Comfort Me

by Debbie Viguié

  “This is the man who just killed your girlfriend.”

  “Which one?” Jeremiah asked flippantly.

  “Which one?” the man shouted, his control slipping.

  “Yes, which girlfriend?”

  “Rebecca!”

  “Rebecca? I don’t think...oh, Becky, are you talking about Becky?” Jeremiah asked.

  He texted Mark that he had Mason talking on the phone and would do what he could to distract him. Hopefully it would help the police take him down. It wasn’t how he had planned it, but this could work if he could rattle the guy enough.

  “Her name is Rebecca! She hates being called Becky!”

  “Not by me,” Jeremiah purred.

  “I’m going to kill you!”

  A text from Mark popped up. Keep him talking.

  Jeremiah chuckled. “And just how are you going to do that?”

  “I’m going to gut you like a fish.”

  “You have to find me first. Who am I?”

  “What?”

  “I asked you a question, Mason,” Jeremiah said, putting emphasis on the man’s name. “Who am I?”

  “You’re one of Rebecca’s lousy boyfriends.”

  “And beyond that?”

  “What do you mean?” Mason growled.

  “Who am I? What’s my last name?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”

  Jeremiah chuckled again. “No, I don’t think you will. That’s okay. I know who you are.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. You’re Mason Dunwoody, former special forces, psychopath, stalker, and all around bad boyfriend.”

  “I’m a great boyfriend!” Mason screamed.

  “How could you be when you killed your girlfriend?”

  There was a pause and then he heard what sounded like a muffled sob. “You don’t understand, man. It’s her and me. Forever.”

  “You know what? I’d be happy to send you to meet her,” Jeremiah said, dropping his voice down.

  “I’m going to-”

  Jeremiah cut him off. “She died in my arms tonight. My arms. Not yours. If you wanted to be together, you missed your big chance. You failed. You couldn’t even manage to kill yourself to be with her. There is no forever for you except forever apart.”

  Mason screamed incoherently into the phone. A second later there was a crash and he heard someone yell, “Freeze, police!”

  Jeremiah sagged in relief. They had made it on time. A moment later he tensed up as he heard shots being fired.

  He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel and squeezed. Willing himself to stay put. His sudden appearance on the scene would just add to the chaos and he couldn’t trust the officers with Mark not to accidentally shoot him if he startled them.

  There was another burst of noise over the phone and then he heard someone shouting, “Where’d he go?”

  “No!” Jeremiah hissed, crushing the steering wheel tighter.

  He glanced up the street toward the shop. He couldn’t just sit by while Mason slipped through their fingers. He got out of the car quickly and quietly. He made his way down the street, keeping other cars and obstacles between himself and the shop as much as possible. He had no idea which way Mason had gone, but there was a clear exit up this way whereas the police cars seemed to have amassed at the other end of the street.

  Finally he saw what he was looking for, a shadow running through the night. He was moving fast, but still being cautious, trying to choose a path that took him into the darkest patches of the street.

  Jeremiah slid behind a car and crouched, waiting, watching as the man ran toward him. He couldn’t see a weapon but that didn’t mean Mason didn’t have one.

  At the last second Jeremiah stepped out of his hiding place and straight into Mason’s path.

  The man plowed to a stop just a couple of feet away. His eyes darted around Jeremiah and he coiled his muscles, clearly getting ready to try and lunge around him.

  “Who am I?” Jeremiah asked.

  Mason froze, a look of panic sweeping over his face. He was used to being the bully, used to taking others by surprise. It was clear that he couldn’t take what he dished out.

  “I know you don’t know who I am,” Jeremiah said with a smile. “Because if you did, you’d run.”

  Chapter 20

  Mark and the other officers exploded out of Rebecca’s shop and scattered in different directions, searching for Mason. On a hunch Mark turned and ran up the street, wondering just how far away Jeremiah was.

  He hadn’t gone very far when two figures became visible in the darkness, about a block up. He poured on the speed. As he got close he could see that they were dancing around each other and he could hear the sound of a fist striking a body.

  He recognized Jeremiah a second before the rabbi dropped the man he was fighting with. The way the other man fell it was clear he was unconscious before he hit the ground. Jeremiah dropped into a crouch over him and raised his fist.

  “Don’t kill him!” Mark shouted as he ran up.

  Mark came to a stop in front of Jeremiah, panting slightly. He turned and looked at Mason who was out cold, limbs sprawled haphazardly on the ground.

  He may have murdered my partner.

  “I take it back. Go ahead and kill him,” Mark growled.

  “Sorry, too late,” Jeremiah said, straightening up.

  “What do you mean too late?” Mark asked.

  “Three second rule.”

  “What is the three second rule?”

  “The difference between self defense and murder.”

  “What on earth are you talking about?” Mark asked.

  “Once my opponent goes unconscious it can take me up to three seconds to alter course. If I kill him within those three seconds it’s just the conclusion of the fight. If I kill him after three seconds, it’s an execution.”

  “There’s nothing in the legal code about three seconds,” Mark said.

