Moses is sitting on the edge of the bed smiling.
Haden pulled the plastic sheeting down to his waist past his heavy breasts and swept the grey hair from his face.
Jesus, did he stink
“What?”
“I think Edna pulled off that look a whole lot better than you.”
“Fuck you.”
Haden shimmied to the edge of the bed and set his feet down on the floor. He pushed the remainder of the plastic sheeting to the ground and stepped clear. Edna’s body was ripe with flop sweat and god knows what other juices that had already begun to leak out of her. Haden tested his legs and found them solid enough to step over to the dresser. A wide mirror ran the entire length and Haden studied his reflection.
Edna Walton stared back at him. Sweatier and way more disheveled than when he had last seen her in his hotel room, but it was her. He swept the stray hair off his face and used a rubber band from a ceramic frog on the dresser to tie it into a loose bun. He quickly stripped off the soiled house dress she wore and rifled through her closet until he found another. This one was lime green and edged with lace.
When Haden was dressed he turned he did a little twirl, “How do I look?”
Moses was standing by the door, his smile was gone.
“We got a problem.” He said.
14
Maura stepped clear of the boardroom, grabbed her purse and strode quickly out of the office. She needed a cigarette in the worst way. She could actually feel the ache in her lungs, demanding their hit of nicotine. She only smoked when she was stressed and lately, she’s been redlining in that department. The tension was on her shoulders and her neck. Even her face, as acne had sprouted along her hairline and around her ears.
She stabbed the elevator button and listened as the machinery grumbled to life delivering the elevator car. She slipped her phone from her purse and saw she had a few unread messages. A couple from her sister wanting to do lunch. Another one from her mother that just said, call me.
Delete.
And the last one from Ted. She clicked his message that read: Play me. She frowned. She read it once and read ‘play with me’. But instead, it was play me. A video file. She scanned the hallway making sure the coast was clear in case Ted sent her something racy. That’s all she would need is to be watching her boyfriend’s naked crank in high def while her boss walked by.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened and Marty from HR stood waiting in the car. She quickly pocketed the phone and stepped into the elevator. The ride took forever to the ground floor and Marty smelled like cabbage soup.
Finally, the doors parted and she squeezed through the gap as soon as she could fit and hurried through the front doors to the outside world. She found a bench in the adjacent park where no one could bother her, or peer over her shoulder and she hit play.
Play me
A small tingle running through her thighs.
The video began to play and Maura’s life was never the same.
15
The video started with an interior shot of Ted’s Jaguar. She saw the iconic logo as soon as the camera came to life and panned around the front seat of the car. She could hear Charlotte’s voice nearby.
Maura frowned a bit realizing that this was not going to be a sexy video. But the musical sound of her daughter’s voice always cheered her up and she smiled when she heard her ask, “Now?”
The camera panned to find Charlotte grinning wildly in the backseat of the Jaguar, seatbelt firmly across her chest. She was waving to the camera and smiling from ear to ear.
“Now, honey.” A voice whispered and Maura’s stomach turned to ice. She couldn’t swallow, couldn’t breathe. She gripped the iPhone in both hands and watched helplessly as the owner of the voice focused the camera on his daughter.
“We’re gonna play a game, Mommy!” Charlotte squealed. “Me and Daddy!”
“Tell her what game, honey,” Freddy whispered and Maura felt hot tears running down her face.
Charlotte’s eyes focused on something off-screen and then turned back to face the camera dead on.
“Hide and Seek. Mommy! Hide and seek!” she screamed. “Come play with us!”
The camera swung away from her daughter and Maura heard herself moan as if in pain.
Nonononononono
Where the fuck was Ted?
Why didn’t he call me?
Why didn’t he call the police?
The camera switched perspectives and now Freddy was staring into the lens. Freddy with his bad combover and his wire-rim glasses, and stupid fucking bow-tie.
“Keep watching, Maura,” he hissed. “unless you don’t want to play.”
The video snapped to black and Maura cried out, pressing a hand to her mouth.
Oh Jesus, please…
A moment later the video resumed but this time Freddy was alone. Sitting in a small bedroom. A bed and a poster tacked to the wall behind him supporting the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was in his childhood bedroom.
His Adam’s apple bobbed furiously. His skin was the colour of milk, stretched too tight over the sharp bones of his skull. Light glinted off the narrow edge of the man’s nose and spots where his cheekbones threatened to slice through. Behind thick Coke-bottle glasses, the man’s eyes were small and dark and jittered nervously left and right as he tried to focus on the camera lens in front of him. He was not a practiced speaker, but he did smile wickedly. Maura was greeted with a Jack-o-lantern grin packed full of coffee-stained teeth.
“Firstly Maura, I want to apologize for getting angry with you at the courthouse the other day. I knew when I met you-you had a reputation. My mother warned me about girls like you and I didn’t listen. You were a slut then and you’re a slut now. I only wished I could have seen you for what you were back then. But that’s on me.”
The image changed and suddenly Maura was looking at her daughter, lying curled on the back seat of the Jaguar.
“Oh my God!” she screamed at the phone, “What did you do?”
