True Confessions

by P. J. Trebelhorn

  Instead, he reached behind his back and pulled out a knife, its long blade covered in blood. Jessie’s heart lurched, and when he smiled at her, she understood why he knew Officer Mullins would not be coming to her rescue.

  *

  Lynn was on her way back to the house, still cursing herself for forgetting her wallet. She’d actually made it all the way to the store before realizing she didn’t have it. She pulled out her cell phone and decided to listen to her messages on the drive back. She was just hitting the keys with her password when a call came in. It was Karen.

  “Hey,” Lynn said as she pulled out of the store’s parking lot.

  “Jesus Christ, where the fuck have you been?” Karen said, her tone frantic.

  “We accidentally left our phones in the car last night.”

  “Please tell me you and Jessie are all right. Let me talk to her.”

  “I’m heading back to the house now. I’ll have her—”

  “Fuck! You aren’t with her?”

  “What’s wrong with you, Karen?” She heard Karen speak to Sarah, and Lynn began to get perturbed. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Wayne called me a little while ago.”

  “Jesus, is that all? You had me scared.” Lynn felt relieved at Karen’s words. “He has no idea where we are, and we’re fine.”

  “Lynn, I didn’t recognize the number, and when we hung up, I looked it up on the computer because he said he planned to end this once and for all. It was a Seaside number. He’s there, Lynn. He must have followed you guys last night.”

  Lynn had never experienced such a level of panic. She suddenly remembered the flowerpot knocked over on the front porch and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal. She was aware of nothing but the road in front of her as she sped toward the house.

  “I called Mike. He had someone from the police department there go out to the house.” Karen’s voice sounded as if it were a thousand miles away. Lynn swore to herself that if Wayne had touched Jessie, she really would kill him. “Sarah and I are on our way there, and so are your dad and my mom. And Mike is coming too.”

  Lynn didn’t slow down until she’d turned the corner onto the street where the house was. Thank God the police cruiser was parked in the driveway, but no other cars were on the street.

  “The cops are here,” she told Karen. “I’ll call back when I know Jessie is okay.”

  She tossed her phone aside and pulled in next to the cruiser. When she got out of the car, she saw the front door to the house wide open. She glanced at the cruiser warily, afraid of what she might find. The driver’s side door was open and a hand was visible on the ground. She looked quickly around the street. How odd that there wasn’t a crowd of people wanting to see why the cops were there. In San Francisco people would have been everywhere. But this was the Oregon coast in early January—not exactly the height of tourist season—and most of the locals were probably at work. Her legs were shaking as she forced herself to walk around to the other side of the cruiser.

  “Jesus,” she muttered just before she put her hand over her mouth. The cop was dead, blood everywhere from his slashed throat. His eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Lynn bent forward, her hands on her knees, and willed herself not to throw up. After a few deep breaths with her eyes closed, she forced herself to move. Hopefully she wasn’t too late to save Jessie.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Lynn was breathing so fast, and her heart was beating so hard, she was almost certain she’d pass out before she even made it to the front door. She braced herself for the worst, but when she looked inside, she couldn’t see anything wrong, other than the door itself, which looked like the hinges were about to give way. She cautiously crept inside, sticking close to the wall. A man’s voice was coming from the dining room, and she cursed under her breath when she realized that Jessie’s purse—and her gun—were on the table in there.

  “You’re going to die, and when your girlfriend comes back, I’ll be waiting for her and kill her too.” Lynn forced herself to breathe, and before she could think twice about what she was doing, she stepped into the dining room.

  Jessie’s eyes immediately went to her, and Lynn realized she’d made a mistake. Jessie’s reflex action would alert him to her presence. Lynn was enraged. Wayne was on top of Jessie, with a knife to her throat—an extremely bloody knife. At first she thought he’d already hurt Jessie, but then she remembered the cop out front, and she managed to stop herself from gagging at the image that invaded her mind.

  “Oh, how nice.” When Wayne stretched back a bit to look at her, Lynn realized he had Jessie’s arms immobilized. She began to struggle now that the knife wasn’t pointed at her jugular vein. “We can start the party now.”

  “If you want to hurt somebody, come and get me,” Lynn told him, never taking her eyes from Jessie. Jessie’s eyes were round with shock, and she shook her head frantically at Lynn, but Lynn kept on talking. “Leave Jessie alone, Wayne. It’s really me you want, isn’t it?”

  “I want to kill you both, but I really don’t care who goes first.” He glanced down at Jessie, but didn’t look away long enough for Lynn to make a move against him. “If you try anything stupid, I will make this slow and very painful for you both, do you understand me, bitch?”

  Jessie nodded quickly before looking back at Lynn. She shook her head again, tears rolling down her cheeks. Lynn had to look away from her or she’d lose her resolve to do what she had to do.

  “Let her go, Wayne. You can have me if you let her go.”

  “You don’t get it, do you, you fucking cunt?” Lynn was surprised by his agility. He was on his feet and in her face before she knew what was happening. He grabbed the front of her shirt and shoved her against the wall. “This isn’t an either / or situation, and neither one of you is going anywhere unless it’s in a body bag.”

  Lynn forced herself to look in his eyes. She wished she’d thought to ask Karen how far away they were. She wished she’d told her parents she loved them before she and Jessie had left for Seaside. As images from her life began to flash before her eyes, she managed to focus on her fury the day Jessie’s father hit her.

  She stood up straight and took a deep breath. When he smiled and brought the knife back so he could plunge it into her chest, Lynn raised her arm to block it. The knife hit her cast, and he dropped it. At that same moment Lynn heard a roar, and Wayne’s eyes went wide. He turned to look behind him, then crumpled to the ground. For a moment, Lynn stood completely still before she fully realized what had happened. Jessie dropped the gun and fell to her knees. Lynn’s paralysis finally broke, and she ran to Jessie’s side.

