He closed his eyes, blinking away hot tears that stung just as sharply as they had when he had gazed at her parents during the funeral, teardrops mixing with the rain, and whoever said water didn't have a scent, knew nothing. It did. Sharp and fresh, mixing with dirt and loam, and the tears of a family mourning the daughter they had loved, before she was torn away from them forever.
"What happened, Val?" Elise's voice, an endless distance away.
Val clenched his fists as memory's rain poured down. "She... she went back to him. The guy who she had left after he had beaten her, refusing to press charges when he had broken down and sobbed, begging her not to destroy his future. She... showed him that final grace, never spoke a word of it, though I know her parents knew. Must have known. But she never told anyone what exactly had happened except for me. She was so ashamed."
Val sighed. "Her gaze was so sad, like she was swept up by something beyond her control. She swore to me he was different now, that he had changed, made amends, that he was better now. So... she left me. And it broke my heart. And there was nothing I could do to save her." He broke free of Elise's gaze, desperate to push away the awful memory. Private pain he would share with no one.
But it was already too late.
Her parent's sobs, piercing his heart, even now.
The hot searing rage that had made his tears so bitter, dripping unheeded in the rain.
Then he went home with nothing but bitter anger burning through him.
It didn't matter that the police report had ruled it a random mugging gone bad, a tragic accident, her boyfriend sobbing at the funeral even then, fine cashmere gloves protecting his hands from the rain.
Val had met the powerfully built quarterback's unguarded gaze before he quickly looked away.
He had seen the bitter smile on Terrance's lips.
It was all he needed to know.
Ice in his veins, fury in his heart. Classes meant nothing. He didn't even bother studying for the tests. When Terrance passed him in the hallway after that, his gaze showed nothing but grief, just a boy morning for his dead girlfriend, a sympathetic girl already on his arm.
Val made no eye contact, never said a word to or about Terrance to anyone.
Nothing anyone could look back later on and see a connection Val didn't want seen.
Terrance's parents were rich. The boy would never work a day he didn't want to. He was already the man of the house when his parents left town to snap up more real estate with their oldest son working at their father's side. No one cared that he partied, so long as he kept it under control. And party he did. Frequently. And the electric company had planned brownouts as they upgraded their hardware, frequently. Any fool could go online and download their schedule, a common enough item downloaded by half the students at the school.
Val shivered, lost in memory. The streets had been near empty when the lights had gone out, and no one had thought twice of the late night jogger, wearing reflective bands so any rider could see him, hiding in plain sight, for all that his bike was conveniently hidden in bushes. Preparation for what was to come.
The block was quiet save for Terrance's party, tunes still blaring, thanks to a generator good for that much, though otherwise the house was lit only by candles and a strobe light.
No one in sight. Climb the trellis just as he trained climbing the ropes at school. Window opening, no one to be seen. Gloves on, reflective gear stowed.
The security cameras and alarms were down, along with the power. It was nothing to slip inside, traversing dark corridors, carefully stepping past end tables of exotic wood with their exquisitely carved figurines of ivory and jade, just shadows in the dark. Much like him, mind empty of all fury, all thought. A force of nature as inevitable as death itself.
Slipping into a room he just knew was Terrance's, even as the house below partied. Slipping into his closet, cover story in place should it be needed, tools safely hidden within, not on him at all.
Hours passed. Power out still, and Val did not tire, did not lose focus, did not break out of that eerie trance.
A pounding on the door. Quickly opened. Drunken voices turning to soft entreaties, ragged breathing, hungry kisses.
Cries of passion eventually tearing through the night, before fading into giggles and sighs.
"You good, babe?"
"Yeah, sugar. You hit me in all the right spots. Here's some candy for you. You get home safe now."
Loud snorting cut through the darkness. "Yes! Goddamn yes. You sure you want me to go home, honey? We could party all night with this shit."
A dark chuckle. "At least you know how to party, Jade. You go have a blast. Don't fuck anyone I don't know."
Throaty laughter at that. "Thanks for the good time, Terrance. You call me any time you want to freak."
