Come Get Me Read online

  The door finished its opening swing and begun its closing when the last person he wanted to see strutted in as if she owned the place. Maria looked from side to side like a dog searching for a scent before finally settling on Jim. When she saw him at the counter she immediately started walking towards him.

  “Hi Jim!” she practically squealed as she pushed Rob out of the way. “I didn’t know you’d be here!” He was sure she’d known exactly where he was ever since he’d passed the restaurants on his way in to town. Why else would she be here? Looking over her shoulder at Rob for help only got him shrugged shoulders and fingers pantomiming the universal signal for craziness. Jim stifled his laugher by quickly coughing into his hand. Maria, seeing that she wasn’t getting his full attention spun around and almost caught Rob in the act of making fun of her. Luckily he grabbed a box from the shelf next to him before he was completely caught. Unfortunately he hadn’t looked at what he was grabbing. Seeing what rob was holding caused Jim to have to stifle another bout of laughter.

  Jim knew a lot of things had changed since he’d left but he didn’t know Rob had had a sex change. The box he’d grabbed was for tampons and he was intently studying the directions for their use. At the sound of Jim’s half cough half laughter Rob looked up trying to act as if he’d just noticed that Maria was there. She just looked at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

  “Hey Maria! How’s it going?” Rob asked brightly.

  “Oh, I’m fine but you look don’t look to well.” She said sarcastically. “Have you gained weight? You look like you might be retaining a little water. Is your monthly friend here for a visit?” Maria seemed to enjoy Rob’s confusion.

  “No, not really,” Rob began before noticing what he held. Once he did Jim was surprised he didn’t drop it. He visibly turned a brighter shade of red then quickly said, “I, uh, need to go look at something over there.” Then quickly moved to the spot his pointing finger was indicating.

  “Yes, you do that,” Maria said with a catty smile as she turned back to Jim.

  “Hi Maria,” Jim said quickly feeling like he was caught in the cats’ claws. He wanted to get this unfortunate meeting over with as soon as possible. He still had stuff to find out from Rob then there was also the problem with working up the courage to ask Jill out. He hadn’t planned on doing it but seeing Maria the idea had suddenly seemed like a very good one. The only way to get past Maria and be able to do those things was to jump right in with both feet and hope it wouldn’t get to painful. “I was just talking to Rob here about old times. Haven’t seen him in a while, you know.” The look on her face told him she wasn’t buying any of what he was saying. The conversation had already gone on longer than he’d wanted it too and she hadn’t even said anything. Maybe if he kept talking she never would so he continued. “We were just trying to catch up a little before he had to go back to work. He was just telling me about the people still living in the area and some stuff about what had changed since I left. Hopefully he doesn’t have to be back at work too soon. I’d really like to talk to him a little more if he does.” He was hoping Rob was listening and would come to his rescue but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. He must have been scared off by his earlier confrontation.

  Jim knew he wasn’t being extremely polite but he wanted to get rid of her as fast as possible so he could find out what else Rob had to say. Just before they were interrupted he was sure he was about to tell him something important.

  “Was there, uh, something I could help you with?” he asked trying to prod her into getting to the reason why she’d come searching for him.

  “I was just wondering if you were ok,” she answered sweetly. “I also wanted to ask if you needed anything or if maybe, you’d thought anymore about getting together. I’m here for you whenever you want me.” She put an emphasis on ‘want’ and he was sure it wasn’t by accident. Jim didn’t know what to do about the whole situation. He was slightly embarrassed. She was practically throwing herself at him in front of both Rob and Jill. It would be bad enough if it they were alone but this was ridiculous. “We could even do it tonight if you wanted,” she said pulling him from his internal debate.

  “Do what?” he sputtered hoping she hadn’t suggested what he thought she had.

  “Why, go out silly. What else would I be talking about?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, “I wasn’t really paying attention.” Going out with her was exactly the last thing he wanted to do tonight. Even if Tommy’s funeral hadn’t been set for the next day he still wouldn’t want to do anything with her. There was just something about her that gave him the creeps. The problem was he couldn’t think of a nice way to tell her to go away. He’d be happy if she never thought of him again but knew that was too much to hope for. Jim wasn’t good with words and saying something like that in a nice way was beyond him. On the other hand he could always be mean but that wasn’t really an option either. He just wasn’t a mean person. He thought that she’d gotten the hint yesterday but apparently not.

  “Actually Jim and I already made plans to go out, right Jim?” a feminine voice chimed out behind him. Looking around to see who his savior was he was happily surprised to see Jill smiling wickedly in Maria’s direction. He didn’t know exactly why she was doing it but he wasn’t going to complain. That took care of two problems at once actually. Hopefully Maria would leave him alone. He also didn’t have to figure out how to get a date with Jill. She just made it.

