DEADLY HOPE a gripping detective mystery full of twists and turns

by Jack Parker

  "Let's go out back." The sincerity in her eyes pulled the bricks down before the mortar dried, and I nodded. "Finish your burger while I get a couple of these tables out of here."

  She flitted to the kitchen to write tickets, and my burger disappeared in record time. Between my emotional upheaval and my physical recovery during the last few days, my appetite ran rampant and the fries soon joined the burger in my satisfied stomach. I turned on the stool and sipped the coffee and watched Ashley sprint from table to cash register and back again. Finally, she nodded towards me, and I rounded the counter. My stomach knotted and churned with the reality of the conversation that I was about to have.

  I hesitated only a moment at Barb's saloon doors, but Ashley pushed me through with soft hands on my shoulders. The knot of tension released in my stomach briefly under the familiar gesture, but I froze as it returned when I saw who stood at the dish tank. Stephanie Miller glared at me the moment I entered the kitchen. Soap dripped from her tight fists held against her thighs and splotched the wet floor at her feet. The pure rage in her eyes ignited my own, and I whirled on Ashley. Barb observed quietly at the grill, waiting for the explosion.

  "Why is she here?" Anger covered my quickly rising panic, and Barb tapped the side of her metal spatula against the grease trap at the front of the grill.

  "Lauren, don't get your panties bunched. You told me you were leaving, and we needed the help with tourist season starting. Steph's application was at the top of the pile." Barb placated me.

  "I'm gone for two days and you give Steve's daughter my fucking job!" The dining room fell silent at my raised voice, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the prying ears.

  "Who she is don't make much difference to me, girl. She was the best pick for the job. You brought that heartache on your own head!" Barb met my anger with her own, and I fought the urge to cower. Barb, the angel who ensured my survival through adolescence, hired this woman to spite me, to hurt me the way I hurt her. The guilt on her chubby face told me I was right, that she'd made a rash decision based on how much hurt it caused me. Her lips parted, and I thought she might apologize. It clamped shut.

  "Heartache?" Stephanie finally spoke, barely contained rage in her voice. "This stupid slut don't know nothing about heartache!" Barb had anticipated her advance on me and stepped in between us, moving faster than she should have been capable of given her size. I stood my ground as Barb pushed her back towards the dish tank and turned back to me, arms stretched towards each of us.

  "If you want to fight, you take it the hell out of my kitchen." Stephanie settled, and I waited.

  "Do you know what you did?" Stephanie's body shook with rage.

  "Steph, stop!" Ashley pleaded behind me.

  "No! No, I won't stop. Not only did this fucking whore get my fiancé arrested when we were in high school, oh no. That wasn't enough for her! She had to fuck my father!" I winced. I hadn't realized that Stephanie Miller was even dating the boy who took my virginity, much less engaged to him. By now, the entire diner had given up pretending to eat and blatantly stared towards the kitchen. I just thought about how happy Stephanie looked when we'd graduated high school together. Her wide smile as she crossed the stage stuck in my head that day and flashed vividly behind my eyes now in Barb's kitchen four years later. She'd been so excited that she'd hugged everyone on stage and then all of her classmates who had been seated at the end of the row of black folding chairs as she returned to her seat. I had hugged her that day.

  "Steph, I'm sorry." I ignored the tears rolling down my cheeks as Stephanie flung her body at Barb, fighting with everything she had to get past the wide, stout frame.

  "You're sorry! Do you know they're gettin' divorced?" My eyes widened with the information, and my heart constricted painfully in my chest.

  "Look at that. The bitch has a heart." Her voice was so cold now, nothing like the sweet girl I'd gone to high school with. "Why do you destroy everything you touch?" Barb shoved her against the dish tank at that last question, and Stephanie's anger finally dissipated into grief. She gripped the edge of the sink, bowed her head and silently cried.

  "Lauren, it's time for you to go now." Barb's voice was cold, but her eyes shone brightly with her own unshed tears, grief and pity.