A shut door, and silence at last. No creaking of boards or other pressure did Val sense, save the front door slamming shut as Jade left. Utter stillness. If anyone remained, it seemed they were already passed out.
Heart racing, Val slipped out of the closet, the smell of sex and coke still lingering in the air.
Val slipped free his gun into one gloved hand, notebook and pen in the other.
He pressed the barrel against Terrance's temple.
The football player, only just dozing off, jerked awake, eyes wide with panic. "What the fuck? Who the hell are you? Terrance's blue eyes widened. "Jesus fucking Christ, why do you have a gun? Why are you in my room?" He raised his suddenly panicked hands. "Look, look man, no need to stress this shit, alright? You want to rob me? Well fuck it, payday for you, man. The figurines in the hallway? They're all jade and ivory. A hundred grand worth of shit my mom just leaves out in the open. I told my peeps it's all fake, and no one's taken a single piece."
He flashed a terrified grin. "Honest, man, it's a hundred grand, and you get to walk away clean as a whistle. I'll tell her my friends stole it, she'll catch a fit but she'll get over it, and best of all you're rich, man. You could party for a year or more on that money and not worry about a thing."
"Why, Terrance?"
Terrance blinked. "What the fuck?"
"Why did you kill her?"
Terror turned to confusion and fear. "Wait, what the hell... oh no, oh shit, Val, is that you? Look man, I didn't do shit. You can ask the coroner, you can ask the goddamn chief of police."
Val's smile was ice. "The chief your father helped elect? Who just received a fat contribution if you know where to look in the records? Or how about the DA who your dad went to school with? Justice truly is blind, Terrance."
Terrance's lip curled, fear turning to fury. "Listen, you little shit, I did nothing, nothing! Are you really going to kill me? You didn't say a word to me, not a goddamned word every time we passed in the hallway. If you had a problem, why the hell did you say nothing?"
Now it was Terrance who was clenching fists. "You little fucking shit! You were screwing her the whole goddamned time, weren't you? I knew that bitch was cheating on me! I knew it! And did I beat the crap out of you? Did I break every bone in your body? No, Val, I didn't, because you were just a pawn, and you didn't even know it! She was playing you to get to me and it worked. Alright, Val? It worked!"
Val blinked, a jolt of icy uncertainty giving him pause. He peered into Terrance's baby blues, pleading and furious all at once.
"I can pay you, Val." He licked his lips. "Look, man, I don't really give a shit you even being here. As far as I'm concerned? This never even happened. Just put down the gun, go downstairs, fix yourself a drink and go home. Okay?" He swallowed. "Fuck it, Val, take the figurines while you're at it. They really are worth a hundred grand, and I got ten thousand in my dresser right there."
Val flashed a bleak smile. "Right next to the coke?"
"Yes, goddamn it, right next to the coke! I like to party once in awhile, my friends do too." He shook his head, wry smirk in place. "Take the coke while you're at it. Good high, and if you're not partying like crazy, it will last you
easy til the end of the semester." He swallowed, taking a shuddering breath. "Look, we both lost someone we cared about. We're both a little bit fucked up right now. I get it, I really do. Let's just put this shit behind us, and I'll be helping you out, here on in. Helping out a guy on the team, you know what I'm saying?"
His gaze turned desperate. "Come on, Val. I'm begging. Look, you were right about one thing, my dad really does have friends in high places. We'll scour the goddamned town for that fucked up killer, and the chief won't rest till that bastard is found. What do you say, Val? Open invite to all my future parties, lots of girls who'll be more than happy to help us both forget the girl we loved."
Val blinked, thinking fast, oddly off balance until his roving eye caught sight of the small band hung like a necklace on a string over the top point of the fine glass mirror on Terrance's desk.
Uncertainty turned to fury, hid in a cordial nod. "Okay." Terrance's sigh of relief was so great he looked ready to collapse. "That's great, man, that's fucking fantastic! Seriously, just check the top drawer. The coke and cash are in the back left corner, in the cigar box. But um, please man, only grab the figurines if you're really tight. They're yours, but if you take em, my parents will never let me host a party again."
