Come Get Me Page 8

  They stood quietly for a moment before Jim spoke again and changed the subject. Trying to get on a happier note he asked her a little bit about herself. Standing there listening he couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. The way the light shone on her hair, the way she moved her hands when she spoke. Everything about her made him want to get to know her more and more. He was so wrapped up in what she was doing that he almost missed what she was saying. From what she told him she’d been there for about two and a half to three years. She wasn’t sure since when she’d got there, she mostly been running away from a bad marriage. Her grandmother offered her a place to stay while she got things sorted out. Lucky for Jim, she had eventually divorced and her grandmother asked her to stay and help run the store. A few months later Grandma announced she was retiring and letting Jill have the place. Ever since then Jill had been here. She finished her story and closed her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she had told him so much.

  Before she had a chance to think too much about it and just before Jim opened his mouth to say something else the front door slam open and a shout rang out that sent spike of terror through his body and mad him break out in an instant sweat.

  "Put your hands in the air and don’t move!" the yeller ordered.

  Jill’s face looked as if it had turned to ice. Her features were frozen in disbelief. Jim was similarly frozen. Of all his luck to be in the store with the woman of his dreams in a small town and have the damn place get robbed. He had luck all right; too bad it was all bad.

  Jim heard the door slam shut and listened to the floor boards moaning as the intruder stomped his way towards them. Looking to Jill for some sign of what to expect he saw that she was still frozen by terror. Well if nothing else they would both be robbed for the first time together. Not an ideal first date. Hopefully he made it out alive so he could at least ask her out on a real one. It surprised him he was still clear headed enough to think about things like asking her out. Unfortunately that seemed to be the only thing he could think about. He stood there waiting to find out what would happen next. Surely the person wouldn’t just shoot them; he must have demands of some sort. Heart pounding in his chest, he felt someone move up and come to a stop behind his back a lot closer than he would’ve liked. His stomach tightening into a knot of dread he wanted nothing more than to spin around and turn the tables on the would be robber but knew that if he even tried he or Jill would probably be killed. He wished the person would at least say something. His mind was raced through all the possible scenarios he could think of that would get them out of this situation. Unfortunately everything he came up with ended with them both dead.

  The person was still behind him. Jim took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He had to take stock of the situation they were in. Trying to put everything else out of his mind he thought about everything as calmly as he could. First, he’d just met who he considered the girl of his dream. Next, just as they were getting to know each other somebody decided they absolutely had to rob the store they were in and unfortunately there was nothing he could think of to do about it. Then the last and maybe most important thing, he was pretty sure they were both about to die. All in all he figured his day had gone from great to shit in about five seconds. That was probably a new record for him.

  He was startled from his panicked thoughts and almost pissed himself when he felt something poke him between the shoulder blades. He wasn’t an expert about how thing that poke you in the back feel but he was pretty sure the thing poking his back was a gun. What else could it be? Nobody was going to rob the place with a banana were they? As sure as he was he was, equally sure he was just about to die. At least he hadn’t pissed himself a few minutes ago and embarrassed himself in front of Jill. He didn’t want her last thoughts of him to be his inability to control his bladder. The assailant started breathing heavily in his ear causing the hair to stand up on the back of his neck. Jim unfortunately still had no idea of what to do.

  "Put your hands on the counter," grated a voice in his ear. Well, if nothing else he knew what to do. And he quickly did it. Surprisingly the gun was immediately removed from where it had been poking him. But what happened next was worse than the gun had ever been. Hands began running up and down the sides of his body. They weren’t gentle either. After a few seconds of being searched they came to a rest on his hips. Visions of horny robbers raping him in front of Jill ran rampant through his head. He couldn’t allow that to happen! But the guy had a gun. If Jim tried to stop him he would just pull it out and shoot him. Indecision kept him immobile.

  The robber seemed to be taking his time exploring Jim’s waist. Hands moved from one side to the other as if searching for a way in. Eventually they stumbled across the buckle on Jim’s belt and started to work on that. Jim wanted to turn around and scream in the guy’s face and ask him what his problem was but the guy would most likely flip out if he did something like that. Jim was tempted to do it anyways. Anything had to be better than what was most likely going to happen if he did nothing at all. Then a new thought entered his head. What if there were two of them. True he’d only thought he’d heard one person enter but what if the other guy was covering them while the first guy did his thing? Then after he’d had his way with Jim they would switch. Jill would have to watch the whole thing! Jim’s life was over. The gun wasn’t in his back anymore but he actually wished it was. At least then he wouldn’t be getting ready to be raped.

