Randy and Walter: Killers (3 page)

Randy awoke suddenly, his eyes adjusting to the lights around the room. Beside him was a nurse.

She looked at him and smiled and he did the same.

“Welcome back, Mr. Barcer. You’ve been asleep for a few days now.”

Puzzled by this he had to ask, “What do you mean a few days? What happened?”

“Well, you passed out because of your wounds. You had three broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw. Your right knee cap was shattered and your left had three torn ligaments. Not to me
n
tion some internal bleeding. You’re very fortunate to be alive right now.”

“Ya’ll were able to fix me up, right?”

“Yes, sir, we were. We stopped the internal bleeding and you’ve been sedated since you came out of surgery.”

“How do you know all this? Usually only doctors know this sort of i
n
formation.”

“Because I kept an eye on you the whole time.” The nurse blushed and quickly walked out of the room as if she’d said too much. Randy didn’t really care though. As of this moment, he was just glad to be alive and breathing.

About twenty minutes later, the doctor walked through the door. He was a tall man with a clean-shaven face which was clear of any imperfe
c
tions. Small, round hazel colored kind eyes shone through a pair of gold
,
wire-rimmed glasses. His smile showed two rows of perfectly white teeth. He looked more like a guy in a movie than he did a doctor. He introduced himself as Dr. Stevens and said he had good news.

He told Randy that in three days he would be well enough to leave. His abrasions had gone down considerably and no eternal damage had been done. Within a few months, he would look as if he was never in a fight, which was remarkable. After he finished his report, he smiled one last time and left the room.

Later that night, the nurse returned to watch over Randy, only this time, he woke up. They talked for a while and she introduced herself as Cheryl Lynn.

She was quite an attractive woman, with shoulder-length black hair a short yet sharp no-nonsense face. Yet she giggled a lot. Her body was thin and even if she had imperfections, it wouldn’t matter as her personality more than made up for it. They spoke all night until the sun came up. When she left to go home, Randy had slept with a smile on his face.

It was very possible he may have finally found someone he could live
with
.

Two days later, Randy found himself outside the hospital wai
t
ing for Cheryl to pick him up. She had told him she would the previous day.

Here he was waiting while smoking a cigarette she left for him when he heard someone scream.

No sooner did it begin, than the scream was muffled immed
i
ately. Wondering what was happening, he followed to where the scream had come from. A few cars away from him, a black van was shaking wildly from side to side. Randy, not entirely sure what was happening, ran to the van. He got to the back and looked through one of the windows and saw Cheryl being a
t
tacked by Dr. Stevens. She was punching him and clawing at him, trying to get away at any cost, but Dr. Stevens was determined and held her down with one hand while he used the other to unfasten his belt. Randy opened the door and jumped into the back of the van. He grabbed the doctor by his hair and threw him backwards. As Dr. Stevens fell out of the van, he pulled a small handgun out of his coat. Randy didn’t give him a chance to pull the trigger. He grabbed it out of his hand and dropped it behind him. He didn’t want to kill the guy; he wanted to beat him sens
e
less. Unexpectedly, the gun went off when it landed.

Behind Randy, Cheryl made a grunting sound and Randy turned to see her lying on the floor of the van gasping for breath. Dr. Stevens took the chance and ran away.

Randy
paid
no attention to the fleeing doctor as he went to Cheryl. The bullet had found its way straight into her chest. He grabbed her and took her in his arms. Climbing out of the van, he started running to the hospital. He stopped when he realized that she was no longer breathing nor making any noise. He squatted down near the side of the hospital and put her body down.

As the tears begin to stream down his face he realized something ho
r
rific.
He was smiling.

T
wo years after Cheryl died in the parking lot of the
Rown
Shore
Ho
s
pital
, Randy left the town behind him and returned to
Birmington
,
North Carolina
. There he got an apartment and yet another small-time, dead-end job that would never go anywhere. Now he was working in a little candle store. Not that it was that bad of a job, just boring. His life had once again become a bore and he managed to push the events of the hospital out of his mind. He even forgot Cheryl’s name.

His apartment was only furnished with a bed, a couch, a little refriger
a
tor and a microwave. He never thought about his mother anymore. In fact, he pretty much was able to forget everything from his past.

That was until she began working in the same candle shop as him.

Where he worked was a place called Copy Candles, a little place on the edge of town. Beside the shop were two other shops, a shirt designing shop and a printing shop.

He was busy working on a set of holiday candles for Christmas the day she arrived for work. Her hair was a bit longer but he immediately knew who she was. Even though he’d forgotten everything else, he never forgot her.

She was introduced to everyone in the shop as Amy Hor
n
thwait. She looked at him as he stared back at her and their eyes met. Even though he was angry at first, when she looked at him, his anger dissipated and he felt fascinated. There was something about her, something he liked. It wasn’t her looks, although her looks were still wonderful. She was just as beautiful as she had been that day at the bar.

She wore a pair of tight blue jeans and a white tank-top with no jewelry in sight. It was a look that said she just didn’t care how she looked, but her hair and face told a different story. She wore blue eye shadow that brought out her blue eyes, red lipstick and hair that was pulled neatly into a ponytail, the latter hanging halfway down her back. Three strands of hair were pulled gently over her face and then braided; a style that only a girl like her could pull off.

