by Gregg Stutts
“Oh, now Shelle, is that any way to treat an old friend?” he said. “Or should I say, lover? And you really should lock your back door. You never know who might be around.”
“Leave right now and I won’t call the police.”
“The police? Now why would you need to do that, Shelle? We’re just two old friends who never got to say…a proper goodbye.” There was tension in his voice.
Maybe he was just looking for an apology. If she gave him one, he might leave. “Chris, I guess I do owe you an apology. I certainly didn’t mean to…”
“SHUT UP!” His eyes were wild as he looked around the room and then back at her. “Just...shut up, Shelle.”
She tried to not let him see how much her hands were shaking. She cleared her throat and said, “You should know that Max will be back any minute. He just ran to the store to pick up a few things, so if you leave now…”
He laughed loudly. “Nice try, Shelle, but he’s not coming home. He’s on his way to Conway. Big game tomorrow night.” He paused and added, “Of course, he’ll have to watch from the stands, won’t he?”
“How do you know about that?” she said.
“About what? His suspension for that killing in Bentonville?”
“He didn’t have anything to do with it,” she said.
Chris laughed again and shook his head. “Now that’s not what I hear. Didn’t they find his bloody knife under the seat of his truck?”
Michelle suddenly felt lightheaded. “How…did…you…”
“How did I know about the knife? Or that it was under the front seat?”
Michelle couldn’t answer him.
“You didn’t even know I was at that game, did you?” His eyes were locked on hers. “Yeah, I was sitting a few rows behind you and that old couple. Willy and Rose, right?”
“You were at the game?” she said.
“It was good game. Of course, I was cheering for Bentonville.”
“I didn’t see you.” She sat on her hands to stop them from trembling.
“I was right behind you the entire game,” he said. “Well, now that’s a lie. I did leave with a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.”
She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
“I did it all for you, Shelle. Well, for us. You know, so we could be together. I mean all those long talks we had about how badly Max was treating you…I knew you wanted a way out.”
“What did you do?” She almost didn’t want to know.
“At first, I thought you were just escaping the hurricane…but when you wouldn’t talk to me, I knew what happened. Ole Max forced you to come back to Arkansas.”
Michelle shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I wanted to come back.”
“Now don’t try to cover for him, Shelle. I know you never wanted to come back here.”
“Chris, don’t you understand what we did was wrong?”
He shot from his chair and stopped just inches from her face. “IT WASN’T WRONG! WHAT WE HAD WAS BEAUTIFUL!”
She was afraid to say anything else that would upset him. He was still in her face and was about to say something, when her phone rang. She reached toward the table to get it, but he pushed her back into her seat. “Don’t move. I’ll get it.”
He looked at her phone and grinned, but only for a second. “Oh, look who it is,” he said. “It’s good old Max.” The grin disappeared.
“Give me the phone, Chris. Give it to me right now.” She reached for it, but he slapped her hand away.
He stared at her until it stopped ringing, and then set it back down just out of her reach. A moment later, the phone beeped once alerting her to a new voicemail. “Oh, how nice. Max must be checking in. What a thoughtful guy.”
“Chris, please, just go. I promise not to say anything.”
“You mean about me being here? Or about what happened to poor Donnie?”
Her heart was pounding. “No, no, please, no.”
“You have to know it was for you, Shelle. For us, really.”
“What are you even talking about, Chris? There is no, ‘us’.”
“Now don’t be that way, Shelle. Of course, there’s an, ‘us’. There’s you. And there’s me.” He stepped toward her and she backed into the refrigerator. He blocked her from moving past him and placed one hand on her stomach. “And there’s our baby.”
Chapter 96
Even if he wasn’t allowed on the sideline, Max knew he had to be with his team. But the further he drove, the harder it became to convince himself it was true. Then he saw it. Just ahead. A large white sign with bold red letters that said, Got Your Attention. Underneath, in smaller letters: Billboard advertising works.
Instantly, his body went numb. His heart raced. And he remembered the words he’d heart in his jail cell four days earlier, Do I have your attention now?
Maybe don’t go wasn’t his own thought.
Maybe he should have paid attention. Or maybe he was acting crazy.
He debated with himself for another twenty miles. Keep going? Turn around?
My team needs me.
Just fifteen miles from Conway, he yanked the steering wheel right at the last second and barely made it onto the exit ramp. At the end of the ramp, he made a left and crossed over the overpass. Then made another left to get on the ramp for I-40 again, going in the other direction. Toward home.