  The one time he was present when a store got robbed and the robber turned out to have a hard on for him. This was really just not his day. The breathing near his ear was getting faster. The freak must be getting excited. He heard the rapist licking his lips with a wet slimy sound that made Jim’s skin crawl. The hands were still wrestling with the belt but not for long. He was surprised it hadn’t opened yet. It wasn’t like it was a safe or something. Maybe the guy just wasn’t good with these types of things. Good at robbing people, bad about opening other people’s pants. It could happen. An intake of breath behind him signaled that the assailant was about to say something. Jim expected to hear a demand for him to take the belt off himself or for him to do something much more vulgar but instead he heard a snicker. Not understanding what he’d heard the next thing the thief said left no doubt in his mind as to what was going on.

  "Gotcha buddy boy!" laughed the voice behind him. The person seemed to be having a hard time keeping himself from laughing. After a few seconds with Jim only just now realizing what had happened, a loud braying burst of laughter burst out behind him. Jim couldn’t believe it. He looked at Jill to see her reaction and found, instead of a look of horror like he’d expected, a smile. The thought was now really sinking in that something wasn’t quite right about this whole situation. Whoever it was behind him obviously found this extremely funny since the laughter continued and actually got a little louder.

  Slowly turning around, half expecting to be shot, he was surprised to see somebody dressed up as a police officer bent over laughing so hard he was almost choking. The man slowly started recovering, trying hard to repress new bouts of laughter, and stood up. As he did Jim came face to face with the last person he expected to see. Standing not three feet away with a red, tear streaked face was his childhood friend Rob.

  "Oh, you should have seen your face!" Rob said still trying to hold in the laughter that was bubbling out of him.

  Jim wanted to be angry but he couldn’t do it. He was too happy to see Rob for it to work. Instead he said the only thing that came to mind. “Ha, ha real funny dickhead. Is this the only reason you became a cop? So you could scare the shit out of us little people?”

  “Hell no!” he replied before the words were even done coming out of Jim’s mouth, “That’s only a fringe benefit. I also get free food at some of the restaurants once in a while. Oh yeah and some of the tourists come up with some interesting thing to get out of tickets if you know what I mean. If you only knew some of the things I’ve seen,” he finished with a wink and a wicked gr
in. Jim just looked at him for a minute not quite sure how serious he was. Seeing his look just made Rob smile all the wider. He wiggled his eyebrows to make Jim wonder a little more but all that did was make him laugh. Shaking his head Jim turned his attention back to Jill who seemed to have found something that just absolutely had to be done right now behind the counter. Instead of seeing her beautiful face he got quite an eyeful of her butt. And a nice one it was if someone were to ask him. She was bending over looking at something on the floor underneath the shelves of candy. Jim was about to say something when Rob loudly cleared his throat. Sensing something wasn’t quite right and not hearing any talking Jill quickly spun around and caught Jim staring at the area where her previously exposed backside had been. Having no other choice but to admit he’d been caught Jim just smiled at her with red cheeks.

  “Like what you see?” she asked slyly.

  “You could say that,” he fired right back taking up the silent challenge.

  That seemed to catch her off guard. He was getting good at saying things that threw her off. It was her turn to have red cheeks. Something else important must’ve needed her attention since she quickly ducked back down behind the counter. Sounds of things being moved around could be heard from the general area.

  “So I guess you came back cause of Tommy, huh?” Rob said snagging Jim’s attention once Jill wasn’t in sight to distract him.

  “Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” Jim sighed, “but, ya know, there’s a few other things I’m starting to find interesting around here. The scenery wasn’t as nice around here when I left. I was planning on leaving right after Tommy was buried but I might end up sticking around a little longer just for the view.” He knew he was acting like a high school kid but he still hoped Jill was listening. He was pretty sure she was. It felt a little awkward flirting with somebody when he was supposed to be mourning but he didn’t think Tommy would mind. Hell, he would probably have been encouraging him if he were there. Jim was pretty sure Jill was at least a little interested but he wasn’t as positive as he usually liked to be before asking someone out so he figured dropping a few hints every now and then couldn’t hurt anything. Jill stood up and gave him a queer look before her cheeks started turning red again. She quickly turned and began looking like she was taking an inventory of the candy on the shelves.

  “Yeah,” Rob said picking up his line of thought, “there sure are some pretty nice sights to see around here. You gotta be careful of them though,” he continued with a wink in Jim’s direction, “they can be pretty dangerous sometimes. There’s all kinds of curves you gotta watch out for. Some of them are sharp but some of them are smooth too. They can also be a little snoopy too sometimes if you know what I mean. Didn’t used to be a lot of stuff like that in this town, but just recently in the last couple of years the scenery finally took a turn. I mean, not that I’ve had a chance to appreciate it too much.”

  “Yeah, when I left it pretty much sucked around here,” Jim said starting up right where Rob left off, “but from what I’ve seen since I’ve been back it’s changed quite a bit. For the better if you ask me.”

  Jill looked over her shoulder to where they stood for a minute shook her head and went back to her make believe inspection. She mumbled something under her breath about men thinking they were so clever making innuendos that they didn’t think women understood and something else about how they weren’t as smart as they thought they were. Glancing back and fixing them with another slightly disapproving stare she returned to looking busy again.

