I called Kristen on the phone and she immediately switched to video chat.
“You haven't heard from him at all?” I ask.
Kristen, a beautiful girl with intelligent deep eyes, shakes her head.
I can't tell if she's lying. I don't know her well enough, so I decide to put it all out there.
“As you know, we met because I had to interview him for an article, but then the second one came out and I had not authorized its publication.”
“What do you mean?”
“Basically, I sent the notes over to a friend and she told my boss who arranged them into a story. They did that because they knew that I didn't want any of that printed.”
“Can they do that?” Kristen gasps. “I mean, legally.”
“I have no idea,” I say, “but the story is out there and I think that the reason why Liam is not getting back to me is because he thinks that I betrayed him.”
I watch Kristen's eyes move from side to side as she reads and I know that she is searching for the articles.
“You can read them later,” I finally say. “I have to find him. Are you sure you don't know where he is?”
“No, absolutely not,” she says. She looks up from the screen and the expression on her face falls. “I will be able to find him now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You mentioned where he lived. It's a really small town, less than five hundred people. It won’t take a criminal mastermind to find someone in a place like that.”
I swallow hard as a wave of guilt washes over me. I wish that there were something I could do, but what? I have called his sister and now what?
“If he does reach out to you, can you please tell him that I'm sorry? I know that it’s not all my fault, but it sort of is. I should have never written those notes. I should have never sent them to my friend. I shouldn’t have put him in that much danger.”
Kristen was the one who told me about why Liam had left in the first place. She was the one who told me about her uncle being involved in organized crime, more like being the head mob boss and Liam running away and changing his identity had everything to do with the trial that he testified at.
“You need to be careful,” Kristen says.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
She tilts her head to one side, supported by her hand. Somewhere in the distance I hear the sound of a motor running and I see the baby in the egg-shaped swing, rocking back and forth, blissfully asleep.
“I shouldn’t talk about this, but you need to know. The people that Liam is running away from are serious and deadly. They don't play around.”
“What would they want with me?”
“You are his girlfriend. They can use you as a pawn to get to him.”
“I don't know where he is though.”
“Then they can use you as a lure.”
I shake my head, not wanting to believe what she's saying.
“It happened already. That's why he was so careful. Did he tell you about his girlfriend, Allison Shuman?”
I shake my head.
“They were in love. They were together for a year or so. Then he testified at the trial. She disappeared that night, after his testimony was complete. At first, they wanted a ransom. He paid them over a hundred grand in cash, but they didn’t return her alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“They returned her in pieces. Somebody had dropped the suitcase off in front of his door. When he opened it, he realized that it was her.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper, covering my mouth with my hand.
“Of course, they never found out who did it. The cameras were conveniently not working at that time and my uncle denied all responsibility.”
“What about the police?”
“They had their suspicions, but they have no proof. No fingerprints and no videotape evidence of anyone dropping it off. She just vanished one day and then after the ransom was paid, she was returned.”
I shake my head and my mouth goes dry. I lick my lips and run my tongue over the dry flaky pieces, trying to give them some moisture, but it doesn't work.
“My poor brother,” Kristen continues. “He has to live with the fact that he basically paid for his girlfriend to be killed and chopped up. He thought that paying that ransom would get her back, but it didn't. It got her back, but dead.”
“I'm really sorry,” I say, swallowing hard and feeling a tickle at the back of my throat, the beginning of a cough.
“I'm telling you all this because you have to be smart. Those articles connect you to him. Bad people want him dead and if they can't find him, they’ll look for you. Hell, they may look for you anyway.”
“I don't know where Liam is. He won’t call me back. He won’t get back to me. I don't even know if he's getting any of my messages. Maybe he has already changed phones.”
“Maybe,” Kristen says. “That would have been the smart thing to do.”
I'm not sure what to say. I shake my head and try to formulate a plan, but all I see before me is a suitcase with my chopped up body in it.
“You need to take care of yourself, Emma. Liam is probably long gone. The reason why he’s not calling you back is that he doesn't want to have a connection with you anymore. There are articles out there and he's just a sitting duck. I hope that he already has a new name and a new life somewhere else. He's a smart guy. He has always had a good head on his shoulders.”
“I have to apologize to him,” I plead. “I have to explain. This was a mistake.”
“Emma,” Kristen says, leaning closer to the screen. “This isn't about your story anymore. He's mad at you about it, but it's in the past. He's not getting in touch with you because he's angry, he's not getting in touch with you because he wants you both to live.”
My heart sinks into my stomach.
“So, what do I do now?” I whisper.
“You have to forget all about him. You have to move on with your life. Get a security camera and maybe even a gun. You don't walk alone at night and maybe you even move to a place where it would be harder for someone to get you.”
After hanging up, I sit in my chair and stare at the screen, unsure of what to do. Out of habit I make notes about the conversation on my laptop.
When I write down what she said about Allison Shuman, chills run down my spine. I type her name into Google and watch as the articles about the mysterious body of a woman chopped up and placed into a duffel bag showing up.
Initially, she was not identified and was referred to only as a Jane Doe. Later on, a few journalists speculated about the connection between Allison and the man whose doorstep she showed up on but, of course, nothing is certain.
There are only allegations. Others state that it would be ridiculous for him to murder her and then find her body on his own doorstep, but it nevertheless adds suspicion to his testimony against his uncle.
One article I stumble on has an excerpt from the trial transcript in which Liam is denying killing her. I only see the words in black and white, but I can practically feel his rage.
How dare they accuse him of killing a woman he loved when they are the ones that did it?
How dare you take the life of an innocent just to hurt him?