Chapter Eleven: I'll Be Watching You

              

The man stood in the shadows and watched as the ambulance pulled away from the apartment. Its lights were flashing but the siren wasn’t on, which meant she wasn’t seriously hurt. A few minutes later, the tall dark-haired man he’d come to despise emerged and got into her car and drove out. Wasn’t he supposed to be in Chicago?! Why was he suddenly turning up all the time? Getting in the way. It was infuriating. But today had been an impulse, and acting without planning was the work of an amateur, of a fool. The man did his best to keep his emotions in check. The last thing he needed was someone reading him and guessing that something was amiss. But he was angry. He’d known, of course, about the close-knit nature of their group. Known that one or other of them was always around. With their privileged, perfect lives. No-one deserved a perfect life, and if he had his way, they were not going to get one.

       “You look awful.” Trixie handed her brother the Styrofoam cup filled with what she hoped was coffee. Brian took a sip and then ran his hands over his face, which was creased with worry.
       “Seeing her laying there—not moving. For one moment…”
       “I know.” Trixie squeezed his arm. “But the doctor says she’ll be fine.”  
        Brian nodded. “When will I learn to pay more attention to what you say, Trix?”
        “Where’s a recording device when you need it?” she teased, and he managed a half-smile. The two were sitting in the waiting area of Sleepyside Hospital. The facility had grown significantly over the past decade, and although it still did not have an ER that handled major trauma cases, it was able to meet the majority of the community’s medical needs.
       “I don’t tell you often enough how proud I am of you. How much I admire you.”
       “Hey.” Trixie shook her blond head. “You are always supportive in your own way. Sure you’ve questioned my ideas and my actions, but Brian, that’s helped to make me a far better investigator than I would have been if all you’d ever said was ‘go for it, Trix’.”
       “Glad to have helped.”
       “I consider myself lucky to have such a steady, responsible, smart brother.” Trixie could see something was bothering that steady, older brother. Something other than the fact that he’d just found his girlfriend unconscious in the doorway of her apartment.
       He wrapped his hands around the coffee and took a deep breath. “About that, my being smart. You might want to reconsider that one.”
      “Never,” Trixie declared. She saw his expression and frowned. “Brian? What is it?”
      “You know when Honey and I split up?”
      Trixie nodded, suddenly not sure that she wanted to know what had come between her brother and her best friend.
     “Well, that is one very big example of a time when I wasn’t smart. Because it was all my fault, all of it. Honey didn’t do anything.”
     “Brian, you don’t have to tell me about this. You and Honey are back together and you love one another and you’re happy. That’s what matters.”
     He smiled at her and squeezed one of her small, sturdy hands. “I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to live up to the sort of person I thought I should be: reliable, conscientious, independent, smart.”
     “You are those things.”
     “Sometimes, at least I hope so. But not always, and definitely not then. I don’t know if you remember before I went to Chicago I was supposed to be taking a rotation in New York.” 
     Trixie nodded her head. “Of course I do. We were all disappointed, Honey especially, when you chose Chicago instead. I guess I always figured that had something to do with your break-up.”
     “It did. Only I didn’t choose Chicago, Trix. I had to go there when I lost the rotation in New York.”  
     “What do you mean ‘lost’?”
     “My getting the New York position depended on my keeping my results and scores at a certain level.”
     “Well, sure,” Trixie said. “But you’ve never had a problem getting As or the equivalent. Except for that time when you were being poisoned. You weren’t poisoned or sick, were you?”
     “No, Trix. I wasn’t poisoned or sick. I guess I was so used to doing well that I let my guard down. I was getting home more often.    Spending more time with Honey. I was complacent. The last test I took had some stuff on it I wasn’t expecting and…” 
      Trixie’s blue eyes were round. “You failed…you failed a test…”
      “Not failed exactly. I scored seventy-one.”
     “Sounds fine to me,” his sister said. 
     “I needed a result in the nineties. Anyway, I lost my spot and was lucky, very lucky, to get the Chicago rotation.”
     “Gosh, Brian, I know that must have been tough. Especially when you were used to always doing so well, but I can’t believe Honey wouldn’t have understood.”
     “I’m sure she would have. If I’d told her.” Brian met his sister’s earnest blue gaze. “I was such a coward, Trix. I didn’t tell her. I just made a big deal about how important my studies were and how they had to come first and she needed to give me space. Can you believe I could actually say that, to Honey of all people? She has always been so supportive. Anyway, I was ashamed and too proud to admit what had happened and I think, in some really stupid way, I blamed Honey for distracting me. I went on and on about needing to concentrate and not being pulled in all different directions. And I threw in some stupid remarks about being dragged away from what was important for good measure. In the end she asked if I wanted to not be a couple and I said it might be for the best. For the best? What an idiot.” He stopped and slumped in his chair. “I needed to tell you that. Heck, I should take out a full-page ad in the Sleepyside Sun: ‘Perfect Brian Belden is a big fat jerk.’”
       Trixie couldn’t help it, she laughed. “What about t-shirts?” she teased. “We could all wear them.”
      “Sounds fair to me,” he said with a resigned shrug. “When I was sick and Honey stayed to look after me, I told her everything— begged her forgiveness and promised I would never let my pride get in the way of our relationship again. And I’m going to keep that promise. In spite of how I’ve always acted and what you might think, I do need other people. I am most definitely not perfect—in any way.”
      “Brian, this might come as a shock to you, but we all gave up on the idea of you being perfect a long time ago. We love you and I think we all look up to you—always will. But you were always quick to point out your own shortcomings. It was only the fact that you didn’t have many of them that made it difficult for the rest of us flawed Beldens.”
      “I think I’ve just proved that wrong,” Brian said ruefully. 
     “Maybe? Who knows? I do think we made it hard for you to show those flaws, real or imagined. We relied on you a lot when we were younger, and habits are hard to change.”
     “Well, I know I need to come clean with the rest of the Bob-Whites, too. They deserve that.”
     “You know what I think,” his sister said, blue eyes frank and serious now. “I think what happened between you and Honey and the reasons for it are private. I’m glad you told me because I admit I’ve been curious and you know me and curiosity.”
      Her brother smiled at this.
      “But it doesn’t change anything. You made a mistake, big deal. We’ve all made them. I know confession is supposed to be good for the soul so I hope telling me has helped, but as for the rest of the Bob-Whites, that’s up to you. Right now I think we should get up and go and meet that doctor who’s heading our way. Unless my instincts are failing me, he has news about Honey.”
 