  “So,” Jim said to Rob after a few more seconds of watching Jill, “what’s this I’ve been hearing about Tommy’s death not being as cut and dry as everybody thought.” Seeing Rob’s reluctant look he quickly added, “Look, I know you don’t want to talk about it but I really need to know. He was my friend too. I’m going to miss him but if this was anything other than a horrible accident I need to know.” He didn’t want Rob getting into any trouble for telling him specific details about the case but if there was something fishy going on he thought somebody, especially somebody as close to the deceased as he’d been, should know. Unfortunately Rob was the only source he could get that information from.

  “Boy, you don’t hold back do you? Just jump right on in with both feet without the hip waders don’t you?” Rob asked shaking his head. When Jim didn’t respond right away he took that as a sign to continue. “Well, let me start by saying you don’t know the half of what’s going on. If you’d seen the things I have you wouldn’t be asking a fella to describe it to you.” Jim watched him as he spoke. It was as if an invisible veil passed over his face turning everything somber just thinking about Tommy. Jim didn’t like forcing Rob like this but if it upset him this much just thinking about it than obviously something bad was going on. After stopping for a few seconds to collect himself Rob signaled his readiness to continue with a slight smile and spoke up in an official sounding voice, “As you know I’m not supposed to talk about official police business with civilians but sometimes there are special cases.” He was trying to cover his pain by joking around but it didn’t fool anyone. Least of all Jim. He’d known him too long. Rob was acting like the big tough guy because of who their audience was. Jill was still near at the register. If she hadn’t been he’d probably have started blubbering like a little baby as soon as he started talking.

  “Now with that official disclaimer having been said,” Rob continued in his big boy voice as he glanced over his shoulder making sure nobody else was in the store he might have missed, “I might as well tell you everything anyways since I know I’m going too eventually. Might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. I could never keep a secret from you, huh?” When they’d been little he’d never been able to keep secrets. At least from Jim. Every time Rob tried to keep something from them it had always been Jim he’d eventually told. Jim never even had to ask. It was like he needed to confess and Jim was the preacher. Rob never went to any of the others, just Jim. Now was no different. It was funny how they’d fallen right back into the old ways just like the past twelve years had never happened.

  “You know that he was impaled right?” Rob finally blurted after a few seconds of silence. Jim told him that was what he’d heard yesterday when he was walking around town and saw Rob stand up a little straighter. It was like a great weight had been lifted form his shoulders.

  “Good,” he said with that sad little smile, “at least I wasn’t the one to tell you that part of it.” Rob stopped again and looked like he was thinking about what he wanted to say. There must’ve been a lot of information because it took a few seconds before he finally seemed ready to spill the story.

  “It was real strange,” he began looking Jim right in the eye. “The moment we got out to where it all went down we could tell something just wasn’t right. It was almost as if something about the air was telling us to go back. That we didn’t want to see what was waiting for us in the woods. I myself wish we’d have listened to whatever it was. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what we saw out there.” Pausing again Jim could see Rob’s shoulders shudder at the memory. Jim wanted him to hurry up and tell the story but kept his mouth shut. If he pushed him he might not get anything at all. After a few seconds pause Rob started again.

  “It was just getting dark and we were beginning to think we weren’t going to be able to find the place Tommy’s body was waiting for us at when suddenly we were there. After walking through some bushes and around this one huge tree we found it. Actually we almost walked right into him. After seeing what had happened we all wished it had been darker than it actually was. I wish I hadn’t seen it as well as I did. It just got worse once they brought the lights out, but luckily I wasn’t there anymore by that point. Anyway, Tommy was stuck right on the end of a tree just like we’d been told. Right through his chest.” Rob pointed at his chest as if to illustrate his point. “He must’ve somehow flipped over in the air or something because he was laying face up with the point c
oming from right between his ribs. It went straight through his back and out his front. Parts of his ribs were actually sticking out. There was blood all over the place. The leaves looked as if someone had taken a bucket of red paint and thrown it everywhere. I actually got a little sick and had to run off in the woods so I didn’t contaminate the scene or anything. After the initial shock of seeing his body wore off the next thing we noticed was where his stand was located in relation to his body. It was at least twenty feet away. That definitely wasn’t right. Tommy could’ve fallen from a tree and landed the way he had but in order for him to have landed on the tree he did he would’ve had to jump. Everything we saw just on a first glance was strange enough, but we were only half finished. The next thing we found after looking for a few minutes was…” Rob abruptly stopped as the door squealed opened announcing the arrival of someone. Jim cursed whoever it was before he even saw them. Rob wouldn’t finish his story with someone else there. It was bad enough he and Jill were hearing what was said. Rob couldn’t risk another person knowing the whole story.