The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller (9 page)

“Cory, God, you scared the hell out of me. Please, say something to me before I lose my mind. Anything.” Jon swallowed and tried to force back the tears that were hovering somewhere between his iris and his lids. Reverently, he knelt beside the hospital bed and in a broken voice he said, “I love you Cory, tell me you love me. Please.”

Cory combed her fingers through Jon’s hair and as he lifted his eyes to her, she smiled and a grin cracked through his misery. She replied, “Sure I do, dummy.”

Jon moved from where he was on his knees and he lifted, placing his hands to Cory’s face as gently as possible. His lips kissed hers. Cory had said the same thing to him the very first time he’d told her he loved her. It had been a thing between them their entire relationship, and even as she looked at him now, her eyes glittering, he knew that if she asked him to, he’d be able to fly. He kissed her lips again.

“Marry me, Cory.”

Cory smiled as Jon kissed her lips a third time, and taking a leaf out of the history that was paving its way through into their future, she replied, “Can’t say no, right?”

REPERCUSSIONS

There are moments in a man’s existence when he might question the path his life is on, or the decisions he has made. As Travis Harper stared at his reflection, noting the ridiculous bow tie at his Adam’s apple and the uncomfortable way his tuxedo made him look like a grumpy penguin, he had a moment to ponder the road his life was walking.

“You’re doing it again.”

Travis turned away from the mirror he was studying and trained his attention to his brother as the guy quirked a goofy smirk at him. “Doing what?”

“Frowning on my wedding day. Again. If Cory catches you doing that, she’ll pitch a fit.”

Travis crossed the short distance between him and his brother and straightened his tie for him. “Not like she hasn’t been married before.” Still, he could picture what a tantrum would be like if Cory decided to pitch one.

Jon sighed. “Do me a favor and try to cheer up. At least force yourself to smile so the corners of your mouth don‘t keep turning downward.” He lifted an eyebrow. “What’s with you anyway?”

Travis shrugged and backed away from his brother. He didn’t know what his problem was. If he thought about it, he was actually pretty content with most of the way things had been going lately and didn’t have an excuse under the sun to frown. He had every reason to smile.

“Is it Abigail?”

Travis shook his head, though he felt the corners of his mouth turn down despite his brother‘s advice to encourage them to do the opposite. There had been a distance developing between them since the mess involved with him being pegged as a serial murderer had illuminated everyone within a fifty mile radius that they were seeing each other. The whole town looked at him now as some kind of criminal dog, even though the charges against him had been dropped. Abigail hadn’t believed he was guilty, though her father had, and because of it, it was difficult for them to see one anothe
r
he a feeling that regardless, Mayor Bradley would insist Abby kick him to the curb. Their respective families had a long trail of hot garbage between them. Travis smiled. One of the perks to dating Abby, at least in the beginning, had been the knowledge that it made her father insane that his precious, innocent little girl was dating a Harper.

“Abby is wonderful. She’s determined to stick our relationship out and stare down anyone who might object to us.” Travis folded his arms to his chest. “I guess all this marriage stuff has me thinking about us in the long term sense. She’s supposed to be here, and you know how it goes. She’ll see you two getting hitched and she’ll ask me when we’ll be getting married and all that. I don’t think I’m ready.”

Jon chuckled. “I never thought I’d see your face crease with that much concentration. Do yourself a favor and just enjoy the day. Forget about it all, and just be happy for me and Cory. You know how much I‘ve wanted to see her at that altar.”

Jon straightened, his expression straying from the serious broadcast he had and back into goofy. “How do I look?” He twirled around in a semi-circle as he grinned like an idiot.

Travis smirked and it turned into a smile. He was truly happy for his brother. He replied, “You look like a man who’s going to have the best night of his life when the sun sets today.”

********

Travis Harper stood at his brother’s side, proud to yet again be his best man. Cory Lance, could not have been a more stunning bride. Her face was radiant with happiness and it was all the make-up she needed. Given the history between the woman and his brother, it was something to see the relaxed relief edged in there along with the broad smile cracking her features that was bright enough to be seen from outer space.

A lot had happened to drive Jon and Cory apart, the least of all an overwhelming magnitude of pain and grief that had motivated Jon to alcohol and Cory into a shut-in snipping wench of denial produced depression. Yet to see Cory walking toward them down the aisle as a wedding march softly preceded her approach, filled Travis with the warmth of how right the moment was. After Cory’s near miss with death via a bullet to her thigh, his brother and the willful woman he’d chosen weren’t taking chances with what they knew was their fate. No two people had been so destined to be together.

Travis scanned the audience again, for what felt like the hundredth time since the wedding ceremony started. He caught his brother giving him a look and he didn’t care; the one face he’d been looking forward to seeing was nowhere in sight. Abigail had promised to come to Jon and Cory’s weddin
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in fact it had been all she’d talked about since he’d given her the news. It appeared that even after all that, something had prevented her from being where she said she was going to be. It was starting to become a habit with her.

Travis blinked, forced the his thoughts of Abigail out of his mind and then trained his eyes on Cory and Jon, who were now reciting the words of binding, the priest standing just past them was having them repeat.

“You may now give your vows to one another,” the priest finally said. A hush fell over the audience.

Travis caught Cory looking away from Jon as tears escaped her eyes. She was fighting hard not to ruin her mascara he figured. He listened as his brother began the vows he’d prepared.

“I have loved you from the moment I laid my eyes on you…” Jon began and Travis’s mind wandered again.

Where was Abigail? Had something stopped her from coming or someone or was her absence a sign of something deeper? Was her dad beginning to get to her? He came out of his trance just as Jon finished giving his vows and clapped along with the rest of the wedding guests.

