the real thing.” Did he dare to? He brought a hand up and traced a finger gently down her neck, just barely touching her and giving her goose bumps. He traced back up her neck, around her earlobe, then down the bare of her back. He caressed up her back, then down her arm, touching softly on the palm of her hand before letting his touch leave her.
Caroline turned around and looked up into his eyes. There really is nothing more beautiful than her face, he thought, before letting his eyes go to the delicate lines of her neck.
“Ben, every moment with you is so different from what I’ve experienced before. You make me warm inside. You feel right.”
With her body pulled against him, he caressed down the bare of her back, wishing he could feel her body instead of her shirt. He could feel her letting her body relax in their embrace.
He went slowly and placed a kiss on her neck, then another and another. His heart was racing.
She moved a hand to his chest, pulling on his shirt as if inviting him.
She went from him and lay down on her sheets, looking longingly for him to come.
It was like a dream as he went to her, surreal. He put his knees on the bed and leaned down to kiss her, bracing her cheek with his hand and feeling her supple lips against his.
There was an unexplainable moment, a moment of pure emotion. It was as if time stopped as they enjoyed the passion of kissing.
Then the sound of a gunshot cracked through the air, separating their connection.
-- --
moments prior, the house next-door
John’s eyes were heavy as he lay on the charred boards of the house’s second level, the new roof of this part of the structure. He had been here all day, unmoving, as he waited for the moment to act. The wind dried his skin and the sun burned and dehydrated him. Still, he had not moved. His body was forcing him to head toward sleep.
Then a light flicked on in Caroline’s room and she walked in with that boy she’d been spending all her time with.
John clutched his gun and dragged its barrel to aim at Caroline’s head. As he moved he sent ash and shards of burnt wood down the side of the house. No-one from the party looked to him.
She moved out of his view and he took a deep breath. Should he shoot the boy, too? He closed his eyes. They stung with dryness. He listened to the sounds of people talking and the ocean lapping on the shore. Relief. Release for us both, he thought, opening his eyes and taking a glance at the blood red horizon.
He looked back to the room and saw Caroline lying on the bed. He was enraged. John clenched his jaw and aimed the gun barrel at her.
Creak. The sudden noise came from behind him. Creak. He heard it again.
It’s the stairs. He remembered the noise from when he came up them. Did I lock the door? He had to act. Whoever it was, they would see him soon. I will return to you, he thought as he looked away from Caroline and stood. His muscles ached from his lack of movement during the day.
John used his foot to lodge his garbage bag in a hole of the charred floor and he went for the stairwell.
The silhouette of a man was coming toward him, the red sky barely reflecting down on his features. “Don’t shoot,” the man’s deep, hoarse voice spoke.
It’s too late. You know I’m here, he thought. John leveled his rifle at the man’s chest.
Crack! The noise exploded as the gun jumped back.
John descended the stairs slowly, finding the man’s crumpled body at the foot of the steps, blood pooling around him. A sucking, gurgled sound came as the bearded man in ragged clothes choked on his own blood.
“You came to the wrong place. I’ll put you out of your misery, old man.” John stepped back away from the convulsing body and leveled the rifle at the man’s skull.
-- --
With his heart beating heavy in his chest, Ben burst out of the door. As he neared the rail of the deck overlooking his Jeep, he saw Mason going for the vehicle.
“Stop! Wait for me!” Ben called to him as Mason pulled his arm from the trunk, his Louisville Slugger gripped tight in his hands.
Ben’s feet fell like hammering weights as he rushed down the stairs, leaping to the sand as he neared the bottom. He and his father kept that bat for protection, knowing that it was a weapon no-one would try and stop them from carrying in the car. Now he wished he had removed the bat before they came. Facing John and his gun could only turn out wrong.
“Let’s call the cops!” he called to Mason, but the headstrong man only looked to him with anger on his face.
“No.” Mason pointed the bat into the garage. “Who knows who or what he’s shot up there? It could even be Excelsis. Isn’t that who you said told you this punk was there in the first place?”
