by Michelle Lee
The cop drives away and Michael follows. He knows a cop can spot a tail, so he takes a gamble and circles around in front of him. In a couple of blocks their paths cross again. This time though, Michael is in front. He drives a minute and makes a right turn. The cop goes left. Michael pulls over and sits in his car for awhile. Twenty minutes later, the cop’s car is coming slowly to the stop sign where they parted ways. This time he makes the same left Michael made earlier. When he drives past Michael’s car, Michael gets out and waves him down.
He parks in front of his car and gets out. “Hey, what can I do for you?”
“I seem to have a flat tire, and my cell phone isn’t working.”
The cop takes out his cell phone and looks for a signal. At the same time Michael reaches into his pocket and turns on the portable signal jammer. The cop says, “Huh, I never have trouble with service. Well let’s take a look at this tire, maybe I can help change it and you can be on your way. Where is that by the way?”
Michael was ready for this. He knew that this guy wouldn’t be able to resist helping someone, but the help would come with questions. “I live just into the next town. About 20 minutes from here. I was visiting someone from church, after work. They had recently been sick and I wanted to check to see if they felt better.”
“Oh, that was very kind of you.” He says as he is bending over to look at the tire. “Your tire…
Michael injects the cop, in the side of his neck, with a very powerful sedative. The cop is down before he can finish his thought. He should stay down for a good part of the night. Laughing under his breath, he drags his body to his car and throws him across the backseat.
Michael looks at his watch, cursing under his breath; he takes out his knife and puts a hole in all four tires of the cop’s car. It’s now almost 10o’clock, this took a little longer than he wanted. He will have to hurry now. He gets in the car and hurries back to the house.
CHAPTER 38
Charlie looks at the clock, it’s almost 10, and Brody still hasn’t called. She knows his training is just ending, but she is getting tired so she decides to call him. Knowing it will go straight to voicemail, she tries to think of something witty to say. When the phone beeps she’s out of time.
“Hey handsome, I hope you’re not breaking too many hearts in Chicago. You don’t need to call me back, I’m going to go to bed, I’m really tired. I hope you dream about me. I will be dreaming of you. Good night, I can’t wait until you’re home. I really miss you.” She hangs up feeling a bit sad. She puts the cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink, when the lights flicker.
“Crap.” Just as she opens the junk drawer for a flash light the house goes dark. She flips the switch on the flash light and picks up her cell phone. She has no signal. Putting her cell in her back pocket, she reaches for the land line Brody has hooked up but never uses, the phone is completely dead.
Charlie is trying to quiet her rising panic. She has an increasingly bad feeling Michael is here. She walks around the kitchen shining the light in every dark corner. Her heart beat is erratic and her breathing is labored. She knows if she doesn’t calm down, she will pass out.
She closes her eyes and sits on the floor, where the table used to be, and counts one, two, three breaths in; one, two, three breaths out. She repeats a couple times. When her breathing is under control she opens her eyes.
She is using all of her senses to try to figure out what is going on and where. It’s too quiet. No dogs are barking, no crickets chirping, no wind blowing through the tress. She is listening so hard, she almost misses the sound of the front door knob rattling. Someone is trying to open the door.
Her heart is in her throat. She can’t remember if she locked it after Pat left. Her gun is upstairs in her room. She felt more vulnerable while she slept.
She gets out of the corner and crawls on her hands and knees to look around at the door. The knob stops moving. It’s quiet and then a huge bang on the door makes her scream, a blood curdling scream. Someone is trying to rip the door from the hinges. Again and again the door is banged and kicked and wrenched.
Then everything falls quiet. Charlie does the hardest thing she has ever had to do in her life; she turns off her flashlight. Thrown into darkness, she scrambles to the living room on her hands and knees. She turns the corner, moving toward the stairs, and hears an awful scratching sound at the back of the house.
The kitchen is on the same corner of the house as Charlie’s room. It has just as many windows; an entire wall of windows. The kitchen door is locked, that she is sure of. The scratching continues to a shrill pitch, like nails down a chalk board, across every window in the kitchen.
“Charlie, come out, come out where ever you are.” The back door bangs loud. “How about this one, since you won’t come out.” He starts to laugh and abruptly stops and growls under his breath, making his voice sound menacing. “Little pig, little pig let me in.”
Charlie starts to cry. She can’t see any way to get out of this. The terror she is feeling is worse than any she has ever felt. He has seceded in making her powerless once again. She cannot beat this sick, crazy man that wants her dead. She just gives in and cries.
