Timestitch Ch. 13-15

CHAPTER 13

9:20 AM, U.S. Rte. 6 near Thomas and Sons Garage

Dave gave a grunt of satisfaction as he watched the fat man hook up Janice's Omni and tow it back up Route Six, the wrecker's yellow bubble light flashing. He put the other fat man's—the one he had killed with his beloved Whispering Death—white Chrysler in gear and followed. A few miles up the road, over the top of the ridge with the overlook, the tow truck turned onto a private drive at the top of the hill. The mailbox looked like it had said Miller but Diaz was scrawled on a piece of silver duct tape. Dave drove past and looked for a place to stash the car and reconnoiter on foot. But he had to go some way and before he even spotted anywhere suitable the low fuel warning light came on with a ping.

"Shit" Dave said. He could go back up over the ridge and gas up at the very garage he had been staking out or he could continue downhill from here. He thought he remembered a Sunoco station down there. If he ran out of gas he could coast a ways and save a walk. But when he got to the bottom and crossed the swollen creek, he saw water starting to flow across the road.

It wasn't his car anyway, if it got stuck he'd just leave it. He eased into the water, going as slow as he could. He resisted the temptation to hit the gas and make big rooster tails of splashing water which would probably swamp the engine. This wasn't the movies after all, cool didn't always rule. The water turned out to not be that deep but it was getting deeper. He probably wouldn't get through on his way back.

