He Killed Her

I guess he didn’t realize that I’d heard him when he said it, so he just kept rambling on, but I heard him. He’d just confessed to the crime and didn’t even know it. I shifted my stance as I glanced away looking at the man in the window at the nearby McDonald’s. He nodded. He heard him too. Good, we had everything we needed then.

“Something wrong Lisa?”

“Hm?” I looked up at Eric. His face held an expression of concern. He turned around to the McDonald’s and stared at it for a moment.

“You know what, why don’t you come with me? There’s this bridge down on Petersburg that’s beautiful on days like this–” He gestured at the gloomy sky and damp pavement around us. It had been raining nonstop for the past few days since fall rolled in, but even in the summer it was like this in Oregon. “What do you say little bird? You coming or not?”

If I said no or even tried to talk my way out of this one I’d look suspicious, but if I went along… there’s no telling what he’d do. He’s so unpredictable. ‘Stay cautious of your surroundings. Watch him. Take in his actions, some moves are predicable, but not all. Don’t overthink his movements, we'll be watching him, just act natural. If he tries to take you somewhere just go with it, we’ll follow you.'

"Darrell-" Paul started.

Darrell had shot him a glance as if to say, 'Not now,' "Don’t worry, we got your back Lis, you’re one of us now." Darrell’s promise ringed true in my head. Even if I didn’t trust the other pigs, I trusted him seeing as he grew up on the same shady side of town as me, he knew what a man’s word meant to someone else when given in a promise. It was bond for his actions, like back in the olden days when an oath meant everything to an officer or a soldier, when the taxed promised to pay their tax collector, or a worker promised to work to pay off his debts to a farmer. Word was bond and that bond was always kept.

“Yeah,” I smiled excited, “Show me it!”

He looked at me for a moment, making me wonder if I’d spent too much time in my thoughts, then said with a hint of a smile, “Ok. Let’s go then.” He started toward his car and I followed. I looked back at the McDonald’s. Darrell was gone. Panic threatened me. Where did he go? Did he leave because he’d gotten what he’d wanted? Did he go back to the station to give this information to the Chief? No…no I had to calm down, Darrell wouldn’t leave me. He promised that the squad would be right behind me if we went somewhere.

“Lisa! You coming?” He called from his car door.

“Oh, yeah.” I said, starting toward him. I went around to the passenger side and he came behind me and opened the door, as if he were a gentleman.

“Wait a sec.” He grabbed my arm making every muscle in my body tense up. “Let’s get rid of this why don’t we.” His hand went up my arm to my shoulder, down my back, underneath my shirt and he found the wire with ease before snatching it out and tossing it onto the parking lot. “Okay, we don’t need any bugs, right?” He let out a dry laugh that was for effect rather than any humor, “Get in the car.”

I couldn’t breathe. He knew. He knew it had been a set up. What was he going to do now? He had to have already suspected this, but what gave it away? Was it Darrell? Was it me in our earlier conversation? I began to replay it in my head.

“Lisa, I’m glad you came! I haven’t seen you in so long!” he had engulfed me in a bear hug. Did he feel it then? No, his next actions didn’t show it and there was no way he could have felt it under my layer of clothing.

“Yeah it’s been a while. How are you? How’s Sharell and the kids? And grandma?”

“Well…I’ve been hanging in there. The kids are good, Davon is in the third grade now and Devon is in the second, they’ve been making good grades regardless of the loss. Mama Clark is doing just fine, a little weak here and there, but she’s good.” He’d avoided answering my question about Sharell and had mentioned her loss as if it were something small, like they’d lost a pet they didn’t really care for. “So, how are you? How’s the new job?”

“I’ve been well, finding a job in journalism isn’t all that hard thanks to the internships. It’s finding a story that sticks that’s the problem. Plus, my boss is an ass so that doesn’t help.”

“Mmm, I see. Any lucky men in your line up?”

I looked at him a bit confused at first, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He chuckled, “Lisa, your line up? From sophomore year? Don’t tell me there aren’t any men coming at you from every which way trying get a piece of that.” He said the word “that” as he looked back at my butt.

I could feel my cheeks heat up and whatever response I had to the subject to come with clumped up in my throat. “You never did tell me how was Sharell doing. And you mention a loss, did she walk out or something? That doesn’t seem like something Sharell would do. She loved those boys and she’d always been crazy about you. What’s up?” I’d nudged him, and he’d jumped, making me look up at him in wonder. “You okay Eric?”

He was looking down at his feet, lost in thought maybe? I doubt it, he was probably trying to choose his words more carefully. “Lisa…”

I moved closer to him, “What is it Eric?”

He’d looked me in the eye so intently for a moment I thought he’d seen through my façade. Only the opposite was beginning to happen. “Sharell huh—she was always such a good wife, a loving mother, a wonderful sister, and an awesome friend. She loved our boys more than life itself, she would run around the house and play games with them, she always had ways of coaxing them into doing their homework and was so easy about putting them to bed at night. She was always there for Allana when she called her up, even in the middle of the night. She’d go to her house and sit with her.” I had to think for a moment, then I remembered, Allana was Sharell’s older sister with an abusive, cheating boyfriend who had driven her to alcoholism. “She waited on her mom hand and foot before she passed and even to that day she’d still go and put flowers on her grave and talk to her. Sharell was so creative and imaginative, very well thought out and I loved her for it so much and she loved me. I dunno why I did what I did to her.” There it was.

“We’re almost there.” His words broke through my thoughts. He must have been driving for a while because we’d made it back into the city. He was getting off the interstate and heading into the thick of town, but why? If he wanted to kill me wouldn’t he have done it outside the city? What was he up to?