Read The Good Neighbor Online

Authors: Kimberly A Bettes

Tags: #thriller, #suspense, #mystery, #suspicion, #serial killer, #neighbors, #killer, #pageturner, #neighborhood, #neighbor from hell, #kimberly a bettes

The Good Neighbor (8 page)

BOOK: The Good Neighbor
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I left Andy a note telling him I loved him
before I headed out the door to work.

Thinking it was a fluke that I’d been so ill
earlier, I assumed the worst was over. It was a sudden onset of
sickness. I didn’t have the flu or anything. I just woke up sick.
But I felt better now.

Until I got to work.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I was
overcome with nausea. I didn’t even make it to my parking space. I
had to slam the brake and throw open the door. I leaned out and
barely avoided ruining the interior of my car. I struggled to undo
the seatbelt while leaning my head out the open door, and keeping
my foot on the brake.

That was me; always multitasking.

When I was sure I was finished. I pulled my
head in and shut the door. I turned the air conditioning on full
blast and turned all the vents toward my face. The cool air made me
feel better, but I was still weak and shaky. I continued on to my
parking space. I sat in the car, unsure what to do. I should go in.
I hated to miss work. But I couldn’t work like this. Vomiting every
few minutes was not library etiquette. And even though I felt a
little better now, I could feel that the worst wasn’t over.

I called my boss, telling her I couldn’t make
it. She was worried, but I assured her I’d be fine. It was probably
just a bug that would go away in a few hours. At her insistence, I
agreed to go to the doctor. I wanted to go home and go back to bed,
but I was already dressed and out. I knew my boss wouldn’t let up
until I agreed to go. She worried too much. But I finally agreed to
go just to shut her up.

 

 

 

15 Owen

Andy was careful to not be obvious as we
followed Jenson up one street and down another. We kept a few cars
between us when possible, and when that wasn’t possible, we stayed
a few car lengths back.

“Where the hell is he going?” Andy asked,
more to himself than me.

“I don’t know.” I yawned.

“I’m glad we don’t live in a big city. This
would take all day.”

“You’re the one who wanted to stalk him,” I
reminded him. Then I yawned. “Nobody said stalking was easy. If you
want, we can go up to the prison and you can ask someone. They’ll
tell you.”

“You don’t even know anybody in prison,” Andy
said.

“I know somebody who’s about to be in
prison,” I retorted.

“Oh, you know you’re having fun. This is the
most excitement you’ve had in a long time. At least, that I know
of.” He looked at me and winked, which told me he was referring to
Carla.

I was getting ready to tell him how big a
pervert he was, but before I could, he hit the steering wheel and
cussed.

“What?” I asked.

“We lost him!”

“We what?”

“I looked at you for a second, and when I
looked back, he was gone. We lost him. Damn it.”

We looked for him for quite a while. We
circled the block several times where we’d last seen him. Then, we
started working our way around to nearby streets. Finally, we
spotted his car.

Andy straightened up, both hands on the
wheel, eyes locked on the road ahead of us. “I’m not losing him
this time.”

Andy didn’t have to be so tense for very
long. Jenson pulled into a parking lot and parked his car. We
parked at the far end of the lot where we could still see him, but
he would never suspect us.

“Am Vets?” Andy asked. “Is he a veteran?”

“I don’t know,” I said, yawning. “Maybe.”

I struggled to think of what war he would’ve
been in. Apparently, Andy was doing the same.

“Korea?” Andy pondered aloud.

“Maybe.” Then I added, “Maybe he just knows
some veterans and comes here to see them.”

We were silent for a while, watching the
door. Jenson remained inside.

“This doesn’t solve our puzzle at all. We
must’ve missed something. He must’ve ditched the bag when we lost
him.”

“Andy, he didn’t know we were following him.
It’s not like he saw his opportunity and hurried up and ditched it.
He didn’t have time to go anywhere far. Besides, how do you know he
doesn’t still have the bag in his car?”

I could see Andy mull this over. “Yeah, maybe
he still has it.” He slowly turned his head toward me, and I knew
what he was thinking.

“No,” I said. “I’m tired. We’re not going to
sit here and wait for him.”

“Why not?” Andy asked, as if he were a
child.

