Fook (42 page)

“Do ya?” Phil asked again, holding the
remote, his finger ready to push play.

“No.”

“Then why don’t you tell me what’s really
going on.”

“I already told you who did it.”

“Yeah, this Fook guy. Your roommate.”

“Yes, but there’s something I didn’t tell
you,” Derek glanced up at the clock, concerned by the time. More
than half the day had been wasted already and Sarah’s sister was
running out of time. At this point the chances of figuring out a
solution in time were slim so he decided to level with the guy,
even if it meant sounding like a lunatic and probably spending the
rest of his life in prison. “There are more victims.”

“You killed someone else?” Phil seemed
shocked by the unexpected confession.

“No, Jason.”

“Of course,” Phil sighed.

“Are you going to take this serious or not?”
Derek raised his voice.

Taken aback, Phil leaned forward. “Alright,
I’m listening.”

“Tabitha Tillmore. Her and her husband were
killed last night at their house in Scituate.

Phil just stared into Derek’s eyes. He
appeared to be telling the truth, or at least he believed he was.
Looking up at Mike, “Go check it out.”

Nodding, Officer Lucern left the room.

“And you didn’t kill these people?” Phil
continued to probe.

“No.”

“So how do you know about it?”

“I was there. I saw Jason do it.”

“So you were an accomplice?”

“No. We tried to stop him but couldn’t.”

“We?”

“Shit,” Derek thought. So far he’d left
Sarah completely out of this. Other than telling her father that
they’d recently met, he hadn’t said another word about her and had
avoided the subject whenever it came up.

“I meant I,” he lied.

“Is my daughter somehow involved in
this?”

“No.”

“Don’t fuck with me. My daughter brings you
home from college unexpectedly. Nobody knows who you are or what
your story is. Hell, I didn’t even know she was seeing anybody.

“We’re not—“

“—Shut up.”

Derek complied.

“Where was my daughter when you saw this
Fook character killing them?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see Sarah until
early yesterday morning when she picked me up.”

“For a murderer, you don’t lie very well.
Let’s hope you can find a lawyer better at it than you are.”

Derek didn’t know how to respond as he
leaned back in his chair, wanting to tell the man that his other
daughter was next, but unable to find the words.

Seeing the defeated look in Derek’s eyes,
Phil also leaned back in his chair, the soft click and the squeak
of the interrogation room door, finally breaking the deafening
silence between them.

“It’s true,” Michael whispered in Phil’s ear
as he looked at Derek. “Two bodies, Mr. and Mrs. Tillmore, killed
sometime the other night.”

“How?” Phil looked at Derek.

“Mrs. Tillmore was stabbed in the back and
Mr. Tillmore…well.”

He could tell that his partner was bothered
by the details he’d just received from the Scituate police
department. He’d spent his entire career in the town of Cannon. The
worst things he’d had to deal with so far were juvenile delinquents
and the occasional domestic violence calls. Never murder.

“Any witnesses?” Phil whispered back,
continuing to keep an eye on Derek.

“Just one. The next door neighbor claims to
have heard some sort of commotion. She said that she saw a man,
matching his description, getting into a car with…someone
else.”

“Shit,” Derek thought.

“Who?” Phil looked up at his partner.

“The description sounds like Sarah.”

Phil turned back to Derek. What had been a
look of frustration and anger toward Derek, instantly became a rage
filled hatred as he stood from his chair and grabbed Derek by the
front of his shirt.

“Phil!” Michael exclaimed, worried about
what his partner might do.

“You listen here you little shit,” Phil
addressed Derek through clenched teeth.

Derek had nowhere to go. His hands and feet
were cuffed together and chained to the table. He didn’t know if
the incensed father was going to push, punch or shoot him.

“I don’t know what you have gotten my
daughter into but you can rest assured that—“

“—Your daughter is in danger,” Derek blurted
out. Why not he thought. He was going to be convicted for the
murders that Jason committed anyway. His only defense was that a
man, with the ability to travel through time, had come back to
enact revenge on the mother’s of the girls who had wronged him in
high school. Yeah, that should be an easy sell to a jury.

