SunTrust

An F-350, shiny and red, turned hard into my driveway just as I shifted into reverse. I jammed on the brake. Keeping the car in gear, and the doors locked, I watched Guerry Grissom as he strode towards my car.

He propped his arm on the roof and leaned his heavy frame against the door panel. “Come on, Skye. I just want to talk to ya. Make amends for what happened...”

I stared straight ahead. “Ain’t nothing to talk about, Guerry. Get off my car and get off my property.”

He leaned in, his face close to the window, and whirled his finger in the air. “Open up. Come on. Gimme a chance to make it up to you.”

“Get gone or I’m calling Metro.” I grabbed my cell phone from the console and held it up.

He smirked and laughed. Straightened himself and held a small black notebook up to the window. “Ya dropped this. I’m just trying to do right and return it to ya.”

I looked at it for a second, then turned my focus to his weathered face. “It ain’t mine, Guerry. Whatever game you're playing, you can stop.”

He flipped off the elastic band. Opened the soft leather cover and ran his finger over the text. “Says here that it is. Right here. In black and white.” He pressed the open page to the window. “In case of loss, please return to Skye Gardener. See your address right there. How d’ya think I knew where to find ya?”

It wasn’t my handwriting, but I figured accepting it was the only way he was going to let up and be on his way. Frustrated, I let out a long sigh and let the window down by an inch. “Then hand it over. I don’t have time…”

He eyed my flowered canvas tote on the passenger seat. Moved to look in the back where I stowed my carry-on. “You going on a trip?”

“That ain’t none of your business, Guerry. Hand over the book and be off or I’m calling the police.”

He slid the book through the narrow gap at the top of the window. “You have my number if you change your mind and want company…”

I let it drop into my lap before chucking it onto the floor on the passenger’s side. “Nothing happened, Guerry. It's what you did…” The tears brimmed in my eyes as I forced myself to look up at him. “Please. Just leave.”

He hitched his worn Levi's and turned away from me. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry, Skye.”

I watched him in the side-view mirror as he hauled himself up into his truck and backed out into the street. Stopped and waved before heading west towards the interstate.

My breath was coming hard and heavy as I took up the phone and called my friend. “Hey, Kell! It’s Skye. Ya got time for a cuppa?”

“Skye? Yeah. Sure. Come on down.” She stopped. “You okay?”

“Yes, and no. I really need to talk.”

“Well, come on then. I was just fixing to take a short walk up to the Frothy Monkey so your timing’s perfect.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled into a space in front of the SunTrust Building and retrieved the black notebook from the floor.

Fran, the receptionist, greeted me with a sunny smile as I opened the door to the lobby. “Good morning, Miss Gardener. Have a seat. Attorney Raynes will be right with you.”

I nodded and offered her a weak smile.

***

It was sunny, in the mid-sixties, and relatively warm for the middle of February in Nashville. We took a table out on the porch and placed our drink order. A Rosemary Honey Latte for Kelly and a Cold Brew Draft for me.

“Skye. You’re really upset. Wanna tell me what’s up?”

I laid the notebook down on the table in front of her. “Remember that date I went on last week? Well, he found my house and…”

“Wait. He found your house? You didn’t invite him?”

“No. I didn’t invite him. He just showed up this morning.”

“That’s creepy for sure, but…”

“But nothing. I never told you about what happened after we had dinner. I was too… embarrassed and pretty much in shock…”

She sipped her drink and eyed me over her cup. “You wanna tell me about it?”

I cut my eyes to the depths of my drink. “It was our first meeting. A casual thing. Dinner at Istanbul over on Nolensville Road. We talked about a lot of stuff, but there wasn’t any chemistry. Nothing beyond two people who might could be friendly acquaintances. Nothing more. Nothing deep…”

“Yeah. That happens. It’s a downer, but you’re not really telling me anything. What is it that's tearing you up so bad?”

“I had to park around the back because the spaces up front were full. You know how dark it is back there…”

“I get the picture.”

“After we ate, I offered to pay half the check, which he refused. Then I said I’d be happy to leave the tip. He declined that too. I didn’t think much of it. Not really. It just wasn’t that big of a deal. Anyway, as we’re getting up to leave, he asked where I parked. I told him I was out back and he said he’d walk me out. You know how the neighborhood is around there.”

