5PM

by Chris Heinicke

  “Sorry for the disturbing images, but you need to know what you’re up against, Terry,” Ed says.

  “I intend to draw these people out, and I have somewhere I can go to be safe to do this. Can someone guard Talissa and the children until this is resolved?”

  “This place you speak of—you need to be aware we don’t endorse vigilante actions no matter how remote. You go there, stay safe, and we’ll have someone ready to take care of this threat. I just ask though that you allow us to put a tracker on your phone so we can send a squad to follow you from a safe distance, provided I can find someone who’ll believe me after what happened on Saturday,” Ed says and looks directly at his partner when he says the last part of his sentence.

  She ignores his verbal jab. “We believe the killer is someone who was known to their victims, so you need to make sure you’re wary of everyone. We shouldn’t let you go, but at least we can guarantee your family is kept safe.”

  “Talissa knows where I’m going, but I don’t want her coming out to the farm with the kids. I have to do this myself. Please tell Talissa I love her,” I turn and run to my car.

  Ed follows me and I stop just outside my vehicle and lower my voice, “I think your partner’s involved, watch your back.”

  “Don’t you think I might be aware of that? Oh, here’s the tracker before you try to take off.” He holds out a small device that looks like a memory card. “Put it in your phone now.”

  I do as asked and take a look at Hannah, who stares straight back at me, then one last look at the house before I get inside the car and drive away.

  * * * * *

  The trip takes me a little under two hours, and I arrive at the turn-off for my parents’ old farm, about five kilometres from the nearest neighbour and an hour from the outskirts of the city where Talissa and I live. I know the place like the back of my hand, having grown up there as a child and living there until my late teens. The house itself hasn’t been lived in for a few years since my parents decided to downsize, but the farmland is still maintained due to my parents leasing it out.

  Croplands spread as far as the eye can see. A bird’s eye view can be breathtaking given the different colours of the various cereals growing from the supple earth below. The driveway consists of fine stones and stretches for a kilometre from the highway, and as I drive along it towards the house, I feel like I am coming home again listening as the tyres crunch the rocks into the earth.

  The old brick house stands solid as a reminder of the strength not only in the building itself, but our family unit, too. But turning past the front of the house, I don’t expect to see three vehicles there already. I immediately recognise my father’s old station wagon, but there is also a crimson coloured sedan and a charcoal four-wheel drive.

  I find a patch of lawn to park, and get out to walk around to the front entry door. As I begin to align the wooden steps, my mother, father, brother, and sister appear at the top of the landing. I smile at them all, but they don’t match my facial expression.

  “Terry, what the hell have you done, boy?” my father asks. I look at each of them, and as I face my mother last, she slaps my face.

  “What was that?” I ask.

  “Talissa is the nicest woman you could meet and what do you do? You break her heart a number of times,” Mum says.

  “You went back to your old ways, Terry?” my brother Joe asks.

  “Hey, look, I didn’t come here to be judged, whether I deserve it or not. There is a dangerous person after me, and I thought I could flush them out by coming here, so you all need to go.”

  “Yes, we were told that, but whether you’re a dick or not, we stick together no matter what,” my sister Janet says and holds a pump action shotgun by the barrel.

  Rifles and shotguns are common on the farm. We quite often used them to scare birds and rodents away from the crops that were the financial blood of our lives. None of us were crack shots, but we could scare the crap out of anything that moved with a single shot in the air.

  “If any of you get hurt, I’ll never forgive myself, so please, just go, or at least stay hidden.”

  “What about Talissa and the kids?” Mum asks.

  “There are two cops keeping watch on our place until this blows over.”

  Dad nods. He may be in his seventies, but he’s as wiry and sharp as ever. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of a rifle pointed at me if it’s in his hands.

  When I grew up here, there were no such things as mobile phones and the internet, and as far as I know, the house never had either connected. I pull out my own phone and see if I can get any service out here. There are several text messages from various people. One stands out from a number neither my phone nor I recognise, and as I open it, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. ‘Dear Terry, please tell Talissa I’m ok and can babysit again tomorrow. I miss you and your beautiful cock.’

  Geez, Brittany’s alive, so who the hell was in that photo the cops showed me? I need to call my wife and tell her to lose the police and get out here where we can protect her. I try the number to our home and it rings for several times before Talissa picks up.

  “Talissa, you need to get the kids out of there and get out here to the farm. I have a message from Brittany—she’s alive. Those two cops lied to me, something isn’t right.”

  “Oh, my goodness. After you left, they told me she’d been found shot dead. Okay, Terry, I’ll try to find a way to lose the cops and drive out there. Stay safe.”

  It was a short and sharp call, but long enough to get things moving. Why the photo of someone who’s not the babysitter? It’s looking more certain that Hannah’s the dangerous person I’ve been warned about. But I don’t trust her partner Ed either.

  “Son, is she okay?” Mum asks.

  “For now, she is. I need to do some things on my phone, find out some things.”

  “Okay, son. No matter what has happened, you know we still love you.” Mum comes and gives me a big hug. I hold on for a few seconds longer than normal.

