Author’s Note: I did not post last Friday because as I had finished writing the next instalment the ending of the tale came to me. I have been working on that and trying to make it work with what was already posted. (I had an ending already in mind but liked this one better) I have been writing this story backwards! That said, I like where this is going. Please note, this is not by any means polished work. It is just an exercise to keep me writing this summer.
“Nancy, could you fill my water bottle up for me?” Linda handed her the water bottle.
Nancy glanced back as the two of them dashed into her bathroom. She could hear the click of the lock. She knew they were up to something. She crept back to the bathroom door and tried to listen.
“Did you tell Nancy about yesterday?”
“No, but she is persistent about my bruises and how exactly I got them.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her I fell while riding my bike.”
“Did she believe you?”
“I think so. She did ask if Gerry did this to me but I stood by my story.”
“Okay, we have another problem.”
“What do you mean we have another problem?”
*
Nancy’s phone goes off. She tried to muffle the sound but it was too late. She could hear Linda shush Janis on the other side of the door. As she frantically scrambled to silence her phone, she saw a photo and a text, thought you would like to know. She wasn’t exactly sure what she had seen. Why was Gerry laid out on the floor in this picture. What was Linda doing standing next to him. What is all over the floor. And then Nancy knew.
*
Linda pursed her lips at Janis who held her index finger to her mouth. Linda unlocked and opened the door. She looked at the empty water bottle in Nancy’s hand. “Uh, Nancy, did you forget something?”
“No, Linda, I didn’t; did you?”
“No, I didn’t forget anything.”
“Are you sure about that?” Nancy holds out her phone so Linda can get a good look.
Linda stared at Nancy’s phone; her eyes squinted, and her brain tried to catch up and think of what to say.
Nancy had been hurt when Janis told only Linda about the abuse Gerry inflicted on her; she thought their friendship was deeper. She overheard the shared whispers whenever he abused her. She could see the bruises when the shirt sleeve slid up or the makeup didn’t do a good job at masquerading the black eye. She never said anything to Janis that she knew about the abuse. She figured if Janis wanted her to know she would have told her.
“Did you kill Gerry, Linda? Is that why the two of you are locking doors and whispering behind them?” Nancy turned to Janis. “I know Gerry beats you, Janis. I have known it for years. My ass you fell off the bike.”
“Oh, Nancy.” Janis started.
“Don’t,” her hand goes up, “don’t even try that with me.” Nancy started to cry.
“I didn’t kill Gerry. It was an accident. We didn’t tell you because we didn’t want to upset you.”
“Upset me? Why would you say that?” Because both Linda and Janis knew Nancy suffered with anxiety and they didn’t tell her things solely on that. Right or wrong, they held her with gentle hands in a good way. They thought they were doing the right thing. Nancy may be the smart one of the three, but she was also the most fragile.
“Look, my daughter is getting married in a few short hours and Gerry was at the bottom of the stairs.”
“Wait, what do you mean was?” Janis interrupted. “Where is he?”
“You know about this?” Nancy turned back to Janis.
“Nancy, go and fill the water bottle and I will fill both of you in.” Linda said.
After Nancy was brought up to speed about the last twenty-four hours, she told Nancy and Janis about The Man.
***
The Man saw her reflection in the mirror. He knew she would come. The apprehensiveness could be seen in her eyes even in the dark light of her bedroom.
“Hello Janis, I figured you might show up here.” The Man made a living by knowing other people’s habits.
“You?”
“I’m sorry?” A thin smile slid up his left cheek.
“You were at the wedding reception last night and we danced. Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Just taking care of loose ends.”
“Oh my god, are you The Man?” Janis’s stomach knotted. “Where is Gerry?”
“Probably rotting in hell.”
“What do you want from me?”
The Man didn’t answer Janis. Instead, he sat on the bed and took out a silver case and took a cigarette out. He rolled it between his fingers before he lit it. He took a long drag.
“Please put that out. There is no smoking in my house.”
The Man winked at her and tapped out the cigarette in his case and placed it back into his back pocket. “Of course.” He stood up from the bed, “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to drink, would you?”
“Are you asking me for a glass of water right now?”
“No, actually, I am asking for something stronger. Bourbon?”
Janis stood there unable to make her feet move. The two of them stared at each other with unimposing direction. She thought of how he had asked her to dance last night at the reception. She shrugged him off until he told her he was a good friend of Linda. He took her hand and told her Linda had told him to come over and ask her for a dance.
“We know how Linda can get if she doesn’t get her way.” He said, as he led Janis to the dance floor.
Janis did not feel like dancing. Her smile was forced the entire night. Her jaw ached. The song quickly went from a nineties surgery dance song to a soulful seventies R&B. The Man pulled her in close before she could exit the dance floor.
“Where’s your husband? Gary, is it?”
“Gerry.” Janis rasped. She didn’t remember Linda saying anything about this goodfriend coming to the wedding. “I’m sorry, who are you again?”