Chapter 97
He was three hours from home. He reached for his phone to call Michelle but decided it would be more fun to surprise her. He called and left a voicemail telling her he was almost to Conway, which was technically true. He didn’t have to say which direction he was headed.
Now that he was heading west, he could see the dark clouds ahead. The trees were being whipped by the wind as the storm front approached. A couple gusts shook his truck. He was thankful the roads were at least clear and dry.
Two minutes later, it started. He heard it before he saw it. Sleet hitting the windshield. Up ahead, he could already see brake lights coming on as cars and trucks were slowing down from 70 mph to 60 mph. A few minutes later, everyone was already down to 50 mph.
The intensity of the sleet was picking up with every passing mile. The shoulders of the highway were already covered. For now, there was enough traffic to prevent the road from being completely covered, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. Ten minutes later, he saw the first accident. A car was sideways in the median. Traffic around the accident slowed to just 30 mph.
Much of the traffic was 18-wheelers and they were slowing way down. A few miles later, traffic came to a crawl. At this rate, he wouldn’t get home until almost midnight. As cars inched along, everyone was merging into the left lane. He left some room and waved to the car in the right lane to move over. He was tempted to get in the right lane to stop the occasional driver who stayed in the right lane to get ahead as many other cars as possible, but stayed where he was and fumed.
For several miles, traffic inched along at just 5 mph. Finally, he came to the reason why. A truck had lost control and jackknifed in the right lane and was laying on its side. A tow truck and emergency vehicles were trying to clear the road.
Once he was beyond the accident, speeds picked back up, but only to 40 mph. He tried calling Michelle again to let her know he’d checked into his hotel to keep his story going, but again, she didn’t answer. He figured she was probably taking a nap on the couch in front of a warm fire.
Chapter 98
Chris took a step back and said, “Come, let’s sit down.” He pulled out a chair at the kitchen table.
Michelle sat down. “You can still leave. I won’t tell.”
He laughed. “I have no intentions of leaving. Not alone anyway.”
“How did you even find out I’m pregnant?” Michelle asked.
“You’re not gonna believe it,” Chris said. “God sure does work in mysterious ways. I came to Lakeside to find you last week. Nice town, by the way. It’s not New Jersey or anything, but it’s not b
ad. Anyway, I went to the football game last week and sat a few rows behind you. I had a hat on and my hood pulled tight. You turned around at one point and looked right at me, but you didn’t recognize me.
Michelle willed herself to stop trembling but wasn’t having much success.
“So then these three guys sit down in front of me. That guy Donnie and some big guy and then this other guy, Bob, I think? Anyway, it’s the craziest thing…they start talking about you.”
Michelle was afraid to say anything that might upset him further so she let him continue.
“Yeah, this one guy says he got a call from a friend of a friend who had a juicy bit of information for him. He said Max Henry’s wife had a doctor visit and had asked about a paternity test. Well, you can imagine my surprise at learning I was going to be a father.”
“You don’t know it’s yours,” Michelle said, wanting to believe it herself.
“Yeah, well we both know the odds of it being Max’s,” he said. “Now the way these guys were talking, I could tell they didn’t think too highly of our ole buddy, Max, which of course I didn’t have a problem with. What upset me though was when the one guy starts talking about how he’d messed with the tire on your car and then sat there with his buddy and watched you struggle to fix it. Now I just couldn’t have the mother of my child being treated like that.”
“Chris, tell me you didn’t…”
“Well, when I saw that guy get out of his seat, I figured he must be on his way to the men’s room, so I followed him. It was like something inside me just snapped, Shelle.”
“No…”
“So I caught up to him in the men’s room and let him know I didn’t appreciate him treating you that way. Well, you would have thought he was the President of the United States and I was just some nobody by the way he treated me. He told me what I could do to myself and then turned his back on me. That’s when I stuck the knife in his back.”
“Oh, no…”
“You should have seen the look on his face, Shelle. I watched him in the mirror. He looked all shocked, like he couldn’t understand what was happening.”
“You took the knife.”
“Right out of Max’s truck. And because I’m against stealing, I made sure to put it back where I found it.”
“You killed, Donnie.”
“I had to defend your honor, Shelle.”
Chapter 99
The transition from sleet to snow occurred over a distance of just a couple miles. Traffic was slowing even more and the worst part of the drive was still to come. Climbing into the mountains of Northwest Arkansas along I-49 would be the most dangerous stretch. He hoped he’d get there before the worst part of the storm hit.
At his current speed, he might not get home until after six o’clock. Hours longer than it would take on a clear day. But with every passing minute, snow was falling harder. It looked like there were already a couple inches on the ground and the prediction was for more snow in Northwest Arkansas. Of all times for the forecasters to get it right.
