Immoral

by Brian Freeman

  “You wouldn’t be the first.”

  “I know that. And all I can say is, I know where I should be. Home. Not here with you. This is not me, not the man I am. But here I am anyway.”

  “You tell me something,” Serena said, turning to him in the dark. “Maggie says your marriage is over. That it was over three years ago. Is that true?”

  He was tired of pretending. “It’s true.”

  “Don’t you lie to me, Jonny,” Serena insisted. “I’m nobody’s fling, understand? You don’t know how rare it is for me to talk to a man like this. Particularly someone I just met.”

  “I think I do. And I’m not lying.”

  “Tell me why. Why it’s over.”

  He struggled to find the right words. “We’ve both got ghosts rattling around in our attic. Her first husband ran off. I couldn’t fill the void.”

  “And what about you? What’s your ghost’s name?”

  Stride smiled. “Cindy.”

  “Did she break your heart?”

  Enough time had passed that Cindy was a dull ache in his soul, not the sharp wound she once was. He told Serena about losing her, and it was a faraway tragedy, as if it had happened to someone else. Serena listened silently, then reached over and laced her fingers with his.

  For a few still moments, the truck was a bubble, a little universe of its own.

  “You really want my story?” Serena asked.

  “I do.”

  He could see her wrestling with her fear and mistrust.

  “When I was fifteen in Phoenix, my mom got into drugs,” she began quietly. “She became addicted. She ran through our money. We lost our house. My dad left us. Left me.”

  Her voice sounded flat, not like Serena at all, as if she had drained the emotions out of her words. He sensed that something profound was happening between them, that she had invited him into a world that was previously just for her.

  “We moved in with her dealer. I guess you could say I was part of my mother’s payment plan. He did whatever he wanted with me. My mother would watch, stoned out of her mind.”

  Stride felt his emotions stir. He was angry for her. Protective.

  “I got pregnant,” Serena continued. “I went to a clinic by myself and had an abortion. And then I never went home again. If I went home, I knew I’d kill them both. I mean that. I spent time thinking about how I would kill them. But I wasn’t going to give up my own life because of what they’d done to me. So I hooked up with a girlfriend, and we took the bus to Vegas. Sixteen years old, alone on the Strip. I took shit jobs in the casinos. I went to school at night. Became a cop.”

  “Most girls with that background would have wound up dead.”

  “I know. Like Rachel.”

  “You’re amazing,” he told her.

  Serena shook her head. “I’m no angel. I can be a bitch. Most guys would tell you that I am. I’ve spent most of my life fending off men.”

  “Why aren’t you fending me off?” he asked. “Or is that what you’re trying to do?”

  “Sure I am, Jonny. For your sake.”

  He didn’t say anything. When a lamp went on in the nearest apartment, it cast a faint light on their faces. He found his eyes drawn to her pale lips. She was conscious of his desire, and she let her lips barely part. Hesitating, uncertain, she leaned toward him, her long hair tumbling forward.

  The light went off again, as quickly as it came. They were invisible as they kissed. Then Serena pulled away, and they were silent for the next hour, without any need to talk.

  The strawberry Malibu pulled up around midnight.

  They watched Kevin and Sally shrug backpacks onto their shoulders and tramp wearily up the steps of the apartment building. When they were inside, Stride touched Serena’s shoulder, and they followed across the street.

  Stride knocked on the third-floor apartment door, and Kevin answered immediately, his eyes bloodshot. Kevin assessed him suspiciously, then realized who he was. The recognition dawned, and Kevin, quick as lightning, knew why he was there.

  “It’s Rachel, isn’t it?” he asked.

  Stride nodded. “Sorry to surprise you like this, Kevin. And yes, it’s about Rachel. We’ve found her body.”

  Kevin backed up from the door, his eyes growing moist with tears. He was maturing into a handsome man, with wavy blond hair and sunburned skin.

  Stride introduced Serena as they entered the apartment, not mentioning that she was from Las Vegas. He took a quick look around at the garage-sale furniture and immediately realized that something was missing.

