months.”
“Me too. But it’s over now, OK?”
Her smile lit up the room. “OK.”
“Everything’s going to be fine from here on out. I promise.”
After Eden left for work, Jeff had a bowl of cereal, watched CNN for a bit then showered, shaved and threw on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. He was about to give Craig a call when the buzzer rang.
He looked out the window at the front steps and saw a young guy in spandex and a helmet holding a large manila envelope in hand, his bicycle chained to a streetlight a few feet away. Jeff raised the screen, poked his head out and called down to him. “Can I help you?”
The man looked up. “Oh. Hey. Courier service. Got a delivery for…” He glanced at the envelope. “Jeff McGrath.”
“That’s me. I’ll buzz you up.”
A few moments later he opened the apartment door to find the lanky, heavily tattooed courier had just made it to the landing. He was drenched in sweat and looked like he hadn’t bathed or laundered his outfit in several days. When he got closer the smell confirmed it. “This heat’s a bitch,” he said with the detached boredom of a teenager. “Just won’t let up.”
“Yeah, hopefully it’ll break soon, huh?”
With a nod, he handed Jeff the envelope.
Something about the kid’s eyes didn’t seem quite right. Was he stoned?
“Problem?” the courier sighed.
“No, I-sorry-do I have to sign or anything?”
A mocking smile spread slowly across the courier’s face as he pulled a bottle of water from his belt and started back down the stairs. “All set.”
“Thanks.” Jeff closed the door. Something creepy about that kid , he thought. But he dismissed it and quickly returned his attention to the envelope. It felt nearly weightless. His name had been written across the front in magic marker but there was no return address or anything that suggested where the envelope originated from.
He tore the top open. A silver disc slid out.
The label designated it a DVD-R and revealed the manufacturer’s name but offered nothing else. Confused and more than a little nervous, Jeff forced himself to the entertainment center on the far wall, turned on the television then slid the disc into the DVD player.
Remote in hand, he backed away to the couch and hit PLAY. Static filled the screen. Jeff was about to hit fast-forward when the screen blinked and the snow was replaced with darkness. An eerie and monotonous rumbling sound groaned through the speakers like the drone of some unknown machinery. A few bars of interference bent and rippled across the black screen, and then slowly, the darkness gave way to reveal grainy black-and-white footage shot by what appeared to be an old VHS camcorder of some sort. The frame blinked and became a hotel room.
Jeff’s hands began to shake. He wanted to hit the STOP button on the remote but his finger refused to cooperate. Throat dry and eyes watering with fear and rage, he watched as he and Jessica entered the room. They’d had breakfast, and after an hour of flirting, she’d insisted he come with her up to the room for a minute, using the excuse that she needed to get something for his interview before they left. He’d agreed, already knowing what was about to happen. And now he watched himself nervously fidgeting just inside the hotel room door as Jessica reached around him, purposely crushing her breasts against his chest as she hung a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the knob.
There was still no audio, only the continuous rumbling sound.
He watched as Jessica pulled the door closed, their faces nearly touching. And then they were kissing, their bodies suddenly entangled.
Jeff’s legs wobbled and he sank down onto the couch, remote still aimed at the television. He looked closer. Apparently the person filming had been on the far side of the room, near the bathroom, but how had he not seen him standing there? He and Jessica fell back onto the bed, him atop her. Free hand to his mouth, Jeff tried to breathe, watching as the camera moved closer. But he could tell from the motion that the operator hadn’t zoomed in, he’d actually stepped closer. So close in fact, that he was only a few feet away, standing right next to the bed where he and Jessica were rolling about, pulling at each other’s clothes.
It’s impossible, I-I would’ve seen the person standing there, I…
Slowly, the camera turned back toward the person using it.
An unsettling gaunt face filled the frame. Jeff recognized him as the tall thin man he’d briefly seen in the hallway of the building where Foster Hope had interviewed him. The man’s bald head, long face, emaciated and skeletal, tilted slowly to the right, dark sunken eyes staring at him as if he could see Jeff sitting there watching at that very moment, pale thin lips drawn into a horrifying grimace equal parts misery and cruelty.
The camera turned again, panned across the bed long enough to clearly show Jeff and Jessica nude and making love, and then continued on to the opposite corner of the room.
Someone else was there, standing in the shadows just beyond the nightstand. A liver-spotted hand reached through the dim light to a telephone there, lifted the handset then punched in a series of numbers.
The screen blinked, went blank for a split-second then came back into focus. This time it was aimed at the outside of Jeff’s apartment building and appeared to have been shot very late at night. The droning sound continued, became slightly louder and then the image turned back to snow.
Jeff sat staring at the TV until the snow switched to a blank screen, indicating the material on the disc had ended.
Shaken, Jeff rose from the couch, switched the television off and ejected the disc. He was still holding and staring at it numbly when the phone rang.
Without speaking, he raised the phone to his ear.
“Hello Jeff.”
A chill ran up his back.
“You can’t possibly be surprised to hear from me,” Hope said.
“You just saw me dialing didn’t you? Who did you think I was calling?”
“What are you doing, I-what’s this all about?” Jeff squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to stop the room from spinning. “Who are you people?”
“It’s not as if we haven’t already met, Jeff.” The old man sighed into the phone, but it was forced, phony. “Of course I was very disappointed to hear you’d turned down my generous job offer. I thought perhaps I could persuade you to reconsider. Before you answer, you should know that as we speak, another copy of the disc is on its way to your wife’s workplace. It should be delivered to her any moment now. Should you change your mind and choose to come to work for me I could easily stop the delivery, but there isn’t much time, I’m afraid, so I’ll need your decision as quickly as possible.”
Jeff ran a hand through his hair and began pacing the room like a caged animal. “Why are you doing this?”
“What am I doing?”
“You know goddamn well what you’re doing. You’re blackmailing me!”
“Oh how distasteful, I’m doing no such thing. No one has forced you to do anything, and no one ever will. You’ve simply made choices, Jeff, decisions. You’ve made them on your own. No one forced you to speak to Ms. Bell. No one forced you to accompany her back to her hotel. No one forced you to have breakfast with her. No one forced you to sleep with her. No one forced you to come and interview with me. And no one is forcing you to do anything now. I’m presenting you with options. This decision, like all the others before and after it, is yours and yours alone.”
“I haven’t done anything to you, I-we don’t even know each other-why would you do this to me? It’s been a setup from the start, but why? What do I possibly have you could want? I’m broke, I don’t have any money.”
Hope breathed heavily into the phone, Jeff’s torment clearly exciting him. “We don’t have much time, Jeff. Should I have the delivery canceled? Or would you rather take your chances and allow your wife to see the disc?”
Jeff gripped the phone so tightly it hurt his hand. “No…don’t…”