There was indeed a gas station not too far along. Dave pulled into the pump and put ten bucks worth in the tank. He considered driving off without paying, the trusting fools, but decided he didn't need the cops looking for him while he went about his hunt. So he went in to pay the cashier. Besides, he could use some coffee.

~~~*~~~

10:12 AM Tuesday, Falls, Pennsylvania

On the way back from the airport Jim downshifted the Mazda as they wound down a long slope back towards the river after climbing over a ridge west of Falls, Pennsylvania on State Route Ninety-two. The road was slick and he was tired and a little stressed. But he was professional enough to recognize the signs in himself and to compensate by taking extra care. He had so much on his mind, not the least of which was this incredibly sexy woman in the seat beside him.

Holly reached over and turned on the stereo. "Bonded by Blood" by Exodus screamed out of the speakers. Holly frowned and popped out the tape. She sorted through Jim's collection and put in his Best of Eagles tape. "New Kid in Town" started playing. She smiled and then turned the volume down where it was barely audible.

Jim shook his head. Somehow it felt good that she took such a liberty, like they were already on that level. Which was so weird. They had known each other for two days but he had already seen her naked. More than naked.

"Why did you leave Philly?" Holly's question came out of the blue.

Jim remembered the day he and his partner had been on bike patrol in center city and they busted the two gay men in the alley behind the alley off Sansom Street. One had been on his knees sucking on the cock of the other. Jim or his partner wouldn't have bothered if they hadn't been visible from the street—the motion of the middle aged guy's head bobbing back and forth on the fat brown pecker of the younger one was what had attracted attention of passers by. So they had to intervene. The bust had gone smoothly but, for no reason he could understand, Jim had become semi-erect. Before getting back on his bike, Jim had to adjust himself. His partner saw. Word gets around.

"I just got tired of all the crap," Jim said. "Among other things Philly cops have to live in the city."

"That sucks," Holly said. "Well their loss is our gain."

"Thanks." It was surprisingly hard to think of a dignified way to make a pass at this point. How do you ask a girl you had seen fucking another guy if she would fuck you? What if she said no? That would mean not that she didn't like sex but that she didn't want to do it with him. "Uh..."

"Do you think I'd make a good porn star?" Holly asked, again out of the blue.

They were on a long straight stretch of two lane macadam parallel to the Susquehanna in the distance and the Conrail tracks closer at hand. Between the road and tracks, tipsy old telegraph poles, wire long gone, teetered on the edge a drainage ditch full of water. Three poles went by before Jim answered. "I can't imagine why not."

"I mean a really good one, one that has a following and gets paid the big bucks."

Jim glanced over at her with her knees artless propped up on the dash of the car, a good deal of her buns peeking out of her shorts. "Oh hell yes."

"Thanks," she said. "I know I look all exotic and shit but would I look good fucking—on camera? You know what I mean?"

Jim remembered Holly and Taylor going at it the morning before. The intense tableaux was enough to make his cock stir in his pants. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But from what I saw yesterday morning..."

"I knew you were there," Holly said. "Why didn't you stay and watch?"

"I was on duty," Jim said.

"Janice said you were queer that way."

Jim felt the backs of his hands tingle at the word. "Huh?"

"That you could, you know, compartmentalize like nobody's business."

"Oh."

Holly chuckled. "You thought I meant..."

"I—"

"You ain't gay Jim," Holly said. "Not the way you were looking at me yesterday."

"How could I not look? You did everything but plant a flag in it."

"Yeah I did, didn't I?" She grinned at him.

Jim sat there imagining Holly with a flag grasped between her nether lips. Jim shifted in his seat. Bucket seat, tight jeans, seat belt and erection were an uncomfortable combination. "Why?"

"Well, to see if you liked girls... and..." She actually blushed. "...because I liked it."

"So you're an exhibitionist?" Jim had met a few of those in strip bars. Most women were in it for the easy money but a surprising number enjoyed their work.

"Yeah, but I'm not narcissistic about it." She shrugged. "Well not much anyway."

"You have a right to be proud of you body."

"Thanks." She looked down at her chest. "Wish I had bigger tits."

"No you don't," Jim said. "Trust me, most guys can tell a fake when the see one... Or two."

She gave him a half smile at his lame joke.

"Besides, yours are..." Jim searched for something that wasn't cliché or predictable. He shook his head. What the hell. "I can't think of the words your breasts deserve Holly. Maybe Taylor could but I'm not suave like he is. All I know is I like your boobies just as they are. I like them a lot."

Holly beamed at him. "That is so sweet!"

The word popped into Jim's head. "Nonpareil!"

Holly's looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"From a Vance novel. I remember the word because I looked it up but I don't remember which book. One of the Demon Prince novels? It means without equal or something. It's also a kind of chocolate."

Holly's pointy chin touched her chest. She closed her eyes. There was a weird serene look on her face. "You're a nerd girl's dream, you know that? Big and tough gun toting cop with a head full of kinky sci-fi weirdness."

Jim felt his whole body loosen. Not relax, but loosen, like he was warmed up and ready for the big game. "I'm not that tough."

They road along in companionable silence for a while. The road merged with State Route 307 and, closer to the river now, they wound around a big bend and down another straight away.

"This is a nice drive when it's not raining," Jim said.

"Does it ever not rain here?"

"Usually." He smiled at her.

"Jim..." Holly's voice had an odd hesitant tone. "There's something I wanted to talk about."

"Go ahead." They were approaching the outskirts of Tunkhannock.

"I like you as you are." She was looking out her window at the water pouring off the rocky hillside seemingly within arm's reach. "All of you."

"What do you mean?" Jim felt himself tightening down again.

"If things go right, we're going to—"

"I'm glad to—"

"—have a lot of interesting experiences."

"And?" They turned onto U.S. Six and went through downtown, all nine blocks of it. The tingling on the back of Jim's hands was back. He gripped the wheel and peered up at the stoplight at the center of town.

"Well it's okay for you to... enjoy yourself anyway you like."

"I don't understand."

"Taylor—"

"He seems like an okay guy."

"If you want to... I mean... with Taylor... it's okay."

"I... You think he's..."

"Not him." She was looking at him now. "You."

"Shit!" It was like cold rain was dripping down his spine.

"Sex isn't about status Jim, it's about pleasure."

"I can't bel—"

"Hey! It's all okay." Holly reached out and touched Jim's arm. "The point is I—we—will accept you either way."

They started up the long climb west of town. Jim didn't know what to say. They passed the Pink Apple. Reason and emotion, desire and conditioning, experience and hope all warred within him. Jim worked the gears and passed a laboring semi. As they neared the crest something in him said fuck it.

He remembered talking to Taylor yesterday in the garage. He'd broached the subject of dating Holly. Taylor had said he didn't own the girl but that he cared for her and didn't want to see her hurt. Jim said the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.

Taylor had asked "Not even if she asks nice?" They'd laughed. Jim had said something about how he wasn't sure he could handle something that kinky.

Taylor had said "just show up with a stiff prick and the girls would handle the rest."

He had said "girls."

At which point Jim had been aware that his cock, very close to where Taylor's head lay on the bench, was growing hard. He'd had the urge to pull it out and ask if it was adequate to the task. But of course he couldn't have done that. Not in a million years.

Then he had heard the phone ring in the kitchen and he'd looked over to see Kit turning away from the door and moving to answer...

"Fuck it." When he said it out loud he felt himself loosen up again. "Look Holly, I don't know... maybe, maybe not... but I appreciate what you're trying to do. Okay?"

He looked over to Holly. She was fishing in her purse. Crap, I bare my soul and she's purse diving.

Holly pulled out something plastic. "Speaking of Taylor."

"What's that?" Jim asked.

"Looks like a calculator but I think it's a super secret bug detector," Holly said. "Or something."

"Bet he's looking all over for it," Jim said.

"Found it in the driveway. Must have dropped out of his jacket when I was stripping him naked and giving him a blowjob."

"Wait... stripping? Blowjob?"

"We were doing this thing for Janice, putting on a show."

"Sounds like fun." They were up in the hills now, winding along wet roads lined with trees. The rain, the foliage and clouds soaked up the light, making it almost as dark as twilight. Jim turned on his headlights.

"Oh yeah," Holly grinned. "Jan had a great time."

"What about you?"

"It was Janice's turn with Taylor, I just helped set it up." She grinned at Jim. "But I got morning dibs."

"Dibs?"

"On Taylor's morning wood. That was what you saw us doing yesterday."

Jim shook his head in wonder at it all.

Holly pouted. "It was my turn last night but we were all tired and depressed about Kit's great aunt. We just cuddled. Then Jan goes and gets the morning wood."

"You're not keeping score are you? 'Physician heal thyself!'"

"No, but it's been over thirty-six hours since I got some, I'm horny as all get out."

"A lamentable condition easily remedied."

"Your place or mine?"

"Yours is closest," Jim said as they drove down out of the hills into Meshoppen, the last little river town before the cabin. "Five or ten minutes maybe."

"Cool," Holly said. "You sure you'd be okay with Taylor and Jan being there?"

"Yeah, why not?" Jim looked down at his fuel gauge. "We need to stop for gas."

"Can I drive the last bit?" Holly asked.

"Sure." He pulled into the pumps at a Sunoco station just behind a big white Chrysler.