  Their backpacks weren’t there.

  “Where’s Sally?” he asked.

  Kevin looked up blankly. “What? Oh, doing the laundry.”

  “The laundry!” Serena said. She turned and ran from the apartment, and Stride followed on her heels, leaving Kevin standing in the doorway. They found the stairs and took them two at a time down to the basement, where they emerged into a darkened corridor that hummed with machinery. Stride stopped and listened. He heard the familiar chug-chug of a washing machine across the hall.

  They burst into the laundry room.

  Sally sat on the end of a ratty sofa. She was reading a copy of People magazine. Her eyes widened with surprise and fright as the door swung open and banged into the wall.

  Stride saw the two backpacks lying empty on the floor and two washing machines rinsing away any evidence. He cursed softly and switched them both off.

  “What the hell is going on?” Sally demanded, her voice quavering.

  Stride took a long look at Sally. She had lost weight, and it looked good on her. She wore a pink tank top, white short shorts, and one sandal that she dangled on her left foot. The other sandal was on the yellowing linoleum floor in front of the sofa.

  “Do you remember me?” Stride asked.

  Sally studied his face, and her eyes narrowed. She relaxed a little. “Yes, I do. And I still want to know what the hell is going on.”

  “Who gets home at midnight from a long drive and does laundry?” Serena asked.

  “I do,” Sally said. “I don’t want smelly laundry in my apartment, thank you very much. Now what do you two want?”

  “Rachel’s dead,” Stride told her bluntly.

  He saw what he wanted to see: confusion flitting across Sally’s face. That was the first telltale sign of the truth of what had happened when Rachel disappeared. Sally was surprised to hear that Rachel was dead. And that meant, when Rachel vanished, Sally knew she was still alive.

  It also meant she hadn’t killed her.

  As the reality dawned on Sally, he saw something else, too. The girl could barely keep a smile from her lips, and a look of vast relief and satisfaction crept onto her face. “Where did you find her?”

  “Las Vegas,” Stride said. “This is Serena Dial from the police department in Nevada. Rachel was murdered there last weekend.”

  “Murdered?”

  “That’s right,” Serena said. “How did you like the Grand Canyon?”

  Sally nodded slowly, understanding. “Oh, I get it. You think we went to Vegas. You think we saw her.”

  “Did you?” Stride asked.

  “Like I’d let Kevin get anywhere near Rachel,” Sally snapped. She looked Serena up and down. “And I don’t approve of gambling or any of the other things that go on in that city. We didn’t go there.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” a male voice announced. Stride saw Kevin in the doorway. He had been listening outside. “I can’t believe Rachel was alive all this time.”

  “It’s a hell of a coincidence, Kevin,” Stride told him. “You and Sally were just a few hours from Las Vegas when she was killed.”

  “We didn’t go there,” Sally repeated.

  Kevin nodded. “That’s right.”

  Stride and Serena exchanged quick looks, and they came to the same conclusion. These two were telling the truth.

  “We’re still going to need to check your clothes and your car,” Stride
said. “I’m sorry.”

  “All you’ll find is dust and bugs,” Sally said.

  “I’m going to assume you two are telling the truth,” Stride said. “But we’re trying to find out if there’s a connection between Rachel’s murder and her original disappearance. It means it’s more important than ever to know what really happened back then.”

  Sally’s face clouded over, and she looked away.

  Stride realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere while Kevin was in the room. “Kevin, can you give us a couple minutes to talk to Sally?”

  Sally’s eyes widened. She didn’t want to be left alone. But Kevin’s mind was far away, under Rachel’s spell again. Like a robot, he slouched from the room without looking back at Sally.

  Serena closed the door, and Stride leaned against an empty dryer and stared down at Sally on the sofa. Sally glared at both of them and folded her arms defiantly.

  “She’s dead, Sally,” Stride said. “You don’t have to keep her secrets now.”

  Sally resumed a lotus position on the sofa and closed her eyes.

