by Sean Platt
“Thank you, though maybe let me brush my teeth before we kiss again?”
Bobby laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything, but that would be a good idea.”
Jordyn went back to the dressing room, changed out of her costume, then put on her jeans, tee, and blue sweater. A few girls congratulated her for conquering the fear and complimented her on a job well done. Jordyn returned their accolades and even complimented Brianna.
But Brianna said, “Good job. You’ll get better the more you do. I mean, if you want to do more.”
What kind of bullshit is that? I compliment you, and you give me a passive aggressive backhanded compliment?
What a bitch!
Jordyn was in too good a mood to let pettiness ruin her night. She smiled, said “Thanks,” then went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth.
She went into the theater where Bobby said he’d be waiting. Most of the cast was going to Frederico’s after the play.
But he wasn’t alone. Bobby was standing beside her father, who was holding a bouquet of roses.
“I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to give these to you before, after, or what?” he said, handing them to her.
“I have no idea.” She took the roses and hugged him. “Thank you, and thanks for coming.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss my baby’s debut. You were excellent. Your mother would be so proud.”
She smiled, feeling the tears.
“And you did great, Bobby. I’m very impressed.”
“Thank you, Mr. Parish. I wouldn’t remember any of my lines if not for Jordyn.”
“So, what are you all doing now?”
“We’re supposed to go to Frederico’s.”
“Oh, okay,” he said, looking disappointed.
“Why?” she asked.
“Oh, I thought I’d take you and Bobby out to eat. But that’s okay. I can’t argue with cheap pizza and good company. You guys deserve to celebrate. We can do it another time.”
“Are you sure?” As much as Jordyn didn’t want to let her father down, she also wanted to enjoy the night. Hang out with the cast, get to know them better.
“Yeah, another time,” he said, hugging her then shaking Bobby’s hand. “You two have fun.”
“Thank you, sir. And we’ll be home by midnight.”
Her father nodded, giving Bobby an almost smile before leaving.
Calum and Brianna started toward them. “What’s up, bitches?”
He and Bobby exchanged bro-shakes, then Calum hugged Jordyn tightly. “Wow, you were so damned good. Bobby didn’t tell me he was dating a star.”
Brianna said, “You should’ve seen her before the show, a total wreck. Poor girl puked all over.” Brianna was smiling, her eyes like a serpent’s.
Shit. She heard what Bobby said. Now she’ll be bitchy for weeks until we kiss her ass and make things better.
But Jordyn didn’t feel like kissing anyone’s ass tonight. She was happy and proud of the job she’d done. And she didn’t need Brianna Bitchface trying to bring her down.
“For real?” Calum fell a step back. “You puked?”
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “My freshman year on the JV team? I puked before every single game.”
“Really?” Jordyn said. She didn’t think confidence was an issue with someone like Calum Fucking Kozack, as people — including Calum — called him.
“Oh, yeah. Don’t sweat it. It’s not the fear that defines you; it’s what you do with it. Hell, I’ve been telling Brianna all year to audition for some advertisements, but she’s too scared.”
Brianna went bug-eyed. “I am not scared. I just didn’t find any roles that I liked.”
Calum laughed. “Okay, sorry, Sweetie. You’re right.” He hugged her, winking at Bobby and Jordyn while rolling his eyes.
“So, we ready to split?”
“You’re going, too?” Jordyn asked.
“Yeah,” Brianna said, her voice climbing several octaves. “We’re allowed a plus one.”
“I wish I would’ve known. I could have asked my dad.”
Bobby looked toward the exit. “I don’t see him, but maybe we could still catch him.”
Jordyn looked at Calum and Brianna, a bitch and a manipulative schemer. She didn’t want to sit her father at their table. He’d either call them on their bullshit or later express regret that Jordyn didn’t stand up for herself in their company. He couldn’t understand what it was like for her, here at this new school, navigating these social waters, and trying to fit in with kids you didn’t fit in with.
“That’s okay,” she said, giving Bobby a kiss.
* * * *
CHAPTER 34 - JEFFREY BROWN
Jeff floored the Lexus, cursing himself while punching the wheel.
“Fucking idiot. Stupid fucking idiot!”
He should’ve killed the kid.
But he fucking froze.
The boy looked like an older version of his son, Liam.
And while it would’ve made things so much easier, and while it would’ve only taken a few seconds to raise his pistol and fire, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He looked at the boy and said, “Sorry.”
Then he got into his car and drove off.
The boy had seen him.
They would have a sketch artist.
They’d have the make, model and license plate of his Lexus.
It wouldn’t be long until his name was all over every fucking news channel in the state. Hell, this would probably go national.
He wasn’t ready to stop.
There was no fucking way he would let Eugene and Sandra have their Happily Ever After.
No fucking way.
While his cover as Orestes666 was now almost officially blown, he wasn’t without a fallback plan — a vacant house at the edge of town that had been empty for nearly a year. One of the hundreds of homes in the county foreclosed on following the market collapse in 2008.
It was also a singular home in a cul-de-sac, tucked into the woods with nothing around for an impressive stretch of winding road. A forgotten place, perfect for a man who wanted to be overlooked.
