One Damn Fine Truck

The highway down to Coos Bay was crooked as a snake's back, no point in wasting fuel.

The Ford 289 cubic inch engine he had built for the fisherman's boat had nearly instantly leaked water, now the guy was sure the block was cracked.

Darin was sure it wasn't, and he thought he knew what had happened. Best to go solve that so that is what he did.

One glance when he got there and he knew what was wrong. The camshaft had an eccentric that drove the manual design fuel pump. There were two designs, early and late and one was thicker than the other.

Installing the wrong year timing cover jammed it, cracked the cover and yep, she leaked water into the hull. He also spotted that it had the wrong intake gasket on it, so it leaked coolant there, also.

It took Darin just three hours to locate the correct cover, drain the system and refill it. This boat had a heat exchanger on it, that worked lots better than using river water to cool it, things didn't get so damned rusty.

He pulled the intake manifold and changed that gasket also. That part was supplied with his assembly kit, it sometimes amazed him what some people would do, the difference was obvious.

The engine started instantly and ran dry as a bone, a soft sweet rumble to the idle. All of Darin's engines did that, he was very fussy with his work.

They took the boat out for a quick test, she now hopped instantly up onto a plane, the engine singing along at 4400 RPM.

Before, the stock powerplant had struggled to touch 3600.

The man was so happy he was beside himself, now he could go fishing, perhaps catch a big Chinook. He slapped Darin on the back so many times it made his shoulder sore.

Back home, he parked the Mazda and went inside. Sarah was fresh out of the shower, her hair still wet, and she was wearing a robe.

That was a complete surprise.

It was four in the afternoon? Sarah never took any showers in the day time, not once that he could ever remember?

"I just felt...sticky." She told him when he asked, not meeting his eyes. Then she went into the bedroom and shut the door?

Sarah never shut the door to the bedroom?

Darin pushed the door open, Sarah was straightening up the bed. That was the very first thing Sarah did each day when they got up, she really was a bit of a neat freak.

She was acting nervous. For the very first time since they got married, Darin had a suspicion that something was going on.

"How did the bed get messed up?" He asked her.

"I was tired so I took a nap." She answered.

Sarah did sometimes nap during the afternoons, but always on the couch?

Darin felt a flash of disbelief, but then he discounted that. No way at all would Sarah be cheating, of that he was fairly sure.

Still, this was odd, but he was still happy at having solved a crisis so he told her what had happened.

"That's good, honey. What would you like for dinner?" She asked, quickly heading for the kitchen.

+++

The next day at work he happened to think about his camera, the truck had not been touched now for a couple of months and he wasn't really paying much attention.

In fact, with everything else going on, he had nearly forgotten the camera. Every time he had taken the time to look at the video, the result was nothing.

Plugging in the little card, the blank screen shot of the inside of his truck came on. Darin had just taken a bite of his sandwich when he saw the truck door open and Sarah slide into the passenger seat!

It had been raining the day before, it was clearly raining in this shot.

Then he heard the sound of the other door. The tiny camera was hidden high on the driver's side so he could see out the side and rear window at whoever was stealing gas.

But that meant he could not see who had just gotten in the truck.

Sarah leaned forward and her face became a blur, then she leaned back. For an instant, Darin saw what looked to be someone's ear but it was so close to the lens it was hard to tell.

Did she just...kiss someone? That is what it looked like.

"That was pretty close, maybe we should cool it. I barely made it out the window." A male voice said.

"Maybe. But it won't be too long and it will all be over." Sarah said.

"Are you sure you can come up with the rest of the money?" The male voice asked. The voice was slightly distorted, Darin could not quite place it as a result.

"Yes, sweetie. That is not a problem at all. Just one thing, I want it to be really quick if you can? He really has been good to me so I don't want him to suffer, it's just that he is so damn cheap. I want to live a little." She said.

"It really could be the two of us, you know, babe? You have one hot body, I like fucking you." The man said with a chuckle.

"No. You have a nice cock on you but once this is done we can't ever be near each other, it has to be that way. We can't have the cops getting suspicious." Sarah told him. Then she handed the man something, that was also blurry and he couldn't see what it was.

