For The Least Of These (31 page)

“I’m not letting you go. It’s too late for that, so don’t even try to talk me into it.”

“I know. This isn’t about that. I wanted to talk to you about Jesus.”

“Jesus? You’ve got to be kidding. What do you know about Jesus?”

“Not as much as I’d like to, but more than I used to. I know that He is God’s son and that He came to earth to die so that I could live
– live forever. He died for you too, Terry.”

“I don’t want to hear this, Brandy. I don’t care.”

“Just listen. If you still don’t care when I’m done, what has it hurt?”

“Fine. What do you want to say?

“First of all, I want to tell you that God loves you and He wants you to have a full and meaningful life. That’s why He sent His only son to die on the cross – so you and I could have everlasting life. But there is something that stands in our way of having a relationship with God and therefore having an abundant life: sin. God is wholly good and while we are living sinful lives, we cannot have a relationship with Him. The wages of sin is death – or complete separation from God. But God didn’t want us to remain apart from Him, so He sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place and pay the penalty for our sins. Only through Jesus Christ can we come back to God. If we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we can experience God’s love and the wonderful life He wants for us. And we have to receive Jesus through faith – not through doing what we believe is good or moral. If we try to receive salvation this way, we will always fall short. Only through faith can we receive Jesus and salvation from sin. If we can do this, we can be born again and we can become true children of God, experiencing all of the joy and blessings that He wants to give to us. You have to pray, Terry, and ask Jesus to come into your heart and repent of your sins. He will forgive you if you are sincere. He’ll even forgive what you did to Fisher and Jack. You need to pray, Terry. I can help you if you want me to.”

“Shut the hell up!” Terry yelled at me. “I can’t believe you. Is this why you are leaving me? For your Jesus?”

“I’m not leaving you; I’m just leaving the house and the situation. Can’t you see that people think we are sleeping together even though we aren’t? If for no other reason, you should think of how it looks to your students. What kind of example are you setting for them? We have to start defining a new moral world for young people.

“You are right. Jesus is responsible for my decision. He needs to have a place in a moral society. Morality without Him changes and redefines itself according to Man. Man is unable to remain truly moral without Jesus. Our living arrangement is evidence of this. Living together is a sin, particularly when we are allowing people to think
– even mistakenly – that we are intimate. But society has abandoned God’s law and now living together is an acceptable thing and a perfect example of the shifting sands of morality.”

Terry remained quiet, so I continued. “I used to believe it was no one’s business but ours. We weren’t lovers and we were the only ones who had to know that
– to hell with the rest of the world. But Jesus opened my eyes. By reading the Word, I’ve come to understand just how wrong that thinking was. Even though I’m saved by Jesus – all my sins, past, present and future, forgiven, I still feel I have an obligation to live a moral life. Moral by God’s definition, not by Man’s. And I am accountable for my actions, especially when my sinful actions might cause someone else to sin. Just know that I wasn’t rejecting you, Terry. You are and have always been a dear friend that I love.”

Terry had tears in his eyes. He placed his gun down on the coffee table in front of my chair, but even if I thought I could use it to escape, it was out of my reach. “I love you, too, Brandy. We don’t have to be lovers. I just want things to go on like always. And I want to keep protecting you. I can’t do that if you move out.”

“What do you need to protect me from, Terry? You’ve never needed to protect me.”

“I protected you from things you don’t even know about. All the guys you’ve dated since I’ve known
you, none of them were any good, and I made sure they left you alone. Those two men that are always hanging out at that bar, the ones that are always sniffing around you and Alicia – I recently made sure they would never bother you again. And then that Fisher guy – he had to go. When I confronted him, he let me know that he wasn’t done with you. He said he was going to make you pay for how you treated him and for what you did to his truck. He was laughing about what he’d done to your car and that he’d pretty much gotten away with it. I was so angry that my hands were around his neck before I knew what I was doing. I just knew I had to make sure he didn’t hurt you again. I also had to stop that other guy. I thought he was your boyfriend. I just wanted to scare him and bring you back home, but then he pulled a gun. I didn’t know what else to do. Can you ever forgive me, Brandy?”

The things Terry was saying were awful, but I pretended to understand. I wondered what he had done to Curt and Wayne to make sure they didn’t bother me. Hopefully he had just warned them. I didn’t want two more deaths on my conscience. I quickly said to Terry, “Of course I forgive you. But you’ve got to turn yourself in now. Please unlock these handcuffs.”