  “Yeah, that’s right we sure did,” he said after recovering from his initial surprise. Jill had given him the out he was looking for and he wasn’t about to waste it. It wasn’t the politest way to go about it but, oh well. Maria looked as if she was about to jump over the counter and scratch Jill’s eyes out. He could almost see her bristling. Maybe now it would finally get through her skull that he wasn’t going to go out with her.

  Maria’s cheeks reddened as what had happened sank all the way in. After a few seconds of gathering her emotions, she gave Jill a scathing look, and said in a strained voice, “Oh, how silly of me. I didn’t know you liked her kind.” What she meant by her kind Jim had no idea. Maybe sane was the word she was looking for. “Well, I guess I won’t bother you anymore. Maybe some other time before you leave then.” Before turning and making her way to the door. She purposefully brushed Jim as she went by. He didn’t know what she hoped to accomplish by doing it but she almost knocked herself over. She must’ve thought he would move out of her way.

  Grasping the handle of the door she looked back at their little group and said with a smile, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at the funeral.” Then she was gone with only the violently slamming door to say she’d been there.

  He knew she was mad but her last comment made Jim think. He again got the feeling she was taking some perverse pleasure out of this whole situation. He had to be wrong though. She’d been one of Tommy’s friends too. They’d grown up in the same town and gone to the same school with him. She acted like they hadn’t even known each other but they must have. There was almost no way they couldn’t have. Tommy had stayed here while Jim had left so they must’ve at least seen each other once in a while. Why was she acting like this? His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud outburst behind him.

  “Woo-ooo!” Rob whooped. “I’d say she’s got the hots for you big time brother!” Rob obviously found the whole situation funny. Jim wondered how he’d be acting if the shoe was on the other foot. He was about to ask but Rob beat hi to it. “Looks like Jimmy-boy has a not so secret admirer.”

  “Shut up dickhead!” Jim said left with no other rebuttal but a childish one. What he had been thinking of saying wasn’t the sort of thing that was polite to say in front of a woman.

  Rob face turned sad as he tried looking offended but he wasn’t able to pull it off very well. When you were as big of a smartass as he was, and everybody knew it, there was very little you could get away with (his feelings being hurt by someone calling him a name wasn’t e
xactly something that was going to make him cry). Jim didn’t know how Rob had ever succeeded in becoming a cop. He must be a good actor. Jim decided to ignore him instead of saying anything else. Maybe that would teach him a lesson. He instead turned his attention back to Jill.

  “Well,” he said trying to sound calm, “it would appear you and I have a date tonight.” He really hoped she hadn’t just been saying everything just to help him out of an awkward situation. Jim heard Rob making what sounded like kissing noises behind his back trying to get his attention but he wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of distracting him by turning around and yelling at him. If he did Rob might think he’d won their little battle. Jim couldn’t allow that.

  After a few seconds of being ignored Rob finally figured out that it wasn’t working. He mumbled something about some people in the room being too emotional and picked up another box of something he probably shouldn’t have. Jim continued to ignoring him.

  “Yes we do have a date,” Jill said hesitating a little bit. She didn’t sound like she really wanted one. Jim was about to say something to let her know she didn’t have to follow through when she spoke again. “That is if you want one. I was just trying to help out. Although, I did think this was as good a way as any to get a date with you.”

  “Really!” he said sounding a lot less cooler than he’d wanted. “I mean, uh, don’t worry about that. I was actually going to ask you out before I left I’m just a little, you know, a little on the shy side.” How could she think he wouldn’t want to go out with her? Had the woman never looked in a mirror? He’d just about been drooling on her since the first moment he saw her.

  Jim was drawn out of his daydream by the sound of Rob. He was back to his mumbling again. He’d been doing it since he’d figured out he was being ignored but every now and then he spoke a little louder to let Jim know he was still there. Jim heard him say he had to get back to work and realized he needed to hurry up. Rob still had things to tell him. The rest of the comments were just mild threat about people needing to recognize who was in charge or else they’d get thrown in jail. Jim could tell he was getting upset that his taunts weren’t having the desired effect. Rob loved being the center of attention so when you ignored him it drove him batty. Do it long enough and he’d just about start foaming at the mouth.

  Jim figured a little while longer wouldn’t hurt him but he did need to hurry. There was only so much he would take. If they were lucky Rob would learn it’s not nice to tease people, but Jim doubted it. Trying to speed things up without being obvious he asked Jill what she wanted to do and talked about a few other menial things for a few more seconds before Rob finally popped.

  “Alright you two lovebirds. I need to get back to work,” he announced grumpily. “Being an officer of the law is an important job and I’ve got some, uh, important stuff to get back too.”

  “Well, I guess we shouldn’t keep you from those important things that are waiting for you,” Jill said teasingly. “What were they again?”

  “It must be awfully hard being a great, big important policeman like you,” Jim said joining in.

  “You must have a lot of important parking tickets to write,” Jill said through giggles.

  “And important old ladies to help across the street,” Jim continued.

  “Oh wait! I got it!” Jill squealed, “He has to go catch all the bank robbers running around town.”