  “It’s in my code,” Jeremiah responded softly.

  Mark kicked the man’s arm lightly. “Oh look, he moved!”

  Jeremiah narrowed his eyes. “I’m looking out for you.”

  “In what way?” Mark asked, his frustration nearly overwhelming him.

  “If I kill him, I’ll sleep fine. Will you?”

  Mark cursed under his breath.

  “See?”

  He holstered his gun and got out his handcuffs which he quickly put on Mason. That done he stood and spoke into his radio. “Suspect is in custody. One block east of the shop.”

  “Get out of here. Call me when you know about Liam and Rebecca,” he said.

  Jeremiah nodded and seconds later was in his car driving away.

  The first officers arrived about a minute later. “What happened to him?” one of them asked.

  “A Good Samaritan,” Mark said, unable to stop himself.

  ~

  Cindy was relieved when Jeremiah made it back to the hospital just in time to watch an orderly wheel Liam back into the room. “It will take about an hour then the doctor will come in and explain all the test results to you,” the man said.

  “Thank you,” Cindy said.

  “Now we wait some more,” Jeremiah said with a frustrated sigh as he took his seat once the orderly had left.

  “Did you catch him?”

  “We did,” Jeremiah said.

  “Did he confess?”

  “Close enough. Have you had any word on Rebecca?”

  Cindy shook her head. “No, and it’s been pretty nerve wracking.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jeremiah said.

  “At least you got to do something helpful. I feel like the world’s weirdest babysitter.”

  “It was important that someone was here in case either of them came back or the doctors needed to pass on information.”

  “Which was frightening in and of itself,” Cindy said. “I don’t know Rebecca
. I mean, I know who she is, but I don’t actually know her. I kept feeling like I should be calling her parents or siblings or something, but I don’t even know if she has them. I don’t know if she has an advanced medical directive. I don’t know anything.”

  Her frustration was so overwhelming it almost brought her to tears. Jeremiah reached out and grabbed her hand. “It’s okay,” he said.

  “Of course, I don’t know that about Liam either. And I don’t know how to contact his family and I don’t know why he or Rebecca hasn’t already. They should be here. Particularly if...if he dies,” she forced herself to say.

  “I know.”

  “But I don’t,” she said, all the fear and helplessness she’d been feeling for the last hour bubbled to the surface. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if...if something happens to you.”

  Jeremiah frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know what you want. Do you want to be kept on life support or not? What type of funeral do you want and where? How do I contact your family and let them know?”

  “We have plenty of time to talk about that,” he said.

  “What if we don’t?” she fired back. “Given our lives do you honestly think it couldn’t just as easily be Liam and Rebecca sitting here while doctors were trying to figure out how to save us?”

  Tears were now rolling down her cheeks. She tried to wipe them away with her free hand, but they just kept coming.

  “Listen, you’re tired, you’re upset about everything that’s going on. I promise you that we’ll figure it all out later.”

  “When?”

  “Soon.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Okay?”

  She nodded even though she really wasn’t.

  A figure appeared in the door and Cindy felt a surge of anxiety flood through her. It was a doctor and the woman came quickly into the room. She glanced at Liam and then turned to them.

  “How is Rebecca?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Well, she’s one tough cookie. She’s in post-op now. We got her patched up and I think she’s going to be okay.”

  Cindy felt a surge of relief. “When can we see her?”

  “I’ve given instructions for her to be put in the room next door in about an hour or so when they move her.”

  “What about Liam?” Jeremiah asked.

  “I haven’t had a chance to look at any of his test results. I’m going to go do that and I’ll be back when I have some answers.”

  “Thank you,” Cindy said.

  The doctor turned to leave then paused at the door. “They’re very lucky to have you as friends, you know,” she said over her shoulder.

  “Are you going to call Mark?” Cindy asked.

  “Yes,” Jeremiah said, already pulling his phone out of his pocket.

  Cindy listened as he relayed the message. She was tired, deep down bone tired. She’d been through a lot of crises, spent a lot of time in hospitals watching and praying and waiting. This felt different.

  Maybe it was because in the morning she was going to have to go back to a job she hated. Maybe the fact that there was nothing for her to do, no way to help or figure things out was draining her faster. Whatever it was, she had an overwhelming urge to climb into bed, pull the covers over her head, and not come out for a week.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall.

  “Only thirty-six hours,” she said.

  “For what?” Jeremiah asked as he pocketed his phone.

  “That’s how long this has been going on,” she said, indicating Liam and the hospital room. “That’s fast in the scheme of things and yet it seems like it’s taken forever.”

  “I’m tired, too,” he said softly.

  “It’s more than just tired. It’s, I don’t know, unsettled,” she said.

  “Well, there is a lot that is currently unsettled.”

  “I guess. I’m just, I don’t know...I feel like the ground underneath me keeps shifting and I don’t know what to expect.”

  Jeremiah reached out and took her hand. “You can expect that I will always be here to catch you.”

  She squeezed his hand hard.

