by Amy Cross
“I guess not.”
“Listen to this,” he continued. “The discovery of Ms. Armitage’s body came nine years to the day after the discovery of Caitlin Somers’ body. Jesus, that’s right, it must have done! Holy shit, do you think that’s it, then? Do you think there’s some kind of serial killer in Bowley?”
She frowned. “He must be really patient.”
“Huh?”
“If he waited nine years. I’ve never waited nine years for anything.”
“You’re twenty-two years old.”
She paused. “Yeah!”
“Well…” He paused. “I mean, you’ve got a point. Why would he quit for nine years, then start up again? If you’re the kinda guy who gets his jollies from serial killing, what do you do for nine years between murders?”
“Beats me.”
“You know,” he continued, “my sister-in-law is Jane Freeman. She’s a cop. They leak info for a reason, to hurry things up, but I bet she knows way more than they’re letting on in this rag. My brother-in-law Jack is the paper’s editor, too. I’ve gotta find an excuse to drop by and see them later, maybe get some dirt on what’s happening.” He paused. “Christmas. Christmas is coming up. Perfect!”
“Can we go?” Candy asked. “I’m tired.”
“What? Oh yeah, sure.” Unlocking the door, he climbed into the car while still reading the front-page. “Listen to this. Police remain tight-lipped about the precise circumstances of the body’s discovery, and about the nature of the dead woman’s injuries.” He turned to Candy as she got into the seat next to him. “Tight-lipped? No way, Jane will have told Jack everything she knows. They must be deliberately withholding information from the public. That’s what they do, sometimes, so that there’s stuff only the killer knows. In case he, like, calls in or writes and needs to prove who he is.”
“I need one of those pills,” she replied.
“What pills?”
“For girls who’ve let guys do things to ‘em in the night.”
“What?” He frowned, before looking down at her crotch. “Oh. You don’t need one of those, I used protection.”
“Protection isn’t guaranteed to work. I need a pill.”
“You didn’t need a pill any of the other times.”
“I didn’t know about them then.”
“Well…” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet. “How much is it?”
“No, I’m not buying it. I don’t want anyone knowing that I need one of those things, word might get back to my mother. You’ll have to go into the pharmacy for me.”
“I can’t do that,” he replied. “Jesus, are you insane?”
“You’re married. They’ll just think it’s for your wife.”
He shook his head.
“Do you want me to get pregnant?” she asked. “I sure as hell don’t want a kid, not right now, not with you!”
He tossed some cash onto her lap. “I’m not going into a pharmacy and buying a goddamn morning after pill for you. It’s too risky. You’ll just have to do it yourself, or get a friend to do it.”
“You’re a friend,” she pointed out. “You do it for me.”
“Candy -”
“Maybe I’ll ask your wife to pick one of for me,” she replied, taking the cash and dropping it back onto his lap. “I’m serious, Bob. This matters. Is chivalry dead in the modern age? Can’t a girl expect a guy who’s maybe popped one into her, to do the right thing? Especially after she also let him do that thing he’s been wanting to do for ages, but that she didn’t want to do at first because it seemed icky, but finally she gave in, and it was icky!” She paused, before sighing. “And get three, so we don’t have to go through this rigmarole every goddamn time.”
***
“Fuck,” Bob muttered under his breath as he made his way into the pharmacy. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”
“Hey,” said Jean, the woman behind the counter, as she saw him approach. She had the local paper in her hands, and was evidently reading about the Mel Armitage murder. “How you doing today, Bob? How’s Beth and little Lucy?”
“Fine,” he replied, looking over his shoulder to make sure no-one else was around. “They’re just fine.” Turning back to her, he saw her smiling face and realized there was no way he could bring himself to ask for one of those pills.
“Isn’t it awful?” she replied. “That poor woman, murdered right here in Bowley.”
“It’s terrible.”
“You don’t think something like that could happen around here, do you?” she asked. “Well, not again. Well… It’s been nine years. You think you know a town, and then something like this happens and…” Sighing, she folded the paper and set it down. “I’m sorry, Bob. What are you after?”
“Um… I’m sorry, what?”
“What are you after? You came through the door, and usually people only do that deliberately.”
“Right.” His eyes scanned the shelves for a moment as he tried to think of something he could ask for. “Codeine,” he said finally. “Just codeine. Paracetamol with codeine, I mean. Yeah, just a pack of those.”
“Huh.” She grabbed a little blue box from the shelf and set it down on the counter. “Are you in pain, Bob?”
“Me? No, I’m fine. Just a little tired, that’s all.”
“So the codeine’s not for you?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s for me.”
She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“My back,” he added finally, letting out a not-very-convincing groan of pain. “It’s been killing me for days.”
“You should see a doctor about that,” she replied as she rang up the sale and took the note he handed to her. “Don’t go self-medicating.”
“Course not,” he said, taking the box and heading to the door. “Thanks, Jean. See you around.”
