Blood Red Winter: A Thriller

by J. Conrad

  That Friday was the 29th, which meant January was drawing to a close. The week had passed without any break-ins or shootings. My shift at the gas station was from 10:00 in the morning until 5:00, then I’d meet Kyle, Laney, and a couple of their friends at Chupacabra. Laney wouldn’t drink alcohol, but she could still eat with us and have a good time. It wasn’t often that she went on these outings.

  The owner of the Texaco station where I worked was named Luis Alvarez, but all the employees called him “Louie.” He wasn’t as laid back and likable as Tim Corbin, the rancher, but he was tolerable. Louie was tall and thin and wore a thick black mustache. He was ordinarily a man of few words and that was fine by me.

  Around 3:30, the store started picking up after a slow spell and Louie appeared from the stock area where he had been doing inventory. He handled some of the waiting customers at the other register while I got my own line caught up.

  “Trent,” he said in his heavy Spanish accent. “I forgot to tell you, your friend dropped something off for you. There, under the counter.”

  I rubbed my chin and peered at the shelves under the register. I was already skeptical. “Did he leave a name?”

  “Yes,” he said, pausing to think. “He said his name was Kyle.”

  I saw a white envelope with my name on it. I picked it up and turned it over. It was sealed. “Thanks. Do you happen to remember what he looked like?”

  Louie pulled at the edges of his mustache. “He was a tall white guy with a hat.”

  “Young?” I asked.

  “About your age,” Louie said.

  “Did you see his hair color?”

  “No, I couldn’t tell. He had on a baseball cap. Why, you worried about somebody?”

  “No,” I said. “I was just making sure it was him. Thanks.”

  “Sure.” He vanished into the storeroom with his clipboard.

  A “white guy about my age wearing a baseball cap” met Kyle’s description, but give me a break. Kyle would never drop off something at my work without telling me. I started to carefully tear open the envelope as my stomach found its way into its usual knot.

  I pulled out a blurry picture which had probably been printed from a smartphone photo. It was of a man and woman. The pixelation showed that the photo had been taken from a considerable distance, then poorly enlarged. The couple was hugging, with the woman’s back to the camera, and her long, dark hair and slim figure made me instantly think of Elizabeth. I could see a part of the man’s face: his right cheek, dark eyebrow and the corner of his mouth, which was pinched into a smile. Honestly, that guy could be me, but the background made me uncertain.

  I could see a portion of a small light blue building that reminded me of Amy’s Ice Creams on Congress. There wasn’t enough of it visible to be able to tell for sure. I couldn’t recall the two of us ever going there together. I only remembered the building because of its distinctive South Austin paint job. My mind was having trouble processing the image. Was this a photo of Elizabeth cheating on me? Who could have taken this?

  “Excuse me, sir.” I looked up to find a woman staring at me through her glasses.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I can check you out now.” I dropped a nickel as I rang up her items, I was so rattled. I picked it up, forced a smile and thanked her as I handed her the change. After she went on her way, I went back to staring at the photo.

  Louie was still in the back and the front of the store was empty again. I shook my head and swore under my breath. I felt like I should have some bright idea, but I lacked the understanding needed to spring it. I was expecting a death threat, coordinates to my next trap, or poison that would leech into my skin on contact with the paper. This didn’t fit. I turned the photo over.

  Who does her sins lament… Then see the sorrow of my heart, ere it be too late.

  It felt like I’d been hit in the chest with a lead pipe. I flipped the photo over again and looked at the woman. If only I could see her face. But that had to be Elizabeth. The hair seemed to be the exact length and color, and that was her body shape. It had to be her. Five o’clock couldn’t come fast enough.

  * * * * *

  At Chupacabra, Laney introduced me to another couple, her friends Shauna and Alex. Shauna was late twenties with short dark red hair, and Alex was probably my age. They seemed nice enough. I put on my best face and tried to relax and enjoy my Friday, at least for a short while. Two beers later, however, I couldn’t contain myself another minute and I followed Kyle into the men’s restroom. That was a first for me. As soon as we got through the door, I grabbed his arm.

  “Hey,” I said. “I have to tell you something. I think the guy is after Elizabeth.”

  Kyle’s face turned to stone. “What? The same guy? Are you sure?”

  “I can’t be exactly sure, but it has to be. Look at this.” I pulled out the envelope from my back pocket. I had folded it once to make it fit. I drew out the photo and handed it to Kyle. His eyes devouring it, he walked over to the sinks where the lighting was a little better.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Are you sure that’s Elizabeth? We can’t see her face.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Does she have a shirt like that? That blue one she’s wearing?” Kyle asked.

  “Oh man, I don’t know. She’s got like ten million shirts and lots of them are blue. That looks like her hair and her figure. Turn it over,” I said.

  He turned it over. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Tss, I don’t know, I mean I guess it’s some kind of threat. What if he’s going to kill her? Goddamn it, I don’t get it,” I said.

  Kyle turned the photo back over. “Who’s this guy in the photo? Is that you?”

  I don’t think so,” I said. “I thought it was too, but the background doesn’t fit. This must be the guy she was cheating on me with.”

