The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller

by Jared Paul

  ********

  Jon found himself at the back of Cory’s apartment. Louis was beside him, his gun drawn, his breath coming in short quick breaths. The look on his face was predatory, and Jon could see as Louis looked at him that their expressions were mirrored.

  Jon stooped down against Cory’s small back porch and lifted a key from a planter Cory had placed on the concrete. It had been a practice of theirs while they were married, that if either one of them had lost their keys, that all they would have to do is to go to the back door and pick out their salvation from the planter. Apparently, Cory had kept to the practice. Jon thought that it might just be the thing that would save her from herself, since he wasn’t doing such a bang up job of it.

  Jon looked to Louis. “You ready? We go in quiet. If everything’s okay, we’ll talk to Cory and get her the hell out of here. If, if”

  Louis noticed that Jon was having a difficult time getting the last of what he had to say out of him. It would be difficult for anyone to know that there was possibly someone you loved on the other side of a door maybe dead or worse, not to mention if that person had shared the best parts of your life with you. It was almost enough to make Louis reconsider being a perennial bachelor. Almost.

  Louis said, “It’s okay man. This will all be okay. I’ll go in first, you follow after me.” He gave a grin before he took the house key Jon was holding and unlocked Cory’s back door. He had the handle turning and the frame inching wider before Jon had a chance to offer a word of gratitude.

  ********

  Cory decided that she’d had enough of Fran’s speech, so much so that she might even consider jumping in front of her gun willingly just to make her shut up. It wasn’t going to do much good in the long run, and she figured she should go with the plan B option. If Fran needed her so much, needed her to pin this whole mess on, then she wasn’t going to go shooting her, was she? It made all of Fran’s threats empty.

  Fran now had her back turned to her, as she was entering into another rant about how clever she was for taking Willis out of the picture. Honestly, and she’d never admit this out loud because it was an evil thought, Cory was glad Willis was dead. She hated the thought the moment she had it, but it was there and gone and she wasn’t going to beat herself up about it.

  Cory leaned in to brace her legs for the mad dash that she was about to take at Fran’s back when her back door opened. Things happened in such a rush that it was difficult to understand what was happening.

  Fran had seen the door open, and just as whoever had walked inside was halfway down the hall that led off from the kitchen, she fired and a pained groan sounded out. Cory could see, the whole house was illuminated like a gory scene inside of a light bulb, but she couldn’t tell who the person was that had been in the hall. There had been a flash of a brown uniform, but Cory kept herself from thinking that she’d caught a glimpse of a deputy’s uniform.

  A second shot sounded, but the bullet went wild, and hit against the wall of the front of the apartment. Fran was screaming, her voice filled with a kind of rage that was like an animal out of a nightmare. No creature that walked the Earth could sound like that. Cory took the confusion as her cue to run, but her hip hit against her sofa and she spun at an odd angle and hit sideways against the wall where the couch created the hidden corner.

  Three more shots sounded, cries were going up and colliding so that now Cory couldn’t tell who was making what sound, and a searing flash of fire slammed through her thigh and Cory realized she’d been shot. The bat she’d been going after seemed suddenly too far away to reach. She knew she was throwing her voice into the sound that was filling the interior of the apartment, and just before she lost consciousness and the world went dark, Cory would have given her arm on the bet that Jon’s voice was the loudest. He was telling her that she wasn’t allowed to die.

  ********

  Jon paced the waiting room of the hospital, sure that he wasn’t going to survive long enough to hear the verdict on whether or not Cory was going to live. This was too much like waiting to hear the latest diagnosis on David, the newest result of the latest test, and he remembered all too well how that had turned out. If the doctor came out to him and told him that Cory had died, Jon knew that if he didn’t physically follow after her, that his soul would.

  He had been at the hospital all night. After he’d managed to knock out Drew Nichols, or as she’d actually been known, Fran Fritz, he’d scrambled to call an ambulance and anyone else that would listen to his hysterical pleas for help. Louis had been hit in the shoulder, the bullet grazing him a bit deep but nothing life threatening. He’d been able to pull himself up off of Cory’s floor and help put a tourniquet on Cory’s leg. A bullet, had hit her, gone clean through the upper muscle of her thigh and Jon had nearly lost his mind at the knowledge that her femoral artery had been obliterated and the love of his life was going to bleed to death. He had been screaming at the top of his lungs when the paramedics arrived, commanding with every ounce of his being that Cory was forbidden to leave him.

  The rest was a blank to Jon. The most he knew of the events that followed was that he had ridden to the hospital with paramedics, holding on to Cory’s hand the whole time, refusing to let it go even when the paramedics had told him that it was necessary for him to do so. The only time he let go of her was when they rushed her through to emergency surgery where, if he followed, it would really mean that she would die.

  “Sheriff Harper?”

