The Chilling Spree

Chapter 1

As stupid as this may sound, it started as a dare. 

In hindsight, I wonder if things would’ve gotten as bad as they did if I’d just said no in the beginning. If I hadn’t been weak and female about the whole thing. But no. I fell into the stupid emotional snare, like I was tempting fate to prove me wrong, and… well, things happened that shouldn’t have.

The horrors of Pandora’s Box were unleashed on a city that should’ve always been prepared, braced for their dire version of reality, and I got sucked in because once again, I’m as weak as Tony Briscoe when someone throws down the gauntlet. 

See, I thought I’d go home and do that social isolation thing, and all would be well.  I’d evade, avoid, slide out of the limelight and slip away from Darkwater Bay like the original plan dictated, and forget all about everything that happened here.  Ah, the dream.  Reality never measures up.  Not in the end.  Not when a fantasy has taken root because things got personal, attachments formed.  Rather than the obvious, the binding ties sneaked up on me in the form of comfort and friendship.

In the days following Danny Datello’s arrest, the profound grief I felt because Johnny Orion couldn’t remember me was soothed somewhat by two friends who refused to let me hole up licking my wounds.  Never mind that I don’t celebrate Christmas, or the fact that they started a week of midnight shifts working robbery-homicide out of Downey Division that night.

Ned Williams and Devlin Mackenzie were too stubborn to take no for an answer.  We spent Christmas evening opening gifts that they had purchased from every convenience store that wasn’t closed for the holiday.  Shiny foil shrouded rolls of paper towels, packs of ink pens, a couple of bags of potato chips, a year’s supply of Twinkies, a keychain that reminded me that shit happens, and the coldest reminder of all, a box of condoms.  Lots of that cold ambiance going around this holiday season, I suppose.

I came pretty close to bursting into tears at the sight of it, the fact that it reminded me that when I’d seen Johnny the day before, he looked at me with the utmost of vacant eyes.  It nearly unleashed something I don’t want people in Darkwater Bay to know lies under this façade I wear. 

And then Ned confessed.

I figured that you’re young and hot and if Orion can’t remember anything, you should be prepared.

On the verge of my murderous red-black rage, I gaped at him.  Excuse me?

Devlin merely chuckled.  I told you that you’re too old for her, Ned.  Besides, what would the missus have to say about this? 

Ned grinned.  I’ve been married three times.  Can’t blame a guy for taking a shot, can you?

What little I knew about Ned Williams was that he was an anomaly among men.  Yes, he had two ex-wives – both of whom were lunch buddies with his current wife, and there wasn’t an ounce of bad blood between any of them.  Knowledge, even a little bit, muted my ire beneath a grin and a shake of the head.  Point made, Ned.

He sobered.  I hope you mean that, Helen.  You’re too young, too beautiful, and certainly too smart to be devastated by something that was beyond anybody’s control.  Even if he never remembers, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a life ahead of you.  Maybe it’s with Johnny, maybe not.  Now you’re prepared.

An involuntary and unexpected chuckle parted my lips.  Because I am out trolling for dates every night of the week, right?

Only you can change that, Devlin said.  Who knows?  His shrug added emphasis.  Maybe it’s the jolt Johnny needs to snap him back into reality, you know?  Ned told me that yesterday after we left division –

Never mind that for the moment, Ned cut off his partner softly.  Options open.  Enough said.

I waited until Ned excused himself because wife number three called to see how our morose little Christmas party was progressing.  Then the grilling began.

What did he say, Devlin?

Who, Ned?

I nodded.  What doesn’t he want me to know?  Is Orion already out there again, picking up his typical type of girl like I never existed?  Is that what this push to get me to forget about him all about?

He grinned.  Much as I’d love to say that it is, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Ned told me that after we left division yesterday that Johnny came in with Briscoe.  We knew that.  Hell, we saw them outside.

No reminder was necessary.  The vacuous gaze flashed against the backs of my eyelids every time I blinked.  And? 

Dev leaned forward.  Well, I guess Johnny had about a million questions when he came inside. 

Naturally, I muttered.  We arrested the man he wanted to see behind bars since he was a kid.

He wasn’t asking about Datello, Helen.

My eyes lifted.  No?  Rigid rationality clamped down on the tiny spark of hope in my heart.

He asked about you.  Of course, Tony was more than happy to oblige and –

Shit, I hissed softly.  So now Ned doesn’t want me to realize why I need to stop hoping that Johnny will remember anything that happened in the past six months, right?  Briscoe kept his word.  He’s doing everything he can to make sure that Johnny wants nothing to do with me.

Not at all.  He pulled up the files on the cases you worked since you came to Darkwater Bay.  Told Johnny that if he wanted to know the truth, he ought to figure it out on his own.  Ned on the other hand...

I buried my face in my hands and groaned.  What did he do?

Told him that if he remembered enough to be curious about you that he needed to get off his ass and talk to you.

He didn’t.  What did Johnny say?

Dev shrugged again.  He just got really quiet for awhile.  Then he started grilling Ned about who you left division with.

I felt my forehead wrinkle.  I left with you.

Uh-huh.

You mean he thinks something is going on between us?

Dev chuckled.  You say that with almost enough disgust to hurt my feelings, Helen.  Am I really such a troll?

