by Jared Paul
It was a well known fact that often when Collie got a visitor to her narrow streets, that more often than not, they stopped in by Barrel’s gas station looking for a deal only to be told that the man could barely tell the difference between gas and water let alone have it stored out in the tanks out front for sale.
Barrel, his round and wrinkled body squinching up as he shrugged, replied, “Alls I know is that old Pearson heard some screaming round back near her place last night but thought it was just a couple of the youngins having themselves a good time.” He smiled. “Not much to do here but listen to other people having fun, you know?” As he finished his last sentence, he lit a hand rolled cigarette and took a long drag from it, his beard parted to make way for it.
“Did Mrs. Pearson see anyone in particular, anyone we could question?” Rebecca asked. She had been staring at Barrel as if he was something to be afraid of, as if she might catch a disease from him. Louis couldn’t blame her for the reaction, particularly since Rebecca hadn’t been born and raised in Collie and couldn’t know that Barrel was just as much a fixture in Collie as the street lights.
“Little lady, if she saw anything she’d had to have coke bottles fixed to her eyes. The poor old gal is blind, like skinny fellow in love with a plump, one-legged beauty queen.” He paused a moment, pulled his cigarette from his mouth and whistled. “Good lord, sweetheart, you’re good for the soul.”
Louis coughed into his hand. It was either that, or let Rebecca fly with what she was about to retort to Barrel. Apparently wolf whistles offended her. “Is that all you have for us Barrel?”
“Last night was kinda slow for the ears, Deputy Kale. If I hear anything more, you’ll be the first to know ‘bout it, promise.”
Louis dipped into the pocket of his uniform pants and pulled out a twenty dollar bill he’d set aside just for Barrel. After he’d handed the man the money, Barrel tipped a pretend hat his way and flicked his cigarette. He nodded in Barrel’s direction to return the gesture and headed for the cruiser.
“Is that how it always goes? You just gave him twenty dollars for information about two kids having sex.”
Before he got into the cruiser, Louis said, “Nothing is as it seems in Collie. Barrel never says what he means to say. If Mrs. Pearson saw something, I’d wager it was more than a couple of amorous adolescents discovering the birds and bees.”
********
“This place is scary, and not in the horror movie kind of way but in the I might get tetanus kind of way. I don‘t think I‘ll ever get the grim off of my skin. How in the world can anyone live like this?”
Louis chuckled as the moved past Old Pearson’s hoarded out back yard and set to make their way to what looked like an abandoned home just at the edge of property. It was hard to imagine that anyone could have dragged a man through the stacks of junk that surrounded them like vultures looking down waiting to devour them, let alone how Mrs. Pearson would have seen anything through it. The stuff she’d collected for the majority of her eighty-nine years had last seen new before he’d even existed.
“I doubt highly that anyone was murdered back here. Who in their right mind would go back here willingly?”
Louis looked at Rebecca, saw how her hair shone in the light, how her perfectly her body swayed as she walked and thought that if someone like her had asked him back here on the promise of greater things to come that he would have been most willing. He opened his mouth to tell her his reflection but closed it as he thought the comment might not be appropriate. Still, it had a sort of logic to it and therefore, compelled him to keep going. If anything, they could discount the place and call it a loss and look for another lead.
Louis held up his hand as they came to the broken door of the old house and said, “Let me go in first, all right?”
“Don’t patronize me.”
Louis faced her and raised an eyebrow. “Darlin, I couldn’t care less about who goes in there first. I have you out here in case there’s some deranged hillbilly in there with a shotgun. If I get my ass blown off, I’ll rest better as I bleed to death knowing you’re out here to call for back up, got it?”
Not bothering to wait for her answer, even though he knew it would have amused him, Louis stepped through the broken door of the house, surprised that it hadn’t fallen apart when he’d touched it to move it out of his way.
