In the Dead of Night Read online

  “I think the order adds a certain flair, setting the tunes off as the potential singles they could become,” offered Chris, before Max could answer me.

  So, I guess it’s his doing, then. Max’s indifferent shrug just confirmed it.

  Christopher Grimes is our brand new front man. At one of our last gigs in May, Chris approached us about becoming Quagmire member ‘number five’. Twenty-three years old with blonde wavy hair ala Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant down to his ass, he brings a commanding stage presence. Not to mention he’s a virtuoso violinist who can run circles around either guitarist as far as tearing off screaming arpeggios. Add that to his Geoff Tate--Ronnie James Dio operatic voice, and we have our meal ticket to the illusive big time. At least that’s what my ears and gut tell me.

  Dude’s prettier than the rest of us, too. But even with Chris’s boyish good looks and Kid Rock energy, it seemed a long shot that we’d take him in. That is, until he took a dozen downloads of our tunes and learned them all in a matter of a week. Then he added his special flavor and presence…. My God, you could’ve heard a pin drop in our rehearsal room when he finished his run-through. Then we had to work especially hard not to fawn over ourselves in telling this kid he could join us. Even Ricky’s cool with it, since he’s grown progressively weary of the strain on his voice that our complex melodies have brought on. Now he can stay in the background with me, adding our strong harmonies to Chris’s lead vocals. It sounds frigging awesome.

  “Once we come to an agreement on the order for the remaining thirty-three tunes, we’ll be able to support a longer show, say an hour or two,” continued our young prodigy.

  The only thing I worry about is whether Chris’s condescending tone and over-the-top sophistication will eventually chap my ass. Lord knows I deal with enough of that shit at my day gig.

  “Well, okay dudes,” I said, grabbing the wireless receiver for my amp and plugging it into my bass. “Let’s get rollin’.”

  Mongo set the tempo and we launched into our first set. Before the advent of Chris, we used to mosey about the stage, jamming with one another between trips to the dual microphones set up at the platform’s edge. Not anymore. Still getting used to Chris’s dominance of center stage, it’s hard not to get distracted by his antics: strutting back and forth before an imaginary audience while twirling his violin bow. When he launches into a lead, his nimble hands become a maniacal frenzy across the electric violin’s fret board.

  Ricky and I try not to get in the way of either Chris or Max, swinging our hair in time with every crunching power chord and bass thump we deliver. When Ricky’s brother, Paul, filmed us a couple of weeks ago, the way we worked as a band looked really cool, Ricky’s and my hair swinging in rhythm and catching the oscillating colored light rays.

  Of course, our new maestro stole the show, his bow shredded from the throes of what I believe was near-psychotic passion. With his mouth contorted to the side, his wild eyes convey an almost eerie lunacy. That’s how Ricky and Paul describe it. I’d say it’s more like ‘orgasmic terror’, as if he’s some deranged sex fiend. And chicks dig the dude—at least Ricky’ and Chris’s small harems do…frigging groupies. They went all gaga the other night, and we didn’t finish our work. That’s why I insisted there be no girls tonight.

  But hey, if his talent and allure gets us to the next level, then I’m all for the distractions that are part of the deal with him. It’s fine by me if he has all the chicks and media fame. He can sit in the forefront of our band photos, too, for all I care. Just give me credit for the songs I help write and let me tag along for wherever this crazy train takes us.

  Tonight’s rehearsal went very well…and with hardly any questions from the guys about Candi Starr and Dickey Rollins’ murders. I needed the break, really. Hell, it’d be there waiting for me anyway, once I left the euphoria of a great practice session and drove home.

  We wrapped things up by 11:40 p.m. Mongo and I shared a laugh as I helped him load his drum cases into the back of his old Suburban. Soon after, I was back on Gallatin Road and heading home.

  ***

  Traveling along I-65 southbound after midnight usually means a nice drive down a deserted highway. It’s perfect for unwinding after a long day and a productive rehearsal. I suppose that’s why I didn’t notice the dark van following me. I probably should’ve caught it early on, say at least by the time I passed downtown Nashville. But I didn’t. Not until I reached Franklin.