  “But we don’t know that this is Elizabeth,” Kyle said. “And we don’t know she cheated.”

  “I know but… goddamn it!” was all I could say. I paced back and forth like a restless horse, my hand covering my mouth.

  “Okay. Okay,” Kyle said. “You’re freaking out, and I completely understand that. First of all, you can’t see enough in this picture to really know anything. But I think this guy is messing with you. I don’t think he’d hurt her, but this probably isn’t even her. He could have photo-shopped something he found on Facebook. You just don’t know.”

  “That’s the thing, I don’t know. What the hell am I going to do?”

  Kyle shook his head. “Did you make up?”

  “What?”

  “Did you and Elizabeth make up?” he asked.

  “No. God, she called and we had this fight. It was bad. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Okay. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to call the sheriff’s office and show them this,” Kyle said. “You don’t have to call 911, you call Reyes, and you give him Elizabeth’s description and address. You let the police protect her, you understand? You don’t try to be some vigilante going after him. You nearly got yourself killed doing that.” Kyle grabbed my shoulder and shook me with one hand. I was biting my lip, blankly staring at the wall. Kyle snapped, “Okay? You understand?”

  “Okay,” I said. I nodded, but he pulled his head back and stared at me hard.

  “Trent, she will be absolutely fine. The police will keep surveillance on her if they think she’s in danger. Go call Reyes now. You got his number?”

  “No, not anymore,” I said, fumbling as I put the photo inside the envelope and returned it to my back pocket. I had never bothered to call the sheriff’s office and get his number after his card disappeared from my wallet. “But I’ll call the main line and leave a message for him,” I said. As I was leaving the restroom, the next man coming in nearly smacked me in the face with the door.

  I tromped off to where my vehicle was parked, which was about a block and a half away. This trendy area of Austin wasn’t known for it’s gr
eat parking. Inside the quiet cabin of my truck I called the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office. I told the operator that I’d like Deputy Reyes to call me back regarding a possible threat against my fiancée (I was reluctant to call her that) and left Elizabeth’s name, address and mobile number.

  That being pretty unfruitful, I headed back to the bar. I walked along the sidewalk, threading through groups of college students. Under a flickering yellow lamp post, a group of hippies passed around a sweet-smelling herb. They seemed to have no attention on whether or not anyone saw. Stepping over an indiscernible food item on the concrete, I rounded the corner and arrived back at the entrance of Chupacabra. I weaved between more night-goers on my way to join my group at the table. As I came up to them, tossing around vague thoughts that if I switched to whiskey tonight I could always call a cab, I noticed there was an additional body at the table – a woman with long black hair.

  “Elizabeth!” I said. I couldn’t believe the sound of my voice. It divulged that I was glad to see her.

  “Hi Trent,” she said. She peered at me over the tall bar table under her dark eyelashes. The eyelashes fluttered over her round, white, terrified-to-see-me eyes. “I hope you don’t mind that I tagged along.”

  I glanced at Kyle and the blankness of his face told me he didn’t know a thing. Well, she was here and alive where I could see her, much preferable to her being missing or dead.

  “I don’t mind,” I said. “Glad you decided to come.”

  Elizabeth knew this was my usual haunt, so it was easy for her to find me on a Friday night. Laney grinned at us and squeezed Kyle’s arm. The other couple, Shauna and the guy whose name I already forgot, were picking at their chips and salsa and deciding which drinks to order next. I could see that an empty stool had already been placed next to Elizabeth, so I could sit beside her.

  Through the corner of my eye, I found myself taking in every little detail of Elizabeth’s appearance. I listened to her comments and watched her facial expressions while she spoke. What transpiration had provoked her showing up like this to make an effort? For sure something had changed, and despite how guarded and angry I still felt towards her – sometimes downright hateful – this change couldn’t have come at a better time. I actually started to relax. I started to enjoy my Friday night, despite all the reasons I shouldn’t.

  Eleven o’clock reared its head, and since we’re not the party-til-3-a.m. crowd, we said our farewells and made our separate ways. Elizabeth trotted after me in her tight jeans and long fleece coat with a fur neck line. Her loud, pointed-toe brown leather heels could probably be heard from Neches Street every time she put a foot down. She had this “going out” thing down pretty well. I let her come up beside me.

  “Trent,” she said, glancing at an empty bench. “Would it be okay if we just sat and talked for a minute? I don’t know when we’ll get a chance again.”

  Her words sounded eerily correct. “Sure. We can talk.” I sat down with her.

  She sniffed nervously and tossed the hair away from the front of her coat, where it had stuck to the fleece. She crossed her legs and turned to face me. There were people here and there along 6th Street, but for the most part we were alone. “I need to tell you something.” She took a deep breath. “It’s not easy, but I need to tell you that… You were right.”

  I stiffened. I wondered what game she was playing. Before I could respond, she spilled the rest.

  “Now before you get mad, let me tell you this: I didn’t sleep with anyone. But you were right. I started seeing someone, kind of casually as friends at first, and then it started to go further. We started to get more personal. No physical stuff, but too personal – it was like we were dating.”

  I remembered the movie ticket stubs I had found in the drawer.