"Hey, there is only $500.00 here!" The man said.

"I will have the rest in a week, if I do too much at once Darin will demand to know, OK?"

"OK. Hey, the asshole is gone all day, right? How about...?" The man said.

Sarah smiled, then all Darin could see was the top on her head as it began to bob up and down.

My God! It looked like she was sucking on whoever that was...?

The motherfucking BITCH would not even go down for him, claiming she didn't like that.

There was a short flash of an arm, some color. Darin ran the video back, then froze the frame.

It was blurry, but it was an upper arm, and a tattoo.

Darin now knew who the man was!

This sounded like Sarah and this mother fucker Dennis were making plans to kill him? And Sarah was giving the jerk a blow job?

Sarah didn't give blow jobs.

His mind flashed back to Sarah fresh out of the shower, then the messed up bed.

Now he knew.

His Sarah was fucking this Dennis asshole, apparently part payment for having him done in?

There was no mistake here, Darin was completely sure.

He managed to hold himself in check, even though he went into a nearly complete rage at what he had just seen.

It did flash into his head to call the cops, but then his rage took over and he decided to make some plans.

That dirty son of a bitch, fuck with his father's truck, fuck with his cheating bitch of a wife? Make plans to kill him?

There was no more work done the rest of the day.

They each had a half million in life insurance on each other, and double if death was an accident? That cunt wife of his was actually making plans to collect on that?

Sure, he could go to the cops, maybe what he had on video was enough.

But? What if he just beat the dirty bitch to the punch? The idea would never have even crossed his mind, until he saw that video.

His Sarah, clearly sucking that weasel's cock?

Darin took a deep breath, he had to keep things completely under control. By God, this could work.

Darin was making some plans.

+++

Darin now was also paranoid, he was watching carefully. On the way to work, he checked every other vehicle, every bush on the way.

He had no idea at all of how they planned to do it, but he did think he had a little time because Sarah still needed to come up with more money, that much was clear.

If she just pulled what she would need out of the account all at once, she knew Darin would know and there would be hell to pay.

He checked the accounts, she had been taking out cash withdrawals, already it was over $3000.00.

The withdrawals were all for $500.00, spread over a couple of months. He checked Sarah's credit card statements, everything was close to normal there, so he knew what the cash was for.

It had also been over a month now since she suddenly went into one of her sexy modes, which told him she spent some more money.

Apparently murder came fairly cheap to that dirty mother fucker, Dennis.

Even that $3000.00 would be hard to explain, but Sarah loved to shop and Darin had griped less and less about it, because that always led to a fight.

+++

Back at the electronics shop, he purchased some equipment to bug their phone. Of course Sarah might just use her cell phone, if she did, there was nothing he could do about that, not really.

He didn't have long to wait. The call came on Thursday while he was at the shop. He played it back that evening when Sarah was in the kitchen.

"Yes, I have it." Sarah said when she answered the phone.

"Good, we can go ahead then."

"Sunday he will be here, you can get in then through the back with the key I gave you. Are you sure it will be enough for, you know..quick?"

"Hey, 200 gallons of Propane going off at once will take care of it." Dennis laughed.

"What if it leaks out and then it doesn't work?" She asked.

"It will take at least a day, maybe more to all leak out into the building." Dennis snorted.

Darin could not believe this, they were talking like it was about some kind of sports or something.

Propane? Darin had a 200 gallon tank at his shop that he used to fuel an old pizza oven for heat treating metal and for straightening Aluminum cylinder heads.

Now he knew what they planned, so he knew what to do.

Friday morning at his shop, he went over to the tank, it was only 1/4 full. He opened the vent and drained that to the outside open air, it took quite awhile but finally it was empty.

Then he closed the valve and went back to work.

At home that evening, he mentioned in passing to Sarah that the the cost of Propane went up, and he had to refill his system.

He even let himself go into a bit of a rant about it, how expensive everything was.

When he next played the phone tap that evening, Sarah did exactly what he thought she would. Somehow she sneaked the call in while he was there at home, it must have been when he was in the shower.

"It's ready! He just refilled it today, so how about Sunday?" She said when Dennis answered.

