Unconditional

Ted peeled away from the rush hour traffic on Ventura and turned up Tropical, starting the windy climb up the hill. He could've saved time by turning a few blocks sooner, but he preferred the eastern approach. It gave him a better view of the house.

The renovations had been done for nearly six months, but Ted hadn't tired of admiring the work. It was a nice house, perched high on the hill with a great view. A valley view, sure, but still something to be proud of.

Rachel was in the driveway, lifting groceries out of the back of the Land Rover. Ted pulled up the steep drive, gave the parking brake a solid pull and stepped out into the June heat. Rachel gave him a smile.

"You're early."

"You, too."

Ted kissed her on the lips and inhaled her perfume. He didn't understand the guys who cheated on their wives. He loved Rachel. Pushing forty, she was still smoking hot and busted her ass in Pilates to keep it that way.

He grabbed the lion's share of the canvas grocery bags and followed Rachel into the house to find Josh owning the sofa, his gangly, fast-growing legs slung over the armrest. The television was on, but Josh was listening to music on his iPod while playing a game on his little handheld thing—a PSP or a Gameboy or whatever it was called these days.

Rachel carried her bags past him. "Hey, Josh. How's it going?"

Josh didn't respond. Didn't even seem to notice their presence. Typical Josh. Just as Ted was finally putting all the pieces of his life in order—the house, the new business—Josh was the one thing he couldn't bend to his will. He was always a quiet child, and Ted was thankful for that. But, at thirteen, his personality, which once seemed merely introverted, was now revealed to be simply intractable. Silence in a toddler is relaxing. But silence in a young adult feels somehow judgmental.

Rachel made for the kitchen, but paused at the sight of an empty pudding container on the coffee table.

"Josh, what is this? What's the rule about sweets before dinner?"

Josh shrugged. At least he acknowledged her presence.

"You won't get any dinner at all. Isn't that what I said?"

Josh shrugged again.

"It is. And I really mean it, from now on."

Ted somehow found an extra hand and relieved Rachel of her grocery bags. He had no dog in this fight, having given up on these petty battles long ago. He'd much rather wrestle six bags of overpriced food into the kitchen and let Rachel deal with Josh's shit.

He lumbered into the spacious kitchen and around the counter. But just as he heaved the bags up onto the countertop, his shoe squeaked across the floor and Ted landed flat on his back with a breath-stealing thud, groceries spilling across the marble tiles around his head.

"Dammit!"

Ted sat up to see what kind of liquid food product Josh had spilled and not cleaned up this time. But it wasn't Dr. Pepper on the marble tiles. It was blood. A glistening pool of deep, red blood, surrounding the motionless, prostrate body of a Hispanic woman.

"Rosa! Oh, Jesus!"

Ted scrambled to his hands and knees to check Rosa's vitals, only to realize she was missing half of her face. Ted recoiled in unmasked terror.

"Oh, fuck!"

"What is it?" Rachel came running to see what had set off Ted this time. But she stiffened at the sight of Rosa's body and unleashed a formless scream. Then she staggered sideways and braced herself against the Sub Zero.