Masters of Horror (38 page)

They both sang the chorus: “Love is for us, love is for our love, love is for us, love is for true love.”

They both laughed, and Jim sat up in his chair. “I’ve never met anyone who knew Kimmi Klub.”

“
Neither have I. Truth be told, I’m not really a fan. I grew up in the Chicago area and when I was young my older sister used to have the 45 single.”

“
I grew up near Chicago as well.”

“
I’m guessing your older sister was into Kimmi.”

“
Uh, no. I was. It was the first song I ever remember, I was about six. My mom found it in the thrift store she worked at and gave it to me. I used to play it all the time.”

“
That seems odd. You’ve been listening to this one song for, what, thirty years?”

“
A bit longer,” Jim said sheepishly. “It was the only thing that got me through my childhood.”

“
Do you want to talk about it?” Cullen said and sat down on the floor next to the desk. His nose had stopped bleeding.

“
Not really. I have work to do.”

“
You know that can wait. What’s going to happen, is Mister Croce is going to come in and ask you for another file or report again? Doesn’t it seem like every day blurs into the next? How many times can that guy come in here and demand something from you? If I were him I’d be kissing your ass. With all the work you do around here, I’m amazed that he has the nerve, the gall, to bother you. Am I right?”

“
I suppose so.” Jim had always gotten his work turned in on time, yet it seemed like every day Mister Croce would be sneaking up here and bothering him about something.

“
Did he beat you?” Cullen asked.

“
Mister Croce?”

“
Your father. Did you see him beat your mother?”

“
I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
Sometimes you have to. It’s the only way you’ll ever get past the hurt and the pain. I’m your friend, Jim. You can tell me anything.”

“
I don’t even know you.”

“
Of course you do. Tell me what he did to you.”

“
No.” Jim grabbed a bunch of the papers on his desk and crumpled them. “No.”

“
It’s okay, buddy, it’s alright. Maybe we can talk about something else? Something positive?”

“
I have work to do. Mrs. Stanwich will be notified if you keep bothering me and taking me away from the tasks at hand.”

“
Does that include the task of breaking my nose?”

“
You said it wasn’t broken.”

Cullen poked at his face. “It might be, you never know. I’m having trouble breathing. Maybe a shard of cartilage has punctured my brain and right now I have internal bleeding and could pass out any moment. Are you a doctor?”

“
No.”

“
Is Mrs. Stanwich?”

Jim put the papers back down. “What do you want?”

“
Just the stories.”

“
What stories?”

“
There are two trains of thought here, Jim. One is positive and one is negative, although you might be mixing up which is which. I want to hear both stories and then I will leave you alone forever. Does that sound like too much to ask?”

“
I don’t understand what you want.”

“
Of course you do. The stories are intertwined, they stem from the same incident or incidents, but they veer off in two different branches of action.”

“
I have to get back to work,” Jim said lamely. He knew that Cullen wouldn’t go away until he told him something. Maybe he could lie and tell him some story to get rid of him.

“
Let’s start with the easy one. Why Kimmi Klub?”

Jim relaxed. “I just love the song.”

“
As if it were that easy to dismiss your obsession with her.”

“
It’s not an obsession.”

“
No? Listening to one song for the last thirty years exclusively is obsessive in my book. Tell me another song that you listen to.”

“
I don’t have to.”

“
Can you name another song by another artist?”

“
Leave me alone.”

Cullen stretched his legs on the floor. “Not until you tell me all about it.”

“
It’s just a good song.”

“
She didn’t write it, you know.”

“
J. Smith and V. Cruise wrote it. It says so on the 45.”

“
It was the one and only song she ever recorded. Heck, they didn’t even bother to record another song or even an alternate version of it for the B-side. They just put it on both. Why do you think that is?”

“
I don’t know.” Jim had tried to know; he’d tried to learn everything he could about Kimmi but there wasn’t much information about her. She had no internet website, no fan club, and no entry on wikipedia, and a search on google would bring up hardly anything about her. Jim knew everything that was out there.

“
I guess you already know that she grew up here in Jacksonville.”

“
Yes, of course.”

“
I guess that’s the reason you’re living and working here. Florida is a long way from Chicago.”

“
Coincidence,” Jim said. He knew that Cullen knew he was lying.

“
So you base your entire life around a song from 1982 that only you and a handful of people might remember?”

“
You remembered it.”

