If Only She'd Loved Him

Chapter 11

Friday 5:15 pm

Quirking an eyebrow in Jean's direction, Matt moved the vodka bottle out of the reach of her trembling hands. Another shot, and she'd be telling him that her roommate had been abducted by little green men from Mars.

"Jean," he said, "this is pretty unbelievable.  Things like this just don't happen.  Are you sure about what went on that night?"

"Yes, of course I am!  I was there!" Jean's tenuous hold on her control snapped.  "Megan's in real trouble and no one but me seems to care!"

He decided to humor her.  Maybe when she actually listened to what she was saying, she'd realize how ridiculous it all sounded.  "Look, just try and calm down."  Jean took a deep breath, slowly let it out.  "Good, now tell me the details again," he said.  "Slowly this time, hopefully this will make some kind of sense then.  Start with what happened after you got home."

Reluctantly Jean sat back down.  "It was weird.  Megan and I had just come back from the Game—"

Matt interrupted her.  "Hold it.  You mean that thing where a bunch of you run around at night and shoot each other with water guns.  You two are into that?"  His eyebrow raised another notch in surprise.

"Yeah," Jean defended her nocturnal activity, "it's a great stress remover."

"You've got to be kidding me.   Megan's so—" he hesitated before continuing, "well she's not quiet, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing she'd do."

"You know my roommate, how well?" 

"Point taken." Matt nodded. He returned to playing detective.  "Let's get back to this game you two play.  Is it possible that whoever Megan left with that night is still playing it?"

"No, the Game's over for term."

"So if what you're saying is true, either someone doesn't want your game to end or someone knows your roommate well enough to make it look like that," Matt reasoned out loud, getting more intrigued as he listened.  "Either way, tell me what else happened that night."

"When Megan and I got home, someone was waiting for us inside."

"Inside your apartment?"  That was a little more serious. He had thought Megan had left with someone who had been waiting for her on her front porch. "Did they break in?" he demanded.  Suddenly Jean didn't sound quite so nuts.

"No, there were no signs of a break in, which leads me back to your roommate.  He was the only other person with a key to our apartment," she accused.  Matt didn't deny it.

"A key which Megan gave him." 

"Whatever, anyway whoever this guy was," Jean's tone made it clear to Matt she had no doubt who had been inside.  "Whoever he was, he hit me!  He hit me when I tried to turn on the lights."

"Hit you?"

"Yeah, on the arm.  So I got mad.  I mean here Megan was giggling, since she thought her stupid boyfriend was just screwing around, and it was obvious what was going to happen next.  I didn't want to listen to them suck face, so I went to bed."

"So you never actually saw this guy take Megan by force?"

"Well, uh no," Jean admitted, "but she's gone.  I haven't seen her since that night.  And since the last person I saw her with had a voice that sounded, coincidentally enough, exactly like your roommate, perhaps," her voice glittered, "just perhaps, you don't know Paul as well as you think you do."

Matt stood up.  "I don't think you know the guy at all, Jean, but I have a feeling you're not going to go away until this gets settled.  So let's find Haverson up at the field.  He can tell you  you have an overactive imagination and that wherever Megan is, she's doing fine."