He’s right, Ben realized. And if he’s shot Excelsis then he could need our help now. Sweat ran down his brow as his heart beat even heavier and a chill of unease ran through him. “Then I’m coming,” he told Mason as his father entered the garage.
“Ben!” Caroline called to him as she ran down the stairs. “Don’t go in there!”
“Call 911!” he shouted back. “I have to go in after Mason!”
He met his father in the darkness at the top of the house’s inner stairs. The door to the house was wide open. Red light from the setting sun reached through the inside of the house as if wanting to touch its prey, barely illuminating the barren floors and walls. The air was tense and heavy as it filled their lungs.
Mason pressed a finger to his lips. Someone was choking nearby. They heard feet as someone else walked the wood floor.
“You just had to come here.”
It was John’s voice. Ben remembered it clearly and nodded to Mason so that he would know.
“I didn’t want to kill you, old man.”
In a surreal moment Mason entered the house, bat held high, and went out of Ben’s view.
Crack! A gunshot almost deafened him as Ben stumbled inside.
Thump! He heard the bat connect with flesh and another thump as a body pounded heavy to the floor. John’s head lay on the wood in Ben’s sight and his body was hidden behind a wall. The man’s eyes stared hollowly out at him.
“Mason!” Ben shouted, running into the house.
His father held the bat firm in his hands, blood smeared over its Louisville Slugger writing. Mason looked in a state of shock. He let the bat fall and pound to the floor, then went to the rifle that lay close by. He picked it up and aimed it at John’s head. “If he moves, I’ll shoot.”
“He won’t move,” Ben spoke through the haze of what had just happened. “He may be dead.”
“He would deserve it.” It was only then that Mason glanced over to the bottom of the house’s inner stairwell where Excelsis’ crumpled body lay. “Is that Excelsis?”
Ben felt his heart stop. He knelt beside the old man’s body and felt the flesh of his neck for a heartbeat. A steady pulse pumped against his fingers. He looked at the blood dripping off of them as he lifted them away. “He’s breathing. We need an ambulance here, now.”
“Ben! Mason!” Caroline’s voice carried inside the stale feeling house. “John…” he heard her gasp, then saw her come around the corner and look at him. She had a cold look as she met Ben’s eyes, not hateful, just cold, and almost lost. “What happened?” she asked as her hand went to John’s cheek. She looked up to Ben again and suddenly realized Excelsis was there.
“Oh, no!” she whispered, a look of horror over her face.
“Excelsis is alive, for now,” Ben assured her. “Did you call the police?”
Tears were rushing down Caroline’s cheeks and her response almost choked out of her. “Yes… yes, my mom called the gunshot in.” She moved her hand to check John’s pulse. “He’s alive, too,” she said. She looked up at Mason. “Put down the gun. He’s not getting up.”
Blood was seeping from a wound on John’s head.
“And if he does?” Mason’s arms shook as he braced the rifle.
Caroline put her head on John?
??s chest and was crying uncontrollably. She looked up to Mason again. “Then I’ll stop him. Damn you, put down the gun.”
Sirens echoed in the distance, growing louder and louder. Ben’s heart raced and he was glad the police would be there soon. A sharp pain shot through his chest. How did this happen? It was surreal. She still cares for him so much, he thought as he watched Caroline crying against John’s chest. The sunset’s glow had begun to dim in the room.
Mason lowered the gun, but did not put it down. “You’ll stop him like you did this time.”
She glared up at him.
Excelsis choked as Ben braced him in his arms. “Stop it,” Ben said to both of them. “Stop it. The police will be here soon. I… we…” He was running on adrenaline. “We need to wait for them.” He met his father’s eyes. “Put the gun down. If they come in here and you’re holding that they’ll shoot you.”
Mason laid the gun in the corner of the room next to him and went back to stand near John and Caroline. He watched John wearily.
The room was almost completely dark and sirens blared around them.
“Get down!” a voice shouted from beyond the house. “Put your weapons down! We’re coming in!”
“The shooter is down!” Mason yelled back.
“Mason?” the police officer’s voice called to him.
