The Revenant: A Horror in Dodsville Page 5

  Tabitha glared at me wide-eyed for a moment. Then, as quickly, her face relaxed. “Really sick,” she said, and turned her attention now to straightening out the shoes on their shelves.

  “Why is the club name still on the door, anyway?” I asked. “Sure surprised me when I saw it.”

  “Dad had wanted to remove it right after you blew town, but Reed stood his ground firmly. He said something about it being the only thing left behind to remember you by. Anyway, Dad rationalized that it might help out business, attracting attention the way it did.”

  I sat in one of the customer chairs while Tabby fooled around behind the counter. I was depressed once again, wishing Reed were still alive. I could only imagine how different this homecoming would have been.

  Tabby talked to me without looking at me; her attention was mainly on getting the shoe store presentable to open. “Reed moped around the house for a couple of months after you left,” she said. “That’s not an exaggeration, either. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen two friends as close as the two of you were.”

  “Yea, we were at that, weren’t we?” I replied. “Yet, I guess I never realized just how close we were until I got the telegram from Julie.” I wanted to ask then about how and why Reed died, but I could tell clearly by the tone of her voice when she talked about Reed that she wouldn’t want to discuss that particular topic. At least for now.

  Tabby finally looked up at me. “Speaking of Julie,” she said. “She’s going to give you a hell of a guilt trip about giving up on your friendship with Reed. She was always overly protective of him.”

  She returned a dust rag she had been using back under the cash register and came over and sat by me. I couldn’t get over how attractive she had turned out. I wondered if she had a boyfriend, but routed that thought out of my mind immediately. After all, this was little Tabs I was thinking about.

  “Things just fizzled out, I guess,” I murmured. “We were only kids. How are kids supposed to keep a friendship going with hundreds of miles between them? Even adults rarely do it.” I looked down at my shoes, avoiding Tabitha’s gaze. “So how could we?”

  The front door opened triggering the little bell, and Mr. Price slumped in. I had remembered him as a jovial man, finding humor in almost any situation. Now he just looked--well, defeated was the best word I could think of. He had the same grim cast about him he wore back when Mrs. Price died of cancer. I was only seven at the time, but that look frightened me then. If someone like Mr. Price could be brought down, I had thought, then what chance did I have?

  He was almost on top of me before he noticed that someone was sitting in one of his chairs. He stared at me a moment before a slight smile of recognition broke though the stale grimness. “Stephen,” he said.

  “In the flesh.” I replied. I stood and shook his hand. “Good to see you again, Mr. Price.” His handshake was weak, not at all what I recalled it being years ago.

  “So what have you been doing with yourself?” he asked. “What’s it been? Ten years?”

  “Actually,” I replied. “It’s been thirteen. And I went to college and now teach third grade in Milwaukee.”

  He nodded as if he knew that would be exactly what I’d do with my life. “Always knew you’d make something respectable of yourself,” he said.

  The rattle of the bell above the door sounded again, and a customer walked in.

  “You’ll have to excuse me,” Mr. Price said to me. “But why don’t you come over and join us for dinner tonight? We can talk at length then. And you’ll love Tabitha’s cooking, I’m sure.”

  Tabby jumped up. “Of course he ‘s coming,“ she said. She kissed him on the cheek. “Got to leave now, Dad. See you at five.” She turned to me. “Coming with?”

  I nodded and said my goodbye to Mr. Price.

  The heat hit us again as we stepped outside. The bank clock flashed eighty-nine degrees, but with the humidity I guessed the actual heat index was more like a hundred.

  “Quite a change from yesterday,” I commented as we walked to her car, which she claimed was parked just down the street from the shoe store. “The weather, I mean.”

  “Yea,” she replied. She stopped by a blue Sunfire and unlocked the passenger side door. “I like it better this way, though. The warmth makes me feel--well, more secure.”

