Silver Threads

by Bette Lee Crosby

  No more small-town shit, he thought. People became invisible in big cities. They could pick a pocket or rob a bodega then disappear into the crowd.

  He turned onto the highway and headed west. It was fifty, maybe sixty miles to the Mississippi border. He planned to cross over then start looking for a Home Depot. He could buy what he needed without leaving any traceable tracks.

  Eddie grinned. The ingenuity of this plan was a new high for him. His brother would be proud. He could almost imagine Tom saying, “Now you’re thinking with your head.”

  Over the past few days he’d grown to like Alisha. She was easy to be with and less bossy than Cassidy. Okay, she’d laughed at his plan, but that was only because she didn’t know what he was capable of doing. Once he proved himself, she’d change her tune. Money impressed women like Alisha, and once she saw the hundred grand she’d be happy to quit that crappy job and tag along to Mexico.

  Eddie imagined the two of them living in a place alongside the beach. They’d start the day at noon and drink pina coladas or margaritas for breakfast. She’d be all over him, and any performance issues he’d once had would be long forgotten.

  After he’d crossed over into Jones County, Eddie began driving through the small towns and keeping his eye peeled for a Home Depot. He found it in Marston. Acting as if he were any ordinary homeowner shopping for fix-up supplies, he grabbed a cart and started through the aisles.

  In the paint aisle he tossed a package of plastic gloves into the basket then moved on to the next row and added a roll of duct tape. Finding the right ladder was a bit trickier. Most of the ladders long enough to reach the second-floor window were too long to fit into the car. He finally found one he could get into the trunk; it had three sections that slid one on top of the other. The Werner Compact ladder was $149, more than he’d planned to spend, but what the hell. By tomorrow afternoon he’d be looking at that amount of money as small change.

  His last stop was the aisle where Home Depot had camping supplies. He added a good sized folding knife to the basket then headed for the checkout register. The woman at the register slid the items across the scanner one by one and never even glanced at Eddie. So far everything was going along exactly as planned.

  Eddie wheeled the basket out to the parking lot, and that was when a sudden storm came up. In seconds the gray cloud that had been hovering overhead turned black, and thunder boomed. The car was parked at the far edge of the lot, so Eddie began to hurry. With the ladder bouncing up and down in the basket he could only go so fast, and before he made it to the car the sky burst open. In the few minutes it took to load the trunk, his shirt and hat were soaked through.

  He pulled the wet baseball cap off and laid it on the seat beside him then used his handkerchief to sop up some of the water from his arms and tee shirt.

  ~ ~ ~

  Shortly after noon, he arrived back in Clarksburg. Figuring there was no such thing as being too careful, he headed for Greenhaven Drive. While he had daylight and could see, he needed to check that there were no bushes to block placement of the ladder and make sure there were no neighboring windows from which he could be seen. He also had to know if he was dealing with a storm window or screen. Once he started the job, it had to be quick. In and out in less than three minutes. Any unforeseen challenges could slow him and lead to way more trouble than he could handle.

  He turned onto Greenhaven and drove past the house, but the way it sat angled to the street he couldn’t get a clear picture. Three times he circled the block then finally came to a stop and parked the car across from Marta’s house.

  The kid was at the far end of the street, still tugging on the leash while the dog scrambled from one spot of grass to the next. Eddie looked around, saw no one else in sight and climbed out of the car. He could walk over there, check what he needed and be back in the car in less than thirty seconds.

  He moved quickly, darting across the street then cutting over to the grassy area that ran between Bishop’s house and that of the next-door neighbor. Once he had a clear view, he could see that the kid’s window would be no problem. It was a simple up and down sash. The worst that could happen would be if the lock was on, and even then a few twists of the steel blade and he’d have it open. Ten, maybe fifteen seconds at the most.

  He eyed the house next door. No downstairs windows on this side, but upstairs there was a single window about three feet back from the kid’s room. A bit risky but not as bad as something directly across the way. He’d just have to make certain there was no noise.

  Brooke was halfway back to the house when Lucy tugged the leash from her hand and took off running.

  “Stop!” she yelled, but the dog didn’t.

  Eddie was two-thirds of the way across the street when the dog darted out after him. Brooke had her eye on Lucy and didn’t look up until she ran smack into him. There was an instant when she bent down and scooped up the dog, but the second she lifted her face his wild coppery hair came into view and she started screaming.

  Eddie panicked. He jumped into the car and took off, but Brooke stood there in the middle of the street screaming like a banshee. Emma Paulson heard the screams and figured the Morrisseys were at it again, so she called the police. Marta also heard the screams, as did Drew. Before either of them got to the door Eddie had rounded the corner of Greenhaven and was halfway down Pine.

  Marta was the first to reach Brooke. She pulled the child into her arms and asked, “What on earth is the matter?”

  Drew got there seconds later. He squatted down beside Brooke and asked the same question. Brooke tried to answer, but with the words sandwiched in between sobs they sounded like gibberish. Drew picked her up and held her in his arms, still not knowing the reason for her screams.

  “Did you fall down?” he asked. “Did you hurt yourself?”