As soon as he was inside, he didn’t need his eyes to let him know that something horrific had taken place inside. For one thing, the place reeked, the smell reminiscent of hot garbage and fish guts, and even when he put a hand to his face to prevent himself from gagging on the smell he couldn’t manage to keep the putrid stink out of his nostrils.
Since it was dark in the house due to lack of windows to allow sunlight, the most he could do was to shine his job issued pen light on his surroundings. What the light illuminated was more than he knew he could handle.
Body parts, more than he could count, littered the one roomed home, thrown haphazardly in the same fashion as the man out in the dirt. The mangled bodies of the victims; two to be certain of if you counted the separate torsos; one male and one female, were not recognizable as once having been people. Their faces had been brutally smashed in with a blunt object.
“Oh, God.”
********
“I’ve never seen murders with this much anger behind it. As long as I’ve been working as an examiner, I’ve not seen anything like this. And why the ring fingers? What significance does that have?”
Louis watched as Jon Harper shook his head. Jon’s face, though scrunched in concentration and worry, was handsome to most women’s standards as it was cut in severe angles that made the man look as if he had once been a statue and was granted life.
Jon looked to his wife, the lovely and now happily married Cory Harper, and replied, “I have no idea why someone would sever a ring finger and then cart it home as if it was a prize from Chuck-E-Cheese. All I can get into my brain right now is how badly we need to catch this s.o.b. before he decides to chop up another one of Collie’s citizens.
Is there anything you can tell us?”
Louis watched Cory shrug, her pretty hair falling from around her shoulders to rest at her back. It was a strange time to think how Jon had it made with his wife and how happy they were together, but even as they discussed the victims, he had to think about it. Had he been happy with Reyna? Their relationship had been undefined at best, and at worst, she’d been a friend he liked to be sweet on.
“With so much carnage, I didn’t manage to find much of anything, though I can tell you that the two victims you found this afternoon were killed at least a full twenty-four hours prior to the man you found out near the highway. That, and from the blood samples you gave me, I can tell you that your first victim wasn’t murdered in that house.”
Jon folded his arms to his chest and frowned so deeply that his frown had a frown. “The mayor is going to be breathing down my spine, and if he hasn’t called in the auxiliary, he’s going to notify the FBI.”
Louis scoffed, his head clearing from the thoughts he had been entertaining. “Are you kidding? The FBI didn’t bother to visit us the last time we had a serial killer, what makes you think they’re going to this time?”
********
Louis couldn’t remember the last time he felt so tired from a shift, and after a shower that took him nearly two hours to get through, he dragged himself to his living room so that he could vegetate on his sofa and fall into a coma.
If the day had been any indication of what was going to come, he knew that sleep was something he was going to need in spades. He tried not to remind himself that this was just such an occasion where Travis would have come in handy. As soon as he had the thought, he jingled the handle of his mental toilet and let it disappear down the drain. Travis was gone, apparently for a good reason, and there wasn’t a thing that was going to change the fact.
The image of Rebecca flitted into his mind and he did an equally decent job of flushi
ng her out as well. All day she’d made comments about how well they’d look together and how much she was beginning to like him. The idea of subtlety was foreign to her, as well as the fact that he didn’t nearly return her level of flirting; especially as most of her remarks had been done on a job where three people hadn’t even had the decency to be butchered like animals. Either the woman didn’t have a single ounce of sympathy for the victims, or she was lonely of the kind of caliber that called for that kind of naked desperation. While flattering, he didn’t find it attractive, in fact he was beginning to think the woman was attractive only in appearance.
Even before his eyes could close, before the television could lull him to a much needed REM cycle, the knock at his door jarred him from his relaxation and induced a stream of silent swearing that would have made his grandmother faint.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, but get the hell off of my lawn and leave me alone!” A few other choice phrases wanted to escape him, but irritation didn’t call for that kind of language. He closed his eyes, thinking that he’d handled his unknown visitor when there was another knock at the door.
“Louis? Are you there?”
