Callis Rose by Mark Tufo

  “I killed her,” Mindy said breathlessly.

  Talea couldn’t deny it, she was relieved – scared shitless…but relieved. And she planned on turning her friend in the moment she dropped her crazy ass off.

  “Did anyone see you do it?” Talea asked, hoping for a corroborating witness.

  “No, I drove that knife in.” Mindy demonstrated her thrusting maneuver. “Then I twisted it. I could feel it cutting her insides. It was incredible, better than sex,” Mindy said with eyes half closed.

  Talea was now as afraid of Mindy as she had ever been of Callis. Mindy looked insane; and from her actions it wasn’t just a figment of her imagination.

  Talea hurriedly pulled away.

  “Helen?” Mr. Lowrie asked as he got up. He saw his wife lying on the floor, she had fallen with her back to him. He did not see the pooling blood until he got closer. “Helen?” he asked again, not able to comprehend what he was actually seeing.

  “Mr. Lowrie, is everything okay?” Callis asked as she was coming out of her room.

  She ran down the short hallway, almost colliding with Mrs. Lowrie’s body in her haste to help. Mr. Lowrie looked locked in shock.

  “Mr. Lowrie, call 911!” Callis shouted to get him moving, but unless they were bringing Jesus Christ himself, Mrs. Lowrie was dead; her pallor was a ghastly blue gray with a frost of white. Her eyes were open wide in pain and fear, and her tightly pressed lips indicated her final moments were laced in agony.

  Callis could hear Mr. Lowrie sobbing as he talked to the emergency dispatcher. It was another seven minutes before the ambulance showed, followed immediately by the police. Callis left her side to be with the person who needed comfort now. She helped Mr. Lowrie sit at the kitchen table and made him some tea.

  “The new season of CSI starts up next week, she’s going to miss it,” he said as he looked into his mug, salty tears falling into the herbal brew.

  Callis sat across from him with her hand on his arm.

  “Who would do such a thing?” he asked her.

  Up until that moment, she hadn’t even thought about it. But once she did, it was an easy guess; much like the first question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

  The EMTs didn’t spend more than a minute determining she was deceased. To their credit, they placed her carefully on the gurney and wheeled her to the back of their vehicle to bring her to the hospital. The police were not nearly as tender. They spent an hour grilling Mr. Lowrie, seemingly convinced that he’d had something to do with her demise.

  “Nearly all murders are performed by a friend or family member of the deceased. Did you know that?” Officer Wilkes asked Mr. Lowrie.

  “We have no family here besides myself and Callis,” Mr. Lowrie told him honestly, not seeing the bigger implication.

  “Friends?”

  “We really don’t go out much. Watch a lot of television these days.” He seemed to be answering in auto pilot.

  Callis did her best to engage the face of innocence when the cop turned to her. “What about you? Any enemies we should know about?”

  Callis shook her head. You can’t have them, they’re all mine.

  The police took enough photos of the crime scene to make a movie from the stills, and then there was quiet. Even the television that generally ran twenty hours a day was silent. Callis and Mr. Lowrie found themselves staring at a thickening brown-red puddle of blood.

  “Go lay down, Mr. Lowrie. I’ll go clean up.”

  “Leno’s new tonight, should I watch it?” he asked her.

  “I think maybe she would want you to,” Callis told him.

  He turned to head back to his chair. Soon, the familiar sound of the TV blared through the house as Callis grabbed some cleaning supplies.

  “Helen, Leno’s about to start. Hurry up and get out of the bathroom!” Mr. Lowrie shouted.

  “I’m going to destroy you, Mindy Denton,” Callis hissed as she scrubbed up the blood.

  “What? I thought you said you killed Callis?” Talea asked as they sat a few houses away from Mindy’s.

  “I never said that, I said I killed her.”

  “Really, Mindy? You’re going to start splitting hairs with me? You knew whom I was going to think you killed when you said ‘she’. How long do you think it’s going to take Callis to figure out who did this?”