“Gustav? Yeah, it’s me!”
Two officers in black stepped into the dark room, guns held high and ready to fire. “Get back!” one officer instructed Mason and went to him. “Put your hands behind your back!” The officer took his cuffs and closed them tight on Mason’s wrists.
“It wasn’t him,” Ben said as he stood.
“I believe you,” the second officer, Gustav, told him. “We have to take you both into the station until we can sort this out. Put your hands behind your back, son.”
As Ben put his hands behind him, Gustav clicked handcuffs tightly on his wrists. The first officer was already cuffing Caroline. There was a hollow look on her face as she looked down at John.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Gustav began reading them their rights. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning. If you do not have an attorney one will be provided at no cost to represent you.” He looked away from them. “We have two civilians down and three in custody!” he shouted out of the house. “Search the house,” he instructed his partner.
After the house was cleared by the second officer, medics came in and carried Excelsis and John out on stretchers.
Ben closed his eyes as Excelsis was carried past. God, please keep him alive. Please protect all of us, even John. We are in your hands.
The sky was dark as coal as they were led by the officers out of the house. Suzie’s porch light was still on and the lights from the police cruisers rapidly flashed in the night. Suzie and Eva looked on, held back a distance away from them.
“It will be alright!” Eva called as Mason ducked into the back of a cruiser.
“Thank you! They just need to sort things out!” Ben called to her before an officer put his hand on the back of Ben’s head, putting him in the car and shutting its door. It was awkward, sitting with his hands cuffed behind his back. He went cold as he watched Caroline barely look to her mom as she was put in a separate car.
“At least they have John now,” Ben spoke to Mason as their cruiser pulled away from The Ocean’s Whisper. “They’ll believe us, right? They’ve got to let us out soon. I mean, we weren’t even in the house when the first shot went off.”
“I think so.”
Ben watched out the window as they were driven to the station. Excelsis could be dead by now, or John. The stars seemed to have gone black in the vast expanse of sky above. What is going on in Caroline’s mind?
9
Ben awoke to the sound of rain battering the roof of the police station. His back was stiff from sleeping on the hard bed in the holding cell. He opened his eyes and was blinded by light. As he focused he looked to Mason, sleeping soundly in a bed across the cell. Somehow, the man snored.
Ben stood, walked to the cell’s bars and gripped his hands around their cold steel. How had he gotten here? A shiver of fear ran through him as he realized Excelsis may be dead.
“You’re tough, son,” Gustav’s gruff voice came from the edge of the room. “It took guts to go in there like you and your father did. You may have saved that old man’s life. He’s in stable condition in the hospital.”
How had he not seen Gustav in the corner of the room?
Ben looked to Mason as his father stirred nearby. “Does that mean you believe us and you’re letting us leave?”
The officer came toward the cell. “Enough witnesses say that you and your dad were at the party before the initial shot that we believe you.”
Mason sat up on his bed, holding his head in his hands. “So we’re free to go?”
“That’s the thing.” Gustav neared them. “Benjamin is free to leave, but we’ve found your prints on the rifle, like you said we would, and we’ll need to hold you at least until tomorrow, or until the homeless man wakes up and can vouch for your story.”
“His name’s Excelsis,” Ben spoke up. “You can release Mason tomorrow, though?”
“I can’t say anything for certain, but we’ll try.” Gustav took out his keys and headed for the cell. “Stay back, Mason. I’m letting Benjamin out.”
Ben went and hugged his father before meeting Gustav at the cell door and following him into another part of the station. He looked back at his father as he left him. It was hard leaving Mason behind. Hopefully this whole thing will be resolved soon, he thought while being led to another room for processing before being released.
Ben watched Gustav as the officer filled out the remainder of his paperwork before letting him go. “Is Caroline free to go, too?” he asked.
The man stopped his writing and looked up at him. “She was released to her mother last night when we determined that she was innocent. Do you have a thing for her? I thought you did when I saw the way you looked at her last night. I have to warn you, son, she’s got a cold look in her eyes. I’ve seen this before. It’s never good. It might be good to stay clear for a while.”
