Desperate Strangers

by Carla Cassidy

  “Granger is old, old news, and besides, that was just a silly crush,” Casey replied. “Ace is the real deal,” Casey said with certainty.

  “And where did you meet this Ace?” Lynetta asked.

  “At Freddy’s,” Casey replied.

  Freddy’s was a popular bar with a large dance floor that featured local bands. It was also known as a singles pickup joint.

  “Do you have a picture of him in your phone?” Julie asked.

  “Nah, I haven’t taken any of him yet,” Casey replied.

  “You? The selfie queen?” Lynetta looked at her youngest daughter in disbelief.

  Casey grinned. “Oh, I have lots of pictures of me. I just don’t have any of him yet.”

  “So, when do we all get to meet him?” Julie asked.

  “In time,” Casey replied. “I’m not quite ready to share him yet. Besides, you took months before you let us meet Nick.”

  Julie definitely understood her sister’s desire to keep her man all to herself. That must have been the way she’d felt about Nick in the months before her accident.

  Before anyone could say anything else, their meals arrived and the conversation turned to Lynetta and George’s move.

  “I’m surprised Dad agreed to sell the house,” Julie said. “He’s got so much stuff in it, I can’t imagine how you’re going to fit it all into a smaller place.”

  The family home was a huge old Victorian with five bedrooms and enough “stuff” to fill several warehouses.

  “We aren’t. I told him he has to take his stuff and put it in the shop for sale or take it to the dump. I have to confess, he really didn’t want to make this move, but I told him I was moving with or without him. We don’t need all those bedrooms now that you kids are all grown and we definitely don’t need a life-size statue of Elvis in our living room.” Lynetta frowned. “I don’t want second-hand junk in my personal space anymore. I want clean and new and efficient.”

  “You deserve the life you want,” Julie replied with a warm smile at her mother. Lynetta had been a hardworking, hands-on kind of mom. She’d been strict but loving and had the patience of Job when it came to dealing with their father.

  “Speaking of living the life you want, are you going to sell your house or is Nick selling his when you two get married?” Casey asked.

  “To be honest, we haven’t even discussed it,” Julie replied. She hoped they’d decide to keep her place even though she had yet to see Nick’s. In truth, she couldn’t imagine Nick anywhere but in her home with her.

  “I have to admit, I’m surprised you and Joel didn’t wind up together.”

  Julie looked at her sister in surprise. “Me and Joel? Why on earth would you think there was anything romantic between us?”

  “Before your amnesia, he was really into you,” Casey replied.

  “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” A faint roar sounded in Julie’s ears. It was the roar of rich anger followed by a whimpering helplessness that she couldn’t remember.

  “About two months ago you talked to me and told me you thought Joel had a major crush on you. You really don’t remember anything that happened before your accident?” Casey looked at her as if she were a bug under a microscope.

  “Not much. A flash here and there, but so far I haven’t been able to make much sense of them,” Julie replied. “So, how did I feel about Joel having a crush on me?”

  “A little creeped out,” Casey replied. “At least, that’s what you told me. I know he has lots of pictures of you up on his social media page, and that is definitely creepy.”

  Julie thought of the slightly overweight, easygoing Joel and a faint chill worked up her spine. Was it possible he was the one who had come through the pawn shop’s back door on the night she’d forgotten her phone?

  She had never been attracted to Joel on a romantic level, although she’d considered him a good friend and coworker. Had he somehow confronted her and professed his love for her that night and, when she wasn’t interested in him, had he attacked her in some way?

  She’d worked with him the day before and had sensed nothing off between them. He’d been his usual friendly and helpful self just like she remembered him from ten months ago.

  But he’d also asked her a lot of questions about her amnesia during a lull in traffic at the shop. He’d asked what the doctors had told her about regaining her memories. Had she started to remember anything at all? Did she expect her memories to ever return?

  Were they the normal questions that any person might ask of somebody suffering from amnesia? Or were they the questions of an attacker assuring himself that he was still safe?

  * * *

  NICK LEFT JULIE’S place at just after seven, grateful that cloud cover would make the darkness of night arrive early. Since the time Julie had left the house, Nick had been consumed with thoughts of murder. And, thank God, on this night in particular, she’d had plans with her mother and sister, because he’d lied to her once again. He wasn’t meeting with his fellow coaches. He was meeting with the men who’d planned not only Brian’s murder, but the murders of five other people, as well.

  The minute Julie had left the house he’d used the internet to check every local news source he could to see if there were any updates on the McDowell murder. He’d found nothing. He hated to be out of the loop on a matter that could touch his life in such a negative way.

  He’d spent the rest of the evening pacing, contemplating what might come tonight when he met the others. The six of them had originally gotten to know each other at the Northland Survivor group meetings. However, since that time, four of the men had stopped going to the meetings. They didn’t want a place where they were all connected should the police get close to them.

  After the meeting, after complete darkness fell, they would all meet at the Oak Ridge Park. The space had once been a popular place for people to picnic and play baseball, but over the years better parks had been built. Now the trees and bushes, the grass and weeds, had encroached in an attempt to take back what had once been theirs.

