Page 95 of Requiem

Julia 36

He’s holding the phone in his hand, poised to dial it.

“Last time, Jules,” Jeremy warns. “Not a word, not a clue or a hint about where you are. Understood?”

I try to glance at the clock without being too obvious. Two minutes. I have to ensure that, in two minutes, Matthew is on the phone. But I know Jeremy isn’t going to want to speak with him for that long, so I’ve got to stall the start of this call.

“May I ask him about David?” I ask. “How he’s doing, if he’s eaten, that sort of thing?”

“You’re not going to have time,” he informs me flatly. “The only reason I’m even going to let you talk is because I know that idiot is going to demand to hear your voice before he’ll listen to me.”

I take a deep breath.

“Okay then, what, exactly, would you like me to say to him?” I’m trying to feed into his need to have control and it seems to be working.

“You’ll tell him you’re safe. You’ll tell him not to call the police. You’ll tell him that I’m going to hurt you …”

“Are you?” I interrupt.

“Am I what?”

“Are you going to hurt me?”

He looks at me as if I’m the dimmest person on earth. I have to be careful here not to play too dumb, or he won’t believe me. God only knows what’s going through that twisted mind of his.

“What do you think, Jules?”

I think I’ve got another thirty seconds or so to kill before I can let him make that call. Time to improvise.

“I think that I’m hoping I can convince you not to hurt me.”

“We’ve already been through this,” he grunts out with some irritation.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. If I do this well, will you untie me so I can make us something to eat?”

“What? And let you loose around the steak knives?” he snorts. “I don’t think so.”

“You can stand right next to me. There’s food in the fridge that I can throw together and microwave. Mac and cheese, David loves that, you know! You do too, if memory serves. I think there’s a frozen pizza …”

“Jules, we’re not going to plan a fucking menu right now …”

“But I’m really hungry, Jeremy and I’ll bet you are, too. Plus, I really need to use the bathroom and that’s a little hard to do when I’m attached to a chair.”

He’s glaring at me, but I keep my face looking hopeful and innocent, so he won’t suspect I’m stretching.

“Please?” I throw in for good measure.

He rolls his eyes. “Fine. If this goes well, I’ll get you to the bathroom. If it doesn’t go well, then it won’t matter because you’ll be dead anyway.”

My earnest face slips and I gulp so hard I’m sure he’s heard it. One more surreptitious glance at the clock. Okay, it’s now or never.

“It’ll go well, Jeremy,” I assure him. “I’m ready. I can do this.”

He nods, dials and activates the speaker function on his phone. I hear the phone in our apartment ring once. Twice.

“Julia?” comes Matthew’s breathless voice through the ether.

“Guess again, Matty!” Jeremy jeers.