CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED and TEN
(part six)
Thursday afternoon — 3:45 p.m. MT
“Dad,” Tanesha whispered into her phone.
“Tanesha?” Rodney stood up from where he’d been bent over a glass case filled with rings.
“Where are you?” Tanesha whispered.
“’Bout five minutes from you,” Rodney said. “I wanted to get your Mom a nice engagement ring. Some fool said this was the place to go. Bambi told me to go to Cherry Creek but I wanted to pick you up so you could help. I thought we could… wait, why are you whispering?”
“There’s a guy… Dad, I think he wants to hurt me.”
“You think?” Rodney walked out of the store.
“He’s been following me since this morning,” Tanesha whispered. “He tried to grab me before my last class. I thought he just wanted to know what time it was but he was… hyped up and then…”
Tanesha stopped talking. A door squeaked and heavy footsteps clomped across the tile floor. He kicked open the metal doors.
Wham! The automatic toilet flushed.
Wham! The toilet flushed.
Wham! The toilet flushed. There was a faint mist of chlorine and water in the air.
“Hey, this is the woman’s bathroom,” a woman said. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Hey!” another woman said.
“Call campus police,” the first woman said.
“I’m leaving!” a man’s voice said. “No need to be a bitch.”
The squeaking door slammed closed.
“Asshole,” one of the women said.
“I called all my girls but no one answered. They’re working. Then Jill called,” Tanesha whispered. “She said this guy is going to rape me as a warning so I won’t testify against… Alvin guy. Jill can’t come because she’s spotting again and…”
“Where are you?” Rodney started his truck.
“Just off the breezeway in Education 2 North, women’s bathroom, right outside the café,” Tanesha whispered. “Jer’s in a cab on his way out here. He can’t drive because he had treatment today. He’s going crazy.”
“I’m on my way,” Rodney said.
“That’s the second time the guy’s come in. I keep moving stalls. He’s not going to wait much longer.”
“And campus police?”
“Jill told me to call you,” Tanesha said. “She said she’d call the police but she said they would be too late. Dad, please come.”
“I’m on my way.” Rodney turned up Colfax toward the UC Anschutz campus.
Tanesha screamed and the phone went dead.
Denver Cereal continues on Monday…
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