23 Miles

by Renee Mackenzie

  “Don’t play dumb with me.”

  “Help me to understand.”

  “The gun was so important because your asshole brother was going to use it against me.”

  “How?”

  “My prints. After he killed your whore girlfriend with it he tricked me into putting my prints all over it. He would have said that I killed that bitch.”

  Talia opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her breath caught in her chest and she felt like she would suffocate.

  “And now, thanks to you, the cops have the gun and will blame me when all I did was help Brian push that bitch’s car into the river.”

  Bernie. Brian killed Bernadette Harris because she’d been with Talia sexually. But how had Brian known? Had he followed them? Had he watched? Talia wanted to throw up.

  “That money was for services rendered. I’d earned it moving drugs and helping him get the car into the river. The money was mine and he turned on me, wouldn’t give me my stuff.” He pulled the knife from the leather sheath on his belt. “You have caused a lot of trouble.”

  “Jeffrey, I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to mess you up by giving the gun to the cops.”

  He slapped her across the face. “And how was I supposed to know there were two other dykes with big hair driving around the parkway in a Honda and fucking women? Huh? How the hell was I supposed to know?”

  “What?” Talia asked.

  Jeffrey laughed. “You see the absurdity of it too. Crazy, isn’t it? I didn’t find my stuff in the glove box, but damn it, I would show Brian Lisher not to fuck with me. I would slit his little sister’s throat and show him how serious I was.”

  Talia struggled to breathe.

  He leaned in closer to her. “Then on the news it’s all about these two other dykes. Are you fucking kidding me? I killed the wrong damned dykes!” Spit flew from his mouth and riddled Talia’s face.

  “No! No! No!” Talia started chanting. “None of this is true. Brian didn’t kill Bernie and you didn’t kill Allie and Diane. No!”

  “The hell we didn’t and it was all because Brian couldn’t accept the fact that his baby sister is a fucking dyke. See what you did?” He held the knife up to the light and studied it.

  †

  “There has been a report of a possible abduction at a 7-Eleven in Newport News. The descriptions of the vehicle and woman involved match Talia and her truck.”

  Shay sat stock-still on the chair across from Agent Gish. All the things she’d been thinking about came rushing to her. The diesel fuel used to douse Allie and Diane, and the fact that Jeffrey Gardner’s van used diesel. The leather badge wallet they found stashed in Talia’s Honda, and the fact that it looked like Allie and Diane had been pulled over by law enforcement.

  “We are looking into possible connections between Brian Lisher, Jeffrey Gardner, and property off the parkway. There’s a possible link. Jeffrey’s uncle once owned property adjacent to federal lands near Jamestown. We’ve got folks heading out that way now.”

  Shay stared straight ahead.

  “Shay?” Gish crossed the spaced between them knelt in front of her. “Shay? Look at me. Please.”

  Shay made eye contact.

  “We will find her.”

  “Losing her will kill me,” Shay whispered.

  “You aren’t going to lose her.”

  “Angela, you know better than to make promises like that.”

  She looked away from Shay. “Yes, I do know better but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to say it anyway. If I say it out loud, maybe…”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Shay nodded her head. “What can I do now to help?”

  “Nothing. Stay put.”

  “Oh, you know I can’t—”

  “Yes you can, and you will. I am tasked with keeping you here and out of the way. Understand?”

  †

  Talia’s sobs grew faster, more intense. “No. You’re crazy. You’re making all of this up.”

  “Yeah? Just ask your cop buddies about the matchbook shoved down the throat of the one I thought was you. Oh, wait, you can’t ask them because you are dead.” He pressed the knife against her neck and she gasped.

  “Please don’t.”

  “Should I slit your throat like the others? Or should I gut you? Yeah, I could cut you from one end to the other—gut you like an animal. Wouldn’t that be something for Brian to see?”