Either it was fate or luck but she was stationed at the table b
e
side him, just close enough for the two to carry on a discreet conversation. She stood next to him for a moment without looking at him or saying anything.

When she finally did speak, she said, “I’m sorry for what ha
p
pened.”

Randy glanced over at her and saw in her face that she meant it so he replied, “I hated you and blamed you for a while but its okay now. Forget it.”

“I don’t know who that guy was that night, I swear. No one did. He wasn’t even drinking in the bar. In fact, after he dropped you on the sid
e
walk and you were out of it, he told everyone to go inside. Then he left.”

“So that’s why you all left me? You were scared? I remember you were all laughing when he grabbed me.”

“I wasn’t laughing.”

He looked into her eyes and once again saw she wasn’t lying to him. He felt a smile cross his face as he said, “Then let’s start over. Let me take you out to dinner tonight.”

She looked at him, amazed that he said such a thing so quickly.

A look of disappointment crossed her face as she answered him, “I can’t. I’m married. I got married a year ago.”

Randy wasn’t put off by this, in fact now he wanted her worse than ever.

“That’s okay. Let’s go get some coffee then. There’s a nice co
f
fee shop right down the road from here.”

She smiled at him and replied, “Caruthers coffee. It just opened last week.”

“Yeah, that’s the place, and it has some very good coffee, too.”

“Just coffee?” she asked

“ Yup, just coffee.”

They both smiled and went back to work.

Copy Candles closed at 4:15 that afternoon and the two of them walked down the sidewalk to Caruthers Coffee.

“Do you usually walk?” she asked him as they made their way there.

“Yes, afraid so. I don’t have a car and my apartment is right down the road from the coffee shop. So, how long have you lived here?”

“Since I got married. My husband and I left
Rapshure
a year ago. We were headed to
New York
but when we saw this place we decided to stay. It’s so peaceful here.”

“Yeah. It is peaceful.”

“We found a house and bought it right away. My husband a
l
ways has money. Maybe that’s why I married him.”

They reached the coffee shop as the sun went down. The pair sat at a booth near the back wall. They ordered their coffees and sat for a while, talking of the past and the present. They discussed movies and music and finally exchanged phone numbers. They were sitting quietly, enjoying their fourth and fifth cups together when Amy’s expression changed. She stood up, a look of shock covering her once smiling face. The shocked look then became anger. Randy looked behind him to see what she was looking at.

Outside the window, a man and a young girl probably no older than seventeen were walking down the sidewalk. They had stopped to kiss.

“That’s my husband
,
” Amy gasped through clenched teeth. B
e
fore he could stop her, she took off running and bolted out the door in a matter of seconds. She confronted the pair as Randy watched, not sure whether or not to help her.

He decided to let her do this herself for he would only compl
i
cate things more. From the movement of her lips and the swinging of her arms and hands it was obvious she was yelling at her hu
s
band, maybe even cursing him. Her husband just stood there watching with the girl next to him. But then he said something that angered her even more. In fact, she punched him right in the nose. The girl, who’d been standing calmly by him, ran the other way, not wanting to get caught up in the drama.

Amy ignored her, and instead focused her wrath on her hu
s
band. She kicked him in the groin and then turned and walked back inside the coffee shop, leaving him outside on his knees.

She walked over to Randy and sat back down across from him. She looked into his eyes
.
“I’m getting a divorce
,
”
she
said
casually.

Randy only nodded but it seemed that fate seems to have a style all its own.

T
hree months later, the divorce was finalized.

It was a lengthy process, however one-sided. It seemed as if her hu
s
band had been seeing young teenage girls for the past six months. He was a teacher who had also taught the same girls in his class. So, because of this scandal, Amy found herself with ever
y
thing. All his money and the home he had bought; a white, newly painted two-story house right down the road from both the Birmington elementary school and Caruthers coffee shop.

Her ex-husband was sentenced to prison for fifteen years for statutory rape. Because of the large amount of money and the new home, Amy no longer worked at the candle shop.

Randy, however continued to work. He went with her to the courthouse during the divorce to help keep her calm and over the past three months, the two had become lovers and it wasn’t long until he found himself living in the white, two-story house with her. Together they refurnished the house and put up new wall paper and changed the drapes. All her husband’s things were either sold or given to Goodwill.

Life for the new couple was filled with happy days and nights. They would always get up early and go down to Caruthers for a cup of coffee and a bagel, then he walked her home before going to work. The two did everything together. They got groceries and went to the movies among other things, just like any other normal couple. And they made love almost every night.

After a year of living together, the two finally decided to get married. It was Randy who asked, as any man should if he feels up to the task.

It was a Thursday night at a little restaurant they sometimes went to called Sporazzis. He ordered a bottle of wine along with their food. As they sat drinking their wine, Randy reached into his pocket and pulled out the small velvet black case and set it in front of her. She stopped drinking and set her glass down, and looking straight at Randy, she began to laugh.

He looked at her quizzically and was about to get up and leave when she pulled out a similar black velvet case and set it down in front of him. He realized then what was going on. She had planned to ask him the same question. Without ever answering each other, the two began to laugh.