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CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

GARRET

Jade and I pick up some sandwiches for dinner and take them to the park. It’s more crowded than before so I’m unable to talk Jade into the outdoor sex. It’s too bad. I like doing it outside. I’ll have to entice her into it some Sunday with my strawberry-lemon pancakes.

When we get home, Jade packs her backpack for class. She’s like a little kid. She takes it so seriously. She puts pens and pencils in the little slots in the front of the backpack, then packs extras in a zippered pouch. Then she opens another zippered pouch and tosses in a calculator and a protractor.

“Why are you bringing a protractor?”

“Because it’s a mathematical supply,” she says, as if that should make sense.

“Those are for geometry. You’re taking calculus.”

“I still should have one.”

“You’re not going to use a protractor, Jade. You’re not going to be measuring angles.”

“Maybe not, but I need the calculator.”

“What does that have to do with the protractor?”

She sighs and points to the pouch. “This is the mathematical supply pouch. I can’t just have a calculator in there and nothing else.”

“Why not?”

“Because then it wouldn’t be a supply pouch. It would just be a calculator pouch and that doesn’t make sense.”

I give up trying to understand her logic and watch her fill up another pouch, this time with miniature Kleenex packets, some lip balm, several headbands, hand lotion, some aspirin, cough drops, and after that I lose track of what she’s tossing in there.

“Jade, why are you bringing all that shit to class?”

“You have to have this stuff in case something happens.”

“Like what? A hair emergency? Dry lips? You suddenly develop a cold in the middle of a 50-minute class?”

“Yes, those are all possibilities,” she says very seriously. “What’s in your backpack?”

I motion to it. “Take a look.”

She picks it up and sets it on the kitchen table. Inside I have my laptop and the one book I need for tomorrow.

“You haven’t packed it yet.”

“It’s packed and ready to go.” I yawn and stretch out on the couch.

“There’s nothing in here. Where are your notebooks and pens?”

“I don’t use that stuff. I take notes on the laptop.”

“What if your battery dies?”

“I’ll charge it. Hey, could you throw the cord in there? That’s what I forgot to pack.”

Jade appears in front of me, holding my backpack. “Garret, I can’t let you go to class like this. You need supplies. You want some Kleenex?”

I laugh as I imagine myself sitting in class, pulling out one of those tiny packets. Yeah. Not gonna happen. “No, Jade. I’m not bringing those.”

“What if you have to blow your nose?”

“I’ll go to the bathroom and do it.”

“You can’t just get up and leave during class.”

“Sure I can. I did it all the time last year.”

“At least let me put some pens in here. I have extras.”

“I know you do, but I don’t need one.”

Jade has a ton of pens. She pretends it’s a collection but it’s really just a bunch of freebie pens she picks up at various locations. Frank and Ryan bought her some better ones last year and she guards them with her life. I don’t dare use them because I always lose pens and she’d kill me if I lost one. For Christmas I’ve decided I’m going to buy her an assortment of nice pens so she’ll toss out those freebie ones that never work.

”I’m going to put a pen in here, just so you’ll have it.”

“Okay, Jade. If it makes you feel better, go ahead.”

I watch as she returns to the table with my backpack and starts searching through her pen box for just the right one. This is more entertaining than watching TV.

“Were you always this way?” I ask her.

“What way?”

“Do you always pack like this for class?”

“Usually, but I didn’t last semester and it was a complete disaster. I went to the first day of class totally unprepared and it was all your fault.”

“What did I do?”

“You kept luring me to your room for sex and because of that, I didn’t get myself organized for class.”

“I don’t think that was my fault.”

She finally picks a pen and sticks it in one of the pen slots in my backpack. “It was totally your fault.”

“How so?”

She sighs and looks over at me. “Like you don’t know this already? You’re really hot. And you smell good. It’s completely distracting. I’m lucky I got anything done last year.” She unzips one of the pouches on the front of my backpack. “You still need more supplies, Garret. You want some cough drops?”

She’s so serious about it, I have to laugh. “I don’t want any cough drops.”

“At least we see each other between classes. I can loan you stuff if you need it. Hey, you’re taking accounting. That’s a math class, which means you’ll need a calculator. And you don’t have one. Ha! I told you you weren’t packed.”

“I’ll use my phone. It has a calculator app and so does my laptop.”

She comes over and slumps down beside me. “Okay, I think I’m done.”

“You didn’t pack your laptop or your books. The two most important things.”

“Damn!” She bolts up. “I knew I forgot something.”

I’m laughing again. I should’ve got this on video.

