There's an almost palpable difference in the mood of the country after Labor Day. Kids are back in school and grownups seem to be putting in greater effort on the job. All the fun and frivolity of summer is past and it's time to get things done before the holidays distract us. Ana and I are both knee-deep in projects at work but by concentrating our energy and managing our resources well, we're able to stick to a seven or eight hour day, enabling us to enjoy our comfortable evening routine of dinner, Teddy time, and relaxation.
When I called Elliot about our project he suggested we have lunch next week; after checking schedules we decide on Thursday. Before we hang up, I tell him to find an architect other than Gia Matteo. Even though she has absolutely no effect on me, my wife has more to worry about than having to deal with her flirty mannerisms. Ana's put her in her place several times but I honestly think the woman doesn't even realize she's doing it. Elliot chuckles as he assures me he'll find someone else.
Ana's upped our babymaking game with nooners at Escala. Every morning around eleven we'll call or text our availability and if the schedules are good, we meet for an hour or two. So far it's worked out to an average of every other day. Sometimes we'll do plain vanilla and sometimes I'll make up a scene. It's still fun for us and I'm hoping it never gets to the point where it's a chore, something I've read about online after googling "infertility." Yes, I googled it, mainly in an effort to reassure myself that the amount of time it's taking us is normal (and yes, it is).
It's been well over a month since I've had a nighttime interruption. I'm beginning to think the whole episode has gone the way of summer and that's fine with me. If someone was playing a practical joke at my expense I hope they enjoyed the laugh because if I ever learn who was responsible, it may just be his (or her) last laugh.
Taylor's research into Larry Sordo and Gary Lesourd has pretty much reached a dead end. He and Ryan were able to scare up some old DMV records for both names and while the pictures look similar, it's hard to tell if they're the same person, especially since the images are somewhat grainy and not very recent. Ana thinks there's a resemblance to me but I'm really skeptical. Ryan thinks it's possible one or both are in a witness protection program but those records are extremely well protected and he hasn't found a way in, yet. Everyone's hoping the new project at the house will flush out Larry Sordo and we can see who he really is but I'm thinking it doesn't really matter.
So all in all, things are humming along just fine and of course, that's when fate turns around and kicks you in the balls. The night before my lunch with Elliot it happens again.
Middle C, G
Christian!
I don't know how many times she's called but as soon as my body registers it, I sit bolt upright. Shit! Just when I was thinking we were all done with this nonsense! I look at Ana and see that she's still asleep. Like the other times, the clock reads two-thirty. Putting on a pair of pajama pants, I quietly leave the room and quickly head downstairs, determined to put an end to this crap.
As soon as I enter the music room I see her in the usual spot, near the window. Like a bolt of lightning, a white-hot rage envelops me and I start screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" I am livid and all I want is to tear this place apart until I find the trickery that's been creating these illusions. I rush over there in blind fury planning to do I don't know what, thinking I'll just go right through her, she's a ghost, after all, when I run right smack into her, knocking her over.
I have a brief moment of panic, remembering all the other times we've come in contact, remembering how absolutely terrifying it was to have her touch me. But that evaporates in an instant and is immediately replaced with an overwhelming sense of peace and calm. She wraps her arms around me; there are no bad memories, no burning sensations, nothing like what I'd felt when she touched me before.
She moves into a sitting position and I'm sort of in her lap. Softly, as if from a distance, I hear her voice in my head, singing to me. It gradually gets louder but never more than a low crooning. The song is Moon River and I remember her singing it when I was little. Her voice is beautiful and it brings back happy memories; I actually smell chocolate cake. I'm in a zenlike state of serenity, better than any meditation or yoga I've done.
Strangely, the singing continues but she also starts talking to me, not out loud but in my head, both voices at the same time.
You need to be careful, baby boy. He'll be making his moves pretty soon.
There's a niggling amount of concern at the back of my mind but mostly I'm feeling like everything's going to be okay.
Remember this, baby boy, not everything is what it seems to be. Please be careful.
The singing gets louder and it's like a narcotic, so soothing, and her arms are around me and they seem to be filling me with strength. I sit there, entranced, curious about what she's told me but too serene to really worry about it.
Next thing I know, Ana is gently shaking me awake.
"Christian? Baby, are you okay?"
I'm curled up in a fetal position on the couch in the music room; a pillow is under my head. After a slow second or two of transition to wakefulness I pop into a sitting position and take in my surroundings. Ana sits down next to me and looks at me with concern.
"Was she back?"
I shake my head to clear the fuzzies and look at her, momentarily speechless. "I think so," is all I can stammer out right now. "What time is it?"
"It's five in the morning. I woke up and you weren't in bed so I went looking for you. This was the first place I looked. The door was open and you were sleeping peacefully here on the couch. Are you all right?" She takes one of my hands. I grab her and pull her closer to me, hugging her.
"Yes, I'm fine. It was just so strange."
"What was? What happened?"
"I heard the usual notes at the usual time," I start telling her as she pulls back and looks at me, listening intently. The memory comes back in startling clarity and I relate the whole event to her with all the details as they flood into my brain. When I finish I'm in a state of bewilderment but inexplicably, I'm quite calm about it. I don't understand what happened; I mean, I know intellectually that I was enraged when I charged her but I don't feel any of that anger right now.
The feeling of peace as she held me hasn't left but it's beginning to sink in that this is a work day and I should be starting my routine. Taking Ana's hand, we get up and I lead her out of the music room, noticing as we leave that the keyboard cover on the piano is up.
Sunrise comes later and later these days and I've switched from running outside in the morning to training sessions with Claude in our workout room. Today, though, my heart's not in it, and he remarks several times that I seem to be just going through the motions. Finally, our hour is up and I gratefully head to the bathroom to clean up and get dressed.
