Payback Read Free

just hope that Amber doesn’t see it for a while,” Brian said.
    Arnold’s eyes glazed over as if he had just thought of that idea. He often became so excited by things that were happening that he lost all sense of logic. Amber did not need to know that there had been another murder in the area with the same M.O. She had not had any nightmares for almost two years and Brian was starting to feel that the therapy was becoming unnecessary now.
    That was what had prompted her to go to the therapy in the first place—the nightmares. They had started about a year after the abduction. It always started the same way where she was abducted in the parking garage and then kept trapped in the dark trunk for hours, with very little in the way of air. It seemed like just when she was starting to pass out the Carver would open the trunk and make her listen to some of his ramblings. She never knew where they were because she was always blindfolded. It sickened Brian to just think about it. It had been a miracle that she was not another one of the Carver’s helpless victims.
    Brian counted his lucky stars every day that she was his wife.
    “Yea, I didn’t even think about Amber. Shit, I’m sorry,” Arnold said.
    “It’s ok, chief. You are a busy man with a lot of stuff on his old, wrinkled mind,” Brian joked.
    The chief smiled.
    “You are such a scoundrel. You know you are the only person who can really get away with that, right?” Arnold said.
    “I like to think I can dump on you when I want,” a familiar voice sprang up behind Arnold.
    John came walking into Brian’s office just then wolfing down a large donut. The guy was skinny as a rail no matter what he ate and he was almost never without a piece of junk food in his mouth. It was unfair and Brian had to hate John just a little bit for it. He definitely took after his mother’s side of the family. While the chief was a big, burly man his wife was tall and slender. She looked like a supermodel and no one on God’s green earth had ever been able to understand how John’s dad had pulled a top notch looking woman like that. But Brian knew that the chief was the kind of guy who could talk his way out of anything. If he had not been a cop, and such a damn good one, Arnold could have easily have enjoyed a career as a talk show host or a used car salesman.
    “Ok, I see how it is; I’m being gang raped here,” Arnold said.
    “Pretty much. Hey, Brian did you hear about the copycat murder of the Carver?” John asked.
    “I already tried, but the guy is just not interested,” Arnold said.
    “I’m sorry to burst your bubble guys,” Brian said. “I do have a lot of other work to do. Why do I feel like this is some sort of an intervention?”
    “Well, we couldn’t help but notice that you seem crazy bored and preoccupied lately,” John said.
    “I’m not that bored. But yea, sometimes the job does get you down a bit. It’s normal. It happens.”
    “But not to you. You are the guy who loves this place more than anyone and sometimes it seems like you would rather be elsewhere lately.”
    Brian groaned. He had been found out. They knew that he was getting burned out and that he was unhappy. Had it affected his job performance? He didn’t know. Was it just the attitude that he brought with him nowadays? Brian didn’t really want to get into it right then. He was still trying to wake up and fight off the urge to take a long morning nap. The seven hours of sleep he’d had last night were just not cutting it. Usually he lasted until the mid-point of the day before he decided that he wanted to curl up and take a long nap, but lately it was getting to him pretty much all the time.
    “I’m fine, guys.’ Brian insisted.
    “Well, ok but let us know if we can help cheer you up,” John said.
    “I don’t need cheering up. I’m ok. I am just going through a rough spell. I just turned forty. That is allowed,” Brian said pouring some more coffee. The pot was almost empty.