STALK

                                    CHAPTER THREE..........................

Jeff Breightner woke in a hotel room four and a half hours from home and all alone in the king sized bed.  This was day three of a big computer software change at Stallard Medical Center. Jeff lead a team of trainers who struggled to teach the business office staff how to use the new system that now ran parallel to their “but we’ve always done it this way” system.   That comfortable system would be phased out in one more week, and at the moment it looked as if there might be a department mutiny before that could be accomplished.  The sixty one year old department head was Eleanor, a steel grey haired woman that he had dubbed “The Iron Maiden”.  She wanted no part of this new system and was pulling out all the stops to make the transition even more difficult than it had to be.  Jeff groaned as he rolled out of bed; a coffee pot on sat on a courtesy counter next to the sink.  He filled it with water and plugged it in, frowning at it as if that would make it work faster. 

Pulling his cell phone off the charger, Jeff pushed the voice command and said, “Call KO, cell”.  The female voice that he thought sounded just like Connie Chung responded and did as she was told.

“Speak to me……….” Carolyn’s voice music to his ears.

“Hi, baby.   You at work yet? he queried.

A car door slammed in the background, “Just got here.  I didn’t make it to the gym this morning, so I’ll head over there after work,” was the answer as she wrestled her briefcase from the front seat floor.

“It will be dark, so park near the door….promise?”

“Yah, yah…..stop worrying.   I’m fine, but I just miss you.   Are you ever coming home?”she asked.

“Six days and counting, sweetheart.   Even if this old broad fights me to the death I can get out of here in six days,” he laughed.

“Just come home to me.  JuJu and I miss you."  He could hear people in the background as she made her way across the parking lot.   "Okay, I’m going into the building and you know this phone cuts out in the elevator so I’ll call you after lunch, k?

“Alright,” he sighed, wishing he could hold on to her just one more minute. “KO?  I love you.  Don’t forget that.”

“How could I forget?  It’s still written on the bathroom mirror,” she chuckled.  “Got to dash!!”

“Okay…..have a good day.   Talk to you later, baby,” he said.   He sat looking at the phone a second, wondering about the “bathroom mirror” comment,  then brushed it off as a joke and plugged the phone back into the charger.

“Shower time”, he mumbled, and after pouring a cup of coffee, he headed into the bathroom to get ready for his regularly scheduled morning showdown with the Iron Maiden.

                            CHAPTER FOUR.....................

Marco made a left into the driveway on Brainard Road.   The two story saltbox was set back a hundred fifty feet from the road, the front of the property concealed by a six foot tall boxwood hedge that was lush and crisply trimmed.   The concrete drive ended at a two car garage, but Marco pulled the black car to the left of the driveway, tucking it into a corner formed by the deep hedge, so it could not be seen from the road.   He exited the car, following the hedge around the left side of the house and stopping at a basement window at the left rear of the home.  Pulling a screw driver out of his jacket, he knelt to remove the window from the frame, just has he had done so many times before.  Marco had worked on the construction crew that built this house fourteen years ago, and as long as no one paid close attention to this particular window frame, he would always have access to this place with very little trouble.   He had an original set of keys to the house, but Carolyn had replaced the front door when they bought the property four years ago.  When he used the back door key Carolyn's dog, JuJu, would go into a barking frenzy, and he didn’t want to take the chance that it would raise the neighbor’s suspicions.  Entering through the basement window, Marco pulled three dog treats from his pocket and climbed the basement stairs.  JuJu, Carolyn’s  yorkshire terrier, raised her head from her dog bed in the corner as he opened the basement door.   Recognizing him as the guy who always gave her dog treats; she wiggled with happy anticipation as she trotted over to greet him.  Rolling onto her back the dog groaned with delight till Marco rubbed her belly, then flipped onto her feet and raced back to her fluffy little bed with her prized dog biscuits.  JuJu circled three times, then sank down in her bed, sighing with happiness.

“Some watch dog you are,” he said.

Stepping into the laundry room off the kitchen, Marco checked the stack of laundry on the dryer.  Yep, she’d be wearing the bear t-shirt and blue leotards tonight when she got home.  He shivered with excitement at the thought.

Marco considered this place “his” house.  Three different people had held the paperwork, but he always came and went as he pleased because it was his house.  The first “owner” was a man named Robertson who collected antiques; he had made the mistake of putting a highboy under the window Marco used to get in.   Denied entrance to his house by this man’s stupidity, Marco took action by posing as a gas company employee checking out a gas leak.  He made the house ready for new ownership by pushing Robertson down the basement steps and bashing in his skull while he lay unconscious on the basement floor.   Everyone thought the clumsy recluse had accidently killed himself.

The second owner was a family of four.  Mom and Dad Catron were nice enough, but they had no control over their two ugly children.  When Marco found gouges in the beautiful oak floors in the hallway upstairs he decided they had to go.  Mrs. Catron, a devoted cranberry juice drinker, was a health nut.   It wasn’t a big chore to disguise the taste of an insecticide in the pitcher she always kept in the fridge.  Evidently no one thought to check out why a perfectly healthy forty seven year old woman died in excruciating gut pain at the local hospital.  Mr. Catron just buried her and moved on with his homely duo, back to Texas or some other god forsaken desert, where his family could help him raise them.

Enter Carolyn and Jeff Breightner.  Marco knew this was going to be a better match for his house when they had the upstairs hall floors refinished before moving in.   He fell in love with Carolyn at first sight, and proceeded to find out everything about her.

Marco’s first good luck came when he checked Carolyn out on Facebook.  Her page was open, so he could learn about her, her friends and her family, without much trouble.  Open and trusting and very social, Carolyn chatted with her friends, telling them everything on her page.  He absorbed the information, hungry for every morsel.  Carolyn Breightner moved not only into Marco’s house, but into his heart.

Now, four years later, Marco had decided it was time for Jeff to go away so that he and Carolyn could be together.  His almost daily visits to his house weren’t enough anymore.   Being in the house part time made him want to be with Carolyn full time.  

From the start Marco had enjoyed his time in the house alone.  He used the time wisely, slowly getting to know Carolyn.  Eventually he became convinced she was the one for him. This was not some fly-by-night crush; Marco had looked at every picture, every keepsake, everything she held dear.  He knew he could make her happy.

Standing in Carolyn’s bedroom he imagined a day in the not too distant future when this would be their bedroom.  His clothes would hang in the closet with hers; their monogrammed towels would occupy towel racks in the bathroom.   Maybe even a baby…definitely a new dog as soon as an undiagnosed illness took JuJu to doggy heaven.  Marco sat on the bed, smiling, then lay back on the pillows and dozed off as the sun shone through the crisp, white curtains.