He swore, even though he knew the voice on the other side of the door. He swore because he knew if he wasn’t so tired that he would have never yelled at a woman. His father had been an abusive lowlife alcoholic and once his mother had the sense enough to leave the bastard, he’d been taught since he could understand the meaning that women were to be respected; especially when they inspired you to spout expletives.
Louis lifted himself from his sofa as if he weighed a million tons and he dragged himself to his front door. When he had it open and he saw Reyna’s face, the ache in his muscles seemed to vanish. Her eyes were red and swollen with tears.
CHAPTER 22
………………………………..
Reyna didn’t know why she was at Louis’ apartment, though when she was standing outside of his door, her fist hitting the wood, she’d been unable to force herself to leave. In the five months they’d been close with each other, he’d become a reliable source of comfort to her, especially in the wake of Abby’s move. It had never felt odd to her that she’d traded her best friend for her friend’s boyfriend’s best friend. In fact, any man that Abby deemed worthy to love had to be a good man, and good men chose the same kind of stock to run with. The logic was sound.
Louis’ face as he looked at her as he’d opened his door was like having the ability to break through the surface of a lake and finally take that life-saving breath. Without considering how much of a jerk he thought he was, or how much of an inconsiderate two-time jackass he was, she flung herself at him and cried.
As she felt herself being pulled into his apartment, she heard Louis whisper, “Come on, calm down. Are you hurt?”
Louis had done a good job of directing her where he wanted to go and as soon as she felt his couch touch the back of her knees, she sat down and let her entire body rest against him. She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath which she let out slowly. Once she felt calm, she said, “Mrs. Buttleby died tonight. I got the call from Trudy half an hour ago; even though my shift had ended at five.”
Reyna felt Louis close his arms around her and squeeze her gently. He said softly, “I know how much you cared about her and I’m so sorry she’d gone, Reyna.”
Reyna nodded against him and once Louis dropped his arms, she sat up away from him and let her eyes find his. She said, “Thank you.”
“Reyna, I’m”
Reyna sighed. She wasn’t surprised that Louis would choose an opportunity like this to talk to her about other emotional topics, and she held up a hand to stop him. “Not tonight, okay? I know, just leave it at that. I just need to be with someone right now, and you’re the only person I have.”
Louis chuckled and placed his arm around her to then force her to lean with him backward so that they sunk into the back of the sofa. “So, do you want to watch a movie? I have popcorn. We can sit here and just be here together. Believe it or not, my day was a little tough too.”
Reyna had the chance, now that her eyes weren’t full of tears, to see how very red Louis’ eyes were. He looked as if he’d been awake for a week and then run over by a truck. She felt instantly guilty. For one thing, she knew Louis would sacrifice his own comfort for her sake; it was the kind of man he was.
“I shouldn’t stay. You look like you’ll slip into a coma at any moment, Louis. How is it fair to keep you awake; it’s selfish.”
Louis shook his head. “I’d rather have my eyeballs battered and fried and then fed to me before I turn you out because of some trivial thing as needing to sleep.” He smiled and then ever so gently placed a kiss on her cheek.
Reyna stiffened and moved out of Louis’ reach. It wasn’t so much the kiss, as it was that she didn’t think the way that things were between them could allow for physical contact. There was still a lot of things that they needed to sort through, things that she couldn’t bring herself to talk about at the moment.
“I really should leave, Louis.”
“Nothing happened between me and Rebecca, Reyna. She’s my partner, that’s all it is. I had a little too much to drink, I made a bad choice. It doesn’t look good, and I can see why you were so upset, but I never cheated on you.”
Reyna closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it, Louis. You know how much my patients mean to me; it’s all that my mind can deal with.”
Reyna watched as Louis ran a hand through his hair. When he lifted his eyes to hers, the grey of them seemed to be stormier than normal. If she didn’t know better, she could swear his eyes were the windows into a rainstorm.