I was absolutely amazed when Terry came over to me and unlocked the cuff from my wrist. I stood up and gave him a hug. I was still scared to death of him, but I couldn’t let him know that. “Will you go with me, Brandy? I’m afraid of what they might do to me…”

“Yes, you know I will.” I turned to move away from Terry and towards the door, thinking it best to get out of the house before we became stranded. I had forgotten that Terry had positioned the chair in front of the coffee table, and I hit the table hard with my shin. Without really meaning to, I let out a loud scream of pain. Terry rushed to help me. He was the sweet, kind Terry I remembered. The crazy murdering Terry seemed to be gone for now.

Before I could reassure him that I was not hurt, something bashed up against the front door. Terry and I turned towards the sound. There was a second loud thump and then the door burst open.

I expected to see a multitude of police officers surrounding the house
– or at the very least, Adam and Alicia coming to save me. Instead, I saw Rick Hartwood standing there alone rubbing his shoulder. What on earth was he doing here?

“Let Brandy go and I won’t hurt you,” he said. He tried to appear threatening, but his quivering voice gave him away.

“No, Rick!” I screamed. “I’ve got this under control…” But it was too late. Terry had already picked up his gun and he was aiming it in Rick’s direction.

“Things don’t look under control,” Rick said.

“Why the heck did you try to break the door down?” Terry asked. “It wasn’t locked. All you had to do was turn the knob. Now it might not close back and – in case you didn’t notice – there’s a hurricane outside. Get your ass over here and sit down. I’ve got to decide what to do with you now.”

I was surprised by how cool Terry had become. He wasn’t acting like a madman any longer; he really did seem to be more like the Terry I had known for all these years. Too bad the gun in his hand kept me from actually believing that.

Terry forced Rick to sit down on the sofa, and then he closed the front door. The door wasn’t broken, and Terry seemed pleased. Then he looked at me. “Did you know this fool was coming? Who the hell is he?”

“I had absolutely no idea he was coming. I haven’t seen or heard from him since I went to Biloxi to his concert. This is Rick Hartwood, the singer.” I noticed that Rick grimaced when I introduced him this way. He probably thought I would say he was a magnificent superstar whom I idolized, but I was so over that. “But Terry, it doesn’t matter. We can still go to the police together. Rick can go back to wherever he came from
– no harm, no foul.”

“You almost had me going, Brandy. All your talk of Jesus and wanting to help me. All the while you were stalling; you were waiting for this joker to come in and save the day. Too bad he’s such a wimp. You should have put your hopes in someone better than this.” Terry then turned to Rick, “By the way, I hate your music
– it sucks. I never could understand Brandy’s fascination with it.”

Terry crossed over to where I was standing. He grabbed my arm so tightly that it hurt. He jerked me over to the sofa and pushed me down beside Rick. “Now I’ve got to decide how to take care of the two of you.” He laughed, “Yep, I almost bought into your act, Brandy. I’ve been such a fool, but no more. You aren’t any better than all those men I’ve sent on their merry way
– all of your so-called boyfriends. I killed for you. And this is how you pay me back. Well, this was the last straw, Brandy. I won’t be turning myself in.” Terry had the handcuffs and he used them to bind Rick and me together.

I looked over at Rick and he was turning white from fear. Whatever had possessed him to come to my rescue, I was betting now that he wished he’d left me to Terry’s devices. Of course I didn’t blame him. I didn’t want to die either. But it looked like we weren’t going to have much of a choice. Terry had managed to move past the emotional crazy he was channeling earlier today. The lost, broken soul had turned into a rational, cold-blooded killer. I would never be able to talk him down again. Only God could save Rick and me now.

Terry was suddenly distracted by a noise on the front porch. He went to the door and jerked it open, but no one was there. I had once again hoped that the police had arrived to save the day – hoping that Rick (or maybe Adam or Alicia) had called them. But it wasn't so. If someone had called them, they didn’t seem to be coming.

“What are
 
you
 doing here?” I whispered to Rick.

“Saving you, what else?” he answered.

“Well, let me tell you, you’re doing a bang-up job of it. Don’t give up your singing career just yet.”

“Nice to see you can still be funny
– even when a maniac is standing over us with a gun.”

“Shut up you two,” Terry bellowed. “I don’t want to shoot you. I’d prefer leaving you somewhere where the storm can do all the work. Give you a little tiny bit of hope that you might be able to survive. But if you don’t stay quiet, I’ll finish it all right here.”