~~~*~~~

CHAPTER 14

11:05 AM Tuesday, Sunoco station, Meshoppen, Pennsylvania

Gilly Thomas stood under the canopy of the Sunoco station, out of the rain, as he sucked on his slurpie and watched the hot chick shake her butt to "Disco Stranger" while she pumped gas. Goddamn she was hot. Pert tits and ass in those tight shorts. Dark skin and blonde hair. Gil hadn't ever seen anything like her outside a porn flick. Gil felt like he'd pop the zipper on his jeans just looking at her. Oh and that thing on her ankle, how cool was that?

"Hey buddy, want to make forty bucks?" someone asked behind Gil.

Gil started to turn. "Get lost fag—"

"Do I look like a faggot to you?" The guy was taller than Gil, which wasn't hard, thinner, which was even easier, and had the coolest long coat Gil had ever seen. The eyes on this guy scared the crap out of Gil.

"Sorry, y'know those guys is always coming onto you, y'know?"

"Yeah, listen..." The guy pointed at the hot chick pumping gas. "That's my ex-girlfriend out there. I owe child support. I need you to distract her for me."

"You tapped that? How cool is that?"

"Yeah, I tapped that. But she's a bitch when she's not being fucked in the ass. Gave her up for something better."

"Ain't nothin better than that."

"Not in this shithole."

"Got that right. Forty bucks?"

The cool guy handed Gil twenty. "Get the other half when you're done."

"Fair enough." Gil set his ball cap and walked out to the gas pump. The hot chick turned as he approached, pushing up her sunglasses like a movie star. "Uh—hi."

"Hello." She smiled, actually smiled at Gil.

"Ain't seen you around here before."

"Just passing through."

"Nice car" Gil said. Behind the hot chick, the tall dude slipped into his car.

"Just zippy," she said. "Look—"

"You're very pretty." He said it!

"Thank you! You're... substantial."

Gil chuckled. "I like that. Sub-stantial."

Maybe he had a shot after all.

"So whatcha do?"

"I'm a famous porn star. That's my bodyguard." She pointed to a solid looking guy who had just walked up. The guy had muscles everywhere Gil had fat. Muscles looked at the girl with a question. She shrugged. He crossed his arms and made a show of looking patient.

"I've never seen—" Gil blushed. "I mean—"

"You never saw me? Well I only do special stuff, pretty rough, like bukkake, if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I getcha," Gil lied. Not like there was somewhere he could look up weird sex shit like that.

"And don't be embarrassed. I wouldn't have a job if it weren't for guys like you."

