by catt dahman
“That’s a big hole. Guess you have had a pisser of a day.”
“Better believe it.”
“Fine,” he said as he set his gun on the floor, “you’re jumpy enough to accidentally shoot me.”
“It wouldn’t be an accident, Mister.”
Of all things, his eyes twinkled as he answered, “I believe you.”
“Explain this to me.”
“Long story.”
“Get busy then,” she said.
“The man in the woods was trying to kill you….”
“No shit. Ya think? I’m not stupid.”
“No, because if you were stupid, you’d be dead. You did good, but if I hadn’t been here inside, he would have come in and killed you. I saved your ass.”
“Thank you. But tell me why he is chasing me.”
“I’m gonna pull out my ID, and don’t shoot me, okay?” He removed a wallet and pitched it to her, “Take a look.”
Keeping the gun on him, she opened it. Driver’s License, Kelly Brodie, 40; another card: he was a private investigator; Military ID, retired. Marine Corp. She appraised him again. He had short hair and greenish blue eyes, and his teeth were white against his sun-bronzed skin.
He didn’t look like a murderer, not that she knew what one looked like.
“Wanna lower the gun? You’re making me nervous.”
“I’m scared to,” she admitted.
“I understand, but you have to listen and trust me, and I’ll tell you the whole story, but you have to trust me a little.” He looked at her. “The gash on your leg looks painful. We need to clean it.”
She was shaking so badly that she could hardly stand or hold the gun. This wouldn’t work; besides, he hadn’t hurt her when he had the chance. Knowing she couldn’t stay this way forever, she set the revolver on the bed.
The man went into her bathroom where he rummaged through cabinets. He returned with supplies.
She sat on the bed, and he said it might hurt as he knelt to clean and bandage her shin. He did the same for her arm.
“Don’t move.” He left the room and returned quickly with a soda, telling her to drink.
“I’m not flaking out.”
“Okay,” he said.
“You’re considerate for a murderer.”
“A murderer? Whom have I killed?”
“I dunno,” she admitted.
“I am a detective and working for Stephanie Banner.”
“Mark’s wife?
“I was doing a standard job, proving he was having an affair.” He drank his soda.
“Is he?”
“Yes, I found the evidence and got the photos. But he is interesting, and I dug deeper. Maybe it was my own curiosity about him; I did taps, bugs, stuff like that. He had secrets. I was actually listening the night your husband died.”
“Is that who is after me? The person who shot Sam?”
“Hold on. The story gets weird. No, the whole thing is weird. But that night was unbelievable. There was no one in the room that night except Mark Banner and your husband. There wasn’t anyone who appeared at the doors. No one came up to the room and shot him. That’s why the police were baffled because where he was found wasn’t the original crime scene, but there was no trace leading anywhere else and that simply couldn’t happen.”
“What’re you saying?” she asked.
Trying to find the right words, Kelly Brodie told her what he had heard. The story sounded strange even to him as he told it to Charlie.
“That’s impossible. Sam told me about the crazy paramedic and all that silly stuff, and I told him he needed a psychiatrist.”
“Yet, your eyes just shifted a little. You do believe it but pretend you don’t, if you want. Do you know what kind of money they were making on bets? Sam was traveling, and he used that information.”
“Into the future? Right?” she asked and laughed, “seriously?”
“Above all, you know how many bets Sam was winning and the money he was making. It wasn’t normal.”
“He kept most of it from me. He had off shore accounts. But I will admit that it was strange how he could predict things. It scared me, and I refused to listen, but I heard about some, and it wasn’t normal at all,” she admitted. Her eyes flickered to the side again, and Kelly Brodie knew she knew more than she was telling him.
“That night something went wrong, and when Sam came back, he was dying of the bullet wound. He came back and then faded, and then he came again.”
“Meaning?” she asked.
“Meaning he was at the scene of his death before that night. At some time, he travelled to that point and knew how he would die.”
“That’s horrible to know.”
Kelly noted that was her response as opposed to saying it was impossible to move through time. “But the thing was Sam told Mark things about what was going to happen and one detail was that Mark would be shot and killed by you. Maybe Sam, too; maybe you did it, but you are going to kill Mark Banner.”
She laughed again. “In the future?”
“Okay, say it isn’t possible. But Sam told Mark that, and Sam believed it. I heard it all, and never was there a gunshot.”
“Suppressor.”
“Really?”
She rubbed her head and said, “But Sam couldn’t go into the future. That’s silly.”
“Whatever, but I listened, and it’s true. And it explains the bets they were winning. You don’t lie well.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I have seen you before. You were at Sam’s funeral. I remember that now. At the edge of the cemetery, that was you.”
“I admit it. I was watching you, and I was watching Mark Banner.”
“I noticed you because you were dressed like you are now, and it stood out. You don’t look like a detective either.”
“Sorry, but this is what I wear.”
“How did you end up here today? “
“I’ve been watching, but I made a mistake, and you went in the woods. I was almost too late. I didn’t anticipate that guy playing games with a kill.”
Charlie shivered. “I did okay, considering I was unarmed and alone.”
“You did, but I am here now to keep you alive.”