  The speed of the internet on my phone out here on the farm is pretty slow, but the first search, I type in is of Hannah’s name. I wait the required couple of minutes for the results. There're a few matches on her name, mostly web page articles about her being a spokeswoman on behalf of the police force on domestic violence. There’s her social media profile and a police cadet recruitment video advertisement showing her and a few other young cadets her age.

  I go to her profile page on the social media site and put in a friend request to her. Progress is so slow out here when trying to navigate the internet on my mobile phone, especially compared to the fast-paced connection I have in my home in the suburbs. But given it’s all just a waiting game now, it doesn’t really matter, and there’s nothing I can do but have faith that Talissa can get away with the kids.

  Reading web pages isn’t the easiest task to do on a phone either, and the small screen makes me wonder if I’m getting to the age of requiring reading glasses, but I insist on checking each of the search results. Reading through each article, there’s nothing to help me get any closer to learning more about her. A couple of the clippings have her pretty smiling face in them, and once again, I’m reminded of the afternoon when I saw her face much closer. I need to push thoughts like that from my mind if I’m to repair my marriage if it can indeed be repaired.

  My family goes about preparing a cooked lunch. Nothing ever gets in the way of food when it comes to this lot, has always been that way. They think city living has made me soft, the white collar job and the showroom house and regular manicures. I don’t even try to explain the importance of appearance in my line of work. They would just laugh at me. And that’s normally okay, but not today.

  “You’re spending an awfully long time on that phone, son. Everything will be alright, we got this,” Dad says.

  I wish I shared his confidence. “Just doing some more research on a possible threat, I won’t be much longer.”

  He tak
es a seat right next to me. “I know how it feels to do wrong,” he is almost whispering, “the male of a species wants to spread his seed far and wide, and it’s a natural part of our gender. The one thing separating us from the animals though is that we know right from wrong and putting value in our relationships. Back when you were only a few months old, and we decided you were the last of the children we would have, I was on a business trip with a couple of other work colleagues. They were both single, and instead of just having dinner with these two crazy men like I would any other trip, I went out for drinks with them afterwards.”

  “I thought you were always a farmer, Dad.” This is a revelation.

  “I’ll get to that. So I’m hanging with these guys and we start on beer, then progress to heavier stuff like scotch and bourbon, and then a few tequila slammers. By this stage, we’re all pretty much charged up and out of control. Then into the bar walked these three beautiful women—one blonde, one redhead, and the finest one of all had jet black hair. My head kept telling me to go back to the room and get to bed, but my you-know-what had other ideas. The woman with black hair had her eye on me as all six of us were up on the dance floor, and before I knew her name, she danced right up close to me. An hour later, I parked my car in a garage it shouldn’t have been parked in.”

  “Oh, shit, really?”

  “Hey, your brother and sister don’t know, but the guilt tore me to bits until I told your mother, and then she nearly tore me to bits. She should have left me, but she stuck it out with me. We haven’t looked back since, and I haven’t so much as looked at another woman.” He pats me on the shoulder. “And after that experience, I quit my job as a buyer for the property development group I was working for and bought this here farm.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to say, Dad, but what I did was worse.”

  “The principle’s the same, son. We both did wrong and regretted what we did. If Talissa can see the man you truly are, then she’ll take you back. She won’t ever trust you again, but she’ll still love you.”

  “So Talissa told you and Mum everything that happened?”

  “Yes. Well, she spoke to your mother actually, last night in fact, and from what I could make out, it was quite a lengthy chat. I can’t say we weren’t disappointed in you, but we were able to empathise with her, from both sides of the sins you committed.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I hope you’re right.”

  He gets up from his chair and joins the others. It has been about a year and a half since we were all together for Christmas and in the same room. I watch them for a few minutes, having a dig at each other and laughing and smiling. I think I am the odd one out in my family. I want them to leave. They shouldn’t be here if danger does happen. None of them are responsible for my sins.

  I continue my research, putting in the name Emily Philips through the search engine. The phone’s response dependent upon the slow connection speed, I wait three whole minutes just to be presented with ‘no results match your enquiry.’

  This can’t be good. I type in the name Lauren Pellmont, and after the typical slow waiting time, I’m presented with a heap of results about the old widow. There’s no need to click on a single one of them. I learned yesterday, the blonde I had sex with is not the woman she told me she was.

  This just leaves Brittany, and not knowing her last name, I don’t even begin to try to do a search for her. I can’t work out what the deal is with the photo of her the cops showed me. Seeing the text message from her just throws everything up in the air again. Maybe she is dead—and the murderer took her phone and contacted me.

  Mum walks over to me, the loving smile I’ve sought comfort in as a boy many times is there again. And it’s now I feel like the young, scared boy again, lying awake at night and frightened by the strange sounds I could hear from my old bedroom coming from the fields surrounding us. She would always tell me everything was okay, and I could sleep in peace and not have to be afraid.

  “I’m sorry, Mum. I’ve done so much bad in the last week.”

  She puts her arm around me. “I don’t like what you’ve done, but you’re still my baby boy. I could never stop loving you. You will sort this out with your wife. It might not happen in a day, or even a week or month, but you have the rest of your life to fix this as best as you can. I love you, Terence.”

