Hearts of Avon

respond. “No. Have we met before?” Caroline asked, surprised.

  Excelsis looked to Ben and Ben held his eyes.

  He could feel Caroline’s hand tense in his own as he held it. “You were at the burning house last night, weren’t you? You should have said something. Why didn’t we see you?”

  “I didn’t see you, or else I would have come over.” He gave a sudden hack, covering his mouth with his hand and then wiping spittle away with his napkin. “Excuse me, I have… health problems. I didn’t see you. I left before the trucks came. I used the phone you lent me to call the fire in and then left, but not before seeing her.” His bloodshot eyes looked to Caroline.

  “You were the shadow I saw by the house?” she asked in disbelief.

  “So you saw me. I thought you did. I thought I was safe in the darkness.”

  Ben sat straighter in his chair. “Did you see anything? Do you know what started the fire?”

  Then a waitress came over, taking out a pad of paper. “Hi, my name’s Dana and I’ll be taking care of you today. Welcome to The Froggy Dog. Can I interest you in a cool beer or one of our delicious appetizers to start off with? I highly recommend ‘The Whaler’, a starter of homemade crab puffs, grouper bites, conch fritters and shrimp jammers.” She used a finger to move her hot-pink glasses up her nose as she waited.

  They always come in the middle of a conversation. Ben smiled. “I’m ready to order if you guys are.” He looked to Caroline and Excelsis for confirmation.

  “I’m good,” Caroline said as Excelsis nodded in agreement.

  The waitress flipped open her pad. “What can I get for you, miss?”

  After they ordered and the waitress left, Ben asked Excelsis what, if anything, he had seen.

  The older man clasped his hands on the table. His skin was tough like leather and an old tattoo of a mermaid with angel wings was on his arm. “This stays between us.”

  Ben nodded to him.

  “I sleep in the covered garage of that house some nights, when it’s cold, raining or too windy to sleep other places. Last night when I came, there was a car I hadn’t seen before parked there. It was a black Dodge Charger. I was leery but I needed a place to sleep, so I decided to stay.” He took a drink of ice water that the waitress had dropped off.

  Ben knew that car. He knew it was John and could feel Caroline’s hand tightening in his as Excelsis spoke.

  “As I was falling asleep I heard footsteps coming down the outside stairwell. It was a bigger man with a rifle and he smelled strong of smoke. I stayed in the darkness, hiding there, but as he pulled out of the garage I saw him looking in my direction. He saw me, but didn’t stop. As I stood and went to the house’s open door I saw smoke curling through the kitchen and the light of flames flickering down from the upstairs. I called 911 as soon as I was out of the house.”

  Caroline turned toward Ben. “That was him. It has to be.”

  A shiver ran through him. “Thank you for telling us. Caroline’s aunt’s house is next door. We think that is Caroline’s ex-boyfriend.” He was beyond words. Could this man really be that crazed?

  Excelsis reached into his shorts pocket and then held his weather worn hand out over the table. “Would this help?” He opened his hand.

  Ben took a crumpled-up, stained piece of paper from him. “E T M Y - D S T,” he read.

  “It was a Pennsylvania license plate, too.” Excelsis said as the waitress returned with their food.

  Caroline held her hand to her temples. “That’s him. Can’t he just leave me alone?”

  Ben could feel tension go through her. Fear was on her face. “We have to tell someone,” Ben said as the scent of his crab cakes wafted about him. He was no longer hungry. What would John do now?

  -- --

  They were silent as they pulled out of The Froggy Dog’s parking lot, the radio playing lowly in the background. They were in Ben’s yellow jeep and wind curled around them as they headed for the police station.

  Lunch had been good, but knowing that John was stalking Caroline, that he had probably started the fire and that he had a gun had them both on edge.

  Ben punched the radio dial a few times, changing the station. He stopped on a channel with news. I wonder if they’ll mention the fire, he thought. Maybe the police already know about John.

  The radio announcer’s voice clicked in… “In other news, tropical depression Irene is forming over the Atlantic Ocean, set to make landfall in the U.S. Virgin Islands and may be on course for North Carolina’s coastline within the week.”

  7

  John had parked his car far down the beach, in the parking lot of a surf shop, in the dead of night, removing his plates and dumping them in his trunk in case it was recognized.