“Really? I appreciate that, but I intend to let the police handle this. I don’t need your services.”
He raised his voice. “Banner has the police in his pocket. And what would you tell them? They’ll arrest me, and you’ll be in a morgue within twenty-four hours. They’ll get to you.”
“I’ll go on vacation or something.”
The telephone rang, and caller ID said it was Mark Banner. Kelly’s eyes went wide. “Answer, and act like nothing has happened at all.”
Charlie frowned as she picked up the phone. “Hi, Mark.”
“Charlie? Ummm. I was calling to check on you. How are things?”
“It’s nice of you to ask. I’m okay.”
“Yeah? That’s…ummm great.”
“I’ve been packing up some of Sam’s things. I’ll pack a box of his files for you to have. The packing has been such a project, but I’m doing great. I even have a box for Ginger.” She forced herself to laugh.
“Oh. So. Everything is good?”
“It’s great. Busy as can be.”
“Okay. Well, I’m glad to hear that,” they talked a few more seconds, and Mark said he had to take a call.
Charlie cocked her head, “That was weird. I mean…strange.”
“He either knows you are lying and not telling him things, or he is wondering what the hell the man did instead of taking care of you. You can either trust me, believe Mark is behind trying to kill you, and that I am trying to keep you alive, or you can believe something else entirely if you can form some type of story as to who is after you and why and why I am delusional. Which makes more sense?”
“I never liked Mark Banner. He’s slime.”
“Throw some things into a bag. We have to get you to a place Banner can’t find you.”
“Can I call my friend and tell her about this?” Charlie asked as she held out her cell phone.
Kelly snatched it from her hand and threw it on the bed, “You need to start thinking. You don’t listen, and you don’t believe. You’re a loose cannon, and you’ll get me killed, too.”
“Not for two more weeks, right if you believe that. This is a lot to take in, even without the time travel bullshit,” Charlie responded.
“Make a choice. If you want to live, I’ll help. If you don’t, then say it, and you’re on your own. You know someone was trying to kill you. You know Sam died under suspicious circumstances. I am a detective, and I am telling you who is behind it. Because I was hired to look into this case and saw and heard too much from the wrong people, I am supposed to die too.”
“Right.”
“In two weeks if I am wrong and nothing happens, then fine, we’ll go from there, and I can hand over enough evidence, and Banner will be handled.”
Charlie looked into his eyes and one thing was certain: he believed everything he had told her.
She believed Banner was involved because, well, because he was a jerk and she thought the call was strange and she had a weird feeling about him; she had never liked the man. She knew for a fact he had lied about Sam dying because, despite everything he said, there had been no gunshot, and there had been no gun hot spray but just a hole in his belly. The police hadn’t asked very many questions but had whispered a lot to Mark and kept her to one side and then, it was all wrapped up neatly and finished.
That wasn’t normal or standard. She didn’t know what to believe, but she knew that a man hadn’t walked in and shot Sam. Those doors were never, ever opened. For now, the only one on her side was this strange red man. “I want to live.”
“Yeah?”
“I need to think, and I want you to help me. “
“Okay. Where can we send you for a week or so?”
“Vacation? My roommate from college and my mates, we are very close still. They’ve been asking to come see me since Sam died. They’re like on standby, waiting to come here, but I didn’t let them. I wanted to do it alone.”
“That works, but they can’t come here. Where can you all go? Out of the way, be private, some place you won’t be found.” Kelly held a hand up, “Don’t say it. We’ll leave here, and then you can make plans and go, and I won’t know where you are either. No one will know.”
“Okay. I have an idea. I don’t like this….”
“Then pack a bag. Your kind is always so difficult.”
“My kind?” she asked.
He shrugged and lit a cigarette and answered, “Rich girl.
“What does that mean, Mister?”
“Mister? You can call me Kelly. I answer to that.”
“She thought he was a smart ass. “Whatever. We aren’t that friendly, Mr. Brodie. You are snobbier than I am anyway.”
“You think? You’re pretty fiery, huh?”
“I can be. I don’t like labels and people judging me who don’t even know me. Turn your back so you don’t see what I pack and guess where I’ll be going.”
“That’s smart. I’m impressed.”
When he complained about how much she packed, she snapped at him, “I don’t know exactly where I am going, and I don’t know for how long. I’m doing the best I can, Mister.”
“Just pack.”
“How long am I hiding out? Will I be old and grey?” She put her hands on her hips.
“You’ll stay out of sight until the date passes, the date when you are supposed to off Mark Banner. The future will be changed then, and he’ll let you go, I think. I hope. I might can get him to listen to some sense anyway.”
“How long is that?”
“About two weeks.”
“Oh.” She had to spend fourteen days dealing with this obnoxious man?
“And I don’t know about time travel crap. I keep wondering what if we can’t alter it? He believes you will shoot him.”
“He’ll deserve it, no doubt,” she said. “He really is a jerk. But this is insane. It’s what Mark believes will happen. Sam couldn’t time travel,” She said as she laughed.
“I better come clean. I didn’t tell you something.”
“Gee, I am so surprised,” she said.