  “It wasn’t appropriate,” Elizabeth continued. “I started thinking about what you said. I realized that when I found out about Mary, it really scared me, but it also gave me a reason to leave.”

  I rubbed my chin, considering what she was telling me. “What do you mean no physical stuff? You mean you just hung out with this guy?”

  Elizabeth nodded ruefully. “Right. But we hung out way too much. And we texted and called each other. It was more than friendship. There was flirting… Exchanging feelings. Stuff like that. It was cheating.”

  “But no physical stuff? No holding hands? Nothing?” It really grated my pride to think of Elizabeth with another man. It stung like a nail in an infected wound and the pain made me grit my teeth.

  “No, no physical stuff,” she said. “But there probably would have been if I hadn’t ended it.”

  I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. I was still pissed, but at least she had stopped the affair before it came to the point of no return. I nodded, letting her words soak in. A measure of disbelief at the timing of her confession made me shake my head as well. I didn’t believe in divine intervention, but it would be much easier to protect Elizabeth if we were together, or were at least speaking on a regular basis. For once the universe had handed me a lucky break. I guess there’s a first time for everything. “I have to say that I’m stunned.”

  “I know,” she said, her eyes dropping shamefully. “I’m really sorry, Trent. You didn’t deserve it and honestly, I don’t even know why I did it.”

  “No, I mean, I’m shocked that you came to tell me this. Impressed? I don’t know. It’s just not what I expected.”

  “Are you mad?” she asked.

  “Well, hell yeah I’m mad. I’d have to be dead inside not to be. But more than what you just told me, it’s the things that happened earlier. How you left me and I had no idea why. You wouldn’t return my phone calls and our relationship was just over. After years! With no explanation. I’d be crazy not to be mad. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not thrilled about the cheating thing – but I’m glad you told me. I wish you would have told me sooner.”

  She nodded. Her fingers were laced together in her lap. “I know. I completely understand. I’m really sorry. About all of it.”

  And I could tell that she was. “Okay,” I said. “I believe you.”

  This might be the perfect time to tell her about the threat against her life, to warn her. Then I realized if I showed her the photo, she might think I took it myself, that I had been spying on her. I’d need to wait until a later time, after I’d brought her up to speed on County Road 118 and all the insanity going on in my life. She’d be able to understand it better then. Like Kyle said, once I was able to give Reyes more details when he called back, Elizabeth would probably be put under police surveillance.

  “So,” she said, her voice more timid this time. “I also wanted to know if you’d like the ring back?”

  “No,” I said. “Why don’t you hang onto it. How about we talk about this some more, maybe tomorrow, or next week?”

  She blinked a few times with her heavy black lashes. “Oh. Oh! Yeah, that would be great.” It seemed to hit home that I might be willing to give her a chance. That her telling the truth might not have been the worst decision she ever made. “I have a new apartment that’s closer to work. I’d like you to see it. I think you’ll like it.”

  “Sure. Why don’t you call me when you get a minute,” I said.

  “I will. Thanks,” Elizabeth said. Her face flushed with relief, even in this cold.

  We got up from the bench and she smiled. She didn’t try to do anything stupid like throw herself at me, which was another plus. We said goodbye and I walked back to my truck alone. What an interesting turn in such a strange day.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  January 30th

  Saturday dawned mockingly sunny with a biting cold wind. The temperature had dropped into the thirties. I was glad to be off. Before getting out of bed, I checked the Statesman, but it yielded no more information on Aria Owen, or the case in general. Elizabeth was my priority now, no matter how messed up things had been between us or what she did. She had owned up to her mistakes and she
needed my help.

  Deputy Reyes had called me back after midnight on Saturday. True to my word, I told him only the parts I wanted concerning the photo and Elizabeth’s safety, leaving out my rendezvous at the old house all together. I gave him all of her information and he had me submit the photo to the sheriff’s office as evidence on Saturday morning. He also reminded me that waiting to tell Elizabeth about the possible threat against her life was not an option. I’d need to tell her everything, right away, as the police wouldn’t be able to keep her under constant surveillance. He was right.

  Reyes said that since she lived in Travis County, he would notify the Austin police department and they would enter her home and work locations into their regular patrol route. An officer would also stop by and meet Elizabeth and brief her on what to do.

  Before we hung up from that late night conversation, Deputy Reyes told me one more thing. From now on, anytime I acquired information, or something odd occurred but wasn’t an emergency, I was to get in touch with Detective Gerald Menard. The name sounded familiar, and it struck me that I had seen it in one of the news articles. Menard had taken up the County Road 118 case, and as I had a connection to it, I was now within his scope.

  I thought that 8:30 was plenty early enough to call Elizabeth on a Saturday morning, but when she picked up the phone I found that Reyes had already beat me to it.

  “Trent!” she said. Her voice trembled, and I got the idea that she was pacing the floor, clutching her cell with a death grip. “What the hell is going on? Someone from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office just called me. He said I might be in danger – that someone might have threatened me. What is this? Do you know anything?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “A lot has happened since you left. Why don’t I come over there and I’ll tell you everything.” Her apartment was a wiser meeting place than my house in the middle of nowhere.