“You are a little pig, aren’t you Charlie? Letting everyone you meet touch you and kiss you.” He pets the window in the kitchen with his hand, he runs a knife down the pane of glass; making the awful scratching sound again; and then he rubs his face on it. “Do you let everyone into your sweet, tight pussy? Has Brody touched you, yet? I will kill him, Charlie, I hope you know that. I love you, and no one can have you if I can’t. You don’t choose me anymore, like you used to. Remember how much fun we had? Do you remember how many times I was inside you?”
Charlie gags. She can taste the bile rising in her throat.
“I’m going to get into you one more time Charlie. Do you hear me?” He licks the window. “I am going to tie you down, and lick your nether lips until they’re swollen with need for me, and then I’m going to fuck you till you scream for me like you used to.”
Charlie throws up all over the floor; loud, gut wrenching, and uncontrolled.
Michael laughs outside. She can see his silhouette outlined on the window with moonlight behind him. She wipes her mouth and crawls up the stairs sobbing and sick. When she gets to the top, she runs for her room and grabs her gun. She runs down the stairs and opens the front door. Just as she steps outside all the lights come back on. The stereo upstairs is playing, loud. It’s playing Skillet, Monster. She lets the song play, as she looks around the yard. He is gone. Charlie turns and walks into the house. She locks every door and window in the house. She turns off the stereo, cleans her vomit off the floor, and goes into the living room, curls up on the couch, and cries herself into oblivion.
CHAPTER 39
Brody wakes up and his head is spinning; and pounding. He is naked can’t remember why. “What the fuck?” The last thing he remembers is saying good bye to the brunette and heading to his room. He was a little buzzed, but not, wake up in the morning not remembering why you’re naked and how you got that way or who took off your clothes, drunk.
He gets out of bed stumbles into the bathroom showers and shaves. He has a few more hours of training this morning. Wanting to leave as soon as they’re done, he packs up his stuff and heads out the door.
He knocks on Kevin’s door; he opens it putting the finishing touches on his tie. “I’m ready.”
“Did you hear anything from my room last night?”
“No why did you bring back a hottie from the bar?”
“No, I was just curious; I think I drank too much last night. I don’t remember going to bed.”
“Nope. I didn’t hear anything.”
“Alright, well let’s get this over with.”
They go to the training. (No sign of the brunette.) It lasts until 1 pm. The hour and 40 minute plane ride is going to be killer. Brody was so preoccupied this morning he didn’t check his phone to see if Charlie ever called last nig
ht. He sees he has two voicemails. He feels like an asshole.
He tries to call now. Her phone must be off, it goes to voicemail. He leaves another message. “Tag, you’re it. Sorry I didn’t get back to you last night I had a bad night. I will fill you in when I get home. Our plane is leaving shortly. I will see you tonight when you get home from work. I missed you; I think we have some things to talk about. I don’t want to do this on the phone, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I love you. See you soon.”
He walks through the airport and boards his plane to go home, to Charlie.
**********
Charlie wakes up Wednesday morning, stiff and uncomfortable. She looks outside to make sure everything is ok. The sun is shining the birds are chirping; it is a normal summer day. She looks across the street and still doesn’t see Patrick’s car.
She feels her back pocket for her phone and comes away empty. She looks in the kitchen, not there either. It’s not in her bedroom, or in the bathroom. She goes back to the living room and rifles through the cushions on the couch. She finds it but it’s completely dead. While she waits for the battery to charge enough to turn the phone on; she makes coffee. When the phone beeps she walks over and looks through her contacts, brings up Patrick number and calls him from the house phone.
He answers after what seems like an eternity. “Hello?”
“Are you sleeping?” Charlie is five seconds from losing it. It has been a long lonely night and she still hasn’t processed what happened last night.
“Yeah, in my car. I have no idea what happened last night. I was flagged, wait Charlie are you alright? Did something happen? I was knocked out,” She hears him move around and open the car door. “Mother, Fucker,” He says “That son of a bitch slashed all my tires.”
“You are lucky that was all he slashed.”
“Did he hurt you, Charlie?”
“No, He showed up and threatened me, but he never got in the house.”
“I am calling the cops. Stay inside. Someone will be there.”
“Don’t bother. There will be no evidence. He knows what he is doing. If you want to help, fix your tires, head back to the station and grab any cold case files that involve 27-30yr olds, with brown curly hair, that were raped and murdered, over the last three years.”
“Ok. I’m sorry I failed you, Charlie.”
“You didn’t Patrick, Michael did. He had me fooled. He had me believing the worst about myself and people around me. I need to find him. He wants to kill Brody, that can’t happen.”
