Chapter 34

Three months after the move to Orlando, Eric was still waking up in a panic from bad dreams. The marriage had only been consummated twice and neither Eric nor Jenny McGill had particularly enjoyed it. The frustration was giving Jenny daydreams of rivers of blood flowing out of warm flesh. And Jensen Ackles topless.

She sat at her desk trying not to release the constant gas bubble her pregnancy had created. She hated working at the call center, but it was the only job she could find on short notice while on the verge of childbirth. Eric’s job had taken longer but was prefect for him: supervisor for a security company.

Jenny looked at the time on the bottom right of her monitor, punched off the phones and grabbed her stuff. She rushed to the ladies’ room to relieve the distress in her stomach. As she left, she wished she could get rid of the pressure to murder annoying people on her way home.

Eric won’t be home for at least four more hours. Nearly five if the traffic is bad.

The reformed murderess shook her arms and breathed out the unbidden thought. She’d kept her promise to Eric for this long, she could manage longer. As Jenny turned on the car and left the parking lot, she watched a lone figure strolling under the cones of orange light.

Her senses sharpened as she drove. She assessed every pedestrian she passed. She knew which ones she could overcome and which ones to avoid. She pictured each of them in various scenarios, all ending with another object in her token chest.

***

Sergeant McGill checked in on all of the security officers he had on shift at the convention center before signing the day’s paperwork. He checked the time and went to meet his relief officer. The athletic woman popped her head in the door.

“Hey, Eric. I know I’m a couple of minutes early, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.” She said.

Eric passed her the paperwork and radio.

“Absolutely not; I’d love to get home five minutes early. The floor is quiet tonight. Two call-ins, but I got Ryan and Clark to cover. Thanks, Leah, and have a good night.”

He drove home thinking about when his son would arrive in two weeks. Jenny and he had painted the little nursery a light green and filled it with squishy toys. A small shelf already held copies of the pair’s favorite books from childhood. Eric smiled when he remembered seeing Jenny reading one to her belly the night before.

She’s kept her promise. Jenny is a wonderful wife to me, and she is already a better mother than most. Maybe it’s time I try to put the past behind us.

Eric looked around the sides of the road and pulled into a convenience store. He returned to the sedan with a handful of flowers, some candy, and a quart of Ben & Jerrys just in case. Feeling a weight slipping from his shoulders, Eric McGill entered his new house to surprise his wife. By the end of the night, it finally felt like a home.

***

Jenny had been surprised by Eric’s sudden signs of affection. She wept without realizing it and cussed loudly about her hormones. The murderer had almost forgotten what it was like to have her beloved look at her without that gaze of disappointment and repulsion.

She watched him sleep. Although the snoring was still present, the kicking and whimpering had left his sleep. Her husband looked peaceful for the first time since Mr. Floyd’s place. Jenny stroked his chest as she lay against him. He’d even understood when she’d been too uncomfortable to make love.

I really lucked out with Eric. I can’t mess it up again. He deserves better.

Sneaking out of bed to relieve the bladder their son was using as a punching bag, Jenny promised herself that she would spend her life being worthy of her new family. And once her baby was born, her trophies would be destroyed.

Washing her hands, Figment rubbed against her calves with a meow. The reformed killer squatted as best she could to pet the feline.

“I know, Figment, I haven’t been loving on you as much since I got pregnant. But I still love you. And soon you will have a baby in the house to snuggle too. Mommy just has to keep her impulses in check, so she doesn’t lose daddy.” She whispered.

The cat’s response was to sit by the closet and stare. Jenny giggled and rolled her eyes.

“I should’ve known. Fine, you get some more wet food. But then I’m going back to bed so no running around the room and attacking phone chargers tonight. Deal?”

She cracked open the can and the cat mewed loudly for his treat. He reached up for the fishy snack and lapped up the gelatinous top layer with gusto. Jenny climbed into the bed with some difficulty and had pleasant dreams of reading to her son with Eric before heading out each night to hunt creeps, jerks, and criminals.

***

It was another bad night. Jenny’s first call had begun with the customer cussing at her and calling her company a scam and her personally an incompetent whore. She’d trudged through the rest of the half hour call doing her best not to let the constant berating bother her. Turned out the services the man was complaining about didn’t work because they’d been cancelled by his roommate. Less than an hour into her shift, Jenny was seeing red.

Munching on snack cakes, carrots, fried pickles, and juice between calls did little to help the killer’s mood. She fielded call after call the way she’d been trained: ignore the bitching, apologize even when you’ve done nothing, fix the problem, thank the irate customer, and try to sell them more stuff. Jenny wished she could quit already and lay down.

