Will and Jenn shared a confused look. “What? When?” Will asked.
Peter didn’t respond immediately. He was still staring wistfully out the window. Eventually, he returned his attention to the two kids on his sofa. “After my dad died, I was completely lost. I was so young and, in all honestly, I was a bit of a mess—even before that. When my dad went missing … well, it didn’t help, as you might imagine.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Will said coldly.
“Right. Sorry again. Anyway, Mom and I moved here a few years later. She started dating an asshole named Cliff,” he looked towards Jenn and shrugged, “sorry for the language.”
Jenn smiled and blushed.
Peter continued. “I was floundering and then came Brandon. He walked right out of those woods.” He pointed to the trees outside of his window. “And that was that. We were pretty much inseparable. Best friends. He was such a crazy kid … never met another kid like him.”
“He mentioned you a lot,” Will said.
“Did he?”
“It sounds like you were great friends,” Jennifer said.
“The best. The absolute best. I was very lucky to have him. Like I said, Brandon saved my life.”
“That’s so nice,” Jenn said. “I’m sure he was lucky to have you as well.”
Will looked at her sideways, his jaw clamped tight. “Yeah, that’s great, but how about his last visit? Why don’t you just tell us about that? That’s why we’re here.”
“Yes,” Peter said. “Very well. I’d be happy to. I don’t know how much you know but I’m afraid some of this might be hard to hear.” Peter’s words hung in the air like a rancid, toxic vapor.
Will stared at the man with squinted eyes; tendons bulging in his neck. “What do you mean?” His words were little more than a croak.
“We had a very nice visit. We did have a few drinks, as I alluded to earlier … your dad brought a bottle of whiskey.” Will thought instantly of the last purchase his dad had made on his debit card. “And we put a pretty good dent in that, if I remember correctly. But it was nice. It was like old times. I find it amazing how good friends can slip right back into their routines even after all those years apart, don’t you?” He looked at his two guests as if he expected an answer to his rhetorical question. “Your father was troubled. He told me about you and he told me about your mother. Apparently there was a bit of trouble in paradise, or so it seemed …” He purposely trailed off and looked to the floor. After a second, Peter put a hand to his forehead and sighed. “Are you sure you want me to continue?” he asked Will. “I don’t see the point in opening up old wou—”
“Talk,” Will said. “I want to know everything.”
Jenn squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. “Will, maybe he’s right.” She reached for him but he recoiled from her touch.
“I think you should listen to your friend. She knows—”
“Talk.”
Peter nodded, wearing a saddened face that didn’t look very sad. At least not to Will. In fact, to Will, it looked like he was enjoying making up lies about the boy’s father. “As you wish.” He shot a glance towards Jenn that said, some people can’t be helped. “Well, like I said, we talked for hours about old times. Then, after three-quarters of a bottle of Beam, he started sharing his problems. We talked about you a lot. He told me how much he loved you and how much he was going to … miss you …”
Will scooted to the edge of his seat. Probably would have stood up if he trusted his legs. “What does that mean?” His voice cracked and quivered.
“He was leaving you and your Mom. He found someone else.”
Will sunk into his seat and his shoulders slumped. He stared up at Peter, teary-eyed. “No … what?”
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Will,” Jennifer said.
He ignored her. “Who? Where?”
“He didn’t say. I didn’t press him on it. He seemed very … adamant. I am sorry, young man. Some of us just aren’t cut out for being family men.”
“Yeah,” Will said. He was dazed. His head throbbed and the room seemed to expand and shrink every few seconds like he was bouncing on the end of an extremely short bungee cord. “He said nothing else? Nothing?”
Peter shook his head while wearing that perfectly normal sad face that didn’t seem quite normal.
“Maybe we should go?” Jenn wondered aloud.
Peter stood up, seeming to agree with Jenn’s suggestion. “Yes, maybe so. I do have that shopping to get to.” He looked to the boy, “I’m so sorry that I had to be the one to tell you this. I wish it could have been different. Some men just can’t help themselves. He was always like that, Brandon was.”
Will didn’t say anything. Jenn reached for and squeezed his hand. She helped him up, and they made for the door. Will was a ghost. A shell. He didn’t speak as they left Peter’s house.
“I’m sorry,” Peter said.
Will locked eyes on Peter, but they didn’t see him. They saw through him, into a darkness like deep space.
Jenn did the speaking. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Taylor.”
“You were no bother. I’m sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news.”
“No … it’s okay, but we should go. Thanks again.” Jenn led Will to the door who followed her without resistance like a well-trained dog.
Peter followed them out and watched as they made their way down the sidewalk, towards Jennifer’s car. He stood in the doorway and waited until they pulled away from the curb.
“What does this mean?” Peter wondered aloud. It certainly wasn’t good but was there any danger? Any harm? “This is nothing. Stupid kids … that’s all. They’ll go home.”
The car disappeared down the street.
“They’ll go home,” he repeated, looking out his screen door to the woods across the street.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Immovable Object
Unlike Will’s emotions, Chaplin Hills Lake lay out in front of them calm and still. The light breeze that cooled their skin didn’t seem to affect the still blue water at all.