  He walked in the darkness and through the illumination of street lights, destined for the house he had lit aflame the night before. This morning he had headed back to the mainland after leaving the house. He was coming back for her. He wanted her. No matter how John tried, he couldn’t stay away.

  He stopped for a moment, concealed by darkness; away from a street light as a police car sped down the road. Sand whipped up in its wake. John held his rifle firm in his hand as he continued to move.

  As he reached the house he breathed in a thick breath of char-tainted ocean air. It lingered in the area and he smiled to know that Caroline must smell it too. John stepped over caution tape that rippled in the wind as it blocked off the house from use. Water used to put out the fire had eroded the sand level around the house. Pieces of charred wood littered the ground.

  John took the key from his pocket and walked up the staircase leading toward the main door. He peered through the smoke-stained glass and saw no-one inside.

  Click.

  Pulling the key from the lock, he went inside, holding his gun firm in his hands as he moved.

  As he walked up the stairs toward the top of the house, a chilling breeze whipped his face, ruffling up his hair. He reached the top of the stairs and looked up at open sky, breathing in the chilled ocean wind.

  Fire-scorched wood and housing material were all around him, like the edge of a shell marking off where the upper level of the house had once been. The burnt wood and ash cracked beneath him as he walked the charred floor. There were holes in the floor from the fire and he balanced on the remaining wood as he neared where he could see Caroline’s bedroom.

  He laid down in the ash and soot and removed an industrial black garbage bag from his pocket, opening it in the wind.

  Carefully, he pinned it around his body to shield himself from any aircraft that might fly overhead. He kept the gun mostly covered by the large bag as well, except for its barrel, which he leveled at Caroline’s bedroom.

  Pain surged through his chest as tension held on to his body. Tomorrow I will be free, he thought, and somehow a weight was lifted from him.

  8

  As Ben and Mason arrived at Suzie’s, there was already a group of people on her porch laughing and enjoying drinks and appetizers. It was strange to see the half-burned house beside hers, an unsettling reminder John had been there. The structure loomed like a shadow in the light of the day.

  “I’m checking the garage next door before we go up,” Ben said, stepping out of the jeep.

  “Ben!” Caroline called down to him from the deck.

  “I’ll be right there!” He waved to her, and then turned to Mason. “John would have to be extremely dumb to come back here, but I’m not putting anything past him. Watch my back.”

  “Of course,” Mason said and came with him.

  As Ben entered the garage the sunlight that was warm on his back was replaced by a cooler air. He looked around. His heart was racing and it settled now that he saw John’s car wasn’t there. Police had been patrolling the area steadily because they had reported the arson, and he hoped that if John did come back, they would find him before he did anything crazy.

  “Let’s go up. He’s not here, thank goodness.” Ben turned and headed
to Suzie’s house with Mason. They had made an apple pie and Ben took it from the jeep’s seat before heading up.

  Caroline greeted them with a smile as she took the pie from his hands. “Mmmm, men who can bake, I guess you can join us.” She winked at Ben. “I saw you go in the garage next door. I’ve been watching around here all day for his car. It’s still hard to believe that he started the fire.”

  “I’m just glad he’s gone,” Ben said while grabbing a can of sprite from a cooler. He and Caroline walked over to the edge of the deck and looked out at the ocean. They watched kids flying kites along the shore. “Is there anything I can do to help with the food?”

  “Suzie might like a break from cooking the steaks,” Caroline said, putting her hand on his.

  Ben felt a shiver rise up his back. “Then we can’t keep her waiting.” He took her hand and kissed it before going over to the grill and offering to give Suzie a break.

  -- --

  Later that night, after eating his fill of tuna-steak and salad, Ben found himself once more up in Caroline’s bedroom. She said she wanted to show him something, after they had spent time talking with Suzie’s friends, many of whom Ben and Mason actually knew from around Avon. The sky outside glowed a deep red, with the sun almost completely set along the ocean’s horizon.

  “It’s beautiful,” Caroline said while standing in her room, admiring the portrait Ben painted of her, as it rest propped against the wall.

  Ben walked behind her and put his hands on her waist. “It’s nothing compared to