Now that the Jade show is over, I pick up the remote to watch some TV. Before I turn it on, someone knocks on the door. It’s several hard, fast knocks.

I get up, glancing back at Jade. Nobody ever comes to the door so this is strange. The knocking starts again. Any normal person would just answer the door but I don’t have a normal life. I’m always watching my back, expecting trouble. I look out the window and see a cop car.

“It’s the cops,” I say quietly to Jade. She meets me at the door but I step in front of her and open the door just a crack. An older guy with white hair is standing there. He’s wearing his uniform.

“Can I help you?” I ask him.

“Yes, I want to talk to you about an incident in the area.”

“Can I see your badge?”

He has a jacket on and it’s covering his badge. He seems annoyed, but moves his jacket aside just enough to give me a quick flash of the badge.

“I need to look at it, please.”

He sighs and takes his jacket off.

I inspect the badge. It seems legit. “So what do you need?”

“Can I come inside?”

“We’ll come out there.” I step outside with Jade right behind me.

I don’t want this guy in our home. I don’t trust cops. I never have. I’ve seen them abuse their power on more than one occasion and I know how easily they can be bought off. My dad pays them off all the time. I’ve even witnessed it.

The guy does the typical wide-legged cop stance with his arms crossed over his chest. “I don’t know if you heard, but there was an incident at your neighbor’s house last night. They were robbed.”

“What neighbor?”

“The people who live in that yellow one.” He points to the house that’s three down from ours. “Do you know them?”

“No, we’ve never met them.”

“They weren’t home at the time. They were away for the Labor Day weekend. The incident happened around 7. The guy broke in and cleared out the electronics and took some watches and jewelry along with some cash.”

“Did you catch him?”

“Yes, we apprehended the suspect at a gas station not far from here.”

I almost laugh. Whenever cops say things like ‘apprehended the suspect’ I always think they sound like some bad actor on a cop show.

“How did you know it was him?” Jade asks the cop.

“A couple kids saw the guy carrying some items out of the house and they knew he didn’t live there so they had their parents call us. The kids gave us a description of the guy’s car and one of our officers found it at a gas station just outside of town.”

“What did the car look like?” I ask him.

“White Toyota Camry. About 10 years old. Has a dent on the driver’s side. That’s why I’m here. I wondered if you’d seen it driving around. We think this guy might’ve been planning several burglaries in the area.”

“I think I—”

I interrupt Jade. “No. We didn’t see anything.”

The cop nods, his eyes darting from Jade back to me. “So I hear you’re Pearce Kensington’s son.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“It’s a small town. Word spreads fast.” He points to the roof. “Plus, with a security system like that, it’s clear you have money. You’re almost making yourself more of a target with all these cameras.”

“And why is that?”

“When criminals see this, they’ll assume you have valuables you’re trying to protect.” He glances at Jade. “Or people you need to protect.”

I don’t like the way he said that. Or the way he looked at Jade just now.

“Are we done here?” I step in front of Jade.

“Yes. But keep in mind that the guy who robbed your neighbors could have friends. I suggest you keep your place locked up, even when you’re home.” He turns to leave. “Have a good evening.”

“Wait. Do you have a card?”

He hesitates, then takes one from his wallet and hands it to me. “Goodnight.”

As he leaves I follow Jade back in the house, locking the door behind us.

“That’s really scary,” Jade says. “That could’ve been us, Garret. I bet that guy would’ve robbed us if we didn’t have all the cameras outside.”

“At least they caught him.” I check the window to make sure the cop’s gone.

“Why were you so rude to that guy?”

“I wasn’t rude. I was just making sure he was a real cop. Bad people impersonate cops all the time so you always have to check their badge. And even if it’s a real cop, you can’t always trust them. There are a lot of bad cops out there.”

“Why did you lie to him? Why didn’t you tell him we saw that car?”

“I don’t want us to be called in for questioning. I want to stay out of it.” I bring her over to the couch to sit down.

“Do you think he’s right about the security cameras? Does it make us more of a target?”

“No. If it did, that guy would’ve robbed us instead of the neighbors. And besides, everyone who lives on this beach is rich. They all have expensive shit. Criminals know that. It’s not a secret.” I hand her the remote. “Let’s watch TV.”

I need to get Jade’s mind off this. I know it’s freaking her out. It’s freaking me out, too. That guy was hanging around our place just last week. He definitely would’ve robbed us if we didn’t have the security cameras. And what if he’d done it while Jade was home and I wasn’t? What if the cop is right and the guy does have friends?

