Chapter 19

They lay spent, sweaty, and breathing hard. Jake rolled over on his side and reached for a pack of Marlboros. Lighting one, he inhaled deeply, listening to the sound of the rain falling on the air conditioner attached to the window. He exhaled and handed the cigarette over to Jessica who took in gladly and followed his example.

She handed the cigarette back as she exhaled. She really didn’t smoke but this guy knew how to blow her mind and a shot of nicotine kept her up a little longer. She leaned up on one elbow, facing him and ran a hand down his chest. He looked over at her, his soulful brown eyes half-closed from fatigue. Poor baby, he did all the work, she thought to herself.

She laid her hand on his chest and ran her long fingers back and forth over his smooth skin. His muscles felt amazing under her finger tips, so hard, taught, and firm.

He finished the cigarette and put it out in the ashtray. “So, who leaves first today?” he asked, looking back at her.

She pouted a bit and laid back. She didn’t want to leave. On the contrary, she wanted to fall asleep in his arms, but that couldn’t happen. She had to be home before Martin returned from his office. She had thrown a pair of panties and a change of clothes in a bag that she could slip into on her way home. She would just pull over near the lake where no one could see her.

“Mmm, me, I guess. You look sleepy. Why don’t you stay for a bit and take a nap?” She reached for her negligee on the floor and slipped it on over her head. She looked under her arm where a dark bruise was gathering the size of his thumb. Sex was usually a little rough in the beginning with him before he slowed down. She didn’t mind. She stood up and walked to the bathroom mirror to somewhat straighten her hair and get rid of the freshly fucked look. She grinned in the mirror as she watched him watching her. She really did care for him and wanted to make him happy.

“You realize it won’t be much longer, right? I’m going to leave him. She turned around. His face was angelic.

“Why can’t we draw the line now? Fuck Martin. Stay here with me?” He knew the answer to that before he even suggested it. God, he couldn’t get her out of his head. She had him by the short and curlies and he knew it. They never really talked much; he only knew about her and her marriage. Her favorite color was pink, and she liked kittens. These things he had to get out of her with a pry bar, she wasn’t very forthcoming. Somewhere deep inside of him, he knew she would never leave Martin, would never be his, and he would be left to pick up the pieces. He knew that the promises she made were empty and she would break his heart.

“Now we’ve talked about this, Jake. The timing has to be right.” She leaned down to kiss him, her hair falling in his face as he inhaled her scent. She pressed her lips chastely to his and let them linger a moment before she turned and grabbed her trench coat off the floor and slipped back into her heels.

“I’ll call you, okay?” she said as she put her hand on the knob to go.

“Sure thing.”

She smiled and winked at him as she left out into the rain, letting the door close behind her as she proceeded to do the walk of shame all the way to her truck. The rain was falling steadily.

Back in the room he stared at the door. As soon as it closed behind her, he said, “I love you.” It was the last time he would see her alive.

* * * * * * * *

The fax machine in Paul’s room went off again. There was more seismic activity, minor tremors whose epicenter was the lake. Most of these would go unfelt as they were under a 2.0. They were also very shallow, like someone throwing a stick of dynamite down into the water. He doubted that was the case, but still, it was worth investigating.

He grabbed his car keys and headed down the hallway, down the stairs, and to the coat closet. He opened it, grabbed his jacket, and stepped out into the rainy night. His curiosity was piqued, and as he climbed into his truck he reached for his cell phone on the dashboard. Putting the keys in the ignition, he turned the engine over, threw the truck in gear, and thumbed down his contacts list. He pulled out into traffic and listened to the phone ring as he made his way across town to the lake. On the fourth ring, his office picked up.

“USGS, Boston,” Mike Hampton, Paul’s boss, answered the phone.

“Hey, Mike, it’s Paul. I got the fax from the office just a few minutes ago, and I’m now headed down to the lake to check things out. I was wondering, though, if it were possible to get a team.”

“How many people? Do you think something is going on?” Mike asked. Paul filled him in on what he thought as he drove across town.

* * * * * * * *

She had stopped next to the lake to change her clothes. She turned off the truck and sat there for a second, her mind racing. She wanted to go back to Jake’s loving arms, and the thought of being home when Martin walked in the door disgusted her. He would open the door, set down his briefcase, loosen his tie, walk into the living room where she sat, kiss her on the cheek, walk into the kitchen to see what was for dinner, and then head into his office with the door locked. There he would stay until it was time for bed; then he would come out, shower, get his pajamas on and crawl next to her, administering another kiss to her forehead. She used to question him about it, and he would get a little handy with the slapping, so she stopped. Of course, she had access to his bank accounts; it wasn’t the money she wanted, it was him and he was incapable of showing her affection.

She angrily tossed off her white negligee that she would eventually put into the brown sack along with her high-heeled shoes and burn them both. It was ironic, to her, at least, that the money he made was allowing her to buy nice things to take another guy to bed with.

Stupid son of a bitch.

The sky lit up like dawn as the lightning arced across it, causing her to dip her head down as if it were headed straight for her. She chuckled to herself and climbed into the back seat of the Range Rover, where she started putting on the change of clothes she brought with her. She stepped into a pair of pink panties and had slid them halfway over her derrière when she noticed him standing right outside the door.