  “Please—”

  “I’d like to gut your dyke girlfriend as well. I should have taken care of her after we left the parkway that night she got the drop on me. But I’ll let Brian have her.”

  Talia jumped when the door to the shed exploded. Brian stood among the splintered wood with a pistol raised and pointed at Jeffrey. “You really shouldn’t have messed with my sister, dude,” Brian said, pulling the trigger and shooting Jeffrey twice in the chest.

  Talia sat, motionless, still tied to the chair, horrified as she stared at Jeffrey’s still twitching body and terrified of what her brother might do.

  “Tali-ho! Look at you, sis, you don’t look so great.”

  “Brian—”

  “Surprise! You can thank me later.” He bent over to untie her ankles then paused before untying her hands. “Behave. I don’t want to have to hurt you, but I will.”

  She nodded her head. “How did you find me?”

  “Jeff and I used to hang out here back in the good old days when we moved some pretty good quantities of pot and coke.” He studied her. “Have you learned to drive a stick since I’ve been gone?”

  “What? No.”

  “Too bad. My new girlfriend up in New York let me borrow her car but it’s a stick. Where are the keys to that truck?”

  “In his pocket.” She nodded her head toward Jeffrey’s bloodied body.

  “Get them.”

  She only hesitated a moment, then went through Jeffrey’s pockets until she found her truck keys.

  “Where’s the Honda? I can’t believe you don’t have my Honda.” His voice was whiny and he gave her a look of disgust. “Let’s go.” He gestured toward the splintered door with the gun. “Come on.”

  †

  As Talia drove her truck along Route 17 she glanced at the gun resting on her brother’s lap. They passed her usual Exxon station then passed her Taco Bell. They passed, and were passed by, dozens of cars, all with people oblivious to what was happening in the nondescript Ford Ranger.

  “I am dead serious, Tali. You take me to your girlfriend now or I will kill you and still find her. I promise I will kill her gently, but if you fuck this up for me, when I do kill her, it will be torturous for her. Understand?”

  She nodded her head. “Yeah, I understand,” she whispered. “Why are you doing this?”

  “She has ruined you and she needs to pay for that,” Brian said, his manner very matter-of-fact.

  “She hasn’t ruined—”

  “Shut up,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re a fucking dyke.”

  “Why does that bother you so much? I don’t understand. Who I sleep with doesn’t hurt you in any way.”

  “Shut up!” He raised his fist as if to strike her, but then lowered it into his lap, resting his clenched hand by the one holding the gun.

  Talia felt tears burn her cheeks.

  “Do you remember Jodie Summers?” Brian asked.

  “Jodie Summers? Didn’t she move away when you were in the sixth grade?”

  “I was madly in love with Jodie. Do you know why they moved away?” He didn’t wait for her to answer the question. “Jodie’s mom turned into a dyke and hooked up with this—this—thing named Mary Beth. I asked Jodie if we could still go steady after she moved and she told me no, that she couldn’t be my girlfriend because she was going to be a lesbian just like her mom.”

  “She was a kid and probably didn’t even know what that meant. Not that it should matter. It’s none of anyone’s business if Jodie and her mom were lesbians,” Talia said.

  “I should find them and
see if Jodie did turn into a lesbian.”

  “And then do what, Brian?”

  “Kill her, of course.” He shot her a look of disgust. “And don’t think for a moment that I won’t kill you just because you’re my sister.”

  She turned to look at him then.

  “Besides, if you do as you’re told and bring me to Shay, not only will I let you live but I will reward you.” When she didn’t respond to that, he went on. “Take me to your girlfriend and I will tell you the truth about what happened to Dad.”

  She gasped.

  “If you don’t behave, you will never know the truth. I know how much you want to know if you let him die that day.”

  “What?”

  “Drive. Behave. Then you’ll know.”

  When she glanced in the rearview mirror, a dark sedan caught her eye. She had seen so many of the agents’ cars that she immediately recognized it as one. She looked away quickly, not wanting to draw Brian’s attention to the car tailing them.

