Classmate Murders - Bob Moats (ready player one ebook .txt) 📗

would have only been a matter of time before he may have hurt someone at school. You can't blame yourself for his actions." I tried to comfort her, she was still looking so sad.

"You really think so? I've had nightmares about screwing up some man's life, and what he would end up like. It's been my shame for years."

"I remember Rocco from my gym class. He kept calling me four-eyed Richards, because of my glasses. It was annoying and after way too many insults, I wanted to pound on him for it, but he was the teacher and bigger than me and I was a wimp back then." I smiled and the corners of her mouth turned up a little. "Ok, we need to assess this situation and figure out who, and why, someone is killing off the cheerleaders. The connection has to be Rocco, unless you remember someone else who hated the cheerleaders?"

She grinned and said, "Yeah, all the homely girls in school."

We laughed and then went quiet.

"You really think this has to do with Rocco? Why would he wait till now to attack us?" She looked sad again.

"Well, he can't attack you, he died last December." I said.

She looked surprised, "Well, if it's not him, then who?"

"I did some checking, he has a daughter in Chicago. She's a criminal lawyer and I'm wondering if this is some death bed promise for revenge on the girls, who he believed may have brought him down." I saw the look in her eyes, it was blame this time. "Penny, get it out of your head, that what you did caused his miserable life. He was destined to it."

She was just staring off into the distance, I snapped my fingers in front of her face and said, "I need to use your computer. May I?"

She finally got a smile, and said, "Sweety, you don't have to ask, it's now community property."

"Wow, what happened to the pre-nup?" I joked.

"Hell with it, I trust you." She kissed me, then got up and went to the computer desk across the family room and turned on the computer. She turned to me and looking deeply into my eyes, for a long beat of our hearts, she said "and I love you. Silly woman that I am, but I do."

I got up from my stool and went to her, putting my arm around her and whispered in her ear, "I do love you too, and I won't let your past harm you, in anyway. I promise that with my heart." While we waited for the computer to boot up, and while we clung to each other, I thought about love. It could latch on to us fast, when we least expected it, you know like 'love at first sight'. Penny and I have known each other for over forty years, and yet didn't. This one day we spent together, talking about our lives and loves, and what we did and didn't have, brought me closer to her than if we had seen each other every day for years. I didn't take love for granted, been hurt by it too many times, this time it felt real, like in our souls. Soul mates, if that's what it was, I knew it to be.

The computer was beeping, so I went to the desk chair and sat. I brought up a browser and typed in "Julia Waters" in Google. Penny was watching over my shoulder and asked who she was, I told her. She asked if I knew anything about her. I said she was born years after Rocco left our school. Must have had some good times in his life. And from my call to her law firm, the last time she was in Michigan, was for her father's funeral last December.

The search brought up the usual million hits. I flipped through the pages stopping at anything related to her. Penny brought a dining room chair over and sat beside me. I took her hand whenever I paused to read something.

I knew she was hurting over bad memories, and reading about someone attached to those memories didn't help. I finally found an article written recently, in a Chicago newspaper, that went into more detail about her life in Michigan.

"Here we go, a little more info about her." I read the story, then looked at Penny. "She had a very miserable childhood growing up with her father. Her mother ran off when she was twelve, because her father beat on her mother so bad that she ended up hospitalized numerous times. Her mother wouldn't press charges, so the police always turned him loose and Julia wanted to escape from it all, but wouldn't leave her mother. After her mother finally left one day and disappeared, Julia ran away from her father's home numerous times, but was always brought back. When she finally reached legal age to go out on her own, she left. She lived with a cousin back in Lansing, and went to Michigan State for a law degree. She worked two jobs and was still able to complete her courses. She very rarely visited her father, after he moved to Bad Axe, Michigan. When she graduated, she moved to Chicago to work for a small law firm there. After a few years, she made a name for herself and moved up to the prestigious law firm of Bander, Witt and Grey."

"At least she made something of herself," commented Penny.

"Yeah, she started working with abused women about five years ago, and has been praised for fighting against abusive spouses. It says 'spouses' because she stressed that men can also be victims of bad relationships. I know how that is, I had lived with an abusive woman for two years. I got far away from her when I finally had it." I looked at her and grinned, "You're not abusive are you?"