Silence hung for a moment between the men.
Ben listened to the rain beating against the building outside. He looked down at his hands. “I just met her recently. I thought I knew her well, though. I’ll be there for her if she needs me.”
“You may have known her, but something like this has the ability to change people. There’s no telling what’s going through her mind. I won’t ask you anymore. It’s none of my business, but I just thought I’d lend you a little advice. By the way, Excelsis and John are at separate hospitals and both are in stable condition. Don’t search them out. Once your father is cleared I’ll call you so that you can visit Excelsis. John is being heavily watched by a few of my men until he can be safely transported to a holding facility and properly charged.”
As Ben stepped outside he was hit by steady waves of rain. Gustav offered him a ride or an umbrella to use as he walked across the island toward his home, but something in Ben knew that the rain would do him good. He hoped it would wash away his pain, the emotions seeping out of his mind and burning in his heart. Rain soaked him as he walked out into the open. He closed his eyes and embraced the cool liquid, letting tears finally come and mix into the rain flowing down his face.
It was a cloudy day and a quick wind made the downpour sting against his face.
After walking for a good half hour, Ben finally approached The Ocean’s Whisper and his parked Jeep. Should he say something to Caroline? He needed her now as he dealt with knowing Mason was still in jail. Surely she needs me, too, he thought.
As he walked up the stairs toward her door, he wondered at the wisdom of that thought.
Knock! Knock! Knock! His hand rapped against the
wood, rain still flowing over him as he stood there.
Moments passed.
He waited, unnerved. Then he saw a light come on in the inner hallway through a window.
Eva stood before him after opening the door. “Ben, you’re soaked. Come inside, please. Where’s Mason? Is he with you?”
Ben stepped inside, careful to stand on the tiles near the door as the water coming off of him made a puddle where he stood. “The police are still holding him because his fingerprints were on John’s gun. They seem to know that he’s innocent, though.”
Eva wiped a hand over her forehead. “I’d hope so. I mean, he was with us at the party when the first shot went off. Is the old man that got shot ok?”
“It sounds like he’ll live, from what the officer at the station said.”
Suzie came from around the corner with a towel and Ben worked on drying himself off as best he could.
“Thanks,” he said. “Is Caroline alright? Can I talk to her?”
“She’s been out of sorts since we picked her up at the station last night,” Eva answered. “She hasn’t come out of her room all morning and won’t talk to either of us. John always had this hold on her. Just as we thought she had broken away from him, this happens.”
He handed the towel back to Suzie, thanking her again. “I couldn’t even imagine being in her situation, seeing how John almost killed Excelsis. Mason injured John pretty badly as well. I’m shaken up just from what I’ve been through. I can’t even imagine what she’s feeling.”
“I’ll let her know you’re here, just in case it will get her out of her room.” Eva left him and he waited in the doorway. He had felt so warm in this place when he awoke here after John punched him out. Now cold permeated the air. He fidgeted with his keys in his pocket and looked around the barely lit house, the light of day outside severely grayed by the drenching rain.
Eva returned with a stressed look on her face. “I can’t even get her to answer me in there. It will just take time, I think. Would you like me to ask her to call you later?”
“That would be great, thanks.”
Eva took an umbrella from near the door and gave it to him. “Take this with you. Call us if you need anything and please let us know when they let Mason out.”
“Thank you.” Ben smiled and then opened the door, opening the black umbrella into the rain, the sound of raindrops pumping against its fabric.
-- --
As Ben pulled his Jeep into the garage of The Seaman’s Watch he felt extremely alone. He shut off the engine, stepped out and just listened to the rain for a moment before heading inside. He suddenly found himself wishing he had a dog, or a cat or something, anything to greet him and be with him now. All there was, was the pattering of rain and silence beyond that.
Mason will be out tomorrow, he reminded himself. He began to head to his room to change when he glanced over at his painting area, realizing that he hadn’t painted anything since he had done the portrait of Caroline. He had gotten so caught up in her that he could think of nothing else. I’m still thinking of her. He smiled wearily, wishing