Meet Cute

Chapter 14

"I need to see Eleanor."

The bank teller smiled blandly. "Oh I'm sorry. Eleanor doesn't work here anymore. But I would be happy to help you."

"What do you mean Eleanor doesn't work here anymore? What happened to Eleanor? Is she dead?"

"No!" The woman looked horrified. "Nothing like that! She won the lottery."

"Excuse me?"

"Her grandmother sent her a card in the mail. It had one of those scratch off lottery cards in it. Eleanor won. She left a few days ago for a cruise."

"When will she be back?"

"Oh, I have no idea when or even if."

When Raymond just stood there not moving, the teller kept talking.

"Weird thing is I didn't even know Eleanor had a grandmother. I was sure she told me once that all her grandparents had passed."

OOO

She was in his car again.

This time he was on the lookout. He noticed her before he made it to the car.

He thought about going back in, getting security, and having her arrested for trespassing on government property, but he couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that if he tried that, he would come back to find her gone and Jimmy waiting in his car instead.

Raymond got into the car.

First things first. Raymond asked. "Did you kill that cat?"

"No. I wasn't even there. I was still home recuperating which is where I should still be. Sam, who you met, and another friend -"

Raymond interrupted her to ask. "- Short and pudgy with glasses?"

She ignored the interruption. " - drove around for hours looking for something, anything on the side of the road to use as an excuse for why the dogs would get a false positive. For future reference, it might interest you to know that the dogs are trained to only react to decomposing human bodies, but most people don't actually know that."

"I'm really hoping to not have to reference that fact in the future." Raymond informed her before asking. "Do you still have your appendix or did you really voluntarily have one of your organs removed to set up a cover story?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she threatened him again. "I came to warn you. If you don't show up tomorrow, I will be calling the police to report Jimmy missing."

She was bluffing and they both knew it. "Go ahead. Anything you try to tell them, it's your word against mine."

"Even if it was, after you cried wolf, I don't think that would go your way … but it's not. Your fingerprints are all over the gun you used to kill Jimmy. Remember? The one that you threw at me."

He had forgotten all about the gun. "That I used to kill Jimmy?"

Why had he been so stupid as to forget about the gun?

"And Jimmy's fingerprints are all over your house, your car, and your wife's car."

Raymond balked. He couldn't speak for certain about what had gone on with his car while he was unconscious, but ... "Jimmy was never in my house or my wife's car!"

Her expression was impassive as she looked him right in the eye. "Jimmy may not have been, but that doesn't mean his hands haven't been."

Raymond's mouth dropped open. "My God! What is wrong with you?" Raymond asked.

A frightening truth suddenly became clear to Raymond. "You're not right in the head. That's why you're still with Annie after all these years."

She should have been offended, but she just looked at him determinedly. "Six o'clock. Thursday. Say it back to me."

Refusing, he shook his head. "I'm not going to do it."

His insults might not be getting to her, but it seemed his continued refusal to cooperate was beginning to. "I killed Jimmy instead of letting Jimmy kill you because I thought you being dead would make Annie sad. But now, you being alive and not returning her calls is making Annie sad. It's making me wonder if I made the right choice."

She said it again. "Six o'clock. Thursday."

"No!"

"Fine." Was her clipped reply before reaching for the door handle.

"Wait! Wait!" Suspicious at her sudden capitulation, he tried to stop her. "Fine?" That he said back to her.

Turning back to look at him, she offered some advice. "Don't waste your time trying to wipe down the house and cars. You will never get all the prints. Your time would be better spent working on a cover story for why the prints are there."

Raymond didn't understand. "What exactly is your plan here? Get me arrested?" Raymond asked. "Do you really think you getting me arrested is going to make me more likely to want to see Annie?"

"I do."

"Exactly how do you think that is going to work?"

"I've never been to prison, but I have heard it is a very lonely and monotonous place. I suspect after a few months just to break up the day, you'll be happy to see anyone who is willing to visit you … but especially Annie. I think you'll be very eager to see her - desperate even. After all, she's the only one who might be able to convince me to help find a way to exonerate you."

Raymond was speechless. There simply did not exist, the words to express what he was feeling.

Glancing at her watch, she opened the car door and left.

This time, he had the wherewithal to watch her. She got out of the car and walked to a section of the barbed wire topped chain link fence.

The sandy haired fellow from the other day was waiting with a car. As she approached, he pulled at the section of panel where it had been snipped to make it easier for her to get back through without having to bend at the middle and irritate her injury.

Seeing Raymond watching him, Sam gave an awkward half wave.

Raymond did not wave back.

tbc

A/N If you are reading kindly leave a few words.