“What did you say? You’re not going to
mention Sarah ever again or I’m going to—“

“—Not Sarah, Catherine, Katie. She’s
next.”

“You’re not going to touch my daughters,
either of them,” he lifted Derek out of the chair, pulling him
halfway across the table.

“Phil,” Michael urged his partner to
relax.

Very calmly, given his threatened position,
“Not me. Jason. You don’t have much time.”

Phil just stared at the surprisingly relaxed
man in his grasp before releasing his grip, sending Derek crashing
back into his chair. “Lock him up,” he turned.

“Where are you going?” Michael asked.

“To have a word with my daughter,” he
grumbled as he yanked the door open and stormed out of the
room.

FORTY-FIVE

“Sarah! Sarah, are you here!? We need to talk!”

Emerging from her room, Katie made her way
to the top of the stairs where she saw her father standing just
inside the front door, staring up at her.

“Where’s your sister?”

“I thought she was with you.”

“Why would she be with me?” Phil asked
confused.

“She grabbed her keys and left right after
you took what’s his name away this morning. I thought she’d
followed you to the station.”

“Well she didn’t,” Phil sighed. “Do you have
any idea where she might have gone?”

“No,” Katie shrugged.

“Great.”

*****

“Sarah. What are you doing here?” Officer Lucern
addressed his partner’s daughter with surprise.

“I need to see him Mike,” Sarah skipped the
pleasantries and got right to the point.

“Your father’s not here. He went home to
speak with you.”

“Not my father,” she glanced at the doorway
leading to the holding cells in the basement.

“I can’t let you do that,” he held his hand
up as Sarah took a step toward the door.”

“And why not?”

“I don’t think your father wants you talking
to the suspect right now.”

“He’s not a suspect, Mike.”

“Well I beg to differ. Right now he’s being
held on the suspicion of murder, with video evidence to back it up.
I think that more than qualifies him as a suspect.”

“I don’t care what evidence you think you
have against him. Your evidence is wrong,” Sarah continued to stare
him down. “Now you’re going to let me in there or I’m going to tell
my father about our little…you know…thing from a few years
back.”

Michael’s face instantly turned ghost white
at the threat.

She would never risk his career with such
news but he didn’t need to know that. Besides, nothing illegal had
been done, but she was pretty sure that her father would explode at
the news that his then eighteen year old daughter had been part of
a three month affair with his long time partner and closest friend
shortly before she’d gone off to college. It had ended on mutual
terms, both realizing the eventual outcome of such a forbidden
relationship. She’d gone off to school and he’d continued by her
father’s side as if nothing had ever happened. Occasionally, they’d
exchanged awkward glances whenever she’d come home for a long
weekend or holidays, some of which her father had noticed, but
she’d managed to play those off with uncomfortable jokes about how
hot his partner was, and had managed to keep him in the dark.

“You wouldn’t. I thought we agreed
that—“

“—Mike, I just need five minutes. The
dispatcher buzzed me in and the other guys are in the back office.
No one needs to know that I’m down there. My father won’t find
out,” she assured him.

Nervously, he stared into her eyes. He could
keep her presence in the basement from the others and he believed
that she wouldn’t tell her father. Hell, for over three years she’d
kept the much bigger secret, but she also seemed a bit nervous and
uneasy, which told him that, if denied, she might just go ahead and
break her long time silence. It was a risk not worth taking.

“You have five minutes.”

“Thanks Mike,” she smiled as she again went
to take a step toward the door, stopped once again by the officer’s
halting hand.

“But if you get caught down there, I’m going
to claim to have never seen you and that you snuck in on your own.
Alright?”

“Got it,” she smiled. “You’re looking good.
You been working out?”

“Go,” Mike grinned as she hurried through
the door.

