by C. C. Wall
His attention was drawn to the sound of laughter coming from the other side of the fireplace. Colt and Gus stood there, laughing. Gus was holding a bottle of lighter fluid.
“What the hell do you think you two idiots are doing?” Eugene scolded the two men.
“I noticed you were having a problem with your fire,” Gus said. “I was just trying to help a brother out.”
“You don’t mindlessly squirt lighter fluid into a fireplace like this!” Eugene said. “This is not a God damn barbecue at the freaking trailer park!”
“Gus is sorry,” Colt interjected. He then looked at Gus. “Gus, say you’re sorry.”
“I’m sorry, boss.” Gus said.
“One: don’t call me boss,” Eugene pointed out, “Two: don’t you two ever come to my house!” Eugene bent down and picked up his cigar. “Now, what the fuck do you two bozo’s want?”
Colt spoke for the two men, “Well, it seems that the heat is off of us for that chick getting killed out in the canyon so we are ready for whatever you got for us.”
“When you say “the heat is off” of you guys, what exactly does that mean?” Eugene questioned.
“It means, we aren’t suspects anymore,” Colt said.
“They ain’t got shit on us,” Gus added.
“Charming,” Eugene said. “You better hope so, because if you were tailed here tonight, that could get very sticky. No one is to know about our little arrangement,” Eugene stressed, “no one.”
“Yeah man,” Colt said, “we’re cool. Don’t sweat that stuff with us.”
“all right,” Eugene said, “let’s talk business then.” Eugene walked over to his bar and poured himself a drink. He lit his cigar again, just to make sure that it was burning bright and evenly. “Sit,” Eugene said.
Colt and Gus took their seats on a large sofa in the middle of the room. The two men seemed very uncomfortable in the presence of Eugene.
This was in the forefront of Eugene’s mind during the entire meeting. He knew how intimidating money could be to people who could never hold onto it long enough to do anything with themselves. This was Eugene’s weapon of choice. He knew he could buy anyone in town. He had done it for years. It was the exact thing, ironically, that made him all his money. The problem that Eugene faced was that there was always one thing that interfered with him being able to buy anyone he wanted and that was people who had pride. Eugene hated people’s pride, because he knew it was completely superficial. People who seemed like they couldn’t be bought generally only seemed that way when the outcome would mean some kind of public stance or public opinion. But take that same person, the person who said they couldn’t be bought, and let Eugene find something personal about them, and they would be begging for Eugene to be bought.
In the case of Colt and Gus, their price was very low because they didn’t respect themselves very much and had no idea how much a lot of money was. These types of people were Eugene’s favorite.
“I want you two to go ahead with the plan we spoke about last week,” Eugene said. “The plan that was supposed to be carried out before you two decided that you wanted to stay at the county bed and breakfast.”
“That’ll be pretty hard right now,” Colt said, “with his daughter and all.”
Eugene didn’t know what that meant. “What are you talking about?”
“His daughter went missing,” Gus said.
“They found her though,” Colt added, “she’s like in a coma or something at the hospital.”
“Interesting,” Eugene said, stood up and paced back and forth as his brain tried to devise a new plan. “So, she’s at the hospital, and he is going to stay there with her most of the time, and because there is some sort of “question” about what happened to her, someone from the Sheriff’s Department will be there keeping an eye on her.” Eugene stopped and looked at his lackeys. “Am I correct in thinking that?” Eugene said with a raised voice.
“I would think so,” Colt said.
Eugene continued to pace. The gears in his head were turning at a somewhat faster speed than usual. An evil grin slithered upon Eugene’s lips. “I think that this will not only keep our plan on schedule, but I think that this will ultimately help us, gentlemen.” Eugene walked over to the fireplace. “You don’t always have to add lighter fluid to fire to get it to grow, sometimes good ‘ol Mother Nature makes conditions just perfect for a wild fire.”