  The Northland Survivor meeting took place in the basement of a Methodist church, although it wasn’t church sponsored.

  At six fifty that evening, he pulled into the parking lot and steeled himself for sitting through the meeting. All he really wanted to do was to talk to the others about the fact that he had not been the one who had killed Brian McDowell. Somebody had committed that murder mere minutes before Nick had arrived.

  As always, the meeting room smelled of strong, fresh coffee and deep, abiding grief. Janet McCall, the founder of the group, greeted him as he walked in.

  Janet had been married for fifteen years when her husband had been brutally murdered as he’d left a downtown restaurant after a business meeting. When his body had been found, his wallet was empty and his cell phone was gone. He’d been killed for fifteen bucks and a phone.

  According to Janet, her grief had nearly driven her to suicide.

  Instead of taking a complete grief-stricken head-dive, she had started this group for people to talk and hopefully heal.

  “How have you been, Nick?” Her brown eyes studied his features carefully.

  “Not too bad,” he replied.

  “I can see a new lightness about you.” She smiled at him warmly. “I’m glad. Now, get yourself a cup of coffee and don’t forget to try one of my lemon bars.”

  “Will do,” he replied. As he walked over to the refreshment table, he thought about what Janet had said about a new lightness in him. And that lightness had a name—Julie.

  She had given him something indefinable, something that had brought him back from the brink of despair. With her, he’d found his laughter again. He was looking forward rather than backward. He didn’t know what his future might hold, but for the first time since Debbie’s murder, he actually believed he had a future.<
br />
  If he wasn’t arrested for a murder he hadn’t committed.

  He carried his coffee to sit in one of the folding chairs that formed a large circle. He nodded at several familiar people, including Troy Anderson. Three years ago, Troy’s eight-year-old daughter had been kidnapped and killed. Troy was one of the six men who had come together in their need-for-vengeance pact.

  Within minutes, people began to fill the seats. This group wasn’t just about the collateral damage left behind by murder. It was also for anyone who had lost somebody in their life and was dealing with debilitating grief.

  By the time Janet began to facilitate the meeting, there was only one unfamiliar face in the group. A heavyset woman with bleached-blond hair and heavy blue eyeliner sat next to Janet.

  “Before we get started this evening, I’d like to introduce Jacqueline Kelly, who is with us for the first time.” Janet placed a hand on the woman’s thick shoulder. “Jacqueline, can you tell us what brought you here tonight?”

  Huge tears welled up in her eyes as she looked around. “I’m here because my boyfriend was murdered and I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.” A huge sob choked out of her. “He helped take care of me and my kids, and he was murdered right in his own house. Somebody came in and slit Brian’s throat.” She began to weep in earnest.

  Nick froze. His heart stopped and then beat so fast a whoosh of blood filled his head and momentarily deafened him. There was no question that she was talking about the man Nick had seen dead behind a shattered sliding-glass door. A man Nick had been prepared to murder.

  As his hearing returned, he listened to Jacqueline’s keening grief. God, he knew that grief so intimately. Yet, in the midst of his rage, he’d never considered that the people they’d intended to kill might have girlfriends or wives or daughters and sons. That they could have other family members and best friends who would deeply mourn their deaths.

  The pact he’d made with the other men now felt more than a little bit evil. No matter who they murdered, it wouldn’t bring Debbie or any of their loved ones back. He wasn’t sure if he’d actually been able to pull the trigger to kill Brian McDowell or not. All he was certain of was his huge need to speak with the other men and maybe try to call a halt to their collective madness.

  The rest of the meeting was a study in torture for Nick. He tried not to look at Jacqueline and he also kept his gaze averted from Troy.

  During the fifteen-minute break, he got another cup of coffee and one of Janet’s lemon bars, and then returned to his seat. The program for tonight was being led by a psychologist who would speak about the power of forgiveness.

  Nick only half listened to the plump professional, who had a dreadful, monotonic delivery and stood perfectly still as he spoke. Instead, Nick watched the big round clock on the wall, inching toward the time to end the meeting.

  It was just after nine when the meeting adjourned.

  Once again Nick was grateful for the cloud cover that made for an early nightfall. Talk of murder deserved to be in the darkness.

  He clenched the steering wheel tight as he drove to the park, a large ball of tension rolling around in the pit of his stomach.

  He was certain one of the other men had killed McDowell. Was it possible that somehow wires had gotten crossed? Adam Kincaid had taken the lead in the plan that had been hatched. He’d made sure the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. Had he somehow made a mistake?

  It didn’t matter now. Brian McDowell was dead. What did matter was that Nick intended to try to talk the other men into halting this madness...this lust for vengeance they had all fallen victim to.

  Was justice really theirs to deliver? Who did they think they were to be the arbiters of death? He had to believe that somehow karma took care of things. He needed to believe that the guilty eventually paid a price, whether in this life or the next. But what he had planned with the five other men had been wrong.

  Seeing Jacqueline had put a new spin on things for him. Or was it Julie’s presence in his life that had calmed the beast inside him? He didn’t know the answer, but he felt a huge shift had occurred inside him.