Another loud noise came from outside. This time it was like something had smashed up against the house. Terry yanked the door open again. This time he walked out on the porch. I looked around and tried to figure out a way Rick and I could escape. The handcuffs were going to be a problem, but we still might be able to lock Terry out of the house. Before I could relay my plan to Rick, I heard a whisper from the back of the house calling my name. I turned around and saw Alicia motioning for me to come towards the backdoor. Rick had seen her, too, so we both got up and hurried in her direction. We were heading out the door when I heard Terry say, “Stop right there, or I’ll blow his head off.”

We all turned around. Terry was standing in the middle of the living room with his gun pointed at Adam’s head. We all stopped dead in our tracks even though Adam yelled, “Run! Don’t worry about me.” Terry then hit him hard on the back of his head, and Adam went down to his knees. There was absolutely no way I was leaving Adam. I pulled on Rick’s hand to indicate that we needed to go back into the other room.

“Next time I won’t be so gentle,” Terry was saying to Adam. Then he turned to Alicia who had followed Rick and I back into the house. “There’s some nylon cord under the sink in the kitchen. Get it.” While Alicia was retrieving the rope, Terry forced Adam into the chair I had been handcuffed to earlier. When Alicia returned with the yellow rope, Terry said, “I want you to tie this guy up. And make sure it’s tight. If you don’t tie him good, I’ll have to shoot him – and maybe you too.”

Alicia proceeded to tie Adam to the chair, tying his hands in front of him. I thought Terry
would stop her and make her tie them in back, but he didn’t. Adam struggled a little, but when Terry pointed the gun at me, he stopped fighting completely. Next, Terry made Alicia unlock the handcuffs that held Rick and me together. He then had her handcuff my hands behind my back and tie Rick’s behind him. Finally, Terry tied Alicia to a chair that he pulled up beside Adam.

“Looks like the gang is all here,” Terry said with a laugh. “All except that dead guy back on Alicia’s floor. You’ll all be joining him soon enough. I’ll just use that truck out there to make my escape. I’d like to say I’m going to miss you, Brandy, but I don’t really feel it right now. I’m so glad your friend Rick showed up to help me get over you completely.”

I had to try and stop Terry. “Please, Terry, you can’t do this. You aren’t really a killer. You only killed Fisher to protect me, and Jack forced your hand – that was self-defense…”

Alicia interrupted. “
You
 killed Fisher? If I wasn’t tied up, I’d shake your hand, Terry.”

Terry ignored Alicia. He was looking at me
. “Just shut up! I’m through listening to you. You’re just trying to save your neck – and your boyfriend’s.” He shot Rick a look of contempt.

Rick spoke up, “I’m not her boyfriend. I was looking for my friend Adam. I thought he was over here with you and Brandy. When I was about to knock on the door, I heard Brandy scream. I thought she was in trouble, so I tried to help. I think you’re just a little confused and a lot upset. I’m sure we can straighten this out.”

“Great, Rick,” Alicia said, “Now you’ve really pissed him off. Didn’t I once tell you that you always say the wrong thing?”

“Everybody just shut up! I’m about to kill you, and you sit here yakking like you’re at a party.” Terry was getting angrier by the second. “And I don’t care if you’re her boyfriend or not,” he said to Rick. “It’s gone beyond that now. Everybody has to die. And I think I’ll start with you…”

Terry turned around and pointed the gun at Adam’s head. I screamed, “No!” and jumped up off the sofa and in front of Adam. Terry didn’t fire, but he had a smirk on his face.

“So this is your boyfriend. I should have known. Brandy always likes the pretty ones.”

Rick just couldn’t let that go. “Hey, I’m better looking than he is.”

“So does that mean you want to go first?”
Terry asked, turning to face Rick.

“No, no. That’s quite alright.”

“You, Mr. Hartwood, are a piece of work. You think quite a lot of yourself. And you are a coward. Still, I won’t hold that against you.”

Terry continued to talk to Rick. He didn’t seem to mind that I was in front of Adam. I felt Adam’s hand touching mine and I wanted to cry. But he wasn’t trying to hold my hand to reassure me. He was unlocking my handcuffs! I had no idea where he had gotten the key, but I didn’t remember Alicia ever returning them to Terry. I glanced over at her and she smiled wanly. Adam freed my hands and tucked the handcuffs under one of his legs so Terry wouldn’t see.

My hands were free, but now what?

Terry wasn’t paying attention to anyone except Rick. Rick was going on and on about how he could make Terry rich and help him disappear if Terry would just let him go. He didn’t seem to be arguing for our release, but then he was Rick
– what did I expect? At least Terry wasn’t yelling or pointing the gun. In fact, his grip on the gun was slipping. He was becoming animated as he taunted Rick, and he was so engrossed that he had forgotten about the gun.

Very deftly, I plucked the gun out of Terry’s hand.