Kiss Her Goodbye: Thriller/Romance with a shocking twist

by Kirsten Mitchell

  “Let me guess,” Glenda laughed. “Smoking hot sex with the Doc?”

  “No,” Mia lied. “That’s actually none of your business.”

  “Um, sure,” Glenda said. “You don’t get laid in five years and I’m supposed to just shrug off that the miracles of all miracles finally happened for you? Girl, quit playing. I want to know all the deets.” She plopped down crossed-legged on a sleeping bag, dropping her chin to her hands and waiting for a response.

  “That is not the priority right now,” Mia said. “Constable Barter is missing.”

  “I thought Nate said she went back home.”

  “I don’t know,” Mia said. “It doesn’t look that way.”

  “What do you mean?” Glenda’s smile faded. “Are we in danger or something?”

  “I honestly don’t know…”

  “We can still go to Blueflower,” Glenda said as if reading her mind. “We should just run away in the middle of the night without them. Before they can stop us.”

  “No,” Mia sighed. “I can’t let you put yourself in more danger. If I go there, I have to go alone. You should head back to town with Leo to get help to find Barter.” She gulped inwardly at the thought of Glenda going back to town. Because if she did, Nate would certainly be on that trip with her.

  “You can’t go on that hike alone,” Glenda said. “It would be certain suicide.”

  “What other choice do I have?” Mia said. She knew it was ridiculous to keep needing to get to Blueflower, but it was something she could not turn away from at this point. “Penelope’s missing, you guys have to turn back and get help. And Nate…he’s got all the equipment and we rely on him, but there is something not quite right about that guy….”

  “Nate? He’s no problem. He’s just a weirdo, but harmless. I can talk to him.”

  “Talk to him? About what?”

  “Oh come on. You know he has massive crush on me,” Glenda said. “Maybe I can use my feminine power on him to kind of, you know, change his mind, per se.”

  “Oh god, no, Glenda,” Mia said. “I can’t let you do that.” God only knew what a guy like Nate would do to Glenda if she was at his mercy.

  “I’m not saying I’ll sleep with him. I’ll just butter him up and make him feel like a man. A weakling nerd like him probably hasn’t licked a drop of a woman in years.”

  “No, Glenda. No. Absolutely not.”

  “Oh come on, I’ve had worse.”

  “If so, I feel incredibly bad for you.”

  “Believe me, I could tell you stories that would make your eyebrows curl.”

  “Please, I’m begging you, don’t.” Don’t tell me the stories and don’t try to manipulate Nate.

  “Just let me just work my magic and get him to give us some of his equipment. He and Leo can head back to town and you and me will take his equipment and be in Blueflower by Brendan’s disappearance anniversary this Sunday.”

  Mia sighed helplessly. She didn’t see what other choice she had. She leaned forward to hug Glenda when the sounds of shouting outside ripped through their moment. The women looked toward the tent doorway.

  “You killed her, you psychotic bastard!” Leo’s roar was followed by a disturbing clatter of violence.

  *******

  “I didn’t kill that cop, I swear,” Nate insisted as Leo lunged at him and pinned him to the sandy ground. “Furthermore, you are being highly unprofessional and inappropriate right now, Dr. Lawson.”

  “Inappropriate?” Leo asked incredulously. “Pretty rich, coming from someone who stalks D-list vlog celebrities and kills cops.”

  “I wasn’t stalking Glenda, I simply admired her from a distance. And I never killed Barter. She wouldn’t be an easy woman to kill, anyway, don’t you think? She was far too much effort for the—”

  “Was?” Leo clutched him by the collar and whammed the back of his head against the ground. “She was too much effort?”

  Nate lifted his eyebrows blankly, questioningly at him.

  The door on the tent across the campground swung open, interrupting them. “What’s going on here?” Mia regarded the two men struggling on the ground.

  “Dr. Lawson, the ever-macho therapist, is trying to bring me to my untimely death,” Nate cried out. “Will you be ever so kind and bring me my gun and my rope so I can protect myself from this onslaught of unfairness?”