“Reyna, what do you want me to do? Tell me what you want from me, and I’ll do my best to give it to you. You want me to comfort you, I’ll do that. You want me to say I’m sorry, I’ll do that too.” He sighed again and then added, “I am what I am, Reyna. You’re the first person I’ve met that made me want to try to be something different. I want to try.”
Reyna knew she was staring right at him, hearing him but not hearing him. She was thinking about how they met. It had been literally the day Abigail left, at the going away party they’d thrown. She’d see Louis before, of course, but the party had been the first time she’d ever talked to him. She’d instantly discovered that she liked him, found him charming even as he’d tried to pinch her rear and make a beeline with his eyes to her breasts. After the party, and after Abby and Travis were gone, she’d allowed Louis to cling to her and vice versa, so that a relationship could form in the place of the ones that had been altered.
She knew that she cared about him, knew that she loved him, but she didn’t know if it was enough. Louis could say that he wanted to be different, that he wanted to stop chasing women, and he might even be sincere when he said it, but there was still something in their way. They’d only come together, mentally and physically, because of the changes they’d had to absorb.
Reyna lifted herself from Louis’ sofa, offered him a sad smile, and said, “I’m going to go home now.”
“Reyna”
“Don’t Louis. Just let me go for now.”
Reyna didn’t look back as she opened Louis’ front door and walked through the frame and then out to her car. She was just about to open the driver’s side door when she felt arms wrap around her.
“Did you think I was going to let you walk away without a fight? Give me a chance, Reyna. I think I might love you.”
Reyna felt her eyes go wide and her hands fall from the car door. She knew for a fact, since he’d boasted with pride that he’d never said the ‘L’ word to a woman, that it cost Louis to confess to her.
She turned to face him. “Do you mean it, Louis?”
The storm in Louis’ eyes evolved so that lightning struck in his pupils. “Yes. I don’t know what it means, or what to do, but yes. You do too, don’t you?”
“Yes.” The admission sounded weak. She hadn’t ima
gined it the moment they told each other they were in love would look like this. She exhaled and then louder, “Yes, Louis. I love you too.”
CHAPTER 23
………………………………..
Louis opened his eyes, his body the most relaxed it had been in recent memory, and as he stretched, he had to smile when his arm ran into another body that rested as equally comfortable next to his. Reyna’s hair, scattered over her bare back was a sight to behold, and as much as he’d meant what he’d told her the night before, he meant it twice as much as he stared at her now. How could it be that he was able to look at other women when he had a goddess like Reyna that wanted him for the rest of his existence?
He hadn’t lied when he said he loved her. The word was foreign to him, and he wouldn’t go overboard saying it to her, but he’d been without her and felt her absence and as he’d not been able to think about much that didn’t include her, he knew it meant only one thing; it meant that finally, someone had come along and tamed him. It also meant that he owed Travis fifty dollars.
Louis leaned over to where Reyna’s head was turned, and as he kissed her on the cheek, she opened her eyes. They were still a bit puffy from the night before, but unlike the night before, she was calm and looking as if she’d won the prize of a lifetime. As she smiled at him, he whispered, “I have to get into work, but before that I’m going to run out for some coffee and bagels. Is that okay for breakfast?”
“Mmm hmm.”
Louis kissed her on the cheek again, glad that something in his life had been solved, and he said, “I won’t be gone long. Love you.”
********
Reyna wasn’t the best morning person who ever walked the face of planet Earth, even if she usually had to be at work bright and early and she should be a seasoned veteran. It took her normally a good hour or two after opening her eyes to get fully awake. When Louis had left the bed, kissing her cheek and whispering sentiments, she’d felt as if she was still asleep and dreaming. How had things changed so quickly for them? After all, this was The Louis Kale, the horn dog of Collie she was dating. His reputation wasn’t as infamous as Travis Harper’s but it was widely known around town that the two had been indistinguishable from one another since practically having discovered the opposite sex.