  “Baby, are you all right?” she asked as Jessie clung to her. Jessie cried uncontrollably, her body shaking in time to her sobs. Lynn sat on the floor and held Jessie in her lap, rocking back and forth as Jessie’s hands fisted her shirt.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” Jessie’s voice sounded strained and hoarse. “He could have killed you, Lynn.”

  “He would have killed you if I hadn’t stopped him, Jess,” Lynn said. “If I’d been thinking, I’d have grabbed the cop’s gun and shot Wayne before he ever saw me. All I could think about was getting in here to save you.”

  “Oh, my God.” Jessie raised her head to look at her. “He really killed the cop, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, he did,” someone behind them said. Lynn looked up to see Mike standing over Wayne’s body.

  “Is he dead?” Lynn indicated Wayne with a toss of her head. She didn’t intend to let go of Jessie just yet. Mike knelt down and felt for a pulse, then nodded.

  “Amber…” Jessie began to cry.

  “Amber’s fine, baby.”

  “I killed her father.”

  The horror in Jessie’s eyes broke Lynn’s heart. She held Jessie tighter and stroked her hair.

  “Shhh,” she murmured. “You did it to save your own life, Jess. And mine. She’ll understand that when she’s old enough to comprehend wh
at really happened between you and him.”

  Lynn tried to stop her own tears from falling as Jessie sobbed in her arms. The relief at how things turned out hadn’t yet kicked in, and she realized how close she’d come to losing Jessie forever. But it wasn’t about her right then, and she wouldn’t let Jessie see how scared she still was.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Lynn opened the door for Jessie and helped her out of the car. They were home from Seaside and staying at Lynn’s parents’ home since her mother had driven to Seaside to help clean the house. Jessie had spent a couple of nights in the hospital, and the doctors released her that morning. The cursory decision on Wayne’s death was self-defense, and according to Mike, the Seaside Police Department would concur, especially because Wayne had killed one of their officers. Wayne was really gone, and Jessie was having a hard time dealing with that fact.

  “Thank you for bringing me home.” Jessie’s voice was still raspy since Wayne had almost crushed her windpipe. Lynn supported her with an arm around her shoulders.

  “You don’t have to thank me, baby,” Lynn said quietly. “I’d rather be by your side than anywhere else.”

  “I want to shower and relax for a bit before Karen brings Amber over.” Jessie headed up the steps as soon as they walked into the house.

  “Do you need some help?”

  “No. Maybe some coffee when I’m done?”

  “You got it.” Lynn went to the kitchen to start brewing the coffee. When she was done, she realized she hadn’t heard any noise from upstairs, so she went up to check on Jessie. Jessie was sitting on her bed staring out the window. After a moment, Lynn sat next to her. Jessie rested her head on her shoulder without a word, and they sat without speaking.

  “He’s really gone,” Jessie finally said with a sigh. Lynn didn’t know how to respond, so she gently rubbed the small of Jessie’s back. “I should feel bad, but I don’t, Lynn. Don’t get me wrong—I’m upset that I took another human being’s life and that it was my daughter’s father. But I don’t feel bad that Wayne—our abuser—is dead. Does that make me a horrible person?”

  “No, Jess, it doesn’t.” Lynn held her a little closer and pressed her lips to Jessie’s temple. “He was a waste of space.” Lynn cringed when she felt Jessie’s shoulders shake. Christ, could she be any more insensitive? “I’m sorry, I—”

  “Don’t apologize.”

  “Are you laughing?” Lynn began to laugh softly too, and Jessie finally let it out.

  “You’re absolutely right—he was a waste of space.” Jessie lay back on the bed and urged Lynn to lie next to her. “God, I don’t know how I’m going to tell Amber.”

  “She doesn’t need to know everything yet,” Lynn said, closing her eyes as Jessie placed her head on Lynn’s chest. “She just needs to know right now that her father’s gone. You can explain it all to her when she’s older.”

  “We can explain it all to her when she’s older,” Jessie said, giving Lynn a squeeze. “I want you to move in with us.”

  “Are you sure?” Lynn didn’t want to push. Her heart was somersaulting with joy, but she wanted to be certain Jessie wanted it.

  “Yes.” Jessie propped herself up so she was looking down into Lynn’s face. “I know what I want, Lynn. What do you want right now?”

  “To be with you, now and forever.” She caressed Jessie’s cheek with the back of her fingers. “I wasn’t sure you’d want to live together right away though.”

  “I don’t want to waste another second being without you.”

  “In that house?”

  “I love the house, and I love you. Wayne and I didn’t live there together for very long. We only bought it a couple of years ago, and he hasn’t been there for almost a year.” Jessie traced Lynn’s lips with a finger, and Lynn kissed the tip of it. “You and I can make memories there now.”

  “We’ll have to get some deck chairs so we can sit outside and hold hands while we watch the sunset.”

  “Deal.” Jessie said.

  Lynn settled her head on Jessie’s chest, loving the strong, steady sound of the heartbeat coming from within, because she knew they had come too close to having it silenced forever. She closed her eyes and held onto Jessie’s hand, knowing that she was finally right where she belonged.

  About the Author

  PJ Trebelhorn was born and raised in the greater metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon. Her love of sports—mainly baseball and ice hockey—was fueled in part by her father’s interests. She likes to brag about the fact that her uncle managed the Milwaukee Brewers for five years and the Chicago Cubs for one year.

  PJ now resides in eastern Pennsylvania with Cheryl, her partner of many years, and their menagerie of pets—six cats and one very neurotic dog. When not writing or reading, PJ spends her time rooting for the Flyers, Phillies, and Eagles, or watching movies.

  Books Available From Bold Strokes Books

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