  I wiped my nose and mouth with the back of my hand as I turned from the heart wrenching scene. I felt something that night that I'd never thought possible, guilt for targeting and hunting the men I'd slept with. They weren't the only victims. It hurt, but watching Barb instantly choose her instead of me after we'd been through so much nearly killed me on the spot with betrayal and grief.

  "What's his name, Steph? Your fiancé."

  "Lauren," Ashley whispered and tugged on my arm. I shrugged her off. I needed to know.

  "You don't even remember the name of the boy you got arrested?" Barb asked incredulously. "Get the hell out of my kitchen." Her voice dropped in anger, and her arm lifted, one pudgy finger pointing towards her saloon doors.

  "Lauren, wait!" Ashley begged when I pushed her out of the way of the door with my shoulder. "Goddamn it, Barb!" She hissed.

  Her footsteps pounded behind me, but I never looked back. I snatched Luci's book from the counter and kept my eyes on the gray tile floor as I navigated the shortest path between the kitchen and the front door. Judgmental eyes glared as I exited and burned into my back through the windows. I felt them on me, smothering me, but I never turned around, knowing it would break me.

  "Lauren!" Ashley called from the front door, but I refused to turn around, refused to commit all of those condemnatory eyes to memory. I walked and hugged Luci's book to my chest as I set my direction towards Carver. I had nowhere else to go.

  It was pitch black by the time I saw the bell tower above the tree line. The walk back to Luci's mansion must have taken at least an hour, which meant I'd lost an hour of memory and my pace must have been incredibly slow. Lightening bugs glowed and disappeared around me, and I hated them. I opened the front door to the mansion as quietly as I could. It groaned and popped loudly, and I winced. I just wanted to fall into bed and erase today from my memory. Considering my luck today, I wasn't surprised when Luci's silhouetted form appeared at the door of her study. She crossed the room quickly, and I waited at the bottom of the stairs. If she told me to leave, I had nowhere to go except my father's house. If I showed up there tonight, he'd kill me for sure, and despite the events of the day, I realized that I wanted to live. I wasn't finished yet.

  I flinched apprehensively when she stopped just out of arm's reach. I wasn't sure if I could handle being yelled at or rejected one more time tonight. Her left hand rose slightly, like she fought the urge to touch me, and then dropped stiffly to her side. Her eyes were dark, unreadable, in the minimal light, and I wished that I could see them to better judge how the pending conversation might go.

  "Are you alright, Lauren? You left so quickly earlier." Her silky voice soothed my frayed nerves. She sounded concerned, worried, not angry, and I released a relieved sigh.

  "I got your book back." I extended the thick paperback towards her. Her eyes studied the novel as if it held the answer to her question before slowly relieving my arm of its weight.

  "Thank you." She fingered the book's worn spine and searched her mind for words of comfort.

  "Lauren, I'm not quite sure I understand what happened earl…"

  "I don't want to talk about it." I cut her off with a wave of my hand and quick words, and she stilled for a moment and then nodded once. Despite my earlier reaction, I wanted to feel the warmth of her hands, to regain her favor somehow.

  "I'm sorry." Tears caught the apology in my throat, and I coughed once to clear them.

  "It is perfectly alright, Darling." She quickly responded, and her hands stretched towards me a few inches before she retracted them to her sides.

  "May I check your wounds? David's first aid kit is in my study." I nodded and followed her across the Great Hall.

  She lifted my bangs f
rom the cut and winced. I closed my eyes and relaxed into her gentle touch. It was the only thing I had left, Luci and my plan and the gaping hole in my heart where Ashley and Barb used to be. I cut them out and filled the void with Luci's warmth as she cleaned around the butterfly stitches and hummed quietly. She'd have a beautiful singing voice if the even pitch and strength of her hum indicated anything.

  "These really should be replaced. I'll speak with David in the morning. That said, I believe I've cleaned all of the dirt and will cover it with gauze and antibiotic cream for the night to stave off the imminent infection. Where have you been all afternoon to acquire that much filth in a head wound?"

  "I went for a hike in the woods." I answered simply, my voice flat, and finally opened my eyes.

