Blood Crimes: Book One (17 page)

      “What’s wrong?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

      
Jim
shook his head, forcing a smile. “Nothing, it’s just nice to see you so happy.”

      She grinned at that, her brown eyes gleaming. “It’s been a fun day. I’m glad you suggested it. And look at all my loot!”

      She lifted her shopping bags in triumph.
Jim
nodded, still forcing the same rigid smile, all the while feeling sick to his stomach realizing this couldn’t go on much longer. She deserved a normal life, at least far more normal than what he was dragging her through. It was about time he quit being such a fucking selfish prick. Yeah, right, she wouldn’t be able to survive without him. Who the fuck was he kidding? Over time she’d get over him and move onto something closer to normalcy. He was the one who wouldn’t be able to survive a separation, but that was the way it was going to have to be. At least he’d be leaving her with close to nine thousand dollars. At least she’d have that to help her get started. He felt both relief and an unbelievable emptiness welling inside once he accepted that he would be leaving her. He would do it later that day.
M
ake it like a Band-Aid that needed to be ripped off. Afterwards he would head to New York to finally finish old business. Finally do his last mission. Whatever heartache he was going to suffer wasn’t going to last long.

      Carol’s pizza came. An olive and garlic combo. She wolfed down a slice and was making good progress on a second when she stopped to tilt her head and give him an odd look.

      “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

      
Jim
reached over to wipe a smudge of tomato sauce from her chin. “I’m doing good, babe, nothing to worry about.”

      She smiled good-naturedly at the half-eaten slice she was holding. “It’s a good thing that stuff about garlic and vampires is only a myth,” she said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to kiss me later.”

      “That would never happen. Even if you were wearing a cross dipped in holy water I’d still be all over you.”

      She laughed at that. “So what movie do you want to see?”

      “What?”

      “You mentioned a movie before. Any idea what you’d like to see?”

      He’d forgotten about that, but that would be good. It would give them one day to live out as a real couple. At least it would be a pleasant memory for her. Later, after he took her back to their motel room, he’d get the money out from under the waterbed, then disappear after leaving her a long note. But that would be later. For now, he sat and drank her in, soaking in as much of her as he could, trying desperately to fill a suddenly vast cavernous hole within him.

      “Whatever you want is good with me,” he said.

      “I don’t even know what’s playing,” she said, a wistful smile showing. “It’s been so long since we’ve done something like see a movie. But I think I’d like to see something romantic.
M
aybe a tearjerker. I hope we can find something like that.”

      After she finished her pizza, they got a newspaper and found what looked like a typical Hollywood tearjerker playing at a Cineplex a few miles away. The skies had cleared somewhat by the time they left the mall. Carol gave
Jim
a worried look and suggested that they skip the movie. He shook his head, told her he’d be fine. “Once we get there we’ll be in a nice dark room. As good a place as any for me to hangout.”

      As always when they went out during the day, Carol drove while
Jim
sat slumped in the passenger seat, trying hard to shrink his body and avoid as much sunlight as possible. He only half-heard the engines rumbling next to him as two bikers pulled up alongside their car. If he wasn’t so deep in his thoughts he probably would’ve noticed how familiar their tattoos looked and that one of them had a welt the size of a grapefruit bulging from his forehead. And he definitely would’ve noticed that the biker with the ugly welt was staring at him as if he knew him. But he was too wrapped up thinking about Carol to pay them any attention, and he didn’t notice them as they pulled back behind the car and kept their distance, following him and Carol into the Cineplex’s parking lot. 

      The movie theatre was nearly empty with only a few people scattered about.
Jim
and Carol sat in one of the back rows, with Carol’s head resting against his shoulder and both her hands lightly touching his arm. He sat trying to commit everything about her that he could to memory; her scent, the sound of her heart beating, her breathing, the feel of her fingers on his skin. He needed to absorb as much of her as possible. If he could get enough of her in his system, he’d be able to leave her to do what he needed to in New York.

      She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

      “You realize this is the first movie we ever went to,” she said.

      He felt a lump forming deep in his throat. Clearing it so he could get some words out, he said how it was about time they had a movie date. “The rate we’re going in another three years I’ll be taking you to the malt shop for an ice cream soda,” he said.

      She nestled in closer to him. Her hair tickled his nose, but he wasn’t going to move. He breathed in as deeply as he could to fill his lungs up with her fragrance.

      “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?” she asked.

      “No, nothing. Why do you ask?”

      “I don’t know,” she whispered softly in his ear. “You’ve been acting more like a zombie today than a vampire.”

      “Yeah, I guess I have. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” Then very low so only she could hear, “The police already found that last guy’s body. It was a big story on the news this morning, I guess because of what I did to his face, also because they couldn’t figure out why he was missing so much blood.”

      Her body stiffened. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, her whisper turning harsh. “No one saw anything. No one’s going to connect us to that piece of shit. But at least I know what you’ve been so preoccupied about.”

      “Yeah, I know, it’s a stupid thing to worry about. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

      “You should be.”

      She straightened up in her seat.
Jim
reached over to hold her hand, which she reluctantly let him do. He could feel the tenseness in her, and he wanted to kick himself for bringing up the subject. It was stupid and pointless. Even if someone in that bar spoke to the police and gave them Carol’s description, there would be no way for them to connect her to the murder. Worst case, they might want to question her, but they’d still end up hitting a dead end. From out of the corner of his eye, he could see her fidgeting in her seat, and he felt sick to his stomach over it.

      “Let’s just get back to where we were, okay?” he asked.