“Your husband is a fool for taking a fishing trip over a night out dancing with his beautiful wife.”
Janis tried to pull herself from his tight grasp but he pulled her in closer. He spun the two of them around.
“How did you know that?”
The Man said nothing.
“Well, my husband, Gerry,” she emphasized, “is an avid fisherman.”
“I bet.” The Man mocked.
“He had this trip planned last year and paid for. He had been saving for this trip for quite some time. Besides, he isn’t all that close or familiar with Linda and her family.” She sounded like a robot with her rehearsed reply.
“Is that right. Well, his loss.” He spun them around again and Janis saw Linda who had a look of horror on her face when she looked back at Janis.
The man pulled her closer still, until her head was resting on his sport jacket. Janis blushed; he smelled good. Gerry never smelled like anything but old sweat and dust.
*
“I have bourbon down in the kitchen pantry.” Janis snapped out of her ambiguous stare. She turned on her heels and left the bedroom of a dead man and his guilty wife. Whoever he was and whatever he wanted she didn’t care. She might as well play along because where she was going for murdering her husband would be far worse.
Down in her kitchen Janis pulled out a bottle of Kentucky Straight Bourbon she kept for cooking and emergencies. This was one of those emergencies. She found some glasses and poured both nearly three-quarters full.
“Ice?”
“Neat.”
She motioned for The Man to move towards the living room. Instead, he pulled out a vinyl chair from the table and asked her to sit. When she did, he sat in the chair across from her. She gulped half of her drink before The Man stopped her.
“I need you sober for what I need to tell you.”
Janis took one more gulp and placed her nearly empty glass down on the table. She noticed how eerie her kitchen looked. The orange curtains over the kitchen sink gave a monochromatic hue to her kitchen from the morning sun shining lively on the other side. Everything glowed a muted orange. It reminded her of the pictures of Mars.
“Are you the one who cleaned up the mess?”
“What me? No. I have people for that.”
“You have people who get rid of dead bodies?”
“Oh, the people who cleaned up didn’t get rid of any dead body.” The Man sipped his bourbon and pulled out his cigarette case. “I have other people who remove dead bodies.” He lit a cigarette and passed it to Janis.
Janis took the cigarette and took a big drag. She hadn’t smoked a cigarette since she found out she was pregnant with her first child. Her head spun as she coughed out. Her coughing lingered and she took another, the final, sip of her drink.
“What kind of a person are you to have friends who clean up a bloodied foyer and remove a dead body?”
“Janis, these people are not my friends. They are people who owe me a favor. Some of them are people who just need to make some quick money for whatever reason and they know how to keep their mouth shut. I mean,” he paused and turned in his chair to look around.
“Does this mean I owe you a favor now? Am I going to have to clean up someone else’s murder?”
“Janis, you don’t owe me anything.” He smiled. “Yet.”
*****
Nancy screamed when she saw him in the mirror. “Hello Nancy. It’s been a while.”
*
They met at a bar in the O’Hara airport in late 2014. She was returning from a conference and The Man never said where he had come from. They both had a layover to Detroit on the same flight. After a few too many glasses of Merlot, Nancy spilled the beans about a male team leader from work who had promised her a promotion if she slept with him. She wanted a promotion but would never do something like that.
Nancy told The Man, “A reputation is all we have that no one can take away from us unless we let them.” She slides down the bar drunkenly extending her right arm towards The Man. “My dad always said that to me as a kid growing up, Don’t slet them take your reputation and don’t give it to shem.” Nancy sloshed her words a bit.
The Man told her, he could take care of that for her.
Her head bobbed when she asked, “What do you mean take care of it?”
“Just leave it to me.” He smiled.
The Man took three days to find out who Team Leader was. Team Leader liked to hang out in strip clubs. Not the random run of the mill strip club. He liked the high-end classy places. The girls looked much softer and perky. These girls weren’t strippers; they were dancers at a gentleman’s club. The Man paid a dancer good money to lure him into lewd sexual acts at a swanky hotel downtown. She only agreed because she had a six-year-old who needed new shoes and something better to eat than boxed macaroni and cheese. Her rent was due in six days and she paid for a middle of the road apartment in a good school district for her daughter. The Man gave her enough to cover the next three months’ rent.
It took next to nothing for the dancer to get Team Leader in a room at the hotel a few blocks from the club. It was the kind of place that smelled like polished wood and had ridiculously plush towels. The halls were discretely lit and there were plenty of corners to duck behind, if you know what I mean. The Team Leader didn’t know about the camera’s in the room taping their escapade. Team Leader had a fetish for toes. He didn’t hold anything back and it was all caught on camera. A copy just happened to get emailed to every employee where Team Leader worked and all the board members. He was fired and Nancy was given his position.
Nancy saw The Man shortly after. She asked him if he was responsible.
He replied, “Responsible for what?”
*
Nancy never saw him again, until now, ten years later.
“I need you to do me a favor, Nancy.” The Man said.
Chris Writes 