  She looked over at her brother and his smile sent a chill right through her.

  He nodded toward the gun in his lap. “You will behave, right?”

  “Yes, Brian, I will behave,” she answered.

  “I will not hesitate to kill you, relative or not.” He sat in silence for several minutes then said, “Oh, the suspense must be killing you.” He laughed. “I will give you an early reward and tell you about Dad so that you don’t think for even a moment that I won’t kill you if you don’t do as I say.”

  She struggled to swallow past the boulder that had formed in her throat.

  “Oh, little sister, Dad was so pissed at you. He was talking about sending you away and I told him he would regret it, but he blew me off. So I spiked his morning coffee and waited for him to get into the bath. Once the sleeping pills kicked in, it took no effort at all to hold him under the water.”

  Her stomach roiled. Brian had drugged their father, and then drowned him. He was a monster even back then. How did she not see that? What in the hell did it say about her that she couldn’t see what a dangerous person her brother was? Her chest ached. She felt like her heart would implode right then and there.

  “And then I saw you go into the bathroom. When you went back to bed without saying a word, I was so proud of you. I can guess you have felt guilt over that for years. You feel guilt because you are weak.”

  She stared straight ahead. Apparently he could have killed any one of them at any time. She thought about the blackberries. When she was quite young she loved blackberries. They grew all over the neighborhood, a briar patch here, a patch there and she could eat them by the quart. Until the day Brian had brought her to a patch down the road and showed her how the leaves looked different—hell, she didn’t know one leaf from another—and explained to her that those berries were poisonous. Then he lowered his voice and told her he’d seen their mother picking them and he figured she was going to try to poison them. It was ten years before Talia could eat blackberries again. It took her friend, Debbie, laughing at her when Talia had mentioned the poisonous form of the berries to drive Talia to the library to search for the truth. She never told Brian she knew and she never let him see her eat the berries.

  “So, that is my present to you. The truth. The bastard was gone long before you stumbled upon his dead ass in the tub.” He looked at her. “Now, get on 134.”

  She merged easily onto the ramp that would lead them to the road that would take them to the interstate. She noted the Dairy Queen closed for the winter and glanced again in the mirror and was relieved when she saw the sedan was still behind them. It appeared that an unmarked county car had also fallen into line. Her heart started pounding.

  “Is this the fastest this crap truck can move?” Brian asked.

  She accelerated slightly. Then it occurred to her that she really didn’t want to get onto the interstate. The idea of taking him one step closer to where Shay lived almost overwhelmed her. Making up her mind, she glanced one last time in the mirror, trying to will the agent in the sedan to read her mind. She focused on a tree on the right side of the road, jerked the wheel sharply, and ran the truck into that tree. She’d braced herself, but still felt the pain of impact. She could see Brian lurch forward, hitting the windshield.

  The impact of her chest with the steering wheel made her breaths painful, but she ignored that and pushed open the truck’s door. She ran as fast as she could toward the nearest driveway.

  Behind her, a dozen voices were yelling at Brian to drop the gun.

  Talia tripped and fell to the ground then scrambled on her hands and knees across the gravel shoulder of the road, only half aware of the little rocks cutting into the palms of her hands.

  “Tali!” Brian called out.

  She couldn’t stop herself from looking back at him and was amazed to see the number of police cars that had seemingly come out of nowhere.

  Brian stood outside of the truck, blood running down the side of his face. He leveled the gun at her. “I love you to death, kiddo.”

  She saw the decision in his eyes a split second before realizing he’d pulled the trigger. Pain exploded in her shoulder and, as she was thrown backward by the force of the bullet, she saw Brian jerk and contort as a barrage of bullets hit him.

  †

  Shay squeezed Talia’s hand when she opened her eyes. “Hey, look who’s awake.”

  “Hi,” Talia said, her voice raspy. She tried to sit up. “Ouch,” she said before settling back on the bed.