  They sat in silence for what seemed like hours but in reality was only about thirty minutes. Then the doctor finally returned. Cindy almost leaped to her feet at the appearance. She realized her muscles had been coiled the entire time, waiting for the next thing to happen.

  “I have some good news,” the woman said, smiling slightly.

  “We could use it,” Cindy said.

  “The foreign agent introduced into the IV bag would have killed him, but thanks to your quick thinking,” she said, looking at Jeremiah, “only a small amount made it into his system. It was just enough to knock him out.”

  “Thank you, God,” Cindy blurted out her prayer.

  “What about his organs?” Jeremiah asked.

  “It doesn’t look like there was any additional damage done.”

  Cindy slumped in her chair.

  “Is there still a chance one of them can rupture anyway?” Jeremiah asked.

  “There is, but every hour that passes the odds get better that he’s going to be just fine,” the doctor said. “So, hopefully, if we can avoid any more excitement...”

  “We’ll do our best,” Jeremiah said.

  The doctor nodded. “I’ll let you know when Rebecca is out of recovery and next door.”

  “Thank you,” Cindy said.

  “You should go home and get some rest,” Jeremiah said after the doctor had left.

  “I’m okay.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re exhausted and you’ve got work in the morning.”

  “So do you,” she said.

  “Actually no, tomorrow’s Thursday. It’s my day off,” he said.

  “That’s right. Starting work on a Tuesday can really mess you up,” she said. “Half the time I don’t know what day it is.”

  “I know.”

  She sighed. “I wish I could take tomorrow off and spend it with you.”

  “Call in sick.”

  “It’s a temp job, and a precarious one at that. Unless I’m throwing up or coughing up a lung or something I should go.”

  “You know, if you need to go into work and throw up on command you-”

  Cindy held up a hand and wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to know.”

  Jeremiah shrugged.

  “I’d hate to leave you here, by yourself,” she said.

  “The danger’s past. I won’t stay too late, I promise.”

  “Okay, but call me...for anything.”

  “I call you for everything,” he said with a wink.

  She smiled. She stood up and gave him a quick kiss before heading out of the room. She felt a bit guilty about leaving early, but there really was nothing more she could do sitting there and waiting. It was unlikely either Liam or Rebecca would even realize that anyone was in the room until morning.

  She was glad that the mystery of Liam and Rebecca’s assailant was solved. It hadn’t turned out to be much of a mystery, since Rebecca had been fairly certain she knew who the attacker was. She’d been right. Case closed. Justice would prevail.

  If only there was justice for Rose, she thought.

  It was silly, really. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad had happened to Rose. She hadn’t given Mr. Cartwright the box of Rose’s things to mail yet. Partly that was because she couldn’t shake the feeling that once the box was gone any hope of learning what had happened to Rose would be gone as well.

  Which was ridiculous. That’s what she kept telling herself.

  A new thought occurred to her. Maybe she could find the HR person at work in the morning, tell them she had to send on Rose’s things, and ask for the contact information. Then she could reach out to Rose and reassure herself that the other woman was okay. And, if she happened to give the contact info to Beau...well, she was a
temp. What was the worst they could do, fire her?

  Unless she left abruptly to get away from someone, like Beau maybe, the thought popped up unwanted. She didn’t want to think of Beau as a scary, stalker type, but given the recent events with Rebecca, how could she not consider the possibility?

  She was still thinking about it when she got home. No matter what she did to try and clear her mind Rose kept coming back to the forefront, like some kind of ghost haunting her.

  Cindy stared in the bathroom mirror as she got ready for bed. “Just admit it, you’re not going to be able to let this go until you know the truth, one way or the other,” she told her reflection.

  Her phone buzzed and she grabbed it. Jeremiah had texted.

  Rebecca okay. Resting in room next door. Love you.

  She texted back.

  Thanks. Love you. Get some sleep.

  She was glad to have the information before she went to sleep. Still it didn’t do anything to relieve the anxiety that was plaguing her.

  There was a time when she would have thought that Rose’s abandonment of her stuff was odd, but she doubted she would have leapt to foul play as a possible reason. There had been several dead bodies, diabolical plots, and non-coincidences since that time, though.

  Maybe I’m just seeing murderers everywhere because I’m getting paranoid, she thought as she climbed into bed.

  It’s not paranoia if they’re really out there, was her next thought.

  Disgusted with herself she flipped onto her side and tried to go to sleep.

  ~

  Cindy slept fitfully and when she woke in the morning she felt even more tired if that was possible. There were no new messages on her phone so presumably everything was okay with Jeremiah, Rebecca, and Liam.

  She got dressed and barely managed to drag herself out the door on time. The last thing she needed was to get lectured for being tardy. She didn’t know if it was just her or if everybody was in a foul mood when the security guard at work snarled when letting her in. She thought about snarling back, but decided that might not be a good thing.

  She made it up to her desk, noting that she seemed to have beaten Leo, Mr. Cartwright, and pretty much everyone else on the floor. She scowled just thinking about Mr. Cartwright.