*****

“What are you doing here?” Derek leapt from the
holding cell bench to meet Sarah at the bars.

“I had to make sure you were alright,” Sarah
nervously looked back over her shoulder, down the hall from which
she’d just come.

“Did you break in?” Derek followed her
nervous gaze.

“No,” she laughed.

“Well I’m assuming that your father doesn’t
know. So, how’d you get down here?”

“It’s not important. Listen, I went back to
speak with Mr. Fook after you were arrested.”

“And?”

“You were right about Oliver...I mean, Jason
and the adoption.”

“Sarah.”

“They
are
planning on kidnapping him;
his grandmother and father I mean. Mr. Fook never really came right
out and said it, but I understood what he meant. I didn't get much
else before he forgot what he was saying and offered me another
pie. The man must really like pie...”

“Sarah.”

"But anyway, it gave me an idea. What if we
contact the Nesbits and let them know what's going on."

"Sarah."

"Maybe we can stop this—"

“—Listen to me!” Derek finally managed to
interject.

She fell silent.

“I know all about it. I went to Tampa last
night. I went to the Nesbits.”

"You did?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Looking around the room at his current
situation.

“Right, but why didn’t you tell me where you
were going?”

“Because I didn’t want you to be involved
anymore than you already are.”

“Involved. How could I be any more involved?
I’m probably going to end up right beside you in that cell if we
get linked to the Tillmore’s.”

“I told your dad about the Tillmore’s. He
knows everything.”

“Everything?”

“Well not everything. I told him about Jason
but I didn’t mention you or the part about the future. Anyway, it
doesn’t matter. You need to get home and get your sister out of
here. Run as far away as possible.”

“I thought you said running wouldn’t do
anything.”

“It probably won’t but it might buy you a
little bit of time to figure something else out."

"What about the Nesbits?"

"What?"

"You said you went to the Nesbits. What
happened?"

"They aren't going to be of any help."

"But you told them right? Did you tell them
about Jason's grandmother and father? Did you tell them about
Jason?"

"I...," Derek hesitated as he contemplated
whether or not to share details about the previous night's events
and his unspeakable part in it.

"What am I thinking?" Sarah interrupted. "Of
course they didn't believe it. Hell, I would still think you were
nuts if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

Satisfied with letting Sarah jump to her own
conclusions...for now at least, he redirected the conversation back
to her sister. "Your sister can’t go to that dance, alright?”

Sarah smiled.

“What?”

“My sister was in the hospital
yesterday.”

Derek wasn’t sure how that news constituted
a smile.

“She’s alright,” Sarah realized the
contradictory quality of her expression to the news. “She’s not
going to the dance. One thing you have to know about my father is
that he’s very protective.

“You think?” Derek again scanned his
surroundings.

“He’s not letting her go tonight. She has to
stay home and rest.”

“Great! That should buy you a little bit of
time. Jason seems to want me involved. He wants me there to witness
it. You need to get your sister as far away from me as
possible.”

“But, what are you going to do? You didn’t
commit those murders.”

“The evidence seems to say otherwise,” Derek
sighed. “Listen, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Something
tells me that Jason’s not going to want me in here permanently.
He’s just toying with me. Like I said, he’s going to want me there
when it’s time, which is why you and your sister need to leave,
now.”

Sarah didn’t know what to say. She knew the
truth. She didn’t want to see Derek charged with crimes that he
didn’t commit, but she also wanted her sister to be safe.

“Go,” Derek insisted.

Reluctantly, Sarah took a step back, sensing
that there was more on Derek's mind than just her sister's safety.
“What else happened in Tampa?” she asked.

Derek just lowered his head, ashamed of what
he’d done, but more ashamed that he’d failed and that Sarah’s
sister was still at risk. Without looking up, he simply said,
“Go.”

FORTY-SIX

The sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the
house. Its first chime instantly grabbing the attention of the
impatient father waiting in the armchair in front of the dark and
silent television. There would be no need for a second.