Page 69 of The Business Trip

He really cared about Stephanie. Wasn’t that sweet? I wondered if he had a crush on her. I wished I had someone like that in my life. He wrote again.

Can I call you? Can I talk to you?

I replied by amping up the sinister nature.

No, not right now. I have to go. He’s coming

I thought those words might seem like a scary movie moment, the monster approaching. It was perfect. I would lay more traps later.

A couple of hours later, after success at the garden store, I was still sitting in the motel room, cross-legged on the bed, googling border crossings when I had to deal with Stephanie’s work people again on her phone. Lucy, the one who had written to me about Mark R., wrote again.

Susan and Frank called and need to speak with you. What should I tell them?

Must be more people Steph was supposed to meet with this week. She was a busy boss, that was for sure.

Tell them I’m out of town.

There was no response. Good. Hopefully she got the message. An hour later another text from Lucy. I sighed when I saw her name pop up again.

Your brother stopped by to invite you to lunch. Since you’re out, he said he would call you to schedule a time.

Great, now a brother was going to be calling me. I typed back:

OK, thanks

I hoped all of these work people would just go away. I needed to focus on Robert. He was the one with the trail of evidence.

The typing bubbles from Lucy started going again, and I narrowed my eyes and heaved a deeper sigh. What else could she want?

I know you have a couple of brothers. This was the youngest one—I forgot his name, what is it again?

Well, shoot—what to do now? Should I make up a name? If she forgot his name, I might be able to get away with it. But what if she then compared notes with someone and found out it was wrong? I decided to pretend that I hadn’t seen this text at all and ignore it.

Ten minutes later, another text:

Something with an A, right? I just can’t recall

Go away, I thought, and ignored the text. But just five minutes after that came a third:

Steph—are you OK?

I started chewing my almost nonexistent fingernails. Why was she asking me this?

Think, Jasmine, think. Think, Erica, think.My first question was whether to respond to Lucy. If I told her I was OK, she might press me for the brother’s name. If I ignored it, she would likely get worried.

My eyes drifted to the fake passport sitting on the desk across the room.

I had my escape.

Maybe the time was now, likerightnow. I could accelerate my whole timeline before Lucy got really worried and called the police. Originally, I’d planned to draw out the clues with Robert further, but Lucy’s texts were making me reevaluate that plan.

Grabbing for Steph’s phone, I decided I would have to make Robert think she was in imminent danger at this very moment. It was the only way. I had already laid the foundation; now it was time to ramp it up. I crafted what I hoped was a terrifying note for any friend to read and hit send:

Robert—he hit me, he hit me hard. I’m scared. I think he’s going to kill me

There was nothing at first. I wondered if it had gone through, but a few minutes later, Robert tried calling. Again and again. I ignored it, the better to make him think I was in deep trouble. His frantic text was next.

I called 911. They are on their way. CALL ME

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