“I’ll take you to class tomorrow,” I say, as she flips through the channels.

“Why? I thought you were sleeping in.”

“I don’t need to. We both have afternoon classes so it’ll work out better this way anyway. We can ride home together. We don’t need two cars on campus.”

“Okay.” She positions herself in her spot under my arm.

“You’re going to fall asleep if you lay there.”

“No, I won’t.”

A few minutes later, she’s out cold.

* * *

The next day, I drop her off at class, then go to a coffee shop near campus. I get out my laptop and take that card the cop gave me and search online to make sure he’s a real cop. He is. His name is listed as being on the local police force. But that doesn’t make me feel better.

Something about that guy bugged me. It was the way he looked at Jade and that comment he made, insinuating that she needed protection. And then he hesitated to give me his card, like he didn’t want me to know his name.

I get my phone out and call my dad. I haven’t talked to him since last Saturday. I’m sure he’s busy at work and won’t pick up but I’ll leave a message.

“Hello, Garret,” he answers.

“Hey. I thought you’d be in a meeting or something.”

“I’m working from home this morning. Katherine had to go out so I’m watching Lilly.”

“Did you do anything for Labor Day?”

“We went to your grandparents’ house. I was hoping to have a quiet day here at home and have Charles grill out like he did on the Fourth of July, but my father insisted we go to his house.”

“Which means you didn’t get a cookout.”

He laughs. “Can you imagine your grandfather eating food cooked on an outdoor grill? Or eating outside?”

“So what did you end up having?”

“A formal dinner, as usual.”

“Why did he invite you over? You don’t usually go there on Labor Day.”

“He wanted to tell me some news.”

“What news?”

“Are you someplace private? Is anyone listening to this? Is Jade with you?”

“Jade’s in class. I’m at a coffee shop but nobody’s around me. Tell me what he said.”

“Your grandfather is getting a promotion.”

My mind immediately thinks of Kensington Chemical but that doesn’t make sense. He owns the place. And he’s retired. Then I get it. He’s being promoted in the organization.

“Garret? Are you there?”

“Yes. So how much of a promotion?”

He sighs. “All the way to the top. Same level as Roth.”

This isn’t a good thing. Being at the top means making decisions. Big decisions. The kind that affect millions of people. I don’t know what those decisions are, but I assume they’re not good. My grandfather always talks about making sacrifices. He’s always saying how only a few people can be leaders because most people aren’t strong enough to make the tough calls that need to be made for the greater good.

When I heard him say those things in the past, I always thought he was talking about Kensington Chemical. I thought he was referring to how hard it is to find good managers, people who are willing to fire employees who aren’t performing. But now I realize that wasn’t what he meant.

It makes sense that he would be promoted like this. He’s exactly the type of person they need at the top. He’s someone who can always find a way to justify doing bad things. So I see why they picked him. I’m just surprised they would, given how I acted last year.

I ask my dad about it. “Why would they choose him after what happened with me last spring? He had to have lost some respect among the members.”

“I wondered the same thing, but apparently they put all the blame on me. They assume I wasn’t strict enough with you. My father has given them a multitude of reasons why you acted that way and they all come back to me.”

“So he threw you under the bus to make himself look good.”

“Yes, but it’s true. Your behavior had nothing to do with him. If anything, they should be blaming him for how I turned out.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything out of line, at least not that they know of.”

“Everyone knows about my involvement with your mother. That was a huge embarrassment to my father. That’s why after I married her, he pretended I didn’t exist. But now that I think about it, doing that gave him some clout. It proved where his loyalties lie. Garret, we really shouldn’t be talking about this. Is there a reason you called me?”

“Yes. I wanted to tell you that some guy robbed one of the houses next to ours. It was that guy I told you about. The one in the white car who kept driving by our place. And Jade saw him last Saturday when she was out running.”

“Did they catch him?”

“Yeah. A cop came to our house last night and told us they got the guy. The cop was acting strange. He knew I was a Kensington and he told me the security cameras were making us a target for crime. It was almost like he was encouraging us to take them down.”

“Who is this man? Did you check him out?”

“Yes, and he’s on the force. I just wanted you to know what was going on in case anything happens.”

“Don’t talk like that. Nothing’s going to happen. Send me the officer’s name. I’ll do some more digging. It’s probably nothing to worry about. You know how those small town police are, always trying to scare people, make you think you need them around.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

“Garret, you need to talk to Jade about getting a gun. I know she’s opposed to the idea but you need to explain to her that being a Kensington means needing protection.”