* * * *
CHAPTER 35 - MALLORY BLACK
Mal and Mike pulled up to the house tucked away on a quiet cul-de-sac in a nicer section of Pine Harbour.
It was six in the morning, still dark outside. Mike was barely functional with only four hours of sleep. Neither of them got a wink of solid shut-eye, having spent half the night in the hospital talking to the boy and confirming a photo ID. The kid said it was dark, but that he was fairly certain Jeffrey Brown was the man he saw standing in front of the burning cars.
The SWAT team moved in on Brown’s apartment, but the guy was long gone. The FBI issued a Be On The Lookout for the tri-state area and interviewed neighbors.
Mal and Mike were in charge of questioning Sandra, who might be their last hope of finding the bastard.
They got out of the car and approached the front door with Mal in the lead. She knocked, hoping like hell that they weren’t at another murder scene.
Mal exhaled when lights went on beyond the blinds.
A man: “Hello?”
Mal assumed he was looking out the peephole. She held her badge so he could see. “Hello, sir, is Sandra Brown in?”
“What’s this about?”
“We’d like to speak to her,” Mal said, pulling her badge away, wondering if they’d seen the news.
The door opened to an overweight man in blue boxers, a gray T-shirt, with orange tufts of hair surrounding a prominent bald spot. He was wearing brown-framed glasses with thick lenses, eyes wide behind them as he looked from Mal to Mike, then back to Mal.
This definitely wasn’t Jeffrey Brown.
“Is everything okay?” the man asked.
“We just need to speak to Sandra, please.”
“Hold on,” he said leaving the door open as he went toward the kitchen.
From her spot on the porch, Ma
l saw a small blond boy, maybe four-years-old, sitting on an L-shaped couch in the dark watching TV and eating what looked like a Pop-tart.
He looked at Mal and Mike curiously, but didn’t say anything, or stand. After a minute, he turned his attention back to the TV.
Moments later, Sandra Brown followed the balding man to the front door. “Yes, can I help you?”
She was wearing blue yoga pants and a white tee. A headband pulled her long dirty blonde hair into a tidy pony tail.
“We’d like to talk to you about your ex-husband.”
Her brow furrowed. She looked back at the boy. “Hey, Liam. Mommy will be right back. She just needs to talk to the police for a moment.”
Sandra closed the door, leaving the bald man and her son inside.
Outside, she asked, “What did he do?”
“We’re not sure yet. We wanted to talk to you first. Can you tell us about your split?”
At first, Sandra seemed suspicious. But after a minute or so, she was spilling all the secrets of their marriage. Jeff was a “fucking loser” who her mother had never liked. He never did anything around the house because he was always too tired even though they both worked, and he was prone to angry outbursts where he’d punch holes in the wall and sulk for days on end. Luckily for her, she finally met someone who appreciated her. Eugene, the man she was marrying on Sunday. Two days from now.
“Did he ever hit you or abuse you in any way?” Mal asked.
“A few times, yes,” she said, her complexion paling. “And like the fool I was, I stayed, trying to ‘fix him,’ even as my friends all told me I was an idiot. The last straw was a time he spanked Liam for spilling juice on the carpet. I knew it was over. Why are you asking me all of these questions?”
“Just a few more,” Mal said. “Did he ever threaten any of your friends? Or do anything violent to them?”
“Oh, God no. He would complain a lot, and he tried to control me, tell me who I could and couldn’t see, but he never threatened them or did anything to them. But isn’t that how cowards behave? They talk a big game behind closed doors, but then they’re all smiles while out and about?”
Mal nodded. “So, is there anything else you can tell us about him?”
Sandra seemed about to say something, but then she just shook her head. “Nah, that doesn’t matter.”
“Please,” Mal said, “every little bit helps.”
“Well, he tried to get me to do some violent stuff in bed.”
“Like what kind of stuff?”
“At first it seemed harmless. He asked if he could spank me. I said yes, but then he got a bit too rough, so I told him I didn’t like it. Then he got weirder. He asked me to put on handcuffs. I said hell no. Then another time he started to choke me, but I put a stop to that fast. Why are you asking all these things?”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?”
“Oh, I dunno. He came to get Liam a few weeks ago for a weekend visit, but we didn’t speak much. Maybe a few months before that where fought about child support he wasn’t paying on time.”
“Can you think of any reason he might want to hurt Chip Halverson?”
“Chip? Oh God, I haven’t heard that name in forever. Um, he’s a local painter that we knew for a while. But we haven’t seen him in forever. Why are you asking about Chip?”
Her face went even paler as she put two and two together.
Mal went on. “How about Peter Kincaid or Lynn Macklin?”
She started to shake her head, tears welling up in her eyes. “No. No. Please, don’t tell me he did that.”
“We don’t know yet,” Mike said in his most calming voice, “which is why we’re talking to you and some other people he knew, trying to get a feel for the man. Is there any reason you can think that he’d want to kill any of those people?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Why?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how to say it.”
Mal said, “Usually I find the best way is just to spill it out. Don’t worry, Mrs. Brown; we’ve heard it all before.”
