“How did you end it with them?”
“They said they’d call me if they needed me further.”
With his mind on the conversation, Josh’s focus
wasn’t on the road. He failed to see the woman with the stroller stepping into the crosswalk until the last moment. He slammed on his brakes and the front
wheels skidded over the first of the two white lines.
The force threw both men forward, but the seatbelts kept them restrained. The woman jerked the stroller and child back from the brink.
People on either side of the road stared and frowned disapprovingly. The woman with the stroller attempted the crossing for the second time. She chewed Josh a new asshole as she crossed. The windshield muted her abuse and protected him from the evil she would do if given the chance. Blissfully unaware, the child slept through the drama.
Josh released the breath he had held since violently applying the brakes. Openmouthed, he fixed his eyes on the woman insulting him as she walked.
“Nice one, Centurion. I nearly had a cardiac arrest.
If we’re lucky, we can ask the minister if he’ll do a group booking at the graveyard,” Bob said.
Josh wiped his hands over his face. “Shit, sorry, man.
I was miles away.”
“Unfortunately, I was right here in the thick of it.”
A car horn tooted from behind and Josh glanced in the rearview mirror.
“C’mon pal. Focus now and let’s see if we can’t get to where we’re going in one piece,” Bob said.
Josh removed his foot from the brake and inched
down on the gas. Slowly, the car accelerated away from the intersection.
Again, Josh’s focus wasn’t on driving or his problems.
His mind was a blank. Occasionally, his mind
flicked back to what could have happened if he had hit the stroller. He shuddered at the thought.
“I did something you may not thank me for,” Bob
confessed.
“What do you mean?”
“After the cops, I wasn’t happy with their lack of interest in the case. I wanted to do something more …”— Bob searched for a suitable word—“more proactive.”
“And?” Josh prompted.
“I called Margaret Macey.” Bob was already wincing as the old woman’s name came out.
Josh felt the air around him squeeze. Anything anybody did to improve things only made them worse. He
swore if he did nothing, it would make matters worse.
He switched lanes to make a left turn.
“I thought I could get some information from her that could help us,” Bob said in his defense. He clutched the overhead door strap for support as the car made the turn.
“Well?”
“She went into wild hysterics.”
“Shit, don’t do me any favors.”
“Yeah, I know, but listen!”
Josh fell silent.
“She went loopy as soon as she heard I was from an insurance company.” He paused. “She really does think someone’s trying to kill her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Margaret Macey thinks someone at her insurance
company is trying to kill her.” Bob allowed the information to sink in for a moment. “What have you and
she got in common?”
“We’ve both cashed in a life insurance policy?”
“Yeah, not only that, but you cashed them in with the same insurance company—Pinnacle Investments.”
“What are you getting at?”
“James Mitchell said he was from Pinnacle Investments and when he came to me, he asked about you
two. I know we’ve considered Mitchell may be working with Bell, but we haven’t considered that he’s
working with Pinnacle. I think Pinnacle Investments may be at the root of all this.”
“Where did you get that idea from?” Josh asked.
“It came to me last night, while I was in the tub.”
“The tub?” Josh scoffed.
Bob sighed. “I know it sounds wild, but to me it
seems worth further investigation.”
“No, I’m sorry, Bob.”
“It’s no wilder than the shit you’ve come up with in the last few weeks.”
The remark struck Josh hard, a kidney punch when
he wasn’t looking. He knew he’d driven family and close friends mad with his rants, complaints, revelations and general paranoia. In days of old, they would have probably bored holes in his head to let the
demons out.
“Okay,” Josh conceded. “What do you want to do
about it?”
“I don’t really know. I thought I would check out Pinnacle Investments’s operations,” Bob offered.
“Before you poke your nose into things too far, I think I’ll pay Margaret Macey a visit.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, not if we have something in common like some psycho trying to kill us. Maybe she knows something we don’t.”
“What about the cops?”
“At the moment, I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, I haven’t got anything to lose.”
Bob frowned. “I don’t know about that.”
Josh glanced at his friend. Bob looked like he was trying to pass a football-sized kidney stone. Josh smiled at him.
“I don’t see what you have to fucking smile about,”
Bob said, nonplussed.
“Bob, I don’t say it often. You’re a good man and a good friend. And I do appreciate it.”
The big man’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment.
“Just drive.”
Josh’s good mood didn’t last as the cemetery came into view. He swung the car into the garden of bad memories with the other arriving vehicles.
Josh felt strange pulling into the parking lot of Red Circle Engineering. It felt like the first day of school all over again. He’d only been away from the company
less than three weeks, but in that time, his world had been turned on its head. The place felt unfamiliar, as if he’d been away for a hundred years.
Once he was in the building, he didn’t want to be there. Work was pointless. The decisions he made here paled in significance to the life and death decisions he needed to make outside. He stayed, though. He had a fagade to portray. He had to let those people know he was doing okay and all was well with the world.
He flashed a car salesman’s smile to Tanya on reception duty, an attractive blonde in her late twenties. Her smile looked stapled in place. She looked at him as if he carried a collection of severed heads by the hair in one hand instead of his briefcase.
“Hi, Tanya. I’m back,” Josh said, like he was on
happy pills.
“Hello, Josh. It’s nice to see you.” Tanya spoke like she was trying out the words for the first time.