“I’m exhausted, guy. I’ve been up all night,
which by the way, I don’t usually do. I don’t work nights,
remember? And I want to get some rest so I can go to—“

“Carla’s? Is that what you were going to say?
You’d rather spend time with her than your best friend. I can’t
believe you.”

“You know that isn’t true. Besides, it was
you and your wife who insisted that I begin seeing someone, and as
I recall, that someone was Carla. You both said so.”

“Whatever. The point is you want to rush back
home so you can hang out with her when we’re on to something here,
man. We could solve this riddle in a matter of minutes and put
everyone’s mind at ease.”

“Or it could be hours, Andy.”

“He’s never been gone that long, has he?”

I thought about it. “I don’t know. I’ve never
really paid that much attention. I’ve noticed him come and go, but
never paid attention to how much time passed in between.” Another
sad reminder of how caught up in my misery I’d been.

Andy was silent for a while. I tried to
figure out whether or not he was really mad or just frustrated that
we were so close and had still found nothing. I didn’t think he was
mad. We’d never had a fight before. We’d never even had an
argument. That’s not saying we’d never disagreed with each other,
but we’d always done it civilly. Looking at him now, seeing the way
his eyebrows were rumpled together and the intensity in his stare,
I knew he wasn’t mad at me. He couldn’t be mad. It’d been his idea
to hook me up with Carla. He was only wishing he could understand
this Jenson thing.

As he drove me home, we talked about Jenson
mostly, trying to better guess his age. We’d both known people who
were a lot older than they appeared. It was possible Jenson was
older than we thought. But it was also possible for him to be
younger than we thought. We just couldn’t be sure. It didn’t really
matter, though. The question wasn’t why Jenson was at the American
Veterans building. The real question was where was the bag?

I couldn’t stop yawning.

“Man, we’re a couple of gut rumblers,” Andy
said, referring to our empty stomachs. He was right, though I’d
been too tired to notice. We stopped for breakfast, and it was all
I could do keep from falling asleep in my pancakes.

It was almost ten o’clock before we got back
to Andy’s house. I looked longingly at Carla’s house before
dragging myself to mine. I fell across the bed, nearly asleep
already. I wanted to call her before I was out so she’d know where
I was. I managed to grab the phone off the nightstand and dial her
number, which I’d fortunately memorized. I wouldn’t have had the
strength to go find it.

As I listened to it ring on her end, I
wondered how in the world Andy lived with such a bizarre sleep
schedule. I’d missed one night and was about to go into a coma.

Carla answered on the fourth ring. I was
happy to hear her voice. It was so...everything. I smiled like a
fool, too tired to care, but still glad that no one was around to
witness it.

After telling her I’d be there tonight and
her telling me she’d be waiting, I pushed the ‘end’ button and let
the phone fall on the bed beside me.

Still wearing my clothes and shoes, I fell
asleep atop the blankets, dreaming of Carla.

 

 

 

16 Andy

I went inside, eager to sleep. I found Jill’s
note on my pillow. She told me she loved me, which I already knew.
That was one thing I was certain about. She loved me more than
anything, as I did her. I undressed and climbed into bed, curling
up with her pillow, holding her note in my hand. I breathed deeply,
making sure to fill my lungs with her scent before I drifted off to
sleep.

I lay there awake for a while, which I didn’t
think would happen. It wasn’t the first time, though. Night shift
always messed up my sleeping patterns. There were times when I was
too tired to sleep, and times I fell asleep when I didn’t even feel
tired. It just came with the territory. Just night shift or just
day shift wouldn’t have screwed with my sleeping routine so much,
but the back and forth really did a number on it.

While I waited for sleep to find me, I
thought of Jenson. I tried not to, but he’s all I had. I kept
seeing him dragging that bag to his trunk. It was a scene I’d
watched unfold before me many, many times. And I would probably see
it many more times.

I tried to imagine what I would do if he was
a murderer, hacking his victims to pieces and hauling them away in
trash bags. How would I deal with that?