As the water runs down my sweaty body, I replay the nightly visit over and over in my mind. The seed of worry that was planted when she told me to be careful starts to grow and I'm trying to figure out what she meant by "not everything is what it seems to be."
By the time my shower's finished, all I've done is gone around and around her words with no resolution. I put it out of my mind and concentrate on today's agenda, especially my lunch with Elliot. Ana was going to try to join us and at breakfast we go over our schedules to see if that's still possible.
Unfortunately, by the time lunch hour rolls around she's had a couple of crises develop so it'll just be me and Elliot. We're having a pleasant meal at the Mile High Club; I'm explaining our concept of what we want and he's commenting on costs and timing. Finally we turn to staffing and he gives me the names of a couple of architects, both of them male and, according to him, both gay so I won't have any issues about them working with Ana.
I figure this is a good time to ask him about the crew and whether he'll be using the same managers as he used for the renovation. He gives me a funny look and says it's way too early to say. I debate telling him about what's really going on but decide against it. Right now it's bad enough that my security staff knows, but at least I can count on their discretion. My brother would undoubtedly tell Kate and who knows how many people she'd tell. I just tell him okay and then change the subject.
The upside of Ana missing our lunch was that she was able to put out the fires at the office and get home at a reasonable time. Over dinner we discuss the Eden project, as we're calling it, and I give her all of Elliot's input. Once we've exhausted that topic she brings up the specter haunting us, all puns intended. We dissect the words I heard, which are etched in my brain along with all the emotions I felt.
Intellectually, I know I should feel angry but I honestly can't work myself up to feel anything more than very mild irritation. In fact, I'd have to say that the peacefulness I felt when she held me has carried me throughout the day. However, Ana's really worried about the warnings she made and I am, too, to a certain extent but I can't really take them seriously. Part of it is this mellow thing I've got going on right now and part of it is that I still feel that this is one big hoax. My intention when I went to the music room this morning was to tear apart everything until I found the source of the trickery. Obviously I got sidetracked so I think I'll ask Taylor to do another check of the place this weekend and this time I'll join him.
Ana's on board with this so after dinner we take Teddy for a little stroll around the grounds. We head for the other side of the estate, looking at where we'll be building our little version of paradise. As with any project, it's fallen victim to "feature creep," as I knew it would. What started out as a simple little indoor rock garden with fountains and passageways has turned into a second home.
("Well, we need a bathroom there."
"Yes, that's a good idea."
"Wouldn't it be nice to have a little kitchenette so we don't have to go all the way to the house if we get hungry?"
"Yes, I suppose."
"How about a small bedroom for when we're exhausted?"
"Ana, how do I explain to Elliot that we want a bedroom in our rock garden?"
"Oh." Long pause. "I don't know.")
With sunset coming earlier at this time of year, it's already dusk so we don't plan to spend too much time out here. We walk around the area, visualizing what will go where. Ana's getting very excited about this and I find I'm really looking forward to it, too. We have the playroom at Escala and soon we'll have our very own theme room here and it'll be cleverly disguised. I'm already playing out scenes in my head.
As we make one more pass around the area I look over at the house to see what sort of view we'll have from the garden. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see someone standing on the cliff to my right but when I look directly at it, no one's there. It must have been some sort of shadow or reflection.
Life continues somewhat smoothly after that nocturnal visit. Taylor, Sawyer, and I tear apart a great deal of the music room on Saturday, including floorboards and ceiling sections but we find nothing. Sunday we search the grounds outside the music room and still find nothing. We're brainstorming as we work about what might be causing this phenomenon but at the end of the day, we've got nothing. Actually, I'll soon have bills for repairs to the music room.
Another work week starts. In addition to our regular work, we're moving forward on the Eden project. Elliot, Ana, and I are trading emails about it and we set up an initial appointment with one of the architects for later in the week. Even though Ana, Taylor, and I think this might be a way to flush out someone who's potentially targeting us, that aspect of the undertaking fades more and more into the background, at least for me.
It jumps to the foreground, however, on Wednesday afternoon when Andrea tells me Taylor needs to see me and it's urgent. He and Welch enter my office with unusually serious looks on their faces. Welch is carrying a laptop that he sets up at the small conference table in the corner.
"What's going on, Taylor?"
"Sir, we got a usb drive in the mail that was addressed to you. That in itself wasn't alarming, we get them every once in a while, but when we uploaded the files to the laptop, we thought you should see them."
"You uploaded them?"
"Yes, sir," Welch pipes in, "We have a couple standalone laptops that aren't connected to any network; we use them specifically for checking out unknown devices."
"So you won't bring down Seattle's transit system?" I ask, and Welch picks up my reference to that scene in the movie Skyfall.
"No, sir, not a chance," he snorts.
Taylor brings us back to the moment, "Sir, you really should see this. It's a slide show." And with that, we all sit down and Welch places the laptop in front of me. He presses a few keys and pictures start to display on the screen.
It starts out with pictures of Anastasia in various places around Seattle, mostly downtown. While I find it disturbing, I'm not really alarmed; being in the public eye and having a beautiful wife means that paparazzi are always around. This could be someone who wants to do a media article on us, although if that were the case I know Taylor and Welch wouldn't have interrupted my day.
But then the pictures start to include Teddy, and now I'm getting a bad feeling in my gut. Like the others, they were taken in public places and one or two even include me. It gets worse when I see pictures of us on the boat and outside my parents' house. They were obviously taken with a telephoto lens; someone has some seriously expensive equipment since the detail is quite good.
But the final picture in the show makes my blood run cold. It's in very low light and somewhat grainy but I still recognize Ana and me. And it was taken at the BDSM club in Johannesburg.