The tow truck driver eventually showed up, “Sorry it took so long for me to get here, we had a fella get killed driving his car like an idiot in this fog.” The driver who’s shirt said ‘Bob’ explained.
“That’s terrible.” I said.
“The worst part was the look of fear frozen on his face.” He said, as he set up flares and then hooked my little red car to his wrecker I explained what had happened, finishing with the stench when I stood next to the car. “I don’t see a cause of that stench you talked about. Maybe just kicked up some gas or funk from the ditch, any way you’re good to go. That’ll be seventy five bucks.” Bob said.
“That stinks more than the ditch funk,” I paid him and requested a receipt to turn in to my insurance. Another adrenaline filled morning, I eventually pulled into my driveway two hours later than I normally would have. I still smelled that rancid meat as if it was stuck under my nose which left me feeling nauseated and removed any desire to eat. I don’t know if it was the fog, the smell, my anger over what had happened or a mixture of all three but, an ominous feeling fell over me as I stepped inside my home. The Thick blinds that covered the windows created an untimely darkness which was normal but right now something about it just didn’t seem right. I flipped the nearest light switch on, the bulb crackled and came to life briefly before burning out. “Fan-frickin-tastic,” I said to the burnt out light bulb as if that would bring it back. The overwhelming urge to sleep combined with the nausea I was feeling led me to not even bother with the burnt out light bulb.
From the front entry way I moved toward the staircase, a cold breeze surrounded me sending shivers down my spine, leaving me with the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Trying my best to ignore it I made my way up the stairs but as I reached the final step I couldn’t contain the urge any longer. I spun around to find the stairs below me completely empty, ‘Satisfied? I must be losing my mind.’ My internal dialog chided. Turning back toward my bedroom I saw a massive silhouette “Holy SHIT!” I exclaimed. My outburst surprised the creature which jerked its body around with inhumane speed. I, unable to move at all, was forced to watch as it came toward me. Its irregular shuddering and shaking gait caused it to lapse in and out of sight or perhaps time. It continued forward until only a few inches of separation remained between me and it.
That’s when it did two things that I’ll never forget; first, it smiled at me, its grin stretched from ear to ear revealing a mouth full of serrated fangs. Second, it jutted forward leaving only a few inches of separation between us and screamed directly in my face, “Boo!” The surprise of seeing and hearing this entity finally wore off and I took an involuntary step backwards. Crashing down the stairs I hit the floor, which knocked the wind out of me. The last thing I saw as the darkness closed in, was the creature disappearing.
Chapter Eleven
The sound of pounding woke me again later that morning. “Oh for Pity’s sake.” I groaned getting up off the floor. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to look at the time, 9:45 A.M., “One minute!” I yelled.
“Mr. Clark, my name is Officer Winkler, I wanted to report to you that we located the gentleman that you reported as hitting your car and driving off.” The police officer said when I eventually got to the door.
“That’s good news,” I said.
“Although he seemed to tell a different story, he said you slammed on your brakes for no reason, after he attempted to safely stop he bumped into your car, you then apologized and told him he could leave. As he was leaving you drove yourself into the ditch.” He read from his clip board, the diamond wedding band he wore on his left hand bordered on ridiculous.
“So during deer rutting, I slam on my brakes to miss one and that’s for no reason? The damage to the rear of my car, which you can obviously see, if of course you were to look, did that occur when I drove forward into the ditch? And what type of fool tells a guy it’s ok to leave an accident site and then drives his car into a ditch?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, and apparently you.” The cop said. “And as far as I’m concerned this case is closed.”
“So he’s what, a cousin?” I asked.
“I’m going to let that one slide by sir,” Officer Winkler walked away.
Not waiting for him to even leave the porch, I slammed the door and walked into the kitchen to grab a bite before heading back to bed. After I opened a can of soup, poured it into a pan and placed it on the stove, I walked into the bathroom. When I finished up I washed my hands and bent over to splash some water on my face. I tried to calm down but the bullshit visit from the good ol’ boy network clearly did not want to simply wash down the drain. I shut off the water and leaned back setting my hands on the vanity and glanced up into the mirror through the dripping water.
“Holy shit!” I caught a glimpse of something staring over my shoulder at me. The entity appeared to be a transparent white, and although it had a face with deep set white eyes, there was nothing solid about it. I jumped forward smashing my hip into the vanity, and then spun to find my assailant still staring at me. “You stupid candy ass!” I reached up and pulled down the white towel that was hanging from the hook in the shower stall. ‘I really am losing my mind.’
My heart was still racing as I stirred my soup a moment or two later. This whole thing with Richard had me tripping out. My body felt as if I hadn’t slept in weeks and here I was with a day off, finally. I knew I needed to get some sleep or I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself at The Dive, my favorite watering hole, when I headed there later. I poured my soup into a large metal thermos and went to read my emails.
Fifteen minutes into my spam I was about to give up when I heard a loud crash, the sudden shock caused me to drop the thermos onto the floor. I ran into the TV room and found a rat the size of a Chihuahua looking at me as if to say, “What? You gotta a problem wit’ me?”