“We were all part of a club.”
“Club? What kind of club?”
“Things weren’t going so well between us, and I didn’t want to do the violent stuff that Jeff seemed to need, so a friend of mine, Lynn, suggested we go with her to a swinger’s club in Jacksonville.”
Mal never saw this coming. She wanted to turn back and see Mike’s face, see if he could hide one of his priceless reactions to weird shit. But he held his attention on Sandra and said, “And what happened?”
“Well, that’s where we met Chip and Peter. Peter used to come with a young college girl. And we all just hit it off and had fun together.”
“All of you?” Mike asked.
“Well, yeah, it was a swinger’s club.”
“So, how long did you go there?”
“A few times. But then Jeff started getting jealous when he thought I was becoming too friendly with Chip and Peter. We were talking on LiveLyfe until he made me stop. We stopped going. This was right around the time he was getting angry all the time and having problems at work. Like I said, one day he just blew up at our son, and I said I couldn’t take it. I went to stay with Eugene, filed for divorce, and have been happy ever since. Do you think he killed them?”
“We’re looking into it,” Mal said. “Your husband is a person of interest in the murders, as well as others.”
Sandra looked ready to vomit.
Mal remembered something that Orestes had posted online, a threat for more death in three days — the exact day of Sandra’s marriage to Eugene.
“I think your husband may be planning to do something at your wedding.”
“What?”
Mal explained her theory, then asked if Eugene happened to have been at The Purple Pole last night.
“Yeah, for his bachelor party. I asked him to do it early, so he wasn’t hung over for our wedding. Why?”
“Because I think your ex-husband was going to crash the party.”
* * * *
CHAPTER 36 - JORDYN PARISH
As far as Valentine’s Day dinners went, Jordyn couldn’t have asked for anything nicer.
Bobby took her to Generosità where she ordered spaghetti and meatballs. He surprised her by ordering the same thing and apologized for giving her so much shit for loving such a classic meal.
They talked about their lives and what they wanted to do in the future. He wanted to go to Florida State to play football but also wanted to get a degree in business management. He had some creative — and impressive —entrepreneurial ideas. Not only was he a sports star, a solid actor, and a sensitive guy, he knew business. Her father would be impressed by this side of Bobby. He’d never run a business but used to dream about it before retiring from the force.
Jordyn wasn’t sure what she wanted to do and was a bit anxious when thinking about the future more than a year or two out. She wanted to be a writer, maybe paint a bit, but beyond that, she had no idea.
They talked about why she was anxious, which ultimately led to her mother’s death. Then Bobby talked about his father, and they shared their coping stories.
It was some of the deepest conversations they’d ever had, and the more she talked to Bobby, the more he felt like the other side of her.
After dinner, he told Jordyn to close her eyes. Then he drove somewhere to surprise her, playing a mix of music he’d made for her including bands she’d never heard. Instrumentals by Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter surrendered to a slow song by Broken Social Scene.
He stopped the car the car as it ended. “We’re here.”
“Can I open my eyes?”
“Yes,” he said opening the door and getting out.
Jordyn opened her eyes and saw the front of an unfamiliar house. One story and small, but with plenty of acreage, unlike most newer homes in the area. A large wooden fence circled the yard.
“Where are we?” she asked as he open
ed her door.
“Come,” he said, taking her hand.
Jordyn smoothed the front of her dress as they ascended the steps.
She hoped he wasn’t taking her to some stupid house party. Hanging out with his bros and watching him get drunk or wasted would be the worst way to end what had been the most romantic evening of her life,
He inserted his keys and opened the door.
This is his house?
Despite knowing Bobby for most of the school year, and having dated him since New Year, she’d not yet met his mom or been to his house. She didn’t think much about it because they didn’t have much time together, and when they were together, he was usually coming to Jordyn’s house or picking her up to take her somewhere else.
He led her inside where a short woman with a long brown ponytail approached Jordyn with a big, genuine smile. Even her eyes were happy. She was older than Jordyn expected. Early fifties. She wore a long flowing layered tie-dyed dress with several beaded necklaces.
“Mom, this is Jordyn.”
“It’s sooooo nice to meet you, Jordyn,” she said, giving her a giant hug. “Bobby’s told me so much about you.”
“Hi, Mrs. Hollingsworth. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Call me Candy, short for Candace.”
“Okay, Candy.”
She ushered them into the dining room, which, like the rest of the home, was cozy. But every space — counter, shelf, or hutch — was stuffed with knick-knacks. Commemorative plates, thimbles, salt and pepper shakers from around the world, porcelain children and puppies, amid an endless array of adorable collectibles.
Like magic she appeared behind them, holding a plate. “I hope you didn’t eat too much. I made fresh chocolate chip cookies.”
The chocolate was still melting, and the scent was a beautiful beast.
Jordyn couldn’t help but smile while watching the woman. She wasn’t sure why, maybe because so many of the popular kids had parents who seemed the type, but she’d always pictured Bobby’s mother as some trendy soccer mom, not this down-to-earth, sweet older woman.