  “It’s just us now,” he said. “No judge, no jury. No Kevin, either.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do. You lied in court. You never heard Rachel and Graeme fighting that night. You made that up. It doesn’t matter now, Sally. No one’s going to arrest you for perjury. You’re in no danger. But we do need to know the truth.”

  “Rachel’s dead, and we want to know why,” Serena said.

  Sally shrugged. “You thought she was dead then. What’s changed?”

  “We know you were at her house that night. You were seen on the street.”

  “So what?” Sally asked. “I walked over, I didn’t see her, I walked home. End of story.”

  “If that’s true, then why lie about Rachel fighting with Graeme?”

  Sally hesitated. “I panicked. That lawyer was trying to make it look like I was involved, which was crazy. And I really thought Graeme was guilty. Hell, they fought all the time. It wasn’t such a big lie.”

  “The trouble is, you’re lying again, Sally,” Serena said. “You can’t bullshit another woman.”

  Stride knelt by the sofa. He was level with Sally’s face, only a few inches away. “You knew Rachel was alive.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Sally said. But her voice trembled.

  “You helped her escape,” Serena said.

  “I didn’t.”

  “Then tell us what happened that night, Sally.” Stride reached out and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “Look, I know what Rachel was like. I know how she could manipulate people.”

  Sally stared back at him. “No, you don’t,” she whispered.

  Inside her coat, Sally balled her hands into tight fists. Her elbows were squeezed against her side, and her feet stamped on the sidewalk, causing her curls to bounce. All she could think about, all she could see in her head, over and over, was Rachel and Kevin on the bridge.

  Rachel kissing Kevin.

  Rachel’s hand slipping over Kevin’s crotch.

  And, worst of all, the sly little smile as Rachel’s head turned to make sure Sally was below them, watching. It wasn’t enough to steal him away. Rachel needed to humiliate her, too.

  She couldn’t compete, not with Rachel. Her only salvation all along had been that Rachel had never taken the slightest real interest in Kevin. She toyed with him. Teased him. Flirted with him. And that was all.

  Until tonight.

  In her room, Sally’s rage boiled over. She couldn’t get the ugly image out of her head. A part of her wanted to say “Fuck you” to both of them and let Kevin see how happy he was in the arms of that sleazy whore. If that was what he wanted, fine. Let her destroy him. Let him see what life would be like under her thumb.

  But she couldn’t do it. This wasn’t Kevin’s fault. He was helpless, a fly caught in Rachel’s web.

  She decided to have it out with Rachel once and for all—and give her an ultimatum: Stay away from Kevin.

  So she climbed out of her first-floor window silently and hurried down the street, her entire body coiled tightly like a spring. She barely noticed the blocks passing, or the cold that turned her rapid breath to steam. In her mind, she went over all the things she was going to say. She rehearsed a big speech, muttering it under her breath, going over and over the words until it was just perfect. But when she found herself on the sidewalk outside Rachel’s house, all of the words she had carefully practiced vanished from her mind. Her tongue felt swollen and useless, and her insides turned to jelly. Her courage evaporated. She was frozen.

  Rachel was home. Sally had thought Rachel might still be with Kevin and she would have to wait. That would have made it easier. Catch her as she’s getting out of the car, when she isn’t expecting anyone to confront her. But Rachel’s car was parked in the driveway. All Sally had to do was march up to the door and ring the bell. She tried to screw up her courage by remembering yet again the sight of the two figures on the bridge. Rachel and Kevin. The kiss. The seduction. The smile.

  Bitch.

  Ring the bell, and Rachel would answer. And then Sally would unleash all the pent-up fury she had been carrying inside. Scream at her. Slap her. Show her that, for once, a girl was going to fight back.

  But Sally was paralyzed. Her mind willed her forward, and her feet remained planted on the street. She didn’t know if she could face Rachel, no matter how angry she was, no matter how much Kevin meant to her.

  Inside Rachel’s house, the downstairs light went off. The house went dark.

  That’s it, Sally thought. She’s going to bed. I’m too late.

