Tall, Silent and Lethal

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Really?” Ms. Petersen smiled, looking excited.

  “Really. Do you want to go…..,” Cloe’s voice trailed off as she watched Ms. Petersen grab her oversized bag and hurry to the front door as though she was afraid that Cloe was going to change her mind.

  Poor thing, Cloe thought, following after her.

  *-*-*-*

  With a pained sigh, Christofer climbed the stairs, slowly. It was time to make Marta’s dinner. Actually, it was past time to make her dinner, he realized after a quick glance down at his watch.

  Shit.

  He must have been more exhausted than he’d thought. He’d slept for a good five hours. Feeling like an asshole for making her wait, he moved his ass faster.

  Trying not to cringe when he saw the dirty counters, floor and stove, he made his way to the refrigerator. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d scrubbed down the kitchen, but it definitely needed it. After he finished this next project he’d focus on getting the house cleaned up for his sister.

  “Shit,” he muttered as he opened the refrigerator door and then the cabinets to find them empty. Looked like he forgot to go shopping, again, he realized with a wince.

  “I guess it’s pizza tonight,” he mumbled, unable to help but feel a little relieved that he didn’t have to cook tonight. He grabbed the portable phone and headed into Marta’s part of the house. “Marta, what do you want on your pizza?” he yelled.

  No answer.

  “Marta?”

  When she didn’t answer, he closed his eyes and listened for her heartbeat. Nothing. Dread filled him. As much as he hated living in this town, he loved her and couldn’t imagine his life without her.

  He ran to her room and damn near fell to his knees with relief when he didn’t find her body. Then he went to the living room and when he didn’t find her there, he searched the rest of the house, but there was no sign of her. He closed his eyes and inhaled again only to shake his head in disgust when he picked up Cloe’s lingering scent on his clothes.

  He ran outside and searched the backyard and adjoining woods, but there wasn’t any sign of her. This wasn’t like Marta. She never left the house to visit one of her friends without telling him first. More to the point, she couldn't leave the house if he didn’t give her a ride.

  An old memory of watching her being dragged from their childhood home tried to take over, but he pushed it aside before he lost control. Not knowing what else to do, he headed back into the house to find his cellphone. He called all her friends, who yelled at him for calling at the ungodly hour of seven o’clock until he explained to them that Marta was missing. Then they panicked and began reminiscing about past events that had terrified them, like when Evelyn’s poodle went missing for nearly a half hour. Before he did something like snap at the old women, he politely got off the phone, knowing Marta would hit him upside his head with her cane if he upset any of her friends.

  He called the police next only to learn that he needed to wait twenty-four hours before he could file a missing person’s report. Why in the hell was he paying taxes if they weren’t going to do their job? He asked them that only to have them hang up on him.

  Finally, he walked out onto the front porch and waited and wondered what the hell he should do next. This wasn’t like Marta. She hadn’t stepped out of the house without him in almost four decades.

  No, something was wrong here. Someone had taken his sister. He slowly got to his feet, allowing the anger to build inside him. He was going to kill whoever dared lay a finger on her. His fangs shot out of his gums as his eyes burned and for the first time in nearly fifty years he welcomed them. He would never allow anyone to hurt his sister, not again.

  Just as he was about to tear the town apart to find her, a small black SUV pulled into the driveway and parked next to his truck.

  His jaw dropped as he watched….no, it couldn’t be. It was! Shit. Hunger slammed into him as he watched Cloe climb out of the vehicle. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced them to shift back to normal. It took a few swipes of his tongue before his fangs receded. When he felt like he had a good grip on his control, he opened his eyes to watch her every move. She didn’t even glance his way as she walked quickly around the car and helped someone out.

  Marta.

  He watched through narrowed slits as his sister grabbed her cane with a polite “thank you” and a big smile. She walked around the vehicle, grinning hugely as if he hadn’t just spent the last two and a half hours worrying about her.

  “Oh! There you are!” Marta said when she spotted him standing on the front steps. “Oh, I had such a wonderful time! First we went to the buffet that I've wanted to go to for years! Oh, it was so delicious! They cut the meat right there for you!”

  She continued rambling on, oblivious to his seething anger. “I had a salad, and then some pasta, ham, turkey, fried chicken. Oh, it was so delicious! Then we went and tried the soft serve ice cream over on Wilmington.” He stood there waiting for her to realize that she was in trouble. He had no idea where that woman got off taking his sister, but he was going to find out. Then he was going to drain her dry for taking his sister without his permission and scaring the ever-living hell out of him!

  “Did you know that they had electric scooters at the grocer’s?” she asked in an accusing tone, cutting into his murderous thoughts.

  Shit.

  He had known. He just hadn’t told her because he didn’t want to chance even that slowing him down. He hated going out in public and having her along would just prolong the experience.

