SACRIFICES (33 page)

              Jenny walks to the door and pulls back the curtain and thinks to herself. ‘That’s Todd Avery. Maybe Brad’s expecting him.’ She pulls open the door, still in her swimsuit. “Hello.” Jenny says as she pushes open the storm door.

              Todd freezes. He looks at her and doesn’t say a word.

              “Hi Mr. Avery.” Jenny grins while she holds open the door. “Come on in, Brad’s upstairs taking a shower.”

              Todd takes a step back and looks at the numbers on the house and says. “1234.” He looks away and mumbles to himself. “This is 1234 Glen Hill...correct? The home of Brad Jostler?”

              Jenny nods her head. “Yes it is, come on in Mr. Avery.”

              Todd walks in slowly and looks at her. He’s extremely confused and overwhelmed at this moment. He knocks on the door at his best friend’s house and a gorgeous woman opens the door dressed in only a swim suit, knows his name and informs him that Brad is taking a shower. He didn’t even know Brad was seeing anyone. This is bizarre. Todd tries to force a smile even though confused beyond belief. “You called me Mr. Avery. Have we met?” He looks her over pretty good. “...Because I have to be honest, I don’t think I would have forgotten
you
if I did? I never forget a face.”

              Jenny smiles and walks toward the kitchen. “No we’ve never met,
formally
...but I recognize you from being on TV. You’re on their quite a bit.”

              Todd follows her into the kitchen and can’t help but notice how beautiful she is from head to toe and everywhere in between. “What’s your name?” Todd asks.

              Jenny turns around and extends her hand. “I’m Jenny McQueen, a friend of Brad’s.”

              Todd smiles and shakes his head. “Nice to meet you Jenny McQueen, and please call me Todd,” He winks. “And if I do say myself, Brad has some very good looking friends.”

              Jenny grins at his left-handed complement. “Aren’t you his best friend Mr. Avery?” She smiles as she puts her hands on her hips.

              Todd nods his head and grins. “Yeah...well what can I say?”

              Jenny starts to walk toward the upstairs doorway and says. “I’ll go tell Brad your here, and it was nice meeting you in person finally.”

              Todd smiles and watches her walk toward the stairs. “Thanks, and trust me, the pleasure was all mine.” He winks and she winks back.

              About ten minutes later Brad comes walking down to the kitchen. Todd’s sitting at the dinning room table and sipping on a beer. Brad emerges from the stairs unsure what to say to his best friend. Todd remains seated not saying a word, just smiling.

              “How you doing?” Brad says while he walks toward the refrigerator.

              Todd continues to say nothing. He just smiles and slowly nurses his Light Beer in the bottle.

              “So what brings you over here tonight?” Brad looks over at Todd as he hears the water being turned on upstairs.

              “Oh...I don’t know. I was just in the neighborhood,” Todd finishes his beer and gets up and walks over to the fridge to get another one. He tosses the empty in the garbage can under the sink. “I thought I’d stop by and check on my
BEST FRIEND
to see how he’s doing after the day he had at work. I just thought if he needed anything that I’d be there for him like any
BEST FRIEND
would be. You know real
BEST FRIENDS
tell each other things. Real
BEST FRIENDS
tell each other
everything
.” Todd removes the cap and retakes his seat at the dinning room table looking away.

              Brad walks over and sits down a few seats away. “What’s with the sarcasm?” He leans back looking away himself.

              Todd looks away. “What sarcasm? I was just wondering how my buddy was doing and it turns out he’s doing pretty damn good and
I
didn’t even know.” Todd takes a long drink feeling a touch of sadness by his best friend not telling him that he’s seeing someone.

              “It’s kind of hard to explain.” Brad leans toward him and whispers.

              “What’s hard to explain? I come over to your house; I’m greeted at the door by a gorgeous red head that looks like a swimsuit model. She tells me that you’re taking a shower. What’s to explain?” Todd smirks and shrugs.

              “Well...I just; well it’s not what it seems.” Brad tries to explain.

              “I understand,” Todd stands up and sits the empty beer bottle down on the table. “Well I better get going I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. I was just worried that’s all. I’ll see you later.” Todd starts toward the door.

              Brad stands up and walks to him and stops him from opening the door with his hand. “I was going to tell you all about it today, but after what happened with Stein it kind of left my mind,” Brad continues to hold the door closed. “I have a lot of weird feeling right now and I’m going to need to talk to you about all of this. But I didn’t hide anything from you on purpose. It just happened. You are my best friend.”

              Todd smiles and takes his hand off of the doorknob. “I’m sorry. I have no reason to act like this. I was just a little sad that you didn’t tell me about it. That’s all.”

              Brad leans over and gives him a hug. “I didn’t mean
not
to tell you. Jenny and me just happened. It wasn’t planned.”

              Todd pats him on the back. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

              Brad opens the door and says. “All right big daddy. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Brad closes the door.

              He walks back into the kitchen and starts playing back in his head all of the conversations they had over the last year and feels guilty for not filling him in on Jenny. Todd’s like family and Brad can understand why he feels a little betrayed right now because if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Todd that didn‘t tell him, he‘d be feeling the same thing. Hopefully after talking to him tomorrow Brad will straighten everything out with his long-time friend.

BRAD GOES UPSTAIRS

             
Jenny’s all ready done with her shower and she’s dressed. She’s towel drying her hair and putting on some make-up.

“So what do you want to do tonight? I thought you said earlier you wanted to stay here and relax.” Brad asks.