  Luci concentrated fiercely on the cut, her eyes determined. It was an imperfect situation and I an incomplete person, but I thought I loved her. Maybe I just needed someone to love, and she was the most convenient target.

  "Will you read it?" Her eyes briefly flicked to mine and then back to my wound in confusion, and I pointed to the book on the table beside us. "To me, I mean. Out loud."

  She pressed the gauze onto my head gently and slowly lowered her hands to the object in question. She studied the book for a moment and then turned that same curious gaze onto my face. Her eyes traced my lips, and my breath caught in my throat as if she touched me. She flinched at my reaction and bowed her head quickly. She was ashamed because she feared that she'd forced her affections upon me and thought that I didn't want her.

  "Lauren, I…Of course. Come." She reached for my hand but turned it into a sweeping gesture towards the Great Hall. I realized then as the pale skin of her arm passed through a stream of light that she lacked her usual long sleeved dress shirt. She was exposed and vulnerable both physically and emotionally, but she wasn't hiding from me. I wished she would. I wanted her mistrust to save me from myself. If she never trusted me, I'd never completely take advantage of her. I destroyed everything I touched.

  She kept her distance all the way to my room, not once coming near enough to touch me in any way, not even a fingertip. She waited until I ditched my sneakers and slipped beneath the blankets, jeans and shirt still in place. Boxes of my things sat neatly in the center of the room, but I hadn't the energy to rummage them for more comfortable clothing. Luci pulled the wooden chair away from the desk and placed it next to the bed and then studied my face a moment, but my green eyes refused meet her brilliant blue. I chose instead to watch my fingers tracing the swirling patterns of the bedspread. She took a deep breath and opened the book near my hand, but out of my reach. She was too close, not nearly close enough. I gave up on the patterns and covered my eyes with the arm nearest the book and those warm soothing hands.

  "This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and of what a Man's resolution can achieve. If the machinery of the Law could be depended on to fathom every case of suspicion, and to conduct every process of inquiry, with moderate assistance only from the lubricating influences of oil of gold, the events which fill these pages might have claimed their share of public attention in a Court of Justice."

  I tried to listen, but as the cadence of her silky voice soothed away the pain this day had brought, the words melted into nothing. All that remained was the gentle rise and fall of her deep, slightly accented timbre. Blue silk. Blue silk and soft blonde hair that smelled like the earth. Her voice followed me into my restless sleep, echoing in my mind even as I dreamed. It was the most comforting and torturous sleep I'd ever experienced.

  CHAPTER 10

  I woke to soft taps against wood and groaned. My body felt like stiffened re-fried hell. My lower back and legs screamed at me when I stretched them out, and a groan vibrated my chest. A sharp series of taps echoed through the room again, and I forced my body to cooperate with my mind's command to sit upright and swung my feet over the side of the bed. Luci was gone; I must have fallen asleep to her voice. The sky looked the same as it did a few minutes ago before I'd fallen asleep, and I squinted at the window. Irritation welled in my chest.

  "Yeah?" I croaked into the darkness. I'd meant the words to be more forceful, but my voice wasn't cooperating. Must have been the cigarettes. I really should quit.

  A wisp of cool air blew against my pillow-warmed face as the door opened silently. The clanking of porcelain and metal against wood peaked my attention, and I turned my upper body towards the door. My lower back muscles bit at my spine and encouraged a low hiss between my teeth. Luci fussed over a tray she'd just placed on the small desk near the door. The chair she'd used earlier sat unmoved by my bedside, and I lifted my feet onto it and leaned my elbows into my knees.

  "Did you sleep well?" She whispered, hovering near the door, and I stared up at her from the bed.

  "Up until now. Why are you bringing me food in the middle of the night?" I pointed at the window. "I couldn't have been out more than half an hour." Her eyes appeared black in the dim light, and I wished she'd turned on the damn light. I felt them on me, but I could not read the expressions and emotions.