I couldn’t see Jenson hacking anyone to
pieces. He didn’t seem likely to be a butcher, what with him being
old and all. But ask Gacy’s or Dahmer’s neighbors and they’ll tell
you the same thing. It was possible. Anything was possible. You
never knew a person, no matter how well you thought you did. Wives,
husbands, children, parents, neighbors, co-workers,
classmates...anyone was possible of anything at anytime. I’d seen
enough news to know that was a fact.

I probably wouldn’t have even considered the
possibility that an old man could do such a thing, probably
wouldn’t even have murder on my mind, if I hadn’t studied serial
killers in college. I was going to do something in forensics,
probably along the lines of forensic pathology, but Jill didn’t
like the idea of me having such a morbid job. So I’d dropped the
idea. But I’d maintained my interests in psychology, human
behavior, and of course, murderers.

It was my study of murderers that made me
suspicious of everyone. I didn’t walk around assuming everyone was
a murderer. That would make me crazy. But I did walk around
assuming everyone had the potential to become a murderer. That made
me cautious.

I knew looks didn’t matter when it came to
killers. Ted Bundy was handsome, and look what he was hiding behind
his good looks. Gender didn’t matter, though it was true that most
women killed their spouses or children. Not a lot of women went
around killing total strangers, though Aileen Wournos was an
exception. And age certainly didn’t matter. People like to think
that our elders are incapable of such horrors, but Dorothea Puente
and Albert Fish are prime examples of why we shouldn’t assume that
the elderly are harmless.

I sighed, disappointed. We’d done what I
wanted, what I thought would work. We’d followed him. It had done
no more than add to the mystery.

So now what were we going to do? I wanted to
get to the bottom of this. I didn’t know why I wanted to know so
badly, but I did.

I wouldn’t give up.

 

 

 

17 Carla

I couldn’t lie to myself. I was disappointed
when Owen called and said he wouldn’t be able to come by today. I
hadn’t realized how much I wanted him and expected him to be there
for me. It had been a long time since there’d been anyone in my
life that I could totally be myself around and whose company I
enjoyed so thoroughly. I know it was selfish and foolish to expect
him to spend so much time with me, but I did. I wanted it very
badly.

I pushed the kids on the swing, laughing at
their silliness, but my mind wasn’t in it. I couldn’t stop thinking
of Owen.

I tried to wrap my mind around how anyone
could leave him. His wife had left him, but for the life of me, I
couldn’t understand why. It was true that I didn’t know him very
well and hadn’t known him for long, but I got such a good feeling
about him. He was so kind. He was so everything, actually. To name
a few of his qualities, he was handsome, funny, sweet, charming,
and smart. I felt so at ease around him. I couldn’t imagine a flaw
he could possibly have that would drive someone away from him.

So I was very excited when he said he’d be
over this evening. I couldn’t wait. I felt as silly as a schoolgirl
wanting the day to rush along so I could be with my sweetheart. I
tried to relax and enjoy the feeling. It really had been so
long.

I had almost everything unpacked now. The
kids were settling in and adjusting to being in a different place.
And I was too. It was hard to start over, especially somewhere new.
But Owen had made it easier for me.

Of course, Bernie flickered through my
thoughts from time to time. I couldn’t imagine what would’ve
happened with Bernie if Owen hadn’t shown up and taken care of
him.

I glanced at his house now, trying my best to
look like I wasn’t. I couldn’t deny that he gave me the creeps. He
could surely overpower me if he wanted to. And I had a sneaking
suspicion that he wanted to.

I worried that Owen may not always be there
at the right moment. If he’d been asleep the night Bernie came
over...I shuddered at the thought of what would’ve happened. What
if he was asleep next time? Worse yet, what if he wasn’t home? What
would I do?

I couldn’t believe how defenseless I was.
That was going to have to change. I had my kids to protect. And not
just from Bernie. What if someone else broke in? I had no weapons.
I had no skill in using any weapons. I had nothing. I was
definitely going to have to do something about that. I wondered if
there were any classes given in the area. Perhaps a self-defense
class or firearms training class would do me some good. It would
certainly ease my mind to know that if any of the horrible things
that were now on my mind happened, I’d be better equipped to
protect myself and my children.

There had been so much happen on this street
in the previous two years – some of it in my house. I couldn’t deny
that worry was a necessity.

BOOK: The Good Neighbor
6.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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