  “Who gives a shit? I have the power now…the power to kill or let live,” Mindy said, once again looking at her death-dealing instrument.

  “Mindy, you killed an old woman.”

  “And I can kill you, too!” Mindy said, spinning in her seat, pointing the knife at Talea.

  “Mindy!” Talea put up her hands.

  “Seems like you’re a witness now. You’re really the only person that can identify me.”

  “What do you think is going to happen in our sleepy little town if I end up dead, too? Gee, Mindy, I wonder if they’ll question you.” It came off as flippant, but Talea was afraid for her life. Mindy’s eyes had glazed over at her remembrance of the killing and Talea was afraid the other girl had a serious case of blood-lust that needed another dosing. She kept wondering how she could paint herself in as good a light as possible when she called the police.

  “Let’s go get some food, I’m starving,” Mindy told Talea, completely forgetting she had just threatened the other’s life.

  “I really should be getting home,” Talea begged, wanting to get as far away from this situation as possible.

  “Pancakes sound delicious. Come on, I’m feeling so good I’ll even buy. Drive faster will you.” Mindy said as she wrestled out of her blood soaked top. She reached behind her and grabbed Talea’s cheer squad sweater. “I’ll have to stay in my jeans, but you can hardly notice it, looks like I spilled coffee or something.” She said as she scratched at the stains.

  Food was the furthest thing from Talea’s mind as she drove to Denny’s. Mindy ordered two complete Grand Slam meals and finished them both, Talea barely touched her English Muffin, occasionally scraping one jam flavor off and spreading another on, just to make it look like she was doing something while Mindy looked like a ravenous wolf devouring its prey after a particularly long fast.

  “You gonna eat that?” Mindy asked of Talea’s oft-covered muffin, food orts falling out of her mouth as she spoke.

  “Probably not.”

  “Good.” Mindy grabbed it from Talea’s plate. When she finished, Mindy let out a loud belch as she pushed away from the table. “That was awesome.”

  Talea was wondering which she meant more: the food or the murder, but she didn’t dare ask.

  “God, I think I could eat another one,” Mindy said as she checked out. She had been looking at the menu as she waited for the credit card charge to go through.

  Well you’re not going to be able to prove you were home in bed now, Talea thought.

  “Ready to go?” Mindy headed out of the restaurant.

  “I never wanted to come,” Talea said quietly.

  Mindy was a bevy of dietary noises as they headed home, most consisted of burps; there was the occasional hiccup, the seldom gaseous release and even the oft gurgle. Talea thought she sounded like a sick calf, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to say anything. Not in the best of times and certainly not when Mindy looked as unstable as she did right now. Talea wanted to speed back to Mindy’s but feared, above all else, being stopped for a routine ticket with Mindy in the car. She wanted to put as much distance as possible between them. Her relief was palatable as she pulled up near Mindy’s home.

  “I’m going to hold on to this knife,” Mindy said as she opened the door.

  Yeah, you do that. I would much rather you had the murder weapon in your possession, you psycho. Although she was concerned what the cops were going to think when they traced it back to her house. Would she be able to lie effectively? Those were concerns for another day; getting through this one was all that mattered to her at the moment.

  She left Mindy on the side of the road faster
than she had left the scene of the crime. She looked over to notice spots of blood on her passenger seat. It was long hours later, early morning in fact, when Talea finally headed home. She had parked in front of her old elementary school, somehow hoping that those early happy memories would supplant the misery she was now feeling. She pulled in to her driveway, got out, and quietly closed her door. She leaned up against her car, pressing her forehead against the roof.

  “Tough day?”

  Talea spun around to see Callis standing not more than a few feet away.

  “Hello, Callis,” Talea responded, trying her best at a life-saving acting career.

  “Been out?” Callis asked. To an outsider it sounded innocent enough. To Talea it was a loud, resounding accusation.

  “Yeah, umm just went to Denny’s to get a bite to eat.” Talea’s eyes were wide. She tried her best not to look over to the house. Please, someone notice I’m home, please.