My cheeks burned, lit up like Rudolph’s nose, I’m pretty sure.  I didn’t mean it that way.  Of course you’re not a troll, it’s just that –

Relax, he let me off the hook without much torture.  I get it.  You’re blinded by whatever that guy’s got that the rest of us mere mortals only dream to acquire.  Point is, I bet he’ll make up his mind in a hurry that he doesn’t want to miss his shot to figure out what he felt before somebody else comes along.

And I bet you’re nuts.

Is that a professional opinion, Dr. Eriksson?

I smirked.  Maybe it is.

Tell you what, Dev suggested, let’s give him a week to wake up and smell the roses before we resort to drastic measures.

Devlin, I don’t want to play games with him.

You wound me again, one hand slapped over Devlin’s heart.  Who says I’m not making a serious bid for your attention here? 

I do, a tiny grin threatened at the corners of my mouth. 

If he is still wallowing in outrage over what he lost instead of doing something about it by this time next week, you’ll go out with me.  One date.  What do you say?

Devlin –

I dare you to do it.

What kind of date?  Are we talking the trite and boring dinner and a movie proposition?  I always hated that tired bullshit.

Devlin laughed hard.  Do I really strike you as so unimaginative?  Man, I must be a masochist after all.  I feel like I’m going down in flames here.

What did you have in mind then?  Sky diving through the ice crystals over Bay County?

Music, he grinned.  It just so happens that I have tickets to a concert next week, and nobody to go with me.  Even if you don’t want to think of it as a real date, you’d be doing your newest fan a favor by taking pity on me and coming with me to this thing.

A concert, I echoed.  Like what kind of music?

If you’ll recall, I spent a fair amount of time living under this roof over the past week.  I know how eclectic your CD collection is.  I can only imagine that your digital archive dwarfs the genre whoring I saw on the physical discs.

You’re avoiding my question.

I got these tickets a long time before I moved to Darkwater Bay, Helen.  I planned to make the trip regardless of where I was working at the time.

Devlin.

His nervousness was unexpected, and oddly endearing.  He stared at the hands that hung loosely over his knees.  Is your music collection used, or is it just for show?

Don’t make me get the paper out so I can see what concert has you too embarrassed to tell me –

It’s Pan Demon, all right?  Yes, the in-your-face, fuck-you-society, speed metal band of all time.

It took great effort to school my grin.  I see.  And from my – as you put it – rather eclectic music collection, you think I might be the single person you know amenable to attending this concert with you.

Don’t play dumb, Helen.  You’ve got their first two records upstairs in the rec room, on vinyl I might add.  C’mon.  Just go with me to this thing.  I’ve been looking forward to it all year.

This really surprises me, Devlin.  You never struck me as the type to go for a band that sings about murder and mayhem, not to mention the anti-authority sentiments.  Does Chris Darnell know about this?

Stop it, he chuckled.  I knew a lot of guys in the Marines that liked them.  And for the record, it’s not the words to the songs that do anything for me.

Ah, all that primal aggression.

They’re a good band.

I nodded.  Surprising they’re still around, let alone alive.  Or is one of those rebooted situations with an obscure drummer from back in the dark ages that revived the name after all the real talent died off?

They’re all still alive, without the first drummer, Devlin said.  In fact, that’s the one spot that changed multiple times over the years.  Ironic, huh?

I rolled my eyes.  "I don’t know, Devlin.  I think I’m too old for that sort of thing now.  To be honest, I was never really a fan of their music.  I bought those records because Marie hated them, thought it was the devil’s music.  How could I go wrong with a band with demon in the name?  Drove her nuts, but Dad put his foot down and said I could listen to whatever I wanted to."

Oh.

I appreciate the gesture, I said.

I haven’t given up.  What do I have to do, dare you to step outside this box of what you see is appropriate and inappropriate for a woman of your advanced age?

It tugged another grin over my lips.  You said that to provoke me, didn’t you?  Dare me?  My advanced age?  All right, buddy.  You’re on.  But only if I don’t hear from Johnny before the show.  When is it?

New Year’s Eve.

Great, I groaned.  I’ll be surrounded by drug addicts and alcoholics as we ring in the New Year.

He chuckled.  Somehow, I get the feeling that you could teach them a thing or two about holding their liquor, Helen.

Attaching conditions to the dare was my only hope.  Sadly, the holiday crept forward without a peep from Johnny Orion.  Devlin’s eager attitude distracted me somewhat, but it could never obliterate the ache of regret festering in my heart.

Only one thing could distract me that well.  Unfortunately, we had no idea that a heavy metal concert truly would be that vehicle, not until we arrived and the badges became necessary.

Chapter 2

Booze flowed through the Darkwater Bay Amphitheater as though it had been transformed into the proverbial land of milk and honey.  Jaegermeister and Crown, maybe.  Bud and Bud Light.  Something along those lines. 

Trepidation isn’t normally part of my daily life.  Yet in a throng of men with long hair, dressed mostly in black, demons inked onto biceps, chains hanging from belts and more steel-toed boots than I cared to count, I felt suddenly dwarfed by sizes and another river flowing – testosterone.

I clutched Devlin’s arm.  "You never said I would be the only woman here."

The grin was unabashed.  "You’re not the only one, just the hottest one."

Jujitsu tickled the periphery of temptation. 

Don’t give me that look.  I told you you’d never catch me off guard again, Helen.  You want something to drink, or would you rather go ahead and hit the floor now?  I’ve got VIP access for this baby.  We’re gonna be close enough to get hit by sweat.

Delightful.  I don’t suppose any of these vendors are selling a nice Napa merlot.