As soon as he got outside, he hurried around the corner so that Candy wouldn’t be able to see him from the car. Taking the tablets out of the packet, he popped one into the palm of his hand and saw that the letter C was stamped onto one of its sides. Stuffing the rest of the pills into his pocket, he made his way back across the parking lot until he reached the car, at which point he opened the door and held the tablet out for her.
“What’s that?” she asked with a frown.
“What do you think it is?” he replied, glancing around to make sure no-one was watching. “It’s what you wanted. Now take it!”
“Where’s the box?”
“There isn’t a box.”
“I want to read the leaflet.”
“There’s no leaflet.”
“What about side-effects?”
“Nausea,” he replied, “um, vomiting, headaches, the usual stuff. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“They just gave it to you loose?”
“Yes, they just gave it to me loose.” Leaning further into the car, he forced the tablet into her hand. “Just take it. Not that you need it, but after all the trouble I went to, you might as well have it.”
“I told you to get three.”
“There’s a limit of one per customer.”
“Seriously?” She looked at the tablet for a moment. “What does the C mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he hissed.
“Does it mean Candy?”
“What?”
“Did you get one with my initial on it, on purpose?”
He stared at her, barely able to believe what he was hearing. “Yes,” he said finally. “Yes I did.”
“Huh. That’s sweet, I guess.” She stared at the pill for a moment. “You know, I’ve taken the morning-after pill before, and it didn’t look like this.”
“Must be a different brand,” he muttered, trying not to lose his patience.
“Huh.” She paused. “Okay, but I need water.”
“Don’t you have some?”
She shook her head.
“Can’t you just swallow it?”
“I need water,” she said again. “What
’s wrong with you?”
“Fine,” he replied, turning and hurrying back across the parking lot, heading for the convenience store. “Jesus Christ this is completely unnecessary,” he muttered, “all I need is -”
“Bob?”
Spinning around, he saw a man wandering over with a broad grin, but it took a moment before he realized where they’d met before.
“Ben?” he stammered.
“Surprise,” Ben replied, reaching out and shaking his hand. “Long time, no see. I almost didn’t recognize you there, buddy, in that suit and tie. When did you get so goddamn corporate?”
“Corporate?” Looking down, Bob realized that the last time he’d seen Ben had probably been back in his days of working at the record store. “Well, someone has to pay the bills.”
“My sister keeping the household budget high, is she?”
“Uh, yeah,” he replied, as he desperately tried to think of an excuse to get out of the conversation, while trying to still act natural. “I, um, I heard you were coming back to town. Beth mentioned it. Christmas, huh? What’s wrong, did you get a little sentimental while you were out on the road?”
“Among other things,” Ben told him, before squinting as he looked over at the car. “Who’ve you got with you?”
“No-one.”
“Isn’t that your car?”
“No.”
“I thought I saw you -”
“I was just giving her something,” Bob replied. “That’s all.”
“A friend, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“She looks kinda young. Early twenties?”
“We work together,” Bob stammered. “We, uh, yeah… So that’s that. I’m just giving her a lift home.”
“So it is your car?”
“Yes. Yes it is. I was just…” He paused as he tried to come up with an excuse.
“I thought I saw you coming out of the pharmacy,” Ben continued. “I was taking a morning coffee and just chewin’ over the state of the world in my head, and then I happened to look out the window and there you were, coming outta the pharmacy opposite and… Well, it looked like you skipped around the corner for a minute and started going through a box of pills or something. I thought to myself, well, you’ll laugh, but honest to God, my first thought was to worry that maybe old Bob had gotten himself a pill habit.” He smiled.
“No,” Bob replied, shaking his head.
“No?”
“No. You must have been mistaken. I didn’t do anything like that.”
“You didn’t?”
“I didn’t.”
“Huh.” Ben paused, staring at him for a moment before reaching out and patting him on the shoulder. “Well, I guess I must have been wrong, huh?” He stared toward the car for a few seconds, squinting in an effort to get a better view of the girl in the passenger seat. “Is she single?”
“Who?”
“The hot young lady in your vehicle, Bob. If she is, I’d sure like an introduction.”
“I think she’s married.”
“She is?”
“Or she has a boyfriend.”
“Huh.”
“She might even be a lesbian.”
“She might?” Ben frowned. “Well, that sure covers all the -”
“I should get going,” Bob added, taking a step back. “I need to, I really need to… I need to get going.”
“Well,” Ben replied with a smile, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other over the next few days. Now I’m in town for a while, I’ll be plugging myself into the family again, all that shit. Plus, with Christmas just around the corner… Speaking of which, I haven’t seen my sister in a long time, do you have any idea what I could get her as a gift? On a limited budget, naturally.”
“Anything should be fine,” Bob replied.
“Anything?”
“She’s pretty easy to please. Just get her anything.”
“Huh. Well, okay, you’re obviously still quite the ladies’ man, Bob. I’ll see you around. Nice catching up, buddy.” He glanced toward the car one more time, as if he was on the verge of asking another question, before smiling and wandering back toward the cafe.
As soon as Ben was back inside, Bob hurried into the store and bought a bottle of water, before making his way back to the car. He looked around several times, starting to feel increasingly worried that he’d be spotted again, until he got to the car just as Candy was climbing out, her patience having evidently run out.
