by Tim Kizer
He pulled the spray can out of his pocket, put it into the microwave oven, set the timer, and scanned the kitchen windows, checking if there were any gaps through which gas could escape. He was satisfied by the results of the examination: no gaps. He quickly turned on all the knobs on the stove, except for the oven knob since he had no idea how to find and kill the oven pilot light. He nodded with a pleased expression on his face and walked out of the kitchen.
Jane would turn into a charred piece of flesh, and the traces of his prank would be concealed from other people's eyes. Everyone would think that the old woman had either had a senile moment and forgotten how to use a gas range, or decided to kill herself after realizing that life was not worth living without her beloved husband. The latter, by the way, was a plausible possibility: he had chatted with Jane at George’s funeral and knew how devastated she had been by her husband’s death.
“George, my love! I'm coming to you!” Jane shouted and struck the match.
He shut the kitchen door behind him and headed to the front hall.
9.
He parked six hundred feet away from Jane’s house in order to see with his own eyes that the microwave did the job he’d assigned to it. Fifty six minutes after the gas had begun to come out of the burners, a deafening explosion shattered the silence of the night. A second later, giant, bright orange paws of fire broke out of the kitchen windows, spraying pieces of glass in every direction.
Chapter 5.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
1.
She said her name was Marilyn Hancock, and judging by the familiarity this woman was treating him with, he was supposed to have known for quite a while. Unfortunately, her name was buried under the boulders of amnesia along with the dozens of others.
Marilyn Hancock.
For a moment, Frank was tempted to ask if she was related to John Hancock, the founding father, but elected not to do it for fear of sounding lame.
“Who are you?” he asked. He couldn’t help noting that she was quite attractive. Her perfume was exquisite.
Who was Marilyn Hancock?
Another relative?
The woman took his right hand and squeezed it lightly. Josephine had squeezed his hand, too, when she had first visited him, by the way.
It’s the wrong time to waste your mental energy on Josephine, buddy.
“Frank, you... you don’t remember me?” asked the woman. Frank nodded. She appeared genuinely surprised. For some reason, she was convinced that she was too important to be forgotten. Frank couldn’t wait to find out why.
“Are you my sister?” he asked. The woman shook her head. There was no astonishment in her beautiful eyes anymore. She looked content now.
Could she be another relative of Kelly’s? His wife turned out to have quite a large family, most of whom, it seemed, couldn’t wait to visit him in the hospital: Kelly’s brother Albert and cousin Graham had come to say hello earlier today. Frank was somewhat amused that Graham had showed up in his cop uniform: who was he trying to impress? Honestly, this attention had begun to make him feel like an exotic animal at the zoo.
By the way, none of these guys was missing a leg, which, for some reason, had been one of the first things Frank’s mind had registered when they had entered the room.
Marilyn Hancock... No, the name still did not ring a bell.
The woman smiled. She was definitely happy about something.
“I thought that...” She paused. “I thought that it was much more worse. I’m so glad you are okay.”
“Yes, I’m okay. Now tell me who you are, Marilyn Hancock. I’m going to guess that you are my friend, a very close friend.”
The woman nodded, leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek. As her lips touched his skin, Frank inhaled deeply through his nose to relish the sweetness of her perfume.
“You really don’t remember me, Frank? We’ve known each other for more than a year.”
More than a year. It is a long time. No wonder she’s surprised you can’t remember her, pal.
“Are you my best friend? My neighbor?”
“Frank, we are more than friends. We’re lovers.”
Marilyn gently touched his right leg, as if making sure that it had not been amputated after the car crash.
“What do you mean, Marilyn?” Frank cracked a weak smile. “Did we sleep together?”
“Do you have any trouble moving your legs?” the woman asked, ignoring his question.
“My legs are fine.” He got off the bed and marched to the wall and back.
Hot damn, what an interesting twist! They were lovers. Unless Marilyn was making it up, which sounded ridiculous: what would her motive be to pretend to be his lover? A fortune that he didn’t have?
“What happened to your memory, Frank? I want to know everything.”
2.
Soon after Marilyn Hancock had left, Frank recovered from the astonishment caused by the fact that he had a mistress—he had honestly not expected this from himself—and did a quick review of his situation. According to his estimates, amnesia had swallowed the last six years of his life. He still remembered making a senior manager at Shapiro Bender Winkler, the public accounting firm he had joined about ten years ago. Frank was curious how close he had gotten to making a partner. And he would also have to relearn the intricacies of the office politics at the firm, by the way. And refresh his memory on the latest developments in corporate tax.
However, he didn’t remember marrying Kelly, or meeting her for the first time. He had no recollection of anyone in her family either. He could sit next to his father-in-law without realizing it.
His brother Andrew, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, had told him that their father had died five years ago and their mother had passed away a year later. Frank remembered none of these events; the relentless black hole of amnesia had devoured them. He had also found out that Kathy had been born three and half years ago. Frank was wondering how long it would take him to get used to the idea of being a dad.
Frank had been planning to ask Josephine to bring Kelly and Kathy to the hospital, but had forgotten to do it when he had last spoken to her. He simply felt no urgency to meet his wife and daughter, and why would he? He had to learn to care about them first to be able to miss them.
Or maybe there is another explanation to this apathy towards your family, buddy? You are cheating on your wife, aren’t you? In some circles, it’s a big deal.