  “What?” Mia asked.

  “Shut up!” Leo lifted him and slammed him again. “Stop speaking to her.”

  “I really am not feeling well, Doctor—” Nate gripped his throat and then choked into silence as Leo pummeled him one more time.

  Mia swept the tent door closed again and escaped inside of it.

  “I am done with your lunatic behavior and your hoity-toity way of speaking,” Leo said. “This bullshit stops right now.”

  “You’re the one presently situated on my chest,” Nate corrected. “So if we are going to get into the topic of lunatics, we can start from this fact alone.”

  “Quit your whining and start talking,” Leo released the teeniest bit of tension from Nate’s throat.

  “I know you think I did something…unfortunate to that cop.” Nate struggled and coughed, his face now purpling.

  “Damn straight I do.” Leo got up and released him completely with a scowl.

  “The truth is…” Nate scampered away from Leo before he changed his mind and attacked him again. He took a slow seat on the log while holding worried eye contact with this therapist. One hand gripped the log as if he was ready to leap and bolt should Leo make any moves toward him. The other hand still protectively clasped his throat. “I honestly don’t know what happened to her.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I swear, Doc. I saw her swimming the lake yesterday. I was watching her through the trees and thinking about doing something. I admit it. I really wanted to get her back for being such a bossy…bitch. For humiliating me. But I chickened out. I couldn’t do it. Last I saw, she was walking up the path to the cliff and then I never saw her again.” Nate swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple flickering in his throat. He held his fingertips to his lips, as though blocking himself from saying any more. “I swear to you, Dr. Lawson. I didn’t touch Constable Penelope Barter and I have no idea where she is.”

  He was lying. He had to be. Who else could have attacked Penelope and Glenda? Because he sure knew he hadn’t done anything.

  Was it Mia?

  It was impossible. Although Leo had to admit he couldn’t entirely know for sure. He didn’t want to entertain that possibility. If it was Mia doing this, if her death threat note-writing had escalated into attacking people, Leo would have to find out the truth. As much as he cared for Mia, if this is what she was doing, he needed to know.

  Leo watched Nate with the objective eyes of a trained therapist, finding himself increasingly more frustrated that Nate showed zero the signs of deceit. Nate didn’t pause while speaking, his eyes stayed connected, his mouth was relaxed and he didn’t reach to groom himself. None of the textbook signs where there. Either Nate was telling the truth or he was damn good at masking it.

  “Tell me, Nate.” Leo deliberately softened his tone. “When you were a kid, were you ever bullied?” He didn’t need to ask. He already knew the answer. He knew it long ago, despite it never having been discussed in sessions. That haunting past was at the root every one of Nate’s awkward movements, in every shred of his lack of confidence.

  With hand still pressed to his mouth, Nate flashed a wide-eyed glance at Leo. “Goodness jellybeans, Doc. Why on Earth would you ask me something so random?”

  The tent door swung open again, Mia and Glenda emerged.

  “Listen, guys. I’m tired of waiting all day listening to you two bicker.” Glenda strolled up to Nate, radiating at him. “Let’s go for that walk now, Nate.”

  “I would love to,” Nate gushed.

  “No,” Leo interjected, he marched between them and pushed Nate back from Glenda. “I can’t allow t
hat to happen.”

  “Allow?” Glenda said. “Since when are you my father who gives me permission to do things?”

  “Something has come up and we need to stay at camp,” Leo said.

  “Leo, is everything alright?” Mia blinked at him with an innocent gaze. He looked at her and felt immediately weird. Uneasy. She hardly looked the type that would hurt anyone.

  But he wasn’t so sure anymore.

  Damn Nate, for putting this twisted idea in his head.

  “Nate and I will go looking for Barter,” Glenda said.

  “No,” Leo said. “I’ll go with Nate. You and Mia stay at camp.”

  “And what if that grizzly bear comes and slaughters us?” Glenda shot back.

  “You told her about that?” Leo accused Mia.

  “I had to.” Mia bit her lip. “It’s a safety issue.”