I walked into the kitchen to get the dust pan and broom. “Fucking rat!” As I cleaned the mess from the broken light bulb I noticed how cold the area was. “Need to get some weather stripping for that damn door.” Standing up to go toss out the glass I caught a whiff of the now familiar stink from the ditch. “I should take a shower today, that ditch funk is still all over me.”
Chapter Twelve
By now I had given up on sleeping and had enough chores to keep myself busy for most of the day. As Annabelle wasn’t going to be around, I figured it would be a better time than most. I headed upstairs to take a quick shower before I ran to the hardware store and possibly to the local body shop.
“Gosh darn it, Nelli.” I said in exasperation as I found the shampoo and soap both missing from the shower. “Two more things on my list.” I stepped out of the shower and looked at the mirror and wondered when my stupid sister had taken up mirror doodling. Wiping it away so I could shave, I started reviewing everything that had happened in the last two days when my cell phone rang. I wrapped a towel around my waist and ran down stairs to answer it, making it just before the call went to voice mail.
“Hello?” I said, sounding a little more irritated than I had meant to.
“Is this Edward Clark?” The female voice was strong yet still carried a note of timidity.
“Yes it is, how can I help you?”
“My name is Aubrey Shaw, I was a friend of Richard’s are you going to the service this evening?” she asked.
“I wasn’t aware there was one. I work nights and –,“ I started.
“It’s at the Drupont Funeral Home, if you could come around 7pm I would like to spend some time with you after the service,” The timidity was gone.
“Sure, I’d like that, Richard was a good friend, years ago.” I added the last part in case the things that Detective Gottlie had said about him being a murderer were true. Not a great way to make an impression.
“I look forward to seeing you, then,” And the phone clicked off.
“I wonder if this counts as a blind date.” I walked over and punched her name into my search engine bar and found
only Eight hundred thousand hits. “Well at least it’s an uncommon name.” I laughed and went to dry off.
When I was half way up the stairs I heard another crash, “Fricken rat!” I grabbed a boot that was sitting on the stairs and ran across the room. “Ha! Serves you right.” I said as I got to the same tipped over lamp, the rat had managed to pull it over again, but this time the base landed on him. He was cut in at least three pieces. I cinched my towel, smiled and went up to change.
Chapter Thirteen
When I came back down stairs to clean up the rat and any other glass that may have come from the lamp I found nothing there. “Your family must have been awfully hungry,” I lifted the lamp and wiped the area with bleach anyway. I pulled back a curtain and looked out at my little red hatchback, I knew going to visit a body shop was the right idea. I decided to reprint the two emails, the one from Richard and the one from his mystery friend ‘I wonder if Aubrey is the one who sent me that email.’ I formatted the emails onto a single document by adding Richard’s gibberish to the Cypher and left room at the bottom for writing the solution and pressed print. In the end it looked a lot like a word game when I was done. ‘After the week I’ve had, a blind date with a serial murder suspect felt par for the course.’
All set with the print out I grabbed my shopping list and I went out to get into my car. Remembering the awful smell I opened the door cautiously as to not be assaulted by the putrid aroma once again. I was instead pleasantly greeted with the sweet Pina-colada fragrance which came from the novelty hula-girl glued to the dashboard. “Hula-girl 1 ditch funk 0” I mused turning on my stereo looking forward to listening to my best of the 80s CD, the words ‘No Disc’ displayed on the readout.
“Pissy Shitty Mother Fucker!” I cursed epically, and reached under the passenger seat to grab my canvas CD carrier. I opened it to find no CDs inside. “Why not just take the entire case Nelli?” I drove off, my musical accompaniment having been left up to a local DJ. I dropped my suit off first, to get a good pressing done for the funeral.
“It’ll be ready in an hour.” The little old man said taking the black suit.
“Thank you I need it for a funeral tonight.” I said.
“Richard Schmidt or Dean Culten?” he asked.
“Richard,” I replied.
“My brother in law owns the mortuary. And I know those are the only two scheduled today. Sad though they were both young men, it shouldn’t be anyone that young when old bastards like me are still alive.” He said with a wink.
I pulled into the Bumper Repair Experts a few minutes later, having heard no good music at all.
“Hello sir, how can I help you?” The large woman behind the counter asked.
“I need to get an estimate for a hit and run,” I said.
“There’s been a bunch of those lately,” She said, “This will only take a minute.” Then she got on the overhead, “Insurance estimate on bay one.” Fifteen minutes later she called me back to her desk.
“We were all set to do the estimate when we noticed that the damage on your car lined up with another hit and run we have in our shop. And well, I’m not losing my license over two uninsured incidences being filed to the same company when the damages so obviously line up,” She said.
“Hit and run? My damage is in the back of my car,” I said.
“Maybe that happened when you drove into the ditch,” She said.
“Ah, another cousin?” I asked.
“Something like that,” She wiggled the diminutive ring on her left hand. “My husband is the officer that investigated the accident, and cousin of the other vehicles owner.”
“Ah, Mrs. Winkler I presume?” I asked.
“Guilty as charged,” She replied. “Have a nice day, I will keep your visit out of my reports, if you leave it alone.”