  He pulled into the parking lot of the abandoned park and drove straight ahead, off the broken asphalt and across the old ball field toward a stand of trees.

  He was the first one to arrive. He parked and then grabbed a flashlight from his glove compartment. He got out of the car and headed deeper into the woods.

  Once he reached the designated meeting place, he eased down onto a fallen tree trunk to wait. A faint breeze whispered through the treetops and all around him the night insects clicked and whirred. Cicadas played their noisy rhythm as if telling him he didn’t belong there.

  And he didn’t. He was ready to close this chapter of his life. Whatever his future might hold, he didn’t want to carry the rage, the all-consuming grief and that bloodlust inside him anymore.

  “Hey.” Troy Anderson’s deep voice pulled Nick out of his thoughts. “Intense meeting for you, huh. You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m better than I’ve been in years,” Nick replied. There was no point in telling Troy about McDowell and Nick’s change of heart before the other men arrived. He would just have to repeat himself.

  “I guess tonight just proves it’s a small world. Who would have thought McDowell’s girlfriend would show up at the same meeting as you,” Troy said.

  “Yeah, who would have thought,” Nick replied.

  Before any further discussion could occur, Matt Tanner and Clay Rogers arrived.

  Matt immediately walked over to Nick and patted him on the shoulder. “Thank you, man,” he said, and Nick knew he was congratulating him on killing the person who had beaten Matt’s mother to death and had gotten away with the crime. “I’m so glad that bastard is dead.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Nick replied.

  Matt looked at him curiously, but at that moment Adam Kincaid and Jake Lamont stepped into the small clearing.

  The unholy six men were together again.

  Nick became aware that the woods had quieted. The insects had stopped clicking and the cicadas had stopped singing as if in disapproval of this covert meeting.

  “We need to make this fast,” Adam said. “You know we’re all at risk when we’re together.”

  “I didn’t kill Brian McDowell,” Nick said without preamble.

  “What are you talking about?” Adam turned on a flashlight and directed it at Nick’s face. “I sent you everything to kill him. You were the one I assigned to kill him, and I saw in the paper the report of his murder.”

  “Somebody got to him before me.” Nick squinted against the brightness of Adam’s flashlight beam and told the men about the night he had gone to kill McDowell. “If one of you didn’t jump the gun, then somebody else is in on the game.”

  “Nobody else better be in on the game,” Adam said. “That puts us all at risk.”

  All the other men vehemently denied having told anyone of the plan. “I want out,” Nick said. “I think all of us should just forget this whole idea and get on with our lives.”

  “No way,” Troy said, anger lacing his deep voice. “You’re just saying that because you saw Jacqueline cry at the meeting. Just remember, if she’d had anything he’d wanted, he would have killed her to get it. He beat Matt’s mother to death. We did her a favor by getting him out of her life. Besides, I want the man who killed my daughter dead. I want him dead so he can’t prey on any other little girls.”

  “And I can’t tell you how good it feels to know Brian McDowell will never kill a vulnerable old woman again,” Matt said, his voice also rich with emotion. “This is a good plan. We’re taking out killers who we all know would probably re-offend.”

  “Doesn’t it bother you all that somebody got to Brian on the exact night, at the exact time, I was supposed to act?” Nick asked as he
looked from man to man.

  “McDowell was a creep. Creeps make enemies. It was probably just a weird coincidence that somebody got to him right before you did,” Jake stated.

  “I don’t think so,” Nick replied. “I don’t know which one of you is responsible, but one of you killed him.”

  When none of the others spoke, Nick released a deep sigh. “I’ve said what I came here to say. I don’t want this to go forward. I don’t want to be a part of it and I definitely don’t want one of you to kill Steven Winthrop. Nobody should have his blood on their hands. Let karma take care of him. In any case, he’ll burn in hell for what he did.” He’d said what he needed to say and there was nothing more that he could do.

  “We’re all in this together,” Adam said sharply. “Anyone else have doubts about what we’re doing?” He looked at each of the other men. “Anyone else want out?”

  “We’re all still in,” Matt said firmly.

  “Then I suggest we get out of here,” Adam replied. “Wait for your instructions and keep your mouths shut.”

  “I’m out of here for good,” Nick said. “My assignment is finished and there’s no reason for me to meet here again. Don’t worry, I will take this secret to the grave with me, but I’m in a place where all I want to do now is build my future.”

  Minutes later Nick was in his car and headed toward home. No, he corrected himself. He was headed toward Julie’s place. It would never be his home.

  He was ready to build a future, but how could Julie be a part of it? How long could he continue to live a lie? The longer they were together, the more difficult it would be when the truth finally came out.

  A headache began to pound at his temples and a wave of soul-sickness, of utter exhaustion, overtook him. He had no idea who had killed Brian McDowell, but suspected one of the others was responsible. He’d been stark raving mad when he’d agreed to the vigilante plot in the first place.

  That time in his life would always haunt him. The men who continued on the path of seeking justice would haunt him, as well. Even if they found the justice they sought, they would realize it was an empty reward.