He smiled at the love shining from Jon’s eyes even as he wondered if he would ever look at another woman that way. Cory began her vows and this time, Travis tried to keep his mind on what she was saying.

“Jon, we have had our moments when life was difficult and seemed to overwhelming to endure, when it was hard to see that no matter what life threw at us, that our love was inextinguishable. I have never stopped loving you. My only regret has been that it took me this long to realize that sometimes love
is
enough. I fought you with fangs and claws to prove otherwise, but here we stand together, proof that we were meant to be. I will love you forever and our future is open and limitless now that we know where we belong.”

The audience clapped again, and Travis noted with interest that a number of the females had tears in their eyes. He’d had a front row seat where Jon and Cory were concerned and he knew how much they’d gone through to get to where they were at that moment. He was pretty sure they would not let anything separate them again.

Travis caught his brother’s face as he walked with Cory down the aisle, and his eyes were full of unshed tears. He couldn’t tell whether Jon’s tears were of happiness or relief, but he realized that he truly had wanted to share the moment with Abigail. It sucked that she had stood him up.

********

“
That
was fun.”

Travis glanced at his best friend and saw him roll his eyes. Louis Kale was the last person on earth who would have gone to a wedding just to support the bride and groom. As proof of the sentiment, Travis had to suppress a grin as Louis’ eyes made a beeline for the bridesmaids.

“Would you look at them, all grouped together like antelope waiting for a lion to come along and get em’.”

“If you get slapped at my brother’s wedding, I get to drive the cruiser for the next month. Fair?”

Louis dragged his eyes away from the women he was staring at like a starving man would stare at freshly grilled steak, and he waggled his eyebrows at Travis.

“You should see the master at work, my friend. You think I’ll get slapped only
cause’ you’re out of practice.”

Louis’ face scrunched in one of his flashes where he could go from lecher to serious friend in zero to sixty.

“Where’s your woman? Abby should have been here at least an hour ago.”

Travis shrugged. “She isn’t here because she chose not to come.”

There it was, in the simplest terms. It was either she made the decision, or her father made it for her.

Louis placed a hand on Travis’ shoulder, forgetting about his intentions with the gaggle of bridesmaids for the moment.

“Man, you ought to give that old man of hers the what for. You are both adults, this sneaking around is ridiculous.”

Louis’s words hit Travis where it hurt and he shirked his friend’s hand and moved away from him, through the throng of well-wishers, past his brother and Cory and out to the parking lot where not a soul was standing. The situation with Abigail was annoying, and he had to admit that much. In the beginning, his relationship with Abby Bradley had been exciting, taboo. The thrill of knowing who she was and that she was his had been enoug
h
the notch of all notches to add to his belt. When he’d been taken in as a suspect for murder, it had been one of the lowest points of his life, not because he was guilty but because he’d been embarrassed when the number of women he’d been with had been a topic of discussion for the entire town. Abigail had run through that gossiping gaggle head first, disregarded what it might mean if she put their relationship out in the open, and tried to give him an alibi. Even if it hadn’t worked, he’d had a while to think of the stones it had taken Abby to waltz into the police station and demand he be released because he was hers. The action changed the course of their relationship, and bumped Abigail from conquest trophy to girlfrien
d
a word he’d thought didn’t exist in his vocabulary.

Travis kicked an empty soda can out of his way and stuck his hand in his pockets to find his car keys. Jon would have to forgive him for cutting out of his wedding early, but he’d had all of the lovey doveyness he could handle for one day. He made it to his car, got inside and reached for the ignition. He considered pulling out his cell phone and giving Abby a ring, but Louis’ words echoed back to him and he decided against it. He never thought he’d credit Louis for having good relationship advice, but the man was right. It was ridiculous to sneak in the dark like a couple of mice. If Abby wanted to continue seeing him, she’d have to make some decisions, the first of which would be to decide to give her old man the finger and tell him that she was a grown woman who could live her own life and choose for herself who she wanted at her side.

********

Abigail Bradley stared at the dress that she would have worn to the Harper wedding as if it was going to lift off of her bed and attack her. She had only just taken the thing off, finally giving in to the solid fact that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Her father had seen to it.

Earlier, she had gone down to her car, dressed to cease heartbeats with a single look, and as she’d gone to start her car, the engine wouldn’t turn over. Someone had taken the battery out of her car while she had been dressing, she was certain of it. Not deterred, she’d pulled out her cell phone and attempted to dial out for a taxi. The cab drivers were a bunch of good old boys that made a living using their vehicles to cart around the citizens of Collie, and they were decent on their charges. Twenty bucks and some sweet talking would have gotten her to the wedding on time, though when she had Charlie Callahan on the phone, he’d told her all the cars were out with passengers. If she had been born the day before, Abby might have believed Charlie, but it was likely that her father had covered all his bases and called the service ahead of time and told them not to accept a call from her.

The last thing that Abby thought of, and she might have done it if she wouldn’t have thought it would turn her into a horrible person, was that of calling Travis and having him come pick her up. The only reason she didn’t was because Travis had been his brother’s best man, and if he had to leave to get her, the whole wedding would have been held up on her account.

Abby sat on the edge of her bed and with a swish of her hand, she shuffled the dress off of her comforter and watched it flutter to the floor. It had been the perfect choic
e
it was flattering enough to have kept Travis’ attention on her, but not so over the top that it would have taken eyes away from Cory when she came out in her dress. She smiled. That dress of Cory’s would be the talk of Collie for years to come; it was the kind of wedding gown that you had to go five towns over to a specialty boutique to find and when you found it, you had to donate an organ or two to afford it.