With a scream, she fell backwards, between the back seat and the passenger seat. Her legs and arms sprawling and at an odd angle, she had a hard time pulling herself up. It’s Martin. That was her first thought. I am so busted. Good. I hope he knows that I’ve been… The indignation that had started to build in her chest was immediately swooped away. It wasn’t Martin. The man just stood there watching her, and instinctively she lurched forward and locked the car door in front of her and then made her way around to the other locks in the vehicle. The rain was pouring outside, but she knew he could see her bare-naked self in the backseat.

“Go away, you fucking pervert!” she yelled at him.

He didn’t move. He just stood there, his hat in his hands, his long stringy hair in his face. He was dressed funny, all in black almost like a preacher. She grabbed inside the bag for her shirt and slipped it on, covering her bare breasts, and leapt across to the front seat. Screw this bullshit, I’ll drive home in my panties. But the man moved with her, and was now standing at her window. He leaned in closer and started shaking his head.

“Fuck you, pal,” she muttered as she started the engine. She turned her head forward for a quick second, and that was when she noticed two other people standing there. Another man and a woman were walking up to the hood of her truck. She stopped for a second and flipped on the wiper blades. As they peeled the layers of water off her windshield, she saw the face of the woman and screamed in horror. It was Elizabeth Lage, the young girl she’d tutored when she was in high school, except now she was bloated, gray-faced, and drowned. The man she knew was Chad Rhine, Elizabeth’s boyfriend. A fist hit the window and she jumped in her seat, screaming again.

“Get out!” the man yelled at her. He shifted his gaze from her horrified face to the oncoming duo.

“Get out!” he screamed again.

“Fuck you!” she shrieked. She threw the vehicle into reverse and turned to guide herself backwards. Her heart about ceased when she mashed the accelerator and the vehicle didn’t move. The wheels spun, but she gained no traction, gravel spitting from the wheels. She whirled back to the front to see if she had done something wrong, but the dashboard confirmed that she was indeed in reverse. The vehicle thumped and heaved forward. The man at her window had gone but the two in front still remained. They had grabbed the front of her grill and, much to her surprise and horror, were dragging her forward.

Frantic, she hit the brake, trying to hold herself in place, but to no avail. She put the car in park but still she kept sliding further forward, towards the lake. She reached for the door handle, to ditch the vehicle and run, but the doors wouldn’t open; they wouldn’t budge.

She turned her body and lurched backwards to release the emergency pulley that would disengage the back door. She pulled and pulled with all her might, but it, too, would not give. Outside of the back window, she saw the man in black, illuminated by her rear lights, shaking his head sadly, as he watched her and her Rover get pulled into the lake.

“Help me! Please God, HELP ME!” she screamed.

What had scared her at first was now her only way out. She pounded on the glass, but all the man did was stand there shaking his head. They had reached the edge of the lake, and the two pulled as if the vehicle weighed nothing. Water began to pour into the front end, flooding out the engine and covering the two front seats. The power shorted, flashing once, and the vehicle died.

The water reached her feet as she tried backing herself into a corner. She screamed and cried, tearing at the fabric on the roof of the truck, calling Jake’s name over and over again, wishing she had decided to stay with him. As the icy black water began to swirl around her and the vehicle buoyed out farther into the lake, she realized she was not alone anymore. Elizabeth and Chad had somehow managed to get inside with her and crawled over the front seats, the back seats, and were making their way to the back.

The lightning flashed once more, illuminating the inside of the vehicle in white light, and her eyes fell upon their dead faces. As they crawled into the back with Jessica, they grabbed for her legs, her arms, her breasts, her hair, and pinned her to the floor. She cried out again, kicking, and screaming, desperate to get away. She clawed at their cold dead hands, but nothing gave; they didn’t flinch from the pain.

Water rushed up and entered her mouth, and she gagged on its taste. Their weight pinning her down made it harder for her to draw in a breath, and when she was able to, she got a mouth full of lake water. She gagged, coughed, and tried to breathe in again, but couldn’t. Her chest burned for oxygen, her body was frantic with the need of it, but her tormenters wouldn’t let her up, and instead, she inhaled lungfuls of water.

As the Range Rover Martin had purchased for her slipped underneath the black waters of Lake Veronica, dressed in nothing but a thin shirt and her pink panties, Jessica drowned.

* * * * * * * *

Minutes later, Paul pulled in right where Jessica had parked. He was still on the phone with his boss when he put the car in park and stepped out. The night was still heavy with rain, and it was virtually blackout.

“What do you mean, there was another quake Mike? I am standing right here and nothing is moving.” He peered into the darkness illuminated only by flashes of lightning.

“Two point one bud. I am looking dead at it.”

“You’re not reading it right, then.” Rain sloshed down on top of him, cold, and stinging the top of his head. Gravel crunched underneath his feet, as he slammed the truck door shut.

It was when the sky illuminated again that he spotted it. A rut had been dug in the gravel and looked like it kept going to the water line. He instinctively raised his head to the surface of the lake. Given the time of day, and the storm overhead, he couldn’t see anything, but deep down in his guts, he had a terrible cold feeling.

“Hey, Mike. Hold on a second will ya?” He placed the phone in his pocket and reached inside the toolbox in his truck for his flashlight. He pulled it out of flipped on the switch, rounding the front of the truck and pointing it at the ground. He was right. He followed the rut all the way out to the water’s edge and beyond. That terrible coldness reached down into his balls and drew up his scrotum as his flashlight passed over something that looked like glass and steel.

“I’m going to have to call you back,” he said, as he pulled his phone out, disengaged the conversation, and dialed 911. Then he stood there for twenty minutes, soaked to the bone, flashlight unwavering until Maplewood’s finest showed up.