He swallowed and grimaced, Val's gun still aimed at his heart. "But that's no biggie. You're invited to any future parties you like, free drugs and all, and Jade, man, that girl is hot. Get her a little loaded and she'll love you like a demon. So, um, welcome to the crew and all that. Now, how about we put the gun down, Val? Or at least, not aim it straight for my heart and shit." Terrance flashed a desperate smile. "Damn, Val, I thought you were just a gamer. Didn't realize you had a touch of badass to you."
Val nodded. "The money's fine. Don't worry. I don't want your mother's figurines. I'll tell you what I do want, though. I want something that covers my ass. So I won't find the police waiting for me when I get home, with a police chief more than happy to see me jailed for life, threatening the golden boy here."
Terrance shook his head frantically. "No way, man. No way. That's not how I roll. Fuck, man, do you know how busted I'd get if this shit got out of hand and I'm caught dealing? Even if my dad got me off with a slap on the wrist, goodbye freedom, hello boarding school in the boondocks, my mom's favorite threat if my shit gets out of hand."
Val nodded, even as he pulled out a bottle of pills and a small flask of rum. "I get that. Still, I need to cover my ass. Tell you what. Write a confession, I'll hold onto it, and as long as you're square with me, it will never see the light of day." He flashed a cold smile. "After all, I don't want to kill my future coke connection, do I?"
Terrance paled, trembling as he nodded his head. "Okay, I... sure, man. What do you want me to write?"
Val told him. Terrance blinked, eyes blazing for one hot second before he shook it away, wincing as he wrote, and Val noticed how awkwardly he held his pen.
"You know, you might want to get that looked at," Val said, carefully eyeing the notebook and Terrance at the same time. His smile was ice. Terrance had followed his first order to the letter. As planned.
Terrance flinched, instinctively holding his right hand with his left. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Val shrugged. "Here. A travel sized bottle of ibuprofen and some rather fine rum. Shit, man, I'm almost spoiling you, giving you this."
Terrance frowned. "What the fuck, man. You got the note, what are you trying to do? A handful of ibu's might make me sick, but it's not going to kill me. Shit, if it gave you any kind of buzz at all, it wouldn't be for sale at every damn store in the country. All it's good for is numbing toothaches and shit like that."
Val nodded. "I know. But if you're loaded on booze and your guts are hurting from your mom's cabinet meds, you aren't going to come after me before I get home and hide this note. And the fact that it looks like you tried to off yourself in a fit of remorse is going to look good when I counterclaim that you made a teary-eyed confession to me, begged for forgiveness, then had second thoughts when I fled."
Terrance frowned. "Shit, man, covering your ass something fierce." He shook his head, nervous swallow betraying the cavalier toughness he tried to project. "Fuck. That's pretty clever, Val." He flashed an almost pleading grin. "You're a hell of a lot cooler than I took you for. Damn, Val, it will be good to have a badass like you partying with us." He pointed to the dresser as he swallowed the pills, washing it down with some rum. He grimaced before blinking. "This shit is pretty good, man."
Val nodded. "I know. It's the best. I was hoping it would go down like this. Since I'm not going to have to shoot you, drink up, and thanks for the ten grand. Now you can't say I didn't extort you in style."
Terrance's laughter was full of relief. He shook his head and drunk deep. "Shit, man, you really had me going there!"
Val smiled, taking the cash, making sure Terrance saw it, knowing it would put him at ease.
"Every party, Terrance. Set me up with girls who like a good time."
"Fuck yeah," he nodded, all sincerity. "Jade's my favorite, but I know a couple of other girls who like to freak just as hard. Asian, Hispanic, White, you just say the word, my man, I can find your flavor."
Val shrugged. "We'll see. How is your knuckle feeling, by the way? I see how you flinch with it sometimes. Did the ibuprofen at least knock the pain out?"
Terrance smirked. "It's only been two minutes, Val. You don't know sports injuries. Drugs don't work that fast. Not unless you're snorting them or shooting up, and nose candy is as far as I go." He took another sip of rum. "Damn, that's fine."
