Rid of Me: A Love Story with a Body Count

Chapter 15

"Detective Howard?" I said. "The same detective that came to your apartment?"

"The same motherfucker that told me about Cherry."

"The same son of a bitch that is working with Leo? My Leo?"

"My Leo?" Melissa teased with the excitement of twelve-year-old girl. "Is your relationship getting serious?" I was waiting for her to start singing, 'Pitch and Leo sitting in a tree. K.I.S.S.I.N.G.' I felt the blood rushing to my face. The mere mention of his name gave me a warm feeling inside.

"Maybe," I said. "I mean I do like him."

"That is awesome," she said. "You deserve someone nice."

I heard coughing coming from our host. "I didn't mean interpret this girlfriend moment," Maggie said. "But, I'm bleeding out here. I need to get to a hospital!"

"You will live," Melissa said.

I took the IPAD from Melissa and showed it to Maggie. "Who is this motherfucker? What do you know about him?"

Maggie let out a deep breath, hoping it would subdue her pain. "He's a cop."

"We got that," I said. "What else about him?"

She paused as she released a series of coughs. She didn't say a word until Melissa gave her a right motivation.

"Answer her, bitch!" She yelled as she kicked her in the ribs. Maggie called out but her coughing covered her screams.

After her brief coughing fit, she answered. "That is all I know."

I kneeled down in front of her I until I could feel breathe against my face. "It is a long and painful drag to the hospital." I let her know the only option was to tell me everything.

"No," Maggie said.

"Really?" I asked. "Is this the sword to die on?"

"Howard is intense." Maggie tried to explain. "That is all that I'm saying."

"Will drop you off at the hospital," I said. "But you are going to retire and we are taking over."

Melissa did a cartoonish double take. "We are?"

"Don't worry," I told Melissa. "We are not becoming pimps. We are trying to get the attention of the detective." I looked back at Maggie. "You are not going to say a fucking word about this. Don't you understand?"

"Yeah," she said. "I got it."

We picked her up off the floor. She threw her arm around my shoulders. I adjusted her body, so she won't get any of her blood on me. Melissa cracked the door open and looked outside. There were no bystanders or witnesses to worry about. Melissa grabbed Maggie other arms and we dragged her to the car.

"Try not to bleed on the seats," Melissa said as we laid her down on the back seat. "Or we will be taking you to the morgue."

Maggie cracked a smile. "Your bedside matter sucks!" A series of coughs followed her comments.

I sat in the back seat with the English muffin. "Don't even try to signal for help, or your dead body will be rolling down the highway, praying that your pretty little head does not get crush by a semi."

"Why would she care?" Melissa asked as she turned on the ignition. "She would be dead."

"True," I said. "But I bet you can fill a crushed skull in the afterlife."

Maggies rested her head on the side window. "You are a sick a little girl."

Melissa pulled away from the house, she didn't speed. She drove a steady pace to the hospital, she didn't want to get any attention of any patrol cars, but she made sure to hit every bump in the road, which made our guest cried with every jolt of the car.

"Goddammit!" Maggie screamed. "Who taught you to drive?"

"Remember," I reminded her. "We don't have to take your sorry ass to the hospital. I should kill you right now. You are a big loose end." I grabbed her hair and pulled her head closer to me. "Do you know how easy it is for me to do that?"

"I have a fair understanding," she responded.

I looked out the window and saw that we reached our destination. "Pull over," I ordered Melissa. She did like I told her as the car rolled onto the loose gravel on the side of the road, creating a small dust cloud in the night sky.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Maggie yelled as Melissa continued to drive off the beaten path into the unknown, but we both knew where we going. Our English guest didn't have a clue. She was a loose end. A big loose end that had to be taken care of.

"This is not the fucking hospital," Maggies protected. "I'm fucking dying here."

"You are right on both accounts," I explained to her. "I can't take a chance of you telling the police about your knife wound."

"I won't say a fucking word!" She pleaded.

"I know." I straddled her waist and placed my hands around her throat. "You won't."

My hands tightened around her throat, she grabbed my wrists trying to break my grip, but fail. I guessed all those times fighting off my dad, paid off.

I never tried to kill a woman, never try to put myself in this situation. I promised I wouldn't kill her, but the risk was too high. I wished it didn't have to come to this. Her hips grinded against mine as she tried to buck me off of her. I felt her struggling between my legs, but it was getting weaker. Her grip around my wrist loosening. Her empty gasps filled the backseat of the car. Her eyes widened as I saw the blood vessel burst in her baby blues. Her breathing got weaker and weaker. Her mouth parted trying to seize the last gulp of air. I felt the fade pulse in her neck as my hands clung to her throat. Her eyes burnt an image in my brain as her blank stare fix on my face. Her chest no longer moved. Her hip creased to grind against me. Her hands dropped to her side.

"Pitch," Melissa called out. "Are you okay?" Tears ran down my cheek as I gazed at the corpse sitting under me. She was the first death that I regretted.

###

My tears didn't stop until I was lying in my bed with my arms wrapped around Melissa's waist. Feeling the soft and smooth skin of her back as it pressed against my bare breasts. We didn't make love or fuck that might. I just didn't want to sleep alone. I planted soft kisses on her neck. I felt her body move with each peck. She was my best friend, my partner, a shoulder to cry on.

She rolled over and I found her eyes staring back at me. She kissed me on the forehead and then on my lips. "You had to do it," she said as her hand stroke that side of my face, she attempted to relieve me of my guilt.

"I know," I answered back. "But it felt forced. It felt wrong." I placed my head between her soft breasts like a child snuggled with her mother.

"She will never be found," Melissa reminded. "Unlike Raul." We left that fat fuck rotting in the townhouse. I wanted him to be found. I didn't give a fuck. "What are we going to do now?" She asked, but there wasn't even a small hint of panic in her voice. Sounds like she was becoming the hardened one. "Are we still going to hunt down the detective? Or we just going to turn him over to the police?"

"We have no proof that he killed Cherry." I got out of my self-pity funk and my mind was ready for the next mission. I had to be focused. Detective Howard wasn't just a regular john. He was a fucking cop and not just any cop, a cop working with my boyfriend.

"We need to get proof," Melissa said.

"True," I replied. I felt a devilish grin coming to my face. "How well can you do an English accent?"