Sebastian
The hot water pounds myback and sluices down my abdominals, but it does nothing to ease the mounds of tension I’ve been carrying around with me for days. It’s been another long day of being stuck inside my head, alone with my thoughts and guilt. Devin’s revelation hit me hard, wreaking havoc on my mind and body as I carry around tension and guilt in every ounce of my being like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the mountain over and over. It never stops—the guilt, the worry, the fear. In the rare moments it does subside, it all comes rushing back. Like that boulder down the hill.
We spent hours and hours with Mark and his partner going over every single thing we could regarding the blackmail and photos since we learned about Crystal’s obsession with me.
It wouldn’t have been hard for Crystal to drop the photos of me in various sexual acts with all those women. She had plenty of access to pictures. Mark said she had hundreds of photos of me in her apartment. Crystal was in and out of the lobby that morning. She could have easily found a way to drop the envelope. Then we basically gave her every way to cover her tracks when we questioned her on it, even gave her the perfect excuse to play dumb regarding where the blackmail demand came from.
The mail cart was outside my office when I had Devin over my desk. She heard something, but we didn’t see anything, so we didn’t think anything of it. Crystal must have been in my bathroom. The closet was the wrong angle for the picture to have come from there. I had no idea she was stalking me, so I had no reason to think anyone was in there.
But how did she know the relationship with Arianna was a fake? We took so many precautions. We didn’t speak at all outside of work. Barely even spoke about work. There was not contact, physically. I didn’t even look at Devin for more than a second afraid of someone seeing something and the plan going up in smoke.
The only time we spoke was after they cleared my office of bugs and cameras so we couldn’t figure it out. Both of us were so focused on the nature of that first discussion, I guess we dismissed running into Crystal in the hallway. I’m so fucking stupid.
I’ve spent a lot of time and energy the last few days replaying every single interaction I’ve had with Crystal yet cannot recall a single time anything about her screamed crazy. Overly flirty, definitely, but I never once got the crazy vibe.
I turn the water hotter and lather up more soap all over my body, but no matter how much I wash, I never get clean. My sister has been right this entire time. All those nights with countless women has caught up to me. In the worst possible way. Her jokes about chlamydia seem like a welcomed walk in the park now.
Devin screaming my name pulls me from my thoughts. My heart drops to the floor as I scramble to turn off the water. Her screams get louder without the muffle of the shower. A moment later, she barrels through the bathroom door, chest heaving with her phone in her hand.
“Mark says they have a lead on Crystal,” she pants.
“Jesus Christ, Devin.” Relief that no one is chasing her down trying to kill her floods through me. “I thought someone was in the damn house.”
“Sorry.” Her voice is contrite before a bubble of hope filters from her mouth. “But there’s a lead, Sebastian. A fucking lead.”
“Thank God.” I huff with water dripping from every part of my body. “What’s going on, Mark?”
Mark’s voice fills the bathroom. “We had three tips come in over the last six hours, all claiming to have seen a woman baring a striking resemblance to Michelle Jenkins in one of the homeless setups under the FDR near the seaport. One tip said she seemed homeless and mentally impaired. Another said she looked like a drug addict in a bad way. Hiding down there, getting mixed up in a bad crowd and drugs would explain how she’s gone off the radar for ten days.”
Relief courses through me. My chest feels a million pounds lighter. “Please tell me someone is on their way to pick her up?” I ask, grabbing my towel from the hook.
There’s a commotion in the background. “They’ve sent a few units,” he says quickly. “Listen, I need to run. I’ll call you as soon as I have more information.”
Devin is practically a shining beacon of hope as she bounces on the balls of her feet anxiously. “Oh my God, Sebastian.” Her voice is full of relief. “They’ve finally found her. It’s almost over.”
Her extreme hopefulness has me alarmed. It’s the most optimistic I’ve seen her since that night in my office before everything imploded. The ever-present shadows typically haunting her eyes seem to be absent in this moment.
Securing the towel around my waist, I close the distance between us and rest my hands on her shoulders. “Devin, this may turn out to be nothing, so please don’t get your hopes up yet.”
“Three tips, Sebastian. Not one... Three. This has to be her.”
If this pans out to be nothing, the fall from this little bit of light will be long, far, and hard.
I slide my hands down her arms to her hands and clasp them in mine. “I need you to listen to me, princess.”
Letting my words hang in the air, I wait until she looks into my eyes. “Please, don’t get your hopes up too high. There’s a chance this isn’t her. In everything we’ve learned about Crystal, drug use has never come up. This could just be a look-alike situation.”
She nods, and her face turns a little somber. “You’re right. It could be nothing.”
Twenty minutes later, we’re sitting in a thick silence in the living room, waiting as patiently as possible for something from Mark or Lance or anyone. The moment Devin’s phone rings, cutting through the silence, our heads snap, in unison, to where it sits on the coffee table. Devin’s eyes linger on it for a moment before she reaches for it and answers.
“Hello?”
The call is on speaker, so Mark’s voice booms in the room. “They just picked her up.”
“Is it her?” Devin asks on bated breath.
“She had her license and Midtown ID on her when they arrested her,” he says. “It’s her. We’ve got her, Dev.”
Her eyes go wide before she drops the phone in her lap. Her sad brown eyes glisten with tears that free-fall down her cheeks.
Her shoulders sag as she sobs into her hands. When she looks back up at me, I feel tears start to prick in my own eyes as she says, “They got her, Sebastian.”