Val nodded. "Hey, that ring on your dresser? Real nice. Is it real?"
Terrance grew still, smile fading. He swallowed, looking flustered. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think it is. I, I found it cleaning my room the other day. I think it was from one of the girls, but I'm not sure. Do you want it? It's yours, man, just say the word."
Val looked at the ring with the tiny diamond and smiled sadly, struck by thoughts of Christine's beautiful grin back when she had taken his promise ring, holding him so tightly, so fiercely to her.
Never had he felt so happy, so complete, as the day she put on that ring, a promise of the love they felt, the future they might one day share together.
Now kept as a keepsake, a prize by the man who had killed her.
There was no other explanation.
It had surprised and humbled Val when he saw her still wearing the ring when walking with Terrance, and the strange, sad smile she gave him when he stared at her, pressing it against her heart even then, her other hand held by the football player glaring at Val with such disdain. So different from the desperate, pleading look he wore now.
That had been the day before her death. She had been wearing it then. And it had been missing from her broken body when she was found in the dead of night, dumped in the woods like an unwanted piece of meat. Pure freak chance had revealed her after only a handful of hours, the woods as much park as not, joggers out in that normally peaceful area before dawn, and never molested before.
Terrance was gazing at Val strangely, a huge yawn cracking from his lips. "Listen, man, take it, it's no biggy. You're staring kinda intent, you know?"
Val's gaze did not waver. "We both know whose ring it is."
Terrance flinched. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the ring you tore from her dead finger. I'm talking about the cracked knuckle you've been doing your best to hide. Your passes weren't shit, last game of the season, and there's a damn good reason why you haven't gone to a doctor for it."
Terrance blinked. "You don't know what the fuck you are talking about." His voice was raw. "I loved her, Val. I fucking loved her a hell of a lot more than you did!"
Val's clenched fist trembled as it all clicked into place. Christine's increasingly erratic behavior, the way some days she'd sweep him off his feet with passion, dreamy, for lack of a better word. Or so he wanted to think. And how she seemed
so anxious, almost panicked that last days they were together. How she had cried like he was the one breaking up with her, saying she had to leave him. How sorry she was. Goddamn. It all made sense. He wished it didn't.
"Christine was another one of your party girls, wasn't she?"
Terrance's gaze hardened. "Let it fucking, go, Val. She wasn't any straight-laced virgin when she came to your bed. She liked to party, we fought, she cried on your shoulders for a bit, then we got back together. So fucking what?"
Val took a deep breath, trying to control the black fury coursing through him. He had already won. No need to wreck it all now.
But he couldn't stop.
"So she was hooked. Pills, coke, whatever it was. Maybe she had a stash she was trying to wean herself from, maybe she started paying you cash. But when the money ran out, and she was getting the shakes, I guess you made it clear she had to pay to play. She was too ashamed to admit it even to me, let alone her family that she was an addict, and she couldn't stand feeling like she was selling herself. So she broke up with me, and went back to partying with you, telling herself you two had gotten back together. It was the only way she could do what she had to do to get her fix, and still live with herself."
Val couldn't hide the fury any longer. Terrance paled and looked away. "Goddamn. I'm right, aren't I, Terrance? That's exactly how it went."
Terrance blinked. "Shit, man, I'm dizzy as hell. What the fuck?"
Val's hand jutted out, embracing a shooter's position once more. "Answer the question, fuckhead! She was strung out, and there was only one way she was getting free shit from you. We both know that's how it went down. What I want are the fucking details!"
Terrance raised his hands, panic fighting grogginess for a few precious minutes. "Alright, Val. Goddamn it, alright! Yes, she was strung out. Fuck, man, she tried to be all miss high and mighty, chilling with you, and she was strung out bad. I told that bitch she couldn't just hop off like that, but no. She thought her stash would see her through. She wanted something 'real', she said. As if I was a joke. Bullshit! Yeah, I hooked her up, but I let her know I wanted it just like old times."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Blade Page 19