“Casey, I need a break.” She told her supervisor.

“Fine. Five minutes though. This thing about needing a break every hour because you’re knocked up is getting old though. Once more and I’ll have to write you up.” Replied the bored looking kid in skinny jeans.

Jenny felt her heart pumping and could picture the knife slicing cleanly through the twenty-three-year old’s carotid artery. It would have to go through some acne and patchy peach fuzz first. She forced a bubbly voice through her annoyance.

“Fine. Thanks, Casey, for being so understanding.”

Logging off, she excused herself to the restroom. She looked at her reflection. She was huge and her belly hung low. Their new life seemed to have drained a lot of the color from her face. The lack of murder had taken some of the spark from her eyes. Jenny barely recognized herself.

“I found what I was good at. And I found who I loved. Why couldn’t they go together?” She asked the mirror image.

It didn’t reply.

The murderess still existed deep within, and she was finding it harder not to lash out lately. Last week when a tourist van cut her off, she had opened the window to yell at the driver. She recalled threatening to ram them, tear off his arms, and bludgeon all of them to a pulp with the dismembered limbs.

Luckily for her, that was apparently a common thing during traffic since no one around her even took note of the incident. They’d all just shrugged it off as an angry pregnant chick and kept driving. Jenny felt like her claws had been taken away. If these people knew what she was capable of, they would’ve given her tirade a little more respect.

Jenny splashed some water on her face and dried off. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she swallowed her pride and went back to work. The next call did not go well either.

***

Eric was having an excellent day. The owner of his company had dropped by to check on things and everything had been perfect. All of the new guards he had hired were in place and polite to the convention exhibitors. No one had any complaints for once and Sergeant McGill had already completed the week’s reports for payroll to approve.

He grinned and sang along with the radio on his drive. He was going to take Jenny out to a nice restraint tonight. Eric could afford it with his promotion and raise. And to top it off, he’d even found a self-scooping litterbox for Figment at the convention.

Pulling into the driveway, Eric thought about Florida having been the right choice. Everything was falling into place. He couldn’t wait for their son to arrive and everything to be perfect. He would even try to convince Jenny to name the boy Luke. She still wanted Malcolm, but he was having too good a day not to try.

He walked in whistling. The house was dark and quiet. Eric knew Jenny would’ve been home for at least an hour. He sighed when he saw the dim light under the office door.

“Dammit. Not again.” He muttered and set down his bag.

He eased the door open a few inches. Jenny sat in the chair looking in the box again. The money sat discarded on the desk; most of it had already been deposited into an account for their baby’s college little by little. Eric watched as his wife tilted her hand to different angles to examine each trinket.

“Eric, I know you’re there. It’s not what you think.” The killer looked up at him with pitiful eyes.

“I was just saying goodbye to the memories, to that part of my life. I want you to burn these. Bury them. Whatever you have to do. I don’t want our child to ever know about my past. I don’t want him to be ashamed of me.”

Eric realized she’d been crying so long the tears had run out and dried on her face. He went to her and kissed her. She looked miserable.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

She nodded. With one hand she dumped the round stone that meant so much to her, to who she was, into the box and latched it shut. Tilting her head to the pile of wrinkled cash she added.

“We’ll need a new place for the money. It will be a few more weeks before we can deposit it without raising any alarms. Can you do this for me, sweetie. I don’t think I can. It’s hard enough to avoid adding to it some days.”

“Of course, Jenny. I’ll take care of this on my day off. You can relax on Friday, and I’ll dispose of this.” He kissed her lips and held her chin. “I’m proud of you. And I promise you, our son could never be ashamed of you. He’ll love you just as much as I do.”

She smiled for the first time since waking up. Eric always knew just the thing to say. Jenny hugged him as tightly as her rotund torso would allow. As soon as the happy couple stood up, she wondered aloud.

“What should we do for dinner?”

Mr. McGill beamed.

“Actually, I’ve had a pretty amazing day. How about we get cleaned up and I take you out to dinner? We could go to that hibachi place you love.” He offered.

Jenny perked up. Her cravings for the last month had been primarily Asian cuisine, junk food, and juices. Fresh hibachi, some pineapple juice, and fried ice cream sounded perfect.

“I’ll throw on some decent clothes. Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“It’s almost as much as I love you. But I still like hearing it.” He joked.

They got ready and shared the events of the day with one another. Inside, the baby kicked harder. Little Luke Malcolm McGill wanted his Japanese food NOW.