Yes, that was true; it looked like he was cheating on Kelly. Frank wanted to ask Marilyn about the details of their romance—how they had met, how often they had sex and where, what plans they were making for the future—but encouraged her to leave, fearing that Josephine would suspect foul play if she caught him chatting with an attractive young woman.
“See you soon, Frank,” Marilyn said before taking off. He nodded silently, with a smile, in response.
But what about Kelly, pal? You are a shameless bastard, Frank Fowler. How can you cheat on a mother of your child? How could you have broken the vows you’ve made to your wife?
Well, what kind of wife was Kelly if she hadn’t bothered to visit him in the hospital even once? He could have died in that car crash, you know. What the hell had she been so busy doing? Getting manicures at a spa?
3.
It turned out to be a smart decision to postpone the walk down memory lane with Marilyn. Josephine showed up two hours after Missis Hancock had left. She had come to tell Frank the terrible news. She hesitated for a while, gathering the courage to pronounce the words that she had probably repeated in her mind many times before entering his room.
“I know you will find out about it sooner or later. So let me be the one who breaks this news to you.” Josephine breathed a silent sigh, looking fixedly in his eyes. “My heart bleeds every time I think about it.” An intense pause. “Kelly’s gone missing, Frank. We don’t know where she is.” Josephine bit her lower lip, fighting tears.
His wife had gone missing. And he w
as embarrassed to admit that he was unable to feel shocked or sad since she had fallen through the cracks in his memory. No, there was no genuine sadness. He might have to fake it for the time being.
Kelly was missing. As this thought sank in his mind, Frank asked:
“When?”
Did he appear heartless to Josephine? After all, he had not burst out crying while clinging to Josephine’s chest and shouting hysterically, “How? Why? Why!”
“She went missing a week ago. That’s the last time we saw her.” Josephine knitted her brows. “It’s horrible, Frank. Just horrible! We hoped she would come back, but it’s been a whole week already and we still haven’t heard from her. We don’t know what to do.”
She fell silent. As Frank frowned in an attempt to look grim, an involuntary thought rushed through his mind: had Kelly eloped with a neighbor? He hated himself right now for having to fight off the unwanted smile that had started forming on his face.
Kelly eloped with a lover? And took their daughter with her? Kelly’s boyfriend must be madly in love with her, if he had agreed to adopt Kathy.
“What about Kathy?” Frank asked.
Why would Kelly have flushed her vows down the toilet and gone on this ridiculous adventure? Was he bad in bed? Impotent? Too ugly to her? Her relatives seemed to love him, what problem could she possibly have with him?
“Kathy... She—” Josephine’s voice trembled. “She is missing, too. She disappeared last November.”
Frank shut his eyes and peered into his heart to find out how he felt about this news. Kathy had gone missing. She was not with Kelly and her hypothetical lover. His little girl had vanished almost half a year ago.
You should admit, buddy, that this thing is very, very serious. Kathy couldn’t have run away with a neighbor if for no other reason than she was only three years old at the time. Yes, she certainly didn’t elope. And you also have to admit that she is most likely dead. Or you could bury your head in the sand, of course, and convince yourself she is safe and sound somewhere in the Wonderland.
Some psycho had kidnapped Kathy, raped her—you know how many maniac rapists are out there—strangled her, and then tossed the dead body in Lake Erie.
“Are the police looking for them?” he muttered. “What do they think happened to Kathy?”
Josephine bitterly pursed her lips for a few seconds and answered, “They say they are looking for them. What else are they going to say? But there have been no results so far. Kathy’s been missing for six months now. Six months!”
“Do they believe Kathy’s still alive?”
Josephine shrugged her shoulders.
It was certainly a dumb question: if the police had lost all hope of finding Kathy alive, a considerate person like Josephine wouldn’t have dared to tell him the truth. On the other hand, she had informed him of his wife and daughter having gone missing, right?
“Right now we have to be focused on finding Kelly,” said Josephine. “It’s been nine days, and we’ve got no idea of what could have happened to her.” Josephine covered her eyes with her palms and uttered a sob.
Kathy was kidnapped by a pervert, Kelly ran away with a lover, and the question is: why are you, Frank Fowler, so quiet and imperturbable? Actually, for all you know, your wife might have fallen victim to the same maniac rapist that throttled your daughter. Kelly eloping with a neighbor must be the most implausible explanation of her disappearance there is, buddy. It shouldn’t be so hard to admit the truth to yourself, should it, pal?
And what was the truth?
Seriously, why was he so tranquil as if nothing had happened? He hadn’t even shed a few tears just for the sake of preserving his good reputation with his Josephine.
What was the truth about Kelly’s vanishing?
He had nothing to do with it, had he?
“This is terrible,” said Frank in a low voice. He cleared his throat. “Do you have any theories about where Kelly could be?”
“We thought you might have one. We’ve been hoping you’ll give us some clues, Frank.” Josephine stared at Frank with pity. Obviously, she assumed she had staggered him with the harsh news about Kelly and Kathy. “It’s so terrible! So terrible!” She shook her head in anguish. “It must be so painful for you to even think about it. Poor Kathy. Poor Kelly. We believe in you, Frank. I’m sure you can help us find her.”
Poor Kathy... Poor Kelly...
They had been hoping he’d give them some clues. Who the hell were ‘they?’
“I’m shocked. I don’t know what to say,” Frank said and shut his eyes. He thanked God for having deprived him of his memories about the last six years of his life.
4.
When she was about to leave, Josephine asked, looking at him tensely, “Do you have any idea what happened to Kelly?”
End of sample
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