The image changed back again to Freddy who was grinning now. He was sweating, glistening in the weak light. Maura felt sick to her stomach and nearly vomited right then and there but she couldn’t look away from the screen.
“For seven years we were happy Maura. And then you took that away from me. First was your love, and then my self-respect when you flaunted your affair with that fucktard, Ted. Next was my home, our home. Then my job and finally, my own flesh and blood.”
Maura saw he was crying now. Hot tears streaming down his face, running over his lips.
“You took everything from me. Everything.” He said. “And you were right, Maura. Maura James. You were right. I don’t deserve her. I don’t. I know that now. I also know that you don’t deserve her, Maura. Charlotte is an angel. She doesn’t deserve parents like me. Like you. She is a being of pure love, and only God deserves her.”
“Oh Jesus Christ no please…no, no, no please no, Freddy,” Maura whispered to the screen.
“This world is hard, Maura. And cruel and unfair and filled with horrible people. She deserves better than that. Better than us.”
Freddy reached for something off screen and he said, “I’ll always love you.”
The shot changed again to the image of Charlotte curled up on the backseat. The camera zoomed in closer and closer until Maura could watch her thin chest rise and fall as she slept. Angelic. He was right she was an angel.
And then the video ended.
Maura waited and waited for more video to play or another message to come through but there was nothing. She tapped the icon again but there was nothing. Just the same video. She watched it again. She called Ted’s cell and it rang until voicemail. She called home and swore when the ringing stopped and her voice greeted her cheerfully asking her to leave a message.
This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real. She thought about calling the police. She should call the police but tell them what? She stood quickly and hesitated.
She was lightheaded. Everything was spinning.
What did he do?
Where was Charlotte? She didn’t even remember where Freddy’s mother lived. She ran blindly across the street toward the parking garage as car horns honked and jammed on their brakes.
She had to go home.
What did he do?
16
Flies were already buzzing in lazy circles around Freddy.
His body lay on the floor, a .45 caliber handgun lay discarded at his feet. The top of Freddy’s head was gone. Haden looked up and found some of it sticking to the ceiling. There would be no talking to Freddy, and no cheating by slipping inside his dead body and having a look around. With that much damage to his brain, the transfer was impossible, even for a Reaper.
Freddy’s boots and his jeans were covered in mud.
“Why’s he so dirty?” Moses asked.
Haden ignored the body and eyed the cell phone on the desk. It too was splattered with blood but when Haden lifted the device the screen came alive with a screensaver of a smiling Charlotte, and a striking dark-haired woman and some other younger dude that wasn’t Freddy wearing a light blue golf shirt with the collar popped. This must be the new Freddy. Haden shook his head. He almost felt bad for the dead guy. He checked the last sent texts and phone calls and found the video he sent to Maura.
After they watched the video twice Haden set the phone down.
“Well, we tried,” Moses said.
Haden shot him a look.
“We got some time.” Haden said.
Moses was already shaking his head. “No, we don’t. You said you were gonna talk to him, he ain’t up for talking. If Maura already got that video the cops are probably on their way. We got to go. Now.”
But Haden wasn’t listening. He spun on his heel and disappeared down the hall, moving fast.
“Where are you going?”
Haden stepped through the hall poking his head into all the rooms as he went. No Charlotte. When he got to the kitchen he stared out the window at the Honda Civic parked in the driveway.
“That’s no Jaguar.”
“What?”
Haden pushed through the screen door and moved to the Honda. He opened the driver’s door and scanned the interior. No Charlotte, but the driver’s footwell was caked with mud. He closed the door.
He walked past Moses without saying anything. Edna’s extra two hundred pounds made him feel like he was moving through cement. It was hard to breathe.
“There’s no garage,” Haden wheezed. ”No basement.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Moses asked him, as he followed him back into the house.
Back in Freddy’s room, Haden went through the man’s pockets.
“Seriously, Haden what the fuck are you doing? Looking for spare change?”
Haden pulled out the car keys from Freddy’s pocket.
“He buried her, Moses.”
“He what?”
“He buried her, in the Jaguar probably,” Haden replied. “Charlotte. He buried her to bring her back to God, or whatever.”
“He buried her huh? How you know that?”
“There’s mud everywhere. Like he was digging something. Or burying something.”
“Great. Mud. But where Haden? There’s a lot of mud in this world. In this city, in the country. Depending on when he started he could have buried her fifty miles away.”
Haden wasn’t listening. He was digging through closets, dragging out suitcases, duffle bags, garment bags.
“Help me.” He said.
Moses crossed his arms.
“No, tell me what you’re doing.”
“I need to find something to wrap him in.”
“Whoa,” Moses said. “Hold the fucking phone. Wrap him in? We ain’t taking him anywhere? We gotta go. Now. Before the cops show up and start asking questions you can’t answer.”
Haden stomped away and returned a minute later with a threadbare area rug.
“Are you even listening to me? We have to go. You have no overwatch which means that if those bastards from the Avernus Collective find where you’re staying- you’re dead. You understand?”
Haden dropped the rug at Moses’ feet.