"Shut up and keep reading, or I'll smack you upside your head." She looked serious, then her mouth cracked a tiny smile. I kissed it.

"It does mention that she came back to Michigan for her father's funeral. She admits that she wasn't fond of her father, a polite way to say she hated him, but respected him for the good years he gave her. She said he wasn't always bad, just had problems from an incident that happened to him years ago, that left him bitter about life."

Penny took a breath and said, "He didn't forget. I am so ashamed of all us for what we did."

"You guys were just teenagers. You weren't supposed to be smart. At least, you realize what you did was wrong, and you just have to get over it. Nothing you can do about now." I hope she didn't beat herself up over this. I wish it never had happened, that someone is out on a vendetta possibly over this.

"I really should write her, or call, or something to apologize for it." Her eyes were welling up, I reached up to a tissue box, on the computer desk and gave her a tissue.

"Something to think about for later, but for now we have to keep you alive to be able to apologize." I pushed back from the desk and thought a bit. "We need to stop him, before he gets to you and Linda. We have to play detectives and solve this mystery."

"You haven't done much of this detecting have you?"

"I take offense to that, ma'am I have read just about all the good crime, detective and P.I. novels written, so I feel I'm qualified to investigate this case." I said whole heartily, but with a grin.

The stress was making her giddy, I think she finally snapped.

"Does that make me your moll? Am I a floozy in a tight dress, just swooning over your masculine wiles? Tell me Mike Hammer, can you save me?"

Boy, could she put on a show. I haven't heard talk like that since late night, black and white, TV crime shows. The kind you can tell were filmed on a cheap set, in some small studio.

"Listen doll, I ain't gonna tell you again, don't talk, unless I tell you to, while I scrutinizing this case."

She laughed out loud, which sounded better than she did for the last half hour.

I took the adult position, "OK, back to reality. Remind me today to make some calls to track down Julia Waters whereabouts for the last week. I was told she was in California, but is that what she wanted people to believe? California is three hours behind us, so I'll call this afternoon."

It was now almost 8 A.M. and Penny said she had to call the studio to explain her absence. She got up and went into the kitchen to use the phone. I just stared at the computer screen which still had the article about Julia Waters on it. It had a picture of her, not very beautiful, kind of a plain, ordinary looking woman.

I needed to track down the new offices of Bander, Witt and Grey in California, and talk to Miss Waters. I wasn't sure what story I was going to make up, but I would find out if she came back here during the murders of four women who screwed up, but didn't deserve this fate.

Maybe I should just come out with the truth, it sometimes works.

The giants came back in, and said that the relief cops had arrived. Changing of the guard, but Tim and Deacon elected to stay.

"Are you guys all right with pulling an extra shift?" I inquired.

"We need to make some extra points with the Sarge, especially after letting that scumbag slip by us. You feeling better now?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, my ribs don't hurt quite as bad now, as long as I don't breathe or move I'm all right." I smiled.

Penny came back into the room and said she took a couple days off from work. She didn't tell them she was hiding out from a killer, but it would make a good show when it was over. I silently told myself that I hoped she was still alive to put on that show. I vowed that I would not let anything hurt her, this was very personal now. I needed to talk to Buck about getting a gun, on the side.

Penny asked me if I had seen her cat? Shadow, was it's name. I said no, but it may have slipped out with everyone going in and out. She looked concerned, then said it had gotten out before and was days till it came back. She frowned.

Penny asked the cops if they would like some breakfast, and they started drooling, really they did. It was like watching two huge St. Bernard's in front of a gigantic bowl of dog kibble. They even offered to help, but Penny told them to just guard the house. She went off to the kitchen.

"Man, that is some woman." Deacon drawled. He must have come from the south, I deduced. He looked at me, "If you two don't make it, let me know." He said with a really huge smile on that huge head of his. He actually looked kind of cute.

"I have no intentions of letting her go, sorry. You can fight me for her and I sure you'll win, but my heart will still be hers." I got up and went to him real close, "Got