you mean?” Evelyn asked sharply.