  Jamming to one of my personal mix CDs that features every melodic metal band I’ve grown attached to over the years, I was just getting into my head-shake to Megadeth’s “Ninety-nine ways to die” when I finally noticed the van mirroring my moves as I veered into the fast lane and then back to the middle of the highway just beyond Cool Springs Mall. I still might not have thought much of it, so lost was I in my private revelry. But it was hard to ignore the sudden high beams flashing from behind me. I at first thought a cop rode my ass.

  Cruising a few miles above the speed limit rarely gets somebody pulled over in Williamson County, and my lights were just checked the other day when I got the oil changed for the Camaro. So, that pretty much eliminated a police K-9 unit.

  “What in the hell?”

  The van drew closer…close enough for me to see the grill emblem. It was a Buick, late model…and a big sucker at that. A petrol-splurging special from a couple of years ago, right before fuel prices rose to insanity.

  “Back off, you mother….”

  I didn’t finish uttering the crown jewel of all curse phrases. Maybe it’s because I had instinctively floored the Camaro to where I had just passed ninety. Yeah, talk about a gas-guzzler giving chase…probably lost an eighth of a tank from that alone as it kept pace with me.

  Now, I’m not easily spooked, being in the ghost hunting biz and all. My initial reaction was to get really pissed. But then the van backed off…way off. Only when I exited onto another highway, I-840, did it come a little closer. In the distance behind me two small white orbs stayed on my trail.

  I figured I was just being paranoid. Hopefully in about a week I’ll return to a more rational outlook about things, and I won’t be so damned jumpy.

  I decided to slow down to seventy-five. No sense in being radar bait, but at the same time I didn’t want to provide a guided path to my home. When I came upon Arno Road, my usual exit, no lights were visible behind me. Still, I raced under the overpass and followed the road to the maze of darkened back roads that would bring me to my secluded home. The moon shining in half-cycle, I felt half tempted to drive home with the headlights off.

  Deftly navigating through sharp curves and hidden hills, I soon pulled up into the long gravel driveway that leads up to my house. I dimmed the headlights, creeping up quietly and pulling the Camaro behind my house, just in case whoever drove the mysterious van somehow figured out the general area where I lived—despite my best efforts to remain elusive.

  I cut the engine and got out of the car, releasing a low sigh as I collected my bass and tiptoed up to the back door. The kitchen light was on, and I detected a slight glow from the living room through a side window.

  Then I heard it.

  Hell, I think everyone living along our road heard it. A loud rumble from a V-8 engine, revved full throttle.

  What in the hell now?

  I crept around the side of the house, peering toward the road. There was no one visible. No truck or van.

  The rumble resounded again…louder, although I had the distinct feeling it hadn’t moved.

  I moved up quietly to our mailbox, my protective instincts in full force. I wished to God I had my gun with me…but there wasn’t time to sneak inside the house to get it.

  The revved engine continued to announce its presence, echoing eerily into the night air. It seemed to slice through the humidity, making it sound more menacing. Like, ‘step out here and face the music, Jimmy boy!’

  Did I have a choice? Sure…well no, I didn’t. Other than running insid
e and diving under the covers with my grieving wife in our bed. What about the kids? Other than calling the cops and hiding out in the storm cellar beneath our home until dawn, there wasn’t much else we could do. Definitely nothing that’d keep me from feeling like a real wuss.

  For some crazy, shitty, reason I pictured Max’s smug grin—complete with another slim cigar clinched between his teeth.

  What’s wrong, you pussy-whipped, rock n’ roll wannabe??

  That got me going. I ran out onto the road and stood in the middle of it, all the while the engine rumbled ahead of me in the darkness…less than a quarter of a mile ahead, atop a hill.

  Two halogens suddenly appeared in the darkness. The van. It had to be the same one. Whoever sat behind the wheel flashed the high-beams.