“Something is wrong with that guy,” Will said, pacing the muddy bank of the lake.
Jenn shrugged. “I don’t know, I thought he was kind of nice.”
“He’s lying,” Will said through clenched teeth.
“Will, I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t know what else to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. That bastard is lying. My dad didn’t come out here for some girl. No way.”
“Why would he do that? Why would this guy lie to us?”
“I don’t know and I don’t give a shit. He’s lying, though.”
Will threw a rock side-armed across the lake. It skipped twice before sinking out of sight. He turned back to Jennifer. “You yawned.”
“What?” Jenn asked, unable to mask the annoyance in her voice.
“In his house. On his couch. You yawned.”
“So?”
“So that made me yawn … but this freak didn’t do nothing.”
“What are you talking about?” She held her head in her hands. “Are you being serious right now?”
“Damn right, I am.”
Jenn let out deep breath and turned her back on him. “Please tell me you’re messing with me, because you sound crazy right now and I can’t take it … not now.”
Will reached for Jenn’s shoulder and turned her towards him. “I read this somewhere. Only sociopaths don’t yawn when everybody else in the room does.”
Jenn laughed, still hoping that Will might be joking. Clearly, he wasn’t. He picked up another rock and launched it into the lake.
“Listen, Will, this sucks. Believe me I know.”
Will spun on her, fire in his eyes. “What do you know? You know that your dad is a cheating piece of shit, but you don’t know nothing about my Dad. There is no other girl. There was no other girl. That smug bastard is lying.”
Jenn knew Will was hurting and she did her best to shrug off his ins
ults. “Why? Why in the hell would he do that?”
Will didn’t answer. He simply stared venom in her direction.
“Maybe he is,” Jenn admitted. “I don’t see any reason for it, but maybe he is. Where does that leave us. What do we do now?”
“I want to go back.”
“Good. We’re already late, but if we leave now we’ll get home before—”
“No. I don’t want to go home. I want to go back there … to that creep’s house.”
Jenn stared at him with wide and confused eyes. “What? Why would we do that? And why would he let us? You were an asshole to him.”
“I was the asshole? He basically said my Dad was …” Will shook his head and clinched his teeth, unable and unwilling to finish that thought.
“We’ll be late and we won’t be able to explain it.”
“We knew we wouldn’t make it back on time. We knew it before we left. If you really want to go home, I understand. You can go … I’ll find another way.”
Jenn snorted an angry laugh and looked away. “Well I’m so glad you’re playing fair. Like I would leave you eight hours from home.”
“I can do this on my own,” Will said.
Now it was her turn to stare venom. “No, you can’t.”
The two of them spent the next ten minutes sitting next to each other in complete silence. The only sound was a raft of ducks frolicking in the blue water of Chaplin Hills Lake and the distant sound of eighteen-wheelers on Interstate 80 behind them.
“I’m tired,” Jennifer said. “I get cranky when I’m tired.”
“No kidding.”
She punched him on the shoulder. “You’re supposed to say, ‘No, I’m sorry cause I’m the asshole’.”
Will laughed and rubbed his shoulder. “I know, I know. I am the asshole here and everybody knows it.” He sat in the dirt and hugged his knees. Jenn sat next to him, her head cocked onto his shoulder. Finally, William looked to her and apologized, “I’m sorry that I yelled at you. I owe all of this to you. All of it … but I can’t go back. Not yet.”
Will could feel a bead of sweat trickle down the small of his back as he waited for her reply. Finally, she offered a tired and weary smile and shrugged her slumped shoulders. “Okay.”
They parked Jenn’s car in the town’s elementary school parking lot three blocks West of Peter’s house on the hill. It fitted in with the rest of the faculty’s sensible mid-sized autos. They walked the rest of the way and, finally, decided to camp out under the town’s water tower.
“I could climb that and get a better look,” Will said, pointing at the ladder bolted to the side of the tower.
Jenn smirked and shook her head. “You boys are all the same. We can see his house just fine from here. You just want to climb the damn tower.”
Will blushed and looked away. Busted. He did just want to climb it.
The two of them sat on a slab of concrete directly under the giant water tower and patiently waited.
“We forgot the coffee and donuts,” Will said.
Jenn gave him a confused look and then it dawned on her. “Worst. Stakeout. Ever.”
Another hour passed, the sun finally reached its peak, and began its slow descent at their backs. Jenn sneezed a short, staccato, cute-girl sneeze.
“Bless you,” Will said, looking up towards the water tower’s massive grey underbelly, “but try not to scare the pigeons, would ya? I can’t deal with getting shit on anymore today.”
Jenn was about to respond when she finally spotted movement from the house below. She slapped Will’s shoulder and pointed at Peter’s house. “He’s moving,” she said, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice.
“Shit,” Will said. “He’s just taking out the trash. I thought he had to do some damn shopping in Sterling? Maybe that was a big lie too.”
They watched Peter carry a large white trash bag to the can at the end of his driveway. Peter dropped the bag into his dumpster and then brushed his hands on his jeans. After a quick glance into the woods, he headed back towards his house. Halfway there, Peter changed directions and approached his Toyota instead. Underneath the water tower, both Will and Jenn held their breath. “He’s leaving! He’s leaving!” Jenn whispered excitedly.