"OK. Perfect, by morning it will have built up to be enough for one damn big bang. When he comes in on Monday and hits the light switches, that should take care of that."

The guy laughed at that. The cock sucker actually laughed.

Man, were these two stupid or what? Darin almost laughed himself, if it wasn't so damned serious.

Sunday Morning Darin told Sarah that he had to go see a customer. He had done that a few times when the job was on a farm or something like that.

He had already checked down the hill, the crappy Mustang sat there so Dennis was not out and about yet.

"OK, Honey." She told him, giving him a big kiss.

"Are you going to swing by your shop?" She asked.

"No, it's the other way, why?"

"Oh. No reason. OK, then. See you this afternoon, sweetie." Sarah smiled and kissed him again.

Sarah never once called him "sweetie" that he could remember.

She sure did seem happy.

The fucking bitch!

+++

Darin saw the Mustang coming, he was ready when it started up the hill into town. Hidden in a side driveway, Dennis didn't see him as he went by.

It only took a few seconds for Darin to be right on his ass going up the hill.

The road was winding and steep down the other side, with a sharp left hand curve at the bottom.

There was a guardrail there, the bank dropped about 40 feet off into the river at that point.

Darin's battery powered impact wrench had made short work of the guardrail bolts, at a glance they looked fine, but they were simply sitting there.

He knew he would need to time it just right, but he was reasonably sure he could with all of the experience he had racing cars out at the local speedway.

Not exactly racing, that was jalopies, the idea was to put other drivers into situations they didn't want to be in.

Darin had a half dozen trophies to prove his skill at doing exactly that.

Dennis looked up and saw Darin coming up on him from behind just before the top of the hill, he realized, in a panic he stepped on the gas. A huge cloud of smoke poured out of the exhaust.

Darin hit the gas at the same time, feeling his crash bars he had installed on the old truck meet the Mustang's back end.

Like he figured, there was no way the worn out little Ford could get away from the his truck, heavy be damned, he had over 390 ponies on tap.

Up over the crest of the hill and down the other side they went, the Mustang was fish tailing wildly. Dennis hit the brakes at one point, but all that happened was his tires slid. Again a huge blast of smoke poured out of the machine as the man tried again to get away from him, out run him.

Darin stayed right on him, working the wheel to keep from spinning the Mustang out, building speed.

Then he saw the Mustang's brake lights come on again, far too late. 3200 pounds being pushed by over 5000 pounds had little chance, not headed down a steep grade.

Just before both of them piled into the guardrail, Darin tapped the brakes and left the Mustang to it's fate.

It went straight through and vanished down out of sight.

Darin barely made the corner himself. Slowing, he turned and drove back home, through his gate and down into the lower field.

Luck was with him, he never saw another vehicle.

Like he figured, on Sunday morning there was no other traffic. That had been a risk, one he was prepared to take.

Putting the crash bars against the old Farmall tractor that sat down there in the lower field disabled, he managed to shove it all the way to the barn. The huge rear axle messed up his crash bars nicely, just like he figured.

Any evidence that he was involved in anything was long gone.

Back inside the house, he sat and sipped on some Coffee.

"What have you been doing, honey?" Sarah asked when she came out.

"Oh, I pushed the old tractor up to the garage, I want to fix the engine." He told her.

"Oh. I thought you said you were going to check on a job?" She asked, a frown on her face.

"Changed my mind." Darin told her curtly.

+++

At work Monday, it was mid morning when the phone rang.

Darin was expecting that.

"Have you heard? There has been a terrible accident, our neighbor Dennis was killed."

"What? Really? What happened?"

"I don't know, he went through the guardrail at the bottom of the hill into town." Sarah sounded like she was about to cry.

"Well, that's too bad. He was a nice guy, I guess."

Grinning, Darin went back to work.

Sarah was very quiet that evening, then at bedtime she wanted to cuddle but Darin begged off, telling her he had a headache.

Darin also half expected someone to come by, maybe ask questions but there was nothing. The story in the papers mentioned speed as being a factor, but that was it.

They also found drugs in his system, that helped a lot to eliminate any suspicion. There was no mention of the missing guardrail bolts.

