Pop Life

Chapter 28

Prince and I spend most of the day at Paisley before we decided to attempt to do something productive. We spent hours on the couch watching tv and eating candy. We really didn't do much talking until after we were done doing nothing. It was a little after 7pm when finally made conversation.

  "Soooo......about yesterday." I asked him as I unwrapped a tootsie roll and put it in my mouth.

  "Yesterday was just insane."

  "You wanna fill me in sir?"

  "Do you really wanna know?"

  "Yes Nelson I'm dying to know!"

  "Well where do I begin. We had a breech in security. Somehow somebody cut the chains off the gate and made their way onto the grounds."

  "How? There's cameras all over this place!"

  "That's what we can't figure out. From the footage the guys were doing their job. They were at their usual posts. So how the creep got by is beyond me."

  "You think it could be an inside job?"

  "Couldn't have been. You could see what everyone was doing on camera."

  "Maybe Paisley is haunted!"

He gave me a look of disbelief.

  "I don't believe in ghosts." Prince said raising his eyebrow.

I took another piece of candy from the table and tossed it to him.

  "Catch Skip!" I said as he caught it.

  "So anyway. My staff thinks that I'm gonna start firing people. Not the case. These guys have never had a slip up happen on their watch. This had to have happened on a night when I sent everybody home."

I started thinking back to recent events. That's when I started to connect the figurative dots.

  "Prince? I think it's René."

He laughed.

  "What? No way! She might be crazy but she ain't stupid."

  "No Prince I'm serious! It might be René!"

"What makes you believe that?"

  "The last few times you had the house clear out was when I've been here. Think about it. Your guys didn't notice the chain was cut until they got here the next morning. So that chain was cut the night before your party."

  "Regan come on you can't possibly......"

  "Come on Nelson something's telling me I'm right. The night of your party when Tricky found me up here I had a feeling that something was going down and I couldn't figure out why. Then before that René showed up after you sent the receptionist home. The last guard to leave was the one who had let the pizza guy leave. And if you saw him on camera at some point he wouldn't have been cutting a chain."

My theory was beginning to get the wheels in Prince's head turning. He ran his left hand through his hair and began to think.

  "What if your actually right?" He asked.

  "Didn't you say once that to make everyone leave their keys?" I asked.

  "Yeah I do. Just so they don't get stolen."

  "We're everyone's keys accounted for?"

  "Of course they were. Everybody has to sign their sets of keys and badges in and out at the desk. All the signatures were there we checked."

He stood up from the couch and began pacing.

  "What are we missing? Something is not adding up!" He replied frustrated.

  "It's not adding up because your missing René! Prince I'm telling you it's her I can feel it!" I said.

He stopped pacing and looked at me. He could tell I was serious and was getting worried.

  "You know what you might me right." He said. He sat down on the floor next to the couch with his knees to his chest.

  "That day when you took her down in the bedroom we never figured out how she got in and found me."

  "Did you see her in the hallway or something?"

  "No I never saw her! I was coming up to see you! I opened the door when it slammed behind me. I thought it was you who came up and kissed me but it was her! Oh my god!"

  "What? What's the matter?"

  "You were in the bathroom that whole time when that happened."

  "Yeah I know but-"

  "She never left."

  "You're starting to scare me what are you talking about?"

  "She was in the room with you."

I felt a huge lump in my throat and my body went numb.

  "Prince?"

  "She was in the room with us the whole night and into the next day."

Now I was panicking. René was watching us the whole night and we lived through it.

  "Where could she had hidden without being seen?" I asked worried.

  "My guess would be the bedroom across the hall."

He stood up and grabbed the phone and began to dial a number.

  "Hey do me a solid get all the staff to the knowledge room now! Thanks."

He took me by the hand and lead me out to the hall.

  "Regan listen to me. Go and pack a bag for the weekend. I'll have a car take you home. Don't leave from there until I get there."

  "Prince what's going on?"

  "Until we find her it's not safe to be here. She might be dangerous."

  "Well gee Prince ya think?"

  "Regan it's not funny I'm not fooling around!"

Prince was really upset. I was too but I didn't mean to make it worse.

  "I'm sorry I just......I don't want to leave you right now!"

  "I'll be fine. Just please go home. I'll feel better knowing that your safe with you mom. When I'm done here I'll meet you down at First Avenue."

  "Why not my house?"

  "I don't want to take that chance. I'll have guys follow you home just to be safe."

We left the hall and went down to the lobby where he had called for a car. When it arrived we went outside. The driver came around and opened the door. He gave me a hug and and kiss and sent me on my way. I could tell he was worried. The car pulled away and he stood in the same place until we couldn't see each other anymore. I sure hope he knows what he's doing.