  “It was so nice to pick out my own fruits and vegetables. The produce and meat departments are so much larger than I remembered. Cloe was so nice. She never once complained about how slow I was going,” she said casually, but he didn’t miss the reproachful tone in her voice.

  He watched the woman in question open the hatch of her SUV. Something whacked him on the thigh, rather hard. He glared down at his sister who made no move to hide the fact that she’d just hit him with her cane.

  “Don’t just stand there. Go help her bring in the groceries,” Marta said with a huff before she continued making her way inside the house.

  Oh, if she was about forty years younger he’d actually consider pulling her over his knee and spanking her like their father had when they were children. She sent him a look that told him if he didn’t move his ass soon that she would come back down the stairs to give the other leg a good thump. Damn it, when had she gotten so bossy? He grumbled about annoying little sisters as he walked over to Cloe.

  Cloe had three bags in her arms when she finally turned around and spotted him. Her warm smile appeared genuine, making him instantly cautious. No one looked at him that way except for Marta. Everyone else looked at him as if he was a freeloading freak. No, this woman was up to something. She’d already kidnapped Marta. Granted, she’d returned her, but from what he’d heard she was already spending Marta’s money like there was no tomorrow. Correction, she was spending his money like there was no tomorrow.

  “Hey, Hoodie, I’m surprised to see you here,” she said as she somehow managed to pick up another bag.

  “It’s Christofer,” he said evenly, making her smile falter a little.

  “Yes, of course. I’m sorry,” she said sheepishly as she moved to step past him. He moved to the right, cutting her off.

  “As much as I’d love to stand here and chat with you, Christofer, these bags are kind of heavy,” she said as she tried to adjust her grip on the bags.

  “What are you doing here, Cloe?” he asked softly as he fought the urge to lean in and inhale her scent more deeply into his lungs.

  “At the moment? Probably developing a hernia,” she groaned.

  His lips twitched, despite his mood.

  “Christofer, you help her!” Marta yelled from the front steps.

  Grinding his teeth so that he didn’t say something that would upset his sister, he reached out and relieved Cloe of the bags. She took a deep breath a
nd nodded. “Thank you,” she murmured with a grateful smile.

  He expected her to go inside and leave the bags to him, but instead, she turned around and grabbed three more bags and easily stepped around him and headed for the house, leaving him to follow after her or stand there looking like an idiot.

  “So, are you Marta’s grandson?” she asked in a conversational tone as they walked towards the house

  “No, I’m her brother,” he answered, stepping to the side so that Cloe could walk on the path.

  Cloe’s back became ramrod straight, causing her to stumble before she righted herself. Without a look back, she hurried inside the house, leaving him to wonder what the hell that reaction was about.

  Chapter 4

  “What the hell do you mean you hired her? She’s not staying here!” Christofer shouted from the living room. Whatever Marta’s response was, it was quiet.

  Cloe sighed as she headed back out to her car to grab the rest of the grocery bags. It had been a while since she had to buy this much food for one of her employers, but Marta had insisted that there wasn’t anything in the house. After a quick inspection of the kitchen before heading back outside, Cloe quickly agreed that they hadn’t overdone it.

  After grabbing her iPod, she grabbed the last of the bags, locked her car, and headed back inside. Once she was back in the kitchen, she could hear him yelling again. With a sigh, she cranked up the volume on her iPod.

  Whatever his problem was about her being here she had no doubt that Marta would win. Normally she wouldn’t care one way or the other about losing a job, but Marta was a very nice, feisty, if somewhat shy woman who needed more help than her spoiled brat brother was giving her.

  At first she’d been a little unnerved at the discovery, but she’d been working with the older generation for a long time now and Christofer was not the first very young sibling that she’d encountered. That didn’t bother her. No, what bothered her was the fact that the nice guy she’d thought she’d met in the pharmacy was really a toad who treated his sister, his elderly sister, like an unwanted dog.

  The man didn’t want to take his sister anywhere when she clearly wanted to go out and live her life. Marta damn near broke her heart when she got all excited about driving to the grocery store. Then she began pointing out all the places she’d heard about, heard not been to, to Cloe and told her how she was just dying to try this or that. Finally, Cloe hadn’t been able to take it any longer and took her to the buffet. Marta seemed so excited to be there. It was obvious to Cloe that she hadn’t been out to eat in a very long time. Marta acted the same way at the store.

  When she’d thought the brother was an old man she’d been fine with the situation, realizing that there wasn’t much that an elderly man could do to help his sister. She’d decided that she would try helping them both out, but when she’d discovered the brother was much younger, healthy and lazy she got a bit pissed. This was classic elderly neglect. For God sakes there wasn’t so much as a box of baking soda in the house.