      “Sure,” she said in a voice that let him know that wasn’t going to happen, at least not anytime soon. After some more fidgeting she got up. “I’m going to get some
M
ilk Duds and other junk,” she told him. She started to walk away, relented, and bent over him to kiss him on the mouth. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll be back. All is forgiven.”

      
Jim
watched her leave. He took a deep breath and tried to get his mind off of what was going to be happening later. He needed to relax so that the two of them could have one last good day together. He tried focusing on the movie screen. The commercials had ended and the coming attractions were starting up. When the fuck did they start running commercials in movie theatres? It didn’t seem right to him—to pay money to sit through commercials, especially given what the prices had become. Six bucks for an afternoon matinee. Christ, the world had changed on him. There would probably be a good ten minutes of previews, so Carol would have time to buy her candy and soft drinks before she’d miss any of the movie. From her tone he could tell that she had already put the subject behind her and wasn’t going to let it ruin her day. He was relieved about that. If he hadn’t mentioned it, later when she turned on the TV or radio, she’d have found out about that guy’s body being discovered, but that was still no reason for him to have brought it up now.
M
aybe it was his subconscious at work—maybe he was trying to sabotage their date so he’d have to spend the evening making it up to her, and by that time would’ve weakened enough so he wouldn’t be able to leave her. Yeah, it was probably something like that. A stony resolve hardened him. He wasn’t going to let that happen. No matter how much it was going to kill him to leave her, he was going to do right by Carol.

      His thoughts were interrupted by someone taking the free seat next to him and jostling him. He glanced over. The guy was big with a thick body and a shaved head. He wore a familiar looking black leather jacket. Even in the darkness of the movie theatre
Jim
noticed that the tattoos on the man’s skull and neck also looked familiar. For a few seconds he sat confused, wondering first why the guy seemed familiar, then what the fuck the guy was doing taking a seat next to him in a nearly empty theatre. All of a sudden he realized the movie had already started minutes ago and Carol hadn’t come back yet. An icy panic hit him. He started to get up but another man took Carol’s seat and put out a thick arm to block him. Like the first guy, he was large, wore the same style leather jacket and had those same familiar tattoos. They were both bikers, both members of the same gang. The first guy who had sat down shoved a gun barrel into
Jim
’s side. He made a crack referring to the other biker as Pearce, and how Pearce must be going soft if he were going to let a skinny fuck like this knock him around.
Jim
looked harder at the second biker, Pearce, and saw that his forehead was badly bruised and swollen. Pearce didn’t say anything, but the hard lines that creased his face showed he didn’t appreciate the crack from his buddy.
Jim
recognized him from the night before as one of the bodyguards he knocked out while ripping off that drug dealer.

      “Where’s Carol?” he asked.

      The gun barrel was pushed harder into his ribs. “First off,” the biker said, “keep your voice low. We don’t want to disturb all these other nice moviegoers. They paid good money for their seats just like you, dipwad. They deserve to watch the movie in peace. And about that sweet piece of ass you were with, we’ve got her.”

      “If you hurt her—”

      “Oh, we’re going to hurt her plenty,” he said, grinning and showing off cracked and badly stained teeth that made
Jim
think of busted boards on a picket fence that had been splashed with mud. “We’re going to pass her around and have us a lot of fun. She’ll be taking it up the ass so much that cum will be dripping out of her ears by the time we’re done with her. That’s the price you pay for putting us through this hassle. But as long as you give us back our money, we’ll let her go when we’re done with her. It could take days, so a word of advice, don’t hold your breath.”

      “If I were you I’d make a call right now and tell your friends they better not lay a hand on her.”

      “What a fucking inconsiderate dipwad you are,” he said, his grin widening and showing off more of his badly formed and ruined teeth. “Didn’t you see the announcement they showed? You ain’t supposed to use cell phones in the theatre, dummy. It disturbs other people.”

      A middle-aged man sitting half a dozen rows in front of them turned around to stare angrily at them.

      “See,” the biker said.

      “You better call your friends,”
Jim
said. “If any of them hurt her, you’re all dead.”

      The biker got a chuckle out of that. “Big talk out of this one,” he said to Pearce. “I still don’t understand how a skinny little fuck like this got the better of you and Sid. I’m fucking embarrassed for you two just thinking about it.”

      
Jim
moved quickly and ripped the biker’s gun arm out of its socket. Blood spurted from the opening and, from the reaction of the moviegoer half a dozen rows up who had stared at them seconds earlier, it must’ve sprayed him because he turned around to give them the evil eye again, probably thinking they had tossed some soda at him. Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned back to the movie. The biker was bleeding out fast, his lips moving as if he wanted to scream.
Jim
didn’t give him a chance to. He grabbed him by the throat and crushed his trachea. The hand attached to the torn-off arm was still gripping the handgun.
Jim
pried it loose, noted that it was a big piece of iron, probably a .45. He turned to Pearce, who had been watching it all in disbelief. The whole thing had taken less than a few seconds and the biker was having trouble fully processing it and making sense of what he witnessed. Once he did, he stumbled out of his seat. He tried to run but his legs had turned to rubber and he collapsed onto the floor. He moved awkwardly, his legs still rubbery as he pulled himself to his feet, and had gotten only a few feet away when
Jim
grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and half carried him as he hustled the biker out the side exit. The few people scattered about the theatre applauded them leaving.

      “Here’s the deal,”
Jim
said once they were outside and alone. “You call your buddies now and warn them what happens if they hurt Carol. You don’t, I fucking tear you apart.”