  Robb was turning quite a few different shades of red by this time. Jim was surprised he hadn’t stormed out of the shop already. At least that part of him had changed.

  “You’re not funny you two!” Rob whined, “My job IS important! I don’t have time to stand around jawing with you two all day. I do have a lot of important stuff to do. Even if I can’t think what it is right now.” Rob looked like he could bite the head off a nail right about then.

  “Oh, just calm down a little ya big monkey,” Jim said thinking they may have pushed Rob too far. “Give me just a few more minutes and then we’ll both leave.”

  He turned back and quickly found out Jill wanted him to meet her at the grocery store tonight at around seven when she closed up. He gave her a quick smile, said goodbye and caught up to Rob just as he was about to stalk out the door. Jim waved to Jill once more before he and Rob made their way outside.

  Rob was still a little upset so they walked in silence while Jim gave him time to get in a better mood. He needed Rob happy and willing to talk. He didn’t need him wanting to bite his head off.

  “So,” he began tentatively after a few minutes, “what were you going to say about Tommy back there before we were so rudely interrupted?”

  “Oh yeah,” Rob said sounding a little better and not looking half as mad as he had, “I forgot we were talking about that before your girlfriend showed up.” He couldn’t resist throwing that little bit in. Jim guessed it was his way of getting back at him for earlier. He let it slide instead of saying anything and listened to Rob talk. “There was also that part where you and your other girlfriend started picking on me. Telling you stuff you wanted to know about kind of slipped my mind.” He was still a little ticked but Jim knew he wasn’t really mad. He was just trying to make Jim think he was. He only had to wait long enough for Rob to feel he’d gotten the better of him before he started talking again. It didn’t take as long as he thought it would.

  “It was real strange out where everything happened,” Rob began quietly. “When we got there we all saw Tommy’s body on the tree like I said. You already know what happened after that but what you and everybody hasn’t heard is that the tree he fell on wasn’t just some old tree that fell over like the sheriff said. It’d been broken off sometime recently. Actually the sheriff said it looked more like it’d been cut. He thought, maybe somebody might’ve used an ax or something like that on it. We’ll have to wait for the experts to decide that one. Anyways, this tree he fell on stood about twenty feet away from the stand he was sitting in. Even if he’d jumped, which I and everyone else doubt, then he wouldn’t have made it that far. He would have needed to get a running start or something to make it that far.” He paused for a minute while Jim thought about what he’d said.

  Rob was right; there was no possible way Tommy could’ve made it that far by himself. There was just no way. Deer stands were usually only about ten feet or so up and maybe a few feet wide. In order for Tommy to have jumped that far the thing would’ve need to be a lot higher and a lot wider than it was. He hadn’t seen Tommy for a while but he doubted he, much less anyone else, could’ve made a jump like that from his little stand. Jim found it easier to believe he’d fallen than that he’d jumped but neither made any sense. Rob was speaking again so Jim put those thoughts on hold. He was glad he did when he heard what else Rob had to say.

  “Once everyone was done being sick and whatnot we started looking around. From what we could see with the body in the way the stump or whatever you want to call it was only sticking out of the ground about three or four feet. There was a lot of brush around it so if it hadn’t been for the thing sticking out of Tommy’s chest we probably all would’ve never seen it. With it looking like it was cut and that maybe somebody tried to hide it just makes things look a little strange. If nothing else it was in the perfect place for what it did. Unfortunately there were no signs of foul play that we could find and no signs of anyone else having been there. No foot prints, trash, broken branches, nothing.”

  “So what makes the sheriff think he fell then?” Jim asked.

  “Well, all the stuff he brought out with him was still sitting up in his stand where he’d left it for one thing. His gun, lunch, and a chair were just sitting there. If someone had come out there to rob him or something they would’ve surely taken that stuff. But it was all still there. Since there were no signs of anything else the sheriff says Tommy jumping was the only thing that could’ve happened.”

  “There were no footprints on the ground or anything?” Jim asked. He was pretty sure they would’ve checked f
or something like that. Rob might’ve just forgotten to mention it.

  “Wait a minute,” Rob said after thinking about it for a few seconds, “now that you mention it I think there were. I said before there weren’t but now after thinking about it for a few minutes I think maybe there were.” Jim’s hopes grew. Maybe this was the clue they needed to figure out what had really happened. Now there’s a lot they could do with a shoe print. Rob was just upset. He must’ve forgotten about them before. “But those were from other hunters who’d been through there that day.” Jim’s hopes crashed back down as he listened to his friend continue. “There were a few hunters that came through that area. Those were the prints we found. We questioned them but from what they say everything was just like it was any of a hundred other times they’d been there that morning. It was when they came back later on towards evening that everything was all messed up and bloody. They said the first thing they heard were the flies. Thinking it strange they decided to investigate. That’s when the smell hit them. After that they found the body then high tailed it out of there and called us.