39 - Sucker Punch At The Burger Stand
Sue was on her way home. She had endured a rougher day than most. Everything she touched seemed to get screwed up somehow. She got Lukas mad at her for not knowing what the margin of error was on a DNA test, she couldn’t get a hold of Michael, Henry’s nephew and had no idea how to find out any other next of kin. Then she had found out that Bekka had lied to her about falling down the steps out front. She wasn’t feeling like the deputy that she knew she should be.
There was one thing that she did know how to do, and that was to feed her son. She knew he would be excited if she came home with burgers and that she could get some at the burger stand. What she didn’t know, however, was that she would find there was someone there that she had tried to get a hold of earlier; Bekka.
Bekka was sitting there looking at her phone. She was waiting for someone Sue was sure. She thought maybe Bekka would want some burgers too. “Bekka?” Sue said. “You hungry at all?”
Bekka looked scared to see Sue. “Oh. Hi, Sue. What’s going on?”
“I’m just picking up dinner for Eric.” Sue could sense something wasn’t right. “You waiting for someone?”
Bekka shook her head quickly, “Oh no, just hanging out.”
“By yourself? At the Burger Stand, with no food?” Sue chuckled. “Come on, what’s up?”
“Nothing. I’m just getting ready to go, actually.” Bekka seemed to be getting defensive.
Sue knew that she had to ask, and ask quick, before Bekka took off. “So, why did you lie to me about falling down the steps?”
Bekka looked like she had seen a ghost. “What are you talking about?”
“I know Dakota hit you with his truck.”
Bekka’s eyes filled with tears. “Listen, you don’t know nothing about me and Dakota. He didn’t mean to do it. I don’t even think he knows it happened, to be honest.”
“Bekka, I know what it’s like to protect someone that hurts you. I know what it is like to live in fear. I have been there, honey.”
The look on Bekka’s face told a different story. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Dakota has never ever laid a hand on me.”
Sue thought for a moment that she might be telling the truth, but then remembered how convincing she had been when people would confront her about her ex-husband. “I know how scared you are.”
“Sue, I’m not scared of getting beat up by Dakota. Jesus. I’m not you. I didn’t stay in an abusive relationship because I didn’t think I couldn’t do any better,” Bekka said, with venom on her tongue.
Sue felt as though she had just been punched in the stomach.
“I didn’t tell you because the last thing I needed was someone to go arrest Dakota over an accident,” Bekka said.
Sue was in shock that Bekka would talk to her like that, but quickly turned from feeling sorry for herself once she saw who Bekka was waiting for.
Bekka ran off and jumped on the back of Colt Driggers’ motorcycle, then they rode off into the distance.
The Burger Stand wasn’t far from her apartment so it didn’t take Sue very long to get home, even though Sue couldn’t remember the drive. Her mind was flooded with questions, and also insecurities. She put her key in the door and opened it.
“Eric,” She said loudly, “I got burgers.” She placed the bag down on the table and Eric came out to grab one as soon as he put his jacket on.
“Where are you going?” Sue asked.
“I’m meeting Jen for coffee,” Eric said. “But thanks for the burger!” Eric smiled and gave his
tired mother a kiss on her head before running out the door.
Even though Eric didn’t hear her, Sue said, “Don’t stay out too late.” Sue took a bite of her burger and instantly, the look on her face told the story of how the burger wasn’t exactly what she wanted for dinner.
She couldn’t get what Bekka said out of her mind. She took another bite of the burger and looked at the red door. Sue glared at the door. She pulled her chair right up to it and slammed it down on the floor. She sat on it and gave the red door a hard stare. With each bite of her burger it was like she was ripping through the flesh of a bad guy. She wasn’t fucking around.
40 - A Modest Echo
It was somber and silent in the cruiser as Lukas drove Chaney from the hospital. They both felt awful about everything that was going on and they both had started to doubt their abilities as detectives. It seemed to them that the longer it took them to solve this, more people were going to get hurt.