“I had binoculars that night. I could see the room. I saw Sam fade away in a blue light. Like fire but not really like fire. Hard to explain.”
“A blue light?” This was something that Kenny Compton had mentioned and Sam said. She had seen the blue light when he was electrocuted.
A chill ran up her spine.
“Maybe you imagined it,” she said.
“I saw it. And I saw it when he came back, but it was a sickening thing. It looked like a bad kind of light.”
Charlie looked into the man’s eyes to his soul, and it hit her. “Oh dear, God,” she whispered.
“It’s all true. Sam saw the future, and he told Mark Banner. He said something else, too. He went to the exact time when I die. You see? I have two weeks to live if the future stays on this course. If Banner has you killed, then maybe he and I live. That’s his plan anyway.”
“But you’re trying to save me?” She could see it all in his face. He was telling her the truth.
“I hope we can alter the future. I don’t want Banner to win, and I’d like to survive.”
Charlie finished her packing and zipped a duffle. “We’ll figure it out.”
She watched but didn’t talk as he drove; Kelly made turns and made sure no one followed them.
“Are you scared?”
“Of dying? A little. I don’t want to. And I don’t want you to die either,” Kelly said.
“I don’t know what all I believe; it’s confusing, but I know Mark believes it, and he’s dangerous. He’s smart, too.”
“I think we can outwit him.”
Charlie nodded and said, “I intend to. I have never been as terrified as I was on that walking trail. He could have killed me.”
“But he enjoyed the game. If that is the type Banner likes to do his dirty work, then you have an idea what he’s all about. He’s twisted.”
He got out of his Jeep and allowed her privacy to set up where she would hide out with her friends, and she made sure to warn them to be sneaky and not broadcast where they were going. “Keep it very quiet,” she told them.
It amazed her a little that she had seven close friends who, at the last second, would drop everything, take a leave from family and jobs, and agree not only to meet her for a trip, but to do all that, despite being warned her life had been threatened. All agreed to keep the information quiet and said they would meet at the chosen airport and drive to their designation. Not one of the seven hesitated to join the vacation.
That was how Charlie ended up on an airplane after graciously thanking Kelly Brodie for saving her life and how she ended up in one of two vehicles she and her friends rented after they met at the airport over the next day and a half.
And that was how she ended up on a hiking trial in the middle of nowhere.
Part 2
Chapter 1
“This is your last chance to be a coward and back out.” Charlie offered, “Anyone want to pack it in and go find a hotel and stay there? It’s okay. We’ll just laugh at you behind your back.”
“Not if all of us chicken out. Are you planning on going alone and laughing to yourself,” Dana asked.
“I will if dragging you doesn’t work,” said Charlie, laughing.
“You think you can drag me?” Dana asked. She was six feet tall, and while she wasn’t heavy, she had curves with her muscles. With long, straight blonde hair and light blue eyes, she looked like a Nordic warrior; she intimidated all but the big-built men who were bigger and taller than she. She yanked her hair back into a ponytail.
“This, I want to see.” Holly helped Dana get her backpack properly strapped so it rode easily. Because Dana was carrying the most weight, she dwarfed tiny
Holly who took mental notes as Dana directed her so she could adjust her own back pack as well; she didn’t want the pack to chafe her skin or be too heavy to carry.
“Well, okay, I’m all talk,” Charlie admitted; she called to another woman, “Carla.”
She tossed Carla a bandana that matched her own, a red, faded piece of cloth that Carla tied into a kerchief around her very short hair. “Thanks, Chica.” She turned to help Taryn with her pack and asked, “Couldn’t you get your shorts just a little shorter? I mean, meh, only half your ass is showing. Cachonda.”
“Har har. I’ll wear longer shorts if you wear longer hair. Deal?”
“Chiflada, I can’t fix a bunch of hair. I don’t have time with that when I’m at the gym so much.” The very idea of having long hair was silly to her although she admitted it looked pretty on other people. She just didn’t want to have to wash and dry long hair, mousse it and style it every day.
“Gym rat,” said Taryn with a smirk, “you and Dana both. Only, gee whiz, Dana looks like a girl.”
“You saying I look like a boy? Oh, then give me a kiss, la chiva.” Carla grabbed Taryn’s chin and smacked her on the mouth, making loud noises.
Taryn rubbed her mouth and tossed her curls of dark red like a little girl, pretending to wretch. “I can taste the hamburger with extra onions…yuk. What did you call me that time?”
“A goat. La chiva,” Carla said as she laughed.
Holly yanked out a pack of mint gum and handed Carla a piece and slipped another wad into her own mouth. “That’ll do the trick.”
“A little late to help Taryn now,” Anthea said smiling, brushing dust off the toe of her boot.
“Are those designer hiking boots?”
“Yes. They match my pack.”
Bev spun Anthea around to look at Anthea’s pack. “Are there enough zippers and pouches on this thing? And really, ummm…why is it pink and lime?”
“To match my boots.”
“I meant why is it those colors to begin with? Never mind,” Bev said, replacing her own ball cap after running a hand through her hair. Her boots were scuffed, stained, and very comfortable.
