Blood Red

She left him out in the deepening cold of the night, and went up to her bedroom, across from Teddy’s. Michelle Lister was still in the room looking down on her sleeping son. She had a few lines from crying on her face, but Kelli didn’t look for long or offer any sort of comfort. Michelle was a very private woman, and she knew the lady would prefer to be by herself with her sleeping child.

There was surprisingly little traffic on Cliff Walk. Normally, even in the dead of winter, she could expect to see a few cars traveling up and down the long stretch of road. Kelli stared at the road and the house across the street for several minutes, her mind wandering from her employer on the porch to the man who had just recently come to town.

She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep still fully clothed and far too tired to care about the discomfort of wearing her jeans to slumber land.

Across the street, Jason watched her from the shadows of an oak tree. He barely moved until the moon had risen into the sky.

II

Brian Freemont drove like a madman, desperate to get back to his house and the phone call he knew he had to expect. He’d had more than enough of his mystery caller and the threats the man had delivered. He wanted the situation resolved.

“I just want my life back. That’s all. Please, God, let me have my life back.”

His stomach seethed with tension. Angie was at home and he dreaded the idea that she would answer that particular phone call. If she did, she could make his life a living hell. He didn’t like the idea of a divorce, and he liked the idea of child support even less.

Sometimes, when he was halfway to sleep, he looked back and wondered if he had ever loved Angie. He thought so. These days she was too high maintenance and her moods were pissing him off to the point that he didn’t fucking care what happened to her.

That was a lie. He did care, he just didn’t know if he cared as much as he should. She was a good woman, one of the best he’d ever known, but her mood swings and weight gain were taxing his patience.

Mostly, these days, he was worried about what was going to happen if he didn’t get this all worked out. Everything he had was gone; all of the money in his accounts, except for his last paycheck. He knew, because he’d looked all of the accounts over online earlier in the day. It wasn’t that the money had been taken. Instead it was as if the money had never existed. Even his transaction records were screwed up beyond all repair. If this wasn’t fixed to the bastard on the phone’s satisfaction, his whole world was going to fall apart.

He wanted that fucker dead.

He wanted to make the son of a bitch scream and die and bleed.

But mostly he wanted his life back.

The clock on the dashboard told him he still had five minutes to get home. He parked as calmly as he could and climbed from the car. His hands were doing their best to clench into fists and he made himself calm down a bit. Angie didn’t need to see him like this.

He opened the door to his house and smiled as he walked in, ready to put on a cheery face for his wife. He needn’t have bothered. She was already in a bad mood.

Angie Freemont sat on the couch, the TV playing the last of the nightly news, and stared daggers at Brian.

“Angie? What’s wrong?”

Her voice was hoarse and tense. “You want to tell me why the bank called four times today, Brian?”

“What did they call about, honey?”

“About the fact that we have no money, and seven checks have bounced since this morning. How’s that for a starter?”

Brian felt his stomach fall a few stories and took a deep breath. “I can explain that.”

“Good! Because I’m sick to death of this shit, Brian!”

“It was a mistake, I already talked to the bank and everything should be fine in the morning. Something about a hacker trying to steal from a bunch of accounts.” This was closer to the truth than he liked to think about, but it made the lie easier.

She opened her mouth to speak and the phone rang. The idea of his wife grabbing the phone to speak to the man blackmailing him for screwing college trim on the side sent Brian Freemont leaping across the room. The end table with the phone was next to Angie’s right hand. He knocked her arm out of the way as he grabbed the receiver.

“Hello?” Angie shot him a murderous glance and he in turn looked as apologetic as he could.

“Officer Freemont?”

“Yes, this is me.”

“One second.” He could hear the man moving through the underbrush. “How many boxes did you put out here?”

“Four. They should all be together.” This was the moment he needed to worry about the most. He chewed on his lip and did his best not to sound too stressed.

Everything depended on the caller taking the boxes with him.

“I see four boxes; we’re off to a good start here, Officer. Hold on for me.”