“Just wait,” Will said.
They waited and they watched, but finally, Peter did leave. He reversed his Sedan down the driveway and headed south towards town. They watched him until they saw his brake lights ignite, and then disappear as he drove through the stop sign three blocks away.
Will jumped to his feet. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Jenn said. “Let’s go get my car and drive downtown really quick to make sure he’s gone. I’m scared.”
Will sighed. “Fine. Hurry.”
They raced back to her car and followed Peter’s path.
“He said he had some shopping to do so let’s just check the little grocery store and the two gas stations. Make sure he didn’t decide to do his shopping here, after all.”
“Don’t you think we’re just wasting time we could be searching his shit?”
“One trip down Maine Street to check out two gas stations and one grocery store parking lot isn’t too much to ask, I don’t think.”
Will shrunk in his seat. “It isn’t too much to ask at all. Sorry.”
Jenn didn’t respond.
There was no sign of Peter’s car. “Well, I guess he’s gone,” Jenn said. “Unless he just stopped by his girlfriend’s house or a buddy’s house and he’s already heading home.”
“Come on, Jenn, you can’t think like that. The donut shop lady said he was a loner and his car is gone. He said he was going to Sterling, which gives us hours. We are golden … I promise.”
She piloted the VW back the way they had come, and in minutes, they were back on the road that would lead them to the last house in town.
Just north of this dirt road were the remains of a dried up creek called The Big Blue and straight ahead lay the woods from Brandon Grant’s youth. Over the years, someone had thinned out the shrubs and weeds, and if you looked closely, you could see the outline of a large house through the trees, but William could still picture it from his dad’s stories.
Jenn tried to park her car in the same spot as their first visit, but Will suggested she park in the driveway.
“Don’t we want a cleaner getaway?” she asked.
“If he comes home, we’ll be in his house … not sure what kind of getaway we’ll have. Besides, we want to look like we belong here if anybody else comes along.”
Jenn wasn’t sure she agreed with his logic, but she was tired of arguing. She sighed and followed his directions.
They both climbed out of the car. Pointing towards the forest, Will said, “The tree house from the picture is in there. I may have to check it out before we leave.”
“Fine. But let’s get this over with while we still can,” Jennifer said.
“Right,” Will agreed. They both looked around quickly (guiltily) and circled around to Peter’s backyard. The grass was brown and mostly dead. The remains of an old and neglected garden sat in the middle of the dead lawn. Will walked over it, leaving his size ten prints in the cracked Earth. Jenn approached the back door, while Will focused on the bedroom window next to it.
“He doesn’t strike me as the type that would leave his doors unlocked,” Will said.
“Check the easy things first; that’s what my Mom always says.”
“Does she really say that?” Will asked.
“I don’t think so.” She turned the knob and was not surprised that it was indeed locked. “No go.”
“This will work,” Will said, prying out the screen and sliding up the window.
“Holy shit, we’re really doing this.”
Will didn’t respond. He climbed onto the window ledge and flopped head first into the window. Jenn watched his feet disappear. He landed with a thud on the other side.
“Jesus Christ, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Will said. “Hold on. I’ll open up the back door.”
Seconds later, William arrived at the back door. He pushed opened the screen door and held it for Jennifer. “You coming’?”
She hesitated, but only for a moment. The back door opened up to the kitchen. The linoleum was painfully bright and matched the whitewashed walls. It left him feeling disoriented and cold. Will glanced at a small dining room table for two in the corner. He had no way of knowing that this was the same table that his father had sat at almost three years ago.
“What are we looking for, Will?”
Will, still staring at the table, shook his head. “I don’t know. I figured we would know when we saw it.”
“Yeah … great.”
They spent the first few moments simply wandering the house, expecting to see what they were looking for in plain sight. Jenn fumbled through his DVD and CD collection next to the TV, while Will went through his dresser drawers. Everything meticulously sorted; the antithesis of his rundown yard.
“Will, we gotta get out of here. I’m scared. He could be back any second.”
Will knew this but didn’t respond. Something was here. He could feel it.
Where would I hide something? He wondered.
He went back to the closet and checked the top shelf, the back corners and he even tapped on the walls looking for secret compartments. He was beginning to feel stupid. Jenn entered the room and reached for his elbow. He jerked away from her touch and nearly screamed.
“Shit. Sorry.” Jenn said, smiling modestly.
“’S’okay,” Will managed to say after catching his breath. He looked around the room and shook his head, “I don’t know …”
“Did you check all the drawers?”
“Yeah.” Will said, still standing in the center of the room.
“The closet? Can you see all the way in the back?”
“Yes. I checked it. I checked it all. Maybe I was wrong about this … about him.”
Jenn began flinging clothes from the closet. “Screw it. There has to be something in—ooh, nice jacket,” she said, flinging an expensive leather-riding jacket towards Will. “For you, when you get your motorcycle license. This guy doesn’t seem the motorcycle type.”
The Complete Bleaker Trilogy Box-set Page 19