  “Alone?” Callis asked casually.

  She wanted to say yes, but Callis would never believe she went to a sit-down restaurant by herself. Who does that? “I was with Mindy.”

  “Funny, I’m going to see Mindy.” She paused. “After.”

  “After what?” Talea asked. She thought her bowels were going to loosen on the spot.

  “This is great foreplay. Should we keep doing it or get right into the game?”

  “I should let my mom know I’m home and then we can talk,” Talea said as she put on a smile. She was amazed as she was actually allowed to walk a few feet away before Callis spoke.

  “Oh, I don’t think they’re going to mind right now,” Callis said, looking down at her fingernails.

  “What?” Talea turned back. “What did you do? They have nothing to do with this.”

  “What does Helen Lowrie have to do with any of this, Talea?”

  Talea halted her advance. “I swear I had no idea she was planning on killing her. I swear it. She’s snapped or something. Please, Callis, my family.” Talea turned back towards her house.

  “You get used to being an orphan,” Callis said wistfully, looking off into the distance. “I mean, it was really hard at first…especially because it was my fault. That was the hardest part, you know? And I guess, really, your family’s deaths are your fault, too. So we have that in common now.”

  “Oh, God, no. What have you done?” She was sobbing.

  “I don’t really consider it what I did,” She replied, over-emphasizing the I. “It’s what you made me do, Talea.”

  Talea moved back to her car and slumped down with her back up against the front tire. She bowed her head and placed her hands over her face. Heavy sobs rocked her body. “They’re all dead?”

  “Oh, I’d imagine by now they are.” Callis sat down, her back against the rear tire.

  “What about me?” Talea asked.

  “I’d thought about letting you live so you could feel what it’s like to be me. And I guess I would have, but you pretty much came home at the wrong time. You should have probably gotten dessert or something.”

  “Will it be quick?”

  “Doubtful.”

  Chapter 9

  Callis cleaned up the blood from her foster mother, went into her room, dressed, and headed out. Mr. Lowrie never looked up. He did, however, call once into the kitchen, asking his now-deceased wife to make some popcorn. And to hurry up because the commercial break was almost over.

  Callis could think of little else except how to grind Mindy into the ground. Unfortunately for Talea Fields, her house was first in line. Should have made more money, Callis thought as she pressed the doorbell. And then you would have lived further away from white trash like me.

  “Hi,” A cherub-faced boy of six or seven said as he answered the door.

  “Jacob, what did I say about answering the door before asking who it is?” Mrs. Fields said as she was coming up behind her son. A look of concern was etched on her face as she was about to turn the corner, fearful that some future horrific news story was about to enter her house.

  “Who are you?” Jacob asked.

  Callis smiled back. “I’m the boogeyman,” Callis replied, sticking her tongue out at him and wiggling her fingers behind her ears.

  He laughed. “She says she’s the boogeyman, mom, but she’s too pretty,” Jacob yelled as Mrs. Fields came to the door.

  “Hi, can I help you?” she asked Callis, a look of confusion on her face.

  “I have a report due tomorrow and I need some help. Is Talea home?” Callis asked.

  “No, I’m sorry she went out with Mindy Denton. You know her?”

  “Oh I know Mindy. We go way back.”

  “You do? I don’t recognize you, I’m sorry. Are you on the cheer squad?”

  Callis shook her head no.

  “I’ll tell her you stopped by. What’s your name, honey?” Mrs. Fields asked.

  “Callis Rose.”

  Mrs. Fields looked down as her son was struggling with the security door lock.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as she reached out to stop him. A look of confusion overshadowed her as her hand stopped mid-stretch. “My dear, what’s happening?” Mrs. Fields asked as she reached out with her other hand to grab her now-stationary arm.

  Callis pulled open the security door as soon as she heard the tell-tale click of it being unlatched.

  “I’d rather wait,” Callis said as she stepped in, moving Jacob to the side.