      Honey was propped up on pillows in the narrow hospital bed. She was pale and there was a bruise forming on the left side of her face, but other than that she appeared okay. Best friend and boyfriend rushed to her side.
      “You gave me one hell of a fright,” Brian said as he sank down on the bed, taking her hand in his.
      “Sorry about that.”
      “How do you feel?” Trixie asked, propping herself on the other side of the bed.
      “A little sore, but mainly mad. I had a feeling someone was there as soon as I opened the door to the apartment, but I was carrying groceries and paid more attention to them than I did my instincts, so I didn’t turn around. Oh,” she added, sitting up straight, “now I’m madder than ever.”
      “Why?” Trixie asked with a half smile at the expression on her friend’s face.
     “I had chicken and cream in those bags. They’ll be ruined!”
     In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Trixie laughed at this.
     “It isn’t funny!” Honey said.
     “I know.” Trixie looked contrite. “But look at you, attacked at your front door and you’re upset about chicken.”
     Honey’s lips quivered and then she smiled too. “Fine. I am mad about being attacked too, but I’d planned a really nice dinner for Brian and I.”
     Brian leaned over and kissed her forehead. “We can still have our dinner. You can talk me through what you had planned.”
    “We’ll have to go shopping first and…” Honey made a face. “It’s warm and I dropped it inside the apartment. It will smell.”
    Trixie laughed again, and Honey gave her a half-hearted glare. 
    “If it will stop you from thrashing around in the bed like that, I’ll let you in on a secret,” Brian said. “I put the food in the refrigerator.”
    Both women stared at him.
   “You put food away when the love of your life was laying prone on the floor?” Trixie demanded.
   “Of course not,” Brian said. “After I’d checked her over and after the paramedics arrived and did the same, they told me I’d have to follow them to the hospital rather than ride with them and I knew that Honey was okay, though I was still pretty shaken. Anyway,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders, “I kind of figured that Honey would be upset if she came home to that mess all over the floor, so I grabbed the stuff and put it in the refrigerator.”
    “Oh, no wonder I love you,” Honey cried, holding her arms out.
     Brian leaned into her embrace. “I should add that I just shoved everything in the refrigerator in case it needed to go in there. I didn’t go through it.”
     “That doesn’t matter,” Honey said with a wave of her hand and a big smile.
     “Honestly,” Trixie said. “Sometimes you two are so weird I can’t quite get my head around the fact that we are related and we are best friends.”
     “Sorry, Trix.” Brian’s dark eyes twinkled. “Maybe you can add it to your list of mysteries to solve.”
     His sister smiled, but her expression quickly shifted to serious. “I think all of my, of our, detecting instincts need to be focused on this mystery.” She nodded towards Honey’s bruised face.
     “I guess we can’t explain all of these incidents away as coincidences, can we?” Honey said.
     Brian shook his dark head. “Even I, the doubting Thomas of our group, can see that.” 
     “The problem is,” Trixie mused. “We’ve been going over possible candidates for a couple of weeks now and we’re not getting anywhere.” 
    “That’s because the M.O. or the incidents, whatever we want to call them, are all over the place,” Honey added, frowning. “Late-night door knocking, let-down tires, being run off the road and now this.”
    “Don’t forget lots of hang ups, an attempted break in and a brick through our window,” Trixie said.
    “Do you really think all of those things are down to the same person?” Brian asked.
    “That’s what makes it so hard,” Trixie admitted. “It could all be connected. I’m sure a lot if it is, but it would be easy for Honey and I to become distracted by something that it isn’t a part of it—we need to focus.”
    “Maybe we can go over our notes once I’ve been released,” Honey suggested.
    Seeing the look in her brother’s eyes, Trixie shook her head. “I think you should go home, rest, have an early night. We can get together in the morning, maybe with the rest of the gang if they’re available.”
    “That sounds like a great idea,” Brian said.
    “I am fine, you two.” Honey looked from one to the other. 
    “Humour us,” Brian pleaded. “I’m just glad I ended up coming home today.” 
    “Hey, yeah, some detective I am. I didn’t even think to ask what you were doing here. Honey didn’t think you’d get home until after the weekend.”
     Her brother nodded. “I was supposed to have yesterday and today off, but had to work tomorrow, so I was waiting on coming back, but a friend needed me to work his double yesterday so he’s taking my tomorrow and then I’m off anyway,” he frowned. “Did that make sense?”
     “You sounded as if you were channeling your girlfriend, but it made sense—to me.” Trixie grinned.
     “I’m glad you came home too,” Honey admitted. “Neither of the people on my floor arrives home before six during the week. I might have been there a while. And my CPR wouldn’t have been half as much fun.”