“Besides. Freddy’s dead, man.” Moses said. “Wherever he buried that poor girl is information we don’t have. She could be anywhere and there’s no way…“
Haden stared at him, cutting him off.
“There is a way.”
“No,” Moses said quickly, his face darkening as fear rippled through his features. “Don’t even. No. Hell no.”
“She could do it.”
“She? She, WANTS TO KILL YOU HADEN. She’s part of the Avernus Collective. She’s tried multiple times. You won’t get within twenty yards of her without her soldiers stringing you up.”
“In this?” Haden said gesturing to himself, grabbing Edna’s giant breasts. “She’ll never suspect I’m in this. We go there, we offer her Freddy. I’ll tell her I’m an old scared gypsy Grandma worried about her granddaughter.”
“A worried gypsy Grandmother who knows where to find a blood singer?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” Moses said spinning away. “No way.”
“We don’t do this and Charlotte is dead for real.”
“She’s probably dead already, man,” Moses said. “What is so important about this little girl?”
“I was on vacation.”
“Convalescing.”
“Whatever! I was out and you came at me with this and made it important. This is on you, man.”
Moses just stared at Haden, his expression softening.
“She’s dead, Haden. I’m sorry, but those are the breaks sometimes. We can’t save everyone.”
Haden dropped to the floor listening to Edna’s arthritic knees crack and pop like kindling. He flattened the rug out and then gripped Freddy’s shoulders and rolled his body into the centre.
“Haden…”
“I’m doing this,” Haden said.
“I get it all right. Charlotte was taken by her Dad. You were taken by your Mom.”
“That’s not it.”
“Bullshit.” Moses snapped. “Don’t start lying to me now.”
“Okay, it’s a little about that, but still, she’s not dead yet. I can feel it.”
“You can feel it, huh?”
Haden nodded.
“The closest gate to get to her is forty minutes away so—”
Haden rolled Freddy into the rug and continued to roll until he was wrapped up tight into the roll. Moses paced muttering to himself.
“You know she’s going to kill you, right?” Moses told him.
“I have a plan.”
“Oh, you have a plan now? Better than the gypsy Grandma bullshit? I’d love to hear it.”
Haden climbed to his feet and stared at Moses.
“It’s not really a plan, per se,” he said. “more of an idea.”
“You’re out of your mind. First, you don’t want to do anything for anyone, because you’re healing. And now, you’re willing to face certain death for a girl you’ve never met.”
“Mo, I’m doing this,” Haden said. “With or without you. Preferably with you, but, you know, it’s your choice.”
Moses stared at him, giving him nothing.
“Come on, Mo,” Haden whispered. “Come on…”
“There’s a gate that’s closer,” Moses said finally.
“Yes!” Haden said pumping the old lady’s fist. “There he is! He’s back ladies and gentlemen.”
“Its old but, it’ll do.”
Haden smiled, rose and pocketed both Ted’s cell phone and Freddy’s gun. He then took a deep breath, remembering to bend at the knees and started to drag Freddy’s corpse out of the bedroom and into the hall. He was almost instantly sweating.
“Christ, he’s a lot heavier than he looks.”
When Haden finally dragged Freddy to the door he propped
open the screen and opened the rear doors of the Civic. He then pulled Freddy back down the steps and into the back of the little car. He was sweating and shaking when he was finished. Edna’s cardio wasn’t exactly up to peak performance. For a moment her heart was beating so hard he thought it might pop through the front of her dress. Still sweating he slipped into the driver’s seat and positioned the mirrors and the seat.
“Jesus, does this chick ever stop sweating?”
Moses sat in the passenger seat staring straight ahead. His face set pinched with concern.
“This is a giant fucking mistake.” Moses whispered.
“Relax.” Haden said, “I got this.”
Moses turned and stared into the sweaty, smiling face of Edna Walton and felt something he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Fear.
Haden twisted the key and the engine grumbled to life as police sirens began to wail in the distance.
17
Maura held her breath all the way home. She didn’t tell anyone where she was going. Didn’t call anyone. She just drove. Her usual commute would take her just over fifteen minutes but today she bumped over the edge of her driveway in eight. She jumped out of the car before the wheels stopped moving. A second later she was at the door, pushing her way through, screaming, “Charlotte!”
Nothing.
Silence.
She carried on, feeling claustrophobic in the dense quiet of her house. It was usually filled with her daughter’s incessant chatting or laughing or her music or something. The silence was foreign. Alien.
The big screen tv was still on but now golfers were walking across manicured greens wearing colourful clothes in another world. The couches were empty that faced the tv.
She spun on her heel and saw the blood on the kitchen cabinets. She felt bile rise into her throat. For a moment she was paralyzed convinced that if she didn’t see what lie beyond the kitchen island, it wouldn’t exist.
She forced herself to trudge across the carpet, step up into the tiled kitchen and peer over the island. She wouldn’t remember moving. This whole time in the house seemed like forever but it was barely twenty seconds since she hit the door. The blood looked so red against the white of the cabinets. So fresh.
The Blood Singer_A Haden Church Supernatural Thriller Page 6