  I tried to shield my eyes from the harsh brightness with one arm. Braced for the inevitable attack of the vehicle rushing toward me, I pictured myself diving into a shitload of thistles and briars inside the drainage ditch next to our mailbox.

  How’d this frigging asshole find me, anyway?

  Not many folks live along our road, since everyone’s property consists of five to fifteen acres of wooded land. Luckily, houselights now came on at the Tanner’s place, directly across from where the van sat.

  The threatening vehicle backed up and swerved sideways, its wheels screeching even louder than the rumble. I could feel the driver studying me through the tinted passenger window. A very queer sensation, I sensed such malevolence …intense rage emanating toward me. Really weird, man, and I recalled what Fiona told me earlier that afternoon about the killer. I also thought about the shadowy figure creeping about our place last night. Could we be next on the killer’s list? I pictured the dude sitting in the van, sizing up a new victim.

  I guess it sucks to be me, or even worse to be Fiona, since she’s a much closer friend to the recently departed.

  A shotgun blast into the air erupted from the Tanner’s porch, and I heard Mac Tanner shout a string of obscenities at the driver. Before old Mac reached the passenger side door, the van spun around and sped off in the opposite direction, its angry rumble soon fading away.

  My neighbor didn’t give up his vigil right away, and to avoid a drawn out discussion with him I hurried back to my house before he noticed my presence. I waited outside my backdoor for nearly twenty minutes…listening to the endless chirping and calls from insects and a pair of tree frogs. But I heard nothing else. Nothing that rumbled, anyway.

  It mattered little that our menacing visitor didn’t come back. For the rest of the night, I stayed on high alert. Even when I slipped into bed next to my beautiful wife, I slept light.

  I would’ve heard a mosquito scratching its ass.

  The dawn’s fiery glow crept in a helluva lot earlier than I would’ve liked.

  Friday was really going to suck...bad.

  Chapter Nine

  Traffic along I-65 north was unusually congested. Or, at least it seemed like it. I mean, doesn’t it always when you’re running a few minutes later than normal?

  That’s all it took to get my Friday morning off to a frigging great start. Well, actually it happened earlier, during breakfast, when Fiona told me a little about what happened around 3 a.m. My tired ass needed yet another cup of coffee to keep the fire going after that. It takes a lot of ‘self-lifting’ to get ready to face any day gig, I’m sure—definitely true for any call center supervisors I’ve ever known. The working consensus from my peers is that it takes two cups to get in the ‘right’ frame of mind.

  So it took three cups that morning. A terrible dream visited my wife, and she woke up crying. I guess my earlier estimation that I’d hear a mosquito taking care of a primal itch was exaggerated. Certainly Fiona’s take, since she told me how Gypsy climbed up on the bed between us and snuggled up close to her in response. Meanwhile, I slept through it all as if nary a care.

  Candi Starr’s latest nocturnal visit kept Fiona awake afterward, sniffling while the dog licked the underside of her chin. Hard to go back to sleep with that going on, and me lying there in dreamy peace only annoyed her more.

  Of course I apologized—what else could I say? I even paused before finishing my bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios, though I had little choice to do otherwise. She wouldn’t divulge anything else without my complete and undivided attention.

  Dreams can be funny things. It’s hard to discern an honest omen from a nocturnal fantasy. But after listening to what Candi told her, it sure sounds like a real warning from the other side.

  Candi appeared to Fiona wearing her preferred stage garb, donning her favorite black Stetson hat and a rodeo-style belt buckle to go along with her pastel-blue viper shit-kickers. She walked around the fountain in the front driveway at her exclusive Belle Meade estate.

  “Hey, girl,” she addressed my wife, moving up to where she waited, clad in her nightgown and standing next to Candi’s five car garage.

  Despite her awareness this was a dream, tears from immediate joy overwhelmed Fiona and she rushed up to embrace Candi, who stopped her.

  “Not yet,” she said, and chuckled with the Jersey huskiness she shared only with her closest Nashville friends. Her country-star persona a heavy burden, she kept several female pals very close, apart from the rest of her entourage. “Your time ain’t coming for quite awhile, girlfriend, and our essences must remain separated until then.”

