NightWhere

Chapter Thirty-Six

Last Time

The invitation came just in time.

Gordon had hidden the body in the loose sand of the crawlspace a few days ago, but he couldn’t hide the fact that his wife was no longer at home. He’d told the couple people who asked about her that they had had a fight and that she’d stormed out.

After he’d laid her body in the basement, he had driven her car to a neighboring town and left it in the supermarket parking lot just to add some substance to the lie. So her car was gone. He’d put some personal belongings in the backseat for good measure, along with an overnight bag with deodorant, toothbrush, minipads, condoms and underwear and a T-shirt. So far, apparently, the grocery hadn’t noticed it-nobody had contacted him about finding it.

He’d called up Miriam’s sister, Belle, to see if she could watch Freddy for him the next few days while he was at work since Miriam “had apparently run off”. Belle was usually free, since she hated actually doing anything resembling regular fucking work. She seemed to spend all of her time surfing Facebook and spying on her friends, if she wasn’t texting them. But she did love her nephew, so he locked that problem up with one phone call.

He thought there was a delicious irony in having Miriam’s sister sit on his couch and take care of his baby, while her sister was lying in the sand just a few yards below her feet.

Belle was younger and better looking than Miriam ever had been. But she had the same propensity to flap her gums too much. Tonight, he’d given her two twenties to stay late, in addition to having been there all day. Belle never turned down money. Sometimes he wondered if she’d have done it if he’d offered her a couple of Ben Franklins to suck his dick.

He hoped that he wouldn’t have the time to find out. Though he was tempted to try.

Gordon had packed a small overnight bag with his own bathroom essentials and extra clothes and had stowed it in the passenger’s seat of his Toyota pickup.

He hoped that, after tonight, he wouldn’t be coming back.

Belle would be pissed when he didn’t come back, but she’d take care of Freddy. So he wasn’t worried about his son. Kid’d probably be better off without either of his parents in the end.

They’d probably eventually discover the body in the basement, but what would he care? If things worked out, Gordon would be a full-time resident in NightWhere and wouldn’t be seen in the Granville Heights subdivision again.

He didn’t like to think about the possibilities if he did end up coming back home tonight.

But he was really feeling good about the idea that he wasn’t coming back. He knew how to handle a whip and a cane. He knew how to be cruel. Why would they say no after he had proven his loyalty for so long?

He would do anything that they asked.

Anything.

Gordon ran his thumb along the edge of the razor-sharp knife he kept sleeved at his waist. He smiled and licked away the small drop of blood that gathered on the head of his thumb. He looked forward to whatever twisted shit the freaky Watchers at NightWhere could come up with.

Anything.