“Get back in there!” he hissed. “We need to -”
“This is paracetamol,” she said firmly, holding the tablet up.
He froze. “What?”
“I looked it up on my phone. It’s paracetamol with codeine. The C stands for codeine, not Candy!”
“I…” He paused. “Well, obviously… I’m going to have to…”
“I thought we were just having a bit of fun,” she continued. “I thought we were just enjoying ourselves. But now? Now apparently you’re trying to trick me into getting pregnant. Nice, Bob. Real nice. I thought you respected me!”
“I -”
“I need to think about this,” she said, setting the tablet on roof of the car. “I’m not sure we can keep doing what we’re doing, Bob, if you’re going to try tricking me.”
“I wasn’t trying to trick you,” he replied. “I swear -”
“I want to go on a break.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want to not screw you for a while,” she added, taking a step back. “I need to think long and hard about whether this is what I really want, and I think you need to think long and hard about how you treat women, and about what you’re after in life. ‘Cause -” She paused, with tears in her eyes. “If you want to keep me in your life, Bob, there are more honest ways that tricking me into carrying your love-child.”
“Candy -”
“I’ll call,” she told him, before turning and walking away.
“Candy!” he hissed, keeping his voice low. “Candy, I can explain!” He watched as she reached the street and continued on her way. “Candy!”
Sighing, he realized she wasn’t coming back. Taking the tablet from the roof of the car, he examined it for a moment before putting it in his mouth and washing it down with a swig of water from the bottle he’d just bought. After checking one more time that no-one was watching, he climbed back into the car and started the engine, although at the last moment he saw that Ben was staring at him from inside the cafe.
They exchanged a brief smile and wave, and then Bob got going as fast as was humanly possible.
IV
“Just like that?” Beth asked.
“Just like that,” Jack replied, leaning back in his chair. “Blam, there he was, right in front of me in the goddamn Monument. Can you believe it? I thought I was hallucinating for a moment!”
“Well how did he seem? Did he look well?”
“He looked fine. The same as before, just a little older, obviously. Some gray in his hair, believe it or not.”
“With that same smile?”
“That exact same smile. Like he knows something no-one else knows.”
Sighing, she looked down at the floor for a moment, before turning to him again.
“And he said he’s been in town for a few days just… hanging around?” She paused. “Why didn’t he come and say hello?”
“He said he wanted a few days without all the family stuff going on. Good old Ben, you can always trust him to be weird.” He paused, staring at the window for a moment before turning back to his sister. “He hasn’t changed.”
“No?”
“Not one bit. Same old Ben.” He paused again, clearly about to say something that made him feel uncomfortable. “You know what this means, right?”
She sighed. “What does it mean?”
“Think about it for a moment.”
“What?” From her tone of voice, it was clear that she already knew. “Jack -”
“He was here,�
�� he continued. “Ben was in town on the night when Mel Armitage was murdered. That is now, it turns out, a goddamn fact.”
“So?”
“So…”
“No,” she replied, “I’m not letting you get away with insinuations. If you want to suggest something about Ben, then say the words.”
“I don’t need to. You’re thinking the exact same thing.”
“He’s our brother!”
“I know that, Sis.”
“And he didn’t kill anyone!” she said firmly. “I know he can be a little weird, even a little spooky sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he’s capable of murder!”
“I’m just pointing out patterns -”
“Patterns that aren’t there!”
“The dates fit,” he replied. “Ben’s barely been in town over the past two decades, but every single time he has been, people have died, including this week! Four sets of murders, four coincidences.” He paused. “Or not coincidences, as it might be.”
“Uh, yeah,” she told him. “It’s either that, or…” She paused. “I’m not prepared to think something like that about my own brother. You’re just…”
“I’m what? A bad person for entertaining the possibility?”
“You’re letting Dad influence the way you see Ben.”
“I’m letting the facts influence how I see Ben,” he continued. “Come on, you’ve got to admit he was always weird, right from the beginning. Do you remember that time he went off to play alone, and Mum made us go and find him? And we traipsed through the forest for hours until we saw him all by himself, in a clearing -”
“With sticks tied to his head,” she added, picking up the story, “pretending to be a deer.”
“A stag,” he said, correcting her. “He was making stag noises and digging his foot into the ground, like he was getting ready to charge at someone. He was rutting.”
“There are worse things to catch your brother doing when he thinks he’s alone,” she pointed out.
“It was weird, Sis,” he continued. “It was really fucking weird, and it was just one of many, many times that Ben has shown himself to be… not on the same wavelength as everyone else. To put it politely.”
“He got so mad when he heard us laughing,” she reminded him, with a faint smile. “Do you remember how he stormed off, with those twigs still stuck to his head, and some of them started falling off? He looked ridiculous!” She paused. “He was so serious when he was a kid. Mum actually thought he was maybe, like, autistic or something for a while. It was only later that he started, I don’t know… laughing at everything. Like he never took anything seriously anymore. Do you remember when he went missing for a day?”