  “Nate, give me your gun. I know you brought one,” Leo said. “I will keep look out for the bear.”

  “No,” Nate said.

  “Hey, I have an idea,” Glenda chimed. “Let’s take the gun with us. In case we run into that bear on the way.”

  “I-I-I…” Nate looked at Glenda, his smile fading into a worried frown. “You know what? I think it’s better if we just leave the gun here.”

  “Whatever,” she snorted then turned to Leo and Mia. “We’ll be back in a few hours.” She took his arm and Nate blushed deeply. Together they disappeared down the path into the trees, Glenda’s happy chatter fading as they got further and further away.

  “Leo.” Mia barely breathed as she approached him. She put her hands on his forearm and it sent electricity through him. His eyes met hers and slid down her face to her luscious, angelic lips. It was impossible she could be involved in this. Not the sweet, always caring Mia Floyd that he knew. “Tell me the truth. Are we in danger, Leo?”

  He couldn’t answer her and shrugged his arm away, even though he saw in her eyes that his rejection hurt her. She took a seat on the log by the fire, watching him sadly. He paced the earth around the campsite, pounding a new path around it and unable to remove his eyes from the clearing Nate and Glenda had gone into. He waited for the sounds of screams at any moment and the silence he heard drove him mad. “Where’s his bag? I saw he still had it.”

  “I saw it in the ladies’ tent,” Mia said. “Under the red sleeping bag.”

  Leo rushed into the tent, throwing the red sleeping bag in a giant arc across the tent. He lunged into the bag to pull out the gun.

  But it wasn’t there anymore.

  Leo roared in frustration and threw the bag at the flimsy wall. He fought the urge to rip the tent out of the ground and hurl it over a cliff.

  Then he looked at Mia and wondered. How did she know Nate’s bag was here? Did she put it here? Did she have the gun?

  Was she hiding it somewhere?

  “I’m going after them.” He turned to her, his eyes dark and hard. He reached and touched her cheek, the softness of her skin pummeled him mad. “And I would suggest you come with me.”

  *******

  Sunday, September 17: 8:04 a.m.

  The red pickup darted down the highway like a stray dog running off with a stolen pizza. Clumsy, but swift. Allan recognized that truck right away, it was his friend Brad’s. He threw his car into gear and roared out of the parking lot. Once he got onto the highway, he chased after him. It was times like this he wished he was driving a police car and could use the siren to alert his friend. Although, technically, they didn’t let you use the siren for things like that.

  The next best thing, his horn, was blaring like a thousand riled up Canada geese. Eventually, his friend noticed and slowed down to pull over.

  “Dude, what is it?” Brad squished out a joint in his pop can and grimaced at him. “Am I, like, under arrest for something?”

  “Remember that guy we were playing video games with…Mulaka, or something?” Allan thought the best strategy was to jump right to the point. “You said his dad has a helicopter and that he’s got a license?”

  “Yeah, so what?” Brad said. “You wanted to pull me over like a maniac to just randomly ask me that?” Brad exhaled what pot smoke was left is his lungs. “You playing online tonight or what? I was thinking we could get a case of beer and hang out at your place.”

  “You think his dad would let him take out the chopper for a search and rescue thing up in the mountains?” Allan pressed on.

  “What the hell?” Brad said. “I’m not asking him that. I barely know the guy.”

  “Well, you know him better than I do.”

  “I am not asking him to borrow his chopper, dude. That’s, like, weird and stuff.”

  Allan nodded and looked at the pop can in his cup holder. He took a notepad from his back pocket and flipped it open in front of him, pretending to write him up.

  “What are you doing?” Brad looked at the cup and then back up at Allan’s notepad. “Whatever you’re doing, stop it, man. I don’t need any problems today.”

  “Did you know it’s against the law to drive under the influence of marijuana?”

  “So you’re giving me a ticket for that?” He wailed. “Dude.”

  “You wish it was just a ticket,” Allan said. “Unfortunately, it’s a federal offense and I am going to have to ask you to come down to the station with me.” Of course, Allan had no actual authority to arrest anyone with only auxiliary status. He only hoped his friend wasn’t bright enough to call his bluff. And from what he knew about Brad, he was confident his bluff would remain eternally undisturbed.