Over the next couple of months, Darin did his level best to make everything appear normal.

After refueling them, each day he checked his tanks at work before turning anything on, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

He forgot about that finally, it was clear to him that he had gotten away scott free.

Sarah kept the house like she always did, and even reached for him from time to time, but it was almost like she was thinking about something else.

That was fine, Darin was thinking about something else also. He had some plans for the fucking bitch, bad enough she cheated but planning his murder?

By God he was going to see about that.

He had to be careful though, after all, a half million in life insurance would mean inspectors were going to check everything.

+++

The big steel trailer he bought for only $450.00 had a lift bed, hydraulics on it. It was rusty, nasty looking but he didn't care. He had no plans to ever actually use the thing.

He towed it home and parked it in the driveway half way up the hill to his garage, angling it so the rear of it was against a big gate post.

It was early on a Sunday morning when he asked Sarah to help him hook it up so he could haul it to the shop, she grumbled but he told her he couldn't do it by himself.

"I need you to tell me when it is lined up so I can drop in onto the towing ball, OK?" He said.

"OK, honey." Sarah was still in her bathrobe when they went out, Darin sat and watched her in his mirror. She stood off to the side so he yelled at her.

"Look straight down from the hitch, it has to be exact." He called out the side window.

Sarah stepped in between the front of the front of the trailer and the rear of the truck.

Just as her head vanished when she leaned down, Darin floored the throttle. There was hard jolt, a short scream and then silence.

Pulling back ahead, Darin set the brakes and jumped out.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" He screamed over and over as he looked down. The heavy rear bumper had gone right over the top of the trailer's tow bar, and jammed Sarah between the front of the steel trailer and the truck. The trailer brakes were locked, that plus the big corner post on the fence meant it didn't even budge.

There was no one around in sight, so he quit with the pretend screaming.

She was still alive but barely. The impact had done it's job.

Darin looked down.

"So you planned to kill me, bitch?" He told her.

"Oh, my God. NO! Honey, help me." Sarah managed, but then she was gone.

+++

Darin was horribly distraught when the police arrived. A crew came and cleaned up the mess, removed his wife's body.

Then a detective arrived, he made Darin go inside the house and wait. Looking out, Darin saw a tow truck come and hook onto his rig.

He laughed to himself, it was just a simple accident, there was no way for them to decide anything else.

He knew he had played the part of being stricken by grief perfectly. He didn't even feel all that bad, it had come down to him...or her.

He was reasonably sure that if she tried it once she would try it again, so during that time he kept as close an eye on her as possible.

Now it was over, he could relax.

That million dollars was going to allow him to quit working, sell the shop. As he waited, he added up all of his accounts in his head, smiling to himself, knowing it would be enough.

+++

When she found out that Dennis had been killed, Sarah had a feeling that somehow Darin was involved.

She didn't care about Dennis, not really, but it spoiled her plans. Now she was stuck once again.

He wasn't a bad guy, not really. It was just that she wanted finer things, freedom. When she got the idea about the insurance policy, at first she had no idea at all how to go about it.

One afternoon that Dennis man suddenly appeared at their fence, Sarah very nearly got up and went inside. But then she spotted his obvious interest, and Sarah knew very well how to manipulate men.

It didn't take long, a bit of teasing and soon he was sitting there talking. He almost could not take his eyes off her breasts, even though the outfit she had on was conservative.

A few days later, the outfit she had on was not conservative at all and Dennis appeared right on que.

Even though the idea was distasteful, she allowed the man to seduce her. He was on the hurried side, not the kind of lover Sarah would ever choose but she didn't care about that. From there, the rest was easy.

There was one tiny upset when Darin came home and caught them sitting outside. He was upset but Sarah managed to smooth that over.

Then that day when she and Dennis had barely finished a sex session, they heard Darin outside. Dennis had bailed out the bedroom window just in time. Thank God she always made the man use a rubber, or that one could have been very bad.

Now Dennis was dead and Sarah was fearful that Darin knew more than he let on.

Yet Darin acted perfectly normal in every respect except for the few times she had caught him looking at her.