“I will help anyway I can. I will be over as soon as I take care of this mess, and I think I’m going to go to the hospital; I want to know what he put in that needle. It may give us something else to look for. Lock your doors and stay inside.”
“I am safe today. He scared me last night; he wants me to fester in that fear. It will breed more fear and that’s when he will come for me, when I make a mistake out of fear.”
“See you soon.”
“Bye, Patrick. Hurry. I don’t want to be alone for long.” She hangs up and walks upstairs and starts up her laptop. She starts looking up old newspaper articles from all over the country. She plans a trip to the library.
Going down for her second cup of coffee she sees her phone flashing and it beeps once. She picks it up she hits the voicemail button. She hears Brody’s voice and slides down the wall and listens to him; the timber of his voice, the soothing cadence of his words. It doesn’t matter what he is saying, just that he is speaking. She doesn’t feel alone. She listens three more times before hanging up. She thinks about the softness to his words when he said he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and for the first time that day, she smiles. “Thank you, Brody.”
CHAPTER 40
Michael gets on the plane just in time. He cut it close this time. He was still high after what happened at Charlie’s house. She was so scared she threw up. He is pretty sure she could see him outside the window. Doesn’t matter, she heard him. I can’t wait to see her face to face. I want to watch her eyes as she watches Brody die. I want to feel her struggle beneath me while I take what is mine, and has always been mine. I will come screaming her name.
After the plane is airborne, Michael thinks about his plan. Formulating and calculating. He gets off the plane takes a taxi to a cheap motel not far from the airport. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. He sleeps until noon. Showers, and shaves, then he heads out to start his day.
His first stop is at a pancake house. He is starved and even though its lunch, wants some breakfast. He sits down and is approached by the waitress; she is a younger girl, maybe 25 years old. She has brown hair with white blonde streaks through it. She has blue eyes heavily lined in black, a nose ring, and when she speaks he sees a stud piercing her tongue.
She takes his order and makes small talk. Michael is still very charming to the rest of the world. He is very fit and good-looking. He hasn’t lost any of his great hair it’s just darker. When he is done eating he waits for his bill. She comes back to the table hands him the paper letting her fingers brush his hand. She smiles at him.
“It has been a pleasure servicing you.” Her voice hoarse, “If you need anything else from me my phone number is on the back of your receipt.” She whispers the last part in his ear letting her tongue and breath caress his lobe.
He turns the receipt over and there is her number and name. “Kandie” He looks at her and asks, “Tell me Kandie, are you good enough to eat?”
“Maybe, Maybe not. You’ll have to find out for yourself.” She walks away shaking her ass in her short skirted waitress’ uniform. Michael gets up from the table walks outside goes to the alley and calls her.
“Hello?”
“I think I’m in need of servicing.”
“That was fast. Where should I meet you?”
“Outside. Now.” Kandie isn’t really Michael’s type, but he will use her to release some of the pent up adrenaline still coursing through him from last night.
The side door opens and she walks out. She walks up to him and she goes to kiss his mouth, he stops her by turning his head. She takes the hint and kisses his neck instead. He grabs her waist and pushes her against the wall; she spins them around, pushing him against the wall and goes down on her knees. She undoes his pants and sucks him into her mouth in one wet swallow. His knees buckle he grabs the back of her head and fucks her mouth. He is ramming into her mouth so fast and hard she gags, just when he is about to come, he pulls out of her mouth, and drags her over to a table used for smoking breaks. He lifts her skirt, tears her underwear off, and throws her over the table so her ass is in the air. He covers himself with a condom, enters her fast and hard. He pumps away furiously at her well used, but wet hole. He comes deep inside her, just as she screams out her release.
They sit there for a minute. He gently smacks her ass, removes the latex and throws it on the ground at her feet. “Thanks.”
She laughs, “You do not have to thank me. That was incredible.”
They get dressed and head their separate ways. Michael feels much better now. He can concentrate on the real reason he is here. He pulls up to a self storage unit and enters a code. The gate swings open and he drives through. Once inside he finds his numbered unit and unlocks it.
Inside is a white utility van; a Ford e350. It has two doors in the back and on the passenger side back. They open big enough to accommodate large items. He opens the driver side door and gets in. It starts on the first try. He drives out of the unit and lets the van idle. He pulls his car in and locks up the unit again.
He does a quick inventory of everything he needs. When he is sure he ready he heads out to meet with the woman who called last night. It’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He has an hour’s drive and then he has to wait until dark. He is meeting her in a park. She feels safe there. He has to laugh at that, in a city the size of Chicago, or any city, you are never totally safe at night. Nobody wants to jump in and play hero. They just wa
nt to be left alone. He starts his drive to the park.