  She had not left a window part way down, and, for a minute after I sat the heat was unbearable. After Tabby had the car moving forward, however, the cooler air outside blew inside and made the atmosphere more sufferable.

  “Anywhere special you want to go?” Tabby asked as we drove down Main Street. “Be glad to take you there.”

  I stared out my open side window. Main Street was always one of my favorite places to hang out when I was kid. People moved about almost oblivious of everyone around them, set on their task and not worrying about anything else. The theater used to be here also. Reed and I took in more than a few matinees on a lazy Sunday afternoon. A clothing store had since taken its place, though.

  “Are you still with me?” Tabby asked, smiling at me. “Or are you off on some distant planet?”

  “Sorry,” I replied, snapping out of my reverie. “I do need to go out to the airport. I want to rent a car for the duration of my stay in Dodsville. If you don’t mind driving me all the way out there, that is.”

  “No problem,” she replied. “I have nothing better to do this afternoon.

  “By the way, where are you staying?” she asked, after a pause.

  I replied, “Out at Sandy’s Motel.”

  “You know you can stay at our house, or even at Julie’s.” I wasn’t sure if she meant it or was simply being polite. “Anyway, Julie won’t hear of it any other way, I’m sure.”

  “We’ll see,” I muttered.

  After she had turned onto Highway 195, which would take us to the airport, I decided to ask her about Reed.

  “What do you want to know about him?” she asked.

  I didn’t notice a change in her facial expression, so I guessed-or rather, I hoped--she wouldn’t mind. “I don’t know,” I replied. “What did he do? What was he like? Things along that nature.”

  “Well, almost everyone liked him,” she said, a gratified smile and a nod accompanying. But that smile quickly faded. “And he like liked almost everyone.”

  “I’ll bet the people he didn’t like were not the kind of persons worth liking at all,” I added. “He was always a good judge of character when I knew him.”

  Tabby cleared her throat. I could tell I touched on a sensitive nerve.

  She changed the subject. “He worked at the store during the day, and he worked on a novel he never managed to complete at night.” I wasn’t surprised to hear that he wanted to be a writer. He always talked about wanting to write horror stories when we were kids. “On weekends he usually just hung around with his girlfriend.”

  “Anyone I know?” I asked.

  “Doubt it,” she replied. “Melissa Clark moved here after you had left. Nice girl, though. I like her a lot.”

  She turned into the airport and drove up to the Hertz Rent-a-Car building. Why don’t you come right over to our house after you’re done here?” she suggested as I got out of the car. “I’m sure Julie will be glad to see you’ve arrived as she predicted you would.”

  “Sure thing,” I replied. “And thanks for the lift.”

  “You remember where we live?”

  I said I did.

  “Good. Then I guess I’ll see you in a bit.” She drove off, and I watched her until she disappeared down the highway.

  I picked out a Camaro, black with yellow pin stripes, and paid for it with my NEA MasterCard. I wasn’t sure if I was covered under the credit card for full coverage insurance, so I paid the premium just to be on the safe side. After all, I was going to be using the car for an indefinite period of time.

  On the way to the Price’s the left front tire went flat. “Shit,” I muttered to myself as I made my way to the trunk to get out the spare
. I silently prayed that I didn’t have a lemon on my hands. More time and paper work in exchanging it, and I hated time wasted like that.

  I had the flat tire off and was struggling to fit the spare when a rusty station wagon pulled up behind me and stopped. The driver got out and I recognized him immediately--the jerk with all the questions I met twice at the diner.

  He sauntered up to me, a shit-eating grin covering the lower portion of his face, like he had some information on me that I wouldn’t want him to know, and said, “Hello.”

  I said nothing. This guy could probably make a federal case out of a simple greeting. I finally got the spare to fit and began putting the nuts back on.

  The jerk leaned against my rented Camaro. He wore a long-sleeved chambray shirt and a white pair of slacks. Hot clothing for the hot weather today, I thought.

  He said, after realizing I wasn’t going to answer his greeting, “I finally know just who you are, buddy.”