     It had only taken Brian a few seconds to revive his girlfriend. He conceded afterwards that it had been a reflex and may not have even been necessary, but finding her there, unconscious, had thrown him. “Well, you’ve had tests and x-rays and everything seems good,” he said. “And I’m here to make sure you recover fully.”
    “You know you guys could come out and stay with us if you wanted and we could all keep an eye on Honey,” Trixie offered.
    Brian hooked a dark brow in his girlfriend’s direction. “Would you prefer to do that?”
    “It is a lovely offer,” Honey conceded, turning to her best friend. “But would you think I was extra selfish if I just wanted to be home with Brian tonight?”
    “Of course not. I just want you to know that we’re here for you.”
    “I do know.”
    “How about we have breakfast at your place in the morning?” Brian suggested. “You can check and see who’s free to come and we can have that meeting to go over things.”
   “That sounds like a plan, but,” Trixie began, “you do know that when Jim gets back from that meeting in the city he’ll want to see or at least speak to his little sister.”
   “He can do either or both or whatever he wants,” Honey said quickly. “But you didn’t try to contact my parents, did you?”
   “No,” Brian admitted. “I know they’re traveling, but wasn’t sure where you’d put their itinerary and I wanted to wait and get the official report.”
   “I’m glad. I can handle Jim fussing over me, but if we could sort of hold off on anyone else, that would be great.”
   “I’ll tell everyone you’re fine, and they can see for themselves in the morning,” Trixie said.
   “Thanks, Trix. And when I get home I’ll write down everything I can remember about what happened.”
   Brian looked as if he was about to protest at this, but after a moment’s hesitation he remained quiet.
   “It is a good idea to make notes while the memory’s still fresh,” Trixie said with an appreciative smile for her friend and an appeasing one for her brother.    
   “I know, Trix,” the latter admitted. “I realized that when I was about to launch into my predictable over protective mode. I’ve seen the police gather crucial information from victims of crime at the ER. I’m lucky my kid sister keeps her head—even in a time of crisis.”

     After he had had a little chat with his friend, he had managed to sneak by the hospital and see the fear and distress in their faces as they waited. That had been fun. He especially enjoyed watching as brother and sister sat, side by side—obviously worried. They were usually so cocky and self-assured. It was hard for him to work out which one he despised the most. Right now they looked lost, without their usual confidence. Good—they were both thorns in his side, and he relished the idea of causing them pain. And before he was done, he would definitely cause them more.
This had started out as one thing, but as time passed and he’d seen and learned more and more, he realized he needed to rethink his plan. Originally, he’d believed that he could bring about the outcome he desired. Now, he was almost resigned to the fact that that couldn’t happen. It was so unfair. Life was so unfair. He stayed long enough to see the relief in their faces. It would have upset him if he hadn’t known that that relief would be short lived. They had better make the most of the good times, because for Belden-Wheeler Investigations and the Bob-Whites of the Glen, there were bad times ahead.


MPD:MAIN                                                                                                                                                                    NEXT


Word Count: 2940


Author's Notes: Gratitude and appreciation go out to Dana (I need a new word for thank you!) She has an absolutely chaotic life and still squeezes me in as I continue to defy the agreed laws of punctuation and grammar. This chapter gives a little background on Honey and Brian's split. There's a lot more to it and owing to the amazing generosity of a fabulous Jixster who has agreed to wade through it, this will be posted once Phantom Door Knocker is complete. Trixie Belden et al belong to Random House (who rarely did much with Brian, so I don't see why I shouldn't at least own part of him) No profit is being made from these scribblings.