"Really? Yeah, I guess not... Listen you been with lots of guys right?"

"Hundreds."

"Wow, you don't think..."

The gas nozzle clunked. The chick returned it to the pump. She put her hand on Gil's arm. "You wouldn't like it. My pussy is so loose from all those big black cocks. My asshole is even looser."

The pictures invading Gil's head nearly made him faint. He felt his knees wobble. "Why would..."

"For the money sweetheart. Damn good money. Bought me this here sporty car here."

"Yeah, I guess so. But um..."

The bodyguard said "Miss Prentiss, we have to get to the shoot."

"Nice meeting you," Gil said. He reached out his hand.

Instead the woman bent and kissed Gil's cheek, right on his stubble. "Always nice to meet a fan. Tootles."

The porn star and her bodyguard got into the hot little rice burner and drove away. Gil looked around for the cool dude to collect his other twenty. Then it hit him, the guy had wanted to sneak away. Shit. Gil felt so stupid.

It started to rain harder.

~~~*~~~

11:14 AM Tuesday, U.S. Rte. 6

"Fucking rain," Holly said. She turned the wipers up to full.

"Keeps up and the fields will be too saturated to cut the corn, if they aren't already," Jim said. Holly looked over at him. He shrugged. "You deal with dairy farmers every day you learn their business."

"I guess." She hit the breaks. "Shit!"

Ahead of the car brown water was tumbling across the road. Beyond that the road curved onto a concrete bridge with the water of the swollen creek already lapping at its underside. Things were sweeping by in the in the water smacking against the bridge before getting sucked under. It was mostly logs and branches but also a lot of trash and junk. She saw the round top of an old Frigidare, lettering half visible, crunch into the concrete and flip end over end before disappearing as if into the maw of an all consuming monster.

Holly put the shift into neutral. "Should I chance it?"

"No!" Jim said. "The pavement could be washed out."

"Do you know—" Holly slammed her eyes shut and turned her head away as a cow went by in the water, not wanting to see it hit the bridge.

"Yuck," Jim said. "Poor girl."

"Is it..." Holly started to ask.

"Current took it under. Turn around and head upstream. There's another bridge. Higher. Should be okay."

Holly glanced in the rear view mirror. Through the tiny rear window she saw the hood of a big white car close behind the little Mazda. She rolled down her window and stuck her arm out into the rain. She waved it in what she hoped was a back up motion. Instead the other car pulled forward and the Mazda rocked as the bumpers met.

"What the fuck?" Holly popped her seat belt and stuck her head and shoulders out the window. She looked back at the other car.

Over the steering wheel of the other car she saw the grinning face of Dave Shateel.

~~~*~~~

11:18 AM Tuesday

Dave grinned his number one feral grin. "Love it when a plan comes together."

When he had come to the flooding he had backed up and found a place to pull off the road. He then slumped down in the seat and waited. When the Mazda pulled up to the flowing water, Dave dropped the automatic shifter into low and eased up behind the Japanese car. He saw Holly's arm come out the window and wave. Dave gave the Chrysler some gas and nudged their bumper. Holly stuck her head out the window and looked back at him. Her mouth opened wide like one of those blow up dolls. On the other side of the little car the other door started to open.

Dave stomped on the gas. His tires spun then caught. Both cars lurched forward. Holly jerked back inside and the passenger door slammed shut.

Inexorably the bigger domestic pushed the import off the road and towards the raging water. Dave felt first his front then rear wheels go off the macadam onto the shoulder. The Mazda was already into the weeds beside the road, its tires were gouging deep grooves in the soaked soil. Dave worried his own front wheels would get stuck but then the stream bank collapsed under the little Mazda and it went into the water.

Dave backed up a little and got out to check his front bumper, Whispering Death in hand, just in case. The bumper was hardly damaged at all. Still he'd have to give up the car soon, when the bodies were discovered the cops would be looking for it. Then he had a thought... Who would complain that their favorite dirty book store didn't open on time? To the cops? Yeah, right. He probably had several days. It was a nice car. Better, he had to admit, than his treasured El Camino stashed behind that abandoned store.

He heard the other car hit the bridge and turned to look. It had hit broadside. Crumpled metal, the passenger door, pushed up the concrete, levering the other side deeper into the brown foaming water. The current pushed the Mazda onto it back and sucked it under the bridge.

Dave scanned the banks of the stream in the off chance they might have gotten out. Seeing nothing, he smiled. "One bitch down, one to go."

~~~*~~~