  She shook her head and kept sobbing. Finally her crying slowed to the point where her words were understandable, and between whimpers she said, “The man who killed Mama is going to kill me too.”

  Drew hugged her to his chest.

  “Honey, that’s not possible,” he said. “That man is dead. Remember, we saw his picture in the newspaper?”

  “He’s not dead anymore. I saw him.”

  “You must have made a mistake, Brooke. Maybe you just thought you saw him.”

  She pushed back and looked him square in the face. “I did see him! He tried to steal Lucy, but I saved her.”

  Drew glanced up at Marta. “Did you see anybody?”

  She shook her head. “Just Brooke.”

  Drew again held her close. “Maybe you just saw shadows or imagined something like when you have a bad dream and it seems real, but it’s not. Do you think it could be something like that?”

  Brooke shook her head adamantly. “I saw him. He had red hair just like in the newspaper picture.”

  In the distance they could hear the sound of a siren. When the patrol car pulled up Sergeant Rodriguez was the first one out.

  “What’s the problem?” he asked.

  “I think it’s nothing,” Drew said. He began explaining about Jennifer’s death and how Brooke had thought she’d seen the same man coming after her.

  Officer Lutz stepped out of the car and joined the group. “Got anything?”

  Rodriguez shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He suggested they go inside and let Brooke calm down while he wrote up a report. He grabbed a clipboard from the car and followed Drew as they started back to the house. Marta tagged along. Once inside the five of them gathered around the dining room table. Rodriguez turned to Brooke.

  “I’m going to need you to answer a few questions,” he said. “Is that okay?”

  Brooke gave a silent and rather somber nod.

  “This man you saw, can you describe him? What he looked like? What he was wearing?”

  “He looked like the man who shot Mama.”

  “Was he tall or short?”

  Brooke sat there with a blank look.

 
; Rodriguez had Drew and Officer Lutz stand side by side. Drew was over six feet, and even with his shoes on Lutz barely made 5’6”.

  “Was the man you saw the size of your daddy or more like the size of Officer Lutz?”

  Brooke sat there looking puzzled for a few moments then said, “I didn’t see his size, just his red hair.”

  They went through question after question, but there were few if any answers. Brooke did recall he drove off in a car that was big and maybe black.

  “Did this man try to grab hold of you or push you into his car?” Rodriguez asked. “Did he call your name or say anything to you?”

  The answers were no and no.

  Once Rodriguez ascertained the only thing Brooke had to say was that the perpetrator had red hair and looked like the man who killed her mama, he asked Drew if they might have a private word and they stepped into the kitchen. Rodriguez’s face was drawn and unsmiling when he spoke.

  “It seems as though Brooke may have had a flashback of what happened to her mother. She honestly believes she saw the man, but there’s no indication anyone was ever there.”

  “How can that be?” Drew asked.

  “It’s not all that unusual. Obviously Brooke was very close to her mother, and when a child loses a parent in such a violent way it can cause the same kind of trauma as if it actually happened to her.”

  “But why now? She was fine earlier, playing with the dog and—”

  Rodriguez gave a saddened nod. “There’s no way of knowing what triggered it. A flash of red light, the backfire of a car. Maybe seeing the dog run into the street frightened her into reliving the terror of what happened to her mother.”

  “Is there anything I can do to prevent—”

  Rodriguez shook his head. “Time is usually the great healer, but for now you might want to have her talk to a psychologist. Sometimes that helps.”

  Drew gave a labored sigh. “I may do that.”

  Rodriguez, himself a father of four, gave an understanding nod.

  “Tough being a single dad,” he said. “Real tough.”

  He said he would file a report on the off chance Brooke had actually seen someone stalking her.

  “Keep a close eye on her for the next few days,” Rodriguez said, “and if you see anything that looks even remotely suspicious, give us a call.”

  Once the officers left Brooke asked, “Are they going to arrest him, Daddy?”

  Drew was at a loss for what to say. After a long moment of hesitation he said, “They know for certain the man who killed Mama is dead, but they’re going to keep an eye out for anyone who looks like him.”

  Drew

  I can’t help thinking back on how Miss Abrams suggested I have Brooke talk to a psychologist. I scoffed at the idea then, but now I’m beginning to wonder if maybe she was right. Given what happened today, I have to believe Brooke is suffering way more than I realized.

  You’d never know it looking at her. On the outside she seems like a happy little girl. Yesterday when I stood at the window and watched her playing with the dog, I thanked God she was settling into this relatively haphazard life. I know it’s nothing like the life she had with Jennifer, but I wanted to believe that for her it had become a new normal.

  Kids need that kind of stability. They need to know that from one day to the next, the life they know is not going to change. They need to know they’re safe and that no harm can come to them.

  It breaks my heart to know Brooke doesn’t feel safe. She’s worried that the man who murdered her mama is now after her. When it happened I kept the newspapers hidden away, but the story was all over the place and somehow she saw it. I guess having an image like that in her head made it real. Real enough for her to be fearful it could happen again.

  I won’t lie; this is scary. I would know what to do for a runny nose or a broken leg, but those things are on the outside. They’re things I can see and do something to fix. How do you fix a hurt you can’t even see?