  “Look,” I said, standing. “You a cop or something? Because you sure do bug the piss out of me.”

  The shit-eating grin vanished from his face, and one would be hard pressed to prove that he had ever been smiling in the first place. I obviously had struck a raw nerve. “The name’s Pierce. Detective Sherwood Pierce.” He emphasized his title like I was supposed to be impressed or something.

  “So, exactly what do you have against me, Detective Sherwood Pierce?” I bent over and tightened the last bolt in place and stood back up, facing him.

  He took two steps forward until he was about a foot from my face. “Where were you last night between the hours of two and four?”

  Ah, I thought. So I am suspected of breaking the law of some sort. I smiled and replied, not the least bit worried, “I was sound asleep in my rented bed at Sandy’s Motel. What’s the deal here anyway?”

  “Huh, huh.” He scratched the back of his head. “Well, the desk clerk on duty last night told me you left a little after midnight, and she didn’t see you come back in. And she works until six.”

  “You, yourself, saw me last night,” I replied, still not getting worried. After all, I hadn’t done anything.

  Beads of perspiration formed on Pierce’s forehead. “That was only for a few minutes, and well before two o’clock at that. Happen to have a better alibi?”

  “Look,” I said, smiling politely, not wanting to further the situation any. “Either arrest me or get the hell out of my life. All right? I was sound asleep, alone, and I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” I brushed past him and opened the driver-side door of the Camaro.

  He, in turn, pushed the door back shut before I could even start to sit. “Del Smith was found dead in the alleyway behind Krueger’s Garage this morning.” He stood, leaning defiantly against my car. “Funny thing about it is there was a knife mark in his chest. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, now would you?”

  I had no idea who Del Smith was, or why I was even suspected of killing him. What motive did I have?

  “Well?” he asked after I hesitated.

  “Be seeing you, Pierce,” I replied. I whipped open the car door, banging his knee in the process. He grabbed his leg and fell back a few steps, cursing.

  I exited the side of the road, spraying gravel and pine cones, and glanced in my rear-view mirror to if see he was going to come after me. He just stood there, though, holding his right knee, and smiling after me with that shit-eating grin of his.

  Now, I worried.

  * * *

  Tabitha’s Sunfire was already in front of the house when I pulled into the Price driveway. The house itself was green--a different color than I remembered; although, I couldn’t recall what color it had been. The grass was a few days past prime mowing time. A Sears lawn mower sat outside in front of the garage. Reed had probably evaded the chore as long as he could. At times, as a kid, he managed to forestall long enough for his father to give up and do the job himself.

  The front door flung open and an attractive woman rushed out and hugged me as I made my way up the sidewalk. Her green eyes gave her away.

  “Julie,” I said, hugging her back. “Now this is what I call a proper greeting. I may even feel welcome.”

  Julie was five years older than both Reed and I. She wasn’t the typical older sister of one’s best friend, however. She actually had liked me and was always doing things for Reed and me that we couldn’t convince anyone else to do. She had obviously matured over the years, but her face hadn’t changed a bit.

  I told her that.

  “You’re here. You’re really here,” she said as though she couldn’t believe it. “I was worried you wouldn’t come.”

  Was that a tear welling in her eye?

  Tabitha stuck her head out the front door. “Ask him to come in out of the blasted heat, you idiot.”

  Some things never change, I thought. Those two were always at each other's throats, but in a way that wasn’t serious, and they would probably act like they didn’t actually love each other forever. Yet, I was sure that they both knew differently deep inside.

  As I stepped into the doorway and into the living room, I noticed what felt like an immediate temperature drop of about twenty degrees. The low-pitched hum of an air conditioner droned in another room.

  “Sit down. Sit down,” Julie said as she ushered me to the living room couch. She plopped down next to me. Tabby disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and returned with three glasses of red raspberry Kool-aid.