“She’ll never go for that, Dad. She doesn’t like guns.”

“She needs to get over it. Explain to her how you can’t count on others for protection. She should know that after the incident with her father.”

It’s true. Royce walked right up to our property that day and killed our security guys. My dad and his gun were what saved Jade and me from being shot dead by Royce.

“I’ll talk to her.”

“I need to go. Good luck on your first day of classes. Tell Jade I said hello.”

“I will. Bye.”

As I set my phone down, I notice a text from Jade. Class ends at 9:30. Meet me outside the building.

I text back. Want a coffee?

She texts, Yes! Dying for one! Ur the best husband EVER!!

I text back. I know.

I’m sure she’s either laughing or rolling her eyes at that.

“Want a refill?”

I look up and see a girl holding a coffee pot. She’s small, a few inches shorter than Jade. At first I thought she was a kid. She has short black hair that’s angled to her chin and is wearing jeans and a red t-shirt with the coffee shop logo on it.

I look down and see that she filled my coffee cup before I could even answer. “I didn’t know you guys gave refills here.”

“It’s a new thing we’re trying. You get one refill, but if you order food you get unlimited refills. We have a whole breakfast menu if you’re interested.”

“No, thanks. I just ate, but maybe some other time.”

“We have lunch, too. Do you want to see the menu?”

She seems eager to show it to me so I say, “Sure. I’ll check it out.”

She reaches in the apron that’s around her waist and hands me a menu. “The tuna salad is really good. Actually all the sandwiches are. They’re served on homemade bread. We make it here every morning. I can bring you a sample if you want to try it.”

I smile at her. “You’re quite the salesperson. Are you related to the owner?”

“No.” Her cheeks blush. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be pushy. It’s just that business has been kind of slow and if it doesn’t improve, I’ll lose my job and I really need this job.” She cringes. “Forget I said that. I shouldn’t have told you about business being slow. Dammit!” She cringes again. “And I should NOT have just cursed in front of a customer. I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell my boss.”

“I won’t. It’s fine.” I give her the menu. “Maybe I’ll stop by for lunch sometime. You sold me with the homemade bread.”

Her shoulders relax. “Do you go to Camsburg?”

“Yeah, and I need to get going. I have class soon.”

“Maybe you could tell your friends to stop by for lunch?”

“Sure, I can do that.” I don’t bother to tell her I have no friends here.

The girl walks off and I put my laptop away and get up to leave. As I’m walking out, I go past the girl as she’s cleaning one of the tables. There’s a guy in a suit talking on his phone next to her. He swings his laptop bag over his shoulder and it knocks into the girl and the tray she’s holding. The coffee cups fly off the tray and hit the floor, shattering and making a loud noise.

The guy in the suit whips around. “Can’t you see I’m trying to talk here?” He storms outside.

The girl looks like she’s about to cry as she picks up the fragments of broken cups.

I kneel down to help her. “Hey, it’s just some cups, right?”

“What are you doing?” She keeps her head down, but I see a tear running down her cheek.

“I’m just trying to help. That guy was a total ass.”

“He comes in here all the time. He works at a law firm down the street. Sometimes they meet here before work.”

“A lawyer, huh? That explains it.”

She takes a towel from her apron and sweeps the mess away from me and toward her. “I got this. Really. Get to class.”

“You sure you’re all right? You seem really upset over a few broken coffee cups. I’m sure you have more around here.”

“We do.” She wipes her cheek. “But I have to pay for these. It comes out of my check.”

“Why?”

“That’s just the rules, okay? Would you please go before my boss sees you? I’ll get fired if she sees a customer cleaning up my mess.”

“Sorry.” I stand up and check my phone. There’s another text from Jade. Don’t forget the cream. Love you!

When I look down, the girl is gone. I notice she’s back at the counter, so I go up to her. “I forgot that I need a coffee to go. Can I get one quick? And if you could add cream to it, that’d be great.”

“Sure.” She’s flustered and her eyes are all red. She gets the coffee and sets it down on the counter near the register. “It’s $2 even.”

I pull out a $5 bill but don’t give it to her. “How much are the cups?”

“What?”

“How much do you owe for the coffee cups?”

“No, don’t. It’s fine.”

I put the $5 bill back in my wallet and take out a twenty and set it on the counter.

“Consider it a tip for good service.” I leave before she can give it back.

I normally don’t just give out money to strangers like that, but I feel really bad for that girl. I don’t know what her situation is, but I’ve never seen someone get so upset over broken coffee cups.