FICTION

Forbidden Love Part 5

A Sunny Alexander-Johnson and Henry James Series By P.G. & Sharon Barnett

My name is Sunny Alexander-Johnson, and I’m Henry James, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth Magazine.

Ms. Salitos led us through a very narrow hallway to a closed door. She placed her hand against the knob, but before twisting it, took a deep breath, hesitating as if entering the room would use all the emotional reserve she had left.

“Roberto. Thank Ms. Salitos for her being gracious enough to allow us into her home and to look at Gloria’s room. Take her back to the living room and let her know we’ll be careful not to disturb anything.”

We waited until Roberto and the elderly woman disappeared and then entered. It was as if we’d stepped through a time portal. From a poster of The Gilmore Girls and a sultry looking Dean Forester on one wall to a glamour shot of Pink on another and a cube alarm clock on a tiny nightstand, it was as if time in this room had stopped moving.

It was evident by the lack of dust and the trace scent of wood polish Ms. Salitos had dutifully kept Gloria’s room for the past twenty years, awaiting the moment her daughter would return.

As much as we’d wanted to entertain the possibility of Gloria walking through the front door and collapsing into her mother’s open arms, neither of us had any confidence that was going to happen.

“Don’t touch anything, Henry. Shouldn’t we be wearing gloves or something?”

“It ain’t a crime scene, princess. Just start looking.”

“For what?”

“Anything.”

“Could you be a little more specific, old man?”

“Johnson, there ain’t no damn specific. Just start snooping. I’ll take the closet. Start rummaging through that chest of drawers and the nightstand.

“Okay, well, we sure as hell know we’re not going to find a journal. The police already found that, and from the looks of these drawers, most of this stuff doesn’t appear to have been moved in quite a while. What the hell are you doing, James?”

“Looking for a secret stash place. Every kid at that age had one.”

“Yeah, and I bet every kid’s mother knew where it was too.”

“Yeah, Cynthia found yours, didn’t she?”

“And read most of it to you the night before Robert and I got married. Don’t remind me.”

“Sure thing Ms. Denzel Washington.”

“Put a sock it in James. Look, we need to hurry up here. I need to pick Dante and Alicia up from school.”

“Fine, let me get this empty clothes hamper out of the way so I can check this back wall, and then we’re out of here.”

When the hamper came sailing out of the closet we both froze. It’s not every day you hear a wicker clothes hamper make a very loud and distinguishable knocking sound as it rolls to a stop.

“What the hell was that noise, Henry?”

“No clue.”

We converged on the hamper, pulled it upright, and yanked open the lid.

“As empty as it was the first time I checked it.”

“Pick it up and shake it.”

“Do what?”

“Pick the damn hamper up and shake it, Henry.”

A couple of vigorous shakes produced the same clunking sound, and we opened the lid of the hamper and stared into it again.

“Wood bottom?”

“Yeap. You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yes. Do you have your pocket knife on you?”

“Don’t I always? Give me a sec.”

When the bottom of the hamper was pried up, it revealed a narrow space between the false and the real base of the basket. Lying in the slim crevice was a notebook of mottled black and white and a coal-black spine.

“Bingo. I’m willing to bet this sucker has been sitting here for twenty years right under every freaking detective’s nose assigned to this case, and they never even knew it.”

“Come on, Henry, first we put that damn hamper back where you found it, then we need to get back to the police station. We need to go through this page by page.”

“I thought you had to pick up the twins?”

“And leave you alone with this? Oh, hell no. We were right, Henry. The answer to what happened to Gloria was never in those boxes of evidence. I think Robert’s going to understand.”

“Yeah, your husband’s just going to have to find the courage and be a real mom today.”

We made the call to Charlie and then Robert Johnson on the way back to the police station. We apologized about getting our prints all over everything, but Charlie assured us if Gloria had gone to the trouble to secret this new journal, her fingerprints would be the only ones they were likely to find.

And of course, ours now. We were just beginning to review Gloria’s journal when Charlie walked in. He slid into a chair next to us and pointed to it.

“So how in the hell did you two manage to find this?”

“We snoop Charlie. It’s what we do best.”

Charlie grinned and nodded, his expression a look of bemused admiration.

“Yeah, Rick McDonnell told me you two were good. From what I witnessed personally, I’d say he knew what he was talking about. You guys want something to drink?”

“Coffee for me. Straight up. Sunny?”

“I’ll take a bottle of water if you don’t mind, Charlie.”

“Don’t mind at all, Sunny. Be right back.”

We turned out attention to our latest discovery. Gloria’s handwriting wasn’t the best in the world, but we were able to make it out. Each entry was dated and spelled out the thoughts, hopes, and dreams of an average teenage girl struggling to come to grips with the always constant pressures of growing up. About halfway in, we found the photograph.

“Whoa, what the hell?”

“Henry, this is a photograph of Gloria and Jason as camp counselors. It’s just like Jason said. That guy standing on the end?”

“Yeap, a much younger version of Jason Bowers. And that’s Gloria for sure, but who are the two dudes standing next to Gloria, and the girl on the opposite end?

“No clue, Hang on. I’m going to take a photo of it.”

“Wait, you’re going to take a photo of a photo?”

“Look, doofus. It’s highly unlikely Charlie’s going to let us take it out of here. This is evidence now, Henry.”

“Ah, that’s right. So you’re going to get this photo in front of the super-spy twins?”

“Exactly.”

After both taking shots with our phones, we continued reading and had just come to a very confusing part of the journal when Charlie walked into the room.

“What the hell is all this, Henry?”

“I don’t know. Looks like some kind of different language. Never seen anything like this in my life. Charlie? What do you make of this section right here?”

“Aside from the date of December 21st, two thousand, not a damn thing.”

All three of us stared at the cryptic entry in Gloria’s journal, hoping something would jump out at is.

“Holy crap Henry. What the hell is this?”

“I have no clue, princess. Looks like some kind of foreign language I ain’t ever seen. Charlie? You have an idea what this is?”

“No, but I’m willing to bet, Henry, the answer to finding out what happened to Gloria is staring us right in the face.”

“And all we have to do is figure out how to unlock the answer.”

Read On — Forbidden Love Part 6