  Damn it, I can’t stop the tears from falling. My mother pulls me in close and I soon feel her tears on me. The room is quiet except for the others serving the midday meal onto plates. It smells great—roast chicken with baked vegetables. Then to top it off, the overwhelming smells of my brother’s secret recipe gravy. I look at the time and realise I’ve spent the best part of two hours on my phone, and it’s running out of charge.

  “Come and get it!” Dad yells out.

  I walk towards the dining table, and we all take a look as we hear the hum of a car engine and the sound of the stone driveway crunching beneath rolling tyres. Dad, my brother, and sister scuttle around and grab their farm weapons while my mother and I get down low and seek the solid protection of the brick wall below the bottom of a large window.

  The crunching of stone gets closer, and with its approach, I recognise the familiar car motor as it nears. “It’s just Talissa, everyone,” I call out, and stand to watch through the window as I see the face of my dear wife behind the wheel of the white sedan drive up and park near the front of the house.

  I run outside to greet her, the kids getting out of the car a few seconds before her and running up with outstretched arms. I get down to my knees and accept their embraces, hugging each of them tight as Talissa then makes her way from the driver’s seat. She’s neither smiling nor looking angry, but she makes her way towards me.

  “Talissa, how did you make the slip?” I ask.

  “I didn’t need to. They let me go and said they’d follow me out here. They kept their distance, but I don’t think they’ll be far away.”

  “I don’t trust them. So much of this doesn’t feel right. I think Hannah’s in on something with Emily, the fake Lauren Pellmont, and Brittany. They all seduced me for a reason, but I can’t work out why the hell they would all do this.”

  “Well, Terry, you’re the one who fucked those four women. So if you believe they’re after you, then it’s your fault. But I wasn’t about to let you come out here by yourself without protection, so I called your folks last night. They needed to know the whole story, and despite everything that’s happened, I don’t want them to think less of their son.”

  “So, are you coming in?” I ask.

  “No, Terry, I won’t be. I’m waiting to be picked up actually. I’ll be leaving for a few days. Matilda and Isaac are your sole responsibility for the next few days, possibly weeks while I go away and think about what I want to do.”

  “I can’t blame you, Talissa, but how can you leave the kids out here where it’s not safe?”

  “Terry, nothing is going to happen while your gun happy family is here, and if they are after you, then it’s you they want, not the children.” She presses her hands together in front of her.

  “Isaac, Matilda, please run inside,” I say to them. I watch them go and turn back to my wife. “Stay safe, Talissa, and don’t forget that I will always love you.”

  “You should have thought about that before you started banging other women. My ride will be here soon so I don’t care what you do with my car.” She looks down the driveway and starts to walk away.

  I let her go. She needs time to digest everything that’s happened, and I need to accept she might not come back. Another car is heading this way, hard to make out exactly what type of car due to the dust cloud spun up in the air from the tyres pushing the stones into the hard ground beneath.

  Talissa doesn’t turn around once while she takes step after step down the driveway. The car nears and I start to make out the details of it—a dark shade of grey and low to the ground. If I didn’t know better I would say it’s Roger’s sports car. I could start to surmi
se as to why he’s out this way, but I’m pretty sure I know why.

  And I have to stop him.

  I start jogging down the side of the stony track. It doesn’t take long to catch up with my wife, but she ignores my presence, even as I plead with her. “You can’t go with Roger. He won’t ever love you for the person you are. He’s always wanted to fuck you, nothing else. This is why he wanted me to go on that stupid chat program—to get me to cheat so he could get you.”

  She stops and turns around and stares straight through me. “I really don’t care about that right now, Terry. I just need someone to hang out with. Maybe he might be dynamite in bed. Maybe I might find out, maybe I might not, but either way it’s none of your fucking business anymore. Just let me go.”

  I stop and watch her turn away and continue her stroll. Very soon, I can make out Roger’s features through the tinted windshield of his car. My own best friend here to take my wife away, and go hell knows where, makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

  He stops his car a few metres away from Talissa. I notice him looking straight at me through his sunglasses. I can’t let him drive away without talking to me first. I know his motivations, but I have to confront him.

  “Terry, no,” Talissa says as I overtake her and head straight in the direction of the driver’s side of the car. I see Roger press down on the door lock. He doesn’t want a confrontation.

  I reach the car and start banging on his window. “Get out the car, Roger—you little chicken shit!”

  “Terry, leave him alone. I rang him, not the other way round.”

  “I don’t care.” I grind my teeth at her. I stand there and stare the driver down through his window. “You’ll have to unlock the car at some point to let your new girlfriend in.”

  I feel a foot connect with my lower back, and for the first time ever, Talissa’s martial arts abilities have been used on me. I fall forward and hit my head on the roof of Roger’s car. My nose starts to bleed instantly.

  Talissa knows I can’t do anything to Roger now. My nose is bleeding, my head’s sore, and I can’t see straight due to the disorientation caused by the head to metal collision. She walks around to the passenger side of the car and waits for Roger to unlock the door so she can get in.