Don’t go. He couldn’t get it out of his head. If it was his own thought, then it wasn’t a big deal. But if it was God trying to tell him something, then He must have a reason. He tried calling Michelle again, but she didn’t answer.
He told himself she was probably still napping or maybe had gone for a walk before the snow hit. Or maybe not. Maybe she was sick. Or something was wrong with the baby. He almost called Willy and Rose but didn’t want to worry them or make them feel obligated to get out in bad weather.
He told himself there was nothing to worry about but didn’t believe it.
Chapter 100
“Why did you even have Max’s knife?”
Chris stood up. “Oh, that was part of my plan.”
“Plan?” she said. “What are you talking about?”
“It was a good plan, Shelle. I figured Max would make trouble for us if I just showed up to take you back to New Jersey with me. So actually, I planned to…well, you know…kill him.”
She covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head.
“It’s actually kind of funny, but one night when he was in his office, I was looking around in his truck and found the knife in the glove compartment. I was going to use it on him when he came out. I disconnected his battery, so he wouldn’t be able to just get in his truck and leave.”
Michelle was trembling uncontrollably.
“So you’re never going to believe what happened. He starts looking at his truck trying to figure out what was wrong, when guess who drives up? Yup! Old Donnie Black. I’m hiding around the side of the building, but I can hear them talking. Well, it starts raining and it was pretty cold, so I slipped away while those two are going at it. It’s ironic, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Donnie actually saved Max’s life that night. If he hadn’t shown up right when he did, I would have killed Max right there in the parking lot. I told you God works in mysterious ways.”
She was afraid anything she might say would cause him to blow, so she sat quietly and waited for an opportunity to make a move to the door.
“So I still had that knife with me last Friday when I met up with Mr. Black in the men’s room. It was never my plan to kill him, but as it turned out, it wasn’t such a bad plan B. Even though everyone knew Max couldn’t have done the deed, with it being his knife in his truck and all the bad blood between them, I figured the police would be interested in an anonymous tip.”
“You called the police.”
Chris laughed. “Guilty as charged. Now that’s funny, Shelle. Get it? Guilty as charged?”
“You can’t actually think you’re going to get away with all this, do you?”
Chris smiled and said, “I have before.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said.
“That’s not important right now, Shelle. What is important is that you and I can be together now and raise our child.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Without warning, the smile on his face disappeared. “Of course, I’m serious. Dead serious.”
Chapter 101
Max glanced at the clock as he exited I-40 and made the turn north onto I-49. It was 3:01 p.m. Under normal conditions, it was ninety minutes to Lakeside. But he had no expectation of making that kind of time. Road conditions were getting worse by the minute. More and more cars were sliding off the road. He envied the four-wheel drive vehicles passing him in the left lane.
It took almost ten minutes to cover the next three miles. He exited to get gas and a cup of coffee. A lot of people had the same idea. He overheard a couple from Fayetteville mention how dangerous the road conditions had been on the drive south. They were on their way to see their daughter who was in labor with their second grandchild but were already thinking of stopping for the night and getting a hotel to wait out the storm.
Max got back on the road with a full tank of gas and a 16 oz. cup of hot, black coffee. If he could just maintain a pace of 35 mph he could be home by five o’clock, but the snow was falling harder and it would be dark in another fifteen minutes and harder to see. A number of bridges and overpasses were ahead that would already be iced over.
He thought again about letting Michelle know he was on the way, but there was no sense in worrying her or spoiling the surprise.
Chapter 102
Chris wouldn’t shut up. He’d been talking for hours and showed no signs of slowing down. And there’d been no chance to run or call for help. “I’m going to use the bathroom and then I’m going to eat,” she said.
“Now where are my manners?” he said. “I really thought we’d be on the road by now and would eat along the way, but who would have guessed it would snow in Arkansas at this time of year?”
She wondered if the look on her face gave away the fact that she thought he was insane.
“You go do what you need to do, then why don’t you see what you can find us for lunch? I’ll get
a fire started,” Chris said. He started toward the fire place.
With his back to her, she reached for her phone.
“Leave it,” he said without even turning around. And use the bathroom in the hallway.”
He was a step ahead of her.
Chapter 103
The road conditions were even worse than he’d heard. Even with sandbags over the rear wheels, his old truck was having more and more trouble. His heart raced every time the rear end would begin to fishtail, which was now every few hundred yards. Each passing mile was getting more dangerous.