  Then she heard a clicking inside, like the turning of a dead bolt, and she realized that someone was opening the front door of Rachel’s house. Sally’s courage fled completely, and she ducked off the sidewalk and pressed herself into a row of tall hedges. She could still see the house in the pale glow of the streetlight.

  In the shadows, she recognized Rachel, dressed as she was before, slipping from her house. Rachel furtively studied the street for almost a full minute, waiting, not moving, holding back in the protective darkness of the porch. Then she hurried down the driveway. She clutched a large plastic bag in her hand.

  Sally realized Rachel was heading her way. Rachel was bound to see her. Sally wanted to curl up in the hedges and hope she would walk right by, but she knew this was her one chance. It was now or never. Sally swallowed hard, then stepped out onto the sidewalk right in front of Rachel.

  “We need to talk,” Sally said. Her stomach flip-flopped, and she cursed herself as she heard the quivering in her voice. She sounded like a frightened child.

  Rachel saw her and stopped dead. Shock filled her eyes, replaced in an instant by cold hatred and contempt.

  “Oh, shit,” Rachel hissed. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Sally coughed. “I want to talk about Kevin,” she said weakly.

  Rachel glanced up and down the street. They were alone, just the two of them. She pushed her face practically to Sally’s nose. “You have no idea what you’re meddling with,” Rachel said. “You’re going to ruin everything.”

  Sally was confused. She had never seen Rachel like this. “What? What do you mean?”

  Rachel grabbed Sally’s wrist and twisted it until she grimaced in pain. “Look, this is none of your business. Do you get me? You never saw me here tonight.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sally said. “You’re hurting me.”

  None of this was going as Sally had planned. She had no idea what Rachel was talking about, but she was scared of the look in her eyes.

  “I’ll do more than that if you don’t shut up and listen,” Rachel said. “You may be a fool, Sally, but I think you’re smart enough to know two things. First, I don’t have any interest in Kevvy. He’s all yours, God help him. And second, you know damn well that I could take him away from you any time I want to.”

  “T
hat’s not true,” Sally said.

  Rachel laughed. “He’d do anything for me. And that’s after a little hand job on the bridge, Sally. Did you enjoy the show? Did you like watching me make your boyfriend come?”

  “Stop it,” Sally pleaded. “Don’t.”

  “Good. I’m glad we understand each other. So let’s be clear about this. You’re going to go back home, and you’re going to forget all about this little conversation. It never took place. You never saw me. Because I’ll make you a promise, Sally. If you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll come back and make sure Kevvy never looks at you again. I don’t care if you marry him tomorrow, I’ll sleep with him the day after that, and believe me, he’ll never spend another day with you.”

  Sally said nothing. She didn’t know what to do.

  Rachel sidled closer to her. She stroked Sally’s hair, and Sally tried to pull away. Rachel held her. “Do you understand me, Sally?”

  “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “Then just tell me you believe me. You believe me, don’t you? You know I’d take Kevvy away from you in a second.”

  Sally nodded.

  “Good,” Rachel said. She grinned. With her other hand, she let a finger run along Sally’s cheek. Then she leaned closer and, with sweet breath, kissed Sally softly on the lips. The kiss lingered, and Sally felt sick.

  “Don’t forget,” Rachel told her. “Not a word.”

  Stride listened to Sally’s story with growing horror. He shook his head slowly.

  “Do you realize the hell you could have saved everyone if you’d told us what happened?” he asked her.

  Sally shrugged, completely unrepentant. “You didn’t know Rachel, Mr. Stride. She meant what she said. If I had told anyone about seeing her, she would have made it her life’s mission to take Kevin away from me. I knew what she was capable of. Back then, it seemed like I was the only one who did.”

  “You were willing to let Graeme Stoner go to prison? When you knew he was innocent?”

  Sally’s eyes flashed with anger. “Innocent? Like hell. I told the truth about him hijacking me in his car. If he hadn’t been scared off at the barn, he would have raped me. And I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one. You already knew he was fucking Rachel.”