“Grand.” I said, walking out to my tough little car that had done a hit and run in reverse into a 4x4 near monster truck. “That’s right lil’ red, you rock.” I looked on the seat for my notes and list. They were all gone. “You gotta be kidding me!” I contemplated going back in and telling them those papers were dangerous, and then seeing the truck in bay number three I decided screw ‘em. I drove off to pick up my pressed suit for tonight.
Chapter Fourteen
The service was attended by no more than six people when I arrived. The first thing I did was sign in, really I just wanted to see if Aubrey had arrived ahead of me. She hadn’t. The casket was closed, I didn’t know if this was normal for hangings but I went up and paid my respects to an old friend. I walked over and hugged his mother, who I hadn’t seen in years.
“Edward, you look a bit piqued, dear,” Mrs. Schmidt said, although to me it was her face that looked pale and she looked just as frumpy as she did all through high school.
“This has been a bit of a shock. I hadn’t heard from Richard in years. I didn’t even know he was back in town,” I said.
“He only returned two months ago and I think I only saw him a handful of times since then. He had changed Edward, he…” her words trailed off as Detective Gottlie walked in. “What the hell is he doing here?” She walked up to the new arrival with quite an antagonistic gait. I followed keeping a distance, but would be at the ready in case she snapped, ‘As ‘kind’ as the detective had been throughout our interactions, arresting a grieving mother for assaulting an officer didn’t seem all that farfetched,’ the sarcasm dripping though my mind almost caused me to chuckle.
“Mrs. Schmidt, I’m sorry for your loss,” He said.
“Thank you,” she tried to reduce the hate in her voice, unsuccessfully.
“And Mr. Clark,” he held out his hand which I took, squeezing to match the detectives grasp only.
“Detective Gottlie,” I said.
“No, tonight I am just Samuel Gottlie, badge is in the car,” He said.
“Surprised you have time, with a serial killer on the loose.” Mrs. Schmidt commented gingerly.
“I think the city is safe for now.” The Detective looked over at the picture on the casket. “When was that taken?”
“When he returned from Washington, a couple months ago.” She said.
“State or DC?” he asked.
“It was state and I thought you left your badge in your car.” The grieving mother said.
“Sorry ma’am just making small talk. I must be getting worse at it than I thought.” He said with a bit of a blush. It was at that moment I noticed just how much paler he had gotten from our first time meeting.
“I need to speak with other people.” Mrs. Schmidt excused herself.
“Looking a bit tired Detective.” I said into the silence.
“It has been a rather screwed up week. When I called you from the hotel… To be Frank, I probably shouldn’t have told you all that I did as this is an active investigation and all.” He said.
“Not like I’m out telling the world,” I replied.
“But the comment she just made.” The detective glanced toward Mrs. Schmidt.
“It wasn’t me, I hadn’t seen her in five years before this and I only just got here a minute before you. I signed in, paid my respects and gave her a hug. Check the registry if you don’t believe me. By how she reacted when she saw you, I imagined she knew you from Richard’s case.”
“Yes, I interviewed her myself but… It’s not important, we’re just waiting on forensics now, too bad this isn’t a TV show I would already have the evidence I need to make an arrest.” He joked. “I think I should say my goodbyes. I didn’t mean to upset his mother.” He replied.
“Good luck in your investigation,” I shook his hand again. He walked out pausing to sign the visitor’s log. I noticed that he took a picture of it with his phone.
“Asshat.” A strong female voice said behind me.
“Aubrey?” I asked turning and then looking up to meet her eyes.
“Exactly.” Her voice somehow matched her appearance. She was about five foot ten or eleven, at least three inches tal
ler than me and ruggedly built, yet pretty. “I didn’t sign the log because I knew he was here and would likely do that.”
I took a step back as to not crick my neck looking up at her. “So how did you know Richard?”
“He was in my call circle,” She said cryptically.
“Ok, that tells me bupkis,” I poked.
“As planned. Let’s get to that later. Oh, Mrs. Schmidt, I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.” She hugged Richard’s mother as she walked up with an old man.
“I am so sorry that you’re mourning both of the young men here today.” The man said to Aubrey.
“Thank you Mr. Drupont, it’s hard when two friends die so closely together.” Aubrey said.
“My Richard knew Dean Culten, the boy that drove into the tree?” Mrs. Schmidt asked.
“Richard was there for Dean during his initial crisis of belief, he just couldn’t be there for him the second time.” She replied.
“I wondered if you two knew each other.” Richard’s mother said putting her hands on both mine and Aubrey’s shoulders.
“Actually –,“ I started.
“Oh yeah, we’re buddies,” Aubrey finished.
“Well I don’t want you kids to stay here long. Go out and have a drink, I started a tab at The Dive, I told Mr. Danvers to serve only top shelf to Richard’s friends tonight.” She said.
“That is very generous of you ma’am,” I said giving her a hug.
“Well, it’s the least I can do to give him a proper send off, remember, one for you and one for him tonight.” She said through tears.
“Love and Strength,” Aubrey said as she hugged her.
“Now go,” She gave the much taller girl a gentle push, and we left.
Chapter Fifteen
“Do you know where The Dive is?” I asked.
Signs Book One: The Unwanted Page 3