  Jon blinked, feeling as if he should be shaking his head, but not quite able to. Sheriff Pence was walking up to him, his uniform hat underneath his arm, his face looking much different than the last time they’d met. Behind him, coming through the doors of the waiting room, was Travis. His eyes were hollow, his face white. Travis had been with both Cory and himself when David had taken his last breath. The expression to him looked as if he was prepared to hear the worst.

  Jon swallowed, directed his eyes to Sheriff Pence and said, “How are you doing, Sheriff?”

  “Not that good. I kind of feel like an idiot at the moment. I never thought that we had the wrong person, but I’m a man of honor and I own up to my mistakes. I owe you an apology, Sheriff Harper. The girl you apprehended is on her way to the state prison to await trial, after of course having been treated for a concussion from the butt of your revolver.”

  Jon didn’t actually care if this man was sorry or not or what news he came to bring him, it was beside the point and moot in the face of what was happening right now. He wanted to say all of this to Pence, to attack him and let the anger flood out of him; the anger at feeling this helpless was paralyzing. He actually did open his mouth to speak, but Travis was pointing to a space behind him and his heart stopped. Cory’s doctor was there to tell him the news.

  Jon faced the doctor, his body going numb from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. He didn’t know if he had the strength to hear this or not. Travis, thankfully sensed his impending physical failure and was there standing behind him, his hands on his shoulders.

  “I’ve seen to Cory’s wounds, which I’m amazed to see, were not as serious as we thought. The bullet went through the meat of her inner thigh, cleanly, and as we’ve sewn the entry and exit wounds to prevent further bleeding, we’ve ascertained that her femoral artery is intact.”

  The doctor smiled, warmly, and it was as if he’d brought Jon back from the dead. The thundering in his heart was almost as bad as it’s silence, but in a good way.

  He asked, thinking that he might have passed out and was now imagining things, “Is she awake, can I see her? I’m her husband.”

  Jon caught Travis’ look and he felt a flicker of amusement. No, he hadn’t misspoken. Cory was his wife, had always been. No decision, no piece of paper was going to tell him otherwise any longer. She’d been meant for him and he’d been too stupid to see it.

  “Sure, Sheriff Harper, she’s awake. A little groggy from the pain medications we’ve given her, but aware. Howe
ver, only one at a time.”

  ********

  Cory’s vision was hazy, but she knew one thing; she was alive and she’d been hurt. She supposed it was bad, due to the level of purple fairies floating around her fuzzy skull, but it didn’t matter. Bring on the pain killers! She giggled and realized that if she started laughing at herself now, she might end up crying her eyes out.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Jon’s body, leaning against the frame of the door to her room, was like the mother of all pain relievers. He looked like he had been dragged through Hell, but he had all his parts in all the right places and it was the beauty of him still intact that lifted her soul right out of her body.

  Cory forced her hand to rise from her bed and she managed to crinkle a finger at him. When he was close, the natural scent of him hit her senses and she closed her eyes. What had possessed her with the will to leave a man that would charge headfirst into danger for her? Or the ability to abandon the one person in the world that had stood with her at the mouth of hell, his hand in hers, as they’d lost their only child?

  “Cory, God, you scared the hell out of me. Please, say something to me before I lose my mind. Anything.” Jon swallowed and tried to force back the tears that were hovering somewhere between his iris and his lids. Reverently, he knelt beside the hospital bed and in a broken voice he said, “I love you Cory, tell me you love me. Please.”

  Cory combed her fingers through Jon’s hair and as he lifted his eyes to her, she smiled and a grin cracked through his misery. She replied, “Sure I do, dummy.”

  Jon moved from where he was on his knees and he lifted, placing his hands to Cory’s face as gently as possible. His lips kissed hers. Cory had said the same thing to him the very first time he’d told her he loved her. It had been a thing between them their entire relationship, and even as she looked at him now, her eyes glittering, he knew that if she asked him to, he’d be able to fly. He kissed her lips again.

  “Marry me, Cory.”

  Cory smiled as Jon kissed her lips a third time, and taking a leaf out of the history that was paving its way through into their future, she replied, “Can’t say no, right?”

  PART 2

  ………………………………..

  REPERCUSSIONS

  CHAPTER 10

  ………………………………..

  There are moments in a man’s existence when he might question the path his life is on, or the decisions he has made. As Travis Harper stared at his reflection, noting the ridiculous bow tie at his Adam’s apple and the uncomfortable way his tuxedo made him look like a grumpy penguin, he had a moment to ponder the road his life was walking.

  “You’re doing it again.”

  Travis turned away from the mirror he was studying and trained his attention to his brother as the guy quirked a goofy smirk at him. “Doing what?”

  “Frowning on my wedding day. Again. If Cory catches you doing that, she’ll pitch a fit.”

  Travis crossed the short distance between him and his brother and straightened his tie for him. “Not like she hasn’t been married before.” Still, he could picture what a tantrum would be like if Cory decided to pitch one.

  Jon sighed. “Do me a favor and try to cheer up. At least force yourself to smile so the corners of your mouth don‘t keep turning downward.” He lifted an eyebrow. “What’s with you anyway?”