  “I really have no idea when she’ll be back.” Concern now in Mrs. Fields’ face. The set of the girl’s features before her were striking a chord of fear deep in her. Plus, she couldn’t move her hand. She was wondering what was the matter.

  Callis shoved Mrs. Fields out of the way so that she could shut the door.

  “Did you know your daughter played a part in making my boyfriend crippled?” Callis asked as she locked the front door.

  “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mrs. Fields said, backing up even further.

  “Oh it’s a whole long, involved story. Quite dramatic really. They even tried to have me killed. Can you imagine that? Plus, your daughter’s best friend just killed my foster mother – the body isn’t even cold. The woman has never so much as hurt a fly, but Mindy gutted her like a fish. I should know, I had to clean it up. You can’t imagine what that does to somebody inside.”

  “Please…what do you want?” Mrs. Fields asked as she reached out with her good hand and dragged Jacob to her chest.

  “Well, really, I guess I wanted Talea and then Mindy, but now this opportunity has presented itself.”

  “What opportunity?” Mrs. Fields asked in terror.

  “She’s taken things that are dear to me away. So I guess it would only be right of me to take something from her. But screw the eye-for-an-eye thing. I think interest and penalties should come into play.”

  “Taylor!” Mrs. Fields screamed.

  “Mommy, I’m scared. She IS the boogey man,” Jacob moaned.

  “I’m almost done, hon! Just one more report. If I don’t get it done now, I’ll have to stay late at work tomorrow,” Mr. Fields’ voice drifted down the hallway from his home office.

  “Help!” she screamed, genuine fright inflected in her voice.

  “This had better be important, and not just another ruse to get me to move some furniture.” He was smiling as he exited his office. He looked confused as he began to take in the scene before him. His wife was clutching their child, and a strange girl was standing before them.

  “Can I help you?” He didn’t see a weapon, so he was figuring that the girl must be selling something. Must be a hard sell, he mused.

  “She says Talea tried to kill her, and that she and Mindy crippled her boyfriend.” Mrs. Fields was shaking.

  “What?” he asked, taking off his glasses.

  “My boyfriend is Kevin Denton,” Callis stated.

  “I’m sorry what happened to him, hon,” Mr. Fields started. “I was at the game, he’s a hell
of an athlete, but it was just an accident…a very unfortunate accident.” He moved closer, slowly, expecting to discover a weapon. He was feeling more confident as he got nearer that she didn’t have one. Well, unless she’s a ninja I should be able to take her.

  “It wasn’t just an accident,” Callis said vehemently. “His sister and your daughter conspired to poison him.”

  “That seems a little hard to swallow,” Mr. Fields said, getting in between his family and Callis. “Injuries happen in football all the time.”

  “What about the knife in my foster mother’s stomach? Was that an accident also?”

  “I’m telling you I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Can I get you some help?” he told her.

  “Mindy killed my foster mother today. Cops say that the murderer drove a knife straight through her. They thought it was probably a kitchen knife because of the size.”

  “My God!” Mrs. Fields gasped.

  “What’s the matter, Lacey?” Taylor asked never taking his eyes from Callis.

  “I couldn’t find our knife tonight.”

  Taylor stole a glance behind him to his wife’s wide-eyed expression. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “It’s always in the butcher block holder. I make sure of that so Jacob can’t get a hold of it. I’ve spent the last twenty minutes looking for it.”

  “That still proves nothing,” he said, although he did get a ripple of nervousness up his spine.

  “I’m sure they meant to kill me, but I can defend myself. Kevin though? Why him? He’s the best thing I’ve ever had in my life and they took him away from me. And Mrs. Lowrie, she’s a kind soul, gave me a decent, loving home. Never a bad word for anyone unless it was a character on a TV show.”

  “You’re Callis Rose,” Lacey stated, as if finally figuring out a difficult math equation.

  “You know me then?” Callis asked.

  “I know of you. I’ve heard enough of my daughter’s phone conversations to know she’s terrified of you.”