              Jenny turns to look at him as she puts on some mascara and explains. “Now I’d kind of like for us to go out. I feel rejuvenated after our little swim.” She smiles briefly at him and continues to put on make-up.             

Brad leans up against the door opening to the bathroom looking away. “Where do you want to go?”

              Jenny looks straight ahead as she screws the cap back on her make-up bottle and digs out some lipstick. “I don’t know. You’re the one that lives here. You ought to know of some good places to go on a Friday night.” She turns and smiles.

              “You’re going to make this very tough on me when you go back home.”

              “Why’s that?” Jenny turns to him.

              “Well for starters you are making my boring life not so boring and I don’t how I’m going to make it after you leave. I’ll miss having you around.” Brad sighs.

              “That is so sweet of you to say. You make my boring life not so boring yourself Mr. Jostler.”

              “It’s going to be tough on me when you do go, I can tell you that.” Brad looks away and shakes his head.

              “I could always move here to Chicago. I’m beginning to really like it here.”

              “What?” Brad quickly looks up.

              “I’m serious. It’s not like I have any good reason to stay in Peoria; I don’t have any family or too many friends there. I’ve only been there myself a couple months. And the big city is starting to grow on me.”

              “What about your job? Are you serious?” Brad smiles as he starts to think she’s not joking around.

              “I am very serious. And as far as my job...” She grins. “...I’m a highly trained and skilled nurse. Not to brag but I could walk into any hospital in the country with my experience and background and get a job.” Jenny leans against the sink while he hangs on her every word.

              “You’re serious aren’t you?” Brad walks toward her with a wide grin.

“I’m beginning to seriously consider it,” She glances at him while he leans against the sink. “I can think of a lot of good reasons to move here...”  Jenny smiles shyly. Brad smiles back. “And to be honest with you, I can’t think of even one reason to stay there anymore.”

              Brad sighs and shakes his head. “I have to tell you. I can’t think of a lot of things I’d like better than you moving here.”

              Jenny grins and walks over to Brad and gives him a soft kiss on the cheek. “We’ll just have to see what happens. Who knows? Maybe one of these days you’ll be seeing me so much you’ll get sick of me.”

              Jenny walks to the sink and finishes putting on her lipstick. Brad looks at her lean against the sink and thinks to himself. ‘I doubt that.’

              He’s almost feeling a touch of guilt for what’s been going on with him and Jenny. There’s also another feeling that’s new and exciting. For the first time since the death of his wife he feels a sort of happiness in his life. He’s always had happiness when it came to his son but this is a different of course, incredibly different. For the first time he himself feels happiness. It’s tough for him to describe, even to himself.

It’s like he has something to look forward too and it feels nice. As tragic as today was with what happened with Mr. Stein and the ongoing investigation. He was still looking forward to spending time with Jenny. He couldn’t wait to see her and he’s loved every single moment of that time. It’s like his life has just taken a turn for the better and it’s because of this lovely woman. It feels good. The kind of good he hasn’t felt in a long time. The kind of good that up until last night he didn’t think he’d ever feel again. There’s something about Jenny that’s so irresistible besides the obvious appearance and personality. There’s something there and Brad’s looking forward to finding it. Not sure what it is, but quite sure it’s there. 

CHAPTER 15

TODD AVERY’S HOME SATURDAY MORNING

             
Todd sits at home in his make shift office in a spare bedroom going over the files on the missing couple. It’s Saturday morning about 6 a.m. he couldn’t sleep. This has become an obsession with him and he
feels
that he can solve this if he looks in the right place. His lovely wife of twenty-years brings him in a cup of coffee while he sits in front of his computer screen entering data one finger at a time to document some facts.

              “Thanks babe.” Todd smiles as he sits in his high back leather chair in his pajamas.

              Jessica sits down his coffee and starts to gently rub his neck and shoulders. “Why you up so early honey? Couldn’t you sleep?” Jessica leans down and kisses him on the bald spot on top of his head.

              “I’m all right angel. It’s just I think that were missing something and I want to find it.” Todd explains as he takes a sip of his coffee.

              “What were the couple’s names? It’s been so long I forgot.” Jessica continues to massage his shoulders.

              “Beth Townsend and Troy Denton.” Todd reads from his sheet of paper glancing at his notes.

              “So what are you looking for babe?” Jessica asks as she feels the tension in his body hoping to help.

              “I don’t know. But whoever has been killing these guys obviously knew what happened. They might have seen it happen or heard about it. Because they raped the guy’s wives in about the same way that Beth was raped. And they killed the husbands in about the same fashion as Troy was killed. I mean not exactly but the bullets to the back of their heads were a message. I don’t know honey, but someone out there knows what happened and everyone besides Mr. Steve Howard is dead. And Brad and me feel pretty sure he’s telling the truth. So now we start from scratch.” Todd explains as he enters names into the computer with excruciating slowness.

              Jessica kisses him again and says. “I’m going to go lay back down. There’s a fresh pot of coffee for you in the kitchen. I love you.” She walks toward the door.

              Todd turns and smiles. “I love you too baby.”

              Todd opens up one of his other folders. He glances over one of the papers that has a list of family members and sees that Beth’s father was a judge. Her mother was a secretary. Todd sits that paper to the side and looks for the family history of Troy Denton. It’s about halfway through the stack. Troy’s dad was a factory worker that died when Troy was in high school and his mom was a teacher at a grade school. Todd reads over the two sheets looking for siblings and other relatives. Troy had a sister and a brother and Beth didn’t have any siblings.