  Travis shrugged and backed away from his brother. He didn’t know what his problem was. If he thought about it, he was actually pretty content with most of the way things had been going lately and didn’t have an excuse under the sun to frown. He had every reason to smile.

  “Is it Abigail?”

  Travis shook his head, though he felt the corners of his mouth turn down despite his brother‘s advice to encourage them to do the opposite. There had been a distance developing between them since the mess involved with him being pegged as a serial murderer had illuminated everyone within a fifty mile radius that they were seeing each other. The whole town looked at him now as some kind of criminal dog, even though the charges against him had been dropped. Abigail hadn’t believed he was guilty, though her father had, and because of it, it was difficult for them to see one anotherhe a feeling that regardless, Mayor Bradley would insist Abby kick him to the curb. Their respective families had a long trail of hot garbage between them. Travis smiled. One of the perks to dating Abby, at least in the beginning, had been the knowledge that it made her father insane that his precious, innocent little girl was dating a Harper.

  “Abby is wonderful. She’s determined to stick our relationship out and stare down anyone who might object to us.” Travis folded his arms to his chest. “I guess all this marriage stuff has me thinking about us in the long term sense. She’s supposed to be here, and you know how it goes. She’ll see you two getting hitched and she’ll ask me when we’ll be getting married and all that. I don’t think I’m ready.”

  Jon chuckled. “I never thought I’d see your face crease with that much concentration. Do yourself a favor and just enjoy the day. Forget about it all, and just be happy for me and Cory. You know how much I‘ve wanted to see her at that altar.”

  Jon straightened, his expression straying from the serious broadcast he had and back into goofy. “How do I look?” He twirled around in a semi-circle as he grinned like an idiot.

  Travis smirked and it turned into a smile. He was truly happy for his brother. He replied, “You look like a man who’s going to have the best night of his life when the sun sets today.”

  ********

  Travis Harper stood at his brother’s side, proud to yet again be his best man. Cory Lance, could not have been a more stunning bride. Her face was radiant with happiness and it was all the make-up she needed. Given the history between the woman and his brother, it was something to see the relaxed relief edged in there along with the broad smile cracking her features that was bright enough to be seen from outer space.

  A lot had happened to drive Jon and Cory apart, the least of all an overwhelming magnitude of pain and grief that had motivated Jon to alcohol and Cory into a shut-in snipping wench of denial produced depression. Yet to see Cory walking toward them down the aisle as a wedding march softly preceded her approach, filled Travis with the warmth of how right the moment was. After Cory’s near miss with death via a bullet to her thigh, his brother and the willful woman he’d chosen weren’t taking chances with what they knew was their fate. No two people had been so destined to be together.

  Travis scanned the audience again, for what felt like the hundredth time since the wedding ceremony started. He caught his brother giving him a look and he didn’t care; the one face he’d been looking forward to seeing was nowhere in sight. Abigail had promised to come to Jon and Cory’s weddingin fact it had been all she’d talked about since he’d given her the news. It appeared that even after all that, something had prevented her from being where she said she was going to be. It was starting to become a habit with her.

  Travis blinked, forced the his thoughts of Abigail out of his mind and then trained his eyes on Cory and Jon, who were now reciting the words of binding, the priest standing just past them was having them repeat.

  “You may now give your vows to one another,” the priest finally said. A hush fell over the audience.

  Travis caught Cory looking away from Jon as tears escaped her eyes. She was fighting hard not to ruin her mascara he figured. He listened as his brother began the vows he’d prepared.

  “I have loved you from the moment I laid my eyes on you…” Jon began and Travis’s mind wandered again.

  Where was Abigail? Had something stopped her from coming or someone or was her absence a sign of something deeper? Was her dad beginning to get to her? He came out of his trance just as Jon finished giving his vows and clapped along with the rest of the wedding guests.

  He smiled at the love shining from Jon’s eyes even as he wondered if he would ever look at another woman that way. Cory began he
r vows and this time, Travis tried to keep his mind on what she was saying.

  “Jon, we have had our moments when life was difficult and seemed to overwhelming to endure, when it was hard to see that no matter what life threw at us, that our love was inextinguishable. I have never stopped loving you. My only regret has been that it took me this long to realize that sometimes love is enough. I fought you with fangs and claws to prove otherwise, but here we stand together, proof that we were meant to be. I will love you forever and our future is open and limitless now that we know where we belong.”

  The audience clapped again, and Travis noted with interest that a number of the females had tears in their eyes. He’d had a front row seat where Jon and Cory were concerned and he knew how much they’d gone through to get to where they were at that moment. He was pretty sure they would not let anything separate them again.

  Travis caught his brother’s face as he walked with Cory down the aisle, and his eyes were full of unshed tears. He couldn’t tell whether Jon’s tears were of happiness or relief, but he realized that he truly had wanted to share the moment with Abigail. It sucked that she had stood him up.