  After she put the last of the groceries away and no one came to tell her that she had to leave, she decided to make herself useful. She grabbed the new cleaning supplies they’d bought and started cleaning.

  The counters, stove, table, refrigerator and cabinets probably took a half hour to clean. She swept up the floor and was about to get the mop, but decided she would just have to get on her hands and knees and scrub the damn floor. It was clear that the floor hadn’t been mopped in years. Well, at least not properly, she amended a moment later when she spotted the telltale signs of a mop having been moved over the floor at some point. With a resigned sigh, she filled up the bucket with hot soapy water, grabbed the brush and got to work.

  As she worked, her mind kept going back to the playful banter she had with Christofer at the pharmacy. It really was a pity that he’d turned out to be such a spoiled little ingrate. Oh well. Marta said he stayed in his basement room most of the time and only came up to check on her or make her a meal so she probably wouldn’t run into him very often if she stayed.

  Even though she’d just met Marta, she wanted to stay and help her. She seemed so nice and clearly she needed someone to take care of her. Her brother certainly wasn’t doing it, she thought with a snort of disgust. No wonder the townspeople seemed to hate him, she was certainly starting to.

  *-*-*-*

  “Woman,” Christofer said in warning, “if you hit me with that damn cane again I’m going to take it!”

  She didn’t even hesitate when she whacked him on the ass. He glared at her as he smartly jumped out of the way of the next swing. She matched his glare with one of her own.

  “You do not tell me what to do, Christofer Petersen. I am a grown woman and if I want to hire someone to come live with me and help me then that is exactly what I’ll do!” He noted her accent becoming more pronounced the way it did whenever she was angry.

  “This is my house, Marta. I decide who comes and who goes,” he reminded her.

  She folded her hands in her lap and for a moment said nothing, making him think that he’d won. He really should have known better.

  “Then I’ll use my money and move out. I’ll rent a two bedroom apartment closer to town and Cloe can come live with me.”

  He threw his hands up in frustration. “You’re not leaving, Marta. We don’t need anyone. I take good care of you.”

  She snorted.

  She actually snorted.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded, noting that his own accent was starting to come through. Damn it. Hadn’t that woman done enough today? First she nearly makes him lose control in the store and now she was messing with his home life. Clearly the woman needed to leave and soon.

  “You do not take care of me, Christofer,” she said firmly.

  He gaped at her. What the hell? “I put a roof over your head,” he started, holding up one finger to give her a visual of just how much he did for her. “I put food on the table, which I cook I might add,” he pointed out, adding another finger. “I do the laundry,” he said as another finger joined the party. “And I run all the errands for the house,” he said firmly as the fourth finger went up, proving without a doubt that he took great care of her.

  She shifted in her seat. “I would not call what you do cooking.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? You never had a problem with it before!”

  “You make watery tea. Your idea of breakfast is lumpy oatmeal or a piece of fruit and burnt toast,” she announced, holding up a finger. “Your idea of lunch is a sandwich, and they’re not very good. I’m tired of bologna,” she said, earning a glare as she held up another finger. “Your idea of dinner is whatever’s in a can or one of those disgusting frozen meals,” she said, adding another finger. “You run errands only when you have time and you never bring me along,” she snapped as the fourth finger went up, but she didn’t stop. “You never spend any time with me. You’re always in the barn and when I ask you to do something you make me feel like I’m nothing but a burden,” she announced, wiggling all five fingers to get her point across.

  “What do you mean, I don’t spend time with you? I sit down with you for every meal and I check on you several times a day!”

  She scoffed. “You sit at the table, reading or fixing one of your sketches and your idea of checking on me is to listen to my heartbeat from the barn.”

  “That’s not true!” It was.

  Marta smoothed her skirt down. “I’m tired of being a burden to you, Christofer. I know you gave your word to Papa and you’ve kept it to the best of your ability, but now I am releasing you from your promise. I know you would rather be anywhere else but here and with Cloe here you can do that now.”

  That gave him pause. “You hired her to get rid of me?” That actually hurt. It was true that he didn’t want to be in this town, but he wanted to be with her. She was his sister, his family, his friend and without her he would be all alone in the world.

  “That’s
one of the reasons.”

  He began pacing the room. “I’m not leaving, Marta. This is my home and you are my family. So, if that’s the reason for this woman’s presence then you might as well send her away, because I’m staying.”

  “So is she if she still wants the job after all of your yelling.”

  “I did not yell!”

  “You’re doing it now!”

  He groaned as he picked up his pacing. An idea hit him. He stopped and faced her. “What do you really know about this woman? More to the point, how did you hire her? For all you know she could be a thief or an ax murderer.”

  “I hired her through an agency. They did a background check on her, drug testing and I contacted all her former employers and they couldn’t say enough nice things about her.”