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Carter's fingers laced with hers, and Douglas spoke to both of them. “So, I think one of the easiest ways for this to go down would be for her to wear one of the earphones that go along with this so she can hear in real time exactly what they're saying while she gives them a call. If you don't like that, we can have the device listen until she makes a call, then turn the volume down. We'll be recording the whole time so we can go over the audio later and we can turn it back up once the call has ended.”
He seemed to be waiting for an answer, but Kaitlyn wasn't certain she could get her throat to cooperate. Now that the moment had come to learn the truth, she was asking herself if she really wanted to know. Maybe ignorance was bliss after all. Maybe they'd have a chance to fix things if she didn't take this step.
But then again, Kaitlyn had to ask herself if she wanted to be friends with someone who could lie to her and steal from her as heartlessly and cold as Fawn potentially had. Was she holding on to a doomed friendship because of their history? That didn't seem like a smart decision, and even though she knew it would break her heart to lose her very best friend, she had to think that maybe Fawn wasn't even her friend at all. Friends didn't go out of their way to hurt and steal from one another.
Kaitlyn swallowed hard, searching for and finding her voice. “Let's listen to it out loud, and then maybe listen to the recording again after we're done.”
Carter gently squeezed her hand, and Douglas nodded his head. He picked up the strange umbrella looking device from the passenger seat and aimed it at the house across the street. “Are you ready?” he asked. “They're likely going to start buzzing as soon as you give her a call. They're going to need to get into character and make sure that they are convincing. So, I would be prepared to listen as soon as you get ready to call or as soon as you dial their number. Do you already know what you plan on saying?”
Kaitlyn shook her head. “I think I'm just going to kind of play it by ear.” She wasn't sure what else to do, but she absolutely knew for certain that a script was not going to work for her.
Douglas nodded and Carter slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Okay, the device is on and listening.” He seemed to change angles and move it slightly, and she heard Fawn's voice. To her surprise, Fawn seemed to be laughing.
Taking one more deep breath, Kaitlyn dialed the number that Fawn had been calling her from. Instantly, the device that Douglas was holding started picking up conversations from inside the house. Fawn’s voice rang out over the top of everything and Kaitlyn’s heart fractured along a fault line.
"Oh, shit. Time to act, people!" Half a heartbeat later, Fawn answered the phone, crying. “You didn't answer my call yesterday or call me back. They're so mad at me.”
Kaitlyn could feel her heart hardening in her chest as her friend lied to her. “Fawn, I can't keep doing this. I'm out of money. I lost my job. Devon won’t help. There's nothing else I can do.”
On the other end of the line, Fawn cried pitifully and Kaitlyn couldn't help but wonder if her friend had always been such a good actor. She wanted to confront her, but first she needed to make sure that this wasn't just some kind of a mistake, that she wasn't just going along with the plan because she was forced, like someone was twisting her arm.
“What am I going to do, Kaitlyn? They're going to kill me if they don’t get money.”
“They had to have seen this coming. I mean, eventually I had to run out of money, right? How much did they think they could extort me for?” As Kaitlyn said the words, she could hear the sound on the other end of the phone quiet down, as if Fawn had stopped crying and was considering the words.
“I don't know. You just kept having money, so I think they assumed you'd have money forever.”
For the first time, Kaitlyn knew for certain that Fawn was lying. Something in the tone of her voice or the way she said the words gave it away, and Kaitlyn could feel her anger rising. How could her best friend do this to her? How could any human being do this to another person?
“What do we do now? Can you take out a loan?” Fawn’s beseeching tone put Kaitlyn on edge, and she realized that her friend didn't give a damn about her. Carter's warm hand in her offered some comfort, but Kaitlyn could see her friendship and the life she'd had before him crashing and burning. She'd lost her best friend. She had lost her job. She almost felt like she'd lost everything that came before him.
“No, I can't take out a loan, Fawn, I don’t have a job anymore.”
“Then get one.” Fawn’s suddenly sharp tone startled Kaitlyn. But as quickly as that mean tone came, Fawn started crying again. “I'm sorry. I'm just so scared. I'm afraid they're going to hurt me more. I'm so tired of them hurting me and locking me up like an animal. Please help me, Kaitlyn, you’re my only hope.”
“That's just it, Fawn, there's nothing else I can do. I tried everything.” Kaitlyn wondered how far her friend would push this narrative, or if she'd give up and tell the truth.
“Well, I guess that's it. I'll just die then.” A petty tone entered Fawn's voice, and Kaitlyn couldn't help but be shocked once again. “I hope you can live with yourself when they find my body on the news.”
Before Kaitlyn could say anything else, Carter took the phone and ended the call. With that, he wrapped her up in a tight hug. Douglas turned up the volume on the listening device.
Kaitlyn could hear her ex-friend talking about her. “This dumb bitch thinks I’m stupid. I know she has more money. She won that stupid auction and I saw her bank statement before then. She hasn't given me everything. She should still have like ten grand.”
“Do you think she's on to us?” The male voice in the background wasn't familiar to Kaitlyn.
Fawn laughed. “Oh hell no. She's too stupid to figure this out. She legitimately believes that I've been kidnapped and that I'm being held against my will.”
Kaitlyn could feel hot tears stinging in her eyes and felt like a complete idiot.
“Well, we got a lot out of her.” The guy sounded like he was trying to deescalate the situation.
“Well, I want the rest of my money. Ever since I saw that bank receipt she thought she hid from me, I knew that I was going to get all of it.” The second Fawn said those words, Kaitlyn remembered the relief she'd felt the day that she found that little bank receipt tucked under the passenger seat of her car. The paper had a dirty footprint on it, like someone had stepped on it, and she was grateful that nobody had seen the incriminating information about her savings account. Clearly, she'd been wrong, and when she gave Fawn a ride home that night, her friend must have seen the slip.
With a sinking feeling, Kaitlyn realized that was how Fawn knew about the money.
“Well, to be fair, it is her money.” The guy seemed to realize he messed up and quickly backpedaled. “I mean, it's your money because you're smarter than her and you can take it from her, but still, you know what I mean.”
“No, I don't,” Fawn said. “It's my money, and I'm going to get the rest of it, no matter what it takes.”
