Come Get Me (11 page)

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 coming 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.

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.