She nodded. “That was nice of him.”

“I thought so too. We left out the back door, walking side by side. Like I said, there wasn’t anything special going on. No hand holding. No cute kind of flirting.” I could feel the anger coming up in me. The heat rising from the collar of my denim jacket. A lump formed in my throat that made it hard for me to tell her the rest.

Kelly reached across the table and took my hand. “Skye. Geez. You’re really upset over this.” Her voice rose to a higher octave, and she looked me straight in the eye. “What did this guy do to you?”

“I... I feel so stupid, Kelly. Like I set myself up for it." Wrapping my hands around the cup of iced black coffee, I stared at the polished wood grain of the table. Forced myself to sit up against the back of the shiny aluminum chair and continued. "I turned my back to him while I unlocked my car and just like that he threw me against the car. Pushed himself against me and put his hands up under my skirt. For a second I couldn’t believe it was happening, but I finally got turned around to face him and tried to push him off. The more I fought, the more aggressive he got with his hands. I finally told him to get the fuck off me and pushed my hands against his chest as hard as I could.”

“And then he stopped?”

“No. It got so bad I had to threaten him. I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket and told him I’d cut him if he didn’t back the fuck off.”

She moved her chair around to sit next to me. Our backs to the other patrons who had just come out on the porch. She lowered her voice to calm me. “You know that’s sexual assault. Did you report it?”

“No. I was too pissed off and too scared. Not scared but…”

“You wanna tell me who we’re talking about here?”

“Guerry Grissom.”

Kelly’s face paled and her mouth gaped. She pulled her phone from her handbag. Rifled through a set of contacts and held the contact card up to me. “Is this him?”

I nodded and looked away.

“He’s an attorney. Personal injury. What you might call an Ambulance Chaser. Did he tell you that?”

“No. He told me he worked for the state, but that was it. I didn’t ask any probing questions because I honestly wasn’t interested in him. Not like that...”

“Skye, it’s probably not the first time he’s done something like this, you know that. You could help put a stop to this behavior. Prevent another woman from going through this same circumstance - or have to face something much worse. We should, at the very least, file a report…”

“But it’s been over a week. And now he knows where I live.”

“Let’s go back to my office. We’ll call the police and make a report. I’ll help you.”

I picked up the book and slid it back into my bag.

***

An hour later, Officer Shane Lewis and Detective Amy Kinney from Metro Police arrived at Kelly’s office. They were thorough, polite, and they treated me with respect. I expected a lot of questions about what I was wearing or how much we had to drink. But none of these sticky points were an issue.

I detailed the events of that morning and handed the book to Officer Lewis, who paged through it before handing it over to Detective Kinney.

“Strange as it is, I see nothing of value here. Not as far as this report is concerned. We’ll make a note of it, but you’re free to keep it. Or not.” She allowed a slight smile while Officer Lewis made notes on his iPad.

I took it from her and paged through it myself. Except for my name and address being inked on the first page, it was blank. I tucked it back into my handbag.

***

At home, late in the afternoon, I sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and put Detective Kinney’s contact information into my phone. I pulled out the notebook and ran my hand over the black leather cover, front and back. Opened it and paged through it again. Slowly.

That’s when I noticed the back pocket and stiffness of the back cover. I slid my fingernail under the flap. The crisp edge of something caught under my nail. Bending the cover back, I noticed that the pocket filled with thousand dollar bills. One by one, I pulled them out and lined them up on the table. There were twenty. $20,000.00 in total.

Punch drunk. That’s exactly how I felt as I played all the fantasies around in my head. I imagined myself with a whole new wardrobe. Enjoying fancy dinners in the finest of restaurants in Nashville.

The breath caught in the back of my throat and my pulse quickened as I thought about how I could pay off my credit cards. Pay off my car. Get ahead on my mortgage payments. Take an extended vacation and attend some writer’s retreats I’d been considering.

Or maybe I could use it to help others and try to make a difference. A real difference.

After all, the police had dismissed it and it was mine to keep - or not - as Detective Kinney had said.

Or was it?

***

At nine o’clock the next morning, I sent a group text to Kelly and Detective Kinney with a photo of the bills, pulled out from the back pocket of the small black notebook.

If there were questions about Guerry Grissom’s behavior and his true intentions, he was now going to answer to them. To all of them.