  I huffed a sigh at her silence and pressed my hands into the sides of my pounding head. The pressure eased slightly, but I lowered them when my eyes landed on the book near the tray. A thin chain separated nearly a quarter of the thick novel from the rest. I stared at it like it might grow teeth and gnash at my fingers had I dared to touch it. Luci glanced towards the book, and then I felt those intensely blue eyes upon me once more.

  "You've been asleep for quite some time, Darling. Nearly a full twenty-four hours." She removed the lid from the plate of food and placed it gently upon the desk.

  "I brought dinner. Berta says you needed something with substance." The heady scent of roast beef wafted around me, and my tummy gnomes growled in anticipation. I nearly floated towards the food like a cartoon character, pulling the chair with me. I hummed in approval when the first juicy piece of meat melted onto my tongue, and few squares of red roasted potatoes followed it into my eager jaws. Now that I'd tasted Berta's scrumptious food, I realized how famished I was. Had I truly been asleep for twenty-four hours?

  "Eat up. We begin your training tonight." Luci's tone held no room for argument, and I stared up at her with puffed out cheeks.

  "Twaining?" I confirmed, and the skin around Luci's eyes tightened in disapproval. The darkness still hid the glacial blueness of her eyes, and I swallowed roughly. She talked around the sandwich, but suddenly the rules of propriety changed?

  "Beginning with proper table etiquette, I suppose. Do not speak around your food. Your words come from your mind. The mouth is merely the instrument with which they are shared. They will still be available once you've swallowed and may actually be of superior presentation if given a moment's thought."

  I nodded and swallowed again. I happily found that the glass on the tray contained sweet iced tea instead of water or hot tea and swigged half of the liquid in one go. Luci rolled her eyes and sighed. I stilled when she stepped silently behind me and placed one hand on my shoulder. My eyes slipped shut when her warmth spread downward, and I tried to decipher if it was her hand or my own reaction to it.

  "Luci?" Her cryptic behavior unnerved me. She jerked my shoulder towards her and pushed into on the center of my back with the fingertips of the other hand. My spine straightened immediately under the pressure.

  "Proper posture not only aides your health but can also be used to either set others at ease or on the defensive. Both reactions grant you an advantage." She removed her hands from me and stepped near the door and into my line of sight again. My aching muscles protested the unfamiliar posture, but I refused to slouch into a more comfortable position.

  "Luci?"

  "Yes?" Her eyes searched my face, and in my new proximity to her, I found that I could read the expressions of her face and eyes in the glow of the moon.

  "How long did you read to me?" I waved the fork at the book before popping a potato into my mouth.

  "Long
enough to make sure you'd gone to sleep." Her cryptic answer blew chills onto the back of my neck, and I pushed the half empty plate away from me. My stomach knotted tightly from the tension in the room to continue eating.

  "Ready, then?" She asked, and for the first time that evening, I realized that she'd dressed in a simple white tank top and slim-fitting black sweat pants and sneakers. She looked like she was preparing for a jog or a break dancing sequence in a music video, not "training" as she put it.

  "As I'll ever be, I reckon. What're we doing?" I slid the chair back and stood as I waited for her answer.

  "You asked me to teach you how to defend yourself. I wish to begin tonight. Please put on your shoes and meet me in the back courtyard." Without another word, she disappeared into the darkness of the corridor. I strained to hear her steps, but her shoes made no sound. I missed her heels.

  I collapsed into the chair for a moment and rested my already weary muscles. Her uncouth training methods surprised me, and I surprised myself when I realized that I liked them. She'd given me confidence at one of my weakest moments when she charged me with Mattison's care. She'd made me forget about my own fear of my father, and then when I'd uncovered something within myself that frightened me, she allowed me space to overcome that fear my own way. She hadn't chased me down and begged me to return to Carver when I'd bolted yesterday. She forced me to return of my own free will when I'd found the strength and did not judge me for my frightened reaction. The confusion and jumbled thoughts of the previous day slipped away now that I gained distance from the heartbreaking and terrifying discoveries of my life and myself.

  This was my path now. I had no other option. I made my decisions and sought to see them to fruition. She unknowingly gave me the strength and confidence I needed to dupe her, to steal her fortune and disappear.