“
I looked it up. I’d never heard of her or the song until this morning. Not much info online about your girlfriend.” Cullen smiled. “You got flush when I said your girlfriend. That’s so cute. Did you fantasize about her growing up? Make pretend she was your girl and she was singing to you?”

“
Shut up.”

“
It’s cool. Every teenage boy did that. I had such a crush on Madonna, rolling around like a virgin. Of course, she sold a ton of albums, had videos and she’s still relevant.”

“
I only listened to Kimmi Klub.”

“
Of course you did. One song. I imagine that you’ve heard the song a few thousand times, am I right? I’m guessing that you don’t have the original 45 your mother got you.”

“
I found a record store in Chicago that had three copies when I was sixteen. I overpaid for them but it was worth it. Over the years I’ve searched and found nine copies, even the alternate Japan pressing with the pink sleeve. That cost me three hundred dollars.”

“
Any difference?”

Jim shrugged. “Same song, same version, just a different coloring on the sleeve. Instead of the yellow it has pink.”

“
Well worth paying a hundred times the price for you, right?”

“
It’s the only other version of the single I know of.”

“
Have you ever tried to find her?”

“
What do you mean?” Jim said. He knew exactly what Cullen meant. He had come to Jacksonville in order to find her, to see if she still lived here. He didn’t know much about her except what her biography in a teen magazine had said about her years ago: she was born in Jacksonville; her father was a Navy officer and her mother a dance instructor. She’d won a local talent show on the Navy base and a scout for a record company had been in attendance. Kimmi was only sixteen years old at the time. Eighteen frantic months later the “Love Is For Us” single was released. It didn’t sell well and was relegated to the cutout bins in the discount sections of record stores. After that Kimmi Klub disappeared. Her real name was never used in the few interviews and articles about her and Jim could never find anything noteworthy on the internet.

“
I’m guessing you know her last name, right?”

“
No one knows her last name.”

“
I’m sure God and her parents must know it.” Cullen stood up and brushed off his pants. “I know it.”

“
You are lying.” Jim licked his lips.

“
I did some research about her, called in some favors from some friends of mine in the record business. It was pretty easy to find out the information.”

“
What is it?” Jim almost burst from his chair in excitement.

“
Not so fast. I want the other half of your story first.”

“
There’s not much to tell. My father was mean. What is her last name?”

Cullen grinned and wagged his finger. “Not so fast. Tell me about the first time he touched your private area.”

“
That never happened.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
I don’t want to talk about that. He was very mean to my mother; he would punch her, threaten her with a knife…”

“
What happened to him?”

“
He went to prison when I was fifteen.” Jim covered his ears. “He finally went too far and shot my mother with his .357 Magnum.”

“
Why?”

“
What do you mean, why?” Jim asked angrily. His hands dropped to his lap and clenched into fists.

“
Why was it
finally
too far? Wouldn’t beating your mother, humiliating her and doing that in front of her kid be too far to begin with?”

“
I guess.” Jim shut his eyes and tried to keep the images of his dead mother, her head split in two and blood and gore coating the kitchen floor, from his mind.

“
Did you try to stop him?”

“
How could I?”

“
How could you
not?!
” Cullen began pacing. “If it was my mother about to die I think I’d try to stop the bastard.” Cullen stopped and stared at Jim. “Unless you wanted her to die.”

“
Of course not. Why would you say that?”

“
Because it might be true. She never protected you when he was touching you, never came to your rescue. I’ve seen it a million times. Poor little Jimmy with no one to protect him. It was probably a sense of relief when he finally did it. Now you could be free to escape with Kimmi Klub and go out into the real world.”

“
I loved my mother and not a day goes by that I don’t wish she were still alive.”

“
I doubt that. I think your only regret is not having the balls to get that .357 out of the old man’s hand and blowing his head off. Am I right?”

“
I wished him dead, not in prison.”

“
Did he ever get out? It’s been almost thirty years.”

“
I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

Cullen leaned on the desk, inches from Jim. “He did get out.”

“
You lie.”

“
Why would I lie? What would I have to gain? He was released six months ago and is living in Buffalo.”

“
There’s no way you could know that.”

Cullen wiggled his fingers on the desk. “The internet is a fascinating place, full of information. A last name of obscure singers, names of father’s who killed their wives and raped their sons, all at your fingertips.”

“
He got out?” Jim asked. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach.

“
Yes, good behavior and all that. He ended up being a model citizen. There’s a nice article about how he found God while on the inside and that he can’t wait to reconnect with his son and show him how much he’s changed.”