Petula couldn’t believe her ears.
She’d known Irma was a bitch, but to have planned this…?
“How did she pull it off? Getting a supervisory job at UPS, I mean?” Petula questioned.
“She went for the same job at a different facility—one that wasn’t a major hub—all of six years ago. She fudged her credentialsandher employment history, but the woman is an accomplished liar, so she got the position.
“She bided her time, but eventually she was able to get a transfer to your headquarters a few months ago. It was exactly what they’d been waiting for. She and Bradly escalated things from there.”
Petula was speechless. Dumbstruck. But it all fit. Jefferson wasn’t just blowing smoke.
“How do you know all this?” she asked.
He tapped the side of his head as they continued bushwacking. “Computer genius, remember?”
She could hear the smile in his voice, even though she couldn’t take the time to see his face.
“I’ve cyber-stalked everybody concerned for a long time now. Including your cast of characters, here,” he added, tongue-in-cheek. “I even know there’s some dude named Tex who’s been looking into me.”
Petula wasn’t surprised. Jefferson had been magic on his keyboard, even as a teenager.
“That’s also why I know Stat is currently on his way,” Jefferson continued, “and exactly where we need to be to meet him. Which is…here.”
As they spoke, they emerged from the woods onto the side of a paved road. It was rough pavement, and looked like it wasn’t widely used, but at this point, Petula believed in Jefferson. If he said this was the place Statler would be, this is where they’d wait.
If only she was sure that Julian was alright. She had Jeff’s word for that, which was something. She’d also heard no gunshots, so Bradly hadn’t tried to shoot him again. She hoped that prick, whom she despised with all her heart, was too busy trying to find her, to take his anger out on Julian.
“Let’s stay to the side of the road,” Jefferson instructed, “so if Bradly comes along, we can run back into the trees. Once we see Stat, though, I know he’ll be carrying, and you should be safe. At least for now.”
“For now, because Bradly will still be out there,” Petula interpreted.
“Yeah. But don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of Bradly.” Jefferson’s face grew hard.
Petula put an arm on his sleeve. “No. You can’t. I don’t want you going back to prison. Let the police—Julian’s brothers—take care of him.”
“Mason and Kyle?” Jefferson replied with a snort, and damn, he looked even more like Statler when he was getting his snarkiness on. “They’re good, but their morals are impeccable. Which means they won’t kill him.” Jeff’s tone turned unrelenting again. “And that man needs to be terminated. If they take him to jail, it’ll be hard to prove he’s done anything outside the law at this point because the evidence is slim. Which means he won’t go back to prison, and you’ll continue to have to watch your back.”
His face softened. “I don’t want that for you, Pet. You’ve suffered a lot because of me. You and Statler. You can’t know how much I regret that. Once my head was clear…”
He explained further.
“In jail, they gave me the meds I needed, and eventually tweaked them properly so that after I’d been in for a couple years, I was well aware of what I’d done wrong. My mind has been functional, in the real world, ever since. Functional enough to know I had to make things up to you.”
The last of the ice in Petula’s heart, melted.
She had to give him this. “It wasn’t all on you back then, Jeff. Mom and Dad should have taken your concerns more seriously. They weren’t the most nurturing people. Ignoring your signs and symptoms was their mistake, and eventually their downfall. They turned a blind eye and basically told you to suck it up, but we both know mental illness can’t be reasoned away like that,” she told him sincerely. “So… If you need to hear it from me right now… I forgive you.”
In fact, she’d forgiven Jefferson years ago. Statler had as well, eventually coming to grips with things to some degree. It was only with the beginning of her being stalked that Stat had gone back to thinking the worst of their brother.
“Thanks, Pet. That means a lot,” he rasped, clearly overcome with emotion.
“Can I…hug you?” she asked.
Petula had a sudden need to feel Jefferson in her arms; to make sure he was real.
She saw tears come to his eyes at her request.
“I’d like that. A lot,” he said.
