Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 155

Time was of the essence, for multiple reasons. The deadline to respond to the ransom was in twenty minutes but, more importantly, it wouldn’t be long before Charles and the cops realized she’d made a break for it. She knew the moment her brothers and Gilbert heard about it her freedom would be short lived.

Vivian took the stairs two at a time, flying down three flights to burst onto the ground floor. It took all her self control to calmly walk through the hospital lobby and out the front door. Running would only attract attention.

Once outside, she looked around. The parking lot was full, and there were some people around, but not many. She knew what had to be done; how she planned on pulling it off was the tricky part. This was when she caught sight of the city bus pulling up to the stop located in front of the hospital.

“Perfect,” she muttered as she ran to catch the bus. Vivian had what was left of Tyrell’s money, though it wasn’t much, and used some of it to pay her fare before settling in to a seat. “C’mon, let’s go,” she muttered to herself, leg shaking with nerves as she kept an eye on the hospital’s entrance. It didn’t look like they’d noticed she hadn’t gone to the bathroom. The longer that took, the more distance she could put between them.

The bus stuttered before pulling into traffic, much to her relief. Leaning back in her seat, Vivian looked out the window to her left and tried to figure out how she was going to pull this off before the deadline.

The plan was to get to the library and use one of the computers there to respond to the email. She also needed to make a fake email for herself, of course. One that would tell Paul it was her responding and not her family.

As for how Vivian knew the email address Paul had used, she’d memorized it when Charles had allowed her to read the ransom demand. It hadn’t been difficult; the address was made from the initials of her birth name, followed by eight numbers — numbers that reflected her date of birth. All she had to do to verify her identity to him was to invert the email address — birthday, then initials. Simple.

The real problem was that she’d never been to the library, which meant she had no idea where it was located, and had no phone of her own to look it up. Her best option now was to get off the bus and ask someone on the street. Staying on this bus line risked Gilbert finding her too fast; blending into the city crowd and hopping around should make her trail a bit more difficult to follow.

As the bus pulled up to its next stop, Vivian stood and joined the passengers who disembarked. Looking around, Vivian wondered who she should approach about asking for directions, when something red caught her eye. She had to take a second look to believe what she was seeing.

A red power ranger helmet.

Before she knew it, Vivian’s legs were moving her in that direction, bumping into a number of people on the way. She worried the helmet wouldn’t belong to who she hoped, or that he’d leave before she could make contact.

“Jacques?” She called out once there were only a dozen or so feet separating them.

The person wearing the helmet looked up before turning to face her way. It looked like he’d stopped to check his phone, which he set on his bike before flipping up the visor. “Vivian? What are you…?”

“I need your help,” she told him, skipping the usual socially acceptable greetings and getting right to the point. “You and Gilbert… You aren’t actually that close, right?”

Jacques stared at her for a few seconds before responding. “Something like that, yeah…”

“So if I asked you not to tell him what I’m doing, could I trust you to not say anything? Or would you report back to him the second you could.”

Laughter, muffled by the helmet, reached Vivian’s ears as the man’s shoulders shook from it. “You heard our talk last night, right? I told him not to underestimate you. Something tells me… he did just that, and you took advantage of it.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Vivian’s mouth. He wasn’t wrong; she had taken advantage of the fact they trusted her to do as they said. Adults — no, people in general — always ended up expecting her to comply because, for the most part, she did. She always followed the rules, didn’t lie, hated causing problems or drama… She was the perfect kid, for the most part. This trust, gained from her consistent responses to those giving the orders, created a blind spot, of which she could take advantage if needed.

*They’d made up their mind without including me in the discussion*, she reminded herself. *It’s my life. It’s my choice. And they tried to take that away from me*. “I need your help, but you can’t tell Gilbert or anyone else about it.”

“Sure thing,” Jacques nodded without hesitation, still laughing as he handed her the blue ranger helmet. “Hop on.”

“Thanks.” Vivian pulled on the helmet, tightened chin strap, then climbed on behind the man.

“Where to?”

“I need a phone, or computer, and free internet.”

“You’re making this too easy,” he told her, and she could picture the wicked grin that had to be on his face as he revved the engine.

They flew through traffic — that’s how it felt to Vivian, anyway — for a few minutes before Jacques pulled up to a small corner store. “Stay here,” he told her as he got off the bike. “I’ll be right back. One minute, tops. Count it out.”

*Count it out? Okay…* Vivian began to mentally count down from sixty, because she couldn’t think of a reason why doing it would hurt. The man reappeared when she had ten numbers left.

“Voilà,” he said, presenting her with a cheap phone and a red jacket made from nylon. “A phone for yours truly, and something to wear so they won’t recognize you right away.”

“How much was it?” She asked, reaching into her pocket for what was left of Tyrell’s money, only for Jacques to place a hand on her arm.

“Don’t. You’re sticking one to my old man, and letting me be a part of it. This is the least I could do. Now, let’s find you some free wifi. You hungry?”

“Hungry?” She echoed, pulling on the jacket as Jacques swung back onto the bike.