“Two dead, one near it, two days and we have nothing,” Lukas sighed.
“Henry wasn’t murdered,” Chaney said.
“He is tied to this somehow though, man. I just know it,” Lukas was insistent.
“I don’t remember anything like this ever happening here,” Chaney said, then looked over at Lukas. “What about in the city? Anything like this?”
Lukas shook his head. “Nothing quite like this, I don’t think. That’s for sure…I think.”
“Sara is freaking out every time I leave the house.”
“How are things with you and the wife?” Lukas asked. “You don’t talk about her much lately.”
“Things are all right, considering,” Chaney continued. “I don’t talk about her very much, I guess, because she doesn’t talk to me that much.” Chaney took a deep breath. “But honestly, I don’t talk to her that much either. It seems whenever we talk, it’s about my job. I have no idea what she does. What she doesn’t do. I just don’t know her.”
“Maybe you should find out,” Lukas said, full of wisdom.
“Yeah, and this is where I say, mind your own business,” Chaney said with a smile.
The car pulled up in front of Chaney’s house. “And this is where I say, sleep good, we start early tomorrow,” Lukas said, full well knowing the irony of his words.
“Don’t worry about my sleep, man, worry about you. Change your clothes, you stink,” Chaney said as he got out of the car. He gave the door a solid slam to make sure it was shut then waved to Lukas as he drove away. His hands jumped through his pockets looking for his keys. Relief came over him as he walked through the door. Until…
Confusion hit him in the face with force, as his eyes took in the disarray of his modest home. Tables and chairs had been overturned, picture frames knocked of the walls and broken glass everywhere.
“Sara? Are you all right?” Chaney asked. “Sara? Where are you?”
He slowly walked through the mess and made it to where he could see into the kitchen. The kitchen was an even bigger mess. Chaney assumed that Sara had suffered a nervous breakdown; that was until he saw her.
“Sara?” Chaney yelled. “Sara!” Chaney lifted his fists up to the sky, shaking them violently as he cried out in a mournful wail. His screams were getting louder and louder, his shaking more and more violent, until, just like that, he vanished into thin air. His screams echoed through his otherwise quiet, modest home.
41 - …Again
He heard footsteps. That was the thing that had stirred Lukas awake. The footsteps weren’t on a hard floor. They didn’t echo like they would through his apartment on the hardwood. These steps had things breaking underneath them. Things like twigs and leaves. This was alarming, but not enough to open his eyes. To him, this was more annoying than anything else. He kept his eyes shut tightly in hopes of wishing himself back to his apartment. He thought for sure, if he squeezed his eyes shut hard enough, until he could feel his pulse through brain, then he would somehow be able to change his circumstances. This did not happen.
“I should charge you rent,” a strange voice said.
Lukas at first was fearful about who that could be. Afraid that, if he opened his eyes that there would be another body lying next him or slung over a rock. Now that there was a voice to go with it, he was afraid that now there was a witness who could peg him at the scene of some crime. In short, Lukas was not looking forward to the day that had just begun, a few seconds before, when he heard the footsteps.
Lukas opened his eyes and saw a blurry figure hovering above him.
“I said, I should charge you rent,” the voice said louder.
Lukas blocked the sun from his eyes and saw that the blurriness finally faded and he could make it now. It was Jonathan Kensington. “Hey,” Lukas said.
“Good morning, would be a better salutation, Detective,” Jonathan said.
Lukas noticed how awful Jonathan looked. He hadn’t shaved and his clothes looked slept in. Right as he was about to inspect Jonathan’s feet, the tongue of Prince Harry ran across Lukas’s morning stubble and flicked him in the eye. “Dammit!” Lukas said as the sting from the tongue burned his eyeball.
“I said, I should be charging you rent,” Jonathan insisted.
“I heard you, Mayor,” Lukas said, then quickly remembered that Jonathan’s daughter was in the hospital. “How is Elizabeth?”