  “You remembered,” I commented. Red raspberry was always my favorite flavor. I took a drink. “Man, I haven’t tasted this in a long time.”

  “Actually, Julie remembered,” Tabitha said as she sat in a chair opposite the couch. “She had me make a pitcher when I got home and told her you were in town and on your merry way over here.”

  No one said anything for minute; the discomfort of realizing we were really strangers procreated from the distance of time began to make its presence known. I glanced uneasily around the interior of the house. Nothing much had changed. New carpeting and a reconditioned sofa were all I observed from my vantage point. The carpet on the stairs leading to the second story was the same. The green was worn almost gray along the path right down the middle. My feet and Reed’s were guilty, I was sure, of contributing to the wear.

  Thoughts of Reed pounding up and down those steps emanated the reason why I was sitting in his house after thirteen years of absence. “What happened to Reed?” I blurted out without thinking. The tone of my voice made me sound like I was irritated with them. Of course, I wasn’t. Suddenly I was just plain annoyed that I sat where I was and couldn’t talk to my old best friend who lived here as short as two days ago.

  Tabitha and Julie looked uncomfortably at each other, and, obviously, neither one wanted to answer.

  “Sorry,” I said as soon as my words reached my brain. “That was rude and insensitive of me.” I took a quick drink of my Kool-Aid and looked away from them, trying to hide my own embarrassment.

  Tabitha sighed and broke the impending silence. “We had an argument.” She paused, as if searching for the right words. “No, he had a fight with me that evening.” Tears formed in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. I could have kicked myself for being so inconsiderate. I really could be an ass at times, and anyone who knew me understood I was aptly capable of that undesirable personality trait.

  “Don’t talk about it if you don’t want, Tabby,” I said, hoping now that she wouldn’t.

  It was Julie’s turn to sigh and speak: “He left angry and Tabitha, the total idiot she is at times, thinks it’s somehow her fault.” She put her hand on Tabitha’s shoulder. “And she is being plain stupid, too. Reed died because of his own carelessness, and nothing she could have said to him could have forced him to do something ignorant. It was of his own free will.”

  “What was the argument about?” Oh, yes, I was on a roll now. My mouth was operating at full insensitivity. “Forget I asked that,” I said. “I do
n’t know what gets into me sometimes.”

  Tabitha jumped from her chair and ran straight up the stairs, hiding her face in her hands.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, wishing I could do the same.

  Julie put her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” she replied without enthusiasm. “She’s going to have to come to grips with Reed’s death sooner or later. Talking about it can only bring that about earlier than if she kept her feelings bottled up inside her.”

  I couldn’t help but feel better. Julie had a way of making me feel at ease with myself in times of trouble. I remembered when I wildly threw a baseball through their living room window. I was eight at the time, I believe, and thought it would be a few months before I would be spending any of my allowance money on anything I actually wanted. Julie calmly came out of the house and put her arm around me before the tears that were welling in my eyes had a chance to start their journey down my face. She must have been fourteen then, barely a teenager, but she understood the trauma I felt inside. “Hey,” she said, “don’t worry about it, kid. I’m sure Dad has insurance that’ll cover the damages. I know that because I once broke that very window.” I know now that she most likely never broke a window in her life, yet I felt a hell of a lot better then--and I felt a hell of a lot better now.

  “Maybe I should go up and talk to her,” I suggested.

  “No, she’ll come down on her own in a couple of minutes.”

  Julie didn’t appear to have minded my line of questioning, and since Tabby was out of earshot, I decided to try again about what happened that night. “So, what was that argument about?” But I quickly added, “Unless it’s too personal.”

  “Not at all,” Julie responded. “You’re still considered a part of this family, a prodigal son, and I’m sure Tabitha believes the same.” She took a drink from her Kool-aid. “Reed wanted Tabitha to quit seeing her boyfriend, Randy Beliwitz. I don’t think you knew him.”

  I shook my head, though the name did ring a bell. I just couldn’t place it at the moment.