  “The doctor said the surgery went great. Your shoulder should heal fine and be as good as new.” She studied Talia’s face, wondering how long it would take for her to ask about her brother.

  “I’m starving.”

  “Want me to see if the nurse will bring you some ice chips or Jell-O?”

  “How about some Taco Bell?” Talia asked.

  “I don’t think that will go over so well yet.” She leaned closer. “I’m so glad you are okay.”

  Talia smiled. “I’ll believe you when you sneak in a burrito for me, or, better yet, kiss me.”

  Now Shay smiled. “I can definitely do the kiss thing.” She leaned into Talia and kissed her gently on the lips.

  The next morning, Shay was back at Talia’s side when she awoke. “Still here?” Talia whispered.

  “Where else would I be?” Shay asked.

  “The FBI will want my statement,” Talia said.

  “When you’re ready.”

  “Can you get me some paper and a pen?” Talia asked. “I keep thinking about a poem I want to write before it disappears.”

  “Sure.” Shay went out into the hallway and returned with pen and paper. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” Talia tucked it beside her leg, then turned to Shay. “So, Shay? I was wondering…”

  Shay knew the question before it was asked.

  “Did Brian survive?”

  “No, Talia. No, he didn’t.” Shay thought about saying she was sorry, but that would have been a lie and she couldn’t lie to Talia and expect the truth from her in return.

  “He killed my father,” Talia said. “That’s all I want to ever say about it. But there it is. Probably the only truthful thing Brian has ever said to me.”

  “I’m sorry, Talia. I’m sorry about your father and all the guilt you had to endure over the years. All for nothing.” Shay forced herself to stop talking. It wouldn’t help Talia for Shay to get angry.

  Shay walked to the window as Talia jotted down some words. She wanted to give Talia some privacy while writing. She stared down into the parking lot and was almost overtaken by emotion at the thought of how badly things could have turned out. She forced those thoughts away.

  “Shay, will you come back?” Talia asked. Talia handed her the paper.

  “May I read it?” Shay asked.

  “Yes.” Talia turned slightly away then.

  Shay read out loud, in a whisper:

  “Defined by the other,

  seaso
ned to embrace that life.

  Lizard’s tongue tasting the lies in the air.

  But love empowers, so I dart away,

  leaving behind my tail

  with the tar-blisters and thorns.

  I take with me only

  the blackberries,

  honeysuckle,

  and your vanilla.”

  Shay swiped at a tear as Talia turned back to look at her. “I love it.”

  Talia squeezed Shay’s hand. She was quiet for several minutes before she spoke. “I can trust so few memories from growing up. There is what I think happened, what Brian said happened, and what really did happen. But once it’s been colored with lies it’s almost impossible to know the truth,” Talia said.

  Shay nodded and leaned closer. “There is one truth I want you to know always. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Talia responded. “And no words out of my mouth have ever been more honest than that.”

  Author’s Afterword

  I graduated from York High School in 1982. While in high school, I spent my share of time on the Colonial Parkway, parking and partying. By 1983 I had come out and was mostly hanging out in Norfolk, enjoying the lesbian scene there.

  In October of 1986, the bodies of Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Ann Dowski were found in Thomas’s Honda Civic on the Colonial Parkway. The women had been brutally murdered. Their throats were slashed and there was evidence of strangulation and ligature marks. They were the first of four double-murders in what would become known as the Colonial Parkway Murders, even though only four of the eight murders presumably occurred on the actual parkway.

  In September of 1987, David Knobling and Robin Edwards were found murdered in the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge. David’s truck was found first then days later, their bodies. They had been shot.

  Then on April 9, 1988, the other event on the parkway occurred. Richard “Keith” Call’s car was found abandoned on the parkway. Both his driver’s door and glove box were open. Personal items were found in the car, but there was no sign of Call or his passenger. Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey were missing. Never found, they are presumed dead.