  Brooke’s pain is on the inside, buried so deep she doesn’t even know it’s there. Dealing with a problem like this is like walking into a blind alley. The danger is hidden, and when it does jump out you have no idea of how to fight it.

  I’ve been trying to give her as much attention as possible and I thought getting the dog would help, but I guess it’s just not enough. Tomorrow I’ll start looking for a psychologist. Hopefully I can find one who will give Brooke the reassurance I’ve failed to give her.

  I can only pray they will, because carrying such fear in your heart is a terrible burden.

  A Time to Wait

  The kid had seen him and she knew. There had been a brief moment when he could have grabbed her and shoved her into the car, but he’d bungled it. He’d panicked and ran off. Tom’s face flickered in front of him, and Eddie could almost see the look of disgust tugging at the side of his mouth.

  “I wasn’t ready,” he said, speaking to the brother who was dead and buried.

  Eddie hoped the expression he saw on Tom’s face would change, but it didn’t. That’s when he decided he’d have to move faster than he’d originally planned. It would have to be tonight.

  It was only one-thirty now. He had all afternoon to kill, and it was probably better to stay out of sight. He turned back toward Route 20. Alisha’s place was as good as any to waste some time. A few blocks before he turned onto Kettering Street, he pulled the still-wet cap on and stopped at Walmart. He bought a pair of black pants, a black long sleeve tee shirt, a new baseball cap and pocket-sized flashlight.

  ~ ~ ~

  Back at the apartment, Alisha was sitting at the kitchen table smoking a cigarette and nursing her second cup of coffee.

  “Where’d you go?” she asked.

  “I had errands to run.” After Alisha had laughed at his plan, he decided to tell her nothing more until it was over and the money was in his hand. That way he’d be the one to have the last laugh.

  “What shift you working today?” he asked.

  “I’m off.” She stubbed out her cigarette and downed a swig of coffee. “I thought since I ain’t charging you for room and board, maybe you’d want to take me out for some fun. We could do dinner and a movie then stop by the Hungry Eye for a nightcap.”

  Eddie sat there for a moment saying nothing. He would have enjoyed that; it could’ve been the way it was with Cassidy but better. Only right now the timing was wrong. He’d missed his chance this afternoon and couldn’t afford to do it again.

  “Tonight’s no good,” he said.

  “Whaddya mean no good? I told you, I’m not working.”

  “Yeah, but I got something I gotta take care of.”

  A look of annoyance slid across her face. “Whatever.”

  “Don’t be mad.” He crossed over behind her and kissed the back of her neck. “I really do have a man I gotta see about business.” He rolled his tongue around the edge of her ear and curled his arm across her chest. “How about I make it up by taking you on a nice vacation to Mexico?”

  “Mexico? Really?”

  He nodded. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  She turned and kissed him full on the mouth then pulled back. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  A short while later Alisha mentioned that since Eddie was busy she might invite her friend Luella over to play cards and have a few drinks. That was the last thing in the world he wanted.

  “Don’t do that,” he snapped.

  She turned to him her face knotted into one giant look of mad. “You trying to tell me I can’t have friends in my own apartment?”

  “Of course not,” Eddie answered. “I was just gonna say let’s go have lunch at that pancake place you like. I ain’t gonna be gone that long, and when I get back we can have ourselves some fun.” He gave her a sexy wink. “You know, the kinda fun where you don’t want nobody else around.”

  After two nights of lying side by side in the bed with him keeping whatever he had to himself, the suggestion came as kind of a surpri
se to Alisha.

  “Okay,” she said, but her voice had a hint of suspicion threaded through it.

  It was almost six when they got back from the pancake place and Alisha expected Eddie to leave, but he dropped down on the sofa and clicked the television on.

  “Don’t you have to get going?” she asked.

  “Not yet.” He click-click-clicked through the channels without giving any one station time to settle into the program.

  “Don’t do that,” she said. “You’ll ruin the TV.”

  He snapped the television off and pushed back against the sofa, but his back was stiff as a ramrod and he kept drumming his fingers on his thighs.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “Wrong?” he echoed. “Nothing’s wrong. Why would you think—”

  “It’s just that you seem kind of edgy.”

  “Indigestion,” Eddie said and rubbed his hand across his chest.

  She smiled. “Well, you should’ve said something. I got Tums.” She dug through her purse then handed him two pink tablets. “Chew these, you’ll feel better.”

  As he chomped down on the tablets, she snuggled up to him on the sofa looping her arm through his then giving a satisfied sigh.

  “So tell me about this trip to Mexico,” she said.

  Eddie didn’t want to talk; he wanted to think. He wanted to picture the way it would happen and make sure he’d covered all the bases. He wanted to have some quiet time, time to think it through the way Tom would have thought it through.

  “There ain’t much to tell,” he said. “We’ll get in the car and start driving. Maybe stop somewhere in Texas and see what kind of nightlife they got.”

  It seemed that everything he said led to her having another question, something more she wanted to talk about. When he couldn’t stand it anymore, Eddie said he had to get dressed for his meeting. He went into the bedroom, but she trailed along.