  “All right, all right!” Brad said.

  “All right, what?”

  “I’ll talk to the guy,” he said. “and see if he’ll take out the chopper for your little ‘search and rescue mission.’ Sheesh.”

  “Awesome.”

  “But, like, there are no guarantees. He might say no.”

  “Yeah, see the thing is this…” Allan leaned down and rested his forearms in Brad’s window. “It’s got to be a ‘yes’ from him. Or else people are going to die and you're going to jail.”

  “Jail?” Brad’s eyes widened.

  “Jail.”

  “Like I said, I will do what I can,” Brad whimpered, his tone as unconvincing as humanly possible. Allan had no choice but to trust he could do it.

  *******

  Sunday, September 17: 8:10 a.m.

  “Goddammit, we’ve lost them,” Leo grunted in frustration as they turned around on trail after trail in futility. “I knew we shouldn’t have let Glenda go alone with him.”

  “Why?” Mia felt sincerely perplexed. His new anxiety unnerved her. She wanted to hold him for safety, but he hardly seemed like something stable to hang onto right now. She wrapped her arms around herself instead.

  “Because he’s…” Leo started, then looked at her. “Never mind.”

  “Because he’s what?” Mia insisted. “What is going on, Leo? I need to know. I feel really scared.”

  He turned to face her. His eyes fierce with something hidden. The muscles of his jaw flexed. “We need to just find them.”

  They walked back toward camp in silence for a few minutes before Mia finally spoke. “Was it Nate who wrote the notes? Has he been stalking me?”

  Leo brooded. He would not reply.

  “Do you think he lured me and Glenda on this trip…deliberately?” Mia could barely dare to ask the question.

  Just the idea of it was so perplexing. His fixation had been on Glenda, so why would he torment Mia with notes? He hadn’t even looked at Mia more than ten seconds a time; she wasn’t sure if he was even aware of her presence on this trip. All his fixations seemed squarely focused on impressing Glenda, pleasing Leo, and avoiding Penelope’s wrath. Mia had just been a shadow of a nuisance that he absentmindedly brushed away like a tiny flea chomping at his ankle. The idea that all along he’d been stalking her just didn’t jive with her.

  Something was so off with this.

  A tiny, but gigantic, piece
of the puzzle was missing and stranded in the box of another puzzle. In another country. On the other side of the world.

  “I don’t think so,” Leo said. “Just don’t worry about it, okay?”

  It was all he needed to say to pummel her into another blitz of fear. This entire trip had been a disastrous mistake. To go see her presumably dead son on the anniversary of his disappearance in some abandoned cabin based on some wine-induced nightmare?

  What kind of fool would even entertain such a laughable idea?

  Surely, even Leo must realize how crazy she was. That she was in severe need of a lobotomy or electric shock therapy, or any such old-fashioned method to blast the delusion straight out of her brain. So how was he even going along with this?

  Humoring her, as if trekking through the woods would even make any difference? As if she had any chance to find her son at all? The pathetic reality was that she would go through all this effort and never find him—and then what?

  What future did Leo reasonably expect for a client of his after such a severe smash of disappointment? What would ever give her relief? More hoarding until her house finally surrendered to the massive internal pressure and then imploded and killed her? Was that how all this suffering was going to finally end? Her being beheaded by Elvis records? Smothered by a determined army of china dolls in search of freedom? Suicide by green garage sale ashtrays, clinking each other cheerily, as they were flung at her head in the collapsing chaos around them?

  Maybe he didn’t care. Maybe this whole therapy facade was just another notch in his belt.

  She felt herself start to cry and cursed herself for daring to look the fool right now.

  “What is it?” Leo stopped walking and regarded her with a twisted expression that could only be described as a cocktail of anger, suppressed lust, and sympathy. “Why are you crying?”

  “I’m not,” she barely could reply. “I’m seriously not. It’s just allergies.”

  “Allergies to what?”