  Candi went on to tell Fiona that her killer isn’t finished yet, and looking to take out others who are, or were, close to her during her brief three-year stay in Nashville.

  “You’d better take cover, Fi,” she warned. “That goes for everyone you’re close to…including Jimmy, your boys, and your ‘ghosting gang’, too. The killer will strike again, soon.”

  Before my wife could ask for pertinent info, like the identity of the killer, or at least a physical description, Candi’s image faded away. Fiona felt agonizing sorrow and guilt emanating from the country star’s spirit. I guess the full burden for what’d happened and who might join her next in death sits squarely on her slender shoulders. Candi’s anguished weeping is what jolted Fiona from her sleep.

  After that, the floorboards outside our bedroom door creaked—enough to elicit a low growl from Gypsy, who jumped down into her own doggy bed at the foot of ours. When Fiona got up to investigate, with Gypsy following close behind, no one was there. The kids slept soundly down the hall, and no stir yet from the man sworn to protect her and the family.

  Later at breakfast, it did me little good to bring up the fact that from 12:30 a.m. to roughly two o’clock I laid awake, listening for anything unusual. I must’ve drifted off shortly after that.

  Seeing the weariness on Fiona’s face, and aware of the growing strain on her heart and peace of mind, I decided not to tell her about last’s night’s incident up the road from us. Hell, I’m surprised that commotion didn’t wake her or our boys. Nevertheless, I checked the outside perimeter of our home before I left for work, finding no obvious signs we were visited again during the night. On the way to work I couldn’t help noticing every van and SUV, especially the darker vehicles. The only Buick I saw was a gray SUV driven by your standard soccer mom transporting her pups. No menacing ninja-dude with a mesh-cloaked face in that one.

  I pulled my Harley into one of the spaces reserved for bikers by the main entrance of the call center. Matilda waited there for me. She seemed frantic about something, and I wondered who’d peed in her Wheaties that morning.

  “You’re late!” she scolded, glancing anxiously around her. “They’re supposed to be here at any time!”

  “Who’s supposed to be here?” I asked, my tone indignant while I removed my jacket and helmet. I looked around but didn’t see anyone else, other than a few reps coming in to begin their 8:00 a.m. shifts, a good thirty minutes before my team would arrive. “Not the group from corporate? I thought you said they’d be arriving around ten o’clock.”

  I straightened my tie and brushed my dress slacks. No way i
n hell was I getting outshined by the two male prisses under her direction—not this time. I even brought along a pair of patent-leather loafers in my duffle bag.

  “Well, they decided to get started a couple of hours early,” she explained, moving back to the main entrance, hurriedly motioning for me to keep up with her. “I need for you, especially, to not cut up during the ceremony.”

  “Ceremony?”

  That sounded weird. I thought we were just having a normal inspection of the premises, followed by a quick overview of each team’s business results from January through June led by the managers. My only responsibility was to participate in a quick question and answer session with my fellow supervisors. It sounded easy yesterday, when we did our group’s final walkthrough.

  She stopped just inside the entrance, and pulled me over to a small office next to the security station. I nodded to Zack and Cade, our daytime guards, before disappearing into the room with my boss.

  “Peter wanted us to go all out for Susan and Christine this time around,” Matilda whispered, again looking past me to make sure no one stood in clear earshot. “We’ve laid out a red carpet, and our team will be outfitting both ladies with rhinestone tiaras soon after they arrive inside the building. Then, we’ll lead them to the main conference room on the west side, and all of the other managers, supervisors, and leads here today will shower them with rose petals.”

  I tried to maintain a serious expression. Really I did.

  “I need your support on this, Jimmy!”

  Without a doubt the most pained look I’d ever witnessed from anyone in leadership. Priceless, and if only she’d given me an earlier ‘heads up’ for this incredible moment, I’d have captured the image with my latest phone’s camera. Luckily I still had the presence of mind to shut the door before giving in to an uproarious fit of laughter that damn near pulled a few muscles in my six-pack.