Jonathan’s eyes left and went somewhere else even though they were still fixed on Lukas. “She is alive, Detective. She is alive.”
“That’s good,” Lukas said. He got up and dusted himself off.
“Why are you here?” Jonathan asked. “Why are you sleeping in the dirt where…” Jonathan trailed off.
Lukas thought about it. It was a good question. It deserved a good answer. But Lukas didn’t know if he had one. “I’m not sure. I keep thinking I’m missing something.”
“People might get the wrong idea if they see you here every morning,” Jonathan said with a smirk.
“What kind of wrong idea?” Lukas asked.
“They might think that you are trying to link me to the murders,” Jonathan said with a straight face. “Besides all of this, it is an election year, Detective. I do not want any bad publicity.”
Lukas thought about the words Jonathan had just used. Lukas had never really thought of Jonathan as a suspect. He was the mayor. Jonathan also used the word murders. There was technically only one murder. Henry’s death had been declared a heart attack. But, had that been made known yet? Lukas wasn’t sure. He saw Jonathan’s look change from cordial to suspicious at his silence. He had to say something fast. “Ah, fuck’em. You’re the only mayor for Black Star.” He smiled and felt like a fool as soon as the words came out of his mouth.
Jonathan smiled. “Thank you, Detective. I need… my family needs all the support we can get right now.”
“Are you heading back to the hospital soon?” Lukas asked.
“Yes. I just came to walk Harry. Francine is a bit afraid to leave the house alone, as you can imagine,” Jonathan said.
“Yeah,” Lukas said. “Your family has been through a great deal.” As Lukas said this he was scanning the area looking for his car. He had dropped Chaney off the night before and couldn’t remember going home. He spotted it down the road a bit. “Let’s hope today is a better day than yesterday.”
“Let’s hope,” Jonathan said.
Lukas walked away slowly, as if his body was upset with him for sleeping on the ground again. Jonathan stared at Lukas until he got into his car.
“All right, Harry, let’s get home,” Jonathan said.
When he turned around, to his surprise, two men with masks on, blocked his way. One of them held a lead pipe and the other one, the larger one, held a baseball bat. Prince Harry barked as the bat hit Jonathan in the ribs, but quickly ran away towards the house once Jonathan groaned out in pain and the repeated swinging of the instruments made contact with his body over and over again. Luckily for Jonathan, he only heard that noise a couple of times before losi
ng consciousness.
42 - Losers
He had been in the bathroom three times already. His stomach was a mess. His nerves were all over the place. He knew he should eat, but was afraid to. His logic was that if there was nothing in his stomach, he shouldn’t have to go to the bathroom. He wanted a cup of coffee, but knew what that normally did to his stomach, let alone on a day like that day.
His head wasn’t on straight. It took him a half hour to find his keys before realizing they were in his pocket. Once he was in the car and driving around town, things seemed to get worse. He ran a stop sign, hit a dip going too fast and bottomed out his car. He took some B12 vitamins in hope that he would gain some clarity and alertness. This didn’t happen. All that it did do was make his stomach hurt because he was supposed to take the pills with food.
Once he arrived at the Black Star Register, he hopped the curb and smashed into the planter a little bit, not really messing his car up at all, but destroying the plastic planter. A few obscenities flew out of his mouth and he headed inside.
“Hey, Dad,” Jason said.
“Hey! How is it going! Tonight is the big night,” Tom said. “Did you see the full page flier I put in the paper this morning?”
Jason smiled, “No! No, I didn’t see it!” He eagerly looked through the paper and found the ad right before the entertainment section. Jason had never seen himself in newsprint before and was thrilled. “Is it okay if I keep this?”
“Of course,” Tom said. “Take a stack. Give some to the guys.”
“Cool,” Jason said